frustratedpilot: (Default)

While chasing a research addiction thread, I learned overday that the United States leg of the World Series Formula V8 3.5 tour will be at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin Texas the third weekend of September.

And I wish I could go see it in person.

It won't be on American broadcast TV because it will be the height of gridiron season and all the networks that bother have committments with the NCAA conferences.

frustratedpilot: (Default)

A research thread that started with a fellow on Facebook posting the pictures of an old Doyusha car model he'd just bought last week has led me in a bunch of directions that appealed to my weirdness.

One such place was the particulars of my sister's first car, a Datsun 1200 (a.k.a. Nissan Sunny).  At the time it was built it was the cheapest new car available in the States...and I sort of wonder what manufacturer and model has that title now.

After that, it led me to the story of Isuzu cars in America--which ended (among other places) with the Impulse and the Geo Storm.  For years I saw Storms parked in the backs of people's yards and was weirdly attracted.  Now I know why--they're four-fifths of the way to being LOTUSES.  I wonder now how much work it would entail to fit a Storm with the same kind of Lotus suspension that was optional on Impulses--and what modern Lotus powerplant would work in the engine bay.

frustratedpilot: (Default)



In my travels today: an action-figure scale pickup truck and an action-figure scale police cruiser in the toy aisles of two different shops.

I'm stepping back from the brink.  The money I have in pocket might need to last for a while.

frustratedpilot: (Default)

I won a $50 gift card for Amazon.com in a sweepstakes over the weekend, and I'm looking forward to spending it.

Because of the event, I decided to look at a bunch of quasi-gift cards I received from car dealerships for GoShoppingMall.com and selectyourgifts.com (which are one and the same company!) that I've had for years.  They're still "good" because I hadn't "spent" them.

The business model of American Sales Industries is kind of hard to grasp.  You can't exactly buy direct from them like a normal retailer...you have to have been issued a prize card, usually from a car dealership sales event or some other such promotion.  The dollar amount shown on the card doesn't mean an actual cash value: it's quasi-credit for inflated prices on the catalog of items, whose actual retail value matches the "shipping and handling" fees, which the consumer has to pay out of pocket (the prize amount then only sets a limit on what you can buy, but doesn't go towards buying anything!).  So to actually get "$500" of use out of a prize card, you'd have to spend probably $50 to $100 of real money yourself.

So what's in the catalog?  Basically the same kind of stuff you find in the tourist-trap stores like Golden Eagle and Lily's...but not as many of them.  Steak knives.  Travel mugs.  Little tool sets you can keep in your car.  Chintzy jewelery and cheap watches. Tote bags and gunny sacks.  Obsolete electronics and software.

In theory, my "$1550" in collected quasi-credit would get me 38 of their RC model cars.  But I'd have to spend about $645 in real money for the shipping and handling.  That's why I haven't used the cards yet.

frustratedpilot: (Default)
The Suzuki car that General Motors sold in the United States as the Geo Metro (a stablemate of the Prizm I drive!) is still in production in its 1990s vintage form--in Pakistan.
frustratedpilot: (Default)
In the forty seasons that I've been a fan of auto racing, there have only been twelve American drivers in Formula One.
From 1974 to today ('74 was the first year that Drivers were matched with Race Numbers throughout the whole season):

* Eddie Cheever, # 3 Tyrell
* Danny Sullivan, # 4 Benetton
* Mario Andretti, # 5 Lotus (the year he won the season)
* Michael Andretti, # 7 McLaren
* Danny Ongais, # 14 Penske
* Brett Lunger, # 18 Surtees
* Scott Speed, # 19, Toro Rosso
* Bobby Rahal, # 21 Wolf
* Mark Donohue, # 28 Penske
* Kevin Cogan, # 51 Ram Theodore
* Peter Revson, # 66 Penske

The only current American Driver in F1 is Alexander Rossi at Caterham F1 Team, although he is as of the just-finished season a relief Driver and not assigned a number.

frustratedpilot: (Default)

Pretty obvious paint scheme.  Source graphic courtesy ARBodies.com.

frustratedpilot: (Default)




The website that has this "game" is too slow and buggy to let me get back to my own entry.

PS:
frustratedpilot: (Default)
http://www.alibaba.com/member/kr101003498.html

AUTORIA is a company that specializes in rebadging kits for cars built in Asia. Their target users are those with Daewoos and KIAs who want to somehow redeem their "face" with their neighbors. So the company offers the option of rebranding your car as a TIGRIS with new nameplates and new insignia.

In theory I could rebrand Moonshine in a similar fashion. I'm motivated by the fact that under current Tennessee law, my car is old enough to be sold to a scrapper without the title or other ownership paperwork, thus my car is a possible target for thieves looking for a quick buck. So if I could somehow make my vehicle look newer...or just different enough to make a thief believe that stealing it would be more trouble than it's worth...it would help me a great deal.
frustratedpilot: (Default)
--Or my father buys a convertable in January.

Again, he makes a purchase without consulting me, at all.

This afternoon, he went on an errand, and I called his cell phone to relay somebody else's phone message and find out why he had stayed out longer than usual. He tells me "Come over here to the bank and pick me up."

And so I go there and he tells me to leave Moonshine there and come with him in the truck...

...We go to a used car place in Morristown that is an apparent subsidiary of Fox Motors of Clinton. And I watch him sign paperwork to take delivery of--

--A 1998 Volkswagen Golf Cabrio. White paint and white top. Lower mileage than on my own car.

He took a test drive in it, and then eventually I got the keys to drive it back to Rather Manor, and then he took me back to the bank to get Moonshine back as well.

He didn't trade in his truck either. We're back to being a three-car household.

Pictures to come.
frustratedpilot: (Default)
Graphics Widget Customizes YOU



Ford Focus Coupe version (which I don't think we get in the U.S. for some reason).

PS: Oh, hay--it's the convertable version. Hmmph. Lexus can build theirs for the American market but Ford can't? Highly illogical.
frustratedpilot: (Default)
http://www.3dtuning.ru/en

This is a Russian car customizer Flash widget.

PS:


An attempt to rod a Chevy Lacetti (the closest thing they had to Moonshine).
frustratedpilot: (Default)


Rumor has it that Ford's Mustang Customizer contest ends today/Sunday so I copied my 21 ponycar designs to disk and compiled them here. The green one on the bottom left corner is the one I've entered to win, though I expect I didn't generate enough entry points to be a real contender.

MORE TO COME (I hope)

Profile

frustratedpilot: (Default)
Stephen R Bierce

March 2022

S M T W T F S
   1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 1011 12
13 14 1516171819
20212223242526
2728 293031  

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 5th, 2025 05:24 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios