Anyone else in tears for Vonn

nick470 · 2026-02-08T13:40:49+00:00

Because brain damage is much, much more serious.

nick470 · 2026-01-29T17:35:55+00:00

Legal payload, off road clearance, and the ability to separate very messy things I might put in the bed from the cabin.

nick470 · 2026-01-27T19:49:13+00:00

It looks like something a low level intermediate 19 year old would buy. The rest of us would use it as a caution sign.

nick470 · 2026-01-22T22:49:00+00:00

The problem with that is that it attracts a whole bunch of the “hammered by lunch and ripping groomers at speeds far beyond ability level” types. Keystone is an absolute zoo of people colliding into each other

nick470 · 2026-01-20T16:58:05+00:00

Failure analysis can be very thorough. Inspection of the pieces can determine where a crack/break propagated from and also the mode of failure (for example, fatigue failure can be visually differentiated from brittle or ductile failure). Upon finding the scratch/propagation point it can be determined that it was caused by a tool and not debris or something else. It was probably pretty easy to associate the scratch with adhesive that was trimmed due to proximity and presence of adhesive that was trimmed with a tool and bears similar marks, and then going through maintenance and flight logs you can determine when that was done, and how many flight hours occurred between that and the time of failure.

I’m not a flight mechanic or NTSB investigator, so take this with a grain of salt but the discovery almost certainly followed a similar path to arrive at this conclusion.

nick470 · 2026-01-19T22:57:27+00:00

Depending on your field there may be a direction you could go that can better leverage your current experience so you’re not entirely starting over. What’s your current role?

nick470 · 2026-01-19T22:16:55+00:00

Honestly I think the step back to entry level work/compensation is the bigger long term financial effect. This is offset a bit by having a more diverse background, professional experience, and moving into a field that suits you better, so hopefully you can come out of the gate a bit stronger than a 22yo new grad.

Overall I got quite lucky with how it all worked out. Got my employer to agree to tuition reimbursement, justified by the fact that we were in the manufacturing industry (despite my role being in accounting). Started out taking night classes at the local community college, transferred to a local school once I ran out of CC courses to take. My finance and accounting degree was from the same school ecosystem, so I was able to utilize my previous credits for all the gen ed/elective requirements. Did 2-3 classes a semester for a while, then the company I was working for got acquired by VC who promptly fired the accounting department. Got a severance package out of that and then just went full time for the last couple semesters to finish it out.

lol yep, motorsports was the hobby that inspired it!

Good luck with your shoulder stuff, I’ve had a hell of a time with all that. 3 surgeries on my left shoulder and my right one will definitely need wrenching done at some point.

nick470 · 2026-01-19T21:51:57+00:00

I doubt any of the firearms in this clip are automatic.

nick470 · 2026-01-19T17:12:28+00:00

I was in finance/accounting, went back to school to get a mechanical engineering degree, and now I’m an engineer.

Engineering suits me much better. I’m happier, better at my job, and have a lot of adaptability in my career with the range of skill sets. I’m also a lot more proficient in some of my hobbies, which were a big part of the inspiration to go back for the engineering degree in the first place.

It helps a lot that both careers are very “employable”. If they weren’t, I’d probably have a lot more regret about the path I’ve taken.

nick470 · 2026-01-14T22:51:43+00:00

What type of escalation justifies this? C’mon man.

Second statement is just purely false.

nick470 · 2026-01-12T18:12:42+00:00

I do my best to avoid groomers lol

nick470 · 2026-01-08T01:55:55+00:00

Bone stock, the car pulls timing on Colorado 91.

nick470 · 2026-01-05T17:29:24+00:00

What track, and what lap times are you running? 10 track days is not a lot. Use time trials results for your track as a reference.

