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Monday, April 15, 2013
Another great Ezra Dyer line (that guy is hilarious! ) from the latest Automobile magazine
0 comments Posted by Unknown at 9:19 PMMonday, October 15, 2012
Wrong Pedal? I Wonder Why ...by Denise McCluggage, article in Oct 1 2012 issue of Auto Week, and on Denise's own website
0 comments Posted by Unknown at 8:57 PMOr so says a recent report from The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. ( DOT HS 811 597 )
The study found that women—more specifically 20- and 76-year olds—were disproportionately likely to tromp on the accelerator when they aimed for the brake. Thus crashing, most often in parking lots. The report seemed almost apologetic, like they expected to get yelled out for politically incorrectness. But I nod in easy belief for many reasons. First the young women: my evidence is anecdotal but I give good anecdote so trust me. Girls are better students than boys. They also tend to have confidence in what they learn. They’ve been attentive in driver’s-ed and, bless their naïve little hearts, are positive they now know How to Drive.
A single anecdote: a friend riding with such a daughter offered a suggestion (really a plea) which was rejected with: “Da-aad, I know what I’m doing!” My friend told me that all has daughter knew was foot hard on the brake or hard on the gas. Such conviction cannot imagine error. Car doesn’t slow when the “brake” is pushed? Push harder. Another thing, what is this 20-year-old wearing on her driving feet? I’d like to see accident reports include that information. Flip-flops? Quite possible. And quite hazardous. Or maybe stiletto heels or platform sandals. Not ideal for sensing what one’s feet are doing in pedal land.
Now for the older segment. When “unintended acceleration” first came into our ken years ago drivers most often involved were found to be short of stature. (Stretching to depress the pedals?) Also many had recently changed from one model car to another. (Unfamiliarity with pedal location?)
Now consider this. Even if the older women are driving a car they’ve had for years their relationship to the pedals could well be new to them. Experience speaking here. One day I got into my ’93 Sidekick and became aware that my steering wheel was fuzzily – annoyingly—encroaching into my field of vision. The wheel is not adjustable. Little is in an old Suzuki.
What had happened? My condensing spine, yielding to mounting years of gravity, had reached a Notice Point. Like the wicked witch I was “shrinking, shrinking!” So I bought a wedge-shaped cushion for the car seat and, sigh, was elevated back to normality. No bothersome steering wheel intrusion and my chin boldly level again. And thus my eyes looking, not peering. (Level, dear driver, is of critical importance for proper placement of the horizon. A proper horizon helps you nail your turns. Doubt me not.) My Suzuki seating, being kitchen-chair upright, created no problems for me with the pedals, but in most cars old-age shrinkage can change a driver’s positioning vis a vis brake and accelerator. If you have a shrinking old lady in your family check out her relationship to the pedals as she drives. Particularly as she backs up, a maneuver frequent in parking lots. Is there tippy-toeing? An uncertainty as to which pedal her feet are contacting? She could be at risk for wrong-footing and hitting something.
For your daughter, insist on appropriate footwear (she can keep driving shoes in the car) and give her some pedal-awareness exercises. For your Mom or Auntie Doodah, get her into a car that fits. (Recognize that adjustments on many seats are inadequate.) And for everyone, use this remedy for unintended acceleration: “If what you’re doing doesn’t work—stop doing it.”
http://denisemccluggage.com/index.php/mcblog/comments/wrong_pedal_i_wonder_why
Not many people are good writers, and few good writers keep at it for 6 decades, here is Denise, who is prolific, insightful, and still writing in magazines and inline
0 comments Posted by Unknown at 8:28 PM
This site deals with what to drive (I recently experienced the Bugatti Veyron); where to drive (some great roads I’ll tell you about); and how to drive (some tips and admonitions to make those despair-makers more like me and thee.)
