Cool Snowmobile Trailer
Peggy and I saw this on the way to Port Huron Sunday afternoon. It is a snowmobile trailer whose rear door has been painted to look as though it were open.
Nissan GT-R Buzz Kill
This was just posted to the ACM RISKS Forum, a moderated digest, with the Usenet equivalent comp.risks. If this concept proves to be true and it spreads to other cars it could be seriously injurious to the after-market auto sports industry. Then again, It will probably be hacked within about two weeks of implementation.
From: Clark Family <cclark@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Nissan GT-R sports car recognizes racetrack coordinates and aftermarket partsApparently the Nissan Corp. has ruined the fun of aftermarket tuners on the latest GT-R high performance street sportscar in Japan. The ECU is set on a hair trigger and balks at many aftermarket performance upgrades as well as non-factory installed tires and wheels through the run-flat detectors.
But more ominously, the onboard navigation system watches your speed via GPS and recognizes popular racetrack locations. You must scroll through a series of menus and agree to disable the 180kph (111mph) speed limiter. Then after thrashing it on the track, you must take it for a $1000 Nissan High Performance Center safety check or the warranty is void.
Big Brother is your co-pilot.
A Ride in the First Production Tesla
This video is probably as close as we normal humans will ever get to a ride in the first production Tesla along with Elon Musk. He is as fascinating as his car. He was the co-founder of PayPal and the founder of Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), of which he is currently the CEO and CTO. SpaceX develops and manufactures space launch vehicles.
Musk owns a Tesla Roadster, serial number 0001, from Tesla Motors, a company in which he is the principal investor and Chairman of the Board. The Roadster is a battery electric sports car with a 220 mile range. It is fast—zero to sixty in less than four seconds fast. If nothing else, it serves as proof that a car can be ecologically clean, as well as cool.
Unicat Expedition Vehicles
I just found exactly what I have been looking for in an RV. It is a Unicat Expedition Vehicle. Mahalo Daily recently ran a video podcast featuring the beast. This thing would be just the ticket for deer camp—if the camp were in KwaZulu-Natal.
If you wanted a vehicle to traverse up to 2000 miles of rough terrain, all the while enjoying the conveniences of a queen, you’d choose a Unicat Expedition Vehicle. We took a trip to UNICAT’s Palo Alto HQ to check out their entry level vehicle, with more mod cons than you could shake a stick at. There’s a reason why these things are nicknamed “land yachts”, as you’ll find out …
SOURCE: Mahalo Daily
The Sit-Down Strike Heard Round the World
In the words of George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” You need to remember that work-site safety rules, the forty hour work week, health care, retirement benefits, overtime pay, paid vacation, seniority and many other things that are now considered commonplace were instituted because of the sacrifices made by many union members.
Those benefits were not given due to employer’s generosity. You need to remember that some of those union members paid the price for them with their lives—literally. They were shot, or beaten to death. This week everyone who works for wages needs to honor the early members of the United Auto Workers who introduced collective bargaining to a new industry.
On Feb. 11, 1937, the 44-day Flint Sit-Down Strike ended when General Motors recognized the United Auto Workers as the sole bargaining unit for its workers. The strike started Dec. 29, when union members occupied a plant after hearing GM — in anticipation of a strike — had planned to move some equipment out of the plant. Eventually, President Franklin Roosevelt got involved and an agreement was forged.
Within a year, the UAW saw its membership grow to 500,000 members from 30,000. The Flint Sit-down Strike was, as the British Broadcasting System later noted, “the strike heard round the world.”
SOURCE: Freep.com
The dramatic military style battles depict the times and the desperation of those involved. The outcome much later in time proved that both the union and the company could coexist and indeed prosper beyond anyone’s expectations. Those who made the cars could finally afford to buy them, pouring profits back to the stockholders. Spreading the wealth caused more to be created. The pension and wages won by the workers raised the standard of living for the whole country.
SOURCE: The Detroit News
Additional Resources:
Convert an Old Travel Trailer Into a Car Carrier
Got access to an old travel trailer that no one is using and a desire to own a car hauler? This guy rolled his own to a very good result. Now this is what I call recycling.
Converting a 29’ Travel Trailer into a 21’ 7000 GVWR Car Carrier
A `68 Firebird Love Story
I ran across a photo of a red 1968 Pontiac Firebird the other day. It brought back many pleasant memories of the first car Peggy and I bought after we were married.
We were newlyweds in the fall of 1970. I was working the afternoon drive shift at WBCM AM/FM in Bay City, Michigan, when we decided to trade in our 1963 Chevrolet Impala that I referred to as “Peggy’s dowry”. (Read more)
Want a GPS System?
There is probably not a ham rafio operator, or gadget freak, out there who does not lust after the ownership of a GPS system . CNET has some tips for potential GPS owners that details things to consider before a purchase.
…you pay a price for the convenience of a built-in navi system. For instance, the Dodge Magnum SRT8’s navigation system is an $1,870 option. Compare that to the color, touchscreen TomTom One, which comes preloaded with maps of the U.S. and Canada for $299.
Besides the cost factor, the portable nature of aftermarket navigation units means that you can take them with you on vacation and stick them in your rental car, where you’re most likely to need them. In addition, hard drive or Flash-based aftermarket units tend to have more detailed and up-to-date maps than DVD-based factory systems, since new updates can be easily downloaded from your computer.
SOURCE: CNET
Infiniti’s EX35: Cameras All The Way Around
If you just can’t stand the thought of continuing life without a car with video cameras in the front, back and on both sides, then you need the new Infinti EX35 SUV. Its view does not show all 360 degrees at the same time, but something has to be left for the next model year, or maybe the year after that.
The folks at AutoSpies were kind enough to post a video preview of the as yet unreleased vehicle.
Buick V8 Powered Chainsaw
My grandfather, Hans Peter Olsen, went to work in the lumber woods of northern Michigan when he was twelve years old. He left the woods as a teamster at age eighteen, returned to Mason County, and purchased an 80 acre farm with his saved earnings.
That said, I don’t see how he could have imagined anything remotely like this thing. They call it the Preditor. It is a chainsaw powered by a 215 cubic inch Buick, aluminum block, V8 that might have been built here in Flint. Bring on the redwoods, baby.
