Well, I watched the Civic drive away with its new owner yesterday with a bit of a sad twinge. Like putting a pet up for adoption though, its the right thing to do and it’ll be in a better place.

Cars are such funny things to alot of people. People more eloquent than I have written essays and treatises on the concept of the ‘soul’ of a car and its iconic cultural nature to many societies and it’s always been a concept that interested me. Many people anthropomorphize cars like no other machine or object. They get names. Treats. They have good days and bad. They get treated like a family pet or friend. You don’t see that with fridges and toasters. To me one of the most depressing sights on the road is a hauler carrying the remnants of crushed cars. How many happy memories are in that pile? How many of their former owners were over the moon the day they got their new wheels? Its like seeing the end of the line cages at the SPCA.

Of course I know I’m being massively sentimental, At the end of the day a car is a factory produced machine designed to last only long enough to convince you to buy that brand again, but I don’t care. I bought my WRX last spring from a reposessed property auction, from what I’ve peiced together someone used the car as collateral on a loan and things didn’t work out. Oddly I feel like that gives me a certain responsibility to treat the car properly. The person obviously loved the car but circumstances didn’t allow them to keep it. On the inside of the drivers side sun visor is a sticker-note of love from the owners significant other and I never removed it. Its a part of the car’s personality to me. Like removing it would be removing part of that soul. (Yes, I fully acknowledge its also a bit creepy!)

So goodbye, little Civic. I have a strong feeling that as I go on with more vehicles I’m going to remember it as the best car I’ve ever had. In the 9.5 years I owned the car it never left me stranded. Not once, even though I was never nice to the car. I asked it to spin off the rev limiter far too often at the track. Expected it to deal with my ham-fisted slalom driving and even to put up with being treated like a rally car from time to time and it took it all in stride. I wish I had the time, money and even ability (In the bodywork realm) to keep it going like it deserves. I hope its new owner enjoys it half as much as I did and gives it the attention it deserves. I admit I felt a lot better about the process when the buyers significant other was bouncing with joy at getting a new car. Its at least going to someone who sees it as more than just a factory produced machine.

Taken days after bringing it home in 1998.

My first AutoSlalom in 2002.

Reaching her peak and striking a pose.

Doing what she loved.

I’ve gone to update this a few times over the last month but either started and scrapped it or didn’t even get that far.

January has been an interesting month, if pretty busy. On the work side I spent another week in Indianapolis launching one of our flagship customers on their new service. That was a good trip and quite rewarding. When I was last in Indianapolis I had been working for the company a grand total of 6 weeks, 2+ of which were spent in Newfoundland for Targa. This time around I was there to do hands-on work rather than training and things went very well. Issues and problems appeared but they got resolved and by the end of the week the customer was happy. The experience in dealing with our customers in my current role is much more personally rewarding than my previous roles at AOL. Getting to know your actual customers rather than just having a million anonymous accounts flowing through a black box is nice.

On the vehicular front the Audi is being its usual spoiled German bratwurst but we did manage to force one event out of the pig. Our ongoing fuel pump problems are still plaguing us but at this point we at least know the cause. During our fuel system rebuild we pulled out the original 20 year old Audi tank and had it acid washed and steam cleaned. This seemed like a good idea because of the decades old patina of rust on the inside of the tank. Unfortunately this also means that no matter how we’ve rinsed the tank out there’s still grains of rust and debris in the tank, primarily under the windage tray. We’ve already done a thorough flush of the tank once but the longer the car is driven the harder the fuel pump strains, eventually leading to the same bogging we’ve been experiencing. This weekend we’re back to the drawing board for more purging.

Last weekend was BAC Rally Cross Event #4 at Scotia Speed World though and the Audi did its job long enough to run the entire event, so that in itself is a win! By the end of the day our partner drove the car to a solid second place finish on a near solid sheet of ice. Except for a couple of bumps it was as slippery as driving on Jack’s Pond last February. I decided to drive the WRX for this event foolishly thinking it would be more fun. Suffice to say it wasn’t and I didn’t finish out my runs for the day. It did inspire me to finally install the Tokico D-Spec suspension I’ve had waiting to go on the car since August, however.

I’m posting this more or less incomplete because its been sitting in ‘Draft’ for a week. Deal with it.