British Inside : Cars

round peg, meet square hole

James — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:48:00 GMT

Take a look at www.theroadkings.com - notice especially the URL’s as you click around the site.

The whole thing is ajax-driven, with no way of linking to a specific page (at least without downloading the ajaxEngine.js and reading the file). It’s a superb example of using latest kick-ass technologies completely inappropriately.

Why would you do this instead of using, oh I don't know, HYPERLINKS?

*shakes head*

Nice to get the old girl outside

James — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 15:16:00 GMT

I haven't had the chassis off the lift and outside where I can see it for quite a few months.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm gonna pull up a deckchair and just stare awhile..

Finally got Jasmine back

James — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:50:00 GMT

Jasmine has returned after 5 weeks in the shop. An old woman ran a stop sign and did a number on the front end of the car and although her insurance company picked up the tab, it still took forever to get fixed. No-one makes parts for this car, so everything had to be found and bought from individuals or junk yards.

Took her out at lunch time to run to the bank, nice.

You just never know

James — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:52:00 GMT

Today I was tidying my office and came across an old UK car registration document that I no longer needed (obviously).

A reg for a 1937 Ford that is, so quite unusual. I had bought a US title and "imported" it into the UK back in '96 to use on my 'glass 37 Ford replica.

So, just for grins I thought I'd post it for sale on my favorite hot rod site. Immediately a guy in Scotland said, yes please, how can I pay, and it was paypal'd within the hour.

Bear in mind that I'd put it up for $300 - and you can buy them here in the US for $30-$100. I thought I'd get beaten down to $150 or $200. But no haggling took place! How cool was that? I was well chuffed.

Guessed it yet? The catch?

Five minutes after the first guy, another one stepped forward. I said sorry it's gone and he said..

"i thought it would have been, these are swapping hands over here for £700, yes pounds, each so yours was real cheap!!"

FYI, 700 pounds is $1372.42 as I write this.

Of course, I'm still pleased - I got what I wanted, and quickly.

Still...

My growing car collection

James — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:05:00 GMT

I'm almost the proud owner of another "interesting" car. And bizarrely, it is coming from the same town that I bought my daily driver '64 Catalina convertible - Dallas-Fort Worth.

Although it wasn't planned this way, it's another '64 Catalina - but this time a 9-seat wagon. So I'm going to be making almost the identical road trip to last time, in the same car.

However, there is a catch. This one's cheap - very cheap. Which means that although it's a good runner, it's far from mint. There's gonna be some rust to fix. But this wagon cost less than we spend on groceries in a couple of months, so I can live with that!

Invincible

James — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 10:45:00 GMT

Do you feel invincible today?

These guys do.

Think you drive fast?

5 things about me

James — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 20:28:00 GMT

I almost got away with it; this morning I figured that if I hadn't got tagged by this meme by now I missed it - but it wasn't to be. ScottW got me.

I don't think it's a rule that the five things have to be embarrassing things, but it strangely seemed easier to play it that way..

I once rode 10 miles from my village to the nearest town on my bicycle ("the death cycle" painted down the side, chopper handlebars and seat - the ultimate bike) with the front wheel not bolted on. It was only when I made my dramatic entrance at the school playing field shouting and waving at my friends that a bump in the field let the wheel fall out of the forks and put me over the handlebars.
A friend and I used to wear a DA or v-roll, drape coat, drainpipes and winklepickers around town. It was 1978 and we were 14 - and Grease had just resurrected Rock and Roll. Even more embarassing, this phase lasted all through community college and only stopped when I went to East London university. On my first day I wore white winkle picker shoes, black drainpipes and white cardigan and suddenly realized that I would never get laid looking like this.
I don't have any computer-related qualifications, or a degree. I studied an OND in Land Surveying at Community College for 2 years, then an HND in Land, Sea, Engineering Surveying and Mapping at (then) North East London Polytechnic. Although I spent the whole time working on the Prime mini in Fortran 77 my friends all got a higher computer coursemark than me. They knew nothing about computer programming but I did my coursework first, then theirs and each time I improved the programs. *sigh*
I sold my first computer program to an oil company in Esbjerg, Denmark one month after leaving college for $1500. It found the most likely position for the oil pipeline on the dots output by a high resolution Ulvertech scanning sonar. I still love that program.
I have a balanced driving record. The first time I wrote off a car was a few weeks after passing my test - and was deemed 50/50 (both at fault). The second write-off was totally my fault when I failed to make a corner in the rain and ended up putting my boss through the windshield. Luckily, the third car I wrote off was entirely their fault when they overtook on the brow of a hill and I hit them head on. He was jailed, no doubt in no small part to the fact the the baby being held in the backseat of their car went through their windshield and bounced (uninjured) down the road for quite a way. Apparently I was concussed (due to my roof now being level with the top of the seat below the headrest) and kept asking every few seconds for my watch. I'm sure that got quite annoying after a while. 15 years later I still get neckaches from that crash.

