pres.umptuo.us

I went to Mazda Zoom Zoom Live! yesterday and got to drive the Mazdaspeed6, RX-8, Mazda3, CX-7, Miata, and Mazda5. It was awesome fun. The Mazdaspeed6 is really fast, and I had forgotten how much fun it is to throw the Miata into turns. We used a stopwatch on the matched time course and I got within .004 seconds of the target time.

I got a couple of The Cardigans’ albums to answer the question of “Whatever happened to those guys?“, and they’re pretty damn good.

I am signed up once again for NaNoWriMo. Wish me luck.

I derive pleasure in my daily commute from exacting revenge on slow drivers. Particularly the ones that hold up traffic and show no regard at all as to what they’re doing by slowing down traffic.

Since my favored technique of crossing the dotted line into their lane has no real indication as to whether it’s bothering the slow driver or not, I’ve taken up a new tactic: driving even slower than they are driving.

Continue reading “Road Rage Techniques”

“Greg, I think we need to follow him.”

It’s shortly after the three-lane highway becomes a two-lane highway that we see the PT Cruiser cut across the dirt and bushes and through a hole in the barbed wire fence.

“Wait, let’s see if he makes it. Oh look, he’s slowing at the hole.”

We watch as he approaches the hole in the fence, and then the entire car bobs up, struggles for a moment, and then back over again to join the dirt road running parallel to the highway.

“That’s it. Follow!”

Continue reading “Dirt Road”

They told us there was no speed limit, and that we could drive as fast as we wanted. So I did, and I thought it was fast enough to be pushing the limits of the car.

Then we sat in for a hot lap with the professional driver.

I didn’t know cars were capable of performing to that level.

Continue reading “Auto Erotica - Part 2″

The Kia Rio is one of the cheapest cars available at a starting MSRP of $10,195. Add to that the 10 year / 100,000 mile warranty, and you’ve got what could possibly be a great deal. But as we all know, you get what you pay for.

Continue reading “Auto Erotica - Part 1″

I drive with a lead foot regardless of the weather. This hasn’t brought any bad omens upon me in the five or so years that I’ve been driving. Then last Monday I ate it hard as I tried to pass some cars in the left lane of the 5 South.

The storm system going through Southern California last week had drivers going at 50mph on the freeways. A good, safe speed, yet intolerable to me. At the 10/60/5 junction, an extra left lane on the 5 South opens up and I took the opportunity to make my move. Accelerating, I spot a pothole ahead, and go over it with relative ease. But right after, I spot another pothole, and this time my car goes into it with a loud “boom” sound followed by an, “Oh shit,” from me.

“That must have given me a flat,” I think to myself. I let go of the steering wheel, and sure enough my car pulls hard to the left. I flick my blinker on and make my way over to the next exit and pull into the first gas station.

First thing I do: Call mommy. I’m lucky it’s President’s Day and I’m the only member of my family working. Next a call to Triple A (Change a tire in the rain? Yeah, right. We’re paying for Triple A for a reason), where I discover that I’m no longer under the plan, but if my parents call for me it would be perfectly fine. Which leads me to a quick aside to wonder why we even need the whole family under Triple A when it seems just having one person with the service will do fine.

Guy comes, tire changes, and head back home to swap for another car since I can’t go over 50mph on the spare, which is painted a bright yellow color that just screams, “Look at me! I’m a spare tire!”

After this ordeal, I find out that my rim got bent, and is most likely why I got the flat. Order is placed for new rim: $297. Then when I finally get the time to get it put on, I discover the tire has a gash that is unfixable. Order placed for tire: $220.

There goes Chinese New Year. I’m now paranoid of potholes on the road. I feel myself get tense as I see one approach and do my best to swerve around them. Stupid potholes.

It’s been about a month now since I began my job in Newport Beach and my daily commute of 80+ miles. The trip from home to work is usually around an hour and a half, while the drive back is a lot faster at only an hour, but still requires sitting through some traffic.

I love driving. Driving in traffic is another matter though. The commute has yet to get to me to the point where I dread it, and the extra time does give me a good opportunity to catch up with people over the phone (Ooh dangerous driver!).

But I really hate bad drivers. My road rage tends to stay in check, and I haven’t had a total blow out yet. I rarely give any one the finger, which I doubt I ever would do just cause it seems like a pointless gesture. And I only honk to avoid an accident, cause using the horn shows weakness. It’s a hell of a lot more effective to just cut in front of people, or better yet, slowly inch your way across the dotted line to invade his space and confuse him as to whether you’re changing lanes or not. It’s an agonizing torture.

One day I’m bound to start flashing my highbeams at people who are going too slow in my lane. I already reached the point this week where I dropped into 4th gear and started weaving in and out of 65mph traffic at 80-85mph. That relieved some good tension.

The 405 always sucks in the morning. There are no accidents at all, it’s just slow. The 5 and the 605 are actually fairly decent, just that danged 405 with all the stupid cars on it.

The Pasadena 110 Freeway is my happy place, though. I’m probably psycho to go 80 in the fast lane (Not suggested in the rain; I almost lost control just going 60 because of all the flooding on Friday from the rain), but I think if I totalled my car while going that fast on that freeway, I’d be stupidly happy.

So please, if you’re on the 110, stay out of the left lane unless you plan to go faster than the posted speed limit. That’s my danger zone.

I ate Korean BBQ at Manna in K-Town this Friday with a good sized posse from Eagle Rock. $14.99 for all you can eat, although their meat choices are a bit slim. Three different cuts of beef and one cut of pork that resembled a giant slab of bacon. No chicken, unfortunately. It’s a very young crowd that goes there, and a lot of fun if you go with a lot of people.

Our fun for the night came when we noticed a sign saying we’d be charged for any leftovers. We started freaking out about what to do, and tried hiding the beef underneath our salads and kimchi and even thought of tossing it into the nearby bushes (the restaurant is outdoors). I finally got suckered into stuffing a napkin full of beef in my pocket and smuggling it into the bathroom for disposal. Mission accomplished, and when I came back out, the check was already calculated and all our beef-hiding efforts were unnecessary.

On my way back from work Friday and the whole night thereafter, I noticed my car was pulling to the right and wasn’t quite handling like I was used to. The dead giveaway though was how my car scraped even harder on the bump on my driveway than usual. Sure enough, I check it Saturday morning and the rear right tire is totally flat.

We jack the car up, take the tire off, and remove an extra-long screw that got embeddd in the rubber. Luckily it was almost dead center in the tread, so we used one of those little tire repair kits, pump it back up with air, and good as new. Lucky I didn’t have to go out and get a new tire.

My car had to go to the shop yesterday to get some things fixed with the front axle, so they gave me a loaner car for the day. A Hyundai Sonata V6 to be exact. I was hoping for something a bit more exciting; The Budget Rent-A-Car office they sent me to even has a Mini Cooper, but I didn’t see it there.

We’ll dispense with the details though. Headed out later that night with Richard and Tommy to…test the limits of the car. Slalomed in the parking lot of the Rose Bowl for a bit, then we tried to do a hard e-brake turn, which left all of us laughing and scared shitless that we were about the die after the car came to a stop from doing a 180 degree spin.

Most of the night though was spent trying to find an empty parking lot that would suit our needs, after police spotted us at the Rose Bowl after a mere 20 minutes and left us driving to Dodger Stadium, Church of Hope in Burbank, and finally settling on an abandoned K-Mart to test out our fun. J-turns (well, without the continue forward part), E-brake turns, donuts, and attempted burnouts and 0-60 that don’t work too well in a Hyundai Sonata.

It’s really scary when the back tires lock up and leave the car skidding, and the momentary loss of control just freaks you out. I just had to give the car some sharp turns on my way to return it this morning. Hyundai Sonata, you have served us well. Poor e-brake though.

I need to take out a rental car anytime I’m looking for some quick fun. For a while we just lined up runs to test what we could do to control the skid.

Driving on the Pasadena Freeway in the fast lane at 70 mph.

It’s even better at 90 mph.