Captain Obvious

So far... Taps Brewery in Niagara. MIll St. Brewpub in Toronto, and Muddy York Brewing in Toronto as well. That's Wed, Thurs, Fri respectively. Muddy York reminded of the first place you and I went where we walked right into the big room with all the stainless tanks. Big difference was they DID sell their beer right there. Took a couple bottles back to the hotel and enjoyed them out on our deck overlooking the pool. Wish you were here!

OK, So then where are you, my friend???

more later. Zup, just wanted to let you know I'm thinking of ya!!! just got back from a fantastic surf n turf lunch hosted by granny knot! Wish you had been there.

Well it's not like he went to breakfast with us... He's suffering from a bad case of the bronze. I did manage to snap a pic of him admiring some Z badging though. Don't think I can upload pics from here though. Might have to wait till I get home.

Was in Niagara Falls last night and just got to the Westin a couple minutes ago! Im going to cool off for a little and then stat looking for trouble. Errrrrr I mean entertainment. Went to Taps brew house in Niagara last night for dinner. Got some good pics of Nikola Tesla this morning and had breakfast at The Flying Saucer!!

Nice! I'm out the door tomorrow morning headed to Niagara Falls. If all goes according to plan, I'll be in Toronto on Thurs morning. I'm not sure what the internet situation will be, so this may be my last communique until I get there. Save some poutine for me!!

Done. If it's as simple as avoiding the 407, I'll just do that. Blue, Sorry that you couldn't quite get 249 to the show. Sounds like the good college try would have worked, but you just ran out of time. You needed a couple more days shakedown before you left home. Really looking forward to seeing you though. With or without 249!

That's how I roll?

Crap. I wonder if they ream you with extra fees if you aren't in their system. I think PA is going to that type of arrangement. If you have the foresight to sign up, you get one price. If you aren't signed up and they have to search for you, they punish you by charging you more.

You got a nice dark location to put my car during the day? I'll show you my dash lights. You'll never be the same.

Thanks for the input guys, but don't get me wrong... I'm probably willing to pay the toll, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to. Steve, are you saying that the toll roads that are electronic collection only with no provision for cash? I've seen that elsewhere, and they have a "retroactive" payment scheme where they take a pic of the license plate and bill you later. But I'm not sure if that will work with international travel. Any input from the locals?

So what about road tolls? I'm planning to take highways from Niagara Falls up to Toronto and I'm not sure it the highways have tolls. Stuff like the QEW? And if there are tolls, I'm assuming there are still "cash lanes"? The reason I ask is that some places are completely doing away with cash and are going to wireless electronic payment only.

Returned the favor. I literally lol'd when I read that. I had a similar sports injury a number of years ago, but it was the finger NEXT to the driving finger. Anyone else ever seen the bumper sticker "Horn broke. Watch for finger"?

Nice pic.

You could easily get them to me before I leave and I could take them along. Only problem with that Blue will have to make it to the event on his old bearings because I'm not going to be there until Thurs. But if there is no other better plan we can do that.

Wow bud, You are cutting it beyond close! Are both of you riding in the Z, or do you have a chase vehicle? I'm planning to bring a small pouch of tools, and you know I'll give you a hand if you need it once I get there.

Thin piece of sheet metal with some black textured paint from the big box store? Might keep you satisfied until you get a better replacement?

Oh, and I added a third light bulb in the speedo to fix that 1:00 position dark spot up by 80 mph. My nighttime speedo is now completely awesome!! I think of reasons to go driving at night because I just like looking at it!

I've been working hard to get my car ready for the trip as well. This will, by far, be the farthest road trip this Z has ever made with me at the helm. I put in a new rear diff mount with customized easy to wrench hardware - I took lots of pics and I'll get to the details sometime when I get a chance. While I was back there, I also sewed myself a replacement upper strap - Again, lots of pics and details. I put in new fusible links - Old links seemed looked and worked just fine, but looks can be deceiving. I got voltage and current measurements to discuss later. The last project I'm trying to get done is some homemade bumper ends for my newly retracted front bumper. They are Dilbert quality beta units at this point.

That is just awesome. I love the camaraderie. Did SteveJ have oil of Aphrodite and the dust of the grand wazoo?

Thanks guys. I know all the driving impressions are subjective, but the descriptions sound perfect. It's been a long time since I pulled a transmission out of a Z. Long time. And I'm sorry for the thread detour as well.

Yeah. that's the kind of picture I wasn't allowed to post. I'm glad you can laugh at the situation and I'm also glad it was just a couple stiches. So how long did the Dr. say until you are allowed to give other driver's the finger again?

What exactly do you mean by that?

Thanks guys, I'm not really concerned with the ethanol as I can't get away from it where I live. I haven't been able to buy no-ethanol fuel for a number of years now. Gas prices in my area are maybe $2.50 per gallon right now, so it seems a little cheaper on the US side. Of course, I have no idea (yet) what the prices will be in the Buffalo/Niagara NY are which is where I'll probably cross over. As for $$, I'm thinking that I'm going to use my credit card for most things and let them hash out the exchange rate, but I think it would be a good idea to have some Canadian pocket $$ for things like Tim Horton's, etc. I don't want to get the dirty looks like SteveJ got. I get enough of that already for lots of other reasons. I'm thinking that if I get a chance, I'll stop at a bank for the conversion. So Namerow, You're planning to be at this event?

So any idea what was the overall change in mass? The reason I ask... I put a lightweight flywheel in my POS Civic (because that's what all the cool kids do), but I made sure to use the stock style pressure plate and clutch disk. With my Civic, the stock clutch and pressure plate together weigh almost as much as the stock flywheel, so going to a lightweight flywheel wasn't that dramatic of a change. I didn't need a tricky to drive in traffic quick spooling stab at the throttle nightmare. I just wanted something where the engine would decelerate at the rate the transmission wanted it. Prior to making that change, when I up-shifted gears in the Civic, by the time I let the clutch out, the engine RPMs were still way higher than where they should have been for the new gear. I think the flywheel was designed with too much mass for the system and by going to a lighter flywheel and slightly reducing the entire mass of the system, I think I better matched the RPM drop between gears. And I get the same feeling from my Z. Not as bad as the Civic, but a little bit. Or maybe I just shift too fast and work my synchros harder than I need to?