January 13, 2005vroom vroomso while we bitched and moaned about the steady decline but apparently, for the 2005 season, it's been announced that CBS is going to broadcast tape-delayed versions of 3 races from this season, with a fourth (Canada) being aired live. the remainder shall be aired on Speed, as we expected. here's the schedule as it stands: Speed races: Sat, Mar 5 Australia CBS races i'm a bit confused as to why CBS didn't try to get the US GP, because if the goal of the company in charge of television rights distribution for US races was to raise the level of awareness of F1 in the US, this seems a rather strange way to go about it. am also a bit mixed---the coverage of those four races isn't likely to be particularly good. i'm all for raising awareness of the sport, and for something other than NASCAR to gain some small percentage of the general populace's brain when asked to consider the words "auto racing," but i do hope the costs to the existing fanbase don't outweigh the benefits. then again, who am i kidding---it's all advertising anyway. :P September 07, 2003going undergroundpicture a lovely Sunday afternoon filled with the following: sun shining. slight breeze; summer's last gasp. an approximately five-mile stretch of two-lane road with a 50MPH speed limit and actual passing allowed, along with Hockenheim-esque trees lining either side. a large lake to the south, freaky nests of winged, stinged things hanging from a few of the trees---but none out to play with motorists out enjoying the day, thankfully. this was the road to Moraine Valley Community College for the British Car Union's 2003 British Car Festival. your players:
a brief synopsis of the day:
(click the link below for more; as always, click on any and all thumbnails to view larger versions of the photos. some were taken by Spaz, and some were taken by me. yay, we've mastered the art of sharing. XD) where do i begin? apparently, last year's show had well over 700 cars in attendance. i've no idea whatsoever how many were in attendance this year; the only thing i can say for sure is that we definitely didn't get to see everything. a show of such sheer magnitude as this really ought to last more than one day, in my opinion. there were parts vendors, book, model, and t-shirt vendors, and of course food vendors as well. apparently this was the BCU's 17th annual such festival, and it showed---the mind boggles to consider the sort of organisation which must go into pulling together such an event, but it seemed that they did it wonderfully. (i of course might feel differently had i been someone with a car actually in the show, but as a mere showgoer, it seemed really quite nicely organised---i wish more shows we went to were like this.) as neither Spaz nor i are experts on all the things we saw today (we've got specialised areas of expertise, and some things one or the other of us knew more about and could inform the other thusly), we were quite shocked that we remembered as much as we did about the photos we took. admittedly, some of the photos themselves helped us out---some people thoughtfully had we started to get a bit sun-sick towards the end; it really was quite bright and hot out. but all in all, it was unbelievable---and probably not much short of a nasty stint in traction could keep me from going next year. ^^ without further ado, more photos!
the pixie-esque hood ornament on a lovely blue-and-white 1957 Austin-Nash Metropolitan.
the same ornament in profile.
the Metropolitan itself. ^^
the interior of the Metropolitan. wish this weren't quite so dark; i really liked the dash. ^^
a fine selection of Austin-Healey Bug-Eye Sprites lining up in line.
one on its own.
if you drove one, you'd see this every day.
what makes a Sprite tick...?
and of course, one would never expect to see me take a photo of a 1966 Mini Cooper S, would one? ^^
nope, not me. i should also mention that there were a number of new MINIs at the show as well (mostly Cooper S models), and although i've seen photos of old and new together before, it's really impossible to appreciate just how much larger than the old Minis the new ones are. the new MINI is very small compared to other modern cars, but it positively towers over the classic ones. O.O;;; even the Mini pickup truck and the Clubman wagon still seem, well, miniscule by comparison. amazing.
interior of the '66 Cooper S from above.
and right next door was this lovely 1969 Cooper S, complete with rally lights.
nearby, just waiting to go slogging off into the wilds of Palos Hills was a menacing Mini Moke.
not far away was a Jaguar XK-120. largely meant to build up excitement about the Jaguar marque following WWII, wouldn't you say it fits the bill quite well? ooh.
aaah. ^^
there was also a selection of Jaguar XKEs on hand, such as this one.
and these two, which had their bonnets flipped up and engines on display...
here's a closer under-bonnet view of the red XKE from the last photo.
