Anyone that really knows me knows I have a bit of a lead foot. While I do tend to drive fast on the highways I virtually never speed in neighborhoods or when people/children/pets are present. Yes, I shouldn’t speed on the interstate too but my logic is I have a fast car with great brakes and I’ve taken a number of advanced driving schools – I should get to drive faster, right?? Well that’s my logic at least.

Well I saw today some interesting stats on speeding and thought I’d share them with you.  Here you go:

A few weeks ago I picked up a Kensington LiquidAUX adapter for my car.  This is a device that plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter and to the AUX input jack to allow you to stream audio to your car stereo.  It offers both handsfree talk and stereo music (A2DP) from your handset to your stereo (if your handset supports it, the iPhone does).

While you can use the device for calls the quality is pretty poor.  While I didn’t buy it for that purpose I have tried it a few times with all callers complaining that they couldn’t hear me, quality was bad (lots of static) and I basically sounded like I was in a tunnel.

How about music?  Well it’s good, but not great.  Connecting the device to my phone was a snap and the two devices pair up quickly when I enable Bluetooth on my phone.  I’d mainly describe the sound a thin, with a noticeable drop off in the low frequencies.  There is also a fair bit of low level static, really only audible if there is a quiet moment in the music.  While the bass response leaves something to be desired it’s great for just throwing something on quickly from your phone without having to plug it in.

I picked mine up from Buy.com for a special price of $19.99 – and I’d say that’s about all it’s worth.  They retail for closer to $60 but for that money I’d have to skip it.

I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking on this one.  This weekend a group of friends got together to get their cars ready for the track in a few weeks.  Chris Wand and I decided we’d have a little surprise for everyone.  I give you the Bacon Explosion.

Stats on the bacon explosion:
- 2 lbs of Benton’s bacon (easily the best bacon in the entire world)
- 2 lbs of mild Italian sausage
- Rub of choice / BBQ sauce of choice

And how bad is it for you?  Well we each only had a small piece (some larger than others, Stevie…) but it racks up at:
- 4100 Calories
- 200g of fat
- 17,500mg of sodium
- 1200mg of cholesterol

And oh my gawd did it taste goooooood!

This weekend I began the process of modifying Ginger for track work.  As I’m planning on taking her to the track several times this year I’m starting to get her all ready for it.  I’m mostly doing suspension upgrades (since I drive road courses) but I’m guessing a few power modifications may sneak in also.  So far I’ve installed a set of K-Sport coilovers (they are VERY stiff), new rims (they have my snow tires on them now, track tires are on order) and a front lips spoiler (that was mainly for look).  My big brake kit is sitting in the garage waiting to be installed (in a few weeks).  I’ve got a cold air intake on the way as well as a set of adjustable front and rear sway bars.

As you see from the picture I need to adjust the rear suspension to lower it inline with the front.  So far I haven’t scrapped anything as I do wish it wasn’t quite so low (I’m going to see if I can raise the front some).

I’ve also been busy inside the car – I’ve enable the navigation system while the car is moving, disabled the seat belt chime, and enabled video input on the back of the navigation screen (I can watch video from my iPhone on the screen and hear it through the audio system).  And no, I won’t be watching movies while I’m driving – I did it mostly because I could.

It’s been quite a while since I posted anything so I figured now was the time to give an update.  I’ve got several more posts in the hamper so hopefully I’ll be back to regular blogging soon.

So without further ado I introduce to you Ginger.  Ginger is a 2009 Subaru Legacy Spec.B.  What is a Spec.B you might ask?  Well it’s the adult fast Subaru.  Not the 22 year old WRX STi fast one, the adult one.  She has a 250 hp flat 4 motor (soon to be doing about 300 hp), Bilstein suspension, 18″ rims and a significantly upgraded interior over the standard Legacy GT (Alcantara seats, Harmon Kardon audio, Kenwood NAV system, etc).  Soon she’ll have new sway bars, coilovers, rims, exhaust and a big brake kit.

I’d been unsure of this purchase for a while as I was upgrading from a base 2008 Legacy 2.5i.  I wanted something that had all wheel drive, would be good around town, good to take to the mountains but quick and nibble enough to take to the track.  So far I’m extremely pleased with her, for the money I don’t think there is a better car out there (at least not one that fit me).  I also wasn’t sure about a red car (when I went to pick her up I’d never seen her) but I’m extremely happy with the dark color.  The Spec.B is a limited production car, with only 500 being built a year (and only 100 in this color).

So welcome to the family Ginger, I’m sure we’ll have a long and happy friendship!

So to make a long and sad story as short and funny as possible I give you my new car “accessory”.  The short version is I ordered some car parts (exhaust and suspension) from a friend and one of the two boxes had four of these in it.  Not exactly what I was expecting to make my car faster.  DHL somehow switched the labels at some point during shipping (which we’re trying to track down).  Now that my tears of sadness/rage have turned into tears of laughter I just had to share what I actually got. 

Wonder how many HP Jesus is good for? I’m guessing at least 20 or so…