A Welcome Back and the Pursuit of Automotive Perfection

The past 4 years have seen me going through a long list of cars, in hopes of finding the right car. The first casualty of this search for perfection was my beloved FRS. A car which I had modified to my liking started to feel stale once the mods stopped. I had the coilovers, good Enkei wheels and a muffler delete exhaust, along with a couple other minor aesthetic updates to make it my own. But as I stared at it in its final form more and more, I realized that I had done what I could with it, given my financial situation. Even if money were no option though, I saw nothing else on the aftermarket front that made me want to push the car further. I grew bored as a result, and was traded in at the dealer, still wearing the mods that made it mine to begin with.

2014 Scion FRS photo cred: Ethan Hsu

The FRS gave way to the 2013 Mustang GT/CS, as I searched for a new, faster vessel to express myself and modify. At first the mods came quickly, finding a second hand Roush exhaust on eBay as well as a couple touches on the interior to make it more comfortable.

But as I drove this all American powerhouse, the same longing that I felt when I had the FRS came back and consumed me once again. This time instead of trading in, I decided to get a project. That project was the anime hero AE86. It was loud, uncomfortable, and everything I was looking for… Until it broke. I was once again back to just the Mustang. I added wheels, and enjoyed driving the Mustang once again. Until that broke down as well.

2013 Mustang GT/CS Photo cred: Anthony Cole

The Mustang was repaired quickly, but as other parts of that car started to fail, essential things such as air conditioning, I once again was back to the song and dance of looking for a replacement car that would fulfill that need I have of driving something that I can make my own. And I thought I had found that car.

Enter the 2017 VW GTI. I test drove it and fell in love, in much the same way I had fallen in love with the Mustang, although for different reasons. I reasoned that it was time for something more practical, given that the AE86 had filled the hole of loud and impractical toy. It handled well, went quickly, and did everything that I wanted it to do. I went home with it, leaving my Mustang behind, another loss in the endless pursuit that I embarked on to find the perfect car.

2017 Volkswagen GTI

As we look on now to present day, the GTI fulfills daily duties and the 86 continues to be the toy that I always wanted it to be. I couldn’t ask for more out of the 86, it’s become an indispensable part of my life. The GTI, however, finds itself in the same spot as the FRS and Mustang that preceded it. The desire and the need to modify the GTI hasn’t called to me and now I find myself bored with my latest decision and the longing to make a switch has taken over my life. And as I reflect on my past decisions, I can admit that I made mistakes switching between cars to quickly. And although I’ve put myself in a tough spot financially, the drive to find the next best thing will continue to push me, and hopefully I can find the perfect fit. Or else the cycle will continue.

The new BMW M5 and Pagani Huayra R Spotted Testing

It’s a bit of a slow news day with no major car show going on until Frankfurt in September and F1 off for another week but there are a couple new cars that have been spotted testing in heavy camo recently.

The first car is the next generation BMW M5 that was spotted at none other than the Nurburgring. Not much is known about the next M5, but according to Autocar, it should be using an updated version of the current M5’s 4.4 liter twin-turbo V8, making around 600 hp. They also believe the next M5 will be the first to come with optional all-wheel drive.

The other high performance car that’s been spotted testing is the Pagani Huayra R. It has been known that a higher performance version of the Huayra was planned, much the same way the Zonda kept getting performance upgrades over its 12 year production run. The new Huayra should be aiming for the likes of the LaFerrari, Mclaren P1 and Porsche 918 according to Autocar, and I believe that means power output above 800 hp for the Huayra R. The current Huayra makes 720 hp and weighs less than 3000 pounds, so it should be a formidable vehicle.

No date has been set to reveal either car, but it’s never to early to speculate, no matter how wrong it might be.

Why Groups like Paisa Drift are Ruining the Car Scene for the Rest of Us

If you’re a car enthusiast that’s been alive in the past 50 years, chances are that you’ve been lumped together with the illegal street racers of the world. Whether you build hot rods, track cars or show cars, people will look at you in a negative light because of the actions of those who street race. Cops will be more likely to go after you because “your car looks like it races.” And the Paisa Drift incident in LA this past weekend is another example of why people hate car enthusiasts.

In case you haven’t heard, video surfaced last weekend of an illegal drift meet up in Turnbull Canyon in LA when things went wrong and one of the drivers lost control and crashed into several parked cars, as well as one person and drove off without helping. Thankfully the person who got hit is ok and suffered very minor injuries, but it doesn’t excuse what happened.

