Slowly Approaching the halfway point of the MLB season

            It is now May 30^th; the Yankees have played 52 games so far this year and are currently in 2^nd place, one game behind the Boston Red Sox.  Here are some surprises so far this year.  The Toronto Blue Jays, after purchasing essentially the Marlins entire starting lineup of all stars are in last place in the AL east.  Many people, including myself thought Toronto was going to be the team to beat this year with their

offseason moves. 

Another surprise is the Los Angeles Dodgers are in last place in the NL west.  Matt Kemp has been struggling immensely at the plate along with some of the other players the Dodgers have.  Their manager, Don Mattingly has been under tough scrutiny lately as people try to look for a reason why the team is performing poorly.  It is not Mattingly’s fault, he is trying to put together a winning ball club on the field and his all stars are not performing like they have in the past.

One of the biggest questions many people have is how in the world are the New York Yankees not in last place in the AL east.  Their entire lineup has been decimated with injuries, and manager Joe Giradi has been calling up people from the AAA club to fill in for the newly open spots on the team.  The list of people on the DL would make for a nice starting lineup.  This is a list of people that include, Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Andy Pettitte, Mark Texiera, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Youkilis, Francisco Cervelli, Eduardo Nunez, Michael Pineda, and Cesar Cabral. Manager Joe Girardi should be a frontrunner for manager of the year while dealing with all of his stars going down for one reason or another.  Sadly they just came off a sweep to the New York Mets, but could rebound this weekend playing against the Red Sox.

The Baltimore Orioles have proven this year that making the playoffs last year was no fluke. Currently they are 2.5 games behind the first place Boston Red Sox and .5 games back of the Yankees.  First baseman, Chris Davis has been unstoppable at the plate for the O’s and going stride for stride with 2012 triple crown winner Miguel Cabrera. Davis’ teammates, Manny Machado, Nate Mclouth, Nick Markakis and Adam Jones have all been batting above .300 making the Baltimore lineup a tough one for pitchers.

Will Matt Kemp and the Dodgers bounce back later this season for a playoff berth?  Will the Yankees continue to win games and be in contention for an AL east win, or will the Red Sox or Orioles take that away from them.  What do you think will be the end result to the 2013 MLB season?

Matthew Colan

Handy Chevrolet

NHL playoffs reaching their climax

            The NHL playoffs are now down to the final round before the Stanley Cup finals. Of the four teams that remain in the playoffs, all four of them have won a Stanley Cup in the past four years.  Those teams are the Chicago Blackhawks, LA Kings, Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Boston Bruins.  The Hawks will be taking on the Kings in the Western Conference finals.  The Penguins and Bruins face off in the Eastern Conference finals.  Chicago just pulled off nothing short of a miracle run being down 3 games to 1 heading in to game 5. 

The Blackhawks brought it all the way to game 7, and ended up winning in Overtime.  In the round previous to the one just played, Chicago took care of the Minnesota Wild without much of a problem.

            The LA Kings went 6 games against the St. Louis Blues in the first round and a full 7 against the San Jose Sharks.  The Penguins played the New York Islanders in the first round of the playoffs.  Pittsburgh and New York were tied up at 2 games apiece before the Pens took care of the next two games and went on to face the Ottawa Senators.  Pittsburgh won that series in five games.  Boston in the first round of the NHL playoffs had a tough time against the Toronto Maple Leafs but ended up victorious in 7 games.  They took care of the New York Rangers in 5 in the next round.

            So there are now 4 teams left, only two will move on.  Will it be Chicago defeating defending Stanley Cup champion LA Kings? Or will the Kings take down the Blackhawks.  Will Pittsburgh be able to fend off the Bruins, or will Boston pull off the upset and head back to the Stanley Cup?

Matthew Colan

Handy Chevrolet

Throwback Thursday

            The Stingray became synonymous with the Chevrolet Corvette when it entered production in 1963.  This was a car that Car and Driver described as, “At long last America has a formidable weapon to challenge Europe’s fastest grand touring cars on their home ground.”  The Stingray Corvette stayed in production until 1968 when the next year the C3 was debuted.  Since then, the Stingray nameplate on the Corvette has laid dormant until the all new C7 Corvette debuted at the Detroit auto show. At the reveal, it was announced that they were bringing back the Stingray with the new Corvette.

