Oppositelock
    • Register
    • Login
    • Search
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Users
    • User Guide
    • Key Stuff
      • Best Of OPPO
      • Overland
      • Planelopnik
      • LaLD
      • Swappo
      • Shoppo
      • OPPO Discord
      • Kinja Archive
      • TOS
    • Support OPPO
      • Merch Store
      • Paypal Donate
    1. Home
    2. john norris
    • Profile
    • Following 0
    • Followers 2
    • Topics 174
    • Posts 4465
    • Best 3328
    • Controversial 0
    • Groups 1

    john norris

    @john norris

    8404
    Reputation
    941
    Profile views
    4465
    Posts
    2
    Followers
    0
    Following
    Joined Last Online

    john norris Unfollow Follow
    Photography

    Best posts made by john norris

    • I Bought Something

      Warning, this is a long post on my recent ‘Bring a Trailer’ experience, and a lot on the environment that led up to it.

      Summary:

      Overall a good experience, but not without plenty of anxiety

      Background:

      • 2 years ago my Son talked me into buying a 2000 BMW M Roadster, basically an ‘M’d up Z-3
      • I bought this locally from a small dealer, the BaT purchase comes later
      • I never really wanted a BMW, but I got spammed by my Son weekly with used BMW ads, for all kinds of BMW performance models
      • I finally liked an ad he forwarded for a blue 2000 M Roadster. We went to look at it, I liked it, I bought it
      • I have driven it for 2 years and I enjoy it. It was a decent deal, 137,0000 miles, ~$12,000
      • Plot twist, my son liked it too. So much so that he went and bought one for himself. Similar age, mileage, cost.

      Locally purchased M Roadster in 2020; not the BaT subject car:

      a3c1eaab-966b-43d3-886d-b19dc558d913-image.png

      BaT Training Ground:

      So @Snakesm13 runs the BaT Games on Oppo. I tried to guess the winning bid on a number of them. It’s humbling and it helped me track and understand the dynamics of the BaT bidding process. BaT has a great ‘results’ page that you can search and see what similar cars have recently sold for. So you can assess the market pretty well. There is some science of course to assessing how good or bad an individual car is, and all the amateur and professional subject matter experts on that particular car weigh in on the comments section on BaT, and love to share their opinion on that particular car. And then of course there is the complete randomness on how much bidders are willing to pay for said car.

      My Experience with the M Roadster:

      I like the M Roadster fine. But I’m not really a convertible kind of guy. I bought a hardtop for it, but it is still a bit noisy and the Roadster body and chassis has a reputation for being a bit flexible. The M Coupe however has a reputation for being much more solid. It also sells for about twice as much as a comparable Roadster. So when I bought the Roadster, an M Coupe didn’t seem to me to be a reasonable value.

      The Coupe also looks goofy. So much so it’s earned the nickname ‘clown shoe’.

      I found I can experience the flexibility of the Roadster when parking in the very back of my driveway. The driveway starts to slope down towards my back yard, but on the side closest to the house it also starts to slope towards the house. So there is a three dimensional aspect to the shape of that part of the driveway. I didn’t notice the Roadster’s flexibility until I added the hard top. You clamp down the hardtop pretty good with the fittings, but it’s a removable hardtop so you hit a bump and you can hear it wiggle a little bit. No surprise there. But I found when backing into the back part of my driveway, I could hear the top move as I reached the critical part of the driveway. The suspension was taking up plenty of the pitch and roll, but the body was flexing as well.

      Still not the BaT subject car. Just another photo of my M Roadster, but with the added Hard Top:

      5a6b9d0a-e3c0-455b-9368-61828f5d5a82-image.png

      So at that point I accepted the lore of the Roadster’s flexibility is more than just myth. Which brought me to the thought that I could consider buying an M Coupe. It would drive even nicer. That coupled with my current state in the human life cycle. I’m not yet retired, but I’m pretty darn free of things you have to save for. My kids are grown up and have their own careers and houses. My 401K and retirement set up is pretty solid despite the 2022 Stock Market impacts. So if I am going to be buying any more fun cars now is pretty much a good time. Ten years from now I may not find it as enjoyable. Non car loving people refer to that as a midlife crisis, but I prefer to view it as a midlife capability.

