- 7:29: Skyline GTR claimed by Nissan
- 7:38: 911 Turbo on Pilot Sport Cups from this test
- 7:56: Skyline GTR driven by Porsche
- 7:59: 2009 Cadillac CTS-V on whatever runflats it's got...
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Porsche Calls BS on Nissan GTR Nurburgring Lap Times
I've been saying it all along... I guess the guys at Porsche agree.
Porsche is quoted as saying, "This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car." They are flat-out accusing Nissan of cheating. I do wonder why they didn't use in-house hotshoe Walter Röhrl to drive the cars though...
Some interesting tidbits:
Monday, September 29, 2008
Obligatory Air Travel Accessory
Become best friends with the your friendly airport security screeners with one of these.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
What Would Heinricy Do?
Earlier this month I conducted a little track test, Can You Drive Faster Than The Computer?, and ended up stirring quite the controversy.
Garage419 joins John Heinricy, GM's in-house track junkie and director of high preformance vehicles, for a test drive of the new supercharged Cadillac CTS-V around Monticello Motor Club. I'll spare you the de rigeur fastest whatevercar ever catchphrase.
Watch below answers to titillating questions like these and more:
- Why set a track record with an engineer and not a pro racecar driver?
- How badass is the CTS-V really?
- Does John Heinricy use stability control or traction control?
Friday, September 26, 2008
Disgruntled Security Guy?
I'm a security guy. My first thoughts when I hear a new product announcement aren't how great it can be. I think of how it can be broken; what protections or features the maker might have forgotten to include. Yeah. I'm that guy. And actually, there's quite a few of us out there. We oftentimes rant and rave through various channels, including online and print media, blogging, and even bitchfests about the world shared with friends and family.
The security profession breeds a worst-case-scenario, quasi-pessimistic mindset that I'd like to open for discussion.
Is it bad to have this mindset?
- On one hand, you could say that the worst-case-scenario mindset is a negative outlook that ultimately leads to an unhappy life. The security guy's mind (and/or mouth) is always going 10 picoparsecs per hour about what's wrong with the world and how stuff would be better in his orderly utopian world. The one with civil liberties and stuff.
- On the other hand, some people just have a knack for breaking things, and processes. Some of these folks become NASCAR drivers. Others become lawyers. And some become security guys. We like breaking things. To us, it's not necessarily negativity. We just see a different problem than everybody else. We don't want to solve Rubik's cube. We want to figure out how to take it apart. We divide by zero when faced with people who can own a device and just use it without understanding every mode, menu, and function.
- Furthermore, I'll posit that it takes people with this mindset to keep stuff evolving. Without the perennially dis-satisfied, who will drive things to improve rather than shrivel from complacency? I believe this dis-satisfaction is the core of the human spirit, and it's what drives capitalism and makes this country great. Maybe it's just a red pill vs blue pill question.
Nissan Bringing Car Thieves and Cellphone Hackers Together
Nissan is building an "intelligent" key system that combines your cellphone and your car key.Brilliant. Some thoughts:
- Why combine the two?
- What happens when we drop off the car at the dealer? (I already have issues trusting the dealer with my car. I will not trust them with my phone/PDA.)
- Wha about when you sell the car?
- Seeing Nissan's big brother tendencies, where is this going?
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Texting, Driving, and Personal Responsibility
Autoblog and Gizmodo gleefully report this morning that texting and driving has been terminated in the People's Republic of Kalifornia. This gives us a good insight into the knee-jerk psychology that causes even good people to take other people's freedoms away.
The law is retarded.
- How can it be enforced? Autoblog has a great point--it's still legal to dial a number.
- Why are we going after the distractions instead of making people personally responsible for their actions?
- This is a slippery slope. What's next? Ban the radio? Ban the GPS? (Oh wait.. California already banned affixing anything to your windshield...). Ban every possible thing that could ever possibly distract a driver, and create a process to review the list of distractions on a quarterly basis to ensure that all possible distractions are consistently banned?
Texts don't kill people. People kill people.
I think we just need a ban on new laws.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
What's the Big Deal with the Skyline GTR's Black Box? (aka EDR and VSDR)
So all it took was one Florida attorney to cancel his Skyline GTR order and now everybody is suddenly aware of black boxes in cars?
They're called Event Data Recorders (EDRs), they're already in your car, and it's only getting worse. Perhaps the Skyline's is just the most sophisticated in use (yet). Wait till 2012.
