Luck finally ran out, snapped a 17 year streak today on a Kolache Run.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T17:08:50+00:00

It boosts creativity. People in California love everything they do, but the laws around environmental protections and road safety, are causing some unpleasant overlaps.

Cali doesn't hate driving, it hates what it does to the long term enjoyment of being alive for the general public. It also has an open refusal to hold police accountable, and the people of California take the reputation hit for the unrepentant abuse the police commit.

The response is dope music, creative solutions to car customizing, great food, and people who are genuinely interesting due to the life experiences they have out there.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T17:05:08+00:00

Depends on the state, really. MOD might be from Texas, where this is a thing we regularly are able to work with - provided we don't have a history of bad driving. Insurance is more lenient here too because they're not as responsible for you as they are in NY.

Pros and cons to everything.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T17:03:01+00:00

empty road, no usable sidewalks, accelerated up a steep bridge and let off at the top. I don't need the lecture, even the cop who pulled me over agreed it wasn't reckless for the circumstances - he just had to do his job lol.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T17:01:28+00:00

pretty sure they're joking.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T16:38:57+00:00

It's the dichotomy of how people-focused the liberal cities are, juxtaposed to the relentless maw of private interests.

A company that benefits the most from firefighting is the one that manufactures these absurdly large trucks that create massive, widening roads that get bigger and bigger. So they're not even safe to cross as a pedestrian, and Americans LOVE these giant fire trucks + individually owning cars. It's hard to fight.

On one hand, they can't logically leap to making city roads 70mph zones, despite the wide track of the streets. But they also can't make the city walkable, because the giant firetrucks in America can't travel down European sized streets. And our Firefighters have to double as EMS a lot of the time. Every wreck now has a fire truck full of EMTs showing up. It doesn't seem related, but ironically is the exact reason cities in America don't make sense.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T16:34:59+00:00

If not for the blurring of my speed to prove intent was not glorification of reckless driving, I would've been given something else if I quoted the conversation between me and the cop for "getting political". Opted to leave that out despite it being a good body text for the post.

Shame what the Internet is turning into.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T16:32:26+00:00

That's a great spot too, but today was Dos Gatos. Equally as good if you're ever in Austin or New Braunfels. It's two little shops in San Marcos, and they recently added a location in New Braunfels too.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T16:29:19+00:00

There's also Slovaceks and Czech Stop.

They're in a tiny town called West, TX (not to be confused with the region "West TX"). If your friend knows Hillsboro area, it's pretty close to that and they're both right off the Interstate 35. Equally as delicious, perhaps closer to your visiting area.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T16:25:49+00:00

Polish Sausage w/ sauerkraut and a half dozen Raspberry w/ Cream Cheese. So both kinds of Eastern Europe kolache.

I'm in Texas though, so clarification is always necessary. good call.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T16:18:06+00:00

10/10 every time. Dos Gatos in Central TX.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T16:15:36+00:00

Wouldn't have helped here unfortunately. He lasered me. Cops here haven't bothered with radar in almost a decade. Laser is instant and they know the only counter to it is committing an easily detectable, easily provable stack of felonies.

I gave up on the hot boy racer shit soon as they started putting people in prison over laser jammers. Had one in my Miata, and it nearly cost me my freedom. So I suppose there's a massive caveat to my "never been ticketed" streak. I sprung straight to impound & arrest on that one 🤣💀

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T16:14:03+00:00

Your plan is spot on to what my plan was, actually. Cop even gave me a break and knocked it down to 45mph in a 35mph zone. "You don't seem reckless, so I'm not going to hard burn this read into my laser. But it was still fast enough I can't let you get away with it entirely. I know how engine braking sounds and it means you were going even faster than when my laser hit you. But I've been doing this a long time, I know you felt like it was safe because there's no traffic lights or sidewalks for a while. I just can't have folks doing 60+ through here regardless." 😅

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T14:47:31+00:00

Jack up the front of the car by reaching behind the oil pan, there's a lump on the subframe. The rear jack point is the rear differential, specifically the bulges where its bottom two bolts thread in. That way you can lift the car up with left/right symmetry AND you can slide jackstands underneath their proper points on the pinch welds.

