reddsun1

Sure, I think women with curves are the greatest. For instance IMHO, I always thought J-Lo looked better before she listened to all the Hollywood fashionistas and gossip columnists and lost all that weight. But the new 'Stang? That ain't a J-Lo rear--that's more like, Roseanne or something. "Meat is for the man. Bones are for the dog."

Ah, it sounds like you're seeking that elusive state of mind that the driver seeks in his high performance endeavors--the area of the brain's consciousness that can allow and sustain the heightened concentration and situational awareness required for operating vehicles at otherwise ludicrous speeds/limits of traction. I like to refer to it as my "moment of Zen," in reference to being behind the wheel. It's the lucky few who can achieve this state of mind consistently and for sustained periods that are so fortunate sometimes as to be able to make a living at driving racing cars. It is them that I envy above all. Lucky bastards. I have found that I achieve my best results when I focus on doing everything smoothly--throttle, steering input; think of it as dancing, if you will. The car is your dance partner. Making the weight transfers and power transitions with the chassis flow as smoothly as possbile is what made my speeds go up and lap times [at racing school] come down. That, plus forcing myself to look further ahead along the road, and "around the corners," i.e. not just focusing on the apex, but looking on ahead where I was going, out of the corner and on towards the next turn in [where applicable]. Here's a trick an older racer told me about, similar to M. Donohue's concept of the "pendulum weight dangling on a string from your nose." If you've got a cupholder close to the dash, where you can see the container w/out being distracted or taking your eyes off the road, put a nearly full cup of water in it and take yourself to a stretch of canyon road--one where you can make repeated and pretty consistent runs ea. way. Focus on going through that section and pay attention at all your critical points--brake, turn in, corner exit--as to how much that water is upset/sloshes in your cup. You want that water sloshed as little as possible. Try it w/no cup lid--not full to the brim, of course--if you really want to make yourself use a smooth hand. Sounds corny, but it worked for me.

Well, no wonder the new Stang is listed at 3550 lbs. I hate to come back to the same thing again, but it's really the only big thing detracting from the new Stang for me. Stylistically speaking, this thing has a big fat arse! Even bigger than my old car. And I bet I still have more trunk space [could get a whole body in mine!]

Sounds like that's going to be a fun addition to the family. Let the shameless flattery-in-exchange-for-test-drives begin!

I don't think GM's copying them so much, but Chrono's raised a good point. As well as the Corvette may perform, if you park it next to a Ferrari, other will usually garner the most attention from passers by. It's strictly subjective, but one could argue the Ferrari's seem to be imbued with more "passion" in design and embodiment. Or maybe it's a "grass is greener on the other side" phenom? People see the Ferrari, or the Lambo, or the Aston and think "it's foreign, it's expensive, so it must be better"?

Ugh, don't get me started on the Ford GT. That 3500lb pig is a POS, and Ford can boast only because they aimed low. It's natural competitor should have been the 550 Maranello. It goes against the very spirit of the original car; which I still say--with all its shortcomings [which can easily be remedied w/today's improved tech] is better than that oversized execu-yacht.

I kinda like the new 'Vette. The design cues from the C2 Stingrays are nice--kinda like what the original Stingrays may have looked like if they were thoroughly tested/developed in a wind tunnel. The new Z06 promises to be a bona-fied monster. With their new "record" at the Nurburgring, having bested all other production supercars save the Carrera GT, Chev can claim they've acheived world-beater status. Although, I think it's wrong the way the prices have steadily climbed for "Vettes over the years--hey, it's just a Chevy, ferchrissakes...

Wow, there are certain little features that the voice actors seem to "share" with their respective characters. They do kinda look like the characters they play. Well, except for Roy's--he doesn't look like a 7' tall American at all. The bridge bunnies really are cute [the hairstyles betray the fact that this photo is indeed from the 80's though]. Mari Ijima looks so young. How old was she at the time? 18? Looks even younger. And yes, she's even more lovely now.

Well finally! Some good racing to watch on SPEED channel. Only had to wait all week for it. Speed World Challenge GT race from Denver, CO is on right now. I look at the layout of this street circuit and am reminded somewhat of the ALMS race from Washington D.C. a couple years ago. I think what a damn shame they couldn't keep that venue. That race had a lot of potential for the city. From what I could gather, there was a big hub-bub amongst the mayor and city council IIRC, 'cause he didn't "consult" with them or get their approval before sanctioning the event or something. Sounds like a bunch of egos and bullsh-t to me. Anybody on the boards from the D.C. area? What was the deal behind their killing that event? I know the "official" ver. is that local residents complained about the noise and such, but the skeptic in me says that it wasn't that simple. Sure, the track was literally a stone's throw away from a residential neighborhood; but hell, it was in the parking lot of RFK stadium [you can see where it was on GoogleEarth; the outlines of where the track layout was are still visible]. They've since torn the whole shebang up; what a shame and a waste. I think they could have made it a marquis event and maybe gotten the city some good exposure out of it. Sure, the noise levels were certainly higher than you'd have at an NFL game, but rather than harp on that, people in the community should have focused on the positive aspects; i.e. rather than a bunch of so-called "civic leaders" hopping on their soap boxes to instigate locals and further their own political agendas [which is what I think was more likely], they could have pitched the event as a way to draw tourism and revenue. I mean, now what have they got? Nothing but a dug up lot and an empty stadium that'll likely fall into disrepair and rot away--now you've got nothing. I try to see it from both sides; sure, most of the residents who were directly affected were older, poorer folks who can't exactly pick up and move themselves away to a better side of town [where do they put any pro stadium like that? in the poor, minority side of town where rich folk don't have to deal with it in their back yard. Fact of life]. I know when I was at the race, I got pretty damn tired of hearing guys make those "well, it's that kinda neighborhood" or "bad side of town" jokes. Thought I was gonna end up obligated to bitch slap somebody. Anyways, I wish there could have been a way to make it work for everybody. It turned out to be a kick-ass race, given the logistics and what they made the track out of.

Cobalt? Looks like they just copied the Acura [is it RSX?] and made it just different enough to avoid liability. Ah, too bad I didn't grow up in the muscle car era, when the big 3 threw such a variety of cars with totally irresponsible amts of horsepower at the "youth" market. Now, the youths coming up right behind me can only count on re-hashed econo-turds that look like jellybeans on wheels.

Would the return of the GSX make you want to buy a Buick? Or is it too little, too late for the apparent next GM company nearing the chopping block? This concept sketch is based on the Zeta platform apparently (so fat chance of ever seeing it come to fruition). With that Tuner Challenge show: I can see why Chevy would be interested in getting involved in that. They're probably looking for long-term payoff, as the Tuner scene is where the future auto-buying market--a good sized percentage of it anyway--is going to come from. Establishing brand familiarity with the Acura rip-off-Cobalt [hey, that's what it looks like, anyway] is probably what they're after.

Oh yeah, I definitely liked 4-4-New My uncle's got one rusting away in a field right down the road from me Body Off Vette Challenging Mopar kinda like D. Schramm's concept sketches Soldier's Ride love Chevelles; wheels are 2 damn big though Double Haulin Chevelle Parts Guy Chevelle I guess it can be a hit or miss thing. Foose has hit the mark nearly every time, though... I'd end up taking a lot of that sound equipment stuff back out, though. To me, that stuff's superfluous. "That's dead weight, son!" I want as little stuff tumbling around the cockpit as possible when I go tossing 'er into the corners. That, plus it's an invitation to knuckleheads to try to smash 'n grab your sh-t [as if the bold arse car isn't enough already of one]...

Now you know this owner probably got laughed at.

For those six meals, are they pretty small portions? I've noticed on a trip that Europeans seem a whole lot thinner and fitter than Americans, and it's not that they don't eat much or don't know how to enjoy food. It's that they don't eat gigantic portions and instead favor a variety of smaller courses over a huge helping of fat, grease, and carbs in one sitting. -Al 321392[/snapback] Yup, I noticed the same thing when I went to Quebec, Canada. It's definitely a cultural thing, I think. Those French-Canadian gals? Ooh, la la! Some truly beautiful belles up there. Let's face it. Speaking objectively, we Americans can be gluttons. They say a picture is worth a thousand words; well I'd say this one speaks volumes--even if it is a bit of a blanket statement.

That got me wondering too, but I'm guessing that we burn muscle before fat in "starvation mode" because muscle itself consumes energy even when we're inactive. In order to deal with that, our bodies limit energy use by trimming down the amount of extra muscle we're carrying around, so we're not wastefully burning all our fat away sitting around waiting for our next meal to walk by. I suppose that after trimming down our muscle mass to more efficent levels, the body switches back over to burning fat. Neat trick. Agent One probably knows a whole lot better so hopefully he'll correct me if I'm off here. -Al 321357[/snapback] You are exactly right, except about the switching back part... When someone is in starvation mode (3 hours after a meal) their glucose stores are gone and they start to use muscle as food... This doesn't reverse no matter what the muscle to fat ratio is. Moral of the story is don't skip meals. I eat 6 times a day. 321377[/snapback] Well put, gentlemen. What you say makes good sense. I have found I do better keeping the weight off when I "snack" multiple times throughout the day, rather than eating a big lunch, big dinner, etc.

Hear hear! True dat. I don't watch SPEED as much as I used to; too much flipping to it, then flipping to something else while I wait for something non-NASCAR-ized to come on. Favorite shows [in no particular order] Automaniacs [Goldberg's got some nice rides, but he's just too damn big for that Cobra!] Ride With Funkmaster Flex American Muscle Car Top Gear [only caught a couple eps, but looks entertaining] Rides [keep missing the one w/the Mad Max BoB replica; that guy's in my Yahoo Group] Overhaulin [Most of the resto's kick ass, but Foose gets a bit extreme w/the paint and wheel combos sometimes; at least, extreme for the constraints of the lines of the given car in an ep. 'Bout the only way I could get my car resto'd again any time soon would be to get "nominated" for that show; but if it came back to me like some of those cars did, I think I'd flip the fu-- out on Chip] Shows I can no longer stomach to watch: American Hot Rod [just way too much artificially created tension, w/the rediculous deadlines, the general bickering and disrespect among some "cast" memebers and Boyd. Ea. ep. generally degrades into pissing matches] Pimp My Ride [sure, they're loving the exposure and increased fame, but usually eps are demonstrations of the talent in that shop being wasted on shi--y paint jobs and tacky accessories] Unique Whips [Didn't take long to get tired of watching this guy Castro generally browbeating and abusing his employees. If I worked there, I believe my stint on the show would be real short. I don't care how big he is or how loud his bark; if he constantly talked to me like a dog like that, I believe I'd end up havin' to knock W. Castro straight the fu-- out]

Lookin' good, A7. You gotta admit, they blended and shaped the lines of the car in such a manner that it really belies their girth. These are actually some pretty big a$$ cars.

Yes, I remember as a kid, that movie rocked my world--and a lot of my friends'--since we were fans of shows like that. To see the deaths of characters we'd gotten used to seeing on afternoon shows, played with their toys, etc. was a pretty big deal back then. I remember, Ironhide died a pretty gruesome death at the hands of Megatron, and it was a shocker since he was one of the few Autobots that could manhandle MT on the TV show...

Thanks for the advice guys. I've always wondered why we've got that "evolutionary faux pas" working against us, so to speak; i.e. the body uses muscle first, then fat when it thinks it's in "starvation mode." After all, wouldn't that poor ancestor of ours struggling to survive on some barren plain need for his body to process that vice-versa? If you're starving, aren't you gonna need all the muscle you can keep in order to be better able to catch the next meal? Oh well...but enough rambling. Conan! What is best in life? Crush your enemy, see him driven before you, and hear the lamentation of his women!

Ah yes, thanks for the correction Wes. That brings back happy memories of giggling at stupid skits. "C'mon, poodle! Fly! Fly!" *splat* "Aw, man!"

Definitely sounds like this is going to be a "movie for guys who like movies." They'll probably paste the commercial spots with gratuitous oily-chest shots of box office heartthrob leading-men to get the gals into the theaters for this one.

Hey, hey, hey, HEY! TMI! I don't need to know that about another grown man. Seriously though; what do you recommend to get rid of the dreaded "love handles"? I've been hitting the gym [not faithfully, mind you] for the past couple of months, but I've been trying to get rid of mine since college [longer than I care to admit]. LOL, I just remembered that skit from back in the day: "Conan, the Librarian." Anybody remember which show that was on? Was it Saturday Night Live, or Kids in the Hall?

LOL, even the mighty Oak must bow down before the power of Chuck Norris, and the Karate Commandos! Fear the Shinobi slicers! Beware the Onokamo Fender Blade! OMG, those were the days. What was Chuck thinking? Yeah, you never know when that trampoline spoiler's gonna come in handy...

Now now, are we gonna have to separate you two? Anyways, the Thundercats "out takes" can be found at Newgrounds.com. Every now and then, I still go back for another looksee. Still good for some chuckles. Don't ask me why, but Mum-Rah cracks me up more than any of the others. Maybe it's that screen cap of the decrepid old mummy, and to hear such erratic and seemingly "senile" ramblings coming from his voice actor. Hilarious! Oh yeah, What the FU-K is a samo-flange?!

Yup, it's usually a $2.00 part letting go that will break a $2,000 motor. Do they know what caused Mr. Conrod and Mr. Block to have their falling out? Was it a rod bolt?