So I think I got it to work from my phone…. If it looks weird or isn’t working, I apologize. I’m certainly not the greatest with video at all.
However, I did want to at least try to share this clip. It’s a whopping ten seconds, but it’s quite heavenly. Of course, she sounded so much better in person still. 
And hey, doesn’t the iPhone 4S take great video?? I definitely need to mess with it more… (I just *hate* video editing!!)
Last Saturday I was able to finally venture back out to the Porsche dealership to hang out with the Porsche Club again. It had been way, way, way too long since I saw everybody and I was excited, despite the less than stellar weather.
At least everything was inside, and there was a pretty nice breakfast buffet spread there for everyone. Yum! 
(What do I love almost as much as cars? Food, of course.)
Other than saying hi to many of my friends, my only goal for my time there was to finally get my D3000 out of hibernation. It’s sat, pretty neglected, for quite some time. It kinda got use at the end of September for the track day visit we did and a little bit in October for our Seattle trip, but otherwise pretty neglected.
So, without rambling on too much, I’ll get to the photos….
This is the second time I've gotten to see this beautiful Carrera GTS.
What's not to love??
Always a head turner, this is my third encounter with this Carrera GT. And she amazes me every time.
With all the carbon fiber on the outside of the Carrera GT, it's no surprise how much carbon fiber is in her engine bay, is it?
Sadly, YouTube doesn't seem to have a way for me to upload video directly from my iPhone, or I have to see about doing that... They were nice enough to start her up for us. Now, I've heard Carrera GT's in videos before, but in person?!? It was amazing. I had goosebumps and felt all weird! Great sound!!
The photos I took of this Turbo are easily my favorite from the day. The one I snapped on my phone is actually my new screen saver/background. I just LOVE 911 Turbos.
While there were two 911's driven to the dealership that day, this was not one of them. She's actually for sale. (Do you have any idea how badly I wanted to take her home with me?!?!)
These are the parts from a partially broken down Porsche flat 6.
The rest of the broken down engine -- This one suffered from IMS failure..... Toast. Sad.
This 997 Carrera 4S was one of two cars on the lifts during the tech session. The other was a Boxster.
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Towards the end of my husband’s deployment this year, he started to put together a list of things he wanted to get for the STi. We also bought a few of them and she’s already not quite stock anymore.
While it’s not a lot, she did get a new piece of exhaust piping (enough to delete the mufflers and add a nice bit of noise), some necessary mud flaps (rally car, duh) and some yellow fog light covers.
Really, nothing super crazy… But enough to make her look really nice. 
Of course, her most expensive bit was her new set of winter wheels — a set of the gold BBS’ from the older STi’s, that were practically brand new and already had Blizzaks on them.
If you’ve been keeping up with me on Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr, you’ve probably already seen them. Or maybe you missed them. Either way, I feel like properly showing her off here. 
The exhaust is only an axle-back, but just getting rid of the mufflers was great. (It's also completely custom.) And every STi deserves a great set of mud flaps!
Definitely like the effect of the yellow fog light covers on her, and it was ridiculously cheap too! Haha.
And here she is in "winter mode," with the winter set of BBS wheels. (Kinda extravagant, no?)
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I’m afraid I don’t have too much car-related, and that I won’t for a few months. Winter weather has made its appearance and the cold makes me not want to do much of anything. (Other than go and finally buy a snowboard and hit the mountain.)
This Saturday I’ll be heading out to the Porsche dealership for the Club’s Tech Session, but other than that I’ve been swamped with work… Which gives me way too much time to think. And come up with posts like this, heh.
As many of you know, my husband is military. We live on a military base. I work on the same base we live on, resulting in an awesomely short five minute commute. However, this is about the best part of it.
I pretty much despise being surrounded by it so much. It’s almost soul-crushing, no kidding. Why? People around here just like to be so… Mediocre.
I mean this because they never seem to aspire to anything. I have my dreams and hopes and things I want to accomplish, but most people seem to think that having dreams and actually achieving them are impossible. I just don’t get it.
I’m working on selling both the Miata and the 240sx. Part of me does want to set aside a fairly large chunk of the resulting sales to put towards my first 911. I’m tempted to find the 911 SC of my dreams and get one… But at the same time, it would cause such a fuss to bring one home I’m not sure that I can. (Why I really want the bike, and also because the bike is easier to move when we end up PCSing again.)
I can probably find a good 911 SC for around $17,000. She may or may not need an engine rebuild, but even if she does after that she’d be good for quite some time and quite some miles. As much as I adore modern 911′s, the 911 SC is my favorite. I love the old school looks and the whale tail, I can’t get over it. I want it.
