The Stig vs. Lewis Hamilton

I know what you’re thinking, 2 blog posts in one day? You must have gone mad. I suppose the good news is that I haven’t gone mad; the bad news is you probably have since you’re reading this blog.

I found out some pretty monumental information from one of my favorite auto industry blogs, AutoBlog (original name eh?). My favorite auto show Top Gear, will be pitting F1 rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton against Top Gear’s tame racing driver “The Stig”. Before saying what in the blue hell is this all about let me explain a bit.
Top Gear is probably the best automotive information show in the world; it airs on BBC in the UK and features some pretty colorful chaps. They make the show lively, funny, and always have some interesting car to flog on their track or odd challenge that they have to overcome. Those challenges range from finding a Porsche under £2,000 and finding out which one performs the best, racing a Buggati Veyron against a RAF Fighter plane, and one of my favorites making a car into a boat and crossing the English channel.

The baseline tester for all performance tests on the Top Gear track is The Stig and he’s been known to be one quick bloke. He’s always shown in a white racing suit, a white helmet, and he never says a word which makes him all the more mysterious.
Lewis Hamilton on the other hand is a rookie to the F1 circuit coming from a championship year in GP2. GP2 is sort of the minor leagues. Think of it as the Busch series compared to the Nextel Cup for those NASCAR fans. He had a fantastic first year with the McLaren-Mercedes F1 team, almost capturing the driver’s championship which is pretty phenomenal.

So why is this big? Top Gear is a UK show, Lewis Hamilton (a hometown hero in Britain) is probably one of the top 3 drivers in F1 and Top Gear is the auto show to watch. The Stig owns the Top Gear track so it’ll be fun to watch someone try to dethrone him. That’s good racing, period.


Top Gear - Bugatti Veyron vs. RAF Fighter

Long Time No Bloggy

I’ve meant to blog a whole lot more than I have but for some reason I get preoccupied with this thing called the internet. A wicked bugger that internet thing is. On an average day I find the time to check most major news outlets, my favorite blogs, and squeeze in some game playing when I get the chance. So when it comes down to writing my own blog, well, let’s just say I’m lucky I have time to sleep.

Recently I took some time to think about when the best time to blog would be since I get random writer’s block and I’ve come up with two possible solutions.

• One, you get a couple of drinks down or at least to get the thinking juices flowing, and just spout off everything going on.
• Two, get to the brink of exhaustion (as I probably am right now but don’t quite realize it yet)

and just ramble about things that are on your mind.
Anyways, there’s some interesting things going on in the world as we’re closing in on 2k8 and I wonder what next year has in store. I figure the upcoming year will be filled with a bunch of political topics since we’ll be in an election year. Probable hot topics this year, health care reform (isn’t that every election), gas prices, and immigration. You could probably toss in the ramblings of a possible recession due to the whole housing debacle with sub-prime lending and variable interest rates. It should be pretty interesting to see what these candidates have to say and how they figure to solve these problems.

On a similar note, I curious to see which direction car manufacturer’s take to help alleviate our insatiable thirst for petroleum products, black gold, or gas for the rest of us. There is some hope out there with the Tesla Roadster being a proof of concept that an all electric car can be fast and carry enough charge to get you from work to home without having to stop halfway (unless your commute is from Los Angeles to San Francisco).

The unfortunate fact is that electric cars still rely on well, electricity. Ultimately it’s still relying on petroleum products when it comes down to it since many a power plants and such still use said products.

What would be a bit more interesting is a jump in portable solar technology, panels on the roof of your Prius that runs E100 (100% ethanol, not a blend with gasoline). There’s also hydrogen cars in the works namely the FCX Clarity from Honda which outputs something truly pollutant to the world, water (ok…sarcasm…hello!) You have to throw Bio-diesel into the ring as well as a contender. What this all boils down to is an interesting year in car technology that will hopefully free us from the grasp of the greedy oil industry. If not, it’s time to sue.

Another interest of mine, which also happens to be my line of work, is Video Gaming. So, in the world of gaming, namely console gaming, I believe two years ago was the year of the XBOX 360, last year was the Wii’s, and this year will likely be the PS3’s time to shine. It’s often overlooked because of its price, but with the games that will be coming out (hopefully, cross-fingers) it should make for a good argument to plunk down the extra scratch for one. Possible tiles of interest include:

• Final Fantasy XIII
• Gran Turismo 5
• Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
• Street Fighter IV
• Little Big Planet

Ok, before you say anything, I do realize that many of those games are pretty far out production/release date wise but for the purposes of this blog and since they all are slated for an ’08 release let’s say those count for my “it” titles.

And with that I’ll stop the rambling, but I’ll leave you with an entertaining video from those guys at Cal



For those that didn't know what was being played, in order it is...Pong, Tetris, Mortal Kombat (MK), Pokemon, Zelda, and Super Mario Bros. Enjoy it and I'll try to blog more often!