Kid Needs a Haircut

Amy and I share Jalopnik's disdain for the annoying kid in skinny jeans and a Christopher Atkins haircut that Toyota is using as their spokesman in at least one current advertisement.

What is really sad is that while Toyota pisses all over the old Buicks in the commercial, they've basically become Buick.

Quick Changes

I thought this video of people swapping engines on a HMMWV was pretty cool the first time I saw it:

Then I saw this video of 6 Canadian guys field stripping a '52 Jeep:

Via Jalopnik.

For Use with a Detroit Tigers Cap

Jalopnik noticed a 1981 Ferrari GTSi for about $12k on eBay. Why so cheap? Well the body and interior are in good shape, but under the rear bonnet is... the 2.8 liter V6 and it's manual transmission from a Pontiac Fiero. It's like every kit car in reverse.

Now the commenters over at Jalopnik are split. I'm in the little bit of awesome camp. The bodywork and interior are in great shape. The stock Ferrari tires are oddly sized and therefore ridiculously expensive, so the owner changed hubs to something widely available. The original US spec Ferrari engine is both ridiculously maintenance intensive and woefully underpowered because of it's 80s era smog controls. Was the Fiero transplant the best way to address this? No. But a change to something more powerful and more reliable would be very interesting. Something high-revving would be appropriate. Several people have suggested the Yamaha V6 from the SHO. I would think a number of 3ish liter Honda V6s might work as well.

And I love the 308 GTSi. Maybe it's the years of watching Magnum P.I. as a kid. Just looking at the pictures makes me want to buy a Tigers cap and a Hawaiian shirt. When I think about Ferraris, I think of the US Spec 308 GTS. Unlike the rest of the world, I actually enjoy what the US spec bumpers do to the cars lines. If I had a garage, I'd think about bidding. Since I don't (and this car has '80s era rust proofing) I guess I'll have to pass. And keep my eye out.

Fun with Acetylene

Even though a coworker recently bought a FourTwo, I think I'd still rather have this chopped and welded, superdeformed VW Golf.

An Engineer Does Good

Starting in 1947 and working into 1948, automotive engineer Norman Timbs built his dream car out of steel, aluminum, and spare parts. The result was the '48 Timbs special. It's a steel space frame with an aluminum body, independent front and rear suspensions, and no doors. The mid mounted Buick V8 pumps power to the rear wheels. It also has a full spare. I'd say that they don't make them like this anymore, but frankly they never really did.

Headlights

I just replaced my driver's side headlight again. I've changed it 3 times now. The passenger side is still factory original. Every time the bulb has blown, I've used a standard Sylvania replacement from Walmart or an auto-parts store. I think I've figured out what false economy feels like now.

A Neon Demon on Wheels

Netflix brought us the Wachowski Brothers' Speed Racer movie this weekend. Despite the bad mouthing it took in the press, we both really enjoyed it. They capture the feel of the classic show perfectly. But you aren't going to get depth of plot here. Why would you expect that with a Speed Racer movie?

I could give you a brief plot overview, but it's Speed Racer. Speed drives fast cars through multiple exotic and completely made-up countries as he tries to win the Grand Prix. Every race is fixed against him, but Speed has his friends like Racer X and his family on his side. And an awesome bulletproof car with buzz saws.

What you're going to get is action oriented racing scenes turned up to eleven. Most of the tracks and rally scenes look like they're taken straight out of a racing video game. But it's an alternative future/present/whatever. Every car has the Mach 5's jump jacks and if you ain't bumping, you ain't racing. Actually most of the racing scenes are more like boxing or wrestling than bumping. Cars are frequently destroyed in candy-colored pixie-stick explosions with the pilots being thrown clear in their gumball safety gear. Or brightly colored parachutes if they fall into a deep icy crevasse. Good stuff.

There are decent bare-knuckle fight scenes. With ninjas! Or cigar-chomping mobsters! And a monkey! That's hitting all the bases right there.

There are the obligatory scenes where Spritle and Chim-Chim stow away in various places. Unlike on TV, they are generally useful. They're either exposition and foreshadowing or acting as an important diversion that actually helps the Racers out. Good. Nothing like having to be constantly saving your grubby little brother and his monkey for no good reason.

Anyway, great movie. About my only complaint is that some of the characters curse. Rent it and be a kid again. But still best not to think too much.

Handy Things for the Trunk of Your Car

Yesterday's really useful item was a spare headlight bulb. I pulled into the parking lot at work and realized my driver's side headlight was out. Not a horrible problem, but since I'd be driving home in the dark I popped in the spare. The last time this happened I had to hit a Walmart on my lunch break.

The nice thing about my car is that you can change the bulbs without tools. The not-nice thing is that you can't do anything of the sort with the taillights. Changing a taillight requires disassembling most of the trunk liner then using at least two different metric wrenches to dismount the tail light assembly. Space is tight enough that you can't get around the two wrench requirement with an adjustable crescent wrench either.

Hybrids

Instapundit reports an Autoblog story about the credit crunch ruining GM hybrid sales. Yeah, I'm betting the $1.98 gas I saw on my drive to work today isn't going to help them much either.

Motorcycles

The Administrative Pastor at my church recently started riding a motorcycle. It's his first bike in twenty-something years so he started "small." He bought a Sportster. His wife actually wanted to ride on it with him so he bought the 1200 instead of the 883. I found out all of this, not because Pastor Bill and I are buds, but because he had recently broken his leg.

Some of the men at church in his age group are rather annoyed with him over this. How are they to convince their wives to let them buy motorcycles and relive the glory days of their youth, when a prominent clergyman has had a prominent motorcycle accident? I'm sure large parts of the congregation will be looking to hold Pastor Bill accountable for his behavior in short order. I also suggest they point out that the 20 something church organist zips about on a sportbike and he hasn't had a horrible crash yet. Yet. Maybe that will get them some traction, but having had this discussion with my own wife I kind of doubt it.

On this topic, Jeremy Clarkson recently published a column about motorcycles even though he did his research by riding a Vespa. He explains the advantage of his motorcycling choice:

I also liked the idea of a Vespa because most bikes are Japanese. This means they are extremely reliable so you cannot avoid a fatal crash by simply breaking down. This is entirely possible on a Vespa because it is made in Italy.

Perhaps this explain the popularity of Harley-Davidson's as well?

The Electric 7

The ThoRR is a nice idea. You take the chassis of a Caterham 7 (or clone) and replace the internal combustion components with electric equivalents. Since the car weighs next to nothing to start with and is designed to run well on a comparatively small engines, you get an electric car with relatively high performance. As a bonus, sevens are so minimalist that they don't have many power draining features like air conditioning or even radios.

The design also cures some problems with the original design. Stock Sevens are very loud, but the Thorr is nearly silent. The driver and passenger foot boxes of sevens are notoriously hot because of residual engine heat. The electric shouldn't have that problem either. Interesting. I wonder if they implemented some form of regenerative braking? More importantly, what's the ThoRR's final sales price?

A Day of Deceasing

Miss Anonymous, Paul Smith, and Ryan S. are lamenting the loss of William F. Buckley at age 82. Fewer have said anything about the death of legendary hot-rod customizer Boyd Coddington at age 63. Perhaps that is because Buckley was a consummate gentleman and Coddington was a a hotheaded jackass. Or perhaps we just aren't big American Hot Rod fans.

Reviewing the Rental

My car is getting brake work done, so I'm tooling around in a Chevy Silverado today. I like it.

Overall the Silverado is just more comfortable than the midsize Colorado. The seats are off the floorboards. The dash is still plastic, but the design is better so it doesn't feel cheap. The ride is trucklike but comfy. No worse than the sport suspension in my little Mazda. The truck is big, bigger than the Colorado, but unlike the Colorado its size isn't a problem.

The red crew-cab came equipped with a 4.8L V8. It isn't the biggest engine in the lineup, but I still feel like the truck has depths of power and torque that I just don't care to use. The smaller Colorado felt like it couldn't get out of its own way. I didn't have that feeling with the Silverado. I've had all the power I want and I still haven't taken it above about two thousand RPM. If I put my foot down, I'm sure it will respond with gusto.

I can see why someone might want to step up to the 5.3L though. The 4.8 is the "base" V8. It is a good solid engine, but doesn't have any frills. The 5.3 gives you more power and GMs intelligent engine management system that lets you drop cylinders you don't need when you don't need them. I'm willing to bet the 5.3 actually gets better highway mileage than the 4.8. I just don't know whether it would make enough of a difference to pay for itself. The equipment to do intelligent management doesn't come cheap.

It is a pain to park though. Not only does it take all of Newcastle County to turn around, but it fills up a parking space, side to side and front to back. When I pull through a parking space at the supermarket, I've found that I have to pull forward about a foot past where I'm comfortable before my rear end is out of the space behind me. And pulling into the parking spot in front of our townhouse requires backing up and pulling in again because our neighbors parked on the street.

So I don't know that I would buy one, but I can see why John the Methodist did. Now I have to go think about whether I need to buy anything that requires a 5 foot bed. If I've got it I might as well haul with it.

250cc's of Fun

I was surprised to see that Kawasaki is bringing out a new version of it's venerable Ninja 250 for 2008. The old Ninjette has been in continuous production with few changes since the late 1980s. The new one will see improved suspension, brakes, and tires. The outstanding fuel economy will stay about the same and it will still cost less than four grand buy one. Alas, I will still have to ogle it from afar.

Definitely Not a Motorcycle

According to my beloved wife, I'm not allowed to own a motorcycle. Something about probably killing myself. I believe I have now found a feasible automotive alternative: the Westfield Seven. This is a rough copy of the Lotus Seven now licensed by Caterham. The Westfield cars are built from kits and have a version which accepts Mazda Miata donor parts. Left hand drive versions are available in the US for a fair bit less than a Caterham. They'd be even more reasonable if the exchange rate improves.

No power anything, no doors, and seat-of-the-pants driving, but it still has seats with racing belts, a safety cage, and a roll bar. Close enough to a motorcycle. Now if only I had money, time, a garage to build it in, and a place to park it.

UPDATE: It seems I'm not the only person that compares the Seven (or Se7en) to a motorcycle. Here is quote from the late Colin Chapman, the Seven's creator:

The Seven was the car I dreamed about as a schoolboy. When I got the chance to build it, it was the most basic, lightest, high performance little car we could come up with... a student's car if you will – a four-wheeled motorbike.

This is from Jalopnik's two part trip up "The Dragon" with a group of Seven enthusiasts.

UAW Strikes

Starting at 11am, the GM and the UAW are on strike. The Canadian Auto Workers are expected to join in with a sympathy strike sometime this afternoon. Here's to hoping that GM comes out ahead on this one.

I do have some sympathy for the UAW, but I don't have that much. After some research on my part, I've come to realize that the union contract terms are ridiculous. It is one thing for them to stipulate factory working conditions, salary levels, or benefits. It is quite another for the workers to tell their company where cars can be manufactured. This strike is over the latter.

Autoblog reports that GM has enough inventory for a month or two. More than that and this could get interesting. If I were them, I'd start hiring scabs now using contract terms similar to Import-brand factory labor. If they're successful enough with that, they might not have to hire the union back at all.

Top Gear

Top Gear, probably the best car show in the world, is on tonight at 8pm and 9pm EST on BBC America. If you have digital cable or satellite TV, you probably get BBC America even if you don't know it yet.

The Perils of Mountain Biking

You know, you might skin something or hit a tree. Or maybe you'll return to your car only to find that a grain silo had fallen on it and squished it flat. Man I knew I didn't mountain bike for a reason.

Via John Scalzi at Ficlets.

Top Gear Coming to America

I really like our satellite service at home. I like it even more now that BBC America will be showing episodes of Top Gear. Sweet!

Freewheeling Messerschmidts

Scooter Scoop linked to this video of a German stunt show that featured a three-wheeled Messerschmidt Kabinroller. Unlike the actual cars going up on two wheels, the trike foregos the usual launch ramp and gets onto two wheels the old fashioned way.