Wednesday, December 29, 2021

ROAD TRIP!


Ah yes, the ROAD TRIP where you just go somewhere for the fun of it! Who doesn't love a ROAD TRIP? Well, with the price of gas, driving for the fun of it might not be as common as it used to be, but recently I took a trip with a purpose. That purpose? Glad you asked!

No, I didn't buy a Tesla, but saw this charging station in Connecticut


Some new-to-me 17 inch wheels AND TIRES for the Cayman! These were listed for sale in the Porsche Club of America classifieds, and the location was less than 2 hours away, so off we go!

17 inch wheels with tires for the Cayman

After a few emails, we agreed on the deal, and arranged for me to pick them up (and pay for them of course) on a recent weekend. Now that I think about it, I guess the perfect ROAD TRIP would also involve taking a day off of work, but these tires/wheels weren't going to pay for themselves, so I worked all week and made it a weekend drive. 

How do you get 4 wheels into a Cayman? Leave it at  home and take the Camry!

We even stopped at Ikea for lunch!

While I'm no fan of the Covid Pandemic, as long as you're healthy, it does make for a good reason to take a road trip, even if you don't really go anywhere or meet anyone!

Saturday, December 11, 2021

Lemons Race: Day 1 Update


Repair

After the first of 2 days in the 24 Hours of Lemons race at Road Atlanta, the Bunch of Idiots Miata is sitting in  11th place overall, out of 108 entries. The Miata is racing in the top A Class, so within their own class they are in 7th place, just 4 laps down on the overall leading car. Brian reports that he drove the first 3 hours, the team battled through some rain and lots of yellow flags in good shape, and then literally on the last lap of Saturday's racing, the car started experiencing some kind of coolant leak. This dropped them a couple of positions right at the end of the day, but the team was able to quickly diagnose the issue. A belt had rubbed against one of the radiator hoses, which caused the coolant leak, so it looks like this will be a quick over night repair, and they'll be back on track tomorrow morning. 

Fog


The track was experiencing some heavy fog early in the morning, and sure enough, that turned into enough rain to force teams to get onto their best tires. As if that wasn't enough trouble, lightning in the area caused a break in the action briefly and everyone found some shelter. Sure, you can drive your car around on the street, or even on a track in the rain and lightning, but, well, the corner workers and all the race staff working outdoors are pretty much stuck out in the lightning, so tracks will stop the racing when lightning is close. 

Look for more updates to the end of the race on Sunday!

Friday, December 10, 2021

Bunch of Idiots? LEMONS RACE!

Team: Bunch of Idiots: Car: Awful Waffle

This weekend the Bunch of Idiots racing team will be at it again, racing in the Lemons race at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta on Saturday and Sunday. NMS-South, AKA Brian Nixon will be kicking it off in the first driving stint at 10am eastern on Saturday. We're looking for the purple "Awful Waffle" themed Miata to do well in A class. If you want to follow along with the race, get the Race Monitor App on your phone for only 99 cents or so for a 1 month subscription, and you will be able to see the live standings, lap times, etc. 

Thursday night at Road Atlanta

The Bunch of Idiots have been refining their pit stop and driving techniques for a few years, have tweaked this Miata non-stop, and are looking to keep it on track and be competitive this weekend. After winning a Lemons race at CMP in class C a few years ago in the mighty 70s Dodge Coronet, they're back on track and looking for a top placing!


Sunday, December 5, 2021

Cars and Coffee Season Finale


My local Cars and Coffee on Sundays wrapped up today with a special Toys for Tots donation day, and there was a good turn out of a lot of Porsches, BMWs, and some other cars too! It was only a little chilly, but that didn't stop car folks from coming out, hanging out, and donating toys to a good cause!


This Porsche 911 got into the holiday spirit with a little reindeer too!

Next up, a car in the "here's something you don't see every day" category. According to the data plate, it's a one of one Lucra, built in California. It looked pretty cool!








Next up, "only" two Lamborghinis, and one Ferrari. The Italians were outnumbered by the Germans today, but that's OK. Nothing turns heads as fast as one of these Italian built cars. The Ferrari F430 is always easy to identify, as long as you read the model name molded into the driver's rear view mirror!
 










How about a NEW and OLD contrast? Here's a recent Honda NSX, and then an older Porsche 911T:





Here's a group of BMWs, a nice looking Nissan 370Z Nismo, and a sweet blue Corvette. Germany/Italy/USA if you will. 






The owner of this next car, a low mileage Viper, said that he got it from his dad, and that's it's a 97 with about 8,000 miles. Looking around it, well, it looked mighty fine to me. Some of the details I noticed were the unique door handles, twin bubble roof, air ducts in the hood, fuel cap, and inside the front headlights was a little level for adjusting your headlights. 








Now to Geek out on some Porsches: various GT3, GTS, and a black GT4 model. Dang they make a lot of varieties of 911. The newest GT3 has a swan style wing in the back. Look for the fake "golf ball stuck in my rear window" on the blue one. 








Beyond the average S or 4S or Turbo or GT3 and GT4 models, there are the RS models that are even less common and more geared to track driving. Here's a GT2RS with a lot of custom extras like the color, white leather interior (even in the trunk), center-lock wheel hubs, huge wing, etc. 





OK, let's wrap this up for the year with a few more nice cars, a "Melo-911" in yellow, a Toyota Supra with a HUGE SPOILER ALERT, a red Honda S2000, another numbered car - the well known BMW 2002 model, and one of two BMW M Coupes spotted today. 










Thanks for following along on the blog, I'm sure there will be more of the same in 2022!