Extended Test Drive 2019 Volkswagen Passat Wolfsburb Edition

During our Tucson, AZ trip this was our rental. It is a 2019 Volkswagen Passat Wolfsburb Edition, where the Wolfsburb Edition is apparently is the base model. I find the name a little pretentious.

Appearance is generic German sedan. It will neither offend anyone nor be considered a proper looker.

Test Drive 1998 BMW Z3 M Roadster

For Thanksgiving we took a trip to Tucson, AZ. Holly's Uncle has a fun little car we took for a brief spin. It is a 1998 BMW Z3 Roadster.

This may be the first convertible I have reviewed? It being a convertible was perfect for driving around Tucson in early December.

Cagalli Yula - Snow Tires

We bought snow / winter tires for our 2014 Subaru BRZ. The old tires we had, Continental Extreme Contact DWS (All Season) were a good set of tires for commuting, road trips, etc. At five years of ownership (and tire age) we started to autocross. The additional tire wear severely reduced traction and tire performance, even in normal driving. The car got a lot more skittish.

By skittish I mean the car was a lot more prone to spinning the rear wheels and over steer. We decided that despite the fact that our old all season tires had only been stuck in winter twice, it was time to replace them.

Extended Test Drive 2019 Infiniti Q50 3.0t AWD

We were down in Florida for a family event and needed a rental. I like to rent cars of varying types to keep the rental reviews interesting and different, and my wife accommodates me. We rented a "Luxury" tier vehicle through Budget, which was stated to be a Chrysler 300 or similar.
We ended up with a 2019 Infiniti Q50 3.0t AWD.

In summary, it was nicer than our normal rental, but did not make a compelling argument for ownership if I was looking at this market segment.

C-Quartz Reapplication; Photography / Photo Shoot Information (Part 2)

We decided to follow up our midnight parking garage photo shoot with a daytime one. Recap: C-Quartz reapplication after two years by Arlington Auto Detailing, car super clean, and we decided to take some photos.
Because we had bright sunlight I decided to do these photos in a different way. For the majority of the photos I took them fixed at 100 ISO and then overexposed, at middle white balance, and underexposed.
Lens used, 

EF-S 10-22mm | f/9.0 | ISO 100 | 1/15 | overexposed 2 stops

C-Quartz Review & Reapplication; Photography / Photo Shoot Information

It has been over two years since we first did a C-Quartz application, which is the expected life time. We had Arlington Auto Detailing do a full detail, including removing the shallow swirl we had acquired, and reapply C-Quartz. Arlington Auto Detailing has been my go to shop for my bi-annual auto details since moving up to the Boston area.

In terms of two year satisfaction with C-Quartz: I am happy, it makes it really easy to keep the car clean and makes a lot of things that would otherwise damage the clear coat just wipe off without caring. At the same time it does not protect against small rock chips at all. In the future (any new car and/or repaint of a car) I would do a full PPF wrap with a ceramic coating on top to get the best of both rock ship / minor scratch protection and easy to clean paint / film protection.

That all said, with the car looking rather clean and pretty and my building having a parking garage as part of its complex I decided to do a midnight parking garage photo shoot.

EF-S 10-22mm f/9.0 ISO 100 20"

Cagalli Yula, Gilly's Auto, Krown Rust Proofing

Second year taking Cagalli Yula (2014 Subaru BRZ Limited) to Gilly's Auto in Grantham, NH for her annual Krown treatment. Josh and his wife are good people and company during the process. This time I decided to take some photos underneath while she was up on the lift.

As you can see, the exhaust pipe has some real rust to it. But aside from the exhaust rust she is much cleaner than expected of a 2014 that has seen five winters.

Nausicaa - Project Update

My other half (the person who lets me get away with this shit -- her words) was in Chicago for a work related trip and decided to go take a look at our project at P&L Motorsports while she was in town. She took some pictures.

Engine held in with mounts and with front strut bar and traction bar seemingly in place.

Safety Equipment - Bell Helmets M.8

The Nausicaa, 1993 Honda Prelude, track car project is continuing. We decided we would like to go for some Autocross (AutoX) and / or High Performance Driver Education (HPDE) events to work on the most important modification, the driver mod.
We signed up for an AutoX event with Cagalli Yula, 2014 Subaru BRZ, and decided now was a good time to invest in helmets.
Based off of recommendation of a friend who spends a lot of time doing track days I was looking at Simpson and Bell Helmets.
We elected to go with the Bell Helmets M.8 because of relative cost, Snell SA2015 homologation, M6 terminals (for later use with a Head And Neck Support [HANS] device), and availability in sizes small enough for my spouse's head.

Nausicaa - Project Update - Images from P&L Motorsports (2nd Set)

P&L Motorsports sent me some additional images of the continuing progress. This is an update on our 1993 Honda Prelude, Nausicaa, which is a project car undergoing a K24 engine swap and a lot of track oriented updates.

Since the last update from the shop it appears the intake manifold has been swapped:

The new fly wheel installed:

Nausicaa - Project Update - K-Tuned Parts Finally Ordered

Despite my dislike for PayPal I decided the headache of not being able to get the parts I wanted was not worth it. I exhausted all resources / possibilities. If you want to see my issues with PayPal see here. So, basically, this prior post has come to a resolution. Final part order is as follows.


