Revival!

No, not THAT kind of revival. Those are annoying anyway. What I refer to as being revived is this blog! Yay!

Now, to begin this new wave of posts, let it be known that most car-dealer visiting has ceased. This is because the main objective (seeking out First Vehicle for Relative Unit Alpha) has been completed with a 2011 Ford Fiesta. It's a Yellow Blaze SES auto with the Upgrade Package (heated seats, push-button start, fancy chrome, etc.). I happen to like it a great deal, and it really was the best thing available that offered any sort of driver involvement. The only real contender was the Hyundai Elantra, but it drove like a bar of soap. Its only real plus was that it had boatloads of trunk and rear-seat room, and we're getting along fine with the (very comfortable and perfectly roomy) rear seats that were described as follows by Motor Trend:

"On the other hand, the Fiesta's triumph of styling comes with the defeat of a whole lot of practicality. That fashionable sloping roof? It pinches the view aft such that the main thing you perceive of the car following you is a hood. Open a rear door for a prospective passenger and he'll start googling Yellow Cab on his smartphone (see our interior measurements)."



Uh huh. Sure. Maybe in comparison to the Maybach 62 or Rolls-Royce Phantom, but for our usage it's perfectly roomy.

In any case, it's a wonderful little car that just so happens to have a heapin' helpin' of Good Looks Sauce on it (a rare commodity among subcompacts of yore, Ford not being exempt from this. See: Festiva). And I was fine with that.

Until I saw this.

If the new Dodge compact looks just as good in real life as it does in those teaser shots, it's going to have to have something special for you once you open the doors, and something even better once you open the hood. Looks like those need substance behind them, or else the car earns the Official BBC Seal of Disapproval.

Also, "Tigershark"? Really? I was hoping for "Hammerhead". Sounds meaner.

Sights and Scenes of the BBC Town Independence Day Auto Show!

This Independence Day weekend (U.S.), there were a lot of car shows of all types. Predictably,  we entered the Shelby in one of them. Behold the junk stuff shoved into the trunk for this momentous event:

The black bag is my dad's camera, the light blue bag is one of two folding chairs, the blue box contains last-minute cleaning supplies, and the green bag is mine, containing, among other junk, the camera used to take these pictures. It all fit very easily with plenty of room to spare. In fact, not only did it all fit well, but it was easy to put in also. Look up a picture of the trunk opening of the new Camaro and you'll see what I mean.

This is where we were parked. There's a tree to the left of the car, but you can't see it. We were grateful for its shade, however. Later, we got a row of three rice burners next to us, one of which eventually got the People's Choice award (for the record, my votes went to a nice red '66 Mustang and a yellow Pontiac Solstice). How that guy got his pile of trash piece of junk ugly Super Slow Cobalt with an icky red bottom half/black top half paint job to win is beyond my comprehension, except for the crowds of people that appeared to have been brought to the show for the sole purpose of voting for his little bucket of bolts.

We've seen this Solstice around town before, but this was my first chance to get a really good look at it. Unfortunately, the gnats were just as impressed as I was, rewarding (?) the car with the immense and highly-coveted prize of being covered in gnats on the shaded side. Wonderful.

Note the "Holman-Moody" front license plate on this Comet. Holman-Moody was a speed shop that assisted in the development of Ford's drag cars, as well as the creation of their race motors. This Comet likely has some period accessories from that company.

Note the likely larger-than-stock air cleaner, as well as the heads. These are the sorts of things that H&M made and marketed to the public for greater performance on both street and strip.

The fire extinguisher is most likely a modern addition, but the T-handle shifter probably isn't. Also note the non-branded steering wheel with unusually short diameter; that was not the sort of thing Ford installed in their cars. The bucket seats are a sporty touch.

This Mustang looked spectacular. One thing that isn't so great is the wheels; I've never been a fan of this particular style of Weld-esque wheel. They look better when they're spinning. Rapidly. While the rest of the car is sitting still.

Note 3-speed auto, it's interesting that it hasn't been swapped out for a four-speed manual at some point in its lifetime. The steering wheel cover doesn't help the inherent awkwardness of the Ford-installed padded steering wheel, which I have had the honor of holding. I expect the '65-'66 steering wheel would feel a bit better - it looks miles better. The local brochures on the seat are a more recent addition ("recent" here meaning "added roughly 15 minutes before I took the picture"), as is the white bubble.

This is essentially the best paint scheme I saw on one of these Mustangs that day. I thought it might be a Shelby clone at first, but a quick check of the side stripes convinced me otherwise (even the least competent cloners remember to put "G.T. 500" on the side).

Dual four-barrel! Yay! Also notice the chrome heads and fluid reservoir caps, as well as the strut-tower brace.

I am honestly not sure whether this car was powered by an honest-to-goodness "427" (425, actually) or a 428 with the 427 emblems on it. Whichever it is, it certainly looks good, and goes pretty nicely as well.

Toploader? Maybe not, but definitely a 4-speed with awesome-looking Hurst shifter. Lap belts and a padded steering wheel were about as good as it got for safety in this year of Mustang. Also notice the Shelby-style tachometer mounted on the lower gauge pod, which also houses oil-pressure and water temperature gauges. There's also a radio, which would also have been something you'd likely have from the factory in a G.T. 500. It's very easy to tell where the inspiration for the modern Mustang's gauge cluster came from when you look at the cluster in this car.

Now we jump back a few years. This is a 1931 Ford Coupe with the original four-cylinder engine in it, assuming the owner is correct. Continuing to assume the veracity of the owner's statements, the car is all original with the exception of the alternator. This car might also have had the leaping greyhound hood ornament, which actually came before Jaguar's leaping cat. Edsel Ford chose the greyhound for the company emblem because it had the qualities of speed, strength, and stamina. This would prove appropriate when the flathead V8 came out in 1932, but that was in the future when this car was built.

The pinstriping is a very neat touch, as well as the whitewall tires and matching wheels. Notice also the rumble seat. In a frontal impact accident, the occupants of that seat could very easily be decapitated. It's very easy to see where the belief that it was better not to wear your seat belt came from, since supposedly it was better to be "thrown clear" of an accident than to remain in the car. It's a terrible idea nowadays, now that even our subcompacts are built like tanks compared to the older iron, but it might actually have been true at that time that it was a good idea to exit the vehicle in whatever manner possible prior to an accident, including through the air.

No company today is insane enough to make a 3.3L 4-cylinder engine, but that's precisely what you see here. The motor produced all of 40 horsepower, which was enough for 27ish MPG and a top speed of 65 MPH. Cruising speed is more like 45 to 50 MPH. Sign me up! Oh, wait...

Before you ask, that isn't a fuel cell screwed to the grill, that's a coolant overflow container. That said, this thing is awesome. It's another 1931 Ford, but this one is powered by a big-block Chevrolet engine (the "Rat", in other words) that is equipped with numerous little bits of awesome, including individual-pipe headers. The exhaust is a 3-inch X-pipe with mufflers, but it doesn't sound or smell like it (and that's what makes it awesome). Notice that the flames on the grill surround are cut out of the metal as well as painted; the owner assures me it's a one-off part.

That, my friend, is a steel interior. What's it made of? Road signs. Banjo steering wheels work well in old-school rods like this, especially with the typical long-arm shifter... wait. What in the world...

To this day, I have no idea what this is.

Those are all the pictures that I have accompanying information for. There were plenty more cars there, including one very nice '99-'04 Mustang that makes regular visits to the track. Sure sounded like it too. Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of it. Overall, although we didn't win (I think the Shelby is still too new for that), we had a good time, and I got to see some really neat cars! That's a no-lose situation as far as I'm concerned.

P.S. Apologies for the late posting. I only just now got around to finishing this, even though the show occurred in early July. Oops.

What AM I doing after all?

Since it's been a while since I last posted, I thought I'd give an update.

During basement excavation, I took a fancy to a C128 that I'd known was down there for a while, but it only now occurred to me that it could be useful after my dad started it. "Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1977". Wow. It's complete with two 5.25" disk drives and a 1902 monitor which, I've read, is a sight better than the usual monitor found on the 128. I plan to use it for learning very elementary C, just so I can say I know how. That, and it's interesting.

I have not been to any car shows lately, since it simply hasn't been on anyone's mind and Shelby is dirty. Hopefully my dad and I will get it cleaned up and take it to the 4th of July weekend show in the mall parking lot (which is huge, but not smooth enough for burnouts/achieving time-travel velocity. Darn).

Certain individuals (not me) will be of full-license age soon, and an automobile purchase is being considered for this person to use for driving to class and back, as well as a general family vehicle. Some vehicles were ruled out during our search, such as the Mazda3 (lousy MPG), Mazda2 (lousy MPG and scummy sales guys), and the 2012 Hyundai Accent (no road grip during switchback maneuvering). The top two at the moment are the Hyundai Elantra and the Ford Fiesta. Not directly comparable, but the Fiesta is a magenta SES with leather and the works, including the voice command system. The local dealer has had it on their lot forever, and they can't sell it.

In stark contrast, it's getting hard to find any Elantras at all, simply because they sell so well. No specific car is in mind, but it would probably be ordered instead of picked from dealer stock anyway. Nonnegotiable points are an automatic transmission and a visible color (i.e. no silver, no gray, no white, no black). The prospective primary driver hates red on cars, so that's out. This essentially leaves the 2012 Indigo Night, as the equivalent blue for 2011 is too dark.

You can tell we're very specific.

In any event, I can't root for either car. The Elantra is by far the more spacious car, with enough interior room for me to stretch my legs out in the rear seat when the front is pulled forward. It also obtains superior fuel economy, at 29/40 versus 28/38 for the Fiesta in question. It also allows the seats to fold flat, creating a disturbing amount of space. However, the Fiesta is much sportier, and I prefer the interior even with the lack of seat room. I imagine the Fiesta's size might prove to its advantage in city traffic, but the Elantra Limited with the Technology Package has a rearview camera, which could balance that out during parking. Even without the camera, the Elantra's rear visibility is average, whereas with the headrests up, the Fiesta may as well not even have a rear window.

Enough of my ranting, however. One of these days I'll buy a 40-pack of AA batteries and start taking pictures again. Until then, I'll have to sign off.

That Crummy New Regal Thing

As you can tell, despite the presence of an official GM commercial for the 2011 Buick Regal, I have a very low opinion of that particular car. Observe the tachometer at 0:09:



(note that this is a longer version of the commercial that I saw last night while watching TV. It doesn't look so bad here, but when GM has cut all of the "cruising" out of the commercial and all you see is aggressive driving, and then it cuts to the tachometer at idle... not so swift.)

This is the other reason why the new Regal isn't so great:



I don't know about the reader, but I don't want to be out-accelerated by a 24-year-old car in my brand-new one.

Whoa Times Two.

I want one of these too.



And one of these. Unfortunately, I have disgustingly expensive tastes. Of course, on the other hand, nobody can really use the performance those two cars have to offer on the street, whereas with the 2011 Mustang V6...

Whoa.

What else needs to be said? I want one of these things.

Only in a restaurant drive-through...

I've circled the roof spoiler, huge wheels/tires with negative camber that isn't going to do the driver any good since the car drives and steers via the front wheels, not the rears, the Japanese-style tow hook, the coffee can, and the "HYBRID" badge that was evidently pulled from a later-model Civic hybrid, as this generation Civic had no hybrid option. Bahaha. This is hilarious. I believe this car also has fake hood pins, but I'm not sure if the car I saw was the same as this one. The only thing preventing this from having full-rice status are 1) no huge rear wing, the window one doesn't count, 2) body kit isn't low enough, 3) needs more scratches and dents, 4) the body kit and preferably some of the fenders need to have copious doses of Bondo and primer, and 5) it needs a giant Honda emblem across the rear window. Having "2EXTREM", "XTREM SI", or "2FAST4U" as the license plate would help also.

What?

Episode II: The Return of EMBD!

All units with driver's licenses had Memorial Day off, so we took a trip back to Enormous Mucho Biggo Dealer (hereafter referred to as EMBD). Unlike last time, when we were simply browsing and I hijacked the occasion for photography purposes. This time, though, we had a set purpose and a list of specific cars to test drive.

That isn't to say that all the excitement occurred at the dealer itself, oh no. Something very interesting happened on the way up...

---

We were stuck behind a truck with 3M logos on its trailer on two-lane roads for quite a while. Since we only got close enough to read the license plate once, we didn't really know what it was and speculated on what it could be. I guessed it was just a truck owned by 3M that displayed their products, but that didn't seem quite right. After all, who stops by the roadside to look at tape and sticky notes?

Later, we passed it and discovered its highly unusual cargo... since it didn't want to pass us again for pictures, we pulled into a rest stop so it would go by.

Whoa. What was that? Almost looked like a race car...

A nail-biting chase ensued...

Yep. Race car. Note the cardboard cutout of Greg Biffle on the wall of the trailer, as this is one of his cars.

Notice the very worn sidewall lettering. This tells me that the car was likely returning from testing, or was loaded onto the truck with old tires. Regardless, it looks well used.

The hauler, on the other hand, was pristine and glistened in the sun, like it was freshly washed (which was likely what had happened).

That was the first (and as of now, the only) time I have ever seen an actual national-league NASCAR race car in person. The closest thing was somebody's ancient oval-track car being lugged around by a Chevrolet truck that looked to be on its last hundred miles. Not quite the same thing.

After that little adventure, we continued on our way to EMBD. My aforementioned list contained seven cars to test drive, so as to narrow down our list of potential candidates for new-driver's-daily-driver.

The list was as follows, in the order that we eventually drove them. My comments in italics, the potential main operator's in regular type:


1: Used 2011 Ford Mustang V6 Premium Convertible (Grabber Blue! Drove this one largely for fun, although I checked later and found that it was a company fleet car, which explains why it smelled thickly of smoke)

Potential Driver's thoughts on Car #1: "Too hot, and it smelled bad."


2: Used 2010 Ford Fusion SE 4 cylinder (Smokestone, which was a very fitting color name for a rental car like this one. Poor thing had the wear and tear of a car three times its age, complete with smoke smell, cigarette burns in my seat [right rear], and a badly worn dash)


Thoughts on Car #2: "I hate it."


3: New 2011 Hyundai Elantra Limited (Red Allure didn't turn out to be so alluring after all, although the rest of the car was quite good)

Thoughts on Car #3: "I like it."


4: New 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid (don't know the color, but I expected my first hybrid ride to feel more sluggish. The car acquitted itself rather well, although it felt slower than the Elantra)


Thoughts on Car #4: "Eww! Hybrid!"


N/A: New 2012 Ford Focus, Mazda3, and Mazda2 (the jerk salesman that attached himself to us at the Ford and Mazda departments wouldn't even let us test drive these three. Not only that, but he made us sit in the back of a Fiesta even after we told him the Fiesta was essentially a pile of junk [which it is])

However, it wasn't all that bad, despite the absurdly hot weather. For example:

Bullitt! I love the understated looks of these cars. Dull-finish wheels, no emblems, no stripes, dark green paint, hardly anything to distinguish it from another car to the undiscerning eye. Except for the exhaust, which is gloriously loud.

The pseudo-aluminum finish of the dash panels is unique among 05-09 Mustangs, as is the rear deck badge and gauge cluster, which features crosshairs in the gauges and a different font than the usual. The steering wheel is from the GT500, which you can tell from the handgrip area. The standard steering wheel has a panel gap between the wheel and the spokes, whereas the GT500 wheel has no interruption on the sides. This example also demonstrated the metal shift knob, which normally I would have run through the gears except for the fact that I like my right hand very much, and don't care to lose it. Plus, this Bullitt had been smoked in, and it was very obvious. I snapped this picture and shut the door.

GRABBER ORANGE! I must restrain myself to keep from fainting. My goodness, this is a gorgeous car. Just look at it!

Compare this interior to the Bullitt, especially the dash, steering wheel, and what you can see of the shifter. The two cars were very similar in one area, though: they smelled atrocious, although the Grabber Orange smelled of cleaner with a small bit of smoke in the background. I'm getting tired of people ruining these cars by letting toxic fumes permeate every bit of the car's interior. When I rode in our Shelby GT a couple days after this, I took great pains to inhale lots of its interior smell, as it smells like leather instead of smoke. I think Mustangs that don't smell like smoke on the inside will become valuable collector commodities.

This was the V6 fleet car that we drove. It had a unique set of side pinstripes that were falling to pieces already, and the little Mustang emblem above the rear wheels was crudely done and looked more like a lump than a horse. An EMBD salesman had told us before that a man who lived in the area did custom stripe work on their used cars. Of course, that was in response to a complaint that the Grabber Orange they had at the time didn't have black stripes, so it's likely he was lying. In any event, it's still a pretty car.

When we drove this car, I was in the back seat, behind my parental unit, who was driving. The automatic transmission in these V6 cars comes with a mandatory 2.73 rear axle ratio (or at least this one did). It was very evident in driving, as every other car we drove was more responsive to a sudden flooring. This was likely the combination of a dim-witted transmission that was geared for fuel economy, and the fact that it was an automatic, after all. When the engine reached the upper RPM ranges I was pinned in my (rather comfortable for what it was) seat. Of course, I was always pinned in it, as I'm a bit big for the rear set of seats in a 2+2, but it was tolerable for our short trip nonetheless. I would grow to wish for those seats later. I was pleasantly surprised by the 3.7's yowl and pull at high RPM, although fuel economy is still disgustingly high on the priority list. Darn oil barons.

Here's the Elantra Limited we drove. Although we drove a Limited, if we bought one it would be a GLS, which would have smaller wheels, which would mean bigger sidewalls, which would mean more tire howl under hard cornering. As it was, the Limited held up rather well during our driving, with an engine that sounded good and was smooth (not always a Hyundai strong point), and comfortable seats that didn't have the Potential Driver and myself sliding about as much as in the Fusion. Speaking of the Fusion, the Potential Driver wants me to reiterate that she hates the Fusion, because she might not have made it clear enough when she said "I hate it.".

I am not the biggest fan of Hyundai's current design language (dubbed "Fluidic Sculpture", although I think it looks more like "A draft got in while the sheetmetal was cooling, and we liked the distortion so much we left it that way"), but the Elantra wears it rather well. I just wonder about the merits of such a steeply raked rear window. I'm sure it helped immensely with fuel economy, enough that the car likely couldn't achieve the vaunted 29/40 MPG without it. It's just that it compromises headroom for tall nutcase writers, like me. I can't be letting this giant brain be crushed against the ceiling, after all! /sarcasm

After the Elantra, which was liked by all (including, regretfully, your humble blogger, who now wishes very hard that Ford would hurry up and release the Focus ST so that I can have a different compact to likely grow up driving... hurry up!), we drove a Sonata Hybrid.

All three Sonata Hybrids that EMBD had in its possession were on a raised section of pavement. The sales guy thought that my parental unit's general gesture to the Sonatae was actually indicating a specific vehicle, so he started and moved one of them out of the way so that he could get the other one out. Since I had read up on the car specifically, and hybrids in general, I knew that it was likely that when the salesman moved the car, it would likely be running on battery instead of gas, and thus be mostly silent. However, I wasn't ready for the turbine-like noise the electric motor made, which was... eerie. It was definitely the first time I'd seen a car moving almost silently under its own power.

I was pleasantly surprised by how nice the car was, although the passenger seat was mounted VERY LOW in the car's frame. My parental unit couldn't have driven it from that seating position, as she almost couldn't see over the hood. Thankfully, the driver's seat adjusted for height, so the seat was pulled forward and up so my parental unit could drive it, I stretched my legs out limousine-style behind her because I had the room, and we were on our way. The car was very smooth and quiet, but it was obvious where one compromise in particular had been made. For aerodynamic reasons, the Sonata Hybrid gets its own set of exclusive wheels that are mostly flat with the sidewall of the tire, reducing drag. Hyundai's choice of rubber was a set of low-rolling-resistance tires, to help optimize (pun intended) fuel economy. Where's the compromise, you ask? I'll tell you.

Low-rolling-resistance tires are designed to create less friction between the tire and the road, thus allowing the vehicle they are mounted to to maintain momentum more easily and allow the vehicle to use less power to continue moving, thus burning less fuel and increasing fuel economy. The downside to this is that less friction = less grip, and therefore means the vehicle's handling thresholds are decreased severely. This was evident during our test drive of the Sonata Hybrid, where moderate cornering was met with loudly voiced protest from the tires, as well as leaving rubber on the track. The howling noise was something I had heard of, but never actually heard, as we take a conservative approach to tires, i.e. no burnouts.

Overall, it was a good day, despite the jerk salesman that prevented us from achieving higher than a 57.2 percent drive rate of vehicles on the list. The incident that stood out the most to me about him was when I made a candid observation that the back "cushions" in the rear seats of a 2012 Focus hatch I sat in were, shall we say, firm, the sales guy informed me that the Focus "ain't a Cadillac, baby!". "I was well aware of that, you idiot. You're the guys who are marketing this thing as a premium small car anyway, so why can't the back seats be comfortable? Explain the Titanium trim level, now will ya? Punk?"

Okay, so I didn't actually tell him that. I think my facial expression conveyed it well enough. I wish I had said it, though, and loudly too. Oh well. I had high hopes for the Focus, but it seems that the Elantra has implicitly destroyed it via Hyundai's vastly superior service. Now, I don't doubt that there are decent Ford salesmen and scumbag Hyundai salesmen out there, but we got a good guy for Hyundai and a crummy guy for Ford.

Score one for Hyundai. Round two: MANUAL TRANSMISSION VERSIONS! MWUAHAHAHA...

Is this a bad thing?

I currently have two Firefox windows open. I opened the second one to write this post, and that's all that's on it. The first window, on the other hand, has nine tabs open.

Tab #1: An eBay Motors listing for a 2010 GT500 in Texas. Red with Tungsten stripes. Pretty nice.

Tab #2: Take a guess.

Tab #3: Try again.

Tab #4: A trend might be emerging here.

Tab #5: Trend? What's that?

Tabs #6 through #9: Pictures of the four things depicted above.

For the record, I didn't set this layout up for this post. I set it up to demonstrate to my little brother the simple and uncontested fact of life that "Ferraris all sound like that anyway". This came up while he was pushing Hot Wheels cars around a track, and asked me which of three cars would probably win a race. The three cars? A 512 Testarossa, F50, and 156 (look 'em up). I responded with the F50. He went "Ah, OK". I then proceeded to say that the 156 would probably sound better, though (despite the fact that I can't seem to find a recording of one. Come on, it's a Ferrari with open exhaust. It can't be that bad.), and gave the above quote.

Thus, I put this presentation together. Upon its conclusion, he nodded his head and said "Yeah, OK" and went back to watching TV. I get the feeling I'll need a different candidate for my successor in the car-fan business. The F430 should be able to win even the most die-hard Prius-lover into an appreciation for the higher-powered things in life. If that doesn't work, and I'm trying to convert someone to the Church of Horsepower (that's not blasphemous, is it?), then I resort to the old tricks:



Bahaha. I think it just might be a bad thing that I hear that and laugh maniacally about just what I'll be doing to the Mustang once it turns 25 and it doesn't have to meet emissions standards anymore...

We hates them forever...

... not the Hobbits. The bugs. Specifically the big ones that scuttle about and spread disease and make certain individuals abandon their personal quarters due to insectoid infestation.

My little brother has a rather large dresser in our room. It has six drawers, three on each side. The drawers do not sit directly on the floor. Instead, there is a small trim piece that is about three inches high. This trim area is hollow, and thus creates a nifty hiding spot for objects of varying sizes. Normally, the dresser sits against the wall, but recently I moved it out to see if any little LEGO pieces had fallen back behind it, as they are wont to do.

The dresser is far too heavy to pick up and move both sides away from the wall, so I tend to move just one side, pivoting it against the wall in a manner reminiscent of opening a pair of scissors. Once I had done this and cleared away all the dust, I observed a small object on the far end, where I couldn't reach it. Rats. I asked for my brother's toy extendable claw, but couldn't reach it even with that. I then moved the dresser a little farther out, so the object could be more clearly perceived. One side was very geometric, like a cube. The other side, more disturbingly, had legs. 

With some trepidation, I used the claw to poke the object to see if it was alive. It appeared to be quite dead. Heartened by this result, I grabbed the object (from a safe distance, of course) and pulled it out.

It was a giant ant.

From a LEGO Indiana Jones set.

Made of plastic.

Urgh... why do I think of Shakespeare?

I'm hooked.

I was cleaning up our upstairs and discovered a radio.

That's not actually true, as I'd known that it was there and that it was still in working order for quite some time. It's got fake woodgrain on it, but the local stations come through loud and clear as long as you've got the volume dial in the right place and don't make too many sudden movements.

I got a novel idea as I stared at the radio, sitting there all dusty and dirty. Wouldn't it be nice if I could listen to music without having to charge my MP3 player? (Actually, the player is broken. It won't let you put anything new on it, so all that's on there is the Michael Voris tapes from a good while back.)

Therefore, I decided that this long-neglected radio would look very nice on my shelf, blasting classic rock while I wrote or worked on something. I dusted it off and made sure it was still in operating condition before taking it downstairs and plugging it in in my room. The shelf needed a great deal of reorganizing and dusting to fit the radio, and as a result the rest of the room got a dusting to fit the excess items from the shelf. After cleaning the shelf off and carefully placing the radio atop it, I turned it on and tuned it to the classic rock station. After the announcer began talking, I decided that I didn't want to listen to him. Turned the knob to the country station. I very quickly decided that that particular station wasn't what I wanted to listen to. Turned it to the classic oldies station, and realized that it didn't actually bother me (unlike the rest of the family), despite the fact that "Yellow Submarine" was on.

I mentioned that to my mom, and she looked up "Blue Suede Shoes". That got me thinking about some early '60s songs I'd heard of before, but I hadn't listened to them before because I was worried that they weren't clean. I didn't know at the time that "not-clean" just wasn't something you did in 1963. So we looked up a little ditty by the name of "Little Deuce Coupe".

Now I can't stop listening to it. Actually, I'm listening to "GTO" by Ronny and the Daytonas as I write this. That song, "Little Deuce Coupe", and "409" are my new portfolio of songs I listen to that aren't Weird Al or Vivaldi. Eclectic? Sure. Doesn't bother me very much.







I'm amazed and pleasantly surprised by the wealth of decent music out there. You just can't limit your search to newer songs.

Besides, if the music of the Fifties and Sixties doesn't work out for you, there's always Vivaldi.

Psychology

I recently had a dream. Interesting, I know. Here's how it went:

I had to head to church to serve a Mass, but there were no cars for me to use. So I located a generic dirt bike (had an uncanny resemblance to a KTM 125 SX), and rode to church. The road had been transformed into a rally stage, and there were people cutting down the trees around the road with chainsaws and tossing large branches into the road, so I had to dodge those. In addition to that, I had to dodge Tour de France bicyclists, which were heading through that area for no reason whatsoever. This was made difficult by the road surface, which was compacted gravel and felt like the generic post-Apocalyptic-scenario-type road.


I was very late, but eventually got there. There were about 7 other servers there and my size cassock was taken, so I wore one that was two sizes too small. At the Sign of Peace, people started throwing strange orange and purple pieces of paper around. One particularly unruly attendee made a purple one into a paper airplane and struck one of my fellow servers with it, knocking him to the floor. At this point, I realized that something was quite wrong and left. 


My bike had been stolen, but the thief had left a Dodge Omni behind, which I utilized for my return trip. The logs and bicyclists had only gotten worse, and now there were lawn tractors spraying freshly cut grass all over the road. I took the smell to be that of chemical weapons, so every time I had to swerve to avoid a bicyclist, I took care to aim for the nearest autonomous tractor. I got home, parked the Omni, and went inside.

Using my extensive skill, knowledge, education, experience, and training in the area of Freudian psychology, I deduce that my dream means.... absolutely nothing. Oh well.

Whiners

Normally, whiners are annoying. "Gemmeadrinkawaterchangethechannelwhydontyouwannagivemeeverythingyouownwaaaaa...."

However, blower whine is a good thing. Some people hate it, but I like it. For an example of turbo whine, see this:



To illustrate just how pronounced the blower whine is on the Atom III, observe the KTM X-Bow (pronounced "crossbow"), which, although the same class of car, and turbocharged, has much more exhaust noise and less whine. In fact, there's hardly any whine at all.



For supercharger whine, see this:



Blower whine is often obscured by exhaust noise, since when there's a blower powerful enough to make some noise, the exhaust is even louder. The video above this text was taken by a camera affixed to the front fender. Here's a very similar pass, this time from the rear fender:

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Lethal's GT500 is one of my favorite customs to write about, as it's been masterfully done. GT500 + black/Grabber Blue + full race motor, exhaust, the works + YouTube = awesome. The only problem with it is that it doesn't get much street time, and I'd love to wax poetic about it, but I'm currently ill and can't write very well. Happily, the videos speak for themselves.

Sometimes, blower whine doesn't come from blowers. Our naturally aspirated 3.8 Mustang V6 makes a blower-esque noise in third gear. It's simply a T5 thing. Straight cut gears also tend to make a whining noise, but there aren't very many vehicles sold now with non-synchronized transmissions.

I seem to be out of stuff to write, so we'll close with my favorite pickup truck of all time that really ought to have a supercharger on it:

A Theological Analysis...

...of a toy brand. Yes, you heard me correctly. I will be analyzing the theology of the Bionicle universe, a popular toy line formerly produced by the LEGO toy company.

At its core, Bionicle's system is polytheistic, and thus inherently screwed up. Not only that, but there are several God-figures and devil-figures across the whole story. There are also several tiers of being in this universe.

At the highest tier of existence are the Great Beings. There are multiple Great Beings, and they are the creators of the Bionicle universe. They created a being called Tren Krom to watch over the new world after they created it, and then assembled Mata Nui, a Great Spirit, to take care of the world instead of Tren Krom. Tren Krom rebelled, and was banished. So now we have the Great Beings and the Great Spirit, each "gods" in their own right. Not only that, but the Matoran (the lowest level of creation that has not been corrupted to evil) appear to "worship" their respective Toa (which are like angels in their strength, and also in their ability to turn away from good and to evil) at the given Toa's Suva, which is a shrine.

Now, you were complaining about how messed up some out-there cults are? Ain't got nothin' on Bionicle. Despite that, it's still a rather nice sub-creation to mess around with and to read about, as long as you don't start actually looking for Nynrah ghosts to make you Skyblasters.

Modern Shelbys

As regular readers may know, my family is in possession of a 2008 Ford Mustang Shelby GT coupe. I've been trying to get a good video of it for a while, but it's simply not working, as YouTube insists my files are corrupted (they aren't). Happily, Motor Trend had a long-term tester of the convertible version of the same car, only ours has a full black interior and the base headlights.



It sounds even better in person. And BTW, those staffers that wanted a S*b*r* WRX ST* are nuts. Yes, those vehicles are dreadful enough that they shan't be mentioned in polite company. Stupid S*b*r*s.

Why, you ask, was I reminded of MT's long-termer? Because of this. I love it. It's like a GT350 for those of us who can't shell out the money for a real GT350. It's still expensive, but the GTS is as good as it gets for new Shelby Mustangs in the matter of price. Anyway, the Shelby GT was called the spiritual successor to the GT350 when it came out. So now, the spiritual successor of the spiritual successor of the GT350 will get walloped by a GT350? I'm confused.

GT500: "Who are you, thou other-lane occupier? Answer me, for I must know."

GTS: "I am GTS, son of GT, son of GT350."

GT500: "Oh."

Only six more months...

...until I can legally drive a car on public roads. Aaaaaargh...

At least I've been able to get a moped license for the past year, as of today. Too bad I don't have a moped.

Yep, it's BBC's birthday. Surprised? So am I. At least as surprised as this guy. Maybe I can buy it and we can be surprised together.

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear BBC, happy birthday to me...

The evening of 4/13/11, as photographed by BBC

Last evening, BBC went to his local Ford dealer, which is the one that has been mentioned in previous posts that leaves the doors unlocked on their cars. That might not be such a good idea for some of their cars *cough, 300C SRT8, yo, cough*. But before I get to that, I'll recap something nice that happened on my way to church on Saturday.

Our church is smack-dab in the middle of Fratboy Party Zone, which can result in woes around All Souls Day. The streets in that area are brick, and quite rough for certain vehicles that have very sharply tuned suspension that may or may not have the letters "S  H  E  L  B  Y" across the back. But that's a tangent.

Anyway, we were traveling along one of these streets in the Mustang when I spotted a glorious form along the street. This is very unusual because aside from the occasional Mustang-that's-been-sitting-there-for-all-of-recorded-history and a Mini Cooper, the street parking consists of Corollae and Civics. I couldn't get a picture of said glorious form on our way to church, but on our way home...

Despite my radical Ford fan-ism, I just LOVE these Chargers. The local Chrysler dealership (which still has its 1970s-era Plymouth signage up) sold their 2011 R/T a little while back. From the outside, it looked just like this one, except it was Toxic Orange.

But enough of that. Let's get to the main event!

I had read about this GT on the dealer's website, so I was eager to see it in person.

Your humble author really ought to remember to keep himself out of pictures of reflective surfaces. The extra "California Special" lettering struck me as a nice touch, as standard Mustang GTs don't have that lettering. (not a regular GT, but it has the standard emblem)

Nice custom wheels on this example.

RED INTERIOR! AAAAAAHH! So awesome, the car can hardly contain it.

Even on the doors!

And the back seats too!

This was a very nice shifter to play with. The aftermarket knob helped, although the shifting action is generally good in these cars. I was also pleased to see that the brake was up, as this is the same dealer that the episode with the Cobalt occurred.

This pile of candy-cane colored glory is a 2012 GT500. Notice the evil smile.

The slightly darker portions of the steering wheel, parking brake handle and shifter boot are suede. It adds a wonderful effect to the interior, conjuring up images of racing wheels like this one. The nav screen is a nice touch, but of debatable value. I don't think I would shell out the $2,340 to get it if I was to buy my own GT500.

I would, however, pay extra for these. So awesome!

The dealer has had this one in the showroom for a while. It's a 2011, black with no stripes (that I can see).

The engine hardly fits between the shock towers, due to either a small engine bay, a very wide 5.4, or both.

The massive intake feeds cold air into the blower, which is that gray ridged thingermajig on top of the engine. It's a huge device.

Back outside the showroom, I encountered this V6. Clean lines, largely due to the lack of ornamentation.

This 2010 GT was hit by a passing car when it was on the curb, and has been repaired. The dealer marked it down $10,000.

I'll take it. I love red interiors, especially when they have glass roofs above them like this one. It's even an auto, so anybody could be comfortable with it.

This 2010 GT is fairly unremarkable for a GT, until you get inside...

Premium interior... the brake's up... shiny pedals... no nav... very nice.... wait, what's that?

CUE BALL SHIFTER! OH MY GOODNESS, I LOVE IT, I MUST HAVE IT! *hyperventilating*

It has shiny ponies on the doors, too!

And stripes on the seats, along with louvers in the windows!

I crammed my (relatively) large (for the back seats) frame into the back seats for this picture, during which time I noted that although my head was against the window glass ("What's that burning smell? I have a headache. Are we there yet?"), the leather was quite soft, and very comfortable.

Ah. That's pretty nice too.

Wait... THAT'S not a Mustang!

Gotta love a shifter that disputes the old myth that P R N D L stands for "Prindal". The paddle shifters may look small, but in real life they hardly fit behind the steering wheel. It gives the wheel a nice meaty feel.

Nice gauges. It says "TAURUS" in the speedometer, just in case you ever forget what car you're driving. I liked the light color, but was disappointed because when I shut the door, the gauges didn't go back and forth like they're supposed to.

I knew that some Fusions will send their dials back and forth, and I wanted to capture it on film and post it, so I went to a Fusion sitting behind the Taurus. (BTW, the only videos I got that day were of some shifters and myself happily messing with the crank windows in the back of a certain vehicle.)

No pictures for the inside of this one. It wasn't too remarkable. The MKZ right next to it was about this distance from the Fusion:              I                                                              I

That's not very far.

Just a random Sport Trac interior. Nothing to see here, move along.

Now THAT is an interesting gauge cluster. I like it. Very... Klingon.

"Engage." *zoom*

I love this interior, but... what is it? Can't be a Fiesta (I've been in those)... it's not a Fusion... not a Taurus...

It reminds me of a flight deck... or a shuttle from Star Trek: The Next Generation (ugh)... what is it?

IT'S A EURO FOCUS! YAY!!!

Hang on... that doesn't look right...

Argh. Never mind. It had crank windows in the back, which amused me very much, as yours truly had never worked a crank window before. Hopefully I can return and OOH SHELBY!

*ahem* Never mind that, our Shelby just got home. Now, I hope I can return and get more pictures, because I may actually get to ride in one of these, as a family member may test drive one. That should be fun, as the only vehicles I've ever test-ridden are a 2010 Mustang V6, a 2010 Mustang GT, a Honda Pilot, and said Shelby. That's it.

I climbed out from the back of the Focus, having had lots of fun with the crank window, and noticed everybody else looking about a Chrysler 300C SRT8. Most of them had disgusted looks on their faces.

Not too hideous, right?

Never mind. The steering wheel reminds me of an old leather belt I happen to have worn a few times. It does not exactly feel very nice. The gauges are trying to look like classic watch dials, which they're not doing so well.

I think 180 MPH is a little optimistic, don't you? So is 6,250 RPM, especially for a 6.1L V8. Maybe the hemi-heads help with attaining higher revs. Typically, fuel shutoff is a couple hundred RPM after the visual redline so a late shift won't hurt the engine or transmission, but with such a large engine, I'm skeptical of the practicality of revving that high in everyday driving.

The seats look nice, at least. They don't feel nearly as nice as you would think, though.

I try this shot with a lot of cars, and always if I have time. Usually it looks good, but not so much in this case. The new 300 really tries to attain the class of its predecessor from the 1950's, but ended up a rapper's dream car instead. Hopefully the 2011 refresh can help with that. Here's an idea, Chrysler: raise the price. Rappers can't afford high-priced cars. If they could, they'd just buy real Bentleys instead of buying 300s and putting Bentley grilles on them. Just a thought.

That's all for this post; I hope that you've enjoyed reading it!