Checkered Blog by Checkered Flag is the automotive play place in Hampton Roads Virginia

MG, and Canine Passenger, Turn Heads

"I get a lot of neat comments at traffic lights."

That's what Lee Palmer says about his 1977 MG, which "I drive every day I can."  Often, Lee is accompanied by his dog Maxwell, who you can see clearly relishes the chance to be observed in the classic marque.  Lee, business development manager for Driver's World, purchased the car for $1,000 several years ago after he spotted it, partially covered and with a "For Sale" sign, sitting in a Norfolk neighborhood.  While the car is now red, it had been repainted from its original color of pumpkin orange. (Lee's other car, by the way, is a 1987 Mustang.)

MG's presence in Hampton Roads traces back to the launch of Checkered Flag in 1964.  Checkered Flag founder and president Edward Snyder had been intrigued by British cars while serving overseas in the military.  Back here in southeastern Virginia, when the opportunity arose to get into the car business by becoming an MG dealer, he decided to take the plunge and founded Checkered Flag as a retailer of British import cars.  The fact that now, in 2007, Checkered Flag sells Jaguar stems from those early days.

Southeastern Virginia fans of the car whose initials stand for "Morris Garages" should check out Tidewater MG Classics, the area club for the marque.  You can find a very detailed history of MG on Wikipedia.

Podcast: New Scion XB "Bigger Canvas" for Personalization

I was wondering about the redesigned Scion XB, which got its official debut party at Checkered Flag Scion earlier this month ... I figured the best way to find out about it was to spend some time at the dealership, which I did, digital voice recorder in hand ... listen to this podcast and find out what I discovered ... click on the controller to stream or on the link to download ...

Download podcast_on_new_scion_xb.mp3

(3 minutes, 18 seconds)

Meet Simon Biggs!

What is your name? Simon Biggs

What do you do for a living and where? MINI Motoring Advisor-Checkered Flag Motor Car Company

Which Hampton Roads city or county do you live in? Virginia Beach

How long have you lived in Hampton Roads? 7 years

What do you drive? 2005 MINI Cooper S

What are your hobbies? MINI

What is your favorite restaurant? Conklins Irish Rover

What is in your MP3 player (or CD player) right now? Albanach Unleashed

What movie have you seen most recently? Spiderman 3

What pets do you have? 2 Labs. One yellow one black.

What is one thing about you that people would be surprised to know? I’m a certified Chef and prior to coming to the US I worked in Europe and Bermuda.

What is one invention you couldn’t live without? Beer

How do you unwind? A good beer with friends (MINI owners usually)

Your Car May Be Watching You

Your car may know more about you than you know about yourself ... at least, about your driving habits.  Some newer vehicles now come with maintenance minder systems that observe your patterns at the wheel to decide when your oil needs to be changed.

"Honda has been adding this feature to some of its newer vehicles," says Joe McGuire, parts and service director for Checkered Flag Honda.  "The engines have sensors that observe driving characteristics, such as whether you're light or heavy on the brake or if you do a lot of stop-and-go driving."

The sensors use this information to read oil condition; when your oil is at 15% "oil life" or less, it needs to be changed.

"The maintenance minder system figures out that for some poeple, this comes at 4500 miles and for others, it could be as much as 9000 miles," Joe says.  And that's not all -- the system figures out tire rotation intervals based on oil use.

While the system's main purpose is to tell when your oil life is low and needs to be changed, it also keeps you briefed on how oil life is holding up.  And that, says Joe, can be confusing if you don't know how the system works.

"Some third and fourth generation Honda owners who haven't had the maintenance minder system before  are surprised when a light flashes that says your oil life is at 80%," Joe says.  "It doesn't mean 80% of your oil is gone; it means you're in good shape, because your oil life is still high.  It's just the system keeping you informed."

Driving on the Autobahn - not for the faint of heart

By LARRY PRINTZ , The Virginian-Pilot
© November 12, 2006

STUTTGART, Germany

— This is one sweet ride, a silver 2006 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet with black leather interior and cabriolet top. It moves. Really moves. The speedometer reads 252 kph. That means we’re driving 150 mph. Scenery passes by so quickly, it’s as if our vision were stuck in fast forward.

My driving companion, Rob Nicholson, drives like a man possessed, as if it were still Prohibition and revenuers were on his trail.

“When you go to a Porsche driving event in the States, they put you on a track,” he offers in a thick Southern drawl.  “When you go to a Porsche driving event in Germany, the whole country is a test track."

GermanyWelcome to the Autobahn, a four-lane highway that looks like the Pennyslvania Turnpike, with all signs written in German. Driving on the Autobahn requires understanding the rules of the road. This is, after all, Germany– a most orderly country, and people here obey the rules. Talk on a cell phone while driving, and you’ll lose your driving privileges. Pass on the left, reserved for high-speed driving, or join the slower lane.

“It’s a different paradigm over here,” Joe Harvey says of his Autobahn experience. “You have to adjust your thinking. You don’t have to dodge the woman from Chesapeakedriving in the left lane at 40 mph. You can drive at high speed, not having to worry about a car suddenly pulling in front of you. It doesn’t happen.”

This ultimate test drive – or, as one participant put it, a tour of Germany through the rearview mirror – was arranged by Checkered Flag Porsche of Virginia Beach and the Porsche Travel Club. Also along for this visit are Alex Bell of Virginia Beach, Carroll Hughes of Chesapeake, Joe Harvey of Virginia Beach, Rob Nicholson of Virginia Beach and two representatives from Checkered Flag, Gerhard Seber, general manager for the Jaguar Porsche Audi store, and Pete Lively, director of variable operations.

The Porsche we’re driving is $87,895 of pure, rear-engine sports car, with a top speed of 177 mph. Automotive Darwinism at its finest, it is the distillation of the original 911 sports car, designed in 1963, and a true automotive icon.

This kind of speed takes intense concentration; things happen quickly at 150 mph. But the Porsche 911 is designed to handle this speed, and we’re here to savor every last bit of it.

One can’t help but smile like a schoolboy as the engine plays its sweet symphony. While most of the group made it up to at least 150 mph, Lively made it past 170 mph.

He labeled the trip “a dream come true” for everybody on it. By the way, he used the excuse of having to take European delivery of a Porsche as the reason for inviting a bunch of friends and customers to eat up the road in Germany.

Gerhard Seber, who hails from this region of Germany, worked with Porsche Travel Club to arrange the itinerary. As much an enthusiast of food as he is of great sports cars, Seber also ensured that other appetites were satisfied, be it a six-course meal of classic German cuisine or the perfect pilsner before dinner.

“He enjoys sharing his country. He’s clearly in his element,” observed Lively.

Volker Gempt, senior manager for the Porsche Driving Experience, founded the Porsche Travel Club as a soft sell method of enticing Porsche brand loyalty. “It’s not an advertising kind of trip,” he said. “We don’t run around with ‘yea Porsche’ flags. We are a catalyst, and a catalyst brings about a reaction without being a part of the reaction.”

While Porsche offers many trips, they must be arranged through a Porsche dealer. Checkered Flag’s Lively said the trip could become an annual event, depending on interest. sen. The collection, small but interesting, shows the wide range of vehicles Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, his son, Ferry, and their employees designed over the past century – ranging from early Daimlers and Volkswagens to later-day Porsche race cars.

The following day saw us picking up a fleet of Porsches at the company’s marketing department. Soon, we were driving down wet roads at 120 mph. The group handled it with aplomb.

Each car had a walkie-talkie, allowing Gempt to issue directions. It also allowed for a lot of – ahem – lively banter.

Heading towards the Black

Soon after arriving in Stuttgart , we were on a Mercedes-Benz bus heading for the Porsche museum at the Porsche factory in Zuffenhau Forest, Gempt led us down roads that were a true workout, sailing through the villages of Todmos , and Todnau , heading towards Oberharmersbach, the site of a trout hatchery. Despite having had lunch just a couple of hours before, we indulged in smoked trout, trout mousse and a bit of wine.

That night found us at the stunning Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe, a five-star hotel with all the charm one would expect of a castle perched at the top of a hill. The hotel meal started with smoked sturgeon and salmon, continued through fish filets over vegetables, stuffed duck breast in a red wine pepper sauce, banana parfait and ended with schnapps and Cuban cigars in a private room.

The next day brought driving through more towns with too many consonants in their names, too many meals with multiple courses and many miles beating the spit out of the cars.

We did encounter one hair-raising moment, when the driver of an Audi A4 wagon didn’t want us passing him on a mountain road, even though we were allowed to. The driver pulled into the passing lane each time a Porsche attempted to pass. Our guide wasn’t surprised, surmising that the driver was probably a frustrated bureaucrat.

“An Audi is a civil servant’s car,” Gempt sniffed with disdain.

At the end of the trip, the group agreed that piloting the 911 in its native land had captured our hearts.

Joe Harvey was surprised at the car’s bulletproof nature. “You get to 7,200 rpm and it unloads itself. You slide out of the corner, gripping like rails. If that doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will.”

Carroll Hughes didn’t expect to drive 120 mph in the rain behind the wheel of a rear-wheel-drive Carrera S. “I wasn’t expecting the car to have the capabilities it had on wet roads. That was a major surprise, how stable it was.”

Alex Bell enjoyed using the Porsche to its fullest. “The Autobahn was fun. You can drive a car as it’s meant to be driven without fear of being pulled over for a ticket.”

