[Fat Charlie]

Just to be clear, I didn't go there to troll. I checked this morning and saw that my first post there was 16 Feb 05, a week after I bought the car. I'm a big fan of performance driving. I love racing but only have time to follow F1 (once every couple of weeks isn't too hard to fit into my life, and if I haven't had a chance to catch the race yet there's not much risk that I'll hear about it accidentally). None of my tanks are free of "fun" driving. I've just never been a big fan of useless performance, but I've got a record time to work (32min), a record time from work to another store (16 min) and a beautiful run from VA to NH (7:45, 70.9 mph sustained). My highest ticket was for 96 mph. I've got particular curves I enjoy hitting at certain speeds and stretches of road I just can't get enough of. I pass Jeeps in blizzards. I can make that car dance and I really love doing it. But you know what's even more entertaining than all that? Getting it to perform differently: loading the back like the wagon it is. Hauling a trailer load of anything. Getting silly mpg.

The first post of my taunting thread wasn't even a taunt- I simply posted a picture of the odometer and the mpg display and explained my tire size change and what it did to the real mpg for the tank. The invective came in from people who couldn't handle it. My motivation was a direct reaction to a "performance" crowd not recognizing performance. Chrome bits, JDM badges, blacked out lamps and rolled fenders aren't performance. Store bought bolt ons aren't performance to brag about- "I bought this power chip and now my car's faster" just means you bought a faster car.

I've mentioned mileage as performance in the past and it's been laughed down. So screw 'em, I'm going to post actual pictures of actual performance results. I'm going to point to real performance, not a dyno printout provided by the nice shop that sold and installed the go fast parts. My results are in the wild, not from amateur night at the drag strip under perfect weather conditions. At the very least, someone's going to notice another dimension of performance.

Hamilton sure did look funny, but not as funny as Trulli did at Indy in 2005. His low fuel pole contributed to keeping him (and all the other teams running Michelins) from being allowed to start the race.