Tractors and race cars...

Jules borrowed this tractor from the neighbour. He loves it so much, it accompanied him to bed and to breakfast!

I don't like the wheels, but terrible resale values makes these Maseratis a great car for the money (used)

Good and evil 1-series at Costco

A surprising spot at Costco... how big is the trunk?

I borrowed this familiar-looking Civic from Carl for the Club Civic Quebec lapping day tomorrow at St-Eustache

German firepower

I spotted these three cars in the neighbourhood yesterday. Some serious firepower...

This M5 looked more aggressive than usual, as it was lowered and featured aftermarket wheels

Aftermarket wheels and loud exhaust... sounded like a tuned 80's Mustang!

Rare 507 Edition C63... no turbos here!

Lousy cars in the 90's and pure enthusiasts' cars

The 1990's

I was watching the 1997 movie "Cop Land" (still liked it after 18 years) and it reminded me how many mediocre cars there were on the road and in production in the 1990's. Not only were the new cars pretty bland, but I was reminded how hard it was to buy a decent used car on a budget. I remember combing through the classifieds trying ot find a decent Honda or VW, and I'm not even talking about GTi's or Si's. When I found a 1987 RX- 7 Turbo II for 5000$, I bought it. The particular one that I bought was not at all reliable and was expensive to keep running. It was also a gas guzzler. Still, it was not like I could have had a decent CRX or something for the same money. I remember looking at a lot of overpriced cars before pulling the trigger on the RX-7. Today, things have really changed. There are so many good cars available for as low as 3000$ and some really quite nice ones for 5000$. I guess the main reason used cars are so much better is because new cars got so much better in the last 15 years. 

On another note, I came across a couple of cars in the past few days that I would have to categorize as pure enthusiasts' cars. There are cars that enthusiasts love, like BMW M3's, but I know there are quite a few people who buy M3's because they are at a BMW dealer and the salespeople convince them that they need the "top of the line" 3-series, which happens to be the M3. BMW has clearly sold a lot of M3's (many of them convertible) to non enthusiasts over the years. There are some cars, however, that really only an enthusiast would buy. We were visiting friends at a campground last weekend and, among all the SUV's and minivans, I stumbled across a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X MR with aftermarket mudflaps. Now you know the owner of this car is an enthusiast. There is really no doubt. There are other cars like this. Somebody may buy a Porsche 911 to show off (maybe even a GT3), but who buys a Nissan GT-R for that reason? I have never driven a GT-R on the street, but I bet it is an unpleasant experience on a day-to-day basis compared to a Porsche 911 Turbo. Driving a Honda S2000 on the street is not terribly pleasant, but some non-enthusiasts surely put up with it. These same people would not be able to live with a Lotus Elise. So to the people who choose these cars, I salute you!

Unexpected spot at a camp ground...

A non-enthusiast might drive an STi, but only an enthusiast will pick the Lachute Performance LP400, then wrap it orange!

I had seen a couple of AMG GT's on the road, but I just got to see one up close for the first time. It is a great-looking car. It looks more impressive from the rear than from the front. Still, I don't find it has the presence of the SLS. This probably has to do with the extreme width of the SLS. The GT is more "normal-sized". Also, I can't imagine buying an AMG without the 6.2-liter V8...

Other cool spots around town:

Tastefully restored VW Golf Cabriolet

Immaculate late 1990's Mini

You know an enthusiast lives here: super-clean E36 BMW and 1970's SL out back wearing a 1970's license plate

Uncommon colour for this old Saab

The best way to present a 90's Mustang: lowered, with Cobra R wheels

Another  pretty clean BMW, this E30 325e (automatic though)

Very cool and well-kept Toyota camper from Texas

Another hazard of parking on the street: a wind storm may drop a huge branch on your car

This is one of those cars I didn't like in my youth, but I like them now

More subtle than ever: dark grey on black!

I don't love these wheels, but I love these Vantage's. When will they become affordable for people like me?

Spotted around town

Here are a few more spots from around my office from the past few days.

Another recent Continental, this one is a Supersports

I have never liked the Mercedes ML-class, but in silver with black wheels, it doesn't look half bad

The Corvette looks quite exotic in yellow

I love the Lotus Evora. Maybe some day they will become an affordable used car?

Crap night photo, but it shows that older Ferraris, like this 456, are much nicer than the current California.

Another Ford GT. What a great colour combo

The two older gentlemen in the car had to strain a bit to get out of it

A future classic for sure

Oh, and on Jules' birthday last Sunday, we came across this immaculate Jaguar E-Type. What a lovely car!

Jules' 3rd birthday

Well, Jules' 3rd birthday is in the books. I can't believe the little guy is three already! 

I made another Peppa Pig cake (maybe not as nice as the practice one I had made at Alex's birthday, but it was hot and the icing was sticky!). We had the kids' party in the park and, despite the heat, all went well. 

Jules received a bike and a scooter and has been enthusiastically riding both of them. Here are a couple of pics:

 

Jules' 3rd birthday is almost here...

The celebrations have already begun, however, as my sister Val (whose birthday was on August 8th) held a joint birthday event for Jules and herself. The partying continues this Sunday, when we hold the kids' party.

