Car Shopping

1966 Plymouth Sport Fury, Commando V8

Have I mentioned how much I disliked my last car purchase at a car dealer? It was terrible, telling the finance guy about a bazillion times that I did NOT want an extended warranty. So, what's a poor car guy to do? Buy local!

A good old Ford F150.

Lately it seems like there are a lot of cars and trucks for sale in people's yards, so I figured let's go check them out! Let's go!

One place not in somebody's driveway is just down the road from me. There's an empty lot on a corner that has a long empty store sitting on it, and usually you might see the local peanut seller guy parked there during the day a few times a week. Now though, there are several cars for sale parked there during the day. It's not a business of any kind, just a local spot with lots of traffic where folks park their cars they want to sell. One other car was farther down the road by itself. 

2001 Mercedes E320, with only 221,000 miles!

Tips for Interstate Highway Drivers

Here at NMS-North we're enjoying a driving trip to visit relatives and see some cool stuff along the way, so we've racked up some miles on the Interstate highways. From South Carolina we've gone through Asheville NC, Knoxville TN, Lexington KY, Cincinnati OH, and north past Ann Arbor MI. Here's a few tips for drivers!

TIP ONE: GET OFF THE PHONE! 

On more than one occaision I've been cruising along (with cruise control,) staying in my lane, when a car ahead of me veers halfway into my lane. As I go past them or they go past me, we've noticed that they are looking at their phone in their hand. Some people don't seem to know that this is illegal in many states, and in this era with hands-free apps and screens and etc, there is no reason to be a danger by NOT looking at the road. 

TIP TWO: TIE DOWN/COVER YOUR LOAD!

We were around Asheville on I-26 with about 4 or 5 lanes heading north, when up ahead we saw a construction crew truck in the right lane, moving along, when all of a sudden one of those orange-y barrels came off his truck, started rolling and bouncing around the northbound lanes, disappeared from my view briefly behind a semi, and then was right in front of me in my lane, still bouncing around a bit. I managed to slow down and avoid it, while watching my rear view mirror enough to know if someone was on my tail that might NOT slow down. Those barrels look pretty light weight and maybe they're made of light weight plastic or NERF balls, but at highway speeds I still don't want to run into one. 

TIP THREE: CHANGE LANES SAFELY!

This is a very generic tip, but it comes to mind when other drivers pass me on the left, and then cut right back into my lane very quickly for no reason at all. Now, if the passing car had a police car or ambulance on their tail going 120mph, I understand the need to get out of the way, but sometimes this move just invades my personal space more than feels comfortable.  Picture someone doing this quick move right in front of a big semi-truck with the driver up so high they may not see you. 

TIP FOUR: USE THOSE TURN SIGNALS!

It's a decision you just have to make, that you'll be the safer driver that ALWAYS uses your turn signals. Even if you're driving and don't think anyone else is around, it's worth using the signal just in case there is someone out of your view, a driver at night without their lights on, or some other unexpected reason. Hey, worst case here you buy a $2 light bulb every 10 years when the turn signal bulb wears out. 

NMS Wraps up B Street Class title at Rockingham

How about 3 Mini Coopers, all with GoPro cameras mounted on the roof!

The Triad Sports Car Club (TSCC) was back in autocross action at Rockingham Speedway, which is where we started our season driving with the club way back in March. The NMS Cayman  entered this competition holding down 1st place in the B Street class, and with this being the next to last event of the TSCC season, this event means that we've met the minimum five events per year to be eligible for the full season competition. 

Lexus V8, with hilarious "CAMRY V8" license plate!

Up to this point there have been 17 drivers in BS, although most of them have only done one event. Also, only club members can compete for the class title, so that draws down the BS drivers to only seven this year, so don't get the idea that we're out here out driving the entire autocrossing universe of planet Earth! Like many things in life, if you want to win, you can probably get pretty far by just showing up and following the rules! That's my theory anyway!

Bob and Darren take the top 2 places in B Street!

