Category: Drive Time

Wrongly Blamed

Drive Time, Eco-Crap

Oh, this is rich:

Rowan Atkinson has been blamed by the House of Lords for the plunge in sales of electric cars.  The Mr Bean actor, 69, described the green machines as ‘a bit soulless’ in a comment piece he penned in June last year. 
The Lord’s environment and climate change committee has since been told the actor was partly to blame for ‘damaging’ public opinions on electric vehicles (EVs).

Not that the opinions of the House of Lords should be taken seriously — on just about any topic — but it’s ridiculous to blame Atkinson for a sales slump of cars that are manifestly not fit for purpose (in so many ways).

“Soulless” is the least of the reasons why not to buy a fucking Duracell car, and most certainly so when one recalls Mr. Bean’s habitual choice of vehicle:

And lest we forget, he was also an “early adopter” of the EV type:

…and by the way, it was to this thing he was referring.

No man should.  Not even Mr. Bean.

Looker

Drive Time

Reader George K. writes:

“When I was in high school, the scion of one of the wealthy industrial families in my hometown returned from heading the European division with a Mercedes 190SL roadster in British Racing Green. I still think it is one of the sexiest cars I have ever seen.
The 190SL doesn’t get the love it deserves because most people have never seen one (I don’t think that many were sold in the U.S.), plus it was always overshadowed by its 300SL big brother.”

The only knock on the 190SL was that it was underpowered — certainly true when compared to the 300SL.  But like Reader George, I love its looks:

Also, unlike most sports cars, the 190’s trunk is large enough to hold several rifle cases (or golf clubs, if you’re of that persuasion).

Want.

Half-Century

Drive Time

Here’s an interesting question posed by Jalopnik (no link, fuck ’em, the woke assholes):

We’re talking (say) 1970-1974 here, and no extensions either way.  Fortunately, the average age of my Readers being 75+, the early ’70s should be easily remembered, assuming of course that we can actually remember that time and not have lapsed into total senility (like me).

Early 70s… oh yeah,in my case that would be the last two years of high school and the first two years of college failure.  Easy-peasy.

And if you can’t remember what cars were available back then, here’s a little list which might help.  (Remember: cut-off date is 1974.)

Remember:  “daily drive” means it can’t fall to pieces after 10 miles (which should rule out most Fiats, Alfa Romeos and pretty much all British Leyland cars).  Assume they’re brand new off the showroom floor, in the standard configuration of the time, unmodified.  And to make things more interesting, you get to pick three:  one for you, one for your wife and a weekend / “date” car.  (Yeah, I’ve bent the rules a little.  Whatever.)

Here are mine:

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All-American Road Trip

Drive Time, Gratuitous Chick Pics

I think I’ve tortured everybody enough with my various dream road trips whether in France, Italy or Western Europe in general.  There’s only been one in the U.S., but even that involved furrin cars and -women.

So am I going to quit?  Hell, no!

Today’s trip is going to be All-American, in that the choice of car and female companion will feature no foreign entanglements* of any kind.

The trip?

Actually, you have a choice there too:  U.S. 1 (and 1A where available) along the East Coast, from Miami – Bar Harbor ME:

…and U.S. 101 (the Pacific Coast Highway/PCH) along the West Coast from San Diego to Seattle:

The East Coast trip is nearly 400 miles longer, and if you wish, you could skirt NYFC (or add to your pain by doing a loop around Long Island).

You can do the trip north – south or vice-versa (please specify which), and at a time of year which suits you (do tell).  The only hard and fast rule is to avoid interstate highways wherever possible.  The goal is to keep the shoreline on the side of the car as much as you can.  You may go through any of the cities you wish, but you can also skirt those which would make you homicidal with rage (NYFC, LA, Boston etc.) while trying to deal with the traffic and congestion.

As always with these scenarios, assume you’ll have trouble-free motoring en route, and a (shall we say) willing partner of the female persuasion in the passenger seat, and she will be as pictured.  Also assume that you are of an age which would do the driving and overnight stops, so to speak, justice.

Now the fun part:  the cars and companions. I’ve tried to avoid listing any of the cars and the women in earlier posts, which has made it quite difficult.  Here we go, and remember:  no substitutions.

1. 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz and Angie Harmon

2. 1957 Studebaker Golden Hawk and Candace Cameron

3. 1957 Corvette and Katherine Lanasa

4. 1957 Chevy Bel-Air and Mary-Louise Parker

5. 1957 Ford T-Bird and Téa Leoni

6. 1954 Kaiser-Darrin Roadster and Marg Helgenberger

7. 1956 Chrysler Imperial and Daisy Fuentes

(*I know, Daisy was born in Cuba.  Shuddup or she’ll be replaced with Whoopi Goldberg.)

Let’s go a little earlier, car-wise:

8. 1935 Auburn 851 Speedster and Nancy Wilson

9. 1936 Cord 810 and Eva Amurri

10. 1932 Duesenberg SJ and Dana Delaney

11. 1940 Packard Super-8 and Lynn Russell

12. 1933 Lincoln KB Victoria and Lisa Edelstein

That’s my delicious dozen.  If you’re unfamiliar with any of the options, you know where to look (duckduckgo).

Oh wait!  A wild card!

13. 1958 Chevy Apache and

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Take Your Pick

Drive Time

Jeremy Clarkson, who knows a thing or two about these things, once suggested that the only reason you should buy a car is how it makes you feel when you walk into your garage in the morning.  If it causes feelings of pride, vanity or even a slight protuberance in the trousers, then that’s the car you should get instead of that Honda Civic or Toyota Camry.

As threatened promised earlier in the week, today we are going to take a look at Sotheby’s 2024 Arizona auction catalogue.

Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to pick the top five (and only the Top 5) that would give you the above-mentioned feelings if you were to walk into your five-car garage in the morning for the purpose of selecting the car that you were going to drive that day. (And if you’re perfectly happy with your 1995 Chevy C-10 pickup and can’t imagine wanting one of these, feel free not to share that with us.)

As I said earlier in the week, please ignore the prices because they’re just suggestions — some or most of which may turn out to be hopelessly unrealistic come next Thursday’s auction.

I would recommend that you spend some time looking at the descriptions for each of the cars offered, because (as I discovered) your choices may well be influenced thereby.

What I’m looking for is a feeling of desire, and not investment. Please rank your choices, therefore, in order of desirability;  and feel free to add the purpose of your drive that day (hot date, cross-country trip, visiting family, getting groceries, whatever).

My Top 5 are listed below the fold.

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