Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Death to black wheels

What do you do after you’ve just spent $38,000 out-the-door for a new sports car? Immediately drop more money on it, of course.

My 2026 Mazda MX-5 Miata Club is cursed with something I greatly detest in modern cars: black wheels. Why have a design at all when you can’t even see it? Much like black body paint, black wheels look great for the one second after it’s been cleaned. A quick layer of brake dust later and it turns into a black hole of nothingness. It’s unappealing, and I have no idea why it is so en vogue in the car world.

My 2019 Volkswagen GTI also came fitted with black wheels, and I swap those out with the equivalent style painted in silver. The only trouble is I had to wait five months for the set to be produced and shipped from the fatherland Germany. Painful.

This fourth generation of the MX-5 actually were fitted with silver colored wheels from the factory. The 2016 to 2018 model year of the Sport trim had beautiful eight-spoke 16-inch wheels in silver. Starting with the 2019 model year, Mazda painted those same wheels in, you guess it, black. Yuck.

Because it’s been so long since it was officially fitted on a car, buying those silver 16-inch wheels in the year of 2026 was a challenge. Mazda’s own parts warehouse had only two brand-new-in-box wheels remaining, with no ETA of getting more from Japan. Naturally, I bought those two wheels. To complete a whole set of four, I went to our favorite used car parts source: eBay. I bought two used wheels off of wrecked MX-5s that were in reasonable quality. Not perfect up close, but suffices a few feet away. Beggars absolutely cannot be choosers here.

The 2026 MX-5 Club came stock with 17-inch wheels, so I had to buy new tires as well for the 16-inch set. Only car enthusiasts would swap out a brand new set of wheels and tires. From a utilitarian perspective it is a huge waste. Then again, no one said this hobby of ours is anything but much money down the drain. I’ll do it again.

All in, it was an additional $1,800 spend just because I didn’t like the black color of the stock wheels. Completely worth it.

The epitome of luxury

Maybe it’s just me, but as a car enthusiast, actually driving my cars can be stressful. Because I’ve spent so much money them, the wont is to keep them nice for as long as possible. And out there on the road there’s far too many variables beyond my control to contend with. Mathematically speaking, the best way to protect a car from Mayhem like Allstate is to lock it inside a garage.

I completely understand the car collectors that keep their cars in constant climate control, hardly driven. The outside world is a scary place.

It’s not that the stress is so overwhelming that it destroys the fun I get from driving. But it’s definitely a heighten sense of awareness whenever I am in my cars. I constantly scan the periphery for any potential dangerous actions by other drivers. Do this often enough and it becomes a sixth sense.

Until I get into a car that I completely do not car about. Like my parents Toyota RAV4 SUV. Driving that thing is the epitome of luxury because I can drastically decrease the diameter of the circle of awareness. It’s so much more relaxing to drive a normal, not-precious-about-it, car. The music playing the background is that much more soulful and enjoyable. And the at the destination, I don’t have to worry about finding the perfect, most out of the way parking spot.

I completely understand how car enthusiasts, as they get older, graduate to having a plain daily driver and relegate the enthusiastic stuff to the weekends. Driving a car you don’t really care about is a good antidote to the wild world of post-COVID crazy driving.

Shake shake shake

Follower of this website would have figured out I recently bought a 2026 Mazda MX-5 Club. I am back in the quintessential affordable sports car.

Part of the initial ownership process is fitting in a dashcam. With the post-COVID craziness on the roads still very much a thing, video footage is crucial should you have the misfortune of being in an accident. Furthermore, the MX-5 is absolutely tiny relative to the hulking SUVs out there, so if someone were to bump into me unsighted, I want them to get caught in 4K.

It really cannot get easier to wire in a dash cam on the little Mazda. There’s an existing gap between the windshield glass and trim for wires to tuck into. The A pillars are held on by a single clip. And beneath the passenger side dash is a hidden 12V cigarette port for power. It took me all of 10 minutes following this video to install a Vanture Element 1 Pro. Five of which was unboxing the thing.

By the way, you know AI RAM pricing has gone completely bonkers when the 256GB memory card I bought alongside the Element 1 Pro costs more than the dashcam.

A slight quirk with the MX-5 being a convertible is that the windshield shakes quite a bit. Obviously this is because there isn’t a structural roof attached to it. But this presents a problem for dashcams mounted to the windshield. Modern dashcams have G meters that automatically locks a video file should it detect a high kinetic event - say, in a crash. However, the MX-5 windscreen shakes so much and often, the Venture thinks it's in a one constantly.

