Tom's home page.
Welcome to my home page. Before my computer was "upgraded" I had lots of pages scattered around, lots of images. I knew my computer was outdated and seriously imparied, so I thought I'd ask a computer expert his opinion as to what kind to buy. He said he could upgrade my old one for a small price. I told him that most files could be killed, but there were some that I wanted to save. Guess what? Yep. Everything was erased. Sigh. I'll read your email, thanks.
See pictures of the exhumation of the 1957 Plymouth Belvedere on June 15, 2007 in Tulsa.
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Interested in getting a velodrome built in Tulsa? Here's a map of existing and proposed velodromes in the U.S. and Canada.
Some pictures of my new "fun" car.
Tristan's Cub Scout den/pack? vist to Tulsa Fire Station 32.
Some pictures of Tulsa I've taken on lunch hour walks, to and from work, etc.
Some pictures of a Smart Car (Canadian import Passion Cabriolet diesel model) that John has owned for 51 weeks (since October 14, 2006.) He really likes the car, thinks it's a lot of fun, and wonders why MBUSA (or is it MB NA?) is bringing them in only in staid colors, and not bringing in the Euro "fun" colors.
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Got there Sunday around 4:00 P.M. and it wasn't very crowded. Left the t-tops off on the SS, some dark clouds started moving in, almost gave up my place in line, but decided to wait it out and hope the rain didn't come. It didn't.
Signed a form giving personal data, then went into the trailer where some shots of the Smartfortwo (not the "Smartfourtwo" as reported in the Tulsa World), were displayed. Then outside the trailer to wait in line for our chance to drive the car.
I drew a black one with gray trim and Sarah in the passenger seat. We left it in automatic mode, although with the manumatic type transmission you could chose to shift clutchlessly either via the floor mounted shifter or paddle shifts mounted to the rear portion of the steering wheel. Very easy access, even for large people (I noticed some large folks exiting the cars that came in while I was waiting for my ride.) There's a lot of room inside the car for people who wear XL or larger clothes, go to "all you can eat" nights at restaurants, etc.
So, once in the car, and for the short test drive, leaving it in automatic mode, I take off and immediately notice that I had to turn the steering wheel too much in order to gain the appropriate amount of movement left or right at very slow speeds. No power steering, the weight, what there is of it, is in the rear of the car. The engine is in the rear, under the floor, and the car is rear wheel drive. Steering felt very "overboosted." Once under way, car was peppy. Except for the automatic mode's shifting. The shifts were slow and the car hesitated and lost an appreciable amount of forward motion. Don't know if it would be as bad if shifting via paddles or the gear selector in non-automatic mode. Car has storage behind the two seats and the passenger seat can also be folded down for additonal storage space. Not sure how much room would be in the rear in the cabriolet model. My guess would be "not very much."
One other very important thing. Crash safety. There is a picture floating around the 'net of a (supposedly) Smart car that was hit by a box truck in a head-on collision. Well, turns out Smart investigated the photo, blew up the steering wheel image, and it's NOT a Smart. Think the fellow said it was some model of Volkwagen. Product Specialist also said that the Smartfortwo was designed for the American market, and it was to be crash tested "very soon." Would like to see the results of that before thinking any more about putting down my $99 reservation.
Later on, driving in wife Karen's Integra 3 door hatchback, I was noticing the cars around us. Even in the Integra we were one of the "smaller" vehicles. I don't know how comfortable I'd be in a Smartfortwo, even if it came in with a 5 star crash rating. What with our lousy drivers, talking on cell phones, eating meals, not really looking where they're going, being in a very small car could just be inviting trouble. I should have blown the horn, just to test how wimpy it might have sounded. You'd need some serious volume, applied often, I feel. That's it for now. I asked the Product dude about other models coming, and he did say they're working on a hybid, and depending on how this one is received, other models could easily become available.
One other thing is curious to my mind. If this car is a collaboration between Swatch and Mercedes, why isn't Mercedes selling it? Why no 3 pointed star in a circle on the hood/bonnet? Are they ashamed of it? Or its pricing point? Don't they want floor traffic in their dealerships asking about the Smart? If you have any information, email me