Tag Archives: Jared Hinderer

Uncategorized

Columnist determines best new super car

Leave a comment
By Jared Hinderer
With the Geneva auto show having been last week, there is still much talk over three very hyped hyper cars; the Lamborghini Veneno, McLaren P1, and the LaFerrari. While all three have very different styles and attitudes, my love goes for only one.
Let me start with the Veneno. This is one bold car. It looks like the designers at Lamborghini thought back to their days as kids and though “Let’s make something crazy. Something that will surprise people, something they’ve not seen before!” Well, they did just that. The styling of the Veneno is “out there” to say the least. And with 740 horsepower the performance is also out there. While the $4 million price tag seems highly outrageous, I understand their reasoning behind it. Lamborghini wanted an incredibly exclusive flagship to carry their badge into 2013, and they succeeded, having only built four of them; one for their museum and the rest already sold to extremely lucky buyers. However, this is the reason the Veneno ranks at the bottom of my favorite of the three. With a price of $4 million and the tiny number produced, these cars will never leave a garage. Cars are made to be driven and the Veneno never will be, which is sad because it is amazing car.
Next is the new McLaren P1. The P1 slots itself in the middle between the Veneno and LaFerrari in almost every aspect. At $1.2 million it’s cheaper than the Veneno by a long shot, but about $200,000 more than the Ferrari. Same goes for the power output. At 903 horsepower from a hybrid engine system of a 3.7 liter twin-turbo V8 combined with an electric motor it has 163 more horsepower over the 6.5 liter V12 in the Veneno but 47 less than LaFerrari. For this and its kind of dull styling (in comparison to the other two), I also slotted it right in the middle between the two. I’m not saying the P1 is not cool car, it is, but there is just something about the P1 that doesn’t draw me in like the Ferrari does.
Super cars are made to be driven and provide smiles for anyone around one. I don’t think anything does that better than a bright red Ferrari. Maybe it’s cliche, but a Ferrari just draws attention. But this new LaFerrari, despite its silly sounding name, is a serious car that deserves the attention. With a combination of a 6.3 liter V12 and two electric motors putting out 950 horsepower, the LaFerrari is the second fastest out of the three. It’s also the best looking of the three combining some of lunacy of the Lamborghini in the form of the massive ducts on the hood and side, but remaining mildly conservative by returning to a shape similar to famed Ferrari Enzo. This new Ferrari provides the perfect medium among the three new super cars, and that is why it earns my top spot in this comparison. And at a mere $1 million and 499 production models, chances are this car will actually get driven, even if very little, by the lucky buyers.
All in all, each of these cars are amazing, and I’d love to own any of them, but the LaFerrari is just the best combination of styling and performance to me.
Columns, Forum, Jared Hinderer

Harlem Shake provides fun for all

Leave a comment

By Jared Hinderer

Coming from the generation that basically pioneered the viral video, we as high school students have grown to love (or hate) them as they progress and morph from one form to another. We’ve seen planking, flash mobs, and outlandish dances; I’m looking at you Gangnam Style. But the best type of viral video genre is the one that gets everyone involved; something that everyone can do and have a good time doing. The most recent: The Harlem Shake.

Everybody, it seems, has been doing Harlem Shake videos and posting them on Youtube. Sports teams, office staffs, and students. If you own some crazy headgear and can flail your arms, you can do the Harlem Shake.

But some of you may not know what a Harlem Shake is. The song, “Harlem Shake,” that is featured in the videos was created by an artist known as Baauer in 2012, but has only recently come into light with these videos. The actual Harlem Shake dance traces it roots back to hip-hop of the early 1980’s, according to knowyourmeme.com and was originally just motions of “popping” your shoulders in a side to side motion, but today’s pop culture definition of the term, reported by urbandictionary.com is  “An eccentric upper body dance move that involves the shaking of the upper torso and shoulders.” You basically flail your limbs wildly while moving your head around.

However, Harlem shakers have adapted the moves to fit their own style, and that is why I like this viral sensation so much. Generally the videos start with one person, usually wearing a motorcycle helmet or other strange headgear, gyrating their hips among a group of individuals that seem to not notice them at all. After about fifteen seconds, there is a heavy bass drop in the song with the words “Do the Harlem Shake” with which everyone else that was previously uninterested is now wearing outrageous clothing or costumes and flailing themselves about the room.

The reason I enjoy the Harlem Shake so much is the freedom to be creative with it. No two Harlem Shakes are alike, and it gives you an opportunity to have fun and be silly with friends.

Next time you have a group of people together, I want you to bring a video camera, set up a Harlem shake and have a great time. This can provide a bonding experience, and possibly get you your fifteen minutes of Youtube fame.

However act quick, because this craze’s days are numbers, like all other viral videos, but in the meantime, have fun, and keep shaking.

Features, Jared Hinderer

Senior expresses himself through photo editing

Leave a comment

By Jared Hinderer

For many young adults, middle school and high school is a time when they discover skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. For many, this is writing, playing an instrument, or developing skills in a certain sport.

However, senior Parker McCullough’s new found skill came in the form of photo manipulation.

“I started using photo manipulation software in 6-7th grade,” said McCullough. “I think one day I decided to manipulate a photo for MySpace to get more friends or something.”

McCullough has since further developed his skills as photographer, editor, and cinematographer, largely teaching himself, but not forgetting that he learned the basics of design through arts classes at school. He draws inspiration from a creative designer named James Lano, that works out of Orlando, Florida.

“There are some people I really look up to; one is James Lano, he’s a really talented dude,” said McCullough

Like Lano, many of McCullough’s works are based on many different ideas and subjects, and are not just limited to his own life. With reactions to his work often being positive, McCullough has even attracted some attention from others, leading him to also do work for them.

“I’ve done it [editing and design work] for friends, DJ’s, school clubs, bands, and photographers,” McCullough said.

Whether the subject be himself, his car, or starting a design from scratch, Parker uses the top names in media editing software to assist him in is work.     “For picture editing I use Photoshop CS5 and Adobe Lightroom 4.2, and for cinematography I film with my Canon Rebel T3i and edit in Final Cut Pro X,” said McCullough.

Having done this work for others, including businesses and organizations, McCullough has started on his way to making a career out of his hobby. Parker plans to attend college in pursuit of a degree in graphic design, and follow through with being a designer. Realizing others may want to follow him, Parker offers this advice: “Just try hard and practice, and be original.”

In the end, McCullough best summed up the reason behind his work when he said, “I do this stuff because it’s something I’m truly passionate about and I never get tired of it.”

Columns, Forum, Jared Hinderer

Auto auction provides fun for car enthusiasts

Leave a comment
By Jared Hinderer

My phone’s alarm rings at 6:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 15, and oddly enough, I am wide awake. I quickly get ready as my friend’s black Saab rolls into the driveway and my dad finishes getting ready to go. Around 7:00 we all load up in my car to go meet my uncle at Waffle House for breakfast. As I turn the key and my V6 roars to life, I think to myself, “This will be awesome; my first auto auction.”

