Trying to Make the Driving World a Little Less Annoying

Author: EMan Page 5 of 15

Big Hero Loss

I lost one of my heroes last week. Denise McCluggage died on May 6th. She was 88. Through Autoweek, I’ve gotten to know her as a writer and racer. But the more I learned about her, the more she became my inspiration for following one’s passion in life. She was “just doing it” long before sneaker companies made that their mantra. I don’t always follow her lesson, but the fault is strictly my own.

Happy 150,000 Miles!

My STI turned 150,000 miles today! I just seemed like 2 years and 21 days ago that it was just turning 100,000 miles. It’s amazing how time flies with these little ones.

Gas Mileage – The Numbers Game

When I bought my Subaru STI a few years ago, I had big plans for it. I would drive it in track events and I would modify it for asphalt-kicking horsepower (insert grunting noises here). Unfortunately, Reality had other plans for my car.

Tracing Further Back in Time

Well, Son of a Wampa. My Buick Skyhawk does exist.

I’m not only fortunate enough to be an obsessive data taker, but I’m also a compulsive data hoarder. Bonus!

Traces of My Life

I was playing around with Excel the other day, as engineers who obsessively collect data are wont to do. I had plotted an interesting convergence—three of my cars (if I count my wife’s) had almost the same mileage last week.

The mileage of my Honda Civic was overtaken by my wife’s Subaru Legacy, which was later overtaken by my Subaru STI. This took over 148,300 miles and 15.3 years of meticulous planning to achieve (note: no actually planning conducted).

More February Weather

This winter (Dec 2014–Feb 2015) was the warmest ever recorded, probably another sign of climate change. I’m proud to say that Michigan did its absolute best to reduce the overall average as much as possible.

Stupid state.

February 2015 – 1st Loser

I tend to over-obsess about the weather, so when I heard that February was the coldest month in Detroit in 140 years, I had to investigate. It turned out that at an average of 14.5°F, it was the coldest since February 1875, which had an average of 12.2°F. Michiganders around here are acting like 42°F is the start of summer now.

Bentley. James’s Bentley.

I’ve just finished reading/listening some of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. I had never read these before. We all have our image of the dashing James Bond based on the movies. He drinks dry vodka martinis—shaken, not stirred. He carries a Walther PPK as his main weapon. And he drives an Aston Martin.

Except when he doesn’t.

Live Long and Prosper

Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock on the show (and movies) Star Trek, died on Friday, February 27, 2015.

What the Hell: Is Adaptive Cruise Control?

(DISCLAIMER: My company makes this product, and I work directly on it. However, don’t get this product in your next car because of that. Or because you like buying gadgets like I do my family likes to eat. Get it because you are a red-blooded gadget geek. Get it because the technology is cool. Get it because you have a lot of money to spend.

Personally, I won’t be getting it because it is typically not sold with manual transmission in the U.S. And I have no money. But other than that, I would totally get this.)

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