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(Some links maybe broken due to site changes)

12/08/03

Updated-

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/turbo_ignition.html

GLHS parts for sale page has been updated as well.

11/23/03

Congratulations to Mike "The Planet Killer AKA The Prince of Darkness" Marra for getting his Contraption back into the 11's after a two year hiatus. Mikes been plagued by tuning issues, exploding transmission parts (THREE TIMES) and cooling system problems but persevered rather then set the car on fire as suggested.

11/19/03

Went to Cecil County to catch some Turbo Dodge drag racing!

Congratulations to-

Brian Slowe finally breaking into the 10's with a best pass of 10.63 @ 131 mph.

Justin Cronk running a 12.9 with a fairly stock Daytona.

Joe D'Ambrosio running 13.6 at 100 mph with a 3500 lb Lebaron coupe!

Jon Genesky for running a 11.88 at 115 mph with his CSX-T!

Bruce "Top Fuel" Bender cracking off 11.55 @ 123 mph.

Dan Carson running 11.55 at 117 mph on 17 psi of boost!

Pat Culkin running 12.44 at 110 mph with his Spirit R/T!

Heather (Mrs. Donovan) running 15's with her mostly stock Spirit ES!

Sorry if I missed a few people, there were a lot there!

Some pictures-

Heather waiting in staging.

Pat Culkin in the burnout box.

Brian Slowe after heating up the tires.

Jon warming up his slicks!

The 9-10-11-12 second pages have been updated as has the GLHS parts for sale page.

11/5/03

Liberal hypocrite of the day- Barbra Streisand

"This is censorship, pure and simple. Well, maybe not all that pure. Censorship never is. Due to their experience with the restrictive English government, the framers of our constitution specifically included a ban on prior restraint in the First Amendment, which is an attempt to stop information from getting out there before the public has a chance to see it at all - exactly what is going on in this case."

On one hand the framers of the constitution are praised for including the first amendment as a protection against tyranny, on the other they were stupid for including the second amendment.  Nice going "gun control" Streisand.

In case your wondering what the flap is about CBS pulled a movie ("television drama" in PC speak) they were going to air about Ronald Reagan. Why did they pull it you ask? Because most of it was fictional nonsense and a lot of people got hold parts of the script and bitched at CBS. 

Oh I'm sorry, insert "Republican conspiracy" in place of people. Even though CBS admitted they were wrong elitist mouthpiece of the left Barbra has been spotting elephants under the bed again. Perhaps she should go back to signing and dictating memos to Al Gore.

11/3/03

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Archibald Stuart (1791)

11/1/03

Two cars down, two more to go.

Hey waddya know, the movie Underworld didn't suck, check it out if you liked Blade (I).

10/29/03

Sometimes the less said the better.

10/28/03

Picked up Matrix Reloaded on DVD for $17 at best buy. Yes shoot me for getting it up but I already have the first... Looks better on the small screen with the exception of the "dance party/rave" which still made me shudder and a few other bits and pieces.

1) The Matrix has assigned 1/4 million machines to kill all the people on Zion, how does the machines know there are a 1/4 million people in Zion if they have no access to Zion's mainframe? Perhaps we will have the answer in the next movie hmm...

2) Car that is crushed by the agent on the highway when he lands on the hood... You can clearly see it has a rollcage and no exhaust system when it flips over, party foul! 

My fingers are crossed that the next movie doesn't suck.

10/23/03

Went down to Ohio last weekend for the twice annual get together of the Ohio Valley chapter of the Shelby Dodge club. Jon and I made the 1600 mile round trip in his Dakota leaving here at 11:00 AM on Friday and we pulled into Southgate Kentucky at 11:00 PM where we were staying. 

Our trusty '01 4.7 5 speed Motorsports Dakota out front.

Big Daddy's Swamp Rat!

Stopped at Summit racing along the way (great showroom) took pictures of the Goodyear blimp as it was tooling over I-76 and passed through Cincinnati which has an impressive skyline at night. 

Crashed at Ken Adler's place for the night, had a great breakfast, and then headed to Tri-State dragway to catch some racing. James Reeves beat his best time with a 11.81 and then beat it again with a 11.71 at 118 mph and Warren Hall reset his personal best with an 12.88 at 108 mph. 

