Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

Cars by the hour?

Cars just too expensive for you?

Cabs and public transit beyond the pale?

I ran into a little scenario at the Yonge Street City Limits the other day which might be just the ticket.

First, I better explain what I mean by Yonge City Limits. It's where the northern end of Toronto used to be, at Yonge Boulevard, where Yonge Street plunges down into Hogg's Hollow, near the Miller Tavem (formerly the "Jolly Miller").

It's where the old Yonge Street street cars used to turn and loop back downtown. I grew up not far from there, and still remember the old trams...

Anyway, in the Loblaws Whole Food Store parking lot I spotted two cars, a Honda CIvic (shown) and a Mazda3 with "Zipcars" labels on them. Checking the web site (www.zipcar.com, yes, zipcar singular) it appears to be a system whereby you can rent cars as you need them, by the hour, the day or longer. It costs around $10 an hour or $65 a day, slightly more on weekends, with a $50 monthly commitment and an application fee. Gas and insurance is even covered.

When you apply you get a ZipCard which activates a digital unlocking device on the car. Drive it, return it where you got it, and Bob's your uncle.

There appear to be Zip Cars available in several North Ameican cities, and in the United Kingdom as well.

A similar system, AutoShare, is described at www.autoshare.com.

I haven't tried either yet, mainly because I live out of town.

Has anyone out there done so? If so, please let us all know.

Good luck, or good management?

Not sure which wag shoved that image of my head on the Robaxacet doll into last Friday's paper, previewing the story of my Targa Newfoundland crash.

But they did get a few things wrong,

First, the arm sling. I did get a bruise on my right arm (not left, as the image suggests) but certainly nothing bad enough to warrant a sling!

OK, artistic licence.

But it also states that it was a "lucky thing" that I am still alive to write about it.

OK again, tongue in cheek.

But I have heard other people say we were "lucky" and/or graced by divine intervention.

No and no respectively.

Brian Bourbonniere my navigator and I were not hurt because we were lucky or were somehow "saved" - we were not hurt because we were PREPARED.

Just as my favourite charity SMARTRISK says, when you're going to indulge in potentially dangerous behaviour, then among other things "buckle up" and "wear the gear".

The organizers of all motorsport events demand that competitors equip their cars and their personages with safety equipment appropriate to the event.

In our case, we went above and beyond.

First, all Targa cars must have roll cages. But our roll cage was built by Frank and Dan Sprongl of Four Star Motorsports in Georgetown Ontario. These guys have (a) been national and international rallying champions for ever, and (b) have had their share of big crashes, including one last year which has at least temporarily put Dan out of action. They know a thing or two about roll cages.

I have had several American competitors examine our cage, and comment on its design and the fabrication skills that clearly went into it. If you're going to have a biggie like we did, you want a Sprongl cage on your side.

From this photo, you can see how crunched the back end of our car was. But the damage stops right where the cage begins. The doors open and latch. The windshield, which is glued to the body shell in this and most modern cars, is not even cracked.

That's one tough little car.

Second, our seat belts are full five-point harnesses, as required by the rules. Any racer will tell you the last thing you do before starting off is tug on those shoulder straps one more time. I also do it again any time there is a bit of a straight stretch.

Third, both Brian and I had new-last-year Bell helmets. We think Bell is the best name in the business, although their products are expensive. As the old joke goes, if you have a $150 head, buy a $150 helmet.

Fourth, although the Head and Neck Support (HANS) device is not yet mandatory for Targa Newfoundland (rumour has it that it will be for next year, and it should be), we both had one, me for the second year, Brian for the first. After seeing what happened to us - i.e., nothing - I can't imagine anyone not wearing one.

You never know what contribution any particular component of the safety system might have made the difference. But you try to put the odds in your favour.

And we do know that you only get one crash per lifetime which needs a HANS device if you don't have one. OK, Dale Earnhardt didn't even appear to have his helmet done up, but if he had AND had been wearing a HANS device, he'd still be racing.

So, lucky?

No. If we had been lucky I would have made the corner, we would have finished the rally and probably carted home another nice trophy.

Divine intervention? Sorry. Not buying that either.

Just playing it smart.

Targa Newfoundland, the morning after

First, many thanks to all who have sent good wishes with respect to our recent crash.

The relatively mild result to Brian's and my personages is a testament to the strength of the car, and to the safety equipment we all must use in an event like this.

