Over the weekend I was able to purchase a low mileage BMW Z4 from 2004!
3L I6 engine, factory hardtop, and under 50k miles.

All that's left to do is get the title notarized since I didn't think it needed it... Whole set of issues to figure out due to this, but it's gonna work out.
Then it'll be time to enjoy it. Already ordered some new tires and some tidbits to make it look a bit better.

Pics from the previous owner.

Sold the R to carmax today after a 3rd party company called “carwiser” contacted me with an offer similar to Vroom’s. Basically they match make with dealers and sellers and said that Carmax would come close to Vrooms offer.

Vroom’s process seemed annoying since you have to mail a bunch of forms in with your title, then wait to get paid after a truck takes your car to TX.
So I decided it’s worth the $200 less to take it to carmax and get paid immediately!

I’m excited to start the hunt for a commuter car for my fiancé and I. (Chevy Volt possibly)
And also search for a purely sports car for me! (Parsh)

to rent from Turo...

I rented a manual 997.1 convertible for my birthday, which I'll be celebrating over Memorial Day weekend since I have off from work.
Gonna drive up into the Blue Ridge mountains and drive with @e90m3 around some twisty roads and possibly play some golf.
Should be a good time so long as it doesn't rain a ton.

Parsh tax:

Today was my day off from editing car videos, and any time I have off from freelancing, I like to drive.

Usually I'll take the Golf R up to Newcomb's Ranch, or to the Malibu kitchen to do some canyon driving or car spot. But today I wanted to treat myself.

The idea to do this was inspired by some former PEC LA coaches I met at Newcomb's actually. They recommended picking a cheaper car, the 718 Cayman S, and to tell the coach that I've done some track driving in the past. With that said, it cost was $446 w/ a damage waiver and the local CA resident 20% off.

Not a terrible cost considering it's the only "track" in LA proper.

PEC LA is just off the 405 in Carson, fairly close to where I live. The interior is filled with classic racing and street Porsches, some of which belonged to famous Pikes peak driver and commercial director, Jeff Zwart. There's also a massive repair shop where they work on all sorts of Porsche Motorsport cars.

Photo by Porsche:

Other than that PEC LA behaves similar to any other driver training experience, except with COVID, you have the car to yourself the entire time, and the coach will lead in their car. My coach Scott, an endurance racer, took me to basically all the modules: low friction handling circuit, ice hill, handling circuit, low friction circle, kick plate, and dynamics area.

Photo by Porsche:

First up I got a feel for the 718 Cayman S, in PDK format, on the dynamics area. This was basically an auto-x setup, go around the cones to get familiar with how the 718 handles and do an ABS test towards the end of the course. I spun out in the first corner (came in a bit hot) as this was my first time in a mid-engine car with PCM in sport. As time went on, I learned where the break-away point was and was coached to try smoother inputs. This helped out for the rest of the day, since this 718 behaves quite differently than my Golf R.

Then we drove over to the launch control/carousel section. Pretty straight forward for launch control and the 718 does a great job of picking up speed once the turbo kicks in. The carousel, is a copy of the one from the Nürburgring, which I've driven on before in a track prepped Suzuki Swift with @e90m3
This one is wayyyyy smoother than the ring version, which has a ton of undulation from years of wear.

Next up was the low friction handling circuit. Polished concrete + some sort of talcum powder on the top = well... low friction. This was one of my favorite parts. I learned the most I've ever learned about weight transfer and how to modulate inputs smoothly. To get the car to turn more with throttle and brake vs steering was interesting to learn as well.

Photo by Porsche:

We then moved onto the kick plate, a metal plate that’s recessed into the ground just before a straight, watered down strip of pavement. When the car’s rear tires pass over it, a hydraulic actuator “kicks” the plate left or right, making the rear tires lose traction and the car skid or spin. This was easy enough to get the hang of and recovering the drift into either driving straight out or linking into another drift.

