Monday 7/16/2012 Lunch Report

I'll start off with a little bit of info about myself. My name is Steve and I live in the Northwest corner of Missouri. I work at a small Chevrolet dealership and I'm a service technician (aka: mechanic) at the dealership. I'm a big fan of dirt track racing and I'm a crew member with a sprint car racing team. I've been a crew member for 21 years. Here's the car I work on:



Here's our hauler:




If you've never had the chance to watch a sprint car race in person, I highly recommend it! It's not a long boring race like NASCAR. Here's a video from Saturday nights race at Eldora Speedway in Ohio.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbiXNprS ... e=youtu.be

Lunch:

Lunch was at the deli located in the local grocery store. I had meatloaf, greenbeans and corn with a large cup of water.


Cars:

I'm a car guy and I like to ask car questions. What two options do you insist on having when you purchase a vehicle?

My two must have items are air conditioning and cruise control.


Guitars:

During the 50's most of the Fender custom colors were car colors. Is there a modern day car color that you would like to see applied to a guitar? I think that might have been another car question.

I plan to share some photos of my small G&L collection this week. Unfortunately I screwed up the pictures I took for today. I'll try again tomorrow and will be posting my favorite G&L on Friday!


Sprinter 92

Hey Steve. We used to go to the Sprint car races a bit when I was a kid. I have fond memories of being hit by all the mud flying about!

It seems to me that car colours today have to be disgusting to be applied. All sorts of greens and baby-poo yellows!

I'd go for cruise control and air con too - long drives without them are much harder

Hey Steve -

Greetings from NZ! Been away due to limited web usage but our monthly allotment recently doubled

LOL re NASCAR - I always heard the only reason folks watch it is for the crashes - sounds morbid but probably partially true.

One of the deciding factors for me was it had to have a wankel engine... these days I'm less picky tho a functional stereo is a must.

I had a '66 Mustang that originally was painted Tahoe Turquoise - that'd be my vote.

Nice start to the week!

Cheers,
Kf

Hey Steve. We used to go to the Sprint car races a bit when I was a kid. I have fond memories of being hit by all the mud flying about!

There are quite a few Australians here in the USA racing sprint cars. Kerry Madsen that finished second in that video is an Australian.

It seems to me that car colours today have to be disgusting to be applied. All sorts of greens and baby-poo yellows!

A baby-poo yellow guitar would be hard to sell. However, I like green guitars!

Hi Steve,

Nothing wrong with a few car questions to start the week!

I've never been to watch Speedway (the Australian term for Sprint Cars). My Dad raced rally cars when I was young so I can appreciate the skill in keeping those machines travelling the right direction with minimal traction.

The 2 must haves for me in a car are (a) aircon and (b) a manual (stick shift) transmission. I like to be in control of gear changes when I'm driving, and changing gears = driving pleasure for me.

If guitars were painted with the same stuff as my wife's '09 Mazda then you'd have a relic'd instrument in under a year. I swear Mazda are using nitro! It's the most fragile paint I've ever dealt with. But Mazda insist it's environmentally friendly, so I'm supposed to feel better.

Steve, good to see you as LR again. We have had a hot summer and does that affect the sprint cars in how they run?

I just picked up Chrysler T&C so I could haul all my band gear. It works great! One of my requirements was Stow & Go seating. It has way more options than I need but it is a sweet rig. I used to snowmobile a lot in Minnesota but we haven't done that for a few years and gave them to one of the kids. I enjoy my Gold Wing and use it whenever I can.

The car colors from the 60's are some of my favorite guitar colors. I have a Stingray 5 that is going to be Baby Blue. Leo picked up on that and they had some good ones. Looking forward to some pictures this week Steve-- Darwin

Hey Sprinter:

Nice sprint car. Cool hauler!

Living in the DC area (hot and humid summers), AC is a must. But although my ride has cruise control, I no longer use it. I used to love it, but I find that it makes me less attentive. Now that I have kids, that's a problem for me. The "other" feature that I'd chose is automatic transmission. Yeah, I suppose in some circles that makes me a wimp, but I need the right hand to keep the kids in line - lol!

Regarding car colors, I'd love to have one in good old G&L Belair Green. Can't explain the attraction, but it just suits me - perhaps because I'm a Pisces and the color reminds me of a dreamy sea somewhere that I will never manage to experience in my lifetime.

What was I saying? Oh, nice start! - ed

PS: I still want to do some fishing with you!

One of the deciding factors for me was it had to have a wankel engine... these days I'm less picky tho a functional stereo is a must.

The Wankel is an interesting engine. They make a lot of power for their small size. I like to watch Grand-Am racing which is an American road course series. The little Mazda RX-8's are just as fast as the Chevrolet, Camaro & Corvette, Porsche 911, Ford Mustang, Ferrari & BMW.

I've never been to watch Speedway (the Australian term for Sprint Cars). My Dad raced rally cars when I was young so I can appreciate the skill in keeping those machines travelling the right direction with minimal traction.

You need to experience a sprint car race at least once. There are plenty of good Australian drivers plus a lot of American drivers spend our winter time racing in Australia.

The 2 must haves for me in a car are (a) aircon and (b) a manual (stick shift) transmission. I like to be in control of gear changes when I'm driving, and changing gears = driving pleasure for me.

I use to be a die-hard manual transmission fan. Now that I'm older, I really like automatics.

Steve, good to see you as LR again. We have had a hot summer and does that affect the sprint cars in how they run?

Heat doesn't bother them. The engines run cool on the methanol fuel. Cold weather can be a problem. We run a heater on the engine when the car sits in the pits and keep a heavy blanket over it to keep the heat in. We have one engine that struggles to warm up to proper operating temperature. The new engine that blew up last year had a tendency to heat up which should have been a sign that something was wrong. We're still waiting on Wesmar Racing Engines to finish building its replacement.

I just picked up Chrysler T&C so I could haul all my band gear. It works great! One of my requirements was Stow & Go seating. It has way more options than I need but it is a sweet rig. I used to snowmobile a lot in Minnesota but we haven't done that for a few years and gave them to one of the kids. I enjoy my Gold Wing and use it whenever I can.

Good choice in a minivan! I may work at a GM dealership but I'm a Mopar guy. GM, is my second favorite auto manufacturer.

The car colors from the 60's are some of my favorite guitar colors. I have a Stingray 5 that is going to be Baby Blue. Leo picked up on that and they had some good ones. Looking forward to some pictures this week Steve-- Darwin

Chrysler and Ford both had some wild colors during the late 60's early 70's era! GM, played it safe on colors. GM, is still playing it safe. The current GM color charts are bland. Both Chrysler and Ford have some nice color options these days.

Living in the DC area (hot and humid summers), AC is a must. But although my ride has cruise control, I no longer use it. I used to love it, but I find that it makes me less attentive. Now that I have kids, that's a problem for me. The "other" feature that I'd chose is automatic transmission. Yeah, I suppose in some circles that makes me a wimp, but I need the right hand to keep the kids in line - lol!

Nothing wrong with those choices!

Regarding car colors, I'd love to have one in good old G&L Belair Green. Can't explain the attraction, but it just suits me - perhaps because I'm a Pisces and the color reminds me of a dreamy sea somewhere that I will never manage to experience in my lifetime.

A friend of mine has a Belair Green Asat. It's a great color on Asat's!

PS: I still want to do some fishing with you!

Sounds like fun!

Great start.

I used to go to the formula 1 race in montreal years ago, they have the honda indy in toronto and I never go.

My friends also were into motorcycle racing and that was fun to watch.

Definitely air conditioning. I was also always stuck on the car having leather seats, yet my last 2 havent had them and I'm ok with it now.

The car colors as well as the guitar colors are getting very boring, I don't know why, perhaps we are getting too used to them. Was looking at the G&L chart yesterday and I was hard pressed to pick one that I liked.

My dad always said, dont buy a car with the color that you absolutely love, you'll just get sick of it. Instead, get one that you don't mind and you'll like it forever, hmmmmmm does that go with guitar colors as well?

Definitely air conditioning. I was also always stuck on the car having leather seats, yet my last 2 haven't had them and I'm ok with it now.

I like leather seats. My current truck has heated and cooled seats. I've found that the cooled seats really help to keep me comfortable on long trips.

My dad always said, don't buy a car with the color that you absolutely love, you'll just get sick of it. Instead, get one that you don't mind and you'll like it forever, hmmmmmm does that go with guitar colors as well?

I tend to buy white or silver colored vehicles. My favorite color is orange. I've never owned an orange car or guitar. I think you're dad's advise is good. My toolbox at work is orange. It's the only thing I own that's orange.

ha, good one, I like orange as well. Only suits certain cars, like in the dukes of hazzard.

My first G&L was a spanish copper metallic which I ordered special and when I got it I was underwhelmed with the color. Now 4 years later, I love it!

When it comes to racing I'm not much into circle tracks, I like road racing but my fav form of racing is the drags.

When it comes to options, now that I'm older and can afford it, nothing short of fully loaded will do.

This pic doesn't do this color justice but I wouldn't mind a guitar to match my truck.

Awesome, another MO G&L guy!