Speed night at the theater [r]

Fast and Furious (6.3)

• Rides (7): Rides has finally been done right. The featured machines hail from many countries, decades, and backgrounds. Caymans, Camaros, Skylines, new Mustangs, M3s; the list is extensive because no car survives more than a fraction of the film.
  The minor details are important, there aren't any Civics racing rx7s or Jettas racing s2000s. The drug runners use a traditional Hummer where many movies would have opted for the commercial H2 or H3. The cartel kingpin rolls in a 'rambo lambo' escorted by 90s-era Suburbans in lieu of the Escalade or late mode Suburban option.
  But because Toretto and O'Connor go through so many rides in 99 minutes, there's no single car that's meant to capture the affection of the characters and audience. The first movie let us cheer for the Ferrari-beating Supra and salivate over the mythical Charger. This movie treats cars only as a means to an end, which isn't a sentiment shared by an audience that will suffer horrible writing and acting to see some fine steel - CR
  A variety of different style cars. Small ones, big ones, big ones with engine things sticking out of the top, big tires... Oh, a Subbie wrx - word to the Subarus! They picked a cute hatchback version in lieu of the sedan, but they did keep the classic Subbie blue color. I can't complain, a little cuteness goes a long way.
  Lots of recognizable street cars - Honda s2000, Porsche Cayman, black Hummer getaway car, and I believe the fake boss man was driving in a Lincoln limosine. - CS
• Authenticity (3): There wasn't much criteria in the realm of authenticity for this movie - Does nitro-meth exist? Does only one person in LA use it? Would it leave a burn mark for CSI: Vin Diesel to find? The rest of the issues are more a matter of being sensible. The tunnel we can estimate to be a half mile based on the time it take fast and furious drivers to race a quarter mile. This sort of feat can and has been accomplished in human history - though usually near a town and rarely matching the width of a car. What I really revel in is that they escape the heat sensor by recruiting fast cars/drivers. But once in the tunnel... underground, they have to drive enven faster to escape being seen by a helicopter. - JR
  Are you serious? This is a movie! No such thing as authenticity. - CS
  The story and dialog are on par with the FF series and any other speed night movie. The action sequences take quite a few liberties with physics and human cognition, but few bits are visually unauthentic (increased frame rate, poor cg). - CR
• Chicas (7): The producer of the fast and the furiouses has obviously made his living off of flashing half naked girls on the screen, this movie was more of the same - but with a latin twist. Especially nice was that they limited the amount of guys in the background to really - as we say in MBA school - maximize the hotness. The female leads had small parts: Letty dies, Mia has become a shut-in, and Agent Trinh is clearly stuck on O'Connor's friends ladder (only females have a friends ladder). Toretto is still a musclebound hothead who is suddenly finding his softer side. This may make some girls gush, I'm really not sure. This softer side also interferes with our chances of seeing Gisele take her gear off. - JR
  It seems, in the previous FFs, the extras all came from one place: import car shows. This applies equally to the flamboyant Civics and the girls straddling them. With any amount of scrutiny it could be determined that they came from a very unappealing reality. Not so with Fast and Furious, despite a prevailing skank level reaching somewhere in the stratosphere, the eye candy is such even when in focus. -CR
  No comment on the chicas. The tall, skinny villain gal's eye candy came across as anorexic, however, Jordana Brewster brings up the flesh category. The non-femmes are dominated by Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, despite the Dilbert attire. A little less shirt would have been nice, but after all said and done, the initial scenes with Han did bump the non-femmes up a notch. - CS
  
• One Liners (6): '20% angel, 80% devil.' One word about how Vinnie looked when he said that: hot. Oh wait, that belongs in the flesh category... - CS
  'You looked under my hood?' 'Now you owe me a ten second car' 'When the gps calls...' Plenty of one liners, both sensical and not. - JR
  There are a few cute ones, 'Sorry, car.' There are a few that make fun of Paul Walker, 'Still a buster.' 'Buster's a gearhead.' And there are a few that are meant to sound in touch with the street racer scene, 'Meth nitrous is for pussies.' While the movie isn't quotially vacant, it's hard to live up to the quotability of the original. - CR
  
• Action Sequences (7): Cars were crashed, but no more than what the Tokyo Drift kid did single handedly. - JR
  I would give it a ten, but since I didn't get an A and CR did, it gets a 9.5. Full-on balls of fires action with exploding cars and leaky nitrous- what more could the dentist ask? The murder mystery added a good twist and actually gave the movie a story, complemented by some good ol' fashioned beat-him-to-a-pulp action sequences.
  The villain guy, however, could have been a little more villiany. He came across like a smug smurf that forgot to eat his Wheaties. More evil, more tyranny was needed. Even Evil Green Car Driver Guy wasn't as mad as he was supposed to be. Mad Max would beat him in madness any day. However, I must say, the Dukes of Hazzard Vin Diesel revenge style was definitely appropriate.
  Overall, the action was quite throttling and deserves a nice high score. - CS
  