Morgan was also well represented; amongst those gathered was this 1974 Plus Four.
...lest one should have doubts, it proclaims its identity quite clearly.
a Morgan 4/4 to make you giddy.
the 4/4 from the rear. i particularly love how nicely and neatly the three seats not in use can be covered up.
a Morgan 3-wheeler...
...and its interior. (surprise; it's a two-seater!)
more from Morgan.
a nice under-bonnet peekaboo at another spectator.
nestled neatly in the dash of this particular specimen was a bottle of water...
...which the owner informed us he'd placed there to see if anyone would notice. ^^ he also pointed out that yes, it's very appropriate.
of course, what would a British car show be without some Triumph? Tea for four is served!
the back end of a 1968 Triumph GT6.
with the weather being so lovely, it would have indeed been a crime to be without a Sunbeam. or 8. or more.
Lotus was represented as well; several Elans and Elises and also a few Europas. (they do seem to like their Es, don't they?)
the back of that same Europa, which i certainly wouldn't mind sitting behind.
the event was also graced by the likes of what is apparently one of only thirteen Lotus Exiges to be imported into the US. it's even more impressive in person. (hee, and i think that's an MG of some sort on the road directly behind it. ^^)
there was also an unbelievable Shelby Cobra. i think you'll agree that fangs really aren't necessary with a mouth like that.
the Cobra at rest.
finally, a flock of nine DeLoreans came in to roost; a tenth was spotted in the parking lot not actually being shown.
revel in the beauty of brushed stainless steel. ^^
(incidentally, one of these lives in Arlington Heights; we saw him a few weeks ago while driving around. followed him for a short bit in the STi, too---just long enough to snap this photo....)
now, back to the DeLoreans from today. quite literally.
here's where the power is. mwahahaha. power. it isn't just for time travel, uh-uh.
last but not least, isn't that a lovely shade of yellow? as stated earlier, there's no way i won't be here again next year. still a long way off from having anything at all that would qualify to be shown here, but it's more than put a gigantic smile on my face just to have witnessed all of these in person. this show was really and truly spectacular. ^^ September 05, 2003shake well before use she saidreally will try to be more forthcoming with the entries of actual interest and/or use to someone other than myself sometime soon. (yes, i count 'amusement' somewhere in amongst the above two traits. XDXD) this week has not only been exceedingly busy, but also rather exceedingly painful (at least, toward the start) due to a nasty tooth infection. never fear, however; even that could not hope to shut me up for good. am feeling much, much better, and so perhaps in a mood to write. (now, whether or not i find actual time to is another matter entirely. XDXD) in the meantime, i haven't mentioned how much i adore the people who write for Sniff Petrol lately, have i? monthly, that love seems to grow and grow. this is because quite sadly, SP went to being monthly quite some time ago, so we don't get updates quite as often as we used to. but, y'know, quality. they're sheer quality, and i respect that---it's far more important that that be the case than that we get more frequent updates. ^-^ also, that car show i mentioned not long ago is this weekend. expect a full report and probably more photos than you ever could possibly want to see to follow. if not immediately thereafter, then hopefully at some reasonable closeness to the actual event. ^^ finally, i feel a mad urge to write. day cannot go by quickly enough so i can indulge this urge. *.*;;; expect badness if i do; after all, what good can come of anything where the first line of dialogue is, "Quit squirming," ? XDXDXD August 25, 2003...II NE!wow. this is SO UP MY ALLEY. *sparklesparklesparkle* that's what i want for my erfday. i want to go to this. and possibly to get a rootbeer float. the Rally mentioned as going on the day before the auto show takes place might be interesting, too. i wonder if one can merely spectate and not take part...? don't yet have a car which would qualify, unfortunately. ;.; (what? sometimes i'm very easy to please. XDXD) July 20, 2003the lunatics on the track go round and round...F1 this year has been nuts. and nothing moreso than Silverstone earlier today. XD while i'm still not entirely sure how i feel about how the rules have changed so drastically for this season, i will say that it does seem they've had their desired effect---to shake up the grid and make F1 more exciting again. today, however, was not really an example of that. today was more an example of exemplary driving skill. and teams working. and, y'know, another complete nutter jumping the fence and running round on the race line off