gtsparkplugs.com Blog

Time for the Annual Spring Open Track with the Los Angeles Shelby Club. The Track is The Streets of Willow. Instructors available at no charge, as well as a super low cost event for 2 days of racing.

Cost is $195 for members or $205 for non members (Membership is only $28, most all car types welcome too)

Pictures and more info at www.LASAAC.org

This is a good event, friendly folks, good mix of cars from imports to vintage Shelby’s and more track time for 200 bucks then you can stand.

Sandy

I have been looking at the R8’s since I got to touch one at Goodwood last year (2007). I was blown away at how good this car is. Mid engine, yet unlike the Boxster’s hidden from view engine, you get a nice show case view of the R8’s plant. The car is visually stunning, the pictures do not due it any justice. Being an engine man, this is what really makes me like it (And I quote Audi’s Specs)

“With a redline of 8250 rpm, the 420 hp V8 is no ordinary powerplant. After
making its debut in the groundbreaking RS 4, the 4.2 became the beneficiary of
dry-sump lubrication. In addition to ensuring complete fluid coverage during
extreme driving, deleting the oil pan allowed us to lower the car’s center of
gravity for better traction and better aerodynamics.”

8250 Rpm, Hmm, that is my kind of V8. A tick low in the HP area, but it is not just about the power, it is also about the sensation. Running a V8 or V12 past 7k is sometimes all the music you will ever need, even if a Beardo’ in a Z06 passes you, you can still be satisfied with your mid engine prize…

Went out to the Sunday car gathering (Supercar Sunday) and saw some very nice cars. Like the song says “Fat kids, skinny kids, even kids with chicken pox love hot cars”, no wait that is the hot dog song. Well needless to say, plenty of nice cars, but I found out that it is the LAST Sunday of the month that is really ‘Supercar Sunday’. This was just the regular collection of cars that shows. Cars from a boat load of Lambo’s to a Carerra GT, trashy Italian cars (yes even a Pantera), some ‘Kit Car’ Cobra guys, and one of my favorites was the real Mini Cooper that was raced out and sorta’ a hack. The one car that I did like was the Porsche GT3 RS. Call me crazy, but I love the gaudy paint schemes the German’s have reverted to. Make mine Black with Orange…

Nice!

Oh yeah, I do need one to get to work and sit in traffic. I only hope that Porsche also brought back the 928 era hounds tooth interior…Heaven!

The questions was pondered in my mind as I’m giving someone an invitation to make a lane change on the packed 405. The driver had the signal on and was edging to make the lane change in front of me, but wouldn’t do it. I guess room to land a 747 wasn’t enough room to slide in. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s wicked Wednesday on the Olympic corridor (what seems like the worst day for the drive home), and cars are all grid locked as usual. Then I noticed that cars are are as usual stopped in the intersections. What I realized is that these were ones that didn’t have a sign that said ‘Keep Intersection Clear‘ so I guess it was OK for people to just block it out. But what I also noticed was that some people don’t close the gap to the car in front. Must be some throwback to the 10mph == 1 Car Length for safety.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have finally started working on the Projects page. The first two are up, the fire extinguisher mount for your roll bar or roll cage, as well as a sturdy video camera mount. Both are easily built and pretty inexpensive.

The Video Camera Mount (Bullet or Lipstick Cameras)

The Fire Extinguisher Mount

Both Can be found at PROJECTS on the www.GTSparkplugs.com site

This is a thread of my favorite quotes, but really only one and it still holds true today, this was stolen from the what seams like dead beaterz.com site.

[REPLACE COUGAR WITH YOUR CAR TYPE]

“How do you increase performance on a late model Cougar? Simply remember the two most important rules of high speed:

YELLOW = PERFORMANCE
&
STICKERS = PERFORMANCE

Therefore: HUGE yellow stickers = HUGE performance!

It’s simple algebra my friends! You are witnessing what is easily the highest performance cougar ever made!”

An important discovery that is often overlooked in racing. And as it says, simple math…

While driving with some car buddies (The Crew, Ace and the Kid) we often get into conversations about idiotic drivers. Many odd terms come up. I’ll list them as I recall them. I’ll kick the list off -

• Creeping Charlie – A car weaving into your lane
• Weaving Willie – See Creeping Charlie
• One Eyed Jack – A car with one head light out
• Smokey Joe – A car or truck blowing white smoke
• Blind Betty – Old Folk (usually old lady) not looking while making a lane change
• Little Car People – Honda Civic (and related) cars tricked out with wings, spoilers, blue LED’s
• Land Yacht (Old) – Cadillac
• Land Yacht (New generation) – Me in my Excursion
• Stitching – The art of driving through traffic sideways without really moving forward
• Zippering – The art of correctly merging with traffic.
• Beard’o – Typical a Corvette driver, as they all have Beards.
• VeeDub – Any cars made by Porsche
• Italian Trash – Ferrari, Maserati, Fiat, Alfa Romero, but mostly Ferrari
• American Shit Box – Use your imagination here, start with many AMC Cars, Vega, Pinto, all cars from the 80’s.

Have some good ones, send them and I’ll add them to the growing list!