adventures in firebird ownership - the little things

I've been trying to spend a little time each weekend working on the Firebird. For the moment I am putting off fixing the bigger problems and have been tweaking annoying things.

I spent $75 on new lift supports for the hood and hatch from a man called Mr. Lou. I was concerned they wouldn't fit, but the real issue turned out to be the existing supports. The rear hatch was held in place by a massive TORX (star) bolt, on the order of what is used to hold seatbelts in place. The couple of TORX bits I had were nowhere large enough, and I couldn't get any torque just wedging a flathead in there. In the end I had to go to Home Depot and invest in new tools, but the end result is that all TORX bolts in the future are fair game. I am thrilled to be able to open the car up without wedging a big stick in somewhere.

I also ordered a t-top bag from eBay, which just arrived today. I think the previous owner spilled his beer on it. Fortunately I have some time to clean it up before nice weather returns.

Finally, I had the paperwork filled out several months ago but just yesterday I got around to submitting an application for custom plates. It's completely unnecessary but I think it will look good. I may have skipped a meeting called by a girl at work to go to the DMV instead.

adventures in firebird ownership - the oil filler cap

I did some work on the Firebird this weekend. This may conjure images of spanners and jacks, but it has mostly been relegated to housekeeping and interior design. One concern that has been ongoing is the mystery smoke - some unknown substance burning when I idle at stoplights. I was worried this was the clutch until I discovered the same thing happened when I put the car in neutral. More recently I began to suspect it is oil, because the oil level has been slowly dropping. Through great effort I replaced the PCV valve about two weeks ago, which seems to have mitigated the problem, but the smoke continues.

Last week I found the oil level had gotten all the way down to the add level, so I picked up a quart of 5W-30 with the intent of adding it over the weekend. After all, I did manage to locate the oil filler cap during my PCV adventure. So on a brisk fall Saturday morning I popped the hood and went to remove the filler cap to add my oil.

The cap spun idly in my hand.

This was of great concern to me, as I am still a maintenance neophyte. I fiddled some more with the cap, seeking to release whatever child safety lock I imagined lay beneath. I had no success and suspended my attempts.

One thing I did note was that the cap advises the reader to SEE OWNER'S MANUAL. I recently procured a fresh copy of the manual, as the copy that came with the car was exposed to a ruptured waterlogged road flare in the part of the car I refer to as the magic mystery murder box. In any case, the owner's manual went so far as to describe the grade of oil used and a schedule for changes. Undeterred, I sought out my third party repair manuals, which helpfully describe the process as "remove oil filler cap."

I made another attempt to remove oil filler cap. The cap spun idly in my hand.

At this point I turned to the internet for advice. Some light Googling suggested that the teeth of the cap may engage differently if the engine is hot than when it is cold. Not needing another excuse to drive the Firebird, I took it for a spin. After ten miles of enthusiastic driving warmed the car up, I gave the cap another go.

The cap spun idly in my hand. And then I got singed by hot gasses.

I now weighed my options. Was it worth getting an oil change just to add oil? Surely this situation will just occur again in the future. And was I going to admit defeat? Not just yet.

Some more thorough internet research turned up a thread between some Jeep owners complaining of stuck oil filler caps. One contributor described how he resorted to disassembling the cap by using a screwdriver to remove the top cover, and then a pair of pliers to unscrew the lower assembly. I wasn't sure about taking such a drastic measure, but the contributor claimed the two halves would snap back together with no problem.

Armed with this advice and the vigor of a last ditch effort, I set out to the car with screwdriver and pliers. The flathead found good leverage, and the cap easily gave way to reveal that

IT

WAS

NOT

A

CAP.

It was a plug. A rubber stopper. No teeth, no lower assembly. Just a plug.

I added the quart of 5W-30 to the Firebird.

This is the sort of thing that causes frustration for me. Had they mentioned this AT ALL, ANYWHERE I could have been spared over an hour of grief. All the documentation overlooks one simple fact at the beginning of the process. They can't assume I will know this ahead of time, or else I would have no need for manuals, right? And yet nobody states, "The cap is really a plug. Just pry it out." I had a similar experience with the PCV valve, which is a one-minute job for someone with the proper knowhow. I'm not a stupid man, I just haven't been exposed to this sort of tribal knowledge. Which bodes well for future adventures.

uccello di fuoco

I have been driving my 1989 Firebird for about four weeks now and I love it. There are some small issues...

