Velocity Ferocity

Since I've been unemployed for a awhile I decided I'd poke around with the Android development kit.  It started as a curiosity thing, trying to discover the different capabilities of my Android phones.  But eventually I decided I'd try to do something useful.  ...  Well, ok, maybe not like "hey look, I cured cancer"-useful but something more than "wow, it plays Pong"-useful.

I created a GPS-based lap timer.  Using the GPS on the phone (or an external GPS connected via Bluetooth) it can time my laps and help show me where my riding can be improved.  I intend to use it on the bike, but it's just as happy in a car.

No, this certainly isn't the first GPS lap timer for Android.  There are more than a few.  (And more than a few for iPhones as well.)  I've tried a couple of them and some are pretty good.  But I was put off when one of the most popular Android ones deleted my data.  I'd spent over over $400 and a couple of days at the track and it suddenly the data was gone.  I figured I could write an application better than that.

I released the first version to the Google Play store a couple weeks ago.  You can find it here.  I'm hoping to send out updates every few weeks.  Eventually there will be a couple other similar applications.

If you like to drive in circles, and you want to know how fast you are, and you have $3, give it a try and let me know what you think.

Quick Pics

I was able to get the car out of the garage today to see my latest handiwork in the sun.

The repairs certainly aren't invisible but the giant cloudy mess I was worried about didn't materialize and things are a whole lot better than they were before I started.  I may invest in some proper paint and patch a few more spots.

That'll Buff Right Out

After pounding my head against software issues for a couple of days I decided to switch gears.  My "To Do" list includes "get rid of green TR6" so I decided I'd put some time into it.

Sometime in its past the TR6 had an owner with an addiction.  (I suppose anyone silly enough to own a Triumph probably has some form of addiction.  Likely an addiction to the smell of burning oil.  But that's not what I mean.)  They were addicted to touch-up paint.  Absolutely in love with it.  They needed to hold it, to fondle it, to see it's lustrous color-matched sheen everywhere.  Sadly the end result is a car with dozens of brushed on gobs of paint.  And I do mean brushed on.  Maybe the little mountains of paint look better than the scratches they're covering.  But I doubt it.

Today I bit the bullet and tried to fix them.  I've never worked with automotive paint before (except for painting the bike which I don't think counts).  I assumed there was a good chance I'd ruin it and have to get the whole car professionally repainted but if I did nothing I'd probably have to get it repainted in order to sell it anyway.

I did a little reading (to reaffirm what I thought I already knew) and headed off to buy supplies:

• Sandpaper (320 grit)
• A few microfiber cloths
• Sandpaper (600 grit)
• Some foam applicator pads
• Sandpaper (1500 grit)
• A small bowl of water
• Rubbing compound (which is essentially 2000 grit sandpaper)

Notice the sandpaper?  Yeah, me too.  It's the #1 reason I haven't tried this before.  The idea of taking sandpaper to a car just makes me cringe.  I don't care if it's 1500 grit it's still sandpaper!

This is where I started.  (It's hard to get a picture that really shows how messy these touch-ups are  but bear with me.)  There are three spots in a triangle around the reflection of the light.  All of them big enough to catch a fingernail on.

I started with the 320grit.  (I should have gone straight to the 600.)  Here's what a few minutes of wet sanding produced.

This is when I started to freak out.  I used to have 3 quarter-size spots that were only visible from within about 20 feet.  And now I've made the problem areas 3 times larger and 10 times as obvious.  Well, I'm committed now I might as well keep going.  The 600 grit yielded...

Great.  It still looks bad and now the spots are huge.  My understanding was that 1500 grit will clear this up.

Wrong.  I've now ruined about 10% of the entire hood in an attempt to fix three minor blemishes.  I feel pretty stupid.  Moving on to the rubbing compound.

Woot!  The rubbing compound got rid of the cloudy surface.  Yes, the original patches are still visible, but you've got to work much harder to find them, especially when you see the car in person.

I've spent 4 hours to address 6 similar areas.  Some were more successful than others but all of them are an improvement.

Hopefully I'll say the same thing when I get the car out of the garage and into the natural sunlight.

Data Collection

I've been playing with an Android-based app on my phone to collect some data about my riding. The goal is to see how consistent I am from lap to lap. In addition to the sensors (that include accelerometers and gyroscopes) and the internal GPS it connects to an external GPS via bluetooth.  I did this because, quite honestly, most phone GPSes stink for this kind of thing.  They update once per second (at most) and are accurate to maybe 20ft.  I picked up an external GPS for about $90 that updates much faster and with greater accuracy.

