Coffee Brake: Off Topic
It seems that the past few weeks of dedicating Coffee Brake post to an off topic free space where you college kids can share your feelings without any hints of judging or micro-transgressions has worked out well.
Go ahead. Share your feelings.
First snow of the year here in Ottawa Canada last night. It won't stay, but it causes me to change gear from "driving season" to "storage season". And of course now I need to drag the snow tires out of the back of the garage for the daily drivers. Undoubtedly I will discover that one or more have demonstrated slow leaks over the summer. Maybe I should be comforted by the consistency of the experience…
Are there any Hyundai Pony or Stellars left in Ontario?
Wow, there are two names I have not heard in a long time! No, I doubt that there are any of those left. I don't think I have seen one in 15-20 years. But they sure established the beachhead that Korea used to capture a large portion of our market. The Pony was an honest design, Front-engined, RWD. Kind of fun to toss around. Not very well built, and cheap materials, but then that is how Japan started also.
There were a few straggling around Montreal 15 years ago, but surely their winter salt bath has taken its toll. Now the Lada Nivas… they were kinda nifty.
This week represents the return of 'normal' weather, where us battered older types can once again think about driving old cars without a/c and working on something on our black-top driveways without becoming some unrecognizable puddle of goo on said driveway. There is some rewiring which has been waiting for just such a weekend. (That and your beer stays colder longer when its only 70 instead of 105)
For those of you with pacemakers…please be sure to disconnect the battery before working on fuse panels!!
My father had a pacemaker. He also had an arc welder. His cardiologist told him that the dangerous part of the arc welder was when the power switch was first turned on. If he was too near the welder the EMI might affect his pacemaker. So he got a solenoid from an old washing machine and hooked it up to the welder power switch. He could plug in the power cord to the solenoid from 10 feet away, turn on the welder and keep on buildin' stuff. I miss that guy….
Pretty happy for Alfa and their launch of the Giulia – Unbelievable ring time
The 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia puts some practical meat on the bone for American drivers bored of the usual Audi A4/Mercedes C-Class/BMW 3 Series suspects. Even better, the new Italian-made sedan comes packed with some heavy artillery, the top Quadrifoglio model offering 505 horsepower and returning a 3.8-second 0–60 mph run as well as a shockingly quick Nürburgring Nordschleife time of 7:32 – which, for the record, makes it the fastest four-passenger production car around the 12.9-mile circuit. For context, that's six seconds quicker than a Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera, and a full 20 seconds faster than a BMW M4.
Nice looking, and interesting spec sheet. I just hope it doesn't share build-quality with the rest of the FCA products.
I'm disappointed in its styling. Looks too German and not Italian. You could tell where a 75, 164 or 156 was from without seeing the grill. With the new car, without the grill it could be a BM or Audi.