Car Fanatics Blog

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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

When driving goes back to the basics instead of the #'s

I must admit, it wasn't really until yesterday that it finally sank in that cars are than just speed, tuning and times, it wasn't really until I sat in the back of an Acura RL that it hit me like a ton of bricks the basics of driving, as I've been so preoccupied with how to make it faster and N/A vs Forced Induction and Stick vs Auto.

Lets go back to how this all began though, 'cause even though what I said before could make sense, it doesn't make as much sense than if you know the whole story.

Anyway, my sisters RDX went in for maitenance yesterday, so for a loaner car, they got a Brand Spankin' New RL (Could be '09, but still brand new, not even 100 miles on the Odometer), White with Grey interior, and since I was chillin' with my friend, we sat in the back, 1st thing I noticed was it was ROOMY, even though my dad had the seat back as he drove, and it was comfy too, I had to wake my friend from time to time as he fell asleep in the back, and then since it was raining, the AWD was active, which my Dad not only noticed, but LOVED.

What made me realize that cars can be cars and not Speed Demons was my Dad's love for the car, basically reminding him of the Legend he had in 1990 (The car he took my sister home in when she was born) and while driving it, you could tell he was enjoying it, not caring about how fast it could reach 100 or 130 or w/e or how many cogs the gear box had, but just enjoying it and even my mom, whose all about the brand, liked the car too (she's pushing me to look at the ZDX, she's impressed with it), and then, in a subtle but natural way, I realized that there's more to life than speed, which might be obvious to most of you, but you gotta remember that I'm a young adult (21) who can get pretty much most cars that people my age only wish they could be driving (More in line of Sports Coupes and Convertibles, unless it's kids from my town, then I'm in the same boat as them).

Besides the ride to the local Japanese restuarant (Ichiban for all the Jersey Folks), earlier today (and after I post this) I was driving the Boxster to school to register for my next class and since it was finally a nice day, I had the Top down, and while I normally speed down the roads, my Radar was on the fritz do to the cops driving around and waiting on the side, so I just cruised, which I realized was really just as enjoyable as speeding considering it the conditions were right (Sunny, nice weather, good music, ect.).

After that, I just was looking at Car reviews for various cars I'd normally never consider (RL for starters :P) and just reflected on things, thinking about how preoccupied alot of people can be about speed or MPG, when really forgetting that it's not all about the #'s and just about the drive and the overall feel of the car ('Cause as brutal as an Elise can be, it's not gonna be the most comfortable ride, or as efficent as a Insight can be, it's biblically terrible overall according to Jeremy Clarkson), hence why cars such as the LaCross or various Lexus' or even Acura's still sell in this market, despite all the other cars that offer more (and usually cost more), why some people go with Lincolins over BMW's when they can easily perfer both.

Now of course, all the people who know this already don't need to read this all, and probably see that I finally came to see the wisdom of the elders, but this is more for the Kids and Speed Demons who have yet to realize that there's more to driving than how fast you can do a 1/4 or how fast the lap times are. Don't get me wrong, those still matter to me, but now, next time I see someone (Whether a kid, an Adult or Elder) driving a RL instead of a G37, I won't ask why, but just nod

-p-

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Runaway Prii almost certainly caused be driver error. Here's why...

Someone down my street owns a Toyota Prius. They have done for a few years now. Hideous car, I must say.

But not so hideous as the colour they chose to have it in. Gold. Actually, it's more of a metallic beige. Yes, someone down my street owns a metallic beige Toyota Prius. And they have done from new. Hmmm....

The sheer fact that they have a Toyota Prius in metallic beige, that they've owned from new means, at one point, the owner must have walked into a dealer, looking for a new car, and, instead of buying a Celica, or an Aygo, or even an Avensis, they decided on a Prius, and they decided they wanted it in metallic beige. Oh dear.

Now you could go on telling of the huge list of mental issues they suffer from, but I know psychos with better taste than that.

Surely then, it has more to do with the owners' eyesight, or lack thereof.

I would bet my bottom dollar that the runaway Toyotas were crashed by people with severely deteriorating eyesight driving metallic beige Prii.


I don't think I'm comfortable living with the danger of having someone on my street owning a metallic beige Prius.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

I don't like Hyundais, and I don't like fish. Go screw yourself! (No offense.)

There are many things that annoy me about the human race. The way they smell, the way they care for eachother, and, chiefly, the way they talk.