• Star Power (8): They brought back the original crew. Apparently the first movie had more star power than initially assessed, as Vin Diesel definitely made the movie. It would not have been the same without him. Paul Walker definitely added star power, but he would have taken the limelight had he not worn a Dilbert suit 50% of the time. - CS
  One of the main draws of Fast and Furious is that it reunites the core of the original cast. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, and Michelle Rodriguez haven't risen to glorious Hollywood stardom in the last eight years, but their careers haven't languished either. It's great to see a cameo by Han, the most amiable character in the series. Walker is only distractingly bad on occasion and the female leads do a good job of portraying unsympathetic characters. I glanced at a review beforehand, it spoke disparagingly of Diesel's acting, claiming he comes across as tired and effortless. I actually saw this as understandable anguish that peaks at an excellent scene that is pointlessly destroyed by O'Connor's spontaneous make up sex with Mia. - CR

7+
The Fast and the Furious (7.7): Genre-defining, quotable, unreal
Gumball Rally (7.5): Still relevant
Initial D (7.1): Cult, riveting, but give us some shine
Thunderbolt (7.0): Over the top for better and worse
6+
Days of Thunder (6.7): Pretty good but not very pretty
Fast and Furious (6.3): New model, original problems
Ronin (6.3): Left in the briefcase: girls, rides, one-liners
Mad Max (6.2): Brutal action, no frills
Truth in 24 (6.2): Good, but too much truth for speed night
5+
Redline (5.7): Fantastic if watched in a foreign language
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (5.6): Sexy, but unfulfilling
2 Fast 2 Furious (5.3): 2 flimsy
4+
Driven (4.9): Succeeds in everything unrelated to cars
Death Race 2000 (4.0): If only they were just racing across town
3+
Movin' Too Fast (3.3): Well, it has cars

A few more shots of the carnage [s]

There are a few wires to dispose of, all in due time. The couch is a bit off the wall to center its occupants more and provide a space for the woofer. Um and I'm terrible at pillowing couches.



I brought the tripods home from my office so I had a bit more snapping liberty.



Dixieline was closed today, grumble. Still, I put the head back.



Surf board rack with wifi. Duh.

Truth in 24 (6)

• Rides (7): The speed night mainstay is a powerful road car that features a wealth of modifications such as blowers, bottles, death proof roll cages, and chaingun turrets. The LeMans circuit is a departure, for sure, but not one that dances off into the fairly land of f1 and the lot where cars - to paraphrase Ferdinand Porsche - should win a race and then fall to pieces. Nay, LeMans racers have to run strong for a contiguous day and have been a testbed for the development plenty of commecial technology.
  Truth in 24 showcases the fastest and least recognizable of the series, the prototype class. These machines are purely designed for function and tend to be a crap shoot for aesthetics. I would have found myself salivating considerably more had they focused on the classes that consist of 430s, 911s, S7s, Corvettes and the like. But that experience may have been ruined every time a LMP breezed by on the outside of a hairpin.
  So while there's little variety or focus on the cars you might actually see in the parking garage at your local hospital, they look good, sound good, and require no increased frame rate or cgi to knock your socks off.
  
• Authenticity (10): It's a documentary. You can't get a whole lot more authentic without jumping formats. Of course I'm accepting the characterization of Peugot as evil. But if they weren't evil they wouldn't have made their cars looks so evil.
  
• Femmes (0): I think I spotted a few in the crowd. For something created by nfl films and shown on espn, I actually expected a few umbrella girls.
  
• One Liners (7): The authenticity and female content aren't a surprise, but the prevalence of quotables was a shocker. None are so cornball to be as memorable as 'danger to manifold' or 'my hand gernade', but they're excellent within the context of the story. The lecherous lead engineer of the Audi powerplant has a few, such as the observation that his turbo diesel is quiet and sexy, in contrast to the 'normal' perception of sexy as involving screaming. Shudder.
  Then there are a few - often through thick accents - that draw a chuckle while you're watching, such as, 'Drive home like grandma'. And then the prophetic, 'It always rains at LeMans'.
  
• Action Sequences (7): I'll start with the 3/10ths empty part of the glass: no martial arts, Mexican stands-off, or nos explosions. The 7/10ths is a tasty blend of Fine Driving, high speed camera clips, mishaps, and flying cars. The carnage is actually Tetrised into the storyline so it doesn't feel like a nascar commercial. And most importantly, the movie draws on so many sources of footage that the coverage of the track, cars, pits, is very complete. It doesn't hurt that you can watch some impressive shots and know it wasn't cooked up by a supercomputer cluster or remotely control car.
  
