LAJ

560 series was sold here in 86

Trsnrtr

Dude!

patentcad

Yeah, that's about right. I think that's a legit MB USA car.

patentcad

Car wouldn't start, wouldn't recognize key FOBs. I think its the engine management unit or the alternator, possibly just a shot battery. I don't think it's a big repair and regardless, that's the upside of buying from a dealer, 90 day, 4000 mile bumper to bumper warranty, they'll pay for the repair and the tow. The flatbed guy they sent knew what he was doing he carefully transported the car without a scratch. Hopefully I'll find out what the issue is tomorrow.

Hey, I didn't crash the car, and the problem seems minor. Can't wait to get it back. I'm done man, I'm going to be a Vette owner for life, I'll drive this one for 3-4 years and then find a used C7 (the newest edition) or a later model C6. This car is the shiznit. This is how fast a C6 Vette is: the car design is ten years old. The current brand new BMW M3 ($80K car) has 414 hp (about what the C6 has) but the M3 weighs 3700 lbs. The Vette weighs only 3179 lbs. The car is a very light car, it's engineered that way, fiberglass body and all. Hell, it has a balsa wood/composite sandwich floor to save weight. BALSA WOOD. Lightest most rigid material they could find, they've used it for 10+ years in the car. Anyway, the C6 does 0-100 in 9.9 seconds, so it's faster than 99.9% of the cars on the road today.

It's just so much fun to drive, by far the most fun car to drive I've ever experienced. Bear in mind I've personally owned at least 30 cars, I used to be in the car business, driving and buying/selling lots of different cars regularly, I've been to on-track driving seminars for car manufacturers, etc. I like cars, I've been reading 2-3 car magazine monthly for 35 years. It's re-igniting my passion for cars and driving which had kind of gone cold. I got in this car at the dealer, drove it five miles and I was like 'where has this car been all my life?'

Sure it's a bit of a gas guzzler (averages 18 mpg I guess), but my other car is a hybrid that averages 40 mpg, so if gas prices go berserk maybe I'll drive the Vette a little less.

But right now it's a 3179 lb paperweight.

Heathpack 

@coasting Memorial Ride

Last training ride on the Breathless Agony course today, that ride is next Saturday. I gathered 4 friends and off we headed to Yucaipa. I tried to explain to the who @coasting was and what had happened and why this ride was dedicated to him. I'm not sure they fully got it, but whatever, that's ok. BTW, my BF friend @Lesper4, was on the ride. So really it was a double memorial ride I guess.

We started in an uncoastingish manner by climbing up through Damnation Alley until we turned left at this bend in the road:



We continued on, uncoastingly, climbing semi-continuously, through 30 miles of ponderosa pine forest:



Finally we got to the top of the mountain and ate our granola bars. Now we were getting into coastingtown:



A storm blew through yesterday and it snowed in SoCal in April. It was pretty so I took a pic:



Then 30 miles down hill back to the car, a very coasting-friendly end to the day.

In the end it was 65 miles and 7000 ft of climbing and seemed kind of easy. It was cool today, so I'm sure that's it. Next weekend will be 20 degrees hotter and we'll arrive at this final climb with around 40 miles/4000 ft of climbing in our legs already and a little later in the day. Yikes, should be fun.
@coasting, wish you could have made it to the States to visit your SoCal relatives. We could have done a nice flat ride along the PCH, you would have liked that, I'm sure. Wherever you are now, I hope all your rides are easy and all the food delicious.

mzeffex 

Here's my weekly-ish race report.

Went out to Grand Junction this weekend for the conference championships. It was cold and rainy during the TTT, but we did ok. They then lost our results, we didn't show up as having raced at all, and now that they fixed that they show us having come in second. Looking at the time they posted, I think we won and they messed up. My garmin shows almost 2 minutes faster. But whatever. Later that day the sun came out for the crit, and I raced a good race from a tactical standpoint, but didn't finish on the podium. Regardless, it was a solid race for me.

