Guy Martin.  Son of an engine builder, went on to become a Lorry (truck and bus) mechanic.  No big deal.

He also happens to be one of the fastest ever a motorcycle at the Isle of Mann track.  No small feat.  All while holding down his day job.

It's no surprise, then, that he likes to go fast.  His car resume is as you'd expect....M3, 911, Aston Martin, Volvo Amazon.   Yep, an Amazon.   The fastest car in Britain.

Thanks to the UK's "The Sunday Times" Driving Section, we get a small taste of Guy's (down to earth) life,  some details on the 40 year old Volvo wagon, and how it takes on all opponents.  

What a great story.   

So a few countries, rich with untold resources, are basically broken due to the morally corrupt and generally unintelligent politicians, are (well have been) encouraging it's citizens to rush the US border.  They encourage this because we have become so politically correct we can't even begin to dream to deny anyone entry, no matter the reason, and that gets the social burden off of the corrupt governments to the south.  

BUT!

It's Trump's Fault.  Of course it is.    These people can't be serious.  Yes, he has made some bold claims, and yes, he wants to close the border 100 % (which, by the way, would stop the overrunning influx of illegal immigrants) and allow the courts and DHS officials time to catch up with the millions that are in the country now, most are now out in the land, unaccounted for.
The article above keeps stating that the problem is now at its worst, where it was not that bad under Bush Jr. and Obama.  What they don't mention, is that every day that goes by, more word gets back that you can claim asylum and you can't be touched.  Of course people are going to flood the border.  How can we confirm or deny their claims?  Trump doesn't want this.  Most American citizens don't want this.  Trump didn't create the asylum rules.  Trump and his voters want the border shut from all illegal crossings and anyone caught to be turned back.  Again, this would alleviate the 'crisis' in short order.

How can we be so obtuse?  We enact these rules regarding asylum that no one thinks to the future about, the rules are abused and exploited to the extreme, we bend over backwards to not say "illegal immigrant" so no one's feelings get hurt, we feed and provide healthcare, at considerable tax payer expense, to the same people who lied to get in, allow the system to become completely broken, and now it's the Presidents's fault?

Trump did not cause Central America and Mexico's issues.  In fact, American companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into these countries over the past decades.  We even  look the other way as billions of US dollars are sent back to these countries every year.  Money that could be used to make the United States a better place for it's legal citizens.  We keep their economies afloat with our generous trade policies.   Guess that's not enough.

We need a full revamp of the anchor baby policy and the asylum process, there is no doubt.  However, that takes the will of both houses of Congress working together.  Should we hold out hope?  

You probably shouldn't hold your breath.  Why?  Because even trying to reduce DHS and HHS spending even the SLIGHTEST, is met with blind opposition.

The United States, as part of the 1997 Flores Agreement, houses the children of illegal immigrants and so called Asylum seekers for a certain amount of time.  It also outlines how these children are to be treated.  For some reason, our elected officials agreed to offer education and recreation services to people who broke in or lied to get into this country.  Services such as English language classes and soccer fields.  This is in addition to the food, clothing, air conditioning, and health care that they receive, ON TOP OF the legal costs that is paid by you and me.

Now, the Office of Refuge Settlement wants to TEMPORARILY stop using resources that are not crucial for life, like some education and recreation.  Bet you can guess what happens next.....a lawyer for the illegals cries out,

“We’ll see them in court if they go through with it,” Holguin said. “What’s next? Drinking water? Food? . . . Where are they going to stop?”

This guy knows that the US government is not going to stop feeding and providing water to these children.  How can you be so blatantly dishonest and misleading?   That statement helps no one and makes a bad situation worse.  

This dishonest mindset and way of thinking may be more detrimental to the overall health of the US than an invasion of a million illegal immigrants.

Sure, the issue is super complicated, of our our creation though.  However, Trump didn't create it and in fact wants to reduce the burden on the system by not letting anyone else in and allowing the system to recover.

Someone needs to step up and present clear legislation that slows the influx to a crawl. We all voted for it. We need to stop offering the world to anyone that can crawl across the border.  The American taxpayer should would appreciate it.

"A rolling piece of art" gets overused.   Not here.  It's 100% truth, Truth. 





​This needs to be the centerpiece of my living room.  Maybe even build a house around it. 
Not only is it stunningly beautiful sitting still, it's got enough power to tame, or worse, even the most skilled pilot.

Scary Beautiful. 

It's a good thing there are only 79 of these in the States...as that much power and beauty, left unchecked, could cause the break down of society.

This motorcycle is based on the BMW S1000RR, a beautiful Siren in it's own right, but has been tuned, trimmed, and lightened.  A Carbon fiber frame and wheels keeps the total ready-to-ride weight down to 377 pounds.  You'd be correct in thinking that this power to weight level would need some serious traction control.  It has that, with 14 electronic adjustments.  It has wheelie control too, but that can be overridden.  Because WHEELIES.

