LeMons San Francisco Day 1: Caterpillar 416F Backhoe Pursuing Volvo 242 In Class C, We Do not Genuinely Care About Something Else

We inspected the automobiles on Saturday, and on Sunday we ran the very first session of the Excellent Effort Grand Prix, the 2015 season opener for the 24 Hours of LeMons. The struggles for the lead in all 3 classes (A, B, and C) had been closely fought all day, and a lot of teams ended the day in contention for a class win. Here’s what happened.

Class C is where the LeMons Supreme Court puts the most velocity- and/or reliability-challenged machinery, and Class C cars are the nearest to our hearts. We put the Aqua Volvo 242 (formerly the I Cannot Think It is Not Much better car) in C but once more, and this time the team managed to maintain their auto pointed in the right path and with practically all its parts nonetheless attached for the entire day. When the checkered flag waved at dusk, the Aqua Volvo held a 6-lap lead in class. That’s not a massive lead for Class C, where issues have a tendency to come about at a deliberate pace and routine pit stops often turn into engine-swap sessions, but Group Aqua Volvo will take it.

The Aqua Volvo is becoming pursued by the vehicle whose team captain believed up their new group name: the -ing With Extra Poor Suggestions Austin Mini, which has spent its LeMons profession chewing through each BMC A engine obtainable in California. For reasons no one understands, the tiny purple automobile has not scattered any English connecting rods on the tarmac but. Considering that the Aqua Volvo and -ing With Additional Bad Ideas group pit with each other and share supplies, their rivalry might lack intensity.

To give you a sense of how close all the Class C teams appear to be with a single yet another, the current engine in the -ing With Extra Poor Concepts was loaned to the group by Spank, LeMons Legend and Certified Madman. Possibly not coincidentally, the BMC A-engine-powered Cat 416F Backhoe Loader driven by Spank (primarily based on the world’s most cruelly violated Mini Moke) finished Saturday’s race session a mere 5 laps behind the Mini. Spank place a 21-gallon fuel cell in his fuel-sipping Caterpillar and drove it for one thing like 6 straight hours… prior to running out of gas and losing his second-in-class spot even though waiting for a tow off the track. We appear forward to seeing how the Class C war sorts out on Monday.

The Class B lead is becoming held by John Galt Racing and their BMW 2002. This team has been attempting for a Class B win for years and has yet to pull off the feat. On Monday, they’ll start off on the identical lap as their closest pursuer.

That pursuer is the ONSET/Tetanus West Chevrolet Cavalier, which spent some group in the Class B lead but then had to devote the final hour or so on Sunday creeping around the track with metal-on-metal brakes. The 2002 and Cavalier are quite evenly matched in the lap-time department, so this battle ought to keep close all day tomorrow.

If both the BMW and the Chevy break down and/or get black-flagged out of contention (which, based on the past experiences of each teams, could take place), the Harold and Maude “Jaguar E-Type” (truly a Datsun 280Z) of Team 5150 sits just 4 laps behind its Class B rivals.

Class A, exactly where the quick (i.e., not-so-intriguing) LeMons cars compete, has a familiar group at the best proper now: Eyesore Racing and their wretched-hunting-but-successful “ghettocharged” Mazda Miata. Eyesore hasn’t taken a Class A LeMons win considering that the 2012 Sears Pointless race, but they’ve come close numerous times and stay a large threat to any would-be overall LeMons winners.

A single lap behind the Eyesore Miata is the Hella Shitty Racing BMW E30 3-series. Hella Shitty Racing, greatest recognized for their anti-sexist grid boys and the worst-sounding Porsche 911 race auto in the universe, have never taken an overall 24 Hours of LeMons win, so we can assume the group will spend the evening prank-calling Eyesore Racing’s motel rooms to ask if they have Prince Albert in a can.

The group that has won the most California LeMons races in the final year has been Porch Racing, now identified as Rely. This race, they ended the very first day a mere 3 laps behind the leader and 2 laps back of the P2 team, so Eyesore Racing and Hella Shitty Racing have much more than just each other to worry about.

How will it all sort out? Come back later and you will locate out!

LeMons San Francisco Day 1: Caterpillar 416F Backhoe Pursuing Volvo 242 In Class C, We Do not Genuinely Care About Something Else

Can an Electric Vehicle Genuinely Replace Central Park’s Horse-Drawn Carriages?

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Horses of Babylon: The final battle in between horse and vehicle is taking place in Central Park.

From the December 2014 issue of Vehicle and Driver

“We are as famous as the gondolas in Venice. That’s how iconic we are in this city.” So says Ian McKeever with his Irish brogue and the hyperbole that apparently affects all the horse-drawn-carriage drivers in New York City’s Central Park. “I’d say that 90 percent of the horses you see here, if they weren’t right here, they’d be dead.”

Issue is, New York’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, wants them gone. And the animal-rights activists who helped elect him final year have already created an option: a 6400-pound electric dreadnought styled to resemble brass-era motor carriages. Named the Horseless eCarriage, it’s intended to maintain all the 160-or-so existing carriage drivers—every a single a card-carrying Teamster—employed, while the 220-or-so geldings and mares presently in the tourist enterprise are retired to glistening glades exactly where they’ll uncover gentle contentment amongst self-actualized unicorns and technicolored rainbows. Or, conversely, if you believe the drivers, shipped to a rendering plant.

Cars won the war against horses far more than 100 years ago, but here’s one lingering battle. It was a all-natural for a comparison test, although it would have to be performed in the middle of site visitors in one particular of the busiest cities on earth. Except that the private Central Park Conservancy that manages the place generally despises all automobiles and doesn’t want the eCarriage in the park, considerably less a car magazine testing one. And the leaders of the pro-horse Historic Horse-Drawn Carriages of Central Park NYC wanted absolutely nothing to do with us, either. Undeterred by the challenges and unwounded by these slights, we did it anyhow.

Exploring the governance of New York City is unpleasant. But to inform this story, we need to. Gotham politics are an intramural blood sport. Practically everybody involved is a Democrat, the rhetoric is over the prime, the newspapers blast lurid headlines, celebrities stir the pot on each sides, and real estate is often lurking at the core of every concern. All New Yorkers have an opinion, though only 24 % of eligible voters turned out for the last mayoral election.

New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Protected Streets (NYCLASS) is the animal-rights group behind the eCarriage. Founded in 2008 by Steve Nislick, a 70-ish parking-garage mogul who lives near Central Park, the group has relentlessly ­portrayed the horse-drawn-carriage owners and drivers as cruel and ­abusive to the animals. It’s also been politically savvy in backing de Blasio. According to the New York Everyday News, Nislick contributed $ 174,000 for the 2013 Democratic main, like money for attack advertisements against putative front-runner Christine Quinn that a lot of think opened the door for de Blasio’s nomi­nation. The mayor owes him and his horse-hugging cohorts.

Thinking about Nislick’s real-estate acumen, the carriage drivers read into the NYCLASS campaign not an effort to save equines, but a cynically veiled attempt to make a deal for the ridiculously valuable land beneath the stables in which their horses are housed. “I’ve by no means been interested in these properties and do not want them now,” Nislick wrote on the NYCLASS site in January, further promising to not bid on any of the 4 stables, all situated in the swiftly gentrifying west-side neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen, need to they come up for sale.

Even though de Blasio has promised to get rid of the horse-drawn carriages, no such legislation has however produced it to the contentious 51-member city council. And the situation appears to be slipping down the mayor’s list of political priorities. NYCLASS, although, had the eCarriage prototype prepared for us to drive.

Continued…

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Can an Electric Vehicle Genuinely Replace Central Park’s Horse-Drawn Carriages?

Why Did Ferrari Chairman Luca Di Montezemolo Genuinely Quit?

A nicely-known celebrity photographer as soon as suggested that there are a handful of individuals in the globe who seem to produce their personal light source—for them, flashbulbs are just not required.

That describes Luca Di Montezemolo, who for 23 years was the chairman of Ferrari. We know that Di Montezemolo resigned yesterday, and we know why. In truth, we know at least 25 motives why. The problem, as it usually is in matters like this, is to identify which of the 25 speculative motives is right.

He desires to go into politics. At 67, he’s merely tired. He does not want to deal with Fiat-Chrysler’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange. He desires to devote much more time with loved ones. He desires to do much more charity operate. He’s going to grab the reins at Italy’s national airline, Alitalia. He’s sad that longtime friend and employee Michael Schumacher remains severely injured following his skiing accident. He desires to go live in a condo in Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi.

And, in a regularly-cited suggestion, he is leaving due to the fact Ferrari’s Formula 1 team hasn’t won a championship because 2008 and, with just 2 podium finishes so far this season, they will not be winning it again this year. Becoming the globe revolves around Formula 1—at least the component of the globe that consists of Maranello, Italy—that seems to be the most well-known theory.

Read Much more: Wonderful 950-hp Ferrari LaFerrari Driven: It is Most Definitely The Ferrari!

The Official Reason seems to be the a single offered in the very first portion of his departure statement: “Ferrari will have an critical function to play within the FCA Group in the upcoming flotation on Wall Street. This will open up a new and various phase which I feel must be spearheaded by the CEO of the Group.” That would be, of course, the sweater-clad Sergio Marchionne, who is, to no one’s surprise, replacing Di Montezemolo as Ferrari chief.

Beyond the official statement, Di Montezemolo was reported by the Milanese newspaper Il Corriere della Sera as saying, “Ferrari is now American,” which represents “the finish of an era.” The New York Stock Exchange is, by all accounts, firmly in America. For a man who has not constantly been politically appropriate, Di Montezemolo has often been outspoken about the carbuilding organization, about the need to have to be more “green” in specific.

