Videos, Table of Contents, and My Views on Raters and Haters

Current as of 9/17/09

In this hectic world, I know that it can be hard to set aside the time to check out all 18 pages of my CarDomain website. But if you have 3 minutes to spare, please check out the video below for a quick beginning-to-now view of my Project Fireball !

Raters and Haters

CarDomain gives everyone the chance to see how their ride stacks up to others on here. But something I've noticed over time is how excellent rides can get trashed in the ratings, obviously by people with a jealous axe to grind.

Now, I'm the last guy to think that I have one of the best rides here on CD.  I'd like to think that my decent ratings amongst Fords generally and Galaxies specifically has more to do with the fun I have on my ride pages and the unusualness of my car's theme than in the quality of the car itself.

When I rate a car on CarDomain, I'm generally going to give it 5 stars because of the heart the owner dispays in their ride and their pages, not necessarily the overall quality of the car. It's your ride, and it's your pride; I'm going to support you there.

If for some reason I really don't like a car I just won't rate it. I may not be adding to the rating, but I'm not dragging it down, either. And I'd never down-rate a car just to move mine up the ranks.

I've been the victim of downrating, myself. October of 2007 I hit #4 in Fords and by the next day I was dropped to around 400. Yes, success does bring the haters out of the woodwork.

Bottom line: if you hate, don't rate. Downrating someone might move you up the ranks a bit, but it doesn't make your car better.

That's my 2 cents... your mileage may vary.

It's been nearly a year, but in honor of the gracious folks at Mobil 1 who encouraged us to "Mobil-ize" our pages, a promotion that netted me a cool $1,000 in July of '08 , I wish to propose a toast. Here, let me pour you a drink... trust me, it goes down smooooth... How smooth? Just check out the inaugural Second Gear episode below and see for yourself...

Second Gear even has their own official custom mail box now... just waiting to receive ideas and recognition!!  And money... money would be nice...

Below is a kind-of follow-up "Second Gear" video. While not technically another episode, its very existence is a demonstration why our production of more videos is going so slow...  

Yes, we are that crazy in "real life"...

What About the 'Contents'?

Chances are that if you've gotten this far, you've already visited the introductory page of my site. But just in case...

Page 1: Introduction and 25 pics of Project Fireball

Page 2: Table of contents (you are here), a couple videos of/by Yours Truly, some personal views on Rating and Hating, and the Obligatory Racer Babe (above)

Page 3: Mechanical Specs on Project Fireball - 13 pics of the car

Page 4: How the dream began, and how Project Fireball got started. Finding and buying the Galaxie, and bringing her home - 8 misc. pics

Page 5: Assessing the recently purchased car - 7 'before' pics of the Galaxie and 8 pics of the first steps of the restoration

Page 6: Deciding which historic NASCAR racer to replicate (10 misc. pics) and how I WASN'T going to build the car. (5 misc. pics) Includes a link to getting your own modern quality replica NASCAR and 4 pics of an example of one of those cars

Page 7: Fireball Roberts, the man, and Project Fireball in progress - 5 misc. pics and 9 others of my project car, including side-by-side pictoral comparisons with an historic race car. And the true tale of a run-in with the law...

Page 8: More of the restoration and more construction info - 7 pics of the car (mostly interior shots)

Page 9: Some personal history and my involvement with the Historic Stock Car Racing Series - 15 misc pics including a couple HSCRS members' cars

Page 10: My assessment of the completed Project Fireball - 10 pics of the completed car, taken at All-American Speedway in Roseville, CA and my list of people to thank for helping make Project Fireball a reality; and how it was all done, including a summary of the project in costs and materials, and a couple pics of a possible future project under consideration

Page 11: Getting involved with the movie Dare to Dream: The Alan Kulwicki Story - 2 historic pics of Kulwicki and 4 pics of his 1992 Hooters Thunderbird, and re-creating Kulwicki's 1988 Zerex Thunderbird for the movie - 10 pics. Then, the filming of Dare to Dream and subsequent review - 10 pics of the filming, plus 3 pics of Hooters Girls with the '92 T-Bird (yeah, I thought that might get your attention)

Page 12: July, 2007, Project Fireball debuts. On display (11 car pics and 5 misc pics) and on track (6 pics) at the 3rd Annual (and sadly, final) San Jose Grand Prix. Then Project Fireball lands at Reno's Hot August Nights, and the 2007 NSRA Golden State Nationals (8 pics)

Page 13: Photos of the cars of the members of the HSCRS - 76 pics 

Page 14: Project Fireball at car shows, events and awards in 2008 - 34 pics

Page 15: Project Fireball at car shows, events, and other forms of recognition in 2009, a page that grows as the year progresses .

Page 16: The Mobilized 5 - Who, What and Why. And, the R.O.R.M.I. !! - 39 pics

Page 17: News Scoop? And a closer look at one of my other rides.

Page 18:  *NEW* The Color Purple...  

Additional sponsorship by Burina Mouse-flavored Cat Chow... an idea whose time has come! (Actually, this is a photo I took the morning of 5/23/08 after I learned why our cats seemed even more interested in their morning meal than usual. What does that have to do with hot rods or historic stock cars? Not a damn thing...)

This CarDomain website uses 100% Recycled Electrons and has a Carbon Footprint almost as small as Al Gore's gonads.