burns something at idle (oil?)
low oil pressure
driver's side window doesn't roll all the way up
driver's side door does not open from the inside
right front parking light is out
one high beam is out
passenger seat belt has no should guide bracket
rear view mirror fell off
t-tops leak
bent front cross member impedes fan shroud
one wheel cap missing
hood/trunk pneumatics not strong enough
12 MPG city

But I don't mind!

sometimes you got to fight

I went to the Hyundai dealers again today. At Premier Hyundai, as soon as I got out of my car a cocky lackey came up and presumptively asked,"Cash for Clunkers?" I'm sorry, the Malibu is NOT a clunker. If he hadn't caught me so off guard I would have told him to step off, although I was pretty firm about it anyway*. I asked clackey about GCs with navigation, since the forum online says the first models are starting to trickle in, but he insisted it would still be six months yet.

I then went over to Beaverton Hyundai, where I was oddly not accosted as soon as I got out of the car. Since we last met they have stocked up on turbo GCs, presumably because those qualify for C4C (whereas the V6 I want does not). After poking around a bit on the lot I went inside, where Lackey 1 greeted me and knew who I was. So it's not that they weren't paying attention - they were able to pull my file up as soon as I arrived, and were scrambling to get the guy who is 'assigned' to me.

Lackey 1 offered to show me the same navigation system in another car, which I correctly pointed out is the same unit as the Sonata rather than the Genesis sedan. I played with that a little bit and I think it would work, although I am not looking forward to using the touchscreen for stereo controls. Most likely I will just be using iPod with the steering wheel mounted controls anyway. Lackey 1 offered to get some info on availability and fetched a man in a Hawaiian shirt, who told me they wouldn't be getting any navigation-equipped models until March.

When I pressed further, Hawaiian Shirt Man explained that what he means is that he knows of navi-equipped GCs 'on the ground' but he isn't ordering any until the 2011 models. Based on the information I have pieced together it sounds like navi will be equipped as standard on the V6 GT and Track models, so I hope he intends to see out the rest of the year with his current stock. In any case, the cars he knew of were all GT trims and he was not aware of any Track models equipped with the navi yet, although he said he would check on Monday. Hawaiian Shirt Man also suggested that Hyundai was now only providing Track models to dealers with technicians sufficiently trained to maintain them, which they happen to be, and that he would be OK to trade for a Track model even if I didn't buy it because they were good cars to have. I told him to find a Mirabeau Blue one, and hope that my file already says I'm after the A/T - although so far I have no reason to doubt the completeness of their files.

So, it seems like the local dealers are not going to be of much further use unless I enter into negotiations with one of them.

*I am opposed to 'Cash for Clunkers'. I am opposed to it on a personal basis, on a car enthusiast basis, and if I were environmentally minded I would be opposed to it on that basis as well. I don't like my car being called a clunker (although I don't know if it even qualifies - damned if I am going to check). I don't want the government giving my car the sodium silicate lethal injection. I don't want the government demolishing other cars that are rare or interesting, like the people who clunkered a C4 Corvette and a Maserati. I don't want somebody destroying my Firebird before I get to it! We should also not be cashing in our cultural heritage for shortsighted gain. How about we tear down the White House to help support our country's floundering homebuilding industry? I am further appalled that this whole business is being tauted as an environmentally friendly initiative, because it is better to just keep an old car running than to go through the trouble of destroying it and then building a whole new car - especially hybrids, with their nickel battery packs. Whatever happened to reduce, reuse, recycle?

fell asleep on tuesday woke up monday afternoon

So when the dealership said they would contact me when they found a Mirabeau Blue 3.8 Track A/T, what they really meant was Lackey 1 would call me every other day to try to sell me their Acqua Minerale 3.8 Grand Touring M/T. I am letting them continue to see how long it takes for them to get bored. I am actually waiting for the navigation system to come out which will probably be another couple months...just hope there will still be some summer left to enjoy the summer tires.

it felt good to be out of the rain

I saw that one of the dealers has a car like the one I want, just a different color. So I decided to test drive it because it's mechanically the same. I am concerned about finding a workable driving position, and how hard the suspension is on the Track model. I know it's a hot car and they may not let just anyone drive it so I dressed up a little nice and even shaved so I look respectable.

