Friday, May 17, 2013
Eric Savage left the VW/Audi world to work on MINIs and BMWs in Manayunk.
It’s possible to walk past Helix Motorsports on Umbria Street in Manayunk and not know what happens in the building. Nestled between row homes and close to a bar, an elementary school and a purveyor of tomato pie, Helix’s headquarters could pass as a law or a dental office. It’s modest, just the way owner Eric Savage likes it. Savage comes across as a mellow guy, but he’s taken some risks in his career … and they seem to have paid off, as his MINI and BMW tuning business is now a pretty heavy hitter in the car community. In 2001 Savage left AWE Tuning, a Willow Grove-based VW/Audi-focused company, to start something of his own. He then bought a MINI, rented some brewery space and then moved to Manayunk. “Basically, the way we started, we…
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Halladay may be riding off into the sunset with the team if he returns to pitch this year.
You hate the "What If's." You wonder what if "The Rotation" held up and made it through the 2011 season healthy. Would it have brought the team another World Series championship? We may never know. All we know is that Roy Halladay—once the franchise ace of the Philadelphia Phillies—may be riding off into the sunset. Doc's tenure with the Phils is bound to come to an end this year now that he is on the shelf facing shoulder surgery next week. Maybe he comes back at the end of the year and pushes the Phils into the playoffs for a World Series run. Doc's contract is up at the end of this year and there's no way the Phillies will pick up his $20 million option. So Doc may win that elusive World Series. But it just might be with another team …
Friday, May 10, 2013
How and where not to drive your car, from the car manufacturers.
I don’t find car commercials particularly interesting. Sure, a handful of car ads have been entertaining, and they’re usually for Volkswagens (remember the ad with the guy trying to race to the church?), but the most part, the ads are trying to peddle mass-produced people haulers and grocery getters. They usually don’t focus on the car, or how it performs, rather they feature an announcer shouting words at the viewer, accompanied by lots of numbers on the screen. What I do find interesting, or just plain absurd, are the warnings slapped on the ads. In fine print at the bottom of the screen, the warnings tell me what not to do with a particular vehicle. Drag racing on city streets? Don’t do that. Pegging the speedometer to the right as you…
Friday, May 3, 2013
No one likes to be left out, and car companies are no different.
I was driving to work the other day and a silver car with LEDs and a gaping front end came up behind me pretty quickly, stopping next to me at a red light on Henry Avenue. Though the car could have been anything … with its LEDs, and gaping grill, I gave it a quick glance. According to its front caliper, it was an Audi R8. Being not your typical grocery-getter, it qualified for a quick thumbs-up … as is customary. The driver smiled and nodded in appreciation … as is customary. Five years ago, I would have thought that this car was either a manufacturer’s prototype, never meant for production … or a spaceship. The R8’s 12 LEDs look like single units from some distances and look like one strip of light from other distances. The look was clean…
Saturday, April 27, 2013
The Philadelphia Phillies usually get off to a bad start in April. And they are once again this year.
They say you can't win the season in April. But you could certainly lose it. And after the first month of the season, the Philadelphia Phillies are letting April showers drown them. They stand at 9-14 going into Friday night's game against the New York Mets. Five games under .500 and their worst start since 2006. Basically there's one word to sum up their performance so far this season: pathetic. The starting pitching has been inconsistent. The bullpen has gotten rocked. The offensive bats aren't just cold; they're pretty much icy. The defense stinks. The fundamentals are lacking. Pathetic. Case in point was Roy Halladay's performance Wednesday night. The pitcher has turned things around since a shaky start and question marks about his …
Friday, April 26, 2013
Yours probably will, too.
When I’m driving around town, either for work or just for the heck of it, I find that my car gets about 19 to 20 miles per gallon. The car is up to date on maintenance, its tires are usually filled up properly and I drive conservatively. Still … it goes through a gallon of dino-juice after about 20 miles. It’s not bad, as the car is nine years old, and I don’t complain about it. There have been a few instances — usually after leaving a late-night municipal meeting in which every commissioner/board member had to thank everyone from his mother to his tailor in closing comments — where I have had the opportunity to do some hypermiling around town. Hypermiling is paying close attention to driving habits to maximize fuel economy. It’s fun, in …
Saturday, April 20, 2013
New Coach Chip Kelly and the Philadelphia Eagles have the No. 4 pick in the NFL Draft next week.
"And with the second pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, the Philadelphia Eagles select Quarterback Donovan McNabb from Syracuse..." Boo, Boo, Boo, Boo, Boo. That's the sound that drowned out that selection when Coach Andy Reid made a major decision with a major draft pick, thus shaping his tenure and the team's future for the next decade. And that pick didn't turn out so bad: McNabb is easily one of the greatest quarterbacks in franchise history, having taken the Eagles to the Super Bowl and five NFC Championship Games. So can Geno Smith be McNabb all over again? After an awful season, the Philadelphia Eagles hold the fourth pick in the NFL Draft, which begins Thursday. You hear a lot of names being tossed around. It's not really a strong draft …
Friday, April 19, 2013
The Fort Washington-based Fabspeed adds power to the already powerful.
This week, AAA released its annual report analyzing the annual cost per mile to operate a sedan in the U.S. It’s up 1.17 cents over last year to about $0.61 per mile. And apparently, the main reason for the increase is vehicle maintenance. The report kind of makes you giggle after taking a trip to Fabspeed Motorsports in Fort Washington, which dubs itself as a performance manufacturing company. Average driving costs are up slightly over a penny per mile? Parsing the difference in cost between gas and maintenance? Not here. Fabspeed is a place for people who think their Ferrari 458s and Porsche GT2s are underpowered. The company sits in a discreet building in an office complex a couple miles from Philadelphia. Other than the company’s sign …
Saturday, April 13, 2013
The Philadelphia 76ers expected a season of promise with a big off-season trade. Now the franchise is on the verge of collapse.
We interrupt the start of the baseball season to report that another Philadelphia sports team won't be making the playoffs this year. So much for your Philadelphia 76ers. After a past few years of exciting new ownership, promising playoff victories and high-profile trades, the Sixers have sunk to the lowest depths of the four Philly sports franchises this year. The finger pointing is endless. This has been one disaster of a season. In the beginning of the year, the possibilities and promise were endless. The team, with numerous free agent signings and trades in the off-season, appeared prime to take off. With rising stars Jrue Holiday and Evan Turner leading the way, the Sixers added a dominant force in the middle that would allow them to …
Friday, April 12, 2013
April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month; maybe sticks would help.
It’s always a rough ride for me when I’m forced to drive my wife’s car — a delightfully reliable, cute, sea-foam green front-wheel drive appliance from Korea. For the first few blocks it must look like the car is missing the “student driver” tent. The car shudders and stops short as my left foot keeps mashing the left side of the brake pedal … thinking there’s a clutch pedal there. I’m no scientist, but it might be a muscle memory thing, as I log tens of thousands of miles per year on a car with a manual transmission. I love driving my manual-equipped car (Is there anything better than a perfect rev-matched downshift?) and I know I’m in the minority. In fact, it took me months to find my current car, as most people don’t want to be …
Jim McNeill
8:12 am on Monday, May 13, 2013
su capacidad para comprender el idioma Inglés es impresionante more ›