Car Movies – an addendum

The Internet has provided some interesting car videos that are worth a mention.  A few years ago there was a short film by Claude Lelouch C’était un rendez-vous – 1976, which consists of squealing tires and the sweet song of an engine as your view is that from the headlights as the car transverses Paris CBD in eight minutes. 

In the past couple of years the Internet has brought Getaway in Stockholm.  There are at least six versions of this thrill ride.  Unsanctioned, these videos started with a Porsche baiting some Stockholm cops driving a Volvo and getting the chase started.  The next year it was two cars dicing through the city at dawn.  The third year they had a Helicopter doing chase video.

A lot of folks have read through my list of top car movies and not many comments.  I cannot believe that people don’t have strong opinions here.  Comments won’t hurt my feelings. 

I am surprised that no one mentioned Two Lane Blacktop.  This is a definite classic filmed in an Easy Rider seventies style that worked very well.  No names of characters other than, the Mechanic (Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys), the Driver (James Taylor), the Girl (Laurie Bird), and GTO (the legendary Warren Oats). 

Driving in China

Driving in other countries can be quite an exposure to culture.  I find it can provide quite a bit of insight.  A while ago I had an opportunity to see how it was to drive in and around Beijing, China.  Actually I didn’t do any of the driving.  I cannot read enough Chinese to understand the road signs nor did I have much of an idea how to get anywhere.  So I had the opportunity to observe the drivers and how they conducted themselves.

It was hard to believe that just five years earlier cars and drivers were a rarity in China.  Early in 2000 I was flying back from a business event in Florida and met several Chinese colleagues that were part of a business partnership my company had established with China.  They were coming to the United States to learn the logistics process.  After some conversations I shared my business card with them and also provided my home number in case they needed some help during their nine day visit.

I didn’t see them all that week.  I knew their time over here was coming to a close and wondering if they would contact me at all.  Then on the last day of their last weekend I received a phone call from them while I was working in my garage.  They wanted to know about any outlet malls in the area.  I mentioned a couple close by and they said that they had already shopped them.  So I suggested one large outlet plaza about 45 minutes away.  There was a long pause which I interpreted to mean that they were no sure of how to get there.  So I offered to meet them at their hotel and let them follow me in their rental.  They thanked me and I headed over to meet them.

When I arrived at the hotel I found four of them waiting in the lobby.  It quickly became clear that none of them had a car because none of them could drive.  So I offered to take them in my car.  It was a tight fit but they loved having a ride in a red sports car and later had their photos taken next to it.

Just a few short years later and cars were common in China and so were drivers.

There were long lines to get through customs which was indicative that China has become a primary business destination.  I had a multiple entry visa which meant there was no problem clearing customs, so off I went to find a taxi.  It took an hour and a half to get to the hotel which was located between the fifth and sixth traffic rings that radiated around Beijing proper.

The driving habits were disconcerting for someone like me that is a performance driving enthusiast.  Every vehicle was a manual shift and the drivers rarely exceeded two thousand rpm.  Lane discipline was practically non-existent.  While they recognized the lanes they interpreted their use liberally.  Bicycle and pedestrian lanes were fair game if it presented an opportunity to pass slower traffic.  Horns were used often.  Not to accuse or reprimand, but to inform the other driver of your proximity.  If this behavior had been attempted back home it would have resulted in a violent reaction, but here it was an accepted necessity.  On the local streets where a right or left turn had to take place it was done without the abruptness you would see in Boston traffic, but there would be a wordless negotiation for the right of way between pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicular traffic.  There was the persistent use of the horn to inform others of your presence and intentions.  I only saw a couple of accidents in the ten days I was over there. 

The taxi ride from the airport varied from 150 to 100 Yuan.  That was the equivalent of $13-20.  There were gypsy taxi drivers that would take advantage of first-time foreigners and charge 400 to 600 Yuan.  You would use a piece of paper with the name and address of the hotel, for example, to let the drive know where you needed to go. 

The first week in Beijing the weather was hot and humid.  Temperatures of one hundred degrees persisted and air conditioning was appreciated.  Some taxis had air conditioning and some did not. There were legitimate taxis with meters and gypsy taxis that did not.  Many of the legitimate taxis were being replaced with new models in anticipation of the 2008 Olympics.  The taxi drivers were issued phrase bookletsso they could practice their English.

On my last day in China, four of us went to the Silk Market in the morning and loaded up on some electronics bargains.  Then we took a taxi back to the hotel where I picked up my bags and took another taxi to the airport.  I spent the ride looking over the city and surroundings.  There were the vast quantities of advertising signs that I could not read, the construction cranes, some of the thirty million people of Beijing.  They were walking, riding bikes, motorcycles, cars, trucks, vans.  They were taking their country into the twenty-first century with them.

It was fascinating to get intimate with this very interesting country that is full of ccontrasts.  It has a Communist political system that embraced capitalism with a vengeance.  There were automobiles and motor vehicles everywhere, but there were also horses and donkeys as you drove to the outer rings.  Cell phones were everywhere as well.  You could count on having five bars of signal strength, even while walking on the great wall.  I watched television (when I woke up at two in the morning – my inner clock still confused) and scanned the Chinese channels where it didn’t matter that I couldn’t understand the language, most of the shows were easy to follow as they had much the same formats we are used to.  The only thing lacking was reality shows (thank goodness). 

They are enthusiastic about joining the world of capitalism and taking up the business language of English.  I used room service one night and the young man who brought up my food was interested not only to find out where I was from, but to use his English as much as possible.

China is a very interesting country.  It is a country that we should respect, but not fear.  We have been preaching the benefits of capitalism for decades, if not centuries, and now that China (and other countries) has adopted the capitalist culture we should honk our horns, not to accuse or reprimand, but to inform.

 

A Balanced Approach – on to the brakes

As I mentioned earlier it is great to go fast, but such a relief to be able to stop or slow down when you really need to.

Hydraulic brakes have made some big improvements over the years.  The transition from drum brakes to disc brakes have made huge improvement.  No more soaked drums full of rain water.  It will be a long time before I miss the joys of doing a drum brake job with all the springs and cables to deal with.  They were famous for having leaking wheel cylinders that would coat the brake shoes with fluid while staying hidden behind the drums.  Adjusting drum brakes was more of an art than a science.

ABS is one of those advances in automotive technology that few really appreciate.  Most folks see ABS as that computer controlled miracle that allows them to slam on the brakes in a panic and allow the system to modulate the pressure so they can come to a controlled stop.  Well, sort of.  What ABS really facilitates is your ability to still maneuver while bringing your car to a halt.  Prior to ABS there were the techniques of pumping your brakes and threshold braking as your options. 

Your braking system relies on the fluid not being compress-able and its ability to deal with the heat generated at the rotors.  The fluid is also hygroscopic which means that it will pull moisture right out of the air.  So over time water will accumulate and this will drive down the boiling point of the fluid (bad) as well as corrode the brake components from the inside (also bad).  That is why we should change and flush our brake fluid at least once a year.

Every car has a different method of bleeding the brakes, but most of the time you start with the farthest corner (right rear) and work your way inward.  Acura starts at the left front and works clockwise, while Mitsubishi starts with the right rear, then the left front, left rear, and right front.  Some cars do this with the engine on while others do not.  Check the manual before you bleed the brakes on your car.

There are some great systems for bleeding brakes out there from pressure bleeders that provide fluid under pressure from the master cylinder reservoir to vacuum bleeders that pull from the bleeders.  When I was a the practice for the Indy 500 and watched the mechanics set up the race car they did it the old fashioned way of using the brake pedal and opening each of the caliper’s bleed screws in turn.  If you want you can pick up a set of speed bleeders (http://www.speedbleeder.com/) for your car and get some clear hose from an aquarium shop and save a small plastic milk carton.  That way you can go from wheel to wheel and not leave a mess on your garage floor.  Stop Tech has a general brake bleeding white paper that goes into detail (http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_howto_bleedbrakes.shtml).

When you feel its time to replace or upgrade your brake system with some new pads and rotors you will need to bed in the new pads.  Stop Tech has some excellent tutorials on bedding in pads (http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_bedincontents.shtml).  What this does is get the pads “friendly” with the rotors.  It is a gentle way of getting the two different surfaces working together without glazing either the pads or the rotors.

Speaking of pads and rotors, there are a lot of choices open to you that will either enhance the capabilities of your car’s braking system – or not. 

There are a lot of rotor choices out there.  For the street you can get rotors that are higher quality castings than the stock and offer you the “bling” of drilled holes and slots.  The drilled rotors are patterned after rotors that are used in racing and on some high end sports cars.  When used under racing conditions they have been known to crack at the holes, but on the street they can offer additional cooling as well as the good looks.  Slotted rotors clean off the glazing that can build up on pads as well as allow gasses from heated pads an escape path.

Many companies offer brake upgrades that offer larger diameter rotors and far more sophisticated calipers.  Baer, Brembo, Wilwood, Stop Tech, Stainless Steel Brakes, to name a few.  Many of these kind of upgrades will require larger wheels for clearance.  Larger rotors mean more mass to deal with the heat generated from braking, along with a larger lever arm as the caliper is moved out farther from the center of the rotor.  The aftermarket calipers are usually designed with more pistons and ones that apply pressure on both sides of the rotor.  Stock calipers, for cost reasons, are usually a single piston design that must slide in a frame so that the clamping action is maintained from both sides of the rotors.  High end sports cars such as Porsche, Corvette, Evolution, WRX, come with multiple piston calipers.  These will have bleed screws on the inside and outside of each caliper. 

Wheel diameter is not the only consideration with these kinds of upgarades.  You also want to ensure that replacement pads are not difficult to get and are offered in compound choices that will fit your drving needs be they street or track.

Some companies, like Performance Friction, makes full floating brake rotors available for some makes of cars.  These rotors allow the area clamped by the calipers to float independent of the rotor’s hat.  This is especially effective on the road racing track.

We can write about brakes for a lot longer, but I’m sure you’d like to learn about some other aspects, like the suspension.  More later.

A Balanced Approach

Several folks have asked me what modifications I have done to my cars and why.

It has been an iterative process. As I learned more about cars I integrated my performance goals with an approach that fit my budget and available resources. If I could give any advice It would be to have fun, do your research, and take your best shot.  

My approach to modifying a car is one where I strive to keep all parts of this complex system in balance.  Now there is a concept for you to ponder.  Think of the car as a system of many components that, to get the most out of any of them, must work in harmony with each other.  Sounds kind of Zen like doesn’t it?  But think about it.  Before your car hit the dealer’s lot millions of dollars were invested to get it to that level of performance, comfort, handling, etc.  It starts out with everything working together in relative harmony.  Why?  Because that is what must be done in order to produce a car that works as reliable transportation that can also be manufactured as cheaply as the car company can (they have got to make a profit, after all).  In particular, with the warranties that exist today, the car companies will make sure that, as a system, you car is as balanced as it can be.   

If you were to concentrate on only one aspect of the car, say getting power out of the engine, you would be asking all the other components to do much more than they were designed for.  That means everything.  The brakes, the engine mounts, the transmission, the wheels, the tires, everything; even the driver

Do I always hit perfection in terms of balance?  I’d certainly like to think so, but reality is that I just get as close as I can.  It can even be argued that the handling bias of a typical factory automobile is toward understeer and therefore is not balanced in the first place.  The point is that you will find the results of your modifications much more rewarding and free of unwanted problems if you always keep in mind the need to coordinate changes in one area of the system with the system as a whole.

With all that stated I will go over the modifications that I’m familiar with, and how I’ve tried to maximize a vehicle’s potential without throwing the whole thing out of balance.

People love to start with the engine and why not.  Who wouldn’t like to be pressed into the seat with acceleration?  The only problem will be that at some point you will need to slow down or stop. 

I’ve found that the best place to start is with the tires.  The tires affect everything.  It is where the car contacts the road.  In fact many race cars are designed around the tires.  You can make a substantial difference in how your car responds by upgrading the tires in terms of size and design. I my earlier posts I have gone over the impossible “ideal” tire that would have maximum performance in all conditions.  In real life we have to make decisions based on the kind of handling we would like to achieve in the context of the road conditions we expect to encounter. 

Tire Rack (www.tirerack.com) has an excellent site that you can use to help you with your decision.  Then you can always explore other sources for your tires, if you choose.  What Tire Rack (and other like companies) may not be so helpful with is what larger tire sizes you can entertain.  Today this takes a lot of research of the forums that exist for your specific car.  These forums can help you with the how much space is available within the stock wheel wells and the amount of offset that fits the best.  Certain tire sizes offer you many more options in terms of performance choices than other sizes. 

As you look for the “right” tire you also will need to find the “right” wheel.  The rim width affects the set of the the tire and should be optimized for the particular size you wish to go with.  The wheel also needs to have the offset that allows you to upgrade the size while allowing you to stay within the confines of the wheel wells, whether you are making a hard turn or have a lot of body roll.

You also need to keep in mind that the lighter the wheel, the more you will achieve in terms of handling.  The wheels are part of the “unsprung” weight that you want to minimize.  You will also want to keep in mind that you will want to clean your wheels from time to time as well.  Some of the basket weave wheel designs look fantastic until you are squatting in front of them with a wash mitt and bucket and have to clean all the detailed parts to get out the brake dust. You can always pick a color wheel that camouflages the brake dust, but some day you will still have to clean that wheel.

Keep your wheel as light as possible, the correct width and diameter for the tire choice, and the right diameter to fit the brakes you are going to be using.  Currently large diameter wheels are very much in fashion, but going large also means going heavy.  Heavy is bad.

If your fenders are metal you can often accommodate larger tires by “rolling” the fenders.  There are some pretty fancy tools for doing this.  They bend over the lip on the inside of most fenders as well as form the edge of the fender so that it flairs out some.  Often you will need to warm the paint as you roll the fender to keep from cracking the paint.  This can be done by using a heat gun sometimes even a good hair blower.  If you don’t have access to a fender roller you can use a wooden baseball bat too.  Just place it between the tire and fender (heating the paint) and roll it under the arc of the fender.

With the tires and wheels sorted out you really should work on the brakes.  This can be done in steps.  Starting with better rotors and pads as well as swapping out the stock flexible brake lines for braided stainless steel hoses.  Of course you should upgrade the brake fluid itself.  It should be changed each year in any case, but there is a vast difference between the capabilities of brake fluid.  Standard off the shelf fluid may have a dry boiling point in the 300 degree range where a high performance fluid will be over 500 degrees.  Unless technology changes drastically I would not recommend synthetic brake fluids.  To do so will require getting rid of any residual fluid so it usually means replacing all the components and brake lines.

There are many brake pads to choose from and the technology and compounds change frequently.  The semi-metalics are temperature sensitive, are noisy, and tend to dust a lot.  My current favorite for the street is Porterfield R4-S (http://www.porterfield-brakes.com/) and Performance Friction (http://www.performancefriction.com/) for the track. 

Bedding the pads in post install is as important as the components you choose.  It is also important to bleed the brakes correctly and then again after the pads have been bedded in.

I’ll write more on the subject of a balanced approach.  You’ve done well if you’ve read through all this.

Let’s have a … Fiesta!

Back in 1977 Ford tried their hand at a world car.  They were aiming squarely at the market that Volkswagon’s Rabbit and in a lot of ways they had developed a winner. 

In the early seventies the American automobile industry tried to adapt quickly to the need for smaller, more fuel efficient cars and failed miserably.  Their engineers just were not experienced in working on that scale.  They created the Vega with its aluminum block and cast iron head.  It was a disaster.  The rear end belonged on a truck.  Some car companies tried to convert their gasoline burning car engines into diesel.  They worked for a while, but it became clear that the blocks were not up to the demands of burning diesel fuel.

In the late seventies Ford leveraged European resources to produce quite a fuel efficient car that was not just a scaled down American sedan.  It was a two door hatch back that looked similar to the VW Rabbit, but had many important differences.  It was truly a world car.  The engine was from England, the transmission from France, the interior from Sweden, the body was made in Germany, and so on.  It was a light weight too, less than 2000 pounds. 

In 1978 I pick up a copy, the Sport edition.  It came with 12″ diameter wheels and some racy seat upholstery and a strip along the side that ended in an “S” at the rear.

The doors were a bit tinny sounding when they closed but the engine was a real winner.  It was the Kent straight four cylinder engine with a cross flow head.  It was the same basic block that Lotus used in their famous cars.  It had a strong bottom end that could support a lot more power than it came with.

I had fun buzzing around eastern Connecticut, where I lived and worked at the time, in the Fiesta.  Its twelve inch tires working very hard to keep me out of the rough.  While it was a great deal of fun I knew that I would not be leaving this car alone.

The first stop was the suspension.  I not only added larger anti-roll bars to the front and the rear I came across some lowering springs that dropped the ride height by two full inches.  Between those two modifications this little rocket was cornering like a snake.  It was time for some better rubber.  That was a tough one.  The stock Fiesta wheel did not give you many options and remember, there was no Internet to do your research on.  Finally I found an outfit called BAT.

This was an American company founded by an Englishman, Peter Thompson, who started in Formula Ford.  His company grew out of his ability to find and import many cool parts that were only available in England to the United States.  Since Formula Ford used the Kent engine that came transverse mounted in the Fiesta it was natural that Peter started focusing on that car, too. 

BAT, Inc. offered many unique parts among them, alloy rims that allowed me to go up two tire sizes.  He also had some parts that were special to Europe, such as tail ights with amber turn signals.  I picked up a set and accomplished the required rewiring and re-socketing.  Then I also picked up the English grill.  In the US Ford used a grill with FORD in block letters, while Europe had the traditional blue oval in the middle.  Of course I had to have that.

The car was a screamer, but primarily because of its low weight.  The engine had a lot of potential that had not been called upon.  I had to do something about that.  But first I took out the stock front seats and installed a set of Corbeau seats that provided far more lateral support. 

It was about that time that I was transferred to Massachusetts.  I was working just outside of Boston, which was great because now I was close to Marblehead, the racing center of Massachusetts.  Marblehead was the place to go if you were a sailing fanatic or a race car fanatic.   That made it the perfect town for me.  Years ago I had gone there to get machine work done on the VW engines I would build and had gotten to know many of the race shops around there.

There was a shop that specialized in their version of the Lotus Seven and it used, you guessed it, the Kent four cylinder engine.  Naturally I stopped by and worked out with them to re-build my engine and have it ballanced, blue printed, and have the head flowed.  But there was one more thing I asked them to do.

BAT had offered an option that was only available at English dealerships as a dealer installed option.  It was a turbo charger kit.  Factory turbo cars were rare at that time.  It was something that you would hear about only on something exotic like a Porsche.  To think that I could have a turbo on my Fiesta was exciting.

so I talked with the guys who were rebuilding my engine and made sure that the rebild would be a low compression engine so that I could really take advantage of the boost.  It took them a couple of months, but then I got the call that my engine was done and my car was  ready to be picked up. 

I still had not installed the turbo.  That I was planning to do myself later and then I found out that I was being transferred to North Carolina.

I packed everything I owned and headed south.  The good news was that the Fiesta Owners Club of America was situated in Raleigh.  So I got in touch with the president of the club and he and I scheduled time to install the turbo kit.

For the time it was pretty sophisticated.  It had a blow through turbo so I could keep the stock carburetor and just re-jet it.  I also purchased an oil cooler since I knew that the turbo would be demanding good oil as cool as it could be gotten.  The kit added several sensors to the car and had a small computer to keep track of timing and fuel.  I controlled boost levels with the waste gate and if the computer sensed over boost, low oil pressure, over heating, etc. it would prevent me from grenading the engine.

We had fun putting the kit on the car and were excited to get it going.  The first time I tried to get on the boost the car would die.  it turned out to be a simple fix.  When pressure goes up so does electrical resistance.  I had to gap the plugs a lot closer so that as boost came up the spark would still travel the gap.  Then look out!

This car was a rocket!  I could hardly get out of first gear to snatch second.  I was so glad that I had the engine rebuilt with revs in mind or I would have thrown a rod for sure.  This one modification made a fun car and absolute screamer. 

I held on to it until the summer of 1984.  With all the fun I had it had one weak spot.  Its brakes were designed for 12″ wheels and they were woefully inadequate for the kind of power I had in it now.  The turbo technology was also not as advanced as it is today.  It should have had an inter-cooler and it should have had a bypass valve to take the pressurized air and recirculate it when you closed the throttle.  I went through my first turbo in less than two years.

I sold it to a friend back in Massachusetts.  He was happy to get it and I was happy to move on, but I had a lot of fun with that little rocket.

Bill Putman’s Garage

Cape Cod has some interesting places for those of us infatuated with the automobile.  Heritage Plantation in Sandwich is a great spot for some fantastic antique cars such as the Duesemburg and the Cord.  All of them are displayed in a round shaker barn designed and built for the purpose. 

But there is another garage museum that should not be missed.  It is on the border of Hyannis and Hyannisport at a place called Toad Hall, after the famous story, Wind in the Willows.  It is part of a bed and breakfast called the Simmons Homestead Inn .

But the real gem is the car museum that the owner, Bill Putman, has put together.  Bill raced Datsuns (now known as Nissan) in the early seventies.  He had quite a good time in C production and never lost his love of sports cars.

He started collecting favorites and now has over forty of them.  They range from Japanese to British makes.  Lotus has a prominent spot in his garage.  If you’ve ever had contact with a British sports car in your life you will likely find an example in Bill’s collection.

Ferrari, of course, and Porsche, and BMW, and Audi, all have a spot in the museum.  Its not hard to find and if you drop by in the evening Bill might be talked into sampling some of his collection of single malt scotch collection (hundreds!).

Oh, yes, and the cars are all painted red!

 

Roy’s Garage

Growing up in the village of Osterville there was a time when there were several gas stations to service the populous.  It is strange because when there were just a few folks in the village there were five or six separate gas stations where today this is only one to service a much larger population.

In addition these were much more than places to go to purchase fuel.  These were true service stations where just about any repair or modification would be performed on your vehicle.  These ranged from tire repair and muffler replacement to engine rebuilding and some body work.

When you did pull in to purchase some gas you never pumped it yourself. An attendant asked you what grade of fuel you wanted and how much.  In the days of gas priced at twenty cents a gallon you could go a long ways on a buck.  The attendant would not only pump your gas, but they would check your oil level and tire pressure as well.

In the gas crisis of the early 1970’s the big companies took note that customers would pump their own gas and pay sky high prices. 

One of the stations in Osterville was run by a guy named Roy Piggot.  Roy was originally from the coast of North Carolina who had been stationed in the Coast Guard on Cape Cod where he met and married a Yankee gal, Elizabeth Rankin, who Roy called ‘Lizbeth.

Roy had a mechanic and a couple of attendants working at various times.  His station was an easy going place where people would hang out and talk while their car was being fueled or being work on.  In the summer it was one of the places in the village where a young boy on a bicycle would stop to get a cold drink out of the soda machine for a dime.

Roy had a ritual where at the end of the day he would swab out all the garage bays to get them clean for the next day’s business.  It was an interesting ritual to watch as a young boy, especially in the heat of August.

Roy would raise all the lifts in the empty bays so the floors were clear and then take a large metal bucket out to the gas pumps.  Here he would pump a couple of gallons of gasoline into the bucket and bring it back to the bays. 

Then Roy would take a rag mop and swab down all the floors with gasoline the fumes wafting into the hot summer afternoon air.

Meanwhile the mechanic and attendants would all retreat to a somewhat safer place to observe the ritual.  It was a miracle that an ignorant customer never approached the area with a lit cigarette or that Roy never caused a spark as he dragged the metal part of his mop across the concrete floors.

As a kid I never appreciated the dark humor of the situation like Roy’s employees did. 

Years later Roy retired and sold the station to his mechanic and this dangerous ritual disappeared. 

Car Movies

This should piss a few folks off.  Naming the top car movies always stirs up quite a bit of debate.  Here is my list. 

But first let me explain.  Favorite car movies are not just movies with cars in them, or just movies with car chase scenes, although that helps.  The movies that stand out should stand out because of how they treat cars and driving.  Smokey and the Bandit, the re-make of the Italian Job, some of the 007 films do not make my list.  When there are chase scenes  they should be believable chases.  Its not that I don’t appreciate special affects and some of the clever gags that stunt drivers have done, its just that when they are too contrived it loses something.

Ranking these movies is tough, but I’ll give it a shot.

 

1) Bullitt – 1968

Peter Yates directed this classic.  The story was very tough to follow, but there was no doubt that the cars did steal the movie.  The Dodge Charger was as sinister as the hit men and the Mustang had its unforgettable growl.  Who else could have competed with being upstaged by a car except Steve McQueen.  When audiences sat in the theatre and experienced the shots from the inside of the cars going over the hills of San Francisco they gasped and felt their stomachs tighten.  This was a chase scene made for the big screen.  It was ground breaking.

  

2) The Italian Job – 1969

Michael Caine in the original version held his own against the Mini Cooper rally cars that were used to liberate $4 million.  The opening scene with the Lamborghini Muria tooling about the Italian Alps was perfect.  I remember seeing my first Muria in Hyannis that summer and trying not to drool on it.  This did not have the gritty reality of Bullitt, but provided a lot of fun with driving out of the city of Turin, including the most dramatic cliff hanger ending in history.

3) Gone in 60 Seconds – 1974

Perhaps the longest car chase scene ever.  Forty minutes and 93 cars mangled.  This was a classic that the remake just did not even come close to.  Showing the tricks of the trade in swapping VIN numbers and stealing cars was done with real style.

 

4) Vanishing Point – 1971

Kowalski was his name, but the white Challenger was the movie.  The chase sequences hold up 35 years later.  The story is a bit dated but who doesn’t appreciate seeing the last of the muscle car era go out with this movie. 

 

5) Grand Prix – 1966

OK, maybe this deserves first place for a lot of reasons.  It predates Bullit and has the fantastic John Frankenheimer directing.   Steve McQueen was the original choice to star in this film but they sent the wrong guy to ask him and Jim Garner ended up in this classic.  Steve would later make his own racing movie.  His son Chad had to beg Steve to take him to see this.  Afterward they dropped by Jim Garner’s house (he lived next door) where Steve grudgingly told Jim it was a good movie.

This is almost a documentary and the creativity of the director is amazing.  This was filmed at a pivotal time for formula one racing.  The transition from front engine to rear engine had taken place and they had doubled the displacement of the engines.  Still, drivers did not use seat-belts and there were no aerodynamic aids. Do see this film.

 

6) LeMans – 1971

McQueen wanted to make a documentary and the director, Lee H. Katzin, was trying to make a drama.  It produced and interesting combination that used every Porsche 917 LeMans car in existence.  This is an excellent film that shows racing the way it should be seen.

 

7) To Live and Die in LA – 1985

I bet you never thought of this one, but it contains one of the most exciting and fantastic chase scenes with cars ever.  The start is a shock and it holds you on a very believable edge through the entire chase.  It is an interesting movie about counterfeiters and the secret service that has a great feel to it.

8 ) Ronin – 1998

Of course you were waiting for me to list this one.  This is not a car movie, but the director, John Frankenheimer (remember Grand Prix?) loved cars and it shows in the driving that was done and the cars he used.  In order to get film of the actors at the wheel John used right hand drive cars with false left hand drive dashes set up to make it look like the actors were at the wheel when the actual driving was done by stunt drivers and race car drivers.  That is why Robert looks so tense in many of the scenes when he is at the wheel.  This is where America found out about the Audi S8

9) The Bourne Identity – 2002

Much like Ronin, this one has a great car chase scene that is so well integrated into the rest of the movies pace that it is like a piece of music.  The Mini Cooper (the original) holds its own and comes off superbly.

10) Mad Max -1980

What took me so long to mention this one?  These top ten lists are tough.  Many of these movies could be in the number one spot, or very close.  This one is another ground breaker.  The regular cops drive cars called Pursuit, but Max drives the Interceptor!  Australia is the perfect setting and…

11) The Road Warrior – 1981

Starts off where Mad Max ends in a bizaro world of a future with a queer logic that we can accept.  Max is the anti-hero that allows a group to survive the onslaught of the wacko road groupies that prowl the anarchy of the future.

12) THX-1138 – 1970

Director George Lucas loved the automobile.  He was also a gifted mechanic who could listen to a car’s engine and provide a diagnosis on the spot.  His American Graffitialso belongs on this list, but THX-1138 was his first film and has a very exciting chase scene that takes place in a future.  The editing and quick cuts provide all the excitement a good chase requires.

13) The Blues Brothers – 1980

Unbelievable, but only the Belushi Aykcroyd duo could pull it off and make it believable.

14) Gumball Rally – 1976

This was a low budget, yet successful movie that did a much better job of reflecting the Cannon Ball Run than the namesake movie that Brock Yates wrote.  Brock is an great guy and it was astounding of him to organize and pull off the real Cannon Ball Run with Dan Gurney co-piloting a Datona Ferrari.  Brock wanted Steve McQueen in the movie he scripted, but instead it was turned into a farce that appears to have just been an expensive vehicle for a bunch of actors to screw around in.

15) Thunder Road – 1958

Robert Mitchum, how can you go wrong.  Certainly not an “A” movie the cast includes his son.

Dirty Mary Crazy Larry didn’t make my list, but is a car film you should see anyway.  Repo Man is kind of a car film in its own weird way.  Easy Rider is, well, a motorcycle movie, but really broke ground.  The Worlds Fastest Indian is a must see and crosses both the motorcycle and the automobile film.

 Now – if you are looking for documentaries that are worth finding here a just a few gems:

Super Speedway- originally filmed in imax this provides true insight into how modern championship cars are developed and driven as well as a nostalgic look back at the days when roadsters were the brutes of Indy racing.  When Mario drives a restored race car the music they play is from the opening of the Italian Job and very appropriate.

Mischief 3000- Millionaires get to drive the way we all wish we could afford to.  Cross country in a contemporary version of the Cannon Ball.  It is amazing to see what a beating these cars take just from the miles driven. Fun film.

Lime Rock Park, the Secret Valley of Racing – If you’ve ever been to Lime Rock it will bring back those great memories.  If you have not, after this you will want to see the place in person.

A Gullwing at Twilight – This is the Bonneville ride of John Fitch.  Do you think you would try the salt flats at 87?  Great film.

You can find out more about these films at: http://www.szwedo.com/

These are my personal choices.  Tell me where I’m wrong - You know you want to!

Wearing a Grin

Jim’s Garage helped another happy customer find what was hidden in their ride yesterday. 

The owner of this 2004 Acura TSX loved his family sedan for its comfort and quality, but felt the compromises that the factory took with the handling kept the car from being as much fun and enjoyable to drive as it deserved be.  He was right.  I took the Acura out for a spin on “the circuit” and found it would go into understeer mode almost immediately.  Body lean was enough to give a seasoned sailor a queasy stomach.  

Before he came by I had done some research on the Internet (amazing tool, that Internet) and discovered that one of the biggest complaints from TSX owners was the brakes.  They were not bad, just not great.  Several owners complained that the front rotors warped soon after purchase.

So the goal was to improve the handling and braking in the most cost effective way.  As I’ve preached before, the fastest way to upgrading handling is to put better tires on your ride.  The Acura owners are fortunate to have plenty of space in the wheel wells.  It made it easy to go up two tire sizes.  The standard tires were 215/50-17 which is not a sweet spot for performance tire choices, but going up to a 235/45-17 offered many excellent choices for tires that would offer far better grip than the stock rubber.  Improving tires doesn’t just improve cornering, it affects braking and acceleration to.

Moving up two sizes takes more than just buying the right size, it requires that the rim width allows you to take advantage of the increase in tread width.  A 235 requires at least a rim that is 7.5” wide and ideally eight inches wide.  This ensures that the sidewalls are not pinched and remain relatively perpendicular to the tread. That allows the sidewall to do the work it was designed to when you add cornering forces.  So the next decision was what wheels should be considered.  We knew the diameter, seventeen inches, the width of the rime, eight inches, what else mattered?  A little thing called offset.  Offset controls where the centerline of the wheel ends up in the wheel well.  It could mean that the wheel and tire stick outside of the fender, rub the inner fender, or sits just right.  Of course we wanted ours to fit just right and for the Acura that means a 48mm offset.  A quick trip to Tire Rack (thanks again Internet) and all the wheel and tire choices were there.  The owner picked out some fantastic looking OZ wheels that fit his budget as well as the Acura.  That left the tires.  We could have gone with some Ultra sticky summer performance tires, but reality was that he had to face the fact that weather does have its seasons and Bridgestone Potenzas were a nice compromise where there was plenty of performance and yet would still provide safety when the weather wasn’t so nice.

Then it was on to the brakes.  The owner found a high quality set of drilled and slotted rotors for the front and rear.  They came cadmium plated which meant that behind those sharp looking OZ wheels he would not have to worry that the rotor hats would turn rusty brown.  Goodridge stainless steel brake lines were chosen for durability, looks, and performance.  They would be less spongy than the stock rubber lines and would provide better response in terms of brake pedal feel.  They are also DOT approved.  Pads were Porterfield R4-S pads all around.  Porterfield makes and excellent street pad that doesn’t have the issues that many of the metallic pads out there, yet has all of the performance.  The Porterfields don’t have to heat up to provide braking performance, yet don’t fade when stressed.  They have minimal dusting properties so it will be easier to keep those nice wheels good looking. 

All of this deserved a great brake fluid.  Not all brake fluids are created equally, but they all soak up water right out of the air and within a year or less their boiling point goes down.  Most of the time this will not cause any problems with braking .  It happens so slowly most of us don’t notice.  The problem is that the water corrodes many of the brake components internally and this causes contaminants to accumulate as brake performance deteriorates.  Ate high performance blue brake fluid was chosen to replace the factory original fluid.  Ate makes this fluid in the traditional clear fluid as well as a blue fluid.  What is nice about the blue fluid is it gives you the ability to know that you’ve flushed all the old fluid out and that the new fluid is now all the way out to the calipers.  If you alternate between the colors you can know that your fluid flush is complete.  Ate has a very high boiling point with is nice when you are coming down a steep mountain road with the car packed with kids and luggage.  The constant braking required in that kind of situation could result in a very sickening surprise of brake fade when the fluid boils and you’ve still got miles more mountain road to go down.

The drilled and slotted rotors will provide better heat dissipation that the stock solid rotors can as well as providing a very performance look behind some great wheels.  In order to make the most of the look we picked up some red brake caliper paint so we cold dress up the stock calipers. 

While the wheels and tire were going to make a big difference in the overall handling, we needed to do something to reduce the body roll.  The choice was to upgrade the stock 15 mm rear antiroll bar to a 22 mm bar.  This was easy to install on the Acura and, in combination with the new wheels and tires, dramatically change the handling for the better.  Acura had engineered in a lot of understeer into the car so the larger bar was not overkill. 

To round everything out we also picked up a Neuspeed short shift kit.  This was relatively easy to install and complemented the overall feel of this total upgrade.

After the test drive the car went up on the lift and the stock wheels were removed and set aside.  The rear antiroll bar was switched out for the upgrade and the owner tackled the short shifter kit while we worked on the brakes.  The brakes took a good deal of time and the calipers needed to be cleaned well before the paint went on.  There was also some drama getting the brakes bled and returning the brake pedal feel back to where is should be, but when we took it out with all the upgrades in place and did a lap of the circuit all was right with the world.  Now the car took corners with confidence and authority.  Where before the engines lack of power was frustrating, it now was pushed to the background as the car snaked its way through the corners. 

I do believe the owner was wearing a grin.

 

I Almost Knew What Hit Me

I almost knew what hit me. 

It was 1974 and I was driving a 1962 VW Beetle.  It was great.  It had only 18,000 original miles on it since it had been driven by a little old lady who only used it to get groceries once a week.  It needed a little work, but nothing major and I spent the previous winter going over every inch of it.  I took out the interior and cleaned everything.  There was no rust to worry about and the battery just needed to be cleaned up a bit.  I put back the rubber carpet and the seats, but left off the seat belts so I could update them later. 

I rubbed out the paint until it sparkled and cleaned up the engine compartment until it looked like new. I took off the chrome bumpers and polished them until they gleamed.  I changed out the original shock absorbers for some inverted racing shocks made in France.  Then I put a camber compensator on the rear swing axles so they couldn’t tuck under.  A larger front anti-roll bar was fitted to the front torsion suspension.  Later I was going to get some wider chrome wheels and fit some wider tires, but that could wait.  It wasn’t fast, but it handled very well.

I also had a 1971 Super Beetle that I had heavily modified.  It had a modified engine to go along with many suspension modifications.  It was quite a beast, but I decided to take the ‘62 bug to work that day.

I had started a small offset printing business a year or two before.  It was doing well and I was learning a lot.  My client base had built up to a good size and I made enough money to pay for my car addiction.

That morning was a typical cool summer morning on Cape Cod.  The windows on the bug were fogged up so I ran the defroster for all it was worth.  In an air cooled VW that was not much, but it did clear the windshield so I cranked down the driver’s window as I drove to my shop.

It was early but I decided to drive over to a customers business to check to see if they were in.  I wanted to collect for a job I had done.  No one was at their building so I headed on to my place of business.

I pulled up to route 28 taking a right onto it from the parking lot.  I looked back down the road and checked my mirror.  I pulled on to the road.  Not far ahead was an intersection with a traffic light where I would have to turn left to get to my shop.  I signaled and gave up on trying to see anything out the rear window.  I was in the left turn lane and watching the traffic light to make sure it was still green.  It was.  There was no oncoming traffic and only a lone car sitting on the left at the light which was red for it.

I remember cranking the steering wheel for the left turn and looking at the driver of the car that was stopped at the red light.  He had the queerest look on his face like he couldn’t believe what he was looking at.  I thought that was odd.

What had been a quiet and peaceful morning on Cape Cod became an exclamation of noise punctuated by the car changing its shape in the blink of an eye. 

Realizing that I had been hit by another car I quickly checked for my wounds.  The skin had been scraped off some of my hand, but it was not bad, but the door had been stove in and now covered the pedals.  My left knee hurt.  Then I looked up.

Foolishly I had assumed that the car was immobilized by the crash, but it was not.  The force of the accident propelled it across the road and toward a huge old oak tree that was definitely going to win out over what was left of the VW.  I managed to steer to the left of the oak and was now heading through the underbrush toward a house.  I twisted my right leg and foot around the door that was in front of the brake pedal and managed to reach it, stopping the car inches from the house.

While I was blissfully enjoying the early morning and taking a proper left turn at the traffic light a young hair dresser, who was late for work, decided that it would be smart for her to pass me on the left while I executed my turn.  How rude of me to be in her way.  So she clobbered the drivers door of the beautiful VW Beetle.

I sat in what was left of the car.  I just wanted to catch my breath and see if anything of me was broken.  Suddenly there was this girl at my side frantically urging me to get out of the car and yanking on the drivers door as if it would work properly.

She was babbling about how sorry she was and was at the point of tears as she pleaded with me to get out of the car.  It was at that instant that it crossed my mind that I should feign passing out and dying.  Alas, I didn’t have the heart to torture her so.  She was sincerely concerned about me (I wish she had been concerned a lot earlier) so I allowed myself to be assisted out of the car.  I think she expected it to blow up like they do in the movies.

The police came.  They bent out her fender with a shovel and, after getting her information, allowed her to continue on to work.  I watched them get the tow truck and haul away what had once been a real classic car.  Then I limped across the street to my print shop and got to work. 

The skin healed on my hand and my knee bothers me from time to time.  It would never hold up so I could run very far again.

People looked at the crumpled mess of what used to be a car and marveled at how I wasn’t killed.

I was lucky. 

Damit what fun I would have had with that car.