Shit, we're getting pretty deep here

I try to include Casey as much as possible with my hobby, but she lets me do my thing without interruption. She has made comments in the past that I love my car more than anything else, but I do my best show her that that's not true. I just enjoy cars - taking pictures of them, working on them, driving them, washing them...it's therapeutic for me. She gets it, most of the time. And I'm getting better at reading when it isn't a good time to indulge myself.

But overall we make it work. She knows I'm gonna do me when I need to, just like she's gonna do her when she needs to.

I know that once we start a family, cars will have to take a back seat for a while. It will be hard for me, but it will be worth it. Part of the reason I'm "downsizing" to one car and clearing out my stash of parts is because I want to save some money for a project car I can work on with my child, so we can share my hobby and build something together - which is not something I had growing up. Casey is on board with that - even though she still thinks of cars as appliances
​​​​​

 

It's great that you (both) seem to be with people who can welcome your car hobby at least as something that gives you measurable enjoyment, regardless of their own personal interest in it.

Nope, none of that cool stuff for me. There are a decent amount of shock options which are probably cheaper - I think shocks in general are relatively pricey to upgrade.

Why the port injection? Carbon buildup or is it somehow preferable when dealing with higher power? At almost 100k miles, I need to take a look at my intake manifold soon.

 

It definitely helps keep carbon buildup to a minimum, but I really want to run it to give me a bit more headroom for ethanol.


It also sounds cool on the overrun.

 

I have grown to realize that with relationships, unless your significant other is a straight up cunt or you have a degenerate or debilitating hobby like gambling or drugs, she will probably be understanding and accommodating. The important thing of course is that you don't spend a disproportionate amount of time or money on the hobby over her.

My ex was a manipulative cunt but she would actually let me play games for 5-6+ hours on weekend days if I took care of things around the house, ran errands and had meals with her, etc.

 

You're a sharp guy, Morgan.
You got it figured out young.

 

It helps to have a partner that makes you want to take them into consideration and spend time with them.
I personally basically only work on my cars when my SO works and/or the kids are with their other parents.
I don't let it get in the way.
Having the baby didn't slow down my hobby at all though, I involve her every chance I get.

 

Sounds like the perfect time to bring some parts back from the motherland :wink:

 

Way to blow up his spot, Jason

 

the only spouse on here is mrs. peguin

 

I'm naked on my webcam.

 

My wife will never understand my hobbies (i.e. watches, cars, robots)...but, she knows who she married and understands they are what makes me...well, me. She accepts them and gives me my time and space for them. And per what the peeps have said, it's obviously all within reason. If I all I did was immerse my life in my interests and not her or the family...well, yeah, somebody is gonna get a hurt real bad. Somebody.

 

Do you look like a snowflake?

 

Uhhh...bro? Ship them north (if the price is right)!

Good call. Where in Germany are you going? I was just there in Munich a month ago and loved it.

You sir are a wise one.

 

More like a blizzard.

 

mmm...from Dairy Queen?

 

I tend to overanalyze a lot of things, but sometimes it's a good thing - like when I analyze my failed relationships

This is something I've mentioned to Casey many times - I only have two or three hobbies, but cars have pretty much shaped my life. They've kept me sane in the rough patches, they've given me purpose when I otherwise felt like I was floundering my way through life, and they've introduced me to some really awesome people. This is all stuff I want to share with my kids someday.

The thought has crossed my mind

I have a few locals interested in them, but if they're not gone by the weekend, we can talk.

We're heading to Munich for two days, then Stuttgart, and then to Paris. We'll be hitting up the MB, BMW and Porsche museums

And J is the wise one.

​​​​​

 

Don't threaten me with a good time.

 

That'll be my Germany trip eventually, as well, with a few laps of the 'Ring as well.

 

avoid that one curve on the ring! I have been watching non stop youtube crashes of that.
LOL...I literally have only gotten good from analyzing my failed relationships. I'm like, well the last 2 had the same
complaint, I should probably do something about it.

and
i'm not wise, I'm old!

 

Unfortunately the 'Ring is about 4hrs away from where we're going to be

We've toyed with the idea of renting a car to drive from Munich to Stuttgart, so I can drive the Autobahn. But from what I've read, that area isn't completely deristricted, and there's usually traffic. High speed trains are pretty cheap though, so I have no problem sticking to train travel for most of the trip.

yep, there are times I notice myself falling back into the same habits from previous relationships, and I have to stop, breathe, and then apologize I even tell Casey to call me out on my shit right away, just in case I don't realize it. And she's pretty good at it

Same thing.

 

What I've realized is that they usually tell you they are fed up WAY before they do something about it.
by the time they do something about it, it's too late and we look like a deer in headlights.
Also it helps to look within at your choices in who you are picking to date too. Either way,
every day is an improvement...with that mentality, you can't go wrong. In solving all problems...
relationships, cars, house, work...everything.

 

you also have to want to do better, and sometimes it just takes the right person for you to realize that.


On a less emotional/relationship level, I get the alignment done this morning:



Seeing the camber measurements for the front, I'm happy I went with a less aggressive top mount option. -1.8° is plenty for my purposes. The car drives straight as an arrow now, and steering feels even more direct, and weights up nicely (it's weird what out of spec toe adjustments can do to the feel of a car).