      My M Coupe preferences:

      So my M Roadster is a nice blue; Estoril Blue BMW calls it. That is a great color. But I have one of those, so I don’t want another Estoril Blue car. I don’t want black or red for the usual reasons. I don’t really want another silver car. My GTO is silver and I’m not getting rid of it anytime soon. These M Coupes are sort of rare and the specific colors that I just threw out of consideration narrowed my choices even further.

      I also don’t really want a sunroof. Most of the Coupes have sunroofs, so I’m furthering my rarity problem.

      Also, the Z3’s have some basic, safe, interior colors, but they went a bit loud with the M versions. They tended to bring in the exterior colors into the interior. My blue M roadster has a blue and black interior, which I am okay with. But if you get a tan interior, it’s this weird light tan and beige combo. If you get a white M Coupe or Green M Coupe, they typically have the tan interior, and I don’t want that. So here I am furthering my rarity requirements.

      Here is an M Coupe with the Tan Interior that I am not a big fan of:

      2e111291-507c-4c50-851d-db2015c7cb82-image.png

      So despite my picky requirements, in November, a 2000 M Coupe that fit showed up on BaT. Oxford Green, Gray interior, no sunroof, low miles, one owner, California car. I discussed with my son what would be a reasonable budget to stay within and shared the potential financial damage with Wifey. There are some scratches in the paint, but I’m okay with that. It’s a 22 year old car.

      Yes, yes, finally, the actual BaT car up for auction:

      9efbb8dd-e2d5-4b32-9968-91f48c465a85-image.png

      The 2001 and 2002 M Coupes have the S54 engine instead of the S52. So this 2000 model is not ‘peak’ M Coupe valuable, as the S54 is more popular. But I enjoy the S52 in my M Roadster and was well aware of what I might have to pay to get the M Coupe, and how much more an S54 might be.

      Researching the competitors:

      Looking at specifically who bid on prior M Coupes of this price range I could see some appeared to be dealers and some appear to be private buyers. I made a spreadsheet of the last 5 sales and tracked who bid. You can internet stalk a bit on the bidders on BaT and see what cars they bid on and how high they chased it. The dealer participation intimidated me a bit at first, but then I figured they pretty much have to pay wholesale. They likely have to ship the car too, and then maybe spend some money on making the car perfect, so they can sell it for a perfect, or nearly so, retail price. There is also a 5% fee that the buyer pays BaT upon winning. So the dealers need to find a good bargain.

      I am a retail buyer. I am prepared to pay a retail price. Although the dealers have much deeper pockets than I, I figured they would drop out before me. And they did. There was also a recent bidder that had bid on and won a Z8, for $250k. That’s way outside my field of play, so I mentally prepared myself that if he jumped in, and he really wants the car, I need to stick to my planned budget, accept the reality, and step aside.

      Registering to bid:

      So I picked the BaT user name ‘BadDecsisonsJohn’. There’s a slight tactic there that if a competitor bidder is contemplating another bid above me, he may have to live with the fact that he paid more than ‘BadDecisionsJohn’ decided to pay. Not sure that got me anything, but I felt at least it was a better tactic than the opposite path, going with ‘BargainBasementJohn’, or DirtBallBidderJohn’, and potentially shaming a competitor into outbidding me.

      So, Nov 23rd, the auction closes, and I win!

      https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2000-bmw-m-coupe-75/

      On BaT when the auction gets to 2 minutes from the end and someone bids, they extend the bid for another 2 minutes. I decided that I wasn’t going to play the 2 minutes down to the last few seconds. I didn’t want an internet anomaly fouling my bid. So when I got outbid, I immediately responded. I don’t know if that helps or hurts, but it’s the way I did it. You also need to provide a minimum bid above your competitor. For my price range it was $250. When it came to the contest I just upped my bid to the nearest $1,000 each time. Again, I don’t know if that helped or hurt. But that’s what I did. I noticed that the dealers appeared to just put in the minimum bid. I expect they have their price point they need to stay within and just operate very mechanically up to it. It was stressful being a complete newb at this so I just stuck with upping it to the nearest $1,000 each time. If the auction has $10,000 more to go between two bidders and it’s all minimum bids that’s 20 bids from each bidder. I didn’t want to mess with that. Perhaps I could have saved $500 if I was more patient and more experienced.

