Winter is here!

It snowed earlier this week, and that first batch of snow hasn't melted yet... I guess that means winter is here. Still, some people are still driving high-powered rear wheel drive cars on the street: I saw a Maserati GT this morning, even though it was well below zero.

I spotted a new Maserati Quattroporte. I'm sure it's an excellent car, but the proportions seem a little "off" in comparison to the previous generation. I think the car is probably too long.

I've seen many new BMW 3-series, and I think they look great in black and in blue. I have yet to try one and am curious how the 2.0 liter turbo engines feel.

After having seen a couple of new Boxsters and Caymans, I truly believe they are more "exotic" looking than a Ferrari California.

The Civic is still in its garage, but at some point in the next few days, the engine will be removed, as some parts of it have already been sold. A new different engine will be going in over the winter. I can't wait!

Cool cars spotted:
Bentley Mulsanne
Rolls-Royce Phantom
Rolls-Royce Ghost
Maserati GT
New AMG E63
AMG C43
AMG G55
Porsche 911T (before the snow)
Nissan GTR
BMW 1M (in the snow!)
Audi S6 Avant
Classic Mini
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII
Lexus IS-F

Still on the topic of high-end cars...

Yesterday, my friend Stephen invited Alex, J. and I to a launch party for the new S-Class at a Mercedes dealer. He said he would meet us and we could take his car, a borrowed "surprise". When we arrived, we saw that the surprise was a nearly new Bentley Continental convertible. I quickly assessed that it would not be easy to get Jules' baby seat in the back, so we took the M3 instead and I was promised a test drive later in the evening.

The Mercedes event was fun, with great food. There was a live band, and Jules loved that. He also got a taste of smoked meat. We saw Stephen's new GL350 Bluetec, which had arrived at the dealer but was not yet fully prepped. He chose a nice colour combination, and I will surely get a test drive it soon.

After we went to Vaudreuil so Alex could buy a used elliptical trainer, I dropped off Alex and Jules at home so I could have my Bentley test drive. The car is lovely, and we began cruising around the industrial part of TMR. This took us by many exotic car dealerships, including Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Ferrari, and some used car dealers too. I was beginning to get blasé... oh look, a Murcielago, a Ferrari FF, a new Corvette Stingray. We walked around the back of the RR dealership to see if they still had a Bentley that interested Stephen, when, lo and behold, I saw what looked like a UFO up on a lift... After all these years, and after seeing millions of dollars worth of high-end cars, a Countach can still take one's breath away!

We drove around some more and I can confirm that the Bentley is a sweet car. My only complaint was that the transmission did not kick down very quickly when I floored it on the highway, but once the power comes on, it's quite a rush. There was an annoying whirring sound in the cabin that I could not identify. At the end of our drive, we realized it was the passenger seat air conditioning unit, and that the noise was coming from the seat. I didn't get to sample the whisper quiet version of the car. I guess that will be for the next drive!

Cool cars spotted at the dealerships:

AMG SLS

AMG SLS convertible

RR Phantom

RR Ghost

Ferrari FF

Ferrari 328

Ferrari 575

Ferrari 599

Lamborghini Murcielago 

Lamborghini Countach LP5000 (!)

2014 Corvette Stingray

Aston Martin V8 Vantage

Fisker Karma

Other cool cars spotted:

Porsche 930 Slant Nose

BMW 3.0 CS

Nissan GTR

Jaguar XKR-S

Porsche 911 993

Ferrari 360

Ferrari F430 (Camouflage!)

Ferrari California

Audi R8 V10

Lamborghini Gallardo

Camaro ZL1

AMG C63 Black

AMG SL63

Lexus IS-F

Why do we love exotic cars?

I was invited at the last minute to instruct at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with a company called G1 Tours this past Saturday. The company charges its customers to drive a couple of laps on a track in one of several high-end cars, including Lamborghini's, Ferrari's, an Audi R8 V10 and a Nissan GTR.

From what I could tell, the customers were pretty happy with their drives, even though they were short. Although we did not have access to the full track, we were let loose on the front straight, where drivers could easily accelerate to over 200 km /h. However, many drivers seemed not to care too much about accelerating all-out... they were just happy to be driving the cars and wanted to have their picture taken behind the wheel.