Some resources for your reading (dis)pleasure:
- States Consider Black Box Laws (2006)
- Your Car, the Black Box and Big Brother (2006)
- The Accident Reconstruction Network
- NHTSA EDR Research
Update (9/25)
There's an interesting analysis of the Skyline's Event Data Recorder over at The Truth About Cars. Actually they call it a Vehicle Status Data Recorder (VSDR) because they figured another acronym would sound cooler. After that, check out the following I just dug up for even more chills:
- IIHS Official Q&A on EDRs
- EDR Wiki
- Why Insurers Can't Afford to Ignore EDRs
- EDRs used for Highway Crash Data Analysis
- UK Slower Speeds Initiative pontificates on EDRs (I wish I was kidding)
- Insurance companies already scheming to get your EDR data (I thought IIHS said we owned it?!)
- Harris Data: good info with case data and more
- Government specs for 2012 black boxes / EDRs
- Edmunds: You're Not Driving Alone
- Should EDRs be installed in cars without consumers' knowledge?
- Who owns / should own the data?
- Is a warrant needed to pull the data?
- Should minimum encryption standards be required to store your GPS location/etc information the way the Skyline's computer does?
- What right does your car dealer have inspecting your car's location logs to see where you go?
iPhone Call Screening
The iPhone lets you see what city and state a call came from in the call log after the fact. Why doesn't it display this information on the screen as it's ringing for numbers not in your contact list?
I will confess: Many a time I've been sitting at the computer only to have the iPhone start cricket chirping away with a number I didn't recognize. I will confess I've actually googled the caller's phone number in time to make a decision whether to answer or not.
Which brings us to my real point. I'd like my phone to Google phone numbers not in my address book while it's still ringing. With the advent of wifi and 3g, this is certainly possible. It might take a ring or two to get the data, but it's better than nothing.
Gordon Murray is Done with Sports Cars
Jordan writes in to contribute this astonishing quote:
"I have built performance cars all my life, and their time, unfortunately, is pretty much over." --Gordon Murray
Read the tragic New York Times interview in its entirety here.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
First 2009 Corvette ZR1 Dyno: Update with SAE Correction
Breaking news to the story we brought you yesterday of the first new Corvette ZR1 dyno numbers: the previously-reported 548rwhp dyno numers were inflated using STD correction instead of using industry-standard SAE J1349 correction. Read all about SAE vs STD dynos here. Alvin actually dyno tested two 2009 ZR1s yesterday. One übervette spun the hamster wheel to the tune of 548rwhp STD, the other to 542rwhp STD.
Now that the true SAE-corrected graphs have been published for both cars (535rwhp and 530rwhp), I'm a little disappointed. My "505hp" Z06 made 465rwhp. The car that is supposed to make 133hp more is making 70 more at the wheels. The extra ponies are experiencing a 47% drivetrain loss. :-o
Further analysis of the untuned graphs tell us the rev limiter is too low, making the car fall significantly off the horsepower peak at every upshift. ZR1s across the country will be taking advantage of rev limiter bumps very soon. ZR1s and Vipers will be a very close race indeed.
Oh, one last teaser: thanks to Tom Dolson at GM for the personal tour of the Wixom Performance Build Center. I can't tell you everything I know about the LS9, in fact I was asked not to post this picture for a few months. So, four and a half months later, here I am with ZR1/LS9 motor number 001. One thing I can say: there are definitely some passionate hot-rodders at GM. But there's a reason the bolt for the supercharger pulley is on the inside. ;-)Cheers,
Andi
Related:
Corvette ZR1: First Instrumented Test Results
First 2009 Corvette ZR1 Dyno in the Wild: 548 HP at the Wheels
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Hacker-enforced Speed Limits
Oops, I meant satellite-enforced speed limits ;). Another brilliant idea from across the pond. Click here for commentary from the National Motorists Association.
Also, The Newspaper reports that Private companies in the US are hoping to use red light cameras and speed cameras as the basis for a nationwide surveillance network similar to one that will be active next year in the UK.
Wow. *shivers*
Computer Aided Driving: The Great Debate
The straightforward track test I conducted last week, Can You Drive Faster Than the Computer?, is causing quite a stir. (Video included here below).
It's made its way across a few car forums (click here, here, and here), and the various viewpoints can be summarized to two polarized camps:
- "Baritchi can't drive! The sawing at the wheel invalidates Baritchi's whole test. I could have done better than that!"
- "Baritchi put his neck on the line and provided us with an honest, informative test. If you can do a better job, please, by all means..."
- The clueless expert(TM). These the folks that will speak authoritatively on any subject whether they are cognitively equipped to or not. I'm mainly referring to those who've never lapped a fast car on racetrack outside a Playstation yet decied to critique my driving and/or test.
- The professional. For example, American Le Mans Series professional road racer Lou Gigliotti, who critiqued my driving in the aforementioned Corvetteforum thread. Yet when it all is said and done, Lou's own testing agrees with mine. Hmm...
