Straightline

Ever the promoter, Jim Wangers promised us "a hokey little show" to accompany the unveiling of the reincarnated 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge being built by Big 3 Performance that will bear his signature.
 
Billows of smoke engulfed a garage door, from behind which came the rumble and roar of a big V8. The door opened and there was Wangers behind the wheel of an iridescent orange GTO, smiling like a kid of 23 (not 83), as the unmistakable prow of his latest automotive endeavor parted the smokescreen.
 
Wangers, as the logo on his golf shirt proudly proclaims, is the "Godfather of the GTO," based on the innovative marketing tactics (and at times pure hokum) he devised to enhance the high-performance image of the model created in 1965 by Pontiac's Russell Gee, Bill Collins and John DeLorean. The promotional campaign that Wangers managed so successfully tapped into America's love of fast cars that it ignited the muscle car craze of the 1960s. 

Continue reading 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge Jim Wangers Edition.

Categories: Carnival of Cars,Manufacturers,More Categories,Pontiac,Tuners and Modifications

The 15th annual Woodward Dream Cruise takes place tomorrow in Detroit, as some 40,000 muscle cars, street rods, customs and specialty cars are expected to parade in front of a million people.

There's no way to describe the variety of cars you'll see on Woodward Avenue, the wide boulevard that runs through the suburbs northwest of downtown Detroit, where the practice of cruising from one drive-in to the next made Detroit the center of worldwide car enthusiasm. In recent years, the car manufacturers have used WDC to preview their fastest, baddest cars, but we're not expecting any surprises this year, unfortunately.

Instead we'll be looking for some cars portrayed in a poster from Detroit Cruisin' Legends. It celebrates three cars: the Bad Cad Zeus, a 1949 Cadillac powered by a Corvette L88 big block; the Silver Bullet, a 1967 Plymouth GTX with a 650-hp Hemi V8; and the Orange Crush, a 1961 Ford Galaxie Starliner with 622-hp, SOHC 427-cu-in, Ford V8.

Categories: Carnival of Cars

The Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races start today, the annual celebration of history's most significant race cars.

Some 30,000 people are expected to see the racing and cruise the paddock at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca over these next three days. It's the central event of the Monterey Peninsula's Classic Car Week, which includes car shows, auctions, and simple reunions between friends.

Some 450 cars are in attendance, and many of the drivers new to the event took familization laps yesterday. As Mark Peters, the head instructor for the day, noted, "There are drivers here like John Morton and Brian Redman who originally raced these cars that we are now seeing in historic events.

"And then there are also participants here who, when they were younger, saw those gentlemen drive and admired them and now have reached a milestone in their lives that lets them live the fantasy of driving like their heroes."

Continue reading 2009 Monterey Historics: Porsche-fest.

Categories: Car Auctions,Carnival of Cars,Classic Cars,Motorsports,Porsche,Sports Cars

When summer comes, it's time to park cars on the lawn.

But instead of the big concours d'elegance at Meadow Brook or Pebble Beach, we actually prefer the regional shows like Forest Grove near Portland, Oregon (been there), or the Palo Alto Concours d'Elegance near San Francisco (saw the very first one as a kid). Here in Los Angeles, our favorite is the Art Center College of Design's Car Classic.

Art Center's Car Classic has a friendly scale, and it gives you the opportunity to visit the school that trained some of the world's foremost automotive designers. Many of them return to L.A. just for this event, since more than a dozen major design studios are located in the region. And within the small sculpture garden of Art Center's upper campus, you always discover interesting cars that are otherwise hidden around town and also meet the locals who make the car hobby happen.

Car Classic '09 is featuring vintage airplanes and watercraft this year as well as a collection of automobiles, a good example of the eclectic approach that small events are willing to undertake. Scheduled for Sunday, 19 July, the event will host aircraft designer Burt Rutan and his innovative design for an ultralight car, and there will also be plenty of stuff you don't see every day, like a flying car from Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, a large-scale Raymond Loewy model for a locomotive, a 1967 Amphicar, and even TV Tommy Ivo's Barnstormer dragster of the 1950s.

When you'd done the dress-up thing to see dead cars on the lawn, a summer Sunday spent at a small, relatively informal concours like the Art Center Classic gives you a chance to see cars that you've never seen before and to rediscover the reasons why you like to look at cars in the first place.     

Categories: Auto Shows,Carnival of Cars,Classic Cars

The annual Goodwood Festival of Speed takes place this weekend, July 3-5. You might not have booked your airfare to England yet, but fortunately you can use your friend the Internet to take a good look at what has become one of the foremost celebrations of automotive culture.

The Brits don't have a tradition of burnouts in the parking lot, so instead they do hillclimbs.  And the Goodwood Festival of Speed is essentially a 1.16-mile hillclimb in someone's front yard, only this someone is the Earl of March and his estate at Goodwood becomes a stage for fast cars, famous people, and everything that's good about a life with automobiles.You can get a glimpse of the Goodwood Festival of Speed with what the event principals refer to as The Movie. 

 

Continue reading Goodwood Festival of Speed: Brit-style Burnouts.

Categories: Audi,Carnival of Cars,Motorsports,Porsche

Looks like this week and next week are the final drives for The Carnival of Cars, so how about we fire this thing up and head out?

As always, The Auto Prophet has the details and asks some very pertinent questions on a key issue, this one being the bailout announced by President Bush Friday. And Al Rozzi offers a no-holds-barred assessment at Blue Oval News of the role of the Washington politicos in this whole crisis.

Over at The Truth About Cars - Ken Elias gazes into the crystal ball for short, mid and long-term (i.e. 2009) predictions and sees a bailout endgame that leaves Ford looking like the hot ticket for 2010.

For those in need of an automotive bed-time story, Joe Sherlock is spinning one at The View Through the Windshield. It's about the Big Three Little Piggies and .... well, you can figure out the rest.

Amazingly enough, there was actually a lot of non-bailout news around the auto blog block this week. The always dependable Bertel Schmitt has the roundup in a "While America Slept" offering for The Truth About Cars. I know, that's two links to TTAC in one week, but you take the good stuff where you find it, right?

Of course you'd like to take a KTM X-Bow out in the snow. Jalopnik has the video of a truly epic ride, one that will, in the spirit of the season, absolutely sleigh you.

Now this really is evidence that the Auto Armegaddon is upon us - the Speedway Motel is closing. Matt Stone at the Motor Trend Blog says Indy management plans to leave the old relic's restaurant, bar, banquet rooms, and pro shop in operation, at least for now.

Danica, call your PR agent! Looks like Natacha Gachnang of Switzerland has a real shot at F1. Full Throttle has details.

They're still all charged up about the Volt at GM-VOLT. Of course, what else they gonna say, given the givens? Let's hope it's true, even so.

He took them at SEMA last month, but Car Nut's Steve Parker has a great photo album that's still worth spending some time perusing if you couldn't get to Vegas. Check out the black 61 Impala low rider.

WHAT I'M DRIVING THIS WEEK: Jaguar XK Coupe
Oh man, I think I've been seduced. Other than an occasional fling with an S-Type, modern era Jags generally haven't done much for me. But the lovely XK that spent the week with the Tapscotts had me smitten almost from the moment it arrived. And it all started with a casual glance that just caught a glimpse of a certain curve.

Understand, I'm a Corvette and Mustang kind of guy, who also happens to love GTOs, of the mid-Sixties Ferrari variety. It's not quite the same angle, of course, but the XK's rear flank whispers GTO ever so softly. Ditto the greenhouse and the gentle slope of the front fenders. Cut out some radiator inlets just above the grille and you've got it.

Even with the supercharged edition of Jag's familiar 4.2 liter V-8, the XK is far from the Let's Rumble brutishness of a ZR1 or Viper ACR. But then that's the point, isn't it. The XK is gorgeous to look at, extraordinarily comfortable to drive - even in city traffic, if you dare - and sumptuously appointed in the passenger cabin. From that perspective, this gentleman's express is the perfect conveyance for a Sunday afternoon session with those country curves.

Categories: Carnival of Cars

Are we bailed out yet? Edward Niedermeyer at The Truth About Cars assesses the smoking rubble following the explosion of sanity in the U.S.Senate late Thursday evening. It's all up to W now.And Peter DeLornezo at AUTOEXTREMIST makes the case for throwing a TARP on Detroit.

So let's say just for talking sake that you've gotta be in a crash. Would you rather be in a 66 Caddy or an 09 Civic? The CarGurus offer some thoughts on the latest safety ratings from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Not sure what to give Rover - the dog, not the TC - for Christmas? AskPatty.com has some suggestions.

They're sleeping late over at AutoMoBlog, but that doesn't prevent them from getting all crazy about the GT-R. No, crazy-mad, not crazy-good.

Joe Sherlock took the Avalon in for some routine service and before the service writer even looked at the car managed to say something really stupid. Which of course didn't sit well at all with the guy giving us The View Through the Windshield.

Cookie the Dog's Owner is looking at Naked Daihatsu again. Well, he is writing at the Car Lust blog

People sometimes ask me what is my all-time favorite car and I always say "Corvette Grand Sport, of course." They understand why at the Corvette blog.

Talk about finding a silver lining in a disaster - Eric Peters says now is the best time ever to get your Hummer H3T. I think his tonque is firmly planted in his cheek

Sounds like progress is being made with the Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicles. GM's Mary Beth Stanek updates Project Driveway at GMFastlane. Nice to know somebody at GM is worrying about something besides poltiics.

My man Shouting Thomas at Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars  makes the case for Ron Santo to go into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Hey, it's not about cars, but then the way things are going for Detroit these days, I'll bet a sad story about a Chicago Cubbie who can't get a decent break sounds familiar.

Uh oh. The Auto Prophet read Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince" back in his college days. Events in Washington this week reminded him of a certain passage.

And finally, French authorities are sitting on a report by one of that country's most respected energy experts. They aren't happy with the report's negative assessment of EVs. Read all about it in Financial Times. No, it's not a blog post, but you can be sure it will soon generate lots of posts around the Auto Blog block.

 

WHAT I'M DRIVING THIS WEEK: Toyota Land Cruiser
Why am I in this thing? Well, it had been several years since a Land Cruiser showed up in my driveway, so not long ago I scheduled it for a "slow part" of the season. Slow is one thing the Land Cruiser is not, at least in a straight line. The 381 horse 5.7 liter V-8 under the hood does a masterful job of moving the Land Cruiser's 5,600+ pound curb weight, especially in two-lane passing situations where there is little room for error.

On the road, the Land Cruiser is a quiet, comfortable conveyance as well it should be for a vehicle with a Monroney on the far side of $70,000. The soft suspension settings and huge donuts, I mean tires, make short work of most road imperfections. I wasn't able to get my tester off road this time around, but if memory serves, this thing is good for most any sort of terrain you might want to throw at it.

Given its old tech trappings and the bigger, newer Sequoia in the Toyota lineup, you might think the Land Cruiser won't be around much longer. And, although gas has dropped below $2 a gallon around the country, that surely is a temporary situation. So the prognosis for the Land Cruiser might not be so bright. But Toyota has been quite happy for many years to sell only a few thousand Land Cruisers a year here in the U.S. and most of those customers tend to be rather loyal. This dinosaur might just be the last survivor of its species.

See ya next week!

Categories: Carnival of Cars

Believe it or not, there actually was talk this week about things other than the Los Angeles Auto Show and the debate in Congress over a federal bailout for the Big Three in Detroit, so how about we head out right now?

Audi is preparing a GT3 version of its awesome R8. Automoblog has a report. And CarGurus Blog actually found a place where Buicks are hot sellers. No, I am not making that up.

Somebody made the mistake of including the AMC Matador in a ranking of the all-time ugliest cars. Chris Hafner at Amazon's Car Lust Blog couldn't let that go by without shooting it down. Like Chris, I remember Bobby Allison wheeling the Penske Matador.

Professor Diandra Leslie-Pelecki wondered why a gaggle of NASCAR racers could enter a corner and one of them suddenly hits the wall, without any discernible nudge from a fellow racer. So she went out and wrote a book on "The Physics of NASCAR." AskPatty.com has more.

Ever seen the very first prototype Honda F1 racer? Check it out at Automoto.

And here's another question for you - who or what got you interested in cars? NextAutos would like to know.

Ever wonder about guerilla attacks on speed cameras or why you never hear about them in the mainstream media? They do happen. TheNewspaper.com has details on a recent incident in Europe involving a pick axe.

Most big corporations - lots of little ones, too - have governing panels known as "boards of directors." Not GM, which, according to Robert Farago at The Truth About Cars, instead has a "Board of Bystanders." The Bystanders are acting true to form in the current crisis.

"Zoom, Zoom" should be a little mean, or tough or something, anything but Happy, Happy, or so reasons The Auto Prophet, who is not impressed with the new front end on the Mazda Three.

David at Auto Future offers a "possible interpretation" of the next Bimmer Three Series.

Jill McIntosh lives in a GM town and makes a case for a bailout: "Put strings on the bailout. Tell Mulally, Wagner and Nardelli that they'll get their operating cash, but they'll draw no more than a manager's salary until the books are in the black again. That's tough love to someone hauling down $20 million a year, but look on the bright side: do you want to be the hero who saved the ship, or the rat who went down with it? Then, when the strings are in place, open the purse, and open it wide."

Meanwhile, GM Volt has Bob Lutz doing what he does best these days, which is talking to journos about the car that could save his company.

WHAT I'M DRIVING THIS WEEK: Mazda 5
What do Honda Fits become when they grow up? Why, Mazda 5s, of course.

Mazda calls the 5 its "Multi-Activity Vehicle." It's really a small minivan that seeks to combine some semi-sporting driving characteristics with an efficient compact people-moving platform able to return mid-20s mpg in the real world. There are three rows of seats to accommodate six people (kids only in back), but not so much storage capacity behind the last row. Everything is a compromise when designing what is essentially a three-quarter-size minivan.

The 5 is slightly smaller than a Honda Accord, but the sliding minivan-like rear doors give the interior an ambiance that is anything but sedan. The exterior styling, which is distinguished by the steeply raked windshield and climbing beltline, is handsome from frontal angles, but the back end has a bit of the bread van look to it. At least it doesn't look anything like a Nissan Axxes (remember those?).

Does the mini-minivan Mazda 5 work as promised? Well, it only weighs 3,300 pounds but the four-cylinder under the hood, which is shared with the Mazda Three, has only 157 horses, so acceleration with a full load is only adequate. On the other hand, the 5 is a perky urban/suburban errand runner, especially for a younger family with a couple of small children. Just the sort of modern family that probably owned one of these a few years before:

See ya next week! 

 

 

Categories: Carnival of Cars

Congress has returned for a post-election lame duck session and topping its agenda is whether to approve a tax-paid bailout of the Big Three automakers in Detroit. Leading the charge for the $25 billion proposal is GM's Rick Wagoner.

But there are lots of pros and cons on the proposed bailout, which if approved would essentially give GM, Ford and Chrysler a $25 billion infusion of operating cash, along with some degree of strings, depending upon what Congress approves. Approval is not guaranteed.

Straightline readers are taxpayers and serious auto enthusiasts, so your opinions ought to count heavily in the public debate on this issue. What follows are links to respected sources presenting both sides of the debate, plus links to the latest in commentary from the automotive side of the Blogosphere.

For the Bailout: Center for American Progress
This liberal think tank in Washington, D.C. favors the bailout but with strings, and presents its case in an excellent and comprehensive post on its blog, The Progress Report.

Among its major points in favor of the bailout, CAP links to a piece in The New Republic that argues the Chapter 11 alternative favored by many bailout opponents would be quickly followed by Chapter 7 liquidation,which would be an economic calamity for the nation.

Against the Bailout: The Heritage Foundation
This conservative think tank has published multiple articles and analyses in recent days, including "Questions Congress must ask the automakers,"
and "The Detroit Bailout: Unsafe at any Cost."

Among its major points against a tax-paid bailout, Heritage argues that the automakers failed to challenge excessive compensation demands by the UAW, with a result that Detroit's business model cannot compete with lower cost producers in Japan and South Korea.

Lots of excellent coverage at The Truth About Cars, including this report from Bertel Shmitt that Chinese companies are, with encouragement from the central government,making plans to buy GM and Chrysler.

Also at TTAC is essential reading - "Man Up" by Ken Elias who explains what GM should do if it hopes to be credible in the current debate.

Elsewhere on Edmunds.com, Phillip Reid cannot stand the thought of a world without Chevy, Buick, Caddy, etc.

Former GM manager Lori Roman comes from a family that has been seeped in GM jobs for generations, but she says a bailout is the wrong way to fix the Big Three. And Eric Peters, a journalist who has covered the auto industry for more than a decade, is less than enthusiastic about a bailout.

Finally, if you haven't yet read Peter DiLorenzo at AUTOEXTREMIST on this issue, go here. He is passionately in favor of a bailout and isn't bashful about expressing his opinion about those who oppose the idea.

I hope these links help folks sort out their own views on this issue, the resolution of which - whether this week in the lame duck Congress or after Barack Obama is inaugurated Jan. 20, 2009 and a new Congress comes to the nation's capital - could change the face of the auto industry around the world forever. I'll update this post with more links as they become available.

UPDATE: A Payne-ful Look at Bailout

Long-time Detroit journalist Henry Payne has a thoughtful piece on NRO that reminds of a possible middle way between tax-paid bailout and private sector bankruptcy, public receivership.

And at Seeking Alpha, Andrew Snyder sees in GM a mobile home with a "monstrously obese woman clinging to a bucket of fried chicken inside." But he loves GM, really, he does.

Suzanne Denbow at Ride Lust expects the Senate to reject the bailout, but doesn't see a vote happening until at least Thursday.

UPDATE II: Name Your Conditions for a Bailout

Chris Hafner and company at Amazon.com's fine Car Lust blog want to know what conditions you would attach to a federal bailout, if one is to be approved by Congress. And if you aren't sure who are your senators and congressman, go here to THOMAS, enter your zip code and there you are.

If GM is going to survive, the Chevy Volt is almost certain to play a major role. Guess what just happened to show up at the Edmunds.com offices earlier this week? Editor Karl Brauer lays out two potential scenarios of the Volt's future. Why isn't GM putting the Volt on display in Congress and saying, "Look, just help us get this thing to market."

Former GM manager Lori Roman comes from a long line of auto company employees, but she says a federal bailout of Detroit's Big Three would be like sending arsonists to fight a fire.

UPDATE III: Ooops!

GM's Rick Wagoner is predicting economic calamity for America if Detroit doesn't get a bailout, with millions of jobs going down the drain. But even The New York Times, which normally is supportive of any proposal to expand the federal government is skeptical of Detroit's claims.

Is nobody in Detroit thinking about these things? ABC News' Blotter reports that Wagoner, Mulally and Nardelli flew to DC yesterday in private corporate jets to plead for tax dollars. Robert Farago of The Truth About Cars slices and dices their testimony. Don't miss the link to the draft bailout bill.

And Mitt Romney - who made a fortune as a corporate work-out wizard (his dad had a Detroit link once upon a time, too) thinks bankruptcy is the best solution.

Categories: Carnival of Cars

OK, now that the election campaign that seemed like it would never end has, Carnival of Cars is back on the road every week. Sorry for the interruption.

But of course the campaign may end but politics never does. Peter DeLorenzo at AUTOEXTREMIST wasted no time in pointing out to the president-elect that, uh, there is an economic calamity happening right now in Detroit.

And in the same vein, The Auto Prophet - who, let us not forget, is an actual auto engineer working for an actual auto company in the actual state of Michigan - has an in-depth look at the government's ATVMAP program, a $25 billion loan/bailout

But leave it to Robert Farago at The Truth About Cars to slice through all of the rhetorical fog, cloudy traditional thinking and political hucksterism to point out the essential facts - Detroit is asking for life-support and throwing good money after bad never works.

Whatever the politicians do, Todd Lassa at the Motor Trend blog says replacing Michigan's John Dingell with California's Henry Waxman to chair the key House committee for auto issues is not a good idea.

Then there's this: While GM is begging Washington for a bail-out, the General is opening a new plant in Russia. Left Lane says Russian figurehead president Dimitri Medvedev scrawled "Good Luck" on the first Chevy Captiva to come off the line.

Meanwhile, now is the time to buy a new vehicle because sales are way down for most everybody and the deals are out there. The Driving Woman explains the latest GM Red Tag. Even better is TDW's brand new Predictive Pricing feature that helps you decide if you should wait for the deals to get even better.

Before you make a decision, though, you might want to get a handle on "What Your Car Really Costs," courtesy of the American Institute of Economic Research.

If you happen to be in the market for a street-legal Indy car replica, Auto Motto is where you need to be. And don't forget to bring your $26K with you.

Remember the Sterling? The Garage Blog does, in the latest installment of its excellent series on forgotten marques.

It's SEMA week and Serious Wheels has some great stuff on the Camaro doings in Vegas. And Njection takes you to the 800 horsepower ASI Tetsu Bentley GTR. That's a lot of grey poupon!

Brian at Racedriven.com has announced an auto photo contest in which winners get $25 gas cards from BP.

Wow, what a concept! Instead of arbitrarily set speed limits, how about "reasonable and prudent" speed limits? Eric Peters explains on the National Motorist Association blog.

Finally, Joe Sherlock at The View Through the Windshield recalls dating a girl whose father drove a 50 Lincoln with a Tucker radio stuffed into the instrument panel. This actually has something to do with the new Camaro. No, really, it does ....

WHAT I'M DRIVING THIS WEEK: Mitsubishi Lancer GTS
It's easy to miss a diamond in the rough when you get a different drive every week. I've re-learned that valuable lesson after spending an entertaining week behind the wheel of an 08 Mitsubishi Lancer GTS. Mitsu redesigned the basic Lancer for 08 with a longer wheelbase and wider track, but shorter overall length. It makes for a compact, agile little sedan.

The GTS gets the usual sport model menu of tightened suspension calibration, bigger wheels and tires, stronger brakes and quicker steering to go along with the 2.4 liter, 168 horse four cylinder (new for 09), mated with a five-speed manual tranny. It sounds rather conventional, but my white tester performed impressively, with taut cornering and excellent acceleration (so long as you don't crave Evo-levels of performance).

There are much quicker Ralliart and Evo versions of the Lancer but they cost several thousand more and require some sacrifice in driving comfort. That's what makes the GTS a sleeper - its handsomely aggressive in a restrained sort of way and offers lots of driving fun at a reasonable price. Easy to miss, but worth looking for if you are on a budget. And who isn't these days?

See ya next week. Promise!      

 

  

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Categories: Carnival of Cars

If you are or have ever thought about buying a car on eBay, you must read The Auto Prophet's expose of a new scam bubbling around the Internet these days. Amazing how creative crooks can be in their devious ways.

Did you know you can have a plug-in hybrid today? As usual, the private sector is way ahead of the big corporations. Autopia will tell you all about Alison Gannett and the $35,000 conversion kit that turned her Ford Escape into a 100 mpg wonder.

In news from Paris, Peter De Lorenzo at AUTOEXTREMIST spent a good bit of time studying the new Ferrari California and came away wondering if perhaps everything is not OK in Maranello.

Uh oh, The New York Times has got Robert Farago's dander up, publishing a poorly sourced story suggesting that GM and Chrysler are talking merger. Frankly, my bet is on the man behind The Truth About Cars.

And speaking of GM, over at The Auto Observer, Bill Visnic meditates on the current plunge in stock prices in Detroit. With GM at around $5 a share, either this is the beginning of American Automotive Armageddon or a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy really low and then sell way high in a couple of years once the Volt re-charges the General.

There seems to be a bit of, oh, how should I say this, uh, skepticism at DrivingEnthusiast.net regarding a report in Road & Track that a redesigned Honda S2000 is right around the corner.

The skepticism is a bit more understated at GM-Volt concerning new details of the Chrysler EV program.

Your next cab ride in New York might be in an alternative-fuel powered taxi. Or maybe not. Steve Parker explains the ins and outs of a debate that could make Gotham like Tokyo ... Sorry, you have to go read Parker to understand that connection!

You say you can't make it to the 2009 F-150 short-lead but you have questions about the newest full-size Ford pickup? Well, drop a line to Dorri at If It's Got An Engine ... because he's going to be there. Better hurry, though, because that's next week.

Have you joined the National Motorist Association yet? No? Well, go read Eric Peters' excellent explanation for why car insurance costs so much these days.

Come on now, admit it, you are absolutely dying to know what "Cookie, the dog's owner" thinks of Nissan's answer to the Scion xB. With an intro like that, it almost doesn't matter what Cookie says at Car Lust, you just gotta read it regardless!

Well, Jim Dollinger still thinks it's time for "Red Ink Rick" to get the old heave-ho at GM.

Strange things going on at Honda, according to Green Car Advisor, which worries about production delays of the CNG-powered Civic GX. Does T. Boone's buddy, Aubrey McClendon, knows about this?

 

WHAT I'M DRIVING THIS WEEK: Audi A4 Quattro Turbo

It was a mid-70s Audi Fox that hooked me on German sedans, so I was biased in favor of the latest A4 when it arrived recently for a week in the Tapscott stable. And sure enough, it took about five miles behind the wheel of the silver 2009 Quattro Turbo tester to confirm the old love.

Yes, I know lots of Three-Series Bimmers and Infiniti G35s and so on and so on are quicker in a straight line and some get around corners a bit more majestically. But the thing that most impresses me about this A4 is its all-around excellence, from arrow-straight stability at triple-digit cruising speeds to an interior that is gorgeous to look at and simply begs to be used.

I'm still not there yet with the Large-Mouth Bass Audi grille, but there are some intriguing details elsewhere with this A4's exterior styling. From certain angles, for example, you think you are looking at an A5 coupe. And the A4 is bigger, with a six-inch addition to the wheelbase that, among other things, makes for genuinely useful rear seating. At $38,000 and change for the Quattro Turbo, we're definitely talking premium small German sedan at a not-quite premium price.

See ya next time!

Categories: Carnival of Cars

If you are thinking about buying a Nissan GT-R - or just about any other new vehicle these days - you need to know about EDRs. That's the little black box now being installed on most new vehicles that records all sort of data about how a vehicle is being operated. Edgelings.com has a very disturbing analysis on this issue.

Not sure what I think of these sketches of the forthcoming 2010 Chevy Impala, courtesy of Josh Oliver at GMSource.com . Like the new Camaro, the redesigned Impala is supposed to be inspired by a 60s Chevy, the 67 Impala. I always thought the 66 and 63 were the best of the 60s Impalas.

AskPatty.com has a great Women in Motorsports Carnival. Check out especially the section on Chrissy Wallace.

Those of a certain generation who suffered through grade school and junior high dreaming about hot rods and sketching same will instantly recognize the illustration currently gracing The View Through the Windshield. See ya when you get back, Joe.

Night races have been common in NASCAR and IRL for years but F1 just held their first event under the lights. George Katinger at FastMachines.com has the details from the Singapore Grand Prix.

Paul Newman passed away over the weekend, and Mike Spinelli at Jalopnik has an excellent tribute.

My own memory of Newman came from an SCCA National at Summit Point Raceway in 87 or 88 when actor Tom Cruise was in his mercifully brief racing phase. Cruise would go out in a practice session, put in a fast lap, then crash. After several iterations of this, Newman was seen standing over Cruise in the back of their team trailer giving him a finger-jabbing lecture.
Cruise apparently lost interest in racing shortly after that weekend.

A deisel-powered GTi? Left Lane says it's so.

If you live in the Southeast, you may be having a hard time finding petrol. Stephen Markley at Kicking Tires has thoughts about why.

More Lambo teasing at Motor Authority.

So, got a couple of tickets in the space of a few months, right? Eric Peters, writing on the National Motorist Association blog, totals up the damage one or two tickets can do to your wallet and your insurabiltiy.



WHAT I'M DRIVING THIS WEEK: Nissan Rogue
Remember what your mother said about not doing something just because everybody else is doing it? Nissan should have listened to its automotive mother and resisted the temptation to do like every other manufacturer and producing a compact-sized SUV. It's especially difficult to stand out in a crowded market when everybody looks so much like everybody else.

The Rogue is based on the Sentra platform and is pleasant enough, sporting a 170 horsepower 2.5 liter four-cylinder powerplant mated with a CVT tranny. Acceleration is acceptable, passing power is acceptable, fuel economy is acceptable, NVH is ....are you getting my drift here?

Don't get me wrong, the Rogue is styled like the new Murano, but the smaller exterior doesn't afford quite the opportunity to do interesting things with the sheet metal. And it is certainly comfortable, despite the prevalence of plastic stuff around the interior. My loaded AWD SL tester checked in at $22,795, which is, again, acceptable.

See ya!

Categories: Carnival of Cars

Mazda looks like the big winner in The Truth About Cars' 2008 edition of the 10 Best Cars. I have to admit that I am a bit surprised that the Chevy Malibu isn't among the winners. Sometimes good news travels slowly.

Meanwhile over at the GM corral, the across-the-board budget cuts are slicing deeply into the advertising budget just when, according to AUTOEXTREMIST Peter DeLorenzo, highly targeted, big-block events are becoming hyper-important to the task of focusing public attention on the fact that GM is turning out some genuinely great models.

On the other hand, Corvette Blog has another reason to be thankful you live in America, even if, like yours truly, you really can't afford a new Vette.

You may have heard that Tony Stewart has a new race team set to go for the 2009 NASCAR season, with Ryan Newman on the driver roster. But will Newman be chauffeuring the #4, no, the #39 car?  FastMachines.com has the inside dope on the numbers circus.

Street Skating, it's the newest deadly craze involving wheels and people with sub-rational IQs. 4 Drivers Only has the video and more details. Coming soon to the obituary page in a newspaper on a newstand close to you.

Peering past The View Through the Windshield, Joe Sherlock spies the new Lincoln MKS and comes away repeating something about "luxiocrity." He'll explain what that means just as soon as you click on over.

Want to stumble upon something really good automotive-wise? Hemmings Auto Blog is raving about a feature that makes getting lots of traffic for your blog "ridiculously easy."

And from the video file comes this: What do you think went through the mind of the guy driving the semi featured by The Auto Prophet?

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis is among the lucky few selected by Honda for an extended test drive of the Clarity fuel cell vehicle. Cool huh. Lori Hindman at Mother Proof isn't so sure.

Dorri at if It's Got An Engine is going all copy editorish on Car & Driver's Csaba Csere.

Uh oh, big trouble in Smart-land. Next Auto says bad paint could require a roof-ectomy. If that's even half as painful as it sounds .....




WHAT I'M DRIVING THIS WEEK: Jaguar XF
Remember the first time you saw a Jag XKE in person? If you're like me, it was memorable because of the sheer sensuality of its shape. "That's what speed looks Iike," I recall thinking to myself. There are hints of such beauty here and there in the new XF's attractive lines, and it certainly has an abundance of speed, thanks to the 420 horses on tap from the supercharged 4.2 liter V-8.

But all during my week in a lovely silver XF something kept bugging me. No matter how pleasurable was the daily drive between my home in distant rural Maryland and the Examiner newsroom in downtown D.C. the car just didn't feel right. At one point, I thought I had it - Where's that cursed L-shaped shift pattern that plagued Jags for so many years? Wait a minute, you doofus, you cursed those things all those years, right?

Well, it hit me yesterday - The shifter is a darn rotary dial in the center console that could easily be mistaken for that infernal BMW iDrive. That's it, this Jag is so advanced, so stuffed full of techno-geegaws that there's no room left for genuine soul, for the uncompromising  beauty of lusciously curved sheet metal and tearing-sheet sixes at full song. The XF is a Jag the way BMW would do it if the Germans owned the Brit classic. BMW makes great Bimmers, but Jags are supposed to be ... Jags.

See ya next week! 
 







 

Categories: Carnival of Cars,Jaguar

Is the Smart Car ugly? The Auto Prophet thinks so, having spent some time walking around one and spying mis-aligned seams, ill-fitting plastic panels and such. Good for urbanites only was my conclusion after the first five minutes of a week-long test.

This would be funny if it weren't so gruesomely tragic. Njection has details on a guy who lost his head with his Aston.Note that's "with," not over.

Remember the TV sitcom "Then Came Bronson," on NBC long, long ago? Steve Parker, Motoring Journalist, does. Check out his report from Sturgis for the details, including a history of that epic event and info on the new V-Rod.

And here's another quick trip down memory lane - Gary Grant at The Garage Blog has a shot of a 70s vintage sports racer outbraking a Spridget into a corner at Lakeland Raceway in Florida. What is that contraption behind the windscreen?

Speaking of contraptions, you'll find lots of them at Auto Motto . Start with the Deco Liner &  Deco Scoot.

How ya doin'? Bob Hoover of the blog by the same name reports the pain is fading, the radiation treatment is done and the chemo is about to commence.  It's good to hear good news from you, Bob.

I've never understood why automotive applications of Heads-Up Display technology hasn't caught on it a major way here. Top Speed's Myles Kornblatt reports on a new application that might change things for the better.

Eric Peters at EPA points to his nominees for the five worst traffic laws.  Here's the sixth - the Slower Traffic Keep Right statute that never gets enforced!

You could win a Corvette ZR1 - Corvette Blog has the details. And it's for a great cause.

Barack Obama has been talking about a $4 billion aid program for Detroit, but Dan Riehl of The Fast Report says the industry's lobbysts are talking up a $40 billion - yes, as in $40 billion - in tax dollars  for survival.

Ever feel like you're stuck behind the eight-ball? My Texas buddy Kay Bell at Don't Mess With Taxes has more info on Eight Obsessions than you probably ever dreamed could exist. The auto link? The V-8?


What I'm Driving This Week: Mini Cooper Clubman
If ultra-space utilization efficiency and driving fun are priorities, the extended length Mini Clubman makes a lot of sense. The cabin is big enough to be comfortable for most folks and the exterior is small enough to allow using parking spaces that are off-limits to Corollas, Cobalts, etc.  The S is quicker but the standard-issue Clubman is still fun to run hard and mileage stays in the 25 mpg+ range. One critique - the instrumentation can be maddening without a lengthy orientation session in the multiple manuals.

That's it for this week. Don't miss your apexes!


 
 

Categories: Carnival of Cars

The Carnival of Cars is back! Re-designing and re-launching The Washington Examiner sucked all the cyber-air out of this scribe for the past six weeks. But that's done, so we're back on the road and cruisin' for the horizon.

This is rich - Autoblog reports that Obama is signing on to a proposal for $4 billion in new federal aid for Detroit. Does he think nobody outside of the Motor City remembers the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles?

Ford's announcement earlier this week of major product changes - like bringing to the states six models from Ford of Europe - draws some heavy praise from AUTOEXTREMIST Peter M. DeLorenzo, who sees in CEO Alan Mulally a vision that can make Dearborn the Big Three's best hope for the future. And Michelle Krebs has a lengthy post at Auto Observer with all the details on the Blue Oval shakeup.

Having problems with your satellite radio? Steve Parker says it's about to get even worse, thanks to the FCC.

Say goodbye to your suburban oasis and hello to the new "Eco-Town." Translated from enviro-bureaucratese, it means we're soon to be told we must go back to the crowded, dirty, crime-infested, corruption-ridden Big City. But, hey, the polar bears will love us for it. 4 Drivers Only has details.

Taking your Rover - no, the one with four legs, not the TC - with you to the mall in the summertime? AskPatty.com has some solid ideas for making sure things don't get over-heated.

The Auto Prophet isn't impressed with those retro IP features on the new Camaro. But he's got a great idea for an accelerometer. He's an engineer, too, so listen up.

Frank Williams of The Truth About Cars was tooling around with his wife recently in an Audi Q7 and found Route 75 in the Blue Ridge Mountains area of Georgia. It was so much fun, Frank was inspired to post a "favorite roads" invitation. Check out the comments for a great road nearby you may not know about.

Want to avoid getting clipped next time you have to get an insurance company estimate for collision repairs? Auto Muse reports that one major insurer has agreed to instruct its estimators not to specify clips.

Dorri at If It's Got An Engine updates a post from a year ago asking whether the electric vehicles of the future were ready for prime-time. Dorri is a man of great caution on this topic, including on the Volt.



WHAT I'M DRIVING:  BMW 135i Coupe
It looked dinky at first but, boy, did it grow on me fast! I first drove a 2002 in 1974 and it was quite a revelation for a kid weaned on Road Runners and SS396s. What I love most about the 135i Coupe is the perfect match between the 3.0 liter turbo six's rev range and the six-speed stick shift. And the balanced handling. And the way you feel the 135i's next move in the seat of your pants. This truly is a driver's car. Uh, excuse me, a driver with a lot of disposable income. Why does it have to cost 42 big ones? Isn't that about 10 times the sticker of a 2002 in the old days?

That's it for this week, friends and cyber-neighbors. See ya next week! 

Categories: Carnival of Cars