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Thanks for all the nice comments! Appreciate the appreciation.
Hope y'all survived "Black Friday".... and thank gawd that's over with. If I hear that expression again before Nov 25, 2016, I'm gonna pook. Sic....
Me and wife were at a really nice memorial service for a friend's mom yesterday so no shopping, thankfully. We're out in Central California in a agriculturally based town I've never been in before. Actually did see a trick Z here in Porterville. (Note Z content. Heh! )
Mic
Survived black Friday but my bank account took a hit. All these things on sale at z1 and z speed performance have me losing sleep.
So far ive managed to limit myself to one order but the night is still young.
And a wet one at that. Totally need the rain though.
Sure makes going to an all morning meeting that much more tolerable even when it's a sub-7/10ths run up and over.
Southwestern view from Hwy 9 backside.
Same viewpoint on the backswing towards 35 headed up the peninsula... a mere 20 mins after the first shot, above, was taken. Blue skies here now as I write this.
Spoiler meets its mortal enemy face-to-face.
Standoff, no brawl.
It's mornings like these that continue to make me happy to be in my car. So much so that I saw a person driving the opposite direction in a non-Z of "economy persuasion" and thought - not condescendingly at all, just matter-of-fact - "You can't be having much fun driving THIS road in THAT...."
I love this thread. My Z is up on jack stands for the winter and will be until April, so this thread and ones like it are much appreciated.
I am in Columbia SC right now, to escape the ice and snow.. I get a bit of a perk every time I see a nice Z down here.
I hope to to do the Cabot Trail this year in late spring or in the fall when the leaves are turning. There is so much tourist traffic in the summer it's impossible to properly "exercise" the Z.
The Cabot trail is a national park of 185 miles of scenes twisty roads, along the coast of Cape Breton Nova Scotia that was called the best motorcycle ride in North America by USA Today. I have ridden it twice on bikes, but never by car.
The link below will give you an idea of what it's like.
I guess it's nice to enjoy our countries beautiful places, whether you're on the west coast of the USA or the east coast of Canada. especially when enhanced by driving a Z.
Everyday is a hills run for me. My '06 is my DD... 90mi round trip, Lower Lake to St Helena
Originally Posted by blufc3s
I love this thread. My Z is up on jack stands for the winter and will be until April, so this thread and ones like it are much appreciated.
Originally Posted by BigBlue
Great pics of the scenery and your car! Looks like it was a fun drive.
Yes, thanks all and you're welcome. Fun indeed. Hence the title of the thread. Heh heh.
Dysfunctional, not familiar with that drive but sure sounds like fun. Will be up in that neck of the woods soon.... with a trailer hitched to my Highlander so doubt I'll be able to partake.
I've been there. It's one of the most beautiful and scenic places in North America.
If you do the drive, please take pictures and post them here.
Originally Posted by blufc3s
I love this thread. My Z is up on jack stands for the winter and will be until April, so this thread and ones like it are much appreciated.
I am in Columbia SC right now, to escape the ice and snow.. I get a bit of a perk every time I see a nice Z down here.
I hope to to do the Cabot Trail this year in late spring or in the fall when the leaves are turning. There is so much tourist traffic in the summer it's impossible to properly "exercise" the Z.
The Cabot trail is a national park of 185 miles of scenes twisty roads, along the coast of Cape Breton Nova Scotia that was called the best motorcycle ride in North America by USA Today. I have ridden it twice on bikes, but never by car.
The link below will give you an idea of what it's like.
I guess it's nice to enjoy our countries beautiful places, whether you're on the west coast of the USA or the east coast of Canada. especially when enhanced by driving a Z.
No rain for a few more days.... Perfect driving weather in the hills... same route, different car from two weeks ago.
Direct sun, challenging to shoot. Kind of like the "effect" though.
The fog below. By the time I left the vista - after second cup of coffee - the fog was all but gone.
So what's the title of this thread? Yeah, this sums it up.