I’ve been at both driving and writing a looong time. I got my first driver’s license in 1940. Some ten years later I was writing about, among other things, cars. Some of those other things will show up here, too. But mostly cars, trucks and a few motorcycles. Well, an airplane or two. Yes, and skis. But mostly cars.
http://www.denisemccluggage.com/
So how did I (Justacarguy) find this? Well, I just started subscribing to Autoweek and read an article that she had published there (frequent columnist) that I find well thought out, well written, insightful, and with the wisdom and experience of a old woman writing about the change in driving for her personally, and women in general, especially focused comments on new girl drivers. (Oct 1st issue of Autoweek and also http://denisemccluggage.com/index.php/mcblog/comments/wrong_pedal_i_wonder_why )
I'm not sexist by any measure, I am however, incredibly interested in enjoying the writing and perspective of people from very different lifestyles than my own, and the few autowriters that are female and write from the perspective of their age, experiences, and contrast in opportunities in the automotive hobby world can be listed on a very small piece of post it note. Denise is at the top of my list now, Shirley Muldowney has a regular column in a Hemmings magazine, Muscle Machines I'm pretty sure, (subscribed for years til their editors choice of "muscle machine" irritated me)
Sunday, June 3, 2012
"When I die... " a funny line from John Lewinski about the Barber Museum
0 comments Posted by Unknown at 6:26 PMhttp://www.craveonline.com/lifestyle/articles/189387-visiting-the-barber-vintage-racing-museum
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Another example of Ezra Dyer being one of the few great humorous automotive writers you can find
0 comments Posted by Unknown at 8:51 PMI have a split second to think, "Hey, this is fast but controllable." Then the turbos hit.
It's like a bomb went off behind the rear bumper and we're surfing the shockwave. I upshift and it happens again, except now we're going much faster. The rear end scrabbles for traction and I find myself countersteering at perhaps 65 mph. I back off the gas, because I am not ready to visit third gear of the Mosler Raptor on this particular street. Not even if Waylon Jennings were sitting next to me singing the Dukes of Hazzard theme song.
http://www.automobilemag.com/features/columns/1201_dyer_consequences_has_rear_wheel_drive_reached_its_limit/index.html
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Speaking of the Ferrari 458 Italia:
Monday, January 31, 2011
I found another hilarious writer of automobile columns, here's an excerpt
0 comments Posted by Unknown at 7:12 PMLet's say you bought a Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon, with a 6.2-liter, 556-horsepower Corvette V8, six-speed manual transmission.... thundering through the quarter-mile in 11.9 seconds at 116 mph, according to my colleagues at Car and Driver, who do impeccable instrumented testing.
....this wagon is about as esoteric an automobile as you're likely to find. Statistically speaking, General Motors will sell exactly none of these cars, the Detroit equivalent of Zoroastrianism.
But if you did buy one, what would you do with it? You'd have a lot of options.
Such a car would be useful if you wanted to duck car-pooling duty or avoid field trips with the Cub Scouts, because no child emerging weepy and jelly-kneed from the back seats of this supercharged washing machine will ever want to get back in.
Perhaps you could put on demonstrations for the local high-school physics club, using the g-meter built into the car's instrument cluster to show exactly what more than 1 g of lateral acceleration feels like. It feels like a fat lady is trying to push you out the side window. Or if not physics, the Greek club, since like Antaeus the V-Wagon maintains an Olympian grip on the earth and draws strength from it. Maybe you could help out at the police training range, letting cadets chase you to improve their hot-pursuit driving skills. Then, having been completely demoralized, these plebes will quit to become firemen. The world needs firemen.
The only people who will want this car are people like me, dizzy enthusiasts and car lovers, but more than that: car reviewers. Car reviewers cycle in and out of dozens of new cars every year. We buy not, neither do we lease. And because of that, we can afford to fall in love with a snot-flinging rodeo bull like the V-Wagon (or cars like the now-defunct Dodge Magnum, the Audi RS6 Avant, Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG Estate or the Europe-only BMW M5 Touring). If we were spending our own money, we might reasonably ask why a station wagon needs to be faster than a mid-1990s Lamborghini.
By DAN NEIL at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703555804576102202985268590.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
I often get solicited to post someones article, list, or link to their site, but don't. Here are some I'm interested in if you want my attention
0 comments Posted by Unknown at 8:43 AMThe best car events in the world, or the worst
The most incredible car museums in the world
the most incredible cars you've never heard of
the top 10 coolest cars ever
the top 10 highest maintenance cars ever
The most impressive car collections / collectors you've never heard of
What is in Ron Prattes car collection
the best auto writers, and where to read their work
the best auto photographers, and where to see their work
the best car customizers (not Barris) and which was the best car they ever made
10 best websites for what ever... especially how you rank your top 10 favorite blogs
10 worst mechanics,
10 worst ripoffs in the auto world (besides Bernie Madoff),
10 hardest repairs due to engineering shortsightedness,
10 most difficult to diagnose problems with your car,
10 easiest things you can troubleshoot your self (battery dead? Voltage regulator? or Starter? is the most common problem) ,
10 cheapest insurance companies (did that myself a couple years ago),
10 insurance companies to avoid,
10 women that broke a mechanics heart,
10 women that will destroy your mechanics ego by knowing his job better than he does,
10 best jobs in the mechanics world,
10 best auto related companies to work for (pep boys, sears, discount tire, AAA, or what?)
