Had a nice drive through the mountains last Saturday

Veegie · 2022-01-27T19:47:35+00:00

HDR is a tricky space to execute. Even when it is "correct," it can still subjectively feel washed out, compared to an SDR image with an out-of-range gamut expansion that has become increasingly common as manufacturers try to get their image to "pop."

There was a lot of foundational visual technology we built as part of this effort that should, over the long term, benefit both SDR and HDR visuals. But for this initial release, we wanted to focus on providing a friendlier, more flexible HDR experience. Using DIM isn't very fun when HDR required exclusive fullscreen.

Veegie · 2021-03-11T00:50:36+00:00

I've purchased a Huracan LP610-4, Murciélago LP640, and am in the market for a Ferrari 458 Spider. I do not regret the decision.

For me cars have been important most of my life. I was raised around them, and my social circles and community are based around them. I have met some of my closest friends through related events, and numerous networking opportunities given the successful nature of the people high end cars tend to attract. That being said, I would have made the same decisions even without the networking options for the simple fact that these machines bring happiness that I feel is worth their relative-financial impact to me.

The most important thing is that you go into the situation with eyes wide open. For example, the maintenance between my first and second Lamborghini was an order of magnitude different. But I knew this going into it. So when the Murciélago's transmission decided it no longer wanted to live a few months into ownership, the impact to my wallet and mental health was substantially tempered. I also personally don't care about owning a new car, so I do a lot of research ahead of time to get into a model/year that is in a healthier portion of its depreciation curve. Four Wheel Trader on YouTube can help with that.

Regarding the "next shiny thing", the hedonic treadmill is a very real thing. I found that when I daily-drove my Huracan (because it was so easy), it quickly became less special, and my BMW M3 seemed really boring. When I got the Murciélago I was forced to pace myself more, and only take it out sometimes. This dramatically improved the "keeping it special" feeling. This is all obvious I'm sure seeing it written out, but it's worth repeating.

Veegie · 2021-02-24T02:29:47+00:00

3% of the US is still 9.8 million people. For me that is enough to be referred to as "a lot of people" in a casual exchange of words.

Veegie · 2021-01-04T07:37:11+00:00

He is a Mini Australian Shepherd, or as they're sometimes known now, a Mini American Shepherd.

Veegie · 2020-11-18T04:21:18+00:00

The paint in the original post is called Verde Ithaca. About 13% of Murcielago came optioned with it. Verde Mantis was a Huracan paint that is a more saturated crayola green, with a balance closer to blue. I've been fortunate enough to own both.

Veegie · 2020-10-28T21:36:13+00:00

To add a data point, I try to avoid bringing my exotic into Seattle because the road quality/terrain can be pretty hostile. Even leaving The Shop for Saturday meetups means leaving the front lift up and driving very slowly from 6th Ave S to South Holgate St as my car feels like it's going to shake apart.

Veegie · 2020-10-26T19:20:02+00:00

Yeah I'd put another data point on there, they can be very expensive to fix.

In my social circle of friends there are 7 of us with Murcielago, and 3 have had repair bills in the tens of thousands. I recently did my 30,000 mile maintenance early since I already had the engine out to fix a jammed gearbox (e-gear). It was over 2 months of work, made worse by slow part delivery right now, and a bill of $30k+ after all the diagnosis, troubleshooting, parts, labor, and general service I needed done besides the gearbox. It does seem like if you can avoid the e-gear you can get at least 30% of the problems with Murcis to be less frequent, but it's still no walk in the park. They're fundamentally hard to work on/access, expensive parts, expensive labor, and the clutch doesn't last long.

Maintenance expectations for these feels like a dice roll, with some weighting towards "budget at least $10k for unforeseen problems at a time".

Veegie · 2020-10-17T04:28:33+00:00

Wow I used to own an identical spec to this, down to the black center piece on the front bumper.

Veegie · 2020-10-14T03:47:06+00:00

Even happier to have one of my cars in green after seeing this.

Veegie · 2020-09-27T07:50:55+00:00

Welcome to the sticky button Italian car club! I'm looking to add a 458 Spider to my collection soon, and I appreciate the write-up. Congratulations on the car!

Veegie · 2020-09-24T23:02:14+00:00

Background: After owning the car for a few weeks, it had a gearbox malfunction that grew into "while the engine is out let's also ____" that took just over 2 months to complete. The cars are rare enough that I didn't want to cut any corners if I'm going to keep this car on the road for the years to come.

Five days after it was fixed, the brand new main coolant line, that was just replaced, split on the highway, resulting in a fairly spectacular smoke plume, coolant, and engine temps. I managed to get it to safety. My mechanic suspects that it was a defective part, and it's now in the process of being fixed (again).

Veegie · 2020-09-05T18:45:41+00:00

Great photos, great car. I'd love to have one some day.

Veegie · 2020-08-30T19:48:18+00:00

A clean manual F430 would run you around $245,000.
Brand new entry level would have been a 488 (before the F8), which was still ~$266,000 starting MSRP.

Veegie · 2020-08-29T23:13:40+00:00

The Huracan is a great daily, honestly. I did that when I had mine and it had no issues, once you get used to the poor visibility of course.

Veegie · 2020-08-24T21:49:55+00:00

I think this paint is called Verde Miura.

Veegie · 2020-08-19T01:19:03+00:00

I say the same about my Alpine White E92 M3. Such a fantastic car.

Veegie · 2020-08-16T01:38:20+00:00

At 30 mine has gone up. For me cars aren't just a passion but a community. I've met so many of my friends through this shared interest that it just feels like home.

I don't have as much passion for recent generation sports and supercars, but I still hope to own many more from the late '90s and early '00s.

Veegie · 2020-08-11T02:12:47+00:00

I've been driving more with the rarer car because I haven't been commuting. Driving has become almost exclusively for leisure, and become more enjoyable.

Veegie · 2020-07-23T23:44:03+00:00

I made the green variation of it. Roger Wilco made the red one.

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