A while ago, I lost my Photobucket link and credentials. Tonight, while I was searching my email for something completely unrelated, I found said link and credentials. So let’s fire up the wayback machine and see what kind of junk we have in here, starting with the above shot from my 40th birthday party in 2011.
From the 2008 NASA enduro at Road Atlanta, me driving a friend’s supercharged Miata. We had to share the track with the Robertson Racing ALMS Ford GT. At least twice I got caught by that car right before the chicane at the end of the back straight. It was a bit dicey. Also, I apologize for the “tilt-shift” effect. Everybody was doing it. It was like the Macarena.
My first race in my Neon, in April of that same year, ended before the first corner. It was raining and a couple cars in front of me hit each other. I locked up and visited the gravel trap right behind the Jones Potato Chips Neon. Notice the Miata from the previous shot, being driven by its owner. I don’t think he made it through that race either, but he at least made it through the first turn.
This race worked out a bit better than the two above. 2007 LeMons at Flat Rock, overall win.
Here’s me riding with Bark at Cooper Stadium for an OVR-SCCA autocross. I’m thinking it was some time in 2006.
Who’s this dude, and where is he? Well, he’s at the Nurburgring. I think this is the summer of ’06.
Same dude, three years later. Photo credit: [REDACTED]
Spec Focus at Grattan, April of 2007.
It was nice to have money and a bunch of awesome cars, like my BUBBLE WAGON. I’m not saying that Mrs. Baruth’s command to sell the Bubble Wagon led to our divorce, but… it did.
Same driveway, slightly different collection of vehicles, some time in 2005 I think. That’s a CL55.
And here’s an SLK55. Car and Driver had some kind of customer event in 2004 or thereabouts where you could drive their press cars. I was kicked out of the event for this behavior.
Nothing like taking your track-prepped M3 to VIR and getting fingered in the third input by some guy in a PHAETON, eh?
And now we’ll do all the “memes” that we made during the winter of the 2008-2009 season. They’re all based on real-life events, unfortunately. I apologize for all of these in advance. That’s all, folks!
Well hell Jack ~
Id’a thrashed a free CLK too ~ as long as you didn’t wad it , right ? .
My ex too didn’t like the cars , motos and trucks , I don’t miss her very much ~ she was nice and told me to keep my crappy Ghetto house and old vehicles….
-Nate
OOPS ~ fat fingers again ~ I meant SLK obviously .
-Nate
First mention I ever recall of a B Body in your stable.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/06/capsule-review-1991-caprice-classic-estate/
Boy how good were the comments over there back then.
The short hair looks good on you Jack
This post makes me want a lime green Audi
Agreed - that Audi S5 is a one sweet ride. As is the CL55.
Love the short hair! C’est tres distingue!
More cleaning out, please. More pix of you.
I’m surprised how much grew in 3 years. From my mid-teens to mid-twenties I developed an incredible, luxurious mane that women actually expressed jealousy over for its quality, with a man-bun before it was cool (and then uncool again,) but that took 10 years. Then one day I was trying to untangle it, got mad, and shaved my head.
I miss it bad sometimes. Memories of bicycling around Florida at full speed, chock full of acid, almost naked, with 3′ of hair streaming behind; salad days indeed. I want to grow it back out, but I can’t get past the Beavis poofy-hair stage.
Didn’t know you had a McMansion. At least it looked alright.
I wish I could grow my hear again like that. Nowadays it’s all grey and it grows hideously.
Awesome Caprice wagon.
Oh no, that’s no McMansion, it’s barely 2600sqft. Just a low-cost suburban tract house. It was going to be my starter house. 16 years later, I’m still in it. 🙂
@ 2,600 SF it’s certainly a mansion to most Americans jack .
-Nate
You could sell an 800sqft. house in Van Nuys with graffiti on the side and buy two of em!
I wouldn’t live in Van Nuys for _FREE_ .
I’ll keep my 1,158 S.F. termite farm thankyouverymuch Jack =8-) .
-Nate
Sorry for that.
234 m^2 with that frontage would cost here $$$. Just the house would cost ~AU$200K to build, and that’s without land and extras, little to no backyard, no basement and living almost in woop woop.
Athos ;
Just be glad you still have hair ~ my Father was bald by age 20 , luckily I got Mom’s (blond) hair , it’s still full so I don’t mind it going from gray to white as the years roll by .
-Nate
Trying to read the plate frame on the black Phaeton with the temp tag but can’t; where did you buy it from?
The picture of the Phaeton going after the M3 just makes me smile. There’s just something about a big-ass comfortable car that goes like hell that seems so right. Maybe that’s why in high school when my friends lusted after Magnum PI’s Ferrari my dream car was a Maserati Quattroporte.
Based on more current pictures of Baruth Manor it looks like the gardener left around the time Mrs. Baruth lost her taste for Phaetons.
The plate frame probably doesn’t tell the truth. I got the grey one from my local dealer, Midwestern Auto Group. Got the black one from a dealer in Norfolk, VA. Flew down there and had all sorts of drama picking it up. In fact, I might write about that today, because it’s hilarious to recall.
Mrs. Baruth departed in 2009. Her replacement didn’t really understand the requirements of suburbia and honestly I was either away from home or too drunk to care. The current co-occupant as of late 2014 and I are working to fix matters — cleaned out the dead trees in back, sealed the driveway, pulled and re-planted the stuff in front, hired a lawn care firm. Still a long way to go.