as if the words knew i'd need them again

Today is one year since I defended for my Master's degree. I am still glad to be out of school.

I discovered a previously untapped resource in my Firebird search, which had been overlooked because of my loathing for it - Craigslist. It seems to be turning up a lot more hits than Autotrader, but the results may be more suited to a Top Gear challenge than actual driving.

as our good city lays still

In Seattle. No Firebirds up here either. I am not real good at the touristy stuff because I hate big cities and mobs of people and stupid one way system roads in a tight grid. Fortunately I am not listed as a driver on the rental so I am barred from driving the stupid SUV. GPS navigator is a fun change.

Got a book about car modifications - kind of interesting because they have to explain how everything works before they start talking about how to screw it all up. Wish I could get a disc brake conversion done on the Malibu's rear wheels but probably doesn't even exist. Might look into doing something with the air intake though - that looks like the easiest thing to do.

Didn't get internet set up before we were out and about for the day, so still pulling down the latest Top Gear. No cables with me so I will probably just watch it myself...the laptop should be able to convert it for iPod though.

car maths

I'm doing car math again. According to my current formula the Malibu may be capable of 139 MPH, although the only thing I can find online suggests more along the lines of 105 MPH. Maybe it's electronically limited...obviously I need to conduct more research in this region.

The objective of my car math is to look at the balance between fuel economy and speed to work out the furthest you can possibly get in a given period of time. Obviously if you drive faster you run out of fuel quicker. However, if you drive really slow you get excellent mileage but you don't actually get anywhere. I am trying to investigate where the breakeven point is. Among other things this involves working out the power required to overcome wind resistance, which is where the first paragraph came from.

Also, even though the Malibu has independent rear suspension it has drum brakes on the rear wheels, which is rubbish. Next car might have four-wheel Brembos...

TG 11x01

New Top Gear tonight. Not their best. I'm worried that they are going to be more ADD this series to try and pack more in, and they didn't have any good music in this episode. Maybe they've just been off too long - we'll see if things pick up again in future weeks.

sitrep

I went to look at another Firebird today, another '87 I had found online. Not many other details were posted though. The posting did say it had done 250,000 miles so that was a concern. They did actually have the car, but as expected it was in really bad shape and it was an automatic to boot.

don't let me go falling from the sky

I can't tell yet if the mystery powder did anything for the Malibu's slow coolant leak. I did go buy it another present - new wiper blades, which I found I needed after trying to wash the latest layer of filth off the windshield. I went out to a NAPA store and went past a big Corvette club outing at the car dealership across the street.

I went to go check some other dealerships, as I'd located a manual '93 Firebird Formula after another thorough scouring of the internet. The listing seemed kind of sketch to me but I figured it would be good to look at it anyway. I didn't find it on the lot it was listed at, and while driving around I found it on a subsidiary lot for used cars. The Firebird turned out to be an auto instead of a manual as listed, so that was a dealbreaker. The dealer also wanted a lot more than I'm willing to dump on this endeavor, and additionally mentioned some undefined 'damage' that had ostensibly been repaired. Unfortunately I kind of dropped by on a whim so I didn't have much of a plan, so in an effort to play my cards close to my chest the salesman probably thought I was an idiot. I did get TO'd to another guy before managing to get out, but it wasn't too bad. Still back to square one on the stick though.

listening to 80's songs

I turned 25 a couple days ago. Hard to believe.

Unfortunately, that '87 Firebird was bought out from under me before I could take a look at it and I am back to square one.

i hardly feel the sun

Well I was getting ready to go check out that Firebird this weekend but it looks like it just got sold. It sits on the lot for four months and disappears as soon as I figure out it's worth investigating. Crap. Now I have to go back to trawling for manual 3rd gen F-bodies.

wreaking havoc on our world

I am trying to update my MP3 CDs. It's a pain so I never bother...the main CD hasn't been updated in six months, and the other one in 14. First I have to clean up my playlists because they did weird things when I transferred computers. Then I have to take out all the old garbage and make sure the new stuff is updated. Then I take out the stuff I listen to but not in the car, and then I take out all the stuff that would be embarrasing with passengers (most of the video game music). Then I hope what's left over kind of flows together.

It's also hard because it's been long enough that I can watch old Top Gear episodes again without feeling like I just watched them.

In other news I am keeping my eye on classified ads for 3rd gen F-Bodies. There's a stone gray Firebird in McMinnville...

seems the sun had gone too soon

I did a thorough cleaning of my car today and found the original window sticker. To my surprise I discovered the Malibu has independent rear suspension with multi-link geometry. I knew it wasn't tuned at the Nurburgring or anything but I didn't expect even that much.

Also, the Delorean apparently had a weight distrubution of 35/65, which is rubbish. On the plus side, there is apparently an achievement in PGR4 for driving a Delorean at 88MPH when lightning flashes.

Speaking of games, a new racing game called Grid comes out this week. It has the Challenger and Camaro, but only in concept form. I tried the demo and it seemed like an OK game, I don't know if I will get it though.