2021 Volkswagen Atlas

There it is in the background.

I honestly never took photos of this car. Do you take photos of your washing machine?

That’s a little cruel. I got this car to replace my F-150. I deliberately chose the turbo motor because, while it makes less power, it gets far superior fuel efficiency to the VR6 (which sounds better . . . ).

That said, the turbo four also makes WAY more power than the VR6 once you tune it – APR claims a boost of 66 hp and 88 ft-lbs of torque for 319/348 – and I don’t doubt it. This thing moved with the tune. Easy to walk stock GTIs; and smoked them out of the hole due to the AWD.

After my wife’s Jetta got obliterated by a boomer who ran a stop sign, she wound up with this car. And she hated it. While it’s got a lot of room, we almost never used the third row. Yes, it got up to 30 mpg on a few highway trips – but it required 93 octane which she always complained about. And it’s big – parking and maneuvering can be tricky, especially with how blunt the hood is – it just drops off.

So, it was a good, solid, reliable car but we don’t miss it.

2024 Honda Accord Hybrid Sport-L

We purchased this car to replace the VW FAtlas. We went to the VW dealership first, and my wife couldn’t see over the front of any of their SUVs (Atlas, Tiguan, Taos) so she went towards cars. Well, they don’t make the Passat anymore so we were looking at the Jetta – which they haven’t updated since her last Jetta. They don’t make a Golf, which would have been perfect, so we tested out the GTI – which at $40,000 was grossly overpriced and had an intolerable user interface (click multiple icons to get to controls instead of a knob to adjust the temperature and a knob to adjust the volume).

This meant we went down the street to the Honda dealer. As with the Integra, she test drove the Civic, found it to be rental-car quality and passed. We tested an Accord Hybrid out of curiosity. It was incredibly smooth and very luxurious, on par with an A4 we tested recently – without the horsepower but with far superior fuel economy from the hybrid system and an equally luxurious ride and interior (and a far superior user interface – with actual knobs!).

The Sport-L trim comes with leather and a glossy black front lip, side skirts, rear diffuser and rear spoiler with NO CHROME – full blackout trim.

Within a week my wife decided it needed to get lowered. We subtly spaced it out with 10mm in the rear and 5mm in the front. It could use some wheels.

2012 Porsche 911 Carrera S

I’d been searching for a 911 for quite some time, basically since I sold my M3 and my Z06. The market went pretty crazy during COVID but by the end of 2023, a car in the color I wanted (black inside and out) with the options I required (PDK, Sport Chrono, PASM, 3.8L S engine) wound up on the dealer lot at my local Porsche dealership. Before it was even listed for sale I contacted the salesman (the step-father of an old racing buddy) and he made me an offer that was within my budget – so instead of shopping and shipping across the country this thing landed in my lap in my own back yard.

The full options list is:

250	Porsche Doppelkupplung (PDK)
319	Sport seats Plus (left)
320	Sport seats Plus (right)
342	Seat heating (front)
446	Wheel caps color Porsche crest
603	Porsche Dynamic Light System
630	Light design package
640	Sport Chrono Package
651	Electric sunroof
680	BOSE(R) Surround Sound System
690	SiriusXM(R) & HD Radio(R) rcvr
693	6-disc CD/DVD changer
748	Electric folding ext. mirrors
A1	Black
AJ	Black leather front seats
P05	Sport seats Plus
P37	BOSE
ZAA	Auto AC
ZAB	Ornamental Porsche Crest

I debadged it because the gigantic chrome P O R S C H E 911 Carrera S on the back was just obnoxious.

I absolutely love driving this car. Any day it is over 40 degrees out, I will drive it – salt on the road or not. You don’t buy one of these things to look at it. I got it with under 40,000 miles so I’m looking forward to putting lots and lots of miles on it.

I love how it is docile and sedate around town, and as soon as you hit the Sport+ button it becomes a fire breathing monster with far more capability than I have ability.

2023 Acura Integra A-Spec

After the destruction of my wife’s Jetta, we were unable to source a new Jetta R-Line because they stopped making them. They didn’t even have any new Jettas for sale due to the door wiring harness being made in Ukraine. They offered us a used Jetta GLI for $30,000 (the same price as a new one) so we passed.

I moseyed on down to Honda, assuming Civics were comparable to Jettas. To my chagrin, thanks to the inflation crisis a new Civic was $26,000 with the base 2.0 turd motor, while the 1.5t was into the $30,000 range. For a CIVIC! I inquired about the SI to which they indicated they were also $30,000 new, but due to scarcity, they always marked them up to $35,000+. Hard pass.

I walked next door to Acura just to see if they had anything nice and used; and for the first time in my life I laid eyes on the new Integra – which I fell in love with. It just so happened that the A-Spec model is essentially a Civic SI with more features, AND Acura was willing to discount the car down from $35,000 to $33,500. So, here we are.

I immediately voided the warranty by lowering it and purchasing a Phearable 1.5r 93 octane tune on the K-Tuner v2 Touch, which my son helped me load up. I subsequently purchased some RPF1s and Toyo tires which dropped 14 lbs per corner (58 lbs of unsprung mass, hello) and a friend’s old Karcepts 1″ rear bar which is an absolute monster of a unit.

The car is fast, handles well, and a load of fun. It’s a truly playful, fun car which I haven’t experienced from a Honda (or most modern cars) in a long time, and it’s made me care about cars again.

I wound up pushing the wheels out 25mm in the rear and 15mm in the front – I could probably peel it back to 20mm in the rear and it might be just perfect.

