As promised in the last issue, the winner of the Sparkplug award is Dusty Seifert. She serves the club as Secretary and Web site administrator. She volunteers her time and talents to her church, cares for her family and works part time. Dusty's efforts have been instrumental in the growth and health of the club. It is with great satisfaction that I was able to present this honor at our annual Christmas party.
Just received an email from my sister who lives near our childhood home. It was recently put up for sale. The basic structure has not changed although some interior remodeling has been done. The realtor is asking $110,000 for the same property our parents bought for $2500. It has been well maintained with a new roof and the interior is nicely painted and floors refinished, heating and air updated. Just goes to show real estate values continue to appreciate in total dollars, but nearly a century has passed. I wonder if it wins the race with inflation.
Recently the Discovery Channel aired a Mythbusters episode where they tested the scenario of an expensive mid-engined sports car skipping across the surface of water. Their calculations estimated it was done at 50 miles per hour and the puddle to be 100 feet long. They used two different Fieros to test the myth. The initial full sized test used a short ramp and of course it caused an end over end rotation of the Fiero. After some small scale testing they tried another Fiero without a ramp and nearly 100 MPH. They had also modified this one with some sheet metal under the nose. It not only was successful but carried a lot of extra speed and after the skip it was flipped up by the opposite bank and nosed into the dirt. After the experiment was concluded, the two cars were shown driving away under their own power. It certainly proved the toughness of these over 20 year old cars. The video is available on the Discovery Channel website.