Betty's First Drag!

On Wednesday night I cruised down to the Beaches cruise-in and got a taste of the scene at PIR. Live music, food, drag racing, and about 200 classic cars. For a car guy like me, it was a dream. I didn't drag race because they were bracket racing and I had never raced Betty. You kind of need to know how fast your car can go because bracket racing is all about consistently setting down the same time.

So, Amy, Jessie, and I (Kelsey was with a friend at the beach) took Betty down to the Friday night drags at Portland International Raceway (PIR) yesterday evening. It was awesome. It was my first time drag racing so I did some research online and got some tips from The Staging Light. My research paid off. Other than leaving my window rolled down I didn't look like a complete novice. Staging the car correctly and knowing how to get a good reaction time made things a lot of fun.

I set down a best time of 16.912 at 82.25 MPH for the 1/4-mile. It isn't a very competitive time but it isn't bad for a pretty much stock small-block Buick. I ran consistently in the low 17's and high 16's in 8 passes. My 60-foot times were lousy (Betty's 2.78 gears just aren't made for the low-end) but she really came alive in the 1000-foot. I'm most proud of my reaction times. My best reaction time was a 0.021 and most of my RTs were consistently sub-0.300.

All in all, I we had a great time. I plan on heading out to the Wednesday night cruise-in at least once before it ends at the end of the month and I definitely need to get my Dad and his 1964 Olds F-85 out there for a little Father-Son, Buick-Olds showdown. :-)

Check out some photos here:

http://gallery.mac.com/dstewart64#100004&bgcolor=black

And a short video here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=FAlMaReWuIQ

Another Threadless Failure :-(

I'm beginning to think that Threadless just doesn't like me. My submission has been pulled after only 24 hours of voting. It had about 500+ votes and some positive comments. They say they will email me with an explanation.

Anywhoo, look for the design on my Threadless Failures store on Cafe Press! If at first you don't succeed...

Future Threadless Fasilure? YOU Be the Judge!

VOTE TODAY!

Her 15 Minutes

At the Harry Potter launch party Kelsey got her 15 minutes, or 30 seconds actually. Here is some footage of the news coverage:

Quick update...

Jessie lost! But she did so gracefully. She smiled for the judges but there were just SO MANY kids. Anywhoo, we're having a great time. The winner was a dead ringer for Colin Creevy (the kid who is always following Harry and the gang around with a camera).

Harry Potter Launch Party!

Coming to you live from the Barnes & Noble at Clackamas Town Center. Jessie has already won the games drawing and has hooked up with her Weasley kin (see pic). We're now beginning the costume contest. I think Jessie is a shoe in for the Ginny Weasley category although competition is intense. There are over 50 kids in just the 7-11 group!

Threadless Failures

You can now by all my threadless failures on Cafe Press. You can also buy all the latest Official Organic Chimpz gear! The McAfee Design Studio is fielding a 3-on-3 basketball team for this year's Amberglenn Sportsfest. Our team is the Organic Chimpz.

Betty's First Show

Took Betty to her first show this weekend. The Sherwood Cruise-in is one of the coolest shows of the year. Even though it rained all day there was a respectable turnout and a lot of spectators.

Although I didn't win anything (I entered the Under Construction class) the show was a lot of fun. If there had been a class or best sign, I think mine would have won. In the end, just hearing all the cool comments by people passing by was enough to feed my ego.

There were a lot of sweet rides there and one cool perk of being in the show is that you get to vote for the winners. Check out the pics on Flickr.

Kelsey's First Ride

Long time, no blog

My friend Aaron said that according to the "blogospere" my car was not really done. Betty's paint job, which I so faithfully documented at first, has been done for months. I just haven't put anything up here for a while. Here are some pics: