Off Topic: "The General Diffusion Of Knowledge"

That's a Thomas Jefferson sound byte, I think.  He was for it.  (Not everyone is, these days.)

I'm downsizing my household, a well-known byproduct of ancien-ness.  One category of things I have way too many of is books: car books, biographies, histories.

I'm in the mood to donate, so I called my local library.  "Actually, we can't use 'em," the librarian said.  "We don't blow donors off, because it's not good community relations.  But, truth to tell, we recycle [shred] anything that comes in our front door from the general public."

So I called a prison.  "The few books we have are in terrible shape," the librarian said, "so we're not looking for more."  I'm still trying to understand that.

So I called my local middle school.  "Most of the books I want to donate are car books, which I think would appeal to middle school-aged boys."  "Oh yeah," the librarian said.  I continued: "But the rest of them are very adult stuff on history and politics, maybe more suitable for college-aged kids."

"No problem.  I know this guy who has a program to donate books to underserved areas of Appalachia.  What I do is go though your stuff, keep what I or the high schools can use, and give the rest to him.  He packs 'em up and drives 'em down there a couple of times a year to outfits who want them.  Phone me before you come and I'll meet you at the front door."

I guess nobody reads books any more--at least that's what I see on TV.  ;-)  But my middle school librarian and I, we're gonna go down on the Good Ship Gutenberg, with our colors flying.

Last Of This Season's Car Show Pix

There's no particular justification for this selection from among the 250 cars or so that I saw in September, other than I liked 'em.

'65 at the Meadowdale show.

'64 at my local show.  There seems to be a pattern here.  Is Pilote a bigger fan of the Sting Ray than he knew?

I'll have one from Column A and one from Column B, please.

The Porsche is an original, unrestored '73 (except for a repaint), all the more remarkable for having spent its entire
life in the Milwaukee-Chicago area.

If your TC's this pristine, you can wear whatever clothes and hirsuteness you like to a car show...

  Does anyone besides Pilote remember Judson Superchargers of Conshohocken,
Pennsylvania?  Bolt-on, driven by an extra V-belt from the crankshaft pulley.
About 15 lbs. of boost, as I recall.  MGA and VW Beetle applications were,
I think, the most popular applications.  Love the vanity plate!

Pilote's monomania: minimalism.  I think that I think this is the prettiest Ford 3-window I've seen because of the great
looking metallic pewter paint and the lack of flames and pin-striping: Nothin' But The Car.

The fuel injection (Hilborn?) cleans up the top of the engine.

Old-timey circular pedal pads, but they're suspended like modern ones (not pivoting below the floor).  Have you ever
seen a 3-window that looked like it had a comfortable driving position?

"Best Of Summer Shows"

This Aston Martin DB2/4 Mark III wins my "Best of Summer" car shows nomination, pulling away easily.  It was restored by Sport & Specialty of Durand, IL, using a donor car.  More correctly, the best of two very rough donor cars were combined.  Their website shows some details:

http://www.sportandspecialty.com/Aston.html

Until I looked it up on Wikipedia, I didn't know there was a Mark III.  It turns out to have the usual upgrades for a car built in the late 1950's: a bigger, more powerful engine, front disc brakes, and a more svelte body (borrowing the front end from the DB3S racing sports car, which has since become the "traditional" Aston Martin grille).  The Mark III was the final iteration of the DB2/4 and was succeeded by the DB4 ("James Bond") Aston.  So it was a kind of stopgap (1957-1959) while the new car was readied.

The engine was punched out from 2.6 to 2.9 liters, with horsepower ranging from 162 to 180, depending on the induction and exhaust system.  (Ten cars were made with wilder camshafts and Weber carbs, raising horsepower to 195.)  These were not ground-pounding numbers, even in the late '50's, and a     0-60 time of 9.3 seconds with a top end of 120 m.p.h. wasn't in Jaguar or Corvette, let alone Ferrari, territory.  Yet its $7450 list price was well above what you'd have paid for a Jag or a 'Vette.

Road & Track complained about heavy steering and a stiff ride, according to Wikipedia, and the Mark III got no credit for its innovative rear hatch with fold-down seats (which made it the most user-friendly GT).  It also lacked rack & pinion steering.

None of this seems to matter much 55 years on.  The Mark III is almost as pretty as a Ferrari (with a top-of-the-line interior too), and prettier than contemporary Jags.  Who cares about heavy steering and a harsh ride if the car is a weekend toy?  Just enjoy the revs from the d.o.h.c. straight six and the needles on those Smith's analog gauges moving around.  This car is so mechanical.  Thought bubble: "The Red Baron climbs aboard his DB2/4 Mark III and..."

Hotshoe, Indeed!

Time to watch my butt on the Dragon: "VTEC?  VTEC?!?!?  We don't need no steenkin' VTEC!"

Dragon Tales:10/13 Visit, Post 6 (And Last)

This is just to show off the new dragon at the Tail of the Dragon Store.  In m.h.o., it is not just a tourist attraction, but high-concept metal sculpture.  It seemed a stunner when I, stupidly, assumed it was stainless steel (think of the cost!).  But it's plain old carbon steel, and will be rusty brown some day.
Even more cool!  It's already starting to rust at some joints.  I love the details.  You can spend 20 minutes studying it and not get bored.

Dragon Tales:10/13 Visit, Post 5

This post is just to make a couple of my Dragon videos available.  The first one is cockpit field-of-view. The run time is 8 minutes (to which Vimeo limited me, but about the same time I ran out of clear road anyway).

https://vimeo.com/77590779?utm_source=email&utm_medium=clip-transcode_complete-finished-20120100&utm_campaign=7701&email_id=Y2xpcF90cmFuc2NvZGVkfDQyOGY2ZDQ5NTE0MjRhZTRhODc3NTYwYjFjOGRiOGQ1NzAzfDIyMDQ1MDc3fDEzODI1MzMxNzE%3D

The second one, of similar length, is a hood-mount.  I'm posting these for friends and relations.  If you're looking for useful driving tips, watch Killboy's videos.

https://vimeo.com/78054499?utm_source=email&utm_medium=clip-transcode_complete-finished-20120100&utm_campaign=7701&email_id=Y2xpcF90cmFuc2NvZGVkfDk2ODA2NTViYjA4MjVmOTY2ZDE1Yzc5YjE1OWVmMTFlMjk4fDIyMDQ1MDc3fDEzODMwNDM2MDA%3D


Being new to in-car video, it's amusing to me that camera placement makes such a difference.  Same car, same driver, same road.  The cockpit video makes a pass look slow, compared to how fast I thought I was going.  The hood-mounted video makes a pass look (and sound) faster than it really is.

Speaking of speed, I'm a slow learner, and will still be learning the Dragon many trips hence.  I have a full pass learned maybe 20%.  By 20%, I mean than when I set up for a bend, I know what's coming, and in the next two or three, well enough to drive it hard.  Northbound and southbound passes look and feel completely different.  Here's what I've learned so far:

2011: Do not try to shorten corners by apexing pull-outs.  It gets you into deep trouble at the exit.

2012: Power is needed, in a modestly powered car.  I use 2nd gear for a hard pass (3rd gear for a cruise).  You need to be high in the rev band to pull strongly out of the apex.  What I don't know yet, consistently, is where all the straights are, that are long enough to upshift into 3rd and bury the throttle again.  That's as opposed to leaving it in 2nd, and floating the car into the next (somewhat distant) bend.  On the most recent trip, I was into the rev limiter too much.

2013: Respect your brakes.  I've learned to slow up at the end of a pass to let them cool down.  My front wheels are no longer hot to the touch.  But even when they've cooled, the brake calipers will burn your fingers.  I learned this in the parking lot of the DGMR, having backed out of the pass after the State Line.  This gives you some idea of the amount of heat being transferred to the brake fluid.  We're all driving our street cars at the Gap.  Give your brakes a thought before you pack for the trip.

Dragon Tales:10/13 Visit, Post 4

So, it turned out on Saturday that the Dragon was even more crowded than it had been on Friday (surprise!).  My experience, and that of others, is that if you want unobstructed passes, it's best to be at Deal's Gap in the middle of the week.  But on this trip I wanted to meet Darryl "Killboy" Cannon, who, at present, shoots on the Dragon only on Fridays.  And I wanted to watch the "fiddy races" at the DGMR on Saturday night.

To make a long story shorter, I bagged the Dragon after lunch on Saturday for a 45 m.p.h. run on the Cherohala Skyway over to Bald River Falls and back.  After the intensity of the Dragon, it was relaxing.  I used pulloffs to get out of the way of bikers on cruisers!  I'd had a chance to chat with Darryl on Friday, but ran into him again on Saturday.

To repeat myself, I admire Darryl not only for his photography, which captures the feel of his subjects so well, but also for his affection for the Dragon itself.  He came (from Middle Tennessee), fell in love with the road, and stayed.  He wants others to enjoy it too.  This is clear from the Tips For Riders And Drivers and his Twelve Minutes videos on his website.

I discovered the Dragon during a family reunion in Gatlinburg in 2011.  I've been back four times since then, and hope to go again as often.  Thanks, Darryl, for making a great driving experience even better.

Chez Killboy, on the Cherohala Skyway.  Darryl is patient with fans who want to gas on (and on) about this or that.  He
is also a walking encyclopedia of performance car knowledge.  Some of his mastery comes from buff magazines, which he consumes and digests like food while waiting for potential customers to drive by.  Some of it comes from personal
experience.  From Darryl I learned that a brake job on a Ferrari 458 Italia costs $28,000!  Not only must the carbon
fiber pads be replaced, but also the ditto discs.  Where else are you going to get the discs but from Ferrari?  The 458
has a reasonable sticker price as supercars go.  Talk about a Loss Leader!

Tellico Lake from the Cherohala Skyway.  The Skyway's overlooks are a fine alternative if you want to decompress
from the intensity of Dragon passes.  For that matter, it's a good alternative if you brought a big car with big power.
Just remember that those fast sweepers have drop-offs too, and that people are strolling around at the overlooks,
not expecting you to bomb around the corner at a high rate of knots.  The speed limit is 45 in NC, 40 in TN.

What I miss most about the east, where I grew up, is the reds.  We get changes of season in Minnesota and northern
Illinois, too, and people make "leafer" trips to Lake Superior and along the rivers in Illinois.  But we get shades of
yellow, not much red.

I miss the mountains too.  But I'll be back.