Choppers? If speaking of dentist, choppers is fine, although a bit sore in my jaw from injection. Ugh.

Cars and Coffee tomorrow. :D

Choppers in this case are your teeth.

Good to take care of them the way you do even with some jaw soreness. If I had it to do over again in this life, I'd start flossing at a young age. While others mod their cars with big bucks, I spend more on my mouth. :owned:

Sigh. Missed an opportunity to hang w car enthusiasts this morning in lieu of sleep and husband time. :( going for a jaunt now though. I'll report back!!! :excited: to be driving a Z. Always.



Re: choppers. I agree. And my jaw is all better today :tup: i have a great dentist. In and out. No messing around.

:confused: Why sigh? Sleep, intimacy and jaunt vs hanging out. :confused:

You chose well and missed little.

I was driving home yesterday with plenty of cars ahead and behind. Directly in front of me was a BMW 550 and behind another BMW 3 series E36. Cars began to peel off and the E46 behind me was warming up his tires by slaloming. I gave him a thumbs up. The 550 turned off leaving a single truck ahead. I hung back to appreciate one sweeper and allow the BMW the same.

This is where the speed limit increases to 55 MPH, so I flashed my lights and lightly tooted my horn and the truck let us by. I slowed way down to wave profusely to express my gratitude.

After two turns the Bimmer was falling off and 4 turns later I thought he'd turned off. I felt so wonderful and lucky to be WOT when up ahead a car pulled onto the road. Ugh and rats! A Prius just to add insult to injury. The BMW was way back there and cutting corners. I barreled down so hard upon this Prius she pulled over at the first opportunity. After another heavy expression of gratitude I took off again with the BMW right behind again. After two miles alone, I was alone and thought I'd wait for him at the "Y". After awhile he showed up again, crossing the center line and went my direction again.

I signaled to pull over and I parked and he pulled in behind. I got out of the car to chat with this young fellow. He was surprised by my advanced age as well. He took my name and number so that we can drive some more together along with a buddy of his.

I told him "If you had an M3 you'd have been all over me."

He responded "It is an M3"

Sure enough it was. I look forward to a call from him and another drive.

The 370Z is a glorious machine.

Awesome!! :tup:

:icon18:
I have never had this type opportunity...


I did catch a glimpse of a deer or two this a.m. on my way to work in Harry.
We are just humming along in the rural landscape, in the dark, the headlights light up a deer butt just disappearing in the brush...eek! there , right there, a set of glowing eyes! better slow it down a bit...sigh.


The 370Z is a glorious machine. is exactly right Mt. Tam!:tup:

:tup: that is correct to a certain extent. I get very little interaction with other car owners so it makes me sad to miss one.

Interesting thing I didn't know until somewhat recently: slaloming doesn't warm your tires up. It only cleans them up. Only acceleration and heavy braking warms your tires up.

You see racers slaloming when they are I'm caution, so that when the flag goes green and they take off, they have clean tires for turn 1 to take it as hot as possible.

Sent from my Galaxy S3

Always learn something new in here :tiphat:

Off topic
 

I am so blessed. Thank you, amen.

Today is my first day of building ownership. I have rented space for nearly 20 years and today I own my destiny. I realized that every financial decision I've ever made thoughout my life time came to fruition today. Had I bought that GTR, Ferrari, Porsche, you name it, divorced, that vacation to some place nice. I could not have bought this and all the furure benefits would be lost.

All our best/worst decisions land us where we are today.

I just wanted to share. May your blessings continue.

Congratulations Tam!!! We are the captain of our own destiny!

Thank you. Thank you. I am, and still can't get over the feeling.

:tup: it IS a great feeling!! Knowing its all yours. Sigh.

Congratulations!

Sent from my Galaxy S3

Driving home yesterday, I had an RX8 in front who'd slow then go around one turn quickly before catching the slowpoke (from Maryland, Don't they have turns there?) holding both of us back. Another car pulled out in front of the slowpoke and I lost all hope.

