And the car of the year is..... Electric

[AggieDave 6]

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I defined nothing. I told you how these sorts of magazines do it. It's no different with the bicycle or motorcycle or dive magazines, who exist based on advertising and run the same articles on a 6 month rotation. They will pick the products that are new or extremely well selling and most likely to want ad space.

You want really bad, read bodybuilding/fitness magazines, photography magazines or even worse are bride magazines!

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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Give me a Panameras S and I would drive the piss out of it! It might be ugly but I have 2 kids and just bought a mini-van to go in the stable with the Jetta Sportwagon and hotrod Superbeetle (and motorcycles, which don't help with the kid thing).

If I sold all my vehicles I *might* could afford one.

Once again I am heavily bias towards cars driven on the track (call it a fault of mine if you want) and my '97 993C2 is only a medium speed car. But I can drive it at the limit and it corners just as fast as many cars that cost a lot more (I do have suspension and brake mods installed which helps). In fact you can drive any car you want on the track, you don't need to be in a super car. It's just that if you are too slow when the green flag is out, you won't be making very many friends out there. Keeping that in mind, a week ago I thought I was going to have to replace my '99 Jeep Wrangler. The PCM had failed and apparently Chrysler no longer makes the part. I had a PCM from a junked Jeep put in there and problem solved. But if the PCM did not work I would be forced to find a replacement for a winter daily driver. Yes putting winter tires on my rear wheel drive 911 was an option, but I am paranoid of being rear ended when the white slippery stuff is on the ground. So what was I thinking about as a possible replacement keeping in mind I will never ever buy a front wheel drive automatic? The replacements I was thinking about are not cheap, but I was thinking a good car for winter driving would be a car engineered from rally racing. The Evo was on the table, but I am not so sure about Mitsubishi's future. However Subaru is a solid company and not only would the WRX STi be great on snow, it also has four doors which would be good for kids. You could have fun driving a car engineered from rally racing with your kids riding along with you in the back seats.

Oh and I do vaguely remember you talking about your Super Beettle last year. You have 500 or so ponies in that thing? LOL ... hope you have some good brakes and a stiff suspension for that monster.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[AggieDave 6]

Around 150hp, complete suspension and brake upgrade with some custom parts. Point and shoot driving.

Anyways, the last vehicles I had on the track were an Interceptor Crown Vic and a Honda ST1300P (with ABS). Neither of them would impress you, but they're the tools of the trade and I need to be good with them. Although both would probably "impress" you in your rearview mirror...especially the motorcycle.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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Neither of them would impress you, but they're the tools of the trade and I need to be good with them.

What impresses me on the track is when I see someone driving the snot out of whatever car they have regardless of how fast or how not so fast it is. There is this fellow I know (let's call him Kyle because well that's his name) and he is never in a fast car. So I pass him all the time. But whenever I am behind him waiting for my opportunity to pass, I can see that he is squeezing every ounce of performance that he can find out of his car. What's not impressive if when some rich guy shows up with his super car and I can pass him with ease because he does not know how to control his beast in the corners. Of course nirvana is when you get to ride along with someone who not only has the super car but also knows how to drive it. That is a sweet experience. One day I got to ride as a passenger with an instructor I have used, Allen Berg a former F1 driver from 1986. Allen was fast and very smooth with his control inputs. He might have had a longer F1 career had he only had better sponsors. He finished 3rd behind Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle in the 1983 F3 championship. But F1 is all about the money.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[kelpdiver 2]

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You want really bad, read bodybuilding/fitness magazines, photography magazines or even worse are bride magazines!

US photomags are quite likely the worst. But UK ones (Digital SLR, Practical Photography, their version of Outside Photographer) are quite strong, and I frequently shell out the $11 they sell for here.

Bodybuilding/Fitness mags take that 6 month rotation i talked about and shrink it to 3.

[Remster 30]

Do you remember the Top Gear where they had the female German driver take a delivery van around Nurembering? It was fucking hilarious! She was shouting at motorcycles to get out of the way!

Remster

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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Do you remember the Top Gear where they had the female German driver take a delivery van around Nurembering? It was fucking hilarious! She was shouting at motorcycles to get out of the way!

You are talking about my future wife (though she does not know this yet).

Sabine Schmidt, the fastest taxi driver in the world.

Oh and she also knows how to fly helicopters. So bring your rig.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[AggieDave 6]

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You want really bad, read bodybuilding/fitness magazines, photography magazines or even worse are bride magazines!

US photomags are quite likely the worst. But UK ones (Digital SLR, Practical Photography, their version of Outside Photographer) are quite strong, and I frequently shell out the $11 they sell for here.

Bodybuilding/Fitness mags take that 6 month rotation i talked about and shrink it to 3.

Being a really serious Photog I can't help myself and I have subscriptions to a handful of US magazines, but I also end up buying the UK magazines since they are more instructional or about the zen of photography.
To be completely honest, I have a bit of a periodicals problem, I think my current subscription rate is something like 10 different publications a month. No, not *those* kinds of magazines.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[AggieDave 6]

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Neither of them would impress you, but they're the tools of the trade and I need to be good with them.

What impresses me on the track is when I see someone driving the snot out of whatever car they have regardless of how fast or how not so fast it is. There is this fellow I know (let's call him Kyle because well that's his name) and he is never in a fast car. So I pass him all the time. But whenever I am behind him waiting for my opportunity to pass, I can see that he is squeezing every ounce of performance that he can find out of his car. What's not impressive if when some rich guy shows up with his super car and I can pass him with ease because he does not know how to control his beast in the corners. Of course nirvana is when you get to ride along with someone who not only has the super car but also knows how to drive it. That is a sweet experience. One day I got to ride as a passenger with an instructor I have used, Allen Berg a former F1 driver from 1986. Allen was fast and very smooth with his control inputs. He might have had a longer F1 career had he only had better sponsors. He finished 3rd behind Ayrton Senna and Martin Brundle in the 1983 F3 championship. But F1 is all about the money.

Just like swooping, except for the money.

In fact I was riding around at work today thinking about what you have said in this thread and the swooping comparison came up again in my mind. A PD Storm is just about worthless in a pro-level swooping competition; however, it is an all around great canopy to jump and enjoy for a large number of jumpers. Same with a Sabre2 or a Pilot. A Velo with HMA, RDS and loaded at 2.75 was my weapon of choice. It was quite the beast and could perform in some amazing ways, but it is a canopy that is well out of the desired canopy choice or ability for the large majority of skydivers. Put Quade under that canopy and he would shit his pants when he released the toggles and went to full flight!

So a badass track car might be great, but for the majority of people it doesn't fit their needs. This is coming from the guy who just bought a Routan with all the options.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[kelpdiver 2]

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Being a really serious Photog I can't help myself and I have subscriptions to a handful of US magazines, but I also end up buying the UK magazines since they are more instructional or about the zen of photography.
To be completely honest, I have a bit of a periodicals problem, I think my current subscription rate is something like 10 different publications a month. No, not *those* kinds of magazines.

yeah, it's a cycle where they build up, and then finally I realize it's more work just to store them and I cancel a bunch. Then the cycle renews.

I resubscribed another 2 years to Outdoor Photography on a good phone solicitation, but soon after regretted it as the content level has plumented to where I get all out of it within 15 minutes of reading. I won't renew again. It's funny comparing the amount of useful word count and pics between it and Practical Photography. I particularly like the section where they critique user submissions, and spare no punches. They are about the final result, not the tools used.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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In fact I was riding around at work today thinking about what you have said in this thread and the swooping comparison came up again in my mind.

There are "speed rush" similarities between swooping and tracking your car. Trust me, if I could have stayed current in swoop competitions like I was back in 2005 and 2006 I never would have given it up and I would still be competing today (though I am sure I would not be winning any PST events). But I just could not stay current what with winter plaguing me for 5-6 months of the year. So I found a substitute. Tracking my car which has a much larger margin for error meaning being uncurrent is not nearly as hazardous. My 1997 911 with my suspension and braking mods has been the perfect car to learn on. It is definitely not a slow car, but it is also not over powering where I find myself behind the eight ball. My 285HP 911 is like a highly loaded Crossfire canopy. I won't be winning any races/swoop competitions with it, but my learning curve is steady to the point where my own personal driving limits on the track is pretty damn close to the car's limit. A more accomplished driver could find a little extra performance out of the car. But not much. I have built a good reputation for being a fast driver in a medium speed car. Yes I lust for a faster car and I believe I have paid my dues learning on my medium speed 911. So could I handle a faster car? The answer is yes, but it would take time to learn it. There is no way I could just jump into a super car right now and lap as fast as a more experienced driver could. But for sure I could lap faster than the rich guy who passed the stop signs along the way and bought himself the super car without learning on the slower car.

Yes there are a lot of similarities between swooping and tracking your car. But there are two huge differences. The margin for error in swooping is a lot smaller and a bad ass swooping canopy will cost you a couple of grand where a super car starts at over a 100k which I don't really have right now (so my moderately priced 15 year old last of the air cooled engines medium speed 993 will just have to do). It is so much easier to get yourself into trouble jumping in front of the line in swooping and the higher death rates would also back this up. But they are both so much fun. You know what it's like to dive your canopy at the ground, level off and swoop the pond and driving about 220 kph and in the matter of 200 meters braking hard and taking turn #1 at 140 kph is a cool substitute for swooping when you can't stay current with your swooping.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[AggieDave 6]

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and driving about 140 mph and in the matter of 200 yards braking hard and taking turn #1 at 100 mph is a cool substitute for swooping when you can't stay current with your swooping.

Have I ever sent you any of the videos I put together from GoPro footage on my work motorcycle?

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[CanuckInUSA 0]

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Have I ever sent you any of the videos I put together from GoPro footage on my work motorcycle?

No are they on YouTube? Not sure if my email can handle large files.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over