An Unfortunate Series of Events

It's all fun and games until you get written up in a Yoga Magazine.

2011-03-30T12:56:00.003-04:00

I guess I get to check this one off my life list. ;)

The Magazine of Yoga

Thanks Susan for talking with me and writing this up. I really had fun. :D

Love,

Pete

Tim Johnson's Ride on Washington: Philly to Baltimore

2011-03-10T15:41:00.002-05:00

The Westin Hotel in Philly (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=1231) hosted the group for the night in class and the 11 of us rolled out with support vehicles in tow. I hung toward the back and followed the route through Philly. I figured that I’d go to the front once we had some open space and people could benefit from a draft. It took me a little while to get used to the flow…. Mostly having Butch following in the SRAM Neutral Support vehicle so close behind. Usually in DC when someone is following that close to a cyclist, it is because they want to kill you. Butch was AWESOME for the whole trip and definitely provided the glue that held us together.

As expected, the roads opened up and I did some pulls at the front with different people. We were double pace-lining and just changing lead informally when folks needed a break or when there was a sprint for a town/county/state line. I enjoyed doing my share of pulling. Those who know me know that I’m not really happy unless my face is in the wind. Not sure what’s wrong with me that way.

The miles rolled by, made enjoyable listening to the guys talking. I’m not much of a talker, so I mostly listened and asked a few questions here or there. The sprints were fun to watch…. My set-up for the Delaware/Maryland state line didn’t pan out because the sign marking the border wasn’t ever found. I would have gotten my ass kicked anyways. Power I’ve got. Speed? Not so much.

Blissfully we turned off the main roads and headed out onto some rural roads Northeast of Baltimore. This brought in some climbing, that I liked, but the guys that had been hammered for the 3 preceding days didn’t like so much. I made my way to the front and set pace with Peter for a while. Unfortunately that didn’t last long. Matt and Jeremy took off for what they thought was a county line sprint and ended up hooking bars and crashing. Matt definitely got the worst of it… severely separated shoulder. The police showed up immediately, but paramedics and an ambulance took 45 minutes. We worked to keep Matt talking, warm and out of shock.

He was finally loaded up and hauled to the hospital in Harve de Grace. We followed on bicycles, with Butch in tow in the SRAM car. Google Maps listed Pulaski Highway bridge as “pedestrian friendly” but it was under construction. Confronted with a 25 mile detour to get to a bridge we could ride across the Patuxent River, we were contemplating riding the ¾ mile bridge with Butch behind us with his flashers on. Just as we were getting ready to go, a state trooper came up and told us we couldn’t cross. After a bit of joking around and threats of “If you guys drop below 30mph I’m gonna give you all tickets!”, we crossed with a police escort and safely made it to the hospital.

Jeremy and Rapha bought us post-ride food which we enjoyed sitting on the warm sidewalk outside the hospital. Matt was going to be a while at the hospital, so Butch volunteered to stay and bring him back. We eventually tossed our bikes into the back of Richard’s truck and crammed 7 of us into the cab and drove to Baltimore. In the end we rode about 71 miles at an average speed a hair short of 19mph.

I had a shower and dinner with my wife before heading off to Twenty20 Cycling (http://twenty20cycling.com/) for the evening’s reception and advocacy outreach. I’m amazed at these guys. I’m nowhere near social enough to use my brain and mouth for advocacy work. I’m much more effective with my legs and lungs. It was a fun evening.

Photos from today: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedrogringo/sets/72157626225951686/

Tim Johnson's Ride on Washington: Introduction

2011-03-10T15:39:00.001-05:00

6-time national cyclocross champion Tim Johnson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Johnson_(cyclist) )and the industry bicycle advocacy group Bikes Belong (www.bikesbelong.org) hatched an idea to raise awareness of cycling issues, funds for advocacy groups and a dramatic kick off for the National Bike Summit (http://www.bikeleague.org/conferences/summit11/index.php). Tim and a select group of people planned a cycling trip from Boston to Washington, DC… covering 9 states and close to 500 miles in 5 days. Each rider would be required to raise $1000 for Bikes Belong to take part in the ride. I signed up.

As it turned out, logistics kept me from getting myself and my bike to Boston for the start. I did make it to Philadelphia for the last 2 days of the ride. The first three days that I’d missed had been quite difficult. New England in early March is not always the greatest place and time to be cycling. Weather, ferry schedules and bridge construction definitely complicated the route for the first three days. You could see it in the faces of the 9 riders at the evening reception at Triumph Brewing Company (http://www.triumphbrewing.com/philadelphia/). They welcomed me to the group except for Richard, who wanted to steal the swag t-shirt that Bikes Belong had sent me because he thought I’d nicked it from someone. (Who is this guy and what’s he doing with a Bikes Belong shirt???)

I had confidence in my fitness for this ride, but I can imagine that a few question marks appeared in the minds of the other riders at that first meeting. I certainly did not resemble the body type or racing pedigree of any of the others on the ride. I was easily 8” taller and 40+ pounds heavier than any of the other guys.

The next morning would see how I fit with the group.

Tim Johnson's Ride on Washington: Thank You!!!

2011-03-10T10:31:00.004-05:00

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and generosity in regards to Tim Johnson’s Ride on Washington this week. The ride was a great success on many levels. We met a lot of great people and spread the word that Bikes Belong, raised much more money than we expected and had a physically and mentally challenging ride between Boston and DC. None of that could have happened without your financial, physical and moral support. Friendships and contacts were made. The fires of bicycle advocacy were stoked and fanned leading into the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC.

On a personal level it was a good wake-up call that I need to put more focus on my advocacy work. That isn’t something that is easy or natural for me. I’m much better at letting my legs to the talking rather than my mouth. Spending a few days with the group doing the Ride on Washington really pushed me to get beyond that and not be complacent about my ability to live my life on 2 wheels rather than 4. It was a good kick in the pants.

Thank you again for your support. You made this trip possible and effective.

Best wishes,

Pete Beers

The dedicated 5-day riders

The dedicated 5-day riders + me. :D

Sky Cycle

2011-03-06T17:36:00.002-05:00

I was a tourist in Philly again today. With the rain and nasty weather, I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to fit a ride in. Went to the Franklin Institute to see da Vinci exhibit and realized that I didn't really have to worry about that.

Eastern State Penitentiary

2011-03-05T23:21:00.003-05:00

I was a tourist today. The tourist site was a little odd though. Eastern State Penitentiary was built in the 1820s and was used as a prison until 1971. It was the first penitentiary. Its goal was reform and giving people the opportunity to reflect on their wrong doing in solitude and also to learn a trade.

HERE are my photos from the day.

That goal was watered down pretty quickly since space became a bit more cramped. The place has an amazing history and is well worth the visit if you're ever in Philly. Cool place both historically and architecturally.

Its most famous inmate was probably Al Capone, who spent some time here. His cell (seen above) was somewhat more posch than most. His cell was actually in the guards area, rather than in the main cell block.

Air is for WIMPS!

2011-03-03T08:37:00.003-05:00

Okay. I haven't blogged in a very long time. Something significant needed to happen to make me want to get back to blogging. The death of my Wheels Built Under the Influence is that something.

History: I was challenged by a friend to build a set of wheels for my track bike using parts I had in the shop. I was not allowed to buy anything for these wheels. Not only had we been drinking a fair amount of beer, but one stipulation of this challenge was that I had to build the wheels while intoxicated. I then had to ride the wheels for a year. I was allowed to fix them, but not allowed to rebuild them or buy new parts for them. Any work done on the wheels beyond changing flats or gear ratios needed to be done in a similar state of inebriation.

Fast Forward 15 months.... The wheels had survived many thousands of miles, getting hit by cars 4 times and a lot of urban hammering. As of this week they were in pretty sad shape. I've been working so much that I haven't had time to abuse alcohol to the point where I'm allowed to replace broken spokes or retension the front wheel. Oddly enough, I had never got a flat tire. These wheels keep on rolling.

I got 2 flats on the way home Tuesday night, one on the way home last night. I found out the reason why. The rim is cracked and it is pinching the tubes. No tube would survive. I could have walked it and hitched a ride home.. but that isn't what these wheels are about. These wheels were conceived and built while under the influence. All major repairs on them have been done while intoxicated. Having them fade away into the sunset is NOT the way they want to go.

So.... With just over 9 miles to go before getting home, I got out of the saddle and hammered home as though I had air in both tires and a pack of riders ahead that I had to chase down. My time for the ride home was only 2.5 minutes slower than my usual riding time. I had to do that because it is almost impossible to corner on a tire with no air in it.

Let me tell you that riding a bike at 20+mph with a flat rear tire is a bit of an adventure. Luckily there was only one hill like that.

That isn't the end of the story... I forgot it was my wife's night to do volunteer work. I didn't have any food in the house and I didn't want pizza. So I got back on the bike and rode 3 miles to Meat in a Box for dinner, then home. Grand total... just over 15 miles hammering around town with no air in the tire. Makes me wonder why the hell I ever bothered to put air in the tires.

Thanks for reading. Might do this a bit more often. :D

Pete

Back on the Mountain Bike Again... again...

2009-08-10T09:55:00.002-04:00

I guess two blog posts this year isn't that bad. I could do worse. ;)

I'm now up to 5 mountain bike rides for the year. I had a great ride yesterday on mixed trails... Washington and Old Dominion bike path (Paved), Fairfax Cross County Trail (Mixed single track, double track, paved and gravel) and Laurel Hill Regional Park (Singletrack).

It feels really good to be back on the mountain bike after very few miles on it in the last 2 years. I will be doing more of that and hanging the road bike up for a few months. Fixie and MTB for a while. I need a change.

Since I'm not driving at all, I need to work out how to get to the trailhead. Sean's been great about driving me when I need, but I can't do that all the time. It looks like White Industries double/double set-up will be my weapon of choice. 34 and 36 tooth chainrings combined with a 16 and 18 tooth cog on the freewheel. That gives me 36x16 gear for the roads and 34x18 gear for off road. That should work well. Cool thing is that I can use the same chain length for both. Those White Industires folks are very smart people.

Dr. Einstein broke his stem while adjusting it last week. I used the 5.5nm torque wrench instead of the 4nm one. D'OH! I'm a moron. Oddly enough the stem held through a 60+ mile ride yesterday. Lucky for me.

Other updates need to be made. My 4 year old Avid Juicy 7's need to be replaced. All the hardware is rusted and the brake lever pivot is worn so that the levers move around a lot more than they used to. I could overhaul them, but I think I might just get new ones.

As usual, I ramble.

Later!

Pete

Weird bike day.

2009-01-14T08:03:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was the day for seeing strange bikes during my commute. I'm not talking about people riding fixies or different paint jobs. We're talking some whacked out shit here!

First was nice trike guy.... not to be confused with Napoleon on a Trike (a guy who rides a recumbant trike and yells at everyone to get out of his way. I figure he's got a Napoleon complex about being so close to the ground and he thinks he can boss everyone around.) Nice Trike Guy (also rides a recumbant three wheeler) is different. He's actually nice (as his name implies). Seeing him isn't so odd. I just hadn't seen him pulling a trailer before. Every few weeks he needs to bring his dirty laundry home, so he hauls it in a trailer. Again... not such an odd thing. Escept that the way the trailer attaches to the trike, it sits off to the side. It looks more like a side car than a trailer. It was weird and cool. I slowed a little and chatted with him.

The second weird bike had a set of PowerCranks on it. I'd read about these, but had never seen them before. They are FREAKISH. Basically the idea is that you develop a lot more leg strength and learn to pedal circles if your left and right crank arm are not connected. Each turn independently of each other, yet they both have the ability to drive the chainring. It looks pretty normal when riding, but coasting is a strange thing to see. When you coast, both crank arms go to the bottom.

When I first saw this from a distance, it looked like every time the guy coasted, he clicked out of his right pedal and dragged his foot on the ground. That isn't the case. He just had both pedals at the 6 o'clock position. Bizarre.

He said he loves the cranks and they really help with leg strength. He uses them through the winter and has for the last two years. He said when he gets on normal cranks that he just flies.

That might be something to look into. I may have to give them a try.

Later!

Pete

Road frame Search -- Not this again!!!

2008-12-27T22:34:00.002-05:00

My deal with myself last year. If I met my weight loss and cycling goals for 2008, I get to buy a new road bike. I thought about a Ti frame, or custom steel. I decided on CF. I'd like something really light. That is all fine and dandy, except that few high-end carbon fiber frames come in Jolly Green Giant size. That SUCKS!

Frames that I won't be getting this year. Anything made by Cervello, Isaac, Kuota, Eddy Merckx, the Ibis Silk, Trek Madone 6.9 and Specialized Tarmac SL are all too short in the top tube. The Cannondale Super6 HiMod might be good, but doesn't really jazz me. I don't really know why. The geometry and close, but not perfect.

First on the list is the Ridley Helium. It is insanely light and EXACTLY the right proportions. I'd really like a bike that I can ride anywhere, but weight is a big issue for me. I'd like something that minimizes weight without being whippy. I rode a Helium that was one size too small and it felt great and scary light. For 2008 I went from a 21 pound bike to a 17 pound bike. It took me two weeks to get used to it. Going from a 17 pound bike to a 15 pound bike will likely have a similar adjustment. The color is perfect. It is black/carbon with really subdued graphics. The other cool thing is that my local bike shop JUST started selling Ridleys. Thanks The Bike Lane.