of Hangar Straight. all in a day's work, really. absolutely phenomenal. (now if only ickle Mikey's car had broken. XD) July 04, 2003bwahahahahhave been watching the old Twilight Zone marathon that's been on SciFi the past couple of days. haven't watched all of it, but it's mostly much more worth watching (or at least having on while doing other stuff) than anything else on. this morning, they played an episode i've seen before but which Spaz didn't recall---"Once Upon A Time." it involves a time-travel helmet, and travel by one man from the 1890s to, er, whenever it was that this episode was made (not sure what year, exactly). the scenes in the 1890s were done to look like a silent film, which was really cool. and i thought the gentleman doing the time travelling looked familiar, but i couldn't quite place him. both times i've seen this ep. this time, i saw the ending credits. and felt really silly upon realising that yep, that's Buster Keaton. XDXDXD (i think they're doing another festival of his films at Doc this summer, IIRC...) i've been having more car dreams lately, too. last night's involved me winning a Ford Focus ZX3 somehow. lots of weird stuff had been done to it---i think there was a Cosworth wing on it, too. which can probably entirely be blamed on this absolutely mental modded Mini City in last month's issue of Mini Magazine, which this 16 year old kid had gotten a few years before he was going to be able to drive it, and had been working on restoring with his uncle and his dad. amongst other things, he stuck a Cosworth wing on it, crafted a custom dash out of MDF when he decided he didn't like any of the ready-made ones he was finding, and also used a Red Bull can as an ignition coil. XDXDXD oi. it's funny, yo. XDXD June 14, 2003hungry hungry hoodscoopswe spent most of the day on a fairly futile search for a stupid AC adapter for my camera. which was unfortunate. but it also put valuable miles on the STi. and it was a gorgeous day out. and we saw a nicely kept old burgundy-ish Triumph and a bright white bug-eyed Sprite. which, unfortunately, i wasn't quick enough to take pictures of. however, it was still a day fairly nicely spent.
and finally, qualifying for the F1 GP of Canada and...Diesel! what more could one want in one's day? ^^
(well, we also went to the library. and June 13, 2003federn?in the course of events last night, we met this guy with a very, very nice '91 Honda CRX. incredibly, incredibly clean.
...wow. O.O;;; someone else a few weeks ago commented that for being called a MINI, the new ones sure weigh an awful lot. the New MINI Cooper S weighs in around 2700 lbs. it's 2 feet shorter than a VW Golf, and i bet it's shorter than the CRX by a not-too-dissimilar amount, too. should look into that. the older Cooper S cars never got much above 1535 lbs stock. quite a bit of weight to put on. granted, the newer ones also have a LOT more power, but they also NEED a lot more power in order to move all that extra weight around! hrrm. interesting, the going-forward-by-going-backwards aspects...XD June 02, 2003er, whaaa?watched the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco this weekend. and while i'm not about to spoil it mostly because i really have nothing to say about the result (excepting a small "yay!"), i will mention that one of our always-eloquent commentators on Speed had a Special moment. when talking about something-or-other that Jacques Villeneuve had done, more amusing while there, i know, but still at least somewhat funny...? XD and dude, the new McLaren is spectacularly pretty (rear end) and spectacularly ugly (front end) all at the same time. if it gets the job done, however---of course, that's the main thing. i really like the back end, though---the lines flow so nicely! ^^ May 24, 2003did i mention there's an STi in the garage?heh, i stand corrected. whoopsy. instead of the photo i posted below, try looking here for a lovely photo gallery and specs and such on the actual US-Spec 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX STi that's sitting downstairs in the garage. and which is about to go out for it's GORGEOUS. and it sounds AMAZING. and it just wants to go. seriously, it pulls you---and it is SO AMAZINGLY FLAT THROUGH CORNERS. did i mention this car is REALLYFUCKINGAMAZING? just checking. ^^ go check it out and you'll see. ^^ (it's still not a MINI, but what can be? ^.-) May 23, 2003arbeitspapierpurely by chance last night, Spaz met up with a guy with a black LanEvo (VIII) while driving us around in the STi. and of course, mutual admiration took place for quite some time. which was highly entertaining, as Spaz has still got around 900 miles to go before it's broken in and it can be revved above 4000RPM, and the LanEvo dude had just gotten over his first 1000 miles. as amusing as it was, it couldn't top the opening line spoken by LanEvo boy as he got out of his car and came over to talk to Spaz: "Ah. You're supposed to be my archnemesis." ...and that's how you know any and every conversation is off to a good start. XD May 22, 2003just look straight ahead of you
guess what's here, as of last night? and Spaz has got one of the first two that's out on US roads right now. it looks much like above, too; the other one that's out running around right now is black. am exhausted, but this is a fucking amazing car. ^-^ in other news, get to go retrieve my glasses after work today; the MCA found them. left the water bottle that goes to my bike on the train this morning (not unlike a completely daft twit), but i'd much rather pay $5-$10 for a new bottle than a couple hundred dollars to replace lost glasses. so really, not so bad. XD i did, however, find out we didn't record the show Friday as i'd thought we were going to. which is kinda irritating, but i can't do much about it now, can i? it was videotaped, at least---just hope i actually get to see it sometime in this century. ^^;;; too bad about the recording, though---would've liked to share. especially off the board, without room effect interfering; we played really well, even if the sound was kinda shitty. d'oh. May 12, 2003the world IS ending!it appears Speedchannel is actually doing something right for a change! O.O;;; as of yesterday evening, they've started airing F1 Decade, which is a 16-part series of 1-hour segments showing the entire 1993 Formula One season. O.O;;; yesterday was Kyalami, and it was really cool. and according to the end of the broadcast, they're going to be showing the next two years (at least) as well. O.O;;;; every other weekend---so next weekend will be an F1 race from the present season (eep, forget what's next...is it Austria? ^^;;;), and the weekend after will be 1993's Brazilian Grand Prix. this rocks SO hardcore. ^____________^ is molto fun to watch Prost & Senna go head-to-head. although i wish they'd gone back a bit further so we could watch Nigel Mansell in action, but i am most definitely not complaining. ^^ thank you, Speedchannel---keep up the good work! ^^ April 17, 2003COGNeil Gaiman mentions a really unbelievably cool TV advert for the Honda Accord, which has been written about in really great detail here, by the Daily Telegraph. the long and short of it is, it's an insanely complicated and cool bit of watching all the mechanical innards of the Accord working together; action and reaction and reaction. and NO CG trickery of any sort employed; they really did this as one shot all straight through. it took upwards of 600 takes to get exactly right, but the point is that they did it. they took the time. they Did Not Cheat. ^-^ which isn't to say that i'm against computer graphics. not in the slightest. when done well, and not merely for the sake of waving someone's expensive new toys about in the faces of the audience, Just Because They Can. that's the sort of thing that pisses me off to no end. there's also more than a little bit of sadness to see amazing things done with puppets and animatronics and such, and (gasp) hand-drawn lightning and other special effects, and thinking "that's great, but we're never going to see anything like that again, are we?" Gollum, of course, was a great leap forward. but how many bazillion dollars were spent on the effects in the Harry Potter movies (to name a particularly glaring example), and how crap did they (mostly) look? it's not about the toys, it's about the talent. it's about how they're used. and the idea that older forms of doing effects work, of the days of Kit West fiddling with a kazillion and a half condoms to make up the innards of the giant sandworm that Paul Atreides latches his hook into to ride in it wouldn't be so bad if more CG effects looked better. but a lot of them don't. and so, quality is sacrificed for convenience, once again. :P things that had risen to a level of being accomplished artistic expressions are left writhing sadly in the dust. does advancement always have to be about discarding all vestiges of the old? it really shouldn't be that way, but all too often that seems to be the case. at any rate, i REALLY hope i get to see this on TV sometime. wasn't shown during our airing of the Brazilian GP, that much i can tell you. not that i'm surprised. Honda.co.uk has put it up online, in both a smaller version and a larger version. additionally, an Accord owner particularly taken with the ad and distressed at the appallingly slow download times he was getting from Honda's UK site mirrored it at his own site here. i'll take a look once i'm home. the painstaking description written up in the Daily Telegraph just sounds too unbelievably cool not to. o.o;;; [addendum: after having watched it (and it IS really cool and highly recommended; you'll need Flash 6 installed to do so, however), the Daily Telegraph