Cars
Lebanese roads vs my Fiat
Apr 5th
Everyone knows the state the Lebanese roads are in, Potholes are everywhere and with time you get a reflex that enables you to move away from them. I have a good experience escaping from them since I have to drive on the road linking Mont La Salle to USJ Mar Roukoz every week and on this road there are more potholes then asphalt.
Unfortunately sometimes your reflex doesn’t work and you fall in one of the trenches and this is what happened to me last week! I was driving on the Antelias highway and I was going to go up on the bridge when I fell in one of the potholes! The car shook, I figured that was it but I was wrong! we started hearing a “flap flap” sound coming from the right front wheel. I moved to the side of the highway where 2 cars were already parked (victims of the pothole too) and checked the wheel, it was flat on the ground!
There’s a shop that fixes tires on the other side of the highway so i decided to turn around and get the tire fixed. When we arrived to the place there was already a guy getting his tire fixed and it turned out he fell into the same pothole. The Egyptian running the place quickly removed the wheel and checked it, my rim was bended but the tire was still okay! He hit the rim with a hammer to straighten it but told me that wasn’t enough I needed to either get the rim fixed somewhere else since he can’t do that or put a “chambre á air” in the tire. I told him to just replace the tire with the spare one.
All this happened on Saturday night, so on Sunday morning I went searching for an open tire shop and found one in Antelias, he quickly fixed my rim and put the old tire back in place, but while returning home I noticed the car was lightly turning to the left while driving and since I had already scheduled a maintenance check at the dealership for the following week I decided to tell them about it and get it fixed there. It didn’t turn out to be something serious so they just fixed it without charging me for it and now my car is back like new!
That was last week and the hole that damaged 3 other cars on that hour of that night is still wide open! I wonder how many cars this pothole breaks everyday!
Did you ever fall in one of the trenches on our road? What happened to your car?
Karting and Studies
Nov 10th
I just got back from Exoleb’s meeting in Circuit des Champions and it was great, the guys from Lebanon Racing came too so we got to see the great cars they drive.
After everyone talked with everyone for half an hour, we decided to race in 2 groups of 8, but when the first group got on the track 4 people joined them and they raced together so we decided not to have a second race and end the meeting since the second race wasn’t gonna be very exciting.
After the meeting we all drove together for a while before separating. This is the 3rd meeting organized by Exoleb and this one is by far the best one. A lot of people showed up and had fun so we must have another one soon.
Now I am back home studying for my exams next week, I still have a chapter of Oracle, some Java and statistics to study but I think I’ll manage to finish everything on time.
Formula One Brazilian Grand Prix
Oct 21st
The Brazilian GP today will be the last and most exciting race of the season three drivers have a chance of getting the title, Hamilton with 107 points, Alonso with 103 and Raikonen with 100 points and they all want it.
Massa is in the Pole position today followed by Hamilton, Raikonen and then Alonso so all three drivers are close to each others on departures and I am sure they will all try to get ahead when the race starts. The Formula 1 Official website has an article explaining why every driver might win or loose and you can check this previous post to see the different combinations that will allow each driver to go home with the title.
The Race starts at 19:00 Beirut Time and you can watch it on Al Jazeera sports, I hope Hamilton wins, who do you support?
BMW M3 Challenge
Oct 17th
BMW M3 Challenge takes the thrill of driving to new heights. BMW M3 Challenge, which is the official game to BMW´s all-new M3 Coupé, features the original high detailed BMW M3 in all its available exterior colours and the original Nurburgring GP-track in a hyper realistic racing world. BMW M3 Challenge will allow you to experience the new BMW M3 Coupé right there where it was born and developed – on the race track.
Features
- Stunning simulation of the all new BMW M3 Coupé
- Choose from 4 different driving perspectives: Cockpit, Bonnet, Bumper and Chase-Cam
- Configure your own M3 Coupé by selecting the colour and the rims.
- 4 game modes, including:
- Test Drive
- Time Trial including ghost car
- Race Weekend with up to 15 AI-drivers and three difficulty levels
- Multiplayer Race with up to 15 human opponents via internet and LAN
- Original Nurburgring Grand-Prix track and “Sprint” short-bound.
- Replay-function
BMW is offering this game to promote the new M3 model, the game looks nice and it’s available for free so I am currently downloading it. I don’t have any course tomorrow so I’ll test it and let you know if it’s good!
Link: BMW M3 Challenge
Chinese can Copy Anything!
Oct 12th
When we started university a friend brought a cellphone that looked like a Nokia, but wasn’t a Nokia. It was a Chinese phone with a Nokia logo on it. The phone has many great features, it has an integrated TV, a camera and a touch screen! So that’s one very good fake Phone! I never bought or will buy a phone like it but I can’t deny it looked like a good phone.
Yesterday I went to the Barber to cut my hair and while waiting for my turn I read a car magazine. In the magazine there was a small news about Mercedes and BMW wanting to take legal action against a Chinese company that copied the BMW X5 and the Smart ForTwo. When I got home I googled for more info about this and got those pictures of the cars with some more info about it, check them out, they don’t look 100% alike but you can’t deny they are very (very very very) similar in size and in shape.
All Possible F1 Scenarios
Oct 11th
Eurosport has a nice list of possible scenarios for the Formula one final race this season in Brazil:
Lewis Hamilton will be champion if:
- He finishes first or second
- He finishes third with Alonso 2nd or lower
- He finishes fourth with Alonso 2nd or lower
- He finishes fifth with Alonso 2nd or lower (they would be tied on points, but Hamilton would win tie-break based on second places)
- He finishes sixth with Alonso 3rd or lower and Raikkonen 2nd or lower
- He finishes seventh with Alonso 3rd or lower and Raikkonen 2nd or lower (Alonso and Hamilton would be tied on points, but Hamilton would win tie-break based on second places)
- He finishes eighth with Alonso 4th or lower and Raikkonen 3rd or lower (Alonso and Hamilton would be tied on points, but Hamilton would win tie-break based on second places)
Fernando Alonso will be champion if:
- He wins and Hamilton finishes 3rd or lower (Alonso would win tie break 5-4 on wins)
- He finishes second with Hamilton 6th or lower
- He finishes third with Hamilton 8th or lower and Raikkonen 2nd or lower
- He finishes fourth with Hamilton not-scoring and Raikkonen 3rd or lower
- Anything lower than fourth means Hamilton currently has more points
Kimi Raikkonen will be champion if:
- He wins with Hamilton 6th or lower and Alonso 3rd or lower (if Hamilton 6th, Kimi wins 6-4 on wins tie-break)
- He finishes second with Hamilton 8th and Alonso 4th or lower (both would result in tie that Kimi wins 5-4 on victories tie-break)
- Anything lower than third means Hamilton currently has more points
Personally I hope Hamilton gets the title! He is a great driver and deserves it after the great season he did!
4 Wheeled Motorcycle
Oct 8th
A weird looking Motorcycle concept by Yamaha, Apparently it handles like a motorcycle but has 4 wheels instead of 2. More info here.
2007 Mercedes-Benz C Class
Sep 26th
I am seeing the new Mercedes C Class a lot lately on the Lebanese roads, The front of the car is very nice but the rear is ugly! The back lights look weird, the rear of the old model was much better!