First 2009 Corvette ZR1 Dyno in the Wild: 548 HP at the Wheels
Update (9/22): First 2009 Corvette ZR1 Dyno: Update with SAE Correction
Alvin at PCM for Less brings us what we believe to be the first new Corvette ZR1 dyno run in the wild. 548 rwhp. Read more at CorvetteForum.
The 2008 Viper puts down roughly the same power as the ZR1. Yes, it weighs 100lbs more, but that's the same weight as a full tank of gas. Viper foks: run it close to empty if you're planning to race a ZR1.
*600hp Viper vs 638hp ZR1: why do they dyno the same? It's too early to tell. I still want to see Alvin post the ZR1 graph, and for others to add more data points to the mix. I'm also eager to see the results of the first ZR1 vs Viper street race. If this one ZR1 dyno is any indication, however, perhaps the times of underrated high-po Corvettes are over.Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Bowling Green Corvette Plant To Take a Week Off
For the first time in almost thirty years, the Bowling Green, Kentucky plant where all Corvettes are built is taking a week off to let the econonmy catch up. First the Viper, now the Vette. Tragic.
Related:
Monday, September 15, 2008
British Police Expand CCTV Use on Motorways
The European Union has some prety strict privacy laws. One look at the U.K. will convince you it's not all so dandy across the pond. There are only just fourteen people per CCTV surveillance camera in the UK. These 4.2 million surveillance cameras monitor things such as roadways, city centres, and so forth to keep the peace. (snuff films? ugh...). I won't go into their questionable legality - you can read all about that here.
Today's buzz is regarding CCTVs that watch the motorways automatically scanning license plates as cars drive by. This technology lets the police automatically identify the owner of any vehicle, in real time, and log its location. But the cameras are just for crimes, not to track everything you do right?
Wrong. The cameras are ready and set to record every vehicle's whereabouts in The Database. Just in case you and/your car commit a crime, there will be a log of where your car was. In The Database. For Five Years.
They drive on the wrong side over there anyway, so who cares? ;-)
Source: The Guardian via Jalopnik.
Related:
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Can You Drive Faster Than the Computer?
 |
| C6 Z06 Comp Mode Track Test |
F1 and MotoGP both love and benefit from computer aids (notwithstanding the fact that they created a super-boring show for us fans when in place). Perhaps it is for this reason that some people have fallen for the fallacy that this übertechnology has trickled down unmolested from the racing heavens down to production vehicles.
Case in point: Road & Track's recent supercar test. No, not the blatant conflict-of-interest Spanks issue. The other one. In the September 2008 issue, R&T did what looked to be a promising comparo using a trio of pro drivers on four track configurations. And I'll be the first to give them credit for the oval test - it looks legit.
But after a nice sit down and read, things got, ahem, interesting. In the Streets of Willow road course test, they said the following about the Z06: ...its neck-snapping torque means the traction control and stability control are your new best friends. Really. Millen lapped in Competitive Mode, which allows the Z06 to slide quite a lot without intervening, especially if the driver smoothly breaks the limits of adhesion. This Millen did, drifting beautifully onto the main straight each lap.
What? Steve Millen, two-time IMSA GTS champion, first in class in the 24 Hours of LeMans, yadda yadda yadda, drove a production Z06 with the stability control turned on?! I guess I've been doing it wrong all these years turning that stuff off. Interestingly, Millen had complained about the Aston Martin's stability control slowing him down just a couple paragraphs earlier.
Rather than bench race on the internet, I decided to find out for myself. Thanks to Jack Farr, owner of Motorsport Ranch in Cresson, TX, I took a test mule Z06 out to MSR to do my own testing of this theory.
The C6 Z06 in this test is stock except for a Corsa cat-back, and is eqiupped with aggressive street tires that, although not R compounds, do not fade or get greasy . I wasn't sure at first in what order to do the laps: some factors improve through the session (i.e. driving), others degrade (the car). These tend to cancel out, and my lap times are usually very consistent throughout the session. To be as fair and objective as possible, I decided to start the session in everything off mode, then switch to competitive mode mid-session, then switch back and see what happens. There was no lap-timer in the car to distract me. Jack Farr would tell me the lap times at the end from the official timing equipment.
Without further ado, in-car video and the results:
As expected. Gallery with timeslip log here.
Cheers,
Andi
Update (9/16/08): A few months ago I described a lap around Motorsport Ranch on a local car club email list. Figured I'd include it here.
Viper For Sale
Fore Sale: Dodge Viper. Handle with care: very temperamental and venom can be deadly! GM is still working on the anecdote.
Contact Jim Press at Chrysler for details.
Do it quick before Smolenski beats you to it. Perhaps Roush or Saleen are more likely suitors according to Car & Driver... (My money is on Saleen; you can quote me on that).