Photo by Porsche:

After this, we went to the ice hill, a 25ft hill with water and red polished concrete. This was a challenge for me, when the car has momentum, it was tough to cleanly control the slide into the end corner. I also went up the hill as well, this was easier to do since you could rely more of throttle to control the slide up the hill.

Photo by Porsche:

The low friction circle was similar to this too, control the slide with smooth throttle and inputs. It's great once you can feel the front end break loose and then to get the rear end to slide out, and on top of that to maintain it.

Finally, we went out on the handling circuit, aka the "track". This was still fun since you could really test the high speed handling of the 718, and the random squirrels that darted across the track provided good "obstacle avoidance" exercises.

In all, would I recommend PEC LA? Hell yeah. If you like cars, and have the money, it provides several great hours of fun and learning. Obviously, you could do auto-x or a track day for cheaper, but in the LA city area, this is the only place. Comparing this to AMG academy (a 10/10), I'd give this a 7/10 mostly due to the time constraint (1hr-1/2) and the cost.

So a few months ago, I reached out to an editor who worked with TangentVector, Matt Hardigree and J.F. Musial's video production company, with the intention of just getting some info on how the editor got his start in the automotive space. He tells me his story, and we agree to stay in touch and that was that.
Fast forward to early December, they reach out to me with a potential job.

"How would you like to edit a video for Porsche?"

Immediately I get way too excited, or maybe just the right amount, who knows. I have calls with Matt and J.F., who I told about the hyphen btw, and they walk me through the job.
...
So for the past 3 weeks, I've been working on this edit, and here it is.

On Monday, I used my birthday (which was a month ago) as an excuse to book a full day karting school at AMP (atlanta motorsports park). With the day off, I drove an hour or so to Dawsonville GA which houses one of the best karting experiences in GA.

Cost for a full day, which is around 7 hours with an hour for lunch (provided) and group coaching, is $395.

You'll start your day with learning some terminology in a classroom (with AC thank goodness) and go over what a black flag means, and what an apex is.
The other 11 students were a mix of experienced sim racers, kids around 12 years old, people like me who've got a little track time under their belt, and pure beginners.

After 30 min or so, it's time to don your helmets and get out on the track. You had the option of using the gross, publically used helmets, or your own SNELL certified helmet.
My own helmet was used. (won at the AMG driving academy) :

The first sessions are desgined for you to get to know the Hermann Tilke designed karting track.
Hermann Tilke for those who don't know designs F1 tracks around the world, even in Atlanta, Colorado! lol.

Sessions are all done in a lead/follow format, where the instructor always leads and students follow.
As you progress in the sessions, the leader will go faster and often lose the students since they're more experienced.

The 1st karts you use are the public karts, which are in sorry shape, since well.... the public uses them.
Known as the SODI RT8, they're powered by a 4 stroke, 13ish hp engine, and they weigh in at... a lot. My kart had a fairing that would find itself either behind the gas or brake pedal for example.
This 1st block of sessions took about 2 hours since we switched karts in groups, and you really get a feel for the track's elevation changes which is over 43 ft!

You also, attempt to learn, how to not lock your brakes going over some crests (I locked my brakes several times, left foot braking is tough with just a rear axle brake disc)
Watch this guy drive around the track in the RT8 (not me):

Then it's lunch, powered by Panera Bread Co.

After lunch, it's time to jump into the racing chassis.

The 2nd type of kart we used is called the LO 206. Powered by the Briggs and Stratton 206 engine with 8hp and 10ft/tq, and weighing in at 185lbs wet w/o a driver; these karts had vastly better response due to the weight reduction (small plastic bucket seat, no seatbelts, no roll bar) and better tires.
Here's a picture of one similar to which we used:
and video of people racing them at AMP:

I set a fairly nice lap time of 1min 07 secs, which puts me in the beginner groups if I ever wanted to race in their racing series.

The final karts we used were to me, terrifying.
The CRG KT2 race chassis, was powered by a Rotax DD2 125cc 2 stroke engine with 34 hp @ 12000 rpm, and had such a fast pace around the track I was outpaced mentally. You arrive at corners and get out of them with so much speed it's tough to learn!
I also made more mistakes in this kart, and sent it too hard over the crest before turn 2 (which is a downhill 180° right hander) and spun out.
A student who did a bunch of iRacing set a very fast lap time of 56 seconds compared to my 1 min lap.
Here's a quick laptime by an AMP driver:

Overall, I had a great time and learned a ton about karting, especially left foot braking and threshold braking.
The next time I go to AMP, I'll be able to rent the LO 206, which will be a good kart to learn the limits on!

Over the past 6 years, I've lived in Los Angeles after moving here to work in the film/advertising industry. I came here from Jacksonville, FL by way of Alabama and Georgia, where I first joined the Jalopnik FP community back in 2008 and later Oppo.

Atlanta over the recent years has been more and more associated with film and has a growing post production scene. As we deal with LA's ever increasing cost of living, we've decided to move to the Atlanta area to work towards buying a house, and finding a stable career in film there! And the benefit for my fiance is that she can continue working remotely while making an LA salary, how nice!

The car related thing I have for this move is whether to sell my Golf R in December in LA or truck it over to Atlanta? I know GA has a title ad valorem tax of 3% for new residents, but my fiance doesn't have a car and thinks a cheaper joint car we can both drive would make more sense once we get settled in GA.

That could mean me getting a more sporty car than the R, for trips to the N. GA mountains/etc.

Anywho, this move has been something in the works for the past 2 years or so, and was put off by the pandemic, so it feels good to finally get this ball rolling

Today was a great day to drive up Angeles Crest Highway! Met up with some good friends and saw Jonny Lieberman, Basem Wasef, Magnus Walker, and Jeff Zwart! A powerhouse of cars and car knowledge there today!

I'm rich!!!

*maybe not....

Very excited to do my first autocross with Speed Ventures at Auto Club Speedway!
Never autox'd my Golf R before so I'm curious to see how I do.
Not my car, but what my car will look like:
!

@Britishvillaininatl I found my Z4 on facebook (thanks to a friend).

So I purused and found this: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/889641395816968/
Just removed the wrap and stickers and you'll be good!

@john-norris Great to meet the whole crew as well! Nice pics too, thanks for that!

@Britishvillaininatl I’m going to see what happens tonight with the Memphis police tape release.
Still leaning on going Sunday though.

@john-norris Understandable. I saw the weather and national guard thing... Feb might be better indeed.

I know there are some Atlanta area Oppos, as well as some outside the city and in the surrounding areas, that wanted to potentially meetup at Cars & Coffee Atlanta.

This months meet is Jan. 29th @ 8am, at the Perc coffee shop located on the corner of 2nd Ave. SE & Hosea Williams Dr.

I'll be there at 8am with my E85 Z4 with the Uppu sticker on the back windshield.

Hope to see y'all there!

Paging: @john-norris @Cars @Britishvillaininatl @WhoIsTheLeader

@Hike I'm looking at going in April, and we'll be in Milan as a home base. Worth it to rent a car or just find a tour/bus/train?

Got some parts to make the Z4 work properly!

@john-norris congrats on the win! I’m in Roswell, with a Z4 hardtop roadster funny enough.

I’m down for an Atlanta Oppo meetup though. And a mountain run at some point too!

@Qaaaaa Sorry, you're correct that it's 10/100 on a new purchase. However, with this engine exploding bearings issue, the new warranty on affected cars (that have the ecu update from HMG) is 15/150.

@HFV-now-with-more-H that’s why I check the oil on my sonata hybrid every month.
Hyundai also issued a knock detection update to the ecu to put it in limp mode when the bearings are about to give out.
@Qaaaaa The new warranty is 15 years , 150,000 miles from purchase date.