10 coolest bosses you've worked for,
10 best fringe benefits from working at your shop,
10 nicest people you've met while getting a quote on your repair
10 coolest conversations while waiting for your car to get fixed (mine was a WW2 Battleship gunner telling me about the USS Iowa)
10 best trades for work (spare engine for a repair on your truck?)
10 ways insurance companies screwed you out of your claim, even if it was because you weren't fluent in insurance lingo and missed the thing you could have done to save your self a headache
10 cheapest places to get new tires
Monday, December 6, 2010
funniest thing I read all day, the writing of Scott Longman in Mopar Action, Feb 2011 issue, '68 Power Wagon feature
0 comments Posted by Unknown at 4:50 PM"Displacement! No, MORE displacement! No, more than THAT! Offset journals and crank throws and who gives a good rat's thyroid if the piston skirts are in contact with the holes at the bottom end!
496 CID? No! More! 500? Keep at it! A Callies crank? 540? Yes!
540 flag waving, magnificent, glory laden American cubic inches! But flow? Heads! From Indy! Fire hoses have less flow! Fuel injection? Not a chance! No drama! No history!
Carbs! Leviathan carbs! 900! No! 1,000! What, are you lame? 1,100! Yes! 2200 CFM worth of carbs at full throttle that look like the Deep Throat Tunnel project during a class 5 rainstorm!
And what do you mean, atmospheric pressure? If I want atmospheric pressure, I'll inhale! Belts! Blowers! Boost! No, MORE boost! No, more than THAT! A Procharger F1R!
Dammit Boost is America! Why the hell did we go through the revolutionary war and adopt Adam Smith and put up the flag on Mt Suribachi and survive Jimmy Carter if we aren't going to have boost? How's 20 pounds? 20? Not a chance! make it a nice round number like 29! What? The motor will blow up? Intercoolers! No, bigger than that!
Set to chill Chernobyl! Heat exchangers that hang icicles in Hades! We're going for a column of air that would flash freeze green beans, denser that Elena Kagan, but half the weight and triple the throughput!"
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Nomadic Mechanics, by Hot Rod Editor Doug Glad.. .. I want you to enjoy this too, a tribute to the mechanic
0 comments Posted by Unknown at 8:18 PMThe first time I spotted a nomadic mechanic was during my brief tenure at Loper Service Center, a fast food-style carb and intake installation center in Pheonix. He appeared one day dressed in linen-truck work blues with battered hands showing the burns and cuts of a guy who could spin a wrench. For most of the morning, he stood in the corner and smoked, and observed, and smoked. He was like a gunslinger, his movements slow and easy, waiting for your move.
His box appeared in the afternoon on the back of a chromed and flamed flatbed truck that looked like it could handle a car show or 50-car pileup with aplomb. The box was the big Snap-on roll cab, spotless, with a bulk section and 54-inch workstation riser in classic red. Its mass dwarfed all other boxes in the shop, including that of the boss, as a group of tatted mercenaries eased off the bedwith chains like a captured animal. It carried enough tools to work the heavy line, the tune-up bays, and maybe even the machine shop. He took every job and made twice as much cash as we did. A month later, he was gone.
These are my people. And if you've spent enough time under hoods and in the engine room and really know what you are doing, you become recognizeable as a clan member in any environment. I'm not talking about tattooed and faux-speed-shop Dickies -wearing guys; I'm talking about night-shift heavy liners with maybe some diesel truck experience and a serious handbuildt monster in the garage back home. They're easy to spot at the racetrack- it's tougher at the car show or cruise night. They show up later, and their cars make the horsepower sound that isn't all cam and Flowmasters. They can weld the top side of a muffler upside down with a smoke dangling out of their mouths, eat a sandwich with a black hand without tasting grease, and know that nut is 9/16 with a glance.
Along with engineering and manufacturing, this thing we do is supported by the professional, bread-and-butter mechanic; the serious veteran from aircraft, freight train, or shipyard work; the guy in the pit working the wrenches. The pit snipes with air-powered grease guns waiting to get a swat at your brand new boots, the heavyweight fromt he transmission bay shambling out of the back like the recently exhumed when the roach coach arrives, and the perfectionist front-line tune-up guy have all earned their places. If they choose to, they can help the clean-hands guy on the side of the road with his flat-tired import, or not, and they'll run across four lanes of traffic to help a girl in trouble.