Today... oh god, today. It was 40 degrees and pouring (seriously, pouring) rain at the 8:30 am start time. 51 miles, 3 laps. I did 1 lap. About a third of the way through that lap I was starting to wonder if I would actually need some sort of medicated fix for my fingers. I couldn't shift or brake, and I was completely blind from the rain, which made the 35 mph downhill in the pack extremely sketchy. The pace was fine, but I was in so much pain that I only did one lap. Out of the ~30 riders in our race that started, I believe 4 finished. It was unbelievably miserable. Only one person from our school (of 12) finished their race, and that one was cut short a lap, so she got a break.

I regret doing that last race, it was so bad. Other than that it was a fun weekend.

UnfilteredDregs

Awesome @Heathpack

Heathpack 

Getting it done.

patentcad

I wish I could have ridden with you.

I doubt many of you actually met coasting, I got to meet Charlie one lovely and unforgettable afternoon in London in 2010 when we laid over there on our return flight from Greece to NY. He picked us up @ Heathrow and we went to lunch right on the Thames near the Tower of London, and then spent the afternoon strolling around (it was early September, the weather was nice) and getting to know one another, me, Filomena, and Renee (Mrs. Pcad and Pcadette). We all loved him, he was the warmest, most lovely, humorous and unassuming man you can imagine, the same funny guy you know from BF. He said he felt he owed his life to me because after some symptoms he had described I had PM'd him and urged him to seek a specialist, that it could be heart issues, and by the time he got there, he was either in the middle of or had experienced a minor heart attack, so he felt that medical attention at that time had been crucial. I just told Charlie it was common sense, and he should exercise some given his condition, he agreed.

So while it doesn't surprise me that he died young, it saddens me very deeply. The good they die young, and Charlie was a good man. Even though I only saw him online, mostly on FB lately, I will miss him very much.

Heathpack 

FYI, that actually is a decent amount of climbing.

Heathpack 

Love it.

Heathpack 

Backflips. Brave New World.

Heathpack 

Haha, yeah, now its: lactate, hypoxia, frozen garage toes.

Heathpack 

Well you are way faster than me. Hills aren't everything.

BillyD

Hear, hear!

Herbie53

There is a new guy on our team that comes out occasionally on Tuesday's team ride. He usually gets dropped shortly after the warm up / chatty part of the ride ends. Nothing wrong with that.. lots of people start out that way (self included).

What I do find annoying is that he is a super hero on Zwift. Makes all sorts of Zwift power and sets all the records. Has fans world wide.

#virtualracingisBS

LAJ

Thank you @Heathpack.

Your ride looked wonderful. Nice work!

Bunyanderman

I am still waiting for the triple turbo Volvo motor to drop, from which you could be mind-blowing safe while watching others fall behind you.

Heathpack 

Great rides reports, @LesterOfPuppets, @Ramona_W, @datlas, @Herbie53, @mvnsnd, @LAJ, and anyone else I missed.
@Velo Vol and @UnfilteredDregs, we are waiting....
@mzeffex, awesome TTT performance. Nice to feel satisfied with the crit too. Bonus.
@patentcad, love to ride with you any time you are in California. We have some swell routes out here.

LAJ

Good stuff, @mzeffex! Glad that you made it through relatively unscathed.

LAJ

So true!

LAJ

Is he cyber-strong/cyber-cheating?

UnfilteredDregs

I know...I'll catch up tomorrow...some minor online technical difficulties... was an epic ride, currently enjoying the muscle heat. Lol

Herbie53

I dunno if I would call it cheating, but I think the estimated power from trainers is optimistic and can be spoofed by not putting much tension on the roller... and you can always up the watts/kg by fibbing about the kg.

It just makes me want to drop him in the real world and we do.

mzeffex 

I just want to add that between the TTT and the 17 miles of the RR I did I had to have inhaled/eaten several pounds of road grime and dirt.