That 'Grinding the Gears' Sound

When you “grind the gears” while shifting,
the sound is these two plates rubbing together.

It’s a Honda, from their first ever Manual Driving School.  I blogged it here.

I did not grind the gears.

(click the link above to see an opposite POV video)

With me is Alen, the gentleman behind the event.  We’re in a 2012 Honda Civic Si HFP.

 

All-Season Tires are Delusional

Last week, Canadian Tire invited me to drive on an ice rink to test tires; winter VS all-season ones.

Winter dominated.

What had the most impact on me, though, was:

50% of Canadians are driving without winter tires. I was shocked.  That’s too low and not okay.

How can 1 thing perform 5 functions?

Show me one outfit that can be worn to work, a cocktail party, a club, a movie night in, then to play baseball.  Can’t.

(read it online here)

Favourite line:

For sure I’m a bit lippy this week, but I feel strongly about this because apparently half of you are irresponsibly driving beside me in icy conditions while wearing roller-skates, thinking they’re good for all four seasons.

At 7ºC, the rubber in a non-winter tire hardens, it loses elasticity, and therefore adhesiveness.

Therefore, winter tires go on at 7ºC

The rubber in a winter tire is designed to stay flexible in low temperatures, so it sticks better to the road.

Driving with me is Graham Jeffery, Tire Business Manager with Canadian Tire, hi hi.

Deep grooves that expel snow, that’s what to look for.

Here’s a post about my new camera setup, seen above.  And I’ll leave you, with the Final Cut file.

This is what the video above, actually looks like.

Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

Understanding ‘Car of the Year’ Testing & Results

AJAC – Auto Journalist Association of Canada – hosts this annual event, ‘Test Fest.’

They bring in 180+ new model vehicles, and auto writers from across Canada, to the Niagara Falls Drive Centre, for a full week of testing and voting to determine ‘Car of the Year‘.

(read my original ‘Test Fest’ post here)

This is the vehicle I’m driving in the video, the all-new Mercedes B250.

Nice car, it is a Mercedes, and note the asterisks:

That’s how you choose drive, park, neutral; different eh.

It’s billed as a “family car”, but I don’t understand where all the stuff goes, the stuff that comes along with a family. This car would work best if your family also had a van, too.

As a new auto journalist, this was my first time at ‘Test Fest’, and was blown away by the logistics, and high level of authenticity of it all.

So I wrote about it for this week’s ‘Keri on Driving’ column.

(read it online here)

Favourite Line:

The last one – “Even I wouldn’t listen to me”

29 years of results are posted http://www.AJAC.ca. Go search your car, see how it fared.

***

Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

 

 

An Old Favourite Canadian Explorer Episode

I wrote about suit jackets this week.  It made me remember a video.  So I dug it up, it made me laugh, here it is.

Ep. 27/80 – Exploring the Oldest Baseball Field in the World 

London, Ontario – It’s now called ‘Labatt Park‘, but was for the longest time, ‘Tecumseh Park’. Operating since 1877, that’s 132 years.  It has 5,200 seats, it’s a real grass field, and that’s another ‘Best in the World’ for Canada.

Original post June 2009

3 years ago, wow.  Have’t changed much; this post is filed  in 2/3 of my main blog categories (cars & security).  I still wear those jeans while exploring stuff.

The suit jacket comment is like, Social Engineering 101.