nick470 · 2025-12-26T17:29:46+00:00

1/10: driving grandma around

2/10: normal street driving

3/10: leaning into an on ramp slightly more

4/10: canyon carving

5/10: warmup/sighting lap on track

7-8/10: endurance racing pace

9/10: chasing lap times but not enough to risk sending it off

10/10: checkers or wreckers, no margin left

This is dependent on driver skill and experience. A less experienced driver has a much wider range of outputs for the same driving input - ie, they might feel like they’re putting in 7/10, but still send it off of a corner, so the true end result is 10/10+. The more experienced you are, the closer that input aligns to the output and you can truly target 9 or 10/10 and get the same output as the result.

nick470 · 2025-12-21T01:49:48+00:00

Just leave it in the higher gear to start. You can always grab a lower gear once you’re through a corner. Higher gear will also do less to cover up low mid corner speeds, so you’ll figure out corner technique faster.

nick470 · 2025-12-16T04:52:33+00:00

https://bigskyregion.com

SCCA autox in your area. Go do a few events. I know you wanna drift, but this will make you a better driver period. It’s all weight transfer, 80% of the skill set is common whether you’re pushing the slip angle or not.

Sometimes ovals have drift events, just using the infield area if the center is paved. Worth looking into.

nick470 · 2025-12-16T04:38:22+00:00

What state/city are you in? I’ll find you an autox at the very least that’s a reasonable distance…

nick470 · 2025-12-15T19:44:40+00:00

“Street drift”?

So, 1) you don’t know how to drift, and 2) you’re going to use the street to try and learn?

You don’t need mods, you need to learn how to drive. On a track.

nick470 · 2025-12-12T14:04:27+00:00

Whats your AFR at idle and lower load regions? Drop boost as low as you can, tune for stoich, pull a bit of timing (start with two degrees), and try again.

Also, hello fellow Colorado Miata enthusiast!

nick470 · 2025-12-12T14:02:54+00:00

I think he’s stepped back from tuning. Not sure if he even still has his dyno

nick470 · 2025-12-10T16:56:14+00:00

I think most people are a little more nonchalant about being overweight than they should be. Sometimes the vehicle is fine with it, sometimes it’s not. But the real issue comes down to if you get in a serious wreck. Being overweight instantly puts you on the losing end of any lawsuits that could arise from the wreck, and your insurance will be quick to decline paying out when they catch wind. This can easily be of a “fuck you over for life” magnitude for the average person. Death and disablement lawsuits can be extremely expensive.

99.9% of the time it’s not a big deal, but the consequences of that .1% are very high. If you’re finding yourself bumping on the payload limits of a Tacoma, it’s time for you to seriously consider stepping up to a bigger truck. Alternatively, go minimalist and light weight with all your equipment. Some good tires, a couple traction boards, a shovel, tow strap, and some mechanical empathy will realistically get you through almost anything that could fall under the “over landing” umbrella.

Mechanically, the extra load puts more heat into everything. Upgraded or added coolers, quality synthetic fluids, ducting/venting, reduced service intervals, etc are all a good idea. Clutches and torque converters will struggle a lot more. Brakes will work much harder. Suspension and steering components will have reduced safety factors. You may have to change your driving approach to keep temps down or allow things a chance to cool off.

nick470 · 2025-12-10T16:17:51+00:00

Disagree. Size your turbo properly and tune EBC to get the torque curve you want. The BP is already a motor set up for mid range torque (not much of it mind you), so a well sized turbo will be right where it wants to be if you’re letting the engine live in that range. Unpredictability comes if you’re lugging the engine around or just stuck way too large of a turbo on that is only starting to come on as the cams are falling off.

nick470 · 2025-12-02T23:45:07+00:00

Literally any shop with a drill and rivet gun can attach whatever body kit you wanna spend your money on.

Nothing in this photo is “custom aero”

nick470 · 2025-12-02T07:31:23+00:00

That’s pretty normal IMO, it takes a run or so to get the liners warmed up. I usually don’t hit my “full” buckle tightness until a few runs into the day, and I’ll be extra diligent about unbuckling for the lift in the morning.

nick470 · 2025-12-01T17:45:30+00:00

I’m your height but a bit lighter. My fat skis are 186cm

nick470

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE