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October 13, 2010
Driving the Chevrolet Volt
Bick66
Jen and I met Rob and Griot’s Garage in Tacoma Washington on Saturday morning as GM kicked off the Volt Unplugged tour–a 3400 mile cross-country road trip providing the American public its first chance to get hands-on with the Volt. Although the production Volt looks almost nothing like the concept, it was immediately clear that pictures do not do this car justice. The closer you get to the Volt, the more you realize that this car has a lot to offer. Follow the jump for more pictures and test drive review of GM’s first Extended-Range Electric Vehicle (EREV).
September 23, 2010
Drift Office On My Birthday
Bick66
Tuesday was my big 3-0, and the guys at Drift Office in Auburn were kind enough to get me in in the morning for a few happy-birthday dyno pulls in my Corvette. As always, Drift Office had a ton of cool projects in the works, including a 350Z that they don’t know what they’re going to do with yet, and the front half of a JDM Lexus they had shipped in from Japan as a parts donor. As for the ‘Vette, it didn’t do all that great, having actually lost a few horsepower as a result the reduced back-pressure provided by my new Flowmasters. It looks like it’s time to call in Corvette expert Vince from Trifecta Performance for a refresh tune to help get the car all sorted out again. I’ll keep you posted.
September 13, 2010
What Did You Do This Weekend?
Bick66
I decided to spend my weekend in the driveway. It started Friday after work when I installed new axle-back exhaust with Flowmaster American Thunder mufflers on the Corvette. On Saturday, the Impala got a new starter and battery–two of the few wear parts not replaced last year. Back to the Corvette on Sunday, I changed the oil then removed all four wheels so I could clean the wheel wells and insides of the wheels. And the new exhaust sounds sweet–not bad for 340 bucks shipped, plus $0 for installation!
How about you? What did you do this weekend?
September 1, 2010
Overheating Problem: Solved!
Bick66
With its oversized radiator and hand-cut air-intake slot, I’m sure that this Honda Civic is now running nice and cool. But at what cost? The obviously psycho aesthetic touches, like the later-model bumper slapped on with external fasteners and the weird hand-painted dinosaur teeth and lightning-bolt detail around the trim, identify this almost certainly as a tweaker car. See more pics after the jump.
August 9, 2010
GM’s Other Hot Rod
Bick66
Plenty of automakers have had a hand in manufacturing non-car-related products, but I had no idea that back in the day General Motors made residential furnaces. This beastly 1954 GM Delco-Heat converted oil furnace came out of a buddy of mine’s house this weekend. Weird!
August 2, 2010
Radar Detectors: Do You Use One?
Bick66
Until recently, the thought of owning a radar detector had never crossed my mind. But shortly after receiving a $358 speeding ticket in my Corvette, a fellow CarDomain member suggested a laser-shifting and radar-detecting system that I later purchased and had installed by the guys at Corvettes of Auburn. Now I don’t condone reckless driving or excessive speeding but I will tell you that Jen and I made ridiculously good time on our trip from Seattle to L.A. last weekend, and being virtually invisible helped to avoid any attention from the local highway patrol or aerial speed enforcement. My Escort Passport–complete with three laser shifters, one large frame-mounted radar detector, central processor and cabin control module–appears to work extremely well both for detecting conventional radar in time to avoid being tagged, and scrambling those laser guns the cops like to point at fast-looking cars. How about you? How do you feel about radar detectors?
July 23, 2010
Summer Road Trip: It’s About Time!
Bick66
Now that summer is in full swing, many of us are hitting the road to enjoy the fantastic array of open highways that North America has to offer. One of the most amazing stretches of road in the world is the system of highways that wind and twist their way along the West Coast of Washington, Oregon and California. Jen and I are packing up the Corvette and leaving tonight for 10 days of Pacific Coast cruising, junkyard tourism, and SoCal beach bumming. How about you? Any road trip plans still ahead at this point in the summer?
July 16, 2010
Was it Cool Then? Is it Cool Now?
Bick66
Thinking back, most of us have a particular car that was the starting point for becoming a gearhead in the first place. For me, there were actually several–but it definitely started with my grandparents’ ’66 Impala convertible that they bought used in the early ’80′s, and that proudly sits in my garage today. My grandfather also had a blue 4-door 396 big-block Caprice with a white vinyl top, and a gold 2-door ’69 Caprice with a 427, not to mention the several full-sized Pontiac wagons that he used for work. I also spent countless road trips up and down the West coast in the back seat of my great aunt’s 1971 4-door Caprice, and later remember my dad busting his knuckles on its small block 400 in the driveway after he bought the car in the late 80′s. With such exposure to late ’60′s and early ’70′s GMs in my childhood, it’s no surprise that today my garage is home to an ’05 Corvette, a ’66 Impala and a ’96 Blazer. My family bought these cars not because they were stylish or particularly desirable at the time–they were just reliable, inexpensive used cars. Like the convertible Impala: Grandma liked it because it was yellow and Grandpa liked it because of the price. It would be like if I were to go buy a reasonably well maintained early ’90′s Cavalier convertible today. It’s only been in the years since they regularly ran those cars that this era of GMs have become sought-after, so I guess you could say that my chosen cars are cooler now than they were when they first got me into the hobby. How about you? What car or cars caught your eye at a young age and how old were you? Were these cars cool then? Are they cool now?
July 15, 2010
This Should Be Interesting: Volt to Come With 8 Year, 100,000 Mile Battery Warranty
Bick66
Chevrolet announced yesterday that the Volt will come standard with an 8 year/100,000 mile battery warranty, giving it the longest battery warranty of any electric vehicle. The Volt’s battery cells, modules and packs have endured more than one million miles and four million hours of testing since 2007 and now GM engineers are willing to stand behind their product with confidence. Read more at chevroletvoltage.com, via Chevrolet Volt’s facebook page.
July 14, 2010
Save the Wave!
Bick66
Waving is a traditionally enjoyed means for many of us automotive enthusiasts to briefly share recognition with other drivers on the road who exhibit similar automotive interests. The Save the Wave site is specifically dedicated to Corvette owners, with a simple mission of preserving the time-honored tradition of waving to other passing Corvettes. Whether riding my motorcycle or driving any one of the enthusiast cars I’ve owned, I’ve always waved to passersby driving similar rides. I’ve even caught myself wanting to wave to a motorcycle or Corvette while driving one of my other cars as if they somehow know what’s in my garage at home. Now obviously, no one make or model owns waving–it’s a topic of conversation across diverse automotive forums, and I found this article reminding Jeep owners to wave at passing Jeeps. How one waves can vary greatly as well. I enjoy the subtle “cool-guy” wave–two to four fingers while keeping my hand on the steering wheel. But sometimes I can’t resist the urge to just toss my hand high in the air and wave wildly from side to side. Read more…