Warren Hall's 87 CSX

Jo O'Conner's Turbo Z Daytona

What is impressive about Warren's CSX is it has a stock longblock, weighs 3100 lbs and he races with 150 of stereo equipment! We said our good-byes after catching 7 hours of racing and headed home.. Due to light evening traffic took us 11 hours and 45 minutes. Some hard driving but it was good to see friends and catch some racing.

Website updates coming soon, going to be going over the pages in the database one at a time and updating them. Have lots of new information plus a few new pages as well. 

Parts for sale updated, GLHS parts for sale updated, autos for sale updated. 

Looking for t-top '89 Shelby Daytona parts? check here

10/7/03

Where do I start?

1) Picked up another R/T, yes now I own two of the blinking things! The red one you can see on the main page logo of course, thought it would be a nice change of pace. This one is white and was saved from going to the crusher! The prior owner was already starting to take it apart when he got called out of state for a job. 

It's rougher then it actually looks- All the paint it peeling off but that's small potatoes, since the body is mint except for two very small dings and the underside doesn't have a spec of rust. All the rims are there and I have already obtained a few pieces that are missing or broken. The drivetrain is missing but I'm not worried about that since I have spare TIII parts! 

This car is going to be the new daily driver instead tooling around in the van all the time. 

2) I'm just thinking about replacing my main box and get something slamming like a P4 2.4C with a half gig a DDR ram on an Abit board with an ATI 9600 or 9800 pro and a few ultra fast ATA drives (business expense don't ya know). For the first time in years not one but two games worthy of upgrading is coming along and need to be viewed in all their glory and some damn fool hacker breaks into Valve and spoils the impending fragfest. 

Idiot, should be hung up and beat with a stick. With rusty nails in it.

I can wait a few more months... HF2 and D3 will be worth it... I have seen the alpha of D3 in person... All I can say is shazam!

Shut off the lights, close the blinds, crank up the sub and prepare to be afraid.. very afraid...

3) My daughter bought home a flu bug/virus home from her friends, guess who has a fever and is coughing his lungs out, cough-cough. She is three years old now! I was thinking of selling the Daytona since I don't drive it much anymore but have decided to keep it as a present for her 16th birthday. At the rate the birthdays are tooling by she will be in her teens before I know it.

4) My GLHS is getting parted out. Turns out it has cancer of the frame rails and I could not find a buyer to take the car as is for a reasonable price. The pictures and parts list can be viewed here- GLHS parts

 5) California Politics- WADDA JOKE. 

I heard a station doing an interview with some one from Berkley who was aghast at the thought of Arnold for governor! The most hysterical quote was "I wish the republicans would keep there hands off OUR STATE"  OUR STATE??

My first thought was how the hell could Arnold make it worse? The current & past line up of losers has run the state into ground so badly it's not even a joke. Special interests run rampant with politicians getting "donations" left, right and center. I don't expect Arnold to run into the capitol waving Uzi's around yelling "your all terminated" and make everything better overnight, but he isn't an idiot either. 

Billions of dollars in debt with the worse bond rating of the 50 states, I would not live there if you paid me to. It's a damn shame to since it's a beautiful state with great people and the politicians and bureaucracy are running it into the ground. 

While the *slightly* biased LA times is running BS allegations from "anonymous sources" why are they not reporting about Gray Davis' abusive ways?    http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~24781~1676763,00.html 

He's nothing but a weasel and hopefully by the time you read this he is on the unemployment line.

8/19/03

The new Neo Classic late model event was held at National Trails last weekend- Turbo Dodges ended up dominating the event! For the FWD shootout it was a 1-2-3 punch as three 11 second Dodge turbo cars crushed the rest of the field with James "the cheater" Reeves winning the shootout. James finally broke into the 11's not once but four times with a best pass of 11.8!

On the autocross side of the table Barry Miles showed off his mad driving skills in the Hooters Omni by blowing away a field full of Vipers and winning the event with a 3 second lead!! Several other FWD Dodges also did extremely well in this event much to the annoyance of several Viper owners who had trouble keeping up.

Great job guys!

Also- Congratulations to Paul Smith (12 second turbo minivan) who finally is getting his van back on track and broke his old 12.65 record with a 12.61 pass.

8/18/03

The month in review....