article is actually wrong. not everywhere gets Accord wagons (the US doesn't), so they couldn't air this commercial just anywhere. and the car is also right-hand drive, of course. so they'd have to change that a bit if they wanted to air it in the US, as well as elsewhere. since they already spent so much time and money to get this commercial shot, it might actually be much easier and more cost-effective to simply make Accord wagons available everywhere. in right-hand drive. ^^] lucky frogs are one thing, but milking cows?a recent request by German newspaper Bild for tips on how Michael Schumacher could once again be on top in F1 yielded the following article, filled with reader suggestions: Milking Cows Could Help Schumi Find His Touch. XD April 11, 2003SHINJIRAREHEN!more about the F1 Grand Prix of Brazil at Interlagos. if you don't want to be spoiled, don't click in... ...i am SO glad Jordan appealed! and i am SO glad that the FIA has decided that Fisi actually DID win! (news courtesy of my friend and fellow F1 fan Jabel. ^^) this is absolutely brilliant. nearly makes up for the fact that our WRC coverage is severely delayed; i don't think we'll see Rallye New Zealand until at least next weekend, and SpeedChannel has been showing Rallye Turkey just about EVERY WEEK SINCE IT TOOK PLACE. mind, Rallye Turkey was fun and all---the FIRST time we watched it. i know there were no races between then and this weekend, but still...hey, at least it beats the constant showings of NASCRAP all to hell..*.*;;; but! Fisi WON~~~!!!! will go back to bed now. but i had to say. XD April 08, 2003i got a brain in left hand drivedue to the events of this weekend, didn't end up getting to watch the Formula One Grand Prix of Brazil (Interlagos~~! ^^) until last night. had been looking forward to it, too---so far, even though we're only (post-Brazil) three grands prix in, this season has been quite the most interesting one in some time. of course, a lot of it is to do with the massive rule changes that the FIA has put into place for this season---not a few of which are rather stupid, but it seems like they're working as far as shaking up the grid goes. much mention has been made of how confusing the new rules are, and how it seems no one has got them completely straight. (which i'd believe; some of the rules which have been in place forever are rather vaguely phrased, so even in the best of times one can't be entirely sure that they'll mean to the FIA what they mean to you.) two of the rules in particular seem a little silly, though. the three main stated goals of the massive rulebook revisions done for this season were to a) reduce costs, as they'd gotten significantly out of hand; b) increase the recently-waning public interest in the sport by shaking things up a bit; and c) as ever, increase safety. however, while the limitation of tyre choices might save a bit of money, the fact that Bridgestone is still developing 20 or so different specifications of tyre for all the teams they're supporting hardly seems to support the idea of cost-cutting measures. add to this the restriction on the amount of sets of dry, intermediate, and wet-weather tyres that can be taken from race to race and it seems to make even less sense. with Interlagos, there was of course some temperamental weather---something to be expected. with the new tyre restrictions in place, none of the teams had thought to bring full-out wet weather tyres, which seemed to be a bit of a bad choice on their part. was this situation a fault more of bad judgment on the part of the teams, or bad judgment on the part of the FIA in enacting such a rule? it seems a bit of both, although Michelin has since stated publicly their opinion that even full-out wets couldn't have done much against the standing water on some parts of the track, thereby possibly completely rendering this line of thought moot. :) the other questionable new rule is the one regarding how teams aren't allowed to work on the cars once they've done qualifying and have gone to parc ferme. i don't see this having much effect (if any) on increasing interest in the sport; since the mechanics and other team members have to be present anyway, i don't see how this could possibly cut costs (and if it does, not by a lot); and regarding safety, it's more dangerous, if anything. anyway, onto the race itself. it was a bit of a disappointment, actually. i mean, i'm glad for Kimi and all; Spaz was predicting that now he'd broken through the barrier and won his first race, he'd do like Mika had done and go crazy, winning race after race after race. i have no problem with Kimi, nor with how he drove. but how unbelievably frustrating must that have been for Fisi and Jordan? it's another instance where i really can't see any point whatsoever to a rule. why two laps back? was this number just arbitrarily chosen? the whole rule, morelike. and i know it's not a new rule, but it seems rather silly. i'd be happy if someone could point out the reasoning behind it to me; i couldn't find any and Spaz couldn't think of any, either. am glad Alonso has come out of his big shunt with only minor bruising, though. watching him collapse after the incident with one of Webber's loose tyres was rather horrible. the wheel tethers seem to mostly be doing their job this season, though---not with Webber's car, but elsewise. good---had begun to wonder what the point was, with the way they seem to fail nearly every single time previously since compulsory implementation...:P as for poor old Rubinho---well, i'd hoped he'd win. it'd be really great for anyone to win their home grand prix. it was brilliant to see him qualify on pole for it, at the very least. Spaz was fairly certain from the outset that he wouldn't finish the race; i tried to think he would, and hoped he would, but no such luck. he says he's going to keep going in F1 until he's won his home grand prix---and i hope he's able to, one day. if he's able to ever finish it, he just might. weird to see both Ferraris get DNFs, though. wonder what's going on with them...? it didn't seem like a "break-the-car-button" kind of moment was had at any point on Schumi's part. :P March 12, 2003and all that entails...this article in the New Scientist on the glaring lack of safety for anyone where SUVs are concerned is quite succinct, and even mentions the issue of bumpers on the blasted things not lining up with those of cars.
one more bit of stupidity in the (d)evolution of auto manufacturing. and with how unbelievably unsafe and unfriendly to the environment they are, it'd be easy to suggest that the "S" in "SUV" is really meant for "Self-centered." problem with this is, they're quite unsafe for their occupants as well. might i suggest a new blanket ad-campaign, then? SUVs: The Vehicle For Those Who Hate Everything might not be punchy enough...perhaps it needs a bit of reworking... February 27, 200314 years in the life of...well, it's official. our 1989 Jetta has been declared totalled. we suspected this would happen. it's still quite sad, though. we hadn't owned it for most of its life, but we'd tried to treat it fairly well for the time we did have it. well, except for the fact that i was learning to drive on it. but. XD Spaz wrote something very sweet about it in the comments on one of the entries i'd written about the accident below; i'm going to move it into this entry here and now so everyone can read it... here it is:
i feel rather badly for the car; it's a good car, and it's led a rather difficult life. poor baby's been badly abused. its life definitely has not been lucky, and i feel kind of badly about that (although we didn't own it until a few years ago). Yes, it has had a difficult life. i feel so sorry for this car. However, i'd like to believe that it's had a relatively good time living out its final years with us. i've fixed and improved quite a few things with this car. In fact, just yesterday i replaced a piece of trim around the trunk latch that had been broken by some dude at a party. We just put a new CD Stereo in it too. Mechanically, sure it needed new V-Belts & pulleys, and probably a valve-job. But it had already received new radiator hoses, a new low-temp fan switch to help the engine run cooler, totally rebuilt shift linkage and new bushings to help it shift smoother, a new fuel filter, O2 sensor, and knock sensor, starter motor, battery & electrical cables, timing belt, brake pads, spark plugs & wires, distributor cap & rotor, etc... Oh, and a full exhaust system from the manifold all the way back to the tail pipe. A little less than a year ago it got a new clutch installed, and most recently it had all 4 wheel bearings replaced, and a 4 wheel allignment done. It got some hand-me-downs from the '98 too, like a shift knob & boot, headlight bulbs, a weighted shifter rod, and even 14" alloy wheels & Dunlop snow tyres. Of course, it had one of jan's first successful attempts at making car accessories! A very attractive & well made boot & handle for the hand-brake lever! Somewhat of a rarity, it was one of the last West German production cars to make it into the USA. Most North American market MkII Jettas were made in Westmoreland, Pennsylvania or Puebla Mexico. It was always fun calling parts departments at VW dealerships... i'd tell them "8v, engine code RV, West German production," to which they would always reply "really?" in a somewhat surprised tone. And it was a good car. We'd taken it to Indianapolis for the U.S.G.P., with absolutely no worries of getting stranded, and got 40mpg doing it! It always started, even after being burried in snow for a month when i wasn't driving it regularly. The engine ran strong, and reliably, and once i replaced the faulty knock sensor, had a