To close out this glorious week, we have news about Toyota’s manufacturing headaches possibly being over; some stuff about Elon Musk maybe drawing the ire of the Securities and Exchange Commission, again; an investigation into predatory title loans; and guess who’s buying up all the EV charging stations? Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. Happy Days Are Here Again (Sorta) It takes a lot to disrupt Toyota’s mighty carmaking machine....
Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. Is VW Still A Mobility Company? Every company is a technology company. And every company that isn’t a technology company is a mobility company, which is like a technology company but ::waves hands:: cars....
I mean, sure, David could tell it was a lovely old Fiat, and an unusual one at that – he noted the tiny but impressive V8 engine under the hood and the elegance and drama of the design. He’s not made of drywall, after all, but I don’t think he realized he was poking at one of the fifteen 1953 Fiat 8V Supersonics ever built. This is a $2 million car, friends....
Let’s start with the machine of the hour, Pastrana’s wild Subaru GL Wagon with active aerodynamics and an absurd amount of power. The thing cranks out more than 860 ponies, a wild figure for a boxer engine, and an equally wild figure for anything that looks like a tumble dryer from the Reagan years. The visual gags start early, with Pastrana pulling off a 50:50 grind roughly a minute and twelve seconds into the video....
The first question you’re going to have is: Where did this color come from? As you might have guessed, this is not a stock paint option. It was actually inspired by these little silk dresses my wife bought for my daughters when they were two and three years old. They were sort of a Chinese-inspired design with butterflies and one of them was this amazing fuchsia color. I’d initially intended to use this color on a SEMA project but it didn’t quite work out....
Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. Hyundai Puts A Few Nameplates On The Chopping Block With supply chain issues still weighing on the automotive industry’s chest, automakers may find themselves pumping the brakes on low-volume, low-margin vehicles....
I know this to be true because I’ve done it, for decades, even, in a variety of cities across America. I lived in Los Angeles for almost 20 years, a city full of highways and freeways and overpasses and interchanges and hills and assholes, and my primary daily driver for that whole time was a 50 hp 1973 VW Beetle. More recently my daily driver for the past few years has been my 1990 Nissan Pao, and that car’s little 987cc engine only makes 52 hp, and, again, I get by just fine....
Disney’s Imagineers have some amazing attention to detail. I share Jason’s wonderment about the theming of Disney parks. Some theme parks may populate an area with themed buildings and foliage, but Disney goes to a level that boggles the mind. Perhaps this is best illustrated with this engine block prop that Jason found in the line for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. This is clearly a real engine part but dressed up to look like something from outer space....
One of the glorious parts about our Holy Grails series is that I’m getting emails for cars that I’ve never heard of before. And some of those cars are holy grails in the strict sense. I’m talking crazy one-offs that were built before seeming to vaporize into the ether. Some readers have debated our use of “Holy Grail” but I think even the most pedantic among you will agree that the Duntov GT is a true grail....
Most likely the easiest way to convey the concept of aerosion is with some images, so here’s a few notable examples of the trend: The shift from the Mk.1 to Mk.2 Golf is one of the clearest examples, as the fundamental vocabulary used in the design didn’t change, but the execution did. The basic proportions and details are all still essentially the same, but everything has been rounded and smoothed a bit, like a river stone,....
Okay, here’s the premise: you accidentally summon a Magic Horse when you had an erotic thought while eating a Starburst Fruit Chew and holding a lithium battery (maybe the one in your phone?) which is the most common way magic horses tend to be summoned from the Great Galloping Fields that exist in a dimension parallel and to the left of ours. The horse appears, and, as thanks for granting him access to our dimension (they like to go to Trader Joe’s while they’re here, as those don’t exist in Magic Horse Dimension) he offers you the chance to have, for free, and in absolutely perfect running condition, the car of your choice....
As of this morning, I’m no longer afflicted by COVID-19! I haven’t been able to drive a car in two weeks and I’ve gotten some serious cabin fever. To pass the time I’ve been looking deep for fun cars and motorcycles. While not as crazy as last week, this time we have things perhaps a little closer to reality for folks! I search the entire country for a good balance of price and vehicle condition....
Yes, “the outdoor life” in 1979 somehow meant a two-tone boat-sized coupé with colossal overhangs and less off-road ability than your grandmother, slathered in white vinyl, designed by Bill Blass, described on his website as “the first to blend the simplicity and practicality of sportswear with the elegance of the New York City elite.” I think it’s fair to say that, for car marketing at least, the definition of “outdoor life” has changed substantially....
The idea of adding an electric motor to a bicycle first appeared in a US patent in 1895 by Ogden Bolton Jr (Bolton? Oh, come on!) of Canton, Ohio, who was either forward-thinking or just a lazy peddler. The museum doesn’t have one of these Bolton hub motors (the company name was RIGHT THERE), so if any of you Autopians are into late 19th century safety bicycles and happen to run across one of these bad boys, let us know!...
Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. Some Faraday Future Employees Want Executive Chairperson Removed The bad news just keeps coming for EV startup Faraday Future. Reuters reports that a significant number of employees at the company want Executive Chairperson Susan Swenson out of the company....
Iannone posted some photos to the Plymouth Valiant Fans Facebook page, where I spotted them last night and shuddered in horror. Obviously, my first concern was for the safety of those in the Valiant; the thing looks hammered. My second thought was how sad it was for the world to lose such a beautiful classic machine. Iannone replied to my message that asked about him and his car, and he gave me the full story of how he and his two friends were injured, and how his prized 1975 Valiant met its demise....
Ah, you see, that’s not nearly as close as I expected, especially given the Probe’s fuel economy. Kudos to the Mustang for getting an easy win over the Probe, proving history right. Anyway, let’s talk about home. It’s the day after Christmas and due to storms, pandemic, and a litany of other reasons, many of us weren’t able to spend it with the ones we love. In my neck of the woods, flights are mostly canceled and the drive to see my parents is best measured using a calendar....
This subject was lightly touched on in the video where we celebrated Project Cactus passing a New South Wales Blue Slip (Unregistered Vehicle Inspection) and then going for a walk in downtown Dubbo to look at and discuss the cars we could find. Pictured: the author. All states and territories in Australia have a graduated licensing system. It differs slightly for each area, so I will stick to my native state of New South Wales (18 percent larger than Texas!...
Yes, bubbles. Volvo sure likes to throw a party, and for a people that everyone tells me prefers to avoid attention and ostentatiousness, these Swedes sure like some drama in their car reveals. So there was a band and dramatic lighting and when the car was revealed it emerged from a huge cloud of illuminated, pulsating glowing orbs, as you can see above. Now, I’ll be honest: When Volvo revealed the car, I was underwhelmed....
BMW’s first generation of i-badged vehicles were the quirky and delightful i3 and attractive but curiously-positioned i8. I’m not sure either can qualify as hits, but they both have a place in history and provided BMW with valuable experience making EVs they are now applying to the rest of their range. Plus, the BMW i3 had maybe the best interior of any car on sale for a couple of years....
