Quote from DeadWolfBones :

The left will claim he's a right wingnut/tea partier and the right will claim he's a commie and nothing will come of it except the 24-hour news cycle getting something else to beat to death for a couple weeks.

Thats quite funny because its extremely true. Also, why is this not considered an act of terrorism!? I was listening to NPR yesterday, and they quoted some DHS guy as saying that terrorism had been ruled out. How could crashing an airplane into a federally owned building be anything other than terrorism?

Wow, this has shaped up to be the best week ever. Originally we were supposed to have a half day thursday and no school friday (teacher training or something), but we missed tuesday and now wed, so it'll be a 1.5 day school weekat the most.

Quote from mrodgers :

No school over a 6 inch snowfall? We had 18-21 depending on where in the county you are over the weekend. I'm in the 18 range out in my yard and my kids had school. A lot of south of us was canceled on Monday where they were close to breaking records for snow, but my kids went. No delay or anything.

Actually, most if not all of the closings in southern PA are from power outages, not the actual snow.

You've clearly never driven in Ohio after a small snow storm. People around here think they can get away with just running summer tyres, and our snow removal is garbage. Half the time they just use salt (thinking it'll melt the 5 inches of snow that its just been put on).

Also, here are some pics from a few weeks ago, figured I'd put them up again. Kinda shows what I did again today.

Last edited by speed1, Wed 10 Feb 2010, 00:57.

Here in Dayton, Ohio, we've gotten like 6 inches or so through out today and last night with a few more predicted (that was on top of 5 or so inches). Missed school today, and hopefully tomorrow. This snow kinda sucks because its right at freezing, so the snow is super heavy and extremely slick (I did fine, but I almost got hit by a spinning jeep).

Quote from Blade3562 :

Ive got some other road pics but not very high quality as soon as spring hits im back on the roads taking more its a funnnn car!

Yeah, I can understand not wanting to drive in the winter, ODOT uses crazy amounts of salt, I dont even like driving my s*** mobile on the roads in the winter (I love the snow, just not the rust).

Quote from Yuri Laszlo :

Which is only 140 miles from Dublin, Ohio.

Well, obviously he was somewhere in Ohio lol.

Quote from Scrabby :

Taillights and overall form look a bit like a Datsun 240Z

Wow, you're really right, only obviously the wheels are way closer.

Quote from Fuse5 :

Do not quote a post full of images, goddamnit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :chair:

Thats my bad, I had the image display thing turned off and didnt even think of that, but calm down. Breath in slowly, now breath out through your nose slowly. Relaxed?

Quote from Blade3562 :

1974 Saab Sonett III

100% Original Survivor

Thats quite nice. If you dont mind me asking, where do you live? The background of those pics looks very familiar to me. Dublin maybe?

Last edited by speed1, Thu 4 Feb 2010, 20:27.

Quote from bbman :

I'd rather have the brake booster working at the high speeds, so if the engine (finally) does kill itself by over-revving I should at least slowed down enough to be able to come to a stop without it...

You've still got full power until you've released or pumped the brakes a few times.

As has been mentioned before, yet another argument for a proper gearbox. If you drive an automatic, you WILL be killed an a crash.

I cant think of any a worse way to spend money that that stupid thing. I'm hearing that its very fast and easy to use, but its not at all what it could have been, hell, the damn thing cant even multi task.

Quote from SidiousX :

The big recall that is happening currently is totally unrelated to the floormat issues that some Toyota models are having. The major recall is for accelerator pedals that get excessive wear over time and start taking longer to return to their natural position, and eventually just get stuck. The floormat problem is another issue they are having (although a hell of alot easier/cheaper to fix). My brother drives an '07 Tacoma, and had the floormat problem.

I was just going to point that out, the current sales freeze is related to the throttle actually getting jammed or sticking, not the floormat, issue. Regardless, I think a recall of that scale was a bit ridiculous, but from a PR standpoint, it probably looks better to appear to be playing it safe than to not do anything.

Quote from dougie-lampkin :

Yes, but that's in a country that has a decent driver system. In Ireland (And UK, I believe) you can get a license with literally 0 hours experience, and drive straight home.

Thats how the US is. Under 18 you need classroom instruction (I dont remember how much, but there is a ridiculous amount classroom compared to practical instruction), but once you're over 18, you just need to show up at a DMV that does tests, and take an easy written test, and an almost easier driving test (aprox. 5 minutes of driving around with a tester).

Quote from Klutch :

I have a 1st gen / Series 3 Rx-7
Aint nothing recent about it :P
and mazda are known for their terrible electrics

I've always loved those, I'm not sure why, but I do. And I know around here there are a few guys who rallycross them (at least until the engine literally falls apart).

The thing about ABS is that not only does it help with being able to turn and stop, in the event of an emergency stop, you dont get flat spotted tyres. Yeah, yeah I know, you should be threshold braking with the clutch in, but when you are puttering along and suddenly you have to stop hard, you're going to lock up, and as I did with my old tyres, you'll flat spot them. All of that said, I do find it extremely annoying on ice, and especially snow, where allowing the wheel to lock and build up snow in front of it can help you stop faster.

