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| Got my tinted tail lights on now! |
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| Huracan and many many Audi R8s |
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| Love it |
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| When your friend drives the same car and you catch him by surprise |
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| All here! |
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Quattro Crew drive up Mt. Hamilton
Met some old and new friends for a drive up Mt. Hamilton in December. I organized the drive since I was itching to get out and have fun on some roads. Due to the temperature and gravel we didn't go all the way to the top but it was still fun.
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Car Week 2016 Highlights
Ok here are some highlights from Car Week. If you really want to see a lot...and I do mean a LOT of car week photos I always upload my full set to my personal website. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of pictures. You can see my full set at: 2016 Monterey Car Week Picture Gallery.
I make this trip every year. People always ask me why. I guess if you aren't into cars, driving, ocean views, twisty roads, and even more cars then you wouldn't understand. Pebble Beach car week is the largest longest car event I believe in North America. If you want to see cars you usually would never get to see, just visit Carmel during that time. There are several "concours" events during the end of the week and some free things as well. Even just parking at Carmel to eat or shop is like going to a car show.
Here are some highlights...
My good friend from work Gus who has professional photo gear took some amazing photos of my car and others while visiting the Werks Reunion... here are some...
Thanks for looking!
I make this trip every year. People always ask me why. I guess if you aren't into cars, driving, ocean views, twisty roads, and even more cars then you wouldn't understand. Pebble Beach car week is the largest longest car event I believe in North America. If you want to see cars you usually would never get to see, just visit Carmel during that time. There are several "concours" events during the end of the week and some free things as well. Even just parking at Carmel to eat or shop is like going to a car show.
Here are some highlights...
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| I added myself to the end of an epic line up I came across on 17-mile drive |
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| These guys had just finished a drive around the area, must have been epic. |
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| OceanView |
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| Ran across IG user DoctaM3 |
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| Photo Credit: Gus Dizon |
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| Photo Credit: Gus Dizon - Werks Reunion |
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| Photo Credit: Gus Dizon - Sea of Porsches! |
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| Photo Credit: Gus Dizon - Spyker C8 |
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| Photo Credit: Gus Dizon |
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| Photo Credit: Gus Dizon - Revzani Beast - Amazing to see this on the road! |
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| Photo Credit: Gus Dizon - New Acura NSX |
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| Photo Credit: Gus Dizon - Lamborghini Hospitality Area |
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| Photo Credit: Gus Dizon - Koenigsegg Agera R at EOCR |
Thanks for looking!
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Some new 80's style Synth Music Online!
If you've followed some of my posts here or more so on my Instagram and YouTube account you've seen lots of old 80s videos which have some of my music on there. I've released the first few songs onto iTunes and other music stores. Here's a link to the album on iTunes! Hehe.... hope to post some more classic 80's car videos soon.... Also it is now available on Google Play as well!
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Alices Road Adventure April 24 2016
Ok been a while since I have posted but figured I would update even retroactively. While I tend to post my stuff to Instagram it is nice having items here on the blog too. Earlier in 2016 did another drive in the South Bay. Always fun to see what other cars are out in that area especially on a nice weather day like it was. Since it wasn't too long of a trip and it was nice I decide I had to take "Penny" with me. Despite being fussy at home she's actually quite good for road trips.
On the way up to Alices I ran into a lovely yellow classic 911. After stopping for a few pics and to chat I found out I apparently had just missed a photoshoot with a few other Porsches and they would have loved to have added me. Oh well...timing.
After a stop there, did the usual Highway 1 ocean drive. I don't get down there enough. Always fun and enjoy the scenery. Here are some pictures!
On the way up to Alices I ran into a lovely yellow classic 911. After stopping for a few pics and to chat I found out I apparently had just missed a photoshoot with a few other Porsches and they would have loved to have added me. Oh well...timing. After a stop there, did the usual Highway 1 ocean drive. I don't get down there enough. Always fun and enjoy the scenery. Here are some pictures!
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| One of my favorite pics from 2016 |
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| Let's go! |
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| Lovely! |
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| F430 spyder |
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| Maserati... I do love Italian cars... |
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| Ocean Views never get old |
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| What is all this water? |
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| Perfect day |
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| Highway 1 |
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| bye bye |
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Road Adventures drive in Napa
Had a blast joining in with the Quattro Crew and Road Adventures group for a drive in Napa. Here are some pics. We ended up going along Pope Valley Rd and back down 29 which I had not done before really that far north. With the weather change for the weekend everything was green, temps were perfect and roads were amazing.
Pics below...
Pics below...
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Sonoma Infineon Track Day with Audi Sport Experience
So I finally got to do my first track day. I opted to not drive my car and to join in with the Simraceway group at Sonoma's Infineon track. This way I kept wear and tear off of my car and it was a good intro level day at what most consider to be a very technical track. At some point I hope to do Thunderhill and such but the close proximity of Infineon/Sears Point was too much to pass up. It's less than an hour from where I live.
Concerned about traffic I got there a bit too early. Was definitely much faster getting there than I thought. Not like my normal commute. I was able to chill out and take some early morning pictures tho.
The Audi Sport Experience lets you drive three of their S model cars, the TTS, S4 and S5. This was a nice intro to their cars and how they feel and drive. These are all the newer 2016 models. I was actually thinking the event would be a mix of sales pitch and driving but I was wrong, it was all about driving and practicing both Paddock exercises and on Track. And classroom instruction.
Wisely I chose a Wednesday as my event day. I had suspected it wouldn't be too crowded. I was right as I was the only person signed up for the event. So that was awesome, I basically got 1-on-1 training from Tony Brakohiapa. He's an experienced racing professional and drifting expert and also does stunt driving for movies and TV. For example he drove for some of the Fast and Furious movies and also is going to be driving up Pikes Peak this year. Cool.
The event started with classroom instruction bits and then Paddock exercises with alternating classroom discussion. I already have about a year and a half or so of Auto-Crossing my Cayman. So the first event which was just a 4 or 5 piece slalom was pretty straightforward to understand. This was done in the Audi TTS. I was surprised both by the torque the car has as well as how loose it was able to be even with traction control off. Not being used to the car I still had a lot to practice and improve on both with location and direction of car and how aggressive / fast I could go. Towards the end I was able to turn traction control to Sport mode... much more play and slide. Fun. Yes I hit some cones.
After the Paddock Slalom exercise came practicing a turn on the track, Turn 11. We got into the cars and did Follow the Leader (which is the whole day that way) coming around Turn 11 working on braking, apex and exit. Cool. After that was had a slow session driving the entire track working on lines and sight markers to use slowly building speed. Before lunch we were at moderate speeds while learning the course.
After a lunch break at a nearby restaurant were the last two track sessions. We got up to decent speeds and worked on lines and areas that were giving me trouble. I discovered the difference of having to coast or hold speeds in check at areas where you can't go faster vs my typical AX of on/off/on/off throttle mashing. By the second session things were better and smoother and I was getting used to letting the car move and apex properly. Fun... I wanted to go faster.
Things were uneventful until I was leaving. Sadly one of the cars in the individual group was going way to fast from turn 9 to 10... I hear squeal, saw tons of smoke/dirt and watched as a blue mustang rolled over a good 3-5 times fairly high in the air. Not good. Safety and Security and such showed up... hopefully the driver is ok. A good reminder about the danger of track driving.
Still it was a great day. Very challenging track, lots to learn, tons of elevation changes and blind turns and brick walls. The instruction is great and things are very clear over the radio while driving, every turn, brake, gear shift etc... including information on how you are doing from the instructor looking back. Was a great intro day I'm pretty much hooked and want to go back with my car now... one day....
Concerned about traffic I got there a bit too early. Was definitely much faster getting there than I thought. Not like my normal commute. I was able to chill out and take some early morning pictures tho.
The Audi Sport Experience lets you drive three of their S model cars, the TTS, S4 and S5. This was a nice intro to their cars and how they feel and drive. These are all the newer 2016 models. I was actually thinking the event would be a mix of sales pitch and driving but I was wrong, it was all about driving and practicing both Paddock exercises and on Track. And classroom instruction.
Wisely I chose a Wednesday as my event day. I had suspected it wouldn't be too crowded. I was right as I was the only person signed up for the event. So that was awesome, I basically got 1-on-1 training from Tony Brakohiapa. He's an experienced racing professional and drifting expert and also does stunt driving for movies and TV. For example he drove for some of the Fast and Furious movies and also is going to be driving up Pikes Peak this year. Cool.
The event started with classroom instruction bits and then Paddock exercises with alternating classroom discussion. I already have about a year and a half or so of Auto-Crossing my Cayman. So the first event which was just a 4 or 5 piece slalom was pretty straightforward to understand. This was done in the Audi TTS. I was surprised both by the torque the car has as well as how loose it was able to be even with traction control off. Not being used to the car I still had a lot to practice and improve on both with location and direction of car and how aggressive / fast I could go. Towards the end I was able to turn traction control to Sport mode... much more play and slide. Fun. Yes I hit some cones.
After the Paddock Slalom exercise came practicing a turn on the track, Turn 11. We got into the cars and did Follow the Leader (which is the whole day that way) coming around Turn 11 working on braking, apex and exit. Cool. After that was had a slow session driving the entire track working on lines and sight markers to use slowly building speed. Before lunch we were at moderate speeds while learning the course.
After a lunch break at a nearby restaurant were the last two track sessions. We got up to decent speeds and worked on lines and areas that were giving me trouble. I discovered the difference of having to coast or hold speeds in check at areas where you can't go faster vs my typical AX of on/off/on/off throttle mashing. By the second session things were better and smoother and I was getting used to letting the car move and apex properly. Fun... I wanted to go faster.
Things were uneventful until I was leaving. Sadly one of the cars in the individual group was going way to fast from turn 9 to 10... I hear squeal, saw tons of smoke/dirt and watched as a blue mustang rolled over a good 3-5 times fairly high in the air. Not good. Safety and Security and such showed up... hopefully the driver is ok. A good reminder about the danger of track driving.
Still it was a great day. Very challenging track, lots to learn, tons of elevation changes and blind turns and brick walls. The instruction is great and things are very clear over the radio while driving, every turn, brake, gear shift etc... including information on how you are doing from the instructor looking back. Was a great intro day I'm pretty much hooked and want to go back with my car now... one day....
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| Arriving at Sonoma Raceway |
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| Entry |
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| Driving down to the SimRaceway area |
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| Porsche Replica |
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| Da Building |
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| Some of the cars in storage for people of Formula cars they let you drive. |
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| Setup for some Fleet event |
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| There was a group of 2 or 3 cars there for their personal driving simraceway stuff Nice 991 GT3 |
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| I found the R8's...a little small tho... coffee bar size. |
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| Reception and location for my classroom instruction |
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| Learning... |
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| Hey look I found Nadeem's McLaren P1. |
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| In the pits |
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| Stopped at the Sonoma Raceway store just for fun. |
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| Did not buy... |
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| Got the hat not the car... still a nice hat. :) |
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