After 5 years living without a car, a new job outside the San Francisco was Kenny’s great excuse to get a car. A quick search on Craigslist led to several Caymans and 2nd-gen Boxsters. First up was a 2006 silver Cayman S with just over 51K miles, a few blocks from Kenny’s home. It had a manual transmission which could be a headache in hilly … Continue reading Meet the K-Man

Kenny had a conference in DC.  He flew in the weekend before to visit Toby. It was a beautiful weekend so they decided to meet their friend Charles at the weekly “Car and Coffee” at Katy’s in Great Falls, VA.  There are many nice cars there, from antiques, replicas, hot rods, muscle cars to the latest supercars. There was a familiar “Pure Blue” 997 Speedster … Continue reading Toby and Kenny at Katy’s Car and Coffee

A group of MINI enthusiasts organize an annual event called MINIs on the Dragon, which had been on my bucket list ever since I bought Rocky. The opportunity finally presented itself when I moved to South Carolina in late 2013. I signed up to the event as soon as registration opens. I picked up Toby at the GSP Airport and headed up the mountain. It was … Continue reading Jon and Toby slayed the Dragon

Toby, an occasional karter, joined his friends Michael, Sam, Bob, Lashdeep and Chase at the Summit Point Kart “Time Shift” 17-hour karting enduro.  (It was the weekend when daylight saving time ended, hence the name of the race.) As Summit Point expanded, an outdoor karting facility (Summit Point Kart) was opened for “arrive and drive”.  It was separately owned, but a great complement to events … Continue reading Summit Point Karting 17-Hour Enduro

Baltimore is only a 45-minute drive from Washington DC so the Baltimore Grand Prix was basically a “local race” for Toby. Toby was joined by his friends Chip, George and Geoff.  They sat at the exit of Turn 1, which witnessed plenty of action including contact between Scott Dixon and Will Power, and Sebastian Bourdais’ spin that caused a big logjam. It was a good … Continue reading 2013 Indycar Grand Prix of Baltimore

Cindy and Kenny found JellyBean, a 2008 Midnight Fire Mini from San Francisco Craigslist to replace their “2Fast2Furious” Honda Civic, which (lived up to its name?) suffered from a blown head gasket and had to be retired. Kenny always thought a MINI would be a perfect city car.  Cindy also test drove the car and she liked it too, and they became its proud owners … Continue reading JellyBean at Sonoma Raceway AutoX

Team Shum (including Jacob from our “Junior Team”) were out in full force at the 2012 US Formula 1 Grand Prix.  This was the the first USGP held since 2008, and the inaugural race held at Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas. Kenny and Cindy got to Austin a week early for their sightseeing and culinary tour, while Jon, Jacob met up at the … Continue reading 2012 Austin US Grand Prix

At Toby and Mary’s wedding, Mary arranged her good friend (and professional pastry chef) Kate to custom make a groom’s cake. This is not just any 911… Mary even spec’ced “Type 964” correctly and Kate did a great job with all the details, down to a rear license plate that is our wedding date.  And of course the cake was delicious! Toby was very moved … Continue reading Toby’s 911 Turned into a Groom’s Cake!

Toby was at VIR for my first race with the Porsche Club last weekend. Special thanks to Kenny who built “Dirty Molly” from a street car to a race car; Geoff at ASG for prepping my car, which ran flawlessly; Bob Mulligan for being my rookie mentor; SkankyFrank for bringing my spare set of fresh BFGs; and the friendly and supportive fellow racers and stewards. … Continue reading Toby’s PCA rookie race at VIR

Toby and his friends Pat and Ram entered the 24 hours of LeMons (not LeMans) race at the Summit Point Shenandoah Circuit. 24 Hours of LeMons is an endurance race series for cars (lemons) that “cost” less than $500. The team decided to enter in a 1987 BMW 535i.  It had a lot of horsepower in its days (and could blow the doors off e30s … Continue reading 24 Hours of Lemons – Capital Offense