Automotive Blogger

I have fond memories of the ancient 8-track player in my uncle’s beat up old Ford pick-up truck. It wasn’t an original part of the truck; he added it, but summer memories are all tied up in trips to the beach with that thing cranking out tunes.

These days, of course, we’re all more likely to plug in an mp3 player or a cd, than any kind of tape (I recently reviewed a new car that had a cassette deck in it, and had to pause and shake my head. Who even owns tapes any more?), and many of us are listening to HD radio, if not satellite, when we do resort to getting our motoring music via airwaves.

So I’ve been thinking tonight about music and cars lately, and I’ve come up with five songs ABOUT cars to share with you today.

1. Fun Fun Fun, The Beach Boys
   

   Well she got her daddy’s car
   And she cruised through the hamburger stand now
   Seems she forgot all about the library
   Like she told her old man now
   And with the radio blasting
   Goes cruising just as fast as she can now

   And she’ll have fun fun fun
   til her daddy takes the t-bird away
   (fun fun fun til her daddy takes the t-bird away)

2. Paradise by the Dashboard Light, Meat Loaf
   

   I remember every little thing
   As if it happened only yesterday
   Parking by the lake
   And there was not another car in sight
   And I never had a girl
   Looking any better than you did
   And all the kids at school
   They were wishing they were me that night

   And now our bodies are oh so close and tight
   It never felt so good, it never felt so right
   And we’re glowing like the metal on the edge of a knife
   C’mon! Hold on tight!
   C’mon! Hold on tight!

   Though it’s cold and lonely in the deep dark night
   I can see paradise by the dashboard light

3. Little Red Corvette, Prince
   

   I guess I should’ve known by the way U parked your car sideways
   That it wouldn’t last
   See, U’re the kinda person that believes in makin’ out once
   Love ‘em and leave ‘em fast
   I guess I must be dumb cuz U had a pocket full of horses
   Trojan and some of them used
   But it was Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right
   And U say - “What have I got 2 lose?”

   And honey, I say Little Red Corvette
   Baby, U’re much 2 fast (Oh)
   Little Red Corvette
   U need a love that’s gonna last

4. Mustang Sally, Wilson Pickett
   

   Mustang Sally, think you better slow your mustang down.
   Mustang Sally, think you better slow your mustang down.
   You been running all over the town now.
   Oh! I guess I’ll have to put your flat feet on the ground.

   All you want to do is ride around Sally, ride, Sally, ride.
   All you want to do is ride around Sally, ride, Sally, ride.
   All you want to do is ride around Sally, ride, Sally, ride.

5. Get Out of My Dreams, Get Into My Car, Billy Ocean
   

   Who’s that lady
   Coming down the road
   Who’s that lady
   Who’s that woman
   Walking through my door
   What’s the score
   I’ll be the sun
   Shining on you
   Hey Cinderella
   Step in your shoe
   I’ll be your non-stop lover
   Get it while you can
   Your non-stop miracle
   I’m your man

   Get outta my dreams
   Get in to my car
   Get outta my dream
   Get in to the back seat baby
   Get in to my car
   Beep Beep, yeah
   Get outta my mind
   Get in to my life
   Ooooooh
   Oh I said hey (Hey) you (You)
   Get in to my car

6. Pink Cadillac, Bruce Springsteen
   

   You may think Im fooling
   For the foolish things I do
   You may wonder how come I love you
   When you get on my nerves like you do
   Well baby, you know you bug me
   There aint no secret about that
   Well come on over here and hug me
   And, baby, Ill spill the facts
   Well, honey it aint your money
   Cause baby I got plenty of that

   I love you for your pink cadillac
   Crushed velvet seats
   Riding in the back, oozing down the street
   Waving to the girls
   Feeling out of sight
   Spending all my money on a saturday night
   Honey, I just wonder what you do there in back of your pink cadillac
   Pink cadillac

Your Turn: What are your favorite car songs? For that matter, which ones do you completely hate?

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never completely understood the difference between traction control and stability control, especially since some cars have both, some have one or the other, and some don’t have either. I looked it up, recently, and thought I’d share.

First, it’s important to understand traction control and stability control are not the same thing. Typically, at least on newer cars, traction control is an electro-hydraulic system designed to prevent traction-loss under excessive steering or throttling by the driver.
To do this, it shares actuators and sensors with the anti-lock braking system.

There is a list, actually, of what traction control can do:

1. Brake wheels (one or more)
2. Suppress the spark to the cylinders (one or more)
3. Reduce the fuel supply to the cylinders (again, one or more)
4. On drive-by-wire cars, it can close the throttle
5. On turbo-charged cars, it can actuate the boost control solenoid to reduce boost, which in turn reduces engine power

That’s all very well and good, but how does it apply to actual driving? Here are some examples:

• On street vehicles, traction control helps regulate throttle input to prevent spinning when accelerating in snow or on wet pavement.
• In race cars, it allows the greatest amount of acceleration possible without wheel spin, and maintains an optimum slip angle when drivers accelerate out of a turn.
• Off road, traction control can be used with or in place of mechanical locking differential, slowing spinning wheels with quick bursts of brake pressure, and providing more torque to non-spinning wheels, which makes controlling the vehicle easier.
• While cornering, helps prevent front-wheel drive cars from reaching the point where the wheels can’t steer and drive, or, if the wheels do lose their gripping ability, it can help keep the car stable. (In rear-wheel-drive cars, it can prevent oversteer.)

Traction control, by the way, can trace it’s roots all the way back to Positraction, a kind of limited slip differential used in older high-powered cars with rear wheel drive.

It should, however, never be taken for granted or allowed to encourage driving in dangerous conditions.

Quick question: Who was the first woman to drive for NASCAR?

If you answered “Sara Christian” you either paid attention to the title of this post, or you really know your racing history.

Inducted into the Georgia Automobile Racing Hall of Fame in 2004, Christian was only part of NASCAR in 1949 and 1950, but there are a lot of key events associated with her name.

To start, she won the title Woman Driver of the Year from the United States Drivers Association in 1949. That same year, she drove in NASCAR’s first race at Charlotte Speedway on June 19th 1949, after placing 13th in the qualification race, driving a #71 Ford that her husband, Frank Christian, owned. She let fellow racer Bob Flock drive it for part of the race, after the engine in his own car died on the 38th lap. The Ford overheated, but Flock finished in 14th place.

Three weeks later, Sara’s competitors in the second race at the Daytona Beach Road Course included Louise Smith and Bob Flock’s sister Ethel Mobley. She finished 18th of 28, but her presence marked the first time three women drove in the same race, and the first time a married couple competed in a NASCAR race. (Her husband Frank finished sixth, in his only start.)

Two months after that, Christan faced Mobley and Smith again, and that race - the fourth at Langhorn Speedway, became the LAST race to include three drivers. It was also the first time a woman achieved a top-ten finish, and the winner of the race, Curtis Turner, invited Sara to share the victory lane.

In her last race, the only one she entered in 1950, Sara placed 14th at Hamburg Speedway in New York.

Sara Christian died in 1980.

Read any auto review, and safety features will be given almost as much attention as engine specs. Either the array of safety systems is lauded, or the lack thereof is denigrated, and sometimes mocked. In either case, the message is clear: driving fast is cool, but getting there in one piece is cooler.

This, then, is a list of ten features or systems that protect us as we’re zooming from point a to point b, or beyond:

1. AirbagsThey prevent you from crashing into the steering wheel (and impaling yourself on the steering column) and also prevent severe cranial injuries. The newest versions are set to “depower” themselves - reduce power after they’re activated - to keep them from causing injuries while preventing fatalaties.
2. Computers Whether they’re the powerful type of computer that aid in the design and manufacture of our cars, or the mini-processors on board, without which many other safety features wouldn’t work, computers are a crucial component of safe driving.
3. Deformable Structure We’re past the days, for the most part, when a survivable crash ended in fatality because the hood of the car ripped off and cut through the windshield, or any other such grisly results, and this is largely because deformable structure allows the car itself to absorb the energy of impact, and not pass it on to the driver.
4. Disc Brakes Not only do they allow cars to make 60 - 0mph stops, something old-school drum brakes couldn’t always do more than a couple times in a row without over heating, disc brakes also allow us to have anti-lock braking systems, and are a vital component of stability and traction control.
5. Divided Highways Driving is simply safer with divided highways, and statistics support this - comparisons based on total numbers of traveled miles show that there are 70% fewer fatalities on divided roads than on old two-lane bidirectional ones.
6. DUI Laws While drunk or (otherwise chemically) altered drivers still account for about a third of fatal driving accidents, that’s down from a 50% statistic from 1982. Across the country, DUI laws have been getting tougher - but critics think they’re still not strict enough.
7. Quick Emergency Response Skilled rescue workers arriving on-scene quickly may not be something drivers can control, but because of EMTs and fast-response teams, less than one percent of the 6 million or so traffic accidents that occur annually end in death.
8. Stability Control Electronic Stability Control, whether it’s known by a set of initials (ESC, DSC, etc.) or a fancy name (”Stabilitrak”) is what helps keep all four tires touching the pavement. It’s controlled by computers, not drivers, so it can’t make panic and make a wrong decision, which is always a plus.
9. Seatbelts When I was a kid, my mother had a rule that the car didn’t move until everyone was buckled in. Thankfully, I’m an only child, so this didn’t take long. The point however is that all the cool technology in the world cannot keep you alive if you’re flying through the windshield. Buckle up!
10. Tires Good quality, well-maintained, pneumatic steel-belted radial tires may well be the most important safety feature there is. Why? Because at any given moment it’s a patch of rubber about the size of an adult hand that is actually in contact with the road. Without tires, disc brakes are useless, and stability control non-existent. Also, keeping the pressure correct helps maximize fuel economy.

Your Turn: My list comes from a week of research, and years of riding in, driving, and owning cars. What would you add to this list? What would you remove?

If you follow the business operations of the auto industry at all, you know that a corporation called Cerberus has taken over the reins at Chrysler. They’ve just named Bob Nardelli CEO, and he along with former CEO Tom LaSorda were part of a press conference today in which LaSorda pledged his support of both Chrysler and Nardelli.

In addition, Nardelli endorsed the recovery and restructuring plan which LaSorda had launched in February, and both men met with United Auto Workers president Ron Gettelfinger, and Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove, both of whom represented employee’s concerns over the new management.

While Tom LaSorda is supporting Nardelli, however, his former second-in-command, COO Eric Ridenour has chosen to leave the company, resigning after a 23-year tenure.

Industry analysts were somewhat surprised by the naming of Bob Nardelli to the top-spot, calling his appointment an interesting choice, and expressing doubts about his ability to give Chrysler what it needs. As well, many find it unsettling that this is the second time in the past year that an American automaker has named an outsider as leader. The first time was when Ford Motor Co. hired Alan Mulally from Boeing.

Bob Nardelli is a former senior executive at General Electric, and was criticized for excessive payroll and severance packages, though credited for overhauling the technology and purchasing systems at Home Depot.

Ah, August. Here are the days of unending heat, without any three-day weekends to break up the monotony before school begins once more - or, if you’re among the child-free - before September 1st, and the push for Christmas-ready marketing. Either way, what better way to get around in summer than in a convertible. Hard top or ragtop, these cars ARE summer.

In May, 2007, James Raia offered his top five cars of summer in this article. His list, which included the 2007 model year only:

1. Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder
2. Pontiac Solstice
3. Saturn Sky
4. Volkswagen Eos
5. Volvo C70 T5

Great cars, all, especially if a new vehicle is the only one you’ll consider.

As for me? My top five is a bit more eclectic, and not linked to specific model years.

1. Chrysler Sebring: for its smooth ride, and spacious interior
2. Dodge Viper: for feeling like you’re in a race car.
3. Ford Mustang: because no convertible is cooler.
4. Mazda Miata: so tiny they’re more an outfit than a car, but zippy, even so.
5. MG B: retro style and personal sentimentality - it was the first car I ever drove.

Your Turn: When you think convertible do you think of modern cars, or retro ragtops. What are your top five?

If you read car reviews at all, you’ve probably noticed the phrase “MyGig� coming up in the options lists for Chrysler (and Dodge, and Jeep) cars. But do you know what it is?

Based on what is essentially a 20Gb hard drive embedded into your car, MyGig includes a USB jack, two audio outputs, and a line-in jack in addition to the standard AM/FM radio, as well as a DVD/CD player, and a 6.5-inch touch-screen with voice command recognition. There’s also a SIRIUS Satellite Radio (and it’s just a chip in the radio instead of a separate unit) and Bluetooth capability for hands-free phone use.

Part of that 20Gb hard drive is dedicate to holding navigation software, but the rest of it is yours to use. The system will let you rip CDs directly to the hard drive, or you can use the USB port to transfer music or pictures, all of which can be played back through the system.

The first appearance of the MyGig package was on the 2007 Chrysler Sebring, but it will eventually be available on most other models as well.

Last Thursday, July 26th, Indianapolis Motor Speedway played host to the fifth annual “Women in the Winner’s Circle” luncheon. The event, which began in 2003, just one event sponsored by the Women in the Winners Circle (formerly Lyn St. James) Foundation (WWCF) , a non-profit organization that also sponsors driver development and diversity programs, an educational program, and advocacy for women in motorsports.

While the point of the luncheon is to raise funds for the Foundation’s activities, there are also honorees and awards. This year, they included Harold Matthews who was presented with the Opportunity Award in recognition of his support of Brittany Frosh, a mini-sprint racer, and Denise McCluggage, a journalist, author, and racing driver who received the Mildred Marcum Pioneer award.

To date, the WWCF, which sponsors include NASCAR and USAC, has trained more than 230 female race-car drivers and contributed to Girls, Inc, as well as other charitable organizations.

[WWCF Website]

Do you have suggestions for women involved with the automotive or racing industries who should be profiled? Leave them in comments.