Global RallyCross and Lucas Oil Offroad Racing Series 11/15-11/16 TV Ratings

These are from the weekend of 11/15 and 11/16.  The LOORRS broadcast had the more favorable slot in that it was shown on Saturday, up against significantly weaker college football broadcasts vs. the 11/16 GRC show which faced off against nationally televised NFL football.  The GRC broadcast was a showdown between Joni Wiman and Ken Block for the 2015 driver's title with Wiman coming out on top by finishing second to Block and garnering enough points to retain first place for the year (though his lack of a single win on the year will likely drive a change in the way GRC scores points for each event in '15)

Neither show fared that well, though the LOORRS show was no worse than its typical ratings.  GRC's 0.3 rating ties for its worst of the year and shortest of its brief existence.  This will wrap up GRC's programing for the year I would imagine and so I'll recap their ratings for their events below, prior to the weekend's full ratings.  Their high for the year was a 0.5, equating to 578,000 households and some 636,000 actual viewers and the low was a 0.3, equating to 350,000 and 382,000 viewers.  Overall this puts Global RallyCross a bit behind the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series shows as we will recap in the future.  Of note is the recent F1 ratings on NBC for the Brazil event which grabbed a 0.5 rating and two weeks prior a 0.7 rating for the USGP in Texas.  NBC paid $3 Million to acquire the rights to F1 in the US (prior to any production, talent, coverage costs), so to have LOORRS and GRC somewhat equaling those ratings with what is essentially a paid advertisement, costing the networks nothing, both can be viewed as being successful on their own terms.  Though when you compare the measly $3 million paid for F1 to the $2.4 billion Fox paid for NASCAR (not completely an apples to apples comparison but you get the idea) you understand how far behind in the Q ratings sports like F1, RallyCross or short course are from NAPCAR.

Global RallyCross 2015 Ratings:

5/24--0.4
6/22--0.3
7/20--0.5
7/26--0.3
8/03--0.3
9/20--0.5
9/21--0.3

NFL: Eagles-Packers (84%)	11/16	Fox	4:25-7:30pm	17.1
"Sunday Night Football": Patriots-Colts	11/16	NBC	8:30-11:15pm	13.6
NFL: (singleheader)	11/16	CBS	1:00-4:05pm	11.7
NFL: (regional)	11/16	Fox	1:00-4:15pm	10.1
College Football: Mississippi State-Alabama	11/15	CBS	3:30-7:15pm	6.6
College Football: Florida State-Miami	11/15	ABC	8:00-11:45pm	6.1
"Football Night in America"	11/16	NBC	7:30-8:15pm	5.4
College Football: Ohio State-Minnesota	11/15	ABC	12:00-3:30pm	4.3
"Fox NFL Sunday"	11/16	Fox	12:00-1:00pm	3.5
"The NFL Today"	11/16	CBS	12:00-1:00pm	2.8
College Football: Nebraska-Minnesota	11/15	ABC	3:30-7:15pm	2.3
College Football: Northwestern-Notre Dame	11/15	NBC	3:30-8:00pm	2.0
"Courage in Sports"	11/16	CBS	5:00-6:00pm	1.5
"College Football Today"	11/15	CBS	3:00-3:30pm	1.0
College Football: Texas-Oklahoma State	11/15	Fox	7:30-11:00pm	1.0
College Football: Washington-Arizona	11/15	Fox	3:30-7:15pm	0.9
ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating: Russia	11/16	NBC	4:00-6:00pm	0.9
"Fox College Saturday"	11/15	Fox	3:00-3:30pm	0.5
Ironman World Championship	11/15	NBC	1:30-3:00pm	0.5
"Notre Dame Football Pre-Game"	11/15	NBC	3:00-3:30pm	0.5
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing	11/15	CBS	1:00-2:00pm	0.4
"College Football's Open Season: Vanderbilt"	11/15	CBS	2:00-2:30pm	0.4
"College Football's Open Season: Arkansas"	11/15	CBS	2:30-3:00pm	0.4
"World of X Games: ASP Surfing"	11/16	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.4
"The Grantland Basketball Hour"	11/16	ABC	4:00-5:00pm	0.3
Global Rallycross: Las Vegas	11/16	NBC	1:30-3:00pm	0.3
Spartan Race: Vermont	11/16	NBC	3:00-4:00pm	0.3

Article on UTVs Participating in Rally Racing...

