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2009 Porsche 911 Carrera Convertible

Convertibles are all about fun in the sun. Perhaps the only way to make them more fun is to give them a high-performance engine and nimble handling, such as with Porsche's Carrera convertible. This vehicle is based on the legendary 911 and, with the roof open, allows the driver and passenger to experience the sonorous roar of the rear-mounted flat-six.

The sophisticated 3.6-liter engine features a lightweight alloy design and Porsche's VarioCam Plus variable-valve timing. Output was bumped to 345-horsepower in 2009, along with a facelift to the exterior. The motor propels the Carrera from zero to 60 miles per hour in just 4.8 seconds.

The 'facelifted' 911 has a number of styling tweaks, including slight revisions to the car's front and rear fascias, as well as new LED lights, smaller fog lights and a new exhaust system.

A six-speed manual transmission, now with 15-percent shorter throws, is standard while a seven-speed PDK automated manual is optional. Rocker switches on the steering wheel allow manumatic shifting of the automatic when the driver is in a sporting mood.

All that is required to make the soft-top roof disappear is the touch of a button. In just 20 seconds, the roof folds beneath a cover.

The roof is made of high quality and with good insulation, making it functional for days when it has to be in its up position. Porsche claims this keeps the interior remarkably quiet, very close to sound levels in the car's fixed-roof coupe counterpart.

Those who live in harsh wintry climates may want to opt for the lightweight aluminum hard-top roof during the cold months. Painted in body color, it can be installed to enhance interior comfort (lower interior noise, better climate control), as well as structural rigidity. It has a heated rear glass window. When spring arrives, the hard-top can be removed.

All high-end features expected of a luxury marque are standard here in the Carrera convertible including a nine-speaker CD stereo, exterior and interior alarms, HomeLink system and automatic climate control.

Some of the options include a navigation system, parking-assist sensors and Bose audio package.

Click here to pick out your new Porsche.

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Texting While Driving: How Dangerous is it? - Feature

Unprotected text: We investigate if sending messages on your phone while driving is more LOL than BRB.

If you use a cell phone, chances are you’re aware of “text messaging”—brief messages limited to 160 characters that can be sent or received on all modern mobile phones. Texting, also known as SMS (for short message service), is on the rise, up from 9.8 billion messages a month in December ’05 to 110.4 billion in December ’08. Undoubtedly, more than a few of those messages are being sent by people driving cars. Is texting while driving a dangerous idea? We decided to conduct a test.

Previous academic studies—much more scientific than ours—conducted in vehicle simulators have shown that texting while driving impairs the driver’s abilities. But as far as we know, no study has been conducted in a real vehicle that is being driven. Also, we decided to compare the results of texting to the effects of drunk driving, on the same day and under the exact same conditions. Not surprisingly, Car and Driver doesn’t receive a lot of research grants.

To keep things simple, we would focus solely on the driver’s reaction times to a light mounted on the windshield at eye level, meant to simulate a lead car’s brake lights. Wary of the potential damage to man and machine, all of the driving would be done in a straight line. We rented the taxiway of the Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport in Oscoda, Michigan, adjacent to an 11,800-foot runway that used to be home to a squadron of B-52 bombers. Given the prevalence of the BlackBerry, the iPhone, and other text-friendly mobile phones, the test subjects would have devices with full “qwerty” keypads and would be using text-messaging phones familiar to them. Web intern Jordan Brown, 22, armed with an iPhone, would represent the younger crowd. The older demographic would be covered by head honcho Eddie Alterman, 37 (or 259 in dog years), using a Samsung Alias. (Alterman also uses a BlackBerry for e-mail. We didn’t use it in the test.)

Our long-term Honda Pilot served as the test vehicle. When the red light on the windshield lit up, the driver was to hit the brakes. The author, riding shotgun, would use a hand-held switch to trigger the red light and monitor the driver’s results. A Racelogic VBOX III data logger combined and recorded the test data from three areas: vehicle speed via the VBOX’s GPS antenna; brake-pedal position and steering angle via the Pilot’s OBD II port; and the red light’s on/off status through an analog input. Each trial would have the driver respond five times to the light, and the slowest reaction time (the amount of time between the activation of the light and the driver hitting the brakes) was dropped.

