Best of Oppositelock: Nov. 28 - Dec. 1, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Best of Oppositelock: Nov. 28 - Dec. 1, 2013

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Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people put a good deal of effort into writing from Thursday through Sunday. It includes the effect of Paul Walker and The Fast and Furious on automotive culture, the Chrysler Newport, one-off cars and more.

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In light of the recent passing of Paul Walker, I decided to dig up an old post and repost it for your reading pleasure. Over the years I’ve come to appreciate and respect the Fast & Furious saga. The films don't offer a deep metaphysical look into humanity nor will they win any prestigious awards, aside from those given by a tequila-infused Jalop scribe. The films are 100% entertainment, but for us car guys they are more than that.

I was at a restaurant in Colorado Springs back in June of 2011. I was walking to the restroom and saw Paul Walker. I stopped and said hello. I didn't get the celebrity brush-off, he asked me to sit down. We talked mostly about cars. He recounted his run up Pikes Peak in a Porsche 911.

NHTSA, at the request of our beloved Congress, wants to find out if the various forms of obscure data that you didn’t know existed are of value when buying a new vehicle. In 1972 Congress passed the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings (MVICS) Act which was later codified in Title 49 U.S.C 32302. The law requires that dealers take information provided to them by the Department of Transportation and pass it along to car buyers.

Welcome to Found On The Ebays, where I find something I like for sale, and you look at it! In honor of my search to find my grandfathers long lost car, today I am featuring a very nice example of a 1962 Chrysler Newport. The Newport was the entry level Chrysler, designed to fill the hole in the market from the now defunct DeSoto brand, and it came in tudor, sedan, or wagon varieties.

In the automotive landscape there are many different kinds of cars; the muscle cars, the sports cars, the boring cars, the super cars, and the offroaders. One of the most controversial is one-offs. The cars that make you stop dead in your your tracks and stare. Unlike concept cars these bespoke legends of the automotive world make it out into the wild. Little Timmy could see one drive down the road and make a Bentley look invisible. If you are lucky, you can see one of these pieces of art booming through the streets.

When you read the word Genesis, what comes to mind? Some would say the Holy Bible. Other car-minded folk like us Jalops and Opponauts can think of the Hyundai Genesis models. But what message did Hyundai wanted to send out? Was it the beginning of something exciting or groundbreaking in the car industry? I'm still waiting for that spark to ignite.

By the first time I saw The Fast and The Furious, I had already raced a few times. It wasn't because I was particularly old, but because I hadn't watched the film. I'll weigh in on the trend here and explain when I first saw the Fast and the Furious, and what it meant to me as an enthusiast.

Heretical86 and Breadwagon also weighed in with the effect Paul Walker and the Fast and Furious had on them.

My wife is highly amused by my love of wagons. I’m always pointing out the cool ones, whether it’s an old woodie, a 3 series wagon, or the latest Polestar Volvo. Is it irrational that I am attracted to sweet, sweet utility and the sexy profile of a long roof? Maybe. A couple of my friends theorize that I am demonstrating through my car choices a willingness to father children. I don’t think that planning ahead is necessarily a bad thing, but really, guys, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I have some car projects to focus on before that happens.

The Best of the Rest

TwinTurboBMW attended cars and coffee in Portland, Audi For Life posted photos from as well. Vermillion-fire participated in the Modball Sydney-Brisbane Rally. BiTurbo228 continued the teardown of his Spitfire's engine, removed the crank and pistons and fabricated a pushrod for his Jaguar''s clutch mechanism. Matthias Rios bought brake lines for his Porsche 924. Louros spotted an M235i and shared a photo of his e21. Slow in, slow out ran into a couple of Corvettes while out for a drive in his Porsche. 05sonic3valve lifted his Jeep. EuroJosh spotted an F-type. NYSS got to drive a VMW Active E 1 series. BJohnson11 had to grind and re-tap his oil pan for the drain plug. Grindintosecond had a nice talk with GP3 racer Jack Guthrey.

As always, If I've missed something and you would like me to include it, let me know.

Fun Discussions

There were several posts that asked questions and sparked some good discussion between Thursday and Sunday. Take a peek and chime in on some of them listed below:

Just the #tips

Honourable Mentions

These posts have already been shared with Jalopnik directly but deserve to be mentioned again because they were first posted in Oppositelock:

Want to participate on Oppositelock? Check out the general handbook for posting on OppositeLock as well the Oppo tools to help you get started.

Best of Oppositelock: Nov. 28 - Dec. 1, 2013

Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 30 - December 1, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 30 - December 1, 2013

Welcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what's going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend?

There you sit, still stuffed with turkey and turkey leftovers, in the barren, prostprandial somnoletic wasteland that is the country once known as America (#1!). You can barely lift the remote, let alone actually rise from the couch. So why not sit and watch some racing?

As this weekend does, technically, bring us into the depths of December, there's not a whole bunch of the live stuff going on. The replays we do have, however, seem to be masterfully curated.

First up is the Silk Way Rally, which is kind of like the famous Dakar Rally in that it has a lot of big trucks slogging through the ends of the Earth, but is unlike the Dakar Rally in that it is entirely run through Russia. This year's Silk Way Rally was run from Moscow to Astrakhan, a city world famous for its voting fraud in the last mayoral election, according to Wikipedia. I may have won my school's Geography Bee twice, my Astrakhan trivia is a bit rusty, so... sorry, I guess. According to Wikitravel, though, it does have one restaurant, so there's that.

Astrakhan natives, feel free to chime in with your local sights and sounds in the comments.

If road rallies through forested Russia aren't your thing, and you crave naught but sand and heat and sand, there's the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge, which is another rally, but this time through the sands of the United Arab Emirates. Should be fun.

We've also got replays of Australian V8 Supercars and the FIA GT Series, and those are always swell. Seriously, some of the best racing around.

If there is some live racing near you, please do let us know where it is, and where we can catch the race. Help a petrol-headed brother out.

We know there's been a few site changes recently, so in the interests of comfort and familiarity we'll be keeping the races in the body of the posts. Of course, please use our image annotation tool on the map above to show us races we might have missed, where they're being held, and where we can livestream them.

All times Eastern.

Silk Way Rally (replay)

Moscow to

Just Russia.

1 PM Saturday on VELOCITY

Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge (replay)

Abu Dhabi

United Arab Emirates

2 PM Saturday on VELOCITY

Isle of Man Tourist Trophy Supersport Race 1 (replay)

Snaefell Mountain Course

Isle of Man

8 AM Sunday on VELOCITY

Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series - Pro Buggy and Pro Lite - Rd 15 (replay)

Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park

Lake Elsinore, California

12 PM Sunday on FS1

Australian V8 Supercars Sargent Security Phillip Island 360 (replay)

Phillip Island

Victoria, Australia

3 PM Sunday on FS2

FIA GT Series Slovakia (replay)

Automotodróm Slovakia Ring

Orechová Potôň, Slovakia

5 PM Sunday on FS2

FIA GT Series Spain (replay)

Circuito de Navarra

Los Arcos, Spain

7 PM Sunday on FS2

Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 30 - December 1, 2013

Best of Oppositelock: November 25, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Best of Oppositelock: November 25, 2013

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Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people put a good deal of effort into writing over the weekend and Monday. It includes the effect of autonomous cars, 2014 F1 regulations, '55 Buick Super and more.

On my way to work this morning a woman in a Pontiac G6 cut me off, beating me to the already-red light and managed to set off my Jeep's rather frightening BRAKE-BRAKE-BRAKE alarm. After contemplating if Launch Control would give me enough squat to plant my front wheels on the trunk of her government-issued G6, I had an interesting thought: how will our tenacity to get ahead of the other guy sit with the programmed rules of self-driving cars?

In 2014 a number of regulations, some major and some minor, will transform the look and feel of next year's batch of F1 chassis. Keep in mind that these are just a few expected solutions to the new regulations and will not in literally reflect what will actually be unveiled after the new year. Also check out the discussion for the Brazillian GP.

For the past few months, this is the car I've been driving. The Alfa needed some work, the BMW stays crashed (can't find a front wing) and in my vast fleet there wasn't a single vehicle that could take me to work. Rather embarrassing I must say. So, my grandad lent me his 2.0l Honda Stream Sport, for which I am very grateful. I strongly suspect the 'sport' is ironic though...

Love is strange. I am not a car fanatic per say, but I like cars, and I always had a very keen intuition when it comes to cars… However, I have always remembered cars that I love. They hold a special place in my memory. I have travelled the west pretty extensively, and through my observations and experience I realized one thing: there is a lot I have to learn. So let's get on with how come I fell in love with this car called as Mahindra Quanto

The time has come. I've finally decided to review my 1955 Buick Super. This has been something I've intended to do for a while, but haven't gotten around to until now. A little bit of background on this car. We got it not very long ago (August 4, 2012- Ill always remember that date.) I got it off of ebay as a "project," even though it looks just fine. We wanted something that we could drive and have fun in, but still have things to work on.

The reason I'm writing this guide is because I want to share what I've learnt in my years owning my Land Rover. This way I can let you guys know what to look out for when buying a Land Rover Discovery II, now this isn't a definitive end all be all guide. I strongly suggest you do your own research and go in with your eyes wide open and have an idea on what to expect. I'm writing this from the point of an enthusiast of Land Rovers so things I find easy to look over other people may not.

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The Dodge Challenger is a throwback car like its current competitors, but unlike the Chevy Camaro and Ford Mustang you can actually use the rear seat for people and not just groceries. Essentially unchanged from the 2012 car, the 2013 Challenger offers comfort and a smooth ride owing to its shared platform with the Chrysler 300. Offered in three different trim levels (SXT, R/T, SRT8) the SRT8 represents the ultimate performance option; the top gun of Challengers.

Reading the new article about the Supra hybrid I posted a comment. I don't want a Hybrid supercar Supra. I want a muscle car or GT car, you know, what it used to be. Strangely I was inundated with people trolling me and flaming for this opinion. The idea to have a Supra that competes with the Camaro or even a 135i at less than $40,000 was just crazy to them. This doesn't make any sense.

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The Fox Body Mustang GT is a prolific platform for drag racers, but it's work more than numbers that make Michael Murphy's white 302 coupe something special. To see such a thoroughly understood vehicle - I have no doubt that Murphy has at one point or another addressed every component in the vehicle - and talk with the owner in person should be a required experience for every Jalop. Check out the video for both a history on the car, and some automotive philosophies that every enthusiast of any interest should consider.