Just wanted to post this on my own site in the rare case that someone comes to this page on their own or comes here due to a search.  I also wanted to try and make sure as much of the Rally community saw it as possible and given how much guff I get in the Rally community, I figure some might run across it here as well.  I did manage to get another article published.  This time it is over on ATV.com.

I interviewed Idaho resident Carl Marcum to talk about his use of a Polaris RZR as a stage rally vehicle and talk about the brief history and acceptance of UTVs in stage rally racing in North America in general.  The page has gotten 77 likes on Facebook, 3 tweets on Twitter and 6 thumbs up on Google+ so at least its gotten its message out there a little bit!  Thanks to Carl for the interview and thanks to ATV.com for publishing it!

The Evolution of UTVs in Rally Racing... 

Most Interesting Entry at This Year's Baja 1000

 I picked the Quigley 4x4 Van as the 2013 "winner" of this title and many seemed to agree.  They DNF'd and never saw the end of the race but certainly put in a solid effort before returning stateside.

This year I am "awarding" (?) this title to an entry just showing up on the entry list.

Ikuo Hanawa is a long time Baja aficionado having run there a number of times as well as at Pikes Peak on occasion including behind the wheel of an electric vehicle.

For '14 Hanawa is coming to Baja with a completely new vehicle of his own design and build (from what I can decipher from the translated Japanese on his Facebook page).  He also lists it as his Baja/Dakar vehicle so maybe we'll see it in South America in a few months as well?  It certainly looks the Dakar part being VERY small looking with a non-existent rear end, and a wholly enclosed shell with dual spares almost completely covered.

The video Hanawa has posted lists the 2WD vehicle as having about 23 1/2 inches of front end travel and about 21 1/2 inches in the rear.  King bypass and coils dampen the front while the wheels are wrapped in 315/70R17 Yokohama Geolander A/T-S.  I'm not sure what type of transmission is in it but it looks to be a fairly stock version (maybe even a stock Nissan 370Z tranny?) as the video shows Hanawa rowing through the gears, certainly no sequential transmission present.  The engine in the vehicle is a Nissan 3.7L VQ37VHR V6 out of a 370Z putting out around 332 HP, while the "body" is completely tube framed and yet the vehicle will somehow be classified as a Nissan Frontier in SCORE's class 7 for "Open Mini-Trucks".  If there's a Frontier part on it, I'd be shocked.

It certainly looks like a foreign designed and built vehicle with an emphasis on a small size and light weight.  How its rather spindly looking suspension and steering holds up to the roughness of Baja will soon be seen.  I'll be rooting for him but having my doubts as to its ability to stay in one piece.  I would have expected that Hanawa has enough Baja experience to know what he is asking of his vehicle and have designed it accordingly--so what do I know?  My vehicle broke down every day I raced it the 2014 NORRA event, so clearly I don't have the answer.

As always for me, seeing something besides a Geiser Trophy Truck powered by some massive Cheby crate motor is the more captivating portion of this race.  I'm in the minority but I'm more of an underdog, root for the guy who is likely to lose, sort of person.  With someone like Hanawa and his Japanese engined, Dakar style buggie, some eyes might at least be pulled away from the carbon copy lineup one usually sees...if only for a moment.

To follow along with this effort, Ikuo Hanawa is #712.  Tracking should begin tomorrow 11/13.  The "other" Nissan Frontier in the race that I spoke of the other day is #2003.  Best of luck to both of them!

A Bit of Baja Home With Me

My wife and I have frequently tried to collect sand from the beaches and locales we've visited over our time together and display it in little jars in our home as a nice, cheap keepsake and reminder of where we've been.  Amongst my many disappointments from my attempt at the NORRA Mexican 1000 was the fact that I didn't collect any sand from anywhere along the near two thousand miles we traversed of the Baja peninsula.
 
So some six months later I've finally begun to seriously take apart the NISMOStuff Frontier and head towards preparing it for 2015.  As I begin unbolting some steering and suspension components I notice that there sure appears to be a great deal of sand and silt packed into my frame.  Then I proceed to unbolt the skidplates and a sheet of powdery silt comes raining down on my garage floor.  Vacuuming up good deal of the light tan talcum like sand (?) brings me back to digging out the truck in the Mexican heat, dozens of miles from...well...nowhere.  Broken parts, broken trailer, broken van, lost teammates, etc....it all comes back.

I now have a large ziploc bag filled with some five pounds of Baja Mexico silt.  Some of this silt will be going in a jar on a shelf in my house to help bring back all those imbedded memories again and again.  The rest?  Maybe make a little silt bed in my own backyard?  Thanks again to Elliot Sherwod, Paul Hartl and Tim Meunier for plowing my truck through various silt beds and "collecting" all this sand for me, only to be revealed some six months later.  Baja...the gift that keeps on giving!

Someone At Playmobil Is Cool...

Initially saw this little gem within ADV Moto magazine, which, if you aren't reading on a regular basis, makes you a major sap.  It was within their Nov/Dec issue and listed as one of their holiday gift recommendations.  I'm still a fan of toys of all kinds be they Legos or otherwise and this one will also go on my wish list.

Playmobil has made some cool stuff in the recent past--a dirt bike and accompanying rider that my son has for one, providing a great deal of entertainment during my times playing with the kids.  This one is even more niche specific as I think the number of toys presenting an ADV bike with full panniers (with world traveling stickers even!) and Dakar style windscreen are between few and zero.

Grab it for your kids now.  If they don't play with it...you know you will.

Playmobil ADV Motorcycle Link...

Book Review(s): Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman & What Do You Care What Other People Think?

I'm reviewing these two works together as "What Do You Care" is essentially an extension of "Surely You're Joking".  Both are written in the same style and contain the same themes.

If you're not familiar with Richard Feynman a brief primer on him is as follows--a NYC born and bread theoretical physicist he was a major participant in the Manhattan project and went on to win the Nobel prize along with rubbing shoulders as an intellectual equal with Einstein, Oppenheimer, Bethe, Bohr and others.  He has become well known in popular culture due to his participation in the Challenger disaster investigation as well as his decidedly non-traditional scientist personality.

The books are all told in first person by Feynman himself as he recounts in numerous short vignettes various occurrences in his life that shed light on his various viewpoints.  In truth all these viewpoints all support his main viewpoint--which is that in virtually all circumstances the perceived correct way to do things is wrong and that people do not often enough question authority or make their own path.  In this aspect the title the second work "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" more closely sums up the overarching themes than anything else.

I also found "What Do You Care" to be the stronger of the two works.  The short vignettes become largely forgettable after a while as they skip from one moment in his life to the next.  You get an overall feeling as to his irreverence and brilliance (sometimes wandering into inflated egotism) but they don't carry a great deal of weight as they involve mundane things like how he picked up on various women or played the bongos in plays or learned to pick locks/crack safes--all interesting occurrences in their own right but not anything that stays with you emotionally besides your realization that Mr. Feynman was a really unique character, memorable for reasons besides just his massive intelligence and impact on our understanding of the fundamental functioning of the universe.

"What Do You Care" contains an extended section on Feynman's involvement with the Challenger investigation and this is the most valuable part of the books.  Here we see Feynman at his best--not dealing with trivial matters but in focusing his abilities and stubbornness at a single complex issue.  he cuts through the bureaucracy and politics involved in finding the blame for its catastrophic failure.  It can be legitimately be said that if he wasn't involved in the investigation that its cause would likely have gone unpublished.

If I had one of the two to recommend it would then be "What Do You Care" though both are worth consuming for their the mindset that they convey--question everything, make your own path and don't give a fuck what anyone else thinks.

A Nissan Frontier Returning to the Baja 1000 Next Weekend!

At least it currently looks that way!

 Los Angeles resident Glen Tanizawa has had this race in mind for a number of years now and has been transforming his Frontier into a SCORE compliant racer over the course of at least the past year with a significant amount of the work (of course) taking place in the last few months, weeks and days.

Glen and I have talked a bit back and forth with him being particularly interested in my efforts to race down the Baja peninsula earlier this year in my Nissan Frontier during the NORRA 1000.  Both the NORRA 1000 that I raced in and this year's Baja 1000 ran the entire length of the peninsula though the B1K is an whole order of difficulty greater than the NORRA event.

Unlike the NORRA 1000 there is zero downtime in the race.  We at least had each evening to try and make repairs and recover...not so in the B1K.  Glenn and his crew will have to go non-stop for likely close to 48 hours if they hope to finish.  They will also be taking on a course significantly more difficult that what I encountered--bigger rocks, deeper silt, steeper inclines, etc. and will have much fewer "transit" sections that we had in the NORRA event where we covered at least some of the mileage on pavement.

