A few highlights from the past couple months:

• Went to the Subaru Rim of the World Rally in Lancaster, just north of Los Angeles, with a couple of friends. Spectated and helped out with a few minor tasks on the fairgrounds and the super special stage, putting up sponsor banners and signs. This was my first rally event and though the obvious difference between rally (or “rallye”) and other motorsports is the racing around in dirt, gravel mud and other rough unpaved surfaces, what struck me most was how grass-roots it was and the degree of camaraderie between the competitors, helping each other out when their cars got stuck or broken down. The atmosphere was very friendly; for instance we were just wandering around in the paddocks checking out the cars and one of the teams offered us drinks. It inspired me to want to someday get into rallying myself, and a friend and I have pondered building up our own rally car; not the Evo, of course—starting out rallying with a $30000 car is an easy way to make a $30000 wreck.

• Autocross: I’ve been autocrossing almost every weekend, and while results continue to be mixed—still progressing slowly up the learning curve—I’m still enjoying it a lot, and making quite a few new friends along the way.

• Installed a navigation system—the Pioneer AVIC-N1 in my car. The system features DVD-based navigation, MP3 disc playback, vehicle dynamics display, and a host of other pretty cool features. Though not without its quirks, for someone who gets disoriented or just plain lost as easily as me it’s proven to be an invaluable resource, especially when getting around unfamiliar towns such as Atwater and Lancaster. I posted some installation notes up on NorCalEvo.net.

• Installed a stainless steel clutch line in my car and replaced the brake and clutch fluid. A stainless steel line should hopefully “balloon” a bit less than the stock one, making clutch engagement a bit more consistent and preventing undue wear to my car’s clutch which has suffered rather heavily due to my beginner’s mistakes.