[JaredR]

Well now who have I found here? 2006 S60 T5 M66. Spotted today at Wentworth Institute of Technology. It was there from before the time I got there at 10 until after I left at 4. Whoever this is needs to join me and the other Volvo enthusiast at WIT to get the WIT Volvo club off the ground!

 

[JaredR]

Same floorpans, just missing a propeller shaft and rear axle. I actually like the wheel spin I get. Nothing better than spinning wheels while smoking a 335.

Smoking them worse wouldn't be better?

 

[JaredR]

That's one of the biggest reasons I bought a 850R over a V70R. I had the opportunity to buy a lot of cool V70Rs during my time shopping - including plenty of Saffrons, Laser Blues, Venetian Reds, Emerald Greens, and even a Nautic Blue (!) - but I just don't want to deal with AWD. So what if I can only put down 300 bhp or so? I don't think there's much use for more power than that on public roads, anyway. I haven't been west of the Mississippi so I won't comment on that, but the most aggressive anyone on the east coast is ever going to need to drive is in NYC. I'm not sure you could keep up in an automatic NA, but you can keep up in a manual NA. In some places, you'll be redlining it with every shift and still barely keeping up, but you can do it. A GLT/2.4/5T would be enough power to make it easy. Sure, more power makes things more fun, but I'm not going to add power for the fun of it beyond what I can put down in a setup that's practical for a car I want to actually be a useful vehicle with reasonable maintenance costs and fuel economy.

 

[JaredR]

I'm certainly not saying a manual NA will keep up with a turbo (and I think even a stock LPT car is faster than a manual NA car, even if not by a massive margin). I'm saying a manual NA will keep up (barely) with the most demanding real world situation you can throw at it that I know of, so a turbo of any kind is an unnecessary luxury.

But is a turbo helpful sometimes? Is it fun? Absolutely!

 

[JaredR]

I've heard amazing things about Mulholland Drive. I wish we had roads like that on the east coast. The best thing we have in Boston is Hillside St → Chickatawbut Rd → Wampatuck Rd → Furnace Brook Parkway, which is about 30 curves (if you're generous) over 5 miles. Not really that tight or technical, either, and it's often clogged with traffic. Also doesn't help that three is a state police station on it although they at least tend to only patrol the part between them and the highway which that troop is assigned to patrol, and that thankfully only covers about a mile and it's the most boring part.

 

[JaredR]

Reason #593 why I am glad I will soon have indoor storage for my T-5R.....

Glad your S60 was safe when it happened.

Major hail storm just rolled through. Put the s60 in the garage minutes prior.

 

[JaredR]

Thanks. Really nice to have it inside. My friend's Acura TL got some dents. By the sound of the ice coming down, I swore it was gonna destroy the cars outside. Im pretty sure they were very close to being big enough to cause damage. You will love having a garage.

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Garage.....lol.......I wish! It's not big enough for both 850s, either. Still rolling the dice with the old "throw whatever we have handy on it" trick for that one . Luckily severe weather with damaging hail isn't common in the Boston area; I've never seen anything bigger than about pea sized hail here.

I should probably get one of those newfangled hail protection bubbles or blankets or whatever is good these days in case I ever get caught out in hail while I'm driving. Supposedly someone came out with one that you can deploy in 52 seconds....... Last time we went to WI, we got caught in a pretty good storm. The hail didn't turn out to be big enough to be damaging, but thankfully we were in the '99 and found a gas station to shelter in.

 

[JaredR]

I think you could fit two in there but they'd be inaccessible in reality. Maybe park one and then slide it over with a floor jack. Not wide enough two by two without touching the sides?

If I could get them sideways enough I might be able to do it....but I'd have to get the second one through the doorway on the other end, and that's only about 85" wide so there isn't much margin for not going straight. Can't really slide things around on floor jacks easily since about 3/4 of the building is over dirt.

 

[JaredR]

What wheels are those^^? Rare is the aftermarket wheel I actually like on these cars and those look really sharp.

