The…. one day I got weirdly lucky and landed a stunt driving gig because I wouldn’t let the company’s guy drive my car. Yes, it’s a technicality but dammit I’m the guy driving in a commercial!
I was at Utah Motorsports Campus showing the worker ladies how TopDrift works and they let told me someone was looking for a nice car to film while drifting. There is a drift club in Salt Lake City but I guess their cars were too beat up for prime time.
The client turned out to be Xinsurance, a company who claims they will insure anything. To make the point clear, they show all kinds of extreme sports and the voice over keeps saying “THIS is covered, THIS is covered” etc. The video shoot at UMC was two hours and I was in the commercial for a total of less than two seconds but I’m not complaining. This is the commercial that aired on Monday night football:
Needless to say I was pretty stoked when this came out. I was certain it’s only a matter of time before big brands come knocking and want to pay big bucks for my driving skills. They haven’t yet, but any day now…..
Here’s more footage from the shoot. Hard to be satisfied with .75 seconds of drift footage when you spent two hours thrashing your car around.
Are you a drifter? Do you meander from town to town looking for your next meal or grift? Do you mumble barely audible nonsense as you rummage through people’s trash? Then TopDrift is PERFECT for you!
Every guy out there thinks he’s the best driver in the world. Or, at least could be if he just had the right shot, coaching, budget, etc. I’d also like to argue that drifting is indeed the universal language. Everyone loves sliding a car around in a snowy parking lot. Everyone has a dream car. But what do you really want to do in that dream car? Compete for fastest lap at Laguna Seca? Win a glorious race against top competition and against all odds? I’d argue nay.
What people want more than anything is to burn rubber in a controlled slide. All over the world, all cultures want this more than anything. To the world’s humans I present: TopDrift.net
TopDrift allows everyone to enjoy the thrill of drifting in a controlled, safe environment with an added twist of competition and fun.
Normally formula drift is scored like figure skating – very qualitative and based on opinion. Winners smile big while losers cry foul. Not with TopDrift. We have objective telemetry equipment measuring your drift angle so we know exactly how many points you scored. And how many you didn’t because of a spin. Our first event is July 5, 2019 at Utah Motorsports Campus. Come on out and enjoy!
New Toyota Tacomas come in many forms – SR (base), SR5, Sport, Off-Road, and Pro. They range from $25k-$47k sticker based on how fancy you want to get. If you’ve shopped for a used one you know how absurdly high the prices are for a truck that’s 3 years old with 75k miles on it. Now I think I know why, first-hand.
The TRD Off-Road trim has some fancier stuff like wireless smart phone charging, optional heated seats, and distance-keeping cruise control. But that stuff doesn’t exactly scream “I’m a rock crawler”. What will catch the attention of dirt lovers are things like standard Bilstein shocks, 16″ wheels with lots of tire sidewall, and most definitely the electronically locking rear diff.
One thing that’s new for the 3rd gen Tacoma is Crawl Control which won’t mean much to the seasoned off-roader but us city folk will definitely take note. It basically means: “if you bite off more than you can chew on the trail there’s still a shred of hope you’ll get home”, to which I reply “whoo hooo!”. It’s pretty much cheating. But c’mon you can’t tell me you never used Game Genie on your NES or the “up up, down down, left right, left right, B A, select start” cheat in Contra. Here’s a link if you have no idea what I’m talking about.
If you turn the knob all the way to the right you’re at level 5 crawl speed which I sort of guess to mean about 5mph. It’s really noisy. There are a lot of whirs, burrrs, and clunks going on while crawl control is doing its thing but it’s incredibly effective. I went up a pretty steep and snowy hill in 4-hi until I was nice and stuck, and instead of backing down I just threw it into 4-lo, diff lock, and crawl number 5 then let the brake off and rode up the rest of the hill on a magic carpet of millennial entitlement. So wrong, you say? Nay, so right.
Overall I came away super impressed with the not-so-gnarly looking stock Goodyear Wrangler ATs. They’re very quiet on the pavement and I imagine they have decently low rolling resistance given this truck is capable of 22mpg hwy out of the box. I was on some very snowy, rocky, and slightly muddy trails today and they held up great! No sign of getting stuck on the flat parts of the trail even when it was pure white snow.
One thing about the Tacoma that makes it more enjoyable to drive on trails is the width – it’s only 75″ wide. Some of the bigger RZRs out there are a full 65″ wide. I was considering a Silverado in looking for a truck as well but I’m glad I went with the Toyota. Silverados are 80″ wide- only an extra 5″ which doesn’t sound like a lot but when you’re trying to fit between two rocks and two hard places the additional width could mean a very scratched up fender or wheel.
The picture below really doesn’t do it justice but this is a very steep, very icy incline that I wasn’t able to get up in 4-lo alone, I got a decent run and it and almost made it over but there was no more go. I backed (slid) down, locked up the rear, and took another stab. This time it was WAY easier to get up. Didn’t use the crawl control this time because you pretty much needed momentum to get up, more than 5mph, anyway.
One bit of warm and fuzzy nostalgia for me is these tilt-o-meters that show what angle you’re at with pitch and roll. Pretty fun toy although usually the “oh crap” meter in your inner ear can tell you if you’re at a dangerous level of tilt yet. Still pretty cool. I learned how to drive in the Arizona desert in a 1987 4Runner with some really cool analogue tilt-o-meters on the dash. These are the old ones from an 80’s 4Runner I found online and it’s a funny coincidence ours had the lovely red interior as well.
These are the new ones in the 2019 Tacoma – it’s too bad they don’t show on the main Infotainment screen for everyone to see but it’s better than not having them.
Overall I give Toyota a ton of credit for still making the Tacoma a very capable off-road vehicle while still making it super comfortable to live with with features like keyless touch entry and starting. I got it up to 108mph on the highway out to the remote desert location. Takes a while to climb up there but overall felt pretty stable. According to forums, the limiter is set at 116mph but I don’t see a reason to go faster than that in a pickup.
Toyota Tacomas have long been a favorite trucko of mine. If you’ve ever shopped for one, you know the frustration caused by how much a decent used Tacoma costs. You can either pay $33,000 for a 2 year old TRD Off-Road with 75,000 miles or $35,000 for a brand new one; it’s ridiculous. There’s pretty much no reason to go used unless you’re wanting an old beater with 150k+ miles.
One thing surfacing this year that’s even more ridiculous is the price of the TRD Pro version of the Tacoma. It’s supposed to make your tacoma super battle-ready and off-road capable. What they don’t tell you is basically any 4×4 tacoma is 100% equally matched in capability. But that doesn’t sell Fox Shox.
The “base” model 2019 Tacoma SR 4×4 Double Cab has as standard @ $31,000:
Selectable 4×4 w/ 4WD high, 4WD low, and 2WD
Power locks, mirrors, keyless entry
Limited Slip rear diff
Touch screen audio controls with bluetooth, backup cam
Pretty much everything you need
Here’s what the TRD Pro ads, and this is a freakin PHOTO from the Monroney sticker:
And the price jumps to.. wait for it…. $51,000. Whoa, wat? So I’m paying $20,000 for a layer of black paint on my wheels, a shift knob, and LED fog lights? And don’t forget that sweetass fake hood scoop
“Nay, but what of le Foxen Shoxenes!” you say? Ok fine it has some Fox shock absorbers. Ohhh my bad, you’re right! Those must be like, $6,000 each when you buy them separate right? Uhhh, no. Try $879.99 for a set of 4. And yes that’s for the Performance whatever blah blah version that have the all-important reservoir thing which is absolutely necessary to rock crawl over the curb into onto the soccer practice field.
Don’t get me wrong I love Tacomas and I’m probably going to buy one soon. I bought a Taco new in 2013 and I loved that thing. It was fantastic. But there’s no way in hell I’m paying an extra $20,000 for a TRD logo skid plate and some shocks I can just buy and install myself. Yeah it also has an electronic locking rear diff, which, admittedly is totally awesome. But realistically you’re not going anywhere I can’t with my lowly LSD rear diff and non-TRD cat back exhaust ride.
Make sure you pay very close attention to what you’re paying for at the dealer. The only reason to not buy the base SR version is if you want a long bed, in which case spring for the SR5 and get beeped at like crazy with all the extra sensors it has.
Couple things I will miss from the older generation is the 4.0L V6 which has a better torque curve and the backup cam inside the rearview mirror which I thought was done exactly right in the 2013 model.
In 2006 Utah was given one of the greatest gifts a state can get: an international-quality racetrack. Back then it was called Miller Motorsports Park and it was sponsored by the legendary Larry H. Miller of car dealership and NBA Jazz owner fame.
The track recently changed ownership and is now called Utah Motorsports Campus. They hold races like Moto America, Super Moto, Pirelli World Challenge, and many more. In addition to big racing series they also have open track days for which I am incredibly grateful.
This track is unique in that it can be broken up into 3 different configurations: East, West, and Outer. East and West are both 2.2 miles and Outer is 3.06 which makes it one of the longer tracks in the USA. One neat feature about UMC is that it’s one of the safer racetracks out there. Many of the turns have a very large dirt area to slide off into instead of greeting a concrete wall. Les Tracks:
East is really fun because it still has the “attitudes” which is basically a 3-part chicane and is super fun.
I’ve only done West once, and it’s very different from East as you’ll find out in the video.
Outer is the best because it has all the best turns of the track and a freaking HUGE 1/2 mile straight. Some bikes can get up to 200mph on this part. My record thus far is in my Dinan Stage 1 340i @ 143mph but I haven’t had a chance to take the M3 on it just yet.
And this is what the track looks like all together:
And now for the good stuff: watching me make a fool out of myself trying to chase down a $100k+ non street-legal lotus driven by a former champion motorcycle racer. It was still a ton of fun and I benefitted directly from UMC’s nice dirt slide off areas.
I did have some good laps, though, and my best of the day was a 1:57.06, which is about on par with some of the amateur racing clubs out there with fully prepped Miatas or Porsche 944s. Anyone who has done track days knows that keeping up with any class of racing while in a full interior daily driver is not too shabby.
Even Doge agrees that the Sonata is a great value.
I’ve never had the highest opinion of anything Hyundai makes, starting with the $600 heap my sister bought way back in 1996. It was a 1989 that looked a lot like this:
Only difference was it was red and didn’t have taillights quite that nice. One of them was translucent red tape that was sufficient to pass as such. That old car burned oil, had belts go bad, and I think eventually just seized and stopped working.
As mentioned in a prior post, I know of more than 2 Kia’s that have suffered the same fate of engine seizure. With the two companies being so closely related I was not excited to hop in our luscious new Sonata but the swap was going to save us $500 over the convertible we had the first few days of our trip so switcheroo time it was.
Immediately I noticed the 2017 Sonata wasn’t as crappy as I thought. High praise! But really, the button’s weren’t as bottom-shelf as I would have thought and ride quality was a couple steps up from 1989.
Overall it didn’t suck and if you’re going to keep the car for fewer than 80,000 miles I might even recommend buying a Sonata if you need cheap everyday transport. Resale value on these things is in the gutter so luckily you can pick one up with 25,000 miles for about $14,000. Not too shabby given it should be mostly trouble-free driving for at least 3 years.
All in all I was impressed with the car’s ability to get up to speed, work cruise, and use bluetooth audio all with relative ease. It’s absolutely not a luxury or performance car, but you wouldn’t expect that from the brand or the price.
Trunk space and ground clearance also weren’t bad which is nice when you’re in Maui and you’re not familiar with the area – sometimes needing to drive over a curb or through sandy area every once in a while, with the trunk full of luggage.
I’m a fan of American trucks. We had a 2004 Silverado a while back and it ruled. My dad’s got a pristine condition 1994 K1500 that similarly rules. Chevy trucks are something America has done right for a long time. Fords aren’t all bad, either. Dodges and anything from Fiat Chrysler corp, however needs to take a long look in the mirror, eschew Stewart Smalley, and realize they’re not good enough, smart enough, nor, gosh darn it, do people like them.
Jeeps and Harleys are something America believes it has done right for a long time, but in reality they both have lost their way. At long last Harley Davidson is seeing their plight come to fruition with annual revenue falling drastically in recent years. Could this be a result of refusing to innovate and using 100 year old tech in hopes that their bullet-proof branding will continue to appeal to the younger generation? Probably. What baffles me about Jeep is how much brand equity they have while still producing vehicles that are barely road-legal let alone brimming with quality and performance.
Our contender has 12 miles on it and as we pulled out onto the road we noticed it already has interior panel squeak. A trademark of American vehicles with 75,000 miles or more, but 12? Also what you’ll notice immediately on a JK is the lack of ability to stop, go, or turn. Let’s review these items one by one.
Brakes
The brakes are sufficient for maybe a family sedan or a tiny Toyota truck from the 90’s but on this 5000 lbs pig that’s supposed to be able to tow an additional 3500 lbs?? You’re left squishing the not-responsive stoppers to the floor just hoping you won’t hit the car in front of you in stop and go traffic. Needless to say they need a serious upgrade.
