I don’t know what you are doing for your Fourth of July weekend, but I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing: sleeping. Like ten hours a night. It’s very refreshing. I’ve only left my hotel for the occasional motorcycle ride to dinner. Last night I saw a real Mazdaspeed Racing car. So I took this picture so you could share in the joy of my discovery.
Anyway. June was a nonstop grind of travel and work and various other annoyances. July’s going to be the same, or more so, but I can at the very least look forward to my Neon’s 2016 NASA debut at Autobahn Country Club next weekend. I’m so excited that I bought new race tires for the first time in, um, eight years. How could I possibly lose?
The answer is: very easily. I could very easily lose. I’m still 40 horsepower down on the front-running PTE cars. But I’ll stay unreasonably optimistic about the whole thing. While I’m busy with that, why don’t you check out what Bark and I wrote this week?
Brother Bark tossed a Dart’s worth of advice and disrespected the Infiniti QX-something. The funny part of that review is that our father had one of the first Infiniti QX4-Pathfinder thingys back in the day. It was always a terrible, terrible vehicle. basically a unibody take on the Nissan Hardbody pickup with fake wood on the center console. Dad completely and totally loved it. He said more good things about it than he’s ever said about my 993 during the times he was driving it. We should get Dad a QX60.
Last but certainly not least, Bark took the time to write a diss track about Tim Esterdahl, the worst car reviewer of all time. Again, one more time for the search bots, that’s Tim Esterdahl, the worst car reviewer of all time.
Tim Esterdahl.
Check out Tim Esterdahl and Crooked Wayne Gerdes congratulating themselves on driving press cars here:
Over at Jalopnik, Bark took his readers through a weekend in the EXR Mitjet spec racer. Since Bark didn’t hesitate to remind everybody that he was faster at autocross than I was, I will note for the record that I was quicker in the EXR car than Bark was.
Enough about Bark, let’s talk about me for a minute.
For TTAC, I discussed the virtues of standardized automotive controls, recapped a Cincinnati SCCA region autocross on Sumitomo tires, and drew the usual parallels between cheese and consciousness.
I wrote an event recap for the Western Ohio Region of the SCCA, too.
At R&T, I expressed despair about being unable to properly fix my son’s TopKart and told you how to win noncompetitive trackdays through superior firepower.
This was also the week that my cover story for this month’s R&T went online. Check it out.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to sleep, to dream of those “C51” markings and the 2016 date code on the side of my new tires. Zzzzzz….
Whether it’s a Porsche Boxster, a Ford Raptor, a Charger Hellcat, or a hopped up Chevelle SS, at least as it comes to time off the line, I have learned - that horsepower gap means nothing if you’ve Got The True Grit. Good luck with the Neon.
I think you are referring to Jack’s C5Z06 article. If so, there is certainly more than a simple horsepower gap going for that platform even if it is well over a decade old.
That aside, a person who also has that “True Grit” might also have the horsepower advantage too 😉
?! What the hell ?! .
You have (I’m pretty sure) more broken bones than I have yet you’re able to sleep TEN HOURS ?!? .
.
I’m soooo jealous .
.
Please don’t tell me you’re using dope to sleep , that’s cheating as your mind doesn’t really rest when it’s doped out .
.
-Nate
You know what it took? Getting on a plane to Vegas and a 50th-floor penthouse suite.
Sounds bizarre. Maybe it was the low humidity.
But I slept better these past three nights than any other similar period since 2013.
humblebrag.
😉
Actually, it was a really cheap trip. We flew on points and used a variety of discounts and credits for the hotel. The total for the weekend, including two days of an Indian Roadmaster, was less than I just spent on new tires for the Neon.
thus the “wink.” I wasn’t really trying to take you to task. I spent the day with a half-disassembled XV250 and I couldn’t have been happier.
that is, until I found the new chain was two links too long.
Better than 2 links too short 😉 Were you able to get it shortened?
I really enjoyed that R&T article. My final auto mag subscription was Autoweek which I kept simply for the photography & the occasional sumptuous advertising insert like the 30+ page homage to Maserati. Time to reward R&T.
R&T seems to have picked up most of the real car people out there to write for them. Car & Driver used to be one of my favorites, but once they started paying Dan Pund I wrote them off.
I don’t think that’s a Mazdaspeed. That’s a “Mazdas peed.” (All over. The. Car.)
It’s amazing how such simple devices (2T karts) can break so often and in so many goddamned different ways. I spent a few years autocrossing 125 shifters and the breakages and maintenance on them is what finally got me to quit. By the time I quit I’d had to replace almost every single piece on the kart other than the frame itself.
I’m normally a pretty calm person, but after a particularly bad Toledo pro I had to be talked down from crushing the kart with my truck in the process of leaving in the middle of the event.
On the other hand plenty of other people were able to do it without nearly as many problems - so it can be done. Here’s hoping you’ll have better luck.