• Star Power (6): Paul Newman and Steve McQueen show up in a few homage clips, the rest are racers.

7+
The Fast and the Furious (7.7): Genre-defining, quotable, unreal
Gumball Rally (7.5): Still relevant
Initial D (7.1): Cult, riveting, but give us some shine
Thunderbolt (7.0): Over the top for better and worse
6+
Days of Thunder (6.7): Pretty good but not very pretty
Ronin (6.3): Left in the briefcase: girls, rides, one-liners
Mad Max (6.2): Brutal action, no frills
Truth in 24 (6.2): Good, but too much truth for speed night
5+
Redline (5.7): Fantastic if watched in a foreign language
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (5.6): Sexy, but unfulfilling
2 Fast 2 Furious (5.3): 2 flimsy
4+
Driven (4.9): Succeeds in everything unrelated to cars
Death Race 2000 (4.0): If only they were just racing across town
3+
Movin' Too Fast (3.3): Well, it has cars

The return of the leaderboard [r]

The leaderboard updated and redistributed:
7+
The Fast and the Furious (7.7): Genre-defining, quotable, unreal
Gumball Rally (7.5): Still relevant
Initial D (7.1): Cult, riveting, but give us some shine
Thunderbolt (7.0): Over the top for better and worse
6+
Days of Thunder (6.7): Pretty good but not very pretty
Ronin (6.3): Left in the briefcase: girls, whips, one-liners
Mad Max (6.2): Brutal action, no frills
5+
Redline (5.7): Fantastic if watched in a foreign language
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (5.6): Sexy, but unfulfilling
2 Fast 2 Furious (5.3): 2 flimsy
4+
Driven (4.9): Succeeds in everything unrelated to cars
Death Race 2000 (4.0): If only they were just racing across town
3+
Movin' Too Fast (3.3): Well, it has cars

I'll let the graphing experts normalize this to a more pleasing distribution.

Jack Murphy parking lot [s]

Yesterday was autocross.



I got a little sloppy on the charting. Oh well, it's all there. Getting so many runs was a real feather in our cap. Jon was testing the limits of traction, or so I noticed when I rode with him. Sliding off course was a real black eye for me on the first two runs. Erik peaked early, Ian improved until his tires stopped gripping. He's got some nasty chunks missing.

Most times were in the 63-65 range. The other SD SOLO photographer was happy with the 61 he ran in his rx8, a stock Vette managed a 56, and the karts were pulling low 50s.

Key lessons learned:

• Off camber corners are significant.
• Racier tire setups don't give much warning before breaking loose.
• Skillful driving and r-compounds are a good substitute for being short on power.
  

The results of the April event, for comparison.


White Lambda was definitely pushing the Ac around. For more photos of the event, including Jon with a cone in his wheel well, check my blog-dedicated flickr.


Yes folks, that wheel is off the ground.

West coast [s]

Saturday started with Mario Galaxy and In 'n' Out, then we drove down to Qualcomm to scout the autocross scene. Jon and Ty rode with Erik for a couple of laps, J and I did some shooting. Can't wait to get the vr down there. Scroll down for more information on the autocross events.


The lineup featured everything from four-door Toyollas to Lotuses and GT3s.


Ty was still wearing dive weights when he passenged on a couple laps.


'What is it about driving cars that makes you all such assholes?'


Obtaining a proper panned shot was the preoccupation. Thanks to Connie for the 300 mil with IS.


Not many people can go through car tires faster than bike tires.

Next we headed out to Cuyamaca to snap some scenery. I've long since lost any eye for landscapes, but it was a golden opportunity to play with hdr some more.


Ugh.

We happened upon a lonely snowman and though harming the creature seemed unconscionable, artistic interest won out in the end. The following images depict graphic violence and should not be seen without appropriate discretion.





As promised, some more info on the autocross events, courtesy of Erik.

Lap times:
Carrera GT3 – 55s
Highly modded miatas – 52s
84 corolla w/ stock motor 200K miles – mid to high 50s
S2000 and STI, and 2.5RS – high 50s
C6 Z06, s13, stock miata – mid 60s
My best time was 63.4, best time with 200+ lb ballast was a 64

The thing about autox is that the small, tight courses can really bring driver skill to the forefront over vehicle prep. I have beat Evo 8s in the rain and I have been blown away by near-stock civics on dry pavement. The biggest disadvantages I face are, in order of relevance:
1. Driver Skill
2. Driver Skill
3. Tires
4. Power, suspension, chassis…

I had an experienced driver ride along with me for a couple of runs. He mentioned a few good points, mostly that I was planning the lines badly, not looking far enough ahead, drifting too much (although he suspected the equipment had something to do with it, “Champiro? Never heard of ‘em”). On the plus he said my aggression level was good, and then after considering, added “maybe too good”.

In the hands of a capable driver, the ride makes the difference, but no ride can make up for the lack of skill. I ridden in WRX STi’s with full traction control and all wheel drive that couldn’t save their drivers from their own poor lines.

The event on Saturday was a practice; meaning that people could run and get times, but that no points or penalties were awarded and standings were not listed or affected. For a first timer, this is the event to attend, as it does not have the intensity of a competition. Better yet, a real noob should take advantage of the “novice school” offered over the summer. I plan to attend for my second year, as I could use the help.

The practices host a range of participants from first-timers in stock cars plodding around at moderate speed to experienced racers trying to shave a few tenths by playing with setup on their single seat, full-cage race cars. The relaxed atmosphere doesn’t intimidate, and everyone is friendly, but the strong drive for improvement is contagious, and even the newest of drivers start looking for ways to drop seconds. Everyone who races also takes a turn working the course, which generally means chasing the cones that stray automobiles tend to scatter over the course of the day. Working a practice is definitely a great way to see the cars up close, and doesn’t have the added pressure of tight competition that race days do. Fail to pick up a cone during competition and drivers have to repeat runs and start griping about fairness.

Jon’s car is perfect, Ty’s Civic would be fine too. Goat Cheese would need to comply with the same, and would probably find it difficult and expensive. There are some fees to pay and registrations to fill out (SCCA and SDR SOLO2), but I can guide anyone interested to the proper websites to take their money. If nothing else, I will try to give people a heads up for the novice school in early May – this is by far the best event for the first-timer.

Erik: Do you mind if I ride along?
Hot S2000 Driver: Ummm…
E: I heard you were a good driver to learn from.
H: Ok, I guess you look skinny, it can't hurt my time too much.
E: Yeah, I keep a trim figure for just such an occasion
(HS2000 goes on to break the 60s mark on that run).
H: Wow, thanks, you’re good luck!
E: Great run! That was awesome (gets high-five from H).

Consoles and cars [p]

2007Q1 console sales:
Wii: 1,000,000
X360: 720,000
PS3: 500,000
(With DS outselling every system and PS2 outselling X360 and PS3.)

It's nice Sony and Microsoft are getting theirs. To paraphrase the past few years of trash talk:

• Motion control? That's a gimmick.
  
• Motion control? That can't fit the paradigm of modern games.
• Motion control? We invented it! We call it Sixaxis.
• The Cell processor basically gives Playstation 3 the power of a supercomputer.
  
• We're going to change the way people interact with games. X360 will create an environment where gameplay is driven by human energy.
• We're not in competition with Nintendo, they sell childrens' games.
• Playstation 3 will launch this November to compete with X360.
• The next generation doesn't start until we say it does.
  
• When Playstation 3 launches next Christmas, Halo 3 will be there to steal all the attention.
• The reports that we're implementing the Miis are lies and we will no longer talk to Kotaku... Okay we'll talk to Kotaku again.

That said, I have a fever for a racing game. And the only prescription is a Gran Turismo or Forza. If there's one group that's as annoying as the trash talking SCEA and X360 brass, it's Polyphony. Extraordinary delays, repeated feature sets, and the greatest sin of all: almost charging for content on a re-release. They were the best, and then stopped trying. I believe the verb is 'to EA'.

History indicates the second Forza will follow the Halo series and be the same game with more polygons. It'd be nice to see some innovation, but that's just not going to happen with Microsoft so worried about taking risks with their franchise titles.

Still if the gameplay is solid I'll unshun Microsoft and pick up their system. The Forza car list has been released. Ultimately the quality of the list depends on how it's used. If you have no business buying 90% of the cars because the other 10% blow their class away, your huge list just became very short.

I'm of course saddened that rally hasn't yet been introduced into the series. But other than that I'm impressed. They have a great sampling from so many generations of motorsports. The multiplicity of a single model exists in having numerous race versions rather than the ten different consumer models. The mid-90's lineup is strong, as are the LeMans GT series cars.

Most of all, I'm looking forward to playing with a wheel. It's been all dual shock for me until now. A precision analog wheel and pedal set should make the experience much more enjoyable.

Some highlights of the list...
2002 M3 GTR / 2006 Corvette C6R / 1964 250 GTO / 2003 Mugen S2000 / 1993 XJ-220 / 2005 Exige / 1998 FTO / 1997 GTO / 2002 Skyline Nur / 2007 Peugot 207 / 1995 911 GT2 / 1998 Tommy Kaira Impreza / 1969 2000GT / 1998 VeilSide Supra / 2001 Tuscan R / 2003 R32

Sadly missing...
Nismo Skyline GTR / Veyron / AMG CL35 / M6 / R10 LMP / R34 / Astra