Alpenworks Automotive

Unlike the 911, the NSX has been an easy car to own.  After catching up on some deferred maintenance, it required a set of tires at the six month mark.  That trend continues past the year mark.  Since having the tires installed, I performed an oil change.  I'm beginning to think reporting on life with the car at six month intervals is overkill (knocks on wood).  Life with the Porsche meant being on a first name basis with a service advisor at our local Porsche dealer.  In contrast, life with the NSX has settled into the pattern: drive, add gas & check oil, occasionally wash.  Repeat. Not surprisingly, the oil change was easy.  I followed the instructions on the NSX Prime Wiki with one modification.  To prevent the oil from the filter draining on the rear suspension components,  I placed newspaper, folded at crease, over the suspension before removing the filter.  As planned, the oil drained over the paper into the oil pan, leaving the suspension untouched.  Easy breezy.  G

Six Month Report The NSX adventure got off to rocky start, so I was unsure of how the car was going to treat me after the somewhat eventful drive home.  After taking car of the initial round of issues, the NSX required the following things during its first six months in my care: Tires Yep, that's it.  Tires .  My experience with this particular car is consistent with what other owners have said - parts are expensive, but the NSX is a reliable vehicle if maintained properly. That being said, getting tires was somewhat of an adventure.  I ordered a set of four Michelin Pilot Sports from Discount Tire (yeah, yeah...I know).  The tires arrived after a bit of a wait & I rolled down the canyon for an early Saturday appointment.  The NSX was too low for the shop's floor  mounted lift, so they dispatched a couple guys with floor jacks.  I explained to the manager the proper procedure to jack the car.  He acknowledged me and went about his business.  Shortly after, a couple

Preface " You're an idiot ", declares my lovely bride.  More of our conversations begin this way than I'd like to admit, but I was a bit surprised by her reaction. While preparing one of our traditional Friday night pizzas, I brought up the topic of buying a NSX.  Katherine is used my my automotive indiscretions and usually lets slide my four wheeled pontificating.  This time, however, she iterated the many reasons why buying an NSX is stupid - it's expensive, it can only be driven half the year where we live, it will take garage space that we can't  afford to give up, etc, etc. Being a couple beers into the evening, I took my tongue lashing in stride.  If anything, it strengthened my resolve.  This was a car that I've wanted since they were released in 1991 and I wasn't going to let a little thing like practicality influence my decision.  Fast forward a couple months after our kitchen conversation and I'd found a car on NSX Prime.  It was

It's hard to believe the STI has been part of the stable for a year already.  It's been a pleasure to live with on a daily basis and is an ideal Colorado car.  The only modification made has been a set of Michelin snow tires, which transformed it from a bank vault on skis to a winter hooligan.  Snow tires + disabled traction control = fun.  It hasn't seen any HPDE or track days, but that may change when the summer tires are re-installed.  Mostly, it's been used as my bike hauler and all-weather sports car.  Overall, I'm happy with the purchase.  If I had to pick a vehicle out of the current stable as my only ride, this would be it.

I bid farewell to the Porsche about six weeks ago.  It was a fantastic car to drive, but nagging and potentially expensive issues convinced me that it was time to let it go.  Coming as a surprise to absolutely nobody, I bought a 2015 WRX STI.  Here she sits, dirty and about 2 miles outside of the break-in period on one of my favorite driving roads: It's good to be back in Scooby.  As an prior owner of a GD STi, I can say this is a very different car.  The interior is a much nicer place to be and they finally sorted the chassis tuning.  The steering feedback is great, turn-in is fantastic and the car is a much more competent handler than any prior stock STI.  Actually, this STI is *almost* as composed in the twisty bits as the Evo X (yeah, I had one of those, too).  The inside of the STi is a much nicer place to be.  It's not luxurious, but it's far better than the late sixties eastern bloc motif sported by the Evo.  In addition to higher quality materials, it's

Part of my master plan is to use the first year as a shake down period for the car.  i.e. - catch up on deferred maintenance, fix whatever random (hopefully minor) stuff that pops up and get a baseline for engine health.  Here's how it's gone so far: I've already described the deferred maintenance and random fixes here .  By the time Christmas rolled around, I'd put around 5000 miles on the car.  That's only half of the Porsche recommended oil change interval, but I was curious about the condition of the oil and one of the local dealers sent me a coupon.  The dealer hooked me up with a Blackstone oil analysis kit & I sent of the sample the week after Christmas.  The results looked great.  There was no contamination of any sort and the metals look good compared to the universal averages at 3900 miles.  Based on the results of the test, I'm going to try a longer interval and it's nice to see that my IMS bearing is in good shape.