Vince's Stuff

Sunday, December 29, 2024

The holidays are here!

STi at the country house

The holidays are here! We have been relaxing and eating too much, and the holidays are flying by. The weather has been weird. We had a our first real snow a few weeks ago, which was stressful as I had not yet been able to move my Civic project car to Choo's garage. Fortunately, the tow truck driver was able to get the car out of my driveway and into Choo's shop without too much trouble. There has been zero progress on the car other than moving it. It snowed more in the past few days, but now it's raining, a lot. We have been to Deschaillons for a couple of days and will be heading back again before the end of the holidays. The Subaru continues to impress in all conditions. I've been listening to a great podcast called Lizard Brains and it really makes me want to a) participate in online racing and b) attend more car events next year. Autocross with the M3? American track day with the not-yet-built Civic? I've been reacquainting myself with some tracks I haven't visited in over 20 years: Lime Rock, Shannonville and Watkins Glen. Who knows what 2025 has in store?

A WRX parked near the STi

Not afraid to drive in winter

My favourite Hyundai colour

My favourite spec for an STi

Surprisingly clean Civic coupe at the Longueuil courthouse

Matte purple Evo 10 from Ontario

What's a Rivian Ocean?

Another loud wrap from Ontario

Very clean 1990 Accord

Winter mode M3

Snow removed for towing

Arriving at Choo's shop

Another newer Insight

Been seeing many of these Cybertrucks

Someone was actually driving this in winter...

...mismatched bumper Cayman GT4... so cool.

Clean early TT on winter wheels

Clean early 80's S-Class

Gold wheels on a matte gold RS6

Japanese front plate on a Bentley?

Surprisingly clean 2nd-generation Dodge Caravan AWD

Cool spec Forrester

Winter landscape on the way to Deschaillons

Monday, November 25, 2024

November is a good time to get reacquainted with Assetto Corsa

I dusted off my Logitech steering wheel and played some Assetto Corsa this past weekend. I realized the steering ratio was way off and reset it to 900 degrees, and when I played afterwards, it reminded me how fun the game is. I managed to find and download the M3 and STi in the game. The M3 feels too fast compared to real life. I can do Calabogie East in 1:21 in the game when I do a high 1:30 in real life. I know I'm concervative in real life, but 9 seconds... Maybe if it were a pro driver, on slick tires... Anyway, it's still loads of fun. I also practiced the Nurburgring... gotta be ready for the next real life visit to the ultimate track... you never know!

E46 M3, SMG with 19 inch wheels but close enough

Civic coupe, but with a crazy 1.6 liter screamer

STi, not the right black, but close

Given that it hasn't snowed yet, there are still a bunch of cool cars on the road, including exotics and classics. There has been no progress on the Civic. The M3 is in the barn. The STi has just been rust-proofed and I'm enjoying driving it, mostly on weekends. I only just realized that the bluetooth function on the phone really works, as there is a microphone near the rear view mirror on the ceiling.