1) I picked up a Spirit R/T 

Yup, I'm a TIII owner now, it's going to replace the Daytona as a daily driver at some point after mods are done...

2) I have to many cars.

Also picked up a 86 TII GLH and a 87 TII Shelby Z! Where am I going to park all these cars???

3) The big "blackout" of '03

The power went out big whoop-de-do. That happens several times a year here.

4) California

The best show going, someone get me some popcorn! Man I wish California would do us a favor and split from the union sometimes. Hysterically funny quote from politician- "How can Arnold possibly run the state with the 5th largest economy? He has no experience." You know it strikes me as funny that a series of "professional" politicians have succeeded in running the state into the ground and several of them are whining now that a self made man is entering the ring. Bunch of babies are also crying because Arnold is against having health insurance for illegal immigrants, well duh that's a no brainer. They should be on a bus getting shipped back where they came from not collecting benefits.  

Go Get'em Arnie!

Amusing link- 

http://maddox.xmission.com/c.cgi?u=owned

Short game review- Short and sweet NOLF2 rocks! what an amazing level of detail! Shame the game is so short.

My eye still sucks.

Thought for the day- Some years ago I had a discussion with my older brother Neal. At the time he was working as a vice president for Digital and was what could be deemed a success. He had a nice well paying job, great house, great car, great wife, investments, etc. The question I had was in regards to how do you define yourself as being successful in business? We talked at great length about several different measures of success- For some people in business it's money, others the trappings of power, for some it's public service. 

The conclusion I came too was whatever it was you were doing had to make you happy and you had to define your own success. I define my success not in how many sales I have made, or how much business I have done but how fast my friends and customers are going and how much I learned over the years. 

I may not drive a Viper or have a huge house, but that suits me just fine as long as I have my good friends and my family. In the end, at the destination that awaits all of us at the end of your life, the money you had, the car you drove and the big house on the hill will mean for nothing.

 Speaking of which.... a moment of silence for our lost comrade Gus Mahon who passed away a year ago today....

7/20/03

Anyone know of any good websites with RB 440 buildups? Cylinder head & cam comparisons, that sort of thing? Decided to work on the GTX for the rest of the summer and have some fun.

Got bit by another damn TICK, I swear I'm going to defoliate the yard.

Picked up the Osbornes first season DVD set and proceeded to laugh my butt off, about the wackiest and entertaining thing I have seen on the tube in years.

If you notice there is a new tech link on the nav bar, I'll be adding more to the page as I sort through the links I have. Planning on updating a bunch of pages soon as well, mostly just updates and minor revisions but some large new pages as well. Lot's of info from the last 6 trips to the dyno!

7/11/03

Alright, alright I'll push it to the back of the garage till next year.

Thanks for all your support.

Stress relief, Dodge Garage style-

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/ddg_horizon_fun.html

7/9/03

Psst, hey kid you wanna buy a k-car?

Partly in jest of course but I'm thinking about it. 

Several things have happened in the last few months that make it possible that the Reliant wont be repaired. One reason is health related, I pretty much lost my vision in one eye due to a freak accident in the garage and have to go into surgery at some point to see if the cornea can be repaired. Sounds like fun huh?

I was also on medication for Lyme disease (shades of Gus) and have to go back for testing because I think it's still hanging in there.. Damn ticks, I swear I'm going to move to AZ or some other place there isn't any of the damn things. 

The second issue is Heather has been offered a full time job at Pfizer of Groton, and since Pfizer's health care coverage is just a LITTLE bit better then RP's and I lost a valuable member of the team. I have cut back on some of the stuff RP sells for that reason. As much as I'd like to carry everything for everyone it isn't going to happen and I'm not about to put Leah in a full time daycare when she can have her dad's attention.

The third issue is everything in the long block was pretty much reduced to scrap when the rod bolt let go, and I'm tired of working on it. The amount of work needed to make reliable power to run consistent 10's is more then I can deal with at the moment.

If your seriously interested in the Reliant, drop me line. 

Check this out-

http://members.cox.net/hardie3/dust.html

7/7/03

Movie review time- T3-Rise of the Machines! 

MAJOR SPOILERS

Do not click on this link if you have not viewed T3 yet.

7/03/03

Quote of the day-

(You) "Should be more detailed instead of always being so secretive"

For some reason I find that amusing as hell.

Things that make you go hmm department...

Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs.
His wife Hillary got $8 million for hers.
That's $20 million for memories from two people
who for eight years repeatedly testified,
under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.

hmmm....

Amusing Reliant links return....

http://www.anti-rice.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7774

http://www.jaxracing.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=000594

http://www.hybridz.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=22526

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=379952

http://www.sromagazine.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=73817

Remember if your going to comment on the boards be nice, we love our cars, doesn't mean they have to as well.

SDAC-13 was a blast as they always are, the Daytona ripped off a 13.0 @ 105 mph with a 1.83 short time in 105F heat on the very first pass at 23 psi which is within 2 tenths it's best average (12.8) on 7 psi less boost. On the next pass the Grainger had a fit and I only got 12 psi! Car ran 13.7 at 96 mph and when I got back to the pits the right slick had sprung a leak in the sidewall and I called it a day. Slapped the street tires on it and dropped the boost to 13 and gave it to Heather who entered it in the ladies race where she was doing well till she "lit the bulb" I told her I'm going to set up a practice tree in the yard.

Heather ran 16.4 with her '91 Spirit ES! I'm pretty proud of her since the car is 100% stock except for a Garret turbo which is at 6 psi instead of the factory 11. It has Hyperutectic pistons and the last thing I need is a broken pistons in the wife's car. 

Jon getting ready to broil the tires.

The return of Slugmobile! Now owned by Wayne Hemingway.

SDAC-NE member Seth getting up on 3 wheels.

Boys will be boys.. The names have been omitted to protect us.

6/18/03

Exciting new stuff- 

Trip to dyno with Reliant yields 444 hp wheel hp and failed connecting rod bolt, fiery carnage ensues. Car is singed by ensuing oil fire but otherwise undamaged and the shortblock is a wash. At minimum boost (20 psi) the car laid down 320 hp, 14 pulls & 10 psi later it was at the 444 hp mark and still climbing. 

On the rollers...

Offending fastener.

Better to suffer a catastrophic failure like this on the rollers then at 130+ mph! We had the cameras rolling and a great video clip of the action can be downloaded from here (999k mpg)

We are still going to the convention with the Daytona, look forward to seeing everyone there!

Gary Donovan

5/10/03

http://www.wangsautosports.com/ = Shop with Dynojet

Silver Reliant = In excess of 400 wheel hp.

=)

4/21/03

Due to a vision problem (that is getting looked into) I will be unavailable for several days or perhaps longer depending on how long it takes to resolve.

Gary

p.s.- interesting reading for the "it's all about the oil" crowd.

4/6/03

1) Daytona has gotten a performance upgrade and has been to the dyno again- 30 hp and 40 ft/lbs of torque extra on tap! Webpage as soon as I can get some spare time! LOL

2) Parts and cars for sale page has been updated. Lebaron hardtop is gone.

3) Relentless Performance is a year old! 

I'm proud that in going into business with the *racers point of view* that RP has been a force in the market for raising the bar in regards to quality of parts and service. 

4/4/03

This man has it right, it's nice to hear from a professional who takes pride in his work and country.

"Our Business Now Is North"

With one phrase, Lt. Col. Tim Collins, commander of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish, summed up the task in hand for the British forces waiting to remove Saddam Hussein from Iraq. Collins was addressing his 800 men, an arm of Britain's 16 Air Assault Brigade, at Fort Blair Mayne, a Kuwaiti desert camp 20 miles south of the Iraqi border. Here is as much of his extraordinary speech as has been reported.

"We go to liberate not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them.

"There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly. Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others I expect you to rock their world. Wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory.

"Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham. Tread lightly there. You will see things that no man could pay to see and you will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis. You will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have nothing. Don't treat them as refugees for they are in their own country. Their children will be poor, in years to come they will know that the light of liberation in their lives was brought by you.

"If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day. Allow them dignity in death. Bury them properly and mark their graves.

"It is my foremost intention to bring every single one of you out alive but there may be people among us who will not see the end of this campaign. We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back. There will be no time for sorrow.

"The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his rightful destruction. There are many regional commanders who have stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires of hell for Saddam. He and his forces will be destroyed by this coalition for what they have done. As they die they will know their deeds have brought them to this place. Show them no pity.

"It is a big step to take another human life. It is not to be done lightly. I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts, I can assure you they live with the mark of Cain upon them. If someone surrenders to you then remember they have that right in international law and ensure that one day they go home to their family.

"The ones who wish to fight, well, we aim to please.

"If you harm the regiment or its history by over-enthusiasm in killing or in cowardice, know it is your family who will suffer. You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest for your deeds will follow you down through history. We will bring shame on neither our uniform or our nation.

"[Regarding the use by Saddam of chemical or biological weapons] It is not a question of if, it's a question of when. We know he has already devolved the decision to lower commanders, and that means he has already taken the decision himself. If we survive the first strike we will survive the attack.

"As for ourselves, let's bring everyone home and leave Iraq a better place for us having been there.

"Our business now is north."

Speech given by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins, 20 March 2003, Kuwait, near the Iraqi border.

3/25/03

Idiot Alert! A senators wife speaks up about the war on Iraq.

A Raucous Discussion In the Baucus House?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29836-2003Mar26.html

"I want the people in Iraq to have peace -- the people whose lives are in turmoil because of the war, the children, their mothers, the farmers, the grandmothers and even the camels that are out grazing," said the 54-year-old Baucus, an anthropologist who has taught at Harvard as well as a painter who regularly visits the south of France.

Well yes everyone would like peace including Saddam and his murdering sons and cronies. If they had some peace and quiet they could get back to the business of killing, raping, gassing, torturing & in general living the high life at the expense of their fellow Iraqis.

While Isaac, her bichon frise, barked in the background, Baucus confided that she has been watching television with growing distress and having trouble sleeping -- though she's not worried about the prospect of terrorism in the United States. "I never think about it," she said.

I NEVER THINK ABOUT IT- Please refer to photo below please. If it happened in Montana where you reside I bet you would think a lot about it wouldn't you? Unfortunately there is a lot of people THAT NEVER THINK ABOUT IT till the shit hits the fan and they are looking at the body of a loved one. 

Quote from Dennis Miller- "Saddam and Bin Laden will not seek United Nations approval before they try to kill us."

"I don't think we have any business being in a preemptive war against Iraq," she said. "Anytime you drop bombs, there are going to be a lot of innocent people hurt. A billion Muslims all over the world are in pain to see their brothers losing their homes and their families losing the stability of their civilization."

I bet we kill a lot less civilians then Iraq's own Chemical Ali. All the Arab nations of the world stood by while this dirtbag cousin of Saddam's killed & gassed thousands of Iraqi citizens. 

She added: "Baghdad is where the beginning of civilization occurred, literally where the wheel was invented, where the very first city was built, where writing began, and it has a very deep and profoundly beautiful history -- which we should never take lightly, no matter who the existing president is."

Well whoop-de-fricken-do.  I'm sure that is a great comfort to all the Iraqi families that have lost loved ones to the general killing and torture for the last 35 years under the rule of Saddam. I'm sure it's a comfort to the Iranian families who lost loved ones when Iraq invaded and gassed their borders and a comfort to the Kuwaitis as well. 

She continued: "I don't think American lives are threatened by him. There is no evidence of weapons of mass destruction and we have no right to make a preemptive strike on another country and try to assassinate its leader. We have no right legally or morally. We are way out of line."

Oh and this is why the Iraq troops have been issued chemical protection gear eh? They know the US isn't going to use chem warfare on the Iraq troops so why on earth would they be lugging this stuff around? I mean the only country that has used chemicals weapons in a war in the last 20 years or so has been.... Come on I know you can guess this one... Starts with an I... 

IRAQ YOU NITWIT.

And you are aware that Saddam tried to assassinate George Bush Sr. in 1993?

Wake up and smell the coffee.

It's my website, I'll post what I like. Stupid people really piss me off.

Jay Leno- "The French announced today that they would not help us remove Saddam from Iraq. Well Duh! They didn't even help us remove Hitler from France."

3/20/03

I listen to NPR and the news stations and feel rage at some of the truly stupid people on this globe...

Protesters cry- for "our poor troops" yet say nothing about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have been gassed, shot, tortured by this evil regime... Our poor troops are the worlds largest, finest trained volunteer armed services in the world who are all adults that knew when they signed up that they may have to give "the ultimate sacrifice"

They deserve our respect and are some of the finest of citizens.

Protesters cry- "give inspections a chance" ignoring the fact that inspectors have had 12 years and the Saddam still violates UN sanctions...

Protestors cry- "It's about the oil" when the US could ask the UN to drop sanctions and simply buy it from Saddam far cheaper then going to war...

Protestors cry- "It's immoral" when they themselves have done nothing to help prevent the suffering of the Iraqi people...

Protestors cry- "Let the Iraqis overthrow their government" when they live under such a crushing regime that there is a file on EVERYONE and security people routinely interrogate children in the streets to see if their parents are violating Saddams laws. As soon as opposition groups form they are uncovered and crushed with all parties being tortured and killed. Did you see the news footage the other day where a Marine tore down a poster of Saddam and an Iraqi man used his shoe to beat on the picture?

He's a dead man as is everyone else who was there if the US fails in it's mission. The Iraq internal security forces will kill him, his family, level the village if need be. It's happend before!

Protestors cry- "The people of Iraq are starving" while their leader Saddam lives in total luxury in a meticulously restored palaces (oil for food funds) that were leveled during the Gulf War. There is no doubt people are starving, perhaps some of the money used to restore palaces and build missiles could have been used for food! 

Protestors cry- "Were barbarians" yet the US troops are given funds so they can PAY for gas if they need to get it from local Iraqis, Pentagon lawyers have to clear EACH target in the bombing campaign before it can be bombed (In accordance with international law) and the US spends big coin making smart bombs and other high tech weapons to ensure proper targets are hit with a high degree of precision, minimizing damage to locals (compared to WW II and other conflicts where large cities were leveled just to get certain targets)

Protestors cry- "Look at the wounded in Baghdad" which so far by and large have been shrapnel wounds from the Iraq troops shooting AA flak up at planes they can't reach anyway! You think that junk doesn't fall back down in populated areas??

Protestors walk the streets carrying signs that cry "no war" but when several of them were interviewed by a local news program a significant number could not even state who the leader of Iraq was! Several even used the name Saddam Ben Laden! WTF!

Protestors cheer the arrogant French leader who has provided Iraq with a nuclear reactor (WTF does a nation with the second largest oil reserves need a freaken nuke reactor for? it's not for electric that's for sure) Has consistently stonewalled events within the UN in regards to Iraq (effectively destroying the UN's effectiveness) INCLUDING castigating the USA for military action in Iraq when the French had THIRTY such actions outside their borders in recent times with NO UN mandate including the sinking of a GreenPeace vessel!

They have provided Saddam weapons and other military hardware as late as January of this year AND have a contract for 50 BILLION dollars to develop oil reserves in Iraq once sanctions are lifted.

The world still has evil leaders, evil regimes and people with evil intentions- As long as they exist they will be the need for armed forces and war.  War is bad, sometimes it's the only thing that bad people will pay attention to. 

The French *government* and stupid, uninformed protestors can kiss my ass. Perhaps if they spent some time from the home shopping channel and the mall and at least turned on PBS or 60 minutes they would have a clue.

Sincerely

Gary S Donovan

Sent to me by a friend-

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn't want to go to war."

3/14/03

Hey it stopped snowing and it's 65 out, SWEET! 

New shoes for the Daytona- Acclaim LX rims with 225/50R15's 

3/13/03

For the love of PETE will it stop SNOWING!! 

We have had more damn snow this March then the last 5 years! How's a guy suppose to go racing with all this white stuff on the ground???

Friend of mine Jon has a Spirit for sale, have added it to my auto sales page.

Relentless Performance- It's been almost a year since we have opened doors! Some thoughts on this later.

3/3/03

Say what? Did I miss the whole point of being a human shield?

Some British "Human Shields" Flee Iraq, Cite Safety Fears.

Those who returned home had safety or financial concerns, spokesman Christiaan Briggs said. "The aim was always a mass migration and if we had had five to ten thousand people here there would never be a war," he said. "We do not have those numbers." The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that nine of the 11 British human shields in the bus convoy had left Baghdad. Briggs said about a dozen Britons remained in Iraq alongside several dozens from other countries.

He told Britain's Press Association news agency that Iraq limited the sites that human shields could visit. "Now we are being told we cannot go to certain sites, such as hospitals, so we are reassessing our strategy," he said. U.S. officials have said that it is a war crime to use civilians as human shields and that there's no way of guaranteeing their safety. On Friday, the head of Sweden's largest peace organization urged human shields to leave Iraq, saying they were being used for propaganda purposes by Saddam Hussein. Maria Ermanno, chairwoman of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, cited reports that Iraqi officials were arranging transportation, accommodations and news conferences for the human shields.

"To go down to Iraq and live and act there on the regime's expense, then you're supporting a terrible dictator. I think that method is entirely wrong," Ermanno told Swedish Radio.

NO JOKE!

2/28/03

Condolences go out to the family & friends of Mr. Fred Rogers- A class act in every respect, he will be missed by all.

Own a WRX? Best keep the bee spray handy...

Wont be around next week, getting ready for upcoming dyno event and doing research. 

Happy birthday to Ken Adler, he turns 39 today! 

2/27/03

Yes indeed we did get hit with snow here in a big way.

Since there is so much media coverage showing the other sides viewpoint, I thought I'd throw this out. 

For those who are interested I'm not necessarily pro war- While I'm sure Iraq has links to a number of terrorist groups, so do dozens of other nations and we are not going to war with them.  I am sure that Saddam is a sneaky, murderous old bandicoot who would walk over millions of his countryman's bodies to stay in power. He has violated the UN resolutions ten ways from Sunday for the past twelve years and will continue to do so since he has been allowed to for the past twelve years! Did you see the interview last night? What a hoot! This is a man talking about honor, Allah and Muslim unity. The same guy directed people to assassinate Bush Sr. after the Gulf War, shot his own son for defecting to the west (That was rather stupid to return to Iraq eh?), killed 100,000's of fellow Muslims with mustard gas, invaded his fellow Arab neighbor Kuwait (What's wrong, Iranians to tough and needed a smaller target?) and then set 90% of the oil wells in Kuwait on fire and dumping millions of barrels of crude in the Persian Gulf on his way out the door.  Quite the upstanding guy eh? 

Speaking of interviews, how 'bout that Michael Jackson? 

Movie time! (Nothing better to do when there is 2 feet on snow)

Daredevil- I have to say some of Ben Afflecks been rubbing me the wrong way on a few of his last rolls, all his best stuff seems to be in the Kevin Smith films... Chasing Amy, Dogma, etc.. His acting in Pearl Harbor was enough to make me cringe for 6 months. Daredevil on the other hand was a fairly good flick and he seemed to fit into the roll rather well. Other supporting (seems unfair to call them supporting when they were all good) fleshed out the movie and made it an enjoyable movie experience.  Colin Farrel as the over the top lunatic assassin Bullseye was hysterical. The dialogue seemed uneven, clever at points, hammy at other times. Affleck telling a bad guy "See that light at the end of the tunnel? That's the C train!" was a groaner so bad I started laughing. The effects were good, and my only complaint would be it would have been nice to see more of the characters fleshed out in present time and a bit less of Matt's youth. I understand a lot was cut out of the movie, the DVD promises to be interesting.

The Two Towers- Not bad, not as good as the first though. It seemed to drag on a bit longer then it should have, 3/4 through the movie I found myself wondering when it would be over. It just seemed to go on with no real suspense or pull me into the story very well. Still a must see for any Lord of the Rings fan.

Random links.

Electric Wabbit?

Lotus Esprit parts.

Turbocharged 3.0 Daytona 

Mopar shop in Germany!

Feeling turbo envy? Buy an electric BOV! 

The history page has been updated with a great write up on the Maserati TC coupe.
 

2/12/03

The dreaded links return!

http://www.nastyz28.com/ubb/Forum16/HTML/012990.html

http://www.redlinemotorsport.com

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34609

http://www.hardforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=448185

http://www.moparts.org/

Hey I have a 2 1/2 year old daughter that can say "tur-bo-charge-r" SWEET!

2/5/03

In the press of events I forgot to mention- GREAT JOB TAMPA! 

I'm no football fan and pretty much the only game I do catch is the Superbowl. From my limited point of view Tampa showed up to ready kick butt and take names like nobody's bidness and the Raiders pretty much... just showed up.  

So... it looked like a slaughter to me. 

2/4/03

And they wonder how some people get fat.

1) Dyno day page updated! Pictures of automotive carnage! (and car configurations)

2) Poem "High Flight" was composed by Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr.  More info here.

3) The P/S line on the Daytona died yesterday and I despise leaks! I fixed an oil leak on the wife's car 2 days ago and I think the 'tona is trying to take up the slack.  GRR!

2/1/03

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings
    Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
    Of sun-split clouds--and done a hundred things
    You have not dreamed of--wheeled and soared and swung
    High in the sunlit silence, hov'ring there
    I've chased the shouting wind along,
    And flung my eager craft through footless halls of air.
    Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
    I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
    Where never lark, or even eagle flew
    And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
    The high untrespassed sanctity of space
    Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Farewell Columbia...

1/31/03

WOO!

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/ddg_dyno_day_12503.html

1/27/03

Very busy this morning! We rented a dyno this weekend and tested (and tuned) 5 cars, details later or tomorrow. 

No the Reliant didn't get strapped to the dyno, we ran out of time! Brian Slowe's car did though and at 16 psi he put down 498 ft/lbs and 330 hp to the wheels!

GLH parts page updated.

Gary

1/20/03

Several folks have sent in information on the picture below and the mail was interesting enough I thought I would post a few bits and some links.

The aircraft carrier is the Enterprise (CVN 65) and one reader sends in a note that he has viewed videos and pictures of various objects being catapulted of carriers as inspiration for the troops before an Army-Navy football game! He suspect this picture was taken sometime around the 1975-1979 time frame. 

Some good links to check out if you have a few hours to burn-

Great photo archive- http://www.navsource.org/

Neat vessel the navy tried out, 48 knots! That's smoking!  - http://navysite.de/pboats/phm1class.htm

Here is another link related to the Pegasus series- http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/phm-1.htm 

89 Daytona ES parts car has left the building! Let the wrenching begin! 

Well actually I need to take a day or to and get the garage in order, looks like a bomb went off after pulling apart three cars! Have a few small projects to take care of before diving into a new large one ;-) 

Test engine stand is back in operation, had to replace a fuel pump and the mitsu turbo it was equipped with!  Has a nice new H.D. Bosch pump, upgraded Garrett turbo, upgraded injectors and extra instrumentation to help me refine calibrations & test ECU's in less time.   

All mounted on heavy duty casters- All I have to do is wheel it outside and fire it up, it's 100% self contained.  Next I need to get a water brake assembly for it so I can do fully loaded pulls at any rpm and take torque measurements. 

Parts for sale, cars for sale, GLH parts for sale are all updated. Look for updates soon on the Reliant & Daytona sections!

1/17/03

Up early and going through e-mail this morning and I found one from Gus that didn't have a chance to answer. 

Sobering isn't it?  You never know when your number will be called. 

Just getting back into the swing of things, was sidelined by a back injury for a few weeks. Tolerance to inactivity is NOT one of my strong points. Been going nuts waiting for things to improve.  Did some looking around, looks like a few pages need some updating, will try to do so this weekend.

Anyone need a car? Picked up a nice one owner 89 Lebaron GTC hardtop last weekend, it's on the cars for sale page. 

I wish I knew the story behind this image.

1/08/03

Beginning of the year update- What's going on!

1) Reliant waits for spring... planning on hitting a dyno in a week or two to fine tune things further.

2) The Daytona is also going to the dyno at the same time, it has been converted over to 3 bar with 52 pph injectors and I have been honing the calibration on a daily basis the last few weeks. Spark and fuel are easy, computer controlled wastegate is a PITA. Lots of good information gathered, any more meters, test equipment and gauges hanging off the dash and it won't be visible any longer!  Now if I only had time to get the datalogger installed...

3) The van is going to the dyno- Just kidding!  Actually my friend Jon is bringing his car along and we will be tuning that. Jon is hoping to get a handful of 12 second slips this year... The van continues to crank right along with it's daily duties and the odometer has cleared 250k now.

4) Been working on clearing out the "back burner" projects and stray cars. The GLH departed on a flatbed a few weeks ago and a friend of mine Bruce Bender picked up the 87 GLHS and took it home to PA. Have one more car to dispatch and I'll be ready to get started on "the" new project.