Quote from Jakg :

Ok you know what I mean - I'm all in favour of ABS and ESP being fitted to all cars however you should be able to switch it off - ABS does need a switch (because in snow its useless) and similar for ESP I personally feel if a car was starting to get out of shape, the last thing i'd want is a computer trying to alter the throttle / brakes for me - imagine trying to drive in LFS, and whenever you got near the limits someone cut the throttle / put on the brakes in an attempt to "save" you...

Have I tried a car with ESP? I must admit no. ABS? Yes and I was very impressed.

First off, I'd like to say that ESP WILL scare the hell out of you the first time you have to use it, and if you're like me, you WILL hate it. I really disliked the fact that it cut all throttle (this was in my mom's FWD van) and slowed the car from aprox 50-30mph without me even thinking about hitting the brakes, and I'm told by the friend who was in a car behind me that the brake lights did not engage, but he was braking hard to avoid hitting the car that I was going around (damp tarmac, and I'm used to driving my car with no ABS, so I figured stop and get rear-ended or dont bother with brakes and go into the opposite lane with no traffic).

In reference to the off button, just before christmas, my dad and I went to pick my grandad up from his house as he had gotten 21 inches of snow a few days earlier. In the days following, temperatures in the day got well above freezing and at night way below freezing, making the roads extremely rutted with what was basically 3-5 inch deep snow with random patches of tarmac. This tossing of the car about caused the ESP to constantly be engaging, and after 20 miles on a road like this when we got to my grandad's house, the brakes where smelling quite burnt (the car was our '10 Subaru Impreza). The same road an hour and a half later with the system turned off yielded no burnt brakes.

Quote from Stang70Fastback :

That would be an interesting statistic. Compare the total mileage on average of cars with/without ESP, ABS, AWD, etc, and see if there is any noticeable trend.

I really think you would see a trend because people think that electronics will save them, so they dont need to slow down in bad conditions. I think that is a phenomena that is really shown by all the trucks and suvs you see driving way to fast/in a ditch when its snowing. 4wd doesnt do you much good with stopping.

Quote from Osco :

what's HSoG?

Sorry, that was my bad lol. It should have been HCoG. High Center of Gravity.

Actually, I was just thinking, my CRV doesnt have ESP or ABS, but somehow It's made it to 100k miles.

Discuss. . .

I'm bring this up because the US has decided to make ESP mandatory by 2012.

My opinion: Seems like a great idea for HCoG vehicles, but it seems beyond pointless in smaller FWD cars, especially low powered economy cars, and I feel like it is probably going to increase fairly drastically the number of single vehicle crashes ("I'll be fine, I've got ESP"). That said, I've also heard that is a way to require ABS, but it seems that it would be more logical just to make that a mandate.

Last edited by speed1, Tue 19 Jan 2010, 02:49. Reason : Me=tool

Quote from mrodgers :

That CRV books for $8400. That's not exactly cheap for an almost 10 yr old car little SUV wantabe.

The key issue, and this represents America perfectly, is that its doesnt have the alloy wheels, and its a manual. Americans like shiny things and they dont like shifting. There was one at a local garage that (surprisingly almost exactly like mine, only a 2000) went from 7000 to 6500$, and I heard that it sold for around 5k.

Quote from Jakg :

No offence, but can you put some numbers up please?

I know people who've got insurance for £0.93 in the UK, in fact I know one person who got insurance for -£1.45 or something

Rough baseline - my 55 year old father pays ~£300pa for the insurance on his 1.something Kia Cee'd Disel Estate with no claims and my Mum on there as well. My Mum pays the same on her 55 plate Fiesta Diesel with about 2 cars written off in the last 6 years (:schwitz

I'm being somewhat sarcastic. My costs a year are around 800$, but thats for an extremely good plan (probably too much coverage honestly) that allows me to be the primary driver on my CRV and allows me to drive our other two cars (one of which is a '10 subaru impreza outback). Now, I'm not sure if you guys have places like this, but there are a few companies that get you "state min. coverage" (the lowest legal coverage), and from what I know, those companies only look at the age of the vehicle as I've got a friend with a 1978 305 Chevy Nova who pays sub 300 a year, and he's had a few accidents and a traffic ticket.

Quote from Boris Lozac :

I guess but nothing beats americans luck, when it comes to cars, electrics and pretty much everything (gas, etc.. ) How much do you americans pay for all the one year's car 'maintanence'? (insurance and registration)

A good bit less. I'll put it this way, I'm 16 and if I was insured on something like a Corvette ZR1, my annual insurance costs would still probably be cheaper than the quarterly fees a 60 year old doctor would pay in the UK on a 1980 VW Rabbit Diesel.

Quote from Boris Lozac :

I hate you americans I bought a beated up Golf MK II (1990) in 2006 for 2700 euros! and with that money god knows what i could buy in the US

Yeah, over here, that money would go a good bit farther (for aprox. the same cost you could fairly easily get a 2000 or 2001 Golf if you were patient and and looked around). The only problem is that a huge portion of our second hand market stuff is cars that were junk when they were new (that being said, our new car selection isnt great).