Drew Dowdell

We're doomed then.

Happy birthday helpful helper!

Try TireRack.com. They just became a sponsor of C&G. They can set you up with a local installer and ship directly to them.

Tirerack.com has become a sponsor of Cheers and Gears. I personally have purchased so many sets of tires from TireRack.com that I've lost count. My experience with them has always been excellent. They have an expertise beyond your typical tire store, which is why I sought them out as a sponsor for our forum. If you are in the market for tires. Please give TireRack.com a try by clicking on one of the Tirerack.com banners on Cheers and Gears. You'll get a great deal on great tires and you'll help out Cheers and Gears as well.

No, I'd need someone who runs off at the mouth and says stupid, embarrassing, and nonfactual $h! all the time. Unfortunately for me, that mean's SMK.

What are you talking about? I'm Obama.

I'm just afraid of the 4100. I'd be more comfortable with the 350 Diesel...as hard as that is to believe.

The beauty of the Wiki is that we can have it be about whatever we want. Just to be clear on terminology. There will be one Wiki with multiple sections. Adding a section for the XP cars would be a wonderful and welcome addition.

I suddenly feel the urge to drink a case of pabst and play pinball.

Initially there won't be many changes until the DNS transfer gets sorted out. The first major change will be upgrading the site to the newest version of the board software. Things I plan to add over time: 1. A substantially upgraded C&G shop with not just custom printed merchandise, but even automotive parts and accessories. 2. User photo galleries so we no longer need to host the pictures we post on Photobucket. 3. There will probably be more advertising from places other than google. 4. We will be adding a Wiki. With the vast wealth of knowledge available in the membership here, it'd be a shame not to capture some of that. These are just some of the ideas I have floating around.

Checker Marathon? Really?

Under New Ownership! Avant1963 and I came to an agreement over the weekend where my company, Pittsburgh Living LLC, has purchased Cheers and Gears. Avant1963 will continue in an admin role for as long as he chooses. I have been a member of this site since 2003. In 2007 I was elevated to the admin group while helping out with a server move. Around the beginning of this year, Cheers and Gears was dying a slow, painful, death in the image of our favorite company. I decided to do some much needed maintenance and find ways to secure financing for server and software upgrades. Since that time I have filled the role of head admin previously held by FlyBrian and Josh before him. What this means for you: Today as the hostname transfer takes effect, you encounter slow loading or a complete website outtage. In the next few months, we will be upgrading the IPBoard software, reopening a new Cheers and Gears store, and lots of general cleanup. There are no other changes to the staff. People who might be interested in moderating forums are invited to email me.

Under New Ownership! Avant1963 and I came to an agreement over the weekend where my company, Pittsburgh Living LLC, has purchased Cheers and Gears. Avant1963 will continue in an admin role for as long as he chooses. I have been a member of this site since 2003. In 2007 I was elevated to the admin group while helping out with a server move. Around the beginning of this year, Cheers and Gears was dying a slow, painful, death in the image of our favorite company. I decided to do some much needed maintenance and find ways to secure financing for server and software upgrades. Since that time I have filled the role of head admin previously held by FlyBrian and Josh before him. What this means for you: Today as the hostname transfer takes effect, you encounter slow loading or a complete website outtage. In the next few months, we will be upgrading the IPBoard software, reopening a new Cheers and Gears store, and lots of general cleanup. There are no other changes to the staff. People who might be interested in moderating forums are invited to email me. More discussion here.

3kw with current tech. If you take that as average, that works out to about 1.5gwatt. Again, I'm not suggesting that solar will replace the need for new, traditional, generation capacity, but it will reduce the need for it.

$10,000,000,000 is the construction costs of a 1gwatt nuke plant. A 1 gwatt nuke will power about 100,000 homes @ 10kwatt each. The average residential solar installation costs about $20,000. 10,000,000,000 / 20,000 = 500,000 homes for the same money as one nuke plant. Now, I'm not saying that those homes will be off the grid. But they can substantially supplement existing generation capacity. These are just construction costs. What isn't factored into the cost of coal is environmental damage.

I'm talking about residential solar and wind. It costs about $10 billion dollars to build a nuclear power plant that powers about 100,000 homes. If it costs $20,000 to install solar panels on a house (high end), then you could install panels on 500,000 homes for the same price as a single nuke plant. At the same time, you've dispersed the grid and reduced the overall load on the grid since those homes need less outside power.

I have to disagree here. What you are overlooking is distributed power generation. Rather than have all of the generation capacity concentrated in a few small places you can spread out that power generation over a much broader area. Additionally the infrustructure required to distribute the electricity would be substantially smaller since most homes could generate most of what they needed for themselves. You have the added benefit of reduced transmission/transformer losses. Personally, I don't think our current grid could handle the load of everyone switching over to plug in EVs. The grid is borderline meltdown as it is without that extra load. Perversely, our current economic conditions have reduced over all consumption so as to be able to hold off on grid upgrades just....a... little.... longer..... and as a country we are working dilligently to ignore that lurking problem.

Because of the portability of electricity.

The beauty of the Volt system is that some years down the road, they can replace the traditional ICE with... well just about anything else that spins efficiently. ICE engines were designed so they provide power over a relatively broad RPM range, but do so at the sacrifice of efficiency. Generators, however, are most efficient when run at a steady speed. By taking the need for power over a broad RPM range out of the equation, you then can concentrate on making the engine extremely efficient at a set RPM. Thinking about this in terms of propulsion technology and alternative fuels; The next logical set for the Volt would be a bio fueled diesel. Diesels have a lot of power, but tend to keep that power to a much narrower rpm band. After that, I could see the Wankle being used for it's high RPM ability, inherent smoothness, high specific output and a narrower power band at a relatively high rpm After that you get to the turbine and then all hell breaks loose. You can burn just about any flammable liquid you want to power a turbine. You can even take the exhaust heat from that and use it to spin a second turbine using steam. This part is interesting in regards to efficiency because Doble steam cars were get 15mpg in 5,000+lb cars that could do 0-60 in ten seconds in 1923.... imagine what they could do today. The reason we don't.... .and won't... have all electric cars is the portability of electricity. Toting around a 15 gallon container of some flammable liquid is far more convenient and at this point lighter in weight.

I will do what I can to help any member of C&G, but Balthazar is right, I'm not sure it would be effective unless you're looking specifically in the automotive industry. Let me know what you have in mind.

He was referring to high fructose corn syrup. Pepsi is selling Pepsi "Throwback" I think it's called, where they use actual sugar instead of HFCS. Waaaaay better than regular Pepsi.

My parents allowed me to drink as long as they made me the drinks. They'd use the nasty, dusty on the bottom shelf liquor that they didn't even like themselves. I had a few over the years because I thought it was "cool" but generally the drink was so foul I couldn't stand the taste of it. As as result, drinking never was a big deal for me. It wasn't until I discovered the good stuff that I started to have a drink with dinner occasionally. I do like the european tradition of a digestif after a large meal. My friend's parents in Germany started me on that when they served me a homemade pear schnapps after a particularly large meal. Talk about good!

Put down some Skinny and Sweet. *extra points for those that get the reference.

Regarding your question earlier about the supercharger. Just change the S/C oil and you'll be fine. They do like at least mid-level fuel. The only issue that I've hear about with the G-bodies is an occasional issue with front wheel vibration that isn't solved with a standard rebalance. You sometimes need to have a road force variance test done. It's more expensive but usually solves the issue. People who don't know about it will keep taking it to Goodyear to for a standard rebalance and get frustrated when it doesn't work. I've heard of it effecting the Riviera, Park Ave, and Aurora. I've never hear of it with the Seville but I don't see any reason it wouldn't be there too.

Yes.