But, first, let me back up about a week. I was shopping in Louisville when I came across an advertisement for a Goodwill auto auction. This piqued my interest so I went to a worker at Goodwill and asked for a list of cars if they had one. The clerk told me I would have to go online, so as soon as I got home (their site didn’t like working on my iPhone) I went to the site to if they had anything interesting.
As I scrolled through the myriad beat-up Mercurys, Hondas, Chryslers, and Fords, I found it: a beautiful 1997 BMW 528i. That’s more my style. Since my two friends that I detail cars with and I are looking for a car to be our “company car” I called them up to see if they wanted to try to get it. They both agreed and we set a price and if it looked as good did in the pictures, we would buy it.
When I got to the auction lot, the BMW looked great from the gates, and there was nobody there, so I was optimistic. I went in and started taking a look at the car I hoped to bring home that day. Let me be the first to tell you: don’t trust one picture online. As I did my inspection I tallied up about $4000 in hail damage, totally bald rear tires (someone had some fun before they donated it), there was a failed rear window regulator that was letting the interior get soaked, and I regret even opening the door. The interior had the same aroma one might find in the everglades in Florida. Oh, and to top it all off a worker at the auction told me it had “strange electrical problems that makes the alarm go off all the time.”
A little dismayed, I started looking at other cars as it began raining and even more people started showing up. At this point, my uncle who hates rain (on top of the fact that his All-Star Breakfast from Waffle House that wasn’t settling well with him) quickly retreated to his Escalade and went home, leaving me his debit card and the instructions to go no more than $850 on a 1979 Ford F150 he wanted.
I continued looking with my friend and finally found what we really wanted: a 1991 Mercedes-Benz 300SE with 181,000 miles. This car was beautiful. The paint was good, the tires were good, the interior was relatively clean and to top it all off, they said it ran and drove. I was pumped; this is the car we really wanted. I called my other friend that was going in on it with us and asked if he wanted to go for it. He gave the go ahead.
By the time the auction started, the little showers of rain had turned into a complete downpour, but that didn’t seem to bother anybody. When the auction began I knew it was going to be awhile before we got to the truck or the Mercedes (lot number 60 of 67, so it was nearly last) I wanted to bid on, and I contemplated taking a seat in a 2002 Ford minivan to get out of the weather, but decided to stay outside and watch the proceeding.
When the first six cars would not start and were bought by scrappers for a little over $500 each, the hopes of me getting a running and driving Mercedes looked slim. After a wrecked PT Cruiser sold for $3600, two Camrys with over 300,000 miles brought about $2000 each, and a van with a bad rod knock went for somewhere around $2000, along with about 35 other cars I didn’t pay any attention to, we got to the BMW, the original car we went there for. The auction workers finally got its 266,000 mile motor to start while the alarm siren was wailing. Expecting this very poor condition car to bring $700 at the most, I was shocked when the auctioneer yelled “SOLD” at a price of $1600.
After a few more cars, we came to the truck my uncle wanted. I thought, “This is it, my time to shine.” I worked my way up through the crowd to get next to the auctioneer. The bid started at $500 but before I could even yell out “600!” it was already there, so I franticly throughout a “750!” followed by an “800!” then “850!” each time my bid was immediately beat by someone else. That truck went for $2200.
Finally we got to the Mercedes. I could already tell by the way they looked the car over; some Russian men were going to be my main opponents. The Mercedes fired up at the turn of the key (well, once they put it in neutral, since the neutral safety switch was shot) and the bidding started out at $500 again. The bids quickly shot well past my spending limit and I was only able to get in a $600 bid. At each increment the auctioneer would look at me, waiting for a nod of the head to signify a bid, which I desperately wanted to give him, but I didn’t have the money to back it up. The car sold for an absolute steal to the three Russian men for $1500. We were defeated. We left the lot threw our soaked jackets and umbrellas in the trunk of my Saab and went home with the same number of cars we had when we left.
There are a couple morals to this story. 1. Scrap values are much higher than I thought they were and 2. Don’t let your first time doing something keep you from doing it again. I had a blast getting up at 6:30 on a Saturday to eat at Waffle House and stand in the rain around some crappy cars for three hours, and I plan on going back; just with more money next time. But, alas, like an old fishing tale, that Mercedes will always be “the one that got away” to me.
Columns, Forum, Jared Hinderer

Columnist begins car restoration

Leave a comment

By Jared Hinderer

Four years ago I had no idea that a conversation I had with my uncle, while watching Mythbusters at 3 in the morning, would lead to one of the most rewarding experiences of my life so far.

During an episode when the hosts of the show were sifting through cars at a junkyard (trying to find a suitable car for a James Bond myth), I mentioned to my uncle how I thought it would be cool to get an old beat-up car and fix it up to be show-worthy.  He agreed and said it would be a good experience for me and nonchalantly said to me, “Be on the lookout for something cool, like a Mustang or Camaro. I’ll keep an eye out too.” I did not think much of the comment; I mean, who was really going to buy a car for a 13-year-old?

I was hopeful, though, so I looked in the local papers every once in a while, but never really found anything, and eventually kind of left it alone.

