Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

You turn me on, I'm a radio

The test cars we evaluate rotate through various members of the press.

So when I get one it has usually been driven by various other people. And it always surprises me - I am easily surprised – that the radio station pre-sets are almost always in ascending order of frequency.

On the AM band, 590, 640, 680, 740, 1010, 1050, etc. On FM, 91.1, 92.5, 96.3, 98.1, 99,9, 107.1. Depending on your taste in radio, of course.

Now this made sense in the old days when station tuning was actually controlled by a string which you dialed up using the right knob on the radio.

The pre-sets were established by manually dialing up the station, pulling out the button, then pressing it all the way back in. How this worked I have no idea.

Today of course it’s all electronic.

So my question is - why don’t people set the pre-sets in order of preference? Your favourite radio station first, so it’s closest to your hand, second-favourite next, etc.

So for me on AM, it’s 1050, 1150 (love those oldies - it’s the music my band plays, except they weren’t oldies when we started playing them), 680 (traffic), 640 (Leafs) then 590 (other sports).

On FM, it’s 107.1 (Kim Mitchell is the best DJ in town), 92.5 (a bit weird sometimes, but OK), 96.3 (I drive slower when classical music is on) and - well, that’s about it, actually.

But when I have a car with satellite radio - well, that’s another story.

We lost a great one

One of the downsides of travel is that you don't get to read your local newspapers, so you aren't always sure that what is news where you are is also news back home.

Yeah, you could read it all on the Internet. But this blog notwithstanding, I'm really a newspaper sort of guy.

So I don't know if the passing of Pat Moss Carlsson got reported back home. She died last month, aged 73, from cancer.

She was the younger sister of Sir Stirling Moss, who some rank as the greatest racing driver of all time, certainly the best who never won a World Championship.

Both Moss siblings got their initial interest in horsepower one horse at a time, in equestrian events. She followed her brother into motorsport, and soon became a force in International rallying, not merely in the Ladies' events that typically ran in parallel with the "real' rally, but overall as well, winning the rugged Liege-Sofia-Liege event in 1960 in an Austin-Healey.

In that year she also met Swedish rally champion Erik Carlsson, whom she married five years later. They had one child, a daughter.

I have always thought that motorsport was one sport where women could compete on a equal basis with men, because there is no particular advantage to be gained from upper body strength or size, areas where genetically, men typically are superior. Indeed, smaller, lighter bodies, and greater pain tolerance - if you're designed to give birth, you can withstand darn near anything - should give the advantage to women.

It's usually a cultural thing; women athletes simply don't tend to be attracted to motorsport.

Pat Moss was a proven exception.

"Mon pays c'est ne pas un pays...

...c'est l'hiver"

My country isn't a country, it's the winter.

The 'chanson' by Quebecois Gilles Vignault states that his country isn't a country, it's the winter.

And starting this winter - December 15, to be exact - all Quebecois will have to put winter tires on their cars.

This applies only to cars registered in La Belle Province, so if you're visiting, you're off the hook. Well, maybe ON the hook if your car skids into the ditch.

It does include rental cars (the car rental companies are thrilled - there goes the profit margin).

For an English-language version of the regulation, follow this link:

http://www.mtq.gouv.qc.ca/portal/page/portal/grand_public_en/vehicules_promenade/securite_routiere/securite_conditions_hivernales/reglement_utilisation_pneus_hiver

So far, Ontario has shown no interest in following Quebec's lead.

For sure, installing four winter tires on your car is definitely the wise thing to do (and yes, I do follow my own recommendation). You shouldn't need a law to understand that - just think about the cost of a single fender-bender they might prevent.

Put them on cheap steel rims so as to spare the tires the stressful mounting/de-mounting process each spring and fall, and to protect your expensive alloy wheels from winter's depredations.

Modern 'snows' are far better than those of just ten years ago - they're quieter, and still handle wet and dry roads decently. Just about every tire company has good new winter rubber - Brian's Auto in Milton recommended Swedish-made Gislaveds last year for the Kenzie fleet; if there's enough snow on them, these things will climb trees.

One thing most people are unaware of is the temperature operating range of tires. Just like racing tires, road tires need a certain degree of heat in them to work properly; conversely, too much heat and they start to degrade again. The no-season tires that come on most new cars (I call them that because they aren't much good in any season) are designed to work best in mild temperatures. When it dips down below about 10 degrees, the rubber starts to harden, and they start to lose grip, even on dry pavement.

So, winter tires aren't just about traction; they're about the correct rubber compound for cold weather.

And speaking of heat, one of the unintended consequences of Quebec's winter tire law is that winter tires have become something of a 'hot' commodity - it may be too early to call it an epidemic, but reports are starting to roll in about cars sitting at the side of the road up on concrete blocks, their winter tires having been 'liberated', probably to be seen later on eBay...

Mea Culpa again...

Back bloggin' again.

Seriously; you folks who have never had to live with rural dial-up just don't know what it's like.

Fifteen minutes just to make a connection; thirty seconds later it's been dropped.

It's been worse since my laptop got stolen. My new one doesn't have a phone modem, so I have to go through my desk top, whose WinModem - apparently, the only type I can get for it - gets even slower speeds than the old laptop (currently 21.6 kbps; I used to regularly get 40 on the laptop, still hardly lightning but better and more reliable than this).

"Quitcher bellyachin'!" I can hear my editor saying; so back to work, with apologies for having been gone for a week. I'll make it up to you.