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Das Ponto's 3.2 And the Long Road Home.


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Guess I should state what I actually put in, Picked up a set of KW V1's for a steal of a deal so in they went! Very impressed with the ride, similar to stock but nice and firm with little to no body roll. 

Next up was summer goodies! 

 

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They are just reps, but for the price I couldn't say no... They will do fine for the first summer. 

And the install at my buddies condo haha. 

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Which means time for a better picture!!

 

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And a weekend road trip to the Rockies for some mountain biking! And well a car show while I was down there. 

 

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Just before I hit the road, quick stop at my favorite mechanics shop - had to tweak the back just a little as I was rubbing constantly. 

 

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Quick visit and I was good to go!

 

Buddy did a quick little video on the drive to the car show as well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLwZLyJPISQ

 

Up next on the menu - Vancouver Road trip the 2nd attempt!! I will post it during lunch today!

 

Cheers, 

Ryan

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Guess I promised a road trip didn't I!! Got caught up doing a birthday lunch today. 

 

It was a  2600km Road trip to visit the girlfriend who is going to school in Vancouver,BC . 
 
Started off Wednesday night, first stretch is straight and boring so didn't take many pictures. Stopped about an hour in to get some food before the remaining 7ish hours of driving. 
 
Quickly got back on the road to some heavy downpour.
 
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Which continued for about 2 and a half hours til I got just past Calgary. After that it cleared up real nice as I got into the mountains! 
 
Sun was just setting when I pulled in to Canmore,AB so I snapped a nice little picture. 
 
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Which also gave me some nice sunset shots along the highway too!!
 
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(Nice thing about living up here is we get long sunsets in the summer!)
 
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Also went through my favorite stretch of road. (As seen in my original post, but covered in snow!!)
 
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Continued driving til about midnight or so when I got to my sisters in Vernon,BC and crashed for the night! Next day spent the morning with her and my Niece and Nephews and did some mountain biking before continuing onto Vancouver!  
 
More to come!
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Part 2!!

 

Second day, Got on the road shortly after noon and a quick car wash for the dirty girl.
 
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Then bam! On the highway, this stretch of road has quite the different views than the first bit. Amazing how much it changes over a few hundred miles. 
 
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Stopped to take some pictures along the way as well!
 
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Getting close! Less than an hour to Vancouver at this point!
 
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Fuel got more expensive the further west I went too...
 
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That's per litre, so if I was to do an entire full tank it would be close to $90.00 to fill... haha And still no where near as bad as you guys pay in Europe.  
 
Pulling into Van and hitting their new fancy bridge. 
 
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The old one is still being dismantled off to the left. 
 
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here is where the road trip out stops. 1300km or so completed so far! Was a great drive and loved the car. The KW V1's did a great job through the mountains and twisties!
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Well might as well post the drive back since its so quiet in here!

 

Hit the road early after dropping the girlfriend off for school! 
 
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Nice sunny day for a drive home, sure can't complain for how much the coast usually gets rain right?
 
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Before I could really make some miles though I had a pit stop to make! 
 
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TURBO TIME!!!! - HPA Motorsports Shop. One of the only Scirocco in North America right there. 
 
Kidding. I wish. Only shy a few thousand grand. haha But I did get a tour of the shop, doing a lot of  Jeep  TDI conversions there. Picked up 6 puck mounts and got back on the road!
 
Amazing view to start off into the Rockies. Love it every time. 
 
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Tunnel!!!! God I need exhaust... so quiet. Too Quiet!!
 
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Making decent time, love driving this car, so comfy. 
 
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Train!!
 
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Amazing how barren an area that has a bad forest fire gets. 
 
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Then back into the lush stuff!
 
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And pit stop!!
 
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Ahead you see the impressive Mount Robson, Kicking myself for not getting a picture of my car with it, passed a perfect spot too. :(
 
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Endless amazing views for the entire drive.
 
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Picked up a friend along the way, Jetta TDI - had some work done to it, but still fairly stock me thinks.
 
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Got stuck behind a cop for way to long stuck going way to slow for some time. So I took another pit stop for more pitures!
 
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Back in Alberta - can ramp up the speed again finally.
 
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Hit a milestone along the way!
 
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And a mere 11.5 hours later and a total of 2600km I made it back home safe and sound!
 
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Still light out even, at 9:30 pm. 
 
Hope you all enjoy!!
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Great thread, it's so refreshing to read a thread about your road trips and see all the pictures of the beautiful landscapes you get to drive through :)

Thanks! Glad you enjoy it. Pretty lucky for the road trips I get here, I lived in Denmark years ago and it's definitely a little different. 

 

Well with all these road trips and miles comes some required maintenance. So had to get the oil taken care of, had a worn out rear wheel bearing that needed to be replaced. And since I was doing those figured it would be a good time to install some new goodies too! HPA's Puck mount, 034 Rear sway bar, and finally let the sweet vr sound free with a magnaflow. 

 

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So with that done it was time for another trip to the mountains! 

 

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Went to Panorama, BC for some downhill mountain biking! And man what a time it was. 

 

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Definitely a lot of fun.

I have put on another 2000km or so with the new goodies and man alive it feels like a new car! The exhaust is a little louder than I was expecting but still within reason and just sounds so fantastic! 

Few minor things left on the list for stuff I want for the car for now - one being Euro LED tails... gotta order me some of them asap! 

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wow, only have one word for this EPIC

 

you do love your driving don't you :) but with scenery like that who can blame you!

 

Wish I had that sort of scenery here in the UK (close to home) Cornwall and Wales is the best places I've been in the UK in my VR6!

 

 

Haha yeah I sure do! I average about 40,000km or 25k miles a year. But that's nothing compared to my old man, when he was working full time he was averaging 100,000km or 62k miles a year roughly haha. (Not a trucker, just an oil field consultant)

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  • 2 weeks later...

As Pete says we have nothing over here remotely like that.

Though next time I go to Vancouver I'm going to HPA for a chat and to walk away with some goodies hopefully.

For us to have a road trip like that would need to be through Europe. If I could I'd drive from UK to Wolfsburg, Germany down to austria through Italy towards Milan over to Monaco then Barcelona and back up to UK through spain

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Well another road trip in the books done!! Figured I'd keep my travel journal posts going! Hope you enjoy them and well read them haha..

And definitely check out HPA great guys and love that shop... need to really stop going there otherwise I am gonna walk away with a turbo kit... nto that its a bad thing, well maybe since its half my down payment for a house! haha

 

Here we go! Day 1...

 
We have been swamped at work lately so after getting in at 6am working til 5pm it was time to hit the road! 
 
Full tank of gas and car loaded I was on the road, first up massive overpass going in on the south side of the city. It was easier to build the overpass, then realign the highway under it. Will be tying into one of our developments to the west after. 
 
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Being on the highway is always a good feeling, love driving (as I am sure you all know by now!) And even more so with this view. 
 
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Beautiful evening to be on the highway as well!
 
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And luckily managed to snap a cool sunset shot through the tree's while driving. 
 
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I loved how golden the wheat fields all looked with the sun setting on them! It may be flat but the prairies can still offer some good views! 
 
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Ooook after 3+ hours the flat straight roads do start to get very boring haha. 
 
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As I left the flat grounds of Alberta I ventured into the darkness and the rockies! Shame cause I love driving through the mountains. Guess the one plus side is the highways are dead at night! 
 
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Then it got really dark... 
 
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From here I continued on til about 2am when I arrived at my sisters place in Vernon for the night! Was a long haul after a full day of work, but good to have a majority of the drive taken care of. 
 
Day 1 Approx. Distance = 840km
 
Day 2 to follow!
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Hows about Day 2!! 

 

Spend the morning with my sister and her kids, farmers market, few kid games, trampoline etc. nice relaxed morning before hitting the road around 1 in the afternoon. 

 

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Little cloudy of a morning, but good for a drive. (What day isn't though right?)

 

View's through this area very different from the Rockies, reminds me a lot of italy actually and well makes sense since its BC's wine country. (some cool wineries there as well)

 

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Loving the new increased speed limits though! Majority of highways got a 10kph bump so the main highways are now 120kph (74.5mph) Makes a big difference really and well proven to be safer. More consistent speed of cars on the highway = less accidents. 

 

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Came to a bit of a peak, some amazing views overlooking the valleys!

 

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Morning coffee kicked in.

 

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Clouds started to clear up, and it was turning out to be a great day! 

