Monday, October 30, 2006

Skidding and Hydroplaning in Rainy Conditions

Driving Safety Tips -Skidding and Hydroplaning in Rainy Conditions*

Losing control of your car on wet pavement is a frightening experience. You can prevent skids by driving slowly and carefully, especially on curves. Steer and brake with a light touch. When you need to stop or slow, do not brake hard or lock the wheels and risk a skid. Maintain mild pressure on the brake pedal.


If you do find yourself in a skid, remain calm, ease your foot off the gas, and carefully steer in the direction you want the front of the car to go. For cars without anti-lock brakes, avoid using your brakes. This procedure, known as "steering into the skid," will bring the back end of your car in line with the front. If your car has ABS, brake firmly as you steer into the skid.

While skids on wet pavement may be frightening, hydroplaning is completely nerve-wracking. Hydroplaning happens when the water in front of your tires builds up faster than your car's weight can push it out of the way. The water pressure causes your car to rise up and slide on a thin layer of water between your tires and the road. At this point, your car can be completely out of contact with the road, and you are in danger of skidding or drifting out of your lane, or even off the road.

To avoid hydroplaning, keep your tires properly inflated, maintain good tread on your tires and replace them when necessary, slow down when roads are wet, and stay away from puddles. Try to drive in the tire tracks left by the cars in front of you.

If you find yourself hydroplaning, do not brake or turn suddenly. This could throw your car into a skid. Ease your foot off the gas until the car slows and you can feel the road again. If you need to brake, do it gently with light pumping actions. If your car has anti-lock brakes, then brake normally; the car's computer will mimic a pumping action, when necessary.

A defensive driver adjusts his or her speed to the wet road conditions in time to avoid having to use any of these measures. Reprinted with permission from the National Safety Council.


*Borrowed from: The Weather Channel? Who knew?!!

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Another crashed MINI

It was only a couple days ago I posted photos of a badly wrecked MINI after a head-on collision with an un-named object. Today we get more photos coming in of a badly negotiated left hand turn...




In the owner's own words, "...As you can see from the last pic, the crumple zone did what it was supposed to do, the passenger compartment protected me and I was not injured. Nor was the driver of the other car, thankfully. I was making a left turn on a four-lane highway and was behind a large truck, so I could not see very well. We had a green light, but we did not have the green arrow, apparently. He made it, I didn't. I was given the ticket...."


Okay- say it with me: OOOOWWWWWWCCCCCCCHHH!!!

Let's be careful out there!

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Blog Plug: motoringfun.com


One of the coolest results coming from MINIUSA threatening to sue anyone with "MINI Cooper" in their website name, is that it has fully entrenched the word "motor"- and it's grammatical variations, into the MINI community. Welcome motoringfun.com


When posed with the obvious question, "why another MINI site?" Proprietor Pedro proudly posts:

"...[to] put up a site as sort of a collection of
my personal favorite fun and cool MINI stuff...
and make it easy to find in one place..."

Audio, Video, Images, Cool MINI Ads (my personal favorite), and the only "MINI Chat Room" (that I'm aware of anyway), this may be the next "big thing" in the online MINI Community!



Do you have an independent, MINI-related blog or website you'd like to link up with BushingferMINI? Click Here!

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Head-on Collision, Driver OK?

I found these photos and accompanying dialogue on another site...
As they say, a picture spawns 1,000 words...






A couple comments:
"The engine is hanging out of the bay, and sideways. Ouch. Something that is comforting is that the passenger cabin look almost undisturbed. Except the airbags, of course..."


"Holy #$%@ did that car take a hard hit. Man like everyone else said it's obvious that the person lived and I'm glad to see that but jesus to rip the engine all the way out like that takes a substantial amount of force..."


Looks like this poor chap hit a pole at high speeds. Hope everyone is okay.


Thursday, October 19, 2006

Itsy Bitsy...

I was about to wash the MINI this evening when, wouldn't you know it, along comes another stranger wanting to check it out... *sheesh* ...










they never wanna actually help you wash it, do they?

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Many MINI banners...

In between homework, working off the clock, and the occasional semblance of a social life, I've taken to creating banners for my signature on NAM*...















Enjoy these and more classy MINI photos on my NAM Gallery*.

(Made using Adobe Photoshop, or, *duck* MS Paint?)


*You mean you've never heard of "NAM"? (northamericanmotoring.com)

Friday, October 13, 2006

MINI MPG Update...

Since gas prices started to go down a few weeks ago*, it is now actually more difficult to track and log my miles per gallon! Before, I could wait til my tank got to E and consistently put in $40. My how the numbers change when varying the actual amount of gas per fill up....


*Right before an election... Imagine that!

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Phantom Park Subterranean Garage Lift

Perhaps the coolest garage accessory I've ever seen! I sooo want one!

(wait for it... wait.... it's comin'... no, really...)





All I need is a big house, and an extra $60,000.


aclifts.com

Friday, October 06, 2006

New Toy Inside! New Toy Inside!

they say it's your birthday!
it's my birthday too yeah!...
(In honor of that fateful night...)

I rarely impulse shop, and my latest toy is no exception! Thanks to Internet, I've only been looking at "all-in-one portable GPS navigation devices" for three or four months. Based on anticipated needs, features, and mostly price, I narrowed my selection to the TomTomGO300 and the Garmin StreetPilot C330. Almost identical in features and size, either one would do, and after some pseudo hands-on use (i.e. in the bigbox store), TomTom beat Garmin, by about $100 and a Bluetooth option which will probably never get used... :)


Barely put to the test, I'll just point to the CNET review (
TomTomGO 300) for now...



Mounting:
Technically, I shouldn't mount anything on the windshield due to California Vehicle Code something or other... Yet another use for the "American" cup holder.

My prototype "American Cup Holder Nav Mount":

I cut out a piece of plexiglas to fit snugly into the base of the cupholder (I knew I grabbed that piece of plexiglass out the street 2 weeks ago for some reason!); The suction cup sticks to the plexiglas. I've had this for about 5 hours, so we'll see how it goes...




The Call


You should really watch this short film. You should also have a high-speed internet connection.

The Call - PirelliFilm.com

Monday, October 02, 2006

New Wheels! Sorta....

I'd originally had these wheels on my '03 Cooper, then I sold the Cooper. The wheels have been functioning as a coffee table for about three months since. This weekend I finally put them on the new MINI!


loaded and strapped in for the ride to the shoppe...



on the rack...


stylin'...


*and* profilin'...

Tires: Toyo Proxes TPT
Wheels: ICW Racing
Special thanks to Integrity Tires for not screwing it up.