There have been a few visitors already this week, to the Mountain Home.
These two came by today for a short visit:
Even a little interesting reptile life…
Earlier another buck made an appearance:
Another decided that some of the plants on our hillside were not to it’s liking, and proceeded to rip them out of the ground.
What can I say, McLaren knows how to build a car, put on a show and a party. In the past it’s been the 650S and P1 car launches, special events etc; but few things are as fantastic as test driving a McLaren!
Having spent a few days in the amazing MP4-12c (I even rented one for my 50th birthday), then test driving the then brand new 650S around Pebble Beach in 2014, I of course leapt at the chance to get behind the wheel of their latest car, the Sport Series (aka 570).
With an amazing test route loop on the infamous Laurels Grade before me, with great excitement I slipped behind the wheel of the above beauty!
After a quick overview of the vehicle operation, I was off! The first thing I noticed was the steering felt a little more connected to the ground than the MP4-12c, the car was really feeding back information on what was going on. Lucky for me traffic was mostly non-existent as the car rapidly announced that I’d exceeded the road’s speed limit (interesting feature… could really come in handy for those times you sort of get lost in the throttle and didn’t notice a change in the speed limit… for those that care about such things).
It was a spirited ride for certain. On the return leg of the test, I popped the car into auto-mode, and mashed the throttle. I was surprised to watch the tac blast past 8000 RPM as the twin-turbo V8 snarled behind me.. tires complaining… traffic rapidly disappearing behind… I LOVE IT!!
Although the entry-level McLaren.. the 570 is a satisfying drive. And dare I say it.. I think it looks better than it’s “bigger” MP4-12c and 650S family members. I wish I’d had a GoPro with me to capture the experience… but it’s one I won’t soon forget!
If you’re in the market for quarter-million dollar sports cars, give the McLaren Sport Series a drive. With two models (GT and S), you should be able to find what you’re looking for.
Here are 2 more Sport Series, waiting for the next test drivers to take the wheel. I think you can see a little more of an Italian flare in the front design, and I like it!
Quite a lineup here… almost the full family was represented here (I did find an F1 the next day at Laguna Seca).
I’m not much for white cars (which you might get looking at my fleet).. but I think the Sport Series looks pretty good in white. Now.. if one could only graft the GT front end onto the now (relatively) inexpensive MP4-12cs.. it would be a match made in heaven!!
Now.. no experience is complete without the fully off-hook full-tilt boogey P1. Here is one showing off it’s full carbon fiber construction. Just an amazing looking and sounding car. For the limited and fortunate few that were able to purchase one… I can only guess how getting behind the wheel must be akin to driving at ’11’.
The test-drive mule I got to flog.. even in that color I LOVE IT.
Another really interesting color on a 570. Here the nose clip looks vaguely La Ferrarish; which is what make me feel like this model has a little bit of an Italian flare.
Again, the P1. All carbon, all the time.
“The Crew” (most missing Beth, she was busying being part of a documentary McLaren was making that day). Carsten, Shawn, me, Moh. Yeap, we were all having fun driving cars and enjoying the hospitality.
One of Emerson Fittipaldi’s M23A/9 F1 car from the 1980s. Despite being 30 years old.. it still looks the business, and more car than my basic skills could manage.
This M80/4 CanAm car looked like a beast! The velocity stacks on that V8 look like they could swallow a small dog. What a rush it must be to drive something like that… open cockpit, raging V8 right behind you.. mega down force and all the balls you can manage to jam in your driving suit.
Here is “The Gang” again (Beth decided to take a break from being a film star to say hello) in front of Niki Lauda’s MP4-2/2 F1 machine. His teammate that year was Alain Prost, whom lost the championship to Lauda by mere points that year; which of secured McLaren a solid manufactures title as well.
For me, there is just something about a 60’s era open-wheeled car like this M28. It’s like a work of art. 🙂
Unobstructed view of Lauda’s MP4-2/2 F1 machine.
And one more look at the 570. I would be thrilled to put one of these in my garage.
HUGE Thanks to McLaren and Bernardus Lodge and Spa for hosting us for this event during Car Week 2016!!!
During the US Round of World SuperBike (SBK) Ducati Owners Club, arranged a preview of the Talbot Motorcycle Museum for club members. It was a great, warm and sunny evening in Carmel Valley, amongst some amazing motorcycles!
Here are some photos from the event:
Where you can view these wonderful machines:
Snapped these three pics outside our home off Branciforte, at 10:45 AM.
After watching the movie “Wild”, about a hiker on the PCT, I recalled meeting a pair of hikers in WA, who were picking up a shipment of shoes at one of the PCT outposts.
It was August 2005, and I’m pretty sure it was my first trip to a new motorcycle rally event in the Columbia Gorge, called Sportbike Northwest 2005.
It was quite great time, spent with many friends from both the Pacific Northwest VFR and local ADV groups (I’d just purchased my 2nd Ducati powered machine, a Cagiva Gran Canyon). (Side note; in the PNW VFR group page, my yellow 2000 VFR800 is 5th bike from the left)
While looking up references for this post, I found that a few of the pictures that three of the photos I’ve taken at SBNW events are at the summary photos shown by Google.. sorta cool)
I know that I took MANY more photos from the event.. but these are the ones that I’d posted to my original blog (long dead), back in 2005.
Many things on that Rally were not photographed, for a variety of reasons… Here are a few of the places that were enjoyed on the various rides/tours during SBNW.
Stonehenge
Yeap.. there is a Stonehenge in WA. Created by a visionary man named Sam Hill. [ More Info ]
Maryhill Loops Road
A private road opened just a few times a year to special Motorsports events. Maryhill Loops is an amazing ribbon of tarmac. During SBNW, the road is run one-way only, much like a race track. A similarly paced group of riders ascend; then when all have reached the top, the road is reversed and you descend. This is repeated many times for the small, limited group of people that purchase special tickets for this part of the rally. IMHO, a MUST DO!
Vista House
Vista House and the amazing section of road to (and from it), provides amazing views of The Gorge. I few years later I was fortunate enough to spend the day here riding with Reg Pridmore, his wife and my friend Mike. It was a great day of riding with a riding legend and a couple of good friends. Check out that road!.
Route 30 Porsche Museum and Ice Cream
What a treat Route 30 is! Literally. :). As a 911 owner in the past, this was a great treat. It’s not very big, but the ice cream is a welcome respite from the often extream temps that time of year in The Gorge. I still have the Valentino Rossi jacket I bought there.
Yes.. this bridge is rather impressive (and also part of the PCT). Bridge of the Gods is a crossing point I used often to get from WA to OR during the rally. There is also a pretty good breakfast joint at the base of the bridge on the OR side. Give it try!
There are more things that I’ve forgotten, than remembered. Maybe I’ll update the blog if/when I do.
It sure was fun looking 11 years back at where I was, the things I did and the people I rode with. Times have changed, yet so many things remain the same. 😀
Over the last couple of days we’ve had some daytime visitors along the hillside above us.
We know there are a number of predator cats in the area. I don’t often see bobcats so it was a rare treat to get a glimpse of one outside my office window:
Coyotes are much more commonly sighted around here. I often catch them on the infrared wildlife camera. Seeing them during the daytime is a little less common but it does happen, as it did this morning:
A few days ago, I posted the first test video shot using 30 second exposures with a GoPro3 camera, located at our home in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
For my next test series I set the GoPro3 Camera, to fire the photos at 10 second intervals. The number of photos captured before the battery expired was almost 1100, netting a much longer and smoother looking video.
The wildlife camera experiment continues.
A few nights ago it captured a coyote walking right up to our front door.
The camera only fired a few times that night, and unfortunately none of the still were usable.
After having so many foggy photos (see blog entry) I decided to fab a quick hood out of cardboard to see if it would help in any way. It’s not pretty. I didn’t want to invest a bunch of time in something nice if this wasn’t going to work. It’s an MVP if you will… with quality to match! LOL
This is what the current camera orientation looks like during daylight hours:
Checking the camera the next morning, it seemed to have helped out quite a bit. We had some deer drop by for about an hour or so. Instead of the normally fuzzy images, these came our a lot better.
My plan is to move the camera again, maybe to a higher point and aim it downward, using the camera body to provide more cover for the lens. So far this is my most favored location, but I’m not done experimenting quite yet.
Each morning that I get up and check the camera, there is a lot of dew upon it, including the lens. It has a small built in cover but it’s not enough to keep it from getting clouded.
Last night around 2:00 AM we had what looks like you coyote visitor again… but.. as you can see, the blur is from the water collected on the face of the lens housing.
Video is the same story. Little 10 second clip shows the animal strolling off. Definitely some sort of canine.
I think the next step is to look for a small birdhouse, and use that to possibly house the camera and keep the dew from forming on the lens. When it was positioned under an overhang, the dew didn’t seem to be an issue. That is my though process regardless.