 

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Ok maybe not, but still great driving weather, no sun in the eyes, cool fall temps - perfect really. 

 

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And of course, once you get closer to the coast what do you get? Yeaa rain, always with the rain. 

 

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Enroute to HPA and there was this...

 

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Not exactly sure what he was doing up there haha, but he was just getting out of his car when I passed. Maybe avoided an accident? Not sure. 

 

Obligatory bridge shot arriving to Vancouver. 

 

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And this is pretty much the end of Day 2.

 

Approx. Distance = 440km 

 

Trip Total = 1,280km 

 

Enjoyed the rest of the day in Van with the girlfriend, had dinner etc nothing to crazy as we were hitting the ferry to Vancouver Island at 7am and wanted to be there nice and early to make sure we got on. (BC ferries can get pretty busy apparently)

 

Cheers!!

 

Ponto

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So Day 3, we got an early start (Much to Melissa's dismay, but she was excited for the trip as well so she obliged me and woke up at 4:30 to get ready) And then I woke up at 5:15, showered, got ready and we were out the door by 5:30am. The first ferry to the island was 7:00am and it suggested being there ready to board half hour to an hour early, so since i have never taken BC Ferries I figured best be there for 7. 

 

It was fairly dark until we got to the docks so no pictures driving through Van lol. Plus I was still waking up. 

 

And here we go! 

Got that upper deck... Er Berth. I like my childhood hockey card reference better. 

 

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Not their biggest ship, wasn't crazy busy this early on a friday either. 

 

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See ya mainland!

 

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And got the ol girl tucked away safely! Oh man, there was a red mustang one lane over in front of us... Lady did not know how to park, pulled in nice and crooked and pretty much on the line. She was a little older, and well larger... needless to say she couldn't get out of her car.... And she was giving the people next to her the stink eye like mad, Melissa and I sat and laughed for a bit. Then I got out, helped her back her car up and move it over a bit. Felt kinda bad. But stupid is as stupid does. 

 

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Little bit of a gloomy mornin :( forcast said sunny, wtf forecasters... I wish I could be that wrong and still keep my job. 

 

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And bam, back in the car ready to unload! Melissa is in the car rolling her eyes at me for taking so many car pictures. (You'd think she would have figured it out by now that I am always going to take lots of pictures)

 

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Heey look... BURTA! Douche cannoe romped on it as he was pulling out as well. 

 

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And just like that we were in Victoria, parked the car and started wandering around! Beautiful city for sure.

 

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Love all the old buildings. 

 

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Baam ballin hotel... naah we didn't stay there, figured 400+ was a little to much for one night. 

 

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And the Parliament building, did not know there was one in Victoria, but man it's awesome! 

 

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Hey its us!! 

 

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So after wandering downtown for awhile we decided to venture out a bit further and go find this old Lighthouse we looked up. Turns out, its the oldest lighthouse in Canada! 

 

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It was part of an old military fort so we got to explore that as well, cost a wopping 7 dollars!

 

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View from the fort was amazing!!

 

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Fort stuff...

 

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And bam, oldest lighthouse in Western Canada - The fisgard lighthouse (irrc)

 

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Beautiful out here!

 

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Boom! A cannon! Need to get a hitch... or roof mount that bitch for traffic.

 

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Then at the hotel, heeey another 3.2!

 

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And a mini, little worse for ware but still so nice... and tiny!

 

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Spotted this beauty on our walk abouts as well - Actually on our way to dinner at the most amazing Italian place ever, Pagliacci's my word was it delicious!! 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Ok enough road trip business... lol

 

Update business!! 

 

Got myself some Euro LED tails

 

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Mmm LED Reverse bulbs. 
 
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Resistors all wired in! 
 
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Now down to the car!!! 
 
Old and busted for reference. 
 
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And here we go! 
 
Didn't take many install pics, but resistors tucked away... using plastic zip ties may not be the best idea if they get hot... 
 
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Excellent. 
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Need to get some good night shots, my parkade sucks for them. 
 
And holy **** bright!! 
 
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Tron Out!!! (Shitty IG video lol)
 
 
 
And scored a crazy deal on all the interior RS white stitched leather... if only i had the spare 3 grand for the Euro Recaro's he also had. 
 
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Edited by DasPonto
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