Car was at the Hyundai dealer that has been stalking me anyway. As soon as I get out of the car a lackey comes over. I told him I was looking at the Genesis Coupe among other cars like it. He goes off to fetch a Genesis specialist. The car is fortunately out in their drive and not on the showroom floor. I took the opportunity to take some pictures. The lackey comes back some time later and says their Genesis guys are busy but he has the key. He goes to open the door and it won't open. He has the wrong key. He goes back inside, and after some more waiting he comes out with the right one. He opens up the car and starts rambling again and mentions a test drive so I stopped him there and said yes, I'd like a test drive. So we went inside to do paperwork.Now I have read some car buying books so I am ready to scan the test drive form for any tiny print that will say they can pull a credit check on me. I am feeling savvy.

Lackey brings a stack of forms and the top one says CREDIT APPLICATION.

I told him no, I'm not filling that out.

Lackey says that's how he was told they do things and I tell him I'm still not going to fill it out. Lackey scurries off.

Lackey comes back with a Level 2 Lackey, who sits down and explains that they get a lot of inquiries about the Genesis Coupe, and they only have the one car, and if they let just anyone drive it then their new car would have 500 miles on it. Even the lackies haven't driven in it. So their stance is to "run the numbers, and see if it would work" before they allow test drives. Level 1 Lackey also comes back and I can see he's got a 'four-square' worksheet started.

However, the whole time I am saying nothing and giving Level 2 Lackey my patented condescending blank stare. Level 2 Lackey keeps going on but it's not looking good, and I'm getting ready to walk.

From out of nowhere a third salesman walks up, grabs the keyfob out of Level 2 Lackey's hand and says "C'mon, let's go for a spin."

We go outside again and he asks what car I am interested in. I told him I am looking at one like theirs but in the blue, but since the mechanicals are the same I'd like to drive it to compare it with the 370Z and the RX-8 since I haven't decided which car of this type to get. [Lie] He is OK with this and just asks for my driver's license. I pull it out of my wallet and present it between my fingers. He goes to grab it but I have a firm grip on it and I tell him "I do not authorize you to do a credit check on me." He is kind of offended, says he needs my SSN for that and tells me to "take a deep breathhh, we're going to have some fun!"

He goes and presumably copies the license. I haven't signed anything. Lackies are jealous. Guy comes back, we get in the car and fire it up (push-button start) to get the A/C going...it was about 70 and sunny today. A/C is not bad...saw several reports from people online that the A/C was not as cold as they want but didn't notice that.

I try and adjust the seat, but I am still at the roof. Did you put the seat down? Yes it's down, it won't go anymore. I have to recline the seat back instead of sitting bolt upright. It's not going to drive like the Malibu, but I think I could get used to it.

Put it in gear and...off we go!

Pull out of the dealership and drive away...then car hangs and won't go faster. I am not used to gated automatic shifters and I have put it in sport (flappy paddle) mode. I put it in normal auto and it starts behaving properly.

Track model has stiffer suspension. I haven't driven normal so I don't know if it's any worse, but the car is a little bumpy on the road in front of dealer. Maybe just more communicative. Also not like the Malibu.

Kind of stop and go traffic on this street - brakes are firm but not jerky. I like.

Turn the corner - steering feels pretty nice.

Onto the main drag. Trying to behave and watch speed, which is hard since gauges are reversed from Malibu. I figure guy is going to just have me drive it around the block but we keep going straight.

Salesman asks what I am driving right now. Well, a Malibu, but now that I am settled into work I can get something new.

I ask about the nav system. Guy is very condescending - nav systems don't belong in sports cars, the nav system is a vicious lie by bloggers and it won't be available until 2010, it's just another thing to go wrong. I ask him if that means he thinks there is a quality problem with the Hyundai nav systems. (After all they use them in other models.) He says oh no, we use LG, they are great. Whatever. He is not going to give useful information about that.

Guy talks about how the Genesis Coupe is better than the 370Z, cheaper than the Infiniti G37. I say, what about Mazda? "What ABOUT Mazda." Well, the RX-8. "Oh well that only has 250 HP in it and Mazda is making it the female car for when they bring out the RX-7 in about three years, THAT will have a manly engine in it." So he's continuing to be condescending.

We get to the end of main drag and hop onto highway. Unfortunately other cars in the way so I can't really open it up, but car has been manageable so far for being in excess of 300 HP. Get some practice with visibility. I comment on how it's not bad, to throw the salesman a bone, but he doesn't bite. The dip in the rear quarter window doesn't help much though and I do kind of have to put my whole body into checking blind spot. Salesman goes on about how he feels the Track trim level is a waste of money because of all the aftermarket stuff - I think the aftermarket people are still just prototyping their components, and I don't want to meddle in that anyway.

