Planet 9

I'll be heading off to Charlotte later this afternoon to attend my first-ever Porsche Parade! I'll only be there for the weekend, but there's lots to see and do these first couple of days so I'm sure I'll be busy.

The car is all shined up and I'm keeping a wary eye on the weather. With the heat we've been having recently, a late afternoon thunderstorm is very likely. Well, at least the car is clean for now. I'm really hoping we don't get any hail!

I'm really...

K-Man S, that is!

So . . . when I registered for the "Heat in the Heartland" DE sponsored by the KCPCA, I was a little miffed that they placed me in group 1 - presumably because I had done only 1 previous DE track day at Heartland Park Topeka (HPT) before. Since that first DE last October I've done 8-9 more track days, including 2 DE weekends, at Hallett, so I really thought I belonged at least in Group 2, but if they wanted me to start in 1 again, so be it.
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A friend got a new M3 a few weeks ago. I saw it for the first time today. The Coupe. He foolishly ordered Jet Black, against my advice. It'll always look swirled, just like our Jet Black X3. With Red "extended" leather. A striking combination.

The seats are great. So is the steering wheel. Lots of power... winds forever. Awesome engine. The usual pretty good BMW shifter and horrible clutch, with what feels like the de rigor delay valve in it.

The...

Go ahead, laugh at the Porsche rookie, but I really dislike the ignition key on the left side of the steering wheel. I can't break myself of the habit of going for the right, and it annoys me everytime I try to start the car. I had to explain why Porsche put the ignition key on the left to one of my BMW buddies, and he just said "You've got to be kidding." I couldn't agree more.

Of course, I'm going to have a long time to get used to P-car left-side silliness, because...

It seems that every day when I click on New Posts, about half of them deal with some aspect of car care - washing, waxing, polishing, sealing, shining, yada, yada, yada. It finally got to the point where I was feeling guilty about the $8-10 per week I spend on the automatic car wash that I have been using for the last 10 months since I acquired my P car - though to be fair, I usually do buy the most expensive wash.

And, now that the weather has warmed (in fact it is downright...