Ridley Noah is also in the ballpark. Sizing is the same. Weight is a little heavier. But DAMN is it aero. The colors are also not near as nice as the Helium. Red, Blue or Green are dandy, but not to my taste. Helium still wins.

The DeRosa King3 is quite possibly the best bike I've ever seen. I've always liked the ride of a classic Italian road bike. You don't get more classic or Italian than DeRosa. The flat black is stunning. It is imposibly light. It is perfect. The owner of a shop I worked in as a kid used to love to tell me that the only bike for me was a classic Italian road frame. He sold DeRosas and Colnagos. I drooled over them for years. The only problem is the price. DAMN is that frame expensive. At $5500 for frame/fork, it is about $2000 over my price range. This is, by far, the closest I've been to owning a dream bike. I don't really need 2 kidneys, do I? There are two local shops that sell the DeRosa.

The Felt F1SL makes me want to sing "God Bless America". The fit is right on par with the Ridleys and the DeRosa. The basic black and white colors are great. The ride is great. It is a good balance between power transfer, light weight and all-day comfort. It is a hair heavier than the others by virtue of the seat post setup. A few hundred grams is the difference. That shouldn't matter to me... I should be big enough to know that I should just eat a little less, drink a little less, work a little harder and lose the extra weight. I'm not going to completely discount it.... it isn't perfect though. There are quite a few Felt dealers in the area. They are some really good shops that I like.

Can I spend $3000 on a Giant? I remember working in a shop that sold Giant Iguana mountain bikes. I loved it when people would call and ask if I had a green giant iguana. Can I spend tons of money on a TCR Advanced SL? Size is perfect. Geometry is perfect. Graphics and look are Perfect. It is the only one of these bikes that I've actually ridden in my size and it was brilliant. I may be too much of a snob to spend that much on a Giant. The Giant is available locally... though the local shop isn't my first choice for a place to shop.

Last but not least is the bike that doesn't fit my original description, but must be added for texture. The Moots Compact Custom. It is similar in weight to the Ridley Noah... about 100 grams heavier. That makes it a hair heavier than the Felt also. It is beautiful. Has a great ride. It also will likely be the last road bike that I'll ever have to buy. What it lacks in super sexy carbon fiber goodness, it more than makes up for in its amazing ride and durability. It the second most expensive bike on the list at around $4000 (including custom geometry and fork). I've always loved Moots frames. I looked at Seven and IF and they're both great bikes... but they don't jazz me like the Moots. I can't explain why. The Moots would come from my friends at Speedgoat. I know they're not a local shop, but the owners are good friends and that makes them almost local for me.

Honorable mentions: Calfee Design Dragonfly, Cannondale SuperSix HiMod, KirkLee custom, Colnago C50, and a few others.

Now I need to see how things play out. I might be able to scrimp and save and go easy on things and get the DeRosa. I could go easy on the wheels and put that money into the frame.

I have until the end of February to decide. That is when I really need to make a choice in order to be riding the bike in a reasonable amount of time.

Did I miss anything? I think I covered all of the bases with my search.

Thanks for reading.

Pete

New way to commute...

2008-12-18T20:51:00.002-05:00

Oy oy.

Doc says I need to spend a little time off the bike. I kinda agree with her. I need a break.

Today I started running part way to work and then taking Metro the rest of the way. The run is a hair under 5 miles. That is a dang brutal way to get to work. I have a lot of respect for the guys that I see every day running to work.

Talk to y'all soon.

Pete

The Carrot and the Stick

2008-11-14T08:03:00.003-05:00

Great commute this morning. It was surprisingly warm and the trails were wet and covered in leaves. That made it a bit more adventurous.

My original plan was to take it easy and ride mellow on the way to work. I've got a big ride planned for Sunday and my legs are somewhat toasted after a fairly challenging week of cycling.

That plan went out the window when I rolled onto the W&OD trail and I saw the very familiar sight pattern of Cadex Guy 100 meters ahead of me. This guy is seriously fast. He's also a really nice guy and we ride well together. He talks a little and does his best to make me feel like I'm not entirely lame as we roll along... him relaxed and mellow... me gasping for air and honking out snot rockets.

Riding the W&OD every day can get a little tiring. I tend to make up games to have the ride go a little quicker and to help me keep my pace up. The Carrot and the Stick is quite possibly the best at keeping my legs spinning fast. Anyone out in front of me is a carrot. My job is to catch up to them. Their flashing lights or reflective gear act as short-range radar. On wet mornings, the wet tire tracks left on dry pavement under bridges acts as long-range radar. I can see how many carrots are ahead.

Once I catch and pass a carrot, they become a stick. A stick that hangs on my wheel becomes the best motivation to keep pace high. I'm not trying to drop him/her. I am big enough that I make a good draft. I like being able to motivate people to go fast.

2 or more sticks in relatively close proximety makes a convoy. That is something entirely different. We tend to crash the gate doing 98 and let them truckers roll, 10-4. ;) Sorry.... Had to say that.

Back to this morning.....

I had about a mile to catch up to Cadex Guy before the new "cyclocross" section of the W&OD. They're doing utility work and have 300 meters of trail blocked. You have to jump off onto the gravel section. It isn't tough, though this morning it was seriously slippery in spots. Cadex Guy went from carrot to stick at this point. He wasn't familiar with the section and had 23mm tires, so he took it easy. I've got 35mm soul suckers for tires and just blew by him.

I got a pretty good lead on him and that lasted for about another mile. That's when I came up on Stompy Jamis Dude. CRAP! Meeting this guy is bad enough when conditions are good. When it is wet and leaves are down, it is really bad. He's like me... doesn't always go fast, but can really step on it when he's got someone to ride with. Problem is he's a lot faster than me when he really gets going.

I flew past him in hopes that he wouldn't take the bait.... it was on the short climb right after East Falls Church Metro. Cadex Guy was still about 30 meters back. Stompy Jamis Dude might have been able to ignore me flying by... but he couldn't ingore both me and Cadex Guy... especially when adding him to the mix would make a convoy.

The downhill heading toward the Custis Trail was where I changed from a carrot into a stick bigtime. Both Cadex Guy and SJD came flying past me. I went into the drops to try and hold their wheels, but had no luck at all on the downhill. I just don't have that kind of horsepower or spin.

I was a bit more brave in the turns and kept a good head of steam up the first climb on Custis. I was close enough to start catching a face full of carrot rear wheel spooge off of the wet trails. This is the one part where I had a chance to pass these guys. I was travelling light today... they both had big packs. That was my saving grace. I finally got around them at the base of the rise near Glebe Rd. I held them off on the two steep downhills that go down next to 66.

We rode as a group down "Little Gavia" at Lee Hwy. It was insanely slick. I had the back end step out on me 4 times in about 50 meters. We took it easy through Rosslyn because there was a lot of foot traffic heading past the Marriott. We arrived at the light at Lynn St. together. All out of breath after a really nice commute. SJD heads over Key Bridge. Cadex Guy and I rolled together for about another half mile until he headed down Mt. Vernon Trail while I head across Roosevelt Bridge into DC.

I'm dead meat the next time I meet up with them when I've got a pack on. The worked me over really well today. I won't fare so well tomorrow.

I totally know that playing games like that qualifies me as a MUT Wonder. It is fun and a good way to goof off with the folks that I ride in with. We each get a laugh out of it. Trash talk is encouraged.

Sorry for blathering on. I guess it is my blog, so I'm entitled. :D

Later!

Pete

Doing our part for the economic recovery...

2008-11-08T09:45:00.002-05:00

We've had an interesting summer. As the economy tanks, we've had a bunch of things happen that need fixing around the house. Consequently Laura and I are a two person economic recovery team.

Parts to overhaul the suspension and replace the brakes on the GTI: $1400
New Microwave oven: $300
New dishwasher: $700
Insulation in the attic: ???
Beer for my ride chauffeur: $20

Now we get to spend the day installing our new home items. I'm gonna have to take a day of leave to work on the GTI. I'm still waiting on some parts. Hopefully next Friday I can take the day off and get greasy. I've missed wrenching on cars. It'll be nice to pay back Sean for all the driving he's done going to bike rides. Honestly that's the only thing I really use the GTI for. I'll even play music that he won't hate on the stereo. That's how thankful that I am that he's been a help. I prolly owe him some beer too.

That won't help GM or Ford, but it is doing our part to help.

Pete

Is beer a clear, liquid food?

2008-11-03T21:18:00.002-05:00

I'm having dietary problems. I'm having some kind of surgical procedure Wednesday and it requires that I can't have anything solid or non-clear to eat for 30 hours before my procedure. Oddly enough, I also can't eat anything red or purple. Starting tomorrow morning, I have a 30 hour gauntlet to run. Yuck.

Oh well. At least I don't have to eat anything red or purple. :D

Pete

Great ride at Fountainhead.

2008-09-14T15:38:00.003-04:00

Drew and I headed to Fountainhead for a lap today. I've been sick lately, so I haven't been really riding hard. One lap on a very hot day was a good chance to get out and work my legs a bit.

It was a hot day today... 96 and humid. We'd had rain yesterday morning, so the trails were still wet. I was hoping for tacky, but the roots and rocks were more along the lines of "slimey". The roots and rocks were the problem. When they're wet, it is really easy to get knocked off-line by hitting a wet root or rock. That makes some of the gnarly downhill sections a bit more adventurous.

There were a few things that were cool about this ride:

The bike handled really well. Riding the rough sections was awesome. It let me pick any line I wanted through the rocks and roots. Only the slippery nature of the trail moved me to somewhere that I didn't want to be. There were some steep sections where I really had to do some slow cranking to get up... the bike tracked so well that I had no trouble tracking straight and true. I was impressed.
My gearing is a hair tall for FH. There are a few climbs that I never make. I didn't clean them today. Some that I usually make were a lot more work today. I made it up, but it wasn't pretty. I'll get used to that.
The pedals are great. I really liked the look pedals. I had a few problems clicking in late in the ride, but that was more a factor of me being tired and not feeling great.

Drew and I really had fun. I haven't ridden with him much lately and this was a great chance to go.

Later!

Pete

Mamasita

2008-09-13T11:34:00.002-04:00

Bob asked about my new mountain bike. It is pretty simple. I moved most of the components from my SIR9 over to the new frame. The build is something like this:

2008 Salsa Mamasita (Scandium frame with carbon seat stays)

White Bros Rigid carbon fork

King headset

Thomson X4 stem

Jones H-bars

Avid Juicy 7s

King sS hubs laced to Salsa Delgado Disc rims

Thomson laidback post

Phil Bottom bracket

Kooka forged cranks

Sugino chainring

Surly cog

WTB Nanoraptor tires

Specialized Prodigy sadle.

Connex Whitestar SS chain.
Look Quartz pedals

The gearing is a magic gear for the Mamasita. I'm running 34x19 for the 29er. It is roughly the same as a 2:1 on a 26er. The gear is good for most of the riding I'm doing now. If I go hammer the shed or something, I might want a little bigger cog.

My guess is that this bike will evolve into a 1x5 or 1x6 so that I can take it out west and start on the Colorado Trail next spring. That's a whole other story.

All in all the build is pretty boring. Nothing blingy or fancy in comparison to most of the rides that others are tossing out on the trails these days. It is relatively light, has a great feel to it and handles all 212 pounds of me.

That last phrase is an important one. Last winter I topped out at 237 pounds. This morning I tipped the scales at 212. Once I get down in the 200lb range I'll start thinking about building a blingle speed.

Ultimately I need a bike that I can take to France with me. There's too much good riding there to ignore it. I love the roadie stuff, but spending many weeks there per year will just beg for something to ride. I need something with S&S couplers. Looking at Tony's black sheep is freaking inspirational. Maybe next year. Gotta lose a little more ponchetta first.

You know you're old when....

2008-09-12T09:15:00.001-04:00

I just read that the band Foreigner (not a fave of mine... but one that was popular when I was in high school) is going on tour this year. The tour is being sponsored by AARP. Hahahahahahaha

"Maybe its just the woman in you,
That brings out the man in me."

Hahahaha

Pete

Back on the mountain bike again.

2008-09-12T08:49:00.002-04:00

Greetings human type people.

I've been off the mountain bike since last year. I got back on a little bit a few weeks ago and it felt goooood. I built a new single speed and am pretty happy with how it is working.

I have really missed getting sweaty and dirty at the same time.

Catch up with you soon.

Pete

Child of the 70s

2008-08-28T17:49:00.002-04:00

Oy.

We went to see Cheap Trick, Heart and Journey last night and it was a blast.

Cheap Trick is just awesome. It isn't music of much artistic merit, but it is great to hear fun music performed by a band that clearly LOVES playing in front of an audience... any audience. I've seen them in concert more than 2 dozen times and they're still fun to see.

Heart is an amazing band to see live. Don't miss them. Their music comes to life in person like no band I've seen. Both of the Wilson sisters' voices seem to have gotten stronger and better over the years. They were spot on and I loved every second of the performance.

Journey was really good. Neil Schon's guitar playing was worth the price of entry for sure. Their keyboard player was great. The new singer is awesome and perfectly appropriate for the music and the band. With the exception of one piano solo and Schon's guitar playing, the performance didn't come close to moving me the way Heart's did.

I'm looking forward to seeing Heart again when they're back in town next summer. If you can catch this show, you won't be sorry.

Pete

Lovely to be back in France again...

