Thoughts about high gas prices:

There has been a lot of talk about high gas prices, and possable price gouging by "big oil companies". Everyone from the President, to members of congress, to even my close friends and family have compalined about the current state of Gas prices. I would like to formalize my thoughts about all this, and maybe offer a little bit of insight of my own.

A few days ago, Mr. Bush spoke about the daneriously high gas prices, and what he and his adminerstration are going to do about it. Mr. Bush spoke of a multipoint plan in which the dependency of foregin oil will be reduced and hence the price of pump gas will go down. His plan called for

-Increse of domestic production

-Increse of alternative fuel development

-A temperary halt of oil to the nation's reserve

-A temperary relaxing of gas blend standards

-An investgation into the possablity of price gouging

There is a small problem with this plan, that is, it lacks logic. I have supported the President on many other issues thus far, and I am in no way "Bush-bashing"--that must be made clear right now, if you think I am taking potshots than stop reading now. I'll address each point one at a time...

Increse of domestic production: Almost all of the current manufactering facilites are working at peack production. An increse in production will cause them to lose effecency, and we (the public) will be at a disatvantage.

Increse of alternative fuel development: As you all know I am a big supporter of E85, I love the stuff but I also know that we could be just as dependant on corn and trash as we are of oil now. As such, I also support the development of other fuels and other methods of transportation all together. We cannot expect this to be an answer to our current problems and this should have been in a different speech, other than that there is really nothing of value here.

A temperary halt of oil to the nation's reserve: This is total crap. halting the supply to the nation's oil reserve, and directing it to gas pumps around the nation has little, if any, economic affect. the savings that Mr. Bush thinks will be pased on from the government to the oil company to the gas truck driver to the gas station owner to public will ammount to about 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000 of a cent.

A temperary relaxing of gas blend standards: This is the same thing as the nation's reserve. Any savings here would not ammount to a real and tanagble benifit. Also, in the process, there are now God knows how many gallons of substandard gas being pumped into vehicles around the nation and poluting more than before.

An investgation into the possablity of price gouging: This is the last straw as far as I am conserned. there have been four reports that I know of showing that there is little, if any, evdience of price manipulation on any level. Now, I admit that a few single owner gas stations may have a local monolopy where they are the only station for a few miles (this is the case for one place in my home town) and as such he rases his prices higher than other stations further away. This is not price manipulation, this is economics at work. A gas station owner is going to charge the higest price he can for a gallon of gas, while the consumer is going to pay the lowest price he can for the same gallon of gas.

Also the price of gas is really less as it was 30 years ago... A gallon of gas in 1975 cost about $1.50 depending on where you lived at the time, that same $1.50 costs about $5.62. Thats right, now the national avgrage when Mr. Busg was making his speech was $2.91 a gallon, that would mean gas would have cost 78¢ in 1976. With that in mind, about the same percentage of income goes toward the purchce of gas for you car now as it did 30 years ago.

There is a little good about the President's speech the other day, and that is Light, sweet crude prices droped to a june devlivery price of $70.74 a barel from a high of $75. If this is because of the speech, or if it is just the market adjusting it self is yet to be found out. I would think it is simply the market adjusting it self... Spikes are almost alwasy followed by a slight drop in price before leveling out somewhat.

There is one more point I want to make here... If you think you are paying too much for gas, than dont drive any more. If your driving an SUV that gets crappy MPG, than buy a car that gets better fuel economy. If your driving a puris and still think your getting screwed at the pump, than walk, carpool, take the bus/train, or bike to work, the store, your friends house. Dont go out as much, the older among us will tell you durring WWII they stayed inside and the government requested that they not travel unless nessary. In fact, there were gas cards given out to people and gas (and distance) was alloted by which card you had. For example, if you had an "A" card you may get less gas than someone with a "D" card.

Be smart America!

Cha-Ching

How much do you pay for a gallon of gas? Check out this nation wide map of gas price listings, and look even closer in your area to find a cheeper place to fill up! Wow looking at this map sure beats driving around trying to find a cheeper place every time the prices go up.

2008 Cadillac CTS spy shots!

comparing these two shots (one of the 2008 test mule, and the other of the current 2006 model), we see a whole bunch of new red reflectors on the mule. Because these appear to be incorporated into the bumper design, and not simply taped on for safety, expect these new lights to add some intrest to the otherwise very large and boring bumper from the first gen CTS


comparing these two pictures, we see that the belt line has been moved up quite a bit and the rear door is a little smaller. This lends to a more sporty look that the CTS desperately needs. It also mimics the MB CLS500 a good idea, as it will add a sense of class and prestige to the sports sedan and one-up BMW (or not) The front door looks to stay just as large, which will allow the fat cats who want to ride in style but hate the bangle-butt BMW's to get in and out with ease.


These shots so the new front end, compared to the out going version. For those of you who saw the 60 Minute's eye opener into the world of GM, you will see something familiar. I posted the shot from the show for the rest of us (I had to see it on the blogs b/c I had a class meeting during that time). Anyway, there is a major refreshing up front, just as over thre rest of the car. The grille is totally different (although not quite the same as the concept from 60 Minute's). The Headlights look a little bigger (if that was possible) and the turn signals have been moved from the bumper to the headlight assembly. In place of the turn signals are what look to be smaller round HID fog lights (again another much needed improvement) and a more aggressive air scoop. This is for sure one Caddy that people will notice on the streets!
Inside it's a whole new story... Although this shot only has a good view of the door panel, you can see it is very different and looks more like the mix of the new BMW 5-series and the old 3-series door panels. Also you can see a small section of the dashboard, and it looks a lot like the STS dash... Hopefully the the huge square ugly cheap-looking center stack is gone for a more Cadillac like console.

Which Sports Car Are You?

I'm a Chevrolet Corvette!

You're a classic - powerful, athletic, and competitive. You're all about winning the race and getting the job done. While you have a practical everyday side, you get wild when anyone pushes your pedal. You hate to lose, but you hardly ever do.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

I show you, exhibit A...

Here is something I just had to laugh at; even if it was only after a mouth full of slander... Autoblog has posted news that GM will deal with an INTAKE GASKET problem on a case-by-case basis... Read the autoblog capsule here or the full article here

Lets all be alcoholics!

At the turn of the last century, there were all sorts of different vehicles on the roads of America; internal combustion, electric, steam, you name it. About 20 or 30 years after the Ford model A (the first car ford built, not the replacement to the T) Gas fueled internal combustion engines became the dominant power plant for cars and trucks. Now almost a full century later, the question of self purpoltion has come full circle, and gas seems to be losing the battle this time.

I am not talking about the EV's you see on the news every so often, but rather this 'new' thing called E85. I have posted reports about E85 before, but with () many mistakes. Let me clear the air now, while I have the chance.

E85 is just that; 85% ethanol mixed with 15% regular unleaded Gas. The reason E85 is so popular right now with Ford and GM is because it happens to be the best combo of ethanol and gas. The reason for the mix is for cold starts, idle and a few other more technical reasons that I don't understand because I don't have a PhD. There are some vehicles that can run on E95 or E100 (the only one I know of with E100 is the Saab aero-x). Any vehicle that can run E85 can run on any mix of ethanol and gas less than 85%. So you could for example run E50 or E10 or even on just gas, if you wanted to.

that's good due simply because E85 must be introduced to the public, which can be much harder than it sounds. As good as Ethanol may be, if people do not understand it, or don't know if they can run their vehicle on E85 they will be less likely to acecpt the change from gas to ethanol.

Also Ethanol is less volatile than gas, and so E85 vehicles get less miles per gallon than regular gas vehicles. General Motors has been able to show that performance will not suffer; the Saab Aero-X concept that showed in Switzerland out performed the Corvette, the platform that the Aero-X was largely based from. Because of the lack of "fuel economy", a term I use lightly here, the People may not feel the numbers quite add up. For example, according to research done by IL's Steven Cole Smith "Mr. Nice Guy" "According to the EPA, a new Ford Crown Victoria FFV with a 4.6-liter V8 engine is rated at 17 mpg in the city, 25 mpg on the highway on gasoline. On E85, that mileage drops to 12 mpg in the city, 18 mpg on the highway." that's a drop of 5 mpg in the city, and 7 mpg on the highway. Thats a LOT. This is normal, so no matter what vehicle you own, if it's a Fex-fuel vehicle, then you can expect to fill up at your E85 pump more than your regular unleaded pump.

