First track day ever today. Wowwww! you can drive a street car fast if there's no traffic! I hit 116 on the front straight which is a personal land-speed record

The event was at Portland International Raceway which struck me as a simple and forgiving track. It's wide, the track is only two miles long with just 12 turns, and there's plenty of space if you run off.

Although another novice driver in front of me did in fact run off, I had grip for days thanks to my recent tire purchase -- Falken Azenis RT660s. Good God damn those are sticky! I can't believe how much of a difference they made over my first stab at autocross when I was understeering all over the place on my street tires.

I had so much fun! We were doing lead-follow instruction (covid) and I told my instructor, hey I'm good, we can brake much later. He told me "Great! you go in front then!" I led the rest of the day with tips from behind via radio... it was magic.

Here's me shredding on the front straight (116 hell yeah!!!!!)

And a few photos of cool cars. (There was also a heavily modified Porsche 924 that screamed like a banshee... soooo fucking cool... but I didn't get a pic )

60 acres surrounded on all sides by national forest. Alpine landscape accessible by snowmobile in winter. Spring for water, totally off grid.

I'm thinking build a cabin and a spur trail to the main Elkhorn Crest trail and let hikers stay overnight. It's not exactly chump change at 130k, but good god damn those photos...

Ever cook a dinner so bad that you look at your SO and say, fuck it, let's just get a pizza?

It was an anticlimactic end to a rousing day in which I got my cheap-ass track car and Mrs. Chips took it for a long drive and ADORED it. She says she wants to use it for her new DD, replacing her Escape hybrid, and I don't blame her. VTEC yo!!

'06 Civic SI in burnt orange, 194k miles, slathered in armorall. $5300. Needs new or machined rotors, driver's sun visor and antisocial exhaust. Pics tomorrow as it's dark out now.

I have been seeking advice and weighing up potential money pits track cars and I just want to brag on my wife a bit.

She is actively encouraging me to go to the track. She told me without my ever saying it that since running the DD isn't ideal, I should just buy a dedicated track car. And, when I pointed out a Celica on the freeway today saying "That's a contender," she told me "Awesome, it looks fast! If you get one I want to drive it too."

I love her to bits. That is all.


Registered for my first ever autocross! Portland oppos, join in! It's gonna be wet, almost guaranteed. But at least we shouldn't have snow

I got up way, way too early this morning. Why? Autocross! Or, as my wife likes to tease me, "driving around a parking lot in second gear."

I was working the course for the first run group and saw a whole bunch of wild spins before the asphalt dried. Many cones were killed. Times dropped steadily from 55-ish to 43 seconds and change.

Then it was my turn to run and, well, let's just say I got my money's worth with far more seat time than pretty much anyone out there

I kept going into corners way hot and understeering like crazy. But! the slalom was really good and amazingly I only missed one gate all day. My best time was 56.7, a little more than 13 seconds behind the best time of the day.

Very few photos were taken as I was basically just trying to figure out what the heck I should be doing... but I will leave you with one of the many cars that was consistently faster than me: a Ford Ranger!

(ignore my blurry finger)

@eric heh, nope, def not a bad parent

Old tires were not only uhhh not-grippy at autocross but on closer inspection had some weird cracking near the top of the sidewall. Ditched 'em for a set of Falken Azenis RT660s. Now I'm just going to swap out the worn brake pads for a set of new Powerstop Trackday pads and I'm good to go for my track day on the 30th!

@rallydarkstrike said in Forgive this very stupid question Oppo...:

ided to get some spark plugs for my car and try installing them on the weekend.
This is the first time I have ever changed the plugs myself in my car, so forgive this stupid question.
They are very easy and straightforward to get to as they are right on the top of the engine and super accessible on the Accent. It's four 10mm bolts for the engine cover, three 10mm bolts to unbolt a little casing that protects the plug lead harness to the coils, and another four 10mm bolts....one on each coil pack.....and then you're at the plugs.
That being said, and here is my stupid question....how worried should I be a

I would buy a can of compressed air that you'd use for a computer, and blow out the recesses with that. You really don't want crud to fall into your cylinders. Unless you are @AkioOhtori's alfa in which case there's so much crud in there already that is doesn't matter

@pos_camaro issues w that engine I take it? I know nothing about them.

@mark-tucker thought you might like it

At 15k, pretty reasonably priced

@cb said in This Looks Stupid.:

@hfv I know kids like Big Wheels but come on man he didn’t even get the colour right.

now don't get cocky on your taste in motos, when you buy we'll judge

@classicdatsundebate yeah fuck apple and their weird ass dongles

@whoistheleader said in Hour Rule - Seen on vacation edition:

did they not market test at all?

no they believed that a chicken being tempted with cannibalism was definitely the right approach.

(sadly real chickens in the world would f'n gorge themselves on chicken nuggets if they could)

@aestheticsinmotion said in Looks like I'm back to working seven days a week!:

Considering annoying my roommate and planting some potatoes.

Having harvested nearly all of my homegrown potatoes, I can tell you that accidentally overwintered potatoes rot and smell absolutely foul in the spring

@cb said in Alaska Oppos?:

@beefchips I'm sad I can only give you one upvote for what I assume is a Risk joke.

You are correct sir

@captdale-is-secretly-british thinking of invading from Kamchatka?

@aremmes said in Hour Rule - Seen on vacation edition:

@beefchips My son loves Dino Nuggies just for the memories of eating them in kindergarten.

Man see I only found out about them as an adult. As a kid I would have been all over that, I loved dinosaurs