I know automakers need to drive their development cars around a lot, but I’m kind of surprised this one is still kicking. And I’m shocked they left a styling exercise this influential parked on the street!

OK, sarcasm. But still, the resemblance is uncanny!

As some of you have seen, I went ice racing yesterday! Lots of fun was had, along with many many spins. I finished a solid mid-pack amongst the 10 stock RWD cars, and I only killed one cone! To be honest, it was super fun and I'm thrilled simply to not be DFL, broken down or at the bottom of the lake.

Enough of all of these words n stuff, let's have some pics, OPPO!

This golf (yes, it's actually a golf under that fiberglass scirocco-ish hat) was the fastest thing out there by miles. I wonder why... oh right.

This Buick Regal was an absolute monster out there, throwing up a massive cloud of ice behind its meaty rear end.

This civic was the only car that truly had a bad day. He completed one blazing fast lap and then munched a bunch of valves due to suspected oil starvation. Poor guy!

This Comanche is hiding a secret... can you spot it?

Here's some bits of cone trapped under the ice near the start line from the last event two weeks ago.

Amongst the modified, non-studded cars, this RAV4 was one of the leaders. He's hiding a Celica motor under there, and was really sending it!

Just before starting our runs. And yes, that's an LC500 up there. It's beautiful.

The only shots I got of my car out there from a friend on shore. There was a professional photographer out there, hopefully he got some better shots of my several 360s. I also did a 720 and drove out of it on my first lap. It was stupid fun.
Just missed that cone!

Here's a shot of my buddy Josh during one of his turns at the helm of my car. He managed to place third in our class and I'm not jealous at all!

That's a wrap for now. If you want to learn more about Ice Runs, head over to the Saginaw Valley SCCA website, and I hope to see you out there!

Good morning/afternoon/evening to all you OPPOnauts around the globe! It’s been quite awhile since my last post, so it’s time for an update on the house of stuck, or a ‘stuckdate’ if you will.

First off, and far most importantly, the Mrs. and I are officially expecting! Assuming all goes well, we’ll have a little one entering this world sometime in March next year. 03-21-23 perhaps? Who knows. The first trimester was pretty rough on my wife with serious nausea, but so far the second is far better. We’re planning a trip up north to celebrate in the next couple weeks, and in the meantime we’re working slowly to get the house and everything in order in advance of our new arrival. I’m still figuring out how and when to break the news at work, but will probably do so in the next week or two.

Speaking of work, I started a new job! Or maybe it’s more of a promotion? Either way, I’m a manager now, with a small team of designers in a different studio than I was working previously, so it feels like a totally new job. I absolutely loved my old job and my previous team, so it’s a bit bittersweet leaving that behind but promotional opportunities like this seem to come around infrequently so I jumped at the chance and I’m glad I did. My new gig also comes with a company vehicle, and my old team hooked me up with something very special in that department. I’m not really supposed to discuss it or post photos of it unfortunately, but rest assured, it is a very OPPO ride.

One side effect of the company car though has been the general neglect of my fleet. My 3-series is doing more-or-less okay but has had a burned out headlamp for most of the summer (who needs headlights in the summer when the sun rises at 6am and sets at 10???) Now that fall is absolutely here and the days are shrinking rapidly, my complacency is really showing. I do have a replacement assembly from a lower trim E46 coupe sitting in a box since it arrived last month, but I haven’t gotten around to swapping it yet. I was misled from the eBay listing into thinking it was from a 330 with active xenon like mine, but it’s just a basic HID (no cornering lights) so that killed my enthusiasm for fixing it a bit. The original equipment active xenon lamps are seriously expensive, like near a grand used, and over $1200 new. I should just bite the bullet and replace both lamps with the lower spec HIDs and be done with it. At any rate, I’ll probably take that car for a drive this afternoon as it’s been about a week since I last moved it.

My C6 on the other hand is awaiting some parts from a body shop after having its front corner crunched in the parking lot at work by a friend of mine in his giant HD truck. He was parked next to me and didn’t see my car as he turned right out of his parking spot. His insurance is going to take care of it but that’s a bit annoying. It’s currently sitting in a parking deck at work with a dead battery. I knew it had a slow drain issue, but two weeks since driving it last was apparently too much and the charge indicator showed only eight volts when I tried to fire it up last week. It was completely dead when I tried to jump it with a booster pack on Thursday. UGH. I should just pull the battery and try and charge it at home overnight.

Finally, I’m signed up to race in the Iceman mountain bike race in northern Michigan in early November. I’ve been traveling a lot lately and consequently haven’t really been riding much as I’d like to but now that I’m inside the two week mark, I’m planning on getting some training miles in. Wish me luck!

Anyways, hope you’re well, OPPO! Here’s a couple recent DOTS for your time!

Big boi being relative here, but with the other two cars in our household being a 3 series and a Buick Encore, the C6 with its 6.2L LS3 counts as a big boi indeed, and what a good boy it is! I forgot how much I absolutely adore the burbles and pops of its exhaust.

Unfortunately, my car insurance requires a 5 day waiting period before they'll allow me to put collision coverage back on it. It's going to be a hard wait until Friday to drive it again. Anyways, stopped by the park on the (careful) drive home to nab a couple pics!

I forget which Oppo was wondering about this, but yes, a full size large (and maybe XL?) 29er will fit into the trunk of a C6. As will my xbike. Corvette all the things! Bike all the things!

And of course I had to stop for a sunset pic on the way home.

Just getting back from a couple days in the wilderness for my friend’s bachelor party. The hangovers and sunburn are fading, but the colors from this sunset photo are absolutely not. Genuinely no image correction here, just straight iPhone @Photography.

The bachelor himself!