So, after today with another BS class win, the NMS Cayman takes the 2026 B Street title with the Triad Sports Car Club. There were only three of us driving in the class, and I'm happy to add that 2nd place in B Street was my friend Darren Connell co-driving the Cayman! Darren was also up against all the Novice drivers of all classes, and took 5th out of 10 Novices. He drove an inspired last three of five runs to keep dropping time, and although there were a few cones damaged along the way that hurt his final times, he was very quick in only his 2nd autocross event. 

Pontiac Solstice, modified for fast driving! Big wing in the back!

For the NMS squad, out of a field of 53 total drivers we ended in 21st overall, 16th overall on adjusted PAX time, so I'm happy to meet my lowly goal of finishing in the top half of each of those categories. The fastest time of the day was a 1991 GMC Syclone truck, and I've mentioned before you need to check that out if you've never heard of one of those!

Darren with the NMS #177 in B Street Novice

Course map for Rockingham's "Little Rock. " All the curvy parts of the oval are banked, and even the straights have a little banking. Not Daytona or Charlotte level, but it sure made this course interesting. 

There were a ton of fast cars, Subarus, Miatas, Mini Coopers, Mustangs, one other Cayman, and a unique race prepped Pontiac Solstice with a HUGE wing on the back! I'm pretty sure all the drivers enjoyed the cool (60s-70 temps) day with no rain, despite an early prediction of rain all day. The unique banking on the Little Rock at Rockingham was a challenge, and I enjoyed several challenging parts of the course. 

Novice driver meeting to go over the basics, and then walk the course for lots of good tips and suggestions. 

One highlight was an optional 180 very slow pivot around two cones, that was on a banked section of track. This made it hard to figure out the fastest way around taking into account your speed going into it, whether you wanted to be going up or down hill while getting around it, and by going either right or left would change the distance (slightly) of your entry and exit to the next cone. Whew. There were a good number of drivers trying it each way, and maybe it was just personal preference. 

The track doesn't get used a lot, so here's my arty shot of a bit of grass growing on track, cones and course workers in the background. 

Right after that challenge, there was only more cone to drive around before the finish, with the added difficulty that it was in the middle of a right hand banked corner that led to the finish. I don't know about the other drivers, but to go through that as fast as possible with the steering wheel turned and trying to accelerate forced the tires to the edge of grip as they were trying to turn, speed up, and drive on a banking in a general downhill direction all at the same time. From what I read, tires like to one thing at a time, like STOP. Speed up. Or turn. So when we ask them to do two of those at the same time, it gets you to the limit of grip pretty quickly. 

Nice little magnet for taking 1st or 2nd in each class. 

Billy Joel Motorcycle Collection Auction!

Once upon a time we visited Billy Joel's 20th Century Cycles

There's a CHANCE that you've heard of Billy Joel, the "Piano Man" and his many hit tunes, albums, concert tours, etc. If you've read the NMS blog here, you might have caught one or two of our visits to his motorcycle collection in Oyster Bay NY. He had so many motorcycles that he opened a shop in the town there just to house them and have them worked on. It wasn't a business, and you could stop by at 20th Century Cycles and just take a look at all the cool bikes! 

Just a few of Billy Joel's motorcycles!

Well, time moves on, and Billy closed the shop, and the motorcycles will hit the auction block in NYC this November. Here's one article that describes the story much better than I can: 

    THE AUTOPIAN ARTICLE LINK

Danger sign in the Billy Joel shop!

There will be viewing available in October at Christie's in Rockefeller Center, and then the auction held by Gooding Christie's, the official auction house of Retromobile in New York at the Javits Center in November.  

Two Ducati motorcycles.

September Autocross Report from Michelin Proving Grounds

This modified Porsche Boxster (did you notice it's missing a roof, windows, original body, etc?) had the Fastest Time of the Day (FTD.) The 2,000 pound weight, big wing, and huge 14 inch wide Hoosier race tires are nice!

On a beautiful day for autocross out at the Michelin Laurens Proving Grounds in SC, the NMS Cayman set out to maintain first place in class, and to just see how fast they could make the car drive around some cones on 14 acres of pavement.  

Here's my dash view, checking on tire pressures mostly. The orange little car symbol reminds me that the traction control is off. 