It is a HUGE undertaking, one that defies my imagination even having gotten a taste of what Baja racing entails earlier this year.  If you want to follow along with Glenn you can certainly go to his personal Facebook page and "friend" him to get updates before the race.  The race begins on 11/13 with the motorcycles off the line at 6AM local time and cars/trucks beginning at 12:30PM local time.  Running in the Sportsman 2000 class under #2003, Glenn should be starting darn near the very last of the vehicles to race, probably not until close to 3PM.  It has been years since a Nissan vehicle has even entered a SCORE event, let alone finish a B1K (I believe Bob Graham and his Nissan Titan was the last Nissan vehicle to finish a SCORE event back in '07) and I wish Glenn the best of luck.

If I have any advice coming out of my experiences?  Go slow.  Real slow.  As slow as you think you're going??  Go slower.  Stock or near stock vehicle components are just not meant to endure that terrain for any length of time.  You will get lulled into thinking you can go faster than is actually smart and you will be hauling ass down a fire road like course at 80 mph or better and then you'll run right into a minefield of rocks, ruts and ditches while your adrenalin is still coursing from driving with your hair ablaze...Knowing how to flick that switch between the two types of driving is huge.

Regardless, what you find here in photos are some of the build and development photos of Glenn's Frontier.  Enjoy and drop Glenn a line if you can.  I'm sure he could use the pat on the back and encouragement.

This?? Oh Nothing...Just a Fez From a Waffen SS Division Member...

This was within a private collection I visited in the recent past that brought to my attention the fact that there was an ever so nice connection between the Nazis and Muslims of Europe and the Mid-East in WWII.

This division of Bosnian Muslims was one of many efforts made between the Nazis and Muslims throughout Europe and the Mid-East to reach common goals--namely the extermination of those that they both found undesirable.  Hell, even a Grand Mufti from Jerusalem was flown in to assist in the recruiting of Muslims into the Nazi ranks.  They were known for their brutality and massacre of Serbs more than they were for their fighting excellence.  No terrorists here...just your usual genocidal maniacs.  And the skull??  Well its a real skull, just a prop though, not an actual dead Handzar SS Division Muslim...

Dunkin Donuts Croissant Doughnut Review

The croissant doughnut or "cronut" is not a brand new item.  I believe they were created in NYC a couple years back and have been growing in notice and popularity ever since.  Dunkin has jumped on the bandwagon and created their own, in limited quantities daily, and began offering them this week.  As a big fan of donuts in general and new fatty food creations in particular, I just had to try one.

First off they are $2.49 a piece and thus are some 2 1/2 times the cost of their regular donuts.  Then there is the way they served it to me.  It wasn't just tossed in the brown paper bag that normal donuts go into...noooooo...it gets individually placed in its own cardboard box with plastic window so that you can gaze upon its sugar ice covered surface until you eat it.  I guess at the largely increased cost they are trying to make it seem like it is a premium product.

So the taste and eating experience?  The texture wasn't bad at all, it was decidedly croissant like.  Very springy in nature with multiple visible layers the "cronut" bounces back much more than a real croissant would.  The outer crust is crispier than that of a regular doughnut and I like this change.  Its nice having the difference in texture from inside to outside.  The item as a whole is a bit heavier and a bit chewier than a regular doughnut.  If I say the chewing experience is a bit rubbery, it has a bad connotation that I don't intend but it is accurate.  The icing is no different than the icing you'd find on your typical glazed doughnut so there really isn't much to say there...I wish there was more icing if anything.

All in all it is a fair experience.  The taste is good and a bit "greasier" than a doughnut with corresponding heaviness in the stomach and the same sweetness as a glazed version while retaining the buttery flavor of a croissant.  The texture is closer to that of a croissant than that of a doughnut and pleasant.  Bottom line??  Do you want to pay 2 1/2 times the cost of of your regular doughnut for what is largely similar experience except housed in a cardboard box??  I don't.

2016 Nissan Titan Cummins Diesel Spy Shots

 Until now all the next generation Nissan Titan photos we have seen have been more or less merely test mules using the existing Nissan Titan body/frame with its new engine shoehorned into the bay.  Little was able to be discerned about the nature of the actual looks of the 2016 version.

With its full introduction only a few months away we are finally seeing what is likely a near production ready version of the coming diesel Titan being taken out on the road.  While still heavily camouflaged at this point there are a number of items worth pointing out in these photos.

First we have the single exhaust pipe and a small one at that.  Look at any heavy duty diesel truck and you will see a giant honking exhaust pipe hanging out the back to expend all those gases.  Evidently one example of how a smaller turbo diesel will change things up is in the exhaust design.  Lighter and in only a single outlet is different than a lot of the diesel trucks out there today.

Secondly we have evidence of the differentiation of the '16 Titan from its Ram counterpart.  The next gen Titan was originally going to be co-developed by Nissan and Chrysler/Dodge/Ram.  When that deal fell apart a few years back one wondered just how much would Nissan pull from the early Ram designs for its next fullsize truck.  Well, in terms of rear suspension??  Not much.  While Ram has moved to a coil sprung rear suspension these photos show that the Titan has retained the leaf spring suspension that is more common (and simpler?)  You might argue that the coilspring setup of the Ram is a more advanced system and maybe you're right...but its nice to see that Nissan went back to the board and came up with their own idea rather than taking what was Ram's preference at the time of their cooperation.

We also see evidence in these photos of additional nods to fuel economy found on most modern trucks including the aero skirt at the very front of the truck.  These have been viewed as major targets for curbs, rock and other debris typical of locations where fullsize trucks operate but have become fairly standard across the industry and one of the first things to be removed by many offroad oriented owners.

Lastly, size-wise the new Titan looks to have beefed up quite a bit compared to its prior version.  Asian trucks (the Toyota Tundra and Titan) have always been viewed as being just slightly undersized compared to their American brethren--a 7/8ths size truck or the like.  The crew-cab version here does not appear to lack for bulk or length with the passenger cab looking particularly cavernous.  The windshield also looks more raked than its predecessor and should help the overall aero and diesel sipping nature of the vehicle.

Here's hoping we see more of this in less and less disguised versions in the period leading up to its full introduction in Detroit in January '15.

2015 NASA Rally Sport Schedule

Well, this looks like what we have so far. There are rumors that there may be another event or more (?) added to the schedule that don't appear in this video but this is what exists so far and are the longer running, reliable events. It also doesn't include Hyperfest which is a typical event that is very short in nature but a good time and a points (though at a reduced rate) event for the Atlantic Rally Cup) race. Nice to see Rally Idaho and Magnum Opus back again in '14. Hopefully I'll be racing at a number of these!

New Movie Trailer: Ex Machina

Saw this today and had to add it here. This is the first film to be directed by Alex Garland. Garland has worked with one of my favorite directors in producing screenplays (Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later and Sunshine) as well as the novel The Beach which was turned into the DiCaprio film of the same name and the screenplay for Never Let Me Go.  With that excellent track record of smart, independent writing and production I am very excited to see what he can do in both writing and filming on a combined basis.

This work was produced in England and thus is a bit distanced from the influence of typical Hollywood BS.  We have a computer programmer who gets the opportunity to take part in a weekend long Turing test being set up by his multi-billionaire tech company founder/boss.  The subject of this Turing test is a very attractive (?), female (?), AI.  As is usual, it is up to sci-fi to bring us a look at the repercussions of our rapid advances and so it is the case here.  As a Mr. Elon Musk has said in the past week "With artificial intelligence we're summoning the demon. You know those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram, and the holy water, and ... he's sure he can control the demon? Doesn't work out."

This film should at the very least be a brief look into some of the existential and practical questions that arise when we play god in creating devices that can think for themselves and at some point, out think their creators.  There's a reason God create Man to be a fragile, fallible creature, may we be so wise.

e should be very careful about artificial intelligence... [it is perhaps] our biggest existential threat.  With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon.

In all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it's like yeah he's sure he can control the demon.  Didn't work out. - See more at: http://www.dailytech.com/Elon+Musk+on+AI+We+Are+Summoning+the+Demon+We+Should+Be+Very+Careful/article36788.htm#sthash.4X09brLj.dpuf

We should be very careful about artificial intelligence... [it is perhaps] our biggest existential threat.  With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon.

In all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it's like yeah he's sure he can control the demon.  Didn't work out. - See more at: http://www.dailytech.com/Elon+Musk+on+AI+We+Are+Summoning+the+Demon+We+Should+Be+Very+Careful/article36788.htm#sthash.4X09brLj.dpuf

We should be very careful about artificial intelligence... [it is perhaps] our biggest existential threat.  With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon.

In all those stories where there's the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it's like yeah he's sure he can control the demon.  Didn't work out. - See more at: http://www.dailytech.com/Elon+Musk+on+AI+We+Are+Summoning+the+Demon+We+Should+Be+Very+Careful/article36788.htm#sthash.4X09brLj.dpuf

Prepping for 2015...

I am continuing to repair/replace/upgrade items for my Rally Truck.  The other day I noted that I had replaced and upgraded my caution triangles as one had broken somewhere along the way and I wanted the weight savings.

Now I'm getting a number of spare hood pins.  I can't count the number of times we took the hood on and off during the course of driving to, from and racing in, Mexico some five months ago though it was probably a couple dozen times in all.  Somewhere along the way I lost a pair of hood pins and so in replacing them and grabbing a couple spares off of Amazon I have checked yet another item off my list of things to do before the first race of '15.

Nom, Nom, Nom...Time For More Burgers...

Given my poor little Rally Truck's lack of power and looking ahead to 2015 I am continuing to look at ways to reduce weight, simplify my setup and improve performance.  Well, here was a simple item to start with--the damn safety triangles.

If you look around at rally teams I think you will find that most use the most common triangles as shown here.  These have a weighted base filled with sand.  While they are nice and stable and visible they are heavy at more than 3 1/2 pounds a piece.  As you are required to carry three of these, this adds up to more than 10 1/2 pounds.  Since I had broken one and needed a replacement before next season I've been looking for a better alternative and I finally found it.

Do a Google search for "lightweight caution triangle" and you'll find lots of listings--most not really lightweight or sold by a specialized European company (due to the fact that European countries require motorists to carry such triangles in their vehicles) or versions that are ridiculously expensive for what they are.  Today however I came across the perfect replacement.  100% plastic, snap together, stable, wide based triangles almost the same height/size of the triangles I am replacing and weighing in at whopping 5.4 oz per triangle.  So all together these will come in at less than a single pound and save me more than 10 pounds in the rally truck.  Every bit counts and dropping 10 pounds here allows me to carry a more appropriate offroad jack without increasing the weight my truck is carrying--improving performance and capability.  Oh, and the cost?  A whopping $5 each vs. $13+ for each of the older, heavier style triangles...

I guess I could also just keep the old, tiny vehicle jack and continue to "bulk up" via cheeseburgers too...

Snowmobile to Reno

Well this wasn't your typical offroad racing effort.

Vegas to Reno is the longest offroad racing in the United States at close to 600 miles in length over some of the rockiest, siltiest, driest, roughest terrain our country has to offer.  Therefore it may not be the easiest race to attempt with a radically new idea.  This didn't put off Trevor Erickson however.

Trevor has been running snowmobiles converted to operate in the dirt for years now as evidenced by this article on Off-Road.com back in 2009.  He has run sleds across bodies of water, in the dunes and across rocky terrain in the past (as evidenced in the second video below) so varied terrain is something he is experienced with.  I'm sure he's made many changes to the sled since then but this is the first major offroad desert race that he has entered that I know of.  The sled looks to have no problem with speed hitting a peak of 108 here while you can hear Erickson let off the gas in numerous turns making it appear as if its ability to turn and turning radius may be its limitation.

Snowmobiles are no stranger to big jumps and moguls so bumps and ruts may not be a huge difference for this machine though I would imagine the sharp rocks, dust and heat are not in the typical design specs.  His prior sleds are known to run additional radiators in the rear of the vehicle and use Yamaha YFZ 450 quad hubs and wheels for its front end. The sled used for the V2R effort is a Polaris Rush with an Aerocharger turbocharged engine.  Given your off the shelf Rush starts at only 436 pounds, they should be able to get up and move as fast as any 600cc bike.

I would also assume that it has extensive skidplating underneath as snowmobiles aren't known for their ground clearance.  They do possess a fair amount of travel though--The Polaris Rush lists its rear travel at 14 inches while the front travel of a standard Rush is at 9 inches and this snowmobile is far from stock.  Stock shocks cross over into the world of dirt with dampers all around provided by Walker Evans who is a big snowmobile fan himself. 

Still, Erickson made it more than 100 miles of the '14 V2R event before a cracked fuel tank put them out.  The story rumored so far is that the team tried to fill the crack with soap with heavy duty tape across it.  It will be interesting to see if the Erickson's return to desert racing in the future. Unfortunately I haven't found any sort of Trevor Erickson or Erickson Brothers website so if you want to find out more, you'll have to track Mr. Erickson down through your usual social media outlets.