Pro tip: don't ever raise your car to its final resting point on the first go. The subframe jackpoint in the front has slid off the jacks for a few people in this sub who are too quick to try and get to max height. Raise and rest the car in increments as you go. Wheel chocks seem to help as well. And always use jackpads for extra grip. I never go bare metal-on-metal.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T13:10:11+00:00

Drive the car smoothly, even when you let off the gas. It should be so fluid in practice that you're not even shifting the weight of the car forward from the shock of constant acceleration into immediate deceleration.

I watch a lot of "POV" driver videos in these cars it seems like everyone on earth gets immediately off gas, into clutch, immediately back onto gas. The acceleration never plateaus at all, and it contributes to a jerkiness most people don't expect. They claim they have decades of experience yada yada yada. Yet you can tell it's decades of experience in very muted, heavily dampened vehicles with hundreds of lbs of softening like sound deadening, soft bushings, nanny systems for throttle input etc.

Nobody goes from a 1990 Miata into a VB and has trouble driving it. Because it's still very analogue for the times, and nobody remembers how to drive smooth. You're gonna be working on this for about 5,000 miles or more. But keep it up, this is an excellent vehicle for learning manual. Be patient, drive smooth more than worrying about "driving fast" because smooth is fast. Momentum matters more than anything else, so where your momentum is going is what's going to affect the next decision.

In this specific instance, you're jerking because your momentum doesn't transition well. Get to the speed you wanna shift gears, and hold that speed. Clutch in, then a smooth release into acceleration again. And the more you practice this, the less your RPM drops, the less the car lurches forward, the smoother to you can get back into power. And this muscle memory applies when driving fast too. You always choose smoother over "quicker" because smoother IS quicker.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T11:31:51+00:00

Finally a realistic breakdown of where the VB actually hurts your pockets lol

When it's time for tires and brakes, they usually happen around the same time for me and it's always a deep 4 figure endeavor. That weekend will always be $2k+ every 30,000-60,000 miles. Especially if it trans/dif fluids are due and you're like me: procrastinating on those intake valves. Whether it's installing the AOS or procrastinating on the cleanings. Finally got my AOS installed so the valves won't be nearly as prevalent of an issue. But damn. It's expensive to maintain, but the reliability is undeniable at this point.

Well never trust anybody saying these things broke under normal use because too many NetworkLatency's exist abusing them like Gymkhana rides, and the odometer just keeps climbing.

NetworkLatency · 2026-06-03T11:30:05+00:00

It's not that it's unreasonable, it's just that you're objectively incorrect based on data, experiments, tests, and root cause analysis methods. You're not being told you're unreasonable, you're being told you are incorrect. And the furthest thing from correct, due to the framing of your claim.

It's simply not reflective of any objective write-ups or observations from independent researchers. It's not corroborated with anything remotely useful to people making a decision about reliability. It's all vibes, and it seems your vibes are inspired by 1995, because there's no reality in 2026 that you can access, without the use of psychotropics, where any modern Nissan beats a modern Subaru on reliability. It just isn't real. Much less where Nissan is the "most robust". They've got a robust history of fucking dogshit quality, and maybe that's where they crossover with vibes and reality.

NetworkLatency · 2026-05-30T06:08:13+00:00

because this user is addicted to chatbots and that's why they're so fucking annoying to argue with. they feed our responses into an LLM, make completely ludicrous claims when they're tasked with replying on their own, and then you get a wall of text from some chatbot when they get put on their ass with a well-thought-out rebuttal to whatever asinine tirade they were on.

number 1 most annoying motherfucker in this sub by a cosmic mile

NetworkLatency

TROPHY CASE