What are some of your other hobbies?

My cars are very big part of my life. However another hobby of mine is PC gaming. My addiction started with Wolfenstein 3D in the early 90s and has been a passion of mine for over 30 years. When I retired from being a Defense Contractor (48 years old, I'm 51 now) I went into the IT and custom PC building business. It proved to be quite lucrative.
Anyway I believe in giving back and I support three charities in my community to give back for my good fortune. Every year I donate a custom built high-end PC with the finest components you can buy. We auction It off and the 100% of the money goes to the charity of my choice. Here are some of the PCS that I donated in the last 2 years. The winning bid for one was a little over $20,000 and the other was $23,262 in September 2020. Each has approximately 160 man hours in them. Total cost is about $8,000 each for material. The specs are 10 core Intel i9, 256 GB of ddr4 RAM, 8 GB of m.2 SSD hard drive, GTX 1080 TI or RTX 3080 video card, hand blown lexan piping with complete water-cooled and radiator setup. A dream machine for any video editor or gamer. The Hellcat machine was donated in 2019 and it had a 7-in breakout panel that mimicked the dashboard of a Hellcat with real-time stats of the gaming machine while it was running. It took me approximately 4 weeks of working in Photoshop to design and build the applet that would mimic the dashboard of a Hellcat. The gauges move in real time to show temperatures performance and all of the critical data of the gaming PC while gaming.

I’ve been back into BMX for a while now...they’re just as much fun as when I was a kid but cost a hell of a lot more now. I have a few but this custom Gary Turner 29” frame is my favorite. I may be 50 but we have a large BMX group in Houston and we ride up to 3 times a week when the weather is good.

View attachment 3687 View attachment 3688

Besides cars, going to football games, taking a vacation to different places every year. Kind of boring compared to you guys.

Besides cars, going to football games, taking a vacation to different places every year. Kind of boring compared to you guys.

Besid s my cars and trucks .

I collect guns , have been for about 40 years, and a shooter, having 2 ranges on my property.
Here's just a take on a family. My 45-70 family.
View attachment 3716

Jim

Besid s my cars and trucks .

I collect guns , have been for about 40 years, and a shooter, having 2 ranges on my property.
Here's just a take on a family. My 45-70 family.
View attachment 3716

Jim

Nice collection, Jim! Hey how you liking the new ride so far?

Cars, airplanes and motorcycles; basically anything with an engine in it. American muscle has always been my passion. Fly my plane whenever I can but the Harley and big block Chevy’s have most of my attention. Looking for that perfect ‘68 Camaro now. One of two must haves: Z28 or SS 396/375.

I had a Camaro SS 396/375 that I bought new in 1968. Loved that car,

I wonder whats the average age of the members on this forum are? I would venture most are between 40 and 60. the younger people are not interested in the Explorer ST and at $55,000 plus it would be out of reach for most 20-25 year-olds. What's your take on it?

Besid s my cars and trucks .

I collect guns , have been for about 40 years, and a shooter, having 2 ranges on my property.
Here's just a take on a family. My 45-70 family.
View attachment 3716

Jim

I had a Camaro SS 396/375 that I bought new in 1968. Loved that car,

I'm 35 and love my Explorer ST! In my eyes, it says to people that I am a practical family man, who also likes to go fast! Hahaha. I have 3 year old twin boys, so my sports car days are sadly over. Although, I can't say I've ever owned a sports car!

Other than that, my hobbies are like most people here. Travel is such a passion for me, I'm originally from the UK so I try and get back home at least once a year (when COVID isn't ruining those plans). In the last couple of years, I've become hooked on flying drones. I own 3 DJI drones, and love taking them out. My wife makes fun of me because I literally take a drone everywhere we go. It amazes me how capable they are.

Thank you.

I'm loving it.
Averaging 23 mpg, drives, handles , rides the way I like.
Oh yeah it also gets away quickly when you ask it to.
I just turned over 700 miles in 7 weeks.

Wife likes it too.

Jim