RideLust

*Image Source: gev.com

I’ve been in California less than a month and I’ve already seen more “green” cars then I’d seen in a year back in the New York metro area. The Toyota Prius for example – these suckers are EVERYWHERE. Then there are the gaggles of Tesla Roadsters, Chevrolet Volts and Nissan Leafs that roam the freeways. It’s strange, but I’ve got to admit it feels pretty good to see these cars on the road. Back in NY it was almost part of the culture NOT to be green as most New Yorkers I know simply didn’t take recycling seriously. Here in the Bay area though, it’s part of everyday life. From riding your bicycle to work, to having three different garbage cans for your waste materials, going green is definitely the thing to do around here. Now while it’s doubtful I’ll be getting rid of my 8-mpg muscle cars anytime soon, I’m actually considering buying something a bit more economical for a third car. Who knows, maybe these Californian’s are actually onto something…

When it comes to diets, I’m an omnivore leaning towards the meatitarian side. I’ve tried tofu, which is essentially congealed soy milk, and to me it’s always tasted like sweat socks cooked in dishwater. That’s when it tastes like anything at all, which it usually doesn’t; imagine my surprise, then, when a vegetarian and PETA member in Tennessee purchased a license plate that read “I Love Tofu.” Read More…

*Image Credit: HuffingtonPost.com

Ugh… So this is how the 2011 car season on the East coast is going to end; by God deciding to mess up everyone’s plans by smacking us dead in the jaw with hurricane Irene. You see car storage in the Northeast, especially the boroughs (Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and NYC) is miserable. In fact it’s not uncommon to see the occasional $100,000 car or vintage muscle car parked on the street or in a driveway. This weekend though may seriously change that. Irene is supposed to hit the New York Metro area late Saturday night and into Sunday, and with it bring up to 12-inch’s of rain and wind gust of over 100 mph. That means that everyone who keeps their beloved rides in a car port, pop-up tent and or on the street is petrified right now of the impending doom that possibly awaits their vehicles. My advice is simple; tuck those cars in good and tight and try, if at all possible to get them into a secure location. Hell, if you live in a place with a secure parking structure then you may want to actually look at ponying up some cash and keeping them there for the weekend. Either way though, prep now because this bitch is going to hit with both fists and I have a feeling her impact is going to hurt.

Good luck Northeast.

Image: FlyingPete

The problem with absolutes is that they’re, well, absolute. I’m quite certain at some point in Ferrari’s history, perhaps Enzo Ferrari himself was asked about Ferrari building cars with automatic gearboxes. I’m quite certain his reply would have been along the lines of “Ferraris are cars for the driver, and you’ll never see a Ferrari with an automatic gearbox.”

Times change, technologies evolve, and the only Ferrari still available with a manual transmission today is the California. That’s why I have to chuckle at Ferrari’s president, Luca di Montezemolo when he says, “you will never see a Ferrari electric because I don’t believe in electric cars.” Never is a long time, and technology changes in a heartbeat. We’d be the first to admit that electric cars lack practicality today, but their performance potential keeps us intrigued. At some point in the future, assuming technologies like smart roadways and inductive charging progress, electric cars will be lighter and more powerful than their gasoline counterparts. That’s why you never say, “never.” Read More…

Image: Jane M. Sawyer

Compromise means that no one walks away from the table happy, but no one walks away really pissed off, either. Such is the case with the newly agreed upon CAFE standards for 2025: no one’s really happy with them, but no one found them overly objectionable, either. The EPA, and the Obama administration, had initially pushed for a standard of 62 mpg before agreeing to back off to 56.2 mpg. Although it’s really splitting hairs, the administration and the automakers agreed on a target of 54.5 mpg. Read More…

Man… it looks like just about everyone is jumping on the electric bandwagon. First it was cars, then motorcycles and now boats. I suppose it was inevitable that boaters would follow suit, however it seems like the cost of admission is unbelievably high. This is the EPIC 232se Electric Sport Boat, a boat that’s designed specifically for wake boarding. It’s sleek, fast and can hold a charge for up to 10 hours, however it also cost a whopping a $150,000 which is a lot of scratch for a 23-foot tow vehicle. Granted the EPIC 232se is filled to the gills with the latest and greatest in electric vehicle technology, but $150,000 just seems like and exorbitant amount of money to pay for a boat that does little more than tow you around a lake at speed.
Read More…

When you think of automakers who give the single-digit salute to environmentalists everywhere, who comes to mind? Clearly Hummer is the obvious choice, but they’re out of business. Who’s next on your list – Ferrari? Lamborghini? Bentley or Rolls-Royce? If you’re Greenpeace, the automaker in your crosshairs is Volkswagen, who Greenpeace accuses of overstating their environmental record and resisting attempts to make cars like the Golf more fuel efficient (um, Golf TDI, anyone?). Read More…

A gas powered computer? Want. Badly.

If you give me a choice between gas and electric, nine chances out of ten I’m going to choose gas. I’ve got a gas-powered lawn mower, a gas-powered string trimmer and a gas-powered backpack blower to clean my yard. I’m currently haunting pawn shops for a killer deal on a gas-powered chainsaw, because we’re headed into another hurricane season and have dodged a bullet for far too long. My power washer and my air compressor are both electric, which is a concession to practicality more than anything else, and if I could find the right deal on a two stroke blender, I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Thus, Nissan’s sentiment in the ad below is lost on me, and I’m far too jaded to believe that generation of electricity has no environmental impact. Watch the video and judge for yourself. Read More…

Can cars like the Camaro ZL1 even exist under propsed standards? Image: © GM Corp.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) is defined as “the sales weighted average fuel economy, expressed in mpg, of a manufacturer’s fleet of passenger cars or light trucks with a GVWR of 8,500 pounds or less.” From 1990 thorough 2010, the CAFE standard for passenger cars has been fixed at 27.5 mpg; over those 20 years, cars have actually gotten heavier, thanks in part to safety components such as airbags, high strength steel, and side door beams, but average fuel economy has stayed about the same. In 2007, the Bush administration approved new CAFE standards, with the intent of reducing U.S dependence on foreign oil; since that time, environmental groups and pollution-sensitive states have latched onto the “better fuel economy” bandwagon like a pit bull on a chihuahua basted with steak sauce. The Obama administration has taken the fuel economy standard from the extreme of 35 mpg by 2020 proposed under Bush to the absurd, which is as high as 62 mpg by 2025. Read More…

Atlanta traffic on a Sunday afternoon. Image: flickr user AirBeagle

We all know that gasoline prices are up, since the news media rarely goes a day without reminding us. Despite the fact that gas is edging on $4.00 per gallon (and will probably blast clean through that ceiling by Memorial Day), demand really hasn’t changed significantly from last year. Sure, we’re using less in 2011 than we did in 2010, but overall consumption in the United States is down by just 2 percent. As you’d expect, some cities use a lot more gas than others, regardless of the price. Below, in ascending order, is a list of the 10 U.S. cities with the highest gasoline consumption, as researched by the Center for Neighborhood Technology. Read on to see if your hometown made the list. Read More…