The app isn't nearly done but I took it on my drive yesterday to collect a large data set.  Here's the position and elevation data it gathered.

Which correlates well with the Google-Map route I posted yesterday.  So my code isn't completely broken.  (The two gaps in the elevation graph are the two long stops I made for food 9:15 and 12:30.)

But since I'm not planning to use this 460-mile loop as my track I need to look at the noise at a much smaller scale.  I found a nice hairpin turn to focus on.  (The little red circle in the first picture.)  Here's what it looks like on Google Maps.


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Here's what my app collected

If you look closely you can see the individual data points.  I get 10 samples per second so about one every 6 feet as I drove through this turn.

North Cascades Highway

For the third weekend in a row I made a significant contribution to global warming. This time on four wheels. After having ridden WA-504 I thought I should try WA-20. According to Destination Highways WA-20 is the #1 road in Washington to drive. (WA-504 comes in 2nd or 3rd.) Here's the route:


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Expecting a 12-hour day I got off to an early start.  I headed out about 6:45am.  I arrived in Sedro-Woolley around 9:00am and figured that would be a good spot to refuel, grab some grub, and make a quick sanity-check on the car.

Sedro-Woolley is pretty typical small-town-Washington.  Which is to say that it's nothing like Seattle or Redmond: the locals are happy to chat and the ethnic diversity is about zero.  Other than WA-20 itself I think 50% of Sedro-Woolley is in that picture.  If you find yourself there I highly recommend the cinnamon rolls at the Hometown Cafe.

S Skagit Highway and WA-20 East of Sedro-Woolley is the road I had come for.  I definitely wasn't disappointed.  Most of the road is tree-covered, narrow, two-lane blacktop.  It's rural farmland.  I'm not sure it's better or worse than WA-504 but it's definitely different.  Where WA-504 has wide lanes and huge vistas that seem to beg for more throttle WA-504 has a sedate, back-country-road feel.  In retrospect the TR6 was the right choice.  The Ducati just wouldn't be as happy here.

The town of Winthrop marks the end of the more amusing section of WA-20.  I guess every summer weekend Winthrop sees a lot of visitors (the town seems built around tourism) but today had the added bonus of being a charity ride for a local motorcycle club.  There were probably 100 bikes in town.  I was lucky to find a place to park.

After grabbing some homemade ice-cream, a drink, and some sunblock I was off again just after 1pm.

If you're planning a trip, and you don't have time constraints, and you have to choose between "US-XX" and "Alt US-XX" I recommend "Alt".  Why?  Dunno, it just seems to work for me.  I might encounter more traffic lights but I'll almost always have less traffic.  So I picked Alt US-97 which takes a nice route around Lake Chelan and the Chelan River. ... The people in the city of Chelan have a good gig.

If you're planning a trip, and you don't have time constraints, and you think a "NF-XX" road looks interesting I suggest you be careful what you wish for. In my attempt to get off of US-2 I decided to detour up Chumstick Road to Little Wenatchee River Rd to NF-65 and NF-6700.  Chumstick was great.  Little Wenatchee was nice too.  Then I passed a sign that said "End of County Road" and suddenly the road was 4 feet narrower.  No problem, by car is pocket-sized.  Then came NF-6700.  I'm sure I checked the satellite images on Google Maps.  Apparently I didn't.  NF-6700 is unpaved.

At first I thought it was just an unpaved section and I'd soon get to the good stuff.  After 4 miles I realized there wasn't going to be any good stuff.  I could either backtrack the 4 miles of dirt and another 50 of asphalt or just finish the last 8 miles of dirt.  I chose the latter.  Although progress was slow it was some of the best scenery in the whole trip.

After getting back to WA-2 things went smoothly.  (Well, except for the one deer that made a foray into my lane.)  I arrived back at home around 7:30pm.  Both me and The Triumph seem to be in one piece but we're both pretty dirty.

Going Back For Seconds (and Thirds)

I've been in Seattle 8 years and, despite it's status as one of the nicest drives around, last weekend was the first time I'd been to the West side of Mt St Helens.  As luck would have it the second time came 6 days later.  A friend was part of a BMW motorcycle event and he wanted to get out and do some more riding.  He convinced me to meet him in Centralia on Friday.

I often say "Even a lab-rat learns from experience." and I like to think I'm a step or two ahead of a lab-rat.  Since I hadn't completely recovered from long ride the previous Saturday, and getting to Centralia is about as boring as you can imagine, I decided to take the trailer.  (Sure, go ahead, tell me I'm a poseur, a fraud, a typical Ducati owner.  I'd rebut your statements but first I have to finish my venti, no-whip, one-pump, soy, iced, chai latte.)

Friday afternoon Wil and I decided to go up 504.  The weather forecast was not good but the rain had been holding off so far and the weather was supposed to be improving.

Turns out it didn't.  The ride up was okay. There was occasional drizzle but nothing to worry about. The ride down was cloudy. "Cloudy" meaning "in a cloud." The rain and visibility ranged from bad to worse. In some cases I had to use the taillights of the car in front of me to know where the road was. By the time we reached the bottom again I was soaked.

We got back to the hotel, cleaned up, and went for dinner.

In the morning we took a round-about way to a little roadside diner in Oakville.  From there my friend headed home and I went back to the hotel.  After packing up and checking out I headed off on another ride.

For the third time in 6 days I was at the Johnson Observatory so I figured I should pay the fee, see the exhibits, and try to learn something besides "BMW drivers think 'Slow vehicle lane' doesn't apply to them."  The exhibits are about what you'd expect.  There were a couple of short films about the 1980 eruption (spoiler alert: the mountain explodes at the end.)

By 4pm I was back at the hotel and more than ready to call it a day.  I loaded up the trailer and headed home.  The executive summary:

• 415 miles on the bike
• 200 miles in the car
• 2 educational films about Mt St Helens
• 1 unnecessary rainstorm

Friday:

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Saturday:

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Spirit Lake

An inventory of yesterday:

• 1 group ride
• 5 bikes
• 6 people
• 11 hours
• 350 miles
• 0 rain

The ride was to Spirit Lake (the West side of Mt St. Helens).  Here's roughly the route we took:


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I'd never been to the West side of the mountain and WA-504 is supposed to be one of the best motorcycle roads in Washington. So I'd been looking forward to this ride for awhile.

Things did not get off to an auspicious start, the forecast called for rain, the sky was threatening, and the first hour was spent on freeways or in light-to-light traffic.  Things didn't really improve until we stopped for lunch in Elbe.  The roads were better, the traffic was light, even the sky had cleared.  We made our last gas stop near Toledo and from there it was a non-stop run to the visitors center at Spirit Lake.

Whoever built (and maintains) WA-504 needs a raise.  The lanes are wide and smooth and clean.  Even at decent speeds there aren't many blind corners.  The scenery isn't bad either.  I didn't get it all on video but this will give you a good idea of what it's like (no mom, I wasn't going this fast, the video is at 4x speed).

The visitors center has some pretty good views of Mt St Helens.  Even MiniMe enjoyed it.

After Spirit Lake the group separated.  Three bikes were headed to a camping event near Mt Rainier while my cousin and I headed back home.  The ride back was less pleasant.  We returned to Toledo then simply took the freeways home.

Going Green With Envy

Things around my house break.  I feel like I've spent the last 2 weeks just sticking fingers in the dike.  The compressor on the fridge gave out, the garage door opener broke, even the dog has needed weekly trips to the vet.

I finally entinguished the fires this afternoon.  So I went to Home Depot to get a jump on some less critical projects.  And what do I find in the parking lot?...

That's a Fisker Karma EV.   An electric, 4-door sedan.  It looks very nice in person.  Here's what Car and Driver had to say about it.










I'm guessing (although he is at Home Depot so I could be wrong) that his fridge still works.

Zombie Apocalypse on Wheels

Do you know why the zombies always lose?  Because they gimp around on foot.  Clearly you can't conquer anything on foot.  What the zombies need is a car.  What kind of car would a zombie drive?  One that's come back from the dead of course.

On an almost unrelated note...

Today I put 60 miles on The Triumph.

That's more miles than it's seen in a long time.  How long?  It last left its garage in the Fall of 2007.  (For this picture.)  And even then it had to be pushed because trying to start it resulted in a quart of fuel on the floor.  At the time I figured I'd fix it when I got around to it.

I got around to it 4 1/2 years later.

By then its gas was 6 years old.  The tank came out, the carbs came off, the fuel filter and some of the lines were replaced.  It could have been worse.  In the end the fuel leak was caused by bad o-rings on the float bowls.  But 6 years of storage meant a little more work was required.  Most of the fluids were flushed, rubber hoses replaced, and some minor electrical work done.

The "recent" entries in the log book now look like:

   Date     Mileage
--------------------
2004-03-12  141127
2004-05-13  141338
2005-05-30  141524
2006-05-15  141692
2006-06-03  141790
2006-06-03  141873
2012-06-02  141894

Which means in the 8 years it's been in Seattle (it arrived in March 2004) it's covered less than 1000 miles.  But there is hope on the horizon.  I woke up this morning to see this weather forecast:

Custom Sportbike

Don't get me wrong, I like sportbikes.  They're an impressive mix of design and engineering.  But I've always thought they were too homogenous.  One CBR1000 is pretty much the same as the next.

Cruisers (and in particular Harleys) span a much wider range.  A stock Harley bike is a blank canvas used to draw almost anything imaginable.  Where a stock sportibke is a nearly finished picture that only leaves a few minor details to the discretion of the owner.

That's why I was happy to see this bike:

It's a Yamaha FZ1 that started it's life something like this:

It might not be a huge amount of work (remove the fairings and fenders, new seat, new taillights, new mirrors, new exhaust) but the personality of the bike is radically different.

Kudos to someone willing to draw outside the lines.

Track Days

So far this year I've been to 4 track days.  (That's more than I went to in 2010 and 2011 combined.)  The first two were known quantities: Pacific Raceways with 2-Fast.

The last two were new.  I was riding at The Ridge Motorsports Park near Shelton with a group called PSSR.

The track is impressive.  It just opened this year so the surface is excellent.  It has a much more open feel to it than Pacific does, but there's enough elevation changes and interesting sections to make it a little tricky.

Here's a video of a single lap:

The data is from the bikes on-board system.  (I did a little hacking to parse the file and make a usable format.)  Seeing this on top of the video pointed out some things I need to work on.  I had another source of data about my riding as well, it was an app on my phone, and it's data was eye-opening as well.  Unfortunately that data was lost before I could put it into a video.

(Hopefully I'll have more to say about data collection in the not-too-distant future.)

Before going out there I watched some similar videos from other riders in the hopes of getting a sense of the track.  What didn't come through in those videos was the descent in turns 13, 14, and 15.  (At 0:15 and 2:35 in the video.)  Here's the view of those turns from the paddock:

For scale: the turn workers tower on the top of the hill is probably 15' tall.

Coming down that hill really feels like you're falling over the front of your bike.  It was a little spooky the first few times.

The track is an easy 90-minute drive from home.  With some luck I'll be back again this season.

A Comeback

Once again I've ignored my blog for a long long time.

Once again I'm not losing much sleep over that fact.

But since I've found this blog to be a useful reference for me in the long term (as "Hey, when was I replacing the seats on the TR6?") I'll  spend a little time getting this blog up to date.

Speaking of using this blog as a time reference: I noticed it's been three years since I measured our home electricty usage.  At the time I figured cutting power might be like dieting: you work hard to stop doing the bad things, you see a lot of progress, but 8 months later you're back eatting a Big Mac with the a/c set at 62.  I'm happy to say our efforts haven't followed a similar path.

I usually track how much power we use on a 12-month rolling average.  In early 2009 we were averaging 46kWh per day.  By July 2010 we were down to 30kWh per day (despite adding new computers and appliances).  Since then it's been between 26 and 29kWh.

I invested $25 (on a Kill-A-Watt) and a few hours of my time and it's saved me over $1900 in electricity in 3 years.  Not too shabby in my opinion.

There She Goes

I sold the Daytona Saturday.

I think it went to a good home, where it will get a more attention than I could give it, and near Mt Ranier where there are some nice roads. But I'm still suffering from some sellers remorse.

Confusing Myself

Yes, it's been a long time. But, then again, none of you are paying for this so... too bad.

I confused myself over the weekend. I'm not very bright so I get confused alot, it's normal. But the way it happened still has me ... well, confused.

