I’m not one who shows his emotions a whole lot. (The word “never” comes to mind.) However, a story I read yesterday in the Wall Street Journal really struck a chord with me. It was about a man who had to come to grips with the loss of his mother by finally getting rid of her favorite possession: a bright red 1994 Pontiac Bonneville.

What got the gears turning in my head with this story wasn’t the sentimental implications of honoring your mother this weekend or the tough decisions we have to make in life. Those were a given. What got me thinking was how someone who never really cared for the automobile like we enthusiasts do could still be attached to something that has become so important in our everyday lives.

Here we had a woman who saw this two-ton piece of steel and plastic as nothing more than a rolling appliance. However, every time she got behind the wheel of her big Pontiac, she felt this exhilaration and excitement that she had the ability to do what she wanted, and she could go anywhere she wanted.

That’s the underlying message here, and a very important point to understand. With the cost of gas going up, our roadways becoming more and more congested, and the constant bouts with poor/bad/aggressive drivers, it seems we as a society have taken advantage of a great privilege that hundreds of millions of people across the globe cannot enjoy for one reason or another. And then we have someone who respects and enjoys this freedom that we have in owning and operating a vehicle. And she’s not even an car person!

Now, this isn’t me getting on my soapbox ranting to the world. I just feel it is important to see and read the story for this reason, in addition to the timeliness of the holiday. Just keep it in mind as you spend time with your mother on her day of celebration.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there.

Wall Street Journal Article

Back when I first started AutomoBlog in May of last year, I wrote a post about the elderly and what restrictions should be placed on them regarding driving. Clearly this is an issue on the roads, and people had many opinions to share regarding the issue. I would like to revisit the post, and hear some more opinions regarding the matter.

In the time since that post was written, I’ve personally experienced more bad situations regarding the issue, and I’m sure many of my readers have as well.

Should elderly drivers be banned from driving? Many seem to think so. Motorinsurance.co.uk, an online insurance broker reported that 49% of drivers want elderly drivers banned. Paul Cosh is the managing director of MotorInsurance, and had a few comments on which I would like to comment:

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Okay, so it just started snowing a few days ago, and I’ve already witnessed my share of people driving like idiots on the snow and ice, then seeing them a few miles down the road in the ditch. I must admit, it makes me smile when I see stupid people learn a lesson, but it seems like it takes at least a month after it starts snowing for some people to comprehend the fact that it is indeed snowing, and snow is slippery. More specifically, it’s these guys in their 4×4 Chevy Avalanches, Dodge Rams, and other various big trucks and SUVs thinking they’re invincible because they have a “4×4″ sticker on the back, or simply because it’s a big vehicle.

What these geniuses don’t understand, is that even if you have more traction than the Honda Civic next to you, you are in a much larger vehicle. The larger a vehicle is, the more momentum it has, and the faster you go, the momentum increases exponentially. That means that it’s much harder to stop in a given distance, and on snow and ice, that’s a bad thing. Hopefully, this will help you understand:

Momentum = Mass × Velocity

Velocity is how fast you’re going (specified by a direction, for those of you who were going to tear me apart for definition.) The bigger and heavier your car is, the more mass it has. This means that if you and a compact car are next to each other going 80 mph on snow and ice, the smaller car will be able to stop before you, because it has much less momentum.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that drivers of large vehicles aren’t the only culprits here; there are a lot of other ignorant people who drive the same way in smaller cars, and they need to take a look at the equation above too. The difference is, they’re just being stupid. I’m trying to point out the fact that drivers of large vehicles are under the wrong impression that they can drive faster over ice and snow because of the size and (wrongly) perceived safety of their vehicles.

Will this article dissuade anybody from driving like an idiot in slippery conditions? Probably not. But if one person reads this and slows down a little bit next time he’s driving his Escalade 80 mph over ice, I’ve done my part.

It seems some German environmentalists want to pass a 120 km per hour (75 mph) speed limit on the Autobahn. They say that such a speed limit will reduce the global warming contributing greenhouse gases by up to 30%. Germany’s transport minister Wolfgang Tiefensee rejected the proposal, saying “I am committed to a reduction in emissions but a general speed limit on open stretches of road does not make sense.” I couldn’t agree more. The ACE motorists association said “With its demands for a speed limit, the Environment Agency is just attempting to reheat a discussion which came to an end ages ago.” The car lobby argued that that roads free of limits encourage German manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Porsche, Volkswagen and Opel to make safer cars, securing jobs.

The Autobahn has always been something of pride and tradition to the Germans, and I don’t think this will ever be passed, but the idea still irritates me. Fact of the matter is, there is no way to please hippies environmentalists. Congested traffic moving at a slow speed is much worse for the environment and gives off more emissions than a few cars moving at 120 mph. How do we fix that? We can either increase speed limits, or build more roads; either of which we will hear complaining. Stop wasting your time on this and focus on building more fuel efficient vehicles.

Every time the gas prices start rising it seems there’s a lot of talk regarding alternative fuels. Most prevalent being hybrid cars and at times, 100% electric cars like the Tesla Roadster. I’ve covered a few of these, as they were performance related, but it’s apparently easy to forget diesel fuel, which has always provided great performance with a good fuel economy.

Diesel engines like the Ford Powerstroke, Dodge Cummins, and Chevy Duramax can easily have 700 or 800 HP and almost 2000 ft lbs of torque while getting 25 + mpg. While they’re not my “cup of tea,” they are a great option for some, and with many sites offering Diesel Performance parts, you can still achieve very high performance.

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Well, at least now it’s official. There will NEVER be another GM in my driveway. Bob Lutz (GM Vice Chairman) thinks that the US government should step in and force Americans into smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles. He says: “I’d say the best thing the (U.S.) government can do is to raise the gas tax by 10 or 15 cents a year until it reaches European levels.”

He says “In Europe people buy $30,000 Golfs.” “People are willing to pay lots of money for extremely well equipped, fuel-efficient cars.” That’s why manufacturers make them, so they are available. Don’t force us to buy them as a result of not being able to afford anything else.

Yeah, let’s make people’s lives even more financially difficult so they will HAVE to do what we want them to. Yup, that’s the American way. What a f*cking Asshole.