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• Reader Spy: SRT-fettled Dodge Journey R/T spotted

  Filed under: Spy Photos, Minivan/Van, Wagon, Crossover, Dodge

  

  SRT-prepped Dodge Journey R/T – Click above for high-res image gallery
  

  We’ve always been intrigued by the notion of a higher performance people carrier, from back before Car and Driver magazine’s Ford Windstar-based SHOStar to various shadetree high-strung turbocharged Chrysler minivans and outright lunacy like Renault’s Espace-bodied F1 car.

  Of course, that isn’t what you’re looking at here: it’s what appears to be an SRT-tweaked Dodge Journey R/T, a vehicle that we want to like for its useful size and packaging, but can’t because of its indifferent drivetrains and tragic interior materials and ergonomics.

  Now, normally we wouldn’t get too excited about something like this, in part because private owners often add badges from other vehicles in order to make them seem more impressive (we just saw an i-VTEC Chevrolet Beretta the other day), but these spy shots sent in from reader Nick Leonard appear to be the real deal – not only does the Journey in question boast a well-integrated new front fascia, but also unique wheels, a lowered stance and a quad-outlet rear exhaust surrounded by a different valance. The clincher? Michigan manufacturer licence plates.

  Nick says notes that he came upon the car in the parking lot of a Best Buy in Saginaw, Michigan, and he only noted a laptop bag and a jacket in the passenger seat – no sign of any further testing equipment or interesting things on the dashboard. He further instructs that there was an AWD badge on the car (not pictured).

  Now, it isn’t at all clear that this is a production-intent vehicle, especially considering that R/T and SRT are usually mutually-exclusive designations in the House of Pentastar. This vehicle might be something that bored engineers cooked up for their own entertainment, for a SEMA reveal, or perhaps for a customer clinic – but who knows? It could be something, right? If so, let’s hope there’s some genuine chutzpah under the sheetmetal, otherwise we’re looking at the decline and dilution of the SRT-branded vehicles as we know it.

  Check out our gallery of images below… and thanks for the shots, Nick!

  Gallery: Reader Spy: SRT-prepped Dodge Journey R/T

  

  Reader Spy: SRT-fettled Dodge Journey R/T spotted originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  December 14, 2009

• Need to lose weight

  Hey everyone. So, I’ve been diagnosed type 1 for approximately 2 months now, and I’m already slacking with the food intake. I eat whatever I want and bolus for the carbs, but I need to lose weight.

  I’ve read something about Dr. Bernstein?? Is that right? I am very impatient, and would like to see results fast, so if anyone has any ideas on a great weight loss plan, please share!

  I’m sure there are many posts like this out there, but I’d like to hear people’s personal experiences with dieting and how they were successful.

  Thanks!

  December 14, 2009

• A Dickens Christmas Feast and a Soup & Bread Cookbook Delicious links for 12.17.09

  Plus flavored sugars as homemade gifts in pretty furoshiki wrapping, and great jar toppers for homemade jam.

  Read Full Post

  
  

  

  December 14, 2009

• Looking for your personal opinions – regarding prediabetics and meds

  Let’s take this hypothetical patient into consideration:

  5’11" 220 lb 40 year old male. FBS 121, A1c 6.0. Cholesterol 220, Triglycerides 250, LDL 125, HDL 35. Normal liver enzymes. Slightly active lifestyle. Typical "American" diet. Assume he is not type 1 nor 1.5.

  You’re a doctor for a day. What is the advice you give this patient as his physician?

  Would you just tell him to diet and exercise and check back in a six months? Would you just let it go? Would you place him on meds? Which meds? Would you send him to classes?

  I realize that we are a VERY biased group since we have this condition, but I’m still curious about your answers.

  December 14, 2009

• Palm withering

  

  It is often suggested that a beleaguered Microsoft should buy a newly re-invigorated Palm and dump Windows Mobile.  There are many reasons why this does not make sense, not the least being that buying a failing OS from a failing company will do little to help Microsoft’s efforts.

  The Washington Post’s Big Money blog is the latest to report on the company’s troubles. Calling the company a one-trick pony that is “quickly dying” and was “beset by so many errors and miscalculations that it is a wonder it has managed to survive even as long as it did”, they note that according to Changewave the company had 33% of the US smartphone market only 3 years ago, and is now scraping the bottom at 7%.

  To ad insult to injury Gartner predicts the company will hold only 1.4 percent share of world smartphone sales in another 3 years time.

  They note the Palm lacks an ecosystem, and their aborted attempts to piggyback on the iTunes ecosystem ended up just embarrassing the company. The company’s attempts to attract developers has also not gone very well, with Palm recently forced to throw open doors to hackers and abandon attempts to control their marketplace.

  Despite these setbacks Palm has never been shy to talk the talk, with Roger McNamee’s promise that iPhone users would convert en masse to the Palm Pre proving so spectacularly wrong Palm had to file a 10-point “clarification” with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and with their claim that the Pre being even more anticipated than the iPhone in the UK falling resoundingly flat on its face with the smartphone being outsold 20:1 on O2.

  So while Windows Mobile users worry about losing marketshare and years in the wilderness, spare a thought for Palm, dying once again.

  

  December 14, 2009

• UTPD ‘Ties One On for Safety’ This Holiday Season

  

  UTPD Cpl. Donnie Ross ties a red MADD ribbon to the mirror of his cruiser.

  Officials from the University of Tennessee Police Department recently joined fellow law officers from the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and the Tennessee Highway Patrol and representatives from the Governor’s Highway Safety Council in support of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)’s “Tie On One for Safety” campaign.

  Law officers received red MADD ribbons to tie around their rear-view mirrors. The ribbons are a visible sign to all motorists that police agencies are committed to encouraging motorists to drive safe, sober and buckled up.

  To learn more about the “Tie On One for Safety” program, visit the MADD Web site.

  December 14, 2009

• Expert: Lithium Ion Batteries Will Help Hybrids More Than Electric Cars TNR.v, CZX.v, WLC.v, LI.v, RM.v, CLQ.v, SQM, FMC, ROC, AVL.to, CCE.v, QUC.v, F

  

  We have a different view on the market perspective for full Electric Cars BEV, Plug-In Hybrids PHEV and Hybrids HEV, but here we have an important confirmation from a very conservative angle on development of EVs’ market, that battery technology is migrating into Lithium-ion space even in Hybrid sector.

  HybridCars:

  Expert: Lithium Ion Batteries Will Help Hybrids More Than Electric Cars
  Published December 14, 2009

