Editorial: Is There A Way to Prevent Child and Pet Deaths in Overheating Cars?

Image courtesy of USA Today

It could just be me, but I have noticed a lot more coverage on child and pet deaths from leaving them inside cars in hot weather. Media coverage did seem to increase after the case of the Georgia man who "forgot" about his child in his car and went to work. I am not sure if media coverage has increased because of this higher than normal profile case, or because parents are becoming more negligent. What I do want to know is whether or not car manufacturers can develop a system to prevent such deaths in the future.

Review: Initial D Final Stage

Last year, I reviewed the much anticipated, but extremely disappointing Initial D: Fifth Stage. It was disappointing because the animation was iffy, and the creators tried to cram hundreds of chapters of Shuichi Shigeno's work into 14 episodes. As mentioned in my earlier review, the final race between Initial D's main protagonist, Fujiwara Takumi, and his theoretical half brother, Shinji Inui, would take place as a final four episode arc. Here is what happens when the final 100 or so chapters gets crammed into four episodes.

Initial D: Fifth Stage ended with Takumi's teammate, Takahashi Keisuke and his FD3S Mazda RX-7, victorious in his race against team Sidewinder's Hojo Go and his NA1 Honda NSX. Final Stage picks up with the final race in the Initial D series: Takumi in his AE86 hatchback versus 15 year-old prodigy, Inui Shinji in his AE86 coupe. This is not the first AE86 versus AE86 race to occur in Initial D, but what makes this race different is that Shinji resembles Takumi at the very beginning of the series: apprehensive about racing and driving purely based on intuition and years of home course experience.

This race seems completely unfair at first. Takumi's AE86 is basically a race car, with its Group A
spec 20 valve 4A-GEU racing engine, full roll cage, and racing tuned suspension. Shinji's AE86 on the other hand is still sporting the standard 16 valve 4A-GEU engine (heavily tuned though), bolt on roll bars, and tuned suspension. Based on the specs of both cars, and Takumi's experience, he should have wiped the floor with Shinji and his AE86. But just as everyone thought Takumi would have gotten his ass handed to him by his numerous opponents with more powerful cars and experience, Takumi still manages win after win thanks to his experience on his home course. With years of experience driving the local mountain roads with his mother, Shinji manages to give Takumi a run for his money, and even causes Takumi to struggle to keep up throughout the first part of the course.

What this race really boils down to are the differences between Shinji and Takumi, not their cars. At first, Shinji did not want to participate in the race versus Takumi and Project D at all. While roaming through the spectator galleries, Shinji encounters the two women who form the racing team Impact Blue, driver Sato Mako and navigator Sayuki (whom Takumi met and defeated in the first season of Initial D). After listening to how passionate Mako and Sayuki were about racing, Shinji decided to race so he could, in his own words, be a "hero" and impress his friends as well as Mako and Sayuki. During the actual race, while Takumi is struggling to keep up, Shinji becomes overconfident and lets Takumi pass part way through the race. Shinji sees his gesture as innocent, wanting merely to watch Takumi drive from behind and see his "wings." Instead, Shinji's overconfidence spurs Takumi to drive even harder and faster, causing Shinji to panic and have to resort to bumping Takumi's car to maintain his driving line and retake the lead.

Takumi and Shinji trade positions a few more before times approaching the final section of the race. This is where we learn in a flash back that Project D leader Takahashi Ryosuke had intentionally re-tuned the engine in Takumi's AE86 for better low end torque, giving a more consistent power delivery. This meant Takumi was able to change gears at around 9,000 rpm instead of at 11,000 rpm like when his car was first equipped with its racing engine. Takumi is also informed that while he can shift past 10,000 rpm, the engine is not making a lot of additional power, and prolonged use of the higher rev range of the engine will strain the engine. Considering the timing of the flashback, it became obvious Takumi saw no other option put to push his engine to ragged edge in order to get in front of Shinji. Using his "blind attack" technique (where Takumi shuts off his headlights to confuse his opponent), Takumi is able to surprise Shinji and squeeze next to Shinji, throwing Shinji off his line. With Takumi now about half a car length ahead and in a position to overtake at the last corner, Takumi turns his lights back on to see his tachometer approaching 13,000 rpm. His engine blows, spewing oil all over the place. The wheels in Takumi's AE86 lock up, causing him to spin and forcing Shinji to spin out as well. Rather than letting the car keep spinning, Takumi waits for the car to turn 180 degrees, disengages the clutch, and lets the car roll backwards into the finish line. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Takumi wins his final race.


Watching Final Stage sort of reminded me of the good old days of Initial D, where the average race lasted three to four episodes. As expected, the art work did not change at all since Fifth Stage, since the animation team did not change. On the other hand, the storyboard team seemed to do a much better job of incorporating that last few chapters of the manga into the four episodes that make of Final Stage. Perhaps they were given more leeway since they only needed to compress 100 or so chapters into four episodes, rather than attempting to compress over 600 chapters into 14 episodes. Either way, Takumi and Shinji's race felt much more complete than the races in Fifth Stage.

Whereas the manga ended with Project D disbanding and Keisuke getting offers from professional racing teams, the Final Stage team was clearly given some leeway into changing some final material to the end of Initial D. Rather than scrapping the AE86 like in the manga, Takumi offers to use his income to repair his beloved car little by little until it runs again. Also, instead of just Keisuke getting professional race offers, Takumi also gets them as well. There is one final scene that is clearly added as complete fan service though. While Takumi is doing his nightly tofu delivery in his father's Subaru WRX STI Type R, he encounters a brand new Toyota GT86. As the two cars drive past one another, things go into slow motion as Takumi stares at the passing GT86. I suppose this was added, not just to help Toyota advertise the car, but to imply that the spirit of the AE86 is alive in its spiritual successor.


Overall, I had a lot more fun watching Final Stage than I did Fifth Stage. It may have only been four episodes long, but the nostalgia factor, especially the last episode, made it worth watching. Unfortunately, you cannot simply skip Fifth Stage and jump right into Final Stage (unless you have already read the manga), so you will have to suffer through Fifth Stage in order to understand what is going on with Final Stage. It would have been nice if the art team made some improvements, but I honestly did not expect it. There are also a few plot points left hanging at the end as well. For example, "Bunta's last favor," which is mentioned in Fifth Stage, is never revealed. If you can get over these details, you will enjoy the end of a series that has been on going for nearly 20 years.

Long Term Test: 2011 Honda Fit Sport post #3

Current Miles: 40,566

The hood of the Fit, covered in bugs

Another long term post about the Fit brings another road trip. This time, my fiancee and I took the Fit on a six hour journey north to my fiancee's home town of Sacramento, CA. This was not the first time we have taken the Fit to Sacramento, but it was the first time we did the trip when there was still daylight. This meant that I would actually be awake for most of the drive instead of passed out in the passenger seat.

The last longer trip we took with the Fit was a two hour drive to Oceanside. Two hours is fairly comfortable in the Fit as the seats are not too bad. The only real annoyance is listening to the Fit's 1.5 liter inline-four buzzing away at cruising speeds. For a six hour drive though, the seats did get pretty uncomfortable by hour three. I began to notice that the seats are not as thickly padded as I had originally thought. After switching places with my fiancee half way through so that she could get some rest, I stopped noticing how uncomfortable the seats were. The engine, on the other hand, still got kind of annoying after a while. In the end, it is nothing the radio cannot drown out.

Fuel economy for this trip was not bad. Because my fiancee and I both tend to drive with a heavy foot, we were only able to squeeze out 36 mpg. When we first took the Fit to Sacramento, I thought this number was pretty good. After having the 2014 Acura RLX for a while, and seeing me get 30 mpg on an all highway drive with the RLX, I was much less impressed with the Fit's results. Of course, the RLX's engine has direct-injection and runs on three cylinders during cruising, so those results were expected.

It might just be me, but the interior of the Fit is starting to feel old. Not that any of the interior materials are wearing out, but the cluster of buttons on the center console makes the car feel out-dated. My feelings largely have to do with the RLX and MDX now featuring touch screens, and the fact that the all new 2015 Fit comes equipped with a touch screen as well. While my fiancee had the Ford Fusion as a rental when the Fit was in for repairs, she fell in love with the fancy touch screen infotainment system, the keyless push button start, proximity key doors, and all the other fancy features she has never had on a car before. Considering the new Fit has all of those fancy new features, has more power (which is one of her primary complaints about the Fit), and gets better fuel economy, I may have some leverage to get her to trade her current Fit for a new one.

Editorial: Motor Trend's Jessi Lang Shares Why She Had Been Gone for So Long

After seemingly disappearing for nearly a year, Motor Trend's Jessi Lang posted a video about a week ago explaining her absence, and the accident that led to her long absence from YouTube and Motor Trend. The reason I want to share her story is because the type of accident she was involved in could happen to any of us, regardless of speed. Not only do I find Jessi's story of recovery to be uplifting, but I also find it to be a good tale of caution. Just because you are a good driver and focused, does not mean that another driver oblivious to their surroundings will not ruin your day.

I understand that many of our readers may not necessarily know who Jessi Lang is, so here is some background info on her. Jessi Lang is a writer, producer, and host of her own show on Motor Trend's YouTube channel. Though Jessi had posted non car related videos in the past, I had started following her videos when she was still reviewing cars for Roadfly TV. When I first watched one of Jessi's car reviews, I felt her attitude and personality brought a breath of fresh air to the droll and mundane car reviews available on YouTube at the time. Jessi later transitioned to working at Motor Trend, where she started off hosting the "Wide Open Throttle" show on Motor Trend's YouTube channel. Later, Jessi was given her own show called the "J-Turn." This show followed Jessi's exploits in the motoring world, such as learning to ride a dirt bike, learning rally driving, or participating in a team racing event. Admittedly, I was a pretty jealous of Jessi's day job, but at the same time happy to see someone pursuing their dreams and allowing viewers to follow their progress.

Review: F1 2013

I had been itching to get another racing game lately after finishing Burnout: Paradise. Instead of the not so realistic, arcade like gameplay of Burnout, I wanted something more realistic like Forza Motorsport or Gran Turismo. Not wanting to spend $400 on a new Xbox One just to get Forza Motorsport 5 meant I had to look to my trusty gaming PC again. I stumbled upon F1: 2013 while browsing through Valve's Steam service. Having always been interested in Formula 1 racing, I decided to give this game a shot. Admittedly, I was not one hundred percent sure what I was getting myself into when I purchased this game. I knew it was going to be far more realistic than any car racing game I had ever played before. I just had no idea it was going to be this realistic.

Test Drive: 2014 Honda Civic Si Coupe

Since the year 2011, I have test driven a new Civic Si every year. In 2011, I test drove the final model year of the eighth generation Civic Si sedan. In 2012, I test drove and reviewed the new ninth generation Civic Si sedan. Because of the 2012 model's negative reception, Honda refreshed the Civic, and I test drove and reviewed the updated 2013 Civc Si last year. 2014 marks the Civic's mid-cycle refresh, which means another all new Civic Si to test drive. Yes, that is four different version of the Civic Si in four years.

For 2014, the Civic Si gets a more aggressive looking front end, big wing in the rear, standard 18 inch wheels, a slightly revised suspension, and a bit more power under the hood. Other changes include a standard touchscreen infotainment unit along with a standard right side blind-spot camera. What I was interested in was whether or not the minor performance enhancements would help inject a little bit of that Honda spirit back into the Si that the eighth generation car had.

Daydreams: Dodge Neon SRT-4

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

Over the last few weeks, I have seen quite a few Dodge Neon SRT-4s on the road. Seeing the sudden influx of these cars on the road got me thinking back to my college days when I had wanted one of these cars. It was not a very visually exciting vehicle (it is a Dodge Neon after all), but the sound the car made was what made it special. The Neon SRT-4 did not come with mufflers, giving it a very throaty exhaust note and a very audible burbling and popping during down shifts. It was the car's unique exhaust note and performance numbers that made this car appeal to me.

Driving 101: The Calculus of Driving

Recently, on a long drive out to a remote part of Western Massachusetts, my wife and I got into a discussion about the philosophy behind each of our driving styles. My philosophy on driving is that a good driver is able to manage what I think of as the calculus of driving: a complex analysis of the huge variety of factors that are thrown at the driver anytime they are behind the wheel where every little detail matters and even the tiniest of elements should not go overlooked. The philosophy really applies no matter what I am in control of, but behind the wheel of a nearly two-ton hunk of metal, it becomes increasingly important that my "calculus" gets to be pretty good. The idea here is that driving is more than just operating the pedals and directing the vehicle, it is about making decisions and choices that help keep traffic flowing smoothly and avoids creating a hindrance for other drivers.

Let's take a look at what it means to perform the calculus of driving by examining some real world situations.

Editorial: Is the Basic Car Alarm Still Effective?

Image courtesy of memecrunch.com

Not too long ago, I was awoken in the middle of the night by a car alarm that suddenly started blaring at a nearby apartment complex. Knowing the alarm sounded nothing like my own car or my fiancee's car, I attempted to go back to sleep. For the next five minutes, the alarm kept going off until it either disarmed itself, or the owner finally woke up and disarmed it. I started to think back to the night when my fiancee and I had first moved into our current place. Right around 11pm, a fifth generation Honda Accord with an aftermarket alarm system started going off. After about two to three minutes of continuous blaring, it stopped, only to start again 30 seconds later. This kept happening up until about 8am the following morning when we called the police since we were sick of hearing it. I later overheard the officer questioning the owner of the car, who was completely oblivious to his car alarm. All of this got me wondering: just how effective are car alarms these days?

Announcement: Cross country road trip!!

Beginning at the end of next week, East Brother (Kevin) and his wife will be making a cross country journey by car from the Boston area all the way to sunny Southern California. The trip will run through several parts of the country and will have numerous stops along the way where East Brother and his wife will be exploring different US cities by bicycle. They will be sharing their adventure exclusively via the East-West Brothers Garage Facebook Page so follow us to get their updates from the road. The route will be announced as they go and if you have any good suggestions on places to visit, please take a moment to share those with them via comments on Facebook. Shout outs to be provided to all suggestions that make it into their travel plans!