I have a 1987 Suzuki Intruder 1400. It was Suzuki's big V-Twin cruiser from the mid-80s. I bought it already well-used in 1993. Over the years I've put alot of money and effort into making it look the way I want. Some changes were just bolt-on (exhaust, wheels, hand controls) while others were mrore involved (custom tank, rear fender, side skirts).

Sadly, no matter how much paint and chrome I put on it, the bike never seemed to run very well.

I gave up. I don't have the time anymore to keep it running. I just want a bike that runs. I decided to do a bike transplant. Yep, a bike transplant. (I hear this is how Dr Jarvik got started.) The Intruder 1400 was almost completely unchanged during its entire run from 1986 through 2008. Some colors were changed, a few odds and ends, but honestly it's the same bike. I decided I'd buy another bike and swap all of my custom bits.

As it turns out, you can still buy a *new* Intruder 1400. (Now sold as the Suzuki S83.) These are 3-4 year old bikes that have never sold. With some factory offers and motivated dealers you can get them pretty cheap. And with a warranty.

I do some research and find a bike at a dealer that's well regarded. I load up the trailer, grab the checkbook, and head to Everett.

The bike is great. A 2008 with 22 miles on it (including the 8 from my test ride). All of my accessories (with one exception) should transfer over. The price, although not free, is reasonable and quite a bit lower than the price on the only other new S83 nearby.

I hear myself say "I'll take it." in my head several times. But the words never come out. I leave the dealer with an empty trailer and I don't know why.

Maybe it was the color, it was gold. I decide to drive to Monroe where the only other new S83 in the area is (it's black). I'll make them the same offer I was given in Everett. The Monroe dealer had earlier quoted me a price about $1500 higher but I'm convinced he'll take this.

I drive 30 minutes to Monroe, pull into the parking lot. Then sit there. I never even get out of the car. I don't want it.

I just spent all about 4 hours (and about $50 in gas) and I come home empty handed by my own choice.

I'm still very confused about what just happened.

Change of Pace

It's been an oddly hectic few weeks around here. I had hoped that my leave of absence from work would yield some nice quiet time, some time with the baby, and maybe some garage time. Alas, that hasn't been the case.

At the end of August I took my first (and probably only) trackday trip of 2010. I went to Oregon Raceway Park and rode with STAR. The original plan was to ride 4 consecutive days, 2 with NESBA and 2 with STAR but the economy has apparently overwhelmed NESBA and they cancelled a number of their events in the Northwest. Hopefully they'll be back in 2011.

The days with STAR were fabulous, as always. They run a very controlled event.

I'm definitely going slower than I have in previous years but it's fun anyway. Just to prove to myself that I'm slow I decided to take a ride on the back of Jason Pridmores bike. If you ever have the chance to ride on a bike piloted by a former AMA champion I suggest you take it. It will

a) Show you what a modern sport bike is really capable of.
2) Convince you that there are better riders than you. Period.
iii) Prove that some people have ice-water in their veins.

The ride starts simply enough. You climb on the back of his GSXR1000. (It's completely stock except for an after-market exhaust and a custom tank that has handles built into it for a passenger to hold onto. It even has DOT tires.) He turns and says "Just look over my shoulder as we lean and give me a little room to shift around on the bike. When we get to that sharp left at the end I'll ask if you want to go for another lap." Sounds easy enough.

Then a very odd thing happens. But after a few turns I get used to the fact that all the other bikes on the track must be in reverse.

The "sharp left at the end" is a 1st gear, downhill corner that's been my nemesis ever since I showed up at ORP. I hate it. But I figure he'll go through it, settle the bike in the short straight that follows, then yell something incomprehensible to me at which point I'll give him the "thumbs up" and we'll go around again.

That's not what happened.

Going *into* the corner, carrying more speed, and using more braking force than I ever have, he does the unthinkable. He lets go the bars, flips up his visor, turns his head and asks me "So, you okay for another round?". His voice is so flat you think he might be a waiter asking to refill your coffee.

Since I'm a sane person my response was "No! You idiot! Watch where you're going! Two hands! Two hands! Get me off this machine and away from this crazy man!" But I don't think my pronunciation was right. All I heard was my voice saying "Holy crap! Hell yes!"

Getting a Second Opinion

I took the bike to the local shop last week. It's had some clutch problems that I wanted to get resolved before my track day. After explaining the symptoms to the dealer I'm told "That's normal for your bike. You can't adjust it, that's just the way it is." Hmmmm... I don't think so.

Yesterday I went to a second dealer and explained things. "Have you tried bleeding the system again?" Uh no... and why didn't I think of that? "We have a BBQ today so grab a burger and we'll have someone take a quick look." 15 minutes later I've gotten my bike fixed, no charge, and a free lunch.

Nothing To See Here, Move Along.

Anandi and I were out in Bellevue a couple days ago and saw a Mercedes SL65 AMG. A very nice little toy. But, honestly, not terribly unusual in Bellevue. What was interesting was that it seemed to have a driving-buddy. Another silver Mercedes 2-door. A very sharp looking car but I couldn't quite place it.

Today, after some internet searching, I found it: A Mercedes SLS.



Now I just need two things: six good numbers and $1 for a lottery ticket.

High Mileage

I took the green TR6 out for a spin over Memorial Day weekend. I had to put a tank of gas in it. The log book now looks like:

• 11/05/2005...59250...Purchase
• 05/29/2006...59302...Gas, 9.2g
• 08/01/2007...59485...Gas, 9.3g
• 05/30/2010...59645...Gas, 8.7g

Yep, in 4.5 years it's covered 400 miles.

Memorial Day Blah

It's Memorial Day weekend. Time for BBQs, flip-flops and frisbee in the park.

Unless you're in Seattle.

Here it's time to get the umbrella, make sure you've got an extra layer of clothes, and watch the rain. <...sigh, the furnace just turned on...>

It feels like it's been a busy time at Chez Creath. But none of the activity is happening in the garage. I've had the Ducati out twice but the Daytona and the Suzuki are both sedentary. I'm considering working on the Green Machine today. It seems that 4-wheeled toys may be a better option that 2-wheeled ones.

The biggest car-related news is the purchase of a portable GPS (Garmin Nuvi 1390T) for the Nitro. I'm not a fan of GPSes but I have to admit it's a nice little widget. Certainly a better choice than paying $1900 for the OEM navigation system.

On the topic of GPSes:
I'm a geek. I'm a motorcycle fan. But I am not a motorcycle geek. I just can't help but shake my head when I talk to riders with blue-tooth, radar, GPS, cell-phone, intercom, and an MP3 player on their bike. It's exactly the opposite of why I like to ride. For me the whole purpose is to get away. Why try to get away from it if you're just going to bring it along anyway?

Well, that's assuming the rain ever stops and I get a chance to get away.

Only in a Jeep

An unpleasant night.

The baby wouldn't sleep. She needed to be upright, moving, and holding onto her mother or I. Since momma is trying to shake off a cold I won the privilege of being a human crib. So there I was: baby in the carrier (of course it's from Jeep), unable to rest, or even really to sit down. 11pm to 2am. What to do?

Surf the internet.

I ended up reading a whole slew of articles on Sports Car Market. Here are some of the ones that caught my eye. (If you don't have an account to SCM get one. It's free and I don't think I've ever gotten a piece of spam from them. Sure 93.2% of the cars the talk about are way out of my league, but so are the Seahawks and I'm a fan of them too.)

BWM Z8

Being partial to the roadster style I loved this car when it first came out. Its appeal has faded. The lines aren't distinctive enough. There isn't that love-me-or-hate-me-but-I'm-not-compromising look about it. Which isn't to say I wouldn't like one. I see one occasionally around the office and it's always worth a second glance.

Not Your Typical F40

If you offered me my choice of Ferraris I'd take an F40. Maybe it's because I turned 16 the year these first came out. Posters of a red Ferrari and a white Countach were required in every boys room at the time. I loved the notion a race car that was changed just enough to be street legal. No A/C, no radio, no ABS. I understand some didn't have roll-down windows or even interior door panels. Just horsepower. They were known as unforgiving cars with 470hp, this factory competition car claims 850hp.

Maserati MC12

"The Enzo was designed for high-performance work but not for serious racing" Gee, life must be rough when your $650,000 Ferrari Enzo isn't getting done. Better get one of these.

Mercedes 300SL

Resto-modded by AMG? Hmmm... I like the resto-mod concept and AMG certainly has the ability to do it right. But there are some cars that should be left unmolested. (And those wheels have got to go.)

Doozy

My image of a leisurely Sunday drive down a wooded country road always includes a golden-era soft-top.

Testa Rossa

Sometimes I imagine that drive being a little less leisurely.