It's hard to fully understand the draw of these cars, but it is just there, not only for people like me who are into cars. I could barely believe the number of people snapping pictures as we drove by. There were throngs of people out at the track for most of the day, despite the near-freezing temperatures.

I was happy to get to drive the Audi R8 V10 for a short burst (up to 200) after sitting in the passenger seat for 3 hours. I had spent the morning in a Gallardo Superleggera and the Audi was much more refined (and therefore more comfortable for the passenger). Of course, the Audi is a bit less exotic than its Lamborghini cousin, but the performance is astounding and I could imagine living with an R8 on a daily basis... this was not the case with the Gallardo (it didn't even have a radio!).

I don't know exactly how much the customers paid for their laps, but every one of the people I rode with (dozens of them) got out of the driver's seat with a huge grin on his or her face!

Cool photos of Jules!

My sister's mother-in-law Ness came by our place to take some photos of Jules, and she sent us a couple of preview shots:

I think they are pretty awesome!

On Tuesday morning, I saw four Tesla's on the road (including a Roadster). I can't believe they are so popular, although I can see why people like them.

On Saturday, I will be instructing at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with G1 Tours, a company that lets people drive exotic cars for a few laps on race tracks. I hope it's as fun as it sounds!

Cool cars spotted:
60's Alfa Romeo coupe
Tesla Roadster
McLaren MP4
Ferrari 458
Ferrari California
Lexus IS-F
Mercedes 230 GE

J's first Halloween

Even though it was raining out, we went trick-or-treating with Jules. Alex and I took turns carrying him up to the houses in our neighbourhood, until everyone was starting to get a bit wet. All in all, I am glad we went.

 

This is the candy Jules received

This is the amount he will be allowed to eat. 

The weather today is great... 17 degrees and some rain. I guess this is what happens when you install your winter tires early! All that is left to winterize the car is the rust proofing.

We have a garage!

This is what our garage looked like a few weeks ago: no floor. Even after the new floor was poured, we had to wait a full month before being able to park on it. That month is over, and we now have a garage! I am almost giddy with the possibilities. I have to to decide whether I want most of my storage to be in the garage, in the machine room, or in the garage-sized room one level below the garage (this area can clearly be seen in these photos. I have the Civic in there now, and it makes me want to do all kinds of small jobs on the car. We have yet to decide which car will be kept in the garage. I am leaning towards the Civic, as entry and exit will likely be tricky with the BMW in winter. 

I have already removed 30 wheels and tires from my parents' house (my mother had been complaining about this for years). My next focus will be to bring items over from my rental garage, which I still have for four more months, and my locker at the office, which I still have for one more month.

The room below the garage offers a lot of space. Alex and I have to figure out how best to use it, just like the room next to the garage that is "ours"... initially, it was to be an office for Alex, but it turns out that she prefers to work upstairs when she is at home, so she can be near Jules.

We are now leaning towards making the room into an exercise room. To be continued...

We have been lucky with the fall weather so far, as it only started to get cold in the past few days. I think J. is still a bit young to enjoy playing in the leaves. When I sat him down in the pile, he gave me a look like he was saying "Daddy, why are you putting me on the ground here?". Maybe next year then!

I spotted a new BMW 435i... I was underwhelmed. I like the 3/4 series, but styling-wise, I do not see them as a step forward from the E90 generation.

There are still plenty of cool cars on the road, and even a few drivers brave enough to keep the roof down on their convertibles!

Cool cars spotted:

Alfa Romeo GTV2000 (late 70's)

Porsche Carrera RS America (the same one)

Porsche 997 GT2

Porsche 997 GT3

Porsche 924S

Maserati GT

Maserati Quattroporte

Ferrari F430

Ferrari California

Jaguar XJR

Jaguar XK-RS

Alpina B7

BMW Z8

Dodge Viper

Lexus IS-F

Shelby GT500

Ford SVT Lightning

Yes, we get it, it's an M! 

Saw the same GT2 again, this time broken down on a street corner.

