I decided to e-mail Larry Taylor, our salesman at Downtown MINI today, since the MINIUSA Tracking indicated that our car was now at the distribution center. Larry surprised me by telling me the MINI will be ready at 4pm at the dealership…woohoo! I’ll post some pics tomorrow.
I just looked up the status of our MINI, it’s at the distribution center! That means we’ll probably have our car by next week. Woohoo! Kim’s getting a little tired of driving the SE-R and we haven’t decided on a second car (or third) car yet.
It also looks like I won’t be able to make it to the Peru Tour this weekend. Too much stuff to do around here! I’ve already been to one Tour this year and I’m actually co-driving another car at Nats, so it’s not important enough for me to blow off stuff around here, drive 18 hours each way just to autocross a car that’s being sold shortly. That said, I’ll missing seeing my friends from CenDiv…have fun out there!
You know, when Rod Roddy boomed out “A NEW CAR!” on The Price Is Right,” you could just feel the thrill rushing through the audience–never mind the contestants’ excitement.
So where does that thrill go in grown-up life? Oh, yeah, I know: into the payment book.
We bought a new car yesterday: A 2006 Honda Ridgeline RTL. Redrock Pearl, a color that has a nice Flintstones-like appeal. The Odyssey van has been seeing more and more truck-like duty, hauling booth, magazines, and a large car-hauler trailer for long trips, and the Ridgeline offers a great combination of truck utility with car-like features and lockable storage. The 5,000-lb. towing capacity is a big appeal for us.
I dunno whether the high gas prices are scaring folks away or what, but our local Honda dealership had the model we wanted in stock, ready to go at a nice discount. (In contrast, we waited weeks and paid only a few hundred off MSRP for the Odyssey we bought a couple years ago.) In our case this is actually a move to a more modest consumer, since we’ll use the truck for some trips that might have called for the motorhome in the past.
Frequent flyer miles, here I come! I’m flying out to LA this afternoon to join Nitto for some fun with their new NT-01 tire.
Then back here on Thursday and across the street from the local airport to Daytona Int’l Speedway to check out the Brumos Porsche 250.
Then back to the airport on friday and up to Summit Point on the 2-3 for my first seat time in a formula car with the FRCCA. I’m sure that the major F1 teams will have scouts present, as there has been a big hole in the sport since Zsolt Baumgartner’s departure. (I just hope my neck is up to the G loads.)
Then it’s a couple of days off in the old stomping grounds of northern Virginia before returning to try and catch up on a big stack of editorial that needs to get done.
On Saturday I flew back home from a press introduction, and I felt that I had done well by requesting an aisle seat located next to the exit door. Since the bulkhead was right there in front of me, I had a ton of room for me and my paperwork—no one was going to recline their seat and cramp my style. As soon as we lifted off, I broke out my papers and red pen and went to work proofing the next issue of Classic Motorsports.
About an hour after we took off, the purser came on the P.A.: “Is there a doctor or medical professional onboard?” There was a bit of urgency in her voice due to one simple fact: We had just left Hawaii.
She only had to ask once, so I assumed that someone answered her call.
A few minutes later, a flight attendant tapped me on the shoulder: Did I have any pillows or blankets they could use? Turns out a lady had gone into premature labor, and they were going to make a little bed for her—right across the aisle from me in that big space formed by the placement of the exit door and bulkhead. I offered to go elsewhere to give them more room, but it was a full flight and I guess her seat was taken by one of the people who moved to clear that row of seats. A front-row seat, I figured.
We were lucky that a physician, a dermatologist and an EMT were on board. The purser brought them a medical kit, and they quickly got our mom-to-be on the floor and hooked up to an IV and on oxygen. (The dermatologist joked that she’d be more useful if the lady needed Botox instead.)
Someone else timed her contractions, and they were now 7 minutes apart. A flight attendant got dad another beer.
Since I was officially in their work zone, I folded up my tray table and gave them all the room they needed. I even got to hold some stuff. (No, nothing gross.)
Thanks to my front-row seat, I’m probably one of the only passengers who got to hear the discussion regarding our destination. Do we go back to Hawaii or head to California? those involved debated. And if we are going to continue to California, do we change our flight plan from Los Angeles to San Francisco since it is closer by 15 minutes?
The doctor decided that we’d continue onto L.A. By this time, we were already almost halfway there. Plus, he said that excellent newborn care was available right near the airport. The purser said that the pilot would radio ahead and have paramedics waiting at the gate.
Ahhh, the joy of childbirth.
Okay, no one was born on that flight. The contractions slowed down, and getting some fluids into her seemed to help. (Sounds like she got a little dehydrated and that is what started the contractions.)
Before landing, the EMT asked the flight attendant for a piece of paper so he could hand some notes to the paramedics. Upon overhearing the request, a page of the Classic Motorsports Volvo project was donated for that task.
I’m guessing the air traffic controllers cleared some space for us, because we took a direct trajectory to LAX. As planned, we were met by an ambulance and a full contingent of paramedics. Once the excitement was over, the rest of us left the plane.
On the way off the jetway, I ran into the EMT. “You kicked ass,” told him, shaking his hand. Later on I passed the purser. It looked like she was rushing to catch another flight, and I’m guessing by then her hands were no longer shaking like leaves. I hope the rest of her evening was quiet and uneventful.
Kim and Per competed at the CFR autocross today in Ft. Pierce. Woooweee was that hot. The temperatures were in the 90s with quite a bit of humidity. We wound up cooling down the Falken Azenis RT-615s after every run, as this sweeper intensive course put some serious heat into the rubber. We’re not sure how we wound up, we’ll post the results when we see ‘em!
Our tire pressures wound up being 37 front and 33 rear, that allowed a little bit of oversteer without being uncontrollable. We think that’s why the 15x7s on all four corners are faster than having the 8″ wide rims up front, the car is much more controllable on that hairy edge of handling, you can balance the car between a little bit of oversteer and a little bit of understeer without trouble.
This week we’re going to install the larger calipers and rotors from a NX2000. This morning we painted the calipers as they had been bead blasted when they were rebuilt and were starting to rust.
Ok, so after quite a few family discussions between myself, Kim and our two schnauzers, we’ve started looking at another addition to our driveway. With the Subaru Outback gone, and the incoming MINI on the small side, we’ve been thinking about something a bit more practical.
On one hand, the Rallycross project could be a 4-door wagon but there is some concern that a car that I’m abusing on a regular basis might not make a good people/boat/dog hauler. So…we’ve visited a few Honda dealers and have revisited the idea of an Element. Since it’s primary purpose is to be an appliance, it seems that the toaster-like qualities are actually a plus, even an automatic wouldn’t be that bad. The AWD EXs sticker for 22,240, but several dealers have offered us invoice at $20,584 after some haggling. The trick will to be to get them to forget about the F-U dealer fees…afterall, they are getting the holdback.
Red, Khaki or Orange?
Last Friday, we noticed a new and substantial oil leak from the front crank pulley seal. This is the same seal that we replaced when we installed the GoFastBits underdrive pulley. Closer examination showed that the pulley actually had a groove dug into it. This, coupled with a prematurely worn seal caused our oil leak. We reinstalled the stock pulley and a new stock sized serpentine belt.
We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and soon we’ll be looking for our next project car. The car will start in print in the October issue of GRM.
We’ve wrapped up the editorial on the Project SRT-4. It has left our stables and is now living with a reader in Wisconsin.
You can buy back issues covering this project by calling us a (800) 520-8292.
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