This past weekend I was fortunate enough to visit Toronto Motorsports Park for one of their OSCA drag racing events.

It got me thinking about chassis flex amongst a lot of things.

First of all it made me realize how much I miss domestics, and how nice domestic owners are compared to import owners. It feels like a very family oriented event, so I recommend everyone to check out OSCA if they are able.

The cars lined up represented a good selection of drag machines from small kid racer to nitro burning dragsters. Several cars exhibited enormous amounts of horsepower able to carry the front wheels of vehicles several feet in the air.

For complete event coverage visit GTcars

Quick A at wide open throttle…  (notice the butterflys all the way open)

Over the past couple of days I’ve been debating a few things about fuel efficiency and the importance of diesel powered vehicles.

A member of my family travels approx 80-100km/day and the gas useage has taken a toll since gas went from $0.80 to $1.32. I must ask myself, at what point does it make sense to have a diesel?

First of all let’s look at diesels.  A Diesel is almost always a premium to buy, however retains it’s resale value better. In most cases diesels are used as commuter cars, therefore they tend to be higher mileage.  Recently I’ve looked at a comparison analysis of some diesel trucks compared to gasoline, and the common consensus amongst the big three is that if you want diesel, it’s going to cost you.  The pricetag of the diesel option will run you between $6,500 to $8,000 on most larger diesel pickups, such as the F-250, 3500 series Silverado or Dodge.  Now where exactly do the savings from diesel pay off?  Of course naturally towing ability would increase greatly, but where does that transfer into some hard earned dollars?  According to leading automotive publications, around 100k miles is the break even point between diesel and gas.

For passenger vehicles, it’s most likely less, but passenger cars were not included in this study.  Overall I find most diesels in the marketplace are over-abused.  This is because the people that drive them consider them as A to B transportation, rather then pride of ownership.  This causes excessive wear on the vehicles.  Still, dealers and private sellers still ask for premiums for them due to their extreme fuel efficiency and bla bla bla bla.  I’ve had first hand experience driving a 1992 Jetta turbo diesel and altho the car was not a monster off the line, it had some pep.  Filling up for $35 and having it last for 800kms was also pretty cool.

As of recently, oil prices have hit $130 per barrel.  This is especially important to you if you drive to work.  Or if you drive anywhere for that matter. Gas prices have been in the neighbourhood of $1.30 per liter in the Toronto area.  This is for regular, so it’s not even premium or supreme.

CAFE stands for Corporate Average Fuel Economy.  It’s set in the United States in order to curb gas guzzling vehicles. When you see the popular term gas guzzler tax, thats what it is.  The manufacturer is kind enough to pass it onto the end consumer, who in turn says… darn government surcharges.

In fact, it’s not even the government, that charges you for these things. It’s the inefficiency of the car manufacturer of your choice that makes you pay in the end.  Not only by producing vehicles that are above the CAFE standards, but by passing on the CAFE fines to you.

CAFE fines the manufacturer $5.5 for every 0.1mpg that the vehicle fails it’s specific class for.  This is what adds up to those thousands of dollars on the Hummers.  By 2011 all vehicles must have a fuel efficiency rating of 30mpg or more in order not to be fined in the states.

When you buy a Porsche or Ferrari, you don’t care if the car is a couple of grand extra.  But when you grab a Ford Taurus or a Dodge Charger and they tack a few grand extra onto your invoice you start caring.

It’s now up to the car manufacturers to clean up their act and recognize their shortcomings with all these high performance, high horsepower vehicles that they’ve been spewing out.  I am shocked myself when I say this, but it’s about time they start worrying about the environment.

Still can’t believe I said that…