I found this out because the dashcam kept making a locking sounds every so often. At first I thought it was the cabling rattling against something metallic, until I triangulated the noise back to the Vantrue’s tiny speaker. The solution? Turn off the G meter completely. Even at its least sensitive setting, the Element 1 Pro kept locking the video file. A nifty feature for sure, but completely useless in an MX-5.

Going off schedule

Last evening was the first time this year I was in a movie theatre. I’d forgotten what it is like to truly immerse and lose yourself into something. It’s wonderful. For those two or so hours I am absolutely locked into the world the movie is presenting. No smartphone, no distractions. You can momentarily forget about whatever that is troubling you out in the real world. Oh right, I got to do that important thing for work next week…

The movie I saw was the fourth Spider-Man movie headlined by Tom Holland. Kudos to director Destin Daniel Cretton on a fantastic job. We always love seeing Asians representing and making an impact in the wider American culture.

A Saturday night out to the movies wouldn’t be my standard cup of coffee. Because the later show times affectively delay my beginning hours of sleep. When you’re a serial life optimizer like myself, deviation from the practice can lead to not only the initial pain of going off schedule, but also the anxiety of the cascading effects caused by the deviation. Any true gym-rat can attest that missing one workout session can feel like a regression of all the recent gains, and a ruiner of subsequent sessions.

Declining to see a late movie with your friend simply because you’ve got a sleep schedule to adhere to is a terrible way to live. Optimization in it of itself is fine because I think that’s how we get to consistency. Then the habit becomes a self-sustaining flywheel. So perhaps initially you should be rather strict about working out at a specific time - all the time, or an absolute ban on certain foods because you’ve got diet goals.

It is then difficult to get out of that mode because obviously the optimization has given you positive results. Otherwise it wouldn’t have grown to become habits. So you feel like you cannot deviate. But it is crucial that once the flywheel is achieved, we allow some randomness and serendipity back into the schedule. A compromised night of sleep will be forgotten in a few days. The time spent with friends enjoying a movie is a pleasant memory worth remembering.

That’s the central theme I got out of Spider-Man: Brand New Day: it’s fine to work on yourself and go at it alone for a while, but eventually you will need friends and human interaction to have a fulfilling life.

That's a no from me

It’s been over a week since I’ve purchased a 2026 Mazda MX-5. Today the salesperson texts me to check-in and make sure I download the Mazda Connect app onto my phone. Strange! Why would the dealership be so concerned with a customer using an optional app? I say optional because, well, the car drives plenty fine without it.

We can all guess the reason: money. Modern new cars are fitted with 5G modems to support connected services in the infotainment system. A part of that ecosystem are branded mobile apps that allow customers to monitor their cars. In my previous 2021 BMW M2, I was able to check fuel levels, see the current mileage, and lock the doors. In Tesla cars, you can even see how fast the vehicle is going and what music is currently playing, right on the app.

If the end user has access to this information, so does the manufacturer. According the Mazda privacy paper, for my new MX-5, this includes:

“Driving Data”: driving behavior data, which includes the acceleration and speed at which your Connected Vehicle is driven and use of the steering and braking functions in your Connected Vehicle (Driving Data was collected for each driving trip and transmitted at each Ignition Off); and
“Vehicle Health Data”: includes Vehicle Identification Number (VIN); odometer, fuel level, and oil life readings; Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs); and data from the Connected Vehicle’s OBD system (“OBD Data”). OBD Data includes, but is not limited to, engine coolant temperature, fuel injection volume, engine Rotation Per Minute (RPM), and the status of doors, hood, trunk, and hazard lights (Vehicle Health Data was transmitted at each Ignition-Off).

That’s a lot, isn’t it? Automakers can swear to high heavens they are not doing anything nefarious with the collection information, but the truth is in the incentives. My salesperson wouldn’t bug me post sale to install the Mazda Connect app (he also tried during the purchase process) if Mazda wasn’t putting on pressure to do so. Mazda obviously puts high value on that data, and what else if not for exchanging it for monetary gain? I would not be surprised if my declining to install the app will hurt the salesperson’s commission.

But I am definitely not installing the Mazda app. I used the BMW app with the M2 because I didn’t know any better. Just like how Apple refuses to create a backdoor for their iPhone encryption, I want to eliminate any possibility of unintended consequences. Even if I can trust Mazda with data from every time I drive the MX-5, the risk of hacks and beaches exists. It’s safer to not turn on the spigot to begin with.

Losing car enthusiasm?

