Weekend to Remember contd…

So after a lot of you asked me about the follow-up post for my “Weekend to Remember” post, I had to get off my lazy ass and finish what I started. So here it goes…

Me and S started off from OC and were about an hour and a half out on I-5, when suddenly the lights inside the car went out, the radio shut off and the car started to sputter. We pulled over on the shoulder on the left side and popped the hood to see if we could diagnose the problem and possibly fix it. But soon it became apparent that the problem was not a fix-it-and-go.

8:10pm 

We decide to do the next logical thing – call for roadside assistance. S could not get any signal on his phone, so we called from my phone.  This is where our problem started progressing from bad to worse.

For the first time in all these years of travelling, I forgot to carry my phone charger and my phone had probably 2/3rd of battery life left. We had another problem…we didn’t know our exact location on the freeway and could only give some approximate landmarks. We were told that the tow-truck was on it’s way.

8:30pm

Half an hour since we broke down and we were happy that help was on it’s way. We kept looking down the freeway for a tow-truck. Then I looked down at my watch…

9:05pm

No tow-truck yet…there was something definitely wrong. And just then the dreadful call came in – the truck driver had failed to find us and had returned to his base. I am pretty sure that the driver didn’t even bother to go search for us and gave up within a mile or two from the last landmark we had mentioned.

It had started to get a little cold and the noise of the cars whizzing past us and the worsening light wasn’t helping us at all.

9:40pm

We decide to call 911. Inspite of explaining to the emergency operator that I was running low on phone battery, the lady continued to go through her questionnaire and finally uttered the words which sounded like heaven – “The dispatch is on it’s way and should be there in 15-20min”…but what she followed that up with was ridiculous – “If no one arrives for 30min, please don’t keep waiting and call back right away”. Are you for real?? What part of “my phone is about to die any minute” didn’t you understand?

Through another stroke of brilliance, we decided to call up our friends in OC and gave them our approximate location and asked them to co-ordinate with the roadside assistance just in case my phone ran out of juice.

10:15pm

No cop car in sight. It’s the first time in my life that I have so eagerly awaited to see the flashing lights of a cop car pulling up behind our car. Our friends in OC tell us that roadside assistance has been instructed to keep travelling down the freeway till they locate us. YAY!!

I make another call to 911. They tell me that they have my previous call on record and that the dispatch is already on it’s way. I am not sure which way it was headed, it definitely wasn’t our way! By now we both are bored and frustrated. I start waving to all passing cars hoping that some driver would be a good samaritan and call 911 to inform them of our predicament (or inform that there are two lunatics waving on the side of the freeway!). But little had we expected that some driver would provide us with a moment of humor. Suddenly we see a BMW pull over to the side and start flashing it’s blinkers. We ran towards the car hoping to get some kind of assistance. What we find instead is a driver who is piss drunk and could barely understand what we were trying to tell him. We moved aside and set him off on his way with a “Thanks, but no thanks”!

11:10pm

A little over 3 hours since we pulled over, we see a tow-truck heading our way. We let out a scream of joy and run towards our angel in disguise (in mechanic’s overalls to be precise!). He suggests that we tow the car to a town about 10-12 miles away where they had a service station as well as hotels nearby to stay overnight. At that point, we were hungry, thirsty and completely drained of all energy and that suggestion was the best we could get. We squeeze into the cabin of the truck and were on our way.

11:45pm

The truck driver dropped off the car in front of a service station and we paid him and he was on his way. We walked to the gas station to ask the clerk for the opening time of the service station. The words that followed were like lightning crashing on our heads. The clerk said, “That service station has been out of business for at least 3 months”. I spotted the tow-truck waiting at the stoplight and I made a mad dash out to get hold of him. Just as I reached, the light turned green and the truck disappeared in front of my eyes. Our angel had just discarded his disguise and had become the devil!

Walked back to the gas station and met a guy having coffee. He happened to be a mechanic.

Was this going to be our stroke of luck? By this time I had stopped expecting for anything good to come out, so I just asked him to take a look at the car. He came over, told us it seemed like an alternator issue. He gave us a jump start using his truck, but it wasn’t of much help as the battery would not charge and he didn’t have his tools with him. We thanked him for helping nevertheless.

00:15am (next day)

Me and S walked towards a hotel and checked in. Dumped our bags in the room and we strolled out to get something to eat.

00:40am 

Seemed like our luck was changing as Denny’s actually served our order within 10min!!

1:30am 

Back in the room, I don’t even remember when I crashed on the bed and fell asleep…

7:00am

…S is shaking my hand to wake me up. Takes me a few moments to realize where I was and the entire ordeal of the previous night started to play again in my head. Took a quick shower, had a hot coffee and S called up a nearby garage who told us that they could fix the problem and have us on our way.

8:30am

We get the car towed to the garage and they tell us that they will need to order in an alternator to replace the old one. They said we should be on our way by noon. We head out to a nearby Starbuck’s while we leave the car behind for the garage to work on it. Sitting in that chair with a cappuccino in hand was probably the most relaxing moment I have had in years.

11:30am

The car is ready and raring to go. S pays the garage guys and we are on our way…

2008 Hayabusa – Return of the Falcon

So it seems that finally Suzuki redesigned the Hayabusa if ever so slightly. The new lines on the Busa seem more sharper and aggressive than it’s predecessors. Looks like Suzuki are on it’s way to snatch the top spot from the Kawasaki ZX-14. The specs as released on Bikeland.org indicate that the new Busa will be powered by a 1340cc engine.

And here’s a picture of the aquiline beauty

A Weekend to Remember

On an impulse, I decided to drive down to Orange County (OC) with a friend from PFC for the weekend. Was looking forward to a great time at the PFC Headquarters (Oz’s house) meeting fellow movie fanatics and possibly shooting a short film. Reached there way past midnight and but still received one of the warmest welcomes ever. Sat chatting about movies, music and all other random things over a nice chilled beer.

On Saturday, the PFC-USA gang decided to convert the HQ (the bathroom to be precise!) into a studio to shoot the ad for PFC.

As we wrapped up, I left the PFC HQ to meet my oldest buddy and his family. Had a blast with his kids. His son, who is the elder one, totally impressed me with his ability to identify different makes and models of cars, SUVs and minivans. Just to put things in perspective, he is not even 5 years old! However, it was his younger kid, his daughter who completely bowled me over. She had me totally wrapped around her finger by her charming sweetness. These girls sure learn their tricks at a young age (she is 3-4 months shy of her 2nd birthday)!

Sunday afternoon, I was back at the PFC HQ and the gang had started working on shooting the short film that was scripted by our friend Striker. I played my part in the shoot by holding up a green background for a scene depicting a news telecast and by throwing around some random, completely useless ideas! Hey, I tried! I don’t know anything about movie-making…LOL. But just watching the gang in action helped me learn a lot of things about the entire shooting process.

If only had I not have to go to work on Monday, I would have loved to stay over for some more time and have more fun. Thanks to all the PFC guys from OC for the wonderful weekend.

P.S. though the weekend took an ugly turn about an hour and a half after we left OC, will write about that in another post.

Michael Schumacher finishes in style

The last race of the 2006 Formula One season, the Brazilian Grand Prix, turned out to be an emotional one. Felipe Massa won his home race to give Ferrari a well deserved finish at the top of the podium. Fernando Alonso retained his driver’s title with a well-controlled race. But above all, Michael Schumacher gave us a stunning display of driving by finishing fourth after some disastrous moments beyond his control in the final race of his brilliant career.

It seemed like luck had deserted Schumi when a fuel pressure problem forced him out of the 3rd round of qualifying pushing him down to 10th place on the starting grid. As the race began, Schumacher applied pressure on Fisichella and overtook him in the 9th lap. However, he soon pitted to replace a tyre that was probably damaged by debris left behind by Rosberg’s crash. He fell down to 19th position, but what followed was some superfast, record-setting laps. In due time, he passed Barrichello and with 9 laps remaining, he forced Fisichella to make a mistake and go wide and overtook him.

But immediately he seemed to lose speed and it felt like the fuel pressure problem had kicked in again, but he soon got back upto speed and challenged Raikkonen who did well to block him on one lap. However, Schumi pushed hard again and squeezed his way through the inside as Raikkonen desperately tried to close the small opening between his car and the pit wall. That move right there was proof enough that Schumacher was still at his peak.

One can only wonder what the result would have been had engine trouble not hit Schumi during qualifying. Though not a fitting end to an illustrious career, the race was a fitting end to the 2006 season.

As for Schumi, well, let’s all wish him good luck for his future and thank him for all the wonderful racing that he has treated us to.

Cars: A Lesson In Acting

Do cars have an ego?
Can cars be mean?
Can cars have an attitude?
Can cars smile, cry, laugh?
Can cars play pranks on other cars?
Can cars fall in love?
.
..
…
Do cars have emotions?

If you have ever wondered the above things, then at the end of this masterpiece from Pixar, I am sure you will have the answers. And the answer to all these questions is “Yes”.

Cars is a movie about a young race car Lightning McQueen and his (yes, you read it right – HIS and not it’s!) realization of the meaning of life. It’s a movie about the transformation of a rookie champion from a vain car to a car who realizes that there’s more to life than winning. It’s a movie where the race car learns that there are times when you need to slow down to smell the roses.

It’s a movie in which all humans, animals and even insects have been replaced by cars. The movie kicks off with an awe-inspiring race sequence with detailed animation that has left no stone unturned. The rendering of the stadium and the surroundings, the details on the cars right up to the lug nuts is simply amazing! The details remain consistent throughout the movie through each frame which speaks volumes of the efforts put in to create this movie. The scenes with the desert and mountain landscapes make you wonder if it is real or animation.

But the show stealer in this movie is the portrayal of emotions on the cars that brings out the personality of each car. With the use of only eyes and lips, an entire array of emotions has been created that includes arrogance, compassion, disappointment, joy, happiness, sorrow, love, mischief and a lot more. Never once in the movie do you not understand the emotions of the cars. The cars have truly been brought to life!

An attempt had been made in the movie Final Fantasy to replace human actors with animated actors. But the only thing that movie managed to do was to create animated figures that looked exactly like humans but failed miserably in displaying the emotions. Maybe they should consult the Pixar folks for lessons in animating emotions!

My rating: A. This movie is a must see. It simply rocks in terms of dialogs and screenplay, animation, direction, sound and overall design. I have purposely left out any details of the story since it is something that you must watch unfold through the wonderfully created cars and their exploits.

To Kill a Manual Transmission

I love driving, but once in a while, I prefer to just take the backseat and be driven around. It’s a welcome change when you ride along turning your head from side to side watching that tree in full bloom or the beautiful colors in the sky at dusk or staring at that beautiful girl in the car you just passed. However, as much as I would be happy doing those things, I usually end up concentrating on the road, the traffic, the driver and more importantly the gear changes with my internals in my mouth!

Yes, this article is inspired by those wonderful drivers who seem to have unknowingly discovered a million ways to kill their manual transmissions.

Let’s start at home with daddy dearest. Dad has done most of his driving at the airport shuttling between the terminal and the aircraft along the tarmac. The problem is that he thinks the regular road is a runway and before you know, the car has hit 30km/h and you start hearing the screaming of the engine as if it’s being strangled. You look down at the shift lever and your jaw drops, you try to scream but you choke – the car is still in FIRST GEAR!!! I take a look around to confirm that I am not at a drag racing strip. I say a silent prayer and try my best not to look at the shifter. After a while the screaming reappears. I look up – 80km/h, I look down – 4th gear. Goddamit! Still in FOURTH?? Now my dad is old school and when he learned to drive on the good old Fiat, it only had 4 gears. But this car has 5 and even after having owned the car for half a decade, he still doesn’t shift to fifth till I tell him to do so! Sorry dad, but there’s nothing wrong with the car, it’s your driving that’s giving you the poor mileage.

Then I have this friend who redefined adventure sport for me. After 30 odd of the wildest roller coaster rides, I still hadn’t obtained “Nirvana” or what is more commonly known as motion-sickness. Then on a bright Sunday morning, I was offered a ride by my friend. Half an hour into the ride, I almost experienced a highly spiritual out-of-body experience (read as I was ready to throw up). It was then that I noticed the halo around my Little Buddha who was driving the car! No, I’m serious! It was almost like someone from the time of Buddha was in the driver’s seat, someone whose prior driving experience was with horse-carts. Every gear shift made the whole car lurch ahead violently. And the shifting was so randomized that you could actually introduce it as a gambling game in Las Vegas. If the car was going at a certain speed in 3rd gear, there was no way you could tell what gear the car would be in the next moment nor could you tell what gear it would be in at that very speed sometime later in the ride. This was one time when I would have loved to do backseat driving. And I mean literally – I wish I had a steering wheel, gear shifter and the pedals in the back. I am surprised that the transmission didn’t jump out of the car and run away. Talk about guts!

Then there are the not so interesting characters that do either one or more of the following cool things:
-  Start applying the gas pedal even before they have let the clutch out
-  Let out the clutch too early creating the familiar metal grinding sound
-  Slow down and then try to accelerate in a high gear
-  Shift into a lower gear while trying to shift to a higher gear
-  Keep the gear engaged and clutch depressed while waiting at the stop light
-  Slam the shifter with all their strength as if driving a 10-ton truck

The list goes on and on. So how NOT to kill a manual transmission? I guess I’ll write about it sometime soon. Another option? Do me a favor and go buy yourself an automatic transmission. Happy driving!

Schumacher is still the winner for me

He set the best timing in qualifying, he set the fastest lap of the race, he had the highest average speed of the race, and he started last on the grid at position no.22 and finished the race at position no.5. This is the stuff that winners are made of. This is what set Michael Schumacher apart from the rest of the Formula 1 drivers.

The drama started on Saturday when Schumacher set the fastest timing in qualifying to secure pole position. However in the final corner in the final session of qualifying, he seemed to lock up his brakes and came to a stalled his car on the circuit. This apparently forced the other drivers to slow down.

The stewards summoned Schumi and he was stripped of his pole position. These guys are a bunch of knuckleheads. According to them:

Schumacher had no justifiable reason for braking so hard, as he had been traveling little or no quicker than at the same point on previous laps. In conclusion, Schumacher deliberately stopped his car on the circuit, an infringement of the sporting regulations

Race rivals Renault claims that Schumi’s actions prevented Alonso from setting a time better than his. YEAH RIGHT! They must be talking right out of their arse!

I have two questions for these nincompoops:

1. If Alonso was going to go faster on this final lap to try and better Schumacher’s qualifying time, wouldn’t Schumacher be trying the same resulting in a human error forcing him to brake hard? This is precision driving we are talking of guys. Even a “little” quicker on a corner can propel you into the barriers.
2. Why the hell didn’t Alonso go faster in the earlier laps? Was he playing catch-up? What for? Doesn’t he have the balls to go all out and set a benchmark himself and force others to play catch-up?

Shame on you FIA!

Shame on you Renault and Alonso!

Go Schumi go! We all know that you were the best driver in the race today. Climbing up 17 places on the Monaco circuit where overtaking is almost impossible is a skill possessed only by the best out there.

Michael Schumacher: Champion stuff

Those of you who saw the Formula 1 race today at Imola would definitely understand the title. The weekend started of brilliantly for Schumi and Ferrari as he established a new world record by securing his 66th pole position and emulating – whom I consider the greatest F1 driver ever – Ayrton Senna. This event itself was ironic since it was at this very track, twelve years ago, that Senna lost his life when he crashed during the race.

It was just one of those days when it seemed that nothing would go wrong for Schumi. Coming off a disappointing season last year and not really having a great outing so far this year, it was a welcome change for the Tifosi (Ferrari fans for the uninitiated) and what better location than Italy – the land of Ferrari.

Schumi got off to a brilliant start and was already pulling away into the lead and the crowd, which was a sea of red, was going wild. He had scored the fastest lap timings in each of the first 10 laps. His run was broken by another Ferrari, his teammate Felipe Massa. Then Fernando Alonso set a scorching lap 12 timing, only to be scorched by Schumi again in lap 13. As the race progressed, things looked comfortable for Schumi until he hit traffic. The tight turns at Imola prevented him from lapping the slower cars and had to slow down till he got to an open straightway. This gave Alonso a chance to catch up with Schumi.

Now the race was on and Alonso was right on Schumi’s tail applying all the pressure he could. This is where you begin to understand the difference between a champion and the others. This is where you have Schumi and then you have other drivers. With the kind of pressure being applied by Alonso – whom I consider to be the next best thing to happen to F1 after Schumi – any other driver would have pushed his car too much and would have committed a blunder and thrown away the race. But not Schumi! He began toying around with Alonso. He would slow down more than necessary into the turns, just to break Alonso’s momentum. Now Schumi was dictating the pace of the race instead of Alonso.

The two were going nose-to-tail and then it happened. With 4 laps to go, the pressure had its effect and a blunder was committed. No, not by Schumi, but Alonso! On one of the turns, Schumi as always had the gates neatly locked and Alonso tried a little too hard, went a little too wide into the turn and lost a few vital milliseconds. Schumi noticed it and he did the only thing that we could expect of him – he rubbed it in! Suddenly his car was flying and he set another scorching lap time. After that, it was a cruise for him over the next 3 laps as there was no way Alonso would be able to catch up.

Is this the beginning of a Schumi-Ferrari comeback? We will have to wait and watch. But for now, I just wish I was in Italy coz they are going to have one hell of a party tonight!

Congratulations Schumi! Congratulations Ferrari! Good luck for the rest of the season. This Tifosi is signing out to treat myself to an ice-cream!