Here's today's auto adventure.
Last night in a driving rain the "I don't know nuttin about cars" kid calls me and says he has a flat. He knows that dad is a sucker for this kind of stuff so I spring into action with the pump and a can of fix a flat. I ask him "why didn't you change it yourself or call AAA"? He says he knows I like fixing stuff (in other words a sucker) so he graced me with the task. (Inappropriate contented deleted).
I get air in the tire and I notice two big slash marks in the sidewall. How'd that happen I ask....kid hasn't a clue....maybe he gave a Lyft ride to Jack the Ripper. So now he needs a new tire.
I tell him go to the Goodyear store because they can match your original GY tire. I tell him to have AAA put the donut on and he can drop the bad tire at the store. Of course the GY store is a madhouse on Saturday and they treat him like crap with the "we'll get to it when we get to it" attitude. He gets the new tire back hours later and tries to mount it on his car.
Turns out the AAA goon he called in the AM torqued the nuts so tight he can't get them off to remount the tire. I come home from the farmer's market and the two off us start hammering and pry barring at them. An hour later we managed to get three of them off but the last two refuse to cooperate. I tell him to call AAA back and get them to fix their mess. The AAA dispatcher screws up the call and we get nothing for two more hours. I tell the kid to call AAA and start yelling. He does and they say an hour wait. 5 minutes later the service truck calls and says he's in the driveway. Huh?
Anyway, takes him 2 seconds with the air gun to bust the last bolts off and the tire gets replaced. Kid loses a day's pay and has to pay another day's pay for the tire.
Moral of the story...don't involve your freaking father in your stupid problems. He gets too upset.
BTW, I told him to file a complaint with AAA about the original service but he's too nice of a guy to try to get anyone in trouble.
Wait, he had to put the new tire back on the car himself? Everytime I had been in that position the shop offered to put the new tire on themselves at no extra charge.
And jmonroe I know.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Yeah, probably most cars leaked oil back then after a few years, so I guess burning makes more sense. IIRC their 289 V8 was perhaps most vulnerable to that affliction. I did like the styling on the Hawks and the Conestoga wagons (motorized that is), but I grew up in the Chicago suburbs which were kind of between South Bend (Studebaker) and Kenosha (Rambler, aka Kenosha Kadilacs). The interesting thing to me back then was that Chicago was a big GM town, but it was Ford that had a auto plant there and Chrysler had one out toward Rockford, maybe 60 or so miles away. Well, maybe too much familiarity...
That's beautifully done, not too flashy. I liked that Studebaker Commander too. Studebaker made some nicely styled cars.
Some of them may have been OK style wise but I never met one Studebaker owner who was satisfied with their reliability even when new. At one point they were notorious for burning oil.
jmonroe
But as an antique you would put up with a lot more quirks than if it was new. I remember many a Caddie owner in not too distant times being told that burning a quart of oil every 1000 miles was normal.
I agree that antiques get a pass of sorts with "quirks".
As for telling a Caddie owner that burning that much oil "was normal", I'd say that too if I sold oil and/or wanted to renege on warranty service.
jmonroe
Back in the 70's I know GM Dealers would tell people that all cars burn "some" oil (true) and anything less than 800 miles was within limits. I'm sure some owners didn't like hearing that.
Warning, long post ahead … skip if you're not interested in my experience at the BMW driving event today
Today I attended, for the first time, a BMW Driving Event, sponsored by the local dealer. It was a two hour session, split equally between a "long course" and a "short course".
The facility is actually owned by the county, and is primarily used by law enforcement for high speed training and car control.
The "long course" is about a mile in length, and simulates a standard 2 lane road with a double yellow line. A few low speed corners and a decently long straight stretch, interrupted by a slalom with 6-7 gates. Decent elevation changes, too (the video I linked to earlier is the facility). This is in no way a race track - there are no run off areas.
The "short course" is set up for autocross; lots of low speed corners and one short straight stretch.
The local SCCA was out to monitor and time the autocross portion.
We split into two groups, and I went onto the long course first. We had a pace car - 2001 Z3M, driven by one of the SCCA hot shoes. First lap was orientation, 2nd and 3rd laps were at speed. Due to some scheduling delays, our group was only able to do 3 sets of laps. Fortunately, I was able to drive one of them - in an X3 M40i.
Way more fun than I expected - I was able to break 80 MPH on the straight stretch, before the slalom. I was complimented by one of my passengers that I was using an appropriate racing line (there were no professional drivers accompanying us). Unfortunately, the doofus who had the M4 three cars in front of me didn't seem to understand the concept of what the right pedal was for, so I wasn't able to really exercise the car.
I rode shotgun in both the X3 as well as in an X5 50i. The X5, my friends, is a seriously fast SUV. Except the driver nailed one of the slalom cones on the last lap. And, the M550i in front of us was going way faster.
On to the short course. There were 4 vehicles available - the M4 (after the first laps on the long course, the event organizers swapped it and another car out for two others), a 440i 6-speed, an X2 and a 650i GC. I drove the X2 twice, and the 440i and 650i GC once each.
I saw two times for my laps - 46.1 in the X2 and 45.9 in the 650. I kept the 440i in 2nd gear the whole lap, but didn't see a time.
I was pretty impressed with the X2; I pushed it to the limit the second time around and was able to induce a short 4-wheel drift on one of the tighter turns. Startled me into lifting off the throttle for a moment.
The 650 was surprisingly agile, as well, for something so big.
I have a new found appreciation for the "Ultimate Driving Machine" tag line, and I also learned that I'm a lousy passenger when cars are being driven in anger.
Wish I had the opportunity to do another half dozen laps, in the same car. I was starting to learn the course and figure there was time to shave.
All in all, a pretty fun day, even though a bunch of "bros" tried jumping the queue for extra seat time in the M4 and 440i.
Warning, long post ahead … skip if you're not interested in my experience at the BMW driving event today
Today I attended, for the first time, a BMW Driving Event, sponsored by the local dealer. It was a two hour session, split equally between a "long course" and a "short course".
The facility is actually owned by the county, and is primarily used by law enforcement for high speed training and car control.
The "long course" is about a mile in length, and simulates a standard 2 lane road with a double yellow line. A few low speed corners and a decently long straight stretch, interrupted by a slalom with 6-7 gates. Decent elevation changes, too (the video I linked to earlier is the facility). This is in no way a race track - there are no run off areas.
The "short course" is set up for autocross; lots of low speed corners and one short straight stretch.
The local SCCA was out to monitor and time the autocross portion.
We split into two groups, and I went onto the long course first. We had a pace car - 2001 Z3M, driven by one of the SCCA hot shoes. First lap was orientation, 2nd and 3rd laps were at speed. Due to some scheduling delays, our group was only able to do 3 sets of laps. Fortunately, I was able to drive one of them - in an X3 M40i.
