Powerful cars :)

[skreidle]

1) Guy across the street has a super-modified hot rod in his garage.. it's an original 1927 Ford something frame, with modern huge engine (open to the air), fat tires, and a beautiful sound.. can spin wheels on dry pavement; has a bar so it can't flip on wheelies. :)

2) Got to drive my dad's '67 Mustang today.. overbored 289 V8, 4-speed trans, sounds sweet, got some good kick. Needed to drop Shauna's car off at the airport so she can head straight back to school when her flight gets in tomorrow, so my dad took her car, I took his and followed to the airport. Not the easiest thing to drive since I couldn't adjust the seat up, the brake has a lot of play, the shift has a longer reach and is harder to use tha my truck's, and I'm sitting lower than I'm accustomed to.. but it performed nicely too, and sounded quite pretty. :)

Comments

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

My boss drives a late 1960s red buick V8 convertible.

Last I checked it had an oil leak, and got 15 mpg.

Its also mother-fuckin huge for a 5-seater car.

I get a beautiful sense of ironic juxtaposition whenever i park my honda insight next to it.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

May well be, but his sounds sexier. :)

(Should fix that leak, though. That's no good.)

[six2.livejournal.com]

It's often fun to drive cars that are a little challenging.

I must say I enjoy driving the Miata to work every day, even if it is only 3 miles each way. And I love old cars -- I have been dreaming of late of a not-too-old Buick Grand National.

But I'll probably just collect Miatae :)

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Heh.. I've had a 3- and 4-mile commutes before. Wonderful!
I'd like to get my motorcycle license so I can trek around on that, though.. beats a cage anyday. *grin*

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

I tell ya I'd love to learn to ride, just never been exposed to it.

Unfortunately the area around my house is pretty crappy for riding - the finger lakes, for example, that's a good place to ride. Or the eastern shore out here, but not DC.

If I lived in the midwest especially, I'd have a bike for sure. But for DC it's an All-terrain bike for me.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

I'd never even been on a motorcycle before my friend took me out for a lesson.. combination of bicycle and stick-shift skills did me well, though. The Finger Lakes region is great, true, but I need to do some Pacific coast and mountain riding sometime. :)

DC area.. not so great. However, it's still a blast to be riding, even if the terrain leaves much to be desired. :)

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

Ever hear of Deal's Gap?

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Sounds vaguely familiar, but not particularly. Do tell?

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

It's in the Smokies, it's not too bad of a ride/drive from here in DC, and it's known as the Dragon. *Lot* of bikes there, lot of Miatae, and they just kind of let it run wild...

The gap in general
Miatae at Deal's Gap
Map
law enforcement in the gap

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

Get your license, then either bike cross-country, or fly cross-country and ride a bike.

My motorcycle friends tell me the roads here are awesome. I just know that a lot of them are damned fun even in a car.

For a challenge, teach me how to lean properly, and I'll ride b*tch. Everyone'll think we're g*y lovers on motorbikes, but hey.

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

Or just get a sidecar, and I'll shop for one of those WWI helmets.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Hm.. I wonder if my bike would support a sidecar mounting? Not all do..

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine wants to buy a bike, ride it across the country in about a month, give it to his brother as a gift, and fly back. I'd love to ride cross-country, but yeah, license has to come first. A lot of time available would help, too, in which I'm not supposed to be looking for a job.

As for riding bitch (or pillion, if you want to be polite about it) (or shotgun, but that doesn't make as much sense on a bike), we'll see. Gotta get me out there first. :)

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

I love miatas. if i didn't have my current car i'd want a miata.

or an rx7.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

How's the Insight perform?

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

Surprisingly sport at < 45 mph.

Corners well, and the high-torque at low RPM of the electric motor gives it deceptively peppy acceleration at low speeds.

Once you cross about 45 mph it starts handling more like a 4-cylinder civic or a corolla. But it still accelerates better at hwy speeds then my old Focus.

Its a really fun car for city driving (in those parts on the west end of the city with beautiful hills and relatively little traffic) Its also good for windy coastal roads in Marin. Again, once you cross about 45 mph this all changes.

Also I love the way the seats are laid out and where the car places you on the road. Something about tiny cars makes me happy.

Cornering is real good, i'm kinda afraid of this, as the thin tires (thinner tires are better for fuel efficiency) don't seem like they should get a good grip on the road, and the narrow wheelbase plus heavy battery pack makes it seem like it shouldn't corner at all.

I was driving on 280 real late at night and this thing (possibly a cone, or possibly some more harmful piece of construction debris) appears in front of my car at around 65 mph.

Subconsciously I manage to swerve onto the shoulder and back to avoid the thing in less time then it takes me to realize what I just did.

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

Also it makes the best noises.

First off is the whir of the electric motor whenever you accelerate. This is far far louder then the quiet 3-cylinder engine.

Second off is the loud >click< of a solenoid switching the engine off whenever you pull up to a stoplight (it can start up again quickly by using the electric engine as a starter motor -- engine off to start is fairly transparent except for the strange silence preceding it and the computer-like solenoid >click<)

All in all, it sounds less like one of those messy greasy machines you mech-es work with, and more like a computer. It puts me at ease, and makes me feel comfortable.

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

Having lost my ATM card, and never being awake-and-not-at-work when the banks open, I've been buying gas with loose change for the past two weeks. The insight makes this far easier when you have a 50/50 chance of pulling up to a gas station and finding the 87 octane pump reading $1.94/gallon. If i plan ahead, I can get gas in San jose (only about $1.67/gallon) San Francisco frequently breaks $2.00/gallon for all grades of gasoline. The $1.94/gallon was in Palo Alto.

Story behind that. My "empty" light flashes on on the way home last night. I currently drive about 50 miles to work and back every day. (yes, I am moving to san jose soon, sad to leave the city, but my 500-miles-per-week commute was bordering on the absurd)

I don't fill up. On the way to work the next morning I realize my empty light is flashing. At this point its about 41 miles to San Jose. I have one little light-up-bar left on my fuel gauge, and am unsure whether that one light-up-bar means "1 gallon" (putting SJ easily within my 50 mile range) or "< 1 gallon". I hedge my bets and decide to keep driving. Deciding between "going 65 to maximize fuel efficiency so I don't have to fuel up on the way in" and "gunning up to the 78 mph the two left lanes are flowing at, stopping for gas midway through, and the increase in speed will offset to fill-up time"

Around woodside the electronic-dance-pop station I'm listening to breaks to call out their tagline of "Pure Dance Ecstacy" Sure enough, my fuel gauge corroborates by reading a big fat E At this point I realize I'm nearing the "no services for 10 miles" sign. I pass the exit for SLAC right near the giant radio telescope and think to myself "Hey, I bet there's a gas station near there".

Pull in, drive around for a while (while the bay area as a whole is really built up, most of 280 is empty scrub, rolling hills and nothingness. Really really beautiful, totally devoid of cars, but also somewhat lacking in gas stations compared to 101.) find a Shell station.

Scrounge in my car to find $1.75, the guy in the station is visibly annoyed. Pump shuts of at $2.06. Dive back into my car to find $0.31. Pay the guy the difference.

Drive off realizing I could've used my credit card. Feel like a fool.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Very clever you are, sometimes. :)

I buy all my gas on my Exxon/Mobil Mastercard.. gets me a 3% rebate off all E/M purchases, and 1% from everything else. Then I pay it off monthly, online out of checking, very convenient.

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

I buy from Shell, as they were the first customer of the company I work for.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Get any discounts?

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

(To hell with brand loyalty when it comes to buying gas and using credit cards.. I'm all about good rates and discounts :)

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Hey, whatever accelerates your insight. :)

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Does CMU participate in the FutureTruck competition, decking out a Suburban in hybrid-styling? A friend of mine said their electrics could push the truck at 60mph for about 5min, without any gas help. :)

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

To the best of my knowledge CMU participates in no car-related competitions other then the "autonomous cross-country drive" Is CMU engineering skewed towards one subject area? Naw!

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

No, no specialization there.. :)

Cornell does RoboCup, and creates an underwater autonomous vehicle.. maybe some other autonomous stuff, but I don't recall.

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we fucking clean up in robocup

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~robosoccer/

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Yeah, except when Cornell showed up two years later (small robots and sim only) in 99 and won small robot, won 2000 in small robot, 3rd in 2001, won small robot again in '02.. :) Three for four in first four years of competition, not too shabby. *grin*

wow

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

Shown up twice in the same thread! It would appear you guys do beat us in both of those catagories. We do, however, remain dominant in the AIBO category (whatever the official name of that is)

On an unrelated note, I figured out how to get pine to browse the web via lynx. Now I can transparently respond to replies to me comments without having to fire up an external browser and search for the relevant thread.