While I didn't win my class, I'm still in first, now with one more event for 2026. Worst case scenario I've clinched a tie for 1st in class, so let's look at how the rest of the driving ended up. The course was big, lots of slalom sections, and during the lunch break it was tweaked in two spots to make it a touch easier, and a few seconds shorter. That meant that the morning times weren't going to be competitive, so it was a good reason to go out and drive faster in the afternoon. 

Here's a YouTube link to my fastest run during the afternoon: 

Michelin Proving Grounds September 2026

Driver meeting. 

In a field of only 30 drivers, NMS finished as 10th fastest, and with about  15 Porsches, we took the 3rd fastest Porsche on the day. The fastest car of the day was a highly modified Boxster, running on gigantic 14 inch wide Hoosier racing slick tires, and that driver was fast! Not far behind him was SCCA multi national autocross champion Randall Wilcox, driving a Golf R. It was fun to watch those drivers really wheel around the course, much faster than me!

Here's my view waiting to drive. I have a GoPro camera mounted on the dasy, and a dash mount for my phone to also record video with an app that shows speed and other info. The FTD Boxster is waiting to drive, keeping the seat cool with an umbrella over the open cockpit. That car is followed by the awesome red Cayman GT4 RS. 

All the drivers got five chances on course in the morning, and five more in the afternoon. With 10 runs on the day, there was plenty of time to try some different driving in spots, and see how much you could improve. I tried doing less braking in a few spots, but that didn't turn out so well, and on one run I nearly spun all the way around. That run was off course for me, so the time didn't count. On other runs I managed to wipe out five other cones, so I was definitely finding out how to go too fast in places. 

More of the driver meeting. 

What I really enjoyed was just talking to other drivers, meeting some new folks, and talking about car stuff all day! I guess some folks like to join a golf club, or a quilting bee, and some just want to be car people!

Miata

Salvage Yard Excursion

In Rock Hill SC, SRG U-Pull-It Salvage. 

Apparently, when you don't have to go to work or school every day you can pretty much do whatever you want! Today I changed wheels on my car at home before this weekend's Autocross, did a very small amount of yard work, went out for lunch, and then in the afternoon visited my local auto salvage yard. Work, work, work. 

There wasn't anything in particular that I was looking for today, and they didn't have any cars on the lot that I own, or plan to own soon, so I just walked around with my tool bag and looked for anything interesting. Hey, some folks pay big bucks to go exercise at the gym, but you can get a pretty good work out in the salvage yard for only two bucks too!

JACKPOT! A Nissan 350Z. Let's look for useful parts!

The find of the day was a Nissan 350Z that looked to be in reasonable shape, so I notified the 350Z owner-operator-racer down at NMS-South and asked if he was interested in any spare parts. We discussed a front bumper cover, some extra headlights, side mirrors, and a few other small items, so I checked out the car for those parts.  This is where I noticed that whoever owned this car had done a cheap paint job, as judged by the way over sprayed red radiator and oil cooler up front! Not only that, but the Z logos on the sides were also now all red. Oh well, if that's your thing, no problem. 

When you're not sure what year a car might be, look at the Vehicle Emissions Control Information (VECI) label on the hood. Down in the last paragraph it references the 2004 model year emissions regulations, so it's a 2004 model car! A caveman could do it. Well, if the caveman could read. And had a car. 

After considering those parts, we decided to pass on extra Z parts for today, so I continued my walk around the yard. Another car that used the same 3.5 motor as in the 350Z was the Infiniti G35, and I managed to see two of them! As a bonus, they were both G35X models, which means that they were all wheel drive!

One cheap car part you'll likely find in the salvage yard, fuses and relays!

I also spotted this INFINITI G35X. Good to know: it uses the same 3.5 engine as in the NMS Nissan 350Z! On a phone consultation with NMS-South, I learned that the X in the model name indicates it was all wheel drive, an option on these INFINITI cars. 

AND THEN, I spotted a second INFINITI G35X! At the start of the day I'd never heard of them, and here's two in the same salvage yard!

Under the hood of one of the G35 cars was this, saying "Advanced Front Midship." That kind of makes it sound like a UFO or a Navy ship! After looking it up I learned that it just means they moved the engine backwards a bit to better distribute the weight towards the middle of the car. Sorry, no Dilithium Crystals or Cloaking Devices. 