Way more fun than I expected - I was able to break 80 MPH on the straight stretch, before the slalom. I was complimented by one of my passengers that I was using an appropriate racing line (there were no professional drivers accompanying us). Unfortunately, the doofus who had the M4 three cars in front of me didn't seem to understand the concept of what the right pedal was for, so I wasn't able to really exercise the car.
I rode shotgun in both the X3 as well as in an X5 50i. The X5, my friends, is a seriously fast SUV. Except the driver nailed one of the slalom cones on the last lap. And, the M550i in front of us was going way faster.
On to the short course. There were 4 vehicles available - the M4 (after the first laps on the long course, the event organizers swapped it and another car out for two others), a 440i 6-speed, an X2 and a 650i GC. I drove the X2 twice, and the 440i and 650i GC once each.
I saw two times for my laps - 46.1 in the X2 and 45.9 in the 650. I kept the 440i in 2nd gear the whole lap, but didn't see a time.
I was pretty impressed with the X2; I pushed it to the limit the second time around and was able to induce a short 4-wheel drift on one of the tighter turns. Startled me into lifting off the throttle for a moment.
The 650 was surprisingly agile, as well, for something so big.
I have a new found appreciation for the "Ultimate Driving Machine" tag line, and I also learned that I'm a lousy passenger when cars are being driven in anger.
Wish I had the opportunity to do another half dozen laps, in the same car. I was starting to learn the course and figure there was time to shave.
All in all, a pretty fun day, even though a bunch of "bros" tried jumping the queue for extra seat time in the M4 and 440i.
Nice read! I really like the X2; BMW is supposedly working on an M Performance variant, and I could see owning one if it runs the quarter in the very low thirteens.
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Warning, long post ahead … skip if you're not interested in my experience at the BMW driving event today
Today I attended, for the first time, a BMW Driving Event, sponsored by the local dealer. It was a two hour session, split equally between a "long course" and a "short course".
The facility is actually owned by the county, and is primarily used by law enforcement for high speed training and car control.
The "long course" is about a mile in length, and simulates a standard 2 lane road with a double yellow line. A few low speed corners and a decently long straight stretch, interrupted by a slalom with 6-7 gates. Decent elevation changes, too (the video I linked to earlier is the facility). This is in no way a race track - there are no run off areas.
The "short course" is set up for autocross; lots of low speed corners and one short straight stretch.
The local SCCA was out to monitor and time the autocross portion.
We split into two groups, and I went onto the long course first. We had a pace car - 2001 Z3M, driven by one of the SCCA hot shoes. First lap was orientation, 2nd and 3rd laps were at speed. Due to some scheduling delays, our group was only able to do 3 sets of laps. Fortunately, I was able to drive one of them - in an X3 M40i.
Way more fun than I expected - I was able to break 80 MPH on the straight stretch, before the slalom. I was complimented by one of my passengers that I was using an appropriate racing line (there were no professional drivers accompanying us). Unfortunately, the doofus who had the M4 three cars in front of me didn't seem to understand the concept of what the right pedal was for, so I wasn't able to really exercise the car.
I rode shotgun in both the X3 as well as in an X5 50i. The X5, my friends, is a seriously fast SUV. Except the driver nailed one of the slalom cones on the last lap. And, the M550i in front of us was going way faster.
On to the short course. There were 4 vehicles available - the M4 (after the first laps on the long course, the event organizers swapped it and another car out for two others), a 440i 6-speed, an X2 and a 650i GC. I drove the X2 twice, and the 440i and 650i GC once each.
I saw two times for my laps - 46.1 in the X2 and 45.9 in the 650. I kept the 440i in 2nd gear the whole lap, but didn't see a time.
I was pretty impressed with the X2; I pushed it to the limit the second time around and was able to induce a short 4-wheel drift on one of the tighter turns. Startled me into lifting off the throttle for a moment.
The 650 was surprisingly agile, as well, for something so big.
I have a new found appreciation for the "Ultimate Driving Machine" tag line, and I also learned that I'm a lousy passenger when cars are being driven in anger.
Wish I had the opportunity to do another half dozen laps, in the same car. I was starting to learn the course and figure there was time to shave.
All in all, a pretty fun day, even though a bunch of "bros" tried jumping the queue for extra seat time in the M4 and 440i.
Nice read! I really like the X2; BMW is supposedly working on an M Performance variant, and I could see owning one if it runs the quarter in the very low thirteens.
I was prepared to not like the X2, from a driving point of view. I've seen a few on the roads and think they are pretty handsome. Time behind the wheel convinced me that it's got good driving dynamics, as well.
I'm still likely in the market for a sedan as my next DD, however.
A lot of the younger folks in attendance were more interested in drifting the cars than doing a fast time on the short course. Which was interesting, since I think everything but the M4 was xDrive. Could still see the RWD bias, however.
Warning, long post ahead … skip if you're not interested in my experience at the BMW driving event today
Today I attended, for the first time, a BMW Driving Event, sponsored by the local dealer. It was a two hour session, split equally between a "long course" and a "short course".
The facility is actually owned by the county, and is primarily used by law enforcement for high speed training and car control.
The "long course" is about a mile in length, and simulates a standard 2 lane road with a double yellow line. A few low speed corners and a decently long straight stretch, interrupted by a slalom with 6-7 gates. Decent elevation changes, too (the video I linked to earlier is the facility). This is in no way a race track - there are no run off areas.
The "short course" is set up for autocross; lots of low speed corners and one short straight stretch.
The local SCCA was out to monitor and time the autocross portion.
We split into two groups, and I went onto the long course first. We had a pace car - 2001 Z3M, driven by one of the SCCA hot shoes. First lap was orientation, 2nd and 3rd laps were at speed. Due to some scheduling delays, our group was only able to do 3 sets of laps. Fortunately, I was able to drive one of them - in an X3 M40i.
Way more fun than I expected - I was able to break 80 MPH on the straight stretch, before the slalom. I was complimented by one of my passengers that I was using an appropriate racing line (there were no professional drivers accompanying us). Unfortunately, the doofus who had the M4 three cars in front of me didn't seem to understand the concept of what the right pedal was for, so I wasn't able to really exercise the car.
I rode shotgun in both the X3 as well as in an X5 50i. The X5, my friends, is a seriously fast SUV. Except the driver nailed one of the slalom cones on the last lap. And, the M550i in front of us was going way faster.
On to the short course. There were 4 vehicles available - the M4 (after the first laps on the long course, the event organizers swapped it and another car out for two others), a 440i 6-speed, an X2 and a 650i GC. I drove the X2 twice, and the 440i and 650i GC once each.
I saw two times for my laps - 46.1 in the X2 and 45.9 in the 650. I kept the 440i in 2nd gear the whole lap, but didn't see a time.
I was pretty impressed with the X2; I pushed it to the limit the second time around and was able to induce a short 4-wheel drift on one of the tighter turns. Startled me into lifting off the throttle for a moment.
The 650 was surprisingly agile, as well, for something so big.
I have a new found appreciation for the "Ultimate Driving Machine" tag line, and I also learned that I'm a lousy passenger when cars are being driven in anger.
Wish I had the opportunity to do another half dozen laps, in the same car. I was starting to learn the course and figure there was time to shave.
All in all, a pretty fun day, even though a bunch of "bros" tried jumping the queue for extra seat time in the M4 and 440i.
Warning, long post ahead … skip if you're not interested in my experience at the BMW driving event today
Today I attended, for the first time, a BMW Driving Event, sponsored by the local dealer. It was a two hour session, split equally between a "long course" and a "short course".
The facility is actually owned by the county, and is primarily used by law enforcement for high speed training and car control.
The "long course" is about a mile in length, and simulates a standard 2 lane road with a double yellow line. A few low speed corners and a decently long straight stretch, interrupted by a slalom with 6-7 gates. Decent elevation changes, too (the video I linked to earlier is the facility). This is in no way a race track - there are no run off areas.
The "short course" is set up for autocross; lots of low speed corners and one short straight stretch.
The local SCCA was out to monitor and time the autocross portion.
We split into two groups, and I went onto the long course first. We had a pace car - 2001 Z3M, driven by one of the SCCA hot shoes. First lap was orientation, 2nd and 3rd laps were at speed. Due to some scheduling delays, our group was only able to do 3 sets of laps. Fortunately, I was able to drive one of them - in an X3 M40i.
Way more fun than I expected - I was able to break 80 MPH on the straight stretch, before the slalom. I was complimented by one of my passengers that I was using an appropriate racing line (there were no professional drivers accompanying us). Unfortunately, the doofus who had the M4 three cars in front of me didn't seem to understand the concept of what the right pedal was for, so I wasn't able to really exercise the car.
I rode shotgun in both the X3 as well as in an X5 50i. The X5, my friends, is a seriously fast SUV. Except the driver nailed one of the slalom cones on the last lap. And, the M550i in front of us was going way faster.
On to the short course. There were 4 vehicles available - the M4 (after the first laps on the long course, the event organizers swapped it and another car out for two others), a 440i 6-speed, an X2 and a 650i GC. I drove the X2 twice, and the 440i and 650i GC once each.
I saw two times for my laps - 46.1 in the X2 and 45.9 in the 650. I kept the 440i in 2nd gear the whole lap, but didn't see a time.
I was pretty impressed with the X2; I pushed it to the limit the second time around and was able to induce a short 4-wheel drift on one of the tighter turns. Startled me into lifting off the throttle for a moment.
The 650 was surprisingly agile, as well, for something so big.
I have a new found appreciation for the "Ultimate Driving Machine" tag line, and I also learned that I'm a lousy passenger when cars are being driven in anger.
Wish I had the opportunity to do another half dozen laps, in the same car. I was starting to learn the course and figure there was time to shave.
All in all, a pretty fun day, even though a bunch of "bros" tried jumping the queue for extra seat time in the M4 and 440i.
Last night in a driving rain the "I don't know nuttin about cars" kid calls me and says he has a flat. He knows that dad is a sucker for this kind of stuff so I spring into action with the pump and a can of fix a flat. I ask him "why didn't you change it yourself or call AAA"? He says he knows I like fixing stuff (in other words a sucker) so he graced me with the task. (Inappropriate contented deleted).
I get air in the tire and I notice two big slash marks in the sidewall. How'd that happen I ask....kid hasn't a clue....maybe he gave a Lyft ride to Jack the Ripper. So now he needs a new tire.
I tell him go to the Goodyear store because they can match your original GY tire. I tell him to have AAA put the donut on and he can drop the bad tire at the store. Of course the GY store is a madhouse on Saturday and they treat him like crap with the "we'll get to it when we get to it" attitude. He gets the new tire back hours later and tries to mount it on his car.
Turns out the AAA goon he called in the AM torqued the nuts so tight he can't get them off to remount the tire. I come home from the farmer's market and the two off us start hammering and pry barring at them. An hour later we managed to get three of them off but the last two refuse to cooperate. I tell him to call AAA back and get them to fix their mess. The AAA dispatcher screws up the call and we get nothing for two more hours. I tell the kid to call AAA and start yelling. He does and they say an hour wait. 5 minutes later the service truck calls and says he's in the driveway. Huh?
Anyway, takes him 2 seconds with the air gun to bust the last bolts off and the tire gets replaced. Kid loses a day's pay and has to pay another day's pay for the tire.
Moral of the story...don't involve your freaking father in your stupid problems. He gets too upset.
BTW, I told him to file a complaint with AAA about the original service but he's too nice of a guy to try to get anyone in trouble.
Wait, he had to put the new tire back on the car himself? Everytime I had been in that position the shop offered to put the new tire on themselves at no extra charge.
And jmonroe I know.
As I said, the tire place was a mad house with a ton of attitude. They kept him waiting for hours and wouldn't tell him when they could actually mount the tire back on the car. So he finally gave up and when the tire was on the wheel he took it home to do it himself. That's when he discovered what the AAA guy had pulled.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Warning, long post ahead … skip if you're not interested in my experience at the BMW driving event today
Today I attended, for the first time, a BMW Driving Event, sponsored by the local dealer. It was a two hour session, split equally between a "long course" and a "short course".
The facility is actually owned by the county, and is primarily used by law enforcement for high speed training and car control.
The "long course" is about a mile in length, and simulates a standard 2 lane road with a double yellow line. A few low speed corners and a decently long straight stretch, interrupted by a slalom with 6-7 gates. Decent elevation changes, too (the video I linked to earlier is the facility). This is in no way a race track - there are no run off areas.
The "short course" is set up for autocross; lots of low speed corners and one short straight stretch.
The local SCCA was out to monitor and time the autocross portion.
We split into two groups, and I went onto the long course first. We had a pace car - 2001 Z3M, driven by one of the SCCA hot shoes. First lap was orientation, 2nd and 3rd laps were at speed. Due to some scheduling delays, our group was only able to do 3 sets of laps. Fortunately, I was able to drive one of them - in an X3 M40i.
Way more fun than I expected - I was able to break 80 MPH on the straight stretch, before the slalom. I was complimented by one of my passengers that I was using an appropriate racing line (there were no professional drivers accompanying us). Unfortunately, the doofus who had the M4 three cars in front of me didn't seem to understand the concept of what the right pedal was for, so I wasn't able to really exercise the car.
I rode shotgun in both the X3 as well as in an X5 50i. The X5, my friends, is a seriously fast SUV. Except the driver nailed one of the slalom cones on the last lap. And, the M550i in front of us was going way faster.
On to the short course. There were 4 vehicles available - the M4 (after the first laps on the long course, the event organizers swapped it and another car out for two others), a 440i 6-speed, an X2 and a 650i GC. I drove the X2 twice, and the 440i and 650i GC once each.
I saw two times for my laps - 46.1 in the X2 and 45.9 in the 650. I kept the 440i in 2nd gear the whole lap, but didn't see a time.
I was pretty impressed with the X2; I pushed it to the limit the second time around and was able to induce a short 4-wheel drift on one of the tighter turns. Startled me into lifting off the throttle for a moment.