      My competitor did minimum bids and ran it down to the last 10 or 20 seconds each time. That was within the rules, but was a bit annoying.

      Anxiety Sets In:

      • Did I pay too much?

      • Now I have to ‘wire’ a car purchase amount of money, to some guy I met on the internet

      So BaT just facilitates the connection between the buyer and the seller. From reading others comments it’s still totally a ‘buyer beware’ transaction. I’m sure BaT would facilitate you trashing some seller’s reputation if they cheated you, but that’s not going to get your money back if you get set up on a scam. And if it’s a scam, the scammers are going to set themselves up to where they don’t care about their faux reputation getting trashed. None-the-less BaT seems to have a vetting process and a system that works well, and at least in my case it worked well. But still, I had plenty of anxiety getting through the process.

      We have a local friend that has a car transport business so I went to him for the shipment. Although BaT will help set that up if you so desire. I wired the money to ‘the guy I met on the internet’, and the car got picked up. Once I got confirmation it got picked up there was a large sense of relief. If nothing else, at least I was going to get a car with a VIN.

      The car got delivered to me in Atlanta, Dec 5th. It took a bit to get the emissions checked and the title done. But here I sit with the title, registration, and functioning BaT purchased car.

      6881a567-4903-4979-979d-27edc06db56a-image.png

      86d9218b-a7a3-4364-afe7-dd88462ceb06-image.png

      Summary:

      Did I pay too much? For now I’m good with it. Apparently I was willing to pay more for this car than anyone else on the planet, or at least in North America. So from that measure I must have paid too much. But here we are. I didn’t compromise on my requirements. I was patient and waited for this one to surface. I like the car. I developed a taste for the goofy look over the last two years, and I plan to have a lot of fun with it.

      4fb94212-1674-46af-aa50-9af4583c84f1-image.png

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • Waiting for the Dentist Office to open

      Admiring my ride in the parking lot ...

      20230718_075420.jpg

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • We Celebrated My Mother In Law's 87th Birthday Today

      She's doing well. Thanks for asking. She still lives by herself, about 15 minutes away. We had her over for dinner.

      As far as Oppo's concerned there is some automotive content. The event brought my son to come visit. He drove his Evergreen M Roadster. So I took the opportunity to take some photographs of the family Z-3 M fleet of three.

      We're not in @valeria622 territory, but we have a good start.
      @Photography

      DSC_0009 r1.JPG

      DSC_0010 r1.JPG

      DSC_0028 r1.JPG

      DSC_0031 r1.JPG

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • Woke up at 6:15 ...

      ... so I could leave the house at 7:15, so I could meet up with some Atlanta Oppos at a Car Meet at 8:00.

      This was early on a Sunday to go opinionate with people I haven't really met and don't really know, about a topic we all apparently love to opinionate and argue about.

      It was great meeting up and getting to know a bit about @DaveyD, @Britishvillaininatl (and Mrs BVinatl), and @WhoIsTheLeader. I took a few photos of some cool cars belonging to others at the meet. But for this post I'll stick with the Oppos and their rides.

      I reserve the right to add another post or two on the meet and the other vehicles.

      Edit: I added a bunch of photos of other peoples vehicles to
      @Britishvillaininatl 's post here:
      https://opposite-lock.com/topic/57337/photo-dump-cars-and-coffee-atlanta-this-morning/1?_=1675033612845

      and a few @WhoIsTheLeader 's post here:
      https://opposite-lock.com/topic/66725/oppo-car-show-meet-recap


      DaveyD's perfect Z4. 2004 Low miles. Of course we all know you can't have a black car and have any blemishes. His doesn't.

      DSC_0011 r1.JPG

      DSC_0012 r1.JPG

      DaveyD's Z4 getting full scrutiny from BVinatl and WISTL:

      DSC_0069 r1.JPG

      DaveyD and BVinatl in front of BVinatl's Jag. Extremely perfect too; a bit newer and every part the ride of a villain.

      DSC_0016 r1.JPG

      DSC_0017 r1.JPG

      WISTL setting up to critique the interior of the Jag:

      DSC_0055.JPG

      I added this photo as it includes Mrs BVinatl, and I believe that is her favorite vehicle of the meet. We discussed a bit whether that was a factory option on the Land Rover Defender. BVinatl's priceless comment, "I don't think it came that way from Land Rover, but if it did it would leak."

