Whilst wandering around and getting lost in the Dark Forests of Internet Car-Dorkery, I stumbled on this vision, the Maserati A6/54 2000 Zagato Spyder:
It’s not too horrible from the rear, either:
And its interior is blissfully simple and devoid of modern geegaws, like airbags and seatbelts.
It was made in 1955, and even if you were to win the biggest lottery around, good luck finding it. “It?”
They made one. One.
Insty posted a link to the Car & Driver long-term road test of the Porsche Cayenne SUV, and while I am generally a fan of Porsche (other than their Germanic penchant for over-engineering and the fact that all their cars are pig-ugly), there were still a couple of things pointed out in the study which set my teeth on edge, to whit:
The perfect long-term car is one that delivers 40,000 happy miles, and our 2019 Cayenne is well on its way to achieving that platonic ideal. It’s never left us stranded, and so far all of our gripes have been handled by the dealer.
You know what? That reliability is a given nowadays, thanks to manufacturers like Honda and Toyota, In fact, after shelling out the ~$100K for a fucking SUV, I would demand that nothing breaks in the first 40,000 miles. But that’s not the end of it.
While that 10K service and recall work didn’t come with an invoice, the 20,000-mile service reminded us that Porsche ownership is just as expensive as it sounds. It set us back $632. In addition to the work done at the 10K visit, the 20K visit calls for replacement of both the cabin and the engine air filters. The dealer also replaced some worn-out wipers for $82.
I know, I know: if you can’t afford the maintenance, don’t buy the car. Over six hundred for a lousy 20k service, and eighty-plus bucks for a pair of windshield wipers? Ah don’ theenk so, Manfred.
But that’s not the worst of it. Enter the most useless fucking technology ever inflicted on car owners, all for the sake of eco-consciousness:
An aggressive stop-start system often kills the engine too early, and the restart occasionally comes with a horrible driveline thud. Disabling stop-start eliminates the thud, but we can’t help but wonder if the occasional transmission stumble on cold mornings is related and a sign of something else going on with the ZF automatic.
I have said it before, and I’ll say it again: if I buy any car, this stupid stop-start bullshit would be turned off before I left the dealership. (And if it couldn’t be turned off permanently, it’s to a different car brand I’d be going.) As for the Cayenne, any kind of “driveline thud” is a Bad Thing. I can’t believe the C&D testers didn’t address the issue after the first hundred miles, let alone after forty thousand. (Don’t even get me started on the engineering philosophy behind an “aggressive stop-start system, or we’ll be here all day.)
I seldom pay much attention to new-car tests because all new cars are going to be okay. It’s the long-term tests that are interesting because that’s what exposes faulty materials, engineering or design.
And I’m sorry, but all the joys of “90mph cruising” (with the concomitant shitty fuel consumption) don’t compensate for all the above.
Also at CW’s is this masterpiece:
Now of course it’s pig-ugly by today’s standards, and yes it has crappy fuel economy and yes it has no seatbelts and yes it will kill everybody in a crash. I know all that stuff.
My point is that 190hp is pretty much all one needs in a car these days, even in an all-steel behemoth like the above. (Don’t even get me started on the idiocy of 500hp in a “street” car, as pushed by 21st-century Big Auto.) Also, I bet the frigging transmission won’t lock up if the battery runs flat, either — unlike a certain VW Tiguan of my acquaintance. (List of further 250 bullshit modern automotive geegaws and doodads omitted, for reasons of blood pressure.)
Frankly, I rather like the station wagon… and I bet it wouldn’t do to badly as a Pantifa/BLM Riot-Flattening Device. Those fenders look pretty solid.
In yesterday’s post which talked about colors, one color came in for some (much-deserved) mockery, this being avocado green.
Well, I guess it can be a situational thing. Here’s why I say this:
Now it must be said that the peerless E-type might look better in another color; but if someone came up to you and said, “Here are the keys and pink slip for that car, it’s yours,” I think it would be safe to assume that you wouldn’t get all offended and say, “Oh noes! I wouldn’t seen dead in so ugly a color!” and turn it down.
In Kim Terms, this would be like turning down an evening’s bedtime entertainment with Salma Hayek just because she was wearing a strangely-colored dress. And as this statement is useless wifout pichers, here’s what I’m talking about:
Errr I’ve lost my thread. What was I talking about, again?
Fotget everything I’ve ever said about Dream Cars Wot I would Buy Wiff A Lottery Win.
In this little story, the question being asked is: “How could this happen?”
“This” being this:
To me, the answer seems quite simple: the Audi used the McLaren as a ramp — or a partial ramp, mounting it with only the right-hand wheels, which caused it to flip over onto its side. (The low-profile front of the McLaren, by the way, seems to make for quite an effective ramp.)
The real question is: what would make the Audi’s driver go so fast in a supermarket parking lot as to turn a simple collision into a flip-over? Trying to get into the vacant spot next to the McLaren ahead of another car? Hitting the throttle instead of the brake pedal? Sexting on the iPhone? All of the above?
Truly, some people should not be allowed to drive on public roads.