And so it starts.

All car guys want to race.  That's pretty much why we're "into cars".  But racing is usually expensive.  The old sayings, "speed costs", "cubic dollars" et al. capture this dilemma.  It only gets worse because racing is inherently dangerous and your car might get damaged on track.  That's why  I stopped doing HPDEs because I couldn't afford to wreck my daily driver.  Luckily, there's a race series where money *doesn't* win.  The cars are limited to just $500!  I bought a set of wheels that cost more than that.  And now I bought a "set of wheels" that cost just that.

Behold!  The Mighty Nissan GT... uh, I mean SE-R!

Shaun and I went down to Watsonville to pick her up.  The tow yard didn't care that it was a Gen-U-Wine SE-R, jut wanted the "sentra" out of their lot.  The car was straight and looked to be in decent running condition.  Some forum kid had written if off as a "smoking engine", but the lady told us the car was initially started with no dipstick so oil was everywhere, especially on the manifold.  We started her us and of course there was a little smoke.  But otherwise it was in good shape.  Took a little test drive and scared Shaun a bit.  I don't think he's used to rat-trap cars! ;)

Broke out the twenties and sealed the deal.  Went to the DMV to get a new title and then had some good Mexican food.

The drive back over 152 was actually FUN!  Sure we got held up by slower traffic in some parts, but having an Elise chase you down some twisties is always a good time.

Got the old girl home in one piece and started to clean her up.  It's gonna require a lot of work, but I can't complain for $500!

-Hong