Marc said 39 minutes later

33%

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Steve said about 3 hours later

Ok, there's a BS question. What model was BMWs first big hit in the US? I had it between the 2002 and the 325. Well, they made about a billion 325s in the 80s, compared to only a tens of thousands of 2002s, so I picked the sensible choice. Wrong. That's way too subjective.

I'm going to do horrible, I don't know much about cars that were built with carberuetors.

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Steve said about 3 hours later

Ok, there's a BS question. What model was BMWs first big hit in the US? I had it between the 2002 and the 325. Well, they made about a billion 325s in the 80s, compared to only a tens of thousands of 2002s, so I picked the sensible choice. Wrong. That's way too subjective.

I'm going to do horrible, I don't know much about cars that were built with carberuetors.

60%. Blah

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Eric said about 6 hours later

I got a 57%. A lot of my answers were guesses. I really only knew for sure about 10 of the answers. I got the Wayne's World one, though. I'm very proud of myself.

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GJ said about 13 hours later

Damn, I got the Wayne's World one wrong (picked the Gremlin). I'll be honest--I guessed on about 33% of the answers. Got about 2/3 of them right...but then again, I got a few wrong that I was pretty sure about (like Steve's BMW question, I also picked the 325).

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Geoff said about 24 hours later

37% for me...I should have went with my first gut guesses, but I never do. That is way out of my era though. I was confident on the Back to the Future question and a few other real obvious ones (few and most near the end).

I missed the Wayne's World one...Ford Pinto for me!

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GJ said 3 days later

Darcy got 47%. I feel bad for the youngins.

GJ said 2 days later

that was some handling. the old g20 van would have given that thing a run for its money.

GJ said 6 minutes later

Captain Slow rocks!!

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Geoff said 31 minutes later

Nice!

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Steve said about 3 hours later

BTW, I have Top Gear seasons 1-9 burned in Mpeg or avi format, in case anyone is interested.

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GJ said about 7 hours later

VERY INTERESTED. I assume you've heard that they're headed to the States, right?

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Steve said about 8 hours later

They've already shot part of one episode here. Are you meaning to say the show is coming to the states full time?

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GJ said about 23 hours later

They are producing a version for the states. Not sure how many episodes this will entail, and I'm sure it'll stay on the air only as long as it's popular. Pretty sure this is being done for the Discovery Channel.

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GJ said about 23 hours later

There were talks between Discovery Channel and BBC Two in April that focused on bringing the series to the USA, keeping Clarkson, May, and Hammond as the presenters. There was some noise shortly after that announcement that the deal was made...but I don't see anything further about it online.

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Steve said 1 day later

It would only succeed with those guys, but I'm not sure how well it would work, because, aside from the Ford GT, I've never heard them say much of anything good about an American car, or American drivers, or American people in general. Of course, I find that humorous, but more mainstream people might not. And if they have to change the things they say in the show to appease the new market, they may lose most of the reason the show is so popular in the first place. It's not the cars, but the people and the comedy that make the show so good.

I'd rather see the show stay over there, but just include a few more American cars in it, and broadcast it regularly on Discovery.

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GJ said 1 day later

Dunno. They could make a show here work, but you are right--it would be different from the British show. I'd be all for regular broadcasting here in the states--I mean, come on, they rebroadcast all kinds of lesser crap all day long.

Steve--did you get your TG seasons from FinalGear.com?

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Steve said 2 days later

Nope, TVtorrents.com

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GJ said 2 days later

TG has episodes going back to 1987, I think.

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GJ said 2 days later

oops, I meant Final Gear has TG eps back that far.

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Steve said 3 days later

I have 9 seasons, not sure how far back that really stretches years wise though. The first episode of Season 1 is the first top gear episode, at least the first one with the current three stars on it. I'll try to burn seasons 1-9 onto DVD for you this weekend, and send them out when I get a chance.

Marc said about 1 hour later

That's very cool. So when are you going to try this out GJ?

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GJ said about 1 hour later

I have an *real* accelerometer today...and have used it maybe twice. There just aren't many places to do that sort of thing around here.

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Steve said about 4 hours later

Actually, I have GJ's accellerometer still, as out in the country, I have a few places to at least do 0-60 and 60-0 stuff. I won't do 1/4 mile with my car becuase I don't want to be doing 95 mph at the end of the run on a back road. And GJ, whenever you want it back, please let me know. It's definitely heading back to NY when either you get a G8 or Dad gets a Camaro.

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GJ said about 18 hours later

It's likely my times have improved, thanks to my summer tires and the upgraded PCM, but at best I'm hovering around 0-60 times of 6.2 or so. But, even when I get a G8, I'm still stuck with next to no place to really test this thing out. Still, this wiimote thing is cool.

Steve said 44 minutes later

Amen brother. I've been preaching this for over a year. Ethanol is DUMB, DUMB, DUMB. I cringe at the fact that my industry is helping to push this stupid idea. Costs of nearly everything we eat are going to skyrocket if Ethanol becomes the fuel of the future. Think about how much of the food you eat has some significant ingredient that's made from corn, wheat, vegetable oils, etc - anything that is grown. The price of those ingredients is going to go up, as more farm land is used to grow plants for ethanol, and less is being used to grow plants for food.

Not to mention, you get 33% worse fuel economy when driving on E85, and you pay the same, if not more, for a gallon of E85 than for a gallon of gasoline.

So let's summarize. Buy ethanol, increase your yearly fuel costs, make farmers rich, make poor people suffer more due to higher food prices, suffer more yourself due to the higher food prices. Um, where's the positive? Reduced dependance on foreign oil? Are you kidding me?

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GJ said about 1 hour later

And I never gave the farmer's lobby much respect for being powerful. Was I ever mistaken!!

Geoff said 35 minutes later

Now this is one book I can read....and over, and over, and over...

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Marc said about 1 hour later

Shotgun!

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Steve said about 3 hours later

This thing is nuts. 1st gear runs to 60 mph. Second to 85 mph. Third to about 105. I couldn't keep it in it to see where fourth led me, but I've been told that the GM guys average about 200 mph on the dot with it on their 4 mile oval in 5th or 6th.

On top of all that, it's actually pretty comfortable to drive. Steering is a bit heavy, but the ride is decent for that kind of a car, actually quite impressive. The traction control is phenomenal, you know it's working, but it doesn't seem to slow you down much at all. And yes, this will spin the tires going into third gear at 85 mph...

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GJ said about 13 hours later

Top Gear ran gear#5 from 0-170 the other night on this thing. Very amusing. They didn't like it at all as a daily driver, but said it was the equal of most supercars on the track.

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Steve said about 24 hours later

Well, the clutch sucked, it was a bit heavy, and engaged at the very last 1/2 inch of travel. The shifter is greatly improved over past Vettes. I don't know how many times I missed third in some of the Vettes Dad had. I never had a problem with this one. The interior quality seemed just fine, the seats were comfortable, the ride quite good. The noise from hitting bumps was pretty loud, but just cruise with the windows down and the noise gets better (because you change the acoustics of the cabin, not because you replace the noise from the bumps with wind noise). It is way to fast to be a sensible daily driver, but otherwise I don't see why it wouldn't be fine. Heck, I averaged over 29 mpg on the highway with the cruise set at 77 mph. Of course, when you get off the highway and do one 0-80 run, your fuel economy goes out the window...7.0L is a lot of motor, espeically when it's spinning around 7000 RPM...

Marc said 15 minutes later

That was awesome, I've never seen so much passing going on, not to mention these guys were running each other off the road left and right (Literally!).

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Geoff said about 16 hours later

Yeah it totally looked like a video game promo or something...running each other off the road. Its amazing these guys can keep these cars on the wet road with rain kicking in their face driving 150mph+

A true testament to their talent and probably the coolest thing ive seen in racing, save for those wicked crashes :)

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GJ said about 17 hours later

If it was me, I'd put the convertible top up next time.

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Geoff said about 21 hours later

wuss

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GJ said 1 day later

Next time my basement floods and the power is still on, please come see me. I need some non-wuss to stand in knee-deep iron-laden water to throw the breaker to turn off the power.

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Geoff said 2 days later

No problem! I've electrocuted myself plenty of times...I'm game!

Geoff said 1 day later

very cool...slick website too!

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Steve said 1 day later

I thought so too Geoff. If you know of any way to rip the videos from that websight into something I could store on my computer, please let me know!

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Marc said 1 day later

Cool videos, that track must have been a blast to drive on.

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Steve said 2 days later

It absolutely was fun, Marc. So much so that after spending one evening driving on it, I changed my vacation plans so I could go back and run it again the next day! I'm tempted to go back again in a week and a half (I'll be in Germany again), but it's not likely to be open due to the weather, and I'd almost rather spend my time in Rome, or somewhere else that's warmer.