UGO UGOCHUKWU

Formula 3 champion Ugo Ugochukwu

Over the weekend, the United States gained a new world champion! Nineteen year old Ugo Ugochukwu won the Formula 3 championship in Madrid Spain, and is now the first driver from the USA to win the title? What is Formula 3? Who is Ugo Ugochukwu? Glad you asked!

Formula 3 is part of the international driving competitions, that is lead by Formula 1 at the top. Yep, and Formula 2 racers are the next lower level, and Formula 3 is the third lower level. Believe it or not, there is also a Formula 4 series, and in fact there are many different Formula 4 racing car series around the world, since some countries sponsor their own version. This year Formula 3 raced at seven locations, typically with a Sprint race on Saturday of the weekend and the main race on Sunday. All the races were held as part of Formula 1 weekends, on the same tracks, so the fans attending these races usually have several races to watch during the days of a race weekend.

With the "minor league" Formula races below Formula 1, they try to hold down costs by requiring all cars to use the same body, which is built by Dallara. If you haven't heard of the Dallara company, they also build all the car bodies for Indy Cars! For more info, look up Mr. Dallara and read about his career too! Here's the link to Formula 3: 

FORMULA 3

As for the new champion, Ugo Ugochukwu is a nineteen year old driver from the US. He won two of the races this year, and took seven podiums (top three in a race) as well. This was Ugo's second season in F3, and in addition to winning the driver's championship, he led his team Campos Racing to winning the team title too. One challenge he faced was going into this last weekend in Madrid tied for the championship, and needing to have a good qualifying and races to win the title. That is exactly what he did by out-qualifying and finishing ahead of the 2nd place driver Freddie Slater in all three races. 

It's still too early to know what is next for Ugochukwu, but most likely he will move up to Formula 2 in 2027, and just maybe in the future we will have another American driver in Formula 1. Also of note, Ugo is tall, about 6 foot 4 inches tall, which is unusual for a race car driver!

Here is a short interview with Ugo after he won the F3 championship:

UGO ON F3.COM

Gastonia Cars and Coffee

This Camaro will get your attention!

In my search for new Cars and Coffee events, I drove up the road to Gastonia NC, and found a lot of folks at the mall. Well, in the parking lot of a mall, hanging out, checking out the cars, and enjoying a Saturday morning. Some of these events tend to have more 50s and 60s classics, like in York SC, but this was definitely the younger crowd, with tons of Hondas, Mustangs, Japanese market right hand drive cars, and lots more. Whatever your taste in automobiles may be, I'm pretty sure you're always welcome at any event. 

Hey, fun trivia, Gastonia NC is the home of Wix filters, ever since they started back in 1939 by Mr. Wicks! Now you know. 

McLaren 720S

Mercedes C63s AMG interior. It looks mighty comfy in there!

Nissan GTR

On top of those cars, there were a few more exotic cars, like a McLaren, a few Audi R8s, I think three or four Japanese market Nissan Skyline GTRs, and even a Dodge Viper. Here's a look around. 

Nissan GTR, AKA "Godzilla"

Audi R8

Right hand drive Nissan Silvia!

Nissan Silvia, probably Japanese or Australian version.

Mustangs

Dodge Viper

Dodge Viper, what a classic logo!

Flames

Matthews NC Cars and Coffee

Packard automobiles started out in Ohio, just like NMS!

You will not BELIEVE it, but on a recent weekend, I visited a Cars and Coffee! This is a monthly event up in Matthews NC, which is part of Charlotte. This gathering seemed to be mostly older classics, so take a look!

1957 Corvette

1951 Ford F-1 pickup. I really liked the lunchbox, and used one just like it when I worked for Nixon Builders. The curved top holds your thermos!

Camaro RS

I'm sorry I don't know my 1930s era cars, but this thing just looked cool!

Another classic from Ohio, a Ford 351 Cleveland engine.

57 Corvette interior. I hope you like RED!

Another nice hot rod with FLAMES!

Let's go with "Ford V8" on this one!

Just another Sunday afternoon in Matthews NC!

Pontiac. We build excitement!