Review: Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3

Posted on Thursday, April 13, 2006. Replies: 1

Yes, it’s a tyre review. Well, more a retrospective. Slightly random, but that’s blogging for you—especially on this site. Still, it’s timely, as I’m switching back to run-flats on Saturday as part of getting the car ready to sell on. Anyway, to the review!

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Last June, I got myself fresh rubber all round on the Mini and decided to go for a set of Goodyear Eagle F1’s. Not only do they have a great-looking tread pattern, but Evo magazine had rated them #1 in their tyre test article. I’d already tried their #3 option, Continental SportContact2’s, and been quietly impressed, so I was expecting big things of the Goodyears. Sadly, they failed to live up to expectations, but that might not be entirely the tyres’ fault...

First mistake I made was getting a non-standard tyre size for the 16" rims on my Mini. The manufacturer-specced tyres are 195/55’s, but I bought 205/50’s. Practically-speaking, this made very little difference to the rolling radius, but was likely to mean a little more lateral flex. In my defence, I was only matching the size of the tyres I was removing. I just hadn’t realised the guy I bought them off had fitted a non-standard size.

My second mistake was to take them out on track when fresh and in blistering heat. The day was so hot, in fact, that parts of the circuit were disintegrating as hot rubber plucked and picked at the melting tarmac. The conditions saw my tyre temperatures rise to such a degree that pressures shot up dangerously from 30PSI to 42PSI and the tread simply melted. I must’ve lost a good 2 or 3 millimetres in fewer than 10 laps as the tall tread blocks flexed back and forth (also giving me a few frights under braking).

Following that trackday, they never really felt the same. The succession of right-hand corners had left the tread blocks badly worn on the left-hand edges, greatly reducing the amount of rubber left in contact with the road. My confidence in the car was reduced accordingly. Even though the conditions had been a tad extreme on the day, I’m still left feeling that Eagle F1’s aren’t suited to summer track work. The ribs on the tread pattern are just too flexible for their own good. In hindsight, the wide blocks on the Conti’s are probably a much better bet. Shame they went when I sold the 17" rims they were on.

On the more everyday side of things, I can’t really say the tyre fared that much better. The car always felt as though it would slip into understeer a little too readily. In wet conditions, it was especially noticeable and severely limited my confidence in situations that other tyres had handled well. True, I may have done lasting damage on the trackday, but I’ll never know. Overall, I reckon they’re worth a 3 out of 5.

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MSG: what’s all the fuss about?

Posted on Saturday, April 08, 2006. Replies: 7

I’ve heard plenty of disparaging remarks about MSG lately, warning me to avoid foods that contained it. No-one could ever tell me why, though. Given that I’ve never really looked into it, I figured it was about time I wised up.

Unfortunately, most Google searches seem to turn up pages that are either vehemently against the stuff or are strongly pushing the PR case for it. I’ve never been convinced by people who are too entrenched in their opinion, so I skimmed these. All I wanted was a dispassionate appraisal of the stuff. Via Wikipedia, I eventually found the following: If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn’t everyone in Asia have a headache?

Good old Observer. It’s a fairly lengthy article, but it’s a good one, providing a detailed look into the product’s background. Recommended reading.

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Two cars or one?

Posted on Thursday, March 30, 2006. Replies: 10

I often find myself pondering my impact on the environment. One such issue that concerns me is the impact my gas-guzzling car has. Recently, I’ve been averaging 27.9MPG (23.2MPG (US) or 10.1 litres/100km), which is pretty hard to justify given that most of it is on the commute to and from work.

Given that Satan will be wearing ice skates before I give up sporty cars altogether, would the world be better off if I got a second, more frugal car for commuting to and from work? Or would the impact of this car’s production be a worse deal overall? I wish there were somewhere I could go to ask an expert about this kind of thing.

Next week, using the toilet at work: paper towels, hand drier, or wipe-them-on-your-trousers? :)

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Firefox security

Posted on Monday, March 27, 2006. Replies: 0

It’s not a topic I tend to keep up with, but when having a quick browse on The Register, I spotted this tidbit in an article about another IE bug:

A report published in September by Symantec rated Internet Explorer as safer than Firefox. The report found some 25 flaws in Mozilla’s Firefox internet browser, almost double the number it discovered in IE.

First time I’ve heard that, although it doesn’t really surprise me. Mind, saying that Firefox is less safe is stretching it a bit. Just because something has more vulnerabilities doesn’t mean you’re more likely to be attacked. That rather depends on how hard people are trying to attack you and Microsoft no doubt wins hands down there.

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BUG #171: Blank title didn’t work here

Posted on Saturday, March 25, 2006. Replies: 7

The other day at work, I came across a diktat stating that any bug fixes should be given a code comment pointing the reader to the relevant issue in our defect tracking system. Well, until someone explains the rationale to me, I’m going to ignore that.

To look at how dumb this is (IMHO), here are a couple of analogies to consider:

• When you write a document in Word, do you insert comments throughout it, saying things like “Used to say ‘in order to’, but that’s too wordy (MR)”? Sure, they might not print out, but they’re still getting in the way for the person editing the document.
• When you’re doing the CSS for a web page, do you litter it with comments like “Tried using javascript for this, but it wasn’t reliable (MR)”? No! It would just be getting in the way.

So, why the hell should I litter my C# code with comments that refer to a bug that’s no longer exists? What do I care if there was once a bug there? What’s important is that the code now works—we can record the bug fix in our check-in comments. What valid reason might I be overlooking for this behaviour?

Update: the diktat is no longer a diktat; more a recommendation. And it now sits alongside another recommendation that says “where reasonable, write a unit test to prove the existence—and resolution—of the bug”. Result. :)

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Heads-up: imminent activity on afterbang

Posted on Saturday, March 25, 2006. Replies: 3

Just a quickie: Gav gets back from his latest snowboarding adventures tomorrow later today. I’m already looking forward to both the photos/videos and the write-ups. I just wish I’d been able to join the crew out in Tignes, but work kinda got in the way. :(

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One for all you James Blunt fans...

Posted on Wednesday, March 22, 2006. Replies: 3

More than just an insult, it’s an MP3: You’re Gullible. Enjoy.

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Got Friday afternoon free?

Posted on Monday, March 20, 2006. Replies: 3

This coming Friday afternoon, a friend and I are booked in for a 3-hour beginners’ snowboarding lesson at the XScape snowdome in Leeds. Unfortunately, my friend now can’t make it and the lesson’s already booked. Would anyone out there be interested in taking her place?

The lesson costs £72 (incl. equipment hire), but I’d be happy to cover transport costs from Newcastle to Leeds and back. I’ll be leaving town at around noon. Please get in touch ASAP if you fancy it.

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Google Mars

Posted on Monday, March 13, 2006. Replies: 1

Yes, that’s right: Google Mars. Kinda like Google Maps, but for the red planet. Nicely timed to fit in with NASA’s latest mapping mission. Cute.

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Geneva Motor Show

Posted on Saturday, March 11, 2006. Replies: 1

Updated: links to photos added.

7½ hours I was there today and still I didn’t see everything. Geneva is a serious motor show. Serious enough for me to run out of space on my 128MB CompactFlash card, in fact. That’s a first. Only took me 4 hours as well.

So, live from Lausanne (hence no photos available yet), here are a few of the highlights:

BMW Z4 M Coupé

Very nice indeed, although photos on Pistonheads meant it wasn’t a surprise, like some of the other cars I saw later. Absolutely swamped with punters too, which made getting a decent pic damned difficult.

Mini Cooper S John Cooper GP edition

A very pleasant surprise, although I do vaguely remember hearing about it a month or two back. Still, they’ve done a beautiful job on it and I loved the bracing tube in place of the back seats. That car means business. :)

Peugeot 207 RCup

Suspect this was a racer rather than a proposed production model, but it just about rescued the otherwise bland new 207 range. How come Peugeot are making such uninspiring cars when Citroen and Renault are getting it so right? Speaking of which...

Citroen C1

Cute, cute, cute. It was also the most beautifully executed 5-door supermini I’ve seen, with the rear doors going right to the tailgate lights and around the wheel arch.

Volvo C30 ‘concept’

Roughly the size of an Audi A3 and sporting two-tone metallic paint, this little Volvo was great. Looks like the ideal way to break into the hatchback market. Highly desirable.

Focus Cabriolet

Had no idea such a thing was in the pipeline, but it worked really well. It’s another automatic hard-top job and looks just as good either up or down. Well, ok, maybe the trunk boot looked a bit American, but other than that, it was pretty impressive.

Honda FCX concept

Let’s face it, we only go to motor shows to see something new and exciting. Concept cars are a rich source of such “Wow!” moments. This one, it turns out, is not only beautiful, but is powered by fuel cell technology. Sweet.

Toyota 2005 F1 car

Of all the F1 cars on show—and there were quite a few—this was the best mounted for getting a good look at the details. Ferrari, on the other hand, did a crap job of showing theirs off. Guess they were concentrating more on the 2006 model this winter.

Wiesmann GT

Only on the BBS stand to show off some tasty alloys, but this car was a semi-retro delight. I don’t care how it drives, I just want one. And in the same ivory colour they had it at the show.

Speaking of colours, it really did look like white was the colour to be seen in this winter. BMW had a plethora of white cars, Aston Martin had one, there was an ivory SLK, the ivory Wiesmann, white this, white that and white the other. Have to say, they all look absolutely fabulous, darling. Hopefully, Flickr will attest to this once I get stuff uploaded.

Finally, a quick bit of nuttiness to leave you with. When you first walk into the event, you’re landed right in the Kev-Zone, full of modders and modded cars. Incredibly, one of the very first cars you see is... wait for it... a chipped Enzo. An Enzo, FFS! Does it really need it?!

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