Category: Drive Time

Alternative

Drive Time

News from the Car Company Formally Known As Jaguar:

Jaguar is set to embark on a daring strategy move as part of its transition to becoming an exclusive EV brand; the company says it won’t sell a single car for a whole year.

The British marque has pledged to become a ‘luxury all-electric brand’ from 2025, but to do so it says it will need to take a 12-month hiatus from the market.

Its last remaining combustion-engine model on sale will be the F-Pace SUV, which is due to bow out early next year. 

Wouldn’t have any of their existing cars as a gift, because with the possible exception of the F-type, they’re as ugly as Hillary Clinton’s knickers.  (Sorry.)

Anyway, I’d rather get an older Jag, any day of the week, e.g. this fully-restored 1956 XK140:


…which will cost you about the same as a new F-type.  Wait… 3.4-liter straight six, capable of 140mph, with a stick shift.  Try and get the same thrill as that with a Duracell microwave-on-wheels.

As for the opening paragraph of this post:  they may call themselves Jaguar, but they aren’t.

About That ’65 Mustang…

Drive Time, Surveillance Society

I haven’t actually purchased a Ford product since 2003 (F-150 FX4 so that I could move most of our stuff to a new house and not pay movers to do so).

I sure as hell wouldn’t buy one now, because they’re a bunch of fucking cop snitches:

Ford is trying to patent a way for its cars to report speeding drivers to the police.

A patent application from the automaker titled “Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations” was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Jul. 18 2024, and was originally filed by Ford Jan. 12, 2023.

In the application, Ford discusses using cars to monitor each other’s speeds. If one car detects that a nearby vehicle is being driven above the posted limit, it could use onboard cameras to photograph that vehicle. A report containing both speed data and images of the targeted vehicle could then be sent directly to a police car or roadside monitoring units via an Internet connection, according to Ford.

And if that doesn’t set your ass on fire, try this:

Using vehicles for speed surveillance would make cops’ jobs easier, as they wouldn’t have to quickly identify speeding violations and take off in pursuit, Ford notes in the application. It also means some of that work could be delegated to self-driving cars, which could be equipped to detect speeding violations, the automaker adds.

So it’s all-so-conveeenient for everybody, you see.

But wait!  There’s more!

Ford is now selling your driving data to a company called LexisNexis. This company is a New York-based global data broker with a “Risk Solutions” division that caters to the auto insurance industry and has traditionally kept tabs on car accidents and tickets.
However, it turns out that LexisNexis is using your driving habits (acceleration, hard braking, speed and how fast you take corners) and forwarding this information on to insurance companies that then increase your insurance rates.

And if there’s one thing that insurance companies are known for, it’s their reluctance to generate more income  increase rates wherever they can.

If I were of an inclination to buy a car from Ford (and that’s a HUGE “if”), I’d go more for this kind of thing:

…or even better:

And for those of the truck persuasion:

Yeah, they’re old and (maybe) less reliable than the newest Fords… but at least they’re not continually spying on you while you drive them.

Bastards.

Just… No

Drive Time, Marketing / Advertising

Let’s say that many years ago your company stopped producing a popular car model in the line-up.  Now time has passed, and you want to reintroduce it, using the model’s old name in the hope of using its storied cachet to attract buyers.

Nothing wrong with that in principle, of course, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it.  Here’s the right way:

The original 1969 Dodge Charger Hemi R/T, a roaring, powerful and dangerous muscle car pushing 375hp:

The relaunched 2010s Dodge Charger (SRT Hellcat), a still-more powerful, even-more dangerous roaring monster pushing a jillion (okay, 700+hp):

The styling may have changed,the engineering improved, but the essence of the beast remained the same.

Now let’s look at the (oh-so very) wrong way to relaunch a brand.  From Ford U.K.:

The original 1969 to mid-70s Ford Capri, a sporty, spirited and sexy little two-door number:

The 2025 proposed Ford Capri, a blocky, all-electric (!!!!) SUV (????):

…which retains absolutely nothing of the spirit of the original, and isn’t worthy of even carrying the name.

Someone From Marketing needs to get summoned into a windowless, soundproofed room for a four-hour ball-kicking.  (And yes, I’m quite aware that a woke model like this may well have emanated from a womb-bearer, or someone with pretensions thereto.  Or a committee — same thing, really.)

And no, I’m not taking bets that this abhorrent abortion of a vehicle is going to fail, abjectly and miserably.

Purists & Outlaws

Drive Time

I understand the sentiment behind automotive purism:  the feeling that classic cars shouldn’t be modified at all, and kept in their original “as-is” condition.  These are also known as “concours” (or “concourse”) cars, and there’s a whole breed of people who inhabit this world:  owners, judges, nitpickers and so on.

It’s a specialty niche, and as I said, I get it.  (The Gun Thing has a similar niche — you know, the guys who won’t touch a gun unless all the serial numbers match, and hardly if ever actually, you know, shoot them.)

But I also like the other kind of car guy, the kind that says, “Yeah, that’s okay;  but really, times have moved on and we can improve on the original and make them more fun, more driveable, more reliable…”  You get the picture.

Here’s an example of the latter, in which Jay Leno talks to the guy behind the “Outlaw 356” ethos, whose company (Emory Motorsports) takes old Porsche 356s and rebuilds these rather underpowered beauties into rip-snorting performance models.

I want one.

I wouldn’t mind one of the “pure” 356s either, mind you;  but the Outlaw models… these are just excellent.

As Longtime Readers know, I’m not a Porsche fan, because they’re ugly.  But if I were ever in a position to get just one Porsche, the 356 (pure or resto-modded) is probably the only one I’d consider.

Here’s a little history.

And just for the hell of it, this is Jay’s favorite car in his entire garage.  And it’s been “sympathetically” restored.

I want one like that, too.

Inescapable Comparison

Beauty, Drive Time, Gratuitous Gun Pics

“Oh good grief, here’s Kim grinding on about old stuff again.”

Yeah, guilty as charged.

Watch Jay Leno’s glorious love affair with his 1940 Lagonda 4.5-liter V12.  His is a direct, faithful copy of the cars which were taken straight off the street and raced at Le Mans in 1939 — and placed 3rd and 4th, the very first time they were entered.

After watching that, tell me you don’t want to smack him over the head and take his car.  And if you feel a little intimidated by the size and manual strength needed to drive the thing, you need to take some double-strength manly pills.  Me, I’d do it all in a flash.

Now watch Henry Chan shooting what is, to me, the firearm’s equivalent of that Lagonda:  the Mauser K98 bolt-action rifle.  (For background, here’s Ian McCollum.)

Same idea, same technique, same principle for both:  outstanding performance, infallible reliability and guaranteed to put a smile on your face every time you take it out for a spin.

Like the one on Jay’s face.

I need to get back out to TDSA and shoot my K98, because I want to get that same smile.  (And I use a rubber recoil pad, just like old hickok45 does.)

I don’t have a Lagonda, though.  Bummer.

Top Guy

Drive Time

We’ve had many conversations, sitting around the firepit on this my back porch, listening to the screams of socialists as they turn on the spit… where was I?

Oh yeah, that’s right:  conversations about quality, technology and so on.  I, of course, am a neo-Luddite when it comes to climbing up the quality / cost curve because as much as I may enjoy the quality or immense technology behind some geegaw (Purdey shotguns, Patek Philippe watches and Bentleys, to name but some), I just can’t justify to myself the horrendous costs involved in scaling the peak or reaching the very end of the curve, so to speak.

To give but one example, when I see the intricacy of a watch like this IWC Portuguese Tourblllon:


…I can appreciate the engineering precision and sheer brilliance of its design;  but I just can’t see myself dropping around $150k on it.

But a lousy $150k is nothing compared to the other Tourbillon, that of the new Bugatti which will arrive sometime in 2026.

I did not know that Mate Rimac (yes, the guy who brought us the all-electric Rimac supercar) was now the CEO of Bugatti.  But anything this guy touches turns to magic, so spend the next half-hour with him as he explains the design and engineering behind the new EB Tourbillon, which is to the current generation of supercars as the 2024 Rolls-Royce Corniche is to the 1924 Silver Ghost.

Never mind that none of us will ever own one of these, and never mind that it’s hopelessly impractical and horribly overpowered.

It is to my mind, however, the perfect marriage of design and technology, and an example of what happens when a man absolutely refuses to compromise, on anything.

He’s climbed the curve past the point where anyone else might have stopped, and frankly, there’s no telling where it will lead.

Brilliant.