Bobby Robins First Fight as a Boston Bruin

Well that didn't take long...the Bruins replacement for the beloved Shawn Thorton didn't take long to get in the swing of things.  As a lower cost and younger (barely) hockey "enforcer" Robins did exactly what you would want him to do after Flyer Zac Rinaldo had earlier gotten a roughing penalty and had taken a run at just returning from injury (and Bruin's lynchpin) Dennis Seidenberg.  The fight itself was mostly a draw and no real blood was spilled...but it sets an appropriate tone and shows that though Thornton is now deservedly on an increased and two year contract with the Panthers that the Bruins haven't lost their tough side.

Book Review: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Though this novel has a couple sequels I don't think I'll read any of them--and not because I didn't like it.  Far from it in fact.  I enjoyed it so much so that I don't want to ruin my impression of it by moving on to lesser works in the same series.  Truthfully, I can't imagine The Forever War not standing on its own.  Its a perfectly crafted work that is a universe unto itself, needing nothing additional.

Joe Haldeman is a Vietnam vet where he served as a combat engineer after earning his BS in physics and astronomy.  He teaches at MIT to this day.  The Forever War is in some large parts a result of his time in Vietnam and his reflections on it.

Firmly within the Military Sci-Fi genre, The Forever War revolves around a physics student who is recruited into a war he doesn't understand against an enemy he doesn't know.  Upon his initial return to the "world" from fighting this enemy, society has changed so much that he no longer recognizes or feels comfortable with it.  You can see why the work has been rightfully been called analogous to Haldeman's Vietnam experiences.

Over the course of centuries of objective time, the soldier is promoted through the ranks of the UNEF (United Nations Exploratory Force) and remains largely the same individual while humankind goes through massive changes due to the effects of time dilation caused by his travel at relativistic speeds.  How society changes and how the main character views and reacts to these changes takes up a great deal of the work.  It is this examination of sexual mores, government, science, politics, etc. that is the  core here.  The military battles such as they are with the alien Taurans are just the device by which Haldeman turns the microscope on ourselves.

Haldeman's writing is not filled with long sequences of dialogue or endlessly detailed descriptions of equipment or science...this is not "hard" science fiction, nor is it going to make Shakespeare quake.  It doesn't need to.  It contains enough detail surrounding the battlesuits its soldiers wear and the lethality of simply trying to exist in space that it will please most military scifi enthusiasts but it is the ideas that The Forever War contains about what state humankind currently finds itself in, where it may go and how we treat each other that are of real value.  On these The Forever War stands rightfully as a "classic" of sci-fi from the last 40 years.

Today's Edition of Things Going Badly for Syrian Tankers...

And this one goes REAL bad...

can't identify the anti-tank weapon used here but its safe to say that its likely one the the US manufactured (Raytheon) BGM-71 TOW that have been flooding into "rebel" hands.  On the other end of the wire is the Syrian tank which goes up like no other tank I've seen in this conflict.  Most take these hits and just erupt in black smoke with the individuals inside likely all turned to hamburger but the exterior remaining roughly intact.

Not so here.  This one goes up like it was rigged to blow with several truckloads of high explosive material.  Only thing I can think of is that this TOW got a lucky hit and took out the tank's armament magazine blowing it all sky high and more or less turning many tons of steel into razerblade material...

All Nissan Dealerships to Receive Diesel Training in Preparation for 2016 Titan

There's an item I hadn't thought of.

With the upcoming introduction of the 2016 Nissan Titan at the January 2015 Detroit Auto Show, many Nissan dealerships will find themselves in a position where their techs may never have worked on a diesel engine before, or at the very least, are unfamiliar with the Cummins diesel platform.

In order to assist their franchises in getting their staff up to date, Nissan is going to be taking technicians from each dealership offsite to do training specifically on the Cummins engine specifically and diesel engines in general.  Hopefully the platform is buttoned up enough that their coming skills are not of much use in the near future but it does stand as another example of just how committed Nissan has to be to this new product.  If the diesel Titan fails it will be a sunk cost of billions of dollars, one which would hamper Nissan from doing anything truly innovative in the near term.

Nissan sending its techs to diesel school...

Film Review: The Counselor

Being a Ridley Scott fan I wanted to see this film despite its poor reviews.  Lots of times I disagree with the majority of opinions when it comes to films but not in this case.

Scott is a brilliant filmmaker who has significant ups and down with this one being one of his major downs.  He certainly didn't want for a quality cast here--Fassbender, Pitt, Clooney, Bardem and Cruz are all at least adequate here.  More did he lack for a quality writer with Cormac McCarthy on board for his first screenplay.

The film fails in a number of respects but none so much as Scott's inability to craft a film vs. a series of near incoherent dialogues.  McCarthy might be a great writer and describer of scenes but his written speech is not meant to be cut and pasted to film.  I think Scott got himself in trouble giving McCarthy too much respect (having stated in the past that he is a fan of the writer) and not creating his own work with the film.  The characters are some of the shallowest I've viewed with the motivations of all barely covered with all blathering on and on with philosophical meanderings as if they were McCarthy's tongue themselves rather than actual individuals.

Then we have Cameron Diaz who I'd like to know how on earth she got into this film.  Maybe she has her place in some comedy targeted at adolescents but not here.  She is not pretty, smart or strong here--characteristics her role should have had.  She represents one of the worst miscastings in some time.

The film is bad enough that it doesn't even transmit the darkness at the heart of the story which lies in the "butterfly effect" of The American drug trade.  Mentioned briefly and expounded upon throughout the film (though poorly) is that from the smallest user to the biggest dealer to every lawyer--we are all complicit in the damage that swirls out from  every transaction.  You, experimenting with that single line of coke, you are the killer of children in Ciudad Juarez, you, the smoker of pot grown in California are the facilitator of South American snuff films.  It's a correlation that has always rung true for me and one that only briefly got some play in the few months after 9/11, and it's a shame it's a message that gets such short shrift in this poor film.

9/27-9/28 Weekend GRC Ratings

While this most recent weekend's TV ratings for the GRC weren't as high as they were the prior weekend, they'd didn't fall too much.  Still, I was hoping for better given the 0.5 rating the prior weekend and the in show advertising they did for this weekend's show.  Additionally the race at the Dirt Fish Rally School was much closer to what I think Rallycross events should be--primarily dirt vs. primarily tarmac with the cool section coming through the old wood mill as an added bonus and character.  This was by far the coolest venue for the series this year.

Results wise it was Sverre Isachsen (Subaru), Joni Wiman (Ford) and part timer Brian Deegan (Ford) in third.  While the manufacturers title in GRC has long been awarded to Ford, the driver championship has bounced back and forth and now Mr. Wiman is now in the lead with his Olsbergs MSE Ford (Huntington, CA based).

This weekend's 0.4 rating equates to some 463,000 households and some 510,000 viewers.

NFL: Eagles-49ers (88%)	9/28	Fox	4:25-7:30pm	16.7
"Sunday Night Football": Saints-Cowboys	9/28	NBC	8:30-11:00pm	13.7
NFL: (regional)	9/28	Fox	1:00-4:15pm	10.1
NFL: (singleheader)	9/28	CBS	1:00-4:05pm	8.2
"Football Night in America"	9/28	NBC	7:30-8:15pm	4.4
College Football: (regional)	9/27	ABC	3:30-7:30pm	4.0
"Fox NFL Sunday"	9/28	Fox	12:00-1:00pm	3.4
College Football: Notre Dame-Syracuse	9/27	ABC	8:00pm-12:00am	2.8
College Football: Arkansas-Texas A&M	9/27	CBS	3:30-7:30pm	2.8
"The NFL Today"	9/28	CBS	12:00-1:00pm	2.3
Ryder Cup: Day 3	9/28	NBC	7:00am-1:00pm	1.8
Ryder Cup: Day 2	9/27	NBC	3:00am-1:00pm	1.7
PBR: Kawasaki Strong Battle at the Bay	9/28	CBS	5:00-6:00pm	1.5
College Football: Stanford-Washington	9/27	Fox	4:15-7:45pm	1.2
Ryder Cup: Day 2 (taped)	9/27	NBC	1:00-6:00pm	1.1
MLB: Yankees-Red Sox	9/27	Fox	1:00-4:15pm	1.0
"College Football Countdown"	9/27	ABC	3:00-3:30pm	0.9
College Football: Baylor-Iowa State	9/27	Fox	8:15pm-12:00am	0.9
"College Football Today"	9/27	CBS	3:00-3:30pm	0.7
"College Football Socreboard"	9/27	ABC	2:00-3:00pm	0.6
STIHL Timbersports Series	9/28	ABC	5:00-6:00pm	0.6
"College Football's Open Season"	9/27	CBS	2:30-3:00pm	0.4
"World of X Games: Adaptive Action"	9/28	ABC	4:00-5:00pm	0.4
Global Rallycross: Seattle	9/28	NBC	4:30-6:00pm	0.4
"College Football's Open Season"	9/27	CBS	2:00-2:30pm	0.3
"Red Bull Joyride"	9/28	NBC	3:00-4:30pm	0.3

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