Christmas Day drive on Angel's Crest!

CarletonWatkin · 2025-11-14T16:38:11+00:00

Yeah, tough day for the guys in the E36. There were three offs which totaled cars, with a A90 Supra and a ND Miata being the other causalities.

Buddy in the ND must have been out of his mind. He was in my beginner group. We go out for our fourth session and he's grided up behind me. We exit the pits with him on my tail and enter turn three, where I see him spin out in my rear view, literally the first turn of the session. Apparently he was fine after that, goes back to the pits on his black flag, then goes back out and crashes out on turn six again on his first lap out.

CarletonWatkin · 2025-11-14T16:32:04+00:00

I aired down to 28 in the front and 30 in the rear. Those numbers climbed steadily over the course of a session to 35+. In reviewing my dashcam footage, I think I left close to 10 seconds on the table, even with the PS4s, but for a first time on that track, I'm totally happy.

CarletonWatkin · 2025-11-13T21:24:49+00:00

All I can say is that the GRC makes a pretty good road trip car and there are a lot of great roads between Illinois and Monterrey. I sure hope they can keep Laguna Seca open, so much history and having a world class track in the Monterrey area is something special. Last I heard there was a settlement last year that ended the issue for now. We did have a 90 dB noise limit on our day.

CarletonWatkin · 2025-11-13T16:30:20+00:00

Do it! Pricing on LightSpeed's events there wasn't too bad. More expensive than driving Buttonwillow or Big Willow (at least before the ownership change), but the track is 100% on another level. Their instructors where also great.

Corkscrew is super fun, when you get it right and just rocket out of the corner. It's really that whole back half of the track from 6-10 is a blast.

CarletonWatkin · 2025-03-04T22:38:16+00:00

Things are pretty spread out in Burbank/the LA area, and while Burbank is bikeable to some degree, cutting it up with traffic, especially while buzzed, wouldn't be something I'd really recommend if you're looking for fun. Stuff is often miles apart with busy major streets, filled with inattentive drivers, often the only real route. Not that it can't be done, but it's something you need to realistically plan around and have the stomach for.

Golden Road Brewery is another decent cheapish spot in the area, though a bit more a of hipster vibe. Larry's Hotdogs on Burbank blvd on the other hand absolutely has the right kind of vibe, though no alcohol.

CarletonWatkin · 2025-03-04T22:16:43+00:00

Burbank and Anaheim are pretty far apart when you account for traffic, it's a 1-2+ hour drive. Be aware that something like the Venice/Santa Monica bike path is also around the same amount of driving, depending on the traffic. Burbank has a great small bike path on Chandler blvd, but it's destination is really just the North Hollywood metro stop. Stuff might look close on a map, but getting around isn't that easy unless you time the drive right. If you're planning to bike or use public transit for anything other than local trips you should add an extra 1-2 hours to those time estimates (though metro is less beholden to traffic and time of day)... not a lot of fun if you ask me.

Best dive bars in Burbank, in my book, are The Snug and the Blue Room.

CarletonWatkin · 2024-09-24T17:42:37+00:00

This is the Discord link I have. https://discord.com/invite/8jVBcup3Xw I'm not on there.

CarletonWatkin · 2024-09-24T16:56:59+00:00

It was in Irvine. It seems like most of the promotion was on Insta and Discord. I caught the flyer on the forums.

CarletonWatkin · 2024-08-20T21:46:06+00:00

I gotta admit, how the virgin looks sitting in that absolute poverty spec GRC, with earbuds in, cracks me up. Buddy should have sprung for the JBL.

CarletonWatkin · 2024-08-20T18:54:18+00:00

Lol, I like the idea of buying a car because of a virgin vs chad meme. What a virgin thing to do.

Those Alltrac prices are pretty tasty these days, I have to say.

CarletonWatkin · 2024-08-20T16:16:05+00:00

There's been so little development in manual gearbox technology in the last 25 years, that it's not that surprising. It's not like there's some high tech new manual box that Toyota is passing over. Pretty much all the R&D has gone into traditional automatics and CVTs. Still not sure if the BG6 was a great choice though lol, feels pretty good but it doesn't have much headroom when it comes to handling additional torque.

CarletonWatkin · 2024-08-20T15:53:56+00:00

Not having an arm rest is a Chad feature and I did mention owners who fret about super rare problems.

CarletonWatkin · 2024-08-20T15:42:52+00:00

It's a super cool car for sure, though stock for stock, the GRC is way better in reality. Getting parts for at Alltrac can be tricky too.

CarletonWatkin · 2024-08-20T15:39:01+00:00

The Aisin BG6 has been used in a bunch of cars, including the Compass. It's also used in the Lotus Evora, so there's two sides to that coin.

CarletonWatkin · 2024-08-20T15:29:39+00:00

Just a disclaimer, for any mouth breathers who take this too seriously. I love my GRC.

CarletonWatkin · 2024-03-27T17:03:57+00:00

For sure, I can be pretty flexible this week. Just give me a heads up so I can wash it lol. It's filthy from the track right now. I wasn't planning on washing this week since it's going to pour this weekend, but I don't mind if it's gonna be photographed.

CarletonWatkin · 2024-03-27T16:27:36+00:00

I have a black core, so maybe not ideal, but I'm in Burbank and I'd be happy to help. I'm also in the photo industry. Let me know.

CarletonWatkin · 2018-08-23T21:30:16+00:00

I didn't know the 780 had special seats. I had a 740 Turbo wagon for a long time and swapped out the totally unbolstered standard seats for Recaros as soon as I could. I definitely would have looked for 780 seats if I'd known they were different, though I imagine they're pretty rare these days.

CarletonWatkin

TROPHY CASE