These guys are the warriors behind the lines who do the jobs to keep the trucks, heavy gear, and maybe even your commuter running so you don't have to. Even if you aren't from the clan of the wrench, appreciate what they do every day to keep this industry going. They are the backbone, and they deserve your respect.
Give that man a hand, bravo! Email him at CarCraft@CarCraft.com and let him know how much you enjoy that tribute!
Friday, January 8, 2010
The Buick Lacrosse's interior is so quiet that you often reutrn to find it infested with monks. It's so quiet, it told some ninjas to pipe down.
...Ezra Dyer
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Automotive columnist for Edmunds and formerly for the LA Times, regular contributor to Rodder's Journal, former exec. director of the Peterson Museum
0 comments Posted by Unknown at 10:07 PM"Few writers in the realm of automotive literature can match Ken Gross's way with words," described the award's chief judge, David Hess of Springfield, Virginia.
"His encyclopedic grasp of automotive science, design and technology shines through his columns in ways that even lay readers can understand. He combines this knowledge with a fluent command of language that stokes the senses in one's mind, to the point of hearing thrumming cylinders and sniffing the tangy odor of hot engine oil."
Gross is a freelance writer whose column "Road Warrior" has appeared on Inside Line since the site's launch in January 2005.
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/ColumnsIndex/subsubtypeId=219/subsubtypeName=Road%20Warrior
Saturday, January 10, 2009
For the record, killing is bad and should be avoided, along with Brussels sprouts and flip-flops in the workplace. Still, I call this one Kill the Car Guy. It's a phrase I've just had enough of. Everybody's a car guy these days; just ask them.
You used to have real credentials to call yourself a car guy. Grated knuckle skin. Greasy fingernails. R Compound tires. A racing trophy. Proof you've been to some racetrack somewhere at sometime. A basic understanding of the internal combustion engine. Knowing how to heel-and-toe downshift. Knowing how to do a proper burnout. Knowing the GT-R is not the new Skyline. Knowing which one is Bo and which is Luke. Something.
Relax. I'm not saying you need to know all this stuff to qualify. It's not that simple. There's no litmus test here. You just need to invest in cars. What you choose to invest is up to you: could be your time, your brain power, your garage space, your weekends, your marriage, or of course all of the above. I don't care what it is, but I know this; being a car guy should not be free.
There was a time when it wasn't. As little as a decade ago, car guy status still had to be earned. Earned through your knowledge and your actions. You had to have real passion for this stuff; you weren't in the club just because you wanted to be. You had to truly care and you had to make the sacrifices that come along with the commitment. It wasn't enough for cars to be just a passing interest, they had to be a high priority, an very important part of your life.
And now that every knit shirt knows Ol' Shel tuned up some Mustangs 100 years ago, that's not enough to qualify you anymore. Mrs. The Mechanic knows that much. If you're going to use your Shelby knowledge to substantiate your car guy qualifications, you better know what year he won Le Mans and what he was driving.
If not, get off my lawn.
http://blogs.edmunds.com/straightline/2008/10/kill-the-car-guy.html
Saturday, August 30, 2008
referring to the F1 McLarens that are demolished, wrecked, and so on.... "untold numbers have been destroyed at the hands of overexhuberant owners or their spoiled-rotten children, ungrateful oddspring who should be damned to spend all eternity sitting in traffic at the 101/405 interchange in Los Angeles, wedged into the third-row seat of a clapped-out Plymouth Grand Voyager between Bill O'Reilly and a wet dog. With a full bladder. The F1 was that good." http://www.automobilemag.com/index.html
Monday, March 17, 2008
Truely superb writing on repairing Michigan roads, and how moronic it is
0 comments Posted by Unknown at 10:00 AMhttp://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/10/autoblog-how-to-building-a-michigan-road/
Comic writing mixed with the science of frost heaves, ice splits, and self service patch tamping ... "Winters can get cold in Michigan, but they tend not stay that way for long. It's not at all unusual to have temperatures cycling between 10F and 40F several times within the same week. As the melted snow seeps into those cracks, re-freezes and expands, it can rupture even the toughest concrete and asphalt is no match. "
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
He has a column in Popular Mechanics, I've read and enjoyed all of them.
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