What's your theory on MH370?

This is beyond bizarre. At first, I was afraid it was Uyghur terrorists. Then southern Thai Muslim terrorists. Then unknown pissed off Malaysian insurgency group. Catastrophic mechanical failure. Han Chinese pissed off at government corruption. Accidental shootdown by Chinese or Vietnamese military (with cover up). Mass hypnosis. Deranged flight crew.

What's your theory?

2014 F1 cars explained

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Quick review of 9 Bay Area food trucks and Bud Black Crown

A friend invited me to a Golden State Warriors food and wine event last night. There were about two dozen food trucks and about a dozen local wineries in attendance, handing out free food and booze. As I am not a sports fan, I vowed to eat at as many different trucks as I could while my friends gawked at the players and cheerleaders. I'm such a good friend.

1. Seoul on Wheels. Mandoo (dumpling) with kim chee. Lots of flavor, but not overpowering.
2. El Sur. Pollo saltado empanada. Flaky crust, lots of chicken. One of my favorites. The Citroen H van was tiny next to the other food trucks. It was supposed to sell food at Seconds Saturdays last year, but it had mechanical issues.
3. Chairman Bao. The most famous of the food trucks there. I had the Coca-Cola pork bao. It was so-so. Overrated.
4. Old World. Jewish and Eastern European soul food. I got the potato peroghy with a dill-sour cream dipping sauce. Fantastic.
5. Cheese Gone Wild. Beef nachos. Not impressed, especially with the cheese.
6. An the Go. Garlic noodles. Just garlic and starch. Too much of both.
7. Hiyaaa!. Chinese-Korean-Vietnamese. I had the pork on rice. Overcooked both.
8. Senor Sisiq. Filipino pork tacos. A couple of guys in line in front of me at Hiyaaa! raved about them. Pork was overcooked and too smokey.
9. Liba Falafel. Falafel sandwich. The falafel was left in the fryer a bit too long.

I was interested in checking out the Peruvian Sanguchon, but by the time I got there, they had closed/run out of food.

To cap off the evening, I had a couple of sips of Black Crown. I had to toss the rest away. It was not good.

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Timing belt change on the Popemobile/Phaeton

S sent me an update and photos on his project. The 2005 Phaeton hit the 60,000 mile mark so he decided to change the belt.

"I'm nearly done with the timing belt job. I'm waiting for a little plastic
piece to arrive in the mail today before I can put the bumper cover back on
and drive the P. It's a part that had a crack in it, right below the RH
headlight, no idea why but I suspect that it was not an impact but somebody
twisting the headlight washer nozzle while it was extended. The bumper cover
had no damage on the outside and the date stamps show it's an original from
August 2004. No big deal, the part is $47 which is why I decided to just
replace it.

The timing belt replacement took me awhile but I was intentionally going slow so
I wouldn't screw it up since we are dealing with an interference engine here
... if you get the camshafts misaligned then the pistons will hit the valves
... $$$.  I also took plenty of notes and about 400 (!) photos in the process so
I can write up a step-by-step procedure in the future. Anyway, it's all back
together and I started and ran it in the garage. I'm still in the process of
bleeding the air out of the coolant system, which is a major pain on this
car, but that will have to wait until the bumper cover is back on.

Attached are photos of the area where the water pump is mounted, a detail
shot of the new timing belt (not yet tensioned in the photo) and the special
tool to hold the camshafts in place so the timing doesn't get messed up
during the job."

Williams Martini promo video

Carl Sagan with Viking Mars lander

2009 Volvo C30 T5 6M R-Design test drive

This was a fun Saturday afternoon adventure. Frequent reader and sometime commenter Chris suggested that I test drive the C30. Why? Because many of them came with manual transmissions and I should really try one to make sure I will like a V50 wagon with a manual (as they are identical). Great idea. And when Chris found one for sale at a nearby car lot, we jumped at the idea of test driving one.

And here it is, a 2009 C30. All of the ones sold in America came with the turbocharged five cylinder 2.5 liter. It was good for 227 horsepower and 236 pound feet of torque driving the front wheels.

We both thought that at 84,000 miles, this car was priced very optimistically. A quick search on KBB revealed that it should retail for closer to $15,000. Chris thinks it's worth even less.

I really like the exterior of the C30, although while standing by the hatch, I was surprised by how tall it was.

Other than a wash and Armor All on the tires, the car's exterior looked very tired, given its age. The clearcoat was badly peeling on the rear bumper.

The front was a bit untidy. Perhaps there were a lot of highway miles through the Central Valley? Note the picture at the very top of this post, the brown paint on the bottom of the front spoiler had been completely scraped off due to low clearance. Ouch.

The R-Design just meant badges that said "R-Design" and unique interior trim. Ooh-la-la.

Note the scratches just below the taillight. $18,000, they wanted for this.

The car was sufficiently peppy with me, Chris, and our petite saleslady in it. Chris, who is fairly tall, was relatively comfortable sitting in the back. Even in 6th on the freeway, the car pulled strong up a slight incline. My driving was sedate, given the heavy traffic and aforementioned saleslady's presence.

The clutch was hard to get used to. It was very light for 50-75% of its travel. It didn't help that I was wearing dress shoes and there was a paper guard on top of the carpeted floor mat. I was not impressed by it, and it made me come to the conclusion that I did not HAVE to have a manual V50. (Thanks, Chris!)

There was virtually no room in the back, unless the rear seats were folded down. This car definitely aimed at the 30-something professional living in the city.

The interior was nice and tidy and in great shape. The air conditioning was weak, even at full blast.

My conclusion: This car is going to be sitting on the lot for a long time.

The saleslady was very no-pressure and gave us the Carfax print-out.

• It was initially leased in 2008 for 1 year 7 months (driven 6,500 miles per year).
• It was then purchased in 2010 (driven 20,500 miles per year)
• 1,699 miles: fuses and front wheel bearings replaced.
• Routine and regular maintenance all the way to 6/15/12 (48,961 miles), then nothing for the next 30,000 miles. It was probably serviced at an independent shop once the warranty/free maintenance expired.

Chris, do you have anything to add?

Living on the edge, F1 champions

This is a very macabre post, and I apologize if I offend anyone. I looked at all the past world champions to see when they passed away and under what circumstances.

Name (Championship season): Age at passing, cause.

Giuseppe Farina (1950): 59, Lotus Cortina he was driving on way to watch 1966 French GP hit telegraph pole in icy conditions.

Juan Manuel Fangio (1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957): 84, long illness.

Alberto Ascari (1952, 1953): 36, lost control while driving friend's Ferrari at Monza.

Mike Hawthorn (1958): 29, traffic accident in a Jaguar Mk1 3.4.

Jack Brabham (1959, 1960, 1966): still alive!

Phil Hill (1962): 81, Parkinson's.

Graham Hill (1963, 1968): 46, plane he was piloting crashed.

Jim Clark (1963, 1965): 32, crash at Hockenheim.

John Surtees (1964): still alive!

Denny Hulme (1967): 56, heart attack while racing M3 at Bathurst.

Jackie Stewart (1969, 1971, 1973): still alive!

Jochen Rindt (1970): 28, died in Monza.

Emerson Fittipaldi (1972, 1974): still alive!

Niki Lauda (1975, 1977, 1984): still alive!

James Hunt (1976): 45, heart attack.

And from then on, aside from Ayrton Senna (1988, 1990, 1991), everyone is still with us (knock wood): Mario Andretti (1978), Jody Scheckter (1979), Alan Jones (1980), Nelson Piquet (1981, 1983, 1987), Keke Rosberg (1982), Alain Prost (1985, 1986, 1989, 1993), Nigel Mansell (1992), Michael Schmacher (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004), Damon Hill (1996), Jacques Villeneuve (1997), Mika Hakkinen (1998, 1999), Fernando Alonso (2005, 2006), Kimi Raikkonen (2007), Lewis Hamilton (2008), Jenson Button (2009), Sebastian Vettel (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013).

Malaysia Air One World promo

This is sad.

We still have no idea what happened, but...

I hope my ridiculous theory about the missing Malaysian airliner is wrong.
— Tamerlane's Thoughts (@TamerlaneBlog) March 8, 2014

Academy of Art car collection

Mission accomplished. I met up with Zach and took a gander at the amazing car collection in San Francisco. I'll post more pictures later. Matthew, one of the caretakers there, showed us around and even let us peek underneath the hoods of some rare cars.

Here are four Duesenbergs (one is a "replica").

I saw this Bentley on the way back home near the bridge. That color combo is very Audi/German. The license plate translates into: "My doctor's prescription". The driver was smoking a cigar. I can't imagine the mileage he was getting in the stop-and-go traffic.

In the mean time, read up on Zach's Saab project.