Took the car out to Palomar Mountain, over to a bakery in the back country, then back home. The 147 mile casual drive consumed 7 gallons of E85: 21 mpg. That’s about right, roughly 30% worse than pump gas. I’m going to keep running the ethanol until the tune is deemed good enough for the track, then switch back to pump gas to see how well it does. The issue is that some tuning variables may affect one fuel more than the other. It was a bit ironic to hear on the news that a politician called for the elimination of the ethanol subsidy. I’m torn on the issue, I’m very glad to have it, but I just can’t see the logic of running the stuff in most cars – unless it’s solely to give the finger to the Middle East (which counts for something).
On the drive I got to experience something new – Biblical even. On one stretch of the road was what appeared to be dirt – open the first picture full size – only it isn’t dirt. It wasn’t until I got a glimpse of something moving that I slowed down to look closer. The second picture is a zoomed in portion of the first… grasshoppers, millions and millions of grasshoppers! I stopped long enough to get a picture and they were mostly crawling but also hopping, and some were airborne. After a few landed in the car, the whole thing started giving me the creeps so I got out of there. On the way home I saw two wandering around on the passenger floor where I couldn’t reach them. Later, after pulling away from a traffic light I looked in the mirror and there were 3-4 of them wandering around on the street. Great, I did my part to spread the plague.
When I eventually stopped for gas and looked the car over, I found several live ones sitting on the inside surface of my front wheels. I can only imagine their ride, pinned by centripetal force and probably dizzy as hell. I never did find the two in the car… hope I didn’t bring home a mating pair…
About the mystery sound, I found a socket wrench still on a bolt behind the passenger seat and really hope that was it, but it seems doubtful. It could have made the noise but since I hadn’t hit any big bumps when it happened, it’s a stretch. Also, during the drive today (before I found it) there were no noises. Who knows.
Forgot to mention, the dash has built-in accelerometers so I put the lateral value on the screen. To be honest I was amazed to pull 1G without even trying; modern street tires are pretty amazing compared to what they were 30 years ago. I’ll be curious what the car can do in a proper skidpad and hot tires…