Sunday was a gorgeous Easter afternoon here in southern California, and while most people want to get outside and lay in the sun, walk along the beach, go surfing (cough Dan), or just enjoy spring in the air with family, my fanatical instinct kicked in to give the GTI a bath and a wax.  Living in an apartment has many downfalls.  Idiot neighbors making obscene amounts of noise at 4am, being confined to a little box, paying tons of money for something you don’t own, but worse of all, no space to work on, clean, or enjoy your ride.  Naturally, I had to look for a DIY car wash (quarter wash to many) and having stumbled across one on Saturday after venturing to a new area of town, I knew just where to go.

One of the best parts about going to the quarter wash is that I can meticulously clean the car to my beyond fanatical standards.  Sure I could pay someone to wash my car for me (and it seems most Californian’s do seeing as how there’s only one quarter wash in my area) but that’s like paying someone else to drink all your beer and punch you in the face at the end of the night so you wake up the next morning with the same effect.  Nope, I want to wash my own car and no stupid cramped apartment or lack of quarter washes will stop me. Read the rest of this entry »

As an “enthusiast” it’s become apparent that among other enthusiasts, a front engine rear wheel drive layout is optimal if you consider yourself a driver.  It seems as though everyone sights balance with potential for oversteer (too much Tokyo Drift) as their reasoning for preference towards a rear wheel drive layout.  While I tend to agree, I’m not going to be as simple and rule out the good ‘ol front wheel drive.  Sure it gives a frontward weight bias and yes it limits the amount of power you can put to the ground (curse you torque steer!), but the fact is with a well tuned chassis and suspension, appropriate engine power, and nice precise steering, a front driver can be as much fun as any rear tire burner.

Cars like the MINI Cooper, GTI, Mazda3, and Cobalt (SS turbo only please) give FWD a lot of street cred, yet I continuously see enthusiasts write these machines off for lack of rear wheel drive.  I’ve had the pleasure of driving all of these machines (owning one in fact) and I must say that the front wheel drive layout of all of them give a nice well balanced drive with minimal understeer and only gentle 4 wheel drifts when things start to get fun.  It’s just the way I like it…balanced, fun, and controllable.  Now, the reason for this post is that for the past week a video on youtube of Jason Plato making a remarkable save during a British Touring Car Championship race has been making the rounds (check it out below). Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago I posed the question of whether or not technology was a fanatic friend or foe.  Citing things like automatic rain sensing wipers, I presented a fairly one sided argument against technology and it’s hindrance in a true fanatics motoring experience.  Today, I am humbled to say that I was wrong…kind of.  You see, I’m against useless weight adding gizmos and gadgets that are supposed to make life easier but instead pose to me the concern of increased chances of failure, but I change my tune when technology turns to power.

As I’m sure you are aware by now, I’ve got a 2009 VW GTI that I absolutely love to death.  No options, bare bones, switch gears with a stick and foot-clutch two door eye-burn red GTI.  Less to get in the way and less to go wrong.  Just the way I like it.  Before I chose the GTI, I read of these magical computer retunes that promised incredible performance increases, by nothing more than plugging a laptop into your car.  Skeptical, I wrote all that techno wizardry off until a Porsche, Audi, VW tuning company out of Alabama called APR caught my eye.

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Well, its official.  Ford has decided  that the FiestaMovement/MotorFanatics relationship isn’t going any further.  We knew this was coming, no phone calls, no emails…we were in denial, but the thing is,  Ford didn’t really break up with us, because we weren’t ever really together.  We can sit here and evaluate the quality of our application video, (see it again here)…did they think we were too aggressive? maybe too sensitive?  Maybe we just came on too strong…..I guess we’ll never know.  But this won’t be the last time we lock eyes the little Ford, oh no, we’ll surely see the Fiesta again, and it’ll be awkward at first, but we’ll be ok.  Who knows, we may first see her again from the drivers seat of a Karma….or that orange GT3RS that Chris seems to think has been giving him the eye..we’ll see.  We wish the FiestaMovement well, and hope they have a safe trip, and totally enjoy this summer……..without us.  Now where are the keys to that ZR1 out front?

When people talk of Southern California….especially when your not in Southern California, people are quick to list the negatives..expensive housing, traffic, car chases, earthquakes etc…. and those things are all present, but its not all negative.  One of the biggest positives when your a motorfanatic, is the cars…cars that would be stuck in a garage in most areas of the country, roll the streets regularly around here.  Once again on Saturday, I ran down to the “local weekly car show”….and honestly, you’ll only see this in Southern CA.  See the pics here.