K Series Parts:

Nausicaa - Project Update - K-Tuned Parts Ordering Blues

All right, so in a prior Nausicaa update I showed a list of parts that included a bunch from K-Tuned. (Nausicaa is our 1993 Honda Prelude project car.) K-Tuned makes some absolutely fantastic parts for the K series Honda engines. In fact I previously ordered from them, they delivered, there were no issues.
Apparently K-Tuned has had a lot of issues with fraud (I am confused by this) and therefore are very hesitant about shipping parts to addresses that are different than the billing address. On my previous order they made an exception and shipped directly to P&L Motorsports, the shop doing the work for us. (I live near Boston, MA and P&L is located near Chicago, IL; shipping to my home address is not very helpful.) And there were no issues, everything was great. So, on February 6th, 2019 I got in contact with Sean at K-Tuned and told him which parts I was ordering next and if based on the prior order being issue free if they could ship to P&L again. Sean said sure and that when I order to place that we had this conversation in the comment section along with the address I wanted it shipped to.
Sounds great!

Nausicaa - Project Update - AiM Data Logger Dash Ordered

We had P&L Motorsports order the parts for our data logging dashboard and camera for us. The supplier should be Pegasus Auto Racing (I will write more about Pegasus when I do a write up on the overall pre-sale experience on all my suppliers at a later date).
We ordered a bunch of AiM data logger parts and accessories.

Nausicaa - Project Update - More Parts Ordered

Today I got closer to a milestone in the current phase of our 1993 Honda Prelude project, Nausicaa.
I ordered the vast remainder of the parts that we are planning to do at this phase. All that is really left outstanding is the dashboard instruments and coilovers to be added (though Bryan Hise at Olsen Motorsports has been taking measurements and getting CAD work done for our one off JRZ coilovers).

The parts ordered today cover a lot of ground. Again, not pictures at this point as parts were ordered and none have been delivered.

The answer is not always Miata...

One more for my series on packing Cagalli Yula (2014 Subaru BRZ).
Today we picked up a 6 ft. folding table and 4 folding chairs for an event we are hosting and packed them in our car. That was along with our bin that holds our detailing, spare oil, maintenance, and emergency items as well as a snow shovel.

Extended Test Drive 2018 Ford Fiesta ST

We made a trip down to Atlanta, GA for Holly's grandmother's birthday and got another rental car. We were originally trying to rent a manual Dodge Challenger but none were available and Holly said no to a Chevrolet Camaro (plus the Corvette was too expensive for our liking this time); we rented the second cheapest car they had at $113 for 4 days (not including taxes and fees). The cheapest car was $111 for the same time span and an automatic Toyota Yaris hatchback.
Needless to say, we were pleasantly surprised.
The manual Ford Fiesta variant we rented was a Fiesta ST, the performance version of Ford's smallest econo-hatch. Also, it was orange:

Starting with styling, I rather like the front grill on this. I also think that the headlights are too large for the car though. This is especially true on the profile show below. Also, it would have been nicer if it used HID or LED headlights instead of non-projector halogens.

Extended Test Drive 2018 Ford Ford Explorer Limited

We took a trip to Vermont. One of the objectives was to drop off an air compressor and a shelving unit we previously cleared out of our storage unit. These do not really fit in the BRZ so we decided to rent something a bit bigger.
It should be noted that we had an issue with the tires on this rental, this is discussed in another post.
Our first challenge was figuring out whether or not a Ford Explorer would have sufficient space with the rear two rows down for a 78" shelving unit piece. This proved really hard to find. Apparently the dimensions with seats folded down were not published for this generation of Explorer. Holly and I spent roughly 1 hour 15 minutes collectively searching for this information and came up with some board dimensions (kind of) off a Ford Explorer forum. Just to contrast we then searched Subaru BRZ cargo dimensions and found full dimensions (rear seats up, down, and removed) within 3 minutes. Funny how difficult it is to find anything except cubit feet of cargo volume for a vehicle that people might actually haul lumbers or other stuff in.

Rear of the SUV loaded, plenty of space for the air compressor. Just enough space for the shelving unit.

Budget / Avis Rental Car Tires

We recently rented a 2018 Ford Explorer Limited from Budget / Avis. During our drive the rear stepped out (slid) on two occasions. We took a look at the tires and were a bit appalled.
The rear tires on both sides were down to the wear indicators. Basically no tread left. Keep in mind this is in the US Northeast during winter with ice and snow on the ground.
Holly picked the car up, did not check the tires. And I typically do not check the tires when I pick up the vehicle (I tend to take a closer look when I photograph the vehicle). This has never been an issue for us, but we will certainly be on the lookout in the future.
Following are some images of the tires taken with my phone:
Driver front:

Passenger front:

Nausicaa - Project Update - Sparco Seats, Harnesses, and Hardware Ordered

We had P&L Motorsports order our seats, harnesses and so on for Nausicaa, our Honda Prelude project car.

Below is a list of the items bought, unfortunately no install pictures yet:

Sparco:

1) Circuit QRT (2019)
   Part No. 008010RNR
   Listed Price:   $950.00

Nausicaa - Project Update - Images from P&L Motorsports (1st Set)

P&L Motorsports sent me some images of progress so far.
Engine bay with the old H22A# still there:

Cagalli Yula - 60 Month Service Fluids

I still do not have regular access to a garage and therefor am still having the car serviced. Cagalli Yula, my 2014 Subaru BRZ Limited, is hitting her 60 month birthday. She only has 45,000 miles. According to the owners manual it is therefore time to drain and swap: engine oil, transmission oil, brake fluid, and rear differential fluid. Engine air filter, cabin air filter, and oil filter will be changed as well. These changes are recommended for 6 months or 60,000 miles, whichever comes first.
A point of caution: It is not uncommon for dealerships to provide different service recommendations than those in your vehicle's owner's manual or to attempt to up-sell service that you do not need. Keep in mind that the owner's manual is the source of truth for what the engineers of your vehicle thought was required maintenance wise for your vehicle.