But as much as I know I could probably do this, I have to think about whether or not people are going to get dumb over it. When my husband took the S2000 to our last base, he actually got investigated for selling drugs because some guy thought it was a Porsche. So my fears aren’t without reason — It’s because we were investigated for having a Porsche when we didn’t. I don’t know what will happen when we do. (Even if I end up getting an SC for under $20,000.)
I know cars aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. But what I don’t understand is why I feel like I’m punished for what I like and what I hopelessly spend a ton of money on. It should be my right to spend my money how I please and not have to answer to anybody, but here it feels like I have to. Like me achieving a dream of mine is somehow wrong.
I already know I’m weird — I should be graduating college soon with my bachelor’s (better late than never?), I have a job and I prefer to work. Actually, I have two jobs, my regular one and one that I pick up when I can. I could have a third regularly if I wanted it, and I just signed up to do mystery shopping for my other days. And right now I’m working just over 40 hours a week, and am on day #18 in a row for work.
I don’t have kids, nor do I want them. I only have a cat and no dog. I don’t want to spend my days sitting at home, and I go to the gym and actually work out until I’m tired and not half-ass it.
For most of the people I know, this is normal. For where I live and the people I’m surrounded by, I’m really, really, really weird. And I don’t mind it…. Except when what I do is made other people’s business and it actually affects what I feel I can and cannot do.
I know I’ll get my 911 eventually. I know I’ll even have the 911 SC that I covet. The sad part is I may not have her as soon as I want her.
But I will have her. Someday. Idiots that surround me be damned.
So it’s been a while right? A pretty long while. So I figured it was about time that I share what’s going on here.
Since I don’t want this to be horribly boring, here’s the quick run-down:
So that’s pretty much the quick run-down. I have someone interested in the 240sx, but have yet to get any nibbles on the Miata. To be honest, I’m not surprised, I figured the Miata would be harder to sell and that the 240 would be more attractive to potential buyers.
I’m also throwing around the idea of FINALLY picking myself up a bike upon sale of both cars. I’m looking into an older (1970′s preferrably) Triumph. I’m a total café racer nerd and love the style to pieces, and think it’d be a great fit. (Not to mention the fact that bikes don’t take up much garage space and the S2000 could then finally be garaged!)
This is the newer Triumph Bonneville, but I plan on getting the older one.
So I guess wish me luck, heh. I’ve never really had to sell cars like these, and to be honest I never thought I would so I wasn’t really sure of what to do…. I want them to go to good homes, not just anywhere, but I also can’t hold onto them forever if I want to move forward, ya know? :/ It sucks.
I’ll try to throw some updates on here. I know the STi deserves some spotlight for her new pieces and just in general for being awesome. Plus she’ll be wearing her winter setup soon, which is just a set of the older STi’s gold BBS wheels…. They’re a nearly brand new set too, so I kinda feel bad for basically signing them up to be destroyed, but I like her stock set better.
Either way, I’m still definitely around Twitter, and Tumblr gets all of my Instagram (which I LOVE!) car photos. So I still kinda keep some updates around, otherwise I’ve been pretty boring car-wise…. You haven’t missed much really. 
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So obviously I haven’t been writing posts because there’s nothing new.
What’s funny is:
So it’s not my lack of things that I’ve been doing or a lack of content, considering I have barely mentioned the STi lately anyhow. But I’m feeling all blah about cars again.
I think most of it is because I haven’t been doing anything TO them. There’s no new 240 parts on order, even though my want/need list is a mile long. It’s not that I don’t want to do anything, it’s that other things are simply a priority.
And sure, I’m getting into that deployment lull where I lose interest in just about everything that I liked before. I get lonely, but it’s not the lonely I can fix by hanging out with people more — It’s loneliness for ONE person. And it’s impossible to fix until that ONE person comes back.
So until then, I can’t really say what’ll happen. Maybe one of these days I’ll snap out of it and realize it’s not THAT much work to throw up some photos or (yeah, right) edit the videos. (Considering the next autocross is THIS Sunday, now I’m backed up…)
I can’t make any promises. What I can say is that while the blog may be dormant for a while, I’m still going to be using Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter a fair bit.
This has been my only blog to make it for two years now, that’s a big deal. But since it’s not an income generator or anything like that, it’s easy for me to step back. I get too full of car stuff and I have a limit. When I reach that limit, it’s nice to take a break so I can still appreciate cars and not become jaded about everything.
