I should have gotten this blog undercoated...
Crackpot auto industry speculation, car video reviews, and general B.S.
Bumblebee, where are you!?
It's a sea of mellow yellow at the Oshawa Car plant where the Camaro is assembled. With dozens of yellow models waiting to go to dealerships. Do you think that means yellow models are selling really well, or poorly? Or maybe this is just the amount of cars Universal and Michael Bay ordered for the next Transformers movie?
How do you get out of a race car with a suit on? Awkwardly.
RM Auctions offers a lot of cool cars. From classics and movie star cars, to race cars and crazy steam cars, they have sold some of the coolest cars in the world. Don't believe me? How about this one? Or this one? Or this super crazy thing? RM has sold them all.
But what we've seen only rarely from RM is in depth video coverage of their cars. Their Youtube channel does include video results of the sales of their finest cars, but we haven't seen a lot of meaty in-depth profiles of their cars before they are sold. (Not counting this excellent video) , or this one.)
Recently RM starting posting a few behind the scenes videos to their Youtube channel, and it seems they're adding to that material with a look at their Jaguar XJ-9 race car, which will be offered at their Amelia Island auction.
Former XJ-R racing driver Martin Brindle shows the viewer what it was like to drive this V12 monster around the track back in its championship days. The only thing missing is a startup and idle of that presumedly mean sounding V12 behind the driver. The Castrol livery of the Jag looks awesome against the plain white backdrop of the studio, looking like the thing is ready to race off at any moment.
It's nice of RM to do a video like this for us mere mortals who would normally not get the chance to experience machinery like this. Hopefully they'll keep videos like this coming.
Somehow even in a parking garage someone manages to put advertisements under your wiper.
The parking garage. Definition: A dimly lit concrete pillared mess that houses cars. A building or underground facade full of columns and ill-placed posts that threaten to scratch or damage your car at any moment of inattention. Guaranteed to be inadequately lit, have lanes that are too narrow, and have at least one driver who can't handle said situation mentioned above. Enter at your own risk.
Parking garages aren't all bad though. They keep your car out of the sun. They keep your car out of the snow. And should you be lucky enough to live in an apartment building in a somewhat sketchy neighbourhood, they give your car at least a chance of making it overnight without being keyed, broken into or otherwise damaged. These parking garages can also house some interesting cars if you take a look around. Inspired by the Peter Max abandoned Corvette collection. Here are some interesting cars I've found sitting in my parking garage.
I've never seen this car move, but it is always very clean. Somebody loves this thing.
I've never seen this car move, but it is always very clean. Somebody loves this thing.
An abandoned Lexus IS300. This poor dirty car hasn't moved in a while.
I saw the owner of this car drive it in last year and it has not moved since. It's just a V6 car, but it does have a 5 speed. The paint from the ceiling has fallen all over it.
I saw the owner of this car drive it in last year and it has not moved since. It's just a V6 car, but it does have a 5 speed.
One day I saw someone in my building throwing out what looked like a cars interior. Then I saw this car. It was in my parking garage for 6 months with no interior. I never saw a roll cage added so I doubt he took it racing. Not sure why you'd yank an entire interior out otherwise.
I'm not sure I've ever seen an apartment parking garage without an abandoned old Camry. I'm pretty sure the parking garage builders add them for decoration.
As a bonus, this one has a corroded grille logo.
And because it's Canada, a snowmobile.
The original Skyline was developed so that rich Japanese ranchers could herd their horses in comfort.
Nothing like a good road trip. Packing the kids into the minivan for hours of screaming, impromptu bathroom breaks, and spontaneous vomiting is what North America is built on. Somehow those seemingly endless hours sitting in the back third row of a Plymouth Voyager with 300,000kms on it will end up turning into some of our fondest childhood memories. (That's not just my childhood, but everyone's childhood who is between the ages of 25-25 right?)
In Motor Trend's case, because they have the best job IN THE WORLD, they can trade that Chrysler minivan for a Nissan GT-R, and really take a road trip.
Arthur St. Antoine takes a Nissan GT-R black edition through the province of Alberta and makes it all look sooo very good. the video starts off a little slowly, and has a lot of not so hidden marketing (though a lot of it is for Canada, so I'm okay with that. Insert 'merica type Canadian sentiment here)
Highlights of the video include a cave, a glacier, and driving the GT-R in a field. (Nissan if you ever need someone else to borrow one of your cars and drive it into a field, you still have my number from the restraining order.) Also during the road-trip, Motor Trend manages to close off the highest highway in Canada (surprisingly not in B.C.) and see what the GT-R can do on it. Watch it. Watch it NOW.
Ah the great automotive tragedy. The abandoned classic car. These sad abandoned beasts of old can usually be found rusting away in fields, barns and junkyards across North America. The ever-rusting beast that "someday" the owner will be able to restore. (Full disclosure, I am not without sin, I used to own an abandoned car until I came to my senses and sold it to someone who could give it the TLC it deserved.)
Where you wouldn't necessarily expect to find abandoned American muscle is in Japan. Abandoned RX-7's and Fairladys? Yes. Abandoned 1970 Camaro Z/28 RS? No. But Wasabi Cars has found what is perhaps the most American abandoned car treasure trove east of Cleveland, Ohio. Take a look:
If you're in and around Toronto today keep an eye out for Hot Rod Magazine and Dave Schroeder's crazy Corvette screaming around town. Dave is apparently a Hot Rod drag week regular, and his Corvette is apparently somehow street legal!
Check out Hot Rod's post about it here, and keep an eye out for a probably feature of this car in the magazine. Good to see Toronto getting some representation on the interwebs!
Yes it's crazy. Maybe impossible. But should Lamborghini take a hybrid powertrain similar to the one unveiled at the Paris Motor show in the Asterion concept car, and put it into the Venano and sell it?
Sure Lamborghini has promised to sell a maximum of 9 Venanos, and that they'll all have the Aventador's V10 powertrain, but should they kibosh all that and go hybrid crazy? Manufacturers like McLaren and Ferrari already have hybrid powertrains on the market with the P1 and LaFerrari. Is it time that Lamborghini got into the game? I'm no engineer, and I have no idea if something like that is possible, but wouldn't a Veneno type car with a hybrid drivetrain be awesome? And if Lambo kept this theoretical Venano hybrid car a roadster they'd have the only super-performance hybrid roadster so far in the game. (I promise I'll never say super-performance hybrid roadster again.) People will complain that a roadster isn't as good on the track, but in reality who is going to race these cars anyway?
At the end of the day, Lamborghini won't and can't do this because they are an actual car company with business plans, and not an idiot blogger like me, (not to mention their Volkswagen ownership.) But isn't it okay to dream what-if?
In Lilian Hardouineau's "Little Cars", two cars living in a cardboard cutout world seem to be having a bit of a disagreement. What comes next is a 3 minute battle for survival through the country, and into a cardboard city. Lilian does an amazing job of making everything really look like cardboard. Hopefully it never rains there.