I took this picture the other day while waiting in line at McDonald’s. I thought it was quite humorous that a Driver’s Ed car would be going through the drive-thru. What was even funnier was, when it drove off, I saw that the only person who got anything was the instructor as he stuffed his face; the students in the car had nothing to eat.

Of course, one has to wonder how appropriate this is. Did the instructor tell the student to do it for his own benefit or did he ask if anyone else was hungry? Perhaps a better question is, why didn’t the instructor simply wait until the lesson was over? Even if the instructor is diabetic, they should normally carry snacks with them. At least eat before taking the car out.

After making a comment on a fellow GIDBlog site, I realized that it would make a good topic of discussion. The original comment I made was that, by playing Gran Turismo, I’ve learned quite a bit about cars that I didn’t know before. Obviously, it’s a game so a lot of real life aspects can’t be duplicated exactly, but much of the premise of the simulation is still applicable.

For example, I never realized how much tires affect the car. It makes sense though. The tires are the only part of a vehicle that actually interact with the environment, in this case the ground. Having poor quality tires means your are more likely to lose that precious ground contact. Once you lose good contact, you no longer have control of the vehicle. This means not just when your tires actually leave the ground (like when you go over a cliff) but when you lose any type of traction. If you brake too hard without anti-lock brakes, your wheels will lock up and you lose control. If you go over a “washboard” road or hit a speed bump too fast, your tires will momentarily lose contact with the ground and you just can’t drive on air very well. > more <

So, I bought my wife a brand new 2006 VW Jetta TDI last year and wanted to share my experiences with using a diesel. One of the reasons we bought a diesel is so we can use biodiesel, plus I want to switch to a waste-oil system when the car is paid off. (On a side note, buying cars in Hawaii is a joke. Even though we were able to talk the dealer down nearly $3000 from the original price, we still paid more than $2000 more than the “street value” as listed on several car shopping sites).

We use 100% biodiesel in our car. For those who don’t know, biodiesel is made from recycled vegetable oil, which isn’t really that strange. The original diesel engines were made to run on peanut oil, if I remember correctly. And even though nearly every diesel car maker states you can void your warranty if you use anything greater than 5% biodiesel blends, it’s mostly a lie. > more <