My personalized license plate arrived in the mail today. My kids and I thought it was perfect for an all black 911 Turbo S…it just screams The Dark Side!
Removing any doubt that I'm a huge nerd
Lake Washington Blvd is a gold mine for car photography
On Sunday, before we went into mostly full time home self-quarantine, I was able to go on a long drive in search of great spots to take some car photos. I started off by checking out the Lake Washington Cars and Coffee, not knowing that it would draw such a big crowd. It was cold but the sun was shining and if it wasn’t for the COVID-19 scare, it would have been the perfect day for a car show. There were plenty of great cars, I met some new fellow gear heads and everyone was really diligent about respecting the 8 foot rule…no handshakes or first bumps in sight.
I saw another photographer (@dm.lens) getting creative with my car and some spring blossoms so I tried the same. His was better!
This photo by @dm.lens
Lake Washington turned out to be fertile ground for great car photo spots. It’s hard to find a place with a beautiful setting, where you can take your time and where there aren’t big crowds. I found a place every 100 feet it seemed. I’m done messing around with Alki…to crowded and no legal place to stage the car…Lake Washington is where its at!
I’m struggling to decide if I like this series better in color or black and white…but this is my blog so I don’t have to decide 🙂
Social Distancing, The Gear Head Edition
It’s a crazy time in the world with the growing concerns of the coronavirus and living in Seattle puts us in the epicenter of things in the US. I’m working from home and the kids are home schooling for the foreseeable future. We are all being asked to limit social interactions as much as possible. To stay sane, I took the boys on a long hike but we stopped in to check on a few cars first. Being sure to stay far away from people and wash our hands constantly!
As always, The Shop had a ton of nice cars on display including three stunning, race ready Vipers. The guy that owns and races them was there to walk me through each one and damn they look cool.
A few photos from the hike, as proof that we didn’t spend all day looking at cars 🙂
Video Review of DSC Sport Controller
I love almost everything about my 2011 Turbo but I knew going into it that the suspension wasn’t going to be as good as my more modern 2016 991 series Targa was. After some seat time in and around Seattle, I have to agree. Even in normal mode, the 997 series is harsh on the crappy Seattle roads and sport mode is unusable on anything other than perfectly smooth asphalt. While my car is equipped with the Porsche Adaptive Suspension Management (PASM), the software that controls it is almost a decade old.
In comes the DSC Sport Controller. I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money and didn’t want to screw with the shocks or springs. Given I can barely get out of my garage without scraping the front spoiler, I certainly didn’t want to lower the car at all. I had read nothing but great reviews of the DSC Sport Controller and liked the idea of a simple controller/software swap to jump to 2020 software technology. The controller more intelligently manages the adjustable shocks and also improves the software for the dynamic engine mounts on the car resulting in a more compliant ride on bad roads as well as improved high speed handling and cornering. At least that’s the sales pitch and I decided to try it out myself.
I ran some test before the swap, plugged I the new DSC controller and drove the same streets back to back. To me, it was an immediate and obvious difference. In normal mode my 997 feels just like my 991 did and feels like it handles rough roads so much better. I was even able to put it in sport suspension mode and leave it there for most of the day. It too felt like my 991 in sport mode…much firmer but I’m not taking kidney shots with every bump. The limited high speed cornering I have been able to do tells me that it is working just fine at speed as well but I’m far from being a pro and I’m not taking my car close to the limit. My verdict is that this inexpensive and easy DIY upgrade made an immediate difference for the problem I was trying to solve. I love the car even more now.
I decided to try my hand at making a review video, mostly so I can play around with some fun camera tech. I’m no videographer and likely belong behind the camera but it was fun to do:
Some fun photos I took while out and about doing the testing and filming the video:
Shop Class #2 – Lifting a G Wagon
Tonight was my second shop class at the car club we belong to, The Shop. We are still on suspensions but this time we installed a lift kit (new shocks and springs), on a Mercedes G-Wagon. You know…the Jeep Wrangler for people that want to spend $100K. I kid, I kid…I’m biased as a Wrangler owner. I may not be a G Wagon fanboy but it was really fun to work on. With the lift and the big wheels/low profile tires, I’m not sure this will be the best ride, but it will sure look cool!
Lift it 
Tires off 
Top shock mounts 
Out with the old… 
…in with the new 
It looks like way more than a 2 1/2 lift but maybe it will settle 🙂
As usual, I also found the time to wander around and take some fun photos of other cools cars there.
Leave work early so you can take the long way home
It was a rare dry Seattle day in February and the sun was even poking out a bit at times. I was able to head out of the office a few minutes early which gave me just enough time to take the scenic way home and grab a few photos. It’s time for me to step up from my iPhone and learn how to use a real camera / tripod, but that will have to be for another day when I have more time.
Ski day turned into a car day!
The alarm went off at 5:30 am so that my youngest son, Shep, and I could hit the road early for first tracks at Crystal Mountain Ski Resort. A quick breakfast at Starbucks and then a two hour drive to get to the resort…we’ve done it a few times now and it all works out. The forecast called for a clear day with new snow falling overnight. That didn’t happen. By the time we got to Crystal, the snow was coming down like crazy. We managed to get a few good runs in but the concrete like snow and very low visibility was making it hard for a couple of newbies. The snot icicles weren’t helping either…it was cold and we called it a day after a few hours.
On the way home we had some time to explore in the Jeep. The Jeep loves fresh snow and forest roads almost as Shep loves chicken nuggets!
The way home takes us right through Enumclaw and I recently found out there is a small but really cool car museum that we’ve driven by a ton of times and didn’t even know it. We had the time so we stopped in to see the nice folks at the Thunder Dome Car Museum. Mostly classic American muscle cars but the draw for me is their Ford GT40 collection. Next to a 911, the GT40 is one of my all time favorite cars and I just love the story behind it (Ford vs. Ferrari tells it well but there are plenty of good documentaries).
The museum did not disappoint and here are some of my favorites (Shep was a trooper given how tired he was!):
A day at The Shop
After a few nice road trips, my black car (what was I thinking) was looking pretty dirty. Plus, I have been looking for an excuse to use the wash bays and lift bays at The Shop for the first time.
The Shop has all of the expensive equipment so I don’t need to buy it, I just need to bring in some of the consumables for the finer detail that they don’t have. When I’m feeling lazy, they also have full detail services but this time I wanted to do it all myself.
I also wanted to put the car on the lift, mostly so I could learn how to properly use the lift, but also because I wanted to verify some exhaust components. I managed (with some help) to get the car on the lift without breaking anything and confirmed that my car has the Speedtech 3″ x-pipe muffler delete exhaust but still has the stock Porsche catalytic converters.
Some other fun cars that I was able to check out while I was there…I’m always exploring that place and finding new ones!
911 Maniac 