Automobiles & Motorsports
I’ve had a love for cars ever since I was a kid in the 80’s. Like most kids of that era, I had a poster of a red Lamborghini Countach in my room. I also picked Lamborghini as the topic for my first book report I had to write about in elementary school. It wasn’t until I was becoming of age to drive where my passion for cars really started to grow. But I didn’t grow up in an affluent family. Our cars were very boring. But my dad only drove manual transmission cars and to my benefit, that’s how I learned how to drive. My first car ended up being our family hand-me-down 86 Corolla sedan. It was old, beat up, and had almost 200k miles on it.
Up to Speed.
The first new car I bought out of college was a 2000 Celica GT-S with a 6-speed manual. I was in love with the Honda S2000 at the time, but I definitely could not afford it. I loved my Celica because it was my first performance-oriented car and I paid for it myself. I didn’t have any motorsports experience at this time, but I did end up modifying it with upgraded wheels, a short shifter, intake/exhaust, and a lightweight aluminum flywheel/limited slip differential combo. I ended up selling it when I got married and bought a used 2003 Lexus IS300. It wasn’t until years later that I was able to follow my dreams of getting into motorsports.
In 2009 I learned to autocross (with my BMW 135i) and started taking many high performance driving schools. I ended up replacing the 1 series with a 2011 BMW M3 and continued to take it to driving schools and track days across the Bay Area. It was a fantastic car and I even won a few time trial competitions. I also spent a lot of time on my driving simulator at home and bought a used go kart to get more driving time at a lower price point.
After 5 years of the M3, I wanted to drive something cheaper, lighter (lower cost of consumables), more reliable, and that would challenge me more as a driver. The logical option was the Honda S2000. It was the best decision I could have made. It was extremely fun to drive, reliable, and running costs were just so much lower. While I did win a couple time trial competitions in the S2000, it was a much more challenging car to drive than the M3. I ended up spinning and crashing into a tire wall at Laguna Seca, which was the first time I ever lost control of a car on the race track. And that’s saying something because I’ve always turned off all the assists (traction/stability controls) on all of my cars when I drove them on the track. The S2000 was the only car that ever got away from me (and only once). Luckily it was just cosmetic body damage and I was able to bring the car back to looking/driving new again and drove it for many more years. While owning the S2000 as my track car, I was lucky enough to also own a 2016 Cayman GT4 and a 2017 Shelby GT350 for about a year each. Both cars were sold because my family planned to move (to Austin and then Dallas).
Around 2019, my passion for mountain biking started to rival my enjoyment on the race track. The better rider I became, the more fun I was having and endless challenges arose. In the spring of 2021, I reluctantly sold my beloved S2000 and had no more cars to take to the race track. I do have a driving simulator at home that I’ll jump on every once in awhile and I love a good session on arrive-and-drive go karts. I want to buy another affordable sports car to enjoy driving again someday, but for now I drive a Toyota Sequoia and love the biking life.