rock solid idle and great throttle response. No, it wasn't a sports car, but it was great fun, totally tossable around corners, and infinitely reliable. Damnit... as old and beat up as the poor thing was, even the sun-roof (manually crank operated, thank you) still worked, and never leaked! ;) Before we bought the MkII, it was obviously subjected to some trauma. If i had to guess, i would say it's been broken into several times, as the windshield and both passenger side windows were aftermarket glass. Probably the result of vandalizm or 'smash & grabs.' There were a few small holes in the seats, which looked like cigarette burns. Obviously, it had spent nearly all of it's life parked outside, too. Poor thing. ironically, my brother had just bought my Silver '98 MkIII Jetta the day before, so the '89 MkII Jetta got to spend what will most likely be its last night with us parked in the garage, in the spot formerly reserved for the '98. It seemed to like this too, as it wasn't stuck out in the cold all night, and the engine ran much better today upon start-up than it ever had after being out in the cold all night. Poor thing... and i had just renewed the tags for another year not even two months ago. =( While we don't know for sure, i bet it'll be written off due to the extent of the damage and the cost of repairs vs. the car's current value. We'll miss you. You were a good friend, and one tuff little S.O.B. Goodbye, MkII. i'll probably post up a photo later. February 26, 2003BENTfinally got to watch our tape of the MINI snowmobile episode of Monster Garage last night. will put the rest in the "more" section in case of spoilers... for anyone not familiar with it, the concept behind Monster Garage is really cool. Jesse James, famous for his insane bike designs, assembles a different team each episode* to transform a stock vehicle into something completely different from what it was originally intended to do. such as making a school bus into a working pontoon boat, or a Ford Explorer (Eddie Bauer edition) into a working garbage truck. each team is given a budget of $3,000 which they must not exceed in acquiring anything necessary to make the transformation happen, and they're also given a time limit of 6 full days in which to get it done. on the 7th, their vehicle (if it's been successfully completed) participates in a competition against a real version of whatever it is they've transformed their vehicle into. so the Explorer garbage truck competed against a real garbage truck, etc, etc. (oh, and i nearly forgot the other very stringent rule regarding their creations: the vehicle must appear stock from the outside after they've modified it.) anyway, so the most recent episode featured the transformation of a brand new 2003 MINI Cooper into a snowmobile---something we knew would be both interesting and a bit painful to watch (i mean, they're tearing apart an innocent little MINI! ;.;). and it was a bit of both. it was also featured quite prominently in the MINI booth at the Chicago Auto Show this year, so we got to see it up quite closely (although of course we weren't allowed in it).** while it was loads of fun to watch them design, build, redesign when things didn't work quite the way they wanted, and finally get this project together, this episode was a lot less fun than i remember the show being previously. for one, since Jesse + the show have gotten to be so well known, they got a LOT of stuff for free. they've always gotten some things for free, due to Jesse's and other team members' connections---usually wheels and tyres and such. but this time round, they got nearly everything for free; and this really rather defeats the whole budgeting challenge, which was an interesting constraint. so there's that element gone. additionally (and i don't know if this has been the case in other more recent episodes, as i haven't seen all of them), it seems like Jesse's not really doing a whole lot and is instead having the team do all the work. it was much cooler when EVERYONE worked on the vehicle in question and put their hands all over it. at least, so i thought. from the MINI snowmobile episode, it seemed he didn't do much other than offer some suggestions here and there, put the roll cage in to stabilise the gutted MINI unibody, and then drive the thing in the competition on day seven. when the team decided to work through the night trying to work out the design flaws that had presented themselves on day 5/6, he went home and went to sleep. granted, the Discovery Channel pages refer to him as the "host," but they also always refer to the competitions as "Jesse and his team of blahblahblah," which makes you think he's doing more than just delegating. it's not much fun to watch someone with such talent just delegate and give go-aheads or vetos to other team members' ideas. perhaps it was only the one episode. or