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Below is a recounting of various car events I've attended along the years, from car club meets, autocrosses, track events, and enthusiast drives.

Table of Content for cars:

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2023/04/16 Woodland Auto Display at Paso Robles
π 2023-04-16 01:01 in Cars, Ncars
I had been there briefly 10 years prior, and had a chance to see it again. It felt bigger and with more displays, either way, it's a cool museum if you are in the area:

































2023/04/16 Solvang Motorcycle Museum
π 2023-04-16 01:01 in Cars, Ncars
While in Solvang, there was a small motorcycle museum, which despite the small size, had lots of bikes, cool collection to go through:

















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2023/01/28 Mozart Foundation Automobile Museum
π 2023-01-28 01:01 in Cars, Ncars
Very interesting private collection gathered in a small museum in the middle of Mountain View, and that no one knows about since it's not really open to the public. The owner however does open his collection for occasional visits to a few select car clubs, and I was lucky enough to be part of one of those visits. Definitely has some unique vehicles, some one of a kind and that took 20 to 30 years of perseverance before he was able to acquire them:




































2022/08/20 Saturday at Monterey Car Week
π 2022-08-20 01:01 in Cars, Ncars
This time I went saturday with one of my friends. We drove separately and she left her car at Bring a Trailer at Laguna, which gave us free entrance and free parking, which otherwise aren't cheap.

it was foggy as it often is early in the morning
it was foggy as it often is early in the morning

nice parking behind turn 3
nice parking behind turn 3

Bring a Trailer had a nice collection of customer pictures:






very cool Citroen DS, hatchback no less
very cool Citroen DS, hatchback no less

nicely done, manual coffee grinder, coffee and croissants
nicely done, manual coffee grinder, coffee and croissants






leather straps for the win
leather straps for the win



We also got to see parts of a few races:


best view was from the corkscrew
best view was from the corkscrew






nice to see a pagani lap the track
nice to see a pagani lap the track


I have a short video:

We got to see a few races after that:




Then, we got to see the other cars on the track:


























Next we went to Exotics on Broadway in Seaside, which was quite busy:













interesting split wings
interesting split wings























Next, we went to Pebble Beach, but we arrived a bit late (15:00) and most things were gone:





Ferrari had a corral you could pay extra to look at closely:



Also some concept cars:







We were supposed to go see Bentley, but we never found them until they were closed, so we saw a few other cars and were done for the day:








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2021/08/13 A bit of car week in Salinas and Carmel by the Sea
π 2021-08-13 01:01 in Cars, Ncars
Joon was nice enough to hook me up and I signed up for the Mclaren AutoX in Salinas. It had been almost 15 years since I last autocrossed, and never autocrossed any of my more recent fast cars. So I started by going to Salinas Airport, that was fun:










I then did a few runs, and got my times down

this was the best time of the day
this was the best time of the day


I got 2 better times even, but they didn't count because I touched some cones
I got 2 better times even, but they didn't count because I touched some cones

My best unofficial time was only 0.5s slower than their chief instructor and my tires were way past their prime, so I was pretty happy with that :)

I got a price, woohoo :)
I got a price, woohoo :)

After the autoX, I went to Carmel to enjoy the nice downtown, sea view, and cars:





lots of nice houses
lots of nice houses














police nicely closed Ocean Av after a while, sigh...
police nicely closed Ocean Av after a while, sigh...





I went to see a few nice stores to kill some time


After a few hours, it was time to go to the Mclaren reception (thanks again Joon)















and I ran into Dan, awesome!
and I ran into Dan, awesome!

I had never been to Monterey/Carmel during car week. That wasn't exactly the perfect day to go, but it sure was fun. Glad that I was able to make it.

2021/07/24 Mclaren Cars and Coffee to Exotics Cars and Cofffee
π 2021-07-24 01:01 in Cars, Ncars
Two Cars and Coffee in a row, sure, sounds like fun :) First went to meet the Mclaren crowd, and it was a big turnout:






nice, I hadn't seen this GT before
nice, I hadn't seen this GT before


We then drove to the Cars and Coffee location, we had a nice lineup:


lots of cars
lots of cars


of course, other car groups too:








a Senna, nice!
a Senna, nice!


bad ass looking
bad ass looking


so tiny, don't roll it
so tiny, don't roll it



nice
nice


winner of the widest tires
winner of the widest tires

2021/07/10 FOC Mt Hamilton Grand View Meet & Drive
π 2021-07-10 01:01 in Cars, Ncars
It was nice to be invited to an FoC event and join a large amount of supercars. Cynthia was happy to join me to enjoy all the cars. We met them at a parking lot in Milpitas:












We then went for a short and slow-ish drive to Joseph Frant Ranch County Park, where we got more pictures:





















From there, we drove back down to Grandview Restaurant for a nice buffet lunch:









From there, people left but there is no way Cynthia and I could just leave while Mt Hamilton peak was 35mn away up the road according to google maps. The road was totally empty, we made up in 22mn, it was glorious :) (google says 14 miles, so that's 38mph average, just under the 40mph speed limit, so it's all good, right? :) ).





The way down, we were just as lucky, we made it all the way down in 26mn flat and only had to pass a single car. Woot! (google says 18.8 miles, so that's 43mph average)

2021/04/26 First DC Track Day at Thunderhill
π 2021-04-26 01:01 in Cars, Ncars
It had been a while since I got up early to fly to Thunderhill (well, not that early, 6:15), almost 2 years. Damn... Beautiful flight:






Thanks to Ren and driveclub for inviting me to their track day. Lots of cars, lots of drivers of different ability and it worked beautifully considering, I was beyond impressed.



hi joon
hi joon

represent!
represent!

I arrived just in time for a group picture, but got in trouble for getting there a bit too quickly (oops):






Social distanced-ish meeting time, and then driving most of the day:


Lots of different cars:





I rented a Porsche GT4 clubsport from SP Motorsports, and Paul took good care of me (thank you). It was a fun new car for me to learn to drive. It had enough power, the brakes were really good, the included tires were scrubs, so that was the main downside (real slicks cost a lot). Still, eventually got the car down to 1:57 when it's apparently good for 1:53 with proper tires and a real driver, so that's not too bad:




after a good day of driving where I used up all the brakes :)
after a good day of driving where I used up all the brakes :)

That was my best lap in the afternoon on one of my few almost clean laps (didn't get many) and 2nd set of scrubs before they went downhill. 1:57 is 9 sec slower than what I would do in my F458 GT3, but well, that car is a bit cheaper too :)

After that, the scrubs got worse, and I got more tired, so I went back to 1:58 and above, but still had a great time.

Thank you to everyone involved in making the day happen, it was lots of fun!

The flight back was also nice and uneventful (i.e. good):








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2020/11/28 Skyline to the Sea Loop
π 2020-11-28 01:01 in Cars, Ncars
Damn, it's been more than a year since our last drive. It was short and sweet, but after so long, it was nice. Lots of people on the road though, but I was lucky enough to get mostly clear roads for most of the fun bits:










really nice, inside
really nice, inside

social distanced meeting
social distanced meeting

We then went for the drive. It was fun once I was able to get some free road on hwy84, all the way to the beach:











huge line at alice's resaurant, we skipped it and went home
huge line at alice's resaurant, we skipped it and went home

Thanks to all, it was fun.

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2020/11/01 Trying Out a Kuga Campervan With Off The Grid AC Inverter Improvements
π 2020-11-01 01:01 in Cars, Ncars
We got a Kuga Campervan for a road trip from travellers-autobarnrv. While the underneath platform is a crap chevrolet with a gas guzzling engine, unreliable AC/heating, poor build quality across the board (gaps in the door seals creating major wind noise, we had to fix them with duct tape), and not even a glove box, it actually worked pretty well for our national parks trip, and as much as the platform vehicle is on the poor side, the campervan conversion is quite good.
We definitely looked at competing options, but turns out they were both a lot more expensive and had a very poor kitchen in comparison (including total lack of 120V support of any kind, and of course no microwave, and microwave is great to quickly heat food and drinks on the road)

You can read about our two trips with it, here:

  • http://marc.merlins.org/perso/trips/post_2020-10-30_Road-trip-to-Dallas-via-Arizona_-New-Mexico_-and-Texas-National-Parks-plus-Oklahoma-City.html
  • http://marc.merlins.org/perso/trips/post_2020-11-11_Road-trip-from-Dallas-back-to-CA-via-Texas-and-New-Mexico-National-Parks.html
  • Here are specs on the converted vehicle: Kuga Campervan PDF Specs

    Platform

    It doesn't win beauty contests (ok, the decals and color scheme don't help), it's top heavy and will be happy to tip over on a curvy road if you drive it like a regular car, but it is practical and much easier to handle than a full RV:


    the Kuga didn't like twisty mountain roads though, it was a boat to drive and the seats in the back would fly around
    the Kuga didn't like twisty mountain roads though, it was a boat to drive and the seats in the back would fly around

    One plus side of the gas guzzling V8 though, was that I never felt it didn't have enough power. The van was ECU limited to 100mph, as the engine could do more, and I was easily able to reach 85mph+ climbing at altitude. Too bad the vehicle doesn't have a more efficient V6 turbo like some competitors.

    That said, the conversion inside is the better one I found amongst rentals I looked at:

  • decent size fridge fully powered by big enough solar panels (it'll run forever without plugging in or driving). Competition often required you to plug in if parking for a few days, or run the engine
  • The kitchen is legit. Proper gas burners with an 8 gallon propane tank, not a little camping stove thing you screw in and out every time you need it
  • A nice sink with more than 15 gallons of water (not safe to drink for reasons that are a bit complicated to go into)
  • And the big bonus is: a microwave. With the microwave, we ended up heating most of our food and barely use the gas outside of cooking eggs and stuff like that.
  • The one thing missing, which is available in more expensive campervans, is a toilet. Having some makeshift toilet would have been nice, but realistically it's not in any campervan of that class.
  • Power System

    Back to the power system, our version (not all Kugas have power fed from the alternator to the rear battery, but ours did as I requested it), the main issue, was that the microwave, or expresso machine we added, would not work unless the van wan plugged in utility power (RV site), so I decided to fix that.

    this is how it's supposed to work
    this is how it's supposed to work


    similarly, RV sites have water that you can use to refill the Kuga
    similarly, RV sites have water that you can use to refill the Kuga

    This is how it looks by default: big cable to allow jump starting the car if its battery is dead, power input from the car's alternator to charge the battery when the engine is on, and solar charge controller:


    my big 3000W inverter didn't quite fit in the battery cabinet, but there was a hole to feed cables to the battery
    my big 3000W inverter didn't quite fit in the battery cabinet, but there was a hole to feed cables to the battery

    the kitchen is definitely better than other campervans that trade this space for a 2nd row of seats
    the kitchen is definitely better than other campervans that trade this space for a 2nd row of seats

    Because I made a temporary addition, I didn't wire the inverter into the car's 120V system, so cheated by making a male-male plug (totally illegal ;) ):


    Two things have to be done to use the inverter: turning off external power (to make sure outside power is never backfed into the inverter), and the 2nd breaker turns off battery charging from external power. This one is important or the battery charger tries to charge the battery from 120V while the 120V is coming from the battery through the inverter:


    our Kuga had been upgraded with a 12V and USB plug coming from the battery, my inverter meter is on the left. The 12V plug there was only good for 10A though, so you can't use it for an inverter
    our Kuga had been upgraded with a 12V and USB plug coming from the battery, my inverter meter is on the left. The 12V plug there was only good for 10A though, so you can't use it for an inverter

    Here is a demo of the microwave. The start was a bit rough because the microwave needs around 150A from the 12V battery at start, my connecting cables didn't have the best connection for so many amps, and the battery was a bit low, so the voltage sagged a bit at start:

    Demo of the expresso machine, which also requires over a 1000W and peaks at more than 120A on the 12V battery:

    I will however stress that, if you attempt this:

  • have a good understanding of Amps, Volts, and wire gauges. Understand how many Wh are usable in your 12V battery, so that you don't run it flag and damage it
  • if your battery is not fully charge, run the engine and the alternator will bring in a lot of extra amps
  • unless you really know what you're doing, not the best thing to do a rental vehicle. If you damage the electrical system, that's on you. If you create a terrible short without a fuse and start a fire, that's definitely on you
  • you need a big inverter, and it really should be pure sine wave or the microwave will not be happy. My inverter is 3000W for a 1500W use.
  • you need thick and short cables between the inverter and the battery. 150-200A is a lot of amps, you need fat cabling for this to work, and many inverters come with cables that are too thin.
  • again, keep track of your battery voltage. Running 1500W from the battery will work for 5 to 10mn at most if the battery is full, or not at all if it ran the fridge all night and it's low on charge in the morning
  • Lead acid batteries get damaged if you run them down, the Kuga's electrical system does not have a low voltage battery disconnect (it could), so it is on your to make sure the battery is not run down
  • Space in the Kuga

    While the Kuga can fit 3 people, it's not comfortable when you drive (the middle seat is small and narrow). Also, the 3rd person needs to sleep on top, which requires setting up boards and shifting luggage every night (we did use the top space to store luggage, which was more for 3 people). Yes, you can have a passenger ride in the back, it's legal in some states, illegal in some others (CA, but no points for the driver, while in NM it's definitely a big fine for the driver)

    The kuga is not meant to have 2 boards on top, or hold luggage or more than the first, non moveable, board. If you put 2, you need a way to stop the luggage from flying off, and even the board from sliding around:

    because there was no way to stop the bottom board from sliding, I jerry rigged something with duct tape and got it secured that way. Ghetto, but it worked well enough.
    because there was no way to stop the bottom board from sliding, I jerry rigged something with duct tape and got it secured that way. Ghetto, but it worked well enough.

    normally if you only need the minimal of luggage depth, there is fabric and clips to hold things
    normally if you only need the minimal of luggage depth, there is fabric and clips to hold things

    this was the 2nd board before I found the way to properly secure it
    this was the 2nd board before I found the way to properly secure it


    The bottom bed is big enough, albeit a bit short. I'm 5"10 / 1M77, and my feet stuck out a bit, but thankfully stopped just before the doors:

    One of the boards used for the bed, is conveniently also the table, that works pretty well:


    we can also note on this picture that the pantry had decent space
    we can also note on this picture that the pantry had decent space

    At the end of the trip, we had to refill the little propane we used:


    the container is well sized and should be enough for most trips
    the container is well sized and should be enough for most trips

    Conclusion

    The Kuga is not even close to a $200,000 custom converted Mercedes campervan, but it also doesn't come close to costing the same. It's so much cheaper. We got ours from travellers-autobarnrv and we were very happy with the pricing and service (including free unlimited miles).

    And here are the adventures we went on with ours. Maybe it'll inspire you for yours:

  • http://marc.merlins.org/perso/trips/post_2020-10-30_Road-trip-to-Dallas-via-Arizona_-New-Mexico_-and-Texas-National-Parks-plus-Oklahoma-City.html
  • http://marc.merlins.org/perso/trips/post_2020-11-11_Road-trip-from-Dallas-back-to-CA-via-Texas-and-New-Mexico-National-Parks.html

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