Cars & Coffee

Headed to the Cars & Coffee in Mclean, VA on Saturday.  The turnout was amazing!  The usual suspects were there, with a healthy showing of Ferrari's, Lambos, and Vettes.  This weekend had a healthy dose of Aston Martins, Audi R8's, Fiat 500's and cars featured in posters on my wall during my high school years.  My #1 favourite car of all time, and rarely seen completely bone stock anymore, is the Acura NSX.  I'm a fan of the original... stock rims and ride height, original paint, pop-up headlights, and the black roof.  This NSX was cherry, mint, pristine, whatever your word, it was it.  Someday...

Car #2 on my all time list of favourites, the Supra turbo.  Loved them then, love them now, the more stock the better.  This one is pretty close.

At a show like the Mclean show, the FR-S is not much of a novelty.  It gets some attention, but there are so many exotics and classics that it is more like the supporting cast than any start of the show.  I was parked in good company with a Cobra and a pristine 911 Carrerra GTS.

I had to snap the pic below, from an 850i for sale, circa mid-90's.  They don't make phones like that anymore! LOL (good thing!)

On Sunday the whole family attended the Cars & Coffee in Fair Lakes.  Definitely a smaller crowd, and the normal car to exotic car ratio is closer to 1 to 1, but met some great folks, and finally got to talk mods and characteristics of the FR-S with a BRZ owner and FR-S owner that were there.  Genuinely good guys and I learned quite a bit from folks who had logged more miles and performed some mods.  Good times!

Tail of the Dragon

This year the guys' weekend was planned for northern Georgia, just a stones throw from Tennessee.  I elected to drive, logging miles on the FR-S.  I also elected to insert Highway 129 into the route, since roads like that are the reason I own an FR-S.  After a scenic, uneventful, and ultimately boring jaunt for 6 hours down Interstate 81, I exited off in Knoxville, loaded up on gas and headed down 129.

Before you get to the section of road known as the Tail of the Dragon at Deal's Gap, you run past the Chilhowee Dam.  The leaves on the hills were very vibrant fall colors.  After the dam you run alongside Chilhowee Lake.  The view and vibe were spectacular and a perfect, tranquil lead-in to the Dragon.

It was a beautiful day.  I can see why so many motorcyclists, car enthusiasts, and people in general enjoy this drive.  Had my intentions not been testing the suspension and making the tires howl a little this would have been as scenic and enjoyable as our leisurely trip down Skyline Drive.  In fact, colors seemed to be at- or near-peak in this area of the country this past weekend.

I don't have any pictures from the run on the Dragon, for obvious reasons.  I started out enthusiastic but still mild by some standards, and almost immediately ran up on a Jeep Cherokee out for a leisurely drive.  Buzzkill.  I pulled off at one of the designated areas to let them get further down the road.  When I felt the elapsed time was adequate, I looked to resume the journey when I heard the roar of tuned exhaust coming up quickly. Three BMW 3-series of assorted vintage blew by and I headed out afterward to follow.  No sooner had I got into second gear when I saw the rest of the BMW crew that had lagged behind.  I was now in the middle of a BMW car club of some sort attacking the Dragon.

It was clear that many in the group were very familiar with the road.  Or, they were just in a really big hurry.  Regardless, given the fact that 3 were in front of me and 4 were behind me, I was committed to the pace.  Having lead cars in front made tackling the road much easier for the first time, helping to call out braking zones by watching the cars in front and how they moved over the terrain.  The FR-S was very flat, very stable, and appeared to be limited only by the all-season tires and the skill of the driver.  Keeping up with the pace was not an issue.  In most instances the traction assistance didn't come on at all, and if it did it was expected since I was digging hard out of a hairpin turn, hard on the gas and the tires would slip a bit.  It's pretty cool to be on a quick pace through a mountain road, and the bonus is that when there are enough of you, slow traffic gets out of the way quicker.