The 650 was surprisingly agile, as well, for something so big.
I have a new found appreciation for the "Ultimate Driving Machine" tag line, and I also learned that I'm a lousy passenger when cars are being driven in anger.
Wish I had the opportunity to do another half dozen laps, in the same car. I was starting to learn the course and figure there was time to shave.
All in all, a pretty fun day, even though a bunch of "bros" tried jumping the queue for extra seat time in the M4 and 440i.
Thanks for the warning, Michaell
I'm guessing you skipped it, then?
No I didn’t, Michaell. I always enjoy your posts, long or short. But some posters here go a bit overboard on one huge post after another - usually describing experiences in traffic court, speeding, speed limits, etc. I mean, c’mon, how is it possible to write tens of thousands of words on that one topic? Day after day, week after week, month after month.....ugh!
I went in to have a blood test on July 18th to determine if there is any Hep C virus in my blood. This was going to be the final test in order to consider me cured of Hep C since the 2 previous test detected no virus.
I waited 2 weeks for results. My doctor got the results last Friday - “unable to complete test for Hep C”! My doctor called the lab only to find out they mishandled the blood or lost the specimen!
Anger and ire cannot adequately describe my outrage. This test was critical in determining if the virus had been eliminated or if it was active. Now, I have to go to the lab again this Thursday to have them stick me another 4-5 times until they find a vein (I am a hard “stick). Then I have to wait another 10-14 days to get results.
LabCorp accepted responsibility but what good is that going to do me? They said there would be no charge for the retest. Well thank you LabCorp! Awful!
@sb55, A couple weeks ago, on the way back from vacation I saw an airstream with Vermont plates ahead of me. I was thinking 'No, it couldn't be', and it wasn't. The trailer was older and being towed by a Ram pickup with a graphic about custom quilts on it.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
I went in to have a blood test on July 18th to determine if there is any Hep C virus in my blood. This was going to be the final test in order to consider me cured of Hep C since the 2 previous test detected no virus.
I waited 2 weeks for results. My doctor got the results last Friday - “unable to complete test for Hep C”! My doctor called the lab only to find out they mishandled the blood or lost the specimen!
Anger and ire cannot adequately describe my outrage. This test was critical in determining if the virus had been eliminated or if it was active. Now, I have to go to the lab again this Thursday to have them stick me another 4-5 times until they find a vein (I am a hard “stick). Then I have to wait another 10-14 days to get results.
LabCorp accepted responsibility but what good is that going to do me? They said there would be no charge for the retest. Well thank you LabCorp! Awful!
That’s awful! I’m so sorry. As one who is also a “hard stick” and who has regular lab draws, that’s really a drag. But that it’s the Hep C test makes it even worse. I remember my friend waiting for those results and being so elated when they arrived with good news. That’s really disheartening.
Last night in a driving rain the "I don't know nuttin about cars" kid calls me and says he has a flat. He knows that dad is a sucker for this kind of stuff so I spring into action with the pump and a can of fix a flat. I ask him "why didn't you change it yourself or call AAA"? He says he knows I like fixing stuff (in other words a sucker) so he graced me with the task. (Inappropriate contented deleted).
I get air in the tire and I notice two big slash marks in the sidewall. How'd that happen I ask....kid hasn't a clue....maybe he gave a Lyft ride to Jack the Ripper. So now he needs a new tire.
I tell him go to the Goodyear store because they can match your original GY tire. I tell him to have AAA put the donut on and he can drop the bad tire at the store. Of course the GY store is a madhouse on Saturday and they treat him like crap with the "we'll get to it when we get to it" attitude. He gets the new tire back hours later and tries to mount it on his car.
Turns out the AAA goon he called in the AM torqued the nuts so tight he can't get them off to remount the tire. I come home from the farmer's market and the two off us start hammering and pry barring at them. An hour later we managed to get three of them off but the last two refuse to cooperate. I tell him to call AAA back and get them to fix their mess. The AAA dispatcher screws up the call and we get nothing for two more hours. I tell the kid to call AAA and start yelling. He does and they say an hour wait. 5 minutes later the service truck calls and says he's in the driveway. Huh?
Anyway, takes him 2 seconds with the air gun to bust the last bolts off and the tire gets replaced. Kid loses a day's pay and has to pay another day's pay for the tire.
Moral of the story...don't involve your freaking father in your stupid problems. He gets too upset.
BTW, I told him to file a complaint with AAA about the original service but he's too nice of a guy to try to get anyone in trouble.
Interesting story. I've never seen a AAA service truck with an air gun. I see air compressors on road service trucks for the big 18 wheelers, but not the ones intended for ordinary passenger cars.
If the first AAA service tech did indeed overtighten the lug nuts to that extreme, then I would want to have the brake rotor checked, make sure it didn't get warped.
Last night in a driving rain the "I don't know nuttin about cars" kid calls me and says he has a flat. He knows that dad is a sucker for this kind of stuff so I spring into action with the pump and a can of fix a flat. I ask him "why didn't you change it yourself or call AAA"? He says he knows I like fixing stuff (in other words a sucker) so he graced me with the task. (Inappropriate contented deleted).
I get air in the tire and I notice two big slash marks in the sidewall. How'd that happen I ask....kid hasn't a clue....maybe he gave a Lyft ride to Jack the Ripper. So now he needs a new tire.
I tell him go to the Goodyear store because they can match your original GY tire. I tell him to have AAA put the donut on and he can drop the bad tire at the store. Of course the GY store is a madhouse on Saturday and they treat him like crap with the "we'll get to it when we get to it" attitude. He gets the new tire back hours later and tries to mount it on his car.
Turns out the AAA goon he called in the AM torqued the nuts so tight he can't get them off to remount the tire. I come home from the farmer's market and the two off us start hammering and pry barring at them. An hour later we managed to get three of them off but the last two refuse to cooperate. I tell him to call AAA back and get them to fix their mess. The AAA dispatcher screws up the call and we get nothing for two more hours. I tell the kid to call AAA and start yelling. He does and they say an hour wait. 5 minutes later the service truck calls and says he's in the driveway. Huh?
Anyway, takes him 2 seconds with the air gun to bust the last bolts off and the tire gets replaced. Kid loses a day's pay and has to pay another day's pay for the tire.
Moral of the story...don't involve your freaking father in your stupid problems. He gets too upset.
BTW, I told him to file a complaint with AAA about the original service but he's too nice of a guy to try to get anyone in trouble.
Interesting story. I've never seen a AAA service truck with an air gun. I see air compressors on road service trucks for the big 18 wheelers, but not the ones intended for ordinary passenger cars.
If the first AAA service tech did indeed overtighten the lug nuts to that extreme, then I would want to have the brake rotor checked, make sure it didn't get warped.
I think air gun was a misnomer. I was there for the second call and that guy used a portable impact driver to take them off. Sounded just like the air gun at the garage.