Rob Nicholson observed. “We were bulls in a china shop, ripping through the country. We saw

Germany

in the rear-view mirror for three days. I would recommend it to anyone.”

• Reach Larry Printz at (757) 446-2220 or larry.printz @pilotonline.com

Nuthin' but tire....sort of

It looks like the limits of R&D know no bounds.  According to the "email vine" Michelin is in the process of developing airless tires.  They look like the ultimate in run-flat tires, and supposedly can withstand a police-thrown spike strip.  Does this mean more 2AM television car-chase excitement?

What they could mean if Michelin R&D is fully successful:

• No more need for the new Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems all new cars will soon be required to have
• Better gas mileage as we won't have to worry about "slugging" tires when the weather changes
• No need to carry a jack in the trunk
• A bit of getting used to - they look strange

What else could they do?  I doubt we'll see them on off-roading trucks or race cars anytime soon, but they have a lot of potential for regular street-driven vehicles.

Click any picture for a larger view.

Are You an Optimist? Your Car's Color Reveals All

I didn't realize it, but the fact that my car is white means I am optimistic about the economy (I just thought it meant I was providing an especially attractive target for passing seagulls.)  A very long press release put out by DuPont Automotive when it issued its annual vehicle Color Report last year quotes an expert with the Socionomics Institute in Gainesville, Georgia as saying that silver, which has been the most popular vehicle color in North America for seven years, reflects public optimism about the stock market and the housing mark et ... and that the leading position of white in the 1960's and early 1970's coincided with economic expansion then.  How important is color? A poll commissioned by DuPont shows a lot of people ... as many as 40-percent ... would switch vehicles brands to get the color of their choice.  As you can see, DuPont has put together a chart that shows the popularity of various vehicle colors in North America.  Honestly, color wasn't that important to me when I bought my car ... I was more interested in the ride and the features.  How important is vehicle color to you?

Meet Checkered Flag Customer David Culpepper!

What is your name? David Culpepper

What you do for a living and where? Culpepper Radiator Portsmouth Virginia

Which Hampton Roads city or county do you live in? Chesapeake

How long have you lived in Hampton Roads? 55 years

What do you drive? Porsche GT3

What are your hobbies? Racing my cars

What is your favorite restaurant? Gringo’s

What is in your MP3 player (or CD player) right now? About 4000 songs

What movie have you seen most recently? Spiderman, (2 grandsons)

What pets do you have? Bird and dog

What is one thing about you that people would be surprised to know? No surprises

What is one invention you couldn’t live without? The automobile

Why are you a Checkered Flag customer? I have become friends with the staff, sales, parts and service. That way we all know what to expect from each other.

Please tell us about yourself!  If you would like to see your profile on the Checkered Blog, please click here and let us know!

MINIs Make Major Mark

MINI owners made history in Hampton Roads this month ... they broke the Guiness Book of World Records mark for the largest-ever MINI convoy ... topping the previous record set in Blackpool, England.  It happened on June 10, when 273 MINI's set out from the Virginia Beach Sportsplex ... four more than took part in the Blackpool event.  Held under the auspices of the Seven Cities MINI club, whose president is  Randy Dedrickson, the convoy not only broke the record ... it also raised over $3600 for the Naval Special Warfare Foundation. 

There's some video of the event on HamptonRoads.tv ... to see it, go to HamptonRoads.tv and search the last 30 days with the keyword "mini." 

Checkered Flag MINI motoring advisor Simon Biggs says a lot of people and organizations worked together to make the event so successful, including event grand marshal Rudy Boesch of Survivor fame; Virginia Beach city councilman Bob Dyers, one of the certifying officials; the Virginia Beach Police Department and Virginia Beach Sportsplex; Ashley & Associates, which handled insurance issues; and Conklin's Irish Rover, which hosted a terrific after-party.  Key sponsors were MINI USA and Checkered Flag MINI.

Keep an eye on the Checkered Blog for details on a nother MINI event planned for August!

Three an Important Number for Honda Brake Fluid

Three is an important number when it comes to Honda brakes ... or more specifically, brake fluid.

Checkered Flag Honda parts and service director Joe McGuire says Honda now recommends that brake fluid in its vehicles be replaced every three years, regardless of mileage.  The reason: Over time, brake fluid collects moisture from the atmosphere ... this affects the hydraulic pressure of brakes and of course, braking ability.

While Honda started making this recommendation a few years ago, Joe says a lot of people still aren't aware of it.  It has him concerned that some people who have older vehicles with very low mileage don't know about the issue, and "we need to be sure to get that fluid replaced."   If that's your situation, call Checkered Flag at 490-1111... ask for Honda service ... and Joe and his team can take care of it.