My Black Brick

I’ve been doing road trips to camps all summer. This week is gymnastics in Paramus, so I’ve been piling 5 girls into the brick for the 25 mile trip. The 3rd seat is nice in that it doesn’t require a booster seat; the belt is low enough that it fits 5 and 6 year olds. When I tell the kids they’re going to have to ride in the trunk they laugh and laugh.

Claire is thrilled to sit in the front passenger seat, but the Jonas Brothers are never loud enough. Sigh. Is it too much to wish to have my daughters grow up to be Mastodon fans?

Another great photo from David White.

I put the rack over the back, which put most of the weight over the rear of the car. It wallowed a little on bumps, but nothing too bad. The sport springs and anti-sways stabilize the ride so the car doesn’t feel overloaded. And the Yokohamas were pretty quiet.

Went camping at Covered Bridge campsite in the Catskills this weekend and somehow my buddy David managed to shoot a pic of us tooling around the curvy roads along the river without wrecking his SUV.

I was luck enough to have a neighbor of my parents donate the roof bin they used to use on their 940. The Sears “Ex-Cargo” was the same model my parents used to have on top of our 1979 Olds Delta 88 when we made trips to the beaches of North Carolina. It’s nice and tall and practically doubles the cargo area, enabling me to actually see out the back window with all our equipment.

This is probably the smallest spot I’ve parallel parked into, and I don’t think I could go any smaller. The height of the SUV in front allowed me to tuck the bumper underneath just so. Unfortunately I couldn’t open the back hatch, but at least I could park in fron of my place and not 2 blocks away.

I finally added up all my expenses for the brick for 2009 and got a good view how much its cost over the span of 4 years. This doesn’t include gas or insurance, which is incredibly low for NJ at $800 a year. Here’s the numbers:

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This isn’t the tightest spot I’ve gotten into, but at least I had my camera. Shot from my apartment. The rear spare on the jeep made it feel even smaller.

I’m continually amazed at the tight spots I can fit this car in. A few factors contribute to the 32′ turning radius:

• RWD cars can turn sharper because the power is independent from the steering. That’s one reason a Nissan Maxima, for example, has a 40′ turning radius.

• The 240 is narrow. 67″ vs. Subaru Outback’s 72″, not to mention the Cadillac Escalade’s 79″.

• The huge rear overhang above a short wheelbase. The 240 pivots sharper since the proportion of the wheelbase to the overall length is shorter than most cars. Compare 104/190 with the Mini Clubman at 100/155.

This may not mean much to suburban bricksters with driveways and parking slots at the local strip mall, but living in the city it saves my ass again and again. The streets are narrow and parking is scarce, so I’m always prowling for a spot. Once I find one there’s no room for error; there’s usually a line of 2-3 cars behind you, revving their engines and hovering over their horn. Sure, I occasionally pinball back and forth from bumper to bumper, but that’s why matt black rubber bumpers were made. I’m so glad I don’t have a fiberglass, body color non-bumper like most cars have these days.

After the last snow storm my black brick was speckled with so much salt it had turned white. I’m hoping this snow bank will protect from all the splatter on this high-traffic road. A fresh coat of wax makes the snow just slip off.

We drove down to Northern VA this weekend to visit my parents and had a chance to check out some museums in DC. Pulling onto the mall at 10:15 on a Sunday allowed us to park right in front of the Capitol, the National Gallery and the museum of the American Indian. It also gave me a great backdrop to photograph the brick with it’s new lowering springs.

The 4.5 hour ride down was quite pleasant. I’d been nervous about the stiffness of the springs but overall everything is fine. On long stretches of highway it felt about the same. The only problem is large dips and rises. The car doesn’t absorb them like it used to; you ride the full height and depth. Luckily there’s no bottoming out or shock crash-through, and no scrapping the exhaust on speed bumps.

I’ve been driving my wife crazy taking turns though. It’s so easy and precise to steer that you can lose a sense of your speed. Of course I was pushing the car a little, sending our case of Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chuck sliding around the trunk, and forcing Desiree to grab onto her seat. Fun!

But, as always, I’ve got a new gremlin in the car. No overdrive. It kicked out last week, so the whole drive was spent at 60mph in the right lane at 3200rpm. I gotta figure out if I want to check the OD solenoid, or just get the ipd bypass kit.

In honor of Jalopnik.com “Crash Week” I present an image I took last week of an accident I witnessed in Hoboken. This is the second time in the past few months that I’ve watched cars turning left into traffic and getting smashed.

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We got back yesterday from a long trip to California. It was nice driving around in a new rental car. We drove up to the Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park in our Hertz Mustang convertible. Having the top down was amazing, as the roads wound wind around the mountain, with beautiful views and giant, 3000 year old trees towering overhead. The Ford had a V6, which wasn’t too bad, considering the roads were so twisty that you couldn’t really open up the throttle anyway. But it was low and firm, which was great for the tight turns and switchbacks.