Today is installment #2 in my "Automotive No-Brainers" series, dedicated to the idea that Mitsubishi Motors and PSA ought to be doing the horizontal hokey pokey… After a decade of languishing, Mitsubishi Motors' financial situation is only now looking to improve in North America, the second-biggest auto market in the world. Their plant in Normal, IL is running at less than 20% of their production peak in 2000, as well. And they just announced plans to replace their unloved Galant with a Korean-built Altima-based Renault-Nissan product in the near future. So Mitsubishi will be bringing a Renault-Nissan product to market that will compete with Renault-Nissan's bread-and-butter Altima. And the rest of us are left scratching our heads.

The Porsche 914 is decent bargain for a mid-engined German car designed in the 1960s, but only if you are careful and avoid the garbage people are selling out there. To help you out we've sequestered a dozen of the best ones we could find and will sort the wheat from the chaff. A few are stock, but most have had the original wheezy flat-4 tossed in favor of Chevy V8, Mazda rotary, bolt on turbo and flat-6 power.

We know thing for true; bros like trucks. Hell, that's why "Bro-Truck" is now part of my vocabulary. But lately, I've been noticing an especially aggravating trend; the real frat-boy ,mom's credit-card borrowing, Ralph-Lauren Polo hat-wearing douchebags now drive the Chevrolet Avalanche.

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Let's face it, EVERYONE has had at least one "Vanilla" or "Beige" or boring car in their life. These are the cars you don't normally want when you become "enthusiast". But, for me, there is one "beige" car that I truly do love, The Opel Astra Classic II.

The Best of the Rest

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Acousticaperture took photos at Katie's Cars & Coffee. TwinTurboBMW posted photos from Cars & Coffee in Portland. Jagvar went to C&C Great Falls. Paul, Man of Mustans bled his brakes and rolled his fenders. Cbell04 replaced the taillight on his brick. Coriolis put his Focus ST in winter mode and installed his vanity plates. BJohnson11 had problems with the drain plug of his truck. Bandit drove a '69 Toronado. Liquid_Popcorn crashed his GTI a little bit. KB Garage picked up a Jetta. The Jevans replaced the O2 sensors on his Miata. MonkeyPuzzle installed new tires on his Subaru. Mastapoof went to a small car show. Cazzyodo taught his girlfriend to drive stick. Sam I attended the San Antonio Auto Show. A Veyron visited Jagvar's office. Mehugtree pulled the engine out of his Miata.

As always, If I've missed something and you would like me to include it, let me know.

Fun Discussions

There were several posts that asked questions and sparked some good discussion over the weekend and Monday. Take a peek and chime in on some of them listed below:

Just the #tips

Honourable Mentions

These posts have already been shared with Jalopnik directly but deserve to be mentioned again because they were first posted in Oppositelock:

Want to participate on Oppositelock? Check out the general handbook for posting on OppositeLock as well the Oppo tools to help you get started.

Best of Oppositelock: November 25, 2013

Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 23-24, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 23-24, 2013

Welcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what's going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend?

Alright you crazed, petrol-headed, racing-obsessed Jalops. I'll be straight with you about this weekend. There's not much going on.

In the last weekend before Thanksgiving, we're mired in random replays and old episodes of Pawnstars where Corey and the other fat one are still fat. Yeah, it's that bad.

But! There's hope!

We still have one Formula One race still in our systems. One last race, to prove who is the best, who can win the championship, who can take it all. (Hint: It's Sebastian Vettel. And Fernando Alonso's clinched second place as well.) Yes, the championship is as good as over, and yes all the teams have already been working on the 2014 F1 season's cars for years now, but the Brazilian Grand Prix is a classic race.

Not only are Brazilians just F1-crazy, but Interlagos is a pretty good track. Throw in the first real threat of real rain all season, and we potentially have some interesting stuff on our hands.

Rain always separates the good drivers from the great drivers, and Ayrton Senna was the master of it. Last year's Brazilian Grand Prix was marred by rain, and 2009 World Champion Jenson Button managed to take the win. His car isn't as competitive this year, but who knows what can happen? It's the end of the season, rain is falling, all the campers are going home, Marcine, the cute girl you've been eyeing since color war ended is finally going back to New Jersey... anything is possible, is what I'm saying. If you don't believe me, check out last year's race:

Now that ain't bad at all.

Of course, while we normally reserve the Weekend Motorsports Roundup to what's showing here in the USA, it's always open to everyone who loves racing. With that being said, I want to extend a special invitation who feels like there's some motorsports going on around the world that we might be missing. Winter Is Coming, and with that the barren lands of a heart with no racing. So leave a comment, and let us know what's going on!

We know there's been a few site changes recently, so in the interests of comfort and familiarity we'll be keeping the races in the body of the posts. Of course, please use our image annotation tool on the map above to show us races we might have missed, where they're being held, and where we can livestream them.

All times Eastern.

Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix Practice (replay)

Interlagos

Sao Paulo, Brazil

12 AM Saturday on NBCSN

Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix Qualifying

Interlagos

Sao Paulo, Brazil

11 AM Saturday on CNBC

Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix

Interlagos

Sao Paulo, Brazil

11 AM Sunday on NBC

Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 23-24, 2013

Best of Oppositelock: November 17, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Best of Oppositelock: November 17, 2013

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Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people put a good deal of effort into writing over the weekend and Monday. It includes an argument that race car drivers are not athletes, a Talbot that didn't suck, how to teach someone to drive a manual transmission and more.

We all have that moment. That one second behind the wheel of a vehicle where we thought, "This is it." Perhaps a corner was taken a little too fast, perhaps there was a sudden lack of grip but for that brief moment there was an acceptance that death was near. There are two ways to respond to surviving this moment. Some embrace the fear, aching never to repeat it again. Others relish in it, skirting on the edge of control and the edge of death, yet coming out victorious. The latter… well those are motorsports fans.

We all know and love the Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ: the affordable, lightweight, balanced, reliable, and tunable hoonmobile for the masses. I've followed this car since its infancy, as I know many of us have and its production manifestation is a truly great car. But for me, it's more than that. This is my story about the FR-S, my dad, and how something as seemingly material as a car can have a much deeper impact on a person.

It's probably no secret that I like cars that have either been forgotten or weren't particularly good in the first place. Largely, those two tend to go hand in hand. I've got one of those. It's pretty terrible by all means. Remarkably, there was a good car with a Talbot badge. I swear. It was 1981, rallying was still shy of the mercurial Group B era, and the smell of Bovril filled the air. It's cold, damp, and completely insufferable, but all entirely worth it for a glimpse of driving greatness. Trust me this is going somewhere.

I've seen this question posted more than once on Oppositelock: "How do I learn how to drive a manual transmission?" Kudos to the driver looking to come in to the One True Faith, but I've never felt that I had any worthy advice, and then my daughter turned 17 years old. I spent six months teaching her safe and practical driving techniques on our daily drivers (an XC70 and Taurus SHO). Both are automatic transmission with all the ModCons. But I swore to myself that no child of mine was going to be ignorant of manual transmission, and the day would come when I would have to step up and put a teenager in my FunCar... a supercharged 2007 Lotus Elise Type 72D.

The Mercedes-Benz W201 generation 190E was the predecessor to the people's Mercedes - the C-class. Even in 2.3-16V Cosworth spec, the 190E is a bit pokey, but this 190E has been given an injection of Japanese spice into its plate of schlachtschüssel.

If you're on Oppo or Jalopnik, chances are you don't need me to fill in the big blanks on who Niki Lauda is. However, if you went to see Rush, you might want to dig up a copy of Lauda's autobiography to get some worthwhile context on that year and on the life of the film's underdog.

The Lincoln LS was Ford’s attempt to bring Lincoln a BMW 5-Series competitor in order to gain younger clientele. They wanted to make a proper European sports sedan with independent rear suspension, rear wheel drive, 50/50 weight distribution, along with the luxury amenities one would expect.

The Best of the Rest

Baber K. Khan visited Mordor. Nick the Stick went to the Baja 1000. EddyE posted some of his racing photos from 2013. Several Oppositelock posters organized a meet up; MountainCommand took photos, Agrajag did a picture dump, Aaron Brown shared his photos, Matthias Rios posted photos and dash cam video. TwinTurboBMW shared pictures from C&C Portland. Louros did a photoshoot with his Mini. DannyCatSteve shared his experience from the USGP, as did Bob Loblaw. Consistently inconsistent introduced himself and a sweet '62 T-Bird at his work. McChicken116 attended the USGP, found out where McLaren was staying, met Alexander Rossi and saw David Coulthard. Lutze spotted a new C-Class testing around Stuttgart. BJohnson11 fabbed up the exhaust for his truck. The Swedish Bandit bought a 180sx winter beater and did some work on it. StoneCold got his '69 Boss 302 into the shop to be worked on. Whitetrashsteve bough a Passat. CRZRSN posted some of his dash cam videos. The Real Dacia Sandero attended C&C in Williamsburg. The Jevans did some work on his Miata. Erob599 met Ed Bollan.

As always, If I've missed something and you would like me to include it, let me know.

Fun Discussions

There were several posts that asked questions and sparked some good discussion over the weekend and Monday. Take a peek and chime in on some of them listed below:

Just the #tips

Honourable Mentions

These posts have already been shared with Jalopnik directly but deserve to be mentioned again because they were first posted in Oppositelock:

Want to participate on Oppositelock? Check out the general handbook for posting on OppositeLock as well the Oppo tools to help you get started.

Best of Oppositelock: November 17, 2013

Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 16-17, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 16-17, 2013

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Welcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend?

There are two races this weekend. Yes, all of TWO races. You may be sitting there, in your jammies, as it is Saturday morning and you don't feel like actually getting up yet because that would be silly, thinking "two races?! TWO RACES?! What in Sam Hill am I supposed to do with two races?" Well, baby, these are two races you're not going to want to miss.

The first race is, of course, the finale of the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide seasons, both held at the Homestead-Miami Speedway down in the beautiful, wonderful state of Florida. Florida is known and beloved throughout the world, so I'm not going to tell you much more about it, but Homestead itself is an interesting track. It originally attracted a bit of guff for being "slow" and "boring," two words which should never go with the word "racing," but that was the result of trying to ape Indy. In the past decade or so, though, they've quit all that aping-Indy business, curving out the squared-off corners and adding some sweet little banking to the curves. Now everyone likes it. Go figure.

The other big race is, of course, the Formula One United States Grand Prix. I love this race. Really, I do, and not just because it's a fancy new track and you get to see Texas Governor Rick Perry awkwardly jumping out of McLarens while wearing hipster glasses. And no, it's not just because they give the winner a big silly ill-fitting cowboy hat. And no, it's not just because you can take a lap of the track on Google Maps. And no, it's not just because we've decided to unilaterally name all the corners.

Okay, maybe it is partially because we're naming all the corners.

The main reason I love this track is because it's such a uniquely American experience in Formula One. Massive quantities of beer mixed with massive quantities of hot dogs that have been covered in cornmeal and deep-fried is a Beautiful Thing. Last year's driver's parade featured ridiculously un-F1 American Iron. It's an American driver on an American track. It's a microscope.

It is red, white, and beautiful, beautiful blue in a sport that has been severely lacking those colors (I hear they don't run). Seriously, the last time an American won an F1 race was in 1978. So, yay, America.

It also doesn't hurt that it's one of the few F1 races that gets ridiculous amounts of coverage. So there's that, too.

We know there's been a few site changes recently, so in the interests of comfort and familiarity we'll be keeping the races in the body of the posts. Of course, please use our image annotation tool on the map above to show us races we might have missed, where they're being held, and where we can livestream them.

All times Eastern.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Ford Ecoboost 400 Practice

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Homestead, Florida

12 PM Saturday on FS2

Formula One United States Grand Prix Qualifying

Circuit Of The Americas

Austin, Texas

1 PM Saturday on CNBC (replays at 6:30 PM and 11 PM Saturday and 10:30 AM Sunday on NBCSN)

NASCAR Nationwide Series Ford Ecoboost 300 Qualifying

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Homestead, Florida

1 PM Saturday on FS2

NASCAR Sprint Cup Ford Ecoboost 400 Final Practice

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Homestead, Florida

3 PM Saturday on FS2

Formula One United States Grand Prix

Circuit Of The Americas

Austin, Texas

1 PM Sunday on NBC (replay at 6 PM Sunday on NBCSN)

NASCAR Sprint Cup Ford Ecoboost 400

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Homestead, Florida

1 PM Sunday on ESPN

Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 16-17, 2013

Best of Oppositelock: November 10, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Best of Oppositelock: November 10, 2013

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Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people put a good deal of effort into writing last weekend and Monday. It includes the failed promises of concept cars, why you shouldn't act like a child while driving 75mph, the enigma of the Toyota automatic shifter and more.

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Every generation sees a glimpse of the future when a manufacturer stretches their imagination and envisions what the future car will look like. Then reality sets in and I've been lied to… When we split the atom, it dawned that we can harness this power in a way that doesn't kill people. Haha, silly designers...putting atom powered cars on the road. The future was nuclear powered and it would seem like an awesome powerplant for your local grocery getter...As a nation, we could tell OPEC to suck it.

I am an American abroad, living in Germany, and have successfully purchased a 1988 BMW 320i Touring for future export back to the United States. Good News, Everyone! The '88 Touring is officially registered and insured! If you're new to this series you should read Part I: The Rules for a little background. What comes next is a summary of the first week of ownership, from the issues that may arise from an Ausländer's point of view.

Crossing Africa. It's ridiculously difficult in any sort of purpose built vehicle. Remember this? Well, it's had me thinking... If I were to cross some sort of inhospitable territory in that part of the globe, what would I take? Defenders are cool, but I want to make this a tad more difficult on myself. A diesel W124 wagon? Eh. I could do worse. Much worse. Or maybe better? Yep. Got it. A Peugeot 504 Dangel.

Last night, I was driving my entire family from Houston to Central Texas in the SUPER MOM MOBILE BATTLE WAGON (Buick Enclave) on IH 10. My wife, three young daughters (all under 8), and I, just driving, minding our own business and being safe on the road. Not everyone was following our example.

After eleven months of exciting back-and-forth competition it's time to crown a champion. And of course by this I mean our fantasy championship, Ogier effectively lead the WRC championship since race one at Monte (Loeb doesn't count) and clinched the title two events ago. Not the case for us as we have a four-way battle for the crown, the top four all within a scant 27 points.

So, it's that time of year again. That's right, Motor Trend's Car of the Year award. Among certain enthusiast circles (particularly Jalops) it's become somewhat infamous and, well, there's a reason for that. Still, despite the never-ending doom and gloom about print media, people do pay attention. Perhaps because of the infamy, in fact, enthusiasts pay attention more than ever to what MT has to say about the winners, the aforementioned Passat and the 2013 winner (Tesla S). But what about the losers?

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So I was driving a Corolla for work the other day and, as many a gearhead has done in the past, pondered over the enigma of the Toyota automatic shifter pattern. Toyota isn't the only car manufacturer to employ a step-type pattern or patterns like it, however their's is the most prolific. The seemingly random pattern just didn't make sense to me, but I knew there had to be a reason for it. Then the answer hit me.

For those of you who do not know American Iron, the VRSC (V-Twin Racing Street Custom or V-Rod as it is known) was made for the sport/touring young'ns of the Y generation (akin to Toyota making Scion for yuppies and hipsters in college) with the idea of a performance-oriented Harley in mind, featuring a hydroformed frame and underseat-mounted Fuel Tank, Brembo brakes and a 1,250cc V-Twin engine with Dual Overhead Cams. Yes, it's an OHC engine.

The Best of the Rest

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Monovich took some scenic photos or his bike-adorned Porsche. Labcoatguy photographed his Saab 96 at the oldest Saab dealer in the US. Klic hooned his GTO and stayed on the road this time. Offroadkarter went drag racing with some friends. MatthewKlein220 documented the engine swap in his Firebird. TwinTurboBMW shared photos from C&C in Portland. Gamecat235 attended a NIN concert. Nobody raced in the Lake Elsinor Grand Prix. Ricepuddin' hooned his Focus ST in the dirt. Team5.0 introduced himself and his vehicles. Paul, Man of Mustangs refined his brake choice for his rear axle swap. 6cyl shared pictures of his steering wheel collection. Pixel gave us an update on his '64 C10 pickup. Harris Lue snagged some photos of his foxbody. Carfanatic shared photos from ALMS and WEC at COTA. BJohnson11 did the oil change from hell. F40LM got a ride in an Aventador from Matt Farah. Ramblin Rover shared some more of his Series IIa Land Rover project. Oldirtybootz ran across a nice Ranchero GT. Aya shared some more photos from the Dubai autoshow. Bhardoin took his Z for a sunday drive. Ilike_cougars posted photos from C&C in Mendham, NJ. Njp1589 also went to a C&C. Coty drove 208 miles with a Beetle humping his Ranger. RikVan picked up a new Cherokee SRT8 for a DD. Maximillious bought a Focus ST.

As always, If I've missed something and you would like me to include it, let me know.

Fun Discussions

There were several posts that asked questions and sparked some good discussion last weekend and Monday. Take a peek and chime in on some of them listed below:

Just the #tips

Honourable Mentions

These posts have already been shared with Jalopnik directly but deserve to be mentioned again because they were first posted in Oppositelock:

Want to participate on Oppositelock? Check out the general handbook for posting on OppositeLock as well the Oppo tools to help you get started.

Best of Oppositelock: November 10, 2013

Best of Oppositelock: November 4, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Best of Oppositelock: November 4, 2013

Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people put a good deal of effort into writing from the last 24 hours. It includes honouring the fallen, fixing your friends' cars, the technology of F1 and more.

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I've lost friends, no brothers really, during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Above is the grave for Master Sergeant Brad Clemmons who served in my Expeditionary Group in Iraq back in 2006-2007. It still hurts and probably always will. I've also been the unlucky guy to prepare daily casualty briefings for my 4-Star at his morning meetings. Probably the worst day was just after the Battle for Fallujah. I had to prepare each slide for each service, color-coded: Blue for Air Force; Green for Army; Red for the Marines; and Black for the Navy. On that day I had to document around 200 Marines. When I briefed the room full of Generals and Colonels, there wasn't a dry eye amongst them.

So we've seen plenty of rants about buying cars, recommending cars to buy, dealing with people who don't like recommendations that you give (Sell the kids, buy an Aston instead). But there is one thing that comes with the territory of being "The Car Person" especially if you have a penchant for older cars and working with hand tools. One thing that hasn't been discussed yet. One of your friends asking: "Can you fix my car for me, please? I think it just needs an oil change..."

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Welcome to OppositeLock's own Formula 1 open technical discussion! The one thing that separates Formula 1 from any other motorsport is the absurd level of engineering and aerodynamic advancement that the teams push on each other, and we are here to appreciate, discuss, and revel in the beauty of design on the current limits of speed.

The MWR racing scandal saga is finally coming coming to a close, the last bit of business that needed attending to was where would Martin Truex, the unintended victim, end up. Well now we know that he's on Furniture Row for the coming year and this is extremely good news for everyone.

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Welcome to the first ever LNO Theater recap. Here you will find a repost of all videos from the past week as well as their intros. I like to play racing/car documentaries with the comp screen off when I fall asleep and I've amassed a fair collection of them from around the internet. In that vein, I['ve started] a new series called "LNO Theater".

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The Best of the Rest

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Alex Goy (XCAR) got to drive the Jaguar C-X75. Pabuuu4 did lots of carspotting around London and the Netherlands. Carwitter did a photoshoot with an SLS AMG GT. Rotundapig shared photos from his time around Detroit. Mkbruin went to Cars & Coffe in Richmond. Twinturbobmw took photos at C&C in Portland. Velocity posted pictures from the European Auto Garage C&C and Harper Auto Square C&C. Louros got his project e21 started. Paul, Man of Mustangs got the brakes plumbed on his replacement axle project. One of JayhawkJake's friends sent up a high altitude balloon. Several Jalops attended Caffeine and Carburetors in New Canaan; 190e30, ShelbyRacer78, TheJWT, Ilike_cougars, offroadkarter and Classic Car Club of Manhattan all shared their experiences. Ferrari Festival in Houston was well attended as well; blunion05, FNKSS and PatBateman posted photos, video and stories of their visits. Bandit removed the dash from his Trans Am, again. Jonee attended a France and Italy Car Show. Pilotman finished up the clutch swap on his Mini. Chairman Kaga took his project GTV6 out for a drive.

As always, If I've missed something and you would like me to include it, let me know.

Fun Discussions

There were several posts that asked questions and sparked some good discussion last weekend. Take a peek and chime in on some of them listed below:

Just the #tips

Honourable Mentions

These posts have already been shared with Jalopnik directly but deserve to be mentioned again because they were first posted in Oppositelock:

Want to participate on Oppositelock? Check out the general handbook for posting on OppositeLock as well the Oppo tools to help you get started.

Best of Oppositelock: November 4, 2013

Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 9-10, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 9-10, 2013

Welcome to the Jalopnik Weekend Motorsports Roundup, where we let you know what’s going on in the world of racing, where you can see it, and where you can talk about it all in one convenient place. Where else would you want to spend your weekend?

The racing year is winding down, and with it comes the last gasps of winning speed and glorious dreams. Championships may look all wrapped up, but in many series, they're still undecided.

For those fans of racing with twisty bits, we're running a bit lean this weekend. MotoGP's final race in Valencia, Spain, is your main option, and though two wheels may be bad and four wheels may be better, it's still fantastic competition with possibly even more danger than your run-of-the-mill Formula One race. So you should still tune in.

Over here in the States we've mostly got a mixture of NASCAR and drag racing, with the stock car traveling circus making another stop just outside of Phoenix. Jalopnik contributor and all-around nice guy Parker Kligerman will be charging around the track in the Nationwide Series after last week's Sprint Cup debut, where he finished in the top 20 in his first race. In a five year old car.

Not a bad start, then. And definitely not a bad way to get us through the end of the year.

We know there's been a few site changes recently, so in the interests of comfort and familiarity we'll be keeping the races in the body of the posts. Of course, please use our image annotation tool on the map above to show us races we might have missed, where they're being held, and where we can livestream them.

MotoGP Grand Prix of Valencia Final Practice and Qualifying

Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana

Valencia, Spain

7:20 AM Saturday on SPEED2

NASCAR Sprint Cup Advocare 500 Practice

Phoenix International Raceway

Avondale, Arizona

11:30 AM Saturday on FS1

NASCAR Nationwide Series Servicemaster 200 Qualifying

Phoenix International Raceway

Avondale, Arizona

12:30 PM Saturday on FS1

NASCAR Sprint Cup Advocare 500 Final Practice

Phoenix International Raceway

Avondale, Arizona

2:30 PM Saturday on FS1

NASCAR Nationwide Series Servicemaster 200

Phoenix International Raceway

Avondale, Arizona

3:30 PM Saturday on ESPN2

MotoGP Grand Prix of Valencia

Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana

Valencia, Spain

8 AM Sunday on FS1

NASCAR Sprint Cup Advocare 500

Phoenix International Raceway

Avondale, Arizona

2 PM Sunday on ESPN

Formula DRIFT Round 7

Irwindale Speedway

Irwindale, California

5 PM Sunday on NBCSN (replay)

NHRA Automobile Club of Southern California Finals

Autoclub Raceway at Pomona

Pomona, California

7 PM Sunday on ESPN2

Weekend Motorsports Roundup, November 9-10, 2013

Best of Oppositelock: October 28, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Best of Oppositelock: October 28, 2013

Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people put a good deal of effort into writing last Monday. It includes Star Wars Cars, Thinking Too Deeply About Cars, extinct manufacturers and more.

Star Wars is awesome. Cars are awesome. Combine the two and we get a list of cars suited for those in a galaxy far, far away...

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Despite my irrational critiques, my progressively acquired automotive knowledge has enabled me to appreciate machines that I previously did not. Like many of you, my automotive tastes have evolved over time. Unfortunately, I was not always so open minded; here is a sampling of some of my backwards thinking over the years

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This weekend I rousted a few of my motorcycle friends and we made our way on over to the Larz Anderson Auto Museum to check out the Extinct Car Day, an assemblage of old iron (and a bit of aluminum) from bygone automakers. Some were failed experiments, some were absorbed into one of the Big Three, others just slunk away, either lagging too far behind or reaching a bit too far.

We've all seen the spy shots and read the speculation. It's been in circulation for nigh on two years now, with the car slowly undressing itself of camouflage at six month intervals. But I think its safe to say that the release of a concept, along with near naked prototypes is conclusive evidence that BMW M's most iconic line of sports cars is about to receive its next iteration. However to refer to these cars as “M3's” would not be strictly accurate...

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BMW, Mercedes and Audi are the German Big Three. They have dominated the premium car scene for decades and are all now creeping into other sectors, compounding their positions. But two contenders are emerging, both of which have flourished under their current owners but were dulled under Ford ownership and under-financed before that. Jaguar and Volvo were part of Ford's Premier Automotive Group, a disastrous affair that introduced boring design and Ford components into the formerly skint but well loved companies

Now that the new 2014 Mazda3 is here, I don't feel as bad for shitting all over the last model. Here's how it went with my experience. I will not be sticking to the standard format for Jaloppositelock reviews, but bear with me, as I will touch on all the features that are important, as well as the positives and negatives that I noticed during my four month period of loanership.

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The Datsun F10 is considered by self-appointed experts as the ugliest car from the 1970s - and while it is more forgettably ugly than obtrusively ugly - the idea of picking it as the body for your heavy duty snow-plow built on a Dodge Powerwagon chassis is questionable.

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The Best of the Rest

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Jagvar attended Cars & Coffee in Great Falls, VA. NinetyQ did a photoshoot for some for-sale cars. FJ80waitinforacummins repaired a plastic part of his radiator. Lalevee cleaned his Saab. NaturallyAspirated painted his wheels. Jlmounce got the rear suspension and axle installed in his '69 Firebird.

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As always, If I've missed something and you would like me to include it, let me know.

Fun Discussions

There were several posts that asked questions and sparked some good discussion last Monday. Take a peek and chime in on some of them listed below:

Just the #tips

Honourable Mentions

These posts have already been shared with Jalopnik directly but deserve to be mentioned again because they were first posted in Oppositelock:

Want to participate on Oppositelock? Check out the general handbook for posting on OppositeLock as well the Oppo tools to help you get started.

Best of Oppositelock: October 28, 2013

Best of Oppositelock: October 27, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Best of Oppositelock: October 27, 2013

Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people put a good deal of effort into writing last weekend. It includes NASCAR silliness, a GP2 Hillclimb, Copart auctions and more.

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[Last Saturday], Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr. won the Kroger 200 at Martinsville, making him only the second African-American to win a NASCAR national touring series race since Wendell Scott almost 50 years ago. It was a historic event and an excellent victory that Wallace earned every bit of. Unfortunately, his victory was overshadowed by the usual shenanigans that reminded me why I don't watch NASCAR anymore.

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For some people, the thing that's missing from Formula 1 (aside from a race not being won by Sebastian Vettel) is the danger. If you compare the current Spa-Francorchamps to the original one it's almost sane, and new tracks have acres of tarmac run-off. If you're one such person that believes that there just isn't enough danger, then hopefully a Mr. David Hauser and his Dallara GP2/08 (complete with the full-on 4.0L, 600+ horsepower V8 GP2 engine, by the sound of it) will do for now.

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This beauty needs no introduction. But if you're a one on the scale of how much a Jalop loves cars - one being a person who has no f'ing idea what this car is - ten being a person willing to break up his family by hiding financial problems due to a car/s, its OK I'm a seven on that car scale and I'm here to help you.

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Welcome to my series about the world of insurance auction cars. Now you may be wondering "Why would I want to take a chance on a damaged car?" I'll show you why taking a gamble on an auction car pays off and how much fun you can have in the process. Be sure to check out a few other parts in this Copart Auction Car Diary series: The Fastest I've Ever Sold A Car and it Was A MAZDA and Hitting Auction Gold - 2000 Lincoln LS

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On this round of If Cars Were, we are not only going to introduce 5 brand new cars, but we are going to equate them to some of my favorite (read least favorite) Axis II diagnosis! So, if you are a psych, rehab med, or otherwise general studies student, bust out the DSM, and lets get started!

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Cars costs tens of thousands of dollars to buy and automakers spends millions, sometimes billions developing them and building them, so when you get a slightly expensive repair bill when something goes wrong, stop complaining, otherwise learn how to fix it yourself.

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A lot of people know that this happened but don't necessarily know what exactly happened or much about it. Having been one of those persons, I recently watched a documentary about it and thought I'd share the story of what happened to cause the on-track accident. I made a gif of the on-track accident unfolding at various speeds. The footage was shot by a spectator who was there that day and ends when he stopped filming so that he could turn to run.

People are complaining about F1 celebrations being dull. And I agree. It is not the first time this topic is or will be address, I'm sure, but it's time for the FIA to stop being such dimwits. Drivers like to celebrate, and more so when they achieve a milestone in their careers, a win at their favorite circuit, or a victory for that sake. Celebrations can range in their manner, but the result is that it's a way for the driver to show his love for the sport and fans other than the typical podium jumping and champagne sipping that is somewhat "traditional" to the sport.

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The CLS is finally registered as my car! It was my friend's car before. Until I agreed to swap my S600 for his CLS500 and 2 set of tyres, the originals and AMG. Yes, i know it has a smaller engine. Yes I know it'll broken someday because after all it comes when the Merc was start to fight Lexus in a bad way. Yes I know it's a stupid 4-door coupe, it's like you asked Mercedes to remove 2 doors from the S-Class and put them back again. But, love is strange…

The Best of the Rest

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TwinTurboBMW posted pictures and Video from Cars & Coffee in Portland. Biapilotaceman caught a Ferrari roasting during a Ferrari Club race at NOLA Motorsports Park. F86sabre attended the National Business Aviation Association Convention in Las Vegas. Jqj213 got a new Civic. BJohnson11 got his truck running well. JUS1029 did a photoshoot with die cast cars. KusabiSensei shared a video of a track in his Z4. Carwitter photographed an abandoned 370z. SnapUndersteer took his e38 740i autocrossing.

As always, If I've missed something and you would like me to include it, let me know.

Fun Discussions

There were several posts that asked questions and sparked some good discussion last weekend. Take a peek and chime in on some of them listed below:

Just the #tips

Honourable Mentions

These posts have already been shared with Jalopnik directly but deserve to be mentioned again because they were first posted in Oppositelock:

Want to participate on Oppositelock? Check out the general handbook for posting on OppositeLock as well the Oppo tools to help you get started.

Best of Oppositelock: October 27, 2013