Edmunds Members - Cars and Conversations

ab348 · November 13

Yesterday I fell down a rabbit hole of watching a few hours of Nurburgring crash videos (I don't know why I even have cable any more since all I watch on TV is sports/racing). I've watched these occasionally in the past but this was the longest extended view. It is entertaining in a sort of bizarre way because the videos are showing what can go wrong constantly, so it gets old after a while, but remains mind boggling.

I don't know the rules and restrictions they place on those forking over the Euros to get access to the track. They must have some, but what I saw looked quite lax, like the two guys running a MX-5 with the top down, no rollover protection, and no helmets. No, thank you. Same with those running with little kids in the car. The amount of mayhem was incredible. Bumper covers were an endangered species (my favorite was a BMW 3-series that lost one in the rear, but stopped to recover it and were riding around with it stuffed vertically in the sunroof opening), but all bodywork was on the verge of being sacrificed. Repair shops nearby must do very well. I'm sure there must have been some capable drivers represented, but most looked like drift drivers on holiday. Only about half the 3-series cars (of which there were a great many) could manage going around a curve without losing the rear end. One thing I noticed was that many of them taking front corner hits quickly parted company with the front wheel/control arm assembly, something I didn't often see with other models. Station wagons do not like the Ring's corners, apparently, nor do many little front-drive hatchbacks, as many of them immediately exited the pavement. I don't imagine insurance would cover much of the damage.

I am unsure how or why, but it appeared that daily driver cars were mixed on track with purpose built racing vehicles getting practice in, with predictable results. The big-dog AMG GTs were blowing around most everything else out there, sometimes with unpleasant results for them and their victims. The same with race-prepped 911s, several of which had either end of the car prove to be no match for the guardrails. The most bizarre example was a recent Jag roadster, which initially had something on fire underneath which the driver ignored for too long, which then spread and took out the engine and much of the front of the car. Expensive. The saddest was a very nice early MGB roadster looking very well-loved with shiny paint, fresh chrome and newer wheels and tires, which took hits both front and rear that bent it structurally, leaving the driver sitting in it off the track holding his head/helmet with both hands in a classic "What have I done?" pose. What a shame.

fintail · November 13

This one came into my feed the other day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpTSO4BpKgA

The wrecked 190E driving along was both sad and remarkable. I think many 'ring days are kind of bring what you've got, so the family minivan may be shoulder to shoulder with a prepped not-street legal racer.

I visited some years ago, the track was closed to public access for a company event, I think testing and related by SEAT.

Fun thing, rental car companies employ spotters in the area and there's a real chance taking a rental on the track (forbidden in the fine print) will be discovered - apparently it earns one a blacklisting.

explorerx4 · November 13

Saw someone charging up their Jeep GC at a public charger today.
I guess they didn't get the memo.

stickguy · November 13

It’s not on their garage so all good.

On those is the issue with charging them, or random bursting into flames or some such badness when they are charged up?

explorerx4 · November 13

@stickguy,
You need a spark to make flame.

stickguy · November 13

Batteries can short.

andres3 · November 13

Was watching YouTube videos of what happens when a Nuclear war starts. You may need a fast car because things can get really bad within 30 minutes. Might want to avoid population centers.

Every time I hear of a simulation, I hear something similar. It never ends well. The only reason to have nukes is to scare the other side from even thinking about using their own.

andres3 · November 13

ab348 said:
Yesterday I fell down a rabbit hole of watching a few hours of Nurburgring crash videos (I don't know why I even have cable any more since all I watch on TV is sports/racing). I've watched these occasionally in the past but this was the longest extended view. It is entertaining in a sort of bizarre way because the videos are showing what can go wrong constantly, so it gets old after a while, but remains mind boggling.

I don't know the rules and restrictions they place on those forking over the Euros to get access to the track. They must have some, but what I saw looked quite lax, like the two guys running a MX-5 with the top down, no rollover protection, and no helmets. No, thank you. Same with those running with little kids in the car. The amount of mayhem was incredible. Bumper covers were an endangered species (my favorite was a BMW 3-series that lost one in the rear, but stopped to recover it and were riding around with it stuffed vertically in the sunroof opening), but all bodywork was on the verge of being sacrificed. Repair shops nearby must do very well. I'm sure there must have been some capable drivers represented, but most looked like drift drivers on holiday. Only about half the 3-series cars (of which there were a great many) could manage going around a curve without losing the rear end. One thing I noticed was that many of them taking front corner hits quickly parted company with the front wheel/control arm assembly, something I didn't often see with other models. Station wagons do not like the Ring's corners, apparently, nor do many little front-drive hatchbacks, as many of them immediately exited the pavement. I don't imagine insurance would cover much of the damage.

I am unsure how or why, but it appeared that daily driver cars were mixed on track with purpose built racing vehicles getting practice in, with predictable results. The big-dog AMG GTs were blowing around most everything else out there, sometimes with unpleasant results for them and their victims. The same with race-prepped 911s, several of which had either end of the car prove to be no match for the guardrails. The most bizarre example was a recent Jag roadster, which initially had something on fire underneath which the driver ignored for too long, which then spread and took out the engine and much of the front of the car. Expensive. The saddest was a very nice early MGB roadster looking very well-loved with shiny paint, fresh chrome and newer wheels and tires, which took hits both front and rear that bent it structurally, leaving the driver sitting in it off the track holding his head/helmet with both hands in a classic "What have I done?" pose. What a shame.

you can easily get a whole day's worth of entertainment from watching solely Mustang Fail videos.

corvette · November 13

I assume no relation to the founders of this website (I'll defer to our historians on that), but this Edmunds made a dual intake manifold for Hudsons.

xwesx · November 14

One of my employees took this photo yesterday from our office window. These are called "sun dogs," and the view actually looked this radiant with the naked eye; it is not an artifact of the camera!

At this moment, the sun looks nearly identical (minus the dogs), except on the opposite end of the mountain range....

xwesx · November 14

So, 10 am versus about 3:30 pm.

cdnpinhead · November 14

When does the sun go away altogether, or doesn't it quite at that latitude?

xwesx · November 14

cdnpinhead said:
When does the sun go away altogether, or doesn't it quite at that latitude?

It does not quite get there. We are at ~63 degrees north latitude versus 66 degrees at the arctic circle (the point at which there is at least one day of no visible sun at winter solstice). But, during winter solstice, what you see in those photos is about max height. Today, if you take that orb and stack it atop itself three times, that is around max height. If I can remember, I'll take a photo at about 1pm (which is true noon for us, due to true vs. political time zone considerations) for comparison.

If I recall correctly, Alaska actually crosses six separate time zones (by geography and including the Aleutian chain), though it is currently split into only two. As a result, "High Noon" in the far western community of Nome is more like 3pm than the actual clock time of noon there.

explorerx4 · November 14

Hoping the last mowing for the year is done.

xwesx · November 14

explorerx4 said:
Hoping the last mowing for the year is done.

What?! That's incredible! Didn't you get snowfall the other night like we did in Conneaut?

If you actually needed to mow, I might need you to do the same for me. The last time we mowed was on 9/28....

xwesx · November 14

Wow. I am checking on things there, and it is about 50 degrees again. The most amazing thing, though, is that my heating system has only run on two separate days in the last week. That is the first time it turned on since we left!

Until this year, the lowest we could set it was sixty degrees, due to limits of the manufacturing. I tried to figure out how to wire it into an external thermostat (with better limits), but it just wasn't an option without circuit-board-level surgery, which I didn't want to attempt. However, I found a company called "Boldr" that makes wireless thermostats that basically act as remote controls (literally similar process to programming a universal remote for one's television or stereo). And, while that device cannot directly override the manufacturer's temperature limits, it *does* have the ability to control whether the unit is on, off, heating, cooling, etc., so I can program it to not turn on until the temperature drops to a certain point, then turn off at a certain point, without any regard to the on-board thermostat on the heater.

Voila! Problem solved.... it turns on at 46 degrees (F) and off at 50 degrees. I think that the thermostat it has already paid for itself in electricity savings just since we left on 9/29!

Michaell · November 14

explorerx4 said:
Hoping the last mowing for the year is done.

Looks nice ... and, it reminds me that I need to get one more mow done on my yards. It got away from me during the basement construction, what with workers going in and out the basement window in the backyard and using the grass for materials staging.

explorerx4 · November 14

@xwesx,
East of Cleveland gets more snow than the West side where I am.
Last year, I didn't use my snowblower at all.
Still have to do the Mustang annual oil change.
After that, I can swap the mower and snowblower garage locations.

ab348 · November 14

xwesx said:
One of my employees took this photo yesterday from our office window. These are called "sun dogs," and the view actually looked this radiant with the naked eye; it is not an artifact of the camera!

I’m looking for the dogs without seeing them. What am I not getting?

xwesx · November 14

Approximate zenith today. It only goes down from here!!!

jmonroe1 · November 14

xwesx said:

Approximate zenith today. It only goes down from here!!!

——————————————————
That would be perfect if there was a nice warm ocean beneath it instead of that white stuff. I guess I won’t be seeing that first hand. Thanks for the picture, anyway.

jmonroe

cdnpinhead · November 14

xwesx said:
OK, that's what I suspected (or should have remembered, truth be known) -- you've got to go above the circle to get all day sun in the summer or all day night in winter.

I spent all of one day in Fairbanks, back in '19 in late June, and took note that the sun was still (sorta) up at 2330 when we checked into our hotel. I was similarly impressed in '72 in Edmonton when the sun was still up at 2200 or so when we came out after a movie. Similarly, it was dark until 9 am and the sun went down in mid-afternoon in the winter.

The folks down south don't have a clue, and probably don't want one.

stickguy · November 14

I mowed last weekend, normal height, because it was a little shaggy and had some leaves to mulch. was going to do one more a setting lower and be done. a day later it snowed. so no clue if it will get another one at this point.

fintail · November 14

Still quite a bit warmer (10+F above normal constantly) and rainier (already beat the monthly average I think) than normal here, big maple tree across the street is blessing my lawn with leaves. I might use the mower to vacuum them when it dries a bit this weekend, if I am too lazy to rake. Waiting for leaf season to finish, waiting for snow but I think any chance is at least 10 days off.

Michaell · November 14

One trip to AK, for business, in May, many years ago. Wife accompanied me. First thought was that it was odd that on the 3 hour flight from Seattle to Anchorage, the sun didn't seem to move.

Daylight until 10 or so each evening - we found ourselves eating dinner pretty late most nights.

Stayed an extra day and did a glacier tour out of Whittier - at the time, you had to take the train to get there - the road tunnels hadn't been built yet.

cdnpinhead · November 14

Michaell said:
Stayed an extra day and did a glacier tour out of Whittier - at the time, you had to take the train to get there - the road tunnels hadn't been built yet.

As far as I know the railway and highway share a single tunnel which is timed such that there are no incidents. I drove through it six years ago, and the system had been in place many years at that time.

Michaell · November 14

cdnpinhead said:

Michaell said:
Stayed an extra day and did a glacier tour out of Whittier - at the time, you had to take the train to get there - the road tunnels hadn't been built yet.
As far as I know the railway and highway share a single tunnel which is timed such that there are no incidents. I drove through it six years ago, and the system had been in place many years at that time.

My trip there was in the late 90’s, IIRC.

xwesx · November 14

I want to say that the driving option was created in the early 00s... they were blasting on that tunnel for a LONG time in order to make the transition. IIRC, it is about three miles long. Before driving, there was an option to take your vehicle through on the train (Portage to Whittier), and the large parking lot next to the highway, which was heavily used, had a loading ramp for that purpose. I honestly don't know why anyone would *want* to do that, though, given that there is very little space for vehicles on the other side.

Whittier is a place I've always wanted to poke through just to see it, but every time I am down that way, time is not on our side as far as sightseeing goes. I have stopped at Portage Glacier a few times over the span of my life, but now it is more depressing than anything. There was a time when you could look out across the lake, full of icebergs, and see a wall of ice on the far side. Now, I don't think you can even see the glacier anymore because it has melted way up around the bend into the mountains.

Michaell · November 14

xwesx said:
I want to say that the driving option was created in the early 00s... they were blasting on that tunnel for a LONG time in order to make the transition. IIRC, it is about three miles long. Before driving, there was an option to take your vehicle through on the train (Portage to Whittier), and the large parking lot next to the highway, which was heavily used, had a loading ramp for that purpose. I honestly don't know why anyone would *want* to do that, though, given that there is very little space for vehicles on the other side.

Whittier is a place I've always wanted to poke through just to see it, but every time I am down that way, time is not on our side as far as sightseeing goes. I have stopped at Portage Glacier a few times over the span of my life, but now it is more depressing than anything. There was a time when you could look out across the lake, full of icebergs, and see a wall of ice on the far side. Now, I don't think you can even see the glacier anymore because it has melted way up around the bend into the mountains.

Yep, I remember seeing the loading ramp in the lot next to the train. Our rental that week was a Chevy Blazer, I think.

We took another extra day and drove to Seward. The marine center there was pretty amazing.

graphicguy · November 15

For those of us who are "mustie1" fans, this is the same concept, only in VietNam, work done by a pretty girl.....

https://youtu.be/SdJHK2heOXE?si=l1tJuR_S29H6QR-U

jmonroe1 · November 15

@graphicguy said:
For those of us who are "mustie1" fans, this is the same concept, only in VietNam, work done by a pretty girl.....
https://youtu.be/SdJHK2heOXE?si=l1tJuR_S29H6QR-U

——————————————————
Why couldn’t I have met a girl like that?

jmonroe

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