Good morning Oppo! It’s been a long time since I’ve posted (sporadically at best,) but I wanted to share my garage - ahem, parking lot, and start writing about my automotive adventures on here. I’m a displaced Californian studying in my senior year of undergraduate at a small university outside Boston. I love all cars, the older and weirder the better. Since money is somewhat of a necessity in this world, I also do digital marketing for two dealerships and deliver pizzas to pay the bills. But enough about me, let’s see what’s in my parking lot.
First up is my daily, a ‘14 Audi A4 6-speed with just under 64,000 miles. I’ve had it just over two years, and it’s been across the country with me twice. I’ve added a beefy rear sway bar for the twisties, an APR Stage 1 tune, and I hacked off one of the resonators so that I can actually hear the exhaust note when I’m on throttle.
The manual transmission is easily one of my favorite parts about this car. Third and fourth may well be a yard apart, but there’s a lovely positive engagement, and the shifter is smooth as butter. The clutch is easy in traffic yet has a clearly defined bite point, which is something I struggle to find in other modern “normal” cars.
Then, there’s my weekend driver and project, a 1962 Ford Falcon sedan in Ming Green with a 170ci inline-six and a three-speed column-shift manual. Six weeks ago I joined the cult of less-than-perfect classic car ownership, and I’m hooked. I’ve already gotten my hands dirty changing the valve cover gasket, the rear leaf springs, and the fuel filter. Now it’s taken to stalling out at random, but that’s a story for another post.
Second and third gears have syncromesh, but first does not, so you MUST come to a complete stop if you want to get going in first. This was annoying in traffic when I first got the car, but I got used to it pretty quickly.
What do you think? Can I hang with the cool kids in Club Oppo?