            The base engine in the 1963 Corvette produced only 250 horsepower.  On May 28^th, Chevrolet released some of the performance numbers for the 2014 Corvette. The base engine in the new Stingray makes heart pumping 455 horsepower. This makes the new Corvette the most powerful base model ever. Back in the 1960s, such options like power steering, air conditioning, and electric window cranks were an option. All of these features will be standard equipment in the new 2014 Stingray.  Such engine features like direct fuel injection and active fuel management weren’t a thought in 1963 with the first generation Stingray.  The new Corvette will have both features in their small block V-8. Direct fuel injection means that the fuel is directly injected into the combustion chamber of each cylinder, which makes the engine more fuel efficient since there is now a more precise amount of fuel being injected into each cylinder.  Active fuel management means that when the driver isn’t demanding a huge amount of power from the engine, it will deactivate four cylinders to be more fuel efficient. When power is required again, the engine will reactivate those cylinders and bring the 455 horsepower V-8 to life.

            Now the question has to be asked, which Corvette do you think is the best ever? The original Stingray, built from 1963-1967 that many consider the best Corvette ever, or the brand new 7^th generation Corvette Stingray beginning production this year.

Matthew Colan

Handy Chevrolet

Indianapolis 500 Milk Preference

        This past weekend the 97^th Indy 500 was held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. With

over 68 lead changes, a new record, it is considered to be one of the most competitive Indy 500’s in the colorful history of the race. The victor, Tony Kanaan, continued the tradition of drinking milk choosing 2 percent in his first Indy 500 win of his career. The milk tradition dates all the way back to 1936 when Victor Louis Meyer drank buttermilk after a victory because his mother had told him it was good for hot days. The tradition has been broken 1

time in the race history; in 1993 Emmerson Fitzpaldi chose orange juice over the beloved Indy milk. Every driver is asked a Milk preference before the race, this year 2 percent was the overall favorite among drivers with 16 choosing it as there choice. If you were a driver what would be your celebratory milk choice?

Colt Smelstor

handycars.com

St. Albans, VT 05478

Chevrolet Takes Two out of Three Memorial Day Races

            Memorial Day weekend is a weekend all race fans look forward to.  That is because three big races occur on the same day.  The day of races starts off in Europe with the Grand Prix at Monaco. Then at noontime begins the greatest spectacle in racing, the Indianapolis 500.  In the evening, the longest race in NASCAR starts, the Coca-Cola 600.  Chevrolet got victories in the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 taking two out of the three Memorial Day races. There were no Chevy entries in the Grand Prix, so naturally a win in that race wouldn’t occur.

            The grand prix at Monaco would go to Mercedes driver, Nico Rosburg.  Rosburg got the pole position to start the race and would go on to lead all 78 laps and score a victory for Mercedes.  Sebastian Vettel of team Red Bull would finish second, almost four seconds behind Rosburg.  Mark Webber finished third six seconds behind the leader.  Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil would round out the top five.

            The 97^th annual Indianapolis 500 began with Ed Carpenter on the pole.  This race smashed previous records of the race.  There were 68 total lead changes, breaking the previous record of 34 set in 2012. 14 different drivers would go on to lead the race, which broke the record set in 1993 with 12 different leaders. This year also had the most cars finishing the race than any other previous Indy 500.  27 cars were running at the finish, breaking the record of 26 that was set all the way back in 1911. This was also the fastest Indianapolis 500 ever run with an average speed of 187.433mph.

            The winner of the 500 would go to Chevy driver Tony Kanaan.  This was TK’s 12^th try and winning the biggest Indy car race of the year and he finally was able to do so.  Rookie Carlos Munoz finished 2^nd, followed by Ryan Hunter-Reay, Marco Andretti and Justin Wilson to finish up the top 5. Chevrolets took seven of the top 10 spots at Indianapolis.

            Once the Indianapolis 500 was over, it was time to get ready for the Coca-Cola 600, the longest NASCAR race of the year.  Denny Hamlin, in the number 11 Toyota was the pole sitter for the race, who would later go on to finish 4^th.  The first half of the race was run mostly under green with Matt Kenseth becoming the guy to beat.  After a miscommunication with his team and pitting early, the caution came out and that set him back in the pack.  This would prove costly as a Jimmie Johnson spin would get Matt hit from the back, and that would end his hopes at winning the 600.

            Cautions continued to wave for subsequent wrecks and debris.  The most spectacular would probably be when Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon and Aric Almirola went three wide, down the front stretch.  Mark went a little low and touched the right rear of Almirola’s car sending him towards Jeff Gordon and causing a six car wreck. 

            After that, the race went under green for awhile with Kasey Kahne in the number five Chevy taking the lead by a large margin.  However a debris caution would come out with 14 laps to go.  Everybody elected to pit except Kahne.  This would be Kasey’s downfall as Kevin Harvick on fresh tires passed him on the restart and would continue on to win the race. Kasey Kahne finished second and Kurt Busch finished third.  The first Toyota was Denny Hamlin finishing fourth.  Joey Logano was the first Ford in the finishing order at fifth.

            It was a great weekend for race fans and for Chevrolet.  Now we have to wait another year until the next set of Memorial Day races.

Matthew Colan

Handy Chevrolet

The 2014 cars from Chevrolet

The summer of 2013 is fast approaching and soon the new 2014 model Chevrolets will start showing up at car lots around the country.  Some of the newly redesigned models that are being put into production are the Chevy Silverado, Impala, and probably the most anticipated release by Chevy, the C7 edition of the Corvette.  Chevy is also coming out with an all new design, the SS. 

The Silverado will have its first facelift since 2007. Customers will be able to choose between the 4.3L V-6 Ectotec engine, as well as the 5.3 and 6.2L V-8 Ecotec.  The ecotec engine offers an advantage in fuel

economy because it uses active fuel management (AFM).  When the engine isn’t needed for high demand situations, AFM will deactivate half of the cylinders and run on four cylinders, thus increasing the fuel efficiency of the truck.  When more power is needed, those cylinders will be reactivated and the power of the V-6 or V-8 will return to climb those hills towing your trailer. Fuel economy is rated at 16 city and 22-23 highway MPG.

One advantage the Silverado possesses over the competitors, Ford and Dodge is the V-6 is tailor made for trucks.  The V-6 in the Ford F-150 and Dodge Ram can also be found in cars and SUVs of each company.  You won’t find the Ecotec V-6 in a car or SUV made by Chevy.  (Tingwall)

With a name dating back to the 1950s, the Impala is on its 10^th generation model.  This one is sure to please.  The look of the Impala was redesigned by GM designer John Cafaro.  John gave the Impala an aesthetically pleasing look with curves that blend nicely into the aerodynamics of the car. The two engines that are offered with the new Impala will be the 2.5L Ecotec V-4 and the 3.6L Ecotec V-6.  Depending on what engine is in your Impala, fuel economy will range from 19-25 city and 29-35 highway MPG. The 2013 Impala is equipped with a 3.6L V-6 engine.  

The interior of the Impala will have the all new Mylink infotainment system found only on Chevy models.  This is a hands off system with voice recognition, which also has the ability to link up to 10 mobile devices to the car.  This system will be installed in other 2014 Chevy models as well like the Silverado and Corvette. More detailed information can be found at Chevy’s website, www.chevrolet.com

Speaking of Corvettes, the 2014 model year will be the first year for the new 7^th generation Corvette.  With the new Corvette, they also brought back the iconic name that hasn’t been on the Corvette since the 1970s; the Stingray. Starting off with a coupe and

convertible, the Stingray will be equipped with a 6.2L V-8, which will produce 450 horsepower and 450 ft-lbs of torque.  All of this, along with a lighter frame than the C6 edition Corvette delivers a 0-60mph times under four seconds. For more info on this great new machine developed by Chevy, visit http://www.chevrolet.com/new-2014-corvette/

If anyone has watched NASCAR, you have seen the body of Chevy’s all new vehicle, the SS. The Chevy SS is due in the fall and it is a replacement of the Pontiac G8.  The SS rides on the same wheelbase as the G8, but has received a good amount of updates from the old frame.  The car will have a 6.2L V-8 under the hood pushing the 0-60mph time to the five second range.

For GM, the future seems bright for the 2014 model year.  Don’t forget that there are still plenty of high quality 2013 Chevy’s for sale at Handy Chevrolet, just waiting for you to take it for a test drive and call it your own.

Source:

Tingwall, Eric. "2014 Chevrolet Silverado 1500." Car and Driver. N.p., Apr. 2013. Web. 23 May 2013.