Once away from Trolls and their spawn, life improves. This last weekend was busy, what with it being Easter, spring, and sunny. Everyone in the world (or so it seemed) wanted some of the sweet weather we've been having.
Apart from the fact that there's little/no money to be made driving, it can be fun. The influx of northerners for the weekend included some regulars who arrive via private jet. For me, that means hanging around the airport. Being swanky jet-setters, they naturally don't arrive with the riff-raff at the regular terminal, rather they go to what are known as Fixed Base Operators. FBOs service the non-airline parts of aviation, which activity includes maintaining mini-terminals for folks arriving red-carpet-wise.
It's all quite relaxed. I arrive early at the FBO with the limo, walk in, and tell the nice lady at the desk the tail number - or aircraft registration - of my customers' plane. She gives me a piece of yellow paper to stick on the dash, and then remotely opens the security gate and voilà! I'm on the apron.
Coz I kinda like planes, I deliberately go early to watch the activity, and it's always fun. There are rich old guys in their sweet personal twins, dopey old guys clearly lost, taxiing around aimlessly, enthusiastic students and their too-cool instructors, and all kinds of fancy jets for the rich folks. If you like aviation, it's neat.
When my particular rich folks arrive, you wait for the word from the ground guys, reverse up to the jet's door, welcome the people, load their bags, and head back through the security gate to their beach house. Everyone's happy. It's Easter, it's a weekend off, and they're at the beach, and we're all (including me) in a good mood.
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If you're interested, here is my review of our workhorse, the Lincoln Town Car.
10 comments:
You seem to have reviewed the Town Car from the point of view of a sports driver! Whereas it seems pretty clear (to me, who's never seen one) that it's very much aimed at the rear-seat owner. [Who cares about the chauffeur's driving pleasure? :)]
200,000 miles is a high odometer reading to rack up in 3 years even for a commercial transport vehicle, wouldn't you say? 100,000 would seem more plausible!
Also, do you use unmodified Town Cars as your limousines? They aren't stretched in any manner?
I was recently driving my girlfriend to the airport, and I accidentally took her to the international terminal, which is a good ten-odd kilometers from the domestic. I'm guessing the correct combination of stars lined up, goats were slaughtered and hobos with signs proclaiming the End is nyeahhh (not nigh) bet on the right horses at the cockfight that she still made the flight, teary-eyed farewell kisses at the terminal entry and all. She was intercepted by someone from the airline who rushed her through security and got her on board.
I realize this has nothing to do with what you spoke of, but years of these asides should remind you I enjoy sharing.
Perakath, you've got a thing for cars. I'm going to sponsor you to push Maruti to start production on the old Zen again, my beloved Aurelia's kith and kin.
Perakath, I acknowledge your utterly accurate criticism of my criticism. Who indeed does care about the driver's comfort? It's all about the owner or those being chauffeured. And they seem to like the beast.
Search me *shrugs shoulders*
There's no accounting for taste.
As for the mileage, the 200,000 in three years is right. The Town Cars do about 60,000 a year on average. The standard trip from my small town to the next big airport is 135 round trip, and they would do at least one or two a day, plus other stuff.
Yes, the Lincoln is stretched, in many variations. I'll write about those beasties in good time.
Reno, tangent away, my friend, I enjoy your written flights of romanticism.
Wombat-- one more question: Are the cars petrol- or diesel-powered? [A 4.6 litre V8 petrol probably returns Prius-level mpg ratings ;)]
Reno-- flabbergasted to see you here, I am. I thought Wombat was my pet source of amusement. I have a Zen too, btw: 2001 LX, gold, completely stock except for in-car entertainment and various small accessories. Get Chandni to host us both for a meal and we can hatch plans to develop a Zen replacement. (With an Esteem-size engine.)
Read the review of the towncar - I thought it was pretty good but you have to give is a little break because it isn't the vehicle Lincoln built; it's been stretched. Any stability calculations have been screwed. Likewise any braking calculations. And 200K of usage with lousy maintenance isn't helping.
To answer perakath; it's petrol. Diesel is almost unknown as an automobile fuel in the U.S.A. Dumb but there it is. VW can build a 50 mile per gallon vehicle but we are too dumb to buy it. A friend had an Isuzu back in the eighties that was diesel and got amazing mileage but was it a success - hell no!
To bad you can't lounge on the car hood and watch the skies.
Thanks, Don. I was just having a similar conversation over at Jhota's place: http://jhota.wordpress.com/2009/04/03/what-killed/#comments
Here in India you'll be hard-pressed to find a petrol engine over 2 litres in size. Most top out at 1.5 or 1.8 l, and above that only diesel variants sell.
The reasons are varied: diesel engines being more powerful (cc for cc) than petrol, there's less chance of the vehicle being underpowered; diesel engines are significantly more fuel efficient (cc for cc) than petrol; and of course, the clincher: diesel is subsidised to about 25% cheaper than petrol here, to keep the farm and road transport sectors politically happy. Passenger vehicles tag along for the ride!
I also recently learnt that the large SUVs for which the Gulf countries are famous are also mostly petrol-powered. Of course oil is so cheap there that fuel efficiency hardly matters, so their market is different.
Don, I see you have an RV. Are those petrol-powered too?
Wombat, sorry to have hijacked the page. You need more comments like The Girl's!
I need to know more about Indian motoring. Keep going, you guys - a hijacked blog is a happy blog.
Don, you're right. Some preventative maintenance would be a fine thing. (Wry smile.)
WRT diesel in the USA: I think there's a gigunda tax in some form that makes it much more expensive than it would otherwise be. I agree with you guys...as per Europe, diesels are a much smarter way to go. One wonders what our legislators can be thinking when the case is so clear....
Say there Perakath, why don't you write a lens on your beloved Zen? I want a complete rundown if you please! Then we can link, and perhaps compare your steed with mine. That might be fun. That, or I could export a Town Car to your neck of the woods, and you could test it under Sub-Continental conditions.
Girl, you crack me up. I wonder if there's a nearby drive-in movie theatre to which I could drive the Lincoln, and then make up the hood with pillows and a blanket. There's enough room up there.
Well diesels do have their drawbacks, of course. Far higher maintenance costs and NVH levels, from an ownership PoV. More torque, but much less zip to the drive than petrols. (But then you guys all drive automatics, so it may not make such a difference from the joy of driving angle.) And from the environment PoV, diesel emissions are cleaner than petrol in some respects, but much worse wrt particulate matter.
I should check out this lens site; do they give free trials? Sadly I have exams from Monday until June 13 (I know!), so any Suzuki-Lincoln drag racing will have to wait until after that.
In the meantime, if you're really interested in the Indian automotive scene, do check out my favourite web forum: http://team-bhp.com. 40,000 Indian petrolheads, and growing! Got BHP?
And whatever happened to Kissing and Telling, btw?
And I think it's that particulate matter (sulphur related?) that the US Feds are concerned about. But that problem has pretty much been solved, from what I can understand.
When your exams are done, Perakath, head over to Squidoo, and set yourself up an account. It's free, and if you generate traffic, you might even make a few rupees.
Good luck my friend.
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