So two years ago to the day I had a bit of an automotive mishap.
Today, I was putting fresh tires on the same car. Guess what happened on the very last lug nut of the day.
From now on the tools stay in the box on 5/5.
If the title wasn’t a subtle warning, this post is going to be very heavy on the profanity. Those with a sensitive constitution should not click further.
Most people are aware that it’s a good idea to bring enough vehicle to pack out whatever it is you’re hunting. This has frustrated more than a few sports car enthusiasts who cannot find a good way to combine their interests. Fortunately, BMW owners who enjoy the tasty, tasty flesh of deer now have a new option.
How to pack a 150lb deer into a BMW Z4.
Tam may have to improvise slightly for the differences between a Z4 and a Z3, but for everyone else, happy hunting!
FUCK.
All right, I know I promised a photo tour of Los Alamos as a whole, but we ran into some snafus there. Thanks to our normal hermit-like attention to the machinations of others, I wasn’t aware that yesterday’s car show was going to be a part of a huge town-wide Fest until we got there in the morning. Thanks to that, a lot of the more interesting landmarks around town, such as Ashley Pond, and Fuller Lodge, were obscured by a funk of hippies holding an arts and crafts fair. Not wishing to spend the day followed by an angry glowing orb, I stuck to the car show section of town. Pics are thumbnails to (mostly) 800×600 versions, since there may be a few weirdo heathens in the crowd that don’t care about Corvettes. Sick freaks.
The show was split into two groups, one group on display only, the other group for actual judging and trophies and the like. In this map, the show-only group was parked in the parking lot under the “F” of Fuller Lodge Park. The show cars were parked along Central, which was closed off from 20th to Oppenheimer. This is the view from the northwest corner of the lot around 9:30ish. A few more cars trickled in by about noon, but this is the bulk, around 50 cars total. There were about 35 cars along Central for judging.
A view of the north row, with an unintentional concentration of C5s:
Here’s a 2003 Z06 I’m partial to. Lacking my own plastic penis extension to enter in the show, one of my jobs was hot-shoe for the folks with more money than sense cars than drivers. This particular Z06 does very very nicely on East Jemez Road.
My photography does not do the color or quality of this paint job justice. This car belonged on the street for judging.
The view from the western end of Central. The roof of Fuller Lodge is visible in the background. The hippies are on the other side of the lodge.
When I was creeping up on driving age, the only vehicle we had at the time in running condition with a standard transmission was my dad’s ’65 Stingray. The clutch was half burned out from an ill-advised entry into a parade some years earlier, so with an attitude of “Can’t make it too much worse…” my old man set about teaching me the fine art of clutch operation in a classic. I’ve had a soft spot for ’65s ever since. Neither of these, unfortunately, is the one I learned in. It’s currently garaged and waiting for new wheel bearings and wiring.
The next few thumbnails link to slightly larger images than the rest. This car is a C5 that belongs to a family friend named Lori, who lives in Albuquerque and loves this stuff more than enough to consider a hundred mile jaunt the start of a great weekend. Lori, and her husband Larry, have invested a tremendous amount in customizing her C5 for racing, both drag and regular, and the woman can drive the wheels off just about anything. The paint job on her ride is simply beautiful.
Like a dumbass, I forgot to snap a picture of one of the more impressive parts of the work. The inside of her hood is painted as well, depicting the back of the eagle on the hood. It sounds slightly gimicky, but the effect is truly impressive. In this next picture, we can see the results of a trip to Bowling Green for the 50th anniversary museum tour. Those signatures are the members of the team that assembled her particular Vette. And yes, that’s a big-ass supercharger sitting there as well.
For some reason, she has a non-standard shift knob and some extra switches.
Lori’s car doesn’t have as much room for luggage as other Vettes.
The paint theme continues. It also continues down the side of the car, but apparently that picture fell victim to failing camera batteries.
At last check, she reported 640 rear-wheel horsepower. Yes, she can use it all.
The show attracted entrants from as far away as Colorado Springs. Since I don’t recognize this paint job I’m going to have to conclude this is an out-of-towner. Again, my pictures don’t do it justice.
