G. David Felt

“Gran Turismo Omologato”

Yup, I know you think it is worth it but it will not ever be an original goat, just a piece of metal to be recycled at this point. Probably 99.9% of that body will have to be replaced with aftermarket parts, I would even question the engine. Frame probably will have to be replaced due to the extreme rust. This is total lunacy to waste time and money on it. Should have been crushed. Yup, let the flames begin as I will never see this as a realistic restore auto in this condition. One for @balthazar

Interesting letter to shareholders from CEO Mary 2021 Full-Year and Q4 Letter to Shareholders (gm.com)

Very interesting engine technology. THE RACE TO ZERO IS OVER! – Power with a purpose. (astronaerospace.com) So according to this company you can stack these 35lb engines to increase performance. To quote their web site: Weight, Efficiency, and Environment What makes the Omega 1 so much more powerful, light, and efficient than a piston engine? First: There is a tremendous amount of friction, heat, parasitic, and pumping losses in a piston engine. Each time a piston moves up and down, the rings scrape against the piston walls and that causes friction. Nearly every moving part has contact with other moving parts and that causes more friction. The parasitic losses are not small, as they add up in the form of valve train losses, airflow restrictions, converting reciprocating piston energy into rotational crankshaft energy, and inertial losses due to spring function. There are also significant pumping losses due to the requirement to liquid cool the engine via moving lubricants throughout the engine. All of these losses reduce the power of an engine, and dealing with these losses increases the complexity and weight. Second: The Omega 1 engine has very few of these losses. It has dramatically reduced friction, almost no parasitic losses, and no moving parts besides the rotational elements. There are very few pumping losses because the engine is air cooled via airflow around and through the engine, and only the synchronization gears and bearings require lubrication. This gives an added benefit of no cross-contamination of oil into the combustion chamber, which equates to lowering emissions. A large improvement in combustion and overall efficiency comes from the forced air supercharged intake at between 200 and 300 psi. Normal superchargers boost the combustion pressure by only 6 to 35 psi. The Omega 1 supercharger is far superior and is an integral part of the combustion process. Third: The overall efficiency also improves because of our “skip fire” capability of the engine. For example, the engine can fire every rotation while a vehicle is accelerating, but once at cruising speed in an aircraft, on a highway etc., the engine will only fire when there is a need, (every 5,10,50 rotations or whatever is required), and can idle at a high speed with very little fuel consumption. Then when conditions change and power is required, the computer will increase firing rate for nearly instant power with very low amounts of throttle lag. This can be tuned for maximum efficiency, maximum power, or a combination depending on desired application. Fourth: The Omega 1 engine is the first engine with an active linear power transfer. As the Omega 1 engine rotates, all the power is transferred through the single rotating power shaft. There are no offset crankshafts, no reciprocating pistons, and no eccentric shaft (as in a Wankel rotary engine). The engine weighs much less than a comparable piston engine because of the simplicity of the design, and because it has so few moving parts.

Very Cool Video to watch and I like the idea of the truck over a Tesla Power Wall.

Per reporting by state news agencies like King 5, a bill is being discussed today, Thursday February 3rd, 2022. This bill which has been done via Pilot Programs starting back in 2017 would eventually replace Gas Tax with a Road Tax. House Bill 2026 in Washington State would mandate the Department of Licensing to establish an early adoption program that would require registered owners of electric vehicles to pay a fee of 2.5 cents per mile beginning July 1st, 2025. Participant would be mandatory for all new electric vehicles and voluntary for older current electric vehicles on the road. Hybrids would be allowed to voluntarily participate in the program on July 1st 1 year later. Most other vehicles would be allowed to participate in the program beginning 1 year after hybrids. The proceeds would go into the Road Usage Charge Account that solely funds transportation projects. This bill would also require that the Joint Transportation Committee to evaluate the program to figure out how to fully implement it across all auto's in the state by January 1st, 2029. What is still not clear is the reporting as during the pilot program that had 2,000 drivers who were refunded their gas tax as they paid their mileage tax, there were various groups. The ways that each group reported was a reporting every three months by the following: First group did an odometer reading reported quarterly by the Emissions inspection sites. Second group used a plug-in device that they had to get read at designated locations to report their miles Third group used a plug-in device with GPS that auto reported their miles Fourth group us a Milemapper smartphone app for iPhone users At 2.5 cents per mile this breaks down to the following road tax fee per auto: 6,000 miles a year = $150 8,000 miles a year = $200 10,000 miles a year = $250 12,000 miles a year = $300 15,000 miles a year = $375 Not including the Federal tax, Washington state gas tax is 49.4 cents per gallon. Plan by the state is to increase it by 10 cents this year, another 8 cents in 2023. Washington's pay-per-mile tax bill gets first legislative hearing | king5.com

Ford Once Again Caught Benchmarking The New Cadillac Escalade (fordauthority.com) Guess the competition is going to be strong which means it will be great for us Large SUV loving guys. Interesting thought, as Lincoln and Cadillac go at it and up each other each year, this will make it very hard for the Germans to match as this is the U.S. big boys place to play Luxury SUV.

Back in May 2021, we covered the details that KIA released around their first BEV for the U.S. marketplace. At that time KIA did not release pricing. Now we have actual pricing that shows the KIA EV6 will start at $33,400 factoring in the available federal tax credit of $7,500. KIA also stated the following: EV6 eligible for sale in all 50 states Available in Light, Wind and Sporty GT-Line trim configurations State-of-the-art 77.4kWh high-density lithium-ion battery allows up to a 310-mile range Innovative Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) function turns EV6 into a mobile power source for the world around it Excluding the $1,215 dollar destination charge, the EV6 has the following trim levels: EV6 Light RWD - $40,900 EV6 Wind RWD - $47,000 EV6 Wind Dual Motor e-AWD - $50,900 EV6 GT-Line RWD - $51,200 EV6 GT-Line Dual Motor e-AWD - $55,900 Depending on model you get one of two battery packs58.0kWh or 77.4kWh battery pack and performance up to 320 horsepower with an EPA rated all-electric range up to 310 miles depending on configuration. The battery pack to trim level is as follows: RWD - 58.0kWh battery with a 168kW rear motor yields 167 horsepower and an AER (all-electric range) of 232-miles (Light RWD) RWD - 77.4kWh battery with 168kW rear motor yields 225 horsepower and an AER of 310-miles (Wind RWD, GT-Line RWD) Dual Motor e-AWD - 77.4kWh battery with a 74kW front motor and a 165kW rear motor yields 320 horsepower and AER of 274-miles (Wind AWD, GT-Line AWD) The EV6 might also qualify for various state incentives, including single rider carpool lane access in California, check your state for any addition incentives such as an example in Washington state where no sales tax is paid on the sales price up to $45,000. EV6 is expected to start arriving at KIA dealerships in various trim levels in the upcoming weeks of February 2022. Kia Global Media Center : Kia America announces 2022 EV6 pricing (kianewscenter.com) View full article

I find this funny in a weird sort of way! Stellantis looking for their Chief Donut Maker!

Cool post by an employee of GM with the Hummer and Silverado EV side by side. Looks good. https://www.instagram.com/p/CZLHbzvLTvP/

My daughters 1999 Durango needed work and I have no time, so took it to a we respected local auto repair place today, found this dodge and old Toyota there being worked on.

Yes, I did mis-read that, thank you. I have to see if the Speed Cameras are banned here or not, hope they are as I think it is BS. Then we would have to Detune ICE auto's to keep boomers from getting into performance Corvettes. UPDATE: Found this site that follows the states laws on Speed Cameras and you can check your own. Traffic and Red Light Camera Laws by State - FindLaw Lucky for me, Speed Camera's are only legal in cities, within a School zone. Red light cameras are also legal only within city limits. The cameras cannot be used elsewhere. RCW 46.63.170: Automated traffic safety cameras—Definition. (<i>Effective until June 30, 2023.</i>) (wa.gov)

Very cool read and pictures about the award winning 1949 Ford Sedan. The 1949 Ford

Interesting to see the Q4 / Final 2021-year report from GM. 2021 Full-Year and Q4 Letter to Shareholders (gm.com) So they have 56,000 GMC HUMMER EV reservations, 110,000 Silverado EV Reservations and an additional 240 fleet operators that have committed to buying the Silverado Work Truck EV, yet no number on that. So maybe it is just 1 or 2 trucks per fleet to check it out first before committing?

This song really speaks to me the Awesome Multi-Cultural world we live in. You can turn on the subtitles if you want, she has a lovely voice. To quote the Post by the Music Company: This song is produced by team Star Track created by TS Music's Kang Ji-won and Kim Ki-bum. It's a medium tempo dreamy and exotic ballad song based on hiphop beats with some rock sounds added. "Don't Look at Me Like That" has a rather controversial, experimental lyrics about love between the same sex, different races, different ages, and other possibly prejudiced and stereotyped relationships. Korea is going Crazy for American Iron and as such in this music video about a one-sided love, they use an American Classic car that way too many people just ignore but I like it. Artists have unique voices. Course I also find the young woman driving the Nova to be very attractive to me.

Have to say I have never been a Van Fan overall, liked some of the 70's era tricked out vans, but I do like this interior on the VW ID.Buzz electric Van. https://www.autoblog.com/2022/01/27/vw-id-buzz-interior-leaked-spy-photos/

WOW, Some very Interesting news today: Ford has partnered with Sunrun, a leading solar company to optimize the running of your home with their solar system when needed using the available Intelligent Backup Power. They will also have it as a purchase option when you buy the Ford EV truck. https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2022/02/02/f-150-lightning-power-play.html Ford has doubled F150 Production this year to be 150,000 EV Trucks and will have total capacity of 600,000 EVs by the end of 2023. https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2022/01/04/ford-planning-to-[…]ble-all-electric-f-150-lightning-production-150000-units.html Ford seems to have decided to follow GM as they do a major reorganization to shift to fully electric cars adding to the $30 Billion an additional $20 Billion as they they hired Doug Field, Former Apple Car Project to lead the overhaul of the ICE company to one of Technology and BEVs. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-01/ford-to-spend-up-to-20-billion-reorganizing-for-shift-to-evs Crazy, for your safety seems we have Speed Enforcement Cameras coming to a local highway near you. https://www.autoblog.com/2022/02/02/traffic-speed-cameras-biden-infrastructure-bill/ The Bloomberg story would have been a good writeup, just no time today as my regular job has be busy. Click the Link and Read, very interesting as they change, Ford to keep a focus on ICE to be competitive with everyone, but the real focus will be to convert the whole company portfolio to BEV. Lincoln it seems will follow Cadillac as dropping all ICE asap as they replace each model with a BEV.

Interesting to see the First all new Cadillac IQ Dealership open in late December. Was not on the official GM or Cadillac China news web site, but GM Authority covered this. GM Opens New Cadillac Pure Electric IQ Store In Shanghai (gmauthority.com) I also wish GM would have some of the LYRIQ out for people to check out here in the US as China has now. All-New Cadillac IQ Shanghai Kerry Store Opens In China (gmauthority.com) Wish GM would do this kind of stores here with showing the History of Cadillac and the luxury and design style with a focus of moving into the future.

Two very cool stories, first one is the GM approved coachbuilder that built an actual Cadillac Pickup back in the 70's. Rare 1976 Cadillac Mirage Pickup Sells For $41K (gmauthority.com) This caddy pickup was built with only the 500 cubic inch V8. Additional pictures of the Pickup on the link above. @oldshurst442 Might find this to his liking. Who knew a Bandit Edition of the 2021 Silverado recently sold at Auction, $286,000 2021 Chevy Silverado Bandit Fetches $286k At Barrett-Jackson (gmauthority.com) I have very mixed feelings about this Truck, Cool and yet Oh so not right when the Bandit should be a car in regards to the heritage of the Movie. Yet for the 21st Century and the love of Trucks, I could see a modern day Bandit would use a performance focused Pickup over a car.

Seems the market is less than impressed with Tesla earnings call and lack of any new product production (Semi, CyberTruck, $25K Tesla, Roadster 2.0) So here comes Tesla showing off that out of Nevada where they make the battery packs and a production line is supposedly set up for building the Semi, a group of Semi's are charging. Musk probably feels he can keep his rabid fans happy by showing that they are making some progress.

Rivian video showing all their drive modes. Pretty cool. Decent Truck and Tesla has NOTHING to compete with this. Hey Tesla, you paying attention, this is what a real truck is and does.

I understand the point you're attempting to make, but Drew specifically pointed to pre-diagnosis. @Drew Dowdell to quote drews post above: How many people did you infect in your pre-symptomatic period? The period before you are tested and discover you have Covid is a time when you are very high in transmission of the virus to others. That is the only point Drew made. Nothing about after the diagnosis you are being out and about.

Looking Good Robert! Jeep needs a bath I see. That is allot of snow, reminds me of our storm a few weeks back and the piles still around. Next storm moves in tonight here, rain upper 30's in the greater Seattle area and heavy snow in the passes. Should make skiing great this coming weekend.

My wife, both my son, daughter and my sister and her partner Renee, six people in total that had Zero symptom's from getting vaccinated. Zero symptom's from getting boosted too. I do not hear except from people who are very much out of shape that they had any aches and were knocked out for a weekend. So yes, if you are totally out of shape, have other family history issues, you will probably feel the effects from vaccination. The bigger question to ask oneself is: Can I live with myself if I pass on the covid virus to more vulnerable people and they lose their life all due to my resistance to a proven vaccine that helps to prevent serious illness as well as transmitting the virus to others? ? UPDATE: Brain Fart, My Parents, wife parents, grandparents all had ZERO symptoms from the vaccine and grandparents are very German, overweight as is my wife's Korean parents that are overweight. Still no side effects from the vaccine or booster.