The Aston Martin Vantage is a car that I have been fascinated with ever since the VH II based V8 Vantage first came out in 2005. Luckily my Lotus dealer at the time was also an Aston dealer and gave me a chance to take their demo V8 Vantage for a quick spin up CA-17 and back. However I felt that while it was an achingly beautiful car in person, the performance of the original 4.3L cars did leave something to be desired. Aston seemed to understand this too and a few years later went to the 4.7L engine which improved performance but it still wasn’t a true supercar yet.… Read the rest
In the last year of COVID life I only made one multi course meal and it was a collection of old favourites that I put together for a Pandemic Thanksgiving meal. During the meal I was talking to our guests about those recipes when I realised that I hadn’t really made a truly new menu since my Potato Dinner of 2018. We got to talking about cookbooks at that meal and I brought out the Alinea and Manresa books to show people. I then spent the Christmas break going through the two books and marked out a selection of recipes that I thought were both interesting and practical to make at home.… Read the rest
A Youtube Video that Throdle shot in 2019 about the Viper has finally come out. The funny part is that this video came out exactly a week after I sold the Viper. In total I had the viper for 2.5 years and put several thousand miles on the car. I even used it as my daily driver for a few months and found it super practical to live with. I really enjoyed my time with the car and I will definitely have to get a Gen V Viper some day. But for now I am going to move on towards other interesting bucket list cars that I have always wanted to own.… Read the rest
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Video feature on the Elise
Just in time for the 15 year Anniversary of my Elise purchase, the Throdle Youtube channel released these videos about my Elise ownership experience. We talk a about what its like to have the Elise as a daily driver and how it eventually became my track car instead. The Elise is now my least valuable car but in terms of memories and experiences it is the one car that I will never sell.
Apart from the driving experiences, the Elise also got me into the GGLC orbit and has led to many of my automotive friendships in the bay area.
FYI the videos were recorded in 2019 which is why it seems weird to have people standing together without masks.… Read the rest
Today was the 15 year anniversary of my picking up the Elise. I did post some pictures after years one and two but I figure a milestone event like this is worth a few more. Click through on the pictures to see them in more detail on Flickr.
Picked up from Los Gatos Luxury cars on 6-Dec-2005 some 5 months after I placed the build order. I was told that this was the first 2006 Elise delivered in California.
Did the 1500 mile break-in down Highway 1. I was at the dealer 6 days after pickup with the odometer at 1490 miles.… Read the rest