So, for whoever does read the blog, I hope you understand. And I hope I’ll see you around Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr in the meantime.
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This is one of the rare posts that’s going to be written and published in quick succession. As such, it’s a sign of my laziness, plus my overall crazy life.
And due to this, you’re getting this today instead of something car related. (Which should probably be the autocross videos I STILL haven’t edited…)
While I still plan on autocrossing, and hanging out with the Porsche club and all sorts of other fun stuff, I’ve once again backed off of cars a bit.
Same sort of thing — Getting too involved over things that don’t matter. And really, it’s just not that fun without my husband around. Going to events and stuff by myself? Yeah, most of the time I’ll pass. (Even drag racing just to take photos has lost much of its appeal.)
Though don’t get me wrong — I mean, I am going to Formula Drift this Saturday!! And I’m excited for the trip!
As such, I’ve fallen into an old, geeky hobby of my past…
Yup.... Geeky right?? *hangs head in shame* (I'm just hoping that if I at least have to be a geek I make a decently cute one....)
While I wasn’t sure I should admit to it, well, what’s the point in hiding it? It’s not that bad and I’m pretty sure most people don’t care.
And, as my husband pointed out, it’s not like I’m living in my parents’ basement here. Plus I still have the pretty cars. ^_^
I also mentally frame it as a good thing for my girls. As long as I don’t totally geek out and start spending big amounts on it, I should be just fine.
In fact, I like how it *can* be cheap! I don’t have many hobbies like that anymore haha. I’m watching what I spend so I don’t go crazy, and there’s even the chance I’ll get sort of into it and decide it’s not for me.
But, granted I keep it in check, it means I can continue the big savings for the cars, which I really need. And when progress for my 240SX is on the line, I know I’m going to do my best to behave!
That said, I’m hoping to keep up the car posts anyhow. I do have autocross videos to share, some Porsche photos (of course!) and then whatever I take during Formula D.
If not, well, then there’ll be another lame update like this. Fun, right??
→ 2 CommentsTags:cars·geek·life·me·money·my cars·pokemon·vulpix
Instead of boring you with a bunch of words, I figured I’d just share a few photos I have and really liked.
I debated on whether or not they were enough for their own post, and I decided why not??
I got to go and see the Gulf Blue RUF R Turbo while she's apart and having some work done at the Porsche dealership. Really cool to see, of course the engine & transmission were out. (This was back there, plus a couple of 911 Turbo S's that were having some work done.)
While at the Porsche dealership, this beautiful Guard's Red 997 Turbo pulled up. She caused instant flashbacks to the way the 996 Turbo felt, as well as the biggest smile I can have while my hubby is gone.
Soooooooooooo pretty, no?? I think I've developed a full-blown obsession with the 911 Turbo... So seeing this one was a real treat. Hopefully the guy didn't think I was too much of a creep taking photos of his car, but I couldn't help it -- She was stunning.
→ No CommentsTags:911·997·cars·dealership·dreams·girl·motivation·photography·Photos·Porsche·R Turbo·RUF·Turbo
Are you ready to hear about the second day of the CanAm drive? I hope so, because it’s pretty cool.
Day two was entirely spent driving around British Columbia and mostly sightseeing. But for me, it was all about one thing…
My ride in a 996 Turbo.
A 996 Turbo. A real 911 Turbo. One of the cars I would name as in my top five dream cars. I have loved them for longer than I’ve owned my own turbo car.
I’ve heard a lot about them and the way they drive. I know how it should have been. But it was completely different actually being in the passenger seat of that car.
This is the amazing 996 911 Turbo that I got to ride in. ^_^
She belonged to an awesome guy who lives up in Nelson and recently retired after 29 years in the police force there. He led the group on an awesome little road to New Denver, and I got to be the passenger in the Turbo leading the way. (Huge thanks to his wife who graciously gave up her seat for me! It was a life-changing ride!)
And really, it was life-changing. I had my desire to own a 911 Turbo before. Afterwards, I knew I had to make sure that at some point in my life I own one of these beautiful and amazing cars.
I don’t care if I could get better performance with a GTR or something. I want a 911 Turbo. I want to know what it’s like to drive that much power — and not useless power, completely controlled power. It was an amazing ride and I will find a way to have one. Mark my words: Some day, I will own a 911 Turbo.
Of course, the ride came with some warning, which was mostly to not get one for my first 911. Get a regular 911, learn how to drive the car properly, and when I’m ready for the toy that is the 911 Turbo then get one. But not before — I must learn to drive a 911 properly first.
Which is okay with me, honestly. I’m looking forward to getting that first 911 and learning how to drive one fast and smooth. And then that wonderful day where I can call a 911 Turbo “mine.”
To be honest, the rest of the day just couldn’t compare to that ride. It was fun, relaxing and dinner was great. But I kept remembering that ride in the Turbo.
It’s not really describable with words. It’s a feeling you get. The way that car hits boost is similar to other boosted cars but at the same time it’s not. It’s more. It’s wicked, wicked fast.
I feel incredibly lucky to have gotten to ride in the car, let alone on a beautifully twisty road by a driver who knows the road like the back of his hand.
You couldn’t wipe the grin off my face, that’s for sure. And no photo could capture that feeling it gave me. (Thankfully, it’s a feeling that was so strong that I kept it with me. There’s now a fire inside me — it reminds me to work hard and I will have my Turbo too.)
Oh, there were a few photos though too.
This is one of the Canadian Porsches that joined us; leaving Ainsworth on the second day.
Another photo of the same 911 -- I really liked the paint scheme. I also laughed when he told me he had an S2000 before and called it his "gateway drug" to sports cars. Too perfect, because they are!!
I have this weird thing for foreign signs, but I don't indulge nearly as often as I should with photographs. This sign I couldn't resist snapping a photo of.
Another somewhat successful driving snap. I like how I managed to catch the sign in it -- km/h instead of the miles/hour I'm used to.
Needless to say, the entire trip was well worth it for those 30 minutes of pure bliss. If I didn’t think I wanted one before, I now know I need to have my own 911 Turbo. That’s the only way I can put the experience into words.
That and, well, I think I need to find a way to pay for one of those super car experiences. Long before I can have one, I want to try driving one… Just to have that feeling again. To remind me what I’m working towards.
Yeah, I feel like my (working) life finally has a purpose, and that is a 911 Turbo.
→ No CommentsTags:911·997·cars·Driving·inspiration·photography·Photos·Porsche
The last weekend in June promised to be an exciting one the moment I decided to join the Porsche Club on a drive up to Canada. What I wasn’t prepared for was just how exciting it could be…
I’ll have two posts for this drive — This one covering the first day and the third day, and the second one covering the really fun second day.
Day one wasn’t all that exciting, but it wasn’t bad either. There was a nice winding drive north, picking up some Porsches in Idaho, crossing the border (Yay for a break from the US!) and stopping in Ainsworth, BC for the night.
I got to alternate rides between my friends’ Boxster and 996 Carrera 4S. I had already ridden in a Boxster from the weekend at SOVREN, but I was excited to finally ride in a 911.
Was it everything I hoped for? Maybe, I’m not sure what I was expecting. The C4S is sporty but not super firm, it reminded me a lot of our STi. The sport seats in this particular one were very nice — I would love to have them in my own 911 some day.
Of course, one of these days I’ll get around to driving one… That will be my telltale sign. But I can assure you that I will be buying a 911 someday!
I took it upon myself to play photographer the whole weekend — that was the other nice part about just riding along. (The other part was planning on what I want my own Porsche to feel like!)
And while it’s difficult to take photos while the cars are all moving, I did manage a few shots I was happy with.
Some of the Porsches on the trip. Took this photo at one of the quick stops we had.
I snapped this one at a fuel stop. I liked the juxtaposition of the 356 in the background with the 997 911 in the foreground.
This is one of the photos I took that turned out nicely while we were driving. This was in British Columbia on our way to the ferry that we took across a lake.
Nature isn't my thing, but the mountains were pretty cool... Good photo background.
Gotta wait for this one!
On day three, it was time to pack it up and head home. I don’t have any photos from this day, but it was still pretty interesting.
I got to spend some time riding in a brand new Panamera 4S. I have to say, I was quite impressed with the car too! I didn’t like them when they first came out but I’ve come to appreciate what they are. It was a silky smooth ride and she definitely had the power when she needed it! The handling was great too from what I could tell, which wasn’t much from the lack of feel.
It was a lot of fun riding in the Panamera though, definitely a treat!
After a few quick stops and lunch, everyone parted ways. It was pretty sad — While we didn’t all know each other at the beginning of the trip, it was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone and sad it was all over! I’m looking forward to seeing as many of the people again as I can.
And, of course, I can’t wait to be a real member of the Porsche Club!
→ No CommentsTags:356·911·997·Boxster·cars·Driving·photography·Photos·Porsche