perhaps i'm asking too much. it's not bad, mind---it's still a really fun show. but it was a whole lot better before---at least, so i think. * = well, and the producers too, i'm sure. ** = what was PARTICULARLY funny about this was that when we first walked by it, neither of us saw the big sign announcing it as the Monster Garage MINI Snowmobile. instead, coming at it from the side as we did, we saw the paint job first. since it seems most things coming out of his garage have super-flamey paint jobs, i completely jokingly said "hey look, it's the Jesse James MINI!" Spaz and i giggled and walked away to look at other things. only upon coming back to the booth later on to drool in the MINIs some more did we see that in fact it was from Monster Garage. leading me to proclaim, "dude, i SWEAR i was joking!" XD February 22, 2003love is in the airit's a very interesting feeling, this. and i'm quite sure i've never experienced anything like it. oh, i'd seen the new MINI Coopers. admired them in photos, in magazines, on billboards, in movie trailers, in TV adverts, etc., etc. in person, even---they're of course even more gorgeous that way. (which is in no way meant to discount old Minis. oh no. but.) yesterday, i sat in a MINI Cooper S. i'd never got the chance to do so before; nor have i ever sat in a regular one, even. it was lovely. i shall probably expound upon this at length later on. i will have a MINI Cooper. preferably the S. undecided as yet on the colour scheme (there are SO MANY good colours to choose from!), although i'm leaning towards British Racing Green with a white top and of course the white racing stripes on the bonnet. there are loads of reasons why this car is cool. fairly standard in BMW products is the drive-by-wire throttle system, which this has got (if working properly, will communicate more efficiently between the driver and the engine, thusly improving response time, increasing fuel efficiency, etc, etc.). it's also got equal length drive shafts (which are useful in eliminating torque steer, as both Spaz and the little MINI Book of Motoring told me at virtually the same time XD), multi-link rear suspension, a supercharged 1.6 litre 16-valve 4 cylinder engine (putting out 163 HP), and a 6-speed manual gearbox. which shifts quite nicely, provided you aren't a twit and don't grind the poor showcar mercilessly without holding the clutch down, as some individuals at the auto show were doing yesterday. speaking of which, the MINI booth was conveniently located right next to the Subaru booth, so we were able to run back and forth between the two at will, ignoring pretty much everything else. they had one of the Subaru WRC cars there on display, in full livery---it was gorgeous. and it was propped up so you could see underneath, where the underside of the body is all sealed up to protect everything against the rigors of rallying. and our version of the STI was on proud display as well---on a turntable, and of course no one was allowed in it or even really to touch it. absolutely gorgeous car (and with any luck, i'll soon be in v. close contact with someone who will have one...^^). and then, just for a laugh, we of course skipped over to the Mitsubishi booth to look at the LanEvoVIII in person. and yes, it is verily more ass-ugly in person than it had been in photos. the STI completely whups its sorry arse; definitely in looks, and i believe in performance as well. (although i don't know the specs on it; you'd have to ask Spaz about those, as the STI is his current great-reasonably-attainable-automotive-love. XD) but, as i said, a MINI Cooper will be mine one day. hopefully the S. it will happen. now i have a new goal to shoot for. how lucky that my dream car is, well, not outrageous...? XD (oh, yes, and there are roof racks available for them as well. unfortunately, to install them, holes must be drilled in the poor roof, but there are nice little covers that go over the mounting brackets, and apparently MINI has roof racks of their own and will install them for you. saw this lady's page and found that it's not so bad as you'd think, just hearing about how you have to drill holes in your roof. and $400 installed isn't so bad, especially when you consider that having MINI do it would mean liability if anything went wrong during installation would be on their heads and not mine---i'm very DIY, but i wouldn't really want to have to pay to replace the roof on my car right after i'd got it because of a stupid mistake i made in my newbieness at doing such things, y'know? rather expensive mistake to make. but hey, this adds to the practicality of it---i'll be able to carry stuff for when we go on road trips! ^^) ...listen to me, talking as though i'd already got it. this is some time off---a few years, probably. but. it. will. be. mine. ^__________^ |
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