Merge onto other freeway. We get off at the second exit and the salesman starts going off again. He says everyone around us is looking at the car. I did see one guy in a truck that looked pretty stunned but I don't know about the others. Not why I'm getting a new car anyway. Salesman continues - car has stability control so it's difficult to crash. He knows because he's tried! (??!?) He mentions the button to turn it off, "but that only reduces the traction control about 20%". You can COMPLETELY disable the traction control, "I can show you what fuse to pull, I have to do it after work though." What a pal.

Salesman keeps going - the Genesis Coupe is obviously better than any of the other cars, just nobody knows what to make of it, and any LOGICAL person would choose it, and if they don't then they shouldn't waste his time.

Turn back on to dealer's street. Ride gets a little bumpy again. Traffic is backed up and moving slow, so of course salesman tells me to put the car in sport mode. What good would that possibly do? Whatever. I put it in sport mode. As salesman points out, sport mode acts like a manual transmission and the car suddenly has a noticeable drag when coasting - apparently like a stick does? Anyway I can't do much besides blip it between first and second, and the drag is making life more difficult, but at least the paddles are intuitive. Some last minute drama - I have to cut a short yellow light close, and this is in Beaverton where they have red light cameras, and a motorcycle turns onto my street right in front of me so I can't speed up to clear the yellow faster. No idea if I triggered it or not. Not my car anyway.

Salesman starts telling me a sob story about how he had to downgrade his car and make lifestyle adjustments because of economy and asks what I do. Well. I do feel like rubbing it in so I tell him I'm in implantable medical and we are still expanding, and then talk a little about pacemakers and the implantable defibrillators, which he doesn't believe me about. He is condescending again and says if someone needs a defibrillator what is their quality of life, and maybe they should just hang it up. Never mind the point is to IMPROVE quality of life. Maybe he will change his tone in 40 years.

Shut the car down with push button start and get out. Salesman is not optimistic - "I can't sell you this car today, can I." I tell him no, but I also didn't see any dealbreakers and it's still on my list. Salesman is now motivated to find one like this in Mirabeau Blue. He is OK with letting me add some miles to this car because apparently not many people are interested in the Track A/T model, seems like the Grand Touring trim is more popular.

We go inside again and salesman tells me how he is rebadging all the Geneses that come in because he hates the Hyundai H - well I like it. Wrapping things up - salesman gives me a brochure about suspension upgrades for some reason, and turns me back over to Level 1 Lackey, who gives me his card. I like the guy who helped last time better but I don't know if he's still there - who knows what their turnover is. Level 1 Lackey takes my phone number, which I'm pretty sure they have anyway, and says they will get in touch if they track down a Mirabeau Blue 3.8 Track A/T. And I am free!

liquid metal through my veins

The first Genesis Coupes are starting to trickle into the area but I haven't seen any on the road yet. I've hit up the five main dealers in the Portland area and only one seemed decent. One of the other dealers did have a 3.8 Track in Interlagos (School Bus / Banana) Yellow. The spoiler doesn't impact rear visibility like I thought it would but I still wish the seats went further down and back.

the list

Just to make sure I'm not overlooking anything I went to Edmunds.com and put in some high-level filters on all new cars, then crossed off things I know won't work. The resulting list:

Hyundai Genesis Coupe (3.8 Track)
Mazda RX-8 (Grand Touring)
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution (MR)
Subaru Impreza (2.5GT)

no one's jamming their transmission

Auto show has come and gone. Of the stuff I tried, I still like the Genesis Coupe the best, but there are some annoyances. It looks like the sunroof is standard on the V6 and the spoiler is standard on the Track trim level that has all the go faster bits. The trunk also has kind of a small opening so I'll be giving up more practicality than I thought.

Things have been going pretty well at work. I have subtly caused a ton of trouble as my reports and data analysis get mailed around. I heard one thing I found is now a bonus goal for upper management to fix in 2009. I have been using unstructured time to develop new reports to cause further trouble. And here boss squared thought systems work was a dead end.

of another place and time

I finally stopped playing Spore and have been playing Fallout 3 instead. I picked it up just because everyone else was raving about it, but I was really more interested in Red Alert 3. However the night I got the games my internet was down, which means I couldn't activate RA3 (thanks, brave new world of PC copy protection) so I got a jump on Fallout. And I have to say I'm impressed.

I beat the main storyline fairly handily but that's not really the point of the game. It's an open-world RPG and they want you to explore so much that the secondary quests have the same achievement scores as the primary ones. I never played the first two games so I'm having a hard time getting a feel for the game. I keep expecting it to have scary things jump out everywhere, like any other game or movie. (Particularly window scares) Of course you have to fight baddies, but it's not like that. A lot of the horror is not that something horrible is going on wherever you're at, but that something horrible happened long ago. It doesn't even come out and say what happened but you can pick up pieces of evidence to put it together. I guess if they took cheap shots like window scares, people would be less inclined to explore and try to learn about this world. This game is a master of immersion. Part of that is just the stillness. If you stand still and listen there is almost nothing - the Capital Wasteland is very tranquil. So any unusual noise at all means you'll be on edge. Even if it's just you tripping over empty bottles on the ground.

Incidentally I did finally get RA3 up after Qwest fixed my damn internet, and shall we say I'm less than impressed.

In other news, Top Gear just did another America show. It started off kind of slow, and since their visas were only for producing factual shows and not entertainment shows they couldn't do any interesting side challenges (lest Bruce Willis show up in a Dept. of State helicopter gunship). It finally started picking up when they got to Bonneville as they pursued speed targets at Speed Week. Top Gear Top Tip: when driving on salt, pump up your tires until they almost explode. It was interesting to see them look at a new aspect of car culture and it makes me more excited about the Genesis Coupe, though I'm still wondering which loadout would be better - Grand Touring or Track.

failing to recall what i was missing

Well that was a bust. I went to go look at a Firebird from Craigslist. It sounded pretty good online. The engine and transmission had been rebuilt which I'm not big on but I figured this meant the owner took car of the car like the rebuilt Camaro I had seen.

This was not the case.

Just walking up to it was pretty bad. The guy had put a bunch of go-faster decals on it so it was covered in fake bullet holes. Getting closer it was appallingly filthy, with leaves and stuff inside the car. And then he started walking me through the car. The driver's side door handle doesn't work. Speedometer doesn't work. Stereo was stolen. Hood won't stay up so he has a big stick. The shift stick is just a bare metal bar. And the battery won't hold a charge. This combined with the fact it had been sitting there for two months meant it was particularly start-resistant.

Mind you the Craigslist listing doesn't mention any of this.

So it's back to square one. And I guess I need to screen these cars more thoroughly. For now it's back to creepy Fallout 3. Also: daylight savings tonight!

prodrive

The driving school looked like the Top Gear production office, but most of the time we were outside anyway.

SkidCar - Toyota Camry lifts in each corner to reduce tire contact patch either in front or in the rear so it will skid/spin at 15 mph.

no rocket no heat

I just finished my car control course. It starts in a classroom and the instructor talks about understeer and oversteer and what you should do. Everyone then goes outside and breaks into groups for the skidcars, which are Camrys mounted on a steel frame with pneumatics at each corner. I was with a UO student who had once spun his car and has several speeding tickets, so his family "encouraged" him to come to this, and a high school kid who had an accident involving a mailbox and some trees and ended up needed two brain surgeries. So I apparently get points for being proactive.

The instructor first set up the car so it would understeer at 15 mph and we all had some practice doing figure 8's with that to see how steering less can get you to steer more. Then the car was set up for oversteer. I was the first in the series to go and I spun the car several times before I could get it to go around a corner at all. We did some figure 8's like that, then widened up the driving area to add some different corners, and then took the widened course in the opposite direction. By the end of the day we were all doing pretty good. The instructor even asked me if I was sandbagging at one point, but that just made me start spinning again. Overall I think it was a worthwhile experience.

Now I'm going to go play Midnight Club Los Angeles and do the opposite of everything I've learned today.

there's so many things that i cannot explain

On the advice of family members I've started reading "A Random Walk Down Wall Street." It is supposed to be a guide for investing, but so far it is mostly concerned with how people are stupid and irrational. Once I finish this book it might be interesting to go back to "Critical Mass" and go through what it says about patterns (or lack thereof) in the stock market.

Another week of work. But car control class on Saturday!

fell asleep on tuesday woke up monday afternoon

Sadly I'm not done ranting about alarm clocks. I found a model that looked like it was almost done properly so I decided to get it. You care to guess what store it was at? Best Buy? Target? Nope. Toys 'R Us. I could see going there if I wanted a pirate alarm clock, but why are they the only ones who sell decent normal ones as well?

So I get this thing home and plug it in. It says it has Indiglo. But of course it hasn't been done properly. Instead of lighting up when you hit the button, like in a proper alarm clock, it does an always-on and the button just sets the brightness. Fortunately one of the settings is off. But now if I want to check the time during the night, I have to hit the button four times instead of one. Outstanding work.

