Update on the STi

Opposite direction of the sunset.

At lunch a couple weeks ago I noticed a huge door ding in the front driver side fender. Luckily I caught the guy that did it and got his insurance info. His insurance paid to fix the fender. The place I had fix it quoted me about $100 less than what insurance paid to fix it. So I had them put some satin black vinyl over the chrome strip that has bugged me since day one on this car. It bugged me enough I almost bought another car instead of an STI just to avoid the chrome. Unfortunately, it seems nearly every car manufacturer has decided all consumers are either Mexican or 70+ years old and want chrome. Well, I got the car back a couple days ago and while I was sitting here at the computer not doing homework, I noticed the sunset was making some cool lighting and decided it is time for some photos.

Bye bye old man chrome. Wish I had the older STi headlights.

I was shocked how much more I love my car now that the chrome is gone. I knew I hated the chrome. Always have. But I have a renewed excitement for driving it and modifying it now. Prior to the fender dent I was very meh on the car. Nothing about it excited me anymore. Now all of a sudden it is a fun car again. And now that I have my coilovers for it, I will start to make it even better to drive. Crazy how sometimes it is the little details that make all the difference.

Sunset over the house

And as further proof of my lack of excitement prior to chrome removal, look how many pictures of the Subaru I have posted prior to this post. I bet I have more pictures in this post than all other combined. Yet the wife’s Mazda and my old Mazda and even my old 350Z had a significant number of picture posts dedicated to them. Anyway. Back to the eye candy. Man, this sunset was cool.

Into the sunset

Photos from the Formula Drift After Dark event in Las Vegas 2012

I got a call a few days before the event from my friend Erik asking me if I wanted to head to Vegas for the Formula D event. Usually short notice is a no-go thanks to kids, but now that the kids are staying with their mom during school, it gives me a bit more freedom to do fun stuff like this. And man was it fun. I highly recommend attending a Formula D event. I have watched it on TV and even watched demos at places like SEMA. But none of it was near as cool as being there. The noise, the smoke, the carnage, the atmosphere…

I drove down to Vegas with Erik Seo. He is an awesome photographer with a bunch of magazine shoots under his belt. I brought my D3100 with the crappy 18-55 lens, and due to the thick safety fence around the entire course, I was unable to get any good pictures. So really I didn’t even try after a few. Instead I spent my time enjoying the show or being body guard to Erik’s equipment bag. So rather than post pics here I will just send you to Erik’s blog http://www.erikseo.com/blog/2012/10/formula-drift-las-vegas-motor-speedway-after-dark/

BTW, I also picked up an awesome souvenir while there. It’s an HPI E10 Falken Ford Mustang Drift car. And it was signed at the event by Justin Pawlak who is the guy that drives the real one and is currently sitting in 4th place going into the final event of the year.

Odie project 52 week 36

This weekend we took Odie and Heidi with us to the track pretty much all weekend. Saturday we had garage owner appreciation day along with the American Rock Sports Challenge race. Sunday was karting test & tune. The Porsche shop a few garages down had their dog with them. IIRC, his name is Jax. And I believe they said he is about a year and a half old is all. So about twice Odie’s age, but not an old dog at all. We all gave them some time to get to know each other and play around without any adult intervention. I got a few cool pictures of them playing

Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports

Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports

Odie and Jax at Miller Motorsports

Odie at Miller Motorsports

Heidi (I just noticed she doesn’t have her own tag on here yet) was sleeping while Odie and Jax were having their fun. She was all tuckered out from watching the ARSC earlier. Here she is trying to come down those big ‘ol bleachers on her own:

Heidi on the bleachers

Heidi is up to 23 lbs. Odie is the same height and weight as he has been the last few weeks. Heidi is now 12 weeks old, and Odie is 42 weeks.

They are super sweet together. I am so glad we got Heidi. They both love each other so much. They eat together, sleep together, play together. They even pee together. #2 is still on separate schedules though 🙂 One perfect example of how sweet Odie is to Heidi: I was playing frisbee with Odie. He could see Heidi watching and wanting to be part of it, but not having the courage to get in his lane of traffic. So Odie catches the frisbee, carries it over to Heidi bends down and hold it by her mouth so she can hold on. Then he brought it over to me like a good boy. And did the same thing on the next few throws. It’s like he was not only trying to let her participate, but also trying to teach her how to play. It was soooo cute.

Odie and Heidi sleeping

Every now and then I have to lock Odie up in the house just so I can get pictures of her playing by herself. Otherwise she won’t leave his side long enough to get good pictures.

Heidi on the prowl

That innocent face

Heidi has no idea Timber is mad

Datsun 510 at Miller Motorsports

Just a quick photo post here. This is my friend’s Datsun 510. He is one of the guys I share a garage with out at Miller Motorsports. He wanted me to take a couple quick shots of it on cantilevered slicks. Silly car with silly tires 🙂

Datsun 510 at Miller Motorsports

Odie Project 52 Week 17

Odie is now 23 weeks old. He is up to 60.2 lbs. His teeth finished coming in and he is back to eating well again. And his height is up to 23.5″

This week we went to Miller Motorsports for my first test & tune in my Rotax Masters kart. I wanted to get a good shot of Odie with my kart in the background. But there was so much going on, it was tough to get Odie’s attention. So this picture is the best I got. I think he likes it at the track. And a few garages down from mine is Air Power. They have a few dogs that hang at the track. So Odie has some company when I go out there to work on things. I really like the Newfoundland they have. He is a big sweetie.

Odie Project 52 Week 16

In this picture, Odie is 22 weeks old. He did not gain any weight this week. Pretty crazy since he has been growing so fast. He did not eat well all week. It looked like all his adult teeth were coming in at the same time. So I don’t blame him for not wanting to use his mouth too much.

This picture is from the same dog park we took him to the previous week. He really has a blast there and jumped in for his first swim this week.

And here is a shot I took of the view from the dog park. I really like the clouds…

 

Odie Project 52 Week 7

Odie got his first visit to an off-leash dog park today. He loved all the people ad other dogs. Even the few mean ones, he had no idea they were not playing. The only time I had a hard time getting him to follow me was when some douche brought their kid on a big wheel that is afraid of dogs. She screamed non-stop and something about the sound of the big wheel “tires” on the ground drove Odie crazy. Yeah, bring your 3 year old that is afraid of dogs to a dog park, great idea. And Odie was not trying to even get near her. He was running away from the sound of her big wheel.  Anyway, Odie had a blast, and got to drink from a nice cold river, and play with a bunch of other dogs of all sizes. It was good.

Odie will be 13 weeks old tomorrow. He is just under 17″ tall. He weighs 30.2 lbs. I think I am going to try and get him into the vet this week to see if he needs more shots and get a general check-up.

Here is a picture of him at the dog park, as always, click for larger version:

Finally got around to polishing my brass

Well, my brass was looking pretty used up, so I finally got around to throwing them in the polisher. Man, that thing works magic. BTW, you will want to view the pictures full size to pick up the detail.

Here is the .22-250 brass prior to polishing: