I realized after taking this picture a couple of months ago that while my 944 was hibernating, it got passed by my daily driver. The 944, my oldest car, now has the fewest miles of my cars.
John Melvin (1938 – 2014)
Update
A memorial service is expected to be scheduled on Sunday, August 10, at 2:00 pm in the lounge at West Side Methodist Church, 900 S. Seventh St., Ann Arbor, followed by a Memorial Service for John in the Sanctuary at 3:00 pm.
There will be a Celebration of John’s Life at the Ann Arbor City Club, 1830 Washtenaw Ave., following the service.
I was saddened to hear that John Melvin passed away on July 17th after a brief illness. John was one of the good guys in the automobile and racing industry, working for the safety of drivers. He worked from 1968-1985 for UMTRI (University of Michigan Transport Research Institute) and from 1985-1998 at General Motors Research Laboratories. He had been working exclusively on racing safety from 1992 until his retirement in 1998. He had been a safety consultant to NASCAR for the last 13 years.
Grrrrrind…
“It’s been a while since I’ve driven a manual transmission,” said my colleague.
I was in the passenger seat logging data, feeling a little glad that this was a test car and not mine. I mumbled some acknowledgement as I fiddled with my software.
VROOOOM… lug… lug… stall…
For various random reasons, one of my cars gets work done by a particular mechanic. This mechanic does good work. He’s thorough and gets the job done without much hassle. His shop is a tad expensive, but I don’t mind paying a bit more if I get good quality (isn’t it sad that good quality isn’t expected in basic work anymore?).
As of 6 am on April 15, 2014, Detroit has broken the record for snowfall in a season with 94.8 inches total. The old record was 93.6 inches back in 1880-1881. Presumably there could have been higher snowfalls prior to that, but no one posted it on Facebook or YouTube back then, so it didn’t really happen.
So take that, 1880 and 1881! 2013 and 2014 rules! We’re #1! And all that.
Here’s the video of my trip from Sault Ste Marie to Key West taken in the middle of winter (in the northern hemisphere).
The video is technically 1,974 miles in 18:50 minutes, but that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
We didn’t break the record today. As of 8:00 pm on March 12, our snowfall total for this winter is 90.7″. The record from 1880-1881 is 93.6″.
My last post was about cars that don’t come with a manual transmission. This is the other foot that drops on a shoe; the Peter robbing Paul’s Mary; the left hand spying on the right. This one is about the good cars.
The list is biased toward cars that have both a manual transmission and all-wheel drive (AWD), because that’s that what I want. If there’s a car that I missed, send me a comment and I’ll add it.
I’ve written a rant about manual transmissions, or the lack thereof in new cars today. So here is a listing of cars that do not come with a manual transmission.
This is not a comprehensive list, just a list of some cars I’ve looked into recently. If you have a recommendation to add to this list, please let me know. Thanks.