Racing season is over

Last weekend, I ran in the final two races of the 2013 season of the Super Production Challenge. The event was held at St-Eustache. It was our second visit to my home track, and I was not entirely happy with my first visit, as I had not driven as well as I thought I should.

I had planned to run only one race out of two, so that Pat could drive in the other one. However, we were told we could run the car in the GT-class race for free, so we opted to let Pat run that race instead, which would allow me to run both SPC races.

I went out in the practice session and matched my best time of 1:02.3 on the SPC street tires, despite being a bit down on horsepower and torque since our last race at St-Eustache. I realized that if I took it slow through the carousel and hairpin, the tires would perform longer. In my next session, I qualified 14th out of 27 cars with a 1:02.2. I was satisfied with the result.

For the first race, I got a pretty good start and passed the 350Z that had outqualified me. I consider that I had a pretty good race. I managed to keep a Mazda 3 behind me for several laps until the driver decided to pass me at the hairpin, with contact, under full-course yellow. We talked about it after the race, and he said he was "sending me a message" because I had blocked him for so many laps. I know what it means to block, and I know I wasn't even driving a defensive line when he was in my mirrors, as he was too far back to make a move. I told him it that there were better ways to send a message than grinding your way past on a full-course yellow, and he reluctantly agreed. I think the Boyer's were more pissed off than I was, but I am just trying to race for fun. I did not protest his finish, as I eventually re-passed him when he was struggling with transmission issues. Also, the place where he hit my car already had a huge dent from a 2007 incident.

I would say that the only mistake I made in the first race was giving up the oval-in corner when the 350Z driver came to pass me on the inside. I wanted to focus on the next corner, the dogleg, to pass him under braking for the hairpin, but there was a local yellow flag there, and then the checker fell. I had not seen the "final lap" sign. I ended up losing a position there. I went to see the driver, telling him that he had managed his race well. He seemed not to remember the pass, and I think he had not realized it was the last lap either, nor that I was unable to re-pass him because of the yellow. Still, I was happy with the other aspects of my performance, as I had stayed out of trouble, improved my best lap to 1:02.131 (on lap 18 of 24) and driven consistently. I also regretted not turning on my video camera before the race!

Photos from Flagworld.com:

When Pat went out to qualify for his race, the car began to overheat. We poured what was in the overflow tank back into the rad and I went out for my second race. The temperature was all over the place, and I slowed down a little to nurse the car home, but I still managed to finish 14th, and I may not have lost any positions, as the cars who passed me in the first half of the race (a Volvo C30 and a Mini Cooper S) were quite quick. At the end, the temperature was staying near the red line, but still dipping down a bit a couple of times per lap. As the engine is due for a re-build anyway, I was maybe risking it a bit more than usual.

We tried to bleed the rad and re-fill it for Pat's race (I filled my water jug by removing the lid from the toilet in the men's room and diverting the little hose to my jug, as it was too tall to fit under the faucet of the sink), but Pat was back in after one lap. I feel bad that he barely got any track time. We added some water and I drove the car home. Despite these issues, I had a good day!

As soon as I can, I will bring the car to Marc or Pat, so that the engine can be removed and rebuilt. That means that the season is officially, truly over, even if some event pops up, as I will not have a functional car any time before winter.

Alex and Jules in Old Montreal

Other than that, we continue to work on the new condo (which we officially own, since yesterday!) and the work in the garage is finished. I still have to wait a couple of weeks before I can park on the new garage floor, but I am looking forward to that too.

Cool cars spotted:
Bentley Mulsanne
Dodge Viper
Ferrari 599
Ferrari 328
Ferrari F430
Ferrari 612 Scaglietti
Ferrari California
Lamborghini Gallardo
Aston Martin Virage
Aston Martin V8 Vantage
Aston Martin Rapide
Porsche 997 GT2(!)
Porsche 997 GT3
Porsche 914
Acura NSX
Lotus Exige
McLaren SLR (!)
McLaren MP4
AMG SLS
AMG SL65
Mercedes 230 GE
Nissan GTR
Datsun 1600 Roadster