1st Speeding Ticket: "did it make you feel special to pull over a 50hp car?"
 

So yeah, I got my very first speeding ticket on Saturday:

Attachment 191

I was driving on highway 46 near the Regina oil refinery heading out of town when suddenly I hear a loud police siren behind me. I've never pulled over so fast in my life as the Dodge Charger patrol unit freaked the living crap out of me. The Charger passed me in a hurry and pulled over a big Chevy truck in the distance. When I approached the stopped vehicles, the officer flagged me to pull over too.

The officer said "you guys were doing 80 (km/h) back there" and hurried to his cruiser to write us both tickets. I really don't think I was going as fast as the truck, but nonetheless I was probably doing 70km/h (it was a 50km/h zone).

I just think it's ironic that of all the sporty/high performance vehicles I've owned, I got a ticket in a lousy 3 cylinder car :rolleyes:.

Bummer. Can you take defensive driving so it will come off the record in Canada?
Also why is the speed limit on a highway 50km/h? Did you explain to him that unless you are going a minimum of 70km/h the cabin temperature will plumet to 20 degrees. :D

Oh, believe me. The officer's total verbal transaction with me lasted only about 7 seconds so there was no way I was getting out of it. I mean he just caught 2 drivers in one shot, how lucky is that for him?

Yeah I know, 50km/h is pretty darn slow considering how little traffic uses that corridor. Then again, the 8 lane Trans Canada Highway leaving the city from the east was 50km/h for years before they finally raised it to 70km/h.

I don't think speeding tickets affect driving records in Saskatchewan because my dad uses the same government insurance agency and he's had his fair share of tickets in the recent past. The insurance costs for his vehicles aren't affected. I think only criminal offenses while driving are counted.

On my car, it cuts one injector at a time and looks for the one that does not affect the engine. That tells which cylinder is misfiring, or not firing at all. I'd imagine yours would work somewhatly the same, except using ignition instead of fuel?

Peakster's Grille Block: BUSTED!
 

That's right. Turns out there's no aerodynamic benefit to my grille block whatsoever.

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Date: March 11th, 2007. ~1:00am
Speed: 45mph with cruise
Temperature: -1*C, winds @ 13km/h coming from the south
Drove the same route as the previous "mirror removal test".

Grille Block on: 58.3 mpg
Grille Block off: 58.4 mpg

Perhaps a block that's flush with the bumper exterior would be more effective?

Interesting with the GEO. Was that several runs or just one run comparing numbers. Even if there is no aero effect you still have to consider warmup and maintaining heat which will increase FE.

I'm not really surprised that the effect was harder to measure on your car compared to mine:

https://metrompg.com/posts/photos/grille-comparo.jpg

The '95-97 Metro (left) had a more streamlined front treatment. Compare to the restyled '98-00 bumper, which has 50-100% more area in its grille openings - a better opportunity for improvement.

Still, like Z says, I'd leave it blocked if you can for the warmup & heat retention reasons.

It was only 2 runs (A-B) one right after the other. Since the car was completely warmed up and both trips were nearly identical, I didn't think it to be necessary to try it with the block on again. Since my grille block wasn't flush with the bumper, the large space was maybe acting like a parachute. I plan to make a new block that fills this space soon (and test it out, formally).

Actually, I had the opposite problem.

Replacement wires on The Green Clam would arc to the head bolts in the wet, the 12 year old factory Sumitomos did not. So back on they went.

A can of WD40 was under the seat until the day I sold the car. Old trick from Saab V4 days.

I'd have to agree with this theory, time to test it!