I have heard people say the word "fail" too many times. So much, in fact, that it can be used now as a noun. Someone falls over; "that's a fail". Someone gets stuck in a lift; "that's a fail". Someone gets caught in bed with Jeremy Clarkson, thinking they are in bed with Su Bo (let's face it, they DO look the same); "that's a fail". That's annoying.

And then there's people who say "no offense" after everything they say, believing that if they say it, their sentence will actually become LESS OFFENSIVE. Worst of all is when they say something that is deliberately offensive, and THEN say "no offense". "Your mom is fat! No offense."

And then there's the most frustrating, STUPID thing of the uttermost annoyance that someone said to me. This one thing someone said to me, once upon a time, regarding the new Hyundai Sonata. "You don't like the new Sonata just because it's a Hyundai".

Well, I'm not going to argue with that. It's a fair statement. But I will say this. It is true that I don't like the Sonata, and it is true that I don't like it because I don't like Hyundais. But then I don't like cod, just as I don't like any kind of fish.

Why hasn't anybody told me "you don't like cod just because you don't like fish"?
Why is it that no-one ever tells me "you don't like Jay-Z's new single just because you don't like Jay-Z"?
And why, on earth, have I never been told "you don't like CSI:Miami just because you don't like stupidly unrealistic crime dramas, featuring men wearing make-up taking their sunglasses off in a theatrical manner while spouting various dramatic one-liners"?

I think it might have something to do with Hyundai fans themself. I wonder what kind of ailment/disorder they must suffer from to become a Hyundai fan in the first place. Perhaps one of the symptoms is that they get overly defensive and start arguing (badly) with anyone even hinting that they don't like Hyundai.

Me thinks, after this post, that I ought to get my Hyundaist (that's what I've decided to call them) shield at the ready, before someone starts using crappy arguments against me.

Ugly car tax. Good idea?

I've post this before, but-

I can't believe how selfish some people are. You are not allowed to build a block of flats in a small pretty village, because people don't like to see it. The law says I can't run around naked, as much as I'd like to, because people don't want to look at it.

So why, I ask, are Toyota allowed to sell these kinds of monstrocities? I mean, who in their right mind WANTS to see a Toyota Yaris on the streets? And yet the big 'Yota are fooling thousands of americans with them every year. But I have a plan just in case I come to power.

So you can't just BAN ugly cars. But what you CAN do is introduce an ugly tax. Now cars will be rated, by me, on a scale of 1 to 10 on ugliness. Hyundai Tucsons will have a rating of 10, since they are the ugliest car on the market IN ANY COUNTRY. So buyers of this car will be made to pay a £100 ugly penalty. Buyers of cars with ratings of 1, the Jaguar XK for example, will be immune from this "ugly tax".

Now you might think, "oh, a £100 fine won't stop me from buying my shitbox", but that's the beauty of it. I can, as governments do, steadily increase the ugly tax so that, in 2020, you CAN buy your Kia, but it will come with a tax of one-hundred billion pounds. Surely that will be enough to stop people buying these things and burning the layers from my eyes?

Now if you value your eyes, vote for me!

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Car Spotter's Guide


I have this game called car-spotting. It's simple enough, there's people who like to find unique trains & lorries, I like to find unique cars.

But it's not just Ferraris and Lamborghinis, and else Italian exotica. No, no! Ferraris are boring.

I like to find cars that, if it were not for my car fanaticism, I would think nothing of. A Ferrari 430 is worth just 2 points in my game, to, say, a Renault Clio Williams' 8 or 9 points. Occasionally, I might point out some of my discoveries to family members or friends. They might say something along the lines of "it's a chavved-up Clio". You couldn't explain to them the amount of fun they're missing out on! Their loss.

I've been playing this game for years, and I've found plenty of wonderful, obscure cars. VW Passat W8s, Renault Avantimes, Lancia Delta Intergrales, Nissan Almera GTIs, and countless imported, not-sold-in-the-UK, cars. And so, as you'd imagine, I've accumilated hundreds of points over the years. But, this one day, all of my previous finds kneel before the magnificance that is the Daihatsu YRV Turbo!


Featuring a 127BHP 1.3 litre petrol powerplant (the most powerful 1.3 litre of it's kind in the UK on it's introduction, don't ya know!), it gets from 0-60 in 8.1 seconds, and can reach 8000rpm when pushed hard.

But all these performance figures are worth nothing to the avid car-spotter. No, what makes this car special is its rarity. Daihatsu had sales targets of 200 per year in the UK, and built it for just 2 years, 2003-2004. I don't know how much they ACTUALLY sold. I couldn't be bothered to count...

The thing is though, I can't be the only one to play this "game". There must be thousands of other car-spotters out there, and thus, I propose we establish a club to bring the whole car-spotting community together. Anybody with me?

Feel free to share your finds down below.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Hybrids the future of tuning?

I am quite into tuning and track racing and auto crossing. I can sometimes go on and on about the cars I've seen and or worked on. As I was putting a new Mugen head cover on my friends EG6 (92-95 Civic), his mom pulls into his driveway in her Civic Hybrid and I got to thinking.....maybe this is going to be the inevitable future. After reading so many articles about companys such as Tesla and Fisker, and others making electric or Hybrid sports cars, I have been less and less reluctant to accept that this is something that will happen. I still stick to the somewhat old school way of engine tuning of maxing out your car in NA form before going FI to get the most out of your car power wise. I read in a magazine, either Super Street or Sport Compact Car (Modified Magazine), that a company took a 90's civic and put in a Hybrid powertrain along with a turbo. I forgot what their numbers were exactly but they did what can't be done in a normal car, which is to get good fuel economy with some decent power. I am totally against this form of modification simply because its more electronic than it is mechanical. If there is something wrong with the engine, I can easily (obviously work is required) fix the issue. If there is something wrong with a Hybrid powertrain, as far as I know, you are pretty much screwed. Most Hybrids have CVT transmissions except for the new Honda CR-Z with the manual. The work required to make sure everything meshes perfectly to get the right shift feel for the tranny was quite extensive to say the least. I don't see budget mods happening with these cars anymore. How well can a Injen or K&N or anyother aftermarket filter really help a Hybrid vehicle which will more than likely run on electric mode more often than not? Assume that you have put a turbo on a Hybrid. Someone pulls up next to you in Civic Si next to you and decides to coax you into a launch. The light turns green and you're off! Either you are in electric mode which will not acclerate very quickly or once your engine kicks in at the low RPM, your turbo will have so much lag that it will still take you a lifetime to get your desired speed. In the meantime, your opponent is already pulling into the Friendly's parking lot a mile and a half away feeling highly confident about his "win." Another issue with tuning, and for all the old school guys who tune and race know this, is weight. The weight of the battery, electric motor, and any necessary hardware won't help you much. Take all that weight off and now you have something worth the work. The lighter your car the better the gains. Ferrari is working on a Hybrid supercar and I can't help but think how much better that car would be without the weight. As I have said before, cost can be a huge issue. From the factory, almost every car and not just hybrids, have some of the most picky ECUs that adding an intake or an exhaust will throw CELs or make the car lose power and run worse than it was orgionally. In electric mode the hybrid only has the allotted power given to it by the battery. In order to gain more power you need to upgrade the electric motor and the battery to be able to give the motor the electricty required. Personally, I don't see it as a feasible tune. With the CAFE restrictions tightening their grip around automakers throats, we might see more and more hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles. Sooner or later the aftermarket tuners will have to change for these type of cars or they'll go the way of the dinosaurs. Call me old fashioned, but I still prefer B16s K20s, RBs, Rotarys, 302s, Small blocks, crate motors, you name it. Hybrid tuning is one change in this world that I will always shake my head to.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

How Fast is Too Fast?

I have a 20 mile commute from home to school. I don't know if any of you are familiar with any of the road ways in Connecticut, but I guess you can say it is your typical commute. I travel from Waterbury to Farmington, on Route 84, and then back again. It's not too rough like the highways in NYC, or LA for example. As I cruise along at 75mph, ten over the speed limit, and in some cases 15mph over the speed limit. I can't help but notice that everybody is flying by at at least 80mph. Its bad enough that my car is fast enough already, by being passed while I'm in the fast lane, assuming that I am traveling rather fast, by a minivan loaded with kids watching "Shrek 2." I know cars are considerably faster, and also that much more safer. I don't understand how people would really want to risk that much by driving at insane speeeds. If you have a thirst for speed, great, but there is no need to be driving like Jeff Gordon in your Tahoe. This may seem like a rant by someone who drives slow, but to feed my speed I just go the track. How much time are you really saving by going that fast? Is it really worth the risk?