A few days ago, Skeeler from Industrial Strength Science and I were discussing the new ZR1 Corvette, and more to the point, the supercharger they’ve added. I opined that while I’m sure the huffer they used is more efficient and better suited to Corvette applications, I still prefer to see a big bug scoop sticking out of the hood when someone says “supercharged.” Fortunately, one of the folks that came up from Albuquerque was kind enough to oblige me.
And finally, a shot from the southeastern side of Central, with our still mostly-barren mountains in the background.
Now I mentioned some failing batteries a piece back. This bit of bad luck actually led to a damned fortunate discovery. While we trooped down Central an extra block to the hardware store, we passed one of Los Alamos’ landmarks, a department store roughly older than time. In its original incarnation, the building was the town movie theater during the Project. Previously known as Clemment & Benner’s (and still known as such to some folks who have been here long enough and are too stubborn to learn new things), the renamed CB Fox is basically a modern version of the general store. Selling things from furniture to luggage to suits, it’s a popular town spot. Walking by the window of the downstairs furniture section, LabRat spotted one damn cool clock.
All in all, an excellent, if tiring, day marred only by some bumbling ineptness on the part of county officials, but that particular rant I suspect is interesting only to those involved in planning the show.
Y’know how sometimes you hear a deal on a car involving a little old lady who only drove it to church on Sunday? Frustration is the mild version of the feeling you get when that car packs 405 horsepower, a fiberglass body, and a price tag to make you start shaking the bejesus out of the piggy bank only to realize when the lust-rush wears off that for a number of reasons, now is not the time to buy the toy you’ve been lusting after since pre-pubescence.
Thanks, Chris. I’m gonna be spending the rest of the week eyeballing the bank statments.
Don’t worry, this post is safe for work (if you’re unfortunate enough to be there on a Sunday). There will be no images catering to the increasingly unlikely mammary configurations google images seems to think we contain. No, I’m talking about real lust. The deep down in the bones Oh-My-GOD that only the truly awe inspiring manage to elicit. Behold.
The 2009 Corvette ZR1. Supercharged with 620 horsepower from a 378 cubic inch smallblock engine (6.2L for you metric weenies). That even blows past the legendary L88 produced between ’67 and ’69, and if that doesn’t make you feel a little happy in the pants region, you need to check your pulse. Last night at the Barrett Jackson Auction ZR1 number 0001 (along with a plethora of add-ons and bonuses like being the first person to start the engine, taking delivery in either Bowling Green or Jay Leno’s garage, a class at Bondurant’s, etc) sold in a charity auction for one million dollars. In twenty five years time, I suspect that will seem like a steal. With the new 35mpg mandate, there is a good chance this will be the last truly impressive Corvette for some time; remember what happened to the line in ’73?
I could wax on about the Corvette for another thousand or ten words, but what praise can I offer to these mechanical masterpieces that hasn’t already been sung from every velocity-loving rooftop? The performance from this humble American everyman’s sports car hangs with, and as often as not stomps, the offerings from the European and Japanese markets, and does so at a fraction of the cost. The latest offering from Lamborghini, modeled on the F-22 Raptor (and incredibly sexy, I must concede) will sell for over half a million dollars. It will not offer a similarly inflated performance advantage over the latest from Bowling Green. Porsche might be able to muster something faster or more nimble, but you can bet your sweet bippy it’ll punish your bank account for every extra mile per hour or every tenth second saved. If you can sweet talk your Ferarri into running long enough you might be able to out drive the Vette, but enjoy the next six weeks in the garage after being so brazen as to push your quarter mil’s worth of ride to keep up.
Long live the King.
First, I found this: Will cars of today become classics? The author managed to endear himself to me pretty much instantly by nominating the Corvette Z06 as a future collectible and denigrating PT Cruisers and Prowlers as the wannabes they are, though he missed the opportunity to snark at Ford’s rehash of the Thunderbird. Plus, as a bonus, the very last paragraph describing how one should go about creating “unbelievably elegant and savage design” is damn near pornographic.
Then, following a link because I thought it was the coolest blog name I’d ever seen, I found: Holy shit it’s Coop! Coop, for those who spend less time in tattoo studios (or drooling at hot rod magazines), is an artist who pretty much specializes in the design aesthetic of pure testosterone. His art lives here: Coopstuff, and it is very much not work-safe. Neither is the blog, for that matter, which appears to be just about all hot rods and tits.