Thursday, May 31, 2012

Concept vehicle art by Kemp Remillard

See more of Kemp's work.








Keywords: video game vehicle concept military digital art illustrations by professional concept artist kemp remillard

CELTA PERSONALIZADO COM UM SOM DE DAR INVEJA E UM JOGO DE RODAS ARO 17 DA TSW RACING

ESSE TIPO DE PINTURA FICA MUITO SHOW, POIS PODE FAZER QUALQUER DESENHO DEIXANDO O CARRO BEM MAIS XTREME - PARABENS BELO CELTA....




Renault Laguna Coupe Monaco GP Limited Edition

V6 / 3.498 cc / 240 PS / 244 ft/lb (330 Nm) @ 4.400 / 0 - 62 mph (100 km/h): 7,4 s / Vmax: 152 mph (244 km/h)

(click images for a larger view)













Woodvale Rally 2012 - an update

An official statement from the organisers of this year's Woodvale Rally regarding the change of venue:



A routine site survey at RAF Woodvale has found as of 11am Wednesday, May 30 that asbestos has been discovered at the airfield.

The survey has revealed that World War II buildings, which were demolished and buried have now found their way to the surface and contain asbestos. For health and safety reasons organisers of the Woodvale Rally are relocating the event to Victoria Park with the new dates of Sat and Sun July 28 and 29. 

General Manager Peter Wood said: 

“Although we are disappointed that we are not able to use the airfield after so many years we are more than happy with Victoria Park as a venue. Most attractions will go ahead as usual. The Southport Flower Show committee have been marvellous in accommodating the rally at Victoria Park.

“The 2012 Rally will have the benefit of a town centre location with free bus transport from Chapel Street station and free parking in Princes Park. The 2012 Rally will adapt to the new venue and will provide most of the usual events and attractions.”

Public camping will go ahead and we will contact all people who have already booked.

To see today's earlier post click here.

Sigma Roadster & Tail Blazer Bike Lights: First Impressions


I want to make clear that this is not an extensive review of these two lights. I bought the Sigma Roadster and Tail Blazer yesterday and I've only done a little spin around the block in the dark, so I can't tell you how long the batteries last or how well the lights stand up to months of dark and rainy commutes. I can, however, give you my initial impressions of the lights.

The Sigma Roadster feels like a very well-made product. The Roadster is a powered by 2 AA batteries and is similar in size to other quality headlights like the Planet Bike Blaze or the Portland Design Works Dreadnought. Like those other lights, the Roadster ships with alkaline batteries but works just fine with NiMH rechargeables.

The Roadster comes with a ratcheting bracket that mounts without tools to any handlebar having a diameter of 22 to 32 mm. The bracket has a quick release tab that allows the light to be easily removed and used as a flashlight. Like the Planet Bike lights (and unlike the PDW) no tools are required to change the batteries. The light features an O-ring seal and a rubberized switch and the packaging promises that the light is watertight.




The Roadster features what Sigma calls a two-stage battery indicator, which actually reveals three possible states of the battery. With fully charged batteries a small LED indicator just forward of the switch will remain unlit as the light shines forth with a bright, regulated 16 LUX beam. (A good explanation of LUX and Candellas as measure of light can be found here.) When the batteries drop to a certain point (it's unclear from the documentation exactly what this point is), the indicator LED glows green and the light keeps shining the regulated beam. Eventually, as the batteries deplete, the indicator LED will glow red, and the light will drop out of regulation and dim. The chart included with the Roadster indicates fresh batteries should give 10 hours of fully regulated light with another 10 hours of progressively dimmer light. Experience tells me these numbers are optimistic but I haven't owned the Roadster long enough to get real numbers. I tested the LED indicator light by swapping in batteries I had on hand that were in various states of depletion.

Where the Roadster really shines, so to speak, is in the shape of its beam. I couldn't get any good shots of the beam out on the road, but this staged shot shows light from the Roadster, the PDW Dreadnought and a one-Watt Planet Bike Blaze all pointed at my bedroom wall. The Roadster's beam is much flatter and rectangular, designed to put light on the road and not in the eyes of oncoming traffic.