The spacers don’t work with the stock wheels, which is fine because the stock wheels are about an inch larger in diameter with the tires so they need to be tucked or they will rub hard.

2010 BMW 328i

It’s a stock 328i with “x-drive” and some crappy all season run-flats.  I put on blacked out front gills and a sweet rear lip spoiler, and now it’s my daily driver / wet-weather autocrosser.

For 2021 I installed K&W single adjustables and used it as a backup track car.  Currently on Rival 1.5s.

For 2022 I installed an ESS supercharger because I was bored over the winter.

In 2024 this is my primary track car, and it does just fine.

2002 Chevrolet Corvette Z06

My wife took the kids and left me home alone for 10 days so naturally I bought this rough, 105,000 mile Z06 on an impulse.  It came with some gnarly wheels, rough paint, a fucked up front end, and worn out seats.

I promptly tore the engine apart, performed the trunion/rocker bushing maintenance, fixed the oil pressure sending unit, threw in some Koni shocks and changed all the fluids.

I went with the BFGoodrich Rival S in 275/335 because the Yokohama wasn’t available in four sizes, rendering it “not legal” for SCCA use.  Yokohama promptly released the Advan A052 in enough sizes a couple of days after I ordered tires.

Off she went to the paint shop.  Didn’t turn out too bad.

The paint shop sent the car to the alignment shop, who got the rear alignment right (-2 degrees camber, 1/4″ toe in) but completely botched the front.  I removed the shims from the upper control arms in the front and wound up with between -2.5 and -2.9 degrees of camber and added about 1/16″ of toe out.

The guys at Arete did a paint correction and ceramic coating.

Hanging out with some friends.

1998 BMW 318ti

 

I used this car throughout the winter as a fun little runabout, and as soon as Spring came around I swapped out the all-seasons on stock wheels for some Rival S 1.5s on ultra-light flow formed D Force wheels in 17×9 at all four corners.

In preparation for some casual autocross and light DE use I slightly lowered the car, added some slotted rotors with Hawk DTCs and had an alignment performed to my specifications.  They also performed a slight paint correction which really brought this 20 year old car back to life.

I had it at Watkins Glen for the first time in June 2018.  It was SUPER soft and squishy, and could definitely use some stiffer suspension.  The brakes were fine for 5 laps or so.  The car hit a top speed wall of 110 mph – nothing left at that point.  Otherwise fun, easy to drive – a pleasure actually.

 

1998 Subaru Outback Sport

I purchased this car for my wife to learn how to drive.  No, I didn’t marry a child.  She’s from a place where people don’t need to drive.

It was a completely rust free example from a less than reputable local dealer.  Of course as soon as I drove it off it had a check engine light and multiple small issues, but I didn’t pay much for it and I was prepared to deal with them.

As I tend to do, I immediately debadged the rear and took the stickers off the sides.  I installed swaybars, adjustable shocks (with stock springs) and taller snow tires for added ground clearance.  Of course I did the obligatory DIY autozone air intake and an APEX’i N1 cat back exhaust.

For the summer, I used BFGoodrich g-Force Sport Comp tires, which are a solid summer tire for street use.

For the winter, I chose Firestone Winterforce.  These are studdable which means they have a slightly stiffer sidewall than a standard snow tire, although I never studded them (because a studded tires performs worse on all surfaces other than ice).

I went an entire winter without plowing or shoveling my driveway.

Here’s the thing with Subaru’s AWD system – its schizophrenic.  It understeers on entry, oversteers on exit, and arbitrarily switches between the two during sweepers and transitions.  Now, obviously this car isn’t an autocross (or even a rallycross) car – but the lack of predictability from the AWD system was infuriating in my daily driving.  As you know, flat out – that is how I drive.

The nail in the coffin for this car wasn’t the haphazard handling.  Rather, it was the deplorable build quality.  This thing was built like a tin can.  I simply did not feel safe putting my child in the car – and I’m notoriously cavalier about my children’s safety.

1993 Audi 100 CS Quattro

It’s gonna be a race car.

Step 1: Add lightness

Step 2: Add power with a “custom” intake.

Step 3: Mount truck tires

Step 4: Race

We added a little more lightness during our first event by ripping off two fog lights and the front grille.  We also discovered that 1st gear is more than enough with the tires.  Finally, our suspension travel not only makes for a pillowy smooth highway ride but also works rather well in an off road setting.

Total racecar.  Send it.

After our wheels started bouncing around like basketballs due to blown shocks, we contacted 2bennett Audimotive for a set of custom valved Konis.  As part of the “while you’re in there” process we cured some nasty sounds and vibration by replacing most of the tired or shredded rubber in the motor/trans/diff mounts.  The car handles surprisingly well for a full sizer, on road or off.

My friend helped me weld a custom skidplate for the car, and it’s had a ton of suspension refreshing at the hands of REDi Imports.  Drives like a dream, with AC and heated seat luxury – it’s fun to taunt the other competitors with such amenities.

I have spent much money on this car.  Most recently I lowered it and installed studded snows for better ice/snow traction; and we will run truck tires for summer dirt/mud traction.

By 2024, this car is on its second engine (I swear I won’t bring it back from the dead the next time it goes) and is retired from rally cross. I have some nice sticky street wheels and tires for the summer and some wild studded snows for winter. It’s starting to rust, the front bumper is held on with screws and the side panels have fallen off and are simply spray painted over. But it keeps running and drives so so smooth, even if it is slow.

2016 Volkswagen Jetta S 1.4t

It’s an adequate car.