Yesterday, Robin and I drove out to Daytona Beach for the 52nd annual Daytona 500 (it was our birthday present to each other, as mine was on the 12th and hers is on the 17th). We went last year as well, although they ended up calling the race early due to rain. This year, it was clear and sunny all day, although chilly—by the time we left it was in the low 40s. We also sat there a lot longer than we anticipated due to a couple of red flags, the first one lasting almost two hours. Apparently the frost and rain we've had here over the past few weeks did a number on the track and created a pretty sizeable pothole that they had to fill to make the track safe for racing. As the cars were running over it, bits of asphalt were coming up and expanding the hole. But in the end the racing was great, and we were fortunate to have some really good seats on the frontstretch near the start/finish line to see the action.

Being the gearhead that I am, a get a big rush from the power, speed, and sound of these cars. Some people look at NASCAR and just see a bunch of cars turning left. But for me it's about tuning engines to squeeze out that extra bit of horsepower, setting up the suspension so that it will be able to hit the apex of the turn perfectly each time, making the right calls on pit road, and learning how to work the draft. It takes a lot of skill and talent from every member of the team, not just the driver.

Anyway, here's a short clip (really short!) of the pack of cars flying by at 190mph toward the end of the race. It's pretty wild to see them cover 2.5 miles in 30 seconds.

Below is a picture of my 1994 Mazda 626 DX as it looked in 2006. I bought the car in August of 2002, and have put over 100,000 miles on the odometer. It's parked in my driveway right now with 193,200 (about 311,000km), and I won't be logging any more miles on it. Unfortunately, it has run into some mechanical problems that would not be worth fixing. I put an ad up on Craigslist yesterday, was completely honest about the problems, and have already had three emails from potential buyers.

This was my first car. I worked hard for several summers before college saving up for a car, and my uncle and aunt were very gracious to sell the car to me for quite less than it was worth at the time so that it would fit in my budget. The car has been fantastic, and a real pleasure to own. It's a 5-speed, and at the time I hadn't had a great deal of experience driving a manual, except on a tractor. But I drove it the 200km home to Hamilton from their house in Peterborough, including an entertaining ride through rush hour stop-and-go traffic on the 401 through Toronto (which, having the notorious reputation of being North America's busiest stretch of highway, was great practice). Though the four-cylinder wasn't powerful by any means, I couldn't have been happier when I started dating a girl from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and began bi-weekly trips back and forth to visit her in the summer. That 4-cylinder, 5-speed combination netted me a consistent 34-35mpg at highway speeds. My best was a trip up and down western Ontario—Hanover to Sheffield to Tobermory to Hamilton—a total distance of 827km, in which the car got 37.9mpg.

The car was always a pleasure to drive. It sat comfortably, felt solid on the road, and rode smoothly, especially on the highway. Being 6'4", I needed a car with a good amount of room, and the 626 was great. The clutch was light and it shifted well. On the snowy roads of Ontario in winter, it was always predictable, even being front-wheel drive. And speaking of winter, it almost never got stuck in the snow.

As I said, the car was never fast, but that also never stopped me from trying. In my younger, immature days, I raced a number of cars down the highway and off the line from traffic lights. My favorite memory was a girl in a Mustang GT convertible who pulled up beside me and started revving the engine. I laughed a bit, but had no intention of racing a car I knew I'd never beat. However, when the light turned green, she stalled it and so I won without even trying. At the next traffic light, she did not pull up beside me.

Also, I remember reading online that the 626 did not have a governed top speed. It took me awhile to build up the courage to determine if that was in fact true. One sunny day, with an open stretch of road ahead of me and my good friend, John Boks, in the passenger's seat, I dropped it into third gear and mashed the accelerator. Third gear was always great in the car when it hit the powerband—around 3000-4000rpm—and we watched the speedometer climb, 120, 130, 140km/h. By the time 4th gear ran out we had passed 180km/h (most governed cars are limited to about 175) and were still going. The car ran out of steam in 5th, right around the time the needle passed 195km/h (121mph).

Most of the time, though, I enjoyed the comfort of the car. For a base model with few options, it drove and rode very well. In addition to the many trips to Michigan, the car has been to North Carolina, New York City, and back and forth to Florida twice. I never once hesitated to get in and drive long distances.

But as with anything, over the years the car took some hits, both literally and figuratively. In the first few weeks I owned it, some fool on a riding lawnmower left the blades turned on as he pulled onto the shoulder, and I heard numerous pieces of gravel ricochet off the quarter panel. Another gravel-induced wound is on the windshield, a fair-sized crack courtesy of a gravel truck I was passing on the 402 just east of Sarnia. A very petite young girl driving a very big 3/4-ton Dodge Ram pickup backed into the car in the Redeemer parking lot, putting a sizeable dent in the right-front. Sidebar on that—she never owned up to it, but a friend of mine and myself figured it out. Also, the over-salting of the roads in winter subjected it to some rust, and the intense Florida sun has quickly destroyed the paint. Orlando's heavy stop-and-go traffic has certainly not helped the car either.

And so the end of the road has come. I just don't want to put any more money into the car. The other day I was driving and one of the cylinders stopped firing. After changing spark plugs, wires, and so on, it still didn't fire. Process of elimination leads me to think it's the distributor itself, or a faulty fuel injector. With other age- and mileage-related problems accumulated as well, it's time for something else.

There are a lot of memories in this car, though, and it will be hard to see her go. It's already a little disheartening to see her sitting parked in the driveway. But it is time. You will be missed, faithful friend.

We just returned yesterday from ten days on the road. We traveled over 3,100 miles of Interstate and 400-series highways, both urban and rural. Highway driving is relatively easy and enjoyable (at least for me). But in traveling so far, you do encounter a lot of different types of drivers. Obviously, not everyone fits into a certain category; most are good, courteous drivers. But not all—I spent part of the time behind the wheel coming up with seven categories of drivers who are particularly annoying (you have to pass the time somehow, especially when your wife is sleeping):

1. The Vacillator. This guy is usually found on the empty stretches of rural highway. He cannot, to save his life, maintain a steady speed. You will pass him, only to have him pass you again ten minutes later. This cycle will repeat itself until he either gets off the highway, or you pass him at a high rate of speed and continue on until you have put enough distance between him and you that he likely won’t pass you again.
2. The Aggressive Tailgater. There are two varieties of tailgaters. The first is the guy who feels as if he owns the left-hand lane and will remain within inches of your bumper until you let him by. He usually drives a large SUV. You will often encounter him when you are passing someone, and although you are nearly around the other vehicle, he will nevertheless ride your bumper until you are back in the right-hand lane. He will then pass you at a much higher rate of speed to emphasize his frustration with you obstructing his path and reassert his supposed ownership of the left-hand lane.
3. The Enigmatic Tailgater. This is the second type of tailgater. This is the guy who will just tailgate you for no reason. He will come up behind you, usually on an empty stretch of road, but instead of passing you, will suddenly decide he likes the speed you are going and will follow you. Only, he will do so with no more than a couple of feet in between his bumper and yours. This will conclude with him finally deciding he wants to pass you, whereupon he will do so at a rapid rate of speed, only to commence following the next car he happens upon.
4. The Charger. This guy is hybrid of 1 and 3. Usually he will have a number of passengers in the car, who get far more attention than his driving does. He will come charging up behind you and, suddenly noticing he is about to rear-end you, will hammer on the brakes until he is several car-lengths back again. His attention will then be given back to his passengers, coinciding with increased pressure on the accelerator, until his windshield is once again full of the back of your car.
5. The Left-Lane Hog. You will usually find this guy in the busiest parts of urban areas where he will doggedly hold his position driving in the left lane, come hell or high water. He is usually older and driving a Buick or Cadillac. Nothing can budge him; not tailgating, honking, or aggressively swerving around him. To further annoy highway travelers, he will drive at or slightly under the speed limit.
6. The Cruise-Controller. This is the guy who will use his cruise control all the time. This is fine in and of itself, but not when you are traveling at 70mph and he is going 70.5mph. Not wanting to upset his perfectly set cruising speed, he will refuse to tap on the accelerator to move on past you, and so will take about 10 minutes to get around your car. If you are the only two cars on an empty stretch of rural highway, this is slightly irritating though inconsequential. But when you are approaching other cars and want to pass them yourself, you either need to brake to let him pass or accelerate to get in front of him.
7. The Pass-Going-Uphill Trucker. Loaded semis are often the slowest vehicles on the highway, and it can be a bit annoying when they pass each other. But nothing compares to the idiot trucker who decides to pass another truck while going up a hill when a number of cars are quickly approaching in the left lane. The driver gets a bit of a run on the other semi while going down the preceding hill, but can’t maintain that speed when going up the next. You get stuck behind him as his speed continues to drop, and can only hope that the next stretch of downhill is long enough for him to get around the other truck.

While these are all traits of bad drivers, a number of them are simply a result of drivers not paying enough attention to what they're doing. Anything you would add to the list? Are there any other types of bad drivers that I missed?

My sister and brother-in-law drove down to see us last week, and one of the things we did was to head out to Daytona to watch the 500. All of us are NASCAR fans to varying degrees, so we enjoyed the day a lot, even though it was rained out in the end. This is some footage I shot throughout the day, and posted here mostly to test out how well Vimeo embeds and plays on the blog. Enjoy.

It's no secret to those of you who know me that I am a gearhead, and now and then I like to have a good discussion about cars. I have a Slovak friend at work who was kind enough to lend me a few issues of European Car magazine to browse through, and I ran across this today in the June 2007 issue. One of the columnists outlined some of the history of hybrid technology, which was first developed by European car manufacturers (and actually goes back to 1899, when Ferdinand Porsche raced a variant of a hybrid car). He then says,

With such a big lead and a heritage of hybrid technology, why are today's hybrids coming from Japan and the United States, and not from Stuttgart, Munich or Wolfsburg?

The answer is diesel. European manufacturers spent most of the 1990s perfecting turbocharged direct injection diesel technology so that it can produce incredible fuel economy while dramatically reducing emissions. Further research has brought the latest urea-injection technology, pioneered on European heavy trucks to the passenger segment, making these engines nearly as clean as the cleanest gasoline offerings.

Why should European manufactures place two drive systems (gas and electric) in a vehicle to attain 30 to 40 mpg when they can get the same results using a single modern direct injection diesel engine? European engineers simply scratch their heads when you ask them why they aren't building a hybrid...Europe's manufacturers have steadfastly held their positions that a new modern diesel is a better solution than a hybrid.

And rightly so, I think. Two engines will inevitably cost you more than one, both in initial cost and later on in repair costs. Plus, the technology for strong, reliable, and very efficient diesel engines is already there. Consider this as well: according to a Popular Mechanics comparison test, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI will return better highway fuel mileage than the Toyota Prius, and costs less overall (factoring in taxes and destination charges). On top of that, the 140hp and 236 ft. lb. Jetta will effortlessly leave the wimpy 75hp Prius in the dust. The Jetta is also larger and far more comfortable and accomodating.

Americans have an aversion to diesel technology, which is not surprising given the horrible diesel engineering they were subject to in the '70s and '80s (remember those Oldsmobile diesels?). But times have changed. For example, as I mentioned in an earlier post, BMW's new 335d will do 0-60 in six seconds flat (as fast as a Charger R/T) and get a claimed 36 mpg at highway speeds (compared to the Charger's measly 22).

There is a lot to be said for diesel technology, and I would not be surprised to eventually see diesels replace hybrids as the eco-friendly engine of choice. The technology is already there and continually being improved on. Would you buy a diesel?