Coffee 8-11-12

SMITTY wrote:Took a ride with a buddy to go pick up a 2011 Camaro SS convertible with the RS package the other day. Of all the days to forget my cell phone!!! He laid the widest, smokiest patches I've ever seen! If you live in CT it went across Rt. 169 from Rt. 171. About 100' in first gear .... a 8' gap ... then another 50' or so in second. MAN what a MINT car this thing is!! Loaded, all leather with heads-up display that looks like it's hovering out over the hood, heated seats, and the best part: 426 horsepower & 420 ft. lbs. of torque out of the 6.2 liter LS3 V8! YEEAAHH!!! All black with white stripes down the hood. Just when I lost all faith in GM .... although I have heard of transmission problems on some of the earlier manuals. This one is a 6 speed manual. The shift throw is literally 3" long - it's the best shifting transmission I have ever seen. No, I didn't get to drive it, but I got to sit in it at least & play with the shifter.

But how many lawn tractors will it hold? And what's the gas mileage. Practical things can be attractive too.

Gas mileage is AMAZING on this thing, considering it's horsepower. Back in the day that kind of power would get you 10-12 mpg. This thing gets 28 highway! 17 city, which is 2 mpg better than I get out of my truck.Can't mind that. My buddy already owns a Hemi pickup, so he's got the mowers covered.

I couldn't afford the financing on his right rear wheel assembly, so you don't have to tell me about practicality.

SMITTY wrote:Gas mileage is AMAZING on this thing, considering it's horsepower. Back in the day that kind of power would get you 10-12 mpg. This thing gets 28 highway! 17 city, which is 2 mpg better than I get out of my truck.Can't mind that. My buddy already owns a Hemi pickup, so he's got the mowers covered.

I couldn't afford the financing on his right rear wheel assembly, so you don't have to tell me about practicality.

Ha,ha,ha.. hear that Smitty! I'm not surprised at the gas mileage. They have the technology to get decent mileage and have for quite some time. I owned a Buick Century with a 3.3 V-6 back in early 90s. That car got a solid 30mpg with the air on going down the highway never fail.

Yeah technology is great. It's just too bad they can't seem to build the electronic control systems with simplicity and reliability -- is that asking too much for $40,000? I'll be curious to see what kind of issues befall this beautiful engine in 5, or 10 years.

Finally got a good pic of the thing ....

Hi guys,

Just got back from beautiful Branson, MO. where DK's family was holding a reunion of their immediate family. He has 9 brothers and sisters so there was a mess of them - 49 people spread out over 4, 3 or 4 bedroom condos. The family had the entire top floor of one of the buildings. Each individual family had at least one bedroom and one private bath. That was good planning on the planner's part; it meant that you could escape the chaos if you needed to. The condo's all had kitchens which are stocked with a variety of pots and pans but we centralized the food out of the largest condo so there was plenty of space and food. That became the center of the universe while we were there. I’m thankful that wasn’t my condo! This was the first year no one got into a fight or was arrested. Everyone had a real bed somewhere but the cousins mostly slept where they were. The resort is promoted as a family fun company and they lived up to that motto. They had 3 pools and the lake with boat rentals and kayaks, fishing and lake swimming.

Branson itself isn’t much to write home about. It’s sort of a miniature Vegas with lots of live shows and putt putt golf. Elvis and Faith Hill were both performing. Well, not really but there were several excellent impersonators. We went to see Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede which is a show with Equestrian Performers and is very loud. It was perfect for the kids.
Overall, everyone seemed to have a great time – I sure did – and because of the sort of central location to the family, we may head back in a few years for another reunion.

The rest of the summer is sure to fly by now, so I hope everyone is able to make progress on the “to do” list while saving sometime for themselves. Take care, Lisa

"This was the first year no one got into a fight or was arrested ..." Got to love family reunions!

Tax freeeeeeeee weekend in MA this weekend! SHOCKER!! Well not really, because you know they'll make it all back from you eventually. Every year taxes go up and up and up! Won't be long that we'll be comparing our property taxes with NJ!

So in light of the special weekend, I spent an obscene amount of cash on stuff I needed for the barn (FINALLY!) and the Focus I recently bought. Got a pile of plywood ready for the back section of the barn. 3/4" for decking, so it won't collapse next winter and I won't have to worry about shoveling the roof every storm. 1/2" for the siding to replace the OSB someone put there over 10 years ago that's coming apart at every turn.

Finally repaired the screen that my cat tried to launch through to attack the neighbors cat. He had both paws through it, flailing all around with his face mashed up in the center. Wish I caught that on video! I also forgot how much of a pain in the ass it is to redo screens with a flat blade screwdriver!

SMITTY wrote: I'll be curious to see what kind of issues befall this beautiful engine in 5, or 10 years.

Maybe some minor quirks, but with reasonable maintenance I bet it will still be laying rubber in 10 years with no problems.

Many people were skeptical when GM and Ford when to EFI in the 80's...here we are almost 30 years later and most of those 80's cars (that aren't rotted out!) are still running fine. When Ford went from the pushrod V8 to the Modular engine family there was a bunch of speculation about longevity also...who would have guessed that the overhead cam V8's run longer than their predecessors with better fuel economy and emissions at the same time? Generally speaking I think most of the modern gasoline engines are excellent...the exceptions are the ones with variable cylinder management. GM's seems to be "ok", but Honda's is terrible.

Fords EFI was top notch from '86 on. Same with GM, except they got it right the first time unlike Ford's CFI system - it was a complete and utter failure. Total garbage. Not a single one ran right ... and if it did, it wasn't for very long. GM did it backwards. They got it right, then they went an frigged the whole thing up with their CPI system - another failure-prone pile of trash. Then on the S10's, the spider-injector system that ran until they killed them in '04-'05. Some of the new 4.3's might still run that - not sure. I know I don't want one!

My truck's driveline is great .... it's the rest of it that's crap. Also the emission systems are another failure waiting to happen. I know that Camaro will run in 10 years ... but will the crap electronics allow it to run WELL?

SMITTY wrote:[i]"
Finally repaired the screen that my cat tried to launch through to attack the neighbors cat. He had both paws through it, flailing all around with his face mashed up in the center. Wish I caught that on video! I also forgot how much of a pain in the ass it is to redo screens with a flat blade screwdriver!

Ha,ha, yeah that's how my cat was too. She would tolerate a dog in the house, but another cat? No way. Every time my brother came up from Mass, they'd bring Miles (Davis) their black cat which looked allot like her. That poor dude would have to stay upstairs in the spare bedroom or she'd be in attack mode. I just replaced the screens on my sunporch when I rebuilt and modeled it. These were the simple type, just mesh stapled over the casement openings and then covered by wood strips. I did them top down and it worked out pretty well. I can remember wishing I had a third hand though, trying to keep the screen tight while my hand was cramping from the spring on that stapler!