First Track Time of 2014

Started the season with Canadian Tire and Continental Tires last week.

(the test car was an Audi A4 TFST quattro. 2.0 L outputting 220 hp and 258 lbs/ft.)

Despite being all black and round, all tires are not created equal.

Continentals compete with the high-end tire lines.  This model is exclusive to Canadian Tire, and are reasonably priced at $129 /each. For a barometer, cheap no-name tires are about $80 /each. But remember what I always harp…

… don’t cheap out, on the only part of your car, that touches the road.

It wasn’t all track time, the tires were tested in a braking exercise (stop accelerating Keri), and this is how potholes are simulated.

Run through the course once on the competition, then again on Continentals. The latter was a smoother, less jittery ride and sounded less hollow. In tire ratings, that’s “comfort”.

Best part of the tire is this:

1 – compare the wear pattern of those boxes each side of the tire, to know if things are balanced
2Dry / Wet / Snow – when that letter wears off, the tire is no longer good in those road conditions

Continental claims these will last 145,000 km, which is on the high side of things.

This is nicely framed.

The girls of Canadian Tire; welcome to my blog guys!

Middle is Melissa Arbour, CT’s Senior Business Manager for Tires, Wheels and Accessories, and right is PR megamind Nicole Grant.

Spot my Jag.

This was all last Thursday afternoon, kicking off the best night of the week.

 

 

Back in Business with a Booster Pack

Enough. 10,000 times by now at least.

It’s a MotoMaster 700, $99 at CDN Tire.

My car was dormant for 6 days, and it boosted it first shot.

Booster packs got pretty sophisticated since I last paid attention.

Look, USB.

The Jetta is fully-functional again.

I should’ve bought backup a long time ago.

 

 

Jumping on a Trampoline

“Pointed toes and everything” ha. Skills left over from when I was a kid.

This was at Canadian Tire’s spring media preview.

8 minutes of bouncing = running 1 mile

This is a new type of trampoline: no springs.

Just as bouncy, far safer for fingers, stuff can’t get caught.

Ever see that happen? I once saw a girl, with really long untied hair, practically scalp herself, I physically cringed while typing that.

It’s Rosie MacLennan, 2012 Olympic Gold
& current World Trampoline Champion!

So humble, and doing her masters, and she actually works at Canadian Tire! (sorry about the poorly lit photo missy).

Watch her Olympic Gold routine.

 

 

End of the Week Update

Hi hi – good weekend I’m sure.

Nothing earth shaking to report, quiet day today, slept in.  Errands, a little work, and did a cheap wardrobe refresh with some $10 dresses from Sirens. One of them is even not black.  Oh and I had the battery replaced in my car’s key fob, and the guy who did it had 2 thumbs woah.

kk here’s some photos from the week, talk to you Monday.

***

My old Canadian Explorer pin! It was on my friend’s bag when we met for dinner.

fake nice day.

It was at Canadian Tire’s spring media preview.

Jumped on their trampoline.

This is actually the Sound Academy.  The Docks.

My review of Chrysler’s 300 comes out next week.

Short review: big fan. Called it stately.

It rained shoes this week. A gift of fur-lined socks for my Hunters; winter footwear expanded ty k xo

Yesterday, I hit send on my last work email, 9:30, sat down to eat.

Cheers’d you.

Then went to blog, and couldn’t.

My first data block.

However, how this affects this Mon-Fri test I’m doing: my record is still stainless.  Bottom right is proof I made the deadline technically.

The problem was the data block from my service provider, which is interesting enough for its own post, coming Monday.