Still at the sake of quieting the liberal media, and the hippies out there who would rather burn SUV's then ride in them, I would fill up more often. The only real up side to E85, besides not having to import terrorist oil is the fact that the alcohol burns cleaner so it pollutes less. The added bonus is that it costs about the same if not much less than regular unleaded gas, and is a renewable fuel.

Corn is the crop of choice right now, but that is changing even as you read this. According to current research, one bushel of corn can produce 2.7 gallons of ethanol. However other things like rice straw, the stuff left over from rice harvesting, or the left over from sugar cane harvests to even municipal solid waste can be made into ethanol. So how would you feel if you could have your cake and eat it to? All of us, including the hippies, would be driving Chevy Tahoes!

There is still a problem with building the infrastructure, but the Ethanol Vehicle Coalition is at the forefront of raising public interest. Check out e85fuel.com to see if your vehicle is E85 compatible, where you can buy E85, and if there is no E85 fuel station near you sign up to tell them about it. Being from New Jersey (on of the 12 states that doesn't have E85) I have already signed up with my email address, city, state, and zip. That's all you really need, and they do the rest.

I would like to see more people driving flex-fuel vehicles simply because I do not want to be dependent on Oil any more. I do not want to be dependent on Midwest farmers either, and I would also stress the continued research into Hydrogen, or other forms of fuel as well.

Roadster Wars

Not soon after Pontiac re-found its racing and performance heritage, did Mazda redesign its performance sultan the MX-5. This lovely chance of fate (or awesome timing in the corporate word) caused a rift in the roadster galaxy... and none too soon!

Before the Pontiac Solstice was introduced, the choice for small fast cheep roadsters was limited to well, only one; the Mazda Maita. When the Maita was introduced in 1990, GM laughed at it... after all GM's Chevrolet division was the father of the Corvette, they had fun with the cheep car thing, but when it came to performance there was nothing like the 'Vette. But the Maita did extremely well in its first year and never looked back. There were limited editions, and MX-5 performance racer editions; but the car was, for the most part, just a fun little Japanese made 'British' roadster. Fast forward some 15 years, and GM finally see's a market for a Mazda beater.

Enter the Solstice! One of the first things Bob Lutz did when he was hired by GM was to try and save Oldsmobile from death row, he was a little late but not determined to start building cars like that of GM's glory days. When the Solstice was first drawn in the design studio, Lutz knew that this little roadster would be built. There was one small little problem though; GM's red tape was all over the place and the tangle would be a lot to get through. Some how Bob Lutz's dream car came true and in the very late summer of 2005 the Solstice rolled out of the factory and into show rooms across the country.

Now, not even a full year later, Pontiac is ready to prove the small little parts bin car against the well proven MX-5. Will this thing be able to shut down the king of the hill? That is only going to be proved at the finish line, but for now it's nice to know that GM still has some red blood pumping in its veins. The races will be decided on tow factors, besides that of the usual. Driving style, and power devilry...

The MX-5 and Solstice answer the same problem in two very different ways. As a design student, and a car guy I can appreciate this a lot. A simple example would be how do I win this drag race? The problem there would be how to get go as fast as I can as soon as I can to get 1/4 mile down the track? There are many many many many many many ways of doing this... One way would be to simple use a big ass engine with as much displacement to move you down the track. Another way is to use a small engine (whish is also lighter than a big engine) and use the theory of torque multiplication. Yet another way is to... well you get the idea.

In the case of the MX5 vs. the Solstice; the MX-5 uses a high revving engine with torque multiplication coming in at the higher end of the power curve, the problem with this is the driver needs to keep the engine within the higher limits of the power curve to keep the car moving fast. The Solstice on the other hand, uses a lower revving engine with torque coming in at the lower end of the power curve, the problem with this, is the driver needs to shift constantly and just before the power curve starts to drop.

The MX-5 and Solstice also have different driving styles. the MX-5 allows the driver to slide around the corners and really experience over steer, and with a quick flip of the throttle, or a quick downshift will compensate and the driver will experience under steer... both of the are really bad in racing, and nobody wants that to happen. In the Solstice, however because of the wider tires (P245/45R18 in the Solstice vs. P205/45 R17 in the MX-5) the driver will be able to maneuver the car around the corner without too much trouble, however if he want to induce a little over steer because of the flatter power curve, he will not be able to and may exit the corner too slow.

revs vs. torque, slip vs. grip... this will make for some really fun racing that’s for sure.