u/African-Rain-Blesser

Winning the Seiko Lottery is just the cherry on top. +3s/d for their entry-level automatic is just outrageous.

My only complaint is that the “PRESAGE AUTOMATIC” and date dial are in white and not gold like the indices and hands. I suppose I would also rather not have a date window at all, but I can understand that these need to sell in volume and they have to appeal to a wider audience.

Had a chance to take the Maverick out to Sonoma over the weekend. I've done a few AutoX events with it, and it's a hoot on those courses, but I wasn't sure what to expect on the big track. There were a ton of cars in the run group, which meant plenty of traffic throughout the day, and the afternoon sessions were cut short due to a couple of breakdowns.

I ended up only with a handful of clean laps, this being the fastest. Garmin does stitch together the fastest theoretical lap using the fastest segments across all your laps, which came out to a 2:01.19. I'm usually around 2 seconds off that optimal, so had I had more clean laps, a 2:03 might have been realistic. Not too bad for a 250hp pickup...

Mods are tires (Goodyear Eagle F1 Asym 6), brakes (Mach-E front brembos + EBC Bluestuff pads), Goodwin springs, and a "Massive" front strut bar.

The torque vectoring rear diff does a great job pulling the car through the carousel, and the big Brembos were magnificent. But two things hold it back.

The most obvious is power, or the lack thereof. I wasn't able to hit 100mph all day, and even on the straights I had ND Miatas reeling me in. Another 50-75hp would be transformative, and would easily bring this to sub 2:00 (if the other issue below is addressed). I also wish there were some 200TW tires, but unfortunately nobody seems to make them for fitments anywhere close to what the Maverick uses.

But the biggest issue is the stability control. Even if you hold down the ESC button, and it says that it turns AdvanceTrac off, it would still often cut power as soon as it senses the car starting to slide, especially when there's elevation change (of which there is a lot at Sonoma). Every once in a while it doesn't, and the difference in segment times were substantial. Based on the recorded segment times for turns 2, 3 and 10 when it didn't kick in, I could have shaved a full 3 seconds off. In the video, you can hear how the engine doesn't wind back up until well after the apex on those corners. Cutting power is especially problematic for these turbocharged cars because even when it allows the power to come back on, all that boost is gone, so you're left waiting for turbo lag to subside. I don't know if there's a special "pedal dance" procedure to fully defeat stability control ala Honda, but I hope there's some way because it's incredibly aggravating. Maybe pulling fuses?

That said, the novelty of hooning a pickup around a track and keeping up with (and sometimes passing) other sport compacts and Miatas made it all well worth it.

Placed an order for a Nox9 back in Nov. Switched it over to a Limited and it just came in. Saw that some people had some rough QC on theirs but this one appears to be flawless. Will it help me dominate LO at the next match? No. Will it help me shoot better? Probably not. But the trigger is an absolute joy and the slide is so smooth, even moreso than my Staccato P

Cookie Monster? Blueberry? Whatever it’s called, me likey

I missed out on these when they were first sold, so I've been keeping my eye out for a while, and finally found one that was (comparatively speaking) reasonably priced. The AE86 inspired subdials are chefs-kiss. There’s even a delightful little highbeam indicator.

I missed out on these when they were first sold, so I've been keeping my eye out for a while, and finally found one priced with a (relatively) small Takumi tax. The AE86 inspired subdials are chefs-kiss. There’s even a delightful little highbeam indicator.

Always thought my first Breitling would be a Navitimer, but this was a deal I couldn't pass on.

I'll be the first to say, if I had to pay the $7500 retail price, or even if an AD gave me a 20% discount, I'd take a pass. It's kind of a weird one...what exactly is it? It feels incredibly overbuilt and chunky like it's a dive watch, but the dial and hands are styled more to be a pilot's watch? Well, whatever it is, for $3000 I'm very very very happy with it. I don't think there's another watch, new or used, at this price point I'd take over it.

Picked up a Chicom buddy for my Chicom Type 54: a Sea-Gull 1963. Incidentally, this Type 54 was also made in 1963, so I guess they were destined to be together. Now I just need to get one of those Chairman Mao Type 65 Liberation caps for the full vibes.

The watch itself actually has a pretty interesting history, and it's far nicer than I would have expected for a mechanical watch that can be had for well under 200 bones.

Took way longer than it should have, but I'm chalking it up to it being the first one I did. I tried at first to just snip the axles, but my low profile wire cutters couldn't cut through them, so I ended up drilling out the rivets. Also sanded down the nubs inside the wheel well so the wheels don't poke out too much, and shimmed the axles to remove all the wheel gap. Tapping the posts wasn't too bad and the chassis is now held on by a couple M2 button screws, so it's really easy to open up and swap out the wheels again.

Absolutely worth it, as the old generic wheels not only looked bad, but are also thin and really tucked into the body.

One down, just...155 more Classic line cars to do...

No idea if it actually does anything yet other than serve as engine bling. Have another trackday lined up in September so I'll know more then.

Was a little worried the 18” wheels wouldn’t clear the calipers, but they just do. These are the regular GT Brembos, not the Performance option. It’s 99% bolt on; only modification is to bend the dust shield back a little and shim the calipers with a couple washers to center the rotors.

Local Costco only had the floor model left. Gave me another $100 on top of the current $100 coupon if I could haul it home already assembled. Maverick once again coming in clutch

Building a mud kitchen for my daughter and another storage rack for the garage, and then taking it to another AutoX next weekend. There’s really nothing like it.