So now we have to worry that his brakes are screwed up too? Yikes! As it is I've concluded with the size of the slash, the damage had to have been done while the car was parked at my house. That means someone may have come in at night to deliberately cause damage. I of course am now wondering if it was one of the characters who entered my house last week seeking revenge for calling the police. I really hope it's just my paranoia acting up.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
I went in to have a blood test on July 18th to determine if there is any Hep C virus in my blood. This was going to be the final test in order to consider me cured of Hep C since the 2 previous test detected no virus.
I waited 2 weeks for results. My doctor got the results last Friday - “unable to complete test for Hep C”! My doctor called the lab only to find out they mishandled the blood or lost the specimen!
Anger and ire cannot adequately describe my outrage. This test was critical in determining if the virus had been eliminated or if it was active. Now, I have to go to the lab again this Thursday to have them stick me another 4-5 times until they find a vein (I am a hard “stick). Then I have to wait another 10-14 days to get results.
LabCorp accepted responsibility but what good is that going to do me? They said there would be no charge for the retest. Well thank you LabCorp! Awful!
As bad as that is it's probably better than if they had screwed up and given you a false positive. It's scarey how these lab companies mess up lab results when people's lives depend on them. I remember a 60 Minutes story some years ago where min. wage lab techs were so overworked that they had a high percentage of incorrect results which caused some people to undergo major surgery unnecessarily.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Mr M. I read your report in it's entirety and found it interesting....I almost always like to hear how the common man views driving various cars. Not to upset anyone, but would that driving day have been as much fun if you were road testing, say, new Buicks?
Mike....really sorry to hear they lost the all important lab results. Giving you a free one when they lost the original is insulting. They should give you your results within 24 hours for their mistake, and give you a gift certificate for a nice dinner.....or, free lab results in the future.
Last night in a driving rain the "I don't know nuttin about cars" kid calls me and says he has a flat. He knows that dad is a sucker for this kind of stuff so I spring into action with the pump and a can of fix a flat. I ask him "why didn't you change it yourself or call AAA"? He says he knows I like fixing stuff (in other words a sucker) so he graced me with the task. (Inappropriate contented deleted).
I get air in the tire and I notice two big slash marks in the sidewall. How'd that happen I ask....kid hasn't a clue....maybe he gave a Lyft ride to Jack the Ripper. So now he needs a new tire.
I tell him go to the Goodyear store because they can match your original GY tire. I tell him to have AAA put the donut on and he can drop the bad tire at the store. Of course the GY store is a madhouse on Saturday and they treat him like crap with the "we'll get to it when we get to it" attitude. He gets the new tire back hours later and tries to mount it on his car.
Turns out the AAA goon he called in the AM torqued the nuts so tight he can't get them off to remount the tire. I come home from the farmer's market and the two off us start hammering and pry barring at them. An hour later we managed to get three of them off but the last two refuse to cooperate. I tell him to call AAA back and get them to fix their mess. The AAA dispatcher screws up the call and we get nothing for two more hours. I tell the kid to call AAA and start yelling. He does and they say an hour wait. 5 minutes later the service truck calls and says he's in the driveway. Huh?
Anyway, takes him 2 seconds with the air gun to bust the last bolts off and the tire gets replaced. Kid loses a day's pay and has to pay another day's pay for the tire.
Moral of the story...don't involve your freaking father in your stupid problems. He gets too upset.
BTW, I told him to file a complaint with AAA about the original service but he's too nice of a guy to try to get anyone in trouble.
Interesting story. I've never seen a AAA service truck with an air gun. I see air compressors on road service trucks for the big 18 wheelers, but not the ones intended for ordinary passenger cars.
If the first AAA service tech did indeed overtighten the lug nuts to that extreme, then I would want to have the brake rotor checked, make sure it didn't get warped.
I don't want to get into an argument about this but I seriously doubt that over tightened lug nuts will warp a rotor. IMO, the rotor studs would shear off long before the rotor is damaged. However, I'd be much more concerned that when over torqueing is done that the studs will have been stretched beyond their elasticity limit for that given material. One of the best ways to do this is to take the over torqued studs to a materials lab and have them X-rayed to check the grain structure of the over torqued stud and compare it to that of a new stud. Material labs do this all day long and are very good at it but it takes time and money to run the battery of tests required for accurate testing. This being the case, if a car owner is that concerned about over torqueing ruining the studs, the best thing to do is replace the over torqued studs. In fact, I even know someone that did just that because even with his 3/4 inch pneumatic wrench he could not get a few lug nuts loose. If I had to guess, I'd say that around 50% of the cars on the road today have some lug nuts over torqued to some degree beyond the recommended torque specs for their car and the owners have no idea about this because they never touch their lug nuts themselves. It's comforting to know that designers have chosen studs with enough margin to allow for bad installations, otherwise we would hear about this many, many times every day.
FWIW, and once again it is very coincidental since we are on this subject, I read in the Click and clack article this morning in the Sunday paper about a 1972 VW Van that had over torqued lugs nuts. When the owner "heard a loud clunking on the front passenger side", she pulled over. When the hub cap was removed she saw "one lonely lug nut in place the rest had sheared off". If anyone thinks over torqued lug nuts is a very rare occurrence, I feel sorry for them.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
If only the enforcement sector would go after or be told to go after more than simple speeders. The amount of "drivers" I see with phones in their hand, not signaling, violating green signaled crosswalks, turning into the wrong lane, etc is stupefying. Actually cracking down on more than speed might alleviate some stress from those who have to dodge idiots, especially on foot.
On the other hand, this morning I saw a brave hardworking bootstrapper in a Tesla going maybe 60-70 in a 40, probably less likely to be nabbed for that than a 19 year old from a less affluent suburb speeding in a 20 year old Civic. But I guess that's how it goes, justice is not blind, they deserve the endless tax breaks, with more upcoming, as the entitled lucky ones like to lecture "life isn't fair", dopey libertarians will cry "class warfare!" if anyone questions this dumb status quo
Given the perks and blind deference accumulated and held by the crime and punishment industry, no doubt even doubling the amount of citations would fail to fund that system. This isn't real world accountability.
If speed demon's posts irk some, just skip them. It's not rocket surgery.
Most of us do not have any direct contact with traffic law inforcement activities because we obey or are in compliance with all traffic laws. We don’t travel more than 3-5 mph over the speed limit; we stop at red lights and stop si. Why? Because they find the traffic laws too restricting for their driving preferences. Tough, isn’t it!
If everyone obeyed the traffic laws, we would all be safer on the roads when we drive. It’s because of those who violate traffic laws that accidents are on the rise.
Do we know what percentage of people are pulled over for each offense? We see someone pulled over so we automatically presume it's for speeding? How do we know it's not for cell phone use or not using turn signals or cutting someone off?
It's a pretty soild assumption when you see it happen in front/alongside/behind you. You are observing traffic, and you don't see any violations yourself, other than speeding, which everyone is doing, so when someone gets pulled over, pretty safe process of elmination. Also, if the fastest guy that just passed you gets pulled over, another prettty strong indicator.
