Every boy needs his down time [Especially this one]. Hundred-hour work weeks, daily four-hour meetings, 1,000 weekly emails, infeasible amount of articles to write a day, constant state of jet lag… The eons of activity in my head are busier than Toyota’s legal offices. This kid’s just asking for one simple thing: Heat. Lots of it. Will be heading to sun-drenched, tan-conducive, and impossibly secluded Mustique to wash away my anxiety with blue water and white sand [Instead of motor oil, for once]. Need not fret, much like Saab, I will be back. Wish me secure hammocks, tall glasses of alcoholic beverages and Prius Harmony dreams. -AM
Unscripted. Unapproved. Unusually frank discussion. Each week John and his guests will shine a deserving light on the auto industry to offer unfiltered commentary that others just won’t touch. Sit back and listen or jump in the live chat, either way it’s gonna be fun. Every Thursday Night at 7:00PM ET / 23:00 GMT.
Tonight we talk the future of car design with Bob Boniface, Director of Crossover Exterior Design and Global Electric Vehicle Design. Bob was the design director on the Chevy Camaro concept, but most recently his work can be found on the forthcoming Volt. We’ll be asking how designing an electric vehicle is different from an internal combustion vehicle and whether cars should be designed with a global audience in mind.
We’ll be getting into those issues, plus a discussion of this week’s news including the Toyota hearings and Fritz Henderson’s reappointment at GM. John McElroy’s in studio as usual as well as David Welch of BusinessWeek and Bloomberg and Peter De Lorenzo, the Autoextremist.
Having a parent that traveled back and forth to Japan as a child had their benefits: He brings back with him Anime Betamax tapes covered in Daily Yomiuri newspapers, those kept me busy for hours [Both hardware and print]. Who can forget Daimos’ heart-rending Romeo and Juliet love story and the way they kept screaming to the heavens: Richard!!!… Erika!!! Arousing plotlines, attractive heroes and a transforming fourteen-wheel lorry. Thanks for the schoolday memories pops!
Less than a month after extending it’s contract to sell the dune-hopping HUMMER brand to Tengzhong, the General has announced that it has stopped the deal and will wind down all production. Gloomy day for Louisiana and Indiana where the current lineup is assembled, as well as for those who assembled shrines in honour of the illustrious all-caps trademark. Dedicated to “The Beast,” I give you the best HUMMER TV spot [Naturally, from the 90's] that I know of. The deal may have been, but the legend can “never be stopped.”
Smoke and vertigo do not aid in visibility. So it’s best to be extra cautious when going ’round circles, those nasty curbs don’t automatically move out of the way like rally spectators. Watch this fox hop.
In typical German fashion, a designer [Audi AG's Senior Designer Achim Badstubner, in this case] elaborates every line of a vehicle [The A7 Sportback Study, in this case] in meticulous detail. No line is spared, from the wheel-supported column to the sill-to-bumper expression, it’s all been painstakingly thought of by people who haven’t seen sunlight in the duration of the vehicle’s design process. The outcome, however, is as gorgeous as Herr Badstubner’s golden Fabio-esque hair. Will Audi sell 5,000 of these a year?
Might as well say it: “Since I made it here, I can make it anywhere.” has considerably more weight in Detroit than it has in New York these days. Slowly growing it’s blossoms back, the wild 313 flower has endured it’s challenges in the winter and isn’t looking to stomp on the brakes anytime soon. Through economic declines and potholed streets, DET certainly has a renaissance on it’s mind. Ro Spit, Monica Blaire and the directors of this music video put in the details in this song and has made the slowly re-blossoming township proud with their catchy rhymes and smile-conducive homages. Hit play to view the well put-together remake of the Jay-Z and Alicia Keys original. Might as well say it: I like it even more.
I never really have embraced the Audi A1 as a competent Cooper-Killer as of yet. Still too bulbous, still too avant-garde [And not in a pleasant Audi Avant sort of manner]. This amateur snap from Barcelona rotates the spigot on that perception, showing it’s much more fluid side [Especially from this rear 3/4 view]. Either this proves that vehicles truly do look more inviting under natural lighting and that press photographs aren’t the paradigm of accuracy, or that Audi’s little runabout has many faces [Be it bulbous or inviting].
…actually, sir, that’s the anti-theft system doing what it’s supposed to do [That, or Lexus' Intelligent Parking Assist is doing what it isn't]. And to address your next video in advance, “Oh my God! There’s a trap in my car that locks the wheels when I pull it!”, shhh, you found the parking brake.
Yet another spin on a classic, your fuhrer gets banned from “complete BS” NASCAR this time around.
I guess you’ll just have to find another event who’s infield you can park your RV in, Grofaz. Can’t be on the grandstands drinking a fine German beer, so maybe he’ll settle for cable [or HD] to see that Impala SS, crazy Toyota wing, and that “hot babe” Danica Patrick. Boogity Freakin’ Boogity.
Sage tip [Most especially to one specific 61-year-old New Yorker who was recently pulled over by the NYPD]: When skies are overcast, make sure the plastic life-size figure you’ve placed on your passenger seat to blaze through the LIEW’s HOV lane isn’t sporting sunglasses & using the visors. Are we astonished that people still do this? No. It’s still quite the ingenious scheme to blaze along traffic. Was the convenience of your plus-one worth the $135 fine and summons, sir?
We suggest a girlfriend. Preferably without acute photophobia.
The Formula One Season is but upon us [25 days comrades, tifosi]. Although the Schuey’s scuder… err… team might need a bit more practice before those five red lights disappear from the overhead.
