Well I hammered out a few problems with the car and decided to try it out at an autocross. There was slight rain during the first half of the event, but it cleared up completely in the afternoon. To put it blunt: The car is very hard to control. Old suspension, too peaky of a powerband, and a short wheelbase spell trouble. It was fun though.

Best spin out:

My best runs after the jump.

If there’s one thing nice about our new place, it’s that there’s a full quarter mile drag strip nearby. I had my car shipped here, and this is pretty much the first thing I did. The track is really nice, although it’s more expensive (surprise, surprise), and very crowded. The problem seems to be that they have street car night at the same time they have the non-street car night.

Let’s take my new Focus to the Autocross.

I’ve been working on a small Arduino project to datalog my commute. I’m using an Arduino Uno with SK Pang’s CAN Bus Shield. I also have added the optional GPS and LCD to the mix. There is an micro-SD card slot for storage. The aim of the project is just to collect data. As much as I can put into the SD card. I plan on calculating driving efficiency using somewhat arbitrary measures like throttle modulation, temperature, etc.

BBC’s Top Gear resumes today! I can’t wait to watch it. It’s been a while since they left off, and I’ve been watchin TG:USA in the meantime during my lunch breaks. TG:USA, will it really work? It just feels so scripted. I know, BBC’s Top Gear had a rough start too, like many shows. But, I’m watching season 2 right now, and the chemistry just hasn’t happened. I like Tanner, he actually has lines that seem natural.