So while I was away traveling I was worried that my younger brother Jim would have his first kid with me being the only one away from home. Not so much that I couldn't be there but have you ever tried to call Austria in the middle of the night, from a hospital? I don't think it would have worked to well…some poor families would be getting calls in the middle of the night for no reason. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> Well Jim and Beth held off until I actually landed in Rochester after 24 hours of traveling before giving birth to my first niece Olivia Belle Stecher! <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/laugh.png" alt=":-D" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> I just want to say congrats to my little brother and his wife Beth (whom I once spent a night on a gas station floor with, using potatoe chip bags as pillows, when the venerable Ford Tempo blew a head gasket back in college). I am sure I can fabricate a nice little side car seat to the Stohr if your interested guys…huh?<br />
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Of course here is the picture…looks almost like she is ready to wear a balaclava already. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /><br />
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So every time I end up making my annual fall trip to Germany or Munich I enjoy the beer tons and also spending time with some of the great IBM customers we have. I especially look forward to it if the conference is Austria. This year it was in Salzburg which was absolutely beautiful. Forecast was for rain the whole week but it ended up being beautiful the last three days of the week I was there and I got out and walked about. The old town is really cool with its narrow streets and interesting architecture. I especially liked the city because every where I would walk you had excellent views of the mountains and foot hills to the Alps and the town had some excellent autos lining its street. Attached below are some pictures for everyones enjoyment. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> Sorry they are from my cell phone so not excellent but still not bad!<br />
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I got talking on Trackpedia about dependency on oil/gas in todays cars and after thinking about it I see why all the alternative fuel cars and engines will never survive. The supply chain to feed them just cannot be built in any reasonable way. Now a free markets principles is that the market always goes to the lowest cost items, but what if the lowest cost item (in this case oil) is being propped up by forces that are broader than just the resource in need. They are held up by the inability to replace the supply chain.<br />
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I do agree with you that a free market economy is a good thing but I still do not buy into the belief that just because something is cheap means you rest on your laurels and don't innovate new ways of doing things to become more efficient or cheaper yet. Innovation in all other forms of business is welcome especially when it comes to under cutting the current low cost competitor (example software, manufacturing, air lines) to provide the end consumer with a better product. The person that under cuts then becomes the market leader while the previous market leaders scramble to catch back up. This is very easy to do in a non-monopolistic market place where there are a variety of competitors in the same goods space that compete and do not cooperate.<br />
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The big problem I see with replacing gas as the primary fuel source is you need a delivery vehicle for that cheaper product and I just don't see it being possible with a replacement for gasoline that has such a complex distribution system to keep the cars running. You can't sell a octopiler powered car in a market that doesn't have a station to fill it with otopiler. Basically in the automobile marketplace there is no money to be made by car manufacturers by making alternative fuel cars because bottom line is they just cant sell them in most markets without inconveniencing the buyer.<br />
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So how do you fix the situation and allow for a real free open market instead of one constrained by infrastructure. You have to innovate around it by providing funding to resources that are working on innovative ideas to completely circumvent the distribution problem with any type of mass quantities of hard fuel. If I was GM, Ford, Toyota I would be investing like mad to come up with alternative ways to power cars that don't require distribution mechanisms to support them for fuel. Thats a paradigm shift not just an advancement and thats when you business can really rake in the profits.<br />
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Anyway I am far from an expert for the most part so there are obviously some problems in the above but I think its a solid frame work for how to innovate. Typically you just can improve the marketplace you have to do something drastic and turn it on its end, make it obsolete in fact. This is what the internet has done to news papers, the car did to horse transportation, and I will do to DSR racing. (that last parts a joke)<br />
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Anyway I will be back to more interesting car and live related topics soon. Just have a lot of time sitting in my hotel room!
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So here I am sitting at the Rochester Internation Airport waiting to get on my American Airlines flight to Chicago then onto London then on to Munich where I then have to take a train to Salzburg Austria…sounds like fun huh! Well it just got more fun. My plane here in Rochester is an hour late, which means I will not make my connection in Chicago, which means I have to stay in Chicago and wait in the airport for standby on the next flight to London…no flights have open seats until Monday which is the time I need to be in Austria. QUALITY.<br />
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Now it gets even better. They want me to fly all the way to Chicago, even knowing that I will miss my connection, and then work with the people at the gate down there to setup my next flight instead of just booking me on a flight that is available tomorrow through Frankfurt direct to Salzburg. AAAAAHHHHH. Well I am glad after paying $2500 to ride in coach, being fully anally examined by the TSA, and now staring down the prospect of a night in Chicago O'hare Hilton that I didn't check my luggage or god knows where that would be at. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> I think I can live off my 3oz liquids for at least a day.<br />
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So my wife or dog wont be getting an upgrade by my Stohr will. <img src="http://www.trackpedia.net/blogs/john/templates/default/img/emoticons/smile.png" alt=":-)" style="display: inline; vertical-align: bottom;" class="emoticon" /> After a lot of thought, getting screwed over on eBay once, and discussion I made the jump to move from the current 98 Yamaha R1 engine in the car to a much newer and more powerful 2005 Yamaha R1 engine. The motivating factor behind the move is that I want to get the car to EFI (devil in red on my shoulder says I am lying it was cause I wanted 14k RPMs and more horsepower) so that I didn't have to screw around with rejetting the carbs and the ungodly slow warm up times here in the midwest when its cold. <br />
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I bought a 2005 R1 engine and am going to try to work that into the cars frame which I am a little worried about. I was originally going to buy Glenn Coopers built up R1 engine out of his Speads but instead decided to FIRST make sure a stock motor fit because I would rather be out 1500 (or at least have to resell it at a minor loss) than 3500 for the built motor. I still plan on buying Glenn's engine here…but I am just to cheap to buy it before I make sure the 04-06 R1 engine fits. I will keep everyone on here updated with pictures along the way. And here are the first ones!<br />
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<strong>Old Engine first new engine second and third</strong><br />
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Finally am getting around to posting the livery on the car in its final form. Only thing missing is my Yamaha symbol on the nose. The logos took me a little over an hour to install due to the complexity of the letters on the Trackpedia name. But I think in the end it was well worth it…if only winter wasn't setting in now. Damn Minnesota.<br />
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