The reaction across the scene has been extremely negative, with everyone condemning the actions of what happened that day. Even Formula Drift came out with a statement calling for people to keep drifting on the track. And honestly I’m glad more and more people are trying to get away from the street racing/drifting crowd.

However, it will take more than just the enthusiast crowd condemning these actions to change the general public’s opinion on the car scene. The only things they see about the car scene is all of the negatives. The news will only cover the numerous street racing busts that go on, but won’t talk about the car guys who go out and do cruises for charities. And that’s because negative news sells. Who cares about all the good we can do when there are a few bad eggs drag racing in an industrial district somewhere. And because our cars look like the cars going out and street racing, they lump us in with them.

And I for one believe that it will never change. Normal people don’t seem to understand that cars are an extension of who we are. What they see as an appliance we see as a part of who we are. They don’t understand why we would want to modify our cars or why we would even buy the cars in the first place. There will never be that mutual understanding.

And it’s because of this gap that car enthusiasts who do modify their cars will always be put in the same group as morons like Paisa Drift and the street racers of the world. As far as our neighbors and fellow road users are concerned, we’re only loud, annoying nuisances that they have to deal with. They will call the police to come hassle us about the mods we do, whether we street race and more than likely give a fix it ticket for our pride and joy. This is what is scaring so many people out of the scene, because they don’t want to have to deal with all of the negative attention given to us.

I sincerely hope things like this stop happening in the future, not just from a safety perspective, but because I hope that people will see that car enthusiasts aren’t just speed demons who cause accidents. But if people like Paisa Drift continue their ways, then change will never come and the car scene will never be seen in a positive light.

A Recap of the Major Storylines After this Weekend’s British Grand Prix

This weekends British Grand Prix in Silverstone has to be one of the most exciting grand prixs this season, even though the final result looked very much the same as every other race this season, with Mercedes coming home 1-2 once again. Here’s a recap of what happened on and off the track over the weekend.

The “Driving Purity” Argument is going to Kill Sales of the GT86 and the New Miata

It’s the most common phrase when talking about the Mazda Miata or the FRS/BRZ/GT86. “It’s a great car, but it needs more power.” You see it said in every review, every comparison test and from every keyboard warrior who doesn’t have a drivers license. And even with the cries for more power growing louder and louder each time someone mentions the Miata or Scion FRS, the manufacturers of both cars refuse to do anything about it.

The 5 Places and Things you Need to do as a Petrolhead

As a petrolhead, there are certain things that we all want to do in our lives, events we want to go to, things we experienced, so heres a list of the 10 places and things you need to do as a petrolhead.

Why the Automotive Industry has Gone Bonkers in 2015 and Why It’s Fantastic

Courtesy of Motor Trend

Nowadays, most car manufacturers are accused of being to conservative in the products they produce and not taking chances out of fear that they won’t have the profit margins they are looking for. And those concerns are understandable, since they are businesses, where the objective is to make as much money as possible. With that said, it seems the automotive industry has gone absolutely crazy building cars that no one imagined would be built 10 to 15 years ago.

The best example of the industry losing its mind would have to be the Hellcat twins from Dodge. I want to personally find the person at Dodge that thought a 707 horsepower Charger and Challenger would be a good idea and give them a hug. Not for long though, cause they should probably be back in the looney bin by now. And you have to remember the time we live in, where tree-hugging and environmental awareness are huge things now. To build a supercharged V8 that gets burns just as much gas as it does tires is a bold move on the part of the whole Chrysler group’s part.

And the same goes for Ford. Their new Mustang GT350 is absolutely nuts. A flat-plane crank V8 that revs to at least 8000 RPM in a Mustang? Someone put something in Ford’s water, because that would never happen 15 years ago. And a Focus RS coming to American shores? Unheard of.

But that’s where the automotive industry is going. Even Nissan built a front-wheel drive LMP1 car. And in the world of Le Mans prototypes where all the cars are mid engined, thats a bold move on the part of Nissan. It wasn’t a very successful opening outing at Le Mans, but the fact that a huge company like Nissan took a huge leap of faith and went against the status quo says a lot about where we are today.

Although many manufacturers today are taking less chances with their main line of cars, the long line of nuts performance cars and race cars means that there are more happy car enthusiasts than ever.

Welcome to the Machine

Hello car fans of the Internet, and welcome to my blog. If you couldn’t tell already, my name is Clayton and hopefully I’ll be able to bring some interesting content for you to take in each day.

What you can expect to see here is a lot of news from the world of cars and motorsport, as well as opinions from myself on a variety of things within the world of motoring. Along with all that, I may share some of my car-related adventures that I may go on here in Southern California. So stay tuned, there’s a lot of good things coming over the horizon.