Nom de plume: Rivrdog

Take THAT, socialists, and THAT, and THAT!

Heh. I just filled up my anti-socialist Lexus LS Guzzlemobile with Premium, for which I paid the paltry price of $1.84/gallon with my Freddy's (Kroger) Fuel Rewards card. The discount was 60 cents, which made the pump price of the fuel $2.44, still decent for top-grade.

The wannabe-socialist President has definitely failed his base on THIS one.

Oh, and this tankful is for YOU too, yer Holiness hollowness.

"Farfromtruthen"

So, Volkswagen, who builds decent cars overall, and outstanding cars in some lines, got caught cheating on EPA emissions tests for their line of "clean diesels".

Pardon me, but why am I not insulted? The EPA's rules ARE the Law of the Land, are they not? A failure to obey them should bring sanctions, should it not? Wake up, George, your country has been INSULTED here by a foreign manufacturer, hasn't it?

Pardon me again while I yawn.

Will someone please tell me which people been hurt here (EPA Gauleiters are NOT "people")? Where are the millions of victims, where is the genocide? Hasn't Volkswagen done the "planet's health" a big solid by putting out millions of high-efficiency DIESEL engines replacing millions of GASOLINE-fueled engines? You do realize that diesel is a more efficient fuel to burn, don't you? You do realize that diesel fuel takes less emissions-damaging processing to refine from crude oil, don't you? You do realize that the entire idea of diesel-fueled cars should have been promoted far more vigorously starting about 40 years ago, don't you?

As I understand it, what VW did was create an engine-control chip that mis-reported what the emissions levels of the engines were, so the EPA gave their "blessing" when they otherwise might not have.

My experiences are more direct. A close friend has a VW compact wagon with the TDI engine, and cruising to Phoenix, AZ and back from Fairview, OR, he averaged over 45 MPG. I was a diesel "early adopter". I bought a new 1976 diesel Peugeot 504D sedan 38 years ago. It was the most fuel-efficient vehicle I have ever owned. This 40+ year-old design of diesel engine could crank out 35 MPG on long highway trips, and it got 28 MPG in the city.

I ask again, just who has Volkswagen victimized here with the #farfromtruthen scandal?

Further time-bomb to watch for: VW-designed diesels are in use in several AMERICAN car lines: the Chevy Cruz, the Dodge Ram half-ton pickups and the Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV, IIRC. What will the Emissions Nazis do about THOSE vehicles? Could it be time to re-examine the actual RESULTS of EPA emissions standards?

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Meme time

When the news gets this predictable, when one can read Yahoo! News' entire feed and yawn at them all, it's time for something else to stir the soul.

It's time for a MEME:

Today's meme is:

Ugly Truck Contest!

To get the meme started, here's the opener from the Rivrsis:

The sign, when embiggened, reveals the location to be Rendon, TX, near Ft. Worth. Probably Tarrant County.

Hey Aaron, did someone in your neck of the brush scale up one of Alex's Tonka Toys?

H/T to the Rivrsis, who could probably find some more of these by just walking up the road to the Cottage Grove Speedway.

Sunday Driver

...of the day is Danica Patrick. On about lap 40 or so of the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the Talladega super-speedway, 13 cars in front of her started crashing at 200 mph. She did the best job of driving though a "big one" at speed that I have seen since Tony Stewart pulled off the same feat in the Daytona 500 a few years back.

Somebody's gotta post a You Tube vid of that drive from the POV of her in-car camera. I'll put it up here when I find it, but the race is only half over as I write.

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Race over now. Danica got involved in a late crash, finished 33rd, so her performance earlier in the race was for naught.

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Danica is still learning to run with NASCAR's best, but no one on the track has better reflexes.

Tesla Model S - Car of the Year?

This should have gone into the Wednesday WTF post, because it is a real WTF.

Motor Trend magazine has just named the battery-powered EV, the Tesla Model S, it's Car of The Year for 2013.

That rates a BFD, because you won't see a lot of them in showrooms. With production just now ramping up from 10 per week to 100 (that 100 figure is for "bodies", not out-the-door completed cars), the car will remain somewhat of a curiosity item, not a mainstream vehicle. Tesla swears that next year, they will produce 20,000 cars, but I wouldn't bet a nickel on that, since they haven't met a production goal on time yet.

Next, the matter of pricing. It appears that a base-level Model S can be had for around $60K, if you don't get stuck paying a large Additional Dealer Profit, which is likely, since all those Hollywoodians will be clamoring for them. The top-performing model costs almost twice as much, well over $100K, and is clearly out of the price level for all but a very few car buyers.

Here's the article from Motor Trend. Now, will you MT filk please publish all the emails between your magazine and the White House, the Car Czar, Al Gore, etc, the usual greenie-weenie suspects? Not holding my breath on THAT request.

 

Man's weekend

The weekend started well-enough with the birth of my grandson at 2303 Friday evening. Night man, yeah. He had decided to resist the process, so he flipped into the breech-birth position, requiring the birthing bay at Oregon Health & Sciences University to convert suddenly to a caesaraen section birth, but when the OB surgeon made the incision, reached in to grab the leg he saw closest, but not counting on the Rivr survival instinct, the wee lad kicked and just burrowed himself deeper into the womb, necessitating a second grab. By the time I got down to see him 13 hours later, he had adjusted well to the outside world, and having 4 grandparents, two parents and a "big"sister in the room with him did not faze him. He napped, crapped and sucked the teat just like he had been doing it for a while.

I was too pumped at this to go to bed at the usual midnight hour, so I stayed up to watch the NASCAR Nationwide Series race-replay at Road America, elkart Lake, WI. I was impressed with #7 Danica Patrick's driving on the unusual-for-NASCAR road course. She hung in the front for 199.5 of the 200 miles, staying between first place and sixth, until she was bumped off the course on the last lap when she let her guard down just a bit and gave the car behind her a small opening for a pass, which the more experienced driver jumped on and passed by bumping her into a gravel pan. She skillfully drove out of the gravel, but lost position from 4th to 12th as she crossed the finish line. It was her best driving performance ever, in both open-wheel & NASCAR. I think she might be better off in the rapidly-growing Grand Am circuit, the most recent addition to the constellation of big-time auto racing groups.

Five hours of good sleep for me, then some gustatorial delights to report on. For you aged cheese lovers, you can save money and get as good an aged Parmesano as the benchmark Parmesano Regiano, which sells now for almost $20/#, by substituting American Grana parmesano (WI) by Bel Gioioso. Kroger outlets have it in the fine cheese section. It sells for $14/#.

Some prepper news: Last week I opened a package of World Kitchens Traditional Beef jerky and have nibbled on it all week without ill effect. So what, you say. Here's what: the package is FIVE+ years past it's pull date, has been stored at garage temperature (my garage contains the furnace & A/C, so the temperature extremes are moderate, between 35 winter and 90 summer). Five years! That be impressive curing!

Now, I'm finishing the weekend on my couch, watching more NASCAR road racing, this race being a 350-mile road race at Sonoma, CA. After the race, I'll drive out to my boat and take in the sunset with a cocktail in hand.

Yep, a Man's Weekend.

I want an electric car

...but none of the apple i-crapple I see offered today meets my specs.

Here are my specs.

• Range: 40-60 miles on battery, HONEST miles, not test-track miles. Hills and all. Heat or A/C on. Freeway miles at 65 mph.
• Fast recharge: with a 50-amp, 240-volt outlet, capable of 30 minute recharge from emergency low-battery warning to 80% (takes a VERY spendy recharge setup). With less current, longer recharge times, but no worse than 5-hour with 120-volt 30-amp service. Emergency recharge capability at far lesser currents, i.e.: a week of daylight with 300 watts of solar or wind power.
• If not fitted, at least wired for input from a high-efficiency diesel generator set of 12KW, and if fitted, that genset capable of reverse output to power a receptacle (i.e., the whole house). This fitted genset would power the car on the level as long as there was diesel juice to burn, at freeway speed. The genset might even be optional, in a light trailer to be towed.
• Seats 4 in comfort, luggage space for 4 two-suiter bags plus smaller duffel.
• AWD, full time. Traction control, re-gen ABS braking.
• 10KBTU air conditioning. 15KBTU heat plant, which could be diesel-fired (lots of those around in marine service), OR, the heat/AC could be a function of running the genset on low-speed/less cylinders if that was an engine option for it.
• Price comes in at $20-25K without genset, $30-35K with one installed.

What I DON'T need in an electric car.

• I don't need 0-100 times in the funny-car category. 12-second 0-60 time, and 75 mph top speed are fine with me.
• I don't need huge range. This car is not going to have to travel out of the City on it's battery. If I want to take a Road Trip, it will have the generator to do that on, or I won't use the car.
• I don't need high style. The car doesn't have to have the coefficient of drag of a stealth bomber, in fact, if it looked like a Checker Marathon, I would probably jump with joy.

Car people, are you listening? Romney, you have car blood in your veins. If you get to be POTUS, are you going to see to it we get these choices?

H/T to Peace or Freedom, fka 4RWWs. Neither one of us are engineers, Dave, but we both know what we want and what we don't want.

Buh-bye, Chevy Volt- Updated

Bring this sucker back at HALF it's $46,500 MSRP, and include a kit to power your house with it in case of power outages, and I'll buy one. Meanwhile, GM halted production and laid off the plant.

Not gonna happen, though, so your Rivrdog gives the Volt, it's parent, Government Motors, and it's chief braggart, President Obama, a hearty, "Sic Semper, Mo-Fo".

That is all...

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Update: 030612 0832 PST: Sent by the Coyote Kid: Bill Balsamico, owner of the famouse Casa D'Ice restaurant, noted for it's tell-it-like -it-is signs, blogged (can't find his blog, though), so have to paste it up...

Balsamico notes that in recent history, there have been two notable car model failures, one from GM and one from Ford. At least though, Ford blew his own money on the Edsel, whereas GM has wasted OUR money on the Volt.

Good point, Bill!

Glom that Red Bull, switch on that helmet cam...

...and YEE HAAAA!

This is truly the wonder of the modern age, both culturally, that people even DO this heart-stopping stuff, and second, that they RECORD it and publish the recordings.

I liked the BASE-jumper shot where the jumper paraglided down through a NARROW rock chimney canyon. That one was probably the most death-defying of all.

H/T to Mad Ern, out in the high desert.

Seafoam bleg - Updated! Hoooahhh, it worked!

Anyone out there have experience with Seafoam in de-carbonizing an engine? My vehicle is a 1999 Mazda B2500 (chassis identical to Ford Ranger 4-cyl). The last time the CEL lit and the OBD2 code reader said 1401, I took it in to the mech-a-neck, who told me I needed an "EGR cleaning", which they did, for about $100 plus charges for other stuff. The light stayed off for about 10K miles until now. I had just tanked up with good Chevron gas, and put in a bottle of Techron to boot, then the light came on about 100 miles into that tank. 'Nother Code 1401. Burned half the tank, topped off with 92 octane, no fix, light pops right back on after clearing it with the reader.

Now I hear of Seafoam, which the average Joe can put into the engine easily, and it's supposed to do this de-carbonizing job. In fact, I suspect that the meck-a-neck might have used it last time. His bill read "engine vacuumed"(WTF ????)

BTW, these Ford 2.5 liter engines, of which there are millions built and in service globally, have a reputation for throwing this OBD code, as the design of the EGR routing seems faulty, somehow.

I've done basic mechanics most of my life, but quit learning about it just as the whole emissions-control thing was getting complex.

In my early shade-tree mechanic days, we used to do "Georgia Tune-ups", which were nothing more than steam-cleaning the engine internals by slowly pouring water into the carburettor while revving the bejebus out of the engine.

This Seafoam seems to be a similar idea, but using a petroleum-base compound.

Does it work for you?

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UPDATE: 12/10/11 1600 PST:

Just did the Seafoam Spray, 1/2 can into the throttle body, exactly per the instructions, plugged in the code reader, it cleared the code, and I drove back 5.5 miles from my buddy's place out in the hills, CEL did not come back on. If it does, I'll do the other half can. $6 worth of Majik Whoosh beats $200+ worth of meck-a-neck bills any day...