The guys@empeg are too proper sounding...

Here is our ride route for that day:

We start at Dr. Wong's office on Woodside Road (Hwy 84) in Redwood City. We go up Woodside Road, through Woodside, and on up the hill to Skyline Blvd.

From there, we head down Hwy 84 (name now changed to La Honda Road). We'll stop at the San Gregorio General Store at Stage Road and Hwy 84 for a short break.

From San Gregorio, we go south on Stage Road to the little town of Pescadero (which is a veritable METROPOLIS compared to San Gregorio). Then we head east on Pescadero Road a short ways to Cloverdale Road, where we turn south (right) again. We follow Cloverdale road down to Gazos Creek Road, where we turn west (right).

We follow Gazos Creek Road to Highway 1 where we can take a break. Gas is available here.

Then take a trip down 1 to Davenport, where we stop for lunch. After lunch, it's south on Highway 1 again to Bonny Doone Road, where we turn east (left). Don't turn right there, or you'll be surprised at the lack of floatation a set of air bags provide. ;-)

Up Bonny Doon Road to Smith Grade, right on Smith Grade to Empire Grade. North (left) on Empire Grade to Jamison Creek Road, down Jamison Creek Road to Highway 236. Right on Highway 236 to Highway 9 in Boulder Creek. Another short break in Boulder Creek (gas, if needed), then up Highway 9 (east) to Skyline, where we assemble at the little rest area there for a final meeting. After our meeting and bull session, the group breaks up and everyone is on their own.

The accident happened on Jamison Creek Road.

If anyone reading is from the Bay area. I HIGHLY recommend following this route in your favorite vehicle of choice... Much fun. ...and I'd be happy to join you in my vehicle of choice. We could compare Empegs! (When I get it!)

- Jon

The Eclipse would kick the Bug's butt from a standing start. ;) On the other hand, it probably wouldn't be advised for the Eclipse to contest the Bug on the curvies unless a good aftermarket suspension has been popped onto the Eclipse.

Calvin

You guys are in the Bay Area? That's awesome. I zoom down Hwy 84 all the time. It is Awwwwwesome :) i love the cliffs.... Hey throw me an e-mail the next time you're planning a tour. :-)

Calvin

True... so what if the Bug has a flower vase, can you beat a sexy hawaiian woman dancing on the dash like my Eclipse? ;-)



Calvin

In a way all sports cars are impractical. My philosophy for anything is if you're going to do it, buy it, go for it, go all the way to the extreme. Make no compromises :-)

Assuming that you have a factory stock suspension, then I'd say go test drive a Turbo bug and see what the heck I'm talking about :-). I've since swapped out my suspension with aftermarket stuff -- Eibach Prokits, Tokico Illuminas and RMDSM fat swaybars and I can say now that it can outhandle much of what's out there. On a purely stock comparison, of course the Eclipse turns pretty darn good, but it has a lot of squat, a lot of flex (more so on the droptop), and lots of weight moving all over. The bug from stock is flat and solid, you feel like the whole damn car moves as a piece. The responsiveness is simply not there on the Eclipse. When you want the Eclipse to move, it'll go but not quite as well. And the Eclipse shifter is just, well, sad. There are things on the Bug that rank rightfully with very good sports cars -- dispite that the Bug is not a sports car. :>

Calvin

I think the Miata is an awesome car. I can carry one in my trunk...

Just kidding, I don't have much of a trunk either.

Calvin

Hey there you go, ragging on the Neon, the Golf and the PT Cruiser? What the heck man! The Golf = Ordinary, Basically A Bug? I won't go into the Neon and PT Cruiser here because I never drove a PT Cruiser and the rental Neon I used many times is garbage ;) but to say that a golf is an ordinary version of a bug (and I'm thinking GTI VR6) is so completely off target it's almost like you're basing your opinions on magazine analyses. Sheesh! The character of these vehicles vary massively despite the shared platform. You can't immediately discern the relationship purely based on use of the cars. That's opposed to an 95 Eagle Talon and a 95 Eclipse for example. Or a 01 Dodge Stratus and an 01 Eclipse.

Calvin

Eclipses are very problem prone. People drive them very hard. Mitsubishi built them for the purpose of highway passing, and occasional turbo spool up. People end up buying them and stomping and spooling the turbos constantly. The poor stock turbo will eventually wear down and die unless it's well taken care of. Which many people don't. I don't know about build quality of other turbos though...

Calvin

Octane boost isn't worth much. If it says it'll boost the octane 5 points, it means it'll boost your 97 Octane to between 97.3 to 97.7 something like that. Better to get race gas... hmm if the nova can use leaded go for aviation gas.

Calvin

I was dissapointed they didn't make an AWD spyder.

The standard Infiniti sound system is such utter garbage. It's a 1V system with high levels of noise to signal. I ripped that crap out the second day after I bought the car. I couldn't stand to hear the music mutilated...

Calvin

In reply to:

---

Another short break in Boulder Creek (gas, if needed), then up Highway 9 (east) to Skyline, where we assemble at the little rest area there for a final meeting.

---

It was a ride (in my Miata) over this bit of road (a part of my commute, actually) that prompted Hugo to say:

In reply to:

---

Seeing as I've been frightened by your driving in the miata, I think I'd just pass out if you were driving the M coupe over those mountain roads... ;)

---

Though I don't think you'd have any problem in the coupe; one of my coworkers described a similar ride in the coupe as "relaxing."

I guess it's all a matter of perspective, I would have put blasting through roundabouts on the way back to London in the same category as that run over 9. Hugo and I had the same problem, though, it's very disconcerting being in what we're programmed to believe is the driver's seat, with no steering wheel to hang on to. ;)

(Jon, have we met at the track? I'm one of Aaron's instructors...white '90 w/ blue stripes)

-Zandr
Mk.I #150
Mk.II #39

Well that goes to show how safe the Bug is, the structure is intact the guy probably walked out alive. I wouldn't want to do the same in an Eclipse or a Miata. Here are some pictures of Eclipses that have gotten into and out of "spirited drives" :-)






I have one here of the remains of a Spyder as well, oops, but I drive a Spyder so I'll not post it out of respect for my car ;-)

Calvin

n6mod wrote:

(Jon, have we met at the track? I'm one of Aaron's instructors...white '90 w/ blue stripes)

No, I haven't gone to the track, but I did meet Aaron on that ride. Nice guy. Want to do a track day, but I have a slight problem. Can't put a roll bar in my Miata since I have a subwoofer (JL Audio Stealthbox) on the rear tray. Don't feel safe on a track without a roll bar...

- Jon

I know the problem. I've ultimately come to the conclusion that a good sub installation and a rollbar are mutually exclusive in that car. So the Miata has a marginal sub installation (JL Microsub in the trunk) and a roll bar. The Coupe has a good sub (a pair of JL 8W3's in a custom cabinet) because it doesn't need a rollbar.

I've compensated for the marginal stereo in the Miata with a nice, loud exhaust.

-Zandr
Mk.I #150
Mk.II #39

Definitely mexico (well, lots of stuff is stamped mexico, it's possible the final assembly happens in Germany but I seriously doubt it).

It's expensive because they get away with it - most places in the world are more expensive than the US when it comes to cars (and gas, oil, servicing...). You guys just get a quantity dicount ;)

Hugo

> The Golf = Ordinary, Basically A Bug? ......

I happen to own a Volkswagen Beetle (bug) 1300cc -71 model and the new VW Golf V6 -00 model.. (the GTI VR6 no longer exists in production line, GTI does though, V6 has replaced the VR6.. there was some differences I fail to remember at this point) and I must say I cannot find ANY similarities with them. Considering I've whacked the beetle to pieces and back... I trust this is a bit different with new beetle vs. old beetle, there are a lot of them in Finland, I like them even though at first I thought it a horrible rape of the old beetle...but the similarities are slowly sticking out.

To my view the modern day VW Golf is very much close to Audi A3/S3 as Audi and Volkswagen just 'happen' to walk hand in hand these days (same parts used in both cars as they're built up in same factories). What I'm surprised of is that they're actually giving the Golf credits over the little Audis.. with the exception of transmission and brakes. The Audi brand itself makes a nice "bounce" in price when comparing the relative cars VW-Audi wise, for example V6 vs. S3 price difference is (with the additions that I bought) about 17k USD (here in Finland). Oh well, the S3 owners have the 0.3 seconds over me when the streetlights turn green.. maybe I need to get a turbo or two... :) :)


Antti 'Amarth' Luostarinen
#14229 iwishihaditalready
try BatMUD - telnet bat.org

In reply to:

---

Octane boost isn't worth much. If it says it'll boost the octane 5 points, it means it'll boost your 97 Octane to between 97.3 to 97.7 something like that. Better to get race gas... hmm if the nova can use leaded go for aviation gas.

---

They do sell some True Blue at the gas station across from the track and I know some good leaded gas is available at the track but I haven't tried either yet since they are pretty expensive. Maybe next week I will try 4 or 5 gallons in the tank to see if it helps the times any better. I did knock off 3/10 of a second this week. Still have some tweaking to do :)



Laura

I live to launch.

I'm shocked that people will except this as normal??

If my new car (especially if it's from a manufacturer with a good reputation for reliability) was using oil to the point that the oil light came on, I'd return it straight away...

My motorbike however doesn't use any oil at all, and I bet the engine is under more stress than the one in the new bugs... =)

Jazz
(List 112, Mk2 12 gig #40. Mk1 4 gig #30. Mk3 1.6 16v)