Chrysler and its sub-brands (Dodge and Jeep) are offering $2.99/gallon gas for three years when you buy a new car. According to CBS News, that’s not such a great deal, when you consider the total costs involved. There’s a shocker. Skipping for a minute the costs of buying new cars, much of Chrysler’s product line gets somewhere between pretty mediocre and distinctly terrible fuel economy. What do you do after the 3-year guarantee runs out? Like so much in the auto sales industry, this is little more than a marketing gimmick.

Technorati : 2.99 gas, chrysler, dodge, fuel economy, gas guarantee, gas incentive, jeep

At the last SCDA track day on May 27 at NHMS, I instructed a student in an Audi R8. My student had 15-20 auto-cross days under his belt, but it was his first time out on a larger track.

The R8’s specs are pretty impressive. It produces 420 bhp from its 4.1 liter V8, does 0-60 in 4.6 seconds, and will top out at 185 MPH. It is a heavier car, with curb weights estimated at between 3400 - 3600 lbs. The interior is typicaly Audi quality - elegant and refined without being excessive or gaudy.

I was overall very impressed with the R8, even from the passenger’s seat. The car exudes an air of confidence and assurance, both when parked in the paddocks and when rocketing full steam out of the Bowl at NHMS and past the treehouse. It would do what was asked of it smoothly and without fuss.

The best feature of the R8 is its sheer utility. It is a perfectly fine daily driver, as well as a formidable track beast, and can migrate back and forth without pause. It is the perfect car for driving a track event by day, and taking my supermodel date to the Capital Grille by night, a dual feat few cars are truly capable of performing.

No, that headline is not a typo. A Lithuanian man has indeed built a car out of polyurethane foam. Well, to be precise, he built a metal skeleton, then sprayed it with foam, and then sculpted the car out of that. The whole process is pretty impressive, as is the finished product, for what it is.

Still left unanswered is the question of why one would want to sculpt a car out of foam and, most importantly, where he found 30 INCH RIMS!? Those probably weigh as much as my engine, each.

Apparently, this driver was in such haste to leave after being pulled over that he accidentally drove right onto the cruiser that pulled him over. That means he 1) put it in reverse by mistake and 2) punched it so hard that he mounted another car. The fates were not with him that day.

As reported by the BBC, the Polish town of Lodz had been having a lot of trouble with illegal street racing. From the sound of it, the roads became a virtual Fast and the Furious whenever the sun went down. So how did the Police deal with the problem? They closed down a section of the city once a month and sanction legal drag races.

And the best part? Everyone wins in the situation. The racers win because now they can do street races easily and without fear of arrest, and the public wins as now it’s done in a more controlled environment.

Remember when I said that racing brake pads are terrible for driving on the street? Well, I lied. Most race pads are terrible for driving on the street, but Carbotech has proven that they don’t all have to be!

I bought some Carbotech race pads last fall to replace the Hawk Blues that I had eaten through. I ending up getting XP8s for the front, and AX6 for the rear, at the recommendation of the rep whom I spoke with at Carbotech. He said that both would have sufficient heat capacity for a stock-power-level Miata, but that the XP8 would last longer. He recommended the AX6 in the rear to bias the brakes forward - improving trailbraking ability.

His assessment seems to be pretty spot-on. The front and rear pads are wearing evenly, despite the fact the front does most of the braking. When I ran Hawk Blues at all 4 corners, the fronts wore much faster than the rear, probably almost twice as fast. I think that next time, I’m going to try XP8 in all 4 corners though. I tend to trailbrake conservatively anyways because I don’t like to spin, and I’d rather give up a little trailbraking flexibility for the longer life of the XP8 in the rear. Read the rest of this entry »

First of all, yes, there is a different technique for driving on the street with racing brake pads. General braking technique doesn’t change, for the most part. But, there are a few things that you should do, and a few things you should not to, to help keep your racing brake pads happy.

Why Does it Matter? - Different Operating Temperatures for Racing Brake Pads
The whole reason why there is an issue with driving on the street with racing brake pads is because race pads are designed to operate in a much hotter temperature range than normal street tires. In regular street driving (e.g., when your mother drives to the store), braking is mild and spaced far apart. That means that there is very little heat generated each time she stops, and enough time in between stops that the brakes can cool down sufficiently. Thus, street pads are designed to operate in a much cooler temperature range, since the pads are never heated up on the street.

Now think of what your braking looks like on the track: 1) full acceleration until the last possible second, 2) full braking, 3) full acceleration until the last possible second, 4) full braking. Repeat for 20 minutes. Needless to say, braking so hard so often generates a LOT of heat - so much, in fact, that if you use street pads, you will overheat them and then you’ll have no brakes. That would be bad. So, instead you want to use a compound designed to work in a much hotter temperature range, something like Hawk Blues or Carbotech XP8 or AX6 pads. Read the rest of this entry »

This series was written by guest writer Ricky Nietubicz on his experience on the Formula SAE team at the University of Delaware. FSAE is a competition where students design, build, and compete with small formula-style racing cars. Ricky was President of his FSAE club, and his team went to the Nationals in Detroit during the 2006-2007 season.

Easy access is always nice, so here are the links to all my articles on my FSAE experience:

Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 1: The Beginning
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 2: Recruiting
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 3: Team Organization
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 4: Funding
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 5: Designing the Car
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 6: Engine Selection
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 6: Engine Selection
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 7: Record Keeping
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 8: Starting the Build
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 9: Some Build Hiccups
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 10: Rules and Tech
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 11: Testing, Tuning, and Modifying
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 12: Driver Training
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 13: The Competition
Experiences on a Formula SAE Team, Part 14: Old Cars