Merry Christmas

Christmas this year was very good for the G8!

Started off with a new sign for the parking spot (not that I can actually put it up in the parking garage):

The next thing I received was a large ‘old fashion’ Pontiac Service sign:

This is a really great, heavy, metal sign. It would be perfect in a garage, but like the parking sign I just can’t put it up in the parking garage. I think in the future I’m going to give my loft/office a complete automotive theme. I have some great motorsports memorabilia (like the spark plugs out of Tony Schumacher’s Championship winning Top Fuel Dragster) that will work nicely to fill-out the shelves/walls.

I purchased a helmet for when I go to the track/strip, but I didn’t purchase a bag for it. For Christmas I was given a great bag from Summit (along with some t-shirts, hats, and stickers). It’ll be great to not have to worry about dropping (and damaging) my helmet going to/from the car.

My Grandfather went through his basement and found several old Pontiac dealer awards he won… and he passed them on to me! It’s really cool having some of these old Pontiac plaques and stuff. More really great stuff for the office.

One of the Christmas presents from my parents was a custom Buillet Prototypes Catch Can.

This will be installed into the line that returns oil (from somewhere) into the intake manifold. The LSx engines are notorious for getting oil coating the intake… and the catch can will (like the name implies) catch it. I got a black anodized version with the knurled base and black fittings. I could have gotten something more flashy, but I’m not a person for under-hood ‘bling’.

The big present that I received this Christmas was a DashHawk!

The DashHawk is a gauge cluster, performance monitor, data logger, and all-around great thing to have. When I had troubles with my car after installing the headers, it was a DashHawk that told me what the CEL was for (misfire) and even what cylinder were giving the problems. It then cleared the codes and everything. I’m really looking forward to the gauges… being able to monitor things like Intake Air Temperatures (IAT), Spark Retard, Oil Pressure, and any other parameter that the ECU monitors.

It was a really great Christmas (not just because of the gifts)… I can’t wait to get everything installed on the G8!

NorCal GOATs 2010 Calendar

The 2010 NorCal GOATs 2010 Calendar is finally finished! It was a long process, but the results are well worth it…

Cover

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

You too can even order your very own, in two different sizes: ORDER HERE

NCG Christmas Party

Tonight the NorCal GOATs gathered to have a Christmas Party and celebrate the past year. I arrived at the event early to help setup, so missed the cruise out to Tracy, but it was quite impressive when everyone pulled-in.

The food at the GTG was great… having a pot-luck is always a great way to taste what everyone is capable of cooking. My favorites included the “chocolate balls” and the deep-fried turkey.

At the Christmas Party we were finally able to take delivery of our NorCal GOATs club jackets (and hats).

They really turned out great! The quality of the jackets and the embroidery is just perfect. I know that I will be sure to wear this FAR more times than I did my letterman jacket in high school! I know there have been several cold morning meetings for NCG events in the past few weeks that the jackets would have been perfect for.

This was also the first time that the club was able to see the finished 2010 NorCal GOATs Calendar!

After spending several months working hard taking photos, editing, and selecting images… it was really great to see that people liked the final results. I also put together a slide show of the images that didn’t make the calendar that I had displaying on the big screen while people were arriving.

The event had a great turnout and I was really glad that everyone seemed to have a good time!

My Latest Project

The past week I’ve been really busy working on my new project…

I had originally planned on having something similar on this site, but I found myself wanting to write more about the activities and experiences on the roads… rather than the roads themselves. My ultimate goal with Bay Area Driving Roads (yes, I even got the domain name BayAreaDrivingRoads.com) is to have as many of the potential driving roads in the SF Bay Area mapped-out, reviewed, and rated.

There are other sites out there that have reviews of driving routes, but most of them just focus on the well-known roads/routes… with very little attention to the smaller roads. Also, there are roads that may not be ‘worthy’ of planning a vacation around, but there are many that are great alternatives to just driving on the freeway from point A to B.

Another aspect of the site that is different than others that I’ve seen is the ability for the viewers/users to rate each of the roads based on several different criteria (Fun, Difficulty, Speed, Road Condition, Traffic, Accessibility, and Length). With this it’s not just about what I think about a road… rather what everyone thinks about the road!

This project has required a bunch of work so far, and I’ve not even started with the actual reviews yet… but I’m really hoping that people will find the site useful when trying to decide where to drive. I remember back to February when I purchased the G8 and was trying to find fun places to go driving… I spent hours and hours looking at maps and trying to find information, but there was never one centralized pace to find everything. Now people who are in a similar situation to what I was should have a place to find what they need.

Winter Test & Tune

My last two trips to the drag strip have been on less than ideal days. The session at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway had a DA of 4569′ which really killed my times. The previous session at the Sacramento Raceway was better, with a DA of 1247′, but when I heard that the DA today was going to be below sea level (a negative DA) I just couldn’t pass it up! After the Toys 4 Tots cruise I headed to the Raceway and joined-up with two other people who were running.

I had not planned on running when I filled-up with gas the other day, so I had half a tank of fuel when I reached the track… way more than I’d like. I lowered the rear tire pressure to 29psi (similar to where I left off at the last Test & Tune), but left all the stuff in my trunk (full size spare, jack, bags/camera, etc.). After going through tech I headed to the line for my first run.

