Bolus

Ball of the Day

Submitted by Eric Stadig: Garrett ball bearing turbo

Ball of the Day

From Joe Dunworth: ouch balls

Bonjour de Paris

'Allo, feelthy Americain philistines! Greetings from the Trocadero, were I am sipping absinthe and smoking Gauloises while attending World MimeCon 2008. Lest you think I have gone native I am also wearing my "Jerry Lewis Sucks" t-shirt. Having a good time, wish you were here, yada yada. Off soon to le Rive Gauche to guzzle wine with a couple of Parisian Iowahawk / Bolus readers (go figure). In the meantime, here are a few sights/sounds. A bien tot!

View from l'hotel window (the Tocadero Super 8) 

Along Avenue Raymond Poincare

L'Arc de Triomphe. I am told it was built to commemorate a local tall tale about the French winning a war. Sort of like the Paul Bunyan statue in Brainerd, I guess.

For the lady readers!

Matinee hiphoppery from a local lad.

Ball of the Day

Hat tip to Alan Woody for this shot from Treasure Cove Pinball Restoration:  surface detail of the Addams Family pinball game

Ball of the Day

From Robert Carty: 9 mm ball ammunition

Babes Against Booze

Those sexy ladies of the Women's Christian Temperance Union

hat tip: Robin Rhyne from Robin's Custom Leaders and Flies.

Ball of the Day

From Steve Carlson:  "solder balls"

My Day of Cone Harvesting

 

Yes, SCCA Solo Season finally started here in the Great White North. I headed up to Milwaukee for the Course and lap practice yesterday and had the blast of  the year, so far. The course consisted of a couple hours of lecture, powerpoints and youtube type video. (Many of the drivers races have in car cameras, so there really is some cool POV video out there to check out.) We went over basic tech and safety issues and then had a bar  food lunch that was quite good-tuna salad sandwich and crinkle fries. My how I love Wisconsin.

I sat with a young couple that had a pair of hopped up Civic Sis. They were the EP3 version of said car and I have found that they are pretty hated in the Honda community. I asked the young gentleman and he replied that it is a hated borne out of 2 things, McPherson suspension as well as ride height. His car was pretty tricked out, and he had very little problems creating noise and making some good lap times, however.

At the track, actually The Miller Field parking lot, there was quite a variety of low buck race cars. I was the only Fit there, so I got some odd looks from the Bimmer drivers and the Vette guys. The Honda contingent was pretty supportive and psyched that someone would bring a Fit to break. The coolest car was a Lotus Elise. The rumor was that there is a used one around the are for $35K... Wish I had a pic of that ride.

It was time for me to get my mostly stock Fit on the track as it were. I had to pump up my stock ties to 55psi in the front and 35 psi in the rear. This was to keep the sidewalls from folding. It didn't matter as I folded them anyway. I figure I put a couple of 1000 miles wear on my tires yesterday.

The car is extremely light and toss able. Power is obviously not there, so revving hard to the shift point is imperative. Got to get the car up to "speed" and then roll it through the turns. I was extremely happy with the handling of the wee box at the limit.

My best time was a 32.2 sec. That is a pretty slow time as some of the hot Civics that have similar power were in the 27-28 second range. Of course, they had 1600-1700 lb cars with 800 lb spring rates. The red Civic above was three wheeling in every turn. He had absolutely no suspension travel. He was fast.

Two things that I need to do immediately- buy some new tires and some new wheels! Along those lines, also need an air can and a floor jack... The plan is not to jack the car too much, as that would take me out of H Stock and put me into a class that will be populated with Minis which will kill me.

I am hooked.

Ball of the Day

From Robert Carty: Ernie Ball guitar strings. Skinny top, fat bottom ("Make the rockin' world go round, no?" notes Robert)

1963 Drag Racing @ Indy Footage

Here's some old drag racing footage of the 1963 Nationals at "The Big Go," that i digitized fo' you' ass...

Survived the great road trip to Austin, TX for the Lonestar Roundup and Las Vegas for Viva Las Vegas. Back buried in tech biz work and currently in VA sitting in an "Executive Terminal" of Dulles Airport.  We're going on a government jet to check things out around the state (VA wants us to do business here.)  No security lines in this terminal, just lots of bullshitting, phony laughs, and goofy ties-- it's totally Lifestyles of the Fat and Bloated going on here. Sometimes my work world is so different than my home lifestyle. So, instead of thinking about fluff and politics-- live some 1963 1/4 mile...

-scott noteboom