One of these irresistible monsters is for sale over on Bring a Trailer....with only 1 mile.  Brand new 2018.

However, before you go and bid, check out an in depth first hand review:

Drag racing engines have come A LONG WAY in a short time, mainly due to trial and error.  How much air and fuel can an engine block and crankshaft take?    That is a question that is asked every time a tweak is made to an engine already on the ragged edge.

Let's revisit......a 500 cubic inch V8 making 11,000 horsepower.  Wrap your head around that.   Over ONE THOUSAND horsepower PER CYLINDER.  Just to go a thousand feet.  Don't forget the noise.  The ground shaking noise.   It's worth it.

Not to mention the 18 gallon fuel tank.   That is sucked down via a 2.5 inch fuel line.  It's all gone at the end of the run.    72 gallons per mile if you're commuting to the track in your dragster.

Drag racing seems kind of low brow to the common observer, but the top tier teams are working with cutting edge materials, design, fueling, electronics (internal and external stress/strain gauges gathering data many times a second), and tire compounds.

Thanks to Hagerty, we a get a deep dive into the tech and process of building and rebuilding a Top Fuel engine, with detailed commentary.   Lots to learn here.   Did you know that someone has optimized the engine run time so that the spark plug tips melt away and are used up right at the thousand feet mark?  That has to be optimized for each track.  The details don't stop there.  

Pay attention, each frame has something to learn:
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Real quick this evening....just thought I'd share a small, but important, highlight of the weekend:

Otter Creek Free Flow IPA.    Might be a new favorite, or at least a common go-to.  Found at the local hole in the wall beer store, that happens to have one of the largest and best beer selections in town, at a reasonable price.  A great place on its on, and deserves a feature here some day soon.

Check it out.

I'll be back for more.

Why screw you?  We'll get to that in a bit.

First, did you play McDonald's Monopoly at any time during mid to late 1990s?  Of course you did.   Did you ever wonder who won the grand prizes?  Did that too.   Why was it never you?  

Well, during the heyday of the Monopoly popularity, McDonalds contracted out the manufacturing and supply of the game pieces, and the contractor had to employ a number of people to oversee the entire process and ensure that it was all completed fairly.  As you can imagine, this was bank vault-like security and oversight, so how it all went wrong, for so long is stuff of mystery novels.

As you can imagine, there were millions of certain game pieces made but only a relatively small number of winning tickets.  That makes sense, and is outlined in the fine print, with the 'odds of winning' description.  No surprise there.

So what does Canada have to do with this?   Well, for whatever reason, the executives at the contracted marketing company re-ran the prize picking computer program if a location in Canada was selected.  Why was this done?  This is not clear , but is the beginning of the end, unbeknownst to them.

However, once the man in charge of security saw the game rigging, he wanted a piece, and the rest is history.

Thanks to the 'Daily Beast' for the crack reporting on this 'McScam'........thier words, not mine.

"How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald's Monopoly Game and Stole Millions" 

We've all seen them.  Pop-tops, slanted tops, 2 wheel drive, 4 wheel drive, VW, Ford, Mercedes, Dodge....and the list goes on.  So many options and configurations.  Literally endless possibilities.

If you've ever been in the market for a camper van, or even just seen one, you've most likely seen a Sportsmobile.

Started in 1961 by Alan Feld (by converting VW vans with Pop Tops, which they now have a patent on), Sportsmobile West has now grown to a company that employs hundreds and pumps out hundreds of vans a year.  

They use almost strictly American made parts for conversions (Advance Adapeters, Dynatrac, FOX racing, and more) and Alan is very proud to use these companies and support American made, rightfully so.

From Sportsmobiles humble beginnings, they are now producing entire van bodies, to attach to E-Series van cutaways (half cabs).  By doing this, you really can customize to your hearts content.  He says they have a year backlog on those custom E-Series builds.

As seen in the factory tour video, Alan is very hands on and proud of his company.  He has no issues showing the builds from beginning to end.

Thanks to BoutenkoFilms for taking the time to capture this, and thanks to Sportsmobile for being so generous!

​

The year is 1911.
Fields are still being plowed by mules and horses.
Most of rural America doesn't have electricity.

Yet still, there are plans to break the powered vehicle land speed record.

How to get started?  Well, to begin with, "there is no replacement for displacement"
So start there.
FIAT, the Italian manufacturing conglomerate, hatched a plan, with a 28.5 liter, 4 cylinder, water cooled, triple spark plug per cylinder Beast  (the S76 if we're getting technical).
At the time, the first test driver refused to take the vehicle above 90 mph, and it's not hard to understand why.  Nearly everyone in the entire world had no idea what would happen at those speeds, a horse at full speed was the entirety of the idea of 'fast'.
Finally, in 1913, an American driver was hired, and the car hit 132 mph...however, the title of the worlds fastest was not attainable, as the car couldn't complete the run in both directions in the allotted time, which is how top speed runs are done to this day.

132 mph in a time where most people still walked and biked to work.  Then this fire breathing (it actually spits fire) unrestricted monster rips through the countryside.  I can't imagine.

Unfortunately, as often happens to showpieces and test cars, it was dismantled.  There was WW1 rebuilding going on after all, and that was much more important.  Slowly, a piece here and a piece there, and next thing you know just the shell is put out back and forgotten.  

But there is a glorious conclusion to this story.  Fate intervened....a man willing to restore this car, the discovery of a second engine (the original engine was gone)....and the technological advancements to recreate the crucial missing pieces of the car....and 100 years later, she roared to life.

This car coming to life is a chill inducing show today.  Just imagine this thing rolling out of a makeshift shop in 1911 and waking up everyone in the surrounding towns.  They captured thunder and lightning.

​

What an amazing feat.

So now what?   How about let's strap someone to it and run it down the road.  Over 100 years since it was last driven.
Sound like fun, and quite a bit of work.  Ignition timing, fuel pressure, gear changes, oil pressure....all of this has to be constantly monitored every second of the run.  This video from Goodwood this past weekend shows just how much work is involved, and this is at 40 mph.  Imagine more than tripling that speed! How terrifying the ride must have been.  On a dirt road.  With no safety equipment.  Incredible/nuts.

​

Huge thanks to everyone involved in saving this piece of automotive art and history.
Here is a another nice video showing the intricacies of running this piece of machinery, and some archival photos from over a hundred years ago, when this thing was thundering through the country side.  The likes of it we almost never saw again.
​

The NAACP.  The 'National Association for the Advancement of Colored People'.

This is the sad part: A group of blind followers being led by race baiting, self serving, ignorant  Reverends, Activists, Doctors (PhD), and organizers.  You know them...Jackson, Sharpton, Moultrie.  Wait...never heard of Rev. Jerrod Moultrie?  Me either.  Well he has been caught lying about racial profiling by police officers, using social media as his sounding board.

From WPDE's website:

​"Timmonsville NAACP President the Rev. Jerrod Moultrie posted on Facebook on April 13 that he was racially profiled when a Timmonsville police officer pulled him over for a traffic violation near his home on Harkless Court in Timmonsville."

But when the Police Chief, Billy Brown, investigated the body cam footage, he stated:
"When I saw the video, I was shocked that someone who is supposed to be a community leader, a pastor, and head of the NAACP would just come out and tell a blatant lie. It bothered me. It really bothered me, thinking about the racial unrest it could've cost in the community and it's just troubling to me that someone who held a position like that would come out and just tell a lie."

Shocked and bothered...absolutley.  But surprising?  Not hardly.

But that's what the race-baiters want.  They want unrest.  They want to be able to claim that all of the 'colored' peoples problems are someone else's fault.  But not this time.  You've been exposed for what you really are.

Not surprisingly, some have come out in support of Moultrie, with statements like: 
"Based on the integrity of Rev. Moultrie, I really don't feel that he has a reason to lie about what he saw. Because he doesn't have any ill intent against anyone. I spent a lot of time with him and I just know his character," said  NAACP officer Henry James Dixon. 

That's a lie right there.  He DOES have ill-intent, for self serving reasons.  It was caught on camera.  What do you think his intention was by falsely claiming he was harmed?  To cause more unrest, so he could make himself more relevant. 

This low life didn't think about a police body cam being on, which is odd, because his group is part of the reason that body cams are so prevalent now. 

This is the great part...that he was taken down by the very thing that he wanted.  I hope he stays down.  

Full story

Body cam video:
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From 'The Guardian UK'

"A 78-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a suspected burglar was fatally stabbed at his home in London.The pensioner, named locally as Richard Osborn-Brooks, discovered two intruders at his house in Hither Green, south-east London, late on Tuesday night and was forced into his kitchen by one of them, who was armed with a screwdriver, according to Scotland Yard.
While the second man was upstairs, detectives believe that a struggle ensued and the 38-year-old intruder was stabbed in the upper body. He was taken by an ambulance to a central London hospital where he was pronounced dead in the early hours of Wednesday morning."

Here's where it get's crazy...the burglar dies of his wounds inflicted during the robbery....and low level idiots are leaving tributes to the dead thief.   Well, one person (and there have been others) is not taking kindly to it....and I think he makes a valid point.  What a silly world we live in...and the worst part is, it's our own fault.  

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