2008-08-03T12:48:00.002-04:00

Coming to Menton has become a great annual event for us. This year it was much needed for both Laura and I. Laura had been teaching summer school with little time after the school year let out. I had been hammering through a busy time at work and hadn't taken a break for a long time.

I'll try and add in a post or two each day as we go through the trip.

I started using Flickr for posting photos. It is really pretty cool. I'll post up photos using it. Let me know how that works.

Menton 2008 Day 1: Arriving and settling in.

Menton 2008 Day 2: 36th Annual Grand Prix of Menton

Thanks.

Pete

I'm not dead yet!

2008-07-22T10:15:00.002-04:00

"You're not fooling anyone!"

Dang that whole "Bring out your dead" skit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail is funny. It is also surprisingly applicable to my life. ;)

Bob asked what the hell is going on with me (in a nice way) on my blog. I thought I'd post a quick response..

I'm working insane hours. I'm also spending lots of time on the road bike training for a ride in the Alps this summer. My car projects are somewhat on hold at this point.

Work: I'm having fun, but it is insanely demanding. I'm trying to maximize time with my wife and friends too. That leaves little time for other stuff.

Training: I've been off the MTB all year recovering from a fractured tailbone. That is really starting to heal and feel good. I got a bee in my bonnet about taking the bike to France again this year. I really wanted to ride in the alps with a bit more form than I've had in the past.

I've been putting in big miles and some good strength and climbing work over the year so far in preparation for this trip. I'm feeling great and showing signs of actually losing a little weight. It has been really hard for me to increase my beer consumption enough to compensate for the number of calories that I'm burning off. I've done my best.

The sad news is that because of a bunch of stuff that is out of my control, it isn't going to be easy or practical for me to take my bike with me on this trip. I'm cool with that. I'm going to switch to trail running while I'm there. That will be fun and different for me. I'll use my fitness on a bumch of road centuries later this summer. I thought about giving the SM100 a try, but the timing is just wrong for me.

Car Projects: I'm still collecting parts for the Bimmer. I need to really start yanking that beast apart and digging into the metal work. When I've had free time, I've either wanted to do stuff with my wife or go for a long-assed bike ride. My guess is that I'll hit these with more vigor this fall. I really miss getting my hands dirty on german car grease. :D

I guess that's the update. I'll catch up with y'all soon. Thanks for your comments and e-mails.

Pete

Here's the starting point of that Locost you've been wanting to build. :D

2008-03-26T13:35:00.001-04:00

Okay... the price is a little more than what you'd normally buy for a donor car for a Locost build, but the car is a PERFECT candidate.

HERE it is.

I've been looking for the perfect example of a 318IS to use to possibly graft into the 2002 for a more updated engine that is able to make bigger power with lower emisions. I can make the 2002 carburated motor put out plenty of horsepower.... as much as I'd ever really want in a light weight car like that. But when you build big horsepower like that, the cam shaft has enough valve overlap that it spits a fair amount of raw fuel out. That is super cool when you're power shifting through the gears and 3' flames shoot out, but not so cool if you think about the hydrocarbons that you're releasing into the atmosphere.

Oh well. This auction will not be won by me. I thought I'd blog about it though.

Pete

Street Car of the Day 3/7/2008

2008-03-07T12:48:00.001-05:00

Holy crap!!!

You look at this Lotus 23 and you'd swear this is a post for the Race Car of the day. The only detail putting it in the street category is that THIS THING IS STREET LEGAL!!!! WHOOHOOO!!!! I'm all for driving race cars on the street. I think more people should do that. Imagine how much faster we'd get our groceries home in something like this?

Have a good weekend.

Pete

What do we miss by reading Velonews.com?

2008-03-05T13:53:00.000-05:00

Hey peeps!

Welcome to your daily dose of spam from me. :D

I was marooned in a book store a few days ago and picked up the VeloNudes buyer's guide for the hell of it. I'd gotten away from reading the print version since I spend a little time reading the .com version almost every day. I kinda ejoyed the experience, so I bought it. I really don't spend much time reading buyer's guides. There just isn't enough space to give a bike its due in the little paragraph snippets. It is an interesting way to find frame builders that you didn't know existed though. I kinda liked that.

Primus Mootry is one. The guy went to school in boulder at a time when big-name bikes were getting stolen a lot. He put a sticker that said "Primus Mootry" on the lugged steel frame that he'd made himself so that no-one would bother stealing it. He recently was asked by a messanger to not put stickers on the bike because his name is now well known in the area enough that thieves look for them to steal.

Crisp Titanium is pretty cool too. The web site is really cool too... though it is so cool that it is FUCKING ANNOYING!!! Pardon my french. :D

The offspring of Faliero Masi is back at it again. I don't know what Pops would think, but there are some cool bikes in there. The new 3V looks pretty cool. I'm not sure how long Masi has been back making frames. I remember when they stopped. I think they even gave up the name rights for a while.

The other cool thing about this issue is that there are a number of factory tours of different frame builders. They tour some small, one-man shops like Primus Mootry and also take a walk through Specialized.

I'm part way through reading the issue, but thought I'd share what I found.

Hugs and kisses to you all.

Pete

"Street" "Car" of the day 3/4/2008

2008-03-04T15:38:00.000-05:00

Okay. It isn't really made for the street and it definitely isn't a car, but it is worth looking at for sure.

1966 Land Rover Defender.

Make sure to look at the photo gallery. It has the whole build process documented.

Pete

Spa Sport Leg Warmers Review

2008-03-04T07:42:00.002-05:00

Good morning.

This review will hopefully be less sarcastic than the review for my new camera that I did yesterday.

Cold weather cycling necessitates the adding of layers. There are always a few items of clothing that can be added to a cycling ensemble to make it a hair warmer than it otherwise would be. Arm warmers make a short sleeve jersey into a long sleeve one with the option of removing them once you warm up.
Leg warmers provide much of the same functionality, though I haven't ever done a ride where I actually remove leg warmers once they're on. The added benefit of leg warmers is that they give me a place to hide my energy gel packets so that they're easy to access during a ride.
My anceint Sugoi leg warmers are finally ready for retirement. They're pilled enough that they aren't as comfy as they once were and the zippers are really on their way out.
I'd seen ads in VeloNews for SpaSport.com... a NY company selling cycling clothing and accessories (gloves, hats, arm and leg warmers, etc.) for a while. Their prices looked great, so I thought I'd give them a try.
I'm 6'4" and have a 92.5cm inseam and the size Large looked like they should come close to fitting. The ebay store price is $29.99. With shipping it came out to about $34.
Service was amazing. I ordered late on Saturday afternoon. They were in my mailbox Monday when I got home from work. You don't get much better shipping than that!!!.
On first look, the leg warmers were awesome. They are advertised as fleece leg warmers and there really isn't much loft to them. They're basically a very thick lycra... not unlike most of the leg warmers on the market in that price range. They're made in Pakistan and the severything seemed to be really good quality.
They had a really funky smell. It was a combination of the chemicals used in production of the materials and silk screening of logo mied with a fair amount of cigarette smoke. I popped them in the washing machine and sent them through a double cycle to make sure they were really clean. The smell came out immediately and there is no remnant of it.
I put them on this morning for my ride to work and they are great. They're a hair warmer and much more comfortable than my ratty old Sugois. The fit is perfect and the grippers at the top functioned exactly like they should.
This inspires me to try some of their other products. Their cycling jackets look like they might be a great value.
In the end I saved about $8 or 9 by purchasing these over buying Sugoi or Pearl Izumi leg warmers. These will not be mistaken for the $70 Assos leg warmers, but they work well and seem like they'll hold up pretty well.

Spa Sport's ebay store can be found at www.spasport.com.

Pete

New Camera and Facial Recognition Software -- Canon SD1100 IS Reiew

2008-03-03T13:48:00.000-05:00

Oy oy.

I purchased a new camera over the weekend. It just hit the market... it hadn't even been put on the shelf yet at my local camera shop. It is a Canon SD1100 IS. It has many new features that I really liked.

The facial recognition feature is really cool. The idea is that when FR is turned on, the camera will autmatically identify, focus and optimize the photo for anything that it thinks is a face. I tried this out on humans and it worked PERFECTLY on every test subject available (meaning Laura and me).

I also confirmed that it works on different species. Mao and Gracie (our cats) were the first candidates. It had NO problem with them. The red-eye elimination routine is great too. In the cats, Laura's A570 would actually give them glowing gold eyes instead of the red ones that normally are seen with a flash. This camera had no trouble with either kind of glowing eyes.

I decided to see how the camera did with inanimate objects and facial recognition. I then got out a stack of different toys that we have in the sun room to see what it would recognize and what would have problems with. Mike Wazowski (one-eyed monster from the movie Monsters, INC.) was no problem. In fact most of the characters of Bug's Life and Lilo and Stitch provided no trouble at all. All of my toy dinosaurs had faces that were easily identified with the facial recognition software.

There were some things that did not work so well. Barbie and Ken were not recognized as having faces (no big surprise there). They were posed side by side and the camera could only focus on Barbies oddly proportioned boobs and legs.

I found a few plush toys (beanie babies) that also didn't work. Hello Kitty didn't make the cut.

I then took the camera to work to continue the testing. After snapping many photos of friends and co-workers, I was surprised to find one individual that was continually out of focus. I couldn't figure this out, because obviously this guy has a face. Then I realized it... It wasn't that the camera couldn't recognize his face. It was that the camera couldn't figure out which face to focus on. Once I swithced the FR feature off, the photos of this individual came out perfect.

This concludes my camera review/social commentary for the day.

Hugs and Kisses,

Pete

The first 2009 Skyline I've seen on Ebay

2008-02-19T13:24:00.001-05:00

You read it here! THIS is the first 2009 Nissan Skyline that I've seen on ebay. I guess that makes it the car of the day. :D

Pete

Street Car of the day 2/17/2008

2008-02-17T09:23:00.001-05:00

This Alpina BMW 2002 Touring is truly amazing.

I will not be surprised if it goes for the $45,000 BIN price.

Pete

The world's cutest race car!!!! 2/13/2008

2008-02-13T13:55:00.001-05:00

I love those Bugeye Sprites. What could be cuter than a pink one???

I love the description of its features:

Sunroof Hahahaha Yeah... it has a sun roof. Good luck closing it though.

Convertable -- NOT... there's no way to put the top up.
Air conditioning... Hahahahhaha Yeah... the air inside the car is in the same condition as that outside the car...
Cruise Control--- You bet.... as long as the right foot is firmly planted to the floor.
Driver airbag -- Is that a social commentary on the current driver or the next one?
Power windows: It has power. Check! It has window(s). Check! Thus it must have power windows! Hahahaha

Street Car of the Day... 2/13/2008

2008-02-13T13:50:00.001-05:00

Oh this one is a doozie.

Birkin Lotus Super7 Clone

I like the word "Burnt" in the description.

Under Features it lists the interior color as "Other". Hahahahahahahaha

Pete

Race Car of the Day 2-12-2008

2008-02-12T13:29:00.001-05:00

Oy folks. I love Mini Coopers. This one is particularly fine!

1967 Mini Race Car

Pete

Race Car of the Day 2/8/2008

2008-02-07T14:28:00.001-05:00

Okay. I'm living in the future by posting tomorrows RCotD today, but I couldn't resist this 1927 race car with an airplane motor in it. :D

1927 Cirrus Mk2

Pete

Race Car of the Day: 2/07/2008

2008-02-07T13:05:00.001-05:00

Here's a weird one that you don't see too often. Vinage Saab Rally car. Definitely nice to see this in between the American drag cars.

The 1940 vintage sprint car is pretty cool too though.

Pete

Street Car of the Day 2/07/2008

2008-02-07T12:54:00.001-05:00

I thought I'd break the silence with something a litte special.... A 1995 R33 Skyline in perfect condition and only 2000km on the clock should do the trick. :D

Pete

Race Car of the Day 1/30/2008

2008-01-30T15:42:00.001-05:00

Here it is... some real, American steel. I'm serious this time. It is lovely.

1963 Corvette Race car. I'd classify it as a fixer-upper. ;)

Later!

Pete

More than just the car of the day... this may be the car of the week... or month.

2008-01-30T15:09:00.001-05:00

If you've read 2 car posts by me on this blog, you know I like tiny cars. This may be my all time fave. The work done on this Lotus Europa is absolutely amazing.

1972 Lotus Europa S2

Normally I'd say that the pop-up sun roof would be a bummer for this car... except that this thing is so small that I'd need to pop that sunroof out so that my head could stick out the top. Not the safest vehicle to drive for me, but WTF. You only live once. :D

Later!

Pete

Playing catch-up with the cars of the day.

2008-01-30T12:38:00.001-05:00

Oy oy. Testing has been rather taxing for a few days. I haven't had time to blog at all. I thought I'd take a few moments and catch up on The Street/Race Car of the day posts. There are some good ones.

Street Cars of the day....

Sweet mother of god save me from this 1958 Austin Bug-eye sprite! That thing is awesome and insanely cute.

What the heck is an M2???? Basically it is a BMW 2002 that someone stuffs an E30 M3 motor into. Imagine a 1500 pound, 200+hp car that handles like a dream and you get the picture. Not an easy swap, but well worth the time and energy.

1958 Lotus 7 Series 1. OH MY FREAKING GOD. I'm such a geek. I wonder if this comes with tweed jacket, dorky hat and a pipe to smoke.