First, we tested both drivers’ reaction times at 35 mph and 70 mph to get baseline readings. Then we repeated the driving procedure while they read a text message aloud (a series of Caddyshack quotes). This was followed by a trial with the drivers typing the same message they had just received. Both of our lab rats were instructed to use their phones exactly as they would on a public road, which, if Jordan’s mom or Eddie’s wife are reading this, they never do.

Our test subjects then got out of the vehicle and concentrated on getting slightly intoxicated. They wanted something that would work quickly: screwdrivers (vodka and orange juice). Between the two of them, they knocked back all but three ounces of a fifth of Smirnoff. Soon they were laughing at all our jokes, asking for cigarettes, and telling us about some previous time they got drunk that was totally awesome. We had them blow into a Lifeloc FC10 breath-alcohol analyzer until they reached the legal driving limit of 0.08 percent blood-alcohol content. We then put them behind the wheel and ran the light-and-brake test without any texting distraction.

The results, though not surprising, were eye-opening. Intern Brown’s baseline reaction time at 35 mph of 0.45 second worsened to 0.57 while reading a text, improved to 0.52 while writing a text, and returned almost to the baseline while impaired by alcohol, at 0.46. At 70 mph, his baseline reaction was 0.39 second, while the reading (0.50), texting (0.48), and drinking (0.50) numbers were similar. But the averages don’t tell the whole story. Looking at Jordan’s slowest reaction time at 35 mph, he traveled an extra 21 feet (more than a car length) before hitting the brakes while reading and went 16 feet longer while texting. At 70 mph, a vehicle travels 103 feet every second, and Brown’s worst reaction time while reading at that speed put him about 30 feet (31 while typing) farther down the road versus 15 feet while drunk.

Alterman fared much, much worse. While reading a text and driving at 35 mph, his average baseline reaction time of 0.57 second nearly tripled, to 1.44 seconds. While texting, his response time was 1.36 seconds. These figures correspond to an extra 45 and 41 feet, respectively, before hitting the brakes. His reaction time after drinking averaged 0.64 second and, by comparison, added only seven feet. The results at 70 mph were similar: Alterman’s response time while reading a text was 0.35 second longer than his base performance of 0.56 second, and writing a text added 0.68 second to his reaction time. But his intoxicated number increased only 0.04 second over the base score, to a total of 0.60 second.

As with the younger driver, Alterman’s slowest reaction times were a grim scenario. He went more than four seconds before looking up while reading a text message at 35 mph and over three and a half seconds while texting at 70 mph. Even in the best of his bad reaction times while reading or texting, Alterman traveled an extra 90 feet past his baseline performance; in the worst case, he went 319 feet farther down the road. Moreover, his two-hands-on-the-phone technique resulted in some serious lane drifting.

In 1743, the first professional sports organization in the United States was formed in Baltimore. What was it?

The Lacrosse Club of Baltimore
The Maryland Jockey Club
The Maryland Jousting Club
The Duckpin Bowling Club of Maryland

See answer under Car Doctor.

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Airbag Safety: Avoiding Airbag System Fraud

One Victim's StorySulaine Noble (California) thought she'd found a perfect deal on a used car-a 1997 Honda Accord. When she recently got in a minor fender-bender, she noticed that the car's airbag light came on and stayed on. When she had it checked out, she was stunned to learn that her car didn't even have working airbags installed. Sam Massey, Director of Supplemental Restraint Specialists, who has made a full-time job of helping consumers investigate phony airbags, examined Noble's car. "We ran the numbers on this part and found it wasn't even the correct part for your car," said Massey. "The entire airbag system has been monkeyed with...definitely these airbags would not work." Larry Gamache of CARFAX explains how this scam is pulled off. "Without some investigation it's virtually impossible for the average consumer to tell just by looking at a used car if it has phony airbags," explains Gamache. "So after a car is in an accident, some unscrupulous repairers replace only the airbag cover and not the actual system beneath it." "Some crooked mechanics are stuffing steering wheels and dashboards with everything from packing peanuts to empty beer cans," relates Massey. Experts like Kim Hazelbaker from the Highway Loss Data Institute recommend consumers like Noble, who are considering pre-owned vehicles, use all the available resources to check out a vehicle before buying. "We would advise purchasers of used cars to find out from Internet sites the vehicle history, to look at the safety equipment on the vehicle, and to have it inspected by a mechanic of their choice, not the seller's," says Hazelbaker. Noble is now trying to find out who installed the dummy airbags in her car, but says now that she would "never buy another car without using CARFAX to check on the title and the history of the car—it reveals a lot." Airbag systems, considered supplemental restraint systems, are meant to be used in conjunction with seat belts. The California Highway Alliance recently found 1 of out every 25 previously damaged vehicles inspected had phony or dummy airbags. Phony or dummy airbag system can consist of:

Non-functioning, outdated, or inappropriate airbags for the make, model and year of the vehicle.
No airbag at all—a replacement airbag system cover has been used to cosmetically repair the airbag compartment.
Victims of airbag fraud have found everything from packing peanuts to paper towels, old shoes to aluminum cans stuffed into steering wheel and dash-board airbag compartments to fill the space that should be taken up by the airbag.
Airbags—taken from salvaged or junked cars—that have not been thoroughly tested to ensure function and safety.

According to the National Association of Consumers Advocates and the Consumer Federation of America, each year approximately 2.5 million vehicles are totaled by insurance companies and issued salvage titles. More than 1 million of those—or 2 out of every 5—were rebuilt and put back on the road. CARFAX vehicle history reports can indicate salvage (junk) titled vehicles, vehicles that have been involved in major accidents and in some states notes airbag deployment. Only a handful of states have laws regulating airbag system replacement. Airbag system covers can be purchased without airbags. CARFAX explains that covers are legally available to replace covers damaged during deployment; they can make the vehicle appear cosmetically the same whether or not an airbag is included beneath it. Airbag warning lights can even be reconnected and simulate normal airbag systems when one is not present. "Replacement airbag systems may range from $1,000 to $3,000, maybe more if the dashboard shell or other dash components are damaged by the force of a passenger side deployment. Dishonest mechanics can generate a lot of money taking advantage of the unsuspecting consumer," according to Gamache.How to Detect and Avoid Airbag Fraud

Order a CARFAX Vehicle History Report to check for:
- Salvage or junk titles
- Accidents reported to CARFAX in the vehicle's past

If the vehicle has a salvage or junk title or has been involved in an accident, the airbag may have deployed. Even if it remained undeployed, the airbag system may still have been affected by the crash. This should be a red flag to have the airbag system closely examined.

Deployed airbag notations – CARFAX has "airbag deployed" notifications resulting from accidents for some states.

Take the vehicle to a certified airbag mechanic for inspection PRIOR to purchase to ensure a properly working airbag system.

Turn on the ignition.

The airbag indicator light should appear momentarily and then go out.

If indicator light remains on or flashes, this may indicate an air bag system problem exists – take vehicle to qualified mechanic for further inspection.

What if the light NEVER comes on? This indicates a serious problem. Its highly likely the air bag is missing and the bulb has been removed. Airbag lights may not come on if the previous owner has had an on-off switch' installed. If you face this situation, ask owner or dealer to provide a copy of the NHTSA letter authorizing the switch and have airbag turned back on.

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The Maryland Jockey Club.
The Maryland Jockey Club was the beginning of the state's passion for horse racing. Maryland used to host the Belmont Stakes before it was moved to New York, and still proudly hosts Preakness as part of the Triple Crown.