I slowed down hoping the RX8 would as well. He did not and instead the slowpoke pulled over then pulled back onto the road before I could pass. Two turns later the other slow car pulled off allowing the RX8 freedom while I stayed stuck. How I regret my decision to slow.

I went to Le Mans Karting yesterday in Fremont. I took the Z on a one hour easy, no traffic drive early in the morning (7:45).

I last Karted 40 years ago. I went with my track club, CFRA. Everyone there was an aggressive driver. With 28 drivers we teamed up into 14 teams. My partner won qualifying and then took first place until the driver change. WE needed to work out our change out better. I left in second retook first then after three attempts some yahoo spun me out intentionally.

Now we are in seventh place then third to second back to third for the driver change. My partner was awesome, he took back second which was far from third at this point. Then racing occurred and he was black flagged for bumping someone who brake checked him. Then on the very next lap he was black flagged again for nearly hitting a car, for which he braked. ??:confused:??. WE dropped to seventh.

We changed drivers again and I finished the race in sixth.

It was one heck of a workout. I am sore today a bit in those places I forgot I had muscles.

The drive back took an extra 20 minutes because of traffic. We had the CHP perform a "round robin" in front of us to remove debris off the highway. not a common sight.

Harry and I drove to work on Monday.
I love Harry.
The trip home was nice. Traffic was moving nicely on the four-lane except for one of those 4-door oatmeal colored blah sedans being driven by a woman who was obviously afraid to drive it. :wtf:
A fella in a big Dodge four-wheel drive truck threw his hands up at her when she paced a tractor trailer blocking the fast lane!
Made me laugh as I have had that happen to me several times plus I was stuck behind HIM while he was stuck behind HER!
Finally she realizes slows way down, gets behind the tractor trailer and the best part: out of our way! Open road. Finally!
But only for another three miles or so, then I hop onto the two lane and wonder what interesting obstacles will present themselves during this part of my commute. Cars in front of me start dropping off until I have free reign! Yay! Once again an open road…until, Mr. Harley rider appears. Cruising about 45mph. It’s a nice evening for a ride but I am NOT on a ride-I would like to get home and get out of 4th gear. Ugh. Uh oh. Twisty turny road time and he uses his turn signal. Ugh. He may be in front of me for awhile. Yepp. Sigh. Up and down and around nice bendy turns. At 40mph.  this is NO FUN! Hey wait! He’s slowing down! YES!! He is pulling aside so I can pass!! Yay! Thank you thank you thank you Harley guy!! A little appreciative wave and I am gone! Love driving Harry spiritedly.

:tup: those karts are hard to drive! wow!! I was very surprised when I actually drove one how hard I had to work so I understand completely!

Congrats on the official building ownership, sir :tiphat: That is a great accomplishment and one to be proud of. Good job making the right choices earlier to afford you this opportunity later :tup:

That karting experience sounds like a hell of a lot of fun! :driving:

Today started out fine. I tried being at least one gear higher than usual. I am trying my level best (poorly) to be good. One mile into my drive I'd encountered a Lexus 20 MPH below the limit. Into second gear I went and around the Lexus. Now at a reasonable speed I enjoyed my next mile terminating at a stop sign where a Mini Cooper S sat waiting for an opening in traffic. We sat for a minute and when a huge opening presented itself the Cooper never moved even after I tapped my horn. The Lexus caught up finally just as the Cooper went and I followed closely.

The Cooper seemed to have an axe to grind, and was going to show me what dust was like. Although I am familiar with dust, the Mini could not seem to show me any. I tried not to use my brakes at all , but occasionally I'd need them. Kudos. If I was alone I would have been all over the brakes but I wasn't going too fast today.

If all my traffic was as quick, I would be happier than I am these days, but I must admit I did enjoy the drive regardless.


.

I am supposed to be at the track as we speak. I hurt my back/shoulder. I could not function took a muscle relaxer and did not get better. Barely slept and it hurts to breath too deeply. :owned:

Too bad as this is the easiest track for me to get to, not to mention I already paid.

:ugh2: maybe your next drive should be to the doctors office? :confused:

Goaded a BMW into a ticket yesterday at lunch. Cruise control in the left hand lane at 70 mph in a 65 mph zone. There was a police suburban up ahead that I was pacing. The middle lane has a good bit of traffic, so I just hang out in the left hand lane since there's no one behind me. A few miles later, I see a car catching up in the left hand lane. He starts to catch up as I come across a caravan of cars in the middle lane. At this point I speed up to 75 to pass them so I can move over for them (turns out to be a girl in a BMW). Well I'm about half way past the caravan with three cars left, and she seems to accelerate and get right up on my a$$. I thought, well if you're gonna be like that, you can wait, and proceeded to let off the accelerator back down to 70 mph (still have cruise control on). As I reach the last car, I downshift to 4th and punch it 10 mph faster (so I'm going about 80 mph), get over in the middle lane, engine brake a bit, shift into 6th, and reset cruise control at 70 mph. This idiot in the BMW comes roaring past me at 80+ as we go over a hill and right into a speed trap.

:eek: :icon17:

Just found out...car club i belong to for auto-x is co-sponsoring a grand opening at All Speed Innovations in lebanon ohio on saturday. They are putting my car on the front line! Lol!!! Excited!
And nervous.
Another challenge for me to meet and blow through:tup: :eek: :ughdance:

Congratulations. What does being on the front line entail?

Parking! Lol


(I assumed (i know) that there will be enough cars to have more than one row there from our club...i have a guaranteed front row prime spot so that everybody who shows up will see it as they come into the lot)!
But we'll see :p i'm sure it wont be anything like i thought it would/should be.

So on Sunday I expect a lazy day. I am reminded of a sales tax obligation due the state at the end of the month so I drive to work to pick up some sales figures.

Sunday with perfect weather sounds like a good day for a drive, but that is how it sounds to hundreds of others too. Luckily at this hour, everybody is going the opposite way. Cool beans.

I am so pleasantly surprised to have an open road. A couple of bikes screwed me up a bit but hey, I'll take the drive I just got any day. Some other sports cars were going the opposite direction in first gear, while I flew past. Poor bastards.

I got to work, picked up a tiny bit of paperwork and was off like a shot.

I even had a partially decent drive home. I expected nothing but still had a few miles open up.

When the kitchen sink needed to be repaired later in the afternoon, I was in bumper to bumper traffic the entire way but nowhere near as much traffic.

I found out why the roads are so much less impacted. It is the government shut down. There are two National parks along the road I live. Instead of having the parking lot open or the two toll takers, they hired armed guards to keep Americans out, while laying off the regular two employees.

This is punishment for us all but I must confess I am ahead as the roads have a small fraction of the cars upon them.

:shakes head:

Attachment 77774
here my "front line" parking...I am about 5 cars down from the left.
I was supposed to park right next to the green lotus but they were unloading a truck when I got there so I took the next available space and the EVO ended up in my spot. it was OK though, I like the EVO driver! he's cool!
it was pretty funny too-the Z garnered very little attention- everybody loved the EVOs and subies and the Lotus :P

What kind of wierdos do they have out in Ohio. I am in California which I thought was the wierdo capital, but I'm not so sure anymore. :p

I was driving home last night when a black Ford Focus ST (SVT team) screamed up behind me and the other Focus holding me up. I gave him the thumbs up to let him know I see him. we followed the slow car for awhile then it turned off leaving just the two of us.

I had already turned of VDC and could accelerate to the speed limit up hill sooner than he. I thought it cheap to do to a four cylinder so I slowed and waited at the top of the hill. This was the routine all the way home. I'd get ahead and then wait for him. This was all done at or under the 55 MPH limit.

In the end he was my neighbor that I'd seen with a hot Focus so we chatted outside my garage. I've actually known this guy since I was ten years old, only I did not realize it until a minute later when he envoked my name and talked about his mom. He had put on a lot of weight and turned gray.

The first words out of his mouth were "Does that thing have a six?" Amusingly he stated he had 300 HP and he figured I had 450 HP. Not quite.

All in a days drive.:tup:

:icon18: yeah-i'd have to say it was very odd how little attention the Z got. We left early-buncha young subie drivers w stickers all over their cars.
I wonder: do they think I'm crazy for auto crossing such a nice vehicle?! Or is it the combination of hot car middle aged female driver/owner? Felt excluded.

:tup:
Sooo, beautiful drive today in "dirty Harry"! Lol

A bit of spirited driving, passed a pick up dragging a big camper-wanted to woohoo as the Z responded so well to my commands.
And you gotta love rural driving. I drove through
1-grass clippings-at least twice
2-horse poo
3-a huge pile of leaves that some JA was BLOWING into the road
4-soybean droppings as the farmers are harvesting right now.
I also passed an Amish buggy and left a dually truck in exhaust fumes on the four-lane. Lol'd at that one-i pulled out in his lane, he switched lanes (thinking i was going to slow him down). Well, i was four car lengths in front of him when i hit third! :bowrofl: :driving: :happydance: :woot:
I

Love

This

Car

:icon17:

This last bit of the story only solidifies my original weirdo comment. I've found women in male dominated sports to be the opposite of excluded. Perhaps they felt threatened by a woman in a better car than their own.

You rock.

I had a 911 997 set the pace home this afternoon. I stayed close to him without tailgating. Every once in awhile he'd look in the mirror at me. He'd cut turns a bit while I stayed in the lines. He was smooth and chose his apexes. I didn't always agree with his choice of line, it was very smooth and mostly devoid of brake use. When we got to the uphill straight out of a hairpin I stayed stuck like glue.

Although I would drive faster if I was alone, I'd give just about anything to drive home at this speed every time.

:tiphat:

Thunderhill
 

I drove to Thunderhill Raceway last Sunday passing multiple CHP victims. They were out in force so I was on cruise control the entire way. Some car ahead of me and I set our cruise to the same speed after 20 minutes I hadn't gained an inch on her. I started to always be on the inside of turns and would gain a few feet. After another 20 minutes I was along side her. I do get bored. Two hours and 15 minutes on three dots.

The standard drivers meeting ensued at 8AM at the track. Bad news for the club is that Laguna Seca is not giving dates to clubs like mine, over 90db days. That works for me as I tested 85db at Laguna but a $20,000 rental needs to be split with as many others as possible to lower the cost. Their will only be one Laguna event next year instead of three. :eek:

Last year it rained on and off. This year promised to be warm. As I had only driven the track once I asked for three mentors hoping at least two would show. No such luck. I was left off the list, sorry.

So I had not reviewed the track before arriving so I just make it up as I go along. It was coolest in the first session and heated up by 11:30. The power just was not as good. I failed to fill up after my first session and had fuel starvation with 3/4 tank or better. Just as I hit the main straight where I wound out 4th every time and got into fifth once, was a sputtering fuel starved coasting Z. My main rival, a green Lotus blew past me. RATS! This rivalry started at our first event where we both were newbies.

I apparently showed up with warped rotors and after a lap my steering wheel started to shake and by the end of the day it was scary. This is what ultimately lead to my decision not to drive the last race. I was cooked by the heat and this was now an endurance test, fun had departed, and I packed it in.

I broke my own cardinal rule: Stay hydrated and fueled with food. I tried like heck to eat breakfast and lunch and it was like poison. I had no appetite but forced what I could down. I ran out of steam and was a bit dehydrated. I felt sickly the next day and cured myself with Gatorade, clearly dehydrated.


Track videos (still loading all four):
Thunderhill 10/21/13 - YouTube

Fuel starvation strikes: http://youtu.be/qmpFwCdBgbU

:shakes head: sounds like kind of a disappointing day for you. sorry.
but still, to even be on such a track is exciting eh? I know when I get on my local (really small) track I love it that I can say I ahd my Z on track at KilKare. Local people are impressed. LOL
:eek: on the dehydration, I guess you were distracted by everything else that day. Lots going on so it isn't any surprise you got sidetracked.


BTW-the MVSCC (my auto club) has asked me to be on their planning board.
I accepted so I get to help run the club and give input on events etc... Kind of excited about it. although basically it's just another person to help out. LOL