I've finished The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1938-1939. American foreign policy throughout the 20th century continues to amuse me. The Fascists in Spain had American trucks while non-intervention helped prevent the legally elected Republic from obtaining arms to defend itself. The U.S. apparently didn't sign the non-intervention pact, but a number of our allies (esp. Britain and France) did. I was also very surprised to learn how many prominent U.S. leaders at the time were sympathetic to the Nationalist cause. Of course the Italians and Germans were openly violating non-intervention and were able to battle test all of their equipment prior to the Second World War. On the Republican side, the Russians were also violating non-intervention, which they did sign, but they pulled out pretty quickly once the Republic started to lose.

I've moved on to The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War.

Speaking of Lotustalk posts, here are some words to go with that video I posted of me driving a 245hp Atom at Thunderhill:

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The format was two run groups, 30 minute sessions. We did three lead/follow sessions and then three sessions on our own. At first, I was pissed that we were going to spend the entire morning doing lead/follow and then I actually drove the car and was suddenly very grateful. There were only eight cars split between the two run groups so we had plenty of space in spite of the small track. 1-1 instruction was provided by instructors from PIR.

Boy did the Atom GIT when I told it to go. The cars were rigged with an in-car intercom and I guess it wasn't grounded properly or something because I got a loud whine through it which increased in pitch with engine RPM. The intercom was turned up full blast to be heard over the exhaust so the net effect was the exhaust note with the supercharger whine on top of it and then on top of all that I had an earsplitting electric whine in both ears. I felt like my head was going to explode, but in a good way. The car was fast enough that I got the whole 'everything narrows to a point' thing that I've read about but never really experienced before. Far faster in a straight line than the Mustang ever hoped to be on the blower and more able in the turns than the Exige.

Speaking of the Mustang, the Atom was also very tail happy. The staff and instructors repeatedly stressed smooth throttle use before they even let us near the cars. The go pedal was VERY sensitive but precise and throttle steer was trivial with a bit of practice. I was taking it easy and didn't have any problems, but it would be very easy to provoke oversteer on corner exit with this car.

The turn in was amazing. I won't say that it made the Exige feel sloppy or anything, but the Atom was noticably sharper. The overall steering feel and response were in another world. With the tiny wheel I was able to get around the entire track without moving either hand from 10 and 2 o'clock, but only after the instructor pointed out that I should be able do it.

Aside from the Formula Russell cars, I'd never driven anything on a track without ABS before and I did notice the difference. I locked wheels under braking a few times until the instructor had me adjust my braking technique. It was all a matter of familiarity though and was nothing that more experience with the car wouldn't compensate for. Still, I was uncomfortable with the brakes all day and that more than anything else was what kept my speed down. The Atom did not feel like what I was expecting in many regards. I was expecting it to feel more like the Formula Russell race cars with a notchy shifter and uberfirm "can't find the brake because it takes too much effort to push in" pedals. The controls on Formula Russell cars were so firm that I could hardly drive the Exige back to the hotel after each day's session, but the Atom felt like much more like a street car. I mentioned this to my instructor and he said that he was pretty sure that the Atom could be speced out that way and that these cars were setup loose on purpose because random people with varying experience levels would be driving them.

I had a really good day. Due to the quality instruction, I even feel like I got my money's worth out of it despite it being so expensive.

Woo woo...First sunset images from the 40D. These were all taken with the 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L:

So there's a thread on Lotustalk right now to choose your Top Ten Cars. Here's mine (in no particular order):

1. 1969 1/2 Mach 1
2. My current Mustang but with a built block, a T56, a Kenne Bell blower and no expenses spared
3. 2-11 (or my current Exige with FI and no expenses spared)
4. Pagani Zonda
5. 1st gen VW GTi
6. Tesla
7. Citroen C4
8. Unimog
9. '32 Ford hotrod
10. That flying car I was promised.

More from the 40D, this time using the 580EX II Speedlight:

  

I'm not used to the camera so they're nothing special, but here are the first images from my new 40D:

New sunset image:

So I think for 2008 I'll start posting about books I'm reading.

I reading The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1938-1939 at the moment.

2007 at the track...

In the GTi at Laguna Seca:



Jim Russell's Techniques of Racing three day course at Infineon:



At Thunderhill in the Exige with the GGLC:

 

LOG27 @ Aspen, CO:

  

The Ariel Atom Experience @ Thunderhill:

Some recent pictures. First, sunsets:



These are of the high surf at Linda Mar and damage to one of our trees caused by the recent storms:



Looks like we'll be out about $1000 to have the tree cleaned up. Sigh.

Storm update:

• Power: About 50% of our outlets are on. None of the overhead lights work. We have heat and the stove, but the fridge is down. PG&E has no ETA for our (partial) outage, which is now approaching 48 hours.
  
• Cable: Still out
  
• Cell service (AT&T): Out
  
• Coffee shop: Still no power!
  

I took a bunch of pictures yesterday, but my normal workflow for pics.kids-these-days.org requires my NAS to be online, which of course it isn't.

It was the worst storm I've ever seen in the 11+ years I've lived in the Bay Area. It's not a disaster, but this definitely wasn't typical weather for the area.