I then went to set the time. Pretty standard stuff. Except that it asks for the year as well. I don't need to know what year it is! I just need to know when to get my ass out of bed!!

Fortunately the new alarm clock doesn't seem to have any other stupid functions built in - no temperature or atomics - so I may be able to get some use out of it yet. For the record this is like the fourth time I've tried to replace my old one.

(I can just imagine an Apple alarm clock. Requires AT&T service and WiFi connection, charges you for a $10 firmware update to tell hours in addition to minutes, daily alarm downloads from iTunes store are DRM-enabled.)

While we're on the subject of badly designed things, it turns out that under New Facebook the posted items app won't actually let you post items. It's just for sorting things already posted. Way to put functions where nobody will find them, New Facebook.

The one bright spot in my badly designed day was that more Genesis Coupe news has come to light. It has gone on sale in SK, where the first review sounded pretty good, and a very well put together ad appeared on YouTube. Which is what I was trying to post.

the stone gods did not make a sound

I randomly pulled up Top Gear's Africa special. Apart from the scenery I am amazed at how they were able to keep their heaps of junk moving every time they broke down. I know the presenters probably had car people with them but someone there was able to get them working again, and I admire that. It's also interesting how the cars evolve over time to adapt to whatever challenge they are taking on...at least two of them do.

I've been playing with the iPod touch for a few days, and unfortunately it doesn't work at work. There isn't a suitable WiFi network. Which I suppose makes sense, but it's no fun. So it's a funny thing. A cell phone, for example, is a cell phone 99% of the time because you can get a signal pretty much anywhere in the area. But with the iPod I am dependent on whatever WiFi signal I can get so half the time it's an amazing WiFi gadget and half the time it's just an over-designed iPod.

it was over before it started

Had another near miss on a Firebird - found an '87 Firebird Formula on CL that had the right color, wheels, transmission, engine...unfortunately when I called to see the car later that day it was in the process of being sold.

Finished rereading the Caves of Steel quartet - don't know what to read next. Maybe Catch-22 again.

I took the day off of work tomorrow, but I don't know what to do. At least I won't be at work.

you tell me i can't slow down

Diesel power has emerged as the dominating fuel in Le Mans series endurance racing, with Audi and Peugeot competing neck-and-neck for top honors. But that's about to change, if the Automobile Club de l'Ouest
(ACO) has anything to say about it. ACO, the body that organizes the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the LMS championships in Europe and North America, has announced new rules aimed at reducing the performance of the diesel racers to level the playing field with the gasoline-fueled competitors.

The new regulations would include air restrictors reduced in diameter by 10% and a decrease in allowable turbo boost on the oil-burners. The move is also aimed at impeding laps times in the name of safety, with a 3 minute 30 second La Sarthe lap time as the target, where the Peugeot 908s lapped the circuit in the low 3:08s this year.

Additional rule-book amendments include the banning of tire warmers, a reduction in the permissible size of rear wings and the allowance of only one wheel gun for each pit crew, all in an effort to reduce costs and raise lap times.

This is another reason I don't care for racing. You would think they objective would be to get around the track as fast as possible, but it's actually just to put on a good show. The only reason the C6.R and DBR9 battles at Le Mans were close was because the Corvette had to carry ballast.

Also, how can they argue these latest changes are for safety if they are banning tire warmers and reducing wing sizes? That's like saying my car is safer if you cut the brakes lines.

You could argue that by making the cars all the same you focus everything on the driver. But people-only sports don't put up with this. If one runner is faster than all the others they don't make him wear lead weights and a parachute. If someone is different that's just how they are.

I think racing cars should either be allowed to be as specialized as possible or left completely stock.

drive until you lose the road

I signed up for an advanced driver's ed class at PIR. I was not able to swing it so I could take a day off and do that instead of work, but it should still be good. We'll see if they kick me out.

Since I finished that Brian Greene book I went back to my limited book collection and dug out an Asimov, one of my favorite authors.

LHC is finally being ramped to full power on Wednesday, although that is only for one beam - collisions won't take place for another two months, and then it will take six months just for them to figure out the first data. I have mixed feelings about HEP but I'm interested to see what they can find.

don't know how to play my part

Tried to go check out a Firebird today, but the guy flaked out and I wasn't able to meet up with him. Along the way I got cut off big time by a guy in a big stupid truck, but I was able to cut back in front of him without further escalation. There was also a guy in a Jeep driving along wearing two hats at the same time. Which means he thought to himself, No. One hat is insufficient for this situation.