As you say it is an assumption, you really have no idea why that person was pulled over. Maybe due to making unsafe lane changes, or not using signals, or on a cell phone, or expired plates, or having ketchup on your hotdog (illegal here in Chicago), or any other reason.
That's not true. I have these things called eyeballs, two of them, and they work great. I also have superior powers of observation while I"m driving. I'd have noticed an unsafe lane change, not using signals, or cell phone use in many cases, if they had occurred. Expires plates, I'm not paying attention for that, as it doesn't affect my safety. How would the Officer know that from their typical hidden positions? License plate readers? Would they pull someone over for only that reason without being certain their records are not faulty? Seems very far-fetched.
I think we all know all those other reasons are a mere statistical blip on what is usually going on out there.
You may have eyeballs but can you read minds? Unless you can read the officers mind you have no way of knowing why someone got pulled over.
It's called experience. I have this thing called experience. And according to you all my experience getting pulled over is due to speeding.
If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
I just want to say for the record my attitude is not that you all should stay home and keep out of my way out on the roadway.
Enjoy the road. Use it as you wish. You pay taxes too. But follow the rules of the road, and don't make victims of other people.
That means: 1) don't impede traffic 2) don't be the cause of traffic 3) don't wreck damage other's personal property because see #1 and #2 above, in addition to victimizing them to your insurance company and a body shop. 4) If I see you force passes on the right I'll be just as mad at you for doing it to someone else as I am for doing it to me, if you do it to me.
andres3, I don't think I would enjoy being a passenger in your car.
I would however enjoy being a Traffic Court Judge with you in front of me.
Remember, most honest people's only exposure to the Justice System is through Traffic Court. Handing down arbitrary and unfair rulings creates nothing but disrespect and contempt for those that make and enforce those laws, while simultaneously ignoring all the laws that don't fit their financial mission.
Very few people can match the number of tickets I received in my misspent youth. Mostly speeding tickets asn, you know what? I deserved every one that was given to me. Once I failed to yield to a pedestrian that I didn't deserve. I went to court on every ticket I received. I was always the victim. The cop must have clocked the wrong car, etc. The pedestrian was a Wino who had waved me through the crosswalk. (True but I lost this one).
I think during that time I may have "beat" one or two of them through my willingness and ability to dispense a believable amount of BS that the judge gave me the benefit of the doubt. A couple of times, the cop didn't show up in court which in CA in those days gave me a free ride!
But, I was 18 years old with a fast car and a cocky attitude.
But, as I said, with one exception....I DESERVED EACH AND EVERY ONE!
The last tiem I got a ticket was when I was 28 years old in my tool truck when I made a left turn at a time I shouldn't have. That was a few years ago.
Since then, I have slowed down. I have quit making excuses and I have dropped (most) of my cockiness.
See Andres, how easy it can be?
In CA in the old days if you smarted off to a cop or acted like you knew more about the law then he did, the cop would draw a very small circle it the upper left of the ticket. He would make a small dot in the middle.
That told the judge that you had been a "difficult customer"
I never got a circle!
I doubt I've earned more than one circle in all my days on this Earth. That was from the irate Santee Sheriff that batted 1 for 2 in court against me.
It'll only took one cop telling me "tell it to the judge!" to hold all roadside arguments for the judge. I haven't argued a case roadside ever since, and that was in my teen years!
I remain as respectful and professional as possible, with the utmost integrity. Since my very first experience in Court as a teen showed me that the Courts lacked integrity, I've been going back over and over waiting for the day they might show some. The County Seat in San Diego has shown me some integrity in the past. They have granted my rightful and legal motions, the same exact motions that other courts have wrongfully denied, and more!
As I've said, maximum speed ticket violations are difficult to argue, and the CHP almost always shows up. I've never had a very strong argument for any of those violations. Basic speed law is different, and as I've pointed out, many of my biggest grievances come from "off the wall" vehicle code violations pulled out of an Officer's rear-end.
'18 Porsche Macan Turbo, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
Last night in a driving rain the "I don't know nuttin about cars" kid calls me and says he has a flat. He knows that dad is a sucker for this kind of stuff so I spring into action with the pump and a can of fix a flat. I ask him "why didn't you change it yourself or call AAA"? He says he knows I like fixing stuff (in other words a sucker) so he graced me with the task. (Inappropriate contented deleted).
I get air in the tire and I notice two big slash marks in the sidewall. How'd that happen I ask....kid hasn't a clue....maybe he gave a Lyft ride to Jack the Ripper. So now he needs a new tire.
I tell him go to the Goodyear store because they can match your original GY tire. I tell him to have AAA put the donut on and he can drop the bad tire at the store. Of course the GY store is a madhouse on Saturday and they treat him like crap with the "we'll get to it when we get to it" attitude. He gets the new tire back hours later and tries to mount it on his car.
Turns out the AAA goon he called in the AM torqued the nuts so tight he can't get them off to remount the tire. I come home from the farmer's market and the two off us start hammering and pry barring at them. An hour later we managed to get three of them off but the last two refuse to cooperate. I tell him to call AAA back and get them to fix their mess. The AAA dispatcher screws up the call and we get nothing for two more hours. I tell the kid to call AAA and start yelling. He does and they say an hour wait. 5 minutes later the service truck calls and says he's in the driveway. Huh?
Anyway, takes him 2 seconds with the air gun to bust the last bolts off and the tire gets replaced. Kid loses a day's pay and has to pay another day's pay for the tire.
Moral of the story...don't involve your freaking father in your stupid problems. He gets too upset.
BTW, I told him to file a complaint with AAA about the original service but he's too nice of a guy to try to get anyone in trouble.
Interesting story. I've never seen a AAA service truck with an air gun. I see air compressors on road service trucks for the big 18 wheelers, but not the ones intended for ordinary passenger cars.
If the first AAA service tech did indeed overtighten the lug nuts to that extreme, then I would want to have the brake rotor checked, make sure it didn't get warped.
I don't want to get into an argument about this but I seriously doubt that over tightened lug nuts will warp a rotor. IMO, the rotor studs would shear off long before the rotor is damaged. However, I'd be much more concerned that when over torqueing is done that the studs will have been stretched beyond their elasticity limit for that given material. One of the best ways to do this is to take the over torqued studs to a materials lab and have them X-rayed to check the grain structure of the over torqued stud and compare it to that of a new stud. Material labs do this all day long and are very good at it but it takes time and money to run the battery of tests required for accurate testing. This being the case, if a car owner is that concerned about over torqueing ruining the studs, the best thing to do is replace the over torqued studs. In fact, I even know someone that did just that because even with his 3/4 inch pneumatic wrench he could not get a few lug nuts loose. If I had to guess, I'd say that around 50% of the cars on the road today have some lug nuts over torqued to some degree beyond the recommended torque specs for their car and the owners have no idea about this because they never touch their lug nuts themselves. It's comforting to know that designers have chosen studs with enough margin to allow for bad installations, otherwise we would hear about this many, many times every day.