Funny thing though, even though I let people get head starts by at least a minute -and sometimes pulling off the roadway to give leeway (and safety buffer!) - I still kept catching people....driving VERRRRRRY slowly (like 30mph... yeah yeah, the posted speed limit for most of the drive up/down IS 30 but c'mon.... seriously, almost too slow for safety but whatever. ). Now that's pretty normal except that today it occurred 4 times. But still, not all that unusual...
Except that they were ALL Toyota Priuses. Dead serious. Hahahahahahaaaaaaaaa....
Great day to be alive.
Interestingly though, despite it being a Tuesday morning, there were a number of "sports cars" up in the hills. On the way up, a G35C and another Z33 were on the way down. As I was taking the vista pictures, an older Porsche 911 Targa went by, followed shortly by a pair of BMW Minis - apparently together.
Now to get all philosophical on y'alls.... With Chinese New Year coming up and it being a time of reflection, remembering our roots and ancestry, giving thanks for all good things, I had some time to do all of that up at the top.
I thanked my parents for gifting me with all the genetics they gave me and for watching out for me from above. And I thank my wife for putting up with me - unequivocally - and giving me another chance at love. I thank my kids for never giving me any trouble and being very successful, model citizens.
And I thank Nissan for giving me such a great car.
Sun Yeen Fai Lok! (Happy New Year) And bring on the monkey!!
Thought maybe I needed a new lens filter...
...but this is actually how blue it appeared this morning.
Sidenote: if you are familiar with the works of artist/musician Marcus Uzilevsky - who just died this month BTW - you'll understand why this type of layered light photo appeals to me.
This segment of road is NOT for carving. It's about 1-3/4 lanes wide, posted 20. I drove 22. Interesting little road... it's waaaaay out in the sticks at the end of Hwy 9. People that live way-the-heck-out-here must not like people... or at least urban living. Somedays I feel like that.
Another good-day-to-be-alive picture. That blue is going away though... rain coming. And that's as good of an excuse as any to get out and enjoy the roads, er, nature.... I mean, weather, while it's still good.
I've long admired the works of National Geographic nature photographers. I'm not one of 'em, obviously. But...never hurts to try.
Obligatory Z content: It's a known fact that lightweight wheels completely change how an automobile behaves. I've known this for forever but sometimes I forget just how good a car can be when set up with the right set of running shoes/feet.
Since I got my Niz a year ago, I've run three different sets of wheels on it. OEM, Volks, and a very short run of some BBS-reps (which I picked up in a trade and have since dumped). All of them averaged ~24-26lbs front, ~29lbs rear or so (and yes, that includes both the Rays-made units mentioned).
Yesterday I posted about how I was "trying out" the LMZ5 S-Tunes on the Nismo and was happy on the short test run.
But fast forward to today, after an extended "push-pretty-hard" scamper in the hills, I am merely astounded at just how good they really are. FTR, I'm running same tires on both these and Volk wheels so it's not just the tires I'm comparing. No, these wheels are the real thing!
Car has NEVER felt this good!! Steering input response (MY biggest thing WRT handling) is more than razor sharp, the feel is lively without being twitchy, and it feels like a slot car.... so much so that I can even relax a bit even while negotiating the few decreasing radius turns encountered.
Winner winner chicke.... ehhhh, I hate that phrase....
Net net.... guess which wheels I'm leaving on the car? Laff...
My main commute route has 5 passing sections on my way to work in the main twisty's. Home route has 7... most people get with it and pass the lamers. Since I've gotten this car most people interact with me differently now. In the past I have always been ****ed with no matter which vehicle I was driving. I'm a pretty aggressive driver (sorry haters) , not kiss their bumper and run people off the road kinda thing... just I wanna pass when the passing lanes are there. So get with it or get the **** out the way. People who pass the other car only to go 1/2 mile an hour faster... ugh.
