car

2014 Nissan Rogue

Expensive price tag; around 27mpg; ride is comfortable and compliant; steering is completely numb, feels like nothing at low speed situations, tightens up at higher speeds, don’t mind that, but the lack of feeling is unsettling; wanders a little on highway at speed; wouldn’t think 170hp in this size vehicle would be enough, but it does surprisingly well accelerating at highway speeds, getting onto the highway from standstill is a different story; still don’t like cvt’s, but it helps keep rpms low, even at higher speeds(less than 3000rpm at 80mph); seats are comfortable, but wish it had a tiny bit more lateral support; gauges are nice and elegant looking; wish the center lcd would display speed though; interior is very nice for a vehicle in this class, soft touches; quality materials, don’t like the fake carbon fiber plastic though, and the steering wheel could use a little more girth; sun visors so big they flop down and dont stay all the way up; looks much, much better than previous generation, less frumpy and more aggressive; miss when Nissan’s had soul, hard to find in today’s Nissan’s.

2014 Mitsubishi Mirage

Terrible; brakes are really bad, at least an inch until you feel any stopping, sometimes scared if the car was actually going to stop, no pedal feel; steering numb, return to center was not good, all over the road, going over bumps induced hopping while steering; feel the car lean in turns; when going over wavy bumps the car strangely will pull to one side or the other, almost like the suspension travel couldn’t handle it; ride was somewhat comfortable given its short wheelbase; 3-cylinder engine is bad, shakes noticeably at a standstill, noisy, feels like you’re torturing it when trying to accelerate, when trying to accelerate it feels like its slowly losing a battle against drag and friction; at highway speeds and getting onto highways you need to plan how you’re going to get up to speed; plastic everywhere; dash was so plasticky and shiny the glare from the sun was very bright; for such a small car visibility wasn’t great, giant blind spot in rear 3/4; ugly; push button start and keyless entry!?!?, tacky looking keyless entry button, only on driver and trunk, keyhole access on passenger side.

2014 Bentley Continental GT V8 S Convertible

Again, sorry for the lack of interesting writing, but I have been very busy with being a new dad and my career.
Most likely from here on out these posts will be photo heavy with less writing. But when I have notes I will be sure to include them!

Like a fullback in football, heavy, planted, but quick when it needs to be; beautiful looking; got more attention than Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet; suspension settings are like polar opposites, comfort is comfortable, but sloppy, sport is still comfortable but much more responsive to inputs and road feel and is preferable to me, in full comfort mode car felt big and boaty, but in full sport mode felt more tossable and smaller; can feel the heft of the car, especially in braking and hard cornering, still handled well in sport mode, but definitely suffers from the vehicle weight; wish brakes felt better, not as responsive as I would have liked; transmission in normal D is laggy, and needs a lot of pedal pressure to become responsive, found myself in situations where i needed to use acceleration and it was way too slow for the amount needed, but transmission in sport mode was wonderfully much more responsive, kept revs higher, downshifts were much quicker and responsive, overall sport mode was preferred, plus it let you hear the engine sounds much more; LOVE the sound of the V8, sounds great, deep sound and sounds bad ass at full open throttle, especially in tunnels; paddle shifter location was annoying for normal driving, kept trying to hit those when trying to use the turn signals; seats comfortable, loved the massaging feature and the two tone interior; everything was nice to the touch, metal features, beautifully stitched leather; not a fan of the dials and knobs, felt nice to the touch, but they were tiny and required a lot of manipulating to change things for some, steering wheel dial was a little laggy when trying to change settings

2014 Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet

Click the image below and drag left or right to open/close the top!

I haven’t been having enough time to be able to write a full review on this car, but I’ll share with you my notes, and of course my photos!

fast; handling is great; interior quality is great; stereo sounds very good; cruising highway top down very nice, quiet, not windy with windows and air blocker up; PDK transmission is very good; engine sound behind you is magnificent; comfortable seats and seating position; visibility with top down is great; very, very expensive; hard to justify unless you have plenty of money; could be a avery fun car, but its tough because you really need to drive it hard to really enjoy the performance; breathtaking acceleration; can feel the weight in the back around turns, not a bad thing; feels like the rear is hugging you through the turns; turn in is great; steering feels is good, steering not too tight on highway, but wanders a little, but most likely from the huge rear wheels; auto start/top function is kind of funny on this car, sometimes it would turn engine off before car was stopped, also cuts power to auxiliary/cigarrette lighter causing radar detector to keep turning on and off; so many buttons and levers(2 on each side, wipers, lights, cruise, screen functions)

2015 McLaren 650s at Monticello Motor Club

While I only got to drive this car on a small autocross course, you can tell even with just the tiniest taste that this is an amazing machine. It’s fast, comfortable, and looks great. It really is amazing how McLaren was able to hone in the suspension to be so capable on the track and so comfortable on everyday roads. Their unique suspension is truly an automotive phenomenon. This car doesn’t use traditional anti-roll bars, but instead uses hydraulics to keep it stable, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that other manufacturers need to take advantage of this kind of technology. On a side note, I can’t get over how fast their professional drivers can drive. Doing a couple of hot laps in the passenger seat was amazing. I don’t think the smile on my face came off for a good hour after I got out of the car. Simply awesome!

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