  It’s commonly reported that lithium ion batteries will usher in a new era of electric cars and plug-in hybrids. Not exactly, says John German, the engineer who literally wrote (or at least edited) the book about hybrid cars for the Society of Automotive Engineers. After 11 years at Honda, German now serves as a senior fellow for the International Council for Clean Transportation. In an interview with HybridCars.com, German said the next wave of lithium ion batteries will not significantly reduce the cost of electric cars, but they could make conventional hybrids ubiquitous.
  In German’s view, the chief benefit of new lithium ion batteries is their greatly enhanced power capabilities—the rate at which energy can go in and out of the battery. “But they don’t store any more energy than the current lithium ion batteries do,” said German, “What we are looking at is a battery which is perfect for conventional hybrids.”
  HybridCars.com: Why will the new breed of lithium ion batteries be a bigger benefit to conventional hybrids rather than plug-in hybrids and electric cars?
  German: The next generation of lithium ion batteries will reduce the cost of the battery pack for conventional hybrids, but they’re not going to reduce the cost of the battery pack for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. In effect, these batteries will increase the cost differential between conventional hybrids and plug-in hybrids. That’s why they’re not going to create a plug-in hybrid market, because they’re actually going to make it harder for plug-in hybrids to compete with conventional hybrids.
  Walk me through the energy and power requirements for the two different categories of vehicles.
  For plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, it’s all about the range. You need a certain amount of energy to drive a certain distance [before needing to recharge]. That’s independent of the battery chemistry. If the new lithium ion chemistry doesn’t store any more energy than your old lithium ion chemistry, then you need just as much battery to drive that distance.
  And with conventional hybrids, you don’t need nearly as much energy.
  The battery packs in all existing hybrids, up until the new BMW ActiveHybrid 7, are oversized. The reason they’re oversized is that with nickel metal hydride [the technology used in today’s hybrids], you’re limited in how fast you can take energy in and out of a battery without causing significant deterioration. So these batteries are not sized for the energy [storage] requirements. They are sized for the power requirements, so they can deliver enough power without significant deterioration. As a consequence, they hold a lot more energy than they really need to.
  With the new high-power lithium ion batteries, they can cut them down to their actual energy requirements and still get all the power they need.
  So, with the new lithium ion batteries, the difference in cost between conventional hybrids and gas-powered vehicles could come in line?
  In another 10 to 15 years, we should be at the point where the mainstream customer, the average customer, will accept the cost of a hybrid system.
  Meaning, maybe a couple of hundred dollars more than a conventional car?
  Well, $1,000 to $1,500 more. There’s enough benefit for mainstream customers to accept it.
  How rapid will the transition from nickel metal hydride to lithium ion batteries be for conventional hybrids?
  It’s a function of sales volume. The current generation of lithium ion batteries is not any cheaper than nickel metal hydride. And they’re not proven. With a lot of the lithium ion chemistries, just sitting and doing nothing in hot weather will degrade the battery pack. The batteries will not last as long in Phoenix as Minneapolis. There’s risk with durability and reliability.
  In lower volume applications, new hybrids just coming out, carmakers know they’re not going to be able to capture larger market share right away. So they’re going to be lithium ion batteries starting tomorrow [See Mercedes S400 Hybrid and BMW ActiveHybrid 7]. You don’t have a large volume, so your risk is minimized and you’ve gained experience. It’s going to be cheaper in the long run, and you want to gain experience. So, you’ll see very few new hybrids using nickel metal hydride.
  The problem is with high volume existing hybrids. When you’re selling hundreds of thousands of Priuses globally every year, if you encounter something wrong with the lithium ion battery pack, your exposure is enormous. The high volume hybrid applications are going to go to lithium ion last. But even the high volume ones will get there by 2015 or so.
  What’s your feeling about the cost per kilowatt-hour of lithium ion batteries? What are they now and where do they need to be?
  I thought they were $1,000 per kilowatt-hour, but I’m hearing that it may be more like $700. It’s hard to determine the long-term price potential. They shouldn’t have much trouble getting down to about $320 per kilowatt-hour. It’s going to take a while, but with higher volumes and better production methods, $320 is achievable in the 2018 to 2020 time frame.
  The real question is how low can you drive it. I’ve seen some people suggest that the lowest could be $250 to maybe $175.
  At $250, doesn’t mean that plug-in cars become affordable?
  No. At $250 per kilowatt-hour, the pay back is roughly similar to the hybrid vehicles of about five years ago. So there’s your market, about 3 percent.
  If lithium ion batteries bring the plug-in market to 2 or 3 percent, where will conventional hybrids go?
  I’ll stick my neck out and say that by sometime around 2025 or 2030, conventional hybrids will be over 70 percent of the market.
  And a fairly steady ramp up from now until then?
  Yes. It will be a curve. Something like a doubling of hybrid sales every three to five years. There’s no doubt in my mind that by 2030 that hybrids will be in more than half the vehicles sold in the US. I would be astounded if they weren’t. By 2020, I would say we’d be somewhere in the 10 – 15 percent range.
  And President Obama’s goal for 1 million plug-in hybrids by 2015?
  Not a chance.”

  

  December 14, 2009

• Cheese Making: Winner Announced & A Coupon!

  

  This Contest has closed! Deborah R has won the giveaway!

  This weekend, the snow fell hard and heavy. Tucked away in our cave of a home, just a few yards from the ski lifts, I spent my weekend hearth-side – testing and photographing new recipes and making cheese to last for those cold months of late winter when the valley cows go dry before the calving of spring. This week it was a raw cows-milk feta – with wonderful salty overtones balanced by the unique and quiet flavor variations of raw milk. I love how the flavor of fresh, raw milk changes and varies from season to season depending on what native grass or flora the cows have access to. Come spring, when I have access to fresh Sheep’s milk, I plan to make an authentic ewe-milk feta and other cheeses.

  Cheese making is easier than it seems, though it is time-consuming. A gentle approach and a quiet day at home is all you really need. Of course, my cheese-making adventures began with labneh – or yogurt cheese – but soon progressed to feta and chevre. I have my eye on more complicated cheeses in the coming months. Of course, I’ve relied heavily on Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carrol for my recipes. It sits on my bedside, all tattered and stained from milk, where I read it at night and fantasize about the artisan-style, handmade cheese I will eventually make.

  Cheese making is a pleasure, and worth the time. Though it seems complex, cheese making is quite uncomplicated. This week, as part of the killer giveaways we’re conducting at Nourished Kitchen and through other sites focused on real food, I’ve teamed up with Cultures for Health to offer a cheese making kit and the book Home Cheese Making to one lucky, real-food-loving, adventurous reader.

  The Winner

  The Prize

  Deborah R won this giveaway and will receive a cheese making kit of choice and the book Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carrol courtesy of Cultures for Health.

For those of you who didn’t win this round, keep in mind that Cultures for Health is offering a 10% discount on their cheese making category. It’s a great opportunity to try a new hobby and purchase some good materials at a very good rate.

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