"What the heck do I need a squeegee for?" he asked, eyeing the thing inquisitively.
"lol freshmen," a voice said from behind me. Rather than get hung up on the fact that "lol" had somehow managed to make its way into the lexicon, I had to chuckle. Lol, indeed.
See, we had just finished up Ultimate practice for the night - a sport, for those who aren't familiar with it, in which you run around endlessly, throwing a disc around and hoping people don't associate you with the drunken Frisbros on the beach.
Of course, in the traditional Knoxville fashion, we were just wrapping up and gathering our things when the sky suddenly ripped open and dropped the wrath of Zeus on my now fleeing teammates. It was too late. We were drenched by the time we reached the car. My friends knew from experience what this meant in the 200. They generously let Charlie take shotgun. I answered him with a smile:
"You're my windshield wiper!"
As predicted, all the windows immediately began to fog up. This usually wasn't an issue by myself, but loaded with five soaking wet, warm bodies, there was nothing to be done. I idled the car next to my friend's Volvo 240 having the same problem, but it was clear my poor blower motor was fighting an uphill battle.
As we came to a stoplight, my passengers all hopped out and swapped places to relieve Charlie of wiping duty. It was during the 3rd consecutive Chinese fire drill that I finally thought to myself "Of all the work I've done to this car, why the heck haven't I attempted to fix this yet?"
Eventually, I finally popped my head into the passenger footwell and found the recirc flap return spring broken. I have still yet to fix it.
What I'm getting at here is a very roundabout way of saying that approximately
nothing of significance has happened in the 4 months since I updated. The 200 has been dutifully serving as my daily without hesitation. In fact, I've only had to change the oil and replace a torn BPV diaphragm. That's it.
I did manage to replace my noisy wheel bearing only to find the noise didn't do away.
Maybe I misdiagnosed, but I wonder if the new one was damaged while it was pressed, because the hum was definitely quieter than before. If they match, I want to temporarily swap the knuckle from the V8 and see if that fixes it, because the V8 is dead silent at all four corners.
Other than that, the Aktapod has been rock solid. And that's including around 500 miles of very hard mountain driving. My friend and I co-drove it in a rally in northern GA and placed first in class (no time element, though)! I even took her to the Tail of the Dragon last week for the first time! I've been in several cars before, but somehow never in the 200. I had a blast! Even if it's not what the 200 does best, she handles very predictably after you settle the body roll. Just gotta make sure to shed your speed before the turn and
throttle out!!Just a little assortment of shots from the last few weeks.
Bonus points for a pic on a motorcycle in the rally!
In the likely event I don't have this done by Carlisle, maybe I can get some rides to get a feel for different setups (if there are any there).
But bruh! We don't have beaches, bruh! Us Appalachian frisbillies are forced to throw around farm equipment and occasionally someone gets tetanus.
