Since the Detroit Auto Show press days have just ended, meaning that the new announcements from the manufacturers have also ended, a bit more on economy. Usually “economy” and “boring” end up in the same sentence when talking about cars. One of the most interesting things about electric cars is their amazing ability to accelerate. Even when they are a bit unusual.
Great mileage AND safety bumpers.
It’s time for the Detroit Auto Show, we’re in for a sea change in our love affair with the automobile. I’ve always preferred small cars, my friends use to make fun of the odd things I drove. Once looked at an NSU Prinz but it was a little too tired. All those people that have been trying to run me off the road with their Ford Expeditions are now preaching the merits of hybrid technology. I’m a little skeptical, it’s very early in their development and many are rushed to market. It’s not that they won’t do what is preached of them, it’s more that they seem much too complex. We’re going to end up with cars that will be too expensive to repair when they are just a few years old. That means filling our junkyards with even more debris and heavy metals. Hardly environmentally sound. These designs need to be easily recyclable in addition to being efficient. It’s a great first step, if for nothing else than reducing our dependance on oil and driving down the price of gasoline. I’m waiting for hydrogen or, perhaps, a modern steam engine. Where’s the nuclear reactor powered Ford, they were promising back in the late fifties?
It gets great mileage. Mostly because I carry it where ever I go.
Cars used to be something just about anyone could repair. I maintain my own cars and have restored a few 1960′s sports cars. The car I drive for most of the year I’ve owned since 1975 (it was already 11 years old). The repair manual for that is one book, about an inch thick. The manual for a recent Jeep is about three inches thick. A 96 Buick Riviera’s manual consists of two, 3 inch thick books. With all the safety and comfort controls in modern cars, mechanics need a degree in computer science.
Your car has a virus, we'll need to take it offline and reboot.
For all the talk of global warming, we’re certainly freezing in the Northeast. The wild swings in weather are forecast to worsen unless something can be done. But I know exactly what’s happened. I finally got my convertible back on the road this summer after a 10-year hiatus. I want to use it as often as possible, it’s not meant to be a show car. We’ve since had one of the coolest and wettest summers for years. Once they start salting the roads, I keep the car off them. Partially to help slow the inevitable rust but mostly to avoid other cars from sliding into my, considerably smaller, two-seater.
Snow tires? For that!
There are some old films that I’ve been looking for recently that aren’t available in DVD format or even VHS. Noel Coward’s “Blythe Spirit” with Rex Harrison is only available as a region 2 disk (Europe) and the transfer quality is listed as very poor. I would have thought that it would have become available while the recent Broadway production was running. Even major Hollywood stars, such as Danny Kaye, have films that are unavailable. You can get most of his, including “The Inspector General” and “Walter Mitty.” However, his movie, “Knock on Wood,” about a ventriloquist that’s losing his marbles and getting involved in espionage at the same time, can’t be found. In one scene, Danny acts as car salesman selling what is supposed to be a British sports car, to avoid the police. It is really one of the first true kit cars. Made in California, it was called the “Woodill Wildfire.” The Wildfire was the subject of an episode of a 1950′s T.V. show called, “You asked for it.”
"You only decraminate in low gear. Don't you know."
My dad, who worked in aviation starting in 1943, met Danny Kaye when he was passing through Shannon, in Ireland. Back in those days, everything crossing the Atlantic stopped at Shannon. Dad, as a station manager, was responsible for the crews and any VIP’s on his airline’s flights. He met many of the stars of the time.
Working on a car today and I needed a special socket. Drove over to what was the last of the independent auto parts stores in my neighborhood. And, they didn’t have what I needed. As a matter of fact, they didn’t have anything even close. As is the way of things, they have recently been bought up by a national chain. What this means is you’ll be able to find the most common part for the most common vehicle and absolutely nothing else. I’m not talking weird bits for some of my rather unusual cars but, in this case, a socket for a GM car. The same socket that fits almost every GM car for approximately the last thirty years. Chains bring down the prices for certain things, but as anyone that has shopped in Walmart, Kmart, Home Depot and Loew’s knows, they rarely have what you really need. One day, someone will have the bright idea to bring back the independent storekeeper, who knows everything and has everything. I’d be happy to pay more.
Just like the auto parts store, this car is not quite what it seems (sort of a Jaguar but not really).
It’s that time of year when my students find themselves running ragged trying to complete all their final projects. Some of it is caused by procrastination, some by their workload and some by us mean, old, professors. I haven’t the heart to tell them it’s nothing compared to what they’ll face once out in the workforce.
Asking for an extension is like howling at the moon.
While I was preparing to work on “Caveman Manners.” I drew a number of small sketches of cavemen, and women. Here’s one after dad came home from a long day chasing mastodons.
Are we out of Perrier?
With all the press for “hybrid” technology, and the promise of incredible gas mileage (there were a number of cars in the late nineteen fifties that could reach 50 m.p.g.!), I started to wonder what the Steven King thriller “Christine” would be like if they filmed it today. Gone would be the fins of the Plymouth Fury, in their place would be a car that would have fit into the trunk of the original. Of course, since electric cars make virtually no noise, what they lack in bulk could be made up for in sheer surprise.
There are plenty of cars that could bore you to death.
You know deep down inside that, if you’re doing something wrong, you deserve to take the consequences. There’s just something inherently unfair about speed cameras. A little too Orewellian . . . big brother watching everything you do. One of the best scenes in the Rowan Atkinson film, Johnny English, is the use of his Aston Martin’s rocket launcher to dispatch one of the evil devices. This parody of all things Bond was written by the same writers of the past four Bond movies, Robert Wade and Neal Purvis.
It's a shame this Triumph TR3 is missing the Aston Martin's rocket launchers.