Iron Rider has some great beam pictures showing the Roadster's larger brother, the Sigma Lightster in comparison with the Planet Bike Blaze. In my brief spin around the dark streets of my neighborhood, I found the Roadster to have the nicest beam (in terms of useful light on the road) of any battery powered headlight I've tried.

The Sigma Tail Blazer is a modern, bright LED tail light featuring a single 1/2 Watt LED and two damn bright smaller LEDs. It can be set to solid or a couple of different flashing modes. It comes with a belt clip and a seatpost clip and with with a tiny bit of additional padding the belt clip seems to work fine for securing the Tail Blazer to my rear rack. The light claims to get 40 hours of solid light (or 80 hours of flashing light) from 2 AAA alkaline batteries. As with the Roadster, the light works fine with rechargeable NiMH batteries. The packaging promises me that the light is weatherproof.






Both the Sigma Roadster and Tail Blazer seem to be good lights at good prices. The German optics (the lights are designed in Germany, but manufactured in China) are very efficient at putting light where it needs to be.

I bought my lights through the shop where I work, but if your local bike shop doesn't carry Sigma lights, they can order them through J&B Importers. And like darn near everything these days, you can find these lights on Amazon.














Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA

Porsche 911 (997) Targa 4S

B6 / 3.800 cc / 385 PS / 310 lb/ft (420 Nm) @ 4.400 / 0 - 62 mph (100 km/h): 4,9 s / 0 - 100 mph (160 km/h): 10,4 s / Vmax: 185 mph (297 km/h)

(click images for a larger view)








Mountain Rescue at Avon Gorge

Thursday Lunchtime in Clifton. A fire engine nonchalantly parked across the Clifton approach to the Suspension Bridge stops anyone from getting through.


A couple of cyclists are experiencing what it is like to cross the bridge without someone important in a Mercedes driving 6" behind them.


 
Why the closure? looks like the fire brigade are rescuing someone off the Avon Gorge, just to the side of Giant's Cave Buttress (you can see the ropes over the lighter limestone)
 
The climber seems be being evacuated from the bottom of the climb.
We hope all is well.

(PS: for anyone thinking of using these photos, this particular are released under the CC 'with attribution' license, meaning the site "Bristol Traffic" and URL http://bristolcars.blogspot.com should be used. To publish without crediting us is a copyright issue)

Whistle Stop Co-op


Image from The Whistle Stop Co-op's website

Gandhi advises that we should be the change we wish to see in the world. Mona Lee and Dick Burkhart are putting that idea into action in the form of the Whistle Stop Co-op in Seattle. Packing a bike shop and a coffee shop together in a small space that Mona describes as "a slightly glorified single wide trailer landscaped all around with little native plants struggling to take root at a busy intersection," the Whistle Stop is trying not to make a profit, but to make a place. Like anything worthwhile, this is not an easy thing to do and Mona honestly chronicles some of her fears in this post on her blog.

On a sunny day last fall, shortly after the Whistle Stop opened, I made my way from Issaquah to Seattle. I unfortunately picked a time when the bike shop wasn't open but the coffee I had was wonderful. If the Whistle Stop was in my neighborhood, I'd be there every day.

Seattle has a lot of great bike shops and enough coffee shops to make the caffeine levels of the Puget Sound a subject of some concern, but I really hope that there turns out to be room in Seattle for the Whistle Stop Co-op. Places like the Whistle Stop Co-op make the world a better place.

Keep 'em rolling,

Kent "Mountain Turtle" Peterson
Issaquah WA USA


Woodvale Rally to be held at new venue on earlier date


EAGLE-eyed readers might have already spotted something unusual on our Events page about this August's Woodvale Rally. This year it isn't being held in August. Or in Woodvale, for that matter.

For all sorts of complicated reasons better left to the hard-nosed news bit at the business end of The Champion the event can't be held at the RAF airbase this summer, meaning that the show's now got an earlier date (July 28 and 29) and a different venue (Victoria Park, which visitors to the Southport Flower Show will already be familiar with).

As one of the many, many classic car fans who've headed there year on year to show off their pride and joy at the Rally it's a bit of a shock to the system, but despite the setbacks the organisers have still got my support. The show, as they say, must go on! The Woodvale Rally has long been one of the highlights of my motoring year because it gives enthusiasts the chance to check out hundreds of classic cars, bikes and other machines in a nice, friendly atmosphere which provides a fun day out for ALL the family. Behind the rows of Rover SD1s and owners' club flags there's fairground rides and stalls selling sunglasses and handbags, so you can leave your other half or your kids to wander around to their heart's content while you take fuzzy photos of old Jags. It is big fun.

Over the years I've enjoyed all sorts of perspectives of the event; I've been there not just as a showgoer, but as a litter-picking cub scout, as a venture scout pointing motorists to the car park, as someone who's offered a helping hand with the model railway tent, as a Champion journalist reporting on it and - most proudly of all - as a classic car owner exhibiting there.

I‘ve been to Woodvale pretty much every year since the early Nineties and still come back with a smile on my face, with the exception of the ‘95 event when - while litter picking with the cub scouts - I managed to fall over and came back with a gaping great big gash on my knee instead. That exception aside though the sunshine, the radio-controlled aircraft, the banter with the classic car owners, the hamburgers, the vintage buses that connect them all are what make it what it is - I love all of it.

Only time will tell whether the Woodvale Rally will prove just as enjoyable at a different venue on an earlier date, but that doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to it.

This is why we use a van

Over in London the militant tax dodgers are asking the hard question "why are lorries and HGVs allowed in our inner cities?" An interesting question, but here's another one " why do tax-dodgers cycle on the roads that the HGVs have to use? There are plenty of back roads. In Bristol you can recognise them because they have hills on them. If the cyclists go down Gloucester Road or the A4 and say "there are lorries there", well, there are alternatives: the hills of Montpelier, Totterdown and Clifton. HGVs do not normally go there.

Except today, when the BBC has some footage of an HGV getting wedged in the hairpin at the top of Clifton Vale.

We've looked at this problem before.

  1. On the way up, if you can't see anyone in front of you, go for it. 
  2. On the way down, hang back enough to get a view, and go for it if nobody is obviously coming up. But swing wide before even beginning the turn in, or you won't be lined up to take the next corner
You can't do this in an HGV -which is why we deliver our "adult entertainment products" to the Clifton area in the official Bristol Traffic white van. It takes the corners, and if it gets a couple of scrapes on the way -not only does the van not look any worse, but it doesn't leave anything more incriminating than some white paint.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Jaguar Mk2 3,4

S6 / 3.442 cc / 213 PS / 215 ft/lb (291 Nm) @ 3.000 / Vmax: 120 mph (193 km/h)

(click images for a larger view)



First Tomato

Our growing season is way ahead of schedule here. Waaay ahead. Our corn is already mid thigh high. The peonies were all a month ahead of time and distant memory. But yesterday we had our first full sized, ripe tomato. I don't think I've had very many tomatoes from this area even in July so to have one in May is incredible.
I should have taken a picture but Ralph and Char and Marilyn had it cut up and on grilled hamburgers before I thought of it.
We all spent an enjoyable weekend in Normal Ill at their Granddaughter's high school graduation. Good times and great party. Really neat folks.

Car and bike fans urged to check out Cleveleys Classic Vehicle Show

FANS of classic cars and bikes are being invited to Cleveleys later this summer for a full-throttle show in the seaside town.

The Cleveleys Classic Vehicle show will see the one of the main streets in the Lancashire resort, Victoria Road West, closed off from 10am on Sunday, August 19 for a gathering of classic cars, sports cars, American automobiles, hot rods, modern classics, kit cars, motorbikes and specialist vehicles. The entrants, of which there are more than 100 registered for the show so far, will be parked along the main street up to the town's promenade.

Russ Larcombe, one of the show's organisers, told Life On Cars:"The show's aim is to draw people back to the town to enjoy a great day out amongst the displays and entertainment and visit the impressive and modern sea front promenade at Cleveleys.

"The event is being managed by The Thornton Cleveleys Association of Trade and commerce assisted by ukwheelsevents and the Lancashire Vehicle group. It is supported by several local businesses."

In addition to all the automotive action live music from a variety of bands will be performed throughout the day, while over the beach and weather permitting there will be an air display of radio controlled aircraft .

To register your vehicle or to find out more about the event go to the show's official website at www.thecleveleysclassicvehicleshow.com