EssentialVideos

1987 Porsche 944 S running through a couple gears. The base 944 is a great car, but the S version with a double overhead cam variant of the same 2.5L 4 cylinder engine makes a huge difference. The base engine is rated at 143 hp/137 ft-lb’s vs the S’s 188 hp/170 ft-lb’s. Before I drove this car I had read and seen several people say that there’s really no difference between the base and S due to various reasons either the most common one being the different gear ratio in the transaxle. Because the S has about an 800 rpm higher redline the gearing was slightly taller. Having driven base 944’s I always scratched my head when I heard that, knowing the up/torque ratings for both. I can assure you that you can feel every bit of the extra power in the S. The S also comes with the turbo brakes.

In the early days of quarantine boredom my sister was playing ball with her young Border Collie. After the ball accidentally bounced off his nose once, she started working with him on what eventually became the game you see here that she dubbed Collie Ball.

I was traveling through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park shortly before sunset. I had never been to the Clingmans Dome, so I thought I’d be able to get to the observation tower just in time for a beautiful sunset. My timing was perfect but the weather was not, that’ll happen at 6,000 ft elevation sometimes. I did the 1/2 mile hike to the observation point and the only thing I could see were other people in the middle of a mile long walk in an tower observing fog. The most interesting view was what you see in this video. Clingmans Dome is the highest point in the park at 6,643 feet and the third highest mountain east of the Mississippi River. I’ve read that on clear days you can see over 100 miles from here, I’ve confirmed on foggy days it’s about 100 feet.

At only about 20 seconds away this helicopter was pretty much silent. It's of course loud when it's close, but I was amazed at how short of a distance it was before you'd never know it was there unless you were looking at it. Someone help me out in the comments with the type of helicopter this is. I'm sure it's not anything special, but I don't know anything about the different models of aircraft and it made me wonder how quiet one could be that was specifically designed for stealth. My understanding is that this was kind of a meet in greet between the Tennessee National Guard and local fire departments 2 of 3 years ago when the National Guard was going to start working with local rescue operations in remote areas, when needed.

I never knew why Nissan called the car a GTR until I was at Daytona last year. It’s just a joke, race cars break and I have nothing against GTR’s.

First run on Tail of the Dragon in the 911. It’s a great car for this road and a great road for this car, but it’s always a great time. The car is stock with a manual trans and had about 105,000 miles on it at the time of this video. https://tailofthedragon.com/details/

This is a trail near the exit of the abandoned Nemo train tunnel featured in another video of mine. It’s an easy trail but it’s hard to beat the view on the left. I believe this is within the boundaries of Catoosa State Park and roughly an hour northwest of Knoxville, TN.

Burgess Falls in Tennessee. This was the best view at the time due to recent flooding that destroyed the access to the bottom of the falls.

My favorite car from PCA autocross event at Dollywood Splash Country parking lot, November 2019.

Driving through the Nemo train tunnel with a group of Jeeps. It was a couple of years ago, I think it was our first ride with Jeep Out. Not much of an off road challenge but a very unique experience in my opinion. It may have been more fun, especially the first time through, not being in a large group since it probably would have felt a lot more eerie with only one set of lights and not having the Jeep in front giving away the terrain ahead. The group did eliminate the potential situation of someone coming the other way. I found this site that has some good info if interested in trying to experience yourself: https://www.google.com/amp/s/easyoffroading.com/blog/2019/05/28/nemo-abandoned-train-tunnels-in-catoosa-national-forest-tn/amp/

This buck couldn’t decide what to do. He had been chasing this doe around some in my backyard, followed her to the front and then across the street where deer normally just cross without stopping. When she stopped short of the woods I guess it confused him and seems to not want to get too close for some reason.

Fun end to a great trail that was very rocky without any rutted sections until this final part. I believe this was Trail 26, but it was a couple of years ago. For those that may be curious, my Jeep is a 2012 With a factory trac-loc limited slip rear axle. I added Rubicon shocks and springs, also a set of JK Rubicon wheels and tires. It’s also kind of an oddball in that it is an Altitude Edition but not and Unlimited body style. In the United States the Altitude Edition only came in the Unlimiteds, but my Jeep was ordered in Canada where the package could be had on a 2 door model.

Nothing better than a warm, crackling fire on a cold night.

Caught a buck in my backyard harassing my hammock after he’d just tore down a cedar branch.

Sunrise looking towards fog covered Knoxville from Windrock overlook as cloud cover moves in.

While visiting Ozone Falls a random pig just shows up. There is a small country road named Pig Path Road nearby, coincidence?

While visiting Ozone Falls a random pig just shows up. There is a small country road named Pig Path Road nearby. So...?

Atop Norris Dam with floodgates open. The dam stretches 1,860 feet across the Clinch River in Anderson County and is 265 feet high. Construction was completed in 1936.

Fall 2020 PCA Smokey Mountain Region autocross at Dollywood Splash Country.

Amazing Ozone Falls in Tennessee!

This is the view when walking behind Ozone Falls.

Backyard Buck using fresh antlers to harass hammock.