xflow7

:lol: I have a buddy (in Allentown) who refers to construction as the State Bird of Pennsylvania. Dave

Mine was at 9,004 before I left this afternoon and I added ~50 on my brief blat.

D'oh! Badlands was just my made-up name for the war-zone stretch of road I suddenly encountered. :leaving: I was somewhere around the Silver Lake, PA vicinity having gone down Rt. 26 / Rt. 267 a ways and then turned left on some road or other. Google Map Will definitely be exploring that area some more once the car's legal and I have a full tank of gas.

I know. I grew up there. But this one was really nice up until the Badlands. Really it was!

I was going to wash the car today as it was actually a good deal above freezing and sunny for a change. Then I realized that the hose wasn't out yet this year and I didn't particularly feel like screwing around with it... ...so I went for blat! :7fume: My first since the onset of winter. Made a beeline for the PA border since my NY inspection isn't complete yet (on this week's agenda, weather permitting) and discovered some pretty nice roads. Also discovered that I have a MASSIVE exhaust leak courtesy of a 1/4" chunk missing from the #2 exhaust gasket, and that one of those nice roads *rapidly* deteriorates into a 1st-class filling-remover before you have a chance to slow down. :cuss: Nevertheless, was great to be back out. Roll on Spring! :hurray: :cheers:

I didn't weigh the jack, but from memory the spare was ~25lbs. Close indeed!

I don't know, I'm having fun watching it. My favorite part so far: Voice from background: "You might as well back out of that" :crazy:

I'll get mine in so I can trump everyone before the BEC guys show up. :jester: I was 1152 when I weighed mine in the garage a couple of years ago (~1/4 tank of fuel) Edit: and that was with spare tire and jack.

Pretty poor form to allow that many people in such a confined space with un-guarded high speed rotating equipment.

The funniest part about that is that as supporting info they have a video clip of a guy pitching a "water-powered" fuel cell power source that uses an entirely unrelated principle of operation. The engine solution pitches electrolysis of water (gee...wonder where they get the electricity from), while the fuel cell guy reacts chemical hydrides with water. The fuel cell is mildly interesting except for the economics. 270Whr for a $20 = $74/kWh going cost :crazy: The specific energy is solid at somewhere between 100 Whr/kg and 310 Whr/kg depending on duration. But compare with a high-performance Li-Poly battery which can give you >100Whr/kg for a going cost of more or less your electricity rate. The specific power of the fuel cell sucks too, though. 25W/2.68kg = 9.3W/kg vs. the Li-Poly battery which I'd guess could give 100W/kg (including mass of the inverter)

In which case, come on back here and someone is *sure* to suggest you shove an LS-1 or a 'busa in it. :ack: :jester:

I don't think anyone can answer that at this point. I'm not naive enough to believe this is automatically going to "fix" Open Wheel Racing in this country, but I have come to the conclusion that it was never going to get fixed with two series. Still, there's a very long road ahead for the combined series to regain any kind of real notoriety. It remains to be seen how successful it will be. I would like to see it evolve away from being a spec series and see the formula revised to take away some downforce on the medium length ovals and give the cars more power on the road courses.

In case anyone is after one for a SEiGHT or other LSIS http://www.race-cars.com/engsales/other/1203393127/1203393127ss.htm

Don't know if anyone else follows open wheel racing, but the rumored Champ Car / IRL merger deal is now official as of a couple of hours ago. Details are still forthcoming (press conference expected mid next week), but it is anticipated Long Beach, Edmonton, and Surfer's Paradise will be added to the IRL schedule and Newman-Haas-Lanigan, PKV, Conquest, and Walker Racing (aka Team Australia) will move over to the IRL. Great news in my opinion. Very short notice which is sub-optimal and I'm not over the moon about the IRL spec cars, but this has been overdue for some time. Good work to everyone involved. :thumbs:

That's excellent. I love Brundle's line about the brakes before they're up to temp. "It's just a place to rest your foot while you're on your way to an accident." I'd love to drive one, but I think given the choice, I'd almost rather be driven around by one of the big dogs on demo laps.

Proof that even the most innocuous looking motorsport is bound to be expensive.

"Prepare yourself for the most enthusiastic co-driving ever."

I also saw it at AutoEurope and was told the same about the rear suspension. It wouldn't be all that surprising. The car has a one-off custom rear suspension and with only 5 miles on the clock has probably never been thoroughly sorted out. It is stunning in person, though.

I'm kind of inclined to agree. While no one can deny that such a car in the hands of an inexperienced driver is prone to end badly, my read of this incident is that the same could have happened in just about any mundane grocery-getter you'd like to mention. At the risk of being overly-speculative, to me it's fairly clear the kid and his friends went over to the airstrip to "see what she'll do" and got surprised by the end of the tarmac during a top speed run. Forget an M5; I'd wager a Camry would get up to a pretty good clip given a 1.5 mile run, certainly fast enough that stopping distance would be well greater than visible horizon. And I'd say that going off the end of an 85 foot elevated berm, the outcome wouldn't have depended too much on whether they left the road at 100mph or 50mph. The kid chose an unlit runway in the middle of the night to showboat, possibly after drinking. IMO, the car itself is a detail.

:jester: Yeah, I can't wait. Your drive sounded great, though.:thumbs:

Hey Mazda, Hypothetically, do we have a How-Dare-You-Rub-Your-Fabulous-Sounding-Blat-In-My-Face-While-I-Am-Lamenting-The-Cold-Weather-And-Salty-Roads-Here-In-New-York-You-Insensitive-Bar-Steward emoticon yet?

There was a service over in the UK I read about or saw an article about that I always thought was a terrific idea. You'd call them if you'd had too much to drink or didn't feel comfortable driving home for whatever reason. A dude would ride to wherever you were on a collapsable motor scooter and drive you home in your car with his scooter in the trunk. With you safely home, he'd retrieve his scooter and go on his way to the next call. Much preferable to calling a cab as you wouldn't have to screw around going to get your car the next day and if memory serves, the cost was not outrageous.

And from the other end of the impressive driving spectrum, I submit (with a language warning):

Welcome! The answer is yes, it has been done. A gentleman on here named Mazda (aka slngsht) has a hotted up LS-1 in a Rotus chassis. and it weighs much less than 2000lbs, IIRC. Cue Mazda in 5...4...3...2...1... And then cue the BEC crowd in 10...9...8...

I was thinking of tent camping, too. Nothing compares to the gawks you get driving into a spot and extracting a campsite from the boot of a Seven.