trinacriabob

Major cities and progressive (or more with it) companies and businesses in red states have more recycling options. That's true. It's just frustrating when you're at a hotel or a coffeehouse and you have to throw your plastic and paper stuff into the car and then wait to find some place you can recycle it. I tend to have a small collection of this stuff sitting on the floor in the passenger side footwell until I find such a place. Correct as to the exceptions to the rule. I could see Austin recycling in general. It's "good luck" when you cross Florida, Texas, and some Midwestern states and you pull into a rest area and a good many of these rest areas do not have recycling options. A rare few do.

What? People don't believe in stereotyping ... or even profiling? When you are in a blue state, you can usually find places to deposit recyclables fairly easily. The more progressive they are, the easier it will be. When you are in a red state, good luck with that.

How does a person know when brakes are glazed over with both discs and drums? That last F-bird I spotted had rear drums. I put up a photo or two. I couldn't believe that that one Pontiac LeMans basic coupe my dad had with an inline 6 cylinder and no air conditioning had drum brakes all the way around. That car never gave an ounce of trouble but braking during any wet weather, especially after long dry spells out West, was a little hazardous. I sometimes wondered if those cars that had front drum brakes could be converted to front disc brakes.

Last night, August 18, seen before heading in to Texas de Brazil. Love those pop-up headlamps, when they're working. I liked this Firebird much better than the Camaro in the same span of years. It's a Formula. However, I don't know which V8 would have gone into it.

My car has a DIC (driver information center) with 7 buttons. All of them had lost illumination except for 1. They stopped making the part. I called a dealership and they told me of a couple of dealerships in the U.S. that had one. I contacted one and the parts guy gave me a really good price, probably to clear it, and kept it aside until receipt of a money order for the part and a minimal amount of postage. When having another service, I had the technician slim jim the panel away from the dash because I didn't want to break it. It was dangling there before I decided to finally insert the piece for which it was hard to remove the harness. Last night, before heading into a Brazilian steakhouse to pig out, I decided to finally install it and push the bezel back into the dash. After leaving the steakhouse, I cranked over the ignition and all 7 DIC lights were on, a sight that I hadn't seen in a few years.

Yes. Two 307s. Production was closer to each other than I thought. Chevy from 1968 to 1973. Olds from 1980 to 1990. That's a distance of 7 years! Because we shifted from thinking in cubic inches to thinking in liters, I always think of the former as the Chevy 307 V8 and the latter as the Olds 5.0 L V8. Both engines are derivatives - the 307 was hewn from the 327 (to use the same crankshaft) and the Olds 5.0 is an interpolation between the famed Rocket 350 and the 260 - the 260 was accomplished simply by a smaller bore diameter than that of the 350. - - - - - I liked listening to Jacques Cousteau speak. One time he was doing a show on manatees and mentioned that manatees eat water hyacinths in his great French accent. As for John Denver, I looked up his bio. I vaguely remember that something happened to him. Sadly, it did. His light went out after only 53 years. May he R.I.P.

I recall you mentioning it here and how you weren't exactly kind to it (lol) but, for me, there's a sentimental attachment to the 260. It's a dumb story. The other thing is that I have to "process" the 307 as the Olds Rocket 5.0 L V8 because the 307 was an "old school" Chevy small block V8 slotted in between the 283 and the 327. The funny thing is that, when the 260 V8 was released, the base engine in the Cutlass Supreme and the Omega - coupes and sedans - was Chevy's in-line 250 6 cylinder. Only the Salon - not even the Brougham - started out with the 260 V8. Eventually, my parents picked up a lightly used Omega (sharing the Nova-Ventura-Skylark chassis) with the 260 V8, so we also had one as an extra car for the dog and more utilitarian tasks. One of my friends called it the "priest's car," because it was plainly equipped and looked like it would be seen next to a rectory or the nuns' residence. My dad said, "Tell your friend I ain't no priest," (albeit in Italian). Our neighbors got close to 150,000 miles of mostly city driving in SoCal on the large Olds Cutlass Supreme coupe with a 260 V8. They were paired to a THM 350 transmission. Then, when they went over to the smaller '78s and beyond, they paired the 260 V8, and the other engines that were available, to the smaller and unreliable THM 200 ... and transmission failure was common. I was handed down an '84 Supreme Brougham coupe with the 3.8 V6 - and that crappy transmission - and it failed at 129,000 miles. It was not maintained, with the transmission fluid looking light brown instead of pink. I then took it in to get the transmission redone and this cool Portuguese guy owned the shop. He gave me a price for the new transmission. I asked if I could have a THM 350 put in instead and he seemed amenable to that, since the length of the casing was exactly the same. He only charged me $100 to $150 more and it was worth its weight in gold (well, not really). I guess the moral of the story is that when you pair a smaller engine (3.8 V6 or 260 V8) to a larger transmission, the transmission snoozes with the lower torque being pushed through and it's a win-win for the powertrain. At least it appears that way.

3 more distinct volumes, please ... wishful thinking

The random thought I actually had and one that should resonate with the IT folks we have on the forum: When on a merchant's website buying or ordering something and it gets to the payment field, I much prefer the screens where, as you type in the information, the credit card immediately has asterisks all the way across except for the last 4 numbers. Now, if they can't do that, I do like, as a minimum, when the asterisks quickly show up as you type in the CVV code so it is not visible. Is this too much to ask? I don't think it is.

Haha. And here I drooled over a nicely but not too equipped Brougham coupe with the smaller 260 Rocket V8, for which '82 was coincidentally the last year Olds made it. They had it from '75 to '82. It was the quietest of all the Rocket V8 engines, based on what I've (actually) heard.

Telepathy at work. I will be getting a rental car next week. I opted for the "surprise" deal and it said that it could be an EV. I'm questioning the range and was told it can vary. I might even get a regular car, which is what happens most of the time. As long as it has a trunk that can be covered. This might be an adventure. I have no clue where to power a potential EV rental. As for the Bolt, I prefer the name to Volt, which is too obvious. It's not too bad looking from the photos. I especially like the dash and how everything sits under the cowl. - - - - - I don't think they were prescient when Buick released the Electra nameplate. Some cars have been named after Greek mythological figures. However, Electra is a name that should definitely come back when Buick brings an EV CAR back into their portfolio.

I forgot to put up this one of a Jaguar convertible. We can change "firing on all cylinders" to "firing on 12 cylinders." It was badged V-12.

Thank you for letting me know! I'll have to think about which ones (year, make) would be ones I'd like. Thanks.

Join me today in wishing @NINETY EIGHT REGENCY a happy birthday. All year long, he provides the forum with informative, entertaining, and even quirky videos and links. It's very easy to remember his birthday because it's that of Napoleon Bonaparte and, more importantly, that of my late father. I also looked up who else might be a famous person having a birthday today. I found quite a few, with the more known ones being Jennifer Lawrence, Ben Affleck, and chef Julia Child. All the other ones were younger "too cool for school" types that don't register with me. Happy birthday, Landis! And many more.

I'm pretty taken with the lighter version of the enamel gray for the Charger that might also be the color that they use on the Pacifica. I like it. As for some other colors, I like that medium to dark metallic blue and, of course, the white that looks great on it and was probably the best color for the last Grand Prix. I get sad when I see recent Chargers and know that they are now past tense.

Not what you expect to see next to you at the pump The owner told me that, like its badging, it had a Chevy 350 V8 and was a 1970. When asked how many barrels it had, he seemed perplexed and I told him that meant the number of "holes" feeding the carburetor. That's fine. For some drivers, turning the key and knowing where to put in the fuel works just fine. Except for the after-market wheels, this vehicle, which reminds me of a previously prolific forum member, was in near perfect condition.

Seen August 9 Not what you expect to see at Burger King ... or maybe Burger King coupons are where this person cuts corners to be able to have this car. I'm being a jerk. I approached it from this direction, parked a few spots away from my car. The owner told me it had a 6.2 L V8 - using my R.O.T. of 60 c.i. per liter, there might have been a Chevy V8 that displaced ~378 cubic inches or thereabouts. Whether on a luxury car or a sports car, one of my favorite color combinations,* and a timeless one at that. * though I think (a darker) burgundy trumps something closer to an actual red

Not what you expect to see while getting coffee. Is this supposed to be a takeoff on someone? I wouldn't know. To me, she looked more like a tall pink version of Pat Benatar. Getting into her Spark with spunk and aplomb. And making quite an impression while being frugal at the gas pump. - - - - - Hey, I'm all for people who have moxie and seek to be original.

I have seen 2 so far. Two days in a row. One was in front of me on the freeway. They look like either a tall toaster on wheels or an inspiration for/from Scandinavian furniture design.

Thanks for these videos. The first one is a strange video. With the violinist(s), it doesn't make this Pontiac seem very Pontiac. But then this is when they were focusing on the Brougham model, which went after the same audience as the better B-O-P trims. The Brougham was nice, but it needed 40-40 seats so they could slot in a console for those who wanted it. When they switch over to the base model, the basic seating is very unremarkable. So are the exterior bits on the base model. That model was way downstream from the Brougham. Basically, the LJ is where it's at and the leather option was unnecessary. At about 3:40, that guy mentions engine choices. He starts out with the 3.8 and then mentions a more "spirited" or "lively" 4.3 V8. So far, I don't think we're at over 120 horses! To that, add the 5.7 V8 diesel. There was nothing that spelled Pontiac excitement in these engines; however, the first two proved to be reliable. I like that they took us through the design process. At one point, the side window treatment continued straight through and omitted the opera window. I'm glad the opera window found its way onto the car. Damn, that front grille and headlamps look so much nicer than the chunkier and more vertical set-up of the '78-'80 models. Sometimes, you wonder how some crap they've modeled in clay and then some even makes it to production. (I'm not talking about the cars on these videos ... other cars that have "mistakes," in my opinion.) The second video appears to be the entire Pontiac portfolio ... or am I wrong? Or it just focuses on their more luxurious cars being driven around California's two lane mountain roads. I had forgotten the Parisienne and the plush pillowed interior that was offered in it. There was no mention of a Firebird, a 6000, a Sunfire, a Sunbird, or anything like that. I wonder how many models they had in that famed year known as 1984.

I have seen this before. It's one of those things you keep looking at to ask yourself if it's for real and how close the margins are. It's scary.

Given how long I keep cars, y'all know I tend to be cheap. However, I saw this brochure on eBay by chance while looking at cars and such, came back around, and bought it - under $10, with taxes and shipping. We build excitement! What an improvement from the 1978 to 1980 rendition ... from every vantage point. I loved this dashboard. It's on the LJ. A leather wrapped wheel would have been nicer than urethane, but they weren't as common. Is it any wonder my interest in cars seems to have linearly waned over time? All the (post) malaise era accoutrements to pimp out your GP are here to choose from. J/K. I was really happy when I opened up the shipping carton and pulled out this brochure in near perfect condition.

These are smaller factions with the religion that do need the funding. My mom chose 5 of them. Not 25. Hopefully, the other 20 or so have their loyal patronage. It's very true how housing costs and debt (student loans) have shifted what the pie chart of disposable income looks like. It's a bad situation that hasn't helped anyone except the very rich. Writing the last check to flush out the student loans was one joyous event.

I have found that I have to get money orders when I make a donation. These are to bona fide charities everyone knows. The problem: you might just get onto their mailing list and on mailing lists that they share. With the money order, I just scribble a signature real fast, which is not the way I usually sign. The bottom line: they get their money, because I track the money order. It's offensive that, even here, "no good deed goes unpunished." - - - - - When my mom was around, she gave money to about 4 Catholic charities and a major research hospital. Eventually, she was getting stuff with pre-addressed prepaid envelopes from about 25 different charities - most of them still Catholic. They'd put little trinkets or mailing labels in their mail outs to make you feel guilty or obligated. She still continued to give to the 5 or so charities. However, after she passed away, I had to call those 25 charities, tell them she had passed, and to STOP! * something to think about for when and how you make donations *

Spotted August 3 With my tires rotated and my ride moved to Costco's regular parking area, I had lunch at "Cafe' 1.50," did NOT do the samples tour, and saw this upon leaving. The good: a tasteful looking up-line VW sedan in a nice color (to me) and with a DSG transmission (engine and transmission are sourced in Germany and Hungary) The bad: the price *thinking about Passat prices and their being gone ... sigh*