A fun weekend.

[Jims5543]

needed a break from the grind. A bunch of car friends are meeting up in the mountains thought I would share some pics.

More later...

[Jims5543]

I am trying to do this on my cel phone and it sucks. More later

[94touring]

That's pretty wicked.  I bet it's mandatory to have a killer mustache and wear a monocle to drive that thing.

[Jims5543]

Actually the driver looked like a regular guy, maybe in his 30's. Really cool and took the time away from his date to explain how to drive it. I do not think I could do it.


I left my home in Florida Thursday morning, around 10:30 a.m. with the goal of arriving in Greenville, South Carolina by 7 PM to meet a good friend for dinner at a local tap house. In tow was my son in hos 1991 BMW 318i with a 1995 M3 Motor swapped in, and my good friend in his 1990 BMW M3 which is a unicorn these days. I was in my 2009 Mazda RX8 R3 with some VERY sticky tires on her all 4 were 275mm wide.

We parked in the parking garage and walked over to the tap house, an exciting weekend ahead of us.


Greenville is a beautiful city, very vibrant and friendly. We were leaving the tap house and my buddies wife lit up a smoke. A passer by stopped and asked for a light, I reached in my pocket to produce a zippo lighter the second he had lit up with a bic. He looked over at the zippo and said, "damn I would have preferred to light up with that" then dropped his cig, crushed it with his foot and pulled out a new one so he could do it over with the zippo. Lit up, thanked me and went on his way. The copious amounts of beer in us made us laugh our asses off.

A shot of downtown from out room:


The next morning we met up at Thomas Creek Brewery for a $5 tour. We received a flight of 5 beers (of the many they make) to taste and a souvenir pint glass. We also got to sit in the bar and chat with the owner, who explained how they got to where they are, how they do it and answer any questions you may have. It was a really cool experience. We also learned Budweisers mash consists mostly of rice because rice is a lot cheaper than hops and barely. The enzymes in rice that are released when they process the mash and ferment it is what give you those wonderful headaches when you drink their beer.

Some shots of the Brewery:

Each one of those stainless tanks cost $60K



The bottling line, which btw was bottling holy mackerel beer. Which is a Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Brewery, Thomas Creek is known as the largest Brewery in Florida.  They brew many of the Florida craft beers, they are contracted to do it by the breweries.


The owner talking to our little group, he is the santa looking dude:


So we left the Brewery after buying lots of 6 packs of beer from them and shot up the road to a lunch joint. Then continued to the mountains, the fun way. We made a stop at Ceaser Head Park where I saw the Model T, and we took in the view:

I should also mention the drive up is a complete blast in a sports car.

We then arrived at the Pisgah Inn which is nestled on a mountain top along the Blue Ridge Parkway, this would be home for the next 2 nights and 3 days.


We would tour the Blue Ridge Parkway and many fun mountain roads around it.
The players left to right:

2004 Porsche Twin Turbo, 1986 Porsche 911 with a 3.4 liter 400+HP Motor in it, My RX8, my Buds M3, Huey (more in a second on Huey) My sons E30, A very Trick Cayman S, a Boxster, and a guest in his 528i who is working here in the US from India and asked me if he could come out. He had the weekend of his life.

Huey is a Porsche 914 with a 3.4 liter engine swap making north of 400HP in a 2000 lb car, it has raced the Targa Newfoundland and the Chasing the Dragon Hillclimb among many other events.


This CaymanS has a GT3 suspension and a GT3 throttle body, seems Porsche programs the stock throttle body to not open 100% in order to choke the car down and keep it slower than the 911.  A common mod is to swap in a GT3 throttle body and reflash the computer to accept it. This is a super fast car that handles amazing.


My friend Duk's 911 with a very much worked over 3.4 liter engine that began life as a 3.2 runs a megasquirt setup and has dyno'd 390 at the wheels the goal is to get north of 400. BTW the Cayman is north of 400.


Love the tach in the red 911:


We drove to Bobs Bar on Saturday, it is a complete craphole, $2 beers and you better like Coors or Bud because that is what they sell.



This is the restroom at Bobs:



This was the view from our hotel:


I shot some video too just have to edit it and get it uploaded.

It was an amazing weekend away from the grind. Sadly the drive home sucked, it should have taken 9 hours and took over 11 because of insane traffic.

I hope you enjoyed my long ass story.

[94touring]

Looks like they have PBR at that place.  That's my cheep beer of choice if I go cheap. 

[Jims5543]

Looks like they have PBR at that place.  That's my cheep beer of choice if I go cheap.

The owner of Thomas Creek said it was actually a decent beer for the price, so I ordered one.  No PBR, only Bud and Coors.

[Mudhen]

My friend Duk's 911 with a very much worked over 3.4 liter engine that began life as a 3.2 runs a megasquirt setup and has dyno'd 390 at the wheels the goal is to get north of 400. BTW the Cayman is north of 400.

Now THAT'S a red car I'd like to own!!   4.gif

(I like the red Porsche, too)

Sounds like an awesome weekend.  Where did you all meet - some sort of mongrel car club?   8.gif

[Jims5543]

It started on Pelican Parts, an air cooled Porsche forum.  I used to own a 1980 Targa with a 1990 3.6 swapped in. I purchased someones finished project and it served as inspiration for the red car above.

Here is a pic of my old Targa:



We planned a Porsche meet in 2006 and were using the Pelican forum to organize it. We asked the owner to sticky our threads and then asked for our own sub forum in the meets section and were declined on all requests. When asked if we could use the Pelican name, a lot of distrust was shown on the owners part with accusations we would disparage his beloved Pelican.

We were insulted and frustrated so in 2007 one of the gang that met up in 2006 for the first time decided to  create his own forum. We call it Shadetree forums named after a curve on the Tail of the Dragon where photographer "Killboy" liked to set up to shoot. 

http://killboy.com/

One of the group on Shadetree asked what we should call ourselves, and no one really had an answer, then one of the guys decided to call us "Bill" because it was random and made no sense, which is a lot like our group.

Over the last 8 years people have come and gone and cars have changed, so we are no longer an air cooled Porsche group, although a majority of the cars are still Porsches, many are water cooled now and we now have a lot of other kinds of cars that join in, myself being the lone Japanese car guy.

So, we are the Bills, we are just car guys and love to tear up the mountain roads.