Saturday, September 13, 2008
iPhone Forensics with Screenshots
iPhone hacker and forensics guru Jonathan Zdziarski has been busy. In his new book, iPhone Forensics, he shows us how to break passcode locks on new and old iPhones, recover deleted voicemail, images, email, and other personal data, discover Google map lookups, inspect the typing cache [!!], and more.
But wait! There's more! Brian Chen of Wired explains that in a recent webcast, Zdziarski gave us a deeper look into the iPhone's internal workings. Apparently, the Mac Nano, err I mean iPhone takes a screenshot every time the home button is depressed for caching / performance enhancement. And, of course, forensics tools can grab these stray screenshots later.
At least they need a warrant to get the location data now... (collective sarcastic sigh).
Friday, September 12, 2008
Cell Phone Location Spying Requires a Warrant
As a victory for civil rights and privacy rights everywhere, a federal judge in Pennsylvania just ruled that warrants are required before the government can snoop on you via your cellphone. Full story at Mobileburn, Engadget, and EFF. How this translates to GPS devices not attached to phones, such as navigation systems/etc, remains TBD.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
I'm Too Smart Too Be Thin!
From the Ars Technia news desk: heavy mental effort leads to much bigger meals. Damn, I gotta quit thinking.
GPS Snooping
Jalopnik reports on the new $200 mini-GPS remote tracking key coming soon to a NAPA auto parts near you. Oh, the outcry! How dare they possibly build such a thing! [rolleyes]
Umm... gps-snitch.com, spysource.net, and more...
What worries me more is that in 2005, a federal judge in New York ruled that since you have no expectation of privacy while on a public roadway, police can plant a GPS device on your car without a warrant as it simply makes their job of tracking you easier - a job they could already do from a far. This argument has potentially far reaching ramifications to our privacy and civil liberties. As Mike Masnick points out, by this very same fallacious logic, could you and I GPS-snoop somebody just as legally without a warrant as the police can?
Related: Cell Phone Location Spying Requires a Warrant Hacker-enforced Speed Limits
How Important is Your Privacy?
As a followup to the Lamborghini brothers in Bucharest... They pay €2,000 per month for full coverage car insurance ($2,850 US at the time of this writing). Per car. I told them my Z06 is $110/mo to insure because of my perfect record, and Razvan said if it was that cheap I'd insure it twice just to be extra safe!
Insurance is handled very differently in Romania (and most of the rest of the world). The companies handling these services don't know as much about you. The obligatory credit report, stool sample, semen sample, blood sample, first born, personality test, etc. we're faced with here are simply unheard of. Privacy is actually expected in other countries. I was discussing credit reports, insurance reports, and how it works here to get us different prices for the same services with a Romanian. Her response: So you're totally monitored over there...? Where's the liberty in that?
Leaking Competitive Intel Through Job Postings
Be careful what you put in a job posting.
An example from engadgnet of Microsoft giving away competitive intel on the next Zune through an internal job posting is shown here. (The second link probably won't work for very long...)
Update (9/15/08): Wei-han Lien at Apple didn't get the memo.
EFF Designer's Mural of NSA's "Secret Room"
Major kudos to Hugh D'Andrade of the Electronic Frontier Foundation for drawing, live, a mural-sized cartoon depicting big brother slurping all our data in the NSA's secret room. Full story, finished product.
Nissan Raises GTR Price by Whopping $7,000
Looks like Nissan is taking a page from Chevy's Z06 playbook with the Skyline and raising the price by a whopping $7K, to $77K-79K depending on equipment level. Do the math, that's a 10% price hike, not even a full quarter after the debut. I guess all those Millen'd* magazine tests paid off.
Autoblog has the full story including the official press release. Thanks for the tip Markr.
* Millen (verb): analagous to Bangle (verb). Whereas to Bangle means to style your cars like catfish with frog's asses, to Millen means to repeatedly and obviously rig magazine tests in favour of your preferred marque.
New Skyline GTR Test Drive Report from Angeles Crest Highway
Josh L over at corner-carvers.com teased us a couple weeks ago his good buddy [that] bit the bullet and got the car. He says it's awesome. We've been patiently awaiting his unbiased review ever since...
Fresh from a 6-hour test drive of his friend's new Nissan Sklyine GTR through the twisty Angeles Crest Highway, Josh just posted a detailed review.
He seems to dig the car, and mentioned that even the non-Dunlop-equipped example he drove had hella grip. (The Dunlops are noted to be the be by far the grippier of the two tire choices). He raved about the great acceleration, sweet paddle shifing transmission, and yet didn't take quite so highly to the car's ride and NVH characteristics.
Josh's final thoughts: It got a lot of attention. And 95% of it came from men 40 years and younger. No big surprise, there. So if you want to pick up dudes, I guess this is the car for you. Overall, I really liked it. It's fast in a straight line, especially from a stop. But it's not Z06 fast.
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