Car Guy Speaks

Years ago ProFormance Racing School held an expensive, catered track event.  Kind of a blue chip drivers education an track day combines.  It was really expensive, but worth every penny.  I attended with my brother and his recently barn found Mustang SVO turbo. The attendees were group of wealthy enthusiasts so it included some really nice cars to admire: Ferraris, including a '85 GTO, various Porsches, Formula Fords, even a Lola showed up for a few 180+mph bursts down the track.  That Lola had a bumper sticker that said "I brake for Porsche's."   Between sessions people would talk and listen to tales about each other's machines.  The Porsche C4 guy was pretty new to his late model Carrera having just bought it brand new, but he was experienced plenty at bragging.  He shot his mouth off about plans of getting licensed to race "door to door" after each session.  His car was fast for damn sure, but it didn't necessarily mean he was fast.   Then, a

You told yourself 5 years ago, you’d get a second  car, a sports car, and drive it at least on weekends, date night etc.  But where is it?   You never bought it.  Probably because it wouldn’t fit in that extra garage space.  The lawnmower, 3 mountain bikes and some soccer gear are there now.  Who needs that sports car anyway?  So, as a car guy, you are pretty much a big disappointment.  That second car ain’t gonna happen.  You wouldn’t have time to drive it, and eventually your daughter would end up taking it to college.   Perhaps some of that dream could be realized every day?  How about you give up that new fancy SUV payment and take some action. There’s still time. We can do something about your pathetic situation. Volvo offered two attempts at regaining your manhood,  The Volvo V60R and the V70R.   AWD (like your SUV), turbo charged and available in manual transmission,.  You remember how to shift right?   Oh, and best of all, that stick shift means less people will borrow i

The first Saturday of every month Griot’s Garage, everyone’s favorite car guy catalog company, hosts a morning cruise-in at their flagship store.  Check it out: Caffeine & Gasoline™ - Griot's Garage   I figured I’d check it as well, and headed down there this morning. This was my first visit and  I was pleasantly surprised.  After all, not much happens in Tacoma with Seattle constantly upstaging them.  Finding it was easy enough, I just followed the stream of cool cars.  Griot’s has set up this flagship store to be something like Mecca for cars.  Apparently every aspect of the facility is slanted toward motorsports entertainment.  Huge rooms for indoor showings, big TVs, lots of seating, even food.  The entire parking lot is concrete (instead of asphalt) and the  area is enormous.  I arrived early for me, at 8:30 am, and the parking lot was already half full.   I headed straight in for the free coffee of course, I’d hoped it was free anyway, since I didn’t stop at an ATM