Smokey

Congrats Derek, great to see your business continue to thrive.

Karting will continue to consume the majority of my time. My son made great progress last year and hope to continue that. Need to figure out schedule and primary tracks for the year and may try to branch out to tracks further away too. Went to Charlotte a couple times last year to one of the fastest and most competitive tracks in the country and that was fun.

 

I need new dailies for both my wife and myself and have held that off since 2020 due to COVID and then the market BS.

 

FD will get maintenance and hopefully some decent street miles, but I don’t anticipate any time or money for track days with it this year.

Actually, there is quite an active group of folks racing vintage karts - and the values for restored karts are (relatively) big money!

 

As Craig said you can definitely restore and race vintage karts. It’s not cheaper cause it’s older though. Oh and you’re right you won’t fit for shit.

Long shot, but anyone have a set of 4 235/45-17 all seasons? I need to limp my wife’s TL through one more winter before we dump it.

Bummer to see it go, but good luck with the sale

Bummer to hear but totally understand. Tim thanks for the throwback pics had both the old FD and M3 in there.

Ryan if you come across one let me know. If not I’ll mooch some off of Bob.

His book is worth a purchase and read. He’s hopefully still instructing at Mid Ohio, but I wasn’t up there last year to know.

My sister in-law bought me a small aging barrel for Christmas that I wanted to use with Weller Antique to make poor mans pappy. Unfortunately my current bottle of antique is too low and what was once readily available has now been bought up and hoarded. Anyone have a bottle of Weller Antique 107 they’d want to sell me for retail or close to?

Awesome work on the project and it came out great.

 

Speaking of projects I have a bunch of empty bottles I’ve kept telling myself I’d use them for a project one day but never come up with any good ideas. I’ve used a couple for infinity bottles and will use one for making poor mans pappy. Outside of putting other booze in them, anyone have good ideas for them before I decide to get rid of them?

Any thoughts on this?

https://uproxx.com/life/best-bourbons-from-independent-distilleries-2021/

I really like the idea of smaller distilleries, especially for gifts. It's what I was looking for in bringing gifts back from Japan.

 

Of that list only woodinville and Wilderness Trail are the ones I’ve seen in Ohio. I haven’t had Woodinville but the Wilderness Trail is great for the money.

 

They list Balcones bourbon which I haven’t seen here yet, but always recommend Balcones Texas single malt which we have here and is a really interesting drink and well worth the money.

Dang

Also forgot to mention for those out if Ohio shopping pick up Pikesville Rye if you find it $60 or less. Great rye for the money

Columbus has its own new variant

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/13/ohio-researchers-say-theyve-identified-two-new-covid-strains-likely-originating-in-the-us.html?&qsearchterm=columbus%20covid

Thanks, what about bottles, are there any good bottles that are sold in Indiana that are not sold in Ohio?

Hey Google search brings up starlight distillery as a decent Indiana bourbon.

 

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Look for Elija Craig Barrel proof if possible. They get that and we don’t. Don’t expect anyone to have any allocated stuff on the shelf, but as Bob noted may be some cool store picks.

Ohio’s Scotch purchasing can be pretty frustrating at times. I’m starting to really enjoy and look for Cambeltown malts and you can only get one in Ohio if you’re lucky.

 

From that list I have the GlenLivet 18 and GlenFiddich 21 in my cabinet now. Initially I thought the Livet18 was the better of the 2, but once the 21 got some air it’s great. I’d probably put the Macallan edition no5 above the, both though and in similar money.

 

Honestly though if you like Speyside whiskeys go to GE Sawmill and get the GlenLivet Enigma (black box) for $99 on Ohio’s last call. I’m super tempted to buy another before it’s gone for good, but have other things i want to try.

Guys, thoughts/opinions on Monkey Shoulder? I got a bottle of it from sis-in-law for Christmas.

Some people love it and others not hot. I found it to remind me of Dewars. A solid drink for the money, but not going to be a regular for me.

 

I would love to do a HH with you two. I want to take you around the Willett World (pre smokes).

I’m down let’s set that up. I’m afraid I don’t have anything if your caliber to share, but happy to share what I’ve got.

Let me know if you want to get together sometime and happy to share the Remus and Houston. We should grab a smoke with Rob and do it.

 

Your assessment on Scotch is well founded as they definitely won’t have the sweetness of bourbon. I started with Scotch instead of bourbon so that’s always welcome for me.

Bob did you have the Sam Houston 14 or Remus Repeal VI? I thought those were some of my best purchases for the money this year with regard to older bourbons. Nothing flashy or ultra rare, but great flavor for the money.

 

If you like oak age so much I’m surprised you’re not bigger into old scotch.

Kirkland scotch is supposed to be solid, but can we get it here? I didn’t think they sold anything stronger than wine in Ohio Costco because of our state controlled inventory?

I’ve gotten by with a dual tank top system for longer than I care to admit. I need to sack up and run 220v to do electric because I don’t want to deal with making a vent to the roof for gas.

 

I’d love to do a mini split to be able to get cool air in the summer, but my kids leave the garage door open all summer it seems.

My wife got me a bunch of different tasting sets by drinks by the dram who also did the whiskey advent calendar she got me this year. Great way to try different whiskeys without having to outlay for bigger bottles. Lots of different ones I’m looking forward to trying.

Karting again as the primary. Bought a small enclosed trailer to help haul stuff. My son moves to a new class and we are going to test with my daughter in the kid kart so may have 3 karts Racing in a given weekend! I’m going chasing on a Yamaha masters championship again so it’ll be another 14+ race weekend year.

 

The FD i’d like to drive it. Hoping to do at least one track day with it too. I have parts sitting on the shelf for an intercooler upgrade and better water tank for the water/meth injection. Also would like to relocate the battery and put on the upgraded fuel pump wiring I’ve got for it...but all of those take 2nd priority to karting.

 

Other big thing will be finding a replacement for my wife’s daily that we can both agree on....probably the biggest hurdle of anything I’m listing. Hahahaha

Thankfully was able to kart with the family navigating thru various restrictions and protocols. Won the Yamaha Masters championship as desired and bought the new engine package for a new class and challenge next year.

 

My son made huge strides in his driving this year which I’m very proud of. He went from driving a 2.5hp kid kart to a 13hp cadet kart and was growing every time. My daughter got in the kid kart for some races but got spooked after being bashed by other kids a few times. We’ll see if she wants to try again next year.

 

Drove the FD on the street, but not a ton and never made it on track. It’ll be back there at some point though.

 

Never got a new daily for the wife as we parked our cars like many for most of the year. That’ll be a bigger priority next year likely.

Had a pour of the AE rye last weekend and it crazy how sweet it is. Hard to believe it’s a rye, but a really enjoyable drink

 

Not really a Jack fan. At all. Use to drink Jack and Coke when I was younger because a LOT of folks down here did but switched to Captain and Coke real fast. That being said the SiB is surprisingly good. I agree with you on that.

 

I think a lot of people, myself included, overlook the specialty stuff done by Jack because of their standard line and history. Their single Barrell stuff seems to be getting noticed now though and that Barrell strength is great for the money.