Race Cars of the day....

Don't miss this one!!!! It is a practical one... It'll make a great grocery getter.... as long as you don't have to turn between home and the market. JUST KIDDING!!! This is very indicative of the kinds of stuff that come up on the Race Car search. Tons of people are selling their drag cars.

Hahahahaha. Chevy powered AMC Spirit!!! hahahahahah. AWESOME!!! I want one.

Sorry. I didn't see any race cars that tempted me. Just a few that were interesting to look at.

Maybe tomorrow!

Later.

Trail Reviews for St. George

2008-01-26T19:50:00.001-05:00

Oy oy. I thought I'd do a little research for on trails on the St. George, Utah area.

Barrel Ride sounds pretty good. It is part of another trail... the Race Course. I'll try and get info on that too.

Broken Mesa Trail

Church Rocks Trail. Is kinda short, but really fun. Has some nice slickrock.

JEM, Gould Rim and Hurricane Rim. I loved that ride 3 years ago.

Little Creek Mesa -- Definitely don't miss this trail.

Little Creek Mountain Trail Network -- Also sounds pretty amazing. This is a dang long trail.

Owens Loop Trail -- In St. George. Short and sweet, but not exactly epic.

Three Peaks Loop -- Cedar City.

Thunder Mountain -- I hope this isn't burried in snow this year.

Green Valley Loop -- St. George

Okay. That should get a little discussion going.

Some more resources.

Utah Mountain Biking web site

Later!

Pete

Race Car of the Day 1/26/2008

2008-01-26T16:32:00.000-05:00

Mario Andretti's Morris Mini Cooper????

To be honest, today's "Race Car of the Day" and "Street Car of the DAy" could easily be interchanged. I want to race both of them. I also want to street both of them.

Tough choice.

Pete

Street Car of the Day: 1/26/2008

2008-01-26T16:17:00.000-05:00

This one is back up on ebay again. I guess it didn't get sold the first time around. Dang am I tempted by this car. It is gorgious and a great project. The best thing about it is the level of detail the guy put in his post. I'm going to just quote it here because it is a great story.

You can see the Auction at the link below:

1966 Lotus Cortina

Vehicle Description
I have decided to relist this car/s after it didn't make the reserve. I have lowered the reserve and the BUY IT NOW to make it sell. I tried to accurately depict what know about this car, and what obsessive steps I have taken in its resurrection.
There are some new facts included below in italics.
I hate to see it chopped up, so I hope this prce reduction send it/them to a good home.
Please read the revised narrative (with new info from former drivers, etc.), and then you can make an informed evaluation and choice about the car.
Remember, we are talking about 2.5 cars here, so keep that in mind as you read.
BOTH CARS ARE LISTED AS "ROLERS" meaning, no engines, but both have gearboxes.
Twelve years ago I bought what was believed by many to be a Lotus Cortina SCCA GT4 roller .To be absolutely clear, I was well aware that it wasn't a real Lotus, having raced them back in the early seventies. I also owned a real Lotus Cortina (BA74EK59742). I had bought it, sight unseen years before.
It was a "swiss cheese" of rust and a victim of scavenging.. little more than the important LoCort parts and the paperwork.
It had been stripped almost to the firewall, but it was real (rusty, rusty, rusty), and figured on using the GT4 car for its parts.
The GT4 car was a really great car at one time, but had suffered from racing, storage and parts picking. It had been built in the eighties by Clay Vyzralek who cleverly assumed the AVO trademark when Ford didn't re-register it (that's what I was told). He is now, I believe in Colorado, still under the AVO banner. I emailed him, but no answer. The roll cage, advanced suspension, fiberglass doors, hood, trunk and front fenders and flares were expertly done, artwork on wheels. And the mechanicals were all first rate.
So I bought it with the idea of resurrecting my Lotus Cortina with the majority of the parts from the AVO car and go Vintage racing. After all, the AVO car had VARA and VR history and a 1991 SCCA runoffs appearance. But even though the car was "essentially complete" less engine, it was really more of a shell with boxes of parts.
I began to restore the Lotus Cortina using the AVO GT4 trick racing parts.
To make certain that the LoCort was indeed what it was supposed to be, I matched up the VIN number on the Cortina homepage:
http://freespace.virgin.net/tommy.sandham/chassis2.htm
I also thought I registered the car with the Lotus Cortina Register via mail, but it was 14 years ago, and I now can't be certain. I heard from them that they didn't have any record of the car. I have had six Lotus cars in that period, and may have confused one with the other, or it may be a registration error (I never became a member or sent in any membership fees). No matter, it really doesn't mean much in the end. Here's the car, here's the paperwork.
I was careful to preserve as much of the LoCort as possible (even salvaging the "hump") and including the front strut tower with VIN (now heavily reinforced by the AVO car's cage).
In splicing the strut tower onto the GT4 frame to preserve the VIN stamp, I ran into very thin rusty metal, and screwed up the weld/fill in the area around VIN stamp, losing one letter stamp in the process. I making all this absolutely clear, so anyone bidding will know all of the circumstances (see photo) I wasn't aware of it until a sharp ebayer pointed it out because I never had the chasis plate and the car in the same place to compare.
Almost eveything else are replacement/used parts (GT rear fenders) or the AVO parts lightweight bodywork. There wasn't much to work with at the rear of the LoCort as it was rusted away. So I grafted the back bodywork of the AVO car onto the LoCort and began to build up the LoCort as a Vintage racer.
Again, I want to be perfectly clear. This is a real LoCort, or at least a resurrected LoCort with a mostly new tub, now setup for the GT4 AVO fiberglass bodywork.
I probably should have just changed the VIN plate, it would have been a lot easier (and illegal), but I always thought that I could save the LoCort, and I did. I guess I thought it would be a quick turnaound and I would have it up an racing in a year or so.
Then, as the rotisserie turns, I mentioned to a friend with our local Vintage racing group that I was prepping this car, using the fiberglass bodywork and with the cage and race parts from the AVO car for Vintage racing. It was then that I realized that I had been away from Vintage racing too long and a flared, fiberglass car was not a viable entry.
I take full responsibility for not contacting them in advance, and understand the concept of "period correct cars" at vintage meets (within reason). I thought of 1991 Runoffs and earlier race history of the GT4 car; thinking of converting it BACK to a standard Cortina GT4 with documented race history. But decided that I had gone to all of the trouble to save the Lotus Cortina....
All I needed some metal bodywork and doors to make it vintage legal.
So I did what any reasonable person would, and bought yet another Cortina; a 1966 Cortina GT (donor) from San Antonio.
It too was (is) a roller that had somehow sat in a field in South Texas without rusting,. It has good doors, windows, hood, glass and the majority of a LoCort interior was shared with the GT. The front fenders are all there, they need some bodywork, but beside that, it's the perfect donor... it even has a gearbox, five steel wheels and a radio! It's a filthy beast, but a really "tub solid" donor car.
So, following are photos of most of what I have for sale.
The sandblasted and primed, LoCort unibody with VIN and plate, most of the AVO roll cage (some had to be cutout for access and fitment, but I have those tubes) and race stuff attached, replaced rear fenders, all of the really trick stuff that AVO built, a close ratio Leason straight cut 4 speed (price one of those for chuckles), engineered front and multi-link rear suspensions, race seat, fuel cell tank for a FuelSafe bladder (bladder expired and scrapped as this has taken so long) and all of the other stuff to make a racecar or really trick street Lotus Cortina.
I also have the mostly complete GT donor car with doors, hood fenders etc. and the full set of the GT4 fiberglass panels... not to mention all of the small parts, gauges, Aeroquipt lines, radiator, two windshields, six 13 x 7 VIA mags, 4 pot front brakes, vented rotors, headers and exhaust system, Supertrap, finned rear drums, locker rear, two articulated driveshaft sets, spare axles, 3.771:1 locker rear, spare std. Cortina rear, even fabricated aluminum overflow catch cans, firewalls, and window stays. I tossed the twenty year old harness but kept the window net.
Oddly, I never got a steering wheel with any of the three cars.
So just as I am finally get everything assembled to finally hang the rest of the donor body parts on the LoCort and get it ready for paint... I come to the realization that at this time of my life, the project is just beyond my grasp.
I also acquired an Elan last year that is a running, complete car that I can easily restore.
So I have decided to sell the Cortina/Lotus Cortina car(s)... with all of the really hard stuff done...
Think of it as the car you always wanted, and a donor car for the driveway to p*** off the neighbors.
Build it up as a Lotus Cortina, a GT4 Cortina, a Cortina GT... it's all just parts bins.
I have Texas title paperwork for the GT donor and logbook and title for the AVO GT4, I have not applied for a title on the Lotus Cortina but I have all of the paperwork for it should you want to (see images). You will recieve a Bill of Sale and all of the paperwork.
I have added more photos at
http://www.webpages.charter.net/andy2236/index.htm
I live in Fort Worth, Texas and have a very flexible schedule if you want to come look at the car (which I urge) it's 20 minutes over from DFW.
If you buy it, I will need an immediate $500 deposit via PayPal and the remaining balance in cash or Cashier's Check (verifiable by calling the bank) within 72 hours of the transaction, not later, not when you pick it up. I can store it for 30 days, but will not accept any responsibility for it while it is stored in my facility (my garage, but facility sounds more lawyerish). If you want it shipped, you arrange it, you pay for it, I'll help out as much as I can.
I might take an interesting vintage race trade, plus cash.
Please, don't forget that this is a number of body parts, boxes of parts and cumbersome, heavy metal parts including two cars. If you want to strip the Cortina GT and just take the parts you want, I can dispose of the remains for you. That way it could all fit on a one car trailer. I also have a trailer and could arrange delivery within 500 miles for an additional fee to be negotiated up front.
AS IS WHERE IS No warranty expressed or implied. This is a 42 year old disassembled vintage race car and a donor street car that hasn't been on the street in 30 years. As such may be missing any number of small parts or hardware. It is YOUR responsibility to inspect the car before sale, not after. Also understand that Vintage race cars are dangerous, sometimes more that most because of the age of the component parts. You should magnaflux any critical part before using it on any racing car.
If it doesn't sell this time, at this price, then I will consider parting it out. BUT NOT UNTIL THE AUCTION IS OVER. I can certainly make more money that way, but I had hoped for it to be restored.
If you have any questions, please email me. I'll answer them as quickly and honestly as I can. And thanks again for all of the helpful emails the last time around. I had no idea that there were that many people who knew of the LoCort, or even actually raced the GT4 car.
This ia a five day auction, so act early if you want the car.

A gearhead's proudest moment...

2008-01-25T22:24:00.000-05:00

Today my wife had an all-day meeting for the Social Studies honors program that she's teaching this year. It was a teacher inservice. They were working on developing curriculum for a part of the class where they teach kids about how different systems. The idea is to teach kids about how different inputs are combined, acted upon by a system and result in a desired effect and additional outputs.

The person giving the inservice had this group of 25 Social Studies teachers the example of an automibile engine. She asked about inputs, processes and outputs.

My amazing wife raised her hand and when called upon, described the entire function of a 4 cycle, internal combustion engine. The person giving the inservice was skeptical and asked her specific questions, thinking that she didn't know her stuff. Laura answered all of the questions in detail.

At first many people asked her how she knew that. She said her husband was a car freak and that it just rubbed off on her. The whole group then got a good laugh out of that.

I'm so proud. My wife is a freak. ;)

Pete

Race Car of the Day 1/25/2008

2008-01-25T15:15:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday!!!

American Muscle wins the Race Car of the Day today. It was a tough choice. There was a Viper RT10 that had been used as an agricultural modifcation tool that was pretty tempting. The price was right for sure. There was an Ex Michael Andretti Indy Car that was definitely in the mix too... It would be cool to show up at SCCA Solo Nats in one of those things... But the winner for sure is the 1994 Z06 Vette.

Enjoy and I'll come up with some more tomorrow.

Pete

Street Car of the Day: 1/25/2008

2008-01-25T08:31:00.001-05:00

Only 11 more months of Christmas Shopping left! You can use my "Street Car of the Day" or even the "Race Car of the Day" blog entries as a shopping guide for the ones you love. Hopefully I'll make SOMEONE's list this year. :D

The Race Car of the Day blog idea was such a HUGE success yesterday (9 people read it. No-one commented) that I thought I'd add in a street car of the day blog entry too. We'll see how this goes.

The choice for today is a BMW 1600 from the late 60s. Most of the time I realy don't like old cars that are updated with some modern stuff in them, but this thing could be my ideal daily driver. Obviously this owner has put in a ton of work on this car. It is pretty dang cool.

This Austin Mini Cooper may be one of the best that I've seen in a long time. It freaking rocks!!! Some might be tempted to put this under "Race car of the day" but not me. That thing has daily driver written all over it!!!!

If you're looking at this blog entry and the links no longer work, that is because they're links to e-bay auctions. These entries are definitely "You snooze and you lose" in nature.

See you later.

Pete

Race car of the day. 1/24/2008

2008-01-24T14:23:00.001-05:00

Welcome to a new feature at AUSOE.Blogspot.com. It is called Race Car of the Day. I love Ebay and thought I'd post some of my favorites as I look at different race cars that people are selling. At times I might venture out of the "race" area of interest, but I think most anything posted here will be at least a good candidate for a race car.

Today was a tough choice for me.

There's a Spec E30 car or a 57 Bel Air Pro street car.

I'm leaning towards the Spec E30.

Very Interesting. :D

Pete

Smithereens at the State Theatre

2008-01-12T23:52:00.000-05:00

Every year the band The Smithereens play the State Theatre in Falls Church, VA... about 10 minutes from our house. I've been saying that we should go see them for the last 5 years. Tonight we did. OH MY GOD were they great.

We prepared for the show pretty well. We listened to their first three CDs as well as their Beatles tribute CD all afternoon. Last night we watched "A Hard Day's Night" on DVD, which got us in a musical mood.

All the old songs that we love were performed perfectly. They did 4 songs from their Beatles tribute CD. They played "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who and even gave "Sweet Home Alabama" a try.

After 28 years together, they still obviously enjoy performing. They were having as much fun as we were.

The State Theatre is an awesome music venue. The 1940s movie theater was converted to a music hall in the late 90s. The accoustics are great. You can reserve a table and have dinner and drinks before the show if you like.

By far the best place to be is the floor right in front of the stage. We arrived at 8:30 for a 9pm show, walked down and were 10 feet from the front of the stage. They started a little late, but played for 2 hours straight.

After the show we stood around out front for about 10 minutes. The band walked out and we got to shake hands with them and talk for a few minutes before they headed off to sign autographs.

What an amazing night.

I can't wait till the come back next year.

Pete

National Trolley Museum

2008-01-04T08:40:00.000-05:00

Oy folks.

We did a little touristing this winter and one of the places we found was the National Trolley Museum. It is pretty dang cool! I was a little confused by touring the museum at night, but once we got there, it all made sense. Those crazy Christians and their train obsessions.

Anywho.. You can read about it HERE.

Later! Pete

My new bike frame... A sign of how much I'm working.

2007-11-20T08:32:00.001-05:00

I have a new bike frame. It was ordered in February. It arrived Friday. I picked it up Saturday. I unwrapped it. I looked at it. I showed it to Jason and Brian. I stuck it in the basement. I confirmed that the paint indeed glows in the dark. I haven't looked at it since.

It is a Niner RIP9 full suspension frame. Google will get you all you want to know about the frame and more. I've got about 60% of the parts that I need to build it. I probably could put it together with crap I have laying around. That wouldn't do the frame justice.

I need to buy brakes, cranks and handlebars. I'll probably get that stuff early next year.

Okay. Time to get back to work.

Pete

No Pants, No Money, No Job.

2007-11-14T07:23:00.000-05:00

Roy Pearson, the judge who brought a $67,000,000.00 law suit against a dry cleaner for losing his pants lost his job yesterday.

While I wish evil on no man, I'm smiling a little inside.

Hugs and Kisses,

Pete

IPOD Touch

2007-11-07T08:08:00.000-05:00

I got one. I like it. It is pretty darn cool. The 8gig seems to do all that I need it to... if the word "need" can actually be used along with an IPOD.

Pete

Oh My God

2007-11-06T14:42:00.001-05:00

I've got THIS song in my head and I can't get it out. Oddly enough, I don't really mind it. :D It is the song that turned me on to Lily Allen and I am enjoying that too.

Hugs and Kisses.

Pete

I'm slightly less boring this weekend.

2007-11-05T12:27:00.000-05:00

I didn't hardly work all weekend.... only for a few hours Sunday night. I spent more time working on my car than on my laptop this weekend.

La and I went to the sprawling metropolis of Clifton, VA to be tourists. It didn't suck.

We played poker with friends Saturday night. I was exhausted enough that people mistook my face for a good poker face. I freaking cleaned up! I walked out of John's house $13.05 richer. I'm going to invest it.

Monday morning was kind of a rude awakening. Did I mention that I HATE daylight savings time? The Fuzzbutts (aka "cats") just don't adjust to new schedules that quickly.

Later!
Pete

I never realized how lame American Football was until today.

2007-09-02T20:00:00.001-04:00

Hey doods.

Don't get me wrong. I still watch football when I can (meaning when the Broncos are playing). There's a new thing on DirecTV that takes an NFL game and deletes all the time between plays and boils it down to the actual time between when the ball is snapped and when the guy is tackled. They include a brief shot of the referee if there is a penalty or a challenge. They cut out ALL stop time. Any guesses on how long these programs are for a football game that has a broadcast of 3 hours?

The answer is......

30 minutes.

Kinda adds a little perspective on the game, eh?

Pete

The Spork of the Gods.

2007-08-15T13:00:00.000-04:00

I've had numerous "my life was incomplete before I found this" finds lately. I wasn't sure I could go another day without the LED bathroom faucet that makes the water coming out apear to be blue.

That pales in uselessness when compared to the titanium spork.

I'm going to have to order a few of these. They're just too cool.

Love,

Pete

The Politically Correct way to tell someone that you're staring at their ass.

2007-07-31T14:54:00.001-04:00

Okay! So I'm standing in line to get my coffee this morning and there's a rather striking looking Latina in line in front of me. I somehow managed to notice that her Metro-rail pass is about to fall out of her back pocket.

I am faced with a serious dilemma. If I tell her that her metro pass is about to fall out of her pocket, it will be EXTREMELY obvious that I've been staring at her ass. If I don't tell her, she could lose her pass and it could be a real hardship for her. It wasn't just a metro card, it was one of the passes that give you lots of access and is paid for by your employer. Those things are valuable and a pain to replace.

I continued to stare at metro card for a while longer (the line was suprisingly long for 7:15am) while I tried to decide what to do.

In the end, I turned to the woman behind me and asked her if she could tell this Latina that her Metro pass was about to fall out of her pocket. That worked out great! The Latina chick now thinks that the woman behind me is a perv, and the woman behind me thinks I'm a perv. No-one is going to believe the woman behind me if she tells them that I was staring at this other woman's but because she is the one that acted on her perverted thoughs. Not me. :D

It all worked out well in the end.

Love,

Pete

I am Alpha Cat (Part 2)

2007-07-30T20:42:00.001-04:00

You may remember a post back in May about me establishing myself as Alpha cat in our household. When we were gone for 2 weeks in Europe, I thought that Mao would re-establish his status as alpha cat. It didn't really happen though. I came home and moved right back into my top cat status.

Over the last week or so, he has been trying to assert his dominance. He's been misbehaving, beating up his sister and generally being a naughty cat. I needed to assert my alpha status again.

When he does something that he thinks is worthy of demonstrating his alpha cat status, he rubs his face against some stationary item in the house to get his scent on it and mark it as under his ownership. I decided that just scolding him and locking him in the basement when he misbehaves isn't enough. I need to establish my ownership of the house.

Whenever I do something that I think is worthy of being alpha cat, I then rub my face, neck and sometimes armpits on some stationary household item near where I am. This got an immediate reaction from Mao. He came right up and rubbed on the thing that I just claimed as my own. I rubbed again and when he went to rub on it, I scared him away.

After doing this for 2 days, he actually started recognizing me as alpha cat. Truly weird.

I took this a step farther and decided that when he's bad, I need to mark him as my property. You can't imagine how loud Laura laughed when she walked into the sun room to see me rubbing the cat under my armpit. Mao didn't think it was so funny. He kinda ran away to take a bath.

It is a good thing to be king. :D

Love,

Pete

No baby birds were harmed in the preparation of this post.

2007-06-12T07:03:00.001-04:00

Goooooooooooooooooooooood MORNING VIETNAM!!!!!!!!

Sorry. I've always wanted to saythat. :D

I was working on Squirrel Girl's bike last night and I thought a few things were worth mentioning in regards to this project.

I hate tubeless tires. It wasn't hard getting the old ones off. Cleaning the Stan's sealant out of the tires isn't too bad. Building wheels on the Mavic 819 rims is freaking annoying though. I hate the little threaded nipple cups (sounds kinky, eh?). The wheels turned out awesome in the end. I think she'll like them. Setting the bead isn't bad at all with a compressor. (see baby bird comment below)
I hate old Thomson stems. That wedge thing is stoopid. It is too easy to overtighten them.
Titus makes a pretty damn nice bike!!!! I really like the suspension design and the way the pivots are built. I'm impressed. I'd consider an Asylum or RAcerx29er as a future bike.

The baby bird comment comes from the fact that a little bird nested just above my air compressor in the carport. I needed the compressor to set the bead on the tubeless tires. Had I turned the compressor on, the birds would have been seriously traumatized. Instead, I drove to the gas station and used their compressor.

I feel good about myself. :D

No the freaking little birds won't shut up! It drives the cats crazy.

Pete

Bad case of Morning Legs.

2007-06-06T10:15:00.001-04:00

After last night's Wakefield ride, my commute to work this morning was less than supper inspired. The downhill spinning was great. I didn't have a lot of horsepower for the two steep climbs though. It will be interesting to see how the ride home goes. Getting more sleep at night would help too.

Pete

Weird-assed shoes.

2007-06-05T16:14:00.000-04:00

Hi people. :D

I saw these on the internet recently. I was thinking to myself, "Self? What kind of freak would buy a pair of these?"

Vibram Five Fingers Shoes

Oh yeah... I would

They're actually really comfortable. They're a little tough to put on, but they will replace my old Keens. :D

Pete

The Commuting Bike Upgrades

2007-06-05T09:09:00.001-04:00

Oy oy.

I haven't talked about this bike for a while and it has evolved a little. I'm on a blog simplification kick, so I'm gonna post this here instead of on my wrench blog.

At the end of last riding season, I decided to build a dedicated commuting bike for this year. I like riding the road bike, but quite honestly it I don't get a full workout in the time that I have to ride to and from work. The ability to coast makes it a little too easy and at 5am I'm not motivated enough to keep pedaling to push the speed and thus the workout value up. At the end of the day, I'm dogged enough that I don't really feel like hammering home. Additionally, I shouldn't be riding faster on the bike path since that is't really safe.

The new commuting bike is a fixie. I took an old MTB frame and put a bunch of old parts on it. I have a 44 tooth ring on the White Ind. ENO cranks and an Eno rear hub to take up the chain slack. Most of the other parts are ancient mountain bike stuff. I put 700c wheels on it even though it is designed for 26" wheels. I used a Paul's BMX brake up front that allows me to line up the brake pads with the larger diameter rim. It was originally built with flat bars and bar ends. I've got full fenders on the thing and they're great on days like yesterday.

I liked this build a lot. I finally got the gearing right (44x16) so that I could fly down the hills and still have enough power to crank up them too. Riding the fixie is a lot more of a workout and I'm not really going any faster.... in fact my commute time is a bit longer with the fixie than it was on the road bike.

This week I made a change. I wanted some more hand positions. For road bike positioning (very low handlbars so that my back is flatter and I'm a bit more aggressive) makes it a little uncomfortable to just have flat bars. I like the ability to crank up hills with them, but I needed more variety and the ability to stretch out if I want to.

My pals at Speedgoat hooked me up with some 45cm-wide drop bars that will fit my MTBstem (made by Nitto). They're AWESOME! I put some 1980s vintage Dura-Ace brake levers on it so that I can grab the hoods when I'm out of the saddle. That seemed to work great. I raised the stem up a hair so that I had a little higher bar since the drop bars stretch me out a little more. That ended up being almost perfect. I might go for a slightly shorter stem. We'll see.

I really prefer the feel of the drop bars for almost everything. The positioning is much more intuitive for me on a road bike. The one thing I definitely noticed is that they're not as wide as my old flat bars. As a result I don't have the power up the hills like I did before. I noticed it a little on the early morning climbs yesterday morning. I noticed it a TON on the climbs on the way home. It is going to definitely take more arm strength for me to stomp up the hills with this thing. I guess that is good. For now I'll go slower up the climbs but with time I'll hopefully get better technique and stronger upper body.

I'm super happy with how the bike has turned out. All I need is a basket on the front and I'll be set to go. That will probably have to wait until I return from vacation in July. :D

See you on the trails.

Pete

Flattracking the Fixie.

2007-06-04T10:29:00.000-04:00

Oy oy.

It was rainy and wet for the commute this morning and Dr. Einstein left the tire pressure set at 120psi for the ride in. DUMB MOVE! I didn't crash though. It was by the grace of god that I didn't though.

As always with an incident like this, there are many factors that contribute to the crash.

It was wet and slick.
This part of the trail has a groove parallel to the direction of travel and lots of paint on the pavement.
There was this headphone-wearing pedestrian walking erratically that jumped 2' to the left when he finally heard my bell.

Fortunately I was taking it easy today and moving pretty slowly. I jumped to the left to miss this guy and my front wheel skidded a little. The back tire dropped into a groove that is about the same width as the tire. That sent the front end sliding a bit more. As my weight shifted, I instinctively clicked my right foot out to balance. The back wheel jumped to the left a little. I countersteered just a bit and somehow the tires got grip and I straightened back up. The left foot kept pedaling as though nothing had ever happened. I clipped my right foot in and went on.

I don't honestly know how I stayed up. It was sheer dumb luck.

I lived to ride another day. :D

Pete

Osmond Mania

2007-05-25T09:12:00.000-04:00

In honor of the Osmonds getting the band back together I went out on ebay and found something to wear to the show.

Love,

Pete

I am alpha cat!!!!

2007-05-22T10:06:00.000-04:00

Cats are definitely hierarchical. My wife and I have two cats. Mao and Gracie are brother and sister from the same litter. Mao is a 15 pound behemoth and Gracie is a dainty little 10-pound cutie. For most of their 3 year life, Mao has been alpha cat and Gracie has been beta cat. That changes from time to time when Gracie gets sick of her big brother beating up on her. She'll go ape-shit all over him and he'll be beta cat for a day or two while she enjoys some time on top of the feline hierarchy.

Oddly enough, my wife and I often fit into the different levels of cat-ness. I usually slot in just below Mao, my wife goes back and forth between being just above or just below Gracie on the pecking order. (Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with the human hierarchy of the home. That is pretty well defined. My wife is in charge and I am a step down. I sometimes ignore what she says, but she's always on the top of the ladder.)

Last week all of this changed. The cats have their own ways of letting us know that it is time to wake up. Gracie is usually quite respectful and cute. Mao is often a bit more aggressive. As alpha cat, it is his right.

I was napping on the weekend and he decided to wake me up. He snuck a paw under the covers and extended his claws on my stomach. In my reaction to getting needled in the ribs, I moved to protect myself. I accidentally kinda whacked Mao on the side of the head. He went flying off the bed and ran away. He wasn't hurt at all, but he definitely changed his outlook on things.

Obviously I was now faster and more powerful than him, so I instantly became alpha cat. I can tell this because he now pays attention to what I tell him. He loves to play with the phone cord. Now when I tell him to stop, he stops and goes to do something else. That is one example. He really has changed his entire way that he deals with me.

The changes are not only in the dealings between Mao and me. Gracie treats me differently too. As charlie cat, she now works really hard to please the new, more affectionate alpha cat. With that in mind, she gets first pick of where to sleep on the bed when it is time to hit the hay. She chooses a prime spot up by our heads. Mao is relegated to the bottom of the bed. She also gets some respect when it is time to play. Usually Mao just takes over any game that Gracie and I are playing. Now he actually waits his turn until she's done.

My wife seems to jump between charlie cat and delta cat. That hasn't really changed with my ascention to alpha status.

I'm a benevolent and kind alpha cat. He still gets play time and lots of affection. At some point that will be seen as weakness by him and he'll try to assert his alpha status. I'm working on ways to keep alpha status without whacking him on the head. My guess is that a squirt bottle with water in it might be used. :D

Later.

Pete

One less tooth makes a difference....

2007-05-21T11:04:00.000-04:00

Oy oy.

I've been baaaaaaaaad lately. I either haven't had much to say or haven't had time to say it. I'd like to change that a bit. A lot has happened lately and I'd like to get back to blogging about it.

One of the changes for me lately is getting back in the swing of commuting by bicycle. I was seriously sick earlier this year (reason #204 why I haven't been posting much) and a few weeks ago got the thumbs up from the doc to really get back to riding as much as I want.

I'd been riding a few days per week, but not alot of intensity or distance. I was just putting miles in.

Two weeks ago I started riding to work again when my schedule allowed. That had me riding Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The big difference is that I've been riding the fixed gear bike lately. I was a little worried about getting the right gearing and I thought I had it about spot on.

Running a 44x17 gear I was a little uncomfortable on both the downhills and uphills. I'd have to be ready to hit the brake if I got spinning too fast and needed to back off on the downhills. The flats and gradual inclines/declines felt pretty good. The steep climbs were pretty tough. Some were a pretty normal stomp, but two climbs on the way in and three climbs on the way home were slow, tough cranking to get to the top. That kinda made me feel like I had the right gear.

This weekend I got a 16t cog and thought I'd give that a try. What a huge change 1 tooth makes. The hills that were slightly uncomfortable became much faster and much easier to keep up with the spin. The downhill near home that has one of those radar-activated speed signs recorded me at 19mph with the 44x17 when I was pretty close to spinning out. I hit it this morning and was going 24mph and didn't feel bad at all about the spin. It was really nice.

The climbs were another story. The two slow cranks on the way to the work required even more cranking, though I don't think I really moved any slower up them with the 44x16 gear.

Overall my normal commute time to work was cut by almost 11 minutes. Everything rolled faster.

It will be interesting to see what happens on the way home. Riding home is mostly uphill, though there are realy only 3 hills of the slow cranking variety. In theory I should be able to stomp up the others with only a little more effort than with 44x17.... I'll be moving a little faster though. I should also get more recovery on the short downhills that I have leading up to the bigger climbs. That should make the climbs a little easeir. 44x17 didn't give me much recovery time because I was having to work so hard to keep spinning so fast.

One last comment... I'm spinning 180mm cranks. Chris Jabberhockey is thinking of ditching his White Industries cranks. He doesn't like the way the chainrings are set up. He's doinked at least one by hammering it on a log. If he feels like selling them, I might drop down to 175s. It would make my spin a lot better. I'll see how this works for a while first.

As usual, I've babbled on about shit hat no-one but me cares about. :D

Talk to you soon.

Pete

Quuote for the day...

2007-03-05T19:45:00.001-05:00

Guy Noire: "She walked into my life wearing a Mt. Rushmore t-shirt. Those guys never looked so good, particularly Washington and Jefferson.... kind of bloated, but definitely happy."

Love,

Pete

My friend's new dog.

2007-03-05T12:49:00.001-05:00

My friend Maxine got a new dog. It is a long story how it found her and I will gladly spare you that.

It is a breed of dog that someone is trying to establish. It is called a Poochi. That is a cross between a poodle and a chijuajua. I suggested that the name is boring. They should have called the breend Chiwoodle.

Okay. That's the end of my marginally funny story. You can pretend to laugh now.

Pete

Mexican NASCAR

2007-03-05T07:36:00.001-05:00

Oy oy.

Yesterday was the NASCAR Busch series race held each year in Mexico City. It is a road course event and I've really grown to love it. It was broadcast in Spanish on ESPN and in English on ESPN2. I watched ESPN. It was extremely cool to see the difference in coverage, even though I could barely understand a word.

I like that NASCAR has slowly become a little more international. Not only do they now have Toyota in the line-up, but they've also got some foreign drivers. There were 7 drivers from Mexico in the race. The top 10 had a Colombian, 2 Mexicans and an Aussi. The race was finally won by Juan Pablo Montoya. It was a great race!

One of the things I enjoyed was the pronunciation of some of the names by the Mexican announcers. My personal favorite was "J. J. Yeley", which in Spanish comes out, "Yay Yay Yeley".

NASCAR has the rap of being an American sport that deosn't really interest the rest of the world. It was very cool to see 72,000 Mexicans show up to enjoy some racing. NASCAR and the Mexican hosts for this race seemed to put on a great show. With luck, it will bring some new fans to racing as well as some tollerance and enlightenment to American race fans.

I can' wait for next year's race. Maybe we'll even get a cup race down there.

Pete

Building a new fixie...

2007-02-28T10:08:00.000-05:00

Ahhhh... the project has started. I ordered parts and they'll start trickling in over the next week or so. Hopefully I'll have it all and built by the middle of next week. Finding time and a place to ride it are going to be tough.

What is it????

I've wanted a big-tired fixie for riding off road for a while. This will be fully rigid and at this point will have absolutely no brakes. The frame is designed around the Surly 3.7" endomorph tire and Large Marge rim. From what I was told, there are only 6 of these frames in existance. The frame is steel and the welding work on it is seriously cool looking. The fork is definitely a little different than what I'm used to. It uses a through axle and a kind-of unique bearing set-up. I can't really describe it more until I actually see what it looks like.

I went with shorter cranks than usual -- 175mm. The bottom bracket spindle is one of those 48 spline variety. ISIS cranks and BB were an option, but I went with the weird splined ones because I also went with tubular chromoly cranks for strength. It is easy to mess up your cranks when you can't coast over obstacles. Someone my size has to be careful with that. I'm also going seriously retro with this and getting platform pedals for it.

To start out with I'll just be getting used to riding this thing. I'll use it as a grocery getter and just do some urban riding on it so I get used to not coasting. Hopefully by early spring I'll be hitting the trails with it. In the beginning it will be mostly mellow stuff... Wakefield, Rosaryville and maybe Schaeffer. I'm definitely going to have to learn to deal with log hops on this.

I'll post photos when I start getting stuff in. I don't mean to be so mysterious. I'm just not sure how it is going to turn out until I have parts in hand.

More to come soon. :D

Pete

My Political Commentary for Today

2007-02-02T13:15:00.000-05:00

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said today that the US is not planning a war with Iran. You can read the story HERE if you want. It has nothing to do with the comment I'm going to make.

I'm wondering if that headline is supposed to make Americans feel better? Obviously the Bush Administration didn't plan a war with Iraq either. That did not stop them from invading.

Love,

Pete

Severe Weather Warning.

2007-02-01T10:28:00.000-05:00

I got sick of my Mom sending all of these tales of snow and woe from Colorado. They've had 9 major storms since December 19th. She's still got many feet of snow on the ground. Though it melts a little here and there, another storm comes along and adds to the pile.

In response, I decided to make up my own weather advisory for the DC area.

Our weather-free winter is taking a radical turn. We're expecting a severe dusting of snow tonight with some drifts reaching 2" by morning. Mild breeze warnings have been issued and they've advised people who are driving that the roads might be moist. The local authorities are making urgent "don't drive unless you feel like it" pleas to the public. I can only hope that we'll pull through this one smoothly.

It reminds me of the weather advisory from Kent Brockman, Action News anchor on The Simpsons, "The death toll from today's killer storm is still at zero, but it is poised to shoot up at any moment!".

I hope you all survive this storm with grace and serenity.

Pete

A Love Story...

2007-01-29T09:29:00.001-05:00

A friend of mine sent me a link for an on-line madlib love story. I decided to give it a try. Here's the story that came out of it:

My Love Story

One squishy summer day at Rhode Island you see the most intense creature you have ever seen. Their name is The Queen of England , and every move she makes just turns you on more and more. You nudge your best friend Kareem Abdul Jabar and say, "Wow, that has to be the most tart body I have ever seen." Suddenly, she looks in your direction and starts walking right towards you!!! she says, "I noticed you staring at me from over there. I just had to tell you, that I think you are so Portuguese , and was wondering if you'd like to go to Tasmania with me and harvest radishes in the moonlight ?" With a stupid smile on your face you say, " Chicks dig guys with green shoes " and go with them. When you finally get to Tasmania , she moves closer to you, and gives you the biggest kiss ever. The two of you are passionately kissing, when you feel a plumber hit you on the back of the head. You open your eyes to find out it's all a dream, but there is a note left next to your bed.

It reads: " The Queen of England is the love you've been waiting your whole life for. she will ask you out in 69 days or less, but only if you send this e-mail to at least 10 people within the next few minutes. The more people you send it to, the sooner they will ask you out, and you both fall in love. Do not take this lightly, because if you simply ignore this, you will have bad luck in love for the next 69 years!"

Farticus! FEEL MY POWER!!!

2007-01-25T14:07:00.001-05:00

Kids are great. I've got friends who have particularly strange kids. My friend Kwan has two AWESOME kids. This story is about his boy Ty. Ty is in second grade.

Ty came home this week and announced that he has a new nickname: Farticus. It is like Sparticus, but different. He runs around and says, "I am Farticus! Feel my POWER!" and then he farts.

When he told his parents this, his mom hung her head in shame. Kwan, on the other hand, did an okay job of pretening not to think it was funny. He really had to work at it though. Kwan told him that this was a bad thing to do and that if he continued to do it, he would lose all his friends. Ty's first response was to say that wasn't true. People flocked around him because they thought it was funny. He then added that he didn't really care if he lost all his friends bechasue HE thought it was funny.

What makes this story even funnier is that Kwan is now trying to teach his son to control his farts. Kwan should probably change his name to Burpicus because he's completely incapable of controlling his own burps.

I'm obviously on a similar intellectual level as Ty because I think it is funny and I can't wait till he comes over to my house and I can teach him some more naughty, but harmless stuff. :D

Pete

Modified Cars in Germany.

2007-01-20T14:49:00.000-05:00

Hey folks.

I just got back from a week in Germany. I was doing work stuff the whole time and got almost no opportunity to relax. I did a little touristing, but not near enough for my taste. The one day that I would have had time to walk around and shop had hurricane force winds and we ended up staying in.

As always, I enjoyed seeing the cars that people drive. I had a few observations that I thought I'd relate.

1) There's a BMW that we don't get here in the states that looks pretty cool. Imagine if they made a Z4 in a 4-door wagon. Well you don't really have to imagine it because they do. They don't sell them in the US though. It is a cool looking car.

2) There are very few modified cars in Germany. I saw 2 or 3 cars with aftermarket wheels and only one car with enough modifications that it really changed the body lines at all. It was a pretty cool Alpha Romeo spyder with flared fenders and wide, deep-dish wheels. That's it! Everything else was stock and 95% of the cars had steel wheels. I know it is winter and many folks will bring out the bling for summer. I just thought it was interesting.

3) In America, VW's large van is called the Eurovan. That made me wonder, What do they call that same model in Europe? The Amerivan? NOPE. It is the Transporter. I actually knew that from previous trips and plenty of time on Vortex. What I didn't know is that they have a special edition model called the California Cruiser. :D

4) In the 90's VW made many themed editions of the Golf. One that I hadn't seen before, but saw three examples of last week was the Bon Jovi edition VW Golf Wagon TDi. I didn't see much special about it except for the badging.

5) Driving on the autobahn is pretty cool. Conditions were not ideal to really fly, but we got our Passat wagon TDi up to about 180kph in the left lane.

