Funkengroovin Wednesday - One Afternoon, One Road
Auto NEWS From Cairo:
Check out the TIME Magazine video:
The Relentless Din of Egypt's Capital - "Cairenes find their health threatened by dangerously high noise levels."
IN THE MARKET FOR A CAR?
"Located on the outskirts of Nasr City in the Tenth District, the popular car market is one of the town’s modern-day landmarks. The sprawling parking lot covers more than 20 acres teeming with around 20,000 cars and their owners from around the country."
Forgotten history of Ramsis car resurrected in new documentary
"We watch Nasser proclaiming that Egypt will eventually become entirely self-sufficient, will manufacture everything from sewing needles to rockets, as his audience quite literally dance with joy.
The Ramsis was not even 100 percent Egyptian made: many of its components were imported from West Germany (the car itself was based on a German car, the Prinz), the interior the only entirely locally-produced part of the car.
An un-automated production line meant that only five cars were turned out a day. The 550 cc cars themselves were boxy, utilitarian, ugly — a Mogamaa on wheels — but little matter, for this was Egypt’s first Popular Car, a slice of national pride available for only LE 200."
(Below): Broke Down.
(Below): VW Van er "Bus".
Below): Riding On Top. This bus was in front of us and we caught it on the turn.
(Below):Attention VW Shoppers! A new dealership is opening in Maadi! (Actually not the same road.)
NEWS:
(Photos and full article at the link): JustKampers Gives New Meaning To Term "Short Bus"
Just Kampers; Slammed Van, Thank you Jam!
Readers share VW memories
(Photo at the link): Mushroom Men: Collectibles With Pre-Orders (and Mushroom Men VW Bus)
(You have to read it to beleive it. Thank God Candy has the common sense to drive a VW. As for Woofie - he deserves what he gets. Apparently somone's been messin' with his Dewars!) Wolf Blitzer's DIARY:
"... I knew even before I entered the store that Candy Crowley was inside, since her beat-up, avocado-green VW bus is one-of-a-kind. She appeared to be purchasing some apricot schnapps. I'm going to watch her future purchases VERY CLOSELY. With Candy's birthday coming up, I want to stay on her good side. As you know, I'll spend a lot of time with her at the conventions this summer and she's a wild woman if you get her angry...."
(Must see photo of a bent Van - no kidding.): Telekinetically Bent VW Van
Under The Big Top
"Taking a cue from 18th-century garden flowers, an architect designed a garage that's both fanciful and functional."
VB complains about pumps that don't have the clips on the nozzles so you can pump your gas hands free. Some states don't allow it. This article probably explains the reason why.
Static Fires Are a Peril at the Pump
"It may sound like urban legend, but fires at the gas pumps can be sparked by static electricity.
F you think gas prices are scary, consider a far worse fright that Kelly Shager of Lynchburg, Va., got at a gas pump. Eight months ago, Mrs. Shager drove her 1999 Ford Ranger to a self-service gas station, engaged the nozzle’s hold-open clip to have it fill automatically, then sat in her vehicle.
When the tank was full, she slid out and reached for the nozzle. Touching it, she felt a shock.
“Then fire kind of came out of the tank,” she said.
Mrs. Shager ran into the station’s convenience store for a fire extinguisher, but flames were already leaping over her truck. By the time firefighters controlled the blaze, the pickup was a charred ruin.
According to Greg Wormser, the Lynchburg fire marshal, the fire was ignited by an electrostatic charge that had collected on Mrs. Shager as she sat in the truck. When she reached for the nozzle, the charge grounded, igniting the gas vapors around the pump.
“You should never re-enter a vehicle when you’re fueling,” Mr. Wormser said.
That’s because when a person who re-enters a vehicle and slides across the seat can acquire a static charge of thousands of volts, caused by friction between two electrically dissimilar materials, such as clothing and seat upholstery, said Dr. Robert E. Nabours, an electrical engineer . If the charge is not harmlessly discharged through the person’s shoes or by the person touching metal, such as part of a grounded car,, an electrical arc can jump from a hand to the nozzle, igniting gas vapors and starting a fire."
Putting the Dream Car Out to Pasture
"America’s romance with the automobile is being severely tested now that every trip causes financial worry, environmental guilt and self-consciousness about the size of your car.
Beyond the bad economic news may lurk a less remarked shift in Americans’ psyches: a change in the role the automobile occupies in people’s emotional lives and self-image. For decades, automakers pitched cars as sex symbols, as extensions of drivers’ freedom or affluence or eye for beauty. Even if that pitch is inverted — if hybrids or minicars become the most desirable wheels, bespeaking a driver’s thriftiness or environmental sensitivity — is it really possible to be passionate about a compromise?
“You wear your car like you wear a Ralph Lauren suit,” said Clotaire Rapaille, an anthropologist and psychiatrist known as the car shrink, whose company, Archetype Discoveries Worldwide, studies consumer preferences."
Tom Vanderbilt's Why We Drive the Way We Do Unlocks How to Unclog Traffic
"Driving down a New Jersey highway three years ago, Tom Vanderbilt decided to stop being a goody-goody. He fought the urge to merge at the first indication that his lane was ending and rode it right to the pinch point, wedging his way in front of a furious driver at the last second. Racked with moral misgivings, he eventually looked into the science of merging and discovered salvation in high math, which proves he made the right choice — and not just for his own time-saving benefit, but for humankind (or at least commuter-kind — the seemingly selfish strategy keeps traffic moving faster for all). "It doesn't have to be an ethics problem," Vanderbilt says. "It's really a system-optimization issue."
Behind the Wheel at a Club With a $125,000 Entry Fee but No Speeding Tickets
"Officials at a new racing club scheduled to open on Sunday in Monticello, N.Y., said the sputtering economy has not deterred the big-bucks, big-horsepower types they are looking for."
From Esquire:
What It Feels Like...to Almost Drown in a Car
What It Feels Like... To Hit Someone with a Car
What It Feels Like... To Be Hit by a Car
What It Feels Like...to Drive 900 Miles Wearing Adult Diapers
What It Feels Like... To Race a Car Blind
What It Feels Like...to Drive 675 Miles Per Hour
What It Feels Like. . . To Be a Blind Race-Car Driver’s Navigator
Little Feat Fat Man In The Bathtub
Check out the TIME Magazine video:
The Relentless Din of Egypt's Capital - "Cairenes find their health threatened by dangerously high noise levels."
IN THE MARKET FOR A CAR?
"Located on the outskirts of Nasr City in the Tenth District, the popular car market is one of the town’s modern-day landmarks. The sprawling parking lot covers more than 20 acres teeming with around 20,000 cars and their owners from around the country."
Forgotten history of Ramsis car resurrected in new documentary
"We watch Nasser proclaiming that Egypt will eventually become entirely self-sufficient, will manufacture everything from sewing needles to rockets, as his audience quite literally dance with joy.
The Ramsis was not even 100 percent Egyptian made: many of its components were imported from West Germany (the car itself was based on a German car, the Prinz), the interior the only entirely locally-produced part of the car.
An un-automated production line meant that only five cars were turned out a day. The 550 cc cars themselves were boxy, utilitarian, ugly — a Mogamaa on wheels — but little matter, for this was Egypt’s first Popular Car, a slice of national pride available for only LE 200."
(Below): Broke Down.
(Below): VW Van er "Bus".
Below): Riding On Top. This bus was in front of us and we caught it on the turn.
(Below):Attention VW Shoppers! A new dealership is opening in Maadi! (Actually not the same road.)
NEWS:
(Photos and full article at the link): JustKampers Gives New Meaning To Term "Short Bus"
Just Kampers; Slammed Van, Thank you Jam!
Readers share VW memories
(Photo at the link): Mushroom Men: Collectibles With Pre-Orders (and Mushroom Men VW Bus)
(You have to read it to beleive it. Thank God Candy has the common sense to drive a VW. As for Woofie - he deserves what he gets. Apparently somone's been messin' with his Dewars!) Wolf Blitzer's DIARY:
"... I knew even before I entered the store that Candy Crowley was inside, since her beat-up, avocado-green VW bus is one-of-a-kind. She appeared to be purchasing some apricot schnapps. I'm going to watch her future purchases VERY CLOSELY. With Candy's birthday coming up, I want to stay on her good side. As you know, I'll spend a lot of time with her at the conventions this summer and she's a wild woman if you get her angry...."
(Must see photo of a bent Van - no kidding.): Telekinetically Bent VW Van
Under The Big Top
"Taking a cue from 18th-century garden flowers, an architect designed a garage that's both fanciful and functional."
VB complains about pumps that don't have the clips on the nozzles so you can pump your gas hands free. Some states don't allow it. This article probably explains the reason why.
Static Fires Are a Peril at the Pump
"It may sound like urban legend, but fires at the gas pumps can be sparked by static electricity.
F you think gas prices are scary, consider a far worse fright that Kelly Shager of Lynchburg, Va., got at a gas pump. Eight months ago, Mrs. Shager drove her 1999 Ford Ranger to a self-service gas station, engaged the nozzle’s hold-open clip to have it fill automatically, then sat in her vehicle.
When the tank was full, she slid out and reached for the nozzle. Touching it, she felt a shock.
“Then fire kind of came out of the tank,” she said.
Mrs. Shager ran into the station’s convenience store for a fire extinguisher, but flames were already leaping over her truck. By the time firefighters controlled the blaze, the pickup was a charred ruin.
According to Greg Wormser, the Lynchburg fire marshal, the fire was ignited by an electrostatic charge that had collected on Mrs. Shager as she sat in the truck. When she reached for the nozzle, the charge grounded, igniting the gas vapors around the pump.
“You should never re-enter a vehicle when you’re fueling,” Mr. Wormser said.
That’s because when a person who re-enters a vehicle and slides across the seat can acquire a static charge of thousands of volts, caused by friction between two electrically dissimilar materials, such as clothing and seat upholstery, said Dr. Robert E. Nabours, an electrical engineer . If the charge is not harmlessly discharged through the person’s shoes or by the person touching metal, such as part of a grounded car,, an electrical arc can jump from a hand to the nozzle, igniting gas vapors and starting a fire."
Putting the Dream Car Out to Pasture
"America’s romance with the automobile is being severely tested now that every trip causes financial worry, environmental guilt and self-consciousness about the size of your car.
Beyond the bad economic news may lurk a less remarked shift in Americans’ psyches: a change in the role the automobile occupies in people’s emotional lives and self-image. For decades, automakers pitched cars as sex symbols, as extensions of drivers’ freedom or affluence or eye for beauty. Even if that pitch is inverted — if hybrids or minicars become the most desirable wheels, bespeaking a driver’s thriftiness or environmental sensitivity — is it really possible to be passionate about a compromise?
“You wear your car like you wear a Ralph Lauren suit,” said Clotaire Rapaille, an anthropologist and psychiatrist known as the car shrink, whose company, Archetype Discoveries Worldwide, studies consumer preferences."
Tom Vanderbilt's Why We Drive the Way We Do Unlocks How to Unclog Traffic
"Driving down a New Jersey highway three years ago, Tom Vanderbilt decided to stop being a goody-goody. He fought the urge to merge at the first indication that his lane was ending and rode it right to the pinch point, wedging his way in front of a furious driver at the last second. Racked with moral misgivings, he eventually looked into the science of merging and discovered salvation in high math, which proves he made the right choice — and not just for his own time-saving benefit, but for humankind (or at least commuter-kind — the seemingly selfish strategy keeps traffic moving faster for all). "It doesn't have to be an ethics problem," Vanderbilt says. "It's really a system-optimization issue."
Behind the Wheel at a Club With a $125,000 Entry Fee but No Speeding Tickets
"Officials at a new racing club scheduled to open on Sunday in Monticello, N.Y., said the sputtering economy has not deterred the big-bucks, big-horsepower types they are looking for."
From Esquire:
What It Feels Like...to Almost Drown in a Car
What It Feels Like... To Hit Someone with a Car
What It Feels Like... To Be Hit by a Car
What It Feels Like...to Drive 900 Miles Wearing Adult Diapers
What It Feels Like... To Race a Car Blind
What It Feels Like...to Drive 675 Miles Per Hour
What It Feels Like. . . To Be a Blind Race-Car Driver’s Navigator
Little Feat Fat Man In The Bathtub
