dodint's Automotive Evolution

[Leon]

SHNY? (shiny)

BARE (metal)

[FaultyMario]

Tapiro or a permutation of?

[dodint]

I like BARE a lot but somebody already has it. SHNY is there, though.

AWSM is also taken. Particularly frustrating because it would've been a match to the plate in the chicken picture of my car.

The four letter thing is really shitty and starting to piss me off if we're honest.

I'm supposed to go tomorrow to register it. We'll see.

[Random]

AHSM?

[Leon]

ORSM

[dodint]

Chose:

AHSM
I982
82 D

in that order, but I think they're all available so I'll likely end up with "AHSM." It's as close as I could get to the "AH SUM" in the chicken picture as I could get, but I like the continuity of provenance there. Russ suggested it, so hat tip to him.

Because I'm a bad owner and should feel bad, I topped up the coolant before leaving and forgot to put the cap back on so I drove the 15 minutes each way with the coolant reservoir open. Got home and the rear quarter windows were steamed and the motor was splashed with the stuff. YAY ME.

[CudaMan]

Better coolant than oil!

I experienced the headroom thing first hand the other day. I'd seen a few DeLoreans but never sat in one before. The racing seat could have raised or lowered the hip point -- never know unless you compare with stock. There are plenty of variables there.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zBq8YdT5GxEXrjst2

The roll cage was pretty cool. I didn't take time to inspect it from a road racing safety perspective, but as it's a test car not expected to do any wheel to wheel racing, I thought the cage design was well done for that and the integration of the windshield header bar was tight and neat.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/0HqtAPi1cKnvBD983

Notice anything else unusual? The front steering angle perhaps? This is an autonomous drift car (let that sink in...) built by Stanford students of engineering. I was pretty shocked to learn what it was used for at first, but thinking about it later it seemed obvious. Automotive science/software is heavy into autonomous driving these days, and the kids are into drifting... why not have fun with your engineering work.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/IMS83A5gAJg42sS53

It had an electric drivetrain, too. Of course.

And it's named Marty.

Anyway, just a little DeLorean run-in story. Back to the regularly scheduled dodint programming.

[dodint]

Better coolant than oil!

Yeah. It's just after lusting for one of these for decades it's pretty embarrassing to do something as silly as that right away. I probably know more about these cars than 90% of all owners, but I'm driving around spraying coolant all over my aluminum block. SAD!

That day in chat Russ shared the pic of you in it:



To be fair, I knew you were at Stanford because of the Facebook story with the pic in front of the Audi. Glancing at that pic in chat I first noticed the wheels (not bad, assumed they were 5 lug but with your new pics they're still 4 lug, interesting), and then I saw the roll cage and seats and figured it was a pretty extreme car.

One of the more popular DMC vids on the internet is of MARTY:



Looking at your second pic, I'm surprised how much the rear wheel is NOT centered in the wheel well. And yeah, that steering angle is fairly extreme.

Did you shut the door? It looks like you have a little more room than I do. When I'm driving I have less than 2" of clearance, meaning my hair gets messed up everywhere I go because it constantly rubs on the headliner. I might invest in a small brimless hat.

[CudaMan]

I didn't' shut the door. It's hard to tell just how much relief is there in the headliner and how close it'd be to my head, but it looks tight.

The Sparco in my blue Z sat higher than stock with the Megan Racing mount, and now lower than stock with the Sparco Low mount. So who knows where Marty's seats are height wise.

[dodint]

The headliner, as you can see, is recessed to help. From the looks of this comparative shot I think you have a little more room than me:



I look like I'm on the verge of being concussed each time I get in the car. In fact, I often hit my head on the t-bar if I sit down and simultaneously reach for something on the passenger side. It delivers a very cool LMP like feeling when getting in but delivers none of the right foot excitement.

I doubt a racing seat could get much lower than the stock seat, it's really down there.