I’m in that blissful time period when you’ve left a job, you have your next job all lined up, but you haven’t started yet. This is the only period of unemployment that I can enjoy, knowing the paychecks are guaranteed to start flowing again soon. A good friend of mine, Dan, moved from Seattle to LA to take an amazing role as the head of Marketing for the Petersen Automotive Museum. It had been a while since we hung out, and he invited me down for a very special event at the museum. As part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the Fast $ Furious movie franchise, they have the complete collection of cars from the movie and a few from the personal collections of the actors on display for the next year. I used this as the jumping off point for an amazing car weekend in LA!

The weekend kicked off with an exclusive event at the museum, that Dan was nice enough to bring me to as his plus one. This pre-screaning was reserved for folks associated with the production of the movies, actors, friends of, and of course Vin Diesel himself was there to celebrate the occasion. Vin genuinely had a great time showing off the cars, and I had the chance to meet him briefly towards the end of the night.

The next morning, I got up early to escape Beverly Hills in my rented Porsche 911 Targa, and go explore the Angeles Forest Highways. I was on a mission to experience an important part of the LA Car culture…the Good Vibes Breakfast Club. A casual meetup of cars, 20+ miles up the most amazing stretch of canyon roads you’ve even been on, that gathers at Newcomb’s Ranch to hang out, eat donuts and talk cars.

On my last full day, I went back to the Petersen for the grand public opening of the Fast & Furious exhibit, and then Dan and I spent the day exploring more of the canyon roads and finding some hot spots of car culture along the way. My favorites were our lunch stop at Neptune’s Net (F&F movie location) and quick stop at the Old Place for a drink.

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I have a complicated relationship with wheels. I can never seem to leave well enough alone when it comes to my wheels. I’m either refinishing them, going aftermarket, but oem never seems to cut it. The Spyder RS came with dark wheels which I can’t stand. I quickly had Rain City Wheels refinish them to a nice silver. Black wheels are the worst, but any dark wheel is a no-go for me. You can’t see the design of the wheel, it doesn’t show up in photos and outside of off-road vehicles or race cars…I’m not a fan.

The one option I would have selected if I had ordered my car new, would be the ultra-lightweight magnesium wheels. Light wheels makes a huge difference in the feel of the car. The front end responds faster, the lower unsprung mass helps the suspension work better, both on track but also being more comfortable on the road. The only downside is the mag wheels are easier to damage, and harder to fix. The Spyder isn’t a daily, so I’m not too worried about that. I could only order the mag wheels from Porsche in Black (no thank you) or Indigo Blue. I’m not sure if I will stick with the Blue, or if these wheels will get refinished some day, but for now, they are a fun addition.

What an amazing day of driving. 8 hours, 350+ miles, and time to play at Hoffstadt Creek Bridge! Views of Mount Rainier and Mount Saint Helens along the way. Shep came with me on this all day adventure. He got some great rolling shots on the way up there, and some drone footage at the bridge. This Porsche Spyder RS is peak sports car!

Amazing drone footage…

Testing launch control on the bridge (never exceeding the speed limit)

ANDIAL is a Porsche tuning and racing company, and much like my 930, came to life in 1975. ANDIAL was co-founded by Alwin Springer, Arnold Wagner, and Dieter Inzenhofer and went on to become dominant in American racing, particularly with Porsche 962s, achieving a string of victories in races like the 24 Hours of Daytona and IMSA GT Championships.

Thanks to my local PCA chapter, PNWR, I had the opportunity to meet Alwin Springer, and hear directly from him the origin story of ANDIAL. He’s a great story teller and it was so much fun hearing about his motorsports adventures…and mis-adventures. I even got him to sign my Porsche ANDIAL hoodie and the ANDIAL plate frame that is destined for my 930 when the restoration is complete!

When you get the chance to see a collection of Singer cars (resto-mod perfection based on a Porsche 911), you take it. One Drivers Club was hosting just such an event, so a few friends and I went off for an early morning drive, and found our way to a great event with stunning cars, and cool people.

I had so much fun working with Musicar on the audio upgrade in the Spyder, that I decided to bring the Spyder RS back to them for the full meal deal. Audio stage 3 upgrade, fully integrated radar system, and laser jamming. 3D scanning of the car, a custom license plate frame to maintain my Avant’s pride, and amazing craftsmanship throughout. A totally custom system, that seamlessly integrates into the car, looks oem, and helps level the playing field between me and the local law enforcement. Then I drive slow most of the time, totally wasting this awesome system 🙂

Here is a really detailed write up from Nick about the project with all of the technical details – https://rennlist.com/forums/718-gts-4-0-gt4-gt4rs-spyder-25th-anniversary/1476189-integrated-radar-and-bose-audio-upgrade-project-718-spyder-rs.html

Shep and me on our way down to Portland to pick up the car and drive it home to Seattle…we may have tested both the audio and radar systems on the way home, and they worked great!

Once Gabe got his Jeep, and started to explore the local off-roading adventures we have around us, I was excited to join him. The Mach-E Rally is a blast in the dirt, sand or snow, but it wasn’t really equipped to do the kind of off-roading that Gabe was into. Looking around, I decided to jump back into an old favorite of mine, a Toyota 4Runner. We found a new TRD Pro with all the off-road bits locally, and went for it.

Me and Gabe on one of our first off-road adventures. There were a few areas where I was either too scared, or too worried about breaking my new daily, to follow him up…but in general the 4Runner did an amazing job!

We recently had some fun at an Avants Off-Road day getting really dirty!!

Some black and white car photos…I need to do more of these, I like the look.