The Tail of the Dragon was a truly phenomenal drive.  There are so many different sections, so many turns, so much elevation change... so much personality.  I could see driving it numerous times repeatedly and getting something different out of it every time.  Hitting turns with varying approach angles, speeds, etc.  The Dragon was predominantly a second gear run with rare 1st gear or 3rd gear instances.  It was a major rush to drive, and was perfect to insert into the overall route.  I was grinning from ear to ear, laughing at times.  It was just pure Fun, in a Fun car.  Below is a picture of some of the BMW group after I was able to let them all regroup near the end of the run, and the FR-S at a scenic overlook.  Man, the smells coming from the car said it all!

I had to cut the trip short due to Hurricane Sandy coming, a hurricane with the same name as my mother-in-law, heading straight for the house.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Leaving Georgia at 6am, driving on the country roads in the dark, I decided to try the Dragon once more, hoping that by the time I got there at least some amount of daylight would show up.  And that the rain would stay away.  I got one out of two, there was no rain but it was still dark enough to require the high beams for the first 6 or 7 miles.  I was pretty much the only car out there.  The road was damp in places, the weather chilled, and leaves accumulated in certain sections due to lack or traffic.  Not ideal, and I had to back the pace well below where it was on the preceding trip.  Nonetheless it was a great drive and got the juices flowing better than any coffee.  As I neared the end and the sunlight began to appear I stopped snap a pic, given the fact that there was no one else around for miles.

These are the trips, the roads, the experiences that I bought the FR-S for.  I could have done these in the old Miata, and it would have been a great experience as well.  Different, top down, and raw.  But I never had the confidence in the old Miata to push it that hard on roads like this.  It also did miserably in the rain, without air conditioning and the flimsy top that Miatas have, and would have been equally miserable on certain legs of this trip.  Lastly, for the highway legs, the FR-S did awesome.  MPG was in the low 30's, stereo via USB as flawless, and the seats are as good at 80mph and straight as they are at 40mph and curvy.  The FR-S is loud on the highway compared to just about everything else in the $25K price range, but it's inviting and pleasant compared to the old Miata on the highway!  It's really an apples and oranges comparison when it comes to highway travel, but the car's can't be compared in a vacuum.  Some will excel at certain things and make compromises elsewhere.  The FR-S was essentially designed around this philosophy of compromises in certain areas in order to excel in others.

Columbus Day

Today me and the little one had off from reality to celebrate Columbus Day.  What to do?  Well, we were getting a bit stir crazy and we had a FR-S that was close to finishing break-in miles.  Time to head west!

This time we headed out to Luray in the Shenandoah region.  To get there, we had to cut through the Shenadoah National Park on highway 122, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip for me.  Unlike Skyline Drive which cuts north-south through the park, this road cuts east-west and has a 45mph speed limit as opposed to 35mph.  In addition it is multiple lanes at times to allow for passing, and is an upward climb with banked "S" and hairpin turns until you reach the peak at skyline drive, then is a downhill with more twists and turns.  I have no pictures of this part of the journey, but I was grinning ear to ear the whole time and only smiled more when my co-pilot yelled "Whee!  Daddy this is just like a roller coaster!".  And it was just like that.  We were hauling some serious speed through the turns and the car was absolutely planted.  I kept waiting for the rear to step out but it never did.  The phrase "on rails" came to mind, even with these miserable all-season tires.  Speaking of the tires, it was only 5 or 6 turns into the uphill jaunt that we could smell them, umm, heating up.  This was just a fantastic drive.  Never reckless, never out of control, few cars around, and keeping with the speed limit of 45, whether going straight or hitting a turn.  A very rewarding car in the turns and hills.  Power was adequate and since break-in was still ~80 miles from completion this was not an exercise in redlining.  Just maintaining a steady speed and letter the suspension and tires do their thing, keeping between the lines and keeping momentum.

First stop was the Luray Zoo where they had a surprisingly robust collection of venomous snakes, a Tiger that really didn't like me, and a noisy donkey that had a few personality issues.  Its a small zoo to say the least, but we had a good time if only for a short while.