Hooray for pine and lynx!

Re: wow

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

"legged robot", or something.. a field we haven't gotten into, for whatever reason. Suppose it's because we already have our hands full with sim and small bot. :)

Search for the relevant thread? The comment mail should have a link directly to the reply form page..

Re: wow

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

right, which pine displays as "bold text" without displaying the URL.

My options were

1. stop using pine (not gonna happen)
   
2. reconfigure it to just display the URL and cut-n-paste that
   
3. hook up lynx
   

I chose the last option as it maximizes transparency of replying to posts I get forwarded to pine.

Re: wow

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Odd.. why won't pine render the URLs correctly? They should just come through as plaintext.

Re: wow

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

anyway, the point of the story is that i like this setup.
I can reply and it feels like i'm still in pine.

now the only issue is tricking lynx into keeping my cookies between multiple sessions so i don't have to re-login

Re: wow

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

lynx hates you, and will never bow to your petty whims.

That is all.

:)

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Also, you have become one with your car in collision-avoidance. :)

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

This wasn't true of my old car.

Why I had to buy a new car...

Driving home from work at about midnight. After the airport exit, 280 gets a lot more crowded, as thats also the easiest cross-over from 101. Some car in one of the right lanes has a blowout, smashes into another car, clipping a third in the process. Both cars, coupled toghether, spin a complete 360 while simultaneously sliding into my lane. I slam on the brakes, but don't slow down fast enough and end up de-coupling the pair in a head-on collision. Car is totalled.

FWIW, my Focus had fairly shitty braking in general. Before this happened I'd already replaced the front brake pads twice in under 2 years.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Party on the interstate!

I've just rolled my truck into a ditch once due to ice, and was rear-ended at an angle 'cause someone didn't slow down as I turned out of the lane.. my truck, an '86 ford bronco II steel box, has survived quite handily, no major repairs needed. :)

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

If by "party" you mean "we blocked off all 4 lanes of I-280 while fire trucks, ambulances and CHP moved in to haul everything off the scene" then yes.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Big party!

[six2.livejournal.com]

I inadvertently became a big Mazda fan this year. Now we've got a Protege and a Miata in the household and they are both fun to drive and very reliable. 220,000 miles between the two and never overheating, always smooth starting, etc.

I've always had my eye on the rx7 -- too bad the last model sold here is both so rare and so expensive.

But my Miata was a bargain and I still see decent used Miatae for ~$5000-$7000, and that's hard to beat.

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

An ex-industrial-engineer coworker of mine informs me that, while Hondas sold in the US are assembled from parts manufactured in Japan, Mazdas sold in the US are assembled out of parts manufactured in the US. He claims there is a significant quality difference between supposedly-equivalent-tolerance parts manufactured in the US vs. abroad.

It turns out a decent number of my coworkers have at one point managed engine assembly lines. I think I'm one of two engineers who don't have a mech-e degree. The other one is the user-interface guy. They told me all sorts of shit I never knew about cars when I was out shopping for a new one.

Re:

[six2.livejournal.com]

My Miata was built 100% in Japan and shipped over. I can't say for the new ones, but it was my impression that that tradition had continued.

Regardless of where they're made, they're made really solid.

it seems you are correct

[r-transpose-p.livejournal.com]

at least, according to the UAW, their mazda page does not list the miata

http://www.unionlabel.org/dobuy/mazda.htm

Re: it seems you are correct

[six2.livejournal.com]

It's right there inside my door that it was built in Japan.

[carlos13732.livejournal.com]

My first car was a 1965 Mustang with the 289. After a bunch of miles I rebuilt the motor and had a Crane valve keeper fail after about 6 months. Ruined the 289. Since there was no way to repair the block, to keep the numbers matching, I went with the 302. When I was done, there wasn't anything stock left on that one. For a little V8, it would fly.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Well, this car formerly had a straight-6 and an auto trans.. my uncle took care of putting in the new engine and trans for my dad. :) (He was going to give it a new stock paint job, too, but that ran into too much money.)

[carlos13732.livejournal.com]

Hopefully he did the suspension too. If I remember correctly, the 67's still had the smaller brakes and 4 bolt wheels. V8's had 5 bolt.

[skreidle.livejournal.com]

Not as far as I know, but I'm not sure.