I spun the rear tires to clean them off and quickly staged… the other car staged really quickly, so I tried not to lag. I launched from idle when the third yellow light illuminated (my RT was a nice 0.247s) and proceeded down the track very smoothly. I crossed the line in 3rd gear (Drive mode) and was really pleased with the way the first run had gone. I had reason to be impressed, as I ran a 13.44s @ 106.4mph (DA -172′)… which is a new personal best!

I emptied out all the stuff from my trunk and spent the rest of the day battling traction issues. I had several runs (in both lanes) where I just couldn’t launch without getting nasty wheel hop as I went into the power. I was typically able to get-out and back-on to salvage a 14-second run, but that wasn’t what I wanted. On the last run I was even breaking-loose as I was shifting from 1st to 2nd! Because of this I was unable to better the time from my first run… looks like I’ll need to spend some more time learning how to launch!

I had hoped to get into the 13.3’s (what I’d estimated I could run with a nice DA), but I was content with bettering my personal best. If I would have been able to hook-up, I’m sure I would have put down a better time. I think the next time I come to the track I will be sporting an upgraded suspension, a set of drag radials, and more than likely a nice power-adder.

Toys 4 Tots Cruise

The NorCal GOATs joined together with several Northern California Corvette clubs to be part of a Toys 4 Tots cruise to benefit a few local charities. Groups gathered around the Bay Area and headed up to Sacramento for the cruise… I joined-in with the group of Vettes leaving from the Dublin Hooters (along with a couple other GTOs). It was rough waking-up at 5:15am, but the cruise was for a good cause!

The Vette guys seem like a good bunch of guys (and gals). The cruise up to Sacramento went quite quickly (catching-up with the faster driving Vettes really made the trip go fast). Unfortunately, the cruise route wasn’t the most exciting… but hanging out with a bunch of other car guys is always fun.

There were ~130 Vettes at the meet and quite a cash few donations were made. I picked-up a dicast Corvette for the Toys 4 Tots (I thought it was fitting), and I wasn’t the only one. I probably should have brought a ‘girls toy’ so that things were not so unbalanced, but I knew I’d rather have the dicast!

It was really great to see all the GTOs come together with the Vettes to do something charitable. It just shows how great all the club members are… we are about more than just having fun with our cars!

G8 advertising the NorCal GOATs

Today after washing my car for tomorrow’s cruise I added a little more GTO to the G8

I have been trying to figure out the best location to put the NorCal GOATs club logo and I decided in the bottom-center of the rear window would be a good location. It is in silver, to match the GoatRun decals, and looks really nice.

Puppy Kicking

I’m not a big fan of Puppy Kicking (going up against a vehicle you know is going to have no chance) as you really stand nothing to gain, but today driving to lunch I just had to…

I was heading out to get some gas (for tomorrow’s cruise), some money (for donations at tomorrow’s cruise), and to get some lunch. I was driving the same route I always do (I’m a very predictable person) and was just minding my own business. I looked-up into my rear view mirror to see a black car quickly changing lanes in/out/around other people. I had a hunch it was the same guy that a few weeks ago asked me “What’s that thing got under the hood”… and I was right.

I kept my lane and was cruising along at 40mph when he raced-up along side of me and slowed down. I glanced over (knowing it was him), and just as I thought… he had the same look/smile as before.

At this point (given the road in front of us was clear for a while) I had a feeling that he was going to want to try and strut-his-stuff. I put the transmission into Manual mode and dropped down to 3rd gear (from a 40mph roll 2nd gear would have been more appropriate, but I didn’t want to be revving at 3,500rpm if nothing happened).

While it wasn’t ‘official’ (three honks, etc.) he was about half-a-car in front of me when he hit the gas. I figured I’d have some fun for punched it (still in 3rd gear) and pulled-up along side and then past him. I would have done it much quicker if I was in 2nd (I probably should have just left it in Drive mode – now that I have the TCM tune – and let the car shift as it needed). Nothing too extreme (and barely working for the G8), but doing a little puppy kicking was fun.

While I’m not a proponent of doing unsafe things on the street, I’m sure this guy would be shocked just how quick the G8 really is from a stop or a 20mph roll. Again, a lightly-modded Impalla SS (supercharged V6) wouldn’t stand a chance (hence the puppy kicking comments)… but I’m sure he’d have fun.

Now, I can only imagine how the same situation would have unfolded if I too was supercharged…

Photo in ‘The Legend’

The December issue of ‘The Legend’ (the GTO Association of America monthly publication) was recently delivered in the mail… and to my surprise one of my photos was in it! The Vice President of the NorCal GOATs was the subject of an article titled ‘A Tale of two Goats’ highlighting his 1968 and 2004 GTOs.

A little over a month ago (seriously, it seems longer ago than that) a few of us headed out for a cruise around the East Bay. After the cruise we stopped to take a few photos, and one of the shots with the car owner made the magazine!

This isn’t the first time that I’ve been published, but it’s still cool to see your work in print. It is also really cool to see my work appreciated by the GTO community (given I am the owner of a G8). It sounds like the NorCal GOATs will be trying to get several more articles into ‘The Legend’ in the coming year… I think I’ll try to put something together to highlight all the work that has gone into producing the calendar (I’m sure there will be a few photos that the magazine could use for that article).