Hooniverse Asks- What City has the Most Car Cred?
You know, they still call Detroit the Motor City, but when was the last time you actually bought a car that was either designed or built there? After all, other cities around the globe – Stuttgart, Coventry, Toyota City – have become equally synonymous with the automotive wares they produce. And then there’s those that, while being the home to some epochal cars, have remained in relative obscurity – can anyone come up with the automotive link of Basel Switzerland?
That’s just places where cars are built, completely ignoring places like Los Angeles where for years even the city building code feted automotive culture. What about that? The city of Monterey California has done more for the preservation of classic automobiles despite its never being a home to a single factory that built them.
Considering that car culture, derived either through a singular connection with a manufacturing concern, being the home to a hallowed brand, or though necessity by design that engenders a love of the automobile, what city is the most credible name in cars?
Image: [drpinna.com]
Related posts:
The Packard plant on Grand Avenue. A sad symbol of Detroit.
Qatar, maybe?
<img src="http://www.autoevolution.com/images/news/qatar-driving-beats-gymkhana-with-skateboard-car-on-two-wheels-38948-7.jpg" width=500>
Such motorists ought to be knowns as Qatards.
Hassan Abu al-Chitwood?
London, for it houses many of the Brunei's car collection and don't we all want a bit of that?
<img src="http://www.hjhfoto.com/images/cuba/havana_cars.jpg">
Havana. You have to be really dedicated to own a car where a tank of gas costs more than a month's wages, the newest vehicles on the road were made before you were born, and the auto parts "store" is your old lawnmower and a piece of corrugated tin.
Sadly modern Russian/Korean/Chinese cars are more common than Yank Tanks (which is a great documentary about the subject) nowadays.
Well, the technology from those other places is at least 10 years newer…
Other than gas prices, it sounds a lot like home.
Perhaps you could request a pay cut.
Shanghai!
Radiator Springs
Daytona. There are cars from other countries that use that name.
Daytona Beach/Ormand Beach, FL has to be up there. There's the Speedway with both NASCAR and the 24 hour race. There is also the history of land speed records on the beach. I believe it is one of the few places that still let you drive on the beach.
Many stretches of the beach here in Washington are considered part of the state highway system… http://funbeach.com/activities/beach-driving/
A lot of cities have a lot of car cred, but for different reasons.
Here is a small sampling from the USA…
Detroit – The Big Three, home of American muscle, etc.
Auburn (IN) – Home of the classics – Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg, etc.
Bonneville – Salt Flats, need I say more?
Daytona – Rich race history and car culture
South Bend (IN) – Home of Hummer, Studebaker, and some other stuff, I think (not a big fan, sorry)
Pomona, CA – rich drag racing history and car culture
I could keep going, but I have to get something productive done this morning.
Bonneville is a region, but it's not really a city. And no manufacturer ever named a sporty car or motorcycle the "Wendover."
That's why I didn't say Westmoreland. It was hard, being how… great Westmoreland VW's were…
A brand new Wendover would really suck. It would make you broke and strand you in the middle of the desert.
Yes, but it has room for 1500 and great visibility.
I guess that's true regarding Bonneville… let's settle on a "place" – and it has a lot of automotive history.
What is this "Wendover" and what does it have to do with my comment?
well, the new NSX will be made in Central Ohio / Columbus / Marysville area. Will that help this other wise car deficient area out? We do like to buy a lot of super cars and store them in our garages though. That has to count for something.
I don't think any city could be more instantly evocative of automotive passion than Maranello.
<img src="http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/2265643.jpg" width="600">
Basel? Surely you refer to the modern artist and auto racing enthusiast Jacques Tinguely. His museum just featured a show about autos: "Car Fetish. I drive, therefore I am.". Then there's the auto manufacturer Monteverdi. Sbarro is a bit further away in France. Further away in France is Bugatti and the french auto museum, formerly Schlumpf. The Vitra museum nearby in Weil am Rhein has a great fire station and a bus stop by world renowned architects, too. Auto racing is mostly out, as those Swiss buzzkillers outlawed it.
http://vernissage.tv/blog/2011/07/06/car-fetish-i… target="_blank"> <a href="http://;http://www.tinguely.ch/en/ausstellungen_events/au…” target=”_blank”>;http://www.tinguely.ch/en/ausstellungen_events/au…
<a href="http://www.tinguely.ch/en/ausstellungen_events/austellungen/2011/Fetisch-Auto.html"
<img src="http://www.tinguely.ch/en/museum_sammlung/jean_tinguely/mainColumnParagraphs/02/imageBoxSubParagraph/02/thumbnail/011231_th.jpg" width="600">
I remember years ago when the employees of the Schlumpf brothers factory went on strike – they seized the museum, pulled a Brass Era car out into the street, and set it alight, to get the management's attention.
I believe the story is that the French government eventually seized the collection for back taxes. And now everyone can go. Just down the street from the Bugatti factory, as well as an EADS/Airbus facility. Nice driving roads up into the Vosges mountains, too.
I was thinking Rinspeed, but they're in Zumikon.
Well obscure-knowledged, sir.
Nazareth, PA.
Home of the Andrettis and Martin guitars.
A shame they tore down the track.
Fleetwood, PA, obviously.
In that case, what about Toyota, Aichi?
Uh, no. Simply because Fleetwoods are entirely badