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