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Showing posts from 2000

Really Give Me Brakes?

Really Give Me Brakes? We love our cars, and we love to take them to the track. The Quattro Club has been especially good at sanctioning driving school events at race venues across the country. We sometimes hear afterwards of horror stories about brakes being destroyed during these events, tales of near-death (at least to those that had them) experiences. Further, the earlier Audi performance models such as the S4 and S6 had what many owners considered to be inadequate brakes, even for the street. In response to this there’s a significant cottage industry catering to Audi owners for brake upgrades. In fact, one of the more common subjects for articles in the Quattro Quarterly has been on that subject. As technical director of BIRA (Brake Improvement Research Association – see Quattro Quarterly Fall 2000), I am consistently asked if BIRA (or other aftermarket) brakes are "adequate for track use". The concern seems to be that tracking a street car would kil

On Grumman Tigers

Following is a letter that I sent to Aviation Consumer in response to their request for information on the Grumman AA5-B Tiger. They used a large portion of it in their December 2000 issue. 25 August 2000 Aviation Consumer via email Hello, Paul. I'm responding to your request in the September issue for owner information on the Grumman AA-5 series. I'm the owner of a 1977 Grumman AA-5B Tiger (details at http://www.gatm.org/flying). I'll tell you right off the bat that I am not objective on the subject, that I find the Grumman line of light aircraft to be one of the best values out there. I learned about the Grummans soon after I got my pilot's license. I was doing some local post-PPSEL check flight air work with the FBO's Cessna 172 and I landed at Bridgeport, CT. As I taxied back for departure I passed by Carney Aviation (http://www.carneyaviation.com), a club that flies Grummans and a couple of Mooney 201s. I saw the Grummans and thought they were attrac