If you have never been here, you may not know what I mean, but the traffic patterns around the city of Detroit, and as far as 25 miles north of downtown, are very unfriendly for cruising. The famed "Michigan left" is easily one of the most frustrating aspects of the roadways anywhere in the US.
What is a Michigan left, you ask?
Imagine that you are sitting at a stoplight on a random road, lets call it first street, and you are planning on turning left onto the crossroad, lets call it Main Street. You cannot turn left, so instead you have to go through the intersection, (generally a quarter mile or so) and drive into a "turnaround", which is nothing more than a small strip paved through the HUGE medians. You usually will have to sit at a light at the turnaround as well. You then turn left out of the turnaround, so you are now back on First Street, headed the direction from which you came. You then have to get all the way across to the far lane so that you may make a right turn, finally putting you on Main Street. So instead of simply putting in a delayed light and letting traffic turn left, you have now gone what is effectively a half mile out of your way, and you have made two lefts and a right, having sat at three stop lights instead of one.
Im not exaggerating.
Not only that, but in many cases, the stoplight at the turnarounds are VERY poorly timed, so when on the main road, you will often find yourself sitting, watching no one use a turnaround for long time, but these useless lights everywhere. It is as though the city has attempted to take as much thinking and judgment out of driving as possible, and in doing so they have made driving around Detroit an annoying series of dense traffic patterns.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
My 1983 Dodge Mirada
http://youtube.com/watch?v=64fll7HJFmg&feature=user
At Pittsburgh Raceway Park a few years ago. It is not of the greatest quality, but Im testing the video upload feature.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Do you have a vehicle that you love?
If so, The Automotive Authority would like to hear your story!
We will be adding personal interest stories to the site, and we need people who are interested in having the vehicles around which they focus their passion featured on this site!
If you would like to see your car featured on the site, please contact the editor at
QuickMirada(AT)yahoo(dot)com (Ive spelled it this way to avoid spammers hitting me harder than they already do. use the @ and a "." where Ive put the words in parenthesis)
Thank you!
-Patrick
We will be adding personal interest stories to the site, and we need people who are interested in having the vehicles around which they focus their passion featured on this site!
If you would like to see your car featured on the site, please contact the editor at
QuickMirada(AT)yahoo(dot)com (Ive spelled it this way to avoid spammers hitting me harder than they already do. use the @ and a "." where Ive put the words in parenthesis)
Thank you!
-Patrick
Welcome to The Automotive Authority.
Hello!
My name is Patrick Rall, and I am from Detroit, Michigan. For the past 4 years, Ive been writing automotive articles for a large chain of websites, and in the last 6 months, I have gotten involved in magazines. Thus far, Ive been published in the premier issue of Dodge Enthusiast Magazine, the February 2008 issue of Kit Car Builder, and the current issue of Muscle Car Milestones.
While I have an interest in all sorts of vehicles, my roots are in Mopar Performance, and thanks to my father, I am graced with both an appreciation for performance cars and mechanical abilities, and those blue collar roots set me apart from most automotive journalists. My experience in the automotive world vary from a few years on a small national drag racing circuit, to working in the business department of a handful of dealerships, to working as a mechanic and a pit crew member for a dirt track car.
Ive spent these past years writing for a living, and Ive decided to go ahead and begin writing for my own site, and I hope to offer some insight into my views on the motoring world, along with information about interesting vehicles Ive come across and their owners. I will also feature specifications and information about new vehicles and concepts, but the world really doesnt need another blog copying information from magazine sites and posting them with credit, so I aim to make this automotive blog more personal.
I know a great many enthusiasts, from high performance imports to sport bikes to American muscle to Harley Davidson to 4x4 diesel trucks, and I hope to eventually offer a chance for hopeful automotive writers to post on this site, so if youre interested in joining the automotive authority team, feel free to email me and we can discuss things, but for the time being, I will be the sole poster on the blog and I will begin working my way through various ideas for the blog.
So, sit back and read through things, and understand that as a self-portrayed authority on almost all things automotive, I am going to post my open opinions, and any comments meant to do nothing but flame will be removed, but Im always up for a good debate.
I hope to make this a recreational experience for me, as so much of my writing has been very confined by the requests of those who pay me to write. I hope that you enjoy this site and the information included.
Thank you for visiting,
-Patrick
My name is Patrick Rall, and I am from Detroit, Michigan. For the past 4 years, Ive been writing automotive articles for a large chain of websites, and in the last 6 months, I have gotten involved in magazines. Thus far, Ive been published in the premier issue of Dodge Enthusiast Magazine, the February 2008 issue of Kit Car Builder, and the current issue of Muscle Car Milestones.
While I have an interest in all sorts of vehicles, my roots are in Mopar Performance, and thanks to my father, I am graced with both an appreciation for performance cars and mechanical abilities, and those blue collar roots set me apart from most automotive journalists. My experience in the automotive world vary from a few years on a small national drag racing circuit, to working in the business department of a handful of dealerships, to working as a mechanic and a pit crew member for a dirt track car.
Ive spent these past years writing for a living, and Ive decided to go ahead and begin writing for my own site, and I hope to offer some insight into my views on the motoring world, along with information about interesting vehicles Ive come across and their owners. I will also feature specifications and information about new vehicles and concepts, but the world really doesnt need another blog copying information from magazine sites and posting them with credit, so I aim to make this automotive blog more personal.
I know a great many enthusiasts, from high performance imports to sport bikes to American muscle to Harley Davidson to 4x4 diesel trucks, and I hope to eventually offer a chance for hopeful automotive writers to post on this site, so if youre interested in joining the automotive authority team, feel free to email me and we can discuss things, but for the time being, I will be the sole poster on the blog and I will begin working my way through various ideas for the blog.
So, sit back and read through things, and understand that as a self-portrayed authority on almost all things automotive, I am going to post my open opinions, and any comments meant to do nothing but flame will be removed, but Im always up for a good debate.
I hope to make this a recreational experience for me, as so much of my writing has been very confined by the requests of those who pay me to write. I hope that you enjoy this site and the information included.
Thank you for visiting,
-Patrick
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