But he has also been frank about what he views as problems in Formula 1. About how teams should be allowed 3 automobiles, not just 2. Races are too lengthy, and typically at the incorrect time of day, to make sure a maximum audience. Possibilities for testing are inadequate. In an interview several years ago, when Ferrari was nonetheless reasonably competitive, he mentioned that F1 “can’t equalize factors by dragging every person down.”

Now, Scuderia Ferrari has been dragged down. It seems nearly secondary that Ferrari, the automaker, is absolutely at the top of its game, unleashing a sustained supercar assault more than the past decade that has essential competitors to catch up or catch hell.

Study Much more: 2015 Ferrari California T Very first Drive: Turbo’d Californication

But just final weekend, following yet another mediocre displaying at the Italian Grand Prix, the die seemed cast. Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen struggled to a ninth-location finish. Fernando Alonso didn’t finish at all.

For Marchionne, it seemed to be the starting of a predictable finish, in spite of the reality that Di Montezemolo nonetheless had a 3-year contract that he just signed in March. Clearly contracts don’t imply much at this stratospheric level. “The heart of Ferrari is winning in Formula 1,” Marchionne said, in response to a rather contentious, defensive press conference held to announce the departure of Di Montezemolo. “’I don’t want to see our drivers in 6th and 12th location. To see the Reds in this state, with the best drivers, exceptional facilities, engineers who are genuinely great, to see all that and then to contemplate we have not won given that 2008 . . . the important issue for Ferrari is not just the financial final results, but also it is winning, and we have been struggling for 6 years.”

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Just days following the Italian GP, Di Montezemolo was gone. Your blood have to not be just red, but Ferrari red. Or you have to be the boss. We await Sergio Marchionne’s subsequent move.

Why Did Ferrari Chairman Luca Di Montezemolo Genuinely Quit?

Pothole Fever: Much more Americans Support Higher Gas Taxes With no Understanding What They’re Genuinely Paying For

Half of American drivers want to pay greater federal gas taxes although assuming the government will use all of that further income to repair the country’s neglected roads and bridges.

In a new poll by AAA that interviewed more than 2000 drivers final month, 52 % said they were prepared to spend much more per month for “better roads, bridges, and mass-transit systems.” More than 2-thirds of drivers mentioned the federal government needed to spend much more money on transportation, and 21 % stated they’d have no issue shelling out one more $ 10 or much more each and every month to help. (To illustrate the wide swing in final results, in a Gallup poll last year asking similar concerns on raising state gas taxes, 2-thirds of Americans were against the concept.)

At concern is the Highway Trust Fund, established in 1956 to preserve our then-revolutionary interstate highway method founded by President Eisenhower. The fund is completely paid for by fuel excise taxes that haven’t been raised since 1993. They’re at present set at 18.4 cents per gallon for gasoline and 24.4 cents for diesel, and due to the increasing fuel efficiency of new vehicles, inflation, and ever a lot more miles traveled, the fund is in trouble. By late August, the Division of Transportation estimates that the roughly $ 77 billion balance will drop to zero unless Congress bails it out when a lot more, which is what usually takes place. AAA is lobbying Congress to assistance a gas-tax hike, which is what Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) has been trying to get passed because December. By 2016, Blumenauer desires to set gasoline taxes at 33.3 cents and diesel taxes at 39.3 cents. The bill is sitting in a committee.

But regardless of whether out of naiveté or ignorance to what the Highway Trust Fund actually funds, absolutely everyone hoping for all of a sudden improved roads and freshly painted bridges from a big cash infusion is mistaken. Considering that 1970, the fund has been split in 2 to pay for mass-transit programs and has because been ransacked for unrelated projects that haven’t and will not do something to fix federal highways and bridges. Beyond money for subways, bus depots, and bike lanes, the Highway Trust Fund is a one-stop shop for government billboard PSAs and media buys, all-critical $ 1 million studies on why headlight glare bothers our eyes, and racial-profile instruction for police officers that alone cost $ 7.5 million per year from 2005 to 2009.

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That’s not counting the $ 566.5 million guaranteed to the DOT this year for motorcycle safety campaigns, driver’s ed applications, and the National Driver Register that lets police track your infractions anyplace in the nation. Then there’s bonus cash passed to states for seat-belt and youngster-seat usage, plus far more cash for ferries, fuel-cell-powered buses, public transport on Indian reservations, and so forth. Whilst all these applications almost certainly help in some way, they don’t directly maintain or increase the physical condition of our federal highways and bridges—the really core argument of these in favor of greater gas taxes.

Does the Highway Trust Fund want much more funds? Positive, it does—and frankly, so do we. AAA says larger gas taxes will “prevent extreme upkeep delays” if they’re “spent wisely.” But with hundreds if not thousands of non-highway projects siphoning off the account, that promise is not an innocent assumption, it’s misleading.

Pothole Fever: Much more Americans Support Higher Gas Taxes With no Understanding What They’re Genuinely Paying For