Modern-Day Mystery Machine

This guy has to work at Home Depot -that's where we always see it.

Had to share!

Take it all in...engine vent, spoiler, rims...

Now in Ghetto Flavas

nuf said

Sweet Goodies for your Eyes

I passed the white set with their fancy wheels on Friday.  Monday had a brand new set to feast one.  I couldn't not share!

Please ignore any dangers, cuationary thoughts, or crazy claims related to the fact that I'm taking the pictures from the road as I drive by - I'm in the turn lane. :)

I'll keep 'em coming for your enjoyment.

Just Jukin'

Bryce and I had the opportunity to go to Paris, post to come, in October and while there happened upon the Paris Auto show!  Super exciting, I know.  But it is a pretty good coincidence because it's held every other year.  This is where we found our true souvenir and my Christmas present.  At least Bryce keeps telling me that's what it is. :)  We didn't order it while we were there, but we did look at one and I even got to sit in it!

It's higher up than my tC was, has 4 doors which has been nice and is AWD so I can drive through fields and up mountains a bit easier.  Plus, you may not believe this, but someday...Someday....we might have kids. :)  So, we went for the leather seats for clean up ease.

The Juke has a turbo, torque-vectoring all-wheel drive, booty roasters, rear windshild wiper, and front and rear defrosters. :)  Ok, so I don't know what to tell you about it, but it's cool and I like it a lot.  Here are some more pictures from it in the US of A.

 Bryce's pride and joy:  You press the "Climate" button and it shows you the climate controls.

 You press the "D-Mode" button and it shows you your options..sport, normal, eco, etc... The car has a CVT which comes in all newer Nissan.  You can't feel the shifting in it (we got an automatice because Bryce said I don't need any other distractions while I drive) on sport mode, they put in fake shifting.

The rest of the story... Bryce and I were pretty picky with our list of wants on this car: spoiler, gun metallic paint, SL trim, and AWD.  Apparently these are hot items.  We called about a couple in North Carolina, one in West Viriginia, and Kentucky.  They had all just been sold when we asked about them and we found one more in Virginia, just outside of DC.  We called, ask them to hold it and said we'd be up there that weekend to pick it up.  We sold my car to CarMax and went a couple days as a one-car family.  Flew up to the Dulles airport, Thanks Delta!, and drove 10 hours home.  We did get to have a fun night with Tanya, James, Taja-Maya and TomCat.  Thanks guys we couldn't have done it without you!

The Juke.

Motor Mount, Motor Mount - goes so FAST!

This is Bryce's newest "improvement" to his Speed3.  This is a motor mount.  This one is specifically designed to be stiffer so the engine doesn't move as much in the engine bay at full throttle - during acceleration. Basically it makes the engine hold still so he can shift smoother. :)

This is the stock motor mount.

This a comparison between the old one (left) and the new one (right).  Bryce would like you to take notice of the gaps on the old one and how solid the new one is.  You can push the old one in with your hands and the new one is noticeably stiffer.

Beauty shot!  The new motor mount is in place and ready for a test drive.

We never posted pictures of the previous additions to his car so here they are!

New bypass valve, K&N air filter, short ram intake and goes down to the turbo inlet pipe (not pictured).

Vent pod boost gauge inside the cock pit.

Sweet ride, Man

We took a bit of a road trip across the border deeper south in 'Bama. Bryce found through his wonderful forums he is constantly checking a set of nice wheels at an acceptable price in great condition so we headed to Huntsville (we actually met the man in Scottsboro, a much smaller town 45 min. from Huntsville). This was our first time in Alabama and it is actually different from Georgia. They have yelllow and blue road signs and the trees are a bit different. Lots of marshy water instead of lakes and ponds. Bryce would be pleased if you took a moment out of your day to look and appreciate the new wheels. Bryce would love to hear your feedback. Positive only please.

before - with stock wheels

after, with new 'Bama wheels I believe Bryce is trying to show that the wheels bend in a bit toward the hub. One very important detail - not to be ignored. :) I am just informed that the photo also shows the steel gray (darker gray) that's on the inner sides of each spoke.

The sweet part of this is we found a little firestone/pool supply place (yes, both were in the same building, run by the same people) that charged only $50 to take off the old ones and put on the new ones and do whatever it is with switching the tire pressure sensors. Other places were going to charge $130. We took it. Also, as a side note we at the No.1 Chinese Buffet. that is what it was called. Everyone there was oriental, and I was wondering what it would be like to be the only asians in Scottsboro, Alabama... how do you end up there? There is no offense to be taken to this statement. Don't make it up.

"It's got Turbo - that's all I care about!"

The big news for this week comes with Bryce's birthday. Yes, he's over 30 now, that's not the big news. We got a new car! We're letting him think it's his birthday present. I don't want to talk about it too much, but I do think it was a decent deal (they're not giving away the nicer cars just yet) and it will be good for us to have a 4-door wagon. Yes, that's right. We went from a 2-door sports car to a 4-door wagon. Departing from the RSX type S was sad in its own ways. It's been a fun car to have and drive and treated us well. I guess we treated it well too. It's a 2002 and had 39,540 miles on it when we traded it in. Pretty impressive. It took him 5 years to hit 22,000 (can we say hermit?) and since moving to Georgia and most recently carpooling to Atlanta every day (100 mile round trip) we were well on our way to matching his 5 year efforts in 1 1/2 yrs. :)

Goodbye Batmobile.

So, onto the new wagon. It gives us 4 doors and makes it much eaiser for large adults to enter and exit the vehicle also giving more head and foot room. Plus, we hope to be needing it in the somewhat near future - this is not an announcement. Let's stay focused. :) I was ok with the car at the dealership but not super impressed - until it was my turn to drive it. I drove it around the parking lot after Bryce did the initial test driving on the road ways. I found a kind of long somewhat empty area of the dealer's parking lot and started through the gears. I put it in 2nd and gave it just a little gas and that's when I felt the power of the beast. So I pushed more. The sensation of just going and the smoothness of it all was very impressive, and I was only in 2nd! "This is beautiful - I want it!" That was Bryce's favorite quote of the night from me. My favorite quote from him is also rightfully the title of this post. As a side note, the carpool passengers did appreciate the space to and from work on Friday. Please enjoy the pictures.

Yes, I took this picture and that's Bryce driving it :) It's been raining and supposed to continue raining, so we'll get it out and take a pretty picture after the rain ends.

Bryce loves the auto windshield wipers, the lighting on the dash and the xenon HID head lights/LED tail lights..oh yeah, and the TURBO!