We don't know what the final disposition of the remains of the car will be - we'll let you know.

One thing that continues to haunt me - a Platinum plate is awarded to a team which finishes in "Targa Plate" status in six consecutive years. This would have been our fifth; we'll have to start all over again next year.

Jud Buchanan and his amazing 1967 Acadian Canso Coupe did make Platinum this year, the first ever to win this award. Congratulations to him for doing what we were unable to do.

His navigator, Jim Adams, achieved gold this year, for three consecutive plates. Good on ya, mate!

For complete results check out www.targanewfoundland.com.

Now I have to go get ready for the Awards Banquet Gala!

Targa Newfoundland - a sad end...

First - my apologies for being off the blog for a few days. This report will partially explain my absence; the blogging software we use also had a problem with the Mozilla Firefox browser recently, so I have had to resort to Internet Exploder...

***

In four Targa Newfoundland rallies, I haven't put a mark on our 2004 Mini Cooper S JCW. Still haven't.

In the fifth Targa, I didn't put "a'' mark on the car - more like several million marks, unfortunately.

Coming back from Leading Tickles, I took a 159 km/h bend at about 160 km/h, which launched the car down an embankment and into the trees.

From the damage, it looks like the right front wheel caught in the gravel, dug in, flipped the car end-over-end, and it landed on the upper left rear corner, turning it into a replica of a Mini El Camino.

It then landed wheels-down in a grove of saplings, maybe three cm thick, all too close to a swift-flowing river.

Brian was alert and fine, but because I had obviously been unconscious for a few moments, they decided to take me to the hospital in Grand Falls for evaluation. Apart from the siren making 'way more noise than was necessary, and a hint of nausea, we got there in short order with me in decent shape.

The staff there was quick, efficient, and - as you would expect from Newfoundlanders - friendly.

I was released and driven back to the hotel in Gander.

I feel so badly for having wrecked it, and for having let the team down.

Everyone from Lindsay Duffield, president of BMW Canada, to Stephen McDonnell, head of Mini Canada, to Brian Bourbonniere, crew chief Rob Dexter, our mechanic Mark Krajnac, my fellow competitors, Targa officials, friends and family - they all said variations on "that's racing", and that the car was metal, glass, rubber and plastic - the important thing was that Brian and I were OK.

True enough, I guess.

But our goal was to finish and finish well, and we did not, because I made a mistake.

Among the amazing things we learned from the crash was how strong the car is, augmented for sure by the incredible roll cage that Frank and Dan Sprongl of Four Star Motorsports in Georgetown Ontario built for us. Despite the terrible pounding the car took, the cage didn't budge a bit. The five-point harnesses held. The helmets did their job, although they're toast now (after a biggie like this, a helmet has to be discarded).

Our rally was over 'way too soon. The entire team stayed on to help the finishers celebrate their success.

My heartfelt thanks to so many people. To Brian Bourbonniere, the best right-seat guy in the field, for putting up with me all these years, and for orchestrating my extraction. To Andrew Comrie-Picard and Jen Horsey, for stopping to assist. To the paramedics and staff at Grand Falls Hospital, whose names I sadly did not get. To Rob Dexter, Mark Krajnac and everyone at BMW/MINI Canada, for their unfailing support.

To all the Targa staff, for setting and enforcing safety regulations with respect to equipment, procedures, and on-site medical support staff. As they say, 'human exhaust emissions' happen - the purpose of precautions like these is to turn a potential tragedy into a mere incident.

And thanks to countless fellow competitors, friends and family who sent their best wishes.

I'll be thinking about this for a long, long, time.

Targa Newfoundland 2008 - Day One: And then there were four...

Placentia has claimed another victim.

The stage through the oldest continuously-inhabited European community in North America (sorry, St. Augustine Florida) contains some fast corners, some tiny laneways that look like Joe Butler's driveway, the infamous Jack MacDonnell Sea Wall (where said Jack crashed his Datsun 240Z on the next-to-last stage several years ago) and a bailey bridge!

But the toughest corner is a long downhill left-hander that looks for all the world like a banked oval race track. As the car nears the bottom of the "soup bowl", the suspension gets compressed right against the bump stops by centrifugal force, so when it hits the massive pothole at the apex of the corner, the car just bounces into the air because there is no springing left to absorb the bump.

Depending on where you have the front wheels pointed when you depart the earth, and/or where the car lands when it eventually does, you may get lucky and carry on up the hill on the opposite side - as Brian and I did a few years ago. In fact, that might have been the first time I got more than two consecutive words out of him in the car. As I corrected right, caught the rebound and corrected left, then right again to regain control of the car, he just looked up briefly from his pace notes and said, "Nice catch. 90-left in three, two, one…''

A man of few words, our Brian.

Last year, an Austin Healey and a Honda CRX both ended up in the ditch on the outside of this corner.

Two years ago, Ross Karlin and David McIntyre backed their BMW M3 into said ditch. This year, navigator McIntyre had added a little picture to his pace notes at this corner, showing a little car off the road with a big "X'' through it. "DO NOT GO HERE!" was the message.

Somewhat ironic then that Karlin and McIntyre were among the first cars to stop and assist Dyrk Bolger and Terry Milnes, whose lovely old (1963) turquoise Mini had hit the ditch with extreme prejudice. Karlin who heads up the Emergency Medical Services team in his home town in New Jersey immediately set to work to secure the area and tend to the occupants, while McIntyre drove their car on to tell the officials downstream that there had been a serious incident.

Janel and Keith Tanner in their beautiful Mazda Miata had actually been the first car to stop - several others drove on past because they never even saw the little Mini in the ditch, so deeply was it embedded. The Tanners, rookies to rallying let alone to this event, did everything they were supposed to do in a very difficult situation, so congratulations to them.

Brian and I and several other cars stopped too, to help warn on-coming cars of the problem.

Something this serious always means the stage is "scrubbed'' - it won’t count for scoring. The challenge is always to get the news to the start of the stage so the timing marshals won't send any more cars into the fray.

Two ambulances and a fire truck soon arrived. Dyrk had already got out of the car; Terry, wisely, chose to stay in the vehicle until the paramedics arrived to do a safe extraction, which involved slicing off chunks of the car's body to get him out.

By day's end both had been released from hospital, bruised and sore, but not seriously injured.

The car, however, looked pretty much used up. Hence the reference to "four'' above - there are now four Minis remaining, the two new-generation cars of Brian/myself and Doug Mepham/John Solecki, and two 1959 models driven by Richard Patterson/Tony Mattson, and Dave Pledger/Chris Willett.

Dyrk and Terry from the Winnipeg area were rookies last year; they could barely spell "rally". Dyrk had done a lot of vintage racing with the car, and it showed in his fast and very tidy lines through the corners. The team finished first in their class, and third overall in the Classic division, an astonishing result for first-timers.

Of course, you never wish to see anybody crash. But it is especially difficult when it happens to a lovely, well-driven older car like this - containing two of the nicest people you would ever hope to meet.

Another crash saw a Honda CRX go so far into the woods that again, most subsequent competitors, including us, never even saw it. I don't have details of this one as I type, but again, the occupants are OK, the car not so much.

On the positive side, the weather was largely spectacular - one misty cloud caused a few windshield wipers to be turned on - and the driving has been terrific.

Tomorrow we drive up to Leading Tickles, just about everybody's favourite stage.

Tune in tomorrow for details on that - and on how Brian and I work together in the car.

Targa Newfoundland 2009 - Prologue

Well, the weather did clear today - what a gorgeous day on The Rock. warm and sunny, and again, finished off with a lovely full moon.

80-odd cars were indeed registered for Targa Newfoundland 2008, just shy of a record for the event. Not bad considering the state of the economy in the United States where many of the competitors come from.

But fewer than 70 actually did the Prologue stages today, as it seems several competitors have been hit with their own perfect storms of business, logistical, personal or family conflicts at the last moment.

Some may make a late appearance tomorrow.

Nonetheless, there are a lot of interesting cars here, as you can tell from checking out the event web site, www.targanewfoundland.com.

We did three "prologue" stages today - well, two, but one of them twice. These stages don't count towards the results, but the organizers time each car anyway, not only to give the marshals and timing staff (all of them volunteers) some practice at doing what they will be doing for the rest of the week, but also to "seed" the competitors for tomorrow's real start.

At a Targa rally, the slowest cars run first, so that as the stage rolls on, the "crocodile" as we call the string of cars as it wends its way through the countryside, compresses rather than expands.

True, a faster car may catch a slower car somewhere in the stage, but given we start 30 seconds apart, and that the car immediately ahead is only slightly slower, those are fairly rare occurrences.

We didn't seem to have any crashes today, which is good. A few mechanical issues for a couple of cars, and there is some midnight oil being burnt as I type.

It's an early start tomorrow so I have to get some sleep. More tomorrow afternoon.

Targa Newfoundland 2009 - Prologue preview

Morning fog in St. John's Newfoundland?

Imagine that.

The locals could tell you right away if this is merely fog, or if this is real weather. Us 'come from aways' will find out later today.

Certainly, yesterday was as beautiful a fall day as we could have hoped for, finished off with a gorgeous full moon over St. John's Harbour.

Today is Prologue Day for the Seventh Annual Targa Newfoundland Rally. Starting at noon, the 80-odd entries will run one at a time over two of the stages that we'll also run competitively later in the week.

Today though, the idea is to make sure our cars all go round and round, and to get our driving skills fine-tuned.

For returnees, it's a chance to re-acquaint ourselves with Newfoundland driving conditions, although these St. John's-area roads are in much better shape than some we'll see later on.

For newbies, it's a chance to whet their appetites for what is going to be the automotive adventure of their lifetimes.

More later today!

I (Don't) Like Ike

Well, the price of gasoline went up thirteen cents a litre last night.

"They" - whoever "they" are - say it is because the pumping stations and refineries in the Gulf of Mexico region shut down because of Hurricane Ike.

Hey - cant be too careful with those multi-million dollar rigs.

The amazing thing is that they can get the gasoline from the Gulf of Mexico to Toronto so quickly! I would have guessed that the gasoline in the tanks of hundreds of filling stations across the GTA might have been siting there for, oh, I dunno, five, six days?  And the crude from which it would have been made would have been pumped out of the Gulf floor, oh, I dunno, weeks, months ago? And refined some time ago too? Long before Ike was even a gleam in Gustav's eye?

Apparently not. Because the INSTANT the hurricane hit, OUR prices shot up by thirteen cents!

I guess that's fair.

I wonder - when Ike passes, and the pumping stations and refineries re-open, will the price go down by thirteen cents a litre just as quickly?

I'm not holding my breath.

Formula One Shoots Itself - Right Between the Eyes

Just when you think Formula One couldn't do any more damage to itself, here is today's Belgian Grand Prix.

At the infamous Spa-Francorchamps circuit, which really separates the men from the goats, they had what has to be one of the greatest finishes in Grand Prix history.

Stunning, incredible racing. Skill and bravery at their finest.

There were even cars passing other cars! At a car race! Imagine.

Then the ignorant officials who rule this sport tossed it all away.

Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren-Mercedes had been victim - once again - of poor pit strategy, his first stop putting him back on the track right behind his erratic teammate, Heikki Kovalainen. Only half a second behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen when he began his pit stop, he ended up almost six seconds adrift afterwards.

Turn out the lights, the party's over.

But Hamilton being Hamilton, he kept at it. All of a sudden there's fourteen laps to go, he is about three seconds behind, and he's picking up several tenths a lap. Rain was starting to fall. Hamilton is a rain-master. It might just happen.

Now, catching someone in F1 and passing him are two different things, due to the disturbed airflow  coming off the leading car destroying the overtaking car's front end downforce. Hard to get the front tires to grip so you can steer.

But Hamilton tried an audacious outside pass. He almost got it done, but Raikkonen shut the door, forcing Hamilton onto the escape road.

Hamilton actually returned to the pavement ahead of the Ferrari, but knowing he could not gain an advantage by going off-course, he allowed Raikkonen to pass him again.

As they approached the start-finish line, Raikkonen was weaving all over the place trying to keep Hamilton at bay. According to the rules, he is allowed ONE move; then he has to maintain his positioning on the track. Kimi did at least three.

Never mind; Hamilton made a brilliant zig right, this time to the inside, and made as clean a pass as you will ever see.

Raikkonen didn't like it, and rammed right into the back of Hamilton's car on the exit from the corner. But Hamilton is not one to be intimidated - he stood his ground.

I was watching all this on Italian television, so I am not entirely sure what happened next. But all of a sudden, there was a melee of spinning cars, Hamilton was back on the grass, and Raikkonen had resumed the lead for the third time in the afternoon.

For about three seconds, because he then spun again. Hamilton got by again, then Raikkonen spun a third time and crashed out.

Victory to the young Briton!

Champagne everywhere. God Save the Queen. Jubilation reigns.

At last, a Grand Prix where there had not only been a pass for position, but SEVERAL passes, for the LEAD, in the last three laps of the race!

Keep this up, and it'd be - well, NASCAR.

Even Ferrari fans among the hundred thousand-plus crowd went home knowing they had been witnesses to history, a Grand Prix race for the ages.

But when they switched on their radios, they found out Felipe Massa had won.

FELIPE MASSA?? Was he even IN this race??

The clearly brain-dead stewards of the event had decided that Hamilton had gained a "sporting advantage" by cutting the corner on the escape road move three laps from the end, and handed him a 25 second penalty. This shoved him back to third, promoted Massa's Ferrari which had finished second on the track a distant 14.4 seconds behind to the win, and the Sauber-BMW of Nick Heidfeld, the only driver clever enough to come in for intermediate (rain) tires when it started to pour, to second.

"Sporting advantage"? Hamilton didn't gain any "sporting advantage". When he made that first pass attempt and got by Raikkonen on the escape road, he knew that would not stand, so he gave the position back immediately.

As you must.

He then passed Raikkonen a second time, clean as a whistle, despite Raikkonen's illegal attempts to block him, and getting a NASCAR nudge up the backside on the way out of the corner for his trouble.

If anyone deserved a penalty, it was Raikkonen.

But the deal wasn't done yet. After that, Hamilton went off again, returning the lead to Raikkonen yet again. But the Finn couldn't stand the embarrassment of riches, so he spun again, surrendering the lead to Hamilton, then spun a third time and crashed out.

By this time, the escape road incident was totally removed from having any influence whatsoever on the outcome of the race. How could any sane person with any eyesight whatsoever make such a call?

The question answers itself.

Already, people are calling this another Ferrari-influenced slap against McLaren over last year's spying incident. For sure, Ferrari, and Massa, benefited the most from this incredibly stupid decision.

Hamilton still leads the championship, but the points he lost here could have an outcome on the final standings.

I can only assume this asinine ending will be appealed. It is a complete travesty.

And the real losers aren't Lewis Hamilton and McLaren. They are the throngs of fans who paid big money, stood out in the rain to watch the race - and didn't find out who won until they got home.

Ludicrous.

The other loser, of course, is the sport.

Somebody has to do something, or Formula One will lose whatever relevance it still clings to.

Apologies, and some good news

When there's a long weekend, and you've got a race on the Saturday, then you're flying overnight to Europe, then you're in a hotel where you have to go sit in the stairwell to grab a wireless Internet signal because there is none in your room, it can be a bit difficult to keep up a blog!

So I apologize for the few days' gap in my posts.

I am here to test-drive some of Ford of Europe's cars, notably the current Focus and its variants (none of which we currently get, boo hoo) and the next-generation Fiesta, which we will get (yay), starting in late 2010. I will have full details on all of the above in next week's Wheels print edition.

Meantime, I can tell you some good news. When Ford first announced they were bringing a "B-Segment" car (that would be the Fiesta) to North America, they said it would only come as a four-door sedan. They said there was no market for a hatchback in Canada or the US.

Um, yes, that's why Toyota doesn't have a hatchback Yaris. No wait, yes they do.

But that's why Nissan doesn't have a Versa hatchback. No wait, yes they do.

But that's why Honda doesn't have a Fit hatchback. No wait, yes they do. In fact, that's ALL they have.

But Hyundai Accent, Kia Rio, Chevrolet Aveo, Suzuki Swift + - well, you get the point.

So at this year's Detroit Auto Show, Ford showed the Verve concept car which is as near as dammit is to swearing the two-door hatchback Fiesta. The public and press reaction, plus some subsequent market research, indicated that either they were always wrong (my guess; hence every other car maker's decision) or the market had changed (also true).

So while Fiesta will launch here as a four-door sedan (built in a former F-Series pick-up truck plant in Mexico, which also tells you how the market has changed), it wiil be followed in very short order by a hatchback. A four-door hatch as opposed to a two-door, but that makes even more sense.

Good on them for making this change.

I think you're gonna love this car.

Sorry; no four-door sedan photos yet.