“Everybody has a story. It’s like families. You might not know who they are, might have lost them, but they exist all the same. You might drift apart or you might turn your back on them, but you can’t say you haven’t got them. Same goes for stories. So,” she concluded, “everybody has a story. When are you going to tell me yours?’
It’s been a while since I have read a really good book. The kind you get lost in. The Thirteenth Tale was exactly that type of book for me.
World renowned author, Vida Winter, has been telling tales for six decades. All of which have brought her much fame and fortune. However, none are as sought after as the missing thirteenth tale. For years reporters and would be biographers have hounded Ms. Winter for this mysterious story or for the story of her life, but all have walked away empty handed. It isn’t until she is old and frail that Ms. Winter seeks out the daughter of a bookshop owner, Margaret Lea, to tell her story to; the real story.
The Thirteenth Tale is a perfect book to curl up on the couch with on a rainy weekend, enjoy a cup of tea and get swept up in an old fashioned tale that will have you guessing until the end.
All morning I struggled with the sensation of stray wisps of one world seeping through the cracks of another. Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes — characters even — caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you.
The rustoration project has finally gotten underway. Here is a timeline of what we have been able to accomplish thus far:
March 20 – The car arrives. At first site she looks pretty good. The interior is in excellent condition; some rust on the front fender and rear quarter panels. The engine runs, however, it makes an amazingly ferocious knocking sound.
March 22 – It’s a nice day, but lots of snow remains and the ground outside Monster Shed is still fairly muddy. I decide to go assess the rust situation a little more closely. While there is surface rust in many places the most obvious trouble spots are at the driver rear quarter, passenger front fender, the rear shock towers and under the spare in the trunk.
Mother Nature decides to step in at this point dumping nearly a foot of snow putting the project on temporary hold. In the meantime, we tried to decide on what our ultimate goal for this project should be. Mike Macartney summed it up best in his book, “BMW ’02 Restoration Guide”. In it he describes the different definitions of “restoration”. Under a normal restoration or refurbishment “the car would look nice, drive well, and be ideal for everyday driving or just fun.” And taking into consideration that there wasn’t a huge budget available for this project a normal restoration sounded like an attainable goal. The first step in this process was to get the car running. This would mean removing the engine to ascertain what exactly was causing the knocking. Thankfully, we had a parts car with a running motor that we could use while the damaged could be fixed (if possible).
March 29 – Finally a break in the weather – time to remove that engine. We removed the hood, disconnected all the wires and hoses, and took out all of the necessary bolts in rather quick time. The engine hoist was still frozen and required a little ice hacking and snow removal, but we got her unstuck and moved into position only to discover that the hydraulic cylinder was broken. So, I ordered up a new part from Northern Tool and waited while more snow fell.
Cost of project to date: $1092.07
Car = $1,000
Restoration Guide & Haynes manual = $27.06
Hydraulic jack for hoist = $65.01
The snow is melting, spring flowers are sprouting and temperatures are staying above freezing. These are all signs that “Monster Shed” season is upon us.
The first project in line is a 1971 BMW 2002. Yep, you read that right; it’s a Bimmer! And why would I want to work on such an automobile? Because it can do this:
Granted, I’m not planning on building a rally car, but you never know what will happen until you start turning some wrenches. At the moment I plan on making her a daily (summer) driver.
There are more pictures on the gallery. Stay tuned for updates as we get the project rolling.
Sebastian Vettel takes pole position for the first qualifying of the 2010 Formula 1 season!! Go Red Bull!!
Vettel managed to post a time of 1:54.101, more than a tenth of a second ahead of Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Fernando Alonso, also from Ferrari, came in third position nearly 3 tenths of a second off the pace of Vettel. Mark Webber will be starting tomorrow’s race in sixth position.
One of the new rules for this season is that all of the cars in the top ten positions must start the race on the tires they set their qualifying runs in. Rubens Barrichello, having finished in 11th position will be able to start the race with a fresh set of tires. And tires may be the deciding factor in tomorrow’s race.
 Friday’s free practice sessions were quite interesting to watch. It was the first time to view the cars going around the track. Due to the ban on refueling the cars are much longer than they were last year and, quite frankly, look a bit squirrelly on the track. It appears that most, if not all, of the teams are struggling with setting the ride heights. This was most obvious as cars were going around turn #6 where there is a bit of a bump on the track. All of the cars have been having problems with bottoming out at that section. Getting the ride height correct will definitely prove to be a challenge as cars will be much heavier at the start of the race with full tanks of fuel than they will be towards the end of the race. Apparently, Red Bull may have some sort of on-board height adjustment that the drivers can initiate, but I haven’t been able to verify this information as of yet.
Tire wear was also an issue for some of the teams. Under full fuel the rear tires have been going much quicker than expected. The tire allotment has been decreased this season, so drivers who can take care of their tires will definitely have an advantage. Although, the same can be said about fuel consumption; the drivers with the most finesse will most likely be the ones at the head of the pack. Lewis Hamilton, for instance, likes to throw that McLaren around the track and is a fairly aggressive driver. He was also one of the drivers pulling into the pit complaining of severe tire wear.
Sunday’s race in Bahrain will be tough for the engineers to get right since there is no historical data available for the new section of track that has been added this year. There is a good chance of having a car or two actually run out of fuel during the race. The rules also require that each car finish with at least 1 litre of fuel still on board for testing.
And, as I stated in my last post, Formula 1 racing is not without its controversies. Last year was the season of the “Double Diffusers” which can now be seen on all of the cars. This year is starting off to be the season of the “McLaren Left-Knee Vent”. The engineers at McLaren have added a vent on the nose close to the driver that allows air to flow into the cockpit and out through the floor of the car. There is a lever located by the driver’s left knee that allows the driver to open and close this vent. When closed the turbulent air created by this vent can actually stall out the rear wing, decreasing the amount of down-force on the car. Whether or not this will give the cars any speed advantage remains to be seen and, admittedly, it does not appear to be as large of a controversy as the diffusers were. We will most likely have to wait till the end of Sunday’s race to find out if any other teams will be filing complaints to the race officials. Renault appears to be the loudest objector so far. Red Bull’s Christian Horner brought up the vent a few weeks ago and has stated that they would most likely not be protesting McLaren’s vent. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the Red Bulls sporting a similar gadget by race four or five.
Nico Rosberg managed the fastest lap time in his Mercedes by the end of Friday’s second free practice. There definitely wasn’t a runaway leader and it was impossible to know what fuel loads other cars were running. The true test will be during qualifying. I would also like to send a shout out to the Hispania Racing Team. They were able to do what USF1 could not; from story board to the grid in Bahrain in 6 months. Everyone loves an underdog and it would be marvelous to see both cars cross the finish line on Sunday.
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