Sachin Agarwal: July 2003

Eric is in the market for a car. Last week we were talking about various models and he mentioned he wouldn't buy some car because it required premium gas. I flipped. That's no reason to not buy a car!! Let's say you use 10 gallons per week, and premium costs 20 cents more. That means you will spend about $104 extra per year. That's NOTHING when considering the purchase of a car.

Also, I don't understand why people use Arco and other shitty brands of gas. THEY AREN'T CHEAPER. The gas might be the same (I think it's worse but that's arguable), but regardless Shell and Chevron stations are MUCH cleaner than Arcos, they take credit cards, have better service. And I think you get more performance out of your car. And with some Citibank, Chase, and MBNA cards you get 5% back on gas, making it CHEAPER than ARCO.

Also, the Chevron near Apple has 92 octane gas. Everyone else in California has 91. I'm not filling up anywhere else. Yes, it makes a difference. When I chipped my Audi I was required to use 92.

I think I am secretly in love with Mazda. I have always loved the Miata. I really like the Protege and 6. And last week I saw my first RX-8 at Apple. It looked awesome!

All their cars are great values, look awesome, and are really sporty.

The touring class of Speed Challenge is full of BMW 325s and Mazda Proteges.

It was a great day. We spent the day on a boat in Tracey, then dinner at the Tied House, then ended the night in Newcastle.

Pictures

I lost my sunglasses in the water while trying to fill up a water gun. I think I'm going to buy these

I went to Speedring last night with my co-workers. I think I've become the unofficial social manager now. It was a lot of fun. My manager beat us all.

After that I found out one of my co-workers (Sean) lives just a couple blocks from me. He interned last year and is starting full time next month. It'll be great to have more young blood on the team. After karting we played ping pong for like 2 hours.

I test drove a Honda S2000 yesterday with Eric. That is a sweet car! It's really low and stiff so it handles very well. The shifter and clutch are very nice (yes, better than the MINI), and the car is pretty fast.

The main problem with the car is it has a 9000rpm redline, and NO power under 6k. So you HAVE to rev it high for it to be fast, and that's loud and annoying.

But the ergonomics in that car were great. It fit my body size perfectly. The armrest was at the perfect place and height so you didn't have to move your hand a single inch to shift.