©2008 Matt Finley

I've been riding motorcycles for many, many years. Longer than I've been driving cars. In fact, it is literally because of motorcycles (and an accident we had) that I married my best friend 14 years ago. Anyway, before I get side tracked, back to the topic.

I recently got the opportunity to take a long run up and down one of my favorite (motorcycle) roads in San Diego County (Highway 67 between El Cajon and Julian) in what is arguably one of the best performance cars made in the US: a 2008 Z06 Corvette.

This wasn't one of those dealer's test rides with the salesman sitting next to me. It was a "Hey, neighbor, lets go for a ride in my new Vette". Who was I to say "no" ?? Well, I had said no several times before when he offered to let me drive his 2005 production Vette, mostly because I didn't want to put myself in the position of wanting to go right out and buy one. Given that this was the Z06, who was I to decline?

So we left the Highway 67 restaurant and, after stalling it letting out the clutch once or twice, I quickly became comfortable with the handling. By the time we got to Julian, I had realized how quickly I was wrapping around corners, and couldn't remember going that fast around those same corners in ANY of the sport bikes I've taken up there over the decades.

I have heard people that don't know any better saying that cars can corner faster than today's sport bikes, and always laughed it off. I knew from experience that it was not true.

Until the Z06, that is.

I'm finally convinced that there's at least one American car that can corner like it was on rails, and I got to prove it to myself.

When I was in high-school the craze was muscle cars. I had friends that would spend countless hours pimping up their cars only to hit the road on friday nights. Ok, I was one of those guys too. Mine was a 360 1971 javelin. What a car. There were many a times, late at night I could be found streaming down....ops...probably shouldn't tell that story even if the statute of limitations have run out. Anyway, muscle cars are still part of the car-loving public. Just go get a feel for it at What Muscle-Car Madness is All About

What are your plans for this labor day? Are you going to be hitting the road and putting that ever popular dollar in the gas tank? Have gas prices dropped? What can you expect to pay? Are you even aware that gas prices have dropped in the last couple of weeks? If you're heading through St. Louis you might want to fill up the tank as the price in that city is only $3.295. So where do you get your gas pricing information? Do you even look anymore? Try out gasbuddy.com for your gas-traveling-needs. It is at least interesting even if you've just had enough of the gas-watching frenzy.

Way too much time on your hands?

Try drawing a car with microsoft paint. After watching this video I am insprired to just give it a try myself. How about you? The video last for about 5 minutes but the speed of the frames probably puts it at about 200 gazillian hours. If anything, you might just want to watch to see some of the fine details that are required. Surely there is a better software package to do this with. Awesome to watch!

This is crazzy, amazzy, and dazzy.

Have you picked up on the new craze of street skating? I sure hope not. One of the newest crazes in Saudi and almost unbelieveable. All I know is these kidos have no respect for their lives or the harm it can do to someone along side them. Is this post a promotion? No. I mearly wanted to show this video to bring it to your attention. AND, IF you ever hear of taking part of street skating, STAY CLEAR. It is liable to end up as deadly as ghost-riding.

How to inflate car tires


How to inflate car tires
Underinflated tires wear prematurely
Underinflated tires can be dangerous
Underinflated tires can hurt fuel economy

Do you know your tires?
Do you know how to put air in your tires?

With the push by government to make sure we all do our best to get better gas milege I thought it only fitting to find a video that did just that. For me, having a car and never enough money to buy new tires, I quickly became an expert in filling tires. Go give it a try. It isn't that hard.

Is it EcoDriving or EgoDriving? The headlines read something like this:"Gov. Schwarzenegger joins forces with auto industry to help drivers save money on gasoline".

While I, and you probably too, can agree we are all wanting to save money on gas. But, statements like that just rip to my core. Do you really believe the auto industry cares about how much gas we consome? The statements made by Gov. Schwarzenegger and auto-buddies suggest that if EVERYONE would maintain their cars properly, we could cut down on the toxins we put into the air, BE more fuel efficient, AND save money.

Give me a break! how many of us are going to change our car maintenance patterns? But the big thing here is, the auto industry doesn't really care about us saving money, they are here to sell cars. And instead of thinking we are gullible, why don't they MAKE a fule efficient car.