FWIW, and once again it is very coincidental since we are on this subject, I read in the Click and clack article this morning in the Sunday paper about a 1972 VW Van that had over torqued lugs nuts. When the owner "heard a loud clunking on the front passenger side", she pulled over. When the hub cap was removed she saw "one lonely lug nut in place the rest had sheared off". If anyone thinks over torqued lug nuts is a very rare occurrence, I feel sorry for them.
jmonroe
Interesting. And no, no arguments. Your post made me curious, so I went and did a google search, found articles and forum posts defending both sides of this debate. It would appear that a temporary condition of over-tightening probably did not warp the rotor. Not tightening in the recommended star pattern, or over-tightening one but not all may cause a warped rotor over a period of time. At least that was the conclusion I reached after reading for about 10 minutes.
I know that over-tightening can definitely cause problems for the bolts. I remember watching someone trying to torque the head bolts on an old 6 cylinder Mustang (roughly a 1966 or 1967). This would have been back around 1978 or 79. He applied anti-seize compound to the threads before installing and then tried to torque with a torque wrench. I told him the torque specs were for "dry" conditions, but he didn't listen. You can probably guess the results.
@ab348, I'm thinking that test driver should start wearing a helmet. In addition to adding stability control to the other models, they will probably add some less grippy tires.
2024 Ford F-150 STX, 2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
@sda, Yesterday, I washed my Fusion including dressing the tires, which I don't usually do any more. It looks so clean, I don't want to drive it.
Aside from not wanting to park my '15 GENNY in skinny parking spaces that's reason #2 why it sits clean as a whistle in my garage with 7235 miles on it as I post. Which is why I'm not even allowed to talk about trading it in and have to concentrate on Mrs. j's 2012 Legacy with less than 33K miles on it even if I ain't getting nowhere with that either. Although I've asked for help from you guys in here, I have not gotten any. I don't know if you guys don't like me or if you don't think you can out wit Mrs. j.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
If only the enforcement sector would go after or be told to go after more than simple speeders. The amount of "drivers" I see with phones in their hand, not signaling, violating green signaled crosswalks, turning into the wrong lane, etc is stupefying. Actually cracking down on more than speed might alleviate some stress from those who have to dodge idiots, especially on foot.
On the other hand, this morning I saw a brave hardworking bootstrapper in a Tesla going maybe 60-70 in a 40, probably less likely to be nabbed for that than a 19 year old from a less affluent suburb speeding in a 20 year old Civic. But I guess that's how it goes, justice is not blind, they deserve the endless tax breaks, with more upcoming, as the entitled lucky ones like to lecture "life isn't fair", dopey libertarians will cry "class warfare!" if anyone questions this dumb status quo
Given the perks and blind deference accumulated and held by the crime and punishment industry, no doubt even doubling the amount of citations would fail to fund that system. This isn't real world accountability.
If speed demon's posts irk some, just skip them. It's not rocket surgery.
Most of us do not have any direct contact with traffic law inforcement activities because we obey or are in compliance with all traffic laws. We don’t travel more than 3-5 mph over the speed limit; we stop at red lights and stop si. Why? Because they find the traffic laws too restricting for their driving preferences. Tough, isn’t it!
If everyone obeyed the traffic laws, we would all be safer on the roads when we drive. It’s because of those who violate traffic laws that accidents are on the rise.
Do we know what percentage of people are pulled over for each offense? We see someone pulled over so we automatically presume it's for speeding? How do we know it's not for cell phone use or not using turn signals or cutting someone off?
It's a pretty soild assumption when you see it happen in front/alongside/behind you. You are observing traffic, and you don't see any violations yourself, other than speeding, which everyone is doing, so when someone gets pulled over, pretty safe process of elmination. Also, if the fastest guy that just passed you gets pulled over, another prettty strong indicator.
As you say it is an assumption, you really have no idea why that person was pulled over. Maybe due to making unsafe lane changes, or not using signals, or on a cell phone, or expired plates, or having ketchup on your hotdog (illegal here in Chicago), or any other reason.
That's not true. I have these things called eyeballs, two of them, and they work great. I also have superior powers of observation while I"m driving. I'd have noticed an unsafe lane change, not using signals, or cell phone use in many cases, if they had occurred. Expires plates, I'm not paying attention for that, as it doesn't affect my safety. How would the Officer know that from their typical hidden positions? License plate readers? Would they pull someone over for only that reason without being certain their records are not faulty? Seems very far-fetched.
I think we all know all those other reasons are a mere statistical blip on what is usually going on out there.
You may have eyeballs but can you read minds? Unless you can read the officers mind you have no way of knowing why someone got pulled over.
It's called experience. I have this thing called experience. And according to you all my experience getting pulled over is due to speeding.
If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.
Again get back to me when you can read minds, until the you have no knowledge of why.
Eyes lie all the time.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
@sda, Yesterday, I washed my Fusion including dressing the tires, which I don't usually do any more. It looks so clean, I don't want to drive it.
Aside from not wanting to park my '15 GENNY in skinny parking spaces that's reason #2 why it sits clean as a whistle in my garage with 7235 miles on it as I post. Which is why I'm not even allowed to talk about trading it in and have to concentrate on Mrs. j's 2012 Legacy with less than 33K miles on it even if I ain't getting nowhere with that either. Although I've asked for help from you guys in here, I have not gotten any. I don't know if you guys don't like me or if you don't think you can out wit Mrs. j.
jmonroe
Hey, I offered to take it off your hands, even told you I'd pay you a thousand or two. Tell Mrs. J it's a charity donation to a good cause. I'm sure she has a big heart.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Comments
And jmonroe I know.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
Today I attended, for the first time, a BMW Driving Event, sponsored by the local dealer. It was a two hour session, split equally between a "long course" and a "short course".
The facility is actually owned by the county, and is primarily used by law enforcement for high speed training and car control.
The "long course" is about a mile in length, and simulates a standard 2 lane road with a double yellow line. A few low speed corners and a decently long straight stretch, interrupted by a slalom with 6-7 gates. Decent elevation changes, too (the video I linked to earlier is the facility). This is in no way a race track - there are no run off areas.
The "short course" is set up for autocross; lots of low speed corners and one short straight stretch.
The local SCCA was out to monitor and time the autocross portion.
We split into two groups, and I went onto the long course first. We had a pace car - 2001 Z3M, driven by one of the SCCA hot shoes. First lap was orientation, 2nd and 3rd laps were at speed. Due to some scheduling delays, our group was only able to do 3 sets of laps. Fortunately, I was able to drive one of them - in an X3 M40i.
Way more fun than I expected - I was able to break 80 MPH on the straight stretch, before the slalom. I was complimented by one of my passengers that I was using an appropriate racing line (there were no professional drivers accompanying us). Unfortunately, the doofus who had the M4 three cars in front of me didn't seem to understand the concept of what the right pedal was for, so I wasn't able to really exercise the car.
I rode shotgun in both the X3 as well as in an X5 50i. The X5, my friends, is a seriously fast SUV. Except the driver nailed one of the slalom cones on the last lap. And, the M550i in front of us was going way faster.
On to the short course. There were 4 vehicles available - the M4 (after the first laps on the long course, the event organizers swapped it and another car out for two others), a 440i 6-speed, an X2 and a 650i GC. I drove the X2 twice, and the 440i and 650i GC once each.
I saw two times for my laps - 46.1 in the X2 and 45.9 in the 650. I kept the 440i in 2nd gear the whole lap, but didn't see a time.
I was pretty impressed with the X2; I pushed it to the limit the second time around and was able to induce a short 4-wheel drift on one of the tighter turns. Startled me into lifting off the throttle for a moment.
The 650 was surprisingly agile, as well, for something so big.
I have a new found appreciation for the "Ultimate Driving Machine" tag line, and I also learned that I'm a lousy passenger when cars are being driven in anger.
Wish I had the opportunity to do another half dozen laps, in the same car. I was starting to learn the course and figure there was time to shave.
All in all, a pretty fun day, even though a bunch of "bros" tried jumping the queue for extra seat time in the M4 and 440i.
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
Mine: 1995 318ti Club Sport-2020 C43-1996 Speed Triple Challenge Cup Replica
Wife's: 2021 Sahara 4xe
Son's: 2018 330i xDrive
I'm still likely in the market for a sedan as my next DD, however.
A lot of the younger folks in attendance were more interested in drifting the cars than doing a fast time on the short course. Which was interesting, since I think everything but the M4 was xDrive. Could still see the RWD bias, however.
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
I'm guessing you skipped it, then?
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2015 Subaru Outback 3.6R / 2024 Kia Sportage Hybrid SX Prestige
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
And jmonroe I know.
As I said, the tire place was a mad house with a ton of attitude. They kept him waiting for hours and wouldn't tell him when they could actually mount the tire back on the car. So he finally gave up and when the tire was on the wheel he took it home to do it himself. That's when he discovered what the AAA guy had pulled.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Those posts I skip depending on the poster!
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
https://bangordailynews.com/2018/07/29/news/police-beat/man-on-maine-turnpike-used-cell-phone-as-scooter-headlight/
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2025 Toyota Crown Signia Hybrid, 2022 Ram 2500 Laramie 6.4 Hemi, 2007 Mazda MX-5 Miata PRHT
I waited 2 weeks for results. My doctor got the results last Friday - “unable to complete test for Hep C”! My doctor called the lab only to find out they mishandled the blood or lost the specimen!
Anger and ire cannot adequately describe my outrage. This test was critical in determining if the virus had been eliminated or if it was active. Now, I have to go to the lab again this Thursday to have them stick me another 4-5 times until they find a vein (I am a hard “stick). Then I have to wait another 10-14 days to get results.
LabCorp accepted responsibility but what good is that going to do me? They said there would be no charge for the retest. Well thank you LabCorp! Awful!
2024 Genesis G90 Super-Charger
A couple weeks ago, on the way back from vacation I saw an airstream with Vermont plates ahead of me.
I was thinking 'No, it couldn't be', and it wasn't. The trailer was older and being towed by a Ram pickup with a graphic about custom quilts on it.
'24 Chevy Blazer EV 2LT
If the first AAA service tech did indeed overtighten the lug nuts to that extreme, then I would want to have the brake rotor checked, make sure it didn't get warped.
So now we have to worry that his brakes are screwed up too? Yikes! As it is I've concluded with the size of the slash, the damage had to have been done while the car was parked at my house. That means someone may have come in at night to deliberately cause damage. I of course am now wondering if it was one of the characters who entered my house last week seeking revenge for calling the police. I really hope it's just my paranoia acting up.
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
Not to upset anyone, but would that driving day have been as much fun if you were road testing, say, new Buicks?
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
FWIW, and once again it is very coincidental since we are on this subject, I read in the Click and clack article this morning in the Sunday paper about a 1972 VW Van that had over torqued lugs nuts. When the owner "heard a loud clunking on the front passenger side", she pulled over. When the hub cap was removed she saw "one lonely lug nut in place the rest had sheared off". If anyone thinks over torqued lug nuts is a very rare occurrence, I feel sorry for them.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2018/08/be-thankful-the-u-s-market-nissan-kicks-has-standard-stability-control/
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
I think we all know all those other reasons are a mere statistical blip on what is usually going on out there.
You may have eyeballs but can you read minds? Unless you can read the officers mind you have no way of knowing why someone got pulled over.
It's called experience. I have this thing called experience. And according to you all my experience getting pulled over is due to speeding.
If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck.
It'll only took one cop telling me "tell it to the judge!" to hold all roadside arguments for the judge. I haven't argued a case roadside ever since, and that was in my teen years!
I remain as respectful and professional as possible, with the utmost integrity. Since my very first experience in Court as a teen showed me that the Courts lacked integrity, I've been going back over and over waiting for the day they might show some. The County Seat in San Diego has shown me some integrity in the past. They have granted my rightful and legal motions, the same exact motions that other courts have wrongfully denied, and more!
As I've said, maximum speed ticket violations are difficult to argue, and the CHP almost always shows up. I've never had a very strong argument for any of those violations. Basic speed law is different, and as I've pointed out, many of my biggest grievances come from "off the wall" vehicle code violations pulled out of an Officer's rear-end.
I know that over-tightening can definitely cause problems for the bolts. I remember watching someone trying to torque the head bolts on an old 6 cylinder Mustang (roughly a 1966 or 1967). This would have been back around 1978 or 79. He applied anti-seize compound to the threads before installing and then tried to torque with a torque wrench. I told him the torque specs were for "dry" conditions, but he didn't listen. You can probably guess the results.
I'm thinking that test driver should start wearing a helmet.
In addition to adding stability control to the other models, they will probably add some less grippy tires.
Sometimes this place is like visiting the loonie bin. Double entendre unintentional, but it works.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
2021 VW Arteon SEL 4-motion, 2018 VW Passat SE w/tech, 2016 Audi Q5 Premium Plus w/tech
Yesterday, I washed my Fusion including dressing the tires, which I don't usually do any more.
It looks so clean, I don't want to drive it.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl
2017 MB E400 , 2015 MB GLK350, 2014 MB C250
how's this?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/07/31/man-tried-using-cell-phone-as-scooter-headlight-maine-police-say.html
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Eyes lie all the time.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2017 Cadillac ATS Performance Premium 3.6
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
2019 Kia Soul+, 2015 Mustang GT, 2013 Ford F-150, 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible
'11 GMC Sierra 1500; '98 Alfa 156 2.0TS; '08 Maser QP; '67 Coronet R/T; '13 Fiat 500c; '20 S90 T6; '22 MB Sprinter 2500 4x4 diesel; '97 Suzuki R Wagon; '96 Opel Astra; '11 Mini Cooper S
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Even I knew that.
jmonroe
'15 Genesis V8 with Ultimate Package and '18 Legacy Limited 6 cyl