Rambling on…

I haven’t had time to post this, but as you probably know by now, Felipe Massa was involved in an unfortunate accident during qualifying for the Hungarian GP. Thankfully, he’s now out of sedation and is getting ready to fly back to Brazil to recuperate.

It turns out that Massa was hit by a spring fron Rubens Barichello’s Brawn. It’s the size of a drinks can and weighs roughly 1kg. Imagine being hit in the head with one of those while going in excess of 200km/h!! Roughly a week before this incident, F2 driver Henry Surtees (son of racing legent John Surtees) was also hit in the head during a freak accident. Unfortunately, he was killed in the incident. Felipe’s doctors have no doubt that he’ll return to racing sooner or later. The drivers, with the help of SKY Italia compiled a DVD of best wishes for his engineer Rob Smedley to bring it to him. Take a look after the jump.

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DIYPhotography.net has a great tip on how to protect a strobe on a stand / tripod. Use a frisbee! I actually had a tripod permanently disabled when my son toppled it over. This tip could probably protect your tripod as well. Hit the link for details.

Photographing portraits isn’t the easiest thing to do. Foremost in my mind when doing a portrait shot is mostly technical things. Stuff like:

• Did I get the lighting right?
• Am I using flattering angles?
• Am I being creative with the subject and background?
• How do I avoid the reflection in the glasses?
• Do I need a gold/silver/white reflector?
• DAMN! I need another flash!

But that’s the easy part. The most difficult bit (for me anyway) is always the interaction. Depending on the subject, this can be easy.. or HELL. My first few tries at portrait photography were disasters.. I went in feeling all tense and intimidated, which naturally resulted in crappy shots. But I’ve realised a couple of things that has made more recent attempts at portraiture easier to handle.
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I’m writing this just as Massa prematurely leaves the pitbox with the fuel hose still attached! This isn’t the first incident this year, there have been numerous other pitlane related errors, something that wouldn’t have happened when Todt, Brawn and Schumacher were around… and I suspect when a traditional lollipop was still in use.

Think of it logically, if you have one big carbon fibre board which has “STOP” and “1st GEAR”, along with the pre-requisite advertisers’ logos.. it’s quite impossible for the driver to miss it. Even if it were pulled up early by mistake, it is easy for the lollipop man to actually just drop it back down in front of the driver, thereby stopping the driver.

But if the LEDs have already indicated a go, is the driver still gonna be looking at the overhead lights? I doubt it… so Ferrari.. Suck it up.. bring back the lollipop!

related links: F1-Live: Ferrari denies need to ‘lollipop’ return

** Update: Looks like Ferrari reverted to a lollipop on Raikonnen’s second stop.. I didn’t catch the other stops though…

When I started writing this entry, I was thinking of yet another “BOOO!” to the Malaysian government. But I think there’s more than enough of that on the Internet.. my adding to it won’t help matters.

The fact is, petrol prices have gone up. And we have to do something about it. No, not by complaining.. but by changing how we do things. Here I’ll present to you what I’ve been doing to save petrol.

1. Avoid taking unnecessary trips.
2. If possible, do your driving in the morning or evening. Cooler temperatures mean denser air which is easier on the engine. Plus, cranking up the air-conditioning in the afternoons just adds to your petrol consumption.
3. Similarly, top up on your petrol when it is cooler. The cooler temperatures mean denser petrol.
4. Don’t drive aggressively. Curb that right foot! The harder you accelerate, the more petrol you burn.
5. Plan your trips to avoid jams and heavy traffic.
6. Let your car coast in neutral. Of course, you have to make sure the situation is safe as a neutral engine means a lack of engine braking.
7. Don’t leave your engine idling. When waiting for someone, turn your engine off. Too hot? Get out of the car and in the shade.
8. A friend of mine does this in Australia, he turns off his engine when waiting at a long traffic light. Of course, you need to be familiar with the lights and anticipate when the lights will turn green so you don’t bring any unnecessary attention on yourself.
9. Don’t drive with your windows down or your sunroof open. These create drag. The more drag you have, the more your engine has to work. Remove that bicycle rack when you’re not using it! Thinking of adding some cool rear spoilers? Think twice… those spoilers may look cool, but they also add drag. Besides, how fast do you think you’ll be going that you’ll need to add more rear downforce??
10. Ensure your tyres are properly inflated. An underinflated tyre creates more rolling resistance. It also wears your tyres out. Oh, and remember.. a tyre’s pressure goes up after some driving due to heat build-up. So, if you drove 10 minutes to the petrol station and then inflated your tyre to the recommended pressure, chances are, it’s still underinflated. The recommended tyre pressures are for COLD tyres. So, overinflate your tyres at the station, get a pressure gauge and measure the pressure in the morning when they’re cold and adjust the pressures down accordingly. Need I mention not to overinflate your tyres past their recommended limits?
11. Make sure your car is in tip-top condition. If your spark-plugs aren’t working as they should it means your petrol isn’t burning as completely as it should. Keep your air filter clean… a dirty filter means an inefficient engine.
12. Polish your car! A clean car means less drag.
13. Carpool! Yeah.. the added weight makes your car less efficient, but it sure beats driving two or three cars to work or to that mamak.
14. Reduce weight! Stop carrying that bag of golf clubs in the boot!
15. Do you leave your car to warm up in the mornings? Don’t! Just drive gingerly and you’ll be fine. Leaving the car on idle for 10 minutes is a sure fire way to increase your petrol consumption.

I’ve been practising some of these tips for the past 3 months. And it does affect my petrol consumption. My car’s trip computer calculates an average distance (km) per litre of petrol (L)consumed, or km/L. I used to get about 9.8 – 10.1 km/L. Now, I’m averaging 10.8 – 11km/L. At the maximum, it’s a 1.2km/L increase which means I can go 50.4km further on my full tank (42L) of petrol.

Give it a shot… and see what kind of improvements you get!