Greg's Horrible Waste of Internet Bandwidth

The Nürburgring Trip, 2011 As related on Go Ahead, Take the Wheel   Did reading Nürburgring just make you shiver? Yep, me too! I spent several days at this racetrack and thought you might find my musings interesting, maybe interesting enough so you make that jump, too (while you still can; more later). And you want to, trust me. If you’ve ever thought or even just fantasized about driving the Nürburgring,this story is for you. I went to the Nürburgring with a group of racer friends, some were there before, one actually races there in the VLN series. Going with a group improves the social aspect which can make a big difference. Had I gone there solo, I would not have had nearly as much fun. Yeah, I would have come home knowing I had driven the Nürburgring, but who would I brag to each time I got off the track? Having friends there so we could swap lies was pretty cool…plus you get to give each other rides increasing your track time for the same money. So, don’t forg...

The Nürburgring Trip: A Visit with Sabine Schmitz As related on Go Ahead, Take the Wheel     (Part 1 is  here ) Saturday was VLN testing day, and we were guests of Sabine Schmits  Team Frikadelli . The drivers I was traveling with were all members of a Koni Challenge team that competed in 2008 and Sabine was a guest driver on a few of those events that year. she had invited us all to join her some time so we did! Sabine and Mark White Not that it really mattered but this test day was open to the public, and anyone could walk right in without challenge. In fact, anyone could walk right into the pit lane , and many did! As cars were buzzing in and out of pit lane, spectators were fawning over the cars, taking photos, walking in front of cars; while the pit lane seemed like anarchy, surprisingly no one was injured (that I could see). It just appeared that most spectators kept their heads on a swivel and watched for cars driving by. Of course, every time a car st...

The Nürburgring Trip: The Racecar Experience   As related on Go Ahead, Take the Wheel (Part 1 is  here ) We woke up Thursday to an even more beautiful day than Wednesday (quite welcoming, given the winter we had in the Northeast): clear blue skies and lukewarm. The track didn’t open to us until 10:30AM, so we had a somewhat-relaxing breakfast buffet (“somewhat” given the anticipation of the day) and talked about what we were going to do. I had originally planned to drive the BMW Z4 rental on the track which is why I spent the extra money on it versus something more economical. However, the more we talked about it, the more I convinced myself that it was better to rent from one of the many companies around the area that offered prepped cars for lapping. Obviously, it would cost more but the advantages were multi-fold: first, the cars would have tires and brakes that were up to the task of “spirited” driving on the ‘Ring; second, I would not have to worry abou...

In January 2009, Exxon-Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson gave a speech that, among other things, supported the idea of a carbon tax .  Has Rex suddenly "gotten religion" on this whole Anthropomorphic Global Warming? Hardly. Rex is a businessman, and he sees the train's headlights coming at him through the tunnel; he's just figured out that this is the lesser of the inevitable evils. President Obama, at a town hall meeting , said that "...[gas prices are] going to still fluctuate until we can start making these broader changes [toward renewable energy], and that's going to take a couple of years to have serious effect...If you're complaining about the price of gas and you're only getting 8 miles a gallon, you know, you might want to think about a trade-in." I also remember a Thomas Friedman op-ed piece some time in late ‘08, where good ole Tom was promoting the idea of a gasoline tax, something to keep the price of fuel at or above a specific price...