Later folks. It is good to be home.

Pete

Geography Lessons.

2007-01-11T07:21:00.000-05:00

I read this article at my desk this morning and thought it was funny.

LIMA (Reuters) - Royal Nepal Airlines has apologized to Peru after mistakenly using a photo of the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu to promote tourism in Nepal.

Peru's foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday the flagship carrier of the Himalayan kingdom, about half way around the world from the Andean country, had put the picture of Peru's tourism icon, Machu Picchu, on a poster under a slogan "Have you seen Nepal?"

Here's the whole article.

Have a nice day, dammit!

Pete

Finally a good run.

2007-01-05T06:56:00.000-05:00

I'll keep this short. After over 3 weeks off my workout regimen due to injury, I finally got a good run in last night. It wasn't long. It wasn't fast. It was, however, 100% pain-free.

I took it slow and easy and made sure that I stretched well before going out and I used good form while running. It is easy to fall into the trap of shuffling along and not lifting your knees when you're trying to run slowly on a recovery run. That can start bad habits which lead to injuries.

I can't tell you what a relief it was to complete a whole loop after coming up lame the last three times I tried.

We'll try it again today. :D

Pete

New Combos Commercial.

2006-12-17T17:04:00.000-05:00

I saw a new Combos commercial while watching the Broncos' game. This teenager goes into his Mom's room, looking sick and kind-of sweaty. He says something like, "Mom. I think I've got a fever." His rather rotund Mom rolls over in bed and you find out that Mom is rather masculine looking. In fact it kinda looks like John Goodman win a wig and nighty.

(S)he feels her son's forehead and says, "You're probably just hungry. These will make you feel better. They've got pizza stuff inside." and gives the lad a bag of combos. He eats a few and goes back to bed.

Then the announcer says the slogan:

"Combos: What your mom would feed you if your mom was a man. "

Bwahahahahaha

I need to go buy some Combos. Any advertising guy that uses big, transvestite moms to sell pretzels with cheeze in them deserves a big raise! That's the best bit of marketing that I've seen since Quiznos used the sponge monkeys to sell sandwiches.

Now that I go out and look at Youtube, there are a bunch of these commercials. Search on "Combos Commercial" on Youtube.com and let me know what you think.

Love,

Pete

Movie Review... Apocalypto and Van Wilder II

2006-12-11T07:34:00.000-05:00

My wife and her friend wanted to go see Apocalypto. I had no desire to see anything that violent, so I went to see a new suspense movie out this weekend. Van Wilder 2. A suspense movie, you ask? Yes it truly is. There's a lot of suspense involved. Is she, or isn't she going to take her top off? The answer was always "Yes".

If you saw the first one, then you know the plot of the second one. Kal Penn is awesome, as always. If you liked the first one, I think you'll like the second one too. I did at least. There are some VERY GOOD and funny lines that got the whole theatre laughing (all 5 of us).

It'll be good to see the unrated version. :D

While Mr. Gibson's Myan epic might have a bit more social relevance in the long term, I personally feel much more enriched for having a lighter, more entertaining movie going experience.

Love,

pete

Two Hot Dogs and a Finger

2006-11-27T14:33:00.000-05:00

Ahhh... It is nice to be back posting on my blog again. I found a juicy little nugget while driving cross country for Thanksgiving. I thought it was devious enough to post.

This little gem was found at a Sheetz truck stop in Western Maryland. First of all, I think the cartoon chick may be a little too hot for ordering hot dogs. I'm not sure that would pass the PG13 test.

Second: What does she mean by giving the peace sign with her left hand? Is this an anti-war statement? Does she want you to order 2 hot dogs? Is there one finger left up on that hand for each button on her top?

Third: What the heck is going on with the right hand??? That bitch is flipping me off! Damn! the marketing works with me. I LOVE it when cartoon hotties flip me the finger, flaunt their cleavage and show their contempt for the war in Iraq at the same time. That definitely gets me all hot. I'm guessing it does for truckers too.

Oh well. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic. What do you think of the hand gestures that she's making. Is there something to be read from the way she's holding the hot dog?

You're all perverts. (That's a good thing).

Love,

Pete

The Wrong Lessons.

2006-11-17T09:23:00.000-05:00

Hey folks.

Sorry for going political today, but I need to.

President Bush was touring Vietnam yesterday and talked about the Vietnam War and compared it to the war in Iraq. He commented that we need to learn the lessons of the Vietnam war and make sure that we don't pull out too soon.

That isn't the lesson that we needed to learn from Vietnam. There are many that we can learn from decades of war in Vietnam.

1) Never underestimate a people's desire to fight against an invading force. This was true on so many levels with Vietnam. American policy makers and generals could not comprehend the casualties that the North Vietnamese were taking in the war. America lost its will to fight with fewer than 60,000 dead or MIA. Vietnamese deaths have been estimated as high as 1,000,000 and they were still putting up a fight. In Iraq, for every insurgent that is killed, another steps into his/her place.

2) Learn about a people and their history BEFORE invading their country and you'll make better decisions. Vietnam had a long history of imperialism, and a long history of fighting it. Not understanding that lead to the problems listed in #1. Iraq has had years of friction and violence between its Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish populations. Invading the country, removing the government and disbanding the police and military is NOT going to make things better.

3) Tell the truth. Public support on the home front dwindled during the Vietnam War in part because the folks back home stopped believing that they were being told the truth. The media said one thing and the government said another. What the government was saying didn't match up with what the people perceived as reality. The Johnson and Nixon administrations railed against the press coverage of the war, but the information they were putting out didn't match with reality. They lost credibility. That seems to be happening again with Iraq. We invaded Iraq on bad information and from my point of view, almost EVERY word about the war that comes from the Bush administration does not ring true.

4) Treat the cause, not the symptom. There are a lot of causes to the problems that we faced in Vietnam and are facing in Iraq. Unfortunately the biggest cause is one that we can't treat.... entering the conflict on false pretences with bad information. We never were able to overcome that in Vietnam. The cause of that conflict was imperialism. Fighting that war just made the root cause worse. It isn't that different in Iraq. The Bush administration said the cause of the problem was Saddam Hussein. That obviously wasn't true. He had no links to al-Qaeda. He's out of the picture. Things are much worse than they were before we invaded. The country is, by many standards, in civil war. We're in the middle of it. We're the cause of it. We don't appear to be able to do anything about it. We've created a terrorism problem that may never go away.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think that we need to cut and run. Pulling out of Iraq now would be truly disastrous for everyone involved. We do need a new strategy though. Start telling the truth about the war. Make sure that our troops have EVERYTHING they need to succeed. Get back to winning hearts and minds through making life for every day Iraqis. better. Just killing people isn't working because no matter how many people we kill, there will always be more who step up to fight. We cannot win a war like that. Handing off to the Iraqi military is not the solution either. We need to address the cause. There in lies the problem. If we're the cause, how do we deal with it? We can't pull out. Chaos will rule.

Do something good. Win some hearts and minds. Make their lives better in some way. Keep on the high ground. Don't murder and rape civilians. Don't torture prisoners. Don't insult Islam. We need to find a way to be the good guy, even though we've invaded another country and are killing its people.

I hope someone finds a way that we can win this war... or at least get out of it alive. There are no easy answers. Every action will have a high cost. It burns me that we entered this war so casually. War shouldn't be casual.

Sorry for ranting.

Pete

Canadian humor.

2006-10-12T07:16:00.000-04:00

This month's T-Shirt Hell newsletter was AWESOME. :D

I drink in moderation.

2006-10-12T07:14:00.000-04:00

My new favorite t-shirt.

I love you!

2006-10-11T06:33:00.000-04:00

My friend Chris sent me this cartoon. I was deeply offended because I think I'm Danny the Donkey. I hate him for that. :D Now leave me alone. I'm going to find some creative new uses for the stick. :D

Pete

MkI VW Rabbit all wheel drive.

2006-10-10T12:43:00.000-04:00

Oh man this thing is AWESOME!!!

I'll just let you look at the photo and the listing on e-bay.

All wheel drive VW Rabbit.

Pete

Something not car-related. ;) Museuming in DC.

2006-10-10T11:12:00.000-04:00

Oy oy.

Laura and I had fun last weekend hitting a few museums and doing some stuff downtown. We went to the Sewall/Belmot House to start out with. It was and is the headquarters for the National Women's Party. We'd seen the movie "Iron Jawed Angels" and wondered how much of it was artistically licensed and what was based in reality. Interestingly enough, if you remove all the romantic intreague from the movie, the basic historical facts are pretty close to right. It was very cool to learn more about the women's sufferage movement and the people involved.

After a good lunch at Chipotle, we headed over to the new National Portrait Gallery. Wow what a great museum. This is my new favorite in the DC area. It is HUGE! The first floor is packed with stuff (and people) and there are 3 more floors above to explore. It is located in the old National Pattent Office building. The first floor has a neat section where they display portraits of different inventors next to a glass case containing their invention. Edison, Morse, Singer and others were included. It was definitely cool.

The other thing I liked about the museum is that it is organized by theme and they really do a good job of giving historical background to all of the portraits, the people depicted in them and the artist who created them. Part of the reason why it takes so long to go through the gallery is that there is a LOT of information on EVERY bit of art in the builing. We felt like we barely scraped the surface.

Definitely check these out. Google will find them for you.

Pete

Better yet... another Mini.

2006-10-06T07:06:00.000-04:00

This one is a 1961 Morris Minor. The thing is in unbelievable shape and only has 42000 original miles. It is fully restored and has a new motor and a damn clean interior. I also like that you can buy the car from a guy who has Olympic Gold and Silver medals. I'll just shut up and post the photos and the link.

Here is the link to the listing. It makes for good reading.

1961 Morris Minor

Take care,

Pete

Mini. Something else to add to the mix. ;)

2006-10-06T06:49:00.000-04:00

I was reading about someone who is putting Honda motors into classic minis. They freaking fly with the extra horsepower and revs. That got me thinking about a classic mini. Here's a great example on Ebay right now.

This is a fully restored 1.3Liter mini. This was the fast and cool one. It has been upgraded with the interior from a 1990s mini. I like the classc wheel and even the color. This little bugger is fast and cool. I'm a geek about right hand drive cars too. I'd have a lot of fun with this thing.

Here's the listing.

1976 Mini 1.3 upgraded to Cooper spec.

Pete

Craptastic photographer with really bad writing habits and a damn cool car.

2006-10-02T21:11:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the title of this post. I often think that I'm pretty funny. I know deep in my heart that I'm not. ;)

Okay... the car on the block this evening is a 1969 BMW 2002 Turbo. This thing is freaking amazing and must be really wild to drive. The photos of the outside obviously don't do this car any good.

You wouldn't want the car to look too good in the ebay add. It might actually sell for a high price or something. The money he saved in having good photos posted will more than make up for any increase in the sale price that really good photos would bring. (Sorry. Mr. Sarcastic is on the loose again) ;)

The engine bay is amazing. There's no two ways about it. That is one freaking impressive car. I would LOVE to have this thing and drive the freaking snot out of it. :D

The cool thing is that as long as I made sure the air/fuel mixture was right, it would most likely give me years of "thank you sir may I have another" use.

I like what the guy did with the photo of the front end. It is very cool looking.

Here is the listing for the car.

Enjoy.

Pete

The project car that I WON'T be buying. ;)

2006-10-02T14:33:00.000-04:00

This MkI Golf is absolutely amazing. The level of detail on this car is amazing. Absolutely everything is more beautiful and better functioning than it was in its original form.

The body work is flawless. The interior is just creamy. The motor and engine bay are both functional and beautiful to look at. I love the twin carbed, 1.8Liter, 16valve motor. The motor is quite a bit more refined than what VW originally intended.

Another thing I like is that the left hand drive is as exotic in England as the right hand drive ones are in the colonies. Very cool.

Below you'll find the listing for the car:

MkI Swallowtail.

Take care,

Pete

Bunnies!!!

2006-10-01T11:27:00.000-04:00

Okay. My project car posts lately have been mostly non-vw cars. I thought I'd get back to my roots again with this little one.

I've wanted an A1 GTI for as long as I can remember. The first one I ever drove was amazing to me. They're light, they handle quite well, they're pretty fast. This is the car that started the sport compact car craze back in the mid 1970s.

This particular car would almost be a shame for me to buy since my goal would be to strip the interior and go crazy with it. I would say that I'm sure I could ebay all the interior stuff for a lot of money and that would help finance the project.
Below is the link to the listing.

1983 VW Rabbit GTI

Enjoy.

Pete

2002 Reasons to love this car...

2006-09-29T13:13:00.000-04:00

You've seen me post some BMW 2002s on the blog lately. This one is SUPER cool and completely out of my range. I'll post it up because it is just too perfect to ignore.

This car is an almost flawless BMW 2002 Tii. The Tii version of the 2002 got fuel injection and a few other performance bisquits. It also had a really cool dash clock that looked great, but really didn't keep very accurate time... at least not after 30 years or so.

I'll just let you look at a few photos of the car and the listing on Ebay. The "Buy It Now" price is $20k. We'll see if it is worth that.

I'd consider it if I had the $20k laying around.

HERE's the listing.

Pete

Rice Rice Baby!!!

2006-09-29T12:27:00.000-04:00

Oy oy.

I had another good ad for an AE86 show up today. My guess is that there's something fundamentally wrongwith this car that is making this guy sell it 3 weeks after he bought it. Since my plan would be to strip the whole dang thing down, I guess I'd probably find the problem and hopefully be able to fix it. :D

This is actually an SR5 that has been converted to a GT-S. They put a GT-S rear axle on it that has disc brakes and an LSD. They also put in a GT-S motor and gauge cluster. There are plenty of things about the add that make it suspicious. First, the title isn't in the name of the guy who is selling it. Also he lists that the gauge cluster is from a different car, but lists the mileage as what registers on the gauge cluster. Hmmmmm.

That said, I'm interested. Maybe not interested enough to actualy try and buy it. I'm interested enough to post it on my blog. :D

HERE's the listing.

Pete

Hachi Roku: Toyota Corolla GT-S AE86

2006-09-25T17:22:00.000-04:00

I love this car. If the planets all align, I'll have something like this as my next project car. This is an awesome example of a Hachi Roku (Japanese for 86). This Corolla was made from 1985-7 and was pretty much the last of the front engine/rear wheel drive compact cars in the US. The Nissan 240sx was around until 1998, but it is a much larger and heavier car.

The appeal of the GT-S is that it is a quite light car (2100 pounds) and can be much lighter. With careful modifications, it can get down below 1800 pounds.

The motor in the GT-S is a dual overhead cam, 16 valve, 1.6 liter, fuel injected motor. It has a high redline and puts out about 130hp and 104 lb/ft torque. While that is enough to power an 1800 pound car pretty well, a lot of folks opt for the 20 valve, high compression motor from Japan that puts out 160hp and 120 lb/ft torque. Definitely a good upgrade. Horsepower mods can be made from there.

The AE-86 is in high demand among drifters. Though they don't handle as well as some newer cars, they've got a lot of heritage to them. That bumps the price up a bit. Even so, they can be found for under $2000 for one in rough, but complete shape. The one pictured here is for sale for $6200. It whould definitely get that price.

Thanks for reading,

Pete

Hachi Roku: Corolla GT-S AE86

2006-09-25T17:03:00.000-04:00

Here's the most likely candidate for my new car. I love these things. I'm sure I'll offend Hachi Roku (Japanese for 86) owners when I say that I think they're kinda funny looking. That's their appeal to me. :D

These things are pretty much the last of the front engine/ rear wheel drive compact cars sold in America. The example that you see to the left has been modified a bit, but it is a great example of the car I love and would like to buy.

These things handled pretty darn well when you consider that the rear suspension and drive system was a relatively simple and heavy live axle not entirely unlike those found on American muscle cars. The thing that really makes these things extraordinary is their weight, or lack thereof. In stock form, they weigh about 2100 pounds. Strip out the interior and anything that you really don't need, install a racing seat and roll cage and replace the heavy stock wheels with something truly light weight and you can have a race car that weighs between 1700 and 1800 pounds.

The stock motor of the GT-S is a 1.6 liter, 16valve motor making around 130 hp and 104 lb/ft torque. The japanese motor which some swap in makes around 160 hp and 120 lb/ft torque. It uses a 20 valve setup and a higher compression ratio that accounts for the greater horsepower.

Drifters LOVE these things. These were some of the original drift cars in Japan. They're not the easiest cars to drift, but the sense of history makes them in pretty high demand.

I'll be keeping an eye on these this winter.

Pete

Very Tempting 318is

2006-09-25T09:12:00.000-04:00

This one definitely cought my eye.

I'm drawn to the 318is because it is light weight, fairly modern and has a great suspension. All the bimmer guys tell me I should go for the 325 because the straight 6 motor has more power. I've always been an underdog kinda guy. I like the better balance and lighter weight of the E30 318is. That's just me. I'm a freak that way.

This car in particular is of interest to me because it is bascally stock and it has a blown head. That means I get to do a project on it and I get it at a very good price. I'm sure that there's a ton of work to do to the car. I can see what looks like rust stains on the carpet. Who knows what I'll find when I pull the interior to check the inside of the floor pans. That is part of the mystery of a project.

The time isn't right for me and this car. If I'd seen this ad at the end of February, I'd click that "buy it now" button in a second. I just don't have room, time or money at the moment. I can still enjoy looking though. :D

Pete

An Awesome Project 2002

2006-09-23T19:47:00.000-04:00

This car is an awesome example of a motorsports 2002. It has a ton of the work already done. The fenders are flared. It has the motorsports spoiler. The interior is mostly gone. It has little or no rust. It has the battery in the trunk and an upgraded fuel pump, filter and FPR.

The motor is the only part that really needs work. It has a ton of stuff that needs help. It is the perfect project. :D

The car is even local. :D

You can find the link to the auction below:

1972 BMW 2002

1986 Toyota Trueno AE86 Hachi Roku (AKA Corolla GT-S)

2006-09-23T13:51:00.000-04:00

I hate to say it but I love these cars. They're ugly as hell and really quirky. They're pretty much the last of the front-engine, rear drive small cars that made it to America. They've got a huge following in the drift community. There are some guys autocrossing and doing SCCA or NASA racing with them too. Since I'm looking to do motorsports stuff with it, it is a good candidate.

Don't think that I dislike the car because I think it is ugly. I LOVE ugly cars. This thing is really ugly in my eyes and I think that's a good thing. It is just damn cool.

The other appeal to it is that the car is very light. In stock form, it weighs in at about 2100 pounds. Strip out the interior and put in some racing seats and these things can weigh as little as 1800 pounds. If I really go crazy and replace the dash with fiberglass, it can get even less weight. Use a light weight battery and add a good roll cage and you've still got a track-ready car that is between 1700 and 1800 pounds.

The motor on these were pretty cool too. It is a high compression, 16 valve motor that revs really high. With minimal mods, they can get up around 150hp at the wheels with 110 lb/ft torque. While that doesn't sound like much compared to the Corrado or GTI, just keep in mind that it is about 1000 pounds lighter than the Corrado and 1400 pounds lighter than the GTI.

The rear suspension is pretty simple. It isn't a fancy multi-link system. It is an old style, live axle with trailing arms. Even with the simple rear end, they still handle pretty well.

I'm seriously tempted by this car. They're getting rare, but you can still find decent examples for between $2000 and 4000.

The one in this auction isn't really to my taste. It is the hatchback that I LOVE, but I really don't like the wing very much. I'd prefer to have one with few or no mods so I could do the work myself. That motor looks like it has been seriously worked, and I like that the guy did the full polyurithane bushing kit. Very cool.

HERE is the listing on Ebay for this car.

Love,

Pete

When car guys dream....

2006-09-22T12:49:00.000-04:00

Okay. Continuing on the car theme...

My project car thang has led to some interesting Ebay searches. Most recently I came up with this hit....

Here's what the car is supposed to look like.

It is a 1967 Toyota Sports 800 Yotahachi. There were only 48 of them made with right hand drive and only some of those were ever shipped to the United States. This car is SUPER rare and a really amazing little sports car.

As with many project cars, they're a litle bit of a "work in progress. You noticed above that I used the term "supposed to" when referring to the car's looks. Well this is how it looks now:

It definitely needs some love. Even so, you can really get a feel for the shape of the car and the potential that is there.

More photos. :D

Yeah. It needs some serious love. I'm not sure you'll ever find the lens covers for the headlights. I can't imagine that many of them are floating around.

It does look like most of the other parts are there though.

You can see the listing below.

1967 Toyota S800

Pete

Project Car Candidate #74

2006-09-22T10:54:00.000-04:00

I recently retired a blog that was my outlet for a lot of car-related things. I am chanelling all that blogging energy into this blog. :D

I've always got my eye out for a few interesting and weird cars to be my next project car. I haven't decided what that is going to be yet, but I keep my eyes out. You'll see posts from time to time that talk about something that catches my eye. This is one of those posts. :D

I found this BMW 2002 on e-bay this week and kinda liked it.

The engine bay was definitely pretty amazing for a 30+ year old car. There are a lo of these things out there, but not many are as beautiful inside and out as this one.

You can find this listing on Ebay at the link below:

1975 BMW 2002

Pete

NASCAR goes Colombian. :D

2006-09-14T07:39:00.000-04:00

Hey hey.

I was a little surprised earlier this year when one of my favorite F1 racers decided to leave Formula 1 and race in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series. Juan Pablo Montoya has been a guy who's career I've enjoyed watching for years. It blew me away that he would ditch the most prestigious race series in the world for a series that, though loved in America, is pretty much laughed at anywhere else.

RACER magazine had a really good article about the move this week. You can read it HERE.

The article talks a lot about Chip Ganassi, Montoya's new boss. To me, the real interest is in Montoya's decision to switch. His reasoning was pretty good in my book.

1) The racing is awesome. Formula 1 races are great, but you may only see a small handfull of passes for position while on the track. Many times you'll see races where the only pass for the lead is done in the pits.

There are some NASCAR races where you'll have more changes for the lead in one lap than you will in an entire F1 race.

Wheel to wheel racing is scary and hair raising in an open-wheel car. In NASCAR it is not unusual to go wheel to wheel, fender to fender at 190mph for lap after lap. It takes skill, technique, wisdom and balls to be successful at that week after week.

2) He wants to be a great all-round racer. He's one of two racers to have won the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix. How amazing would it be to add the Daytona 500 to that list? How about a NEXTEL cup title to go with his Champ Car title?

3) It is a good springboard for dabbling in something else. Sports car endurance racing has been growing in popularity in the US of late. There are plenty of NASCAR guys who race in the endurance races when their schedule allows. Not many F1 guys get to do that until they've retired. Adding a LeMans or Daytona 24-hour win would add to #2 above pretty nicely.

4) Rednecks are nice people. Montoya talks about another thing that NASCAR has that other racing series may never have:

Every driver Ive met so far has been mega-nice, he says. Anything you need, well help you. Ive never seen that before. Ive been shocked. In six seasons (of F1) Ive been to the Williams motor home and to the McLaren motor home. Ive never been to any other motor home. In 10 minutes (at Chicago) Ive been in Jimmie Johnsons motor home, Roger PenskeI was at every bus and every motor home.

And everybody is nice. They are just happy to be there. Its great to see people loving and enjoying the sport.

I've got a new favorite racer in the pack. He makes his debut in Chicago this fall. It is going to take him a year or so to really learn the ins and outs of NASCAR racing. I'm psyched to see how that goes. He'll give Boris Said someone to hang out with. :D

Pete

My September 11th Post.

2006-09-11T19:55:00.000-04:00

Hey folks.

I think most Americans have had some deep thoughts today. I haven't talked to anyone that didn't have something to say today about September 11th.

My normal reaction to almost any anniversary is a show of grattitude for friends, family and the good that is done all around me. I sent out an e-mail to a group that I work with that expressed those feelings. The e-mail was heartfelt and sincere, but it didn't fully express what I felt. Until this afternoon, I didn't have a grip on what I felt.

It is easy to Monday Morning Quarterback the Clinton and Bush administration for things that they should and shouldn't have done. That's been beaten to death and someday I'll get to the point where I stop doing that in my head.

What is hard for me at this point is the circle of violence that has resulted from September 11th. This is a gross over simplification of the situation, but it is good enough for my blog. The US is attacked and 3000 people die. The US invades Afghanistan and Iraq to fight a war on terrorism against al-Qaeda. The deaths and violence in that war inspire insurgents to take up the terrorist fight against the US. It keeps going and going.

Ghandi may have said it best when he said, "An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind."

I firmly believe that is true. That isn't a solution though.

Oddly enough, it was the Chinese Government's statement in regards to the 5th anniversary of the September 11th attacks that ring true: "Only when the root cause of terrorism is stopped and not just the symptoms, will the war on terrorism be won."

They said it better than I could.

How do we destroy the root cause? How do we change the perception of America around the world? I have no idea. Obviously the "kill them all and let god sort them out" isn't working.

I might know something that could take the first step. We can't stop fighting the war on terrorism. Pulling out isn't the answer at this point. We can't keep going at it alone though... not when every military action we take causes two problems that we've got to solve down the road.

What we need is something that will generate a little bit of good will. We need to do something in our foreign policy that has a positive and selfless affect. We need to do something that will let people know that we're not the imperialistic, self centered, egotistical country that we appear to be.

What is that thing? I don't know for sure, but I've got some good ideas. The countries of Sub-Saharan Africa could benefit immeasurably by a significant development effort on the part of the US. I'm not talking about dumping a bunch of food out of airplanes and dropping it all over Africa. I'm talking about a sincere effort to help the people help themselves. Work with international organizations or help fund the organizations to do the work that they are to help people stop the spread of the AIDS virus, solve problems that prevent these people from helping themselves. Give them the step up that they need to make the next step on their own.

It isn't easy. It is darn cheap to do that when you compare the amount of effort and money to what is spent on the war on terror and on Iraq.

I'm not saying that we take funds away from the defense department. If we have to spend a few tens of millions of dollars to help out in Africa, it would be money well spent. It would start winning the hearts and minds of the people of the world.

My Africa idea is an example. Obviously there are details that need to be worked out. It wouldn't instantly solve our problems, but it would be a first step towards doing something good in the world. The US needs to do something good in the world. If it isn't Africa, then maybe it is somewhere else in the world that has people in need. Heck, feeding our homeless people or truly helping those recovering from hurricane Katrina wouldn't be a bad thing either. We need to do SOMETHING good... something more than we're doing now.

Sorry to rant.

My thoughts are with you.

Pete