I could keep going, but luckily for you it only asks for 5, not 50 things. I was beginning to feel that I ought to write my memoirs. :)

So, passing it on to: Dave Burke, Rick Segal, Robert Bruce, Scott Cate and Terri Morton who will surely get off her ass and start blogging if I keep bloody going on about it!

Keeping Schtum

James — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 09:23:00 GMT

Schtum: adj, slang. Keep quiet, maintain confidentiality

Working on a secret project at Telligent has made it tough to blog on technical subjects this year. I'm a big fan of open process and loved to talk openly about the development of Dozing Dogs CMS but that's not been possible with the new product in this higher stakes world unfortunately.

It's hard, especially when I develop something really cool and want to start beating the drums. I'm used to being naive and telling everyone what I'm doing.

One day soon though, one day soon. The last step is to throw it at a technical writer, right? Should only take a few weeks.

A side-effect of all this was that I received an email from MSFT last night telling me that I was no longer an MVP.

Quite right too, it should have happened last year IMO! I don't remember the last time I answered questions on ASPAdvice or posted tips to CoverYourASP.com. I'm not beta-testing anything right now and only attended the MVP summit to meet the Telligenti. I even had to skip the ASP insiders event that took place last week.

It's certainly not 2001 any more - we were chatting on a list the other day how things have changed for many of us since the heady days of pre-beta versions of ASP.NET 1.0. Back when the focus was on making web programming real programming with a real C language and a compiler. Before the declarative website-in-a-box movement and the bloat.

Before ".NET 3.0" finally made it clear that the lunatics had taken over the asylum.

C'est la vie - things change. I'm still very thankful to have a healthy happy family and to be working on a great, fun product with a great bunch of people. Having a big-block convertible and a '55 Chevy to wrench on doesn't hurt either (but notice I put the cars last sweetie!)

Now, I'd better quickly get on MSDN and download something while I still can...

Sending smaller photos when I blog from phone..

James — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 12:05:07 GMT

I *think* I just fixed my phone so that it sends smaller photos to my blog. We'll see...

Published with BlogMailr

Cleaning house

James — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 15:45:00 GMT

It's official, it's out of here at the end of the week. It only takes one bid when there's no reserve

Removing a few hundred pound body from the chassis was an interesting problem when you're on your own. Here's how I solved it - raised the car on the lift, attached the body to the ceiling and lowered the car. hehe.

Wanted: 60's Station Wagon

James — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 12:26:00 GMT

After owning my lowered dooley since new in 1998 I've finally been persuaded to sell it. It's the longest I've ever owned a car by a large margin so I'll miss it.

But I need a 60's Station Wagon.

9 seats, long, low with a V8 and hopefully with quad lights. Cheap.

Like this:

If you have one, or know someone who has one, or even if you vaguely remember a guy who you overheard at the bar at Tech Ed in 2000 say something about a neighbors neice who had one for sale - I want to hear from you.

I'll drive anywhere in the lower 48 for it.

UPDATE: I've bought one

My new office

James — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:27:00 GMT

I've been working in my new 600sqft office all this week, and I love it! Tara and I joke that I may never go home again, especially as the commute has definately got worse - now almost 100ft from the kitchen.

When we had the garage built the upstairs was for storage, but that only lasted a few weeks before we insulated and sheetrocked. Here are the before and after:

and the living room I have at the other end of my office - strictly for watching loud car chase movies:

Even the downstairs workshop got sheetrocked and painted. This area is the real reason I may only go home for meals now...

When is a door not a door?

James — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:06:00 GMT

This week I came to a realisation that my long term project road-racing '37 Ford is dead.

In 1993 when I sold my GT40 replica and started building the ultimate hot rod (one that could lap my local Goodwood race track faster than the GT40) all 1937 Ford's looked like the one shown to the right.

