Nothing Like A Good Burnout…

It doesn’t matter if you have an automatic, or a manual transmission, doing a burnout in a rear wheel drive vehicle is just plain fun. Here’s my normal routine for a good rolling burnout in a manual transmission car: From a dead stop, pull back into 2nd gear, so I’ll have plenty of wheel speed. Bring the rpm up to about 4,500 and dump the clutch! So much fun…I brought this up because I laid a couple of black marks in the Corvette yesterday evening. I had a GoPro attached to the car, so check out this video…also check out the amazing amount of camber change when I get on it a little during the first few second of the video. Then I drive down a country road to my secret burnout spot at approximately 2:55 in the video. Enjoy…

A First Time for Everything

I’ve had a lot of “firsts” in my life, and I’m sure I’ll have a bunch more. Today’s first wasn’t glorious but it was bound to happen. I ran out of gas. That’s right, I ran out of gas in a vehicle that has a working gas gauge. Now, I’ve run a vehicle out of gas at my own house, but it’s a whole different level of failure when you run out of gas on the road. So, I’m heading to work this morning, in my trusty S-10 (driving it to keep from racking up 100 miles a day on the G8). I’m planning to get gas on the way to work, and as I close in on the destination, the truck starts to stumble. At this point I’m still a mile from the gas station, and the final 1/4 mile or so is up hill. So I’m worried.

Hey, here's a picture of the truck that ran out of gas!

The New Daily Driver

I’ve driven the same S-10 for the past 7 years, and it’s treated me very well, but when I got married, I took part ownership in a new daily driver…a 2008 Dodge Avenger. Awesome, I know. The car took us where we needed to go, but it was no where near cool, and it just wasn’t fun to drive. My theory is that if you’re forced to have a car payment, it should at least be an enjoyable car. So, instead of trading it on a new Z06, my wife and I decided that a Pontiac G8 GT would be the best car for our needs. It’s a four-door so it’s practical for her, and our future plans for children, while the 361hp will keep me occupied.

Our new daily driver...a 2009 Pontiac G8 GT.

Life of a Car Guy

I’m a car guy that has a thing for photography and writing. And when I say that I’m a car guy, I don’t simply mean that “I like cars”, I’m saying that cars are my life. Aside from activities to keep my wife from killing me, everything I do revolves around cars, whether it’s going to the drag strip, attending a local car show or wrenching on one of my many seemingly endless projects. My name is Tommy Lee Byrd, and I do photography and writing for a living. Obviously, not all of my experiences make it to print….this is where those stories will live, creating a diary of a car guy’s life. I stay  busy with working a regular job and doing all of my freelance work on the side, so this blog will be filled with my experiences around my hometown of Dayton, Tennessee, as well as stuff on the road. Since this is my first blog, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite photographs I’ve taken…not the best picture I’ve taken, but one of my favorites.

Marcus Wooden's 1964 Chevy II, which competes locally in the Bounty Race heads up drag racing series. The car runs 5.50's in the eighth mile thanks to a nitrous-fed small block Chevy.

 

Tommy Lee