Anyhow, my damn Eclipse was the worst of anything I've ever owned for this... constantly had people trying to pass me back and road rage type scenario's My F350 is a very close 2nd place Since I got the Z though... I drive the same and the same people yield way more and let me pass. It's weird but it's nice to eat up some clean air whenever I can. Even people that are *trying* to drive fast (I've driven this route for so long, it's obvious). I catch like they aren't moving Love my Z though, it's not even breaking a sweat where my other cars were on the edge
On the roads up in the Santa Cruz mountains, it's relatively foolhardy to try and pass on most of the roads other than 35 where it's relatively open with long stretches of straight sections and clear views.
I don't drive aggressively if there are others nearby on the tighter sections. Rather not scare a Prius off the road or something. Heh heh.
But interesting.... yesterday, I had three drivers PULL OFF the road to let me by and I wasn't even following in a manner that would indicate I wanted to pass, just behind 'em a ways with lights on.
Guess that made up for the day previous getting stuck.... Laff!
Dunno, maybe cuz my black car LOOKS a bit more "menacing" than my plainjane silver one? OR... was it just yesterday's crazed, testosterone fueled look in my eyes?
Mic, It’s “kind’a like” allowing golfers behind you “play through.” You want to enjoy yourself and the scenery without being pushed. --Spike
Originally Posted by MicVelo
On the roads up in the Santa Cruz mountains, it's relatively foolhardy to try and pass on most of the roads other than 35 where it's relatively open with long stretches of straight sections and clear views.
I don't drive aggressively if there are others nearby on the tighter sections. Rather not scare a Prius off the road or something. Heh heh.
But interesting.... yesterday, I had three drivers PULL OFF the road to let me by and I wasn't even following in a manner that would indicate I wanted to pass, just behind 'em a ways with lights on.
Guess that made up for the day previous getting stuck.... Laff!
Dunno, maybe cuz my black car LOOKS a bit more "menacing" than my plainjane silver one? OR... was it just yesterday's crazed, testosterone fueled look in my eyes?
Spent last two mornings doing some playing, er, "testing" some new toys. I knew those Amazon gift cards from birthday and Christmas would come in handy.
First off, this thing sucks!
Looks like an alien landed on my windshield. But this cam mount truly does suck! In addition, the adjustment/securing hardware is top notch. The cam doesn't move.
I mounted a basic Canon Point n' Shoot camera for frontal view and the video is stable. (Used that cam cuz the power cable for my SJs weren't long enough to reach the front power port.) But... there's no wind muffling for the mic on that type of cam so the wind noise is HORRIBLE. Drowns out exhaust note entirely! But for testing purposes, worked fine.
The other cam was mounted in various locations on the car just for kicks.
This position shot the vid below. Kinda fun.
I was getting odd looks from people at stop lights. "Wussamatter, you never seen the Google Streetview car running around your neighborhood?"
Anyhow, fun changeup in my "morning run routines".
If you view the vid, don't mind the date and the overexposure, I simply took one my SJ4000s out of the box and mounted it on the car. Heh heh. Also, I'm sure there are other video clips that are better than this one but I haven't had the time to look at the other 50 gigs worth! Laff.... OK, maybe not that much but you get the idea.
In the future, I'll be putting together several fully edited and at least 1080p rez vids that will feature other components of my Z-madness. For right now though, just having fun and working on getting the right angles then doing cam set-up to maximize the viewing.
Have a great weekend all! Gonna be a madhouse in my neck of the woods this weekend what with the Stupor Bowl going on nearby. (And I made the stupid offer to my sister-in-law to supply egg rolls and chicken wings for the SB party; from King Eggroll, a stone's throw from the stadium....
Mic
PS Locals, you know the place, best rolls n' wings on the planet!
11-28-2015, 02:28 PM
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). Now that's pretty normal except that today it occurred 4 times. But still, not all that unusual...
My F350 is a very close 2nd place 
Since I got the Z though... I drive the same and the same people yield way more and let me pass. It's weird but it's nice to eat up some clean air whenever I can. Even people that are *trying* to drive fast (I've driven this route for so long, it's obvious). I catch like they aren't moving 