      DSC_0029 r1.JPG

      I'm not into watches. Of course at least some of you are. So I captured this for you:

      DSC_0082.JPG

      WISTL has a well patinaed (yes, that is a word) Toyota, with 300k+ miles. He showed off the utility of the suicide door and some of the interesting effects of the wear.

      DSC_0090.JPG

      DSC_0091 r1.JPG

      It was great meeting these folks in person. We're going to do more for sure. I enjoyed getting the rest of their stories from them, seeing their vehicles, and hearing more about their car tastes. Thanks folks for taking the initiative.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • So George Barber did this ...
      1. He was a racecar driver.
      2. Collected motorcycles.
      3. Sold the family dairy for millions and millions.
      4. Built a beautiful race track in his hometown of Birmingham Alabama.
      5. Put a racing museum at the race track and filled it with more motorcycles than anywhere else in the world.
      6. Put some crazy art sculptures all around the track.

      Barber_Motorsports_Park_Aerial_(34804699780).jpg

      Because this is Oppo and you folks have such exquisite and refined culture, today we are going to talk about art. Also because this is Oppo, I’m going to tie in a little bit of @Zaphod-s-Heart-of-Gold's race car into some of the art. This is because Eddie (his racecar) is rather a bit of art in itself.

      I had read a few of @Zaphod-s-Heart-of-Gold's posts over the years. But I still wasn’t prepared for the whole Eddie themed Lemons race experience. The fact that I got to see him and his team race it at Barber Motorsports Park back on Saturday made for a great day for me. I'll probably make a subsequent post just on the car. I already linked a video of the Saturday race track performance on his https://opposite-lock.com/topic/67303/well-shit-pt-2 post, in case you missed that.

      But back to the art.

      Sculptures.

      Big sculptures. They are salted all around the race track.

      Some big ants, hauling away a giant bottle of Coke, a motorcycle racer, and his bike. Note the background race cars.
      DSC_0045 r1.JPG

      This one was my favorite sculpture. I’m no art expert, but it’s at a race track and it looks like someone fast. But it's just a bunch of well strung together shapes.
      DSC_0068.JPG

      There is a tunnel under the track for infield access, as I’ve seen at many racetracks. They posted two sculpture guards standing by on either side. Note Eddie racing by on the track above.
      DSC_0071 r1.JPG

      At the edge of the woods along the backstraight there is an Indian chief with a rifle.
      DSC_0207 r1.JPG

      Apparently, he’s poised to take shots at noisy racecars passing by on the back straight.
      DSC_0224 r1.JPG

      A 30 – 40 foot diameter spider, two lions at the side of the museum, by the back straight, a motorcycle on a stick on a rock. A giant trio of wheel racers that reportedly weigh 3000 lbs each, and a cow spectating behind the museum at the bottom of a turn. I have no explanation for any of this. Perhaps it's the struggle of man verses selling off the family dairy in order to build a not for profit racetrack.
      DSC_0239 r1.JPG

      DSC_0298.JPG

      DSC_0364 r1.JPG

      DSC_0365 r1.JPG

      DSC_0368.JPG

      DSC_0424 r1.JPG

      Some controversial art, made by a controversial person, that Mr Barber purchased and rescued, and then mounted a motorcycle on, because it’s a race track and he likes motorcycles.
      DSC_0482 r1.JPG

      A beautiful land scape water feature just outside the far side of the track.
      DSC_0484 r1.JPG

      Three tigers on the infield of the interior hairpin, perhaps stalking some buffalo.
      DSC_0535 r1.JPG

      Four buffalo, also on the infield of the interior hairpin.
      DSC_0536 r1.JPG

      I'm sure artists don't understand me, but I sure don't understand artists. None-the-less I'm glad they are out there. This one's kind of creepy, but I understand and appreciate it takes some free thinkers to come up with any of these.