The amazing thing about this sunset was what a surprise it was. There were low clouds on the horizon all day and it seemed like we weren’t going to get a show at all. 20 minutes before sunset, this was the scene:

It went down without much fuss, but at 9:50 the fireworks began! What a delight.

It’s Woodward Dream Cruise week here in southeast Michigan. Which means it’s time for the car shows! Specifically, the employee car show at General Motors Design, which is always a fantastic event. It was cut a bit short this year by some unexpected rain around 2:30 in the afternoon, but I still got some great shots! Here they are, in no particular order:

Is this not the cleanest 1st gen Civic you’ve ever seen? I’m always amazed by people who choose to preserve or restore these types of common cars.

Day 53: I still don’t think they’ve noticed me. I’m learning a lot about the ways and customs of the ICE cars. I still don’t understand this peculiar practice of parking on grass though.

Okay, I saved the best for last… possibly the greatest C4 in existence!

I scored these sweet puffy camp shoes at my local REI last week. This would otherwise be a rather boring and completely not noteworthy except for the reason for the return on the tag.

HAH! Sorry guy, your loss is my gain!

MrsMTB has apparently been planning this little surprise for me for quite awhile. She asked me to take yesterday off work so we could drive to "Ann Arbor" for something fun.

"Ann Arbor" turned out to be Michigan Speedway, and something fun was the "extreme experience" (no, I won't accept their dumb branding practice of eliminating the "E"s. Misspelling words for the sake of branding is dumb.)

Basically, this is a track experience for anybody from beginners to people who know what they're doing but want to get a bit of seat time in a car they don't own. They provide a short classroom session, instructors, and lead-follow laps in your choice of 6-8 sports cars.

My wife had apparently asked my buddies which car I'd like to go with, and they chose the 911 GT3 RS for me. When I first saw a Huracán doing some safety check laps I was thinking I might want to swap to get some V10 in my life, but then the GT3 went around and my worries were squashed. That thing is LOUD! Easily the loudest car there by far. (The Huracán was next on the list, the rest of the fleet were leagues behind.)

I did a few laps sitting shotgun in the Charger Hellcat lead car to get the lay of the land before joining the line for my turn in the Porsche, and I'm glad I did. We got "3" laps... I put that in air quotes, because they count your time entering and leaving pit lane as part of your third lap, so you only get two shots at the straight. I'd count that as 2.5, but tomato, potato I guess.

When I got behind the wheel, it was immediately clear how focused the car is. The racing bucket doesn't recline at all, and to be honest the seating position was a bit too stiff and upright for me, especially with a helmet. But I got used to it pretty quick. All the cars there are autos, so I didn't have to learn a new clutch. And I have to admit, PDK was incredible. It was exactly as aggressive as my right foot told it to be, with it dropping gears into the power band the instant my foot stabbed the throttle. The acceleration was great, the braking and turn it was even better, but by far the best was the noise!

After my two-and-a-half short laps, I was definitely thirsty for more. This car has definitely worked its way onto my bucket list.

My overall impressions of the event were pretty positive, but damn was it expensive. I was a bit turned off by how many opportunities they had to work more money out of you. Want a photo of you in the car (that's already printed out on a rack as you exit) ? That'll be $20. Want to unlock the onboard video that they took on a USB while you were driving? That's another $60. More laps? Several hundred.

Considering they're providing the cars, all the consumables and wear items, I guess the price isn't too bad. I just wish I had gotten more than a couple minutes of seat time! If you have a car that's capable of surviving a track day, that's definitely a better value at $200-500/day with probably four or five 20 minute sessions full of lapping. It's definitely a great way to get some full-throttle time behind the wheel of your favorite supercars though, just not cheap!

@Arch-Duke-Maxyenko I actually feel like a more drawn-out version of this would be rather nice. Seems like everyone automatically jumps into the center lane as soon as they merge onto the highway, so maybe every exit ramp is an exit-only lane, and a new one grows on the left.

@Just-Jeepin it was definitely a “kids are coming, f it let’s try this out” splurge. I’ve seen a lot of great joops and jeeps around here I’m sure you’d enjoy the heck out of!

@Nauraushaun luckily not! I resisted the urge to leave it with the top down this morning even though no rain was in the forecast. Florida gonna Florida!

Happy Saturday there, OPPO! MrsStuck and I are midway through our babymoon and I spent the afternoon biking about and taking in the sights here in Key West. Thought I’d share some of the most interesting metal with ya!

A nice late model 944:

Sweet safari Miata:

I’m guessing a 356 replica under here.

Lastly, our perfect rental car!

@EssExTee said in Some light fixtures for Zoidberg to rate:

Ew why would they mix and match light temperatures

Few things annoy me more than this while in supposedly luxurious accommodation experiences. I genuinely wonder if no one else noticed these things.

@Dr-Zoidberg said in We've come full circle, my internet acquaintances: Used Car shopping :

Z4 Coupe 3.0si

Yesssssssssssss

@bluemazda2

Came here to post about dummy-dum-dums in their Q7s tooling around in clear conditions blinding other motorists, left satisfied

Clarkson is an arse, albeit a highly entertaining arse, and everyone knows it.

I think what irks me here is this seems to be an apology AFTER he realizes he's pissed off everyone, so it strikes me as pretty insincere.

I'll still enjoy TG and GT and be disappointed if we don't get more of that trio making new car-related content, but man this guy needs to understand there are real world consequenses to him spouting his mouth (or fingers?) off.

I mostly feel for the cast and crew and all the other jobs related to him that are cast in limbo by his carelessness.

@HFV-now-with-more-H Probably an attempt to hide that goofy sedan rear door window line. Still bugs me, but I still would rock one. NP!