Lately on the car enthusiast inter webs I’ve seen quite a few posts and videos lamenting the decreasing passion for cars. One person was asking if it’s alright to be car guy/gal and not own any “fun” cars. The Savagegeese Youtube channel put out an explainer on why people are losing interest.

The crux of it seems to be the fun cars we all love and want have massively increased in price. We are being priced out. Take a look at the Porsche 911 - the sports car icon: before the pandemic, a 2019 model year 911 started at $93,950 for the poverty spec Carrera trim. Fast forward to the present, and that same spec Carrera is now $135,500. That used to be high trim GT3 money, but now one of those is $238,150 starting. Utter insanity.

And because the current 911 range has inflated so highly, the used Porsches have equally jumped in value. A used 911 isn’t the bargain it used to be. Bottom line is, if you are looking for a 911 of any vintage and trim, 2026 is not a good time to be doing so. And this pricing phenomenon is shared by many other enthusiast car nameplates. A new Ford Mustang GT with a few options is into the $50,000s. Before the pandemic, it was only in the high $30,000s.

But we are not entitled to a 911 that we can afford. Nor a Mustang, or a BMW M3 Competition.

There are affordable enthusiast cars. The Mazda MX-5 Miata and the Toyota GR86 (and its Subaru BR-Z twin) are right in the mid 30,000s in pricing, and have everything that car enthusiasts care about: naturally aspirated engine, manual gearbox, rear-wheel drive, and limited slip differential. The Miata even rides on a completely bespoke and unique chassis. It’s as pure a sports car as it can get for any price. Instead of pouting about the heavy Porsche tax, go buy an MX-5 or a GR86.

Ah, but they won’t. The cars we drive are an extension of how we want to present to the world. The Mazda and the Toyota don’t carry enough cachet, not enough status. Owning a Porsche 911 means something more, something you can peacock outward to the world. That’s why you can’t go to a Cars and Coffee without seeing at least a dozen of them. So they nitpick the MX-5: it’s too small, and not powerful enough. Can’t buy.

People saying they are losing enthusiasm in cars is but a smokescreen for the real problem: the cars we want to show off to others with have become out of reach financially. You didn’t lose interest in automobiles, you’re just mad the cool cars that maximizes social media clout have gotten too expensive. Oh, another million dollar hypercar that I cannot afford?

Because if it’s truly about driving, then economical options still exist in today’s wacky new car market. The aforementioned Miata and BR-Z. Want a bit more power? Nissan sells a Z with 400 twin-turbo horsepower with a manual for less than $50,000. Turbocharged and all-wheel drive? Subaru sells a WRX for $32,495 base.

This is similar to people saying new cars in general have gotten too expensive. Average new car prices in America is above $50,000. However, the Toyota Corolla is a perfectly fine sedan for $25,000 that will run for the next decade on just oil changes. But nobody wants a Corolla. Everyone “need” the latest SUV thing with all the gadgets. Of course the latter will cost a proverbial pretty penny. Cars aren’t too expensive, the cars you want to buy, are.

Monetarily sensible options exist in the market, and yet people abjectly refuse to entertain them. instead, they create a straw-man of automaker greed and bludgeon it to death. Every news article of Porsche’s struggle is met with jeers from the Reddit peanut gallery about how it’s because they are charging too much for the 911. Even though actual 911 sales have never been better. Jealousy wrapped up in hatred is what it is.

Get wrecked

Saturday, start of the weekend. I want to get the chores out of the way so I can properly relax later. (I’d easily pass the marshmallow test.) That includes the weekly run around the local lake. I typically do cardio in the afternoon, but due to the summer weather it is more wise to do so in the morning when it is cooler.

Except there’s a problem after running. Perhaps it’s just me, or maybe it is the case for everyone. For the many hours after I run, my heart-rate remains elevated. So much so that it could be two hours later, and I’d be sweating just standing. (Admittedly, I sweat easily.) Higher than normal heart-rate after exercising is fine, but after running I seem to be extra juiced and tired. Maybe my cardio condition is just lackluster.

Which is fine if the plan for the rest of Saturday is to veg out on the couch. Unfortunately I am a normal adult with normal adult responsibilities.. Imagine going to Costco some hours after the morning run and the heart is still pounding out of my chest. And to think back in the schooling days, we’d often run a mile during PE class! Was I equally psyched up in the class periods afterwards?

Of course, at the ripe old age of 38, I obviously don’t recover quite as I used to compared to decades earlier.

I will need more data point on this whole run in the morning thing. Maybe it will get better the more I do it. I’ve only returned to the tracks (so to speak) for about two months. I mean, don’t people say they feel invigorated after cardio to start their day? I’ve not seen it personally thus far…