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Geoff said 2 days later

Hey Steve, I have a pluggin for FireFox that allows me to rip Flash videos from websites like YouTube. I'll check tomorrow to see if it will work on this site and give you info to download the free tool yourself (I can't remember the name and I don't have it on my mac at home)

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Geoff said 2 days later

Hey Steve, yes you can download the video clip. You need a plugin called Download helper...you can get it here http://www.downloadhelper.net/

Also, to view FLV video files (format used in these clips and sites like YouTube...you need an FLV viewer)

I use this one and it works great:
http://www.martijndevisser.com/blog/flv-player/

Kristen said 5 minutes later

I just went to tirerack to simulate buying tires again to see where I went wrong. Interestingly, it immediately prompted me to check my vehicle and select the orginal equipment size, between a 195/70/14 and 195/65-15. If this prompt had come up before I know that I would have checked this out! I wonder if they had other customers who had the same problem?!

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Marc said about 4 hours later

Steve will tell you TireRack will probably hook you up, it'll be obvious you haven't used them, so they're just as good as they were when you ordered them. Most likely you'll have to eat the cost of shipping, but even still, I imagine shipping won't be horrible.

If shipping isn't an option, might just put them in the classifieds, someone will buy them.

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GJ said about 9 hours later

Also, Kristen...you need to verify that the the tires you are ordering are the *same* size as the ones currently on your car (in the future), unless you are specifically looking to make a change for a reason other than just replacing worn out tires. The range of values you list specify both 14 and 15 inch rims--your car has one or the other, just go look at the lettering/numbering on your existing tires to see. The other #s can vary a bit. My guess, if the 195/70HR14s didn't fit, you have 15 inch rims and need the 195/65HR15 tires.

Tire rack is pretty good for customer service...try calling them and see what they suggest.

Also--get Steve's recommendation for replacement tires--from just looking at the customer ratings for this tire at Tire Rack, these tires are pretty much crap as your mechanic indicated. I'm sure Steve will say this too, but tires are definitely not the item to skimp on. Bad tires will get you into bad messes--every single crash I've been involved in was related to poorly performing tires.

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Steve said about 23 hours later

I agree with talking to Tirerack about the issue. Being as it's been a long time since you bought tires, they may not be willing to take them back, but you never know. They will probably be a lot more amiable about taking the tires back if you are going to order new tires from them (exchange, not an outright return).

If you order replacement tires, I'd suggest the Yokohama AVID TRZ as a good tire with a low cost ($71 a tire). It's the best low dollar tire in your 195/65R15 tire size. All of the better tires tend to cost ~$100 each. I just talked Joe into buying a set of these tires, and he really likes them.

As GJ said, don't ever skimp on tires. When it comes to avoiding an accident, they are by far the most important thing on your car. It's so important to pick the best tire you can reasonably afford. You'll find you can usually get a very good tire for just a little bit of a premium over the crap tires, without getting all the way up to the cost of the very best tires.

If you're not sure about tires, ask someone. If not me, call up tirerack and ask them to help. I think they would be very good about helping you find a tire that meets your needs. Keep in mind that when you go to replace the original tires on your new car, that unless you specifically ask for them, you are not getting the exact same original tires that was on your car. The only places I know of that you can order the exact same tire is at the Tirerack or at your Dealership. Just because it is called the same thing and looks identical, what's inside the tire is most likely different. When we design tires for cars, we tune them more for steering, ride comfort, snow/wet handling, and noise. We put very little emphasis on treadlife, other than making sure it's not obnoxiously low. In the aftermarket, the tire companies know that you want long treadlife, and so they give up a little performance (in most cases) to extend those aftermarket tire's treadlife.

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Steve said 1 day later

By the way, Tirerack has always had something saying to double check your tire size, as it's common for cars to have option tire sizes within the same model of car. It might not have been a pop up, but it's always been there. That is one difficulty though when shopping online for something you're not familiar with.

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Kristen said 5 days later

Thanks guys! I decided to try listing my tires on craigslist first. Hopefully that will do the trick. I guess when I checked out the ratings they didn't look too bad. Here's my posting: http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/pts/529576311.html

Geoff said about 9 hours later

Well I could have told you that. We did tests at Wegmans years back. You get even better distance if you place it under your chin and open your mouth.

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GJ said about 10 hours later

You guys DID tell me that--but had no explanation for how it worked. This was a bit more illuminative.

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Geoff said 1 day later

bah..they just had pretty charts and diagrams...you know that scientific mumbo jumbo.

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GJ said 1 day later

Sure...they should have used Flash, right? :)

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Geoff said 1 day later

Of course!