Petrol prices driving California strangers to carpool

“When I first started riding, the line of cars would go around the corner,” said agreed Jon Jackson, 54, who has ridden in casual carpools for about eight years. “Now, it seems like the riders are the ones having the long lines,” he said.

Traffic is lighter, riders and drivers say, even accounting for the typical summer slowdown, and they blame fuel prices.

The Washington, D.C. area has a similar system, in which riders are known as “slugs,” but the idea of car-pooling draws blank stares in other parts of the country.

Rider Linda Carrillo remembers telling her sister in Richmond, Virginia about it. “She just thinks it is the most bizarre thing in the world. That it would never go over in Richmond — people would never get in the car with strangers.” Continued…

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Letter From the Fort Wayne Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association

Although the rate is much higher than the rate of a few years ago it is cheaper than the $4.19 rate at the corner gas stations. Within the past years officers have taken many proactive measures to cut back on gasoline usage and have made self initiated cuts in off-duty driving. This has resulted in the department coming in $40,000 under gas budged for 2007. Our current budget is also projected to come in under budget.

One must also look at the many problems departments without take-home vehicles face. With the ever-growing list of needed police equipment officers can average 20-30 minutes a day loading and unloading their equipment from their personal car to the fleet vehicle. This wasted time would cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. With a take-home car all of our equipment is already stored in our vehicle.

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Bentley Continental Flying Spur Speed: Harnessing the gargantuan beast

It will corner adroitly, but the weight of the engine means the nose always wants to run wide of the corner. The Speed modifications have taken a slight toll of refinement, but they have improved the car’s balance, turn-in and steering feedback immeasurably. Modifications to the air bellows in the suspension have improved if not totally cured the buzzing low-speed ride as well, which is something of a bétè noir of air suspension. The standard car, with its paltry 560bhp, rides over low-speed crinkles marginally better, but at higher velocities the Speed model is much the superior riding and handling car; Uli Eichhorn reckons that it will account for about 40 per cent of sales.

The engine is the same stalwart power plant derived from two narrow-angle VR6 units and still has that unburstable almost turbine-like quality of the other Continental derivatives.

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Race For Efficient Electric Car Begins

“We have been here a year and they (electric cars) are still around the corner,” Kelley said. “They have got to be cars that we can put on the lot that people can come in and drive and drive off.”

Some customers at Davis Electric Cars said that with the current spike in gas prices, the appeal of buying an electric or hybrid vehicle is at an all-time high.

“We live in Sacramento and are looking for something that we can just run through town in and not have to pay $5 a gallon to pay gas on,” customer Evan Reed said. .

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Fun without the high price

Sure, the introduction of the long-awaited Lancer Evolution has given the company a much-needed halo car, but it is the grassroots version that’s the dominant player. The GTS is the model that bridges the gap between the Evo and the entry-level relations.

Powering the GTS is a 2.0-litre four-cylinder that delivers 152 horsepower and 146 pound-feet of torque at 4,250 rpm, which is enough to motivate the 1,410-kilogram four-door with enthusiasm — it gets to 100 kilometres an hour in 8.9 seconds. This engine is commendably smooth from idle to around 5,000 rpm. Above this point in the rev range, it tends to become a little thrashy, especially when hooked up to the optional continuously variable transmission (CVT).

In drive, the base Lancer’s CVT forces the engine to run within a whisper of redline until the desired speed is attained, which produces a long, drawn-out mechanical cacophony.

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10 GREAT BRITISH GRANDS PRIX

The Formula One world championship was born in a quiet corner of Northamptonshire. A quartet of Alfa Romeos were the class of a patchy grid. When Juan Manuel Fangio’s race was cut short by engine trouble, Giuseppe Farina wrote his name into Formula One history by taking victory from Luigi Fagioli.

1957

An historic day as for the first time in the world championship, a British driver won in a British car on home soil. In front of an enormous Aintree crowd, pole-sitter Stirling Moss retired on lap 21, only to take over the car of Vanwall team-mate Tony Brooks soon after. Although then down in ninth, Moss reeled in the field, regaining the lead on lap 69 and going on to take the flag when the gearbox of Jean Behra’s Maserati exploded.

1970

Arguably one of the most dramatic finishes to a British Grand Prix as Jack Brabham appeared certain of victory at Brands Hatch in his Brabham Ford, only to run out of fuel just 200 yards from the line, handing the win to Jochen Rindt, driving a Lotus.

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REACTION: FERRARI, TOYOTA, McLAREN

Lewis Hamilton: My drive-through penalty was an extremely close call: I felt I’d got past Vettel fairly and was ahead going into the corner. But I was on the outside and couldn’t turn-in in case we both crashed, then I lost the back-end and drove over the kerb. But, after that, I got my head down and pushed hard until the end of the race. I’ve been out of the points for three races now – but there are still 10 to go. Kimi came from behind to win last year’s championship, so there’s no reason to be disheartened. I’m 10 points behind, but I’m determined to bounce back at Silverstone in front of my home crowd.

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Here are some solutions to the gasoline ‘crisis’

We know there is a lot of oil in ANWAR, a desolate corner of Alaska, and offshore drilling probably even more. Last year Brazil found a large oil field offshore that may contain more oil then Saudi Arabia. Of course it was our companies that did the deep water drilling. The last oil spill was in 1969, and the technology today is far superior. All the deep-water rigs in the Gulf of Mexico did not lose a drop of oil when Katrina hit!Unfortunately oil drilling has become very political, especially with Texans in the White House and the vice president being a former CEO of Halliburton. The Democrats like this “oil crisis” since it will win them votes as it destroys our economy, the republicans are frozen in fear since it’s losing them votes, and we have a unpopular lame duck president who is not able to get any energy policy set up, especially with the media going after Vice President Cheney, Halliburton, Enron.

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Rev it up with the fast set

For more rallying thrills, modern world rally cars promise to cut every corner possible on their way up the hill. Ford, Subaru and Citroën will all be running their fearsome machines. And once over the finishing line, the rally drivers turn off for a second display of fast and furious antics, as they mess about in the mud of the forest rally stage.

Back on the hill, look out for this year’s celebration of the British touring car championship. Always a crowd favourite, with its wheel-to-wheel racing and showroom-based cars, there are landmark cars from each of the past five decades of the championship. Classic machines such the 1965 Austin Mini Cooper S and 1965 Ford Lotus Cortina will keep the dads happy, while today’s generation of touring car fans will be equally enthralled by the 2008 Honda Civic Type-R.

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F1: Red Car, Blue Car, Yellow Car lo! behold! Silver Car!

I remember those glorious days when I used to go to a little corner shop at the end of my street and stare at those red, blue and yellow cars lined up on the glass showcase. I was penniless and could not afford to buy one!

Today, my little nephew who is all of six-years old has broken, smashed, and taken apart more than a dozen cars a week ever since he was a boy of two. Every weekend his only request to whoever is nice to him is, “Can I please have a red car/blue car/yellow car?” or “Can I have a small red car/that big red car/the remote red car/that race car in red?”

Size and color vary from time-to-time, but the fascination for those cars never dims. His face lights up like a million glowing torches at the same time that I am sorely tempted to throw my money on at least a few cars a week.

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