10Beat Cars

One of the little enthusiast ideas I've had recently ties in well with my 10Beat idea as a way of testing the cars I buy. Of course, I want to test them against what the magazine tests have - or what they would have, if the particular type of car I have was ever tested or if the test is available. Things like 0-60 and 1/4 mile acceleration, braking, lateral-g roadholding, all of those objective tests. One thing I thought would be fun would be to do is what I'm calling a street-legal time-speed-distance challenge. It's been bubbling up in my mind for a few years now and really began to ferment in July, 2016. I was attending a week-long class in San Luis Obispo, CA but staying with my dad and his wife Belva in Santa Maria - 25 miles south. Each day when class would let out, I'd try to use some different back roads to get back to Santa Maria as a way of exploring the area. Rather than take US 101 south - the freeway - I went over to Hwy 227, the back way through Edna and...

I've had a driver's license for over 35 years now. I've driven plenty of different vehicles, from a Honda Civic I bought for $600 to a $500,000 motorcoach. Stick shift, auto, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 cylinders, front-wheel, rear-wheel, four-wheel drive, two wheels, four, six, eight and ten wheels; two, three, four, five, six, ten and twelve gears. I haven't (yet) driven a semi-truck (and might never do so), but with the exception of a race car, I've driven just about every type of vehicle I'm interested in. Except... Except, all of my own cars, while serviceable and fun for me, haven't really been fun. They haven't been what a car guy would drive. I've driven plenty fast and had a instances when I've had a huge grin on my face while driving my own vehicles, but my choices have been mostly about what fit best for my life at the time and not really about what I'd most enjoy driving. I've always wanted to get some fun cars, but I've stym...

I love cars. I know that's a pretty normal thing for a 21st Century American male. If you were going to make a stereotype list of things guys my age are enthusiastic about, cars would be in the Top 10 - maybe Top 5, below his family but above pizza. I'm that guy (although pizza is probably right behind cars on my list and both are ahead of football.) I've been a car guy about as long as I've been upright. My parents tell a story about my first complete sentence. We were on a trip to Oregon in 1966 when I was about two years old. I'd been looking out the back window of my Dad's 1955 Cadillac all day (this is before car seats and seat belts, so there was nothing keeping me from standing) when I suddenly piped up with "Daddy - I see a car!" Like many boys, I had an extensive collection of Hot Wheels that I played with whenever I couldn't play with my friends - and sometimes when I could. When I was 15, my parents got me a year's subscription t...