June 2014 - Page 7 of 9

The Mazda Adventure Rally Day 1 – TN & GA

Jun 10 2014

Ended up in Tennessee, and the Mazda MX-5, aka, Miata. Manual too YES.

First time my name has been on a car!

About 8 minutes into the first leg, and it started raining really really bad.

Trees were felled all over.

Yellow-shirt guy came out of nowhere with a chainsaw, and fixed it.

It was a short day, 3 hours on the road. Tomorrow will be more like 12.

On roads like this, too. Hairpin hairpin hairpin through forests and back roads. I’ll make a video.

Those are gravel roads too, which I didn’t know the Miata was suited so well for.

Took it easy though, I’m wiped. Only fools drive fast tired.

Just out-of-frame is the chicken coop.

Americuh.

I love it down here, saw “Tank City”, endless automatic weapon billboards, and what a fun place to visit, but oh Canada.

Ended up in Georgia, then dinner, then wrote the first instalment of this adventure for Autonet, look for that tomorrow morning, and gotta be ready at 7am and I’m so wiped I’m seeing spots.

Night TTYT

When Did You Last See Chickens for Sale?

Jun 10 2014

Pair of chickens: $25

One rooster: $20

Spotted in Tennesse.

Off on a Mystery Adventure

Jun 10 2014

I’m at a charter airport with Mazda, and both the destination and test car are unknown.

Soooo me eh! The building they sent me to didn’t have an address, the media emails are peppered with phrases like “marching orders”. I’ve been responding to everything with HUA.

My teammate from the paper, David Miller and I, are about to compete in a rally, with a grand prize of $10,000 going to a charity of our choice… old people are my kryptonite, and you know I love the mind, so we settled on one that combined both those things: the Alzheimer’s Society of Canada (neither of us have ever competed in a rally, so wouldn’t hold your breath ASofC).

Find updates fastest on Twitter @KeriBlog, we’ll be documenting our adventure over on Autonet.ca, and I’ll blog it all here too.

It’s not a race.

Wait: I only realized now while blogging this, but we never went through security, us or our bags?!

Huh. Chartering.

Meet my teammate fellow auto journalist at the paper, David Miller.

“B team” because it was originally the French side of the paper that was signed up to go, we lucked out last second.

Tres bein!

Wrote the news up in the air – “The average age of a consumer vehicle in the United States is 11.4 years, an all-time high.” – Autonet

Once in the air, we received this tool bag.

Included is: a GPS and route book, highlighters and sunscreen, an iPad for the photo-challange component, and a hat you’ll see me in tomorrow.

The logistics of this adventure are ridiculously organized.

Landing soon, designation and vehicle both remain unknown.

TTYS

The Smallest Engine Available – Ford’s 1.0 L

Jun 9 2014

At just 1.0L, Ford’s all-new engine is the smallest for sale in Canada, and at about 11 inches, it will fit into a piece of luggage – really!

It’s available only on the Fiesta, which was all-new last year, so, same interior and exterior styling, and new Aston Martin inspired grille.

* this 1.0L engine is available only in manual.

Interesting huh. I’m fine with that, but considering 80% of Fiesta buyers choose automatic transmissions, hmmm. Certainly though, it helps with its excellent fuel economy, which is the purpose of this engine – gas powered that’s fun to drive, while still achieving a low rating.

Read my full review on Autonet.

My driving partner for this test was Jeremy Sinek… Mega Test Team, UNITE.

I’ve tested more cars with him than anyone else, and it’s a good match because we are opposites.

At 1.7 years of auto journalism, I’m still the new kid, and at 40 years, he’s a veteran. He’s into hyper-miling, whereupon I “drive like a pig” (I actually got that line in the paper ha.)

Read his review here, that’s me he’s talking about, 9th paragraph.