Engine
I liked the idea of the 4.0L straight six they used to put in Cherokees and Wranglers. It paid homage to tractor motors and hinted at low-end torque you wanted from an offroad vehicle. The new 3.5L V6 is ultra meh. I had to open the hood to make sure there were six intake runners and headers on the JK or else I would have thought it was a non-turbo 4cyl. It can’t seem to get out of its own way but on the plus side you’re getting 16 mpg around town. Oh wait, that sucks. It’s the same as my dad’s 1994 Silverado with a 5.7L V8, old-school fuel injection, and significantly more torque than the jeep. Not only does it suck, you could say it’s the suckiest module of suck to ever suck. Listen to Homer’s rendition:
Handling
The steering wheel is a little big, it’s like driving a school bus… or a 1990s full size truck. Also you’ll be delighted to note that when traveling at a speed of greater than 30 mph the wheel is utterly unresponsive. You can fling it back and forth with great glee and not really change direction. This becomes a little worrisome on tight mountain roads with cars coming the other direction.
Rugged-ness
You’d think for being a Jeep this car would be nearly indestructable. For those reading along in fury with the argument of “yeah, but it’s tough!” I give you this:
While traveling somewhat slowly through a shallow mud puddle our hero tore huge gash into the sidewall of the front driver’s side tire. Woot. “But the JK has a full-size spare! You’re covered, bro”. Yeah, I guess except that’s more of a liability than an asset when you actually need to use the thing, which will likely be off-road. Why is that? Well because the jack that comes with the car is barely adequate to lift the car high enough to mount the spare in perfect, sunny, flat conditions let alone any imperfection whatsoever in your driving surface.
I used the stock floor jack to lift the vehicle only to find that there wasn’t enough clearance to fit the full-size spare tire. Great. Now I had to put the flat tire back on because it didn’t need as much space to mount, drive on it a few feet until the jack point would be way above the tire mount point, which need a tire-size ditch to accommodate.
Needless to say, the tires that came with this model are weak-sauce and the jack is nearly completely useless in mounting a spare.
Conclusion
I like American manufactures and I want to like them more, but when you’ve been resting on your laurels for decades you deserve a slap in the face. The JK isn’t bad off highway and the cargo space, simplicity, and fun factor (removable roof and doors) do make up for some of this vehicle’s foibles. I do have to wonder why these things still have top-25 resales value, though. They’re crazy expensive for the value they provide and longevity isn’t in the cards. My brother in law’s JK just blew up TWO motors. One at 16k and one at 500 miles. And that’s without any misuse with nothing but dealer maintenance to boot.
Oh Jeep, I hope you figure it all out. I want to like you more, but as it stands you are indeed one of the suckiest sucks to ever suck.
Here’s the video of a stock dyno run on a 2016 BMW 340i to get a baseline before any tuning. Looks like 302 hp at the wheels and 312 lb ft of torque. The DynoJet estimated 365 hp compensating for elevation so who knows what the real number is. But these numbers seem pretty accurate based on the numbers I ran at the local drag strip recently.
I guess this sucker does 145 mph in 5th gear 😀 and it’s got 8 gears.
Went to the drag strip last night, here are my numbers:
Rocky Mtn Raceway is at 4200 ft
RUN1 – 13.742 @ 102.56 mph – Sport+, DCT not fully defeated
RUN2 – 13.660 @ 103.67 mph – Sport+, full launch control
RUN3 – 13.676 @ 103.44 mph – Sport +, full launch control
As many of you know, for launch control to work you have to actually drive around a bit, not just wait until the engine is warm. I heard it was 6 miles but I tried it at 3 miles of circling the pits and it worked.
So that’s a bone stock 2016 340i AT M Sport w/ track handling on 19″ wheels, oem summer performance bridgestone runflats.
I’m doing a dyno run next week then it’s getting the stage 1 Dinan. I’m really excited to see how the claimed extra 95 rear-wheel ponies affect the dyno numbers and ETs.
And yes, my reaction times do suck Maybe that’ll get a little better next time, too.
BMW has ruled and reigned in the sport sedan category since they created it back in the 1970s. What they’re able to accomplish today is nothing short of miraculous. What if I told you it’s possible to have a brand new car that does low 13’s in the quarter mile, 4.2 seconds 0-60, carries 5 adults, pulls nearly a full lateral G, and gets 33mpg on the freeway for $48,195? Welcome to 2017. That’s a 2018 BMW 340i with a Stage 1 Dinan tune. And zero options 😃.
Luckily mine was used so I didn’t have to spend nearly that much but I just picked one up after a LOT of shopping. Behold:
It was such a great deal I took a one-way flight to Burbank and drove back to Utah 2 weeks ago.
This Friday it’s time to hit the drag strip and get some stock numbers so I can see how big of a difference the tune makes. Did I mention that on the 340i you get 40 extra horsepower? Good times.
