It has been 2 days of crappy drivers, so I felt like I should vent…

I have 1 core ideal while driving…try not to screw things up for the guys around you! This covers most every point of driving courteously and I have given a few examples below, in no particular order.

1. Take opportunities to make maneuvers as they present themself and if they don’t present themself, keep driving until they do…don’t impede traffic because you can’t merge properly.
2. Don’t cut people off
3. Don’t pull out in front of someone and go half their speed
4. Don’t lazily lag behind traffic only to then speed up as you see a light turn yellow…maybe the guy behind you would have like to make it through the light too had you been keeping with the flow of traffic while the light was green.
5. Don’t sit in a right turn lane when there are 2 other empty lanes going straight. What good does right on red do for me now as I sit behind you when you could have been a nice guy and moved over a lane as you approached the intersection.
6. Don’t try to enforce the speed limits by driving slow in the left lane, you are not law enforcement.
7. Occasionally glance in your rearview and if you notice someone coming up behind you…move over! Its the law for slower trffic to keep right!
8. Learn how to work a 4 way stop efficiently!!!
9. Don’t react to stuff that isn’t your problem. If I get an opportunity to pass you because I want to drive faster than you, don’t react to me passing you…my world doesn’t revolve around you! I have no problem with you and could care less if you are driving the speed limit! I just want to drive faster than you because I enjoy it and my car just sped past you like a bat outta hell not because I was irritated with you but because it has 400 frickin’ hp and it CAN speed past you. You give me some smart ass reaction to my desire to drive and my wish to just drive changes to my wish to annoy you for as long as possible.

I’ll give a few examples that happened today…

• 4 way stop, cars on 3 sides, all stopped. I’m sitting on deck to make my move at the stop. Car in front of me goes, I move up. In the time that it took me to move up, the car opposite my direction was turning left and never made a move. The car to the left that was stopped before me never made a move either. As I stopped, I notice their lack of action so I go and receive dirty looks from both of them! Don’t get mad at me because you can’t work a 4 way stop efficiently!!! Use the actions of the other cars as your cue to get a move on. Guy across from you has a left turn signal and you are going straight? Pull out there and let the guy pull along side and turn behind you and vice versa if you are the guy turning left. Guy at 90 degrees from you to the right enters the intersection? Make your move out into the intersection as he passes you instead of waiting for him to fully clear the intersetion….he no longer presents a threat to you!
• 50 mph road…don’t slow down to 5mph and expect to cross 2 lanes to make it to the left turn lane. Continue on down the road until you can move over safely and make a u-turn or turn into a lot so you can wait for traffic to clear so you can make your turn safely. You screwed up by not changing lanes properly! Don’t screw me up in the process because the traffic around us is moving at 10 times your speed and leaves me no option to maneuver around you!!! Maybe partially my fault for not changing lanes quick enough to get around you and failing to follow my rule #1 above, but seriously!!! 5mph in a 50mph zone to cross 2 lanes of rush hour traffic?!?!?!
• A witness to me laying on my horn behind above 5mph guy flips me off! Dude, it wasn’t your problem so stay out of it…but guess what…it is your problem now! So don’t get irritated when I get in front of you now and give you a problem by harassing you. Don’t react to stuff that isn’t your problem. If I get an opportunity to pass you because I want to drive faster than you, don’t react to me passing you…my world doesn’t revolve around you! I have no problem with you! I just want to drive faster than you because I enjoy it and my car sped past you like a bat outta hell not because I was irritated but because it has frickin’ 400 hp and it CAN speed past you. You give me some smart ass reaction to my just wanting to drive and my wish to just drive changes to my wish to annoy you for as long as possible.

Anyways, those are just the ones that happened today…let me know your driving pet peeves by commenting below…

- peeps

…and I still didn’t fix the problem. Who knew Tarantino’s methods were good for fixing broken mechanical things, not just for torture?

My shifter on the Goat had a weird rattle to it, so yesterday I decided I would take it apart to see if I could track down the rattle. To get at the shifter, there are 4 nuts underneath the car above the transmission that hold the rubber boot that fits over the shifter mechanism to the floor. I was able to get to 3 of them without much hassle but the 4th was just out of reach. I ended up being able to get the boot out without the 4th nut off, so all was good for now. I saw some debris sitting in the old pivot point for the stock shifter and thought that may have been the cause of the rattle. I got all of it cleared away and then noticed the handle of my shifter had a bit of play in the lower 2 bolts, so I decided I would try to re-tighten them. It was already pretty tight, so that didn’t help. Since there was still some play in it, I decided I would take the bolts out and replace them. As I was taking the 1st of 2 out I started to struggle due to the red loctite we had used when installing the shifter since these bolts are notorious for coming loose. To get ssome more leverage, I got out my breaker bar to really show it who was boss and as I tried to turn it, it gave and it sheared right off! I took the rest of the shifter apart so I could work on it outside the car and tried to get the sheared off bolt out with some vise-grips on the threaded portion that was still protruding out of the threaded handle. All that did was tear up that portion of the bolt. By this time it was time to head out to Jason’ party for swimming, eating, and drinking which I figured would be a nice escape after a frustrating day. After showing all the GTO guys at the party the handle, they all just said it would come out with a bit of heat to break the hold of the red loctite.

So after a night of chillin’, I went out to the store to get a torch. After wrestling with it for about 30 minutes using the torch and the vise-grips, I was FINALLY able to get the damn thing out. Now that I could get the handle back together, I had to figure out how to get that pesky 4th nut for the boot ring removed. After battling claustrophobia and frustration from trying to work in close quaters under the car with my arm and hand in tight spaces, I begged Tasha to get on some grubby clothes and see if she could snake her arm and hand up there with a wrench to get it out. Sure enough, she was just itty bitty enough to get the job done.

With that out of the way, I got it all back together enough to drive it but still troubleshoot, got Tasha to get the 4 nuts back on, and was ready to take it for a drive to see if the rattle that started this whole ordeal was gone. After a quick drive down the road, I realized I had gone through all that for nothing…it was still there! So I got Tasha in the passenger seat to listen and feel for the rattle while I drove. Sure enough, it is the washers on the other 2 bolts that seem to be loose despite the bolts holding the handle nice and tight. Those guys are red loctited in also, so I just gave up. I put it all back together to tackle another day. Now that I know to just “go to work on the holmes here with a pair of pliers and a blowtorch” I should have a less eventful fix the next time around…

Now for my remaining 3 hours of defensive driving that I had planned to start this morning…only 6 days left to finish it and I am out of town for 3 of those!

- peeps

The supercharged Roush Mustang on the tollway today witnessed my SEG. He had one too as we hit ~120mph.

Well, today I have had my car for exactly 4 years and stomping my right foot to the floor never seems to get old. I try and try to wear that pedal out, but it just keeps asking for more. No matter how much I flog it, it just asks for more even after 66,000 miles!

I just want to say thanks for the fun times, GTO…THANKS!!!!!!