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Mic your video makes me feel like a kid again sitting in the rear facing station wagon seat... Why did you mount the camera backwards?
Just trying it out. Figure the wing is probably the most noticeable and "interesting" piece on the car so figure I'd "semi-feature it" and for those who know the wing, they'll know what kind of car it is. I don't mention that on YouTube for reasons of insani....er, relative anonymity.
Eventually though, will have probably 4-6 cams on (and in) the car in varying locations then will stitch all the clips together into a cohesive, full-run vid.... guessing about 10-15 mins, done similar to "The Run" (y'all know what that is, right?)
Took a mental health day from work today. I planned on watching the live coverage of The King of the Hammers offroad desert race, but their internet feed was bringing the suck... so I decided I wanted to see the ocean.
100 mi later I was staring at the pacific ocean on hwy 1. Wound up being a 256mi round trip with a heavy diet of crooked and crookederererer roads and 50mi of beautiful California coast line. Was a pretty chill day and I couldn't have asked for nicer weather
AWEsome with capitalized "being in AWE"! Knew I wasn't the only one doing this for the maintenance of mental health. Great pics, great route up along the North coast! I'm heading up to Napa area tomorrow (90% sure) to, well....something to do with Zs.
On your earlier comment on the amount of cameras to be mounted on the car..... cost estimate is way off. Not using GoPro branded cams. I have several SJCam SJ4000s (that I used for a video system I co-designed for use in the entertainment industry). These are "GoPro reps" as it were. But such good reps that there are reps of these. Hahahahaha...
Like.... "Varrstoen reps"
Cost per unit with all necessary mounting for automobile use: >$100
And no, I never said they were as good as GoPro, I'll let you know when I do a side-by-side comparo.
I drive a Z because bang for the buck, it's still the best car on the road. My 06 ZR is my daily coming up on 100k with 0 problems other than fuel door actuator. Not a glam pic, but here's me shortly after a Tail of the Dragon run in NC. December 27.
Just to show my '03 that it's still #1 in my heart (like selling its stablemate instead of this wasn't enough show of faith??), I took it out on an, ahem, less than casual run in the hills after client meetings today.
AKA "Work Decompression Run".
This isn't just another "car by the water pic". There is special significance shown in this series of pics.
In its environment. But the pic doth deceive. That is NOT a speed road there as it's about 1.5 lanes wide and blind at EVERY turn. It's sort of a back road extension to the main road, Hwy 35, that runs all the way from San Francisco to Boulder Creek, CA.
Black Road (from Hwy 35 down to the Lexington Reservoir/Los Gatos.) This section is also NOT for speed - it is tight/narrow and partially residential - but it does test handling at low-medium speed in sections.
This severe off-camber hair pin is a blast.... at 30mph! Laff. Going up is even more fun when the inside tire unloads and the car fights for traction while the driver tries to bounce up and down in a futile attempt at shifting weight back over that tire. Hahaha!
OK, so I alluded to "special significance" in the first pic, above. This shows it better.
WATER.
California drought isn't over but hoping when the Sierra snow pack melts (and we get more April Showers), it will inch us closer to washing our cars with a hose again.
To put this in perspective for you folks who haven't experienced drought like we have over the years, this pic was taken on a morning run back in July 2015:
Note the near completely uncovered concrete intake structure.
And today, from about the same vantage point:
No concrete, no peninsula-like sand bars, no exposed dry hillside exposed.
So this is a reason for us to rejoice but continue using Optimum No Rinse and doing our nightly rain dance rituals.
And still my pride and joy.
Wow, I envy you. I did it a few years ago on a VFR800. BTW, I am 72 and just planning a 300 mile road trip through the twisties on the Sunrise Trail and Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia on May 17th and 18th. I will be in the Z and accompanied by 2 Mustang GTs and a Shelby.
I hope to get some good pics, nothing as elaborate as mcvello though.
Because even though its 12 years old, it still break more necks than alot of cars now a days.
Its a jdm legend that got slept on to be honest. It was over shadow by supra, rx7 and r34. But i dont think there was another import in its time that can match witts with the 350z
OK, so, peeps gonna say, "Hey Mic, what the hell is this doing here?!" upon seeing the subject of this post....
Laff.... well, here's the thing... this is just another reason why I drive a Z!
Get off the plane last week, hightail it to the rental car place where I'd reserved a convertible just for the halibut. My selection of car, which was shown on my confirmation was a Chrysler 200 'Vert.
Guy at the counter says, "OK, looks like I've got you set up with a near new Camaro convertible."
I say, "Uhhh, what happened to the Chrysler convertible?"
"Oh, we don't have those here."
Methinks, "Oh, what the heck.... why not? If I'm gonna be an obnoxious tourist, might as well look the part."
Not likely to lose the car if I forget where I parked it, ya?
But really, aside from it's overt obnoxiousness, it was fun BUT.... it really made me miss driving my own cars.
So it's got an auto trans with paddle shifters which are more placebo than anything else. Oh, they worked - sorta - but the dash only gave me an indication of what gear I was in WHEN I SHIFTED IT. Couldn't even tell how high I was revving it because this was my view of the dash gauges...
Had to bend my neck down to see anything of importance.... like the speedo and the tach maybe?
Ummm, "Hello, GM? There's this thing that's been de riguer in the auto industry for decades.... it's called 'ergonomics', y'might consider trying it some time."
But back to the shifters. I finaggle it into the correct gear a few times but the tranny goes about thinking for me and shifts it up and down regardless of what gear I try to put it into. And then on top of that, it allowed me to shift down to 2nd and even 1st a couple of times and putting the engine into "Holy crap, dork, what are you doing?!" mode!
OK, so I see the 'M' on the console shifter and select it for what is, ostensibly, "Manual" operation...
BZZZTTTT!!! It works from a stoplight and upshifting to about 4th (of 6 gears) seems to work. But then, the trans/ECU takes over again. There is absolutely NO FULL manual control. I couldn't even force 6th gear at low speed with the dash reading, "Gear Selection Not Accepted". Wow, really? What a waste of time.
Oh, and those gauges forward of the shifter are all laid out whack. Cannot read any of them as they are positioned facing directly to the rear of the car and parallax error was unbelievable.
And.... the most important gauge in the cluster, the oil pressure gauge, is totally useless mounted on the upper left with the HVAC controls directly in the driver's line of sight. To top that off, the rest of the gauges are useless for the most part.... oil temp, voltage, trans temperature.
Jeez, but now I know why they're laid out as they were.... no one's going to see them anyhow, they were so difficult to read and no one cares about those functions.
But OK, the car handled moderately well...
Particularly on this stretch of road up on the North end of the island where some of the road was, oh, about a lane wide with switchbacks and completely blind corners. The kind one navigates at 10-15mph and a prodigious use of the horn to warn oncoming traffic that I'm about to head on them.
Power was OK for what it was (some kinda six-banger I guess) and it was fun with the top down - after we figured out that the little luggage tarp in the trunk had to be deployed in the out position else nothing related to the ragtop worked.
OK, not to bash Chevrolet any further but really, all of these wonky things are enough to keep me out of a Chevrolet showroom for the foreseeable future as I go about "shopping around" for another toy for the garage.
All in all though, despite its foibles, it did NOT detract from the beauty of our adoptive home (3-4 months of the year spent there.)
Yup, it's amazing what crap the average consumer will put up with. I wouldn't take a GM car if it was given to me for free. I love those commercials where they show the idiots get into a debadged Malibu and they all act like they're in a new Audi or BMW.
Have fun on Mau'i. I'm hoping to get to Big Island in the next few months.
1.5 years ago I picked up an 06 wrx which was my first non beater car at 21 since I've purchased all my cars myself even though I had a ridiculous 12.5% interest from my credit union. Loved the car and never got sick of hearing the turbo fast forward a year the car is fully paid off and still enjoyed as a weekend (used a $500 mazda protégé for a daily) decided I wanted a true "weekend car" searched for over a month found an 05 350 enthusiasts ultra yellow 6sp with 54k miles. For $10k which was the same price as my 06 wrx and it's a freaking joy to drive the ultra yellow color took a bit for me to love but after a month of driving it I wish my wrx was ultra yellow. And driving it is just so GODDAMN fun so for me it's an incredible bang for buck I'll post a few pics of it next to the wrx n solo. Even though I'm a Newby Z owner I'm beyond happy with my purchase
First wash due to shitty inconsistent pa weather
Drove 4 hours to get her so this is my first pic of her
02-05-2016, 04:46 PM
But such good reps that there are reps of these. Hahahahaha...