To be frank, fugly.

So I spent a long time modifying the bodywork; stretching the wheelbase, lowering the fenders, adding a brand new coupe-style roof, etc, etc.

The problem is that over these last 10 years when the car was in mothballs everyone else and their neighbors has started producing bodies that out-of-the-mold have these same modifications.

No longer will it cost $200k to create a machine that looks like this:

So, it simply isn't worth me spending the time and money finishing my existing body style. I could buy a new body for the same money and save myself a ton of time and heartache.

Which leaves me in a quandry, because over the last 10 years things have changed. There are far too many quarter-million $ cars (especially 37 fords) that have changed my impression of the car. '37's are a rich-kid stereotypical car now; like beemers are for yuppies and mercedes with 22's are for rappers.

No offense if you own a beemer. (haha, pussy!)

Really all the fun stuff in the '37 is in the chassis; the dry-sumped 383 V8 built for 8000rpm. The round-tube chassis with multi-link independant suspension, the air jacks (yeah I'm getting hot thinking about it, lol).

So why not re-use the chassis with another body? Well done, great idea!

Funny you should mention this, because my sheetrock guy told me about a hot rod calendar called ragtops and runningboards which I just got in the mail and at the back there was an advert for a fiberglass 1955 chevy body. Fate huh? I love 55's (ever seen Two Lane Blacktop?)

But can a 37 chassis fit a shoebox chevy? No way you say? Luckily I had strecthed my wheelbase to 116" - the tri-fives are 115". The track is 67" - mine is 65". Close enough to take a tape measure to the next local rod run and take some detailed measurements. Watch this space...

For those interested, here are the three 'glass 55's I could find:

Bohannon 55 SS (chopped, shown here)
Corbin Rods
Fastglass55

*bonus: When is a door not a door? When it's ajar. Like, when is a '37 not a '37? When it's a '55.

Getting Creative

James — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 08:53:00 GMT

I've been enjoying full-time development for the last few weeks, especially since it's pure ASP.NET 2.0 all the way now baby! Lots of fun stuff, and yesterday I finally kicked out the cool-for-1.1 MetaBuilders master pages and converted to ASP.NET goodness. There's quite a lot of refactoring needed to properly support metatags, page title, css and scripts in the new model and many pages to convert but it's all fun stuff.

Now my creative juices are flowing again at work, I find it easier to get creative after work too. Inevitably I'm on the laptop for sometime each evening but more and more I'm thinking about the next step on the '37 project too. I have an insane amount of work to do before "launch" next summer. But I'm formulating a plan to start work on the front end again (I'm building a new car body from chicken wire, foam and filler; then making a mould from it. Much harder than it sounds).

I'm going to split the front end into 3 parts. The first part that contains the lights will be fixed to the car, and will be the part that gets sacrificed regularly when hitting things at the track and on the road. Lightweight, small and easily reproduced. The main part above the lights will either hinge backwards from the base of the windshield or more likely just come off in one piece and fasten with Dzus clips.

The trick is, how to create these three bucks given that I have the finished shape. Think about the returns needed and how the parts will overlap. At this point I think I'll have to get as close as possible to the final shape, then 'glass some strengthening in from underneat and cut the buck into three in order to form the overlap and return sections.

Two other things:

I've decided to spurn the whole hot rod candy apple red thing and instead paint my car as a road race car - which is what it is afterall. I think people might understand it more that way when I drive it to the local cruise. And being an ex-GT40 replica owner I'm of course drawn to Gulf Oil Racing colors. I don't think I've ever seen that on a hot rod. :D
I'm not a fan of Ultima's (I always thought they were too small somehow) but this guy has spent an insane amount of time and money on his. If you know drag racing you'll know that this is very quick for a circuit-racing car: and even with P-Zero street tires we turned consistent 10.00 sec quarter miles at over 160mph, with most of the acceleration occuring after 100mph when the wing made enough down-force to achieve traction.

My laptop stickers

James — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 08:30:00 GMT

I've been meaning to post a picture or two of my laptop for a few weeks now, since Scoble posted about laptop stickers.

Well, here it is with lots of room left for cool hot rod/retro stickers as I find them:

I went one step further and took my laptop with me when I visited master pinstriper Brian Papa of www.PapaStudios.com to lay down some stripes on my Catalina. As with the car, I just let him loose to do what he fancied:

..and here are the results on the car: