If it’s got an engine . . .

On the way to Atlanta. Man, they look fantastic in person.

Well, I finally got the other $250 Porsche home. All in all it’s in really good condition. The engine’s toast. Something in the bottom end.

I’ve often heard it said that there’s nothing more expensive than a cheap Porsche.  This is probably true for air-cooled Porsches.  The 914s had a tendency to rust horribly on the frames, necessitating an expensive, time consuming fix.  All air-cooled 911s have ludicrous engine rebuild costs — and rarely make it much past 100k without needing one.

But the water-cooled Porsches are a different story (I hope!).  The 924 (other than the turbo model) is simplicity itself.  With its plebeian Audi 4 cylinder  and near bulletproof transaxle, there really isn’t much expensive to fix.

So I bought two.  Nope, neither run.  Pretty, though.

We’ll see how it goes.

I often make money on my automotive hobby.  Particularly when I’m given the cars in question.  But rarely does it work out as well as it did in the case of my Trans Ams and Honda CB750s.

In 1995, I traded a Buick Century wagon for a 1977 Honda CB750k and some cash.  All told, I had bout $500 in the bike.  I kept it for years, never doing much in the way of maintenance on it.  It was pretty rough.

In 2001, I bought a 1979 Tenth Anniversary Trans Am (the silver one in the pic).  It was very rough.  It got rougher in the years I owned it.

In 2003, someone asked if I was interested in a 1981 Trans Am (the blue one in the pic).  It didn’t run, but supposedly looked good.  I thought it might be good for some body parts, so I went to look at it.  It was very nice (at least compared to mine).  I offered the Honda in trade, he accepted.

I spend a weekend swapping the 403 from my rough TA into the nice ‘81, and immediately someone offered to trade me a 1981 Honda CB750C for the ‘79 TA shell.

Naturally, I jumped on it.

After it was all said and done, I had a 2 year newer TA in much better condition and a 4 year newer bike, also in much better condition.

I wish they all turned out that well.

New research that has been carried out by Moneysupermarket.com, the UK’s leading price comparison site, shows that male motorists will pay around £17,000 more in their driving lifetime on Car Insurance than female motorists.

Experts at Moneysupermarket.com analysed over 6 million motor insurance quotes from the full year of 2008 and revealed that the average premium for a male driver is around £743 a year, this is a considerable amount more compared to the average female premium coming out £289 cheaper a year at £454 annually. This difference adds up to around £17,000 more over a driving life time.

The research carried out also reveals that there is a significant difference in the cost of premiums for different age groups, especially younger drivers. The average premium for an eighteen year old male comes out at £2,200 a year, which is £1,905 more expensive than a premium for a male driver who is in his forties. The same sort of differences occurs when comparing the premium for a male and female in their twenties. The average premium for a male driver in his twenties comes out at £997; where as the average premium for a female driver in her twenties is £576.

There are several factors that play a part in the gender biased prices. One factor that plays a big part in this is that the average distance that is covered by men in the

Steve Sweeney, head of motor insurance at moneysupermarket.com, said: “Quite obviously sex and age discrimination continues to be rife in the motor insurance industry, and it comes as no surprise policies for the ‘riskier’ younger generation, and ‘boy racers’ are pricier. Furthermore, despite the Equality Bill coming into force in April 2009 it seems drivers will continue to face a rough ride as insurers are permitted to continue using age and sex as a legitimate way to calculate the price of premiums. Finding affordable motor insurance can be tricky, and at a time when every penny counts it’s crucial to shop around for the best deal to suit you.”

If you are a young driver wanting to reduce the cost of your premium, Moneysupermarket.com recommends the following:

• Shop around – By comparing as few as 5 different providers you could save up to 35%
• Buy online - Many car insurance providers offer discounts to customers that buy online.
• Car security - Make sure you have an alarm and immobiliser.
• Drive a car with a smaller engine - A newer, more reliable car that is less likely to be used by ‘boy racers’ will have a cheaper premium.
• Pass Plus - This is where a young driver who has already passed their driving has more advanced lessons to make them an even safer driver; achieving Pass Plus can earn significant discounts (as much as 35%) on your car insurance.

The vast majority of motorcycles out there use a chain to transmit power from the transmission output to the rear wheel.  However, there are other options.  Most (all?) Harley Davidson motorcycles use a belt for the final drive, and there are quite a few (mostly touring-style) bikes that use shaft drive.  Each has its pro’s and con’s. 

Chain

• Pro’s
  • cheap
  • easy to mend with master link
  • easy to change gearing
    • changing the number of teeth on the sprockets changes your final drive ratio
• Con’s
  • messy
    • must be kept oiled to minimize wear
  • adjustment required to remove slack
  • replacement required approximately every 20,000 miles

Belt

• Pro’s
  • cheap
  • quiet
  • clean (no oil)
  • adjustment rarely required (compared to chains)
•  Con’s
  • more difficult to change gearing
    • belt drive sprockets are not readily available in a variety of tooth counts
  • cannot splice together if it breaks

 Shaft

• Pro’s
  • almost no maintenance required
  • quiet
  • clean
• Con’s
  • almost no gearing options available
  • changes in throttle position affect suspension geometry
    • getting on and off the throttle in mid-turn upsets the bike

 All told, if you’re the kind of guy who doesn’t mind a bit of maintenance, then the chain’s benefits greatly outweigh it’s detractions.  If, on the other hand, you’re the kind of guy who just wants to get on and ride, then a shaft drive bike is the way to go.

I’m not sure why belt drives even exist.

A recent Car and Driver magazine article (Mileage Myths and Misconceptions, December 2008) mentioned the myth that warm water freezes faster than cold water.

They received many letters patiently explaining to them that it was not a myth, but a fact.  My favorite “proof” was in the letter by Edward J. Muhr from Littleton, Colorado.  He writes:

“Talk to people experienced in cold-weather building maintenance, the people who unthaw frozen water lines with a propane torch while lying on their backs at 2:30 am in 10-degree weather.  They can provide multiple examples of adjacent hot and cold water lines, where the cold-water line runs freely and the hot-water line is frozen solid.”

I wonder if Mr. Muhr considered the fact that anytime anyone in the building flushes the toilet in the middle of the night, water flows through those cold water lines, while the hot water lines sit stagnant?

 I saw a truck today going down I-85 through Atlanta.  This truck had furniture stacked precariously in the bed, reaching about 6 feet above the top of the cab.  The whole lot of it held by a single, thin piece of twine.

It reminded me of the time I bought a piano.  I was living in Silverdale, Washington, and I didn’t own a truck.  In fact, I’ve never owned a truck, but that’s another story.  My neighbor had a truck - a Toyota Tacoma - and offered to take me to pick up the piano in Bremerton, Washington, about ten miles away.  Old upright pianos are heavy.  Like, eight or nine hundred pounds heavy.  We managed to get it loaded into the truck and headed home.

We made it to within about 200 yards of my house.  While negotiating the very last turn, I felt a thump and looked behind me.  I turned just in time to see the piano roll over the passenger side of the truck bed and crash into the sidewalk.  It did not make a pretty sound.  It, too had been held by a single rope.

With the help of some astonished joggers, we managed to get the piano parts back into the truck.  We put it in my garage, where I proceeded to ignore it for the next two weeks.

Eventually, I looked at it.  It didn’t look all that bad, but only about 1/3 of the keys worked, and they didn’t sound right.  After putting the structural parts back together, I had 3/4 of the keys working, and they sounded much better.  But I was at a loss as to how to fix the rest.

To the library!  I hoped that there would be a book there that dealt with repairing pianos.  There turned out to be a couple dozen books dedicated to piano repair/refurbishment.  I checked out the ones with lots of pictures and went to work.  When all was said and done, the piano sounded good as new, and you had to look closely to see the scars.

I’ve moved pianos at least four times since then, and each time have used many strong straps (often borrowed from Stephen).  No problems.

Joe Sherlock over at The View Through the Windshield posted the first sentence from the first post of each month of 2008.  The results were quite interesting, and made me want to read the rest.  I’ve taken the idea and applied it to my own blog.  The results are below.  Click on the month to read the complete post.

January ‘08 - Well, it’s official.

February ‘08 - According to the good fellows at Jalopnik, the CB1100F will be in Honda showrooms as early as next year.

March ‘08 -  This is the coolest thing ever.

April ‘08 - It’s been a bit hectic here.

May ‘08 - There was a time . . . when I didn’t like Harley Davidson motorcycles.

June ‘08 -  If that’s your business plan, you probably need to stop and rethink.

July ‘08 - About a year ago, I asked “Are electric cars ready for primetime?”

August ‘08 - Stand by for lots of Ford 2009 model information.

September ‘08 - One of my favorite actors/singers has died.

October ‘08 -  My buddy David went to the Atlanta SCCA autocross #10 yesterday in his Mini Cooper S.

November ‘08 -  I just received my December 2008 issue of Car and Driver magazine.

December ‘08 - That’s what these cars had as power sources, instead of an engine.

When I was stationed in New York, I lived in Navy Housing.  Not particularly nice, but I had a garage.  Winters are cold in New York.  This garage was unheated.  It was a detached 4 unit garage, one of which was mine.  The rafters were open between the units.  I tried heating it with a kerosene heater, but all that was really good for was warming my hands.  I ended up hanging tarps up in the ceiling to block the head from heating the other 3 garages.  It helped, some.

Where I live now, I have no garage.  It was cold yesterday when I was trying to work on the car.   It’s pretty much impossible to dress warmly enough and still be able to reach into a tightly congested engine compartment.  I ended up working for about 5 minutes, then defrosting inside for 15.

Car’s still not fixed.  Maybe today?