Finally, I got a very surprising phone call from my uncle. I picked up my phone and the first thing I heard was, “Hey, I bought you a car; where do you want me to drop it off?” Astonished, I was finally able tell him to have it delivered to my grandpa’s shop where I had the space to work on it.

In fact, he had actually bought two cars. Two Ford Mustang coupes; a 1965 with a 6-cylinder motor and a 1966 with a 289 V8. He gave me first choice of whichever one I wanted, then he would keep the other for himself. For those of you that know cars, you know the choice was obvious, so I requested the V8.

That is the story of how I got it; now here is the story of what I did with it:

With the financial backing of my uncle, grandparents, and parents, I ordered a mountain of parts for it.
However, the first thing I did to the car was tear it down. I removed the bumpers, glass, grille, interior, everything. Upon removing the interior I found the only real rust that the car had. The floor pans had essentially been eaten by rust to the point where they were no longer safe.

However, by old car standards, it was a very minimal amount of rust, which I was able to fix in a few afternoons.
Once I got the car apart I started the task of getting the motor sorted out. The car ran when I got it (although it could not move due to a locked front left brake), but it had a very bad fuel leak at the carburetor that needed sorting out before it was safe run.

With a new carburetor and some new fuel and vacuum lines, the car ran great, so the fun began with brakes.
I want to say right now that I am so happy drum brakes are obsolete these days. Maybe it was because I was 13 and had not fully developed the mechanical skills I have now, but it took me three months, working for 45 minutes a couple days a week after school, to get the whole braking system replaced. My grandpa showed me on one brake how to do it, then essentially handed me the tools and said, “Do the rest.”

Prior to my endeavor of finishing the brakes he gave me the best advice I have ever hear for doing any sort of mechanical work: “Take your time and note exactly how you take everything off.” Then he told me I was on my own and that I would have no help. Too bad I did not heed his advice

After a few weeks of working after school I had finished the rear brakes. Proudly, I summoned my grandpa to inspect my work. Upon my summoning, I could tell he was trying his hardest not bust out laughing. When he and I both were looking at the job I had done, he calmly said to me, “Is that how it looked when you took it off?” After studying it for a minute, I started to think to myself and finally said, “Wait a minute! Did I do it all backwards?” He erupted in laughter and told me he had been watching me do it wrong the whole time, but wanted it to teach me a lesson. It did.

After I fixed my mistake, I went on to put on the front brakes, convert the car to a power brake system, and replace all of the lines. Once that was done, and a few other smaller projects, it was time for body and paintwork.
The car came to me in a nasty flat red primer color, without a single fender, door, or any other panel lining up. My uncle sent out someone that had done the paintwork on his Corvette to get a quote on what it would cost for the work to be done on my car, and to see what color I wanted the car painted. Naturally, I wanted red. But, not just red, I wanted “red that is brighter than the brightest red you can think of.”

Nine months and 9000 dollars later I had an almost-new looking 1966 Ford Mustang (sans interior) sitting in my garage. And might I add that it was, indeed, brighter than the brightest red I could think of.

Unfortunately, due to a lack of time on my part, that is where the car sat for over about a year with nothing done to it.

Finally, work began once again on it again. I got new wheels and tires for it, a decently rare set of five 1967 Mercury Cougar XR7 GT styled steel wheels with brand new Mastercraft tires, and got it back on the ground so I could get to sorting out the issues it developed from sitting so long without running. A new battery and some fuel treatment got it running again, barely, and a gas leak and transmission leak still remained. Fortunately, those two issues have seemed to go away on their own now that car is driven more.

This brings it up to 2012. In the past few weeks, I got it registered, insured, and plated, so it is road legal. I also gave it a tune up, adjusted the idle, installed a new modern distributer, and a new, upgraded ignition coil. I am happy to report I now have a Mustang that runs like new. I almost cannot believe how well it runs for being an original 46-year-old motor.

This has been a rewarding experience, and one I will never forget. From here on out, I will provide updates on my progress with the car in the final steps to the end of my restoration, and my further endeavors with my beloved classic. Please check back as I provide my periodic updates and enjoy the photos.

[slideshow]