 

Awesome, let me know.

I did the BMW museum and factory tour, definitely do the factory tour, it's worth it. You do have to book that one ahead of time though. The museum has tours as well but we just did the self guided thing and walked around. Didn't get a chance to do MB or Porsche with other things we were doing.

The autobahn is a lot of fun but a lot of the areas around the cities are either restricted, under construction, or too crowded to go all that fast. Also, most of the rental cars you'd reasonably get are terrifying to get up to any kind of real speed lol.

Words of advice for Munich;

- Sign up for walking tours of the city, well worth the time and money. We did a food and beer tour of the city and it was excellent. Also did a walking history tour and it was great too.
- Public transport is phenomenal, use it. Google maps is well integrated with their system so it's easy to get around using maps.
- Walk into the hofbrau haus to just look around, don't eat/drink there. The Augustiner brewery a block over is 1000x better, cheaper, and less crowded. None of the locals like the hofbrau haus either.
- Try ethic restaurants there, we had some of the best Indian food I've ever had in my life in Munich.
- There is no AC anywhere so hope you're ready to sweat.
- Trains out of the city are great and easy to get to, would recommend.
- The main train station is pretty ghetto (relatively) so avoid it as much as you can.

I was there for two weeks and my wife was there for work for three months, if you have any questions let me know! Have fun!

Oh and Paris smells like piss and is full of rude French people.

 

pro tip - either speak french or use a fake british accent in paris. they hate americans.
they start off rude, but they are tons worse when they think you are an entitled american.
they hate trump, they hated bush...they think we are all imbeciles.

 

Either that or fly the flag high and own what it means to be an arrogant American.

Then ask them how WW2 would have gone if not for Americans.

Back to back world war champs!

 

Thanks for the tips! We're going at the beginning of December for Casey's birthday, so the lack of AC shouldn't matter. We're both foodies too, so our trips typically revolve around where we're eating.

Oh, and the best rental we could realistically afford would be an A6 Avant. I'm pretty sure it's a diesel though. But once you factor in the cost of gas, it's about twice what the train costs. Which train station are you referring to?

Oh, so they align with 70% of Americans

I'm handling the German speaking, and Casey is handling French - I'm learning a bit of the basics to communicate without attracting disdain from the locals. I've read that most Parisians speak English, but they appreciate when people take the initiative to at least try to speak French.

We can't finish a war we start, but we'll gladly jump into one half way through! 'Murica!!

 

Sam, remind me to order my own freedom fries sans spit.

 

December should be great, you can hit up the Christmas market. Not the real one but whatever. I wouldn't even bother with top speed runs in the winter time. All cars in Europe are mandated to have winter tires during a certain time of the year so your rental will probably have some crappy low end winter tires that won't be great for going over ~120km/hr. There's a main train station (hauptbahnhof) in the city which is where all the undergrounds (U-bahn) congregate as well as the trains that leave the city. Then there are other stations where the various undergrounds also meet up but you can't leave the city from there. It's easy to figure out when you see a map.

Munich is an incredibly wealthy city though, you shouldn't have any issues. I've never seen so many high end cars just street parked all over. You'll regularly run into people street parking 911 Turbo S's, MB AMG models of all kinds, Bentleys, Ferraris, Audi R8s, etc. And that's just where the car lives, it's not a temporary spot lol. You won't have any issues with language, mostly everyone speaks at least a little english.

French people also speak English but they are dicks and won't admit it. I'm not sure if they like your broken French more or not. I didn't like Paris at all. IMO it's worth visiting but it's definitely not worth going back to.

 

qft.

 

Watch your mouth, bitch

 

You have balls, Tyler. Especially knowing there's a good chance she'll see that you wrote this to her.

 

 

Not much to update on - just some general maintenance. It was time to replace the stock plugs after 13,749 miles. I had gotten some random misfires and the powerband was a bit choppy at times, so I figured it was time. Besides, plugs on these cars are suggested to be replaced every 12-15k miles, especially when tuned. Overall, they didn't look too bad. I put in some Denso IKH24s gapped to .024", but a few people I've talked to have suggested closing the gap to .02-.022", which I'll probably do tomorrow night

Overall, the car drives much better then it did. It feels way stronger in the mid-range and the choppiness in the 2-4k rpm range is gone.

Other then that, I've got to pull some logs and send them off to a tuner I've been talking with to see if there's some improvements to be made to the base tune I'm currently running. I'm not expecting huge gains, but I'll be happy if driveability is improved even further.

 

12-15k miles

Maintenance items can be pleasurable to do, especially when you notice an improvement in driveability immediately after. And there's none of the financial guilt that sometimes comes with modding

Do you have a catch can?

 

Yeah these engines eat spark plugs due to the high boost levels. The Denso's are less than $40 for the set, so it's not terrible for a once-a-year item.

And no catch can. The PCV/EGR systems on these engines are actually pretty good, and unless the car is seeing heavy cornering loads, a catch can isn't needed. I do plan on getting port injection towards the end of the year to give me a bit more fueling overhead plus keep the valves clean.

 

ur smart

 

You overestimate me.

 

I wish you would let me overestimate you, bro.

 

Thirsty bitch

 

fuckin big gulp!