With Ford no longer owning Jaguar, Range Rover, or Aston Martin, its only luxury brands to concentrate on are Volvo and Lincoln. They still make Lincolns? That’s what I thought, until I had the opportunity to get a few minutes with the 2009 MKS at Ford’s upcoming model event back in August.  I was impressed enough with the car there that I decided to get one into the garage for a full fledged review.

Ford sent over an essentially fully loaded all wheel drive model that had a sticker price around $47,000.  For reference, the AWD model starts at $39,590.  Optional equipment which was about $6,700 sticker price included the following:

• Technology package
• Navigation Package
• 19″ wheels
• Rain sensitive windshield wipers
• Dual panel moonroof
• Adaptive headlamps with auto high beam
• Forward sensing system
• Voice activated nav system
• Intelligent access key with push button start
• Rear view camera
• THX-II certified audio system with 5.1 surround sound
• Ultimate leather seating
• Adaptive cruise control

The 09 version of the MKS is built on the same platform as the Taurus/Sable/Taurus X and Flex, so you can kind of call it a pimped out Taurus.  Under the hood you’ll find a 3.7-liter V6 that provides a decent 270hp and 256 ft-lbs of torque.  The MKS is a bit of a fatty, weighing in at 4,127lbs, so it wouldn’t hurt to have slightly more power.  With the bigger V6 making all that weight move, I was averaging about 19mpg…one of my only bigger complaints about the car.  Then again, gas prices are down, and if you’re spending almost $50,000 on a luxury vehicle, how much do you care about spending a little more money on gas.  The MKS does allow you to use a lower-grade gas in the car if you don’t mind it not performing optimally.

One big thing to keep in mind is that Lincoln is working on an EcoBoost version of the MKS which will supposedly feature a twin-turbo V6 with some of the hp estimates coming in around 350.  While the car does move, enough to not really complain, it will really move with the additional ponies…and maybe even have better gas mileage.  Even a 4-cylinder EcoBoost motor that makes similar power to the current model, but increases the gas mileage would be a welcome option.

Now that we’ve looked under the hood, lets talk about how the car is dressed.  My personal opinion is that Lincoln did a fantastic job at designing this car.  The split grille, which is the new Lincoln “look” is elegant and along with the nicely shaped headlights, give the Lincoln a very classy yet sporty/aggressive look.  It screams luxury, but with a little muscle.

What I like best though is the rear of the car.  The new vertical LED taillights and generally shape remind me of the Maserati Quattroporte…but better looking.  While the overall design is not revolutionary, it does stand out as a handsome car in a sea of blandness.

The interior of the car is the best part of the MKS hands down.  I was pleasantly surprised how nice all of the materials were, how comfortable the car was, and how ridiculously great the technology was integrated.  One of the greatest steps that Ford has made with their lineup has been the integration of SYNC, a car operating system if you will, developed in conjunction with Microsoft.  The added Sirius satellite radio with Travel Link allows you to do some really cool things like auto re-route your destination based on traffic, find the lowest fuel prices in your area, check sports scores and movie listings, and more.  The voice activation feature to tie it all in works practically flawlessly, and is by far the best system I’ve ever used.

If you read the list of optional items that were included in the car, you need to know that everything other than the adaptive cruise control was part of the $5,715 “ultimate package”…and I wouldn’t buy the car without it.  There is just too much cool, convenient stuff to not shell out for it.  Take for example the 5.1 THX-II certified audio system.  For audio cds that support it, you will be extremely impressed by the quality of the sound.

In regards to handling, I was pleasantly surprised to how well the MKS stuck to the road.  While the car looks smaller than it is, it sits fairly high, especially at the rear.  I’ll be honest, I was expecting a good amount of body roll.  What I did find though was that I could take an exit ramp going 60 with no problems.  I was also a little surprised at how much of the road I could feel, I mean it is a Lincoln right?  I think this mostly had to do with the 19″ wheels that also provided a lower profile tire.  Note that there is also an option for a 20″ wheel.  While I did feel some of the road, the car was almost eerily quiet when driving.  It was so smooth accelerating and shifting through gears.  I had passengers in both the front and rear of the car, all complimenting the MKS on how incredibly smooth and comfortable the car was.

Speaking of comfortableness, the MKS definitely sticks to what you would imagine a Lincoln would be…notably comfortable.  My rear passengers were pleased and with no complaints, they were happy about their rear heat warmers in the 30 degree rainy weather we were in.

The Lincoln MKS puts itself into a class of heavy competition.  With cars like the BMW 5-Series, Jaguar XF, Cadillac CTS/STS, Acura RL, Lexus GS, etc…it’s tough to come out as number one.  What Lincoln does have going over the competition is the pricepoint.  A fully loaded MKS will come in lower than most of the competition, but I still think it’s priced a little high.  The initial reaction I was getting from most people was surprised when they found out how much it costs.  While it’s a nice car, they really need to undercut the competition.  I’d like to see a fully loaded AWD model come in at the lower $40,000 range if it’s possible.  In reality though, it is a great buy for what it is…which is why it was nominated for car of the year from Motor Trend.

For more pictures, as well as the high resolution versions, see the Flickr set.

Once upon a time, two Vipers and Corvette ago, I had a 2004 Nissan 350Z which was my garage queen project car. This car was my pride and joy, I put a lot of time, effort, and money into that car to make it the way I wanted. I thought it’d be interesting to go back and see all of the things I had done to the car to turn it from this:

To this:

My initial idea was that I wanted to make the car nice overall from all aspects…from performance, to suspension, to audio. Looking back now, the one aspect I didn’t really do enough was suspension, but that would have required dumping in a lot more money. So let’s take a look at what was done:

To start off, I went with some little modifications like a smaller antenna, removing emblems, and intake, etc. The original plan was keep the car naturally aspirated (meaning all-motor with no sort of forced induction like a turbo or a supercharger), which is why I got the intake. That changed over time, but we’ll get to that later.

I also wanted to have a carbon fiber/orange theme, I always thought that the orange matched a gunmetal sort of color really well. To kick that theme off, I installed a JIC front strut tower brace for tighter handling and a nice look under the hood. I also installed 15% tint all-around to give it a more refined orange/black look.

Next, I installed RS*R springs. This lowered the car slightly to give it a more aggressive stance, and help improve handling slightly. You can see the height difference in the springs here:

In the meantime, I was prepping for a show quality audio system installation by starting to amass parts for that:

We can see here I went with Polk/Momo amplifiers, and Inifity Kappa Perfect speakers/subs, along with a Pioneer Elite headunit which isn’t shown.

Continue Reading »

Not too long ago Lamborghini updated their Gallardo model with the new LP560-4. Why the name? LP stands for “longitudinal poseriore” because of the rear longitudinal engine position. The 560 part of the name represents the amount of horsepower that the 5.2L V10 pumps out. -4 represents 4 wheel drive. Congratulations, consider yourself a Lamborghini Gallardo naming expert!

I ran over to Lamborghini Washington for a first hand look at the new supercar. They had two in the inventory, one in white, and the other in a semi-dark silver:

Thinking of picking one up?? The silver one will run you about $265,000:

Lamborghini has a habit of doing this. They design a car that I look at and fall in love with. I can’t even begin to fathom how the design can be improved, but then they redesign, and it looks even better. Most notably to me the major improvements are on the front and rear parts of the car. The frontend has a new, more aggressive looking bumper with larger openings. It looks more like their super duper car, the $1.6 million Reventon. Along with the redesigned headlights, it makes the new rendition much angrier looking.

More importantly the rear of the car has been completely redesigned. I would say that the rear of the first Gallardo was the one part of the car that a lot of people didn’t like so much. Obviously Lamborghini heard this too, and redesigned accordingly. The new rear is much cleaner:

The updated lower profile taillights and the quad exhaust tips really do the majority of the improvements for me.

Here’s some more pictures that I took for you to enjoy:

Here’s a couple that were hooked up that I saw at SEMA in Las Vegas:

I’m a big fan of the Nissan Z, it’s a great performing and looking car for a great price. In fact, I had a 2004 Nissan 350Z that I put a lot of work into before getting into the Viper (See progression of vehicles):

For 2009, Nissan is redesigning the Z, putting a 3.7 liter V6, hence the 370Z instead of the 350Z. Nissan fans have all been waiting to see what the new look be released as. Nissan has finally released official pictures of the car, and even shown it at a couple meets:

As you can see there are a lot of changes that were made to the car, although it is visibly still a 350Z. We can see some resemblance to other Nissan vehicles such as the new Maxima in the headlighs and taillights, as well as the new GT-R in the window/hatch shape. I love the large opening at the front of the car, it makes everything look so agressive. Even though I like it, I saw a lot of complaints about it looking like a fish, which I can see. What I don’t like are the wheels, but who doesn’t change those anyway

The integrated spoiler looks clean, it melds well with the wider fenders. Looks aren’t the only thing changed on the new Z. As mentioned earlier, the 370Z now features the VQ37, a 3.7 liter 332hp V6. On top of the improved power, the car also weighs less than its previous generation, which I would imagine will make quite the difference.

Don’t forget about the interior, which looks much improved. This is probably one of the most talked about improvements so far because it used to be one of the most complained about aspects. The Z is a budget sports car, but the new interior looks great in the pictures. I’m looking forward to see it in person, I’d like to see it in person

Take a look at the following pictures and video for a better idea of how the new Z looks. Jalopnik also did an excellent design dissection that you should gander.

(Pictures from Autoblog)

Day 2 of the 2009 Ford F150 event was definitely the day where we had the most fun. It gave me a chance to fully experience and understand the capability of the truck. The day started at 6am where we had breakfast at the hotel. By 7:30 we arrived at Michigan Proving Grounds, an impressive area of all sorts of test tracks and development facilities owned by Ford:

There were four different driving events throughout the day, I??ll cover each one separately. The first event for my group was off road??which was by far the most fun, and the one where we pushed the F150 the most. I had never been off-roading before, so I was looking forward to this. The off road track was amazing, there was everything from huge mud pits to dirt hills which we had to climb. The snake pit was the most challenging section, we had two opportunities to try and make it through. The area consisted of a big hill you climb up, and then come back down into a giant area of deep mud. Getting through successfully was all about giving the truck lots of gas, and hitting the right lines in the mud.

The first pass, I didn??t give it enough gas, which led me to get stuck right in the middle. Fortunately Ford had a truck on standby to pull me out. The second time around, I gunned it, hit the right lines, and was able to make it through. Here??s a couple good pictures from this event:

The next event was the trailer tow, where we drove the 09 Ford F150, 09 Chevy Silverado, 09 Dodge Ram, and 08 Toyota Tundra with a trailer behind each truck??oh and did I mention the 8,000 pounds we were towing? We drove the trucks on a track which gave us the ability to see how the trucks were able to accelerate up hill and handle on turns. There were a few great technologies which some of the trucks had (the F150 was the only one that had them all) that really made towing a trailer easy. Those included:

• Tow-Haul Mode ?? A driving mode which adjusts the RPMs correctly to downshift at the correct times
• Integrated Trailer Brake Controller ?? This was one of the most noticeable features, something I??m surprised hasn??t been standard in the past. Normally an aftermarket unit is installed, and essentially it tells the trailer you are towing to brake when you hit the brakes. The problem with the aftermarket units is that there is a slight delay because of the way that they do this, so when you hit the brakes, you??ll actually feel the trailer come towards you for a second before it slows down as well. Same deal with when you are accelerating. The F150 integrates this from the factory, and the way they do it, there is no delay.
• Trailer Sway Control ?? This does exactly what it sounds like. We were able to swerve the trucks while going about 50 mph downhill with the 8,000 trailers behind us…no problems.

Afterwards we went back to one of the facilities for a nice lunch, and then it was off to the next event. This time we covered durability/safety. The test for this was taking the trucks through a straight track which had a variety of things like large cobblestones in the road. Driving over this drastically effects the drivability, and shows you where each truck was able to excel. The Toyota Tundra was by far the worst in this category, some of the bumps would cause the bed of the truck to hit the cab!

You can see a video comparing the F150 and the Tundra here…notice how the Tundra cab is all over the place:

The last event was hauling where we took each truck on an autocross course with 850 pounds of weight in the bed. I enjoyed this event, and was able to get a great idea as to what the trucks were capable of handling, regardless of all the weight in the back. There were certain sections which we were to go a set speed, this way we could compare each truck as unbiased as possible. I was amazed at how well the trucks handled, especially the F150. If you remember when I had tested the 09 Ford vehicles, I was also impressed with how some of their bigger vehicles like the Flex handled on the track. After I tested each truck, I took the F150 out for one more lap driving it as hard as I possibly could. The truck handled amazing, I was floored.

Afterwards I hopped on a shuttle, and made my way back to VA. Once again, I??d like to thank Ford for the opportunity to drive and learn about their vehicles. I’d also like to thank Dorri from If It’s Got An Engine and Matt from Ford for some of the pictures that were used above.

If you remember, a few months ago I was invited over to Ford in Michigan to check out all of their upcoming 09 vehicles. The one vehicle we did not test was the new F150 pickup truck. Yesterday I arrived at Ford to take a look.

I arrived at Detroit Airport, and we headed over to the Rouge plant for a little presentation. After the presentation, we ate some lunch, and then were given a tour of the plant. This was the first time I had ever had the opportunity to take a look at how the production for the F150 was done. We literally saw each step, and it was something that just blew my mind. The facility alone is about 1.5 million sq/ft, it was monstrous!? It’s really hard to imagine how a car manufacturer can make a vehicle profitable. Here’s a few pictures for your enjoyment:

After checkout the plant, we headed over to another plant and we were able to see some of the training facilities and going over the new features on the new F150.

Then it was time for some driving!? We took the 2008 F150 and drove it about 40 miles to a Ford dealership, where we got into 2009 F150’s for comparison sake. The difference between the two F150’s is night and day, and the 09 is a huge improvement. There are some really cool technology improvements from aerodynamics to interior that really made some drastic differences.

I was able to drive the new F150 for about 80 miles before we got to our hotel in Romeo, MI (The Royal Park Hotel). It really gave me the opportunity to get a true feeling of the car, and it honestly makes me want one…and I’m not even a truck guy.

We got back to the hotel, which I made is ridiculously nice!? Check out a couple pics of my room:

Once I put my bags in my room, I headed back down for some cocktails, and a little bit of demo’ing of Ford’s Work Solutions. This is a really neat edition for the F150 meant for working professionals, and in reality more specifically to contractors and construction workers. There are a variety of nifty features worth mentioning:

• Cable lock system - Ford listened to their customers and found that tool theft was a pretty common occurrence. The cable lock system allows owners to wire lock their tools (or anything else like a dirt bike) in the bed of the truck.
• The coolest part is the new computer system option up front. The system allows you do anything from get on the internet, to remote desktop, to printing an invoice for a customer on the spot. You can read more here.
• Crew Chief - This is a system that uses RFID tags. You would simply stick an RFID tag on your tools, and then program them into your car. As long as the tool is in the bed, it will show up on the system up front. This way you will always know you have everything you need. You can even setup specific jobs, for example drywall. You can setup all of the tools you’ll need for drywall, and then it will ensure that all your tools are in the truck when you start your job…as well as leave.

After a couple of drinks, it was time for some more food. We had a great dinner, and at the end Ford raffled away a new Dewalt saw, which I happened to win!

That concludes a great first day, and tomorrow sounds like it may even be better. We’ll be spending the day at the Michigan proving grounds driving the F150 on the track and really putting the truck to the test. I’m really looking forward to it.

If you ever visit Monte Carlo, you’ll be amazed by the number of exotic cars that will be driving around. In the period of about an hour, I probably saw 200 or so Ferrari’s. Here’s a little picture gallery of some of the different cars that I saw while in the city…this is tens of millions of dollars worth of cars:

Bentley convertible:

GT3 Porsche - This was owned by the guy that owns the company where we went parasailing and jet skiing.

Mercedes SL65 AMG

SLR Mercedes

Ferrari F430 Scuderia

See more exotic cars pictures from Monte Carlo >>

Monday 11:41pm

I’m going to try and do something a little different with this post, and do a sort of semi-live blogging post.

Ford is flying me out to Dearborn, MI (Home of their headquarters) for their 2009 upcoming model event. What’s in store is pretty much a surprise to me at this point, so I’ll be blogging about the trip as it goes on. What I do know is that the itinerary says this:

Please note that Wednesday will be spent at the track and no shorts or open toed shoes are allowed.

Track time? Sounds awesome to me! I’ll be arriving in Michigan around 6pm, at which point I’ll make my way over to the hotel. They’re keeping me at the Dearborn Inn, which was originally built by Henry Ford to house dignitaries. With 23 acres, 3 restaurants, and much more, it should be a pretty nice place to crash for a night. When I arrive to the hotel, I’ll receive a detailed itinerary of events, so I’ll update when I find out more about what’s going on. I’m definitely looking forward to playing with Ford’s Sync system (powered by Microsoft), as I haven’t really seen one in person before.

In the meantime, bookmark this post as I will update it throughout the trip when I can. Hopefully there will be some internet access at the hotel! I have to go pack!

Tuesday 1:56pm

I’m about to head off to the airport in an hour, I should be reporting back in when I arrive to the hotel.

Tuesday 6:33pm

Just arrived at the hotel, it’s pretty nice. I walked in, got my room key, and walked up to my room, so I haven’t had a chance to explore yet. The hotel is old, but newly renovated, here’s a shot of my room:

My window faces the back of the hotel, where you can see they’ve setup an outdoor dinner event which starts in an hour. Before dinner there will be 30 minutes of cocktails:

I’m thinking about maybe renting a car after dinner and heading down to MGM Grand in Detroit (Most people don’t know there are casinos in Detroit) so I can get some gambling in…but I need to be up pretty early for tomorrow’s events.

Speaking of tomorrow’s events, I just got an itinerary. In the morning we’ll be doing breakfast, followed by a little overview with Ford’s Vice President of Product Development, Derrick Kuzak. Afterwards we’ll be doing a few different events, including some track time with a variety of Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury’s 2009 model year lineup. There will be final remarks by Mark Fields, President of the Americas, and then it’s back to Virginia.

The flight over here was good, we got here really quickly. I shared a limo to the hotel with a fellow that writes for publications such as Motor Trend, Automotive Engineering, and Popular Science, so we had an interesting conversation. I definitely feel like the newb

Stay tuned for further updates.

Tuesday 9:43pm

Just got back from our dinner event, had a blast. Basically shot the shit with a bunch of guys I’d only imagine talking casually with. The food was pretty good, there was a good variety of things like chicken, fish, salad, sausage, pulled pork…and open bar. Basically just met a bunch of people in the automotive industry and talked shop. I also had a chance to walk around the hotel a bit…here’s a few more pictures:

My cab just arrived to take me over to the MGM Grand Casino in Detroit, so I have to run. It should be a fun day waking up tomorrow at 6am…we’ll see what time I actually get to sleep tonight!

Wednesday 1:51am

Just got back from MGM Grand. I really wanted to play Texas hold em, but they only had no limit tables…and I’m a limit kinda guy Ended up playing roulette the entire time, walked away up a little bit.

I also finally got a shot of the lobby of the hotel…very elegant looking:

It’s time for me to get some sleep since I have to wake up in 4 hours. Tomorrow should be a day of fun stuff, so stay tuned!

Wednesday 6:04am

Awake now, running on maybe 3.5 hours of sleep!

Wednesday 12:02pm/10:35pm

Finally getting a chance to get on the computer, but don’t have any internet access, so I’m writing this now and will update live when I get back to VA. We just finished the first half of events as well as lunch.

After waking up this morning, I headed down to the restaurant in the hotel for breakfast. Afterwards, we all took a shuttle down to Ford’s testing grounds, which was literally across the street. They do all sorts of things here from wind tunnel testing to driving an F150 on a watered down test area (which they were doing!) to camouflaged vehicles that haven’t been released yet being tested.

The grounds are impressive, with all sorts of test tracks and facilities setup. Let me go through the order of events we went through.

The first event that we did was under a tent where we got to see a bunch of presentations from a few departments at Ford that targeted quality & safety. There was a couple neat things here worth highlighting:

This was a neat virtualization software Ford was using to train people how to spray paint better. They literally had a real spray gun that you would use on the screen, you wanted to get an even green color for a good, even coat of paint. Blue was too little, and red was too much. They could even make it so it just shows you how the paint would look, but then they would turn on the pressure map. Even something that looked perfect, could actually have imperfections in the thickness. While 100% of the exterior paint work is done robotically, about 10% of interior paint is still done by hand. This was a great way to ensure good work.

Most of us have seen how they do movements in sports video games like Madden and Tiger Woods golf…they use those motion sensing suits. Ford has applied the same technology where they could see how workers would use body movements to complete tasks, and then make things more efficient:

We saw a chassis from Ford Racing that was updated to improve NHRA safety standards after analyzing an accident that their own driver was in. Here were the improvements made to the chassis you can see in the picture below:

• The yellow area was widened and foam was added to the sides in order to better protect the head of the driver
• The blue area was added to make the area where the driver is more protective
• A sort of black box was added which records all of the information for the race. Ford Racing developed this box, and is now used by all teams in the NHRA.

The next event, we took out a ton of different vehicles, and just drove them around a cones course that was setup. Driving the Mustang Bullit was a blast, but I was really impressed by the Flex. The Flex is this unique vehicle that is an overall large crossover, but it handled much better than I could have ever imagined. I was also really impressed with the Lincoln MKS. First of all, it’s just a great looking vehicle. It has the luxury class, while also looking sporty and aggressive at the same time. I also got to drive the Escape hybrid, which was my first time experiencing a hybrid vehicle. On top of that, it was the first car I was in that used the Microsoft Sync system I mentioned earlier. I was impressed with two things. First of all, the Escape interior with the Sync system was just awesome. A buddy of mine used to have an Escape, and it was horrible, everything was in the wrong place, and it just looked cheap. What a change!? The other impressive thing was that the hybrid engine was capable of staying in electric mode up to 40mph (it used to be 25mph). That’s awesome for people like cabbies who are driving around in the city, I’m sure they could get some crazy mpg numbers.

Here’s a video of the course:

After the cone course we headed back in for lunch. While eating, Dan Kapp, Director of Advanced Research & Engineering came up to speak about Ford’s plans with something called EcoBoost. EcoBoost is a great movement for Ford, and I expect other manufacturers to do similar. EcoBoost is essentially the concept of using a smaller turbo’d engine that can put out more power, get better fuel economy, and have a smaller carbon footprint over a larger naturally aspirated engine. So the idea is that instead of buying a V8 F150, you would buy a turbocharged (EcoBoost) V6 F150 which has more power than the V8 and gets better fuel economy. That’s a win-win situation…and turbo cars are just simply fun to drive

The food was good too, they had a variety of salads, sandwiches, and awesome desserts…I’ll let you salivate with a snapshot of the desserts (different types of mousse and cheesecake lollipops):

Next it was on to the “Green & Smart” tent where Ford discussed how it was going more green, as well as highlighting some pretty neat new technologies they were embracing. The green aspect had a lot to do with EcoBoost, but also how they were using bio materials like soy beans and hemp to make things like the foam in your seats. One of the major benefits and things they are working towards is making a car last, but once it’s junked, it doesn’t just sit there and pollute, but rather it can completely decomposite within just 60-90 days. Neat stuff!

There were a few technologies that really stood out to me and I want to highlight:

Ford Sync

I mentioned before that I was excited to play around with this. I got a chance to really get into the system and see everything it can do. All I can say is that I want it in my car. It is an insanely awesome and intuitive system, that I can imagine once you have, it would be hard to not have in your next car. It’s an entire multimedia center, from being able to play DVD’s, to playing music from basically any option (cd, dvd, aux input aka iPod/mp3 player, built-in hard drive, thumb drive, etc), to much much more. This next generation of Sync utilizes Sirius Travel Link, which is essentially a data feed from Sirius that can do things like give you real-time traffic, weather, sports score, movie listings, and even a list of the closest gas stations to you…along with the gas price there. You can easily find the cheapest gas near you!? There is just so much this system can do, and I can only recommend you get to your Ford dealership and play with it yourself to get the full experience. I don’t know why all cars don’t have something like this. The other cool thing is that it’s an actually an option in an entry-level Focus, whereas normally technology like this starts in high-end cars and eventually works its way down.

Blind Spot Mirrors

This is such a simple concept, and I have no idea why it hasn’t been integrated into all cars…but here it finally is. Blind spot mirrors. Between the name and the following picture, it requires no other explanation:

Next Generation Keypads

I’m sure you know how a lot of Ford vehicles have that ugly keypad that lets you unlock the doors. While it’s very functional, it doesn’t look too good. Ford has a Lincoln MKS on display that showed the next generation of the keypad, which is built into the b-pillar and uses touch sensitivity instead of standard buttons. It works like an iPhone, and only lights up when you touch it. Now it looks awesome, and it’s just as functional. While you can see it in the below picture, it was only because of the flash, in reality it blends in to barely noticeable when not lit up:

The last even was on the actual track, and was by far the most fun of the events. We had the same slew of vehicles (including a couple new ones like the Lincoln MKX and the Edge Sport (which handled amazingly well)), but this time were on a real road racing course.? I was able to really push the cars to the limits. Some of the drives we even had people that were on the product development team for the vehicle we were driving in the car. It was interesting to talk to them about developing the car I was actually driving. On top of everything, they had a couple of the upcoming F150’s on display (not for driving) which looks great in person:

Afterwards we closed up with a little speech from Mark Fields, President of Ford North & South America.

I had a great time at the event, and I can honestly say that I have a new appreciation for some of the Ford vehicles, what they stand for, the passion of their employees, and the direction they are taking the company.

Any other manufacturers care to invite me to their similar press events?? Just say the word

I checked the mailbox yesterday, and found a letter from Maryland addressed to me. I opened it up, and was surprised to see this:

A speed camera got me going 38 in a 25, which automatically sends me a citation. Luckily, it’s only a civil fine, so it was just $40 with no points and no affect on insurance rates. As you can probably guess, it’s just a revenue maker for the county.

Aside from the suckage factor of getting the ticket, the technology behind everything is actually pretty cool. They give you a website you can go to, along with your citation number and pin, you can access the high resolution version of the pictures the camera took. Here’s one scaled down slightly:

It’s actually a pretty nice picture, I was surprised they were using something so clear.

I posted this story on the Viper forums, and there are all sorts of responses about how this is unconstitutional, etc. I’m not really sure what the truth is, but it doesn’t seem right that they can give me a citation with a picture of the car and make me pay without proving I did anything of fault. Innocent until proven guilty right?? Some of the more interesting responses worth looking further into are below:

It doesn’t even matter if you weren’t behind the wheel, the car’s registered owner is the one who gets fined. Purely a revenue source for the county, under the guise of “safety.”

I don’t know how legislation like this even gets passed. How can you accuse/fine an individual when you have no proof they were operating the vehicle in question?

It’s actually unconstitutional since you can’t cross-examine a machine.

We have speed and red light cameras in metro Phoenix, with more on the way. I wouldn’t pay it. Throw it away if it wasn’t sent registered or certified mail. If no one signed for it, how do they know you received it in the mail? In AZ if you are not “served” within 90 days of the ticket…..your off the hook. Check your local laws, but if it was me, and you didn’t receive it by registered or certified mail……it’s in file 13!

The most interesting I think being the last quote. I wonder if that’s actually true. Any legal junkies know what the truth is?

Back in April I wrote about the Lexus Performance Driving Academy, which I just attended this past weekend. Now that I’ve gone through the academy, I wanted to post my thoughts…I’ll take you through my day.

As a reminder, there were two different programs that were available. One on Friday was $295, but allowed you to get hands on with the new 416hp Lexus IS-F. On the weekend (which I did not attend) was free, but didn’t give you IS-F goodness. Two of my friends attended the Friday program with me, so they stayed over my place on Thursday so we could all go together Friday morning.

To get into the driving spirit, I drove my Viper with Alex riding in the passenger seat, while Eric rode his modified Subaru STI. The driving academy was located at Summit Point in West Virginia, which is about an hour drive from where I live. The drive up to the track was fun, especially getting into WV, we got to experience some twisty roads that really got us prepped up for what was ahead.

We arrived at about 11:30am and saw the parking lot was full of all sorts of fun cars. There were a ton of Lexus’s (including some IS-F’s), as well as a bunch of Corvette’s. There was even a new Bentley Continental Flying Spur. A Mercedes Sprinter shuttle picked us up from the lot and drove us over to the event.

We had about an hour before anything started, so we were provided a lunch inside a tent with an IS-F to gawk at. Lunch was surprisingly good, with a variety of foods like chicken, maceroni & cheese, cheese biscuits, cookies, and more. They also had an IS-F simulator setup that was pretty neat, and very hard…it made me a little worried about what to expect later on.

After lunch, we had a little opening chat, and then it was off to our groups first event, the advanced techniques classrooms. This was a very helpful course that went over a variety of techniques and showing the lines of the track. They also had a simulator setup in the room with a 2nd screen that was linked to a camera that showed the pedal area. This was extremely helpful because they had a pro driver go up there and show us how to drive the course. Seeing what his feet were actually doing was very beneficial. The instructor then chose me to go on the simulator and try it out for myself. All I have to say is it’s much harder than it looks. I luckily had the pro driver next to me giving me pointers like when to apply brakes and give more gas. Even so, I ended up slamming into the wall!

The next event was called “lead/follow”. This is where groups of 3-4 IS-F’s would follow a pro driver on a road course. The idea behind this is to really get an idea of the lines on the track, by following the pro driver you could learn fairly easily. We had to go arounds of about 3 laps, the second go, the pro driver was much more agressive, which made it way more fun.

Here’s a video from lead/follow:

After lead/follow, we took a shuttle to another track where we would do something called the relay. This was an event where our group split up into two different teams. Each person drove around the track, and each individual time was added to the total. We amazingly ended up tieing at 7:12. The track here was incredibly slick as they covered it in peanut oil since it’s used for training for police, CIA, secret service, etc…and they use it to do stuff like drifting around the track.

The following event was the autocross where a cone track was setup with all sorts of turns, etc. This was a timed event, each person got two practice laps, and then two officially timed laps to try and get the lowest time possible. The benchmark time was set by a pro driver at something like 21.1 seconds. This was the same pro driver that set the lap time for Mazda’s Rev It Up national event. The reason this is so impressive is because the Rev It Up event was about 25,000 people that tried to beat his lap time, and only person did. Then he went right back out, and in one go, beat that persons time.

The lap time is set by the amount of time it takes to complete one lap, if you hit any cones, 2 seconds is added to the time. Also, at the end of the lap you are supposed to stop within a coned box…if you don’t, 5 seconds is added to your time. On my first two practice laps I ran a 24.xx and then a 23.8x. Afterwards, I ran my two official lap times and I got a 22.9x and then a 22.7x. These were actually very good times, in fact, I had the 4th fastest time out of the group of about 150 or so people!? The fastest time of the day was 22.1 seconds.

The last event was the hot lap, which one was one of the best experiences I’ve had. The hot lap was when you go out on the track with a professional driver and he goes as fast as he could. I posted a video of a lap, but it does no justice!? It literally feels like a roller coaster in real life, I kept banging my head against the car every time we’d hit a turn…either way, check it out for yourself:

Afterwords there was another meal, along with a closing speech sort of thing. Before we left, we all received gift bags that had the following items:

• $750 certificate off of a new 2008/2009 Lexus
• Kaboom drink
• A watch on a carabiner
• Wired magazine
• Lexus “F” hat
• Kaboom t-shirt
• Lexus IS-F DVD
• $30 gift card for XM Radio
• Lexus pen

The Lexus Performance Driving Academy was well worth the $295, and I would easily do it again. It was no holds bar with the cars we drove, and I definitely learned a lot to improve myself with driving.