Certainly more lovable than the contents of the America thread.

RIP Tomek. A good friend and great racer.

Got to play with the Crystal Cove prototype at CES last week, and I gotta say... this shit is legit. Can't wait to buy one.

CoRe 4EVA!

Quote from Blade3562 :

This is very racist and offensive. :chair: One of my close friends is currently living in Houston. Just because someone is from Texas doesn't mean anything, in fact most Texans will welcome you and be very friendly if you aren't an arrogant jerk or insult freedom.

lol

Quote from Racer Y :

just avoid eye contact and you'll be fine.
LOL I go on vacation starting next Monday. Unfortunately, it's a staycation.
Houston is the 4th largest city in the USofA and the Largest city with nothing to do. It's really not geared towards tourism at all. Now if you're looking for a job or need to have some off the wall medical procedure done, it's a good place to be. But other than that, there's really not enough to do in this city to plan it as a vacation destination.
Oh wait. we have the Funeral museum. We also have a holocaust museum.
This may be a little off topic, but if all the neo-nazis keep saying the holocaust never happened, then why are there museums dedicated to it all over the world?

You've got an Indycar race, a half-decent football team, a half-decent handegg team, and lots of good Mexican food.

Nice.

Saw both Her and Inside Llewyn Davis this past weekend.

The former is probably Spike Jonze's best movie. Just a really good science fiction film and a great romance as well. The latter is beautiful to watch and listen to, and features great acting, but it's not as enjoyable as the best Coen Bros. films.

Never too early for mods.

You may find this site useful:

http://www.gasbuddy.com/

It varies quite a bit by region. Looks like it's currently around $3.50/gal for regular in San Fran, which means about $0.92/L.

I imagine ~$1/L will be pretty common wherever you go. Should be about ~$40 for a fill-up.

Keep in mind most cheap rental cars you'll get over here will get about 30-35mpg (American, obviously) on the highway, and 25-30 in the city.

Quote from Fordman :

I spent 2.5 wks in Florida ( West Palm Beach ) and really enjoyed it. The beaches there are fantastic, just make sure you take reflective sunnies as the sight seeing on Miami beaches is WOW

Also went over the everglades, and up to Orlando, Bonton Beach ( Lots of Sharks) and Delray Beach

Fordie

Yeah, WPB is actually where I grew up (1983-2006). I suppose it's nice to visit, but I'm a bit blinded by the annoyances of living there.

Key West is pretty cool, though.

A couple other things:

1. You can rent a car at 21, but it might cost more than if you're 25 or older.
2. Use AirBnB to book rooms. Usually cheaper than a hotel and better accommodations.
3. Use Yelp (website/smartphone app) to find good places to eat.
4. The weather in California doesn't vary a lot. San Fran is cool/foggy most of the time, but can clear up nicely on some days. Feb/Mar is the rainy season, so expect to get a bit wet.
5. I don't think there are too many cultural oddities you need to worry about. SF in particular is a pretty international/cosmopolitan city. Just don't be a dumbass and you should be fine.

Have fun. America is huge and gorgeous and generally a pretty rad place to be.

btw, I grew up in Florida and do not recommend it. :P

San Fran is great, especially if you love food. If I were you, what I'd do is:

1. Fly in to SF, spend a day or two wandering around/eating/taking in the sights.
2. Rent a car, drive up the coast to Seattle.
3. Check out Seattle for a day or two. Also awesome food, nice scenery around the city, etc.
4. Cross the border and visit Vancouver—awesome city.
5. Drive back, hit Portland, Oregon, on the way.
6. Drive from Portland to Yosemite National Park in northern California.
7. Drive from Yosemite back to San Fran.
8. Fly out.

Car rentals aren't cheap, but they're pretty affordable ($200ish a week for a little econobox if you shop online).

An Australian guy on another board I post on just planned a similar trip, except he's going from LA to the east coast on a two-month-long road trip. You can check out his planning thread here.

I believe Scott Andrews (DuCK) just did a long trip to the US, including San Fran, a couple months ago. He might be able to give you some advice, too.

Good luck! Should be fun.

Quote from Rocabiliz :

So I finally got the money to buy this Just wanted to leave my first impressions here.
After messing with the wheel settings around I got the KTM to feel like what I wanted (LFS-esque). The car feels great and the I felt no steering input like I experienced in other games. A little like LFS which made me very happy. Laptime wise, I'm rusty, only 1:59.0 in Imola
Then I tried other cars lol F40, 458 and M3 GT2 are completely undrivable for me at the moment (maybe I should add traction control?). The 49T at Monza 66 is just an incredible sensation, graphical and physics wise :o

Nice to see you back around, Andre!

F40 feels great IMO.

Definitely ain't catching any slides, though.

Freedom of speech doesn't exist on a private message board, anyhow.

Double points is really stupid for F1. Can't believe they're going with it.

Anybody have good base settings for the Fanatec 911 GT2 (or a similar wheel)?

We're all losing to the 918 Spyder, anyhow.

I'm told you can get a lot more powah using E85, too.

Quote from atledreier :

My last trackday I used 35 liters on 90km... That's roughly 7mpg.....

35mpg should be pretty easy, unless you are running on that diluted piss you americans call gasoline...

Can't run the 86 on anything less than 93 octane (using our silly octane rating system).

The FR-S is rated for 34 highway MPG, and official MPG ratings are typically a bit higher than what you actually get. Hence my surprise.

Paul Walker was a truly mediocre actor, but seems to have been a great human being. R.I.P.