Performance Unlimited Blog

Halloween is an exciting holiday for the children of McHenry. This means that drivers need to pay extra attention on the roads to avoid accidents with distracted monsters and ghouls.  What are you thinking about when you pull out of your McHenry driveway? Are you thinking about all the items on your shopping list as you head to the store? Are you thinking about the Bears chances against Bengals in Cincinnati next Sunday, or the Packers chances hosting the Panthers? Are you thinking about the costumes for your children as Halloween approaches? As long as we’re talking about Halloween in McHenry, maybe this is a good time to mention defensive driving as the holiday approaches. Halloween is the one day of the year when little ghouls and goblins (or Spidermen and Princess Belles) venture outdoors en masse. There is something about the disposition of these children that is worthy of our consideration, too They’re generally happy. No, that word won’t do. They’re downright excited. Their ...

In the midst of a Richmond summer, you need that fluid in your car's engine to serve as a coolant . When winter rolls around, it needs to serve as an antifreeze, too. All summer long, you’ve counted on the coolant in your car, truck or SUV to keep your engine from overheating. As winter comes to Richmond, you still want the coolant to do that job. After all, once you’ve been driving a while, even on the coldest nights of winter, temperatures inside your engine can get extreme. But winter brings another consideration, and another job, for your coolant. On a cold winter night in Richmond, you’re counting on your coolant to serve as antifreeze for the engine in your car, truck or SUV. This is a duty you’re relying on before you start the engine. In other words, your vehicle’s coolant has to do double duty. The problem with coolant/antifreeze is that its capacity to cool the engine when it’s hot, while its ability to avoid freezing when it’s cold, diminishes over time. The older the ...

It's always good to be able to see where you're going when driving. But, you'll find there are some serious challenges to clear vision when driving on a cold, snowy night in McHenry. Have you ever seen drivers pull bonehead moves as you drive down the road having left your McCullom Lake home? Chances are you have and probably with an uncomfortable frequency. Hopefully, you’ve managed to avoid any hazardous conditions their mental lapses have created. Now, imagine that it’s winter, the McHenry roads are slick, it’s nighttime and, for some reason, you’re wearing a thick pair of sunglasses. Of course, no one in their right mind would wear sunglasses while driving in the dark but, just for the sake of argument, let’s suppose that you are. How safe will you feel? Suddenly, the ability to see where you’re going, and where other people are driving nearby, is fully appreciated. Clear vision is the first defensive measure when driving any time of the year. But, in the winter, it’s m...

Snow and ice of a McHenry winter offer a serious challenge to traction when you're driving that could land you in trouble. But there are things you can do to improve your traction and adjust your driving. You walk into the kitchen of your McHenry home, unaware that someone in the family has washed and waxed the kitchen floor and it’s still wet. What’s going to happen? In one scenario, your feet slide out from under you, and you land flat on your back. In another scenario, as your arms windmill frantically, your feet and legs splay out wildly in every direction as you struggle to stay upright. What you lack in the scenario above is traction. Merriam-Webster dictionary describes traction as: “the adhesive friction of a body on a surface on which it moves.” We count on traction with nearly every step we take. And no one likes to be caught by surprise without traction when they need it. Well, traction isn’t just something we enjoy when walking; it’s also something we want when we pull ...