This guy didn't like me.  I've never been yelled at by a tiger before.  I can take a hint, we moved on quite briskly.

Here are some goats and the crazy donkey.  I can't say I've heard a donkey do the stereotypical "EEE-AWWW" before to perfection, but this guy hit it dead on.

This is one of the venomous snakes, the king cobra.  He was very active and thankfully behind glass.

Still, it would get close enough to scare little children ;-)

After the zoo we hit up McD's across the street.  After that we headed back to Skyline Drive and another uphill climb on the twisty roads.  No pictures, but miles of smiles.

We headed into the park onto Skyline Drive north to begin a gradual route back home.  We stopped at the first overlook to take in the recently changing fall colors and hike a bit.  Below are some pictures from that stop.  I love seeing the changing colors, even if not a peak colors.  Its always a sight to behold, and the brisk cool mountain air is so refreshing.  Even if they are just "east coast" mountains.

A shot from down the trail.

This area below had some nice colors happening worth checking out.

This next stop had a great panorama and a cool tree to check out.

We were driving along as the weather began to turn rainy and the clouds began to form in the valley.  I am not a good enough photographer to capture how awesome these low clouds looked as they rolled through.

We headed out of the park and kept on north onto Lord Fairfax parkway, eventually hitting highway 7 and back to Leesburg.  The FR-S did fantastic when called on for enthusiast driving, and nice enough amenities and cruising disposition for the more leisurely travel segments.

Observations 1,000 miles in:

-This engine is a bit rackety at idle, both inside and outside.  This car has one of those gimmicky tubes that pipes in engine noise, so I'll look into disconnecting that to alleviate the cabin noise associated with the engine.
-Now that break in is over and I've been above 4,500 RPM several times, it is like a whole different car.  There's a horrible torque dip in the 3K-4K RPM range, and being able to shoot above that makes this car much more pleasant!
-I've got a random clunk when the suspension 'unloads', such as heading over a hill at speed where the weight shifts forward slightly.  Will have to research if something in the interior is loose or if this is a bushing issue.
-The suspension is much firmer than the 1996 Miata I had.  This thing will transmit all undulations in the road... which is great, it is sticking to the road like a slot car.  I can see how there will be people that get this car that will regret it though, based on ride quality.  This is a purpose built car, and it serves that purpose well.
-My original impressions that the car was a 'tail happy' car are not entirely true.  It is true that with minimal effort the tail can be kicked out.  However, I was concerned at speed that the car would be skittish on the rear end.  On the contrary, it stays planted so long as you're holding a smooth line and letting the suspension be predictable, and lets you drive out to the edge of tires or mettle.
-HD Radio has been a pleasant surprise once I figured out how to access the multiple "channels" offered by each station.
-Once the oil in the transmission is warmed up, this shifter is something else.  Just so nice.
-Fuel economy is 30.9 MPG.  We'll see what happens to that now that break-in is completed.

Sunday Drive

After the detail day it was time to do what the FR-S excels at... actually driving it.  As nice as it is to look at all shiny, it's still much better to get out and drive it.

Today's weather was fall perfection.  Mild temps, no rain, the leaves just starting to turn. My copilot was eager and ready for more country driving in the FR-S.  We headed out west before too much traffic was on the road, with no particular destination in mind but looking out for places to snap a few pictures of the new gloss on the car.  It had been over a week since driving the FR-S last, due to needing to jockey all of the other vehicles in for routine maintenance and Virginia safety inspection before the end of the month.

Our first stop was Hillsborough Winery on Charlestown Pike.  They were not yet open, but they have a great vista and nice hills with rows of vines.  Below are some pictures from their lot. In the bright sun, I'm finding this red is hard to photograph.

Shot with the grapevines in the background.

We left here and ended up in West Virginia driving some hilly, curvy roads.  Didn't hear many banjos, but did make a pit stop and grab some snacks and beverages.  Headed back into Virginia and through some farmland roads.  Stopped at a historic site on the way, in Aldie.

All in all an excellent journey.  These are the kinds of trips I used to make in my 1996 Miata, with the top down but without company.  I can now definitively answer whether or not I would regret not having a drop top.  The answer is no regrets.  The FR-S with windows down is plenty of fresh air, and it has a back seat, and if you have the right copilot, the journey will be that much better.  I couldn't have this passenger in the Miata:

Detail Day

Today was the first detail day for the FR-S.  I took the opportunity to freshen up the detail kit with some new polishes and pads, as well as try my first attempt using a paint sealant instead of a wax.

The car wash supplies ready for use, all but the clay bar just purchased from www.autogeek.net:

Citrus concentrated car wash
Mothers Clay Bar
Wolfgang Swirl Remover
Wolfgang Glaze
Lake Country Polishing Pads
Eraser spray
Opticoat 2.0

I started out with a wash and dry.  Once dry I used the clay bar on the entire car.  Even brand new you could hear the clay bar working and lifting the contaminants.  It was at this time I noticed how badly the dealership "detailer" scratched the paint.  It's kind of sad really.  After the clay was done I backed the car out for a second wash and dry.

Once dry, it was time to remove swirls.  I went to work on the dealership scratches and was able to mask them somewhat but not remove them.  I'm using a Porter Cable dual action polisher and to truly correct these scratches I would need a circular polisher and a whole lot more skill.  I elected to get it as good as I can get it and accept that there will be scratches sealed into the paint.  You have to look hard to see them, I'll know they are there, but if you're not looking for them you may miss them.  Below is a mid process shot of the swirl remover and pad.

Below is a shot of the front after swirl remover.  iPhone 3GS had a hard time focusing.

Next was the glaze.  It went on simple enough and really began to bring out depth in the red.   It was also applied with the polisher and a pad with less cut.

Below is a picture post glaze and before the Car Eraser rubdown.  The Eraser spray is an Isopropyl Alcohol spray that removes oils and deposits left behind by polishes.  When using a sealer, in order for it to effectively bond and seal, these oils and deposits must be removed.

All of this was done to prepare the car for Opticoat.  Opticoat is a sealer that chemically reacts and bonds to the clearcoat, making a protective layer on top of the clear.  It is known to last for 2 years before needing reapplication.  I have to admit, I was nervous to use this product.  It is the kind of product that barely comes with instructions, meaning it's not meant for average joe consumer.  In addition I had to certify I knew how to use this product prior to purchasing.  I watched some videos online and read on some detailing forums tips and tricks.  I was still uneasy though.  There are warnings galore.

This product is bizarre.  I went through the application process but have no idea if I did it right or if its adequate.  You basically put 4-6 little drops, yes DROPS, on the applicator pad and wipe in a cross hatch pattern.  This will be enough to do an entire panel, such as a fender, door, or quarter panel.  It doesn't look like much is going on, but these are the instructions and also is what the pro's were doing in the videos.  I would apply it, let it settle itself, and in about 2 minutes hit down and high spots with a light microfiber wipe.  I would go back after about 20 minutes to the panel and give it another light microfiber wipe.  I did this over the whole car, and it looked like I may have missed part of the hood so I did that a second time.  I gave one last light wipe down and the product must cure for 12 hours.  I don't believe the product was difficult to apply, though at this time I have no idea if I did it correctly.  It looks nice, but I don't know if I botched the job or not until water gets on it to see how even the coverage is.  Very unusual product and process to say the least.  This product is also safe on plastics, glass, whatever... but I just used it on the paint today.  Maybe I'll experiment on other materials another day.  Since it is only used 4 drops at a time, this appears to be a lifetime supply in this tiny syringe!

Some pictures after the Opticoat

The car reflects quite a bit now, even in the low light no-flash iphone pic in the garage. Last picture is me at the end, with the curve of the body panel giving me freakishly long E.T. fingers.

Early Morning Pics

FR-S had to make an early run to Dulles.  Super Early.  Which necessitated an equally early Starbucks trip on the way home, since they had just opened.  The air was brisk this morning, traffic was light, and 3 folks and some luggage fit no problem in the FR-S.

Departures zone at Dulles.  In the short time it took to take this picture a person appeared out of nowhere asking what kind of car it was, even at that early hour.  This car does that.

Stopped at Starbucks on the way home, snapped a pic.  I need to learn better photo skills with these camera phones.

Lansdowne Octoberfest

Today was the Lansdowne Octoberfest. Not much happened with the FR-S as a result. 'Nuff said.

First "Mod" Arrived

Unfortunately Virginia requires front license plates.  This is a pretty stupid law, but the law is the law.  The front end of the FR-S is beautiful. Thankfully since I ordered the car well in advance I was able to keep the dealer from drilling holes in the bumper.  But, that left me with figuring out how to mount the front plate.  I researched various options to zip tie the plate and/or plate bracket to the front end but felt that these would block too much airflow on a car that seemed to run on the hot side normally.  Instead I checked out the offset mounting options sold by Perrin and Grimmspeed.  I decided on the Grimmspeed mount and it arrived today!  The plate mounts to the front tow hook on the passenger side.  I'm going to hold off installing until the plate arrives from the DMV.  I wish I could go no plate, but this bright red car gets enough attention as it is!

The package from GrimmSpeed below.  Their customer service, packaging, and communication of order and shipping status were first rate.  Truly one of the better companies I've ordered from in a long time.

What? This has hands-free phone too?

Today reminded me of something about the FR-S that was a surprise feature I discovered after I bought it.  I had no idea that this car included bluetooth phone integration to where you can make and receive calls.  I knew it had bluetooth audio, but didn't realize it could handle full voice calls.  On the way home listening to some Pretenders the phone went off two separate times.  I gotta say, the bluetooth hands free worked flawlessly and the conversations were easy to hear even with the window down.  And it sure makes it alot easier to be on the phone and still shifting the manual transmission while talking.  I normally hate talking on the phone in the car.  The car is a place of solitude and getting away from things, if only for a short time.  But, if someone is calling, I'll answer, and it's nice to answer and still be able to row the gears.

Pic of the phone buttons on the radio

Go West

Had a busy day at work, had a hard time focusing once exhausted towards end of day.  How to regain focus?  Well, it was 69 degrees outside, no clouds, and if I hit the road before 4 I could avoid some NoVa traffic.  I headed West into rural Loudoun county to get some fresh air, curves and country.  Something about tree-canopied roads is just awesome.

The FR-S is at home on these roads.  I did not push it.  It's still break in.  And driving like a moron on public roads isn't my thing.  But there's nothing wrong with a quick corner here and there, keeping on the proper side of center.  My FR-S came with all season tires, and I'm just not sure what they can do yet, or when they'll give up grip at speed.  Body roll is well controlled side to side.  Pitch and dive from front to back is also well damped.  There's something pretty special about driving this car.  I'll be able to put it into words eventually.  Days like today were waiting for a car like this, for me.

Pic from the westward journey to clear my mind.

Initial Driving Impressions, first 200 miles

Initial impressions over the first 200 miles are mostly positive.

-Seat comfort is phenomenal.
-The shifter feels tight, mechanical, firm.
-The clutch is light and has an unusual engagement point.  It takes getting used to from a stop.
-The dash display with the headlights on is pretty cool.
-Exhaust note is different.  This is my first boxer engine.
-This car gets noticed.  Thumbs up received from several guys trapped driving SUV's.
-Acceleration seems adequate, even though I'm keeping it below 4,000 RPM for break-in.  Coming from a 1996 Miata the FR-S may as well be a muscle car in acceleration (yeah, I know, it's not).
-On Monday on a lunch run we had the first 'bummer' moment.  The idle began "hunting" and my passenger thought I was revving the engine.  Something to keep an eye on.  These cars have been having engine issues. 212 miles on the odo when this occurred.

Random Dash shot: