One of the steps the computer does in the mapping program is "computing uncertainty" which always makes me smile. It just sounds strange to computer just exactly how uncertain something is.

Happy New Year, mates! It's 52 degrees outside and there was a lot of fog earlier this AM. No not me! The weather!

Happy New Year

Warming up nicely......currently -1*

Earlier this morn.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1514828923.JPG
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1514828923.JPG

Wow, Pete, that is cold. I have actually gazed out that very window and that thermometer. I liked it much better back in the summer. It has gotten 4 times warmer here. We are up to 16 and sunny. Not much breeze so it is not too bad in the sun.
We made a trip to Cracker Barrel for lunch. We had to have a dose of black-eyed-peas for the New Year's day good luck. I don't really think they help much but they sure don't hurt and I actually like em. The lady that seated us told us there was a special on today for the black eyed peas. When out waitress came she said they don't even have them. So I asked her to ask the manager since the lady that seated us said they had a special today. She came back and said sure enough, they do have them today. She then said she would tell the other waitresses and they had not heard. I bet the sales on black eyed peas go up after that. ;)

Woke up this morning and saw it was single digits, just said Bullocks, rolled over, and went back to sleep. Just woke up agian and it's after 5pm here and still only 19°F. Well, supposed i need to at least feed Pepper since she has been such a great bed warmer curled up against my back.

Hope everyone is able to avoid the chill that has taken us into the new year. Around here January has always been our coolest month. Not uncommon to have a big ice or snow storm for New Years day, so just cold is good. Even though woke up to single digit cold.

Remember having Bridgestone Pole Position S02s on my 88 944TurboS one winter when the temps were just 10°F. Instead of the floor becoming Lave, the pavement became ice, even though there was zero precipitation. Was so glad those tires had rim protectors. Going around a corner from a stop it did a pirouette and bumped the curb. Rim stayed straight, but bonked the rear wheel bearings on that side and had to put a new set in.

Yea, I will not drive my 911 now in below 32 degree temps. The summer tires are just not happy in low temps. That is why they are called summer tires.

The Corvette owners got a letter from Chevy to not even move the car in below freezing weather if they had the Michelin Super Sports. The tire can crack. I don't have those tires.

Back to picking ground control points. It is lots of fun. On some projects they decide after we fly it that they want more accurate maps tied to the earth. If it is before we fly we hire a surveyor to lay down targets, usually a big white X on the ground. Cows love to eat them and home owners get all bent out of shape for some reason. In some areas it is easier to pick objects on the ground and have the GPS coordinates of that spot read. So the center of a manhole, The end of a concrete sidewalk or where it meets asphalt. Just something we can see from the aerial photo.
One one project we have a bunch of photo points that are all just objects like that. So first we generate the first step, go back and read in the targets. Of course the airplane might be flying north to south or south to north. So the image I see might be right side up, rotated 180 degrees or 90 degrees sideways. That makes it extra fun to find. The software then uses the point I pick and it know I told the software that point is X,Y,Z and a surveyor says that is +- a couple of millimeters maximum. The software will pin that point to the earth and all the points we use. The entire image is then very precise. But it is a no fun to do. Ah well, that is why it is called a job.

Good Morning. Lotta coffee, it's cold here, 14°F.

Guess it can't all be like the Governor's Work in Blazing Saddles.

So, is Grundy's collector car insurance any good?

Got a quote from Hagerty on the GTS and it was over $2000 a year. Grundy was under $400 a year. Both with value of $110K. Same driving restrictions etc. Brother said he used Hagerty on his '57 T-Bird.

I still have all season tires on the garage queen from living back East. Not a lot of wear on them, but they're getting to where I need to replace them based on age. I'll definitely go with summer tires from here on out.

Gots all season on both the Cayenne and the 928. Unless I can learn to heal and toe with my right foot floating in the air, no more reason to have the more expensive summer tires ie autocross.

Merry Christmas!
Happy New Year!

Oh and I'm back from vacation.

I spent the money to buy fake Fuchs just to get something besides an all season tire. I love the overall performance even in normal driving. Of course some of that is just getting much bigger tires. Going from a 205 in the front to a 225 and from 225 to 245 in the rear makes a big difference.

Yep, 225/245 on 16s is what the 944TS and the 928GT had. GTS, 225/255 on 17s. BoxsterS was 225/265 on 18.

Was autocross sticky summer 235/275 on 18 on the GTS. Now just all season 225/265 on 18. But they are the stickiest new all season michelins. Not that it matters much as it has just been sitting in the shop. Think I've done less than 1700 miles on them and that included highway 400 miles to Rolla MO and back twice right before it went under the wrench.

Had stickiest summer tires on the BoxsterS. There were a couple of road trips when I had to stop and let the rain pass because hydroplaned way to easily.

Yea, for so many years I went to the autocross with mud and snow rated all season tires with tread wear rating of 280 to 300. 205 front 225s rear. I would rife in other cars and the traction difference was phenomenal. I stuck with the 15 inch tires because I had 15 inch rims. Now the tire choice is huge. The traction in a corner is just a ton more.

That X3 with the sport options (suspesion/wheels) and Pzero Rossos (the only 20" tire that fit) was amazing. It slalomed faster than any of my Porsches. The acceleration and braking just wasn't what I would call sports car like. Was surprised I got within 2 seconds of that full race prepped 914.

G85, when I watch those documentaries there are robots watching with me.

Stickiest tires I had were on the Cobra. Goodyear Bluestreaks. I hated driving the gravel driveway with those since it threw the gravel into the wheel well and it sounded like a hail storm from underneath. They were soft and sticky though. They had no tread wear rating since they were a treaded race tire. The tread lasted longer than the rubber sidewalls because they didn't have the preservatives of a DOT street tire. You could get a couple years of street use. Some guys were getting 2 weekends of track time with them. Ouch.

Would love a set of Avons but they are $500 per. The MT Sportsman are 1/4 that and are fine on the street.

Merry new year!

At this point in the day I'm thinking I should have stayed on vacation.

Yes!

The autocross long ago when I had my 914 I went through a phase of having Michelin XWX for my autocross tires but had a different set of tires for daily driving. After a few years of changing tires at the track I said screw it, and just stuck with my daily driver tires. It was not worth the effort.

One day at an autocross once of the other guys in a 914 had a clutch problem so he was quitting for the day. He suggested I use his track tires. They were full on race slicks and very sticky. I went out and was astonished how much better the car could corner. What was most amazing was I essentially had ABS. I could stand on the brakes and just stop. The brakes would not lock up the tires. It would stress a 914 chassis so much with those tires you really had to reinforce the chassis with welded in plates. It was just astonishing how a 2,000 lb 914 could handle with those sticky tires.