My last update was 11/20/22 and today is 5/21/23. It’s difficult for me to believe that much time has passed, I feel like I blinked and these six months have gone by in an instant. They say as you get older time passes by faster and I’m starting to see it first hand. The days drag on but the years fly by.

Simultaneously the last six months of life has brought a lot of change but also has brought stability to some of the regular routine. Time to backfill for it to all make sense:

Still, I’ve been exercising the car regularly. Winter in Texas is the best, often hovering in the 50’s to upper 60’s, it’s ideal weather for driving this car. Sunroof tilted open, windows slightly down, that’s the vibe. Went out for a late night drive with some friends here post-Christmas.

Continuing through January; Although the A/C works perfectly I prefer not to use it at all and love booting around town with the windows down, so this time time of year sees a sharp uptick in day to day use and being parked outside of boba shops.

February consisted of routine washes after work and sitting pretty in the evening sun.

One of the newfound routines since the last update is consistently getting up early on Sunday mornings to go for a drive. Sometimes it’s 4:30 AM, sometimes it’s later. As long as it’s before 7:00 AM, the roads are generally pretty empty.

In a city with a population pushing 7 million residents, it’s difficult to find any peace and quiet and even more difficult to drive without the interruptions of traffic. These early morning drives have been a bit of a mental reset for me before the new week brings on it’s challenges. I’ve come to really enjoy driving around almost completely alone while the city is still.

At some point towards the end of February I parked the car at my friends house to pick up what is basically my second car. The real owner can’t read, so I’m not worried about claiming that publicly.

I’ve probably posted the car on here before, but if I haven’t, it’s my friend’s 2006 S2000. What started as an almost stock AP2 has developed into the standard S2000 recipe. I do most of the work on it, so I had it for about two weeks doing some maintenance and modifications for him.

We are naturally competitive so it’s been built to have a very similar power to weight ratio and runs the same tires as I do on the M3, therefor there are no excuses when we get to the track together.

My new Sunday morning tradition, this one with VTEC rather than Vanos. It’s a fantastic little car that evokes some nostalgia from my youth, a noisy JDM car that rattles and creaks and smells like exhaust and scrapes on everything.

Eventually I was done with the S2000 and swapped back into the M3. For two cars that have very similar performance figures on paper, it’s pretty wild to drive them back to back and note how differently they arrive at the same result. Each car has some pro’s and con’s for it, but at the end of the day the M3 does “everything” much better. It’s a lot more tolerable to run around town in while maintaining the ability to throw down if the roads get curvy.

One of the big changes: after a lot of consideration I decided to quit my job with Ferrari. It wasn’t an easy decision to make, with lots of restless nights leading up to the decision to do so, but now looking back a few months later I’m certain I made the right choice.

One of my co-workers loves that I hate Doug Demuro videos and so the cake on my last day was spot on.

I made a lot of great friends and memories here over the years, all of which I am truly grateful for. This place and the original crew I came on board with taught me a lot about the brand, the business, and myself. I’ve gotten to see and be a part of some really great experiences that I honestly never would have expected.

In the weeks closing out my time there, I pulled the car into the photo booth and took a few pictures on my phone. I would have liked to put more effort into it and used my DSLR, but time ran out fast. Before I knew it I had arrived at that bittersweet last day.

I took some time off before jumping into the next job, so with plenty of free time on my hands I knocked out a task I had been putting off for a while, Leatherique-ing the Recaros. They were super clean when I bought them, and have stayed clean for the time they have been in the car, but it’s a 24-hour process I enjoy doing and knowing has been done.

Time for it’s annual oil change and Blackstone analysis. Another great report indicating this S52 is a healthy workhorse.

Also, I hate changing cabin filters.

Beyond what’s been already mentioned, no other real changes with life with the blue car. Just a lot of routine early Sunday therapy drives before the sun comes up.

I try and make it a goal to go to a different part of town I’m unfamiliar with or somewhere that I generally steer clear of during the day to avoid the congestion. Most often when I leave the house in the morning I don’t have a destination in mind at all.

Sometimes I find a spot that I like and do more sitting while admiring the car and the silence than driving itself.

It really is a beautiful city when it’s quiet.

As the street lights start to change shifts with the sunrise I usually make my way over to this marketplace on the other side of town and grab a coffee.

It’s a cool shared marketplace over in a mostly industrial district. Some of the guys from C&C meet here later in the morning so I see some cool stuff rolling in as I’m heading out.

With that we’re basically current. No major changes in store, but I have acknowledged in writing this that I have put off the ZHP rack for a while now, so I’ll commit to getting one purchased this week. Additionally, the rear tires will be dead sooner than later and will need to be replaced before another track day. (Maybe I should get another set of wheels so I don’t keep burning through 200TW tires.) Another thing I’ve noted and committed to improving is my lack of seat time on track, so I’m pledging to myself to bite the bullet of the steep entry fees at Circuit of the Americas and do a track day there this season.

Until next time, whenever that may be.