      Her face is 6 or 8 feet high. Weird.
      DSC_0577.JPG

      There is more that I didn't capture. The art was certainly secondary to my primary mission. But if you have the chance to visit, or are in Birmingham and have some time, it is well worth your time. I didn’t even explore the museum. I am certain it is excellent. I will be back.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • Added a Hardtop

      20220306_183522 r1.jpg

      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.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • DOTS Not every day I see a Hudson Hornet at Applebees

      20230803_205107.jpg

      20230803_205044.jpg

      20230803_205123.jpg

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • So there's this 13 year old kid who does automotive photography ...

      0cc2c769-0292-418c-9f53-0ca0eadeee3f-image.png

      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:

      ee20cd4b-d1d5-447d-aea4-bff18e24a2b9-image.png

      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.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • I'm going drifting Friday night ...

      ... 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

      b124f23e-9fc4-4631-9b94-a6e5f4dc704a-image.png

      Me back in August:
      6q69tc.gif

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • Minor surgery today

      Some basal cell skin cancer getting cleaned up on my neck. Least risky kind of skin cancer, but needs treatment none-the-less.

      In hindsight I should have been more careful when out in the sun in my youth. PSA for the rest of you.

      Meanwhile I'm awaiting in the lobby from the first slice, so I have some BAT time.

      How 'bout this beauty?
      https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1966-mercedes-benz-230sl-46/
      1966_mercedes-benz_230sl_cd393300-c78d-414d-902c-5fd7efea97a9-47133.jpeg

      Update:

      The process I was told was they take a few slices, send them off to the lab. If the lab says they got it all, then they are done, otherwise you need a second round. Fortunately I was one and done. So all is good, other than this excessively large bandage on my neck, and some likely pain when the local anesthetic wears off. But thanks for the supportive comments.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris

    Latest posts made by john norris

    • RE: The 1980's was the worst decade for American cars since WWII

      @Stef-Schrader said in The 1980's was the worst decade for American cars since WWII:

      @TheModernLeper said in The 1980's was the worst decade for American cars since WWII:

      @Stef-Schrader said in The 1980's was the worst decade for American cars since WWII:

      BaT sales attract a lot of snobby wankers with bad taste.

      Uh oh! 😬 <Looks at the 3 cars that I purchased on BaT>

      At least they are all Alfas so hopefully my taste isn't too bad. 😉 And the 911 should help as well.

      IMG_5564.jpeg

      #notallbuyers

      Ahem.

      The 1980's was the worst decade for American cars since WWII:

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • RE: Some BaT trucks

      @Just-Jeepin

      Very nice. Winder how much it will go for.

      d88bb372-0c92-49da-89a7-32075bfb89a8-image.png

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • RE: Weekend Whip (and the annoying story behind it)

      @Taylor-Martin said in Weekend Whip (and the annoying story behind it):

      Gonna be a fun weekend, and cramming a small PA Oppo meet in the middle, so I’m very very excited! Thanks for letting me ramble.

      Good to hear you figured it out. Over the long haul the rental cost will be small change for you. Enjoy the weekend.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • RE: arvo oppo

      @pip-bip

      It's a two seater. I don't think it's going to go how they say.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • RE: It's been a tragic week, Oppo.

      @SilentbutnotreallyDeadly

      Chairs, handles, pumps failing? Sounds like you had a wild time. Great trip. Get home safely.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • RE: things

      @Sam-Blockhan said in things:

      My life has been crazy lately, a combination of a new house in a new place, starting college, and never having been away from any family for this long. I've also had a cold all week, so...fever dreams, ish?

      Hang in there. Pressure and new experiences can certainly be good. If you learn how to cope with it well in college it will serve you well in your future. You can find jobs that don't provide much challenge or pressure. But then they don't pay as well.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • RE: things

      @Sam-Blockhan

      You might try backing off on the dosage a bit.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • RE: Do You Know What "DK" Stands For?

      @DuckDuckGreyDuck

      That is just amazing.

      So it's just a guitar. It's been around a long time. Pretty much all the notes, chords, scales, and arpeggios have been extracted from it.

      Of course some people ignore the basic facts and push forward anyway.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • RE: Envy me*

      @HammerheadFistpunch said in Envy me*:

      @john-norris Dang, that almost looks like the same unit even.

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris
    • RE: Envy me*

      @HammerheadFistpunch

      I'm downstairs. Keep it quiet up there.

      f43875b5-826b-4a61-8379-d6a66dd3e7e1-image.png

      posted in Oppositelock
      john norris
      john norris