A friendly reminder to share your passion of cars with others!

Part of what makes the car/motorcycle lifestyle so much fun is the ability to share it with others.  That being said, here is a fun video about why sharing the love of cars can be fun for everyone involved!

Some days are better than others being a car enthusiast!  :)

Which of course poses the question.  Who is luckier?  This young woman for enjoying her first ride in a Porsche Carrera GT, or we as viewers for getting such a nice treat for being able to enjoy the moment with her?

Fitness and nutrition update

It's about time I wrote my first blog post about fitness and nutrition, right?

I'm not really sure what the holdup has been to write this post, but I'd say the biggest issue is that nothing of significance has changed lately in my training regimen.  During the summertime months I tend to be more conscious about not carrying as much body fat, but to be fair I don't think my annual fluctuations are significant enough to really worry about.  Like most other fitness enthusiasts I know, I tend to make a bigger deal out of these things than the average person, so the unfortunate end result is that I found myself taking in less nutrients, keeping my weight down, but then agonizing internally about why nothing seemed to be changing with my workout intensity or my ability to make gains.  So, effectively I sabotaged my own results.

Just as I tend to sympathize and get along well with automotive enthusiasts, I find that I'm drawn to fitness enthusiasts as well.  For anyone who has put in the hard work required for training, diet, and the sometimes self-loathing that seems to go along with it, these people become kindred spirits, as well as sources of inspriration.  It's true that we workout to feel better overall, but there comes a level of frustration with training that is hard to explain to the non gym-goer.  Most people exercise to achieve goals, and those goals can be difficult to attain at the best of times, impossible at the worst of times.

As I've told some of my best friends, one of my greatest life regrets is that I stopped exercising with any regularity between the ages of 25 and 32.  I wish so much that I could have those 7-8 years of my life back to dedicate to fitness, since building a solid foundation takes time.  Of course I'm glad to have re-discovered it in 2006, but I cannot stop wondering where I'd be today if I didn't give up all that time.  I have become quite happy to serve as a source of information for co-workers, friends, and even a few gym buddies who want to get more serious about their own fitness goals, and I must say it's a real privilege to be thought of as a source of knowledge in that domain.

The first question most people tend to ask is along the lines of "what is the secret to getting in better shape?".  Of course I would have been one of the people asking that question just 8 years ago, so I do really understand and appreciate the spirit of it.  But, the answer I like to give tends to catch people off-guard despite its simplicity.  The answer of course, is that there is no secret.  The pursuit of better fitness and health must be a lifestyle to be truly effective, and you have to figure out a way to embrace the lifestyle in order to truly succeed with it.  Suffice to say that the person at the gym complaining about being there and wishing they were somewhere else isn't going to be the most successful in attaining their goals, yet you may be surprised of how many of those people are out there in gyms across the world.

I do have a few funny stories to share along these lines, but want to save them for a later blog entry.  I should add the disclaimer that I am not a certified personal trainer nor a nutritionist, and do not consider myself an expert.  However, I do like to share what I know and hope that some of my experience and attitude about health and fitness might help others!

The Nissan Juke, and why it represents all that is wrong with modern cars and design

It's actually pretty embarrassing to write about the Nissan Juke at all, but since Nissan UK is trumpeting a current project to design and build a Juke R based on the actual Nissan GTR, some thoughts have been racing through my mind that I feel like sharing.

On the face of it, the Nissan Juke sounds like a pretty reasonable car on paper assuming we can all agree that affordable cars do need to exist.  It offers a direct injected 1.6L turbocharged 4 cylinder engine, a 6 speed manual (FWD models only) or a continuously variable transmission (CVT), 188 hp/177 tq, and a reasonably light curb weight of about 3000 pounds, and I believe pricing starts under $20,000.  Given those basic stats, it actually sounds like a pretty fun car.

UNTIL YOU ACTUALLY SEE ONE THAT IS!!!!!!!

We've all made jokes about how someone or something may have been hit by the ugly stick, or maybe fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.  Well, even those sayings are way too kind for the unbelievably hideous Nissan Juke.  In fact, and I rarely make statements this bold, I would say that the 2011 Nissan Juke is the absolute ugliest new car available (that I know of) in the USA today.  Please prove me wrong and dethrone it if you know of anything that's genuinely worse!

So, as a car enthusiast I definitely see the merit of economical cars.  Car guys need wheels to get them to and from work, and it can be very satisfying and fun to drive a car that you can push to the limits and not even go very fast.  However, that doesn't mean that we want to buy ugly cars even at that price point or level of intent.  I have a similar running gripe with hybrid cars since nearly all of them look grotesque and seem to announce "hey, look at me, I'm driving a completely bland and emotionless car that only exists to show that I care about the environment and not about driving".  

Plenty of car guys do care about the environment, so we should set the record straight there right now.  However, I absolutely do not care about the environment enough to drive a ridiculous looking car.  My idea of a responsible car for commuting is something like my current 2003 Lexus IS300, which has a sweet and smooth 3.0L inline 6 engine, a 5 speed manual and limited slip differential, and has eye pleasing styling that has weathered time well.  Where new cars are concerned, the 2011 BMW 335d is my idea of a car that would be fun to drive, looks terrific (ie:  doesn't stand out for the wrong reasons), and is fuel efficient.  Car guys shouldn't (and won't) give up on driving attractive cars just to be fuel efficient, so build us some more cars that actually look worth a darn and we'll seriously consider them.

Automakers, stop penalizing us by only making fuel efficient cars that are funky or look horrible.  I can promise you that we won't buy them.  Unfortunately for me, plenty of people seem to want to buy them...but I'll continue to spend my money elsewhere and support cars that are actually made for people who enjoy driving...and I hope you will too!

Don't just listen to me though, go take a look at this madness for yourself.  I can already assure you that no amount of power or traction is going to make this car worth anything because, as I heard many years ago, you simply cannot dress up a turd.  :)

Nissan Juke R, video 1:

Nissan Juke R, video 2:

Some random thoughts about exotic cars

Exotic cars.  Just the mere thought of them is enough to get pulses racing, blood pumping, and the hair on the back of most guys' (and some girls) necks standing up.  Those sensuous machines from Italy, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, and even the good old US of A can really get us worked up, particularly if you're a car person!

When I grew up I didn't really have any ability to see these cars in person as I was raised in a smaller town in eastern Washington state.  Occasionally my mom would take me to Europe to visit relatives and, where most people were taking pictures of famous statues and monuments, I'd always make time to take pictures of exotic cars when I spotted them.  It's actually pretty fun to look back in my family photos and find random Ferrari or Porsche pictures...it brings back terrific memories!

As we get older, we may find that the dream of owning an exotic car doesn't really materialize.  Most of the time this is due to simple economic factors.  Let's face it, how many of us can justify to purchase a car which costs more than homes in some areas?  I remember, even after buying my first home, when driving along in my modified Toyota Supra I noticed a then-new Lamborghini Murcielago coming up behind me on the freeway.  It was hard to take my eyes off the rear and side view mirrors as this orange spaceship of a car pulled up alongside me, then passed me and headed away on a different freeway ramp.  And, the truly funny part of that memory, which no young child would feel, was the unbelievably odd sense of liability in case I happened to damage that persons Lamborghini while driving!  I mean, here I was in my modified $30k car and a guy right next to me was driving a near $300k car!  I'm sure my insurance company would drop me in a second if I caused serious damage to that car, and what car guy could sleep at night if they damaged a Lamborghini besides!

Now that I'm older yet, and have spent a good 10 years of my automotive life building up Toyota Supras into being more powerful than stock Lamborghini's, I seem to have found a new found respect for exotic cars.  These days my fun-car is what I'd call a semi-exotic, a Porsche 911 Twin Turbo, used of course.  I now find myself being able to attend and participate at car events where real exotic cars do come out to play.  And, after a couple years of being able to attend these meets I can say that I have a very different appreciation of exotic cars than I used to.

You see, in my experience the car guy on a budget (like your fearless writer here) tends to prize some special quality in his or her cars.  It's hard to have the total package but we may yearn for a car that stands out of the crowd, or a car that is really powerful, or a car that handles very well, or maybe just a car with a really nice sound system.  That is the beauty of being a car person...you can strive towards whatever you want.  I'd personally focused on cars which I could make extremely fast, hence the long-term fixation on modified Toyota Supras, a car that has only recently been eclipsed as the most modifiable and fastest tuner cars in all the land.  However, one thing I was really missing all those years was the feeling of owning a car that really had presence.  Not just presence for car guys who knew what it was, but real honest-to-goodness exotic presence, which a car either has or doesn't have.  It's hard to build presence in the aftermarket, although not impossible...but roots are hard to hide.

I can tell you now from firsthand experience that there is nothing like the presence exuded by a high strung Italian car, whether you're a big fan of them or not.  When you hear the sound of a glorious V8, V10, or V12 Italian engine fill the air, it's something extremely special about it.  The wild colors, the sleek lines, the sometimes fiery temperaments, there is something really special about exotics.  Many of us will not get the chance to call one our own, but all of us should have the chance to get out and view these exquisite creations.  They are machines built of passion, not purpose, and that passion always comes out when you are among them and the owners who care for them.  When you see a real exotic car you tend to think of them as being more than just a car, they are akin to rolling objects of art which look and sound incredible.

I encourage all of you to seek out a local exotic car meet.  Go spend some time near these machines, meet the passionate (and often extremely friendly) people who own them.  Although this thought will sound odd, when I think about the current state of the world and what we do to each other, with all the wars and corruption, famine and misfortune...it's really hard to take.  However, when I see what beautiful things people are capable of creating it really boggles my mind and goes some way back to restoring my faith in people and the future.  Don't believe me?  Go check out some of these cars and get back to me!  :)

The C7 (seventh generation) Corvette...what we know so far

The future of the Corvette is coming, but not soon enough for many enthusiasts, since the run of the current generation C6 variant has spanned from 2005 to 2012 and counting.  We know that the upcoming C7 Corvette will be coming in model year 2013 or 2014 at this point, and we're also fairly sure that it will still be a front engined, rear wheel drive V8 powered car.  Other that that, plenty of speculation remains.

As a former Corvette owner, I truly and desperately hope that they finally take some time to really bring the interior upscale.  I owned a 2004 model Z06 once upon a time (2006 actually) and although I loved the car from the point of view of performance and styling, I honestly ended up selling the car over its interior.  In fact, I still find myself pining for the sweet, high revving LS6 engine and the unbelievably convenient heads up display (HUD) which should be standard in every performance car.  If GM keeps the original formula mostly intact and significantly upgrade the interior, I predict a clear winner.

The current speculation has GM going to a smaller displacement (5.5L) V8 engine, but this time outfitted with direct fuel injection, cam within a cam timing tricks, and higher compression to land somewhere close to 500 hp on the base model.  Even better is that the car is set to retain its manual transmission option, even moving up to a 7 speed manual option.  The entire car might be a little lighter than the current C6, which is of course welcome news to me!

So, the wait will be with us for some time to come, but I'm hopeful that more pictures and details emerge at a steady rate to keep us excited and optimistic about the Corvette's future.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll find myself behind the wheel of a C7 model in the future?  I always remain open to these cars as I do have fond memories of them!

I leave you with a picture of my previous 2004 Z06!

Motorcycles and why they can help to bring friends together!

Well it's about darn time I wrote a post about motorcycles right?  I've only been riding myself since late July of 2010 so consider myself a rank amateur, but I am really excited to have discovered the joys of riding motorcycles and wish I would have trusted myself to enjoy them at a younger age.

Just this past weekend I had a great opportunity to visit an old friend and go for a motorcycle ride together.  Although we do sometimes get together and chat about cars or fitness, motorcycles are another shared passion of ours...so it was damn fun to get together work on some bikes (hint...you're always working on bikes!) and then take a short ride together.

To help sweeten the deal, this was my first opportunity to ride an Italian motorcycle (Ducatis in this case), and it's definitely a very memorable experience for your first chance to experience a couple of them.  Although all motorcycles can be stimulating, the added 'wow' factor of riding Ducatis was even more exhilarating!  The sounds and sensations they give are definitely a bit different from the Japanese and British bikes that I'm used to, so it was a really fun treat overall!

One thing I find particularly interesting about motorcycles (and clearly my friend as well) is that I don't mind sharing the experience of them with a friend.  Meaning, if a car guy were to ask to borrow my sports car, I'd probably only extend the offer to a best friend...whereas I don't feel the same level of apprehension with a motorcycle.  I actually spent some time pondering that distinction, trying to figure out what would make it different since the act seems inherently the same.  Here's the best I could do so far.

1.  Motorcycles are a sub-set of motorized vehicles, and require special endorsement (showing that you care enough to specialize in 2 wheels...kind of a semi-elite group in a way).
2.  Motorcycles can put up with more abuse and are cheaper to maintain/fix (most cases).
3.  Motorcycles are inherently more risky or dangerous, meaning it's a lot less likely that someone is going to do something blatantly stupid when riding one.

Obviously this list could be extended, but it was an interesting thought exercise for me nonetheless.  This post wouldn't be complete without a couple of pictures of our experience, and I wanted to share the custom battery mount we fabricated on the fly when we would up with the wrong battery size...we weren't going to be denied on a nice weather day!

The concept of adding 'lightness' and why I feel it's still relevant

Most of my automotive friends know me well as a 'weight weenie' when it comes to cars, meaning I prize lightweight cars that are efficient in their design and execution.  I always look to modern cars with a questioning eye when I read that their dimensions have grown, standard feature-sets increase, and weight balloons out of control.  In fact, it's only recently that automakers around the world have started to pledge renewed focus on making cars lighter again, and I'm overjoyed to hear this news.

Even most of my die-hard car buddies seem to have a hard time with this concept, choosing instead to just add horsepower to mask the addition of more weight.  Since more is generally regarded as better in our society, I suppose I can even forgive them a bit for their thought process.  However, I'd like to share more of why I feel the way I do, just in case my detailed thoughts might help to convince others that I'm not completely crazy.

Since I'm a high performance car nut first and foremost, it's always easiest to point out why lighter is better when performance is the objective.  Simple power-to-weight ratio is about the most importance performance parameter there is when it comes to gauging a vehicle's performance, so taking a hypothetical 200 hp car that weights 2000 pounds (a 2010Lotus Elise as example) and comparing it to a hypothetical 200 hp car that weighs about 3400 pounds (perhaps a turbocharged 2010 Audi A3 as example) will showcase the differences.

2010 Audi A3 (manual):   quarter mile in 14.9 seconds @ 93 mph - 17 pounds per horsepower
2010 Lotus Elise (manual):  quarter mile in 13.2 seconds @ 103 mph - 10 pounds per horsepower

That is only a glimpse of the performance difference between those two cars of course, but simply done to illustrate that a 200 hp car is not always the key to defining the performance of that car.  We, as Americans, love to brag about horsepower but the real key to showcasing what a car is capable of (unless traction or aerodynamic issues are present) is really the power to weight ratio.

Fundamentally, a car that weighs less will accelerate better, stop better, will not require as aggressive of a suspension to handle equally (or better), and will not be as hard on its tires...nor will it require as much tire under the car to support the weight.  I've long professed my love of lightweight cars (and weight reduction) as a means to achieving these very goals.

OK, so lets assume for a minute that you're not a performance car nut.  Is there anything else about a lightweight car worth talking about?  Yes, absolutely.  Please tell me how a 1987 Honda CRX HF could get 52 mpg in the city and 57 mpg on the highway when a much more modern 2011 Honda CR-Z Hybrid can get 31 mpg in the city and 37 mpg on the highway?  I'll give you a hint...it's not because Honda is trying to make a less efficient car.  The reality is that the modern cars are saddled with many more features in the name of safety (not always a bad thing) and also feature content.

1987 Honda CRX HF:  1713 pounds (51 mpg city, 57 mpg highway)
2011 Honda CR-Z Hybrid:  2650 pounds (31 mpg city, 37 mpg highway)

Before I let you all believe this is all due to the lower weight in the 1987 model, which you know I'd love to do, I need to remind everyone that the procedures with the government independently tests for fuel economy have changed in recent years, so it's not exactly an apples to apples comparison.  However, you can see that the older Honda does a very fine job sipping the fuel!  Hats off to Honda for still wanting to build an interesting car that gets good fuel mileage though.

Hopefully you can at least get a better idea of why I love lightweight cars from this short read, and I promise to follow up with more content in the future.  After all, It's one of my favorite automotive topics!  :)

My thoughts about the upcoming 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Like many car enthusiasts, when Chevrolet announced that they were reviving the much-revered ZL1 moniker I took immediate notice and anticipated something very special as a result.  Initial speculation was indeed promising, as they talked about a slightly detuned version of the Corvette ZR1's ferocious LS9 engine (which makes 638 supercharged horsepower in the Corvette ZR1).  So, with all of this performance potential on-hand, what could possibly go wrong?

I'll tell you what...plenty.

One of the keys to the original Camaro ZL1's genius when it was first sold in 1969 was that it was an extremely limited edition car.  I believe something like 50 were ever sold, making it one of the rarest cars of all from Chevrolet.  The reason for this back in 1969 was that the ZL1 model effectively doubled the price of the Camaro, and thus it found very few takers...and I think they would have built more had demand existed.  Although it could be argued that you cannot make a modern business model this way (and I'd agree with that), it really bothers me to hear that they may build as many as 5000 examples of the new ZL1, thus completely diluting this great name in my opinion.

Another really sore spot from my perspective is the monstrous curb weight being presented for the new car.  Although even the base 2012 Camaro is no lightweight, it sounds as though the ZL1 model will tip the scales at 4200+ pounds.  That is absolutely ludicrious for any performance car not made by Bugatti, and just goes to show how little manufacturers think about the big picture of automotive performance.  They would much rather take the 'cheap' way out and add gobs of horsepower and content, yet allow the curb weight of the vehicle to continue to balloon up to absurd levels.

Why is that a big deal?

The competing 2012 Ford/Shelby Mustang GT500 will have a better power-to-weight ratio with it's much lighter (something like 400 pounds less, need to check my references for precise numbers) curb weight, and what that means is that for all the hype of the new Camaro ZL1, it's going to fall short of challenging the existing Mustang GT500 on the road course and possibly on the drag strip.  What a let down!

I think manufacturers are just way too concerned with making a quick buck and less concerned about developing well thought out products.  I hate the fact that many of them are tarnishing their own historically significant products by doing quick engineering and rushing out to market.  There are very few products which I feel were properly re-engineered for release, and the 2005-2006 Ford GT is pretty much the best case example of this. 

*UPDATE*

I see that since I wrote this post that Chevrolet has released a Nurburging laptime for the Camaro ZL1 at 7 minutes, 41.27 seconds.  Although that is definitely very impressive and does indeed challenge some very serious machinery, I can only think "what if they had made it lighter?".

Case in point, see how it fares around the cars around it with regard to the laptimes versus the power of the engine.  You will suddenly see that instead of being impressive, you can instead start to think "wow, they could have done a lot better with less weight on board".  So, it is definitely the fastest Camaro of all-time with regard to this record, but look how inefficient it is overall when you consider how much power it has relative to it's similar lap-time peers.

7m42.99sec - 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 - 505 hp

7m41.27sec - 2012 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 - 580 hp

7m33.00sec - 2011 Porsche 911 GT3 RS - 450 hp

7m32.02sec - 2008 Porsche 911 GT2 - 530 hp

7m29.03sec - 2009 Nissan GTR - 480 hp

Keep in mind that it's important to compare lap times at the Nurburgring when conducted by the actual manufacturer.  Plenty of independent lap times are also recorded there, but they are not considered 'balls to the wall' runs, so it becomes harder to compare those times with the real manufacturer times, who all have a vested interest in producing the best lap times possible.

Here is a site where you can see those published times (updated with regularity):  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_N%C3%BCrburgring_Nordschleife_lap_times

Wow...I started a blog. Now what?

This is something I've considered doing for some time, but now the real question becomes 'Do I have anything worth writing about that people might actually want to read?'  Well, I do hope so...but if I ever get any readers they will need to be the judges of that, right?

My goal is to create a fun and entertaining blog about random thoughts pertaining to cars, motorcycles, fitness, nutrition, music, movies, and whatever the heck else I come up with.  Since I'm a car guy since day 1 and only discovered a passion for motorcycles more recently, I think you can see where that is headed though! 

I cannot exactly leave my first new blog entry without including a video of something I find wildly exciting though!  How can you not enjoy seeing the fruits of some good aftermarket engineering labor in the form of an Underground Racing Lamborghini Gallardo Twin Turbo?  Enjoy!