I bought a hard top for my M Roadster. I bought some attaching hardware separately, because I had to. The top was the right color, but the seller didn't have the attaching hardware. Then had to also buy a couple bolts and mod them a bit to make them fit, as the attaching hardware kit was not quite complete.

All in all pretty happy with the outcome. Convinced my son to come donate a few hours of help. You have to do a bit of alignment work to get the car, the top, and the attaching hardware to all work together.

... at Lanier Raceway in Atlanta. If you're in Atlanta (actually it's an hour north of Atlanta) and you want to see an old man do stupid stuff in his GTO, come on out. The event is from 6:00 - 10:30, but the grid wait gets a bit long later in the evening, so I may stop around 8:30 or 9:00.

You'll also get to see all kinds of significantly modified, and stock, 240SX's, BMW's, 350Z's, and assorted other cars, doing similarly stupid stuff on the track.

If you happen to come early enough, and I don't break down, and if you'll trust someone that you met on the internet, I'll take you for a lap or two. I'll try to remember to bring an extra helmet.

https://shop.caffeineandoctane.com/products/copy-of-caffeine-and-octane-friday-night-drift-march-25?event=2022-09-23T18:00:00

Me back in August:

He collects model cars and then takes photos of them in full scale scenes.

Here's his website. https://anthonyryanschmidt.com/

It includes this video with an interview of him:

I just ordered small canvas prints of the two pictures I posted here. I want to reward this sort of behavior.

If he's creating these at 13 I really look forward to what he will be doing in 10 years. I have great hope for our automotive future.

This was after the pretty colors were gone, but there were still some cool clouds so I'm sticking my personal vehicle in here to keep it oppo:

Also, keeping the theme even heavier Oppo, and in line with my prior sunsets in this area. Here's a shot before the color as I was killing some time.

@Photography

Down at the 1st Sunday of the month car meet in Roswell GA, I took some photos. But only if it had a manual. No clutch, no photo.

I have more photos of the individual cars if anyone wants to see any specific car's interior, engine, or rear end view, I may have it.

@Photography
Saw a very large dragonfly today at my son's house. He had about a 4 inch wing span. He looked a bit intimidating.

Upon close inspection he had sustained a bit of wing damage. That didn't seem to impact his flight operations though. Not sure how or if that heals.

There is a 1/2 mile ish go kart track, that is now used for drifting, about 30 minutes south east of Birmingham Alabama.

So I drove some and took photos and video of the other drivers in between my runs. I post the video I make on youtube and now instagram.

But Nick Holt of NicksFPV (his youtube name) took some drone video of me in my GTO. Want to see it?

track layout:

@Photography
Went for a 6 mile walk around noon at the Etowah River Park and went to another spot at sunset.

I was disappointed that I didn't get much for reds and purples at sunset. But I saw some charismatic clouds none-the-less.

These are the photos I liked the most.

By the way, that's my 2013 RAM staged to look like the cell phone tower support vehicle.

Apparent enforcement.

I went to Caffeine & Octane this morning in Kennesaw GA, northwest of Atlanta. Here are a few cars that caught my eye.

If you have interest in any particular cars I can add the full resolution photo, plus maybe an engine view, or an interior view if I have them.

Two GM Aero era relics:

And here's a gaggle of Godzilla's to finish us off.

@Photography

... construction equipment kept getting in the way though.

Here was my originally intended subject matter.

@ike808 said in Well that escalated…:

@john-norris ‘Cuda was my choice. But I still wouldn’t drop that much of my retirement money on it.

I agree. Particularly since it's known for being such a beast off the line. But here we are at the era of multi motor evs that can probably beat it. It's lost it's edge. I would think it's lost a lot of value then too.

@Noodles

I have a few hundred days there with no stabbings. I think the statistics are pretty favorable for you.

Now of course you may see something unusual. But that's quite different than victimhood.

@Highlander said in Well that escalated…:

Neither of the other cars broke $100k.

So here's what amazes me. Those 240Z's seemed to be everywhere in the 1970's where I grew up. I guess in part because they stayed pretty similar through 1973 and they made about 150,000 of the 240Z's in total. Of course this one has an early serial number and had a very thorough restoration. But it is still pretty much just like every other 1970 240Z that came off the production line. There were plenty of 1970 Cuda's and Mustangs too. But far fewer came configured like those two.

1970 440-6 Cuda's with 4 speed
-- 919 produced

1970 240Z's
--17,005 produced

1970 Boss 302 Mustangs
-- 7,014 produced

$165,000 was an amazing price to pay. It got there because there were two buyers that really wanted it. The third place bidder got out after $132,000. You have to love BaT.

@ttyymmnn said in NTSB releases preliminary findings in Dallas warbird crash:

I don't think that discussing the crash or speculating about possible causes is disrespectful to the lost pilots.

‘... As @drVanTraveler said, ultimate responsibility lies with the Cobra pilot who was in command of his ship’

‘Air boss directs a risky maneuver, plane hits drone, plane crashes into other plane’

‘… without an altitude separation The air boss better find an attorney.’

So it's entirely possible that none of the above is the root cause. Perhaps there was a mechanical failure, or a mechanical failure caused by the P63 hitting the drone or whatever object was up there. The death of six people was then wrongly attributed to specific individuals by us in our discussion. I don't think that is good, nor fair.

'The NTSB et al will do their investigation, and we will discuss again when it comes out next year.'

Yes, and that is the appropriate time to discuss; when fault has been determined by the experts, and the responsibility for the death of six people is no longer being speculated on by those of us that likely don't have all the data. At that point they typically share the pertinent facts and the rest of us can see the whole picture.

The NTSB often releases preliminary info when they believe there is something to be shared that may benefit others, in this case, other air show flights. I am sure every other air show is reviewing how they do their formation flights right now. Even if what transpired here is less than the best practice it may or may not be the primary cause in their final report and the responsibility for the deaths may not follow.

I believe it's not fair to the potentially innocent, dead or alive, to attribute the deaths to them. Certainly when we are doing so on less than complete data.

@Highlander

Holy cow!!!

The closing bid is almost double the high bid from the night before, $86,000.

@Snakesm13

$50,000

@ttyymmnn

She doesn't look pleased with whatever Mr Chrysler 300 said about the checkers on her flag.

@Just-Jeepin

Good night.

@nickhasanexocet

Hellcat

@Ad-absurdum-per-aspera said in Don't you hate when a truck falls out of the sky:

... they weren't so isolated on their little sky island that they couldn't escape on foot with a little scrambling

Ha! I had heard that they got out okay but never heard the explanation. Thanks for sharing that. Not something I thought about much, but every time I've seen that picture of course how they got off of the island crossed my mind.

Thinking about it, survival instinct would probably drive you to get out of there in a hurry, if you could. If there was some sliver of concrete hanging in there I'd probably take it.