Month: June 2009

Car Photo of the Day: 917

Always impressive to see, in any context, the Porsche 917 commands respect. This Porker was spotted in the paddock of the NW Historics in Kent, WA last summer.

Here is a Mulsanne Straight spectator viewpoint of a passing 917:

If you need more time to appreciate the machine, here’s some more footage courtesy of Mr. Steve McQueen and the movie classic Le Mans:

JCNA Slalom, June 7th, 2009, Surrey BC, Canada

The Standard JCNA Slalom Course

Nicholas & I awoke early to get ourselves up to the Vancouver area for a JCNA Slalom. This on was being hosted by The Pacific Jaguar Enthusiasts/Group 44 in the same Skytrain parking lot as the Canadian XK Register Slaloms I’ve attended in the past. The drive north was uneventful, just a tad chilly under overcast skies, and dull as we took Interstate 5.

Nick catching up on sleep on the northbound journey

Continue reading “JCNA Slalom, June 7th, 2009, Surrey BC, Canada”

Car Photo of the Day: Maser

The above Maserati was seen at the 2008 New England 1000, being driven by the Rallymaster Rich Taylor.

In other news there will be no Jaguar pics tonight… I found out late last night that the JCNA slalom in Canada I intended to drive to this morning is actually going to be happening tomorrow. So today I’ll be doing all those things I planned to do Sunday. Namely make a batch of BioDiesel, fix our damn lawnmower (never. buy. Craftsman. ever. again.) Maybe cut the grass if successful.

At least it has cooled off. 61°F right now where as it was 90°F here yesterday.

BioDiesel news & BioDiesel shoes.

It is... orange.

I few weeks ago one of the guys in my small BioDiesel co-op dropped off a barrel of waste oil he collected from a restaurant. I was a bit taken aback when I looked at the oil as it had… some odd coloration. Usually a barrel of oil settles in a way so that the top few inches look like new. That is clear, bright golden-yellow oil. When I looked at this stuff it was sort of shocking orange, and very opaque… almost milky. I though perhaps it had been shaken up in transit and have left it sitting out by the barn for a few weeks to settle. My worst fear was that it wasn’t really oil at all. Next in line was that it had been contaminated with something. Water if of course the usual waste oil contaminant, but this looked… weird. So last weekend I took a 1-liter sample and made a small test-batch. The oil had settled and was mostly clear, but still VERY orange. The test batch is done at ambient temps so it takes a long time. I let it sit for five days and above is how it looks today. Still not “clear” (it is unwashed though) and still… very orange.

Next I’ll subject some to the 3/27 Conversion Test and see how it does. My gut feeling says it is “good” and that the coloration is just some artifact of whatever it is they are cooking. The oil comes from a Mexican food place, so perhaps it is excess paprika, or maybe Chorizo, which are the only Mexican cuisine items I can recall that are unusually orange in color.

If it tests out well I’ll mix it with the rest of my (normally colored) waste oil and make some BioDiesel from it. Maybe my exhaust will make people think of nachos instead of french fries now? We’ll see.

Speaking of Home Brew BioDiesel I figured I’d share one of the risks of this activity: Shoe dissolving.

My soles have vanished

BioDiesel is one of the world’s great solvents. It attacks rubber with the ferocity of a shoal of slow-motion piranhas. Exposure directly to vegetable oils literally makes rubber vanish. I only wear one pair of shoes when I work out in the barn around the waste oil and BioDiesel, and the above is a photograph of their current state. This is of course after many years of use, but I think it is time to retire them.