Blake Noble

I gave you guys permission because to come in this thread and see such ... colorful comments just brightens my day. Oh, and I have no clue 100 percent what's going on with the Camaro. Hauling ass back and forth to Lexington 5 days a week is enough to keep my mind off of it. All I know is the clutch pedal has lost pressure again and seems to be constantly engaged. It's at Jack Burford Chevy right now, after calling the A to the 3rd to haul it's immobile carcass up there. So, as far as a replacement goes, it's tough to say. I did find a '99 Formula with 80,000 on the clock, but I'm just going to resist temptation. As much as I've preached against such a car in my younger years, I'd seriously like a 3-door Astra if I could find one. The five-door I wrote up ages ago was a pretty cool car, handled great, was peppy enough, and looked handsome (the three-door, though, is quite sexy).

I have two older, GMT-900 based sketches for submission. I mainly want to add some fuel to the flame, nothing more. Enjoy!

I haven't payed much attention to this before, honestly, but I'll be on the hunt Thursday and Friday, so I'll keep an eye out.

Well, the lot was closed for New Year's Day, so no go. I'm off Thursday and Friday and I have a very strong suspicion that the Camaro will be gone by the end of the month so I won't be keeping it in any capacity. Criticize me all you want, but that car asked for its last dime from me today.

Forget me not.

I don't care about the pay, but consider me first in line to write some articles for the site.

Camino's first point is something I'm going to pay some attention to. Other than that, two and three I'm not terribly worried about at the moment. For the record, I will not be trading the Camaro to this should I get one. If, for some reason, I lose my job, I'll still have a car to drive so it's really best that I keep it. As for the loan, should this happen, I'll figure out something. I've thought out some of various scenearios in my head a bit and there's a solution.

I'd love a Wrangler, but they're very expensive. For example, an '07 Unlimited X with some sixty-odd thousand miles will set me back about $17k. Right now, the Liberty makes sense: affordable, reliable, capable, not exactly a total pig on gas, decent looking, and four-wheel drive.

Whereas mine are thin and tend to leak.

My point is moot. Too bad I can't find a VehiCross locally. It actually ticks a lot of boxes for me.

You'd make a cheap shot instead of, oh, I don't know, saying this to my face. You know by now I don't care. I'm a glutton for punishment. http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cto/2084672846.html Found one. But it's in Pittsburgh, which I'm not sure BV would want to drive that far.

Thinking 'bout buying me a Jerp, mainly one of them there Libertys. Thoughts? I'm going to drive it Saturday.

My two cents: just suck it up buy it. Everything else in that price bracket brand new is absolute punishment compared to a Cobalt.

Tom Dickson has the panache of my local weatherman. +1 this post if u h8 justin beepers.

So You Wanna See Speed Channel's Top Gear Competitor? By black-knight (Self-Appointed Tries to be Somewhat Regular News Contributor) for Cheers and Gears.com 23rd December, 2010 No, obviously Tanner Foust isn't jumping ship from the History Channel to publish a book or go to another show and we have no earthly clue where the, uh, Billy Ray Cyrus impersonator pictured alongside Foust and Adam Carolla (who winds up fitting into this whole picture) has wound up at, but you do remember reading the news lately that Speed Channel is planning a show that will take the wind out of Top Gear America's sails, yeah? Well apparently the precursor, or pilot if you will, to this still infantile American motoring show has been available to view on YouTube ... for a stone age now. Enter the Smoking Tire, a successor to the underground favorite webisode series Garage 419, that began filming reviews last year. (Okay, so both it and The Smoking Tire have found online success -- apparently great online success -- but yours truly hasn't heard about anything about either series until just tonight meaning that I'm somehow still living under a rock.) The host of the Smoking Tire is Matt Farah, who will also be hosting Speed Channel's Fifth Top Gear program thing. Farah is no Jezza, and has a slightly cut-and-dry on screen personality, but then again Rutledge Wood over at the rival show on History isn't Jezza either. On the other hand, Farah seems to have some stable journalistic chops, so a core element to a show of this particular ilk may be here with some force. Watch the video after the jump to get your first taste of what is about to head our way, courtesy of the Speed Channel. Drop a line or two on what your thoughts are as well (it's always a blast to read). <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuIR2pEGiMs?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuIR2pEGiMs?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuIR2pEGiMs?fs=1&hl=en_US&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object> The Smoking Tire

You know something? The cinematography made the '71 Supreme look better than it actually was. The interior was in very poor shape (worse than my Supreme when I first bought it) and I guarantee it was filled with rust. Could it have been restored? Well, yeah. If you had the money and lots of it. Did it deserve a resto? Depends on just how bad things were under its mint green paint and like I said, I guarantee it had rust. No, instead of nauseating me, it actually made me proud of my own Cutlass. The fact that Ferrara's worn-out Cutlass had driven a lap around a test track filled to the windshield with water was something of a testament to how well the Olds was designed and built and how durable and powerful the Rocket 350 was after all of the years that had passed since the car was new. That Cutlass was a martyr, in my opinion. If any moron doubted the reasoning behind being a vintage American iron fan, well, they have a lot less to doubt now thanks to that '71 Cutlass with a terrible set of 20 inch rims. If I didn't feel the need to break out a box of tissues over that Cutlass, neither should anyone else here. I also liked a lot of what Ferrara had to say about the Cutty when he introduced it and was defending it. The show is gaining traction now, I will give it that. The awkwardness of the first few episodes isn't there as much any more and the hosts are developing something of a dynamic amongst themselves. There still isn't much more journalistic substance, but perhaps that will improve as well as the show goes on (the F-150 Raptor segment was a step in the right direction). As much as I liked what Ferrara had to say about the Cutlass Supreme, it annoyed me to no end that he introduced a '77 El Camino he bought in a segment on the previous episode as an "'77 El Camino SS" (a little fact checking please?).

This also seems to drive something else home (directly or indirectly, I'm not sure): people seem to be growing increasingly dissatisfied with the job the current majority party is doing in Washington. Indeed our populace wasn't too happy with the rumblings going on with the current minority party before the last round of elections. If neither party is working correctly enough for us to feel secure, then what's the answer? I hope soon that we see more political parties make it to office to balance things out. We still mainly have two parties running this circus while we have dozens of other, equal ideological parties trying to get into power that repeatedly get shot down. Why? Well, the first reason is only one word that starts with "m" and ends with "y" ...

Disclaimer: I know the highly volatile, political nature of this topic. Please, move it if it gets out of hand. I only ask that someone makes sure I still have access to the thread as it continues. After work tonight, I went out to eat with a few co-workers. Eventually the small talk settled on the topic of WikiLeaks, something which I had been keeping tabs on, but eventually lost the time to keep track of. I write this post beyond exhausted, so forgive me for any non-cohesive statements. I will clarify them upon respectful request at any time further on in the thread. Tonight, I gave myself a crash course on the topic/issue/what have you to refresh my memory on it while also reinforming myself. I do support whistleblowers and the ilk in face of what can only be described as feckless corruption. The cause is justifiable, the price is never too high. We need people in our global society who will highlight and pinpoint the flaws of any major group or organization and inform people, like you and I, of the lies they propagate. It's because of these people we are able to fully realize our mistakes and not repeat them and to make positive changes that bode well for our future. However, I can also see the threat that has been imposed, which has left me with mixed feelings about this whole thing. Concerning WikiLeaks, with every new chunk of sensitive information it releases, our own government looks less and less appealing and favorable and far more corrupt, and I can certainly say that this is very true on a global scale. We have not, in all honesty, been looked kindly upon during recent times and this is doing further damage to our diplomatic relationships with other countries. The Collateral Murder video, the Cable leak, the documents on our recent Middle Eastern wars ... it doesn't matter which leak you pick out of the group, none of it looks well on our government. In turn, it doesn't look well on us, the average U.S citizens. As the saying goes, a few bad apples spoil the whole barrel. I hate to think about the consequences you and I might would have to pay because we have cockroaches calling the shots in office. For the record, someone should be impeached for instructing our diplomats to engage in espionage. Another interesting observation I've noticed concerning : Julian Assange seems to have been releasing recent, major leaks in what seems like reverse chronological order. The Iraq War leak ... to the Afghan War leak ... it seems the releases are working backwards. If that's the case, well ... hmmmm ...

Good things come to those who wait.

Vee, I agree with your sentiments on the Imperial, but Chrysler should start over with a clean sheet of paper if they want a range topping luxo barge. That car was not one of Chrysler's best concepts in terms of styling and probably wouldn't be taken seriously if built as is.

Hmmm ... interesting, Vee. You had me thinking on this one ... well, more or less double checking myself. In all honesty, the last reliable vehicle I had was my '98 Firebird. I was expecting a resto project to be a DD with the Monte. The Regal was a confusing mess. Now this Camaro has had a history of teething problems since I've had it. Plugs, wires, coil packs, catalytic converter, muffler, clutch master cylinder ... all of these items had to have been replaced and there's now a new host of issues cropping up with the car. I've been out more on this car than any other I've owned. Here's where I ask an interesting, but simple question: What determines reliability? From what I've always gathered, you mostly chalk it down to cost of ownership. If so, I don't think this car is hitting that mark if I'm honest. I had a mostly trouble free experience with the Sonoma (my biggest gripe was the four-pot) and Firebird: I wasn't out much except for a few upgrades and routine maintenance on either vehicle. I've said the above before. I've thrown off on the car dozens of times. I don't think it's worth much more trouble. I'm sick of bantering about it. I didn't get to check out the Saab today due to bad weather. That's on the agenda for tomorrow. I will have a solution for this after the holidays. If I see I'm working with decent hours well into January, then without a doubt I'll be financing something. If not, I'll take what I've earned, sell the Camaro, and move up. It might be in a price bracket a grand or two higher (I've had to keep it under 4k for my DDs for various reasons), but at least I'll find cars that are newer. Lower mileage is becoming more and more of a must. Will I manage to gain some ground? I'd like to think so. I know what I like in a car, but I'm going to have to start being mature about things and, unfortunately, make some compromises. That means no more V6 Camaros or Firebirds built before 2001 with over 100k, for starters.

Plugs, wires, and coil packs are all less than a year old and were replaced last winter.

When the next nomination thread is up, I call dibs on doing the next one.

It feels strong, but after getting back on the throttle after making a gear change, it tends to jerk and sputter a bit.

It isn't unbearably terrible, but it just isn't Top Gear. The difference between the Colonized Top Gear and the non-Colonized version is that all three presenters of the original show are journalists. That's what is lacking with the History version: substantial journalism. Foust, Ferrara, and Wood are not journalists, bottom line. If the show was hosted by, say, John Phillips, Daniel Pund, and Mike Delorenzo, it would be worth the watch and completely on par with the original.