Jules is not quite sure what is going on with the singing and cake

But he knows what to do with cake when the time comes

Despite the so-so weather we have been having, we are enjoying summer. We spent a very nice weekend in the Eastern Townships with our friends Nico and Solenne and their two kids, which involved spending a day in Magog and a day at the beach at Orford provincial park. Nico and I went for a trail run on Mount Orford, on some of the same trails used in the X-Trail event we did a few years ago (see my post about it: HERE). Surprisingly, I was less exhausted than on the last two runs I did with Nico (St-Hilaire and Val David). This is probably because the course is so technical that you find yourself walking quite often and this gives you a lot of time to recover. On the downhill part, you can barely run at all, because it is so steep and full of obstacles. I haven't gone running in the city much lately, because I am just so tired at 9:30 pm, when I would usually head out. I look forward to Oscar sleeping through the night more regularly, which should happen soon.

Oscar attacking his Grandpa at a BBQ at my parents' house

Oscar in his usual good mood

Jules waits for the bus with his Grandma

This is how Jules sits on my bike as we walk to the daycare (when it's not raining!)


Jules always enjoys sitting in a 4-wheeler

Close-up of a cool old road sign in Eastman

Car stuff: not much is going on the car front. The BMW continues to run well. The often rainy weather seems to have an effect on how many rare and exotic cars one can spot on the street.

The family car, still relatively clean after a wash

A rare early Barracuda in Magog

I still love the look of the rare Cadillac XLR

I know I say it often, but darn, I love the Ford GT!

It just looks so exotic among regular cars!

Repost from 2002: First ever hill climb, Mount Burke, July 20, 2002

Here is a repost of the short report I wrote following my first (and only) participation in a hill climb event. It turns out the Civic I used for the event was probably the one least suited to a hill climb that I have ever owned!

First ever hill climb, Mount Burke, NEHA, July 20, 2002

Well, this weekend, our 3-man team and support group/crew headed from Montreal down to Vermont for our first ever hill climb at Mt. Burke. The event is organized by the New England Hillclimb Association and Killington Sports Car Club. For those who aren't exactly sure what a hill climb is, it's a time trial on a closed mountain road, sometimes paved (as was the case at Burke) and sometimes unpaved (like Pike's Peak). You get several runs against the clock on the same road and your best run counts towards the final result. The participants drive either rally cars, road race cars, street cars, or Hill climb Specials (tube-framed 500 hp beasts with huge slicks).

I was driving my 88 Civic DX hatch and my buddies were driving an A4 (Will, KO4 turbo swap + Porsche brakes) and a 93 Civic (Rob, B18 swap). Since the event is held in a quasi-wilderness area, you can camp near the starting line. When we got to the campground on Friday night, it was pouring rain so we decided to cram 6 people into a motel room and come back the next day. While looking for a motel, we saw a Group N Lancer Evo 5 and Austin Healy 3000 race car at one motel. Did we feel outclassed? Maybe a little.

Saturday we woke up at 5:15 (!) to make sure we would be early enough to register and tech the cars. This went well. They put me in the slowest Street Prepared class (with a Civic Si, Neon, 914 and 2 Rabbit GTi's), Rob in Unprepared 2 (we had to negotiate to get a swap Civic into the lowest class!) and Will was put in U1 (with a Porsche 996 Turbo, the eventual overall winner). We had a reconnaissance run at low speed and I was behind a WRX. The guy in the WRX was taking in the scenery while I was flooring it just to keep up. It might seem foolish, but I had not realized the hill was going to be so steep! This is when it dawned on me that my 1.5 liter car would not shine this weekend. You needed light weight (I had that), torque (nope) and good gearing (also no). Brakes were not an asset, as gravity was enough to brake the car a lot. Anyway, on my first practice run, I was happy not to be last (maybe 63rd out of 70). Will and Rob did OK as well. However, a Civic Si of the same generation as my car was 25 seconds faster than me… I couldn't believe it! He had run a 2:37 and I ran a 3:02! It was a humbling experience. Anyway, by the second run, I had shaved off 5 seconds. I was flooring it for a large percentage of the run. The start involved a long series of straights and fast turns. I would floor it to the redline in 2nd at about 60 mph, shift into 3rd, floor it, and watch the speedometer slowly drop! The hill was too steep for me to accelerate above 65 mph on that stretch. I was downshifting into 1st for several hairpins. I eventually knocked another 5 seconds off my time to finish 4th in class (the Si did not improve, but he ended up walloping me by 15 seconds anyway) out of 6. Rob and Will did quite well for rookies. They finished about halfway down the order, which was not bad considering the competition.

92 hp Civic on the hill

One memorable aspect of the event was the amazing atmosphere in the campground: all the sites were taken by racers. There was a huge variety of cars on hand. All in all, we had a good time, the organization was excellent (as was the free lunch!) and the other competitors were extremely nice and helpful. They kept asking us how we found their club and or how we had heard of them and I answered "internet". We were all happy with our results considering we were hill climb virgins. I would have had more fun with more torque, but I would still highly recommend the event to any enthusiast, whether it be in a road car or road race car.