 

[JaredR]

http://forums.swedespeed.com/showth...owthread.php?143762-R-Sightings-Thread-No-Racing-or-Kill-Posts-Please/page21110

 

[JaredR]

whats the name of those rims? looks awesome.

Talos

 

[JaredR]

Is there an R-Design badge on this thing anywhere? This is like the ultimate S60 R-Design!

 

[JaredR]

^nice pics. What mode(s)/camera/lens(es) is he shooting with? Looks like he is getting more DoF than necessary in some of these shots but then so many of the modern lenses are too slow for it to really matter much. Nothing better than an old manual fast 50mm - even on a modern DSLR - for learning the basics of photography, imo. Even now, 2 DSLRs and 3 50mm lenses later, the vast majority of the pictures I take are still shot with an old 50mm, now a Nikkor 50mm ƒ/1.4 AI.

 

[JaredR]

Suppose I should get to putting a motor in there too.

Lol yeah those are pretty great; I would highly recommend that mod. In fact they're so great we decided that all 4 of our cars needed one.

 

[JaredR]

Maybe put some Meguiar's #7 on under the wax? I know that stuff is supposed to be really good for moisturizing single stage but I only work with SS paints (the V70s don't see the love they should ) so I have no idea if it does the same thing with a base/clear paint.

 

[JaredR]

Man, that plastidip really looks good on this trim. Starting to think that is the way to go rather than all this other crazy stuff we've all tried over the years.

 

[JaredR]

Really wish I had a good camera instead of my phone for these two shots with the sky looking this cool.

You can get a cheap used SLR for like $100 or less. I'd get something like a Canon 30D or 40D and start assembling a nice lineup of Nikon Nikkor manual lenses and some adapters (don't need optics to go from Nikon F mount lenses to Canon EF mount camera). It'll be stop down metering but that's not a huge issue if you are not shooting moving objects. The reason I say get some Nikkor lenses is that the ultimate budget setup is some sweet manual Nikkors on a D700.....eventually you'll find a cheap one and it's full frame so it plays nice with all the old manual lenses. Brilliant setup. Also love the manual lenses or shooting pics while driving since I can just zone focus which essentially turns it into a point and shoot. It's BY FAR the safest way I've come up with yet to shoot pics while driving.

 

[JaredR]

I would concur with this.

I use a Nikon D5100 myself with the 2 standard kit lenses plus I have an old 70's vintage f2.0 50mm fixed lens that can take some pretty amazing shots, though only works in full manual mode which is fine with me. That lens belongs to a 1976 Nikon Nikkormat 35mm SLR film camera that I have as well. My HTC One M8 phone take some pretty great pics though, but balancing the light through metering is a bit tough on a phone, no matter the quality of the camera it has.

Do you get metering with the 5100? If you can get any Nikon that will meter with AI lenses, that's better than starting with Canon. I only started with Canon because, back in the day when I picked up my 20D, Canon had the only DSLRs you could pick up used really, really cheap that would give you aperture priority mode with any fully manual lens.

The cheapest DSLR you can get and pair with some sweet lenses will be light years better than any phone camera. The kit lenses are usually so slow that it really severely limits your creative options.

 

[JaredR]

My lenses don't seem too bad. I do get metering I believe. Yeah, Canon kits can indeed be had for pretty cheap. Also other DSLR brands, though lens choices with those are limited. I myself was all Canon until when I got my D5100, lol.

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The kit lenses do some things well and some of them are surprisingly decent......but, if you don't need telephoto or macro or anything, I think a fast 50mm lens lets you be more creative. I took 5 lenses with me to Carlisle and used nothing but my 50mm f/1.4 AI. Next year I think I might just take that and my 28mm f/2.8 AI-s and leave the rest at home. A 50 and a 28 or 35 will do 99% of what you need outside of telephoto and macro. An 85 is nice too and I'll get one eventually, but really a 50 will do a passable job of covering for an 85 if budget is an issue.

 

[JaredR]

Beautiful pics. Not sure I'd make it in CA but I sure am jealous of the roads and scenery you have out there.


What tires are you running? The 17" setup I have on my T-5R right now rides better than some 16" setups I've experienced. Obviously P80 vs P2 but same principles apply.