Please allow myself to introduce...myself.
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Joined: May 2009
Posts: 199
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Please allow myself to introduce...myself.
It all started quite innocently, because I was supposed to 'mature' but I never got the memo. I'm 40 years old and happily 'child-free'. I'm not anti-parenthood by any means, it's just not for me. If I had a kid, we'd eventually be fighting over the XBOX controller, and I just can't have that.
Enter 'Impala Mike' or at least that's his user name on XBOX 360. I was playing a lot of Forza 2 online, and Mike was a racer I got friendly with. It turns out he lives in Charlotte as I do. He told me about a car meet he goes to on Friday nights. I agreed to meet him there. We went for beers afterward and he started talking about 'autocross'. I'd never heard of it, he was big into it. I was intrigued.
Fast forward about a month. I go to check out an autocross event. This guy Jay has a white S2000 CR, I'm like 'whoa, that's hot'! I ride shotgun with Mike, now I want to try it. Problem is I have a Saturn View Hybrid. Do the math....
(BTW, I was so desperate to auto-x, that I eventually did my first event in a rental. An '07 Eclipse. You should have seen the shape of those front tires. I sent my wife in to return the car and hoped they didn't inspect the rubber. But that's another story...)
Anyway, later that night I meet up with Mike and a bunch of his auto-x buddies for beers. What car should I get? They kill me with info, my brain starts to ooze out of my ear. Jay was there. He told me get an S2000, but get the CR. Plug and play... no new sway bar, no new shocks or any mods needed. Just get some Hoosiers and a set of OEM rims off a used S2k, and go whip ass in A-Stock.
Oh, problem is the car costs $38k. Not in the budget.
Plan B...get an '07 Miata and shell out an extra $7k or so for the MS-R package, and compete in D-Stock. With the mods, the car pulls a full lateral G. Nice thought, but it's still only 133hp, and it's just not an S2000.
This whole S2k thing was eating away at my insides. I'm too practical for my own good, but I go and get approved for $25k thru Lending Tree anyway.
So, I'm looking for ugh! - Miatas online, and for a goof I look to see if there's anyone selling a used '08 CR. In Winston-Salem there's a yellow CR sitting on the lot, used for $29k. My first thought is, 'okay...what's the catch', and figuring there's gotta be something wrong with it, I kind of dismiss the notion.
Next day, I go to the Honda dealership by my house, blank check from Lending Tree in hand. I pull up and I see a lot of used S2000's on the lot but I'm looking for a CR. I see outside the showroom three dudes, two in button downs and ties, one dude in a t-shirt. There's a white CR sitting out front with plates on it. I get out, sales dude comes over to help, I point to the CR and say, 'I want one of those'. He says, 'We don't have any' and points to the dude in the t-shirt. I look up and realize it's Jay. We're both like, "Oh snap, what's up".
He takes me for a spin, we get to talking, he tells me about every freaking dealership in NC that has a CR for sale. How he knows all this, I have no idea. You just gotta know Jay to understand. He mentions the yellow CR in Winston-Salem, then he tells me he actually test drove it. Says there's nothing wrong with it.
I go home, find the ad online, and I swear to god, they'd just dropped the price another $1,000. I called the dealership and we did the deal over the phone. I drove out the next day. The car was immaculate with barely 2,000 miles on it.
So I scored an almost brand new CR for $27,990. This was last October, and man, I've had it for 7 months, and the novelty still hasn't worn off. I can't describe how much I love this car. I'm a guy that will let science projects grow inside my vehicle, and maybe run it thru a car wash twice a year. But my S2k, there's never more than like 5 days worth of dirt on it.
What's even funnier is I got married 2 weeks after I bought the car. I spent $80 on my wedding band at Wal Mart, but had no problem spending $3k and waiting 3 months for a set of 3 piece JDM rims. Hey man, gotta have priorites in life.
So in February, I got to do my first auto-x event in the S. While I'm walking the course, I was chatting with a guy who's a top tier driver in our region. He asked me what I was driving. I told him. He laughed and said he loved the way the car drove, but was skeptical at first because of the 'boyracer wing' on the back.
I found it so funny I figured I'd adopt it as my user name on the forums.
If you got this far, you've officially survived my brutally long post. In case you didn't figure it out, writing is a hobby of mine (my wife is a published author) and I love to tell stories, so....Thanks!
Enter 'Impala Mike' or at least that's his user name on XBOX 360. I was playing a lot of Forza 2 online, and Mike was a racer I got friendly with. It turns out he lives in Charlotte as I do. He told me about a car meet he goes to on Friday nights. I agreed to meet him there. We went for beers afterward and he started talking about 'autocross'. I'd never heard of it, he was big into it. I was intrigued.
Fast forward about a month. I go to check out an autocross event. This guy Jay has a white S2000 CR, I'm like 'whoa, that's hot'! I ride shotgun with Mike, now I want to try it. Problem is I have a Saturn View Hybrid. Do the math....
(BTW, I was so desperate to auto-x, that I eventually did my first event in a rental. An '07 Eclipse. You should have seen the shape of those front tires. I sent my wife in to return the car and hoped they didn't inspect the rubber. But that's another story...)
Anyway, later that night I meet up with Mike and a bunch of his auto-x buddies for beers. What car should I get? They kill me with info, my brain starts to ooze out of my ear. Jay was there. He told me get an S2000, but get the CR. Plug and play... no new sway bar, no new shocks or any mods needed. Just get some Hoosiers and a set of OEM rims off a used S2k, and go whip ass in A-Stock.
Oh, problem is the car costs $38k. Not in the budget.
Plan B...get an '07 Miata and shell out an extra $7k or so for the MS-R package, and compete in D-Stock. With the mods, the car pulls a full lateral G. Nice thought, but it's still only 133hp, and it's just not an S2000.
This whole S2k thing was eating away at my insides. I'm too practical for my own good, but I go and get approved for $25k thru Lending Tree anyway.
So, I'm looking for ugh! - Miatas online, and for a goof I look to see if there's anyone selling a used '08 CR. In Winston-Salem there's a yellow CR sitting on the lot, used for $29k. My first thought is, 'okay...what's the catch', and figuring there's gotta be something wrong with it, I kind of dismiss the notion.
Next day, I go to the Honda dealership by my house, blank check from Lending Tree in hand. I pull up and I see a lot of used S2000's on the lot but I'm looking for a CR. I see outside the showroom three dudes, two in button downs and ties, one dude in a t-shirt. There's a white CR sitting out front with plates on it. I get out, sales dude comes over to help, I point to the CR and say, 'I want one of those'. He says, 'We don't have any' and points to the dude in the t-shirt. I look up and realize it's Jay. We're both like, "Oh snap, what's up".
He takes me for a spin, we get to talking, he tells me about every freaking dealership in NC that has a CR for sale. How he knows all this, I have no idea. You just gotta know Jay to understand. He mentions the yellow CR in Winston-Salem, then he tells me he actually test drove it. Says there's nothing wrong with it.
I go home, find the ad online, and I swear to god, they'd just dropped the price another $1,000. I called the dealership and we did the deal over the phone. I drove out the next day. The car was immaculate with barely 2,000 miles on it.
So I scored an almost brand new CR for $27,990. This was last October, and man, I've had it for 7 months, and the novelty still hasn't worn off. I can't describe how much I love this car. I'm a guy that will let science projects grow inside my vehicle, and maybe run it thru a car wash twice a year. But my S2k, there's never more than like 5 days worth of dirt on it.
What's even funnier is I got married 2 weeks after I bought the car. I spent $80 on my wedding band at Wal Mart, but had no problem spending $3k and waiting 3 months for a set of 3 piece JDM rims. Hey man, gotta have priorites in life.
So in February, I got to do my first auto-x event in the S. While I'm walking the course, I was chatting with a guy who's a top tier driver in our region. He asked me what I was driving. I told him. He laughed and said he loved the way the car drove, but was skeptical at first because of the 'boyracer wing' on the back.
I found it so funny I figured I'd adopt it as my user name on the forums.
If you got this far, you've officially survived my brutally long post. In case you didn't figure it out, writing is a hobby of mine (my wife is a published author) and I love to tell stories, so....Thanks!
Great intro, welcome to the site.
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Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 310
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From: Orlando, Fl
We are so much alike......
I'm a little younger than you are but I still act like I'm 20 something.
Don't want to have kids and scare sh1tless to get marry so you got me there.
I'm messy as h3ll but I keep my s2000 immaculate.
The novelty of owning a s2000 still haven't wore off for me either.
I'm a little younger than you are but I still act like I'm 20 something.
Don't want to have kids and scare sh1tless to get marry so you got me there.
I'm messy as h3ll but I keep my s2000 immaculate.
The novelty of owning a s2000 still haven't wore off for me either.
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Thread Starter
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Joined: May 2009
Posts: 199
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Thanks everybody for the warm welcome.
Funny thing is, last week before I joined the forums, I signed up for my first ever HPDE at CMP (Carolina Motorsports Park). I'll be going out with an instructor, and I'm penciled in for May 29th. Woo-Hoo! So I laughed when psychoazn mentioned track days.
The only negative about owning an s2000 is all the really cool aftermarket crap you have to choose from. I'm like a 7 year old who's putting his Christmas list together for Santa, but every day I want to do something different. Too many choices.
Then there's the auto-x / track day confusion. Auto-x is awesome, but it's very restictive in regard to mods.
So one day, (being the superficial, JDM whore that I am) I'll want to do a body kit so I can turn heads when I pull into a parking lot; and upgrade the brakes for better performance on track days. Not to mention how cool those yellow calipers would look behind my snazzy SSR rims. Both of which would make my car illegal in AS....
But then I go to an auto-x event yesterday and have great day of driving, and I'm thinking that I need to keep the car legal. So maybe I'll get some better brake pads, a sway bar, and run a cat-back exhaust instead.
Then tomorrow I'll flip-flop again, and it'll be something else. Oh well.
Funny thing is, last week before I joined the forums, I signed up for my first ever HPDE at CMP (Carolina Motorsports Park). I'll be going out with an instructor, and I'm penciled in for May 29th. Woo-Hoo! So I laughed when psychoazn mentioned track days.
The only negative about owning an s2000 is all the really cool aftermarket crap you have to choose from. I'm like a 7 year old who's putting his Christmas list together for Santa, but every day I want to do something different. Too many choices.
Then there's the auto-x / track day confusion. Auto-x is awesome, but it's very restictive in regard to mods.
So one day, (being the superficial, JDM whore that I am) I'll want to do a body kit so I can turn heads when I pull into a parking lot; and upgrade the brakes for better performance on track days. Not to mention how cool those yellow calipers would look behind my snazzy SSR rims. Both of which would make my car illegal in AS....
But then I go to an auto-x event yesterday and have great day of driving, and I'm thinking that I need to keep the car legal. So maybe I'll get some better brake pads, a sway bar, and run a cat-back exhaust instead.
Then tomorrow I'll flip-flop again, and it'll be something else. Oh well.