Seven years ago, the Omphoy resort appeared on Palm Beach as a single enigmatic white-and-obsidian square, squatting like a landed spaceship, opaque and brutal. Five years ago, I went there for the first time. It’s been a rough half-decade for both of us since then. My readers will be perhaps too familiar with my catalogue of injuries, trials, tribulations, and despair, but the Omphoy fared hardly any better. Built from the shell of the Palm Beach Hilton at a cost of $724,000 per room, the Omphoy couldn’t break even on $500 a night and it eventually went into receivership. Late in 2011, it was sold for $42M to a Palm Beach real-estate hobbyist. In the years that followed, the Omphoy fell into a bit of disrepair, but it’s now been fixed up and rebranded as the Kimpton Tideline. My trip there in March of 2015 gave me some hope that they were squaring it away, and when I returned a few days ago I was pleased to see that the hotel looks just as good as it did five years ago. Maybe a little better. I’d like to think that the hotel’s best days are ahead of it. I’d also like to think the same thing about myself.
Alright, let’s cover The Week That Was.
Brother Bark considers the plight of showrooms that are too good for their customers before taking a look at the fact that some cars aren’t good enough for this market.
For Road&Track, I focused on unstable cars and even more unstable drivers.
At TTAC, I lamented Porsche’s lack of joie de vivre and took a poke at a not-so-great deal on new Accords.
Those of you who are R&T subscribers should keep a keen eye out for the cover of next month’s magazine. You’ll recognize the fellow on it, I think!
Haven’t had many spins, but the most memorable one I knew would happen several seconds before it did. There was a moment when I was heading for the exit of a right hand corner and knew I overcooked it just a tiny amount. Might run wide into the barrier if I keep it floored but I knew If I lift off I will almost certainly oversteer into the inside barrier, so there was only one thing that I could do.. I ding a ding dung my ding a dang ling long and hoped the little engine could pull me out of it. The front made it perfectly but the outside rear dropped outside the curb so I slid over the track towards the inside barrier, still keeping it floored hoping for the gutless engine to straighten it out.. and it barely did with two tyres still on the track, snapping to the other side so I stopped on the track facing the wrong way.
Based on the article I assume your Neon is similarly tuned, i.e. an FWD car that will oversteer unless you keep it on power, but fast when you manage to balance it just on the edge of oversteer.
The Neon is aligned for a bit of steady-state oversteer, yeah.
And you made it this week to another (not to be named here to protect the guilty) news ‘outlet’. With an old article.
Sweet Jeff Cooper reference in the R&T article.
Man, the TTAC comment section has become the Too Clever By Half Show. Bring back BTSR and DW! That place needs some passion pumped back into it.
I had heard that DeadWeight is not actually persona non grata. He used to comment here and has been absent.
He’s certainly welcome here, but he was banned at TTAC.
The fact that both DW and BTSR (neither of whom I entirely agree or disagree with, but rather respect their opinions and reasons), have been banned from TTAC is reason enough for me to believe it has jumped the shark into PC-ness.
Sad, but VS seems to be hell-bent on trying to look like a place desperately pimping for mainstream status.
The channel drift is certainly noticeable, as the irreverent, albeit subjective, Truth of the Farago era is largely gone. I remember the founder stating how TTAC would publish something controversial and humorous, and the comments would somehow be insightful and intelligent, an inversion of the norm. Now it seems to be banal recycled auto news followed by halfhearted Facebook-esque commentary.
I note that many other commenters that I would scroll to find are gone too. I can only guess if they left on their own or were ousted.
Mr. Stevenson is very big on social justice and ensuring safe spaces for commenters. I know his intentions are good.
EDIT: typed it from my phone and got typos
I seriously marvel at your generosity of spirit Jack! Hahaha! Did not drop DW’s name with this result in mind.
Damn it, that was supposed to be in reply to DW’s thread.
Not banned, Jack.
I’ll never post or read TTAC again now that your douchebag brother has weekly essays posted there.
It’s hard to believe you and Mark are genetically related.
He’sl 10x more (brazen, unwarranted) arrogance as you, with about 1,000 times less writing talent.
TTAC is now in another readership downward spiral that will only become more severe, and they’ll probably have to call upon you to save that site again at some point, sooner rather than later.
Dude!
I have 3 brothers and 11 nephews and if some random dude called anyone one of them a douchebag I would kick their ass. Jack might have more writing talent then Mark but you are out of line!
The way I look at it is this: there are certainly some people who hate one Manning brother but dig the other one.
DW doesn’t like my brother’s work product, I don’t think either one of us is personally offended by that. I think that if they were to hang out for a week they’d get along fine.
It says a lot that I still read what you write, Jack, yet dislike your brother’s opinions/values and personality so much that I chose to quit bothering to even post any comments on TTAC despite having done so since 2009.
I also understand the brotherly loyalty thing. I have at one brother who I consistently hear complaints about from very regional people, yet I still do my best to defend him, or at the very least, make it clear that I do not want to hear criticism of him (even when it’s entirely warranted).
It’s not as if I could be bothered to even remotely want to get up in Bark’s face; it’s more the case that I feel he’s an arrogant individual who is full of really, really bad advice, and dispenses terrible, factually erroneous information with disturbing regularity.
But people are capable of change, so I wish him the best.
The bad advice and bad attitude combo is a killer. All that bluster of being a wise-investing hotshot with a high-paying job, and then a column on how he so wishes he could keep the Fiesta coming off lease. Huh? This guy mocking us all as fiscal dullards and small-timers can’t rustle up the bucks for a used hatchback? I’m not entirely sure of Jack’s financial advise, but he presents sounder cases that aren’t dripping with condescension.
Someday I swear I’m only reading TTAC for the Baruth Bros and Ronnie’s articles / pieces - I guess I’m not the only one who feels its getting stale and dry.
Ronnie’s been street racing a McLaren 570S in Detroit this week. I kid you not.
Hey Jack. I just wanted to let you know that yesterday I saw a heavily autistic kid at my school wearing a Doug Demuro shirt.
There truly is an ass for every seat.
Unstable cars article, all about energy management! Or trading one energy moment for another.
In comments on the accord article, regarding Volks Wagen Pheatons, too funny! Why can Audi and the other luxury brands use the same parts and not suffer the reliability problems that VW has?
Why can’t we make comments below the R&T articles? Are they chicken?
Anyway, I pretty much focus first on Jack’s articles, then read whatever else looks like the topic might be interesting. Jack is the best writer of the bunch, but he doesn’t cover all the topics. One person can’t do it all, I reckon.
As for someone not liking your sibling, well I don’t like my mother but that doesn’t mean you can call her a bitch. That sorta thing. I don’t much care for my sister, either, but that’s more than any one of you wanted to know. 🙂