Today I Learned (TIL)

TIL

Rules are for the obedience of fools and interpretations of smart men.

-Colin Chapman

TIL that heavy braking, a slight turn in the road, and a big bump can make the Abarth just a little squirrely at speed. Nothing bad, just enough to remind me that the car has a short wheelbase 

TIL that if you trail brake hard enough even an 06 Matrix XR automatic wants to rotate.

There is such a thing as a 2wd Crosstour.

TIL that I want to be Dusterbd13's neighbor but not close enough that I can see him when he walks in his yard naked. 

Hey now....

I only did it once to prove the point....

TIL two weeks is my limit for a Spec Miata exhaust on the street. I also learned that an 8 inch motorcycle baffle in the tailpipe will do wonders to tone it down. 

There’s a store 10 minutes from my house devoted to fasteners.  Whoever put the wheelchair together originally crossthreaded an axle.  After striking out at three hardware stores looking for a 7/16 fine bolt 7 inches long and a nylock nut to match I was sent to https://sarjo.com/.  5 minutes and $3.00 later crash was back in business.

mad_machine said:

TIL that heavy braking, a slight turn in the road, and a big bump can make the Abarth just a little squirrely at speed. Nothing bad, just enough to remind me that the car has a short wheelbase 

Everything has corner entry oversteer if you drive aggressively enough.  Not everything has enough power to be able to exploit it for more than one corner.
 

When I hear people whine about how much a given car understeers, I crossreference how much power the car has and then translate the result to "I drive like a wimp"

This is why the BR-Z is better than the FR-S.  The FR-S is tuned to oversteer for the 5/10ths drivers.  The BR-Z is tuned to be fast, because Subaru.

G_Body_Man said:

TIL that if you trail brake hard enough even an 06 Matrix XR automatic wants to rotate.

I meant to reply to this post, not the other one...

That there is such a thing as airborne fecal matter.  It was an opinion piece about SF from one point in the political spectrum.  Basically there is a problem with public defecation in them thar parts  and it reminded the commentator of when he was going to some hellhole we'd invaded in the last two decades that didn't have the most modern sewage disposal system in place something about an 'open air sewer'.  Sure it was a hit piece on SF but I did learn there is such a thing as airborne fecal matter and it can do some bad things to the body when inhaled.  

In reply to nutherjrfan :

Airborne fecal matter is also known as "dust".

In some places, you can get hepatitis from breathing.

But is dust known as airborne fecal matter? 

TIL that a half rotten tomato sitting in tall grass will turn into salsa when struck with a weedwacker at full throttle.

I can come to no other conclusion than that keeping two riding mowers running (house and clinic) is about 3-4 times more work than keeping one running.

TIL how to drive a Miata.

Do not try to surf a wave of bite. Just drift the damn thing, and you will be rewarded with good times.

TIL that when the speedo fails when you're on your 28 year old Katana 750, it's likely because the cable has backed itself out of the speedo and is dragging from the front wheel perilously close to the rear tire...

Knurled. said:

mad_machine said:

TIL that heavy braking, a slight turn in the road, and a big bump can make the Abarth just a little squirrely at speed. Nothing bad, just enough to remind me that the car has a short wheelbase 

Everything has corner entry oversteer if you drive aggressively enough.  Not everything has enough power to be able to exploit it for more than one corner.
 

When I hear people whine about how much a given car understeers, I crossreference how much power the car has and then translate the result to "I drive like a wimp"

 

This is why the BR-Z is better than the FR-S.  The FR-S is tuned to oversteer for the 5/10ths drivers.  The BR-Z is tuned to be fast, because Subaru.

wait what? I thought they were the same car? I'll be shopping in this realm soon, can the FR-S be tuned to oversteer like the BR-Z?

gunner said:

Knurled. said:

This is why the BR-Z is better than the FR-S.  The FR-S is tuned to oversteer for the 5/10ths drivers.  The BR-Z is tuned to be fast, because Subaru.

wait what? I thought they were the same car? I'll be shopping in this realm soon, can the FR-S be tuned to oversteer like the BR-Z?

They are the same car but they have different suspension tuning.  All the car rags who did road tests instead of press kit regurgitation, and did a double road test of both cars made a minor fuss over it.  I think the difference was the FR-S had softer front springs and stiffer rear springs.  It was "casually neutral" but you couldn't drive it as fast when you really wanted to cover ground.  The BR-Z felt like it understeered until you actually drove it hard, diving into corners, at which point it was rewardingly fast.

Cars that naturally oversteer are slow because you can't drive them as hard.

A sway bar. That's all that's supposed to be different. Good luck finding actual numbers on spring rates.

Look at it as do I want to have fun at slow speeds, or at shiny happy person speeds?

Everyone says the 86 is slow, so it really doesn't matter.

TIL that the bulldozer torque from a 461ci Pontiac V8 is enough to bust the back off a E36 M3ty NRG bucket seat. Seriously, do not buy those seats. I was riding shotgun in a CAM-T '80 Trans Am with said 461 Pontiac doing some instructing, the driver punched it out of the corner and put me through the seat back. It felt like a great run, so I held myself in place until he finished the run out and told him after and we had a good laugh. The next run it did the same thing to the driver seat. 

Appleseed said:

A sway bar. That's all that's supposed to be different. Good luck finding actual numbers on spring rates.

Look at it as do I want to have fun at slow speeds, or at shiny happy person speeds?

Everyone says the 86 is slow, so it really doesn't matter.

Thats my understanding too. I have always felt since they introduced the twins that the idea was to build a successor to the AE86, light slow and handly. I think they succeeded. I have a lot more money now than when the AE86 came out ($0.00) so that means used twin + supercharger will be my next long-term vehicle. 

TIL that Al Jarreau sang them theme song for Moonlighting.  

Wally said:

TIL that Al Jarreau sang them theme song for Moonlighting.  

For some reason Bruce Willis keeps popping into my head over that role.  It was huge when I was young but all I remember was the blonde was super sardonic and he appeared to be on coke. 

Two things today:

1- Walmart sells three varieties of caviar, four if you count the roe in the outdoors department.

2- If you have enough money you can make the guests at your wedding sleep in tents in a cornfield.  on our drive today we found a field full mof tents that looked like a reenactment of some type but they were all beige, pink, or blue.  When I stopped to ask I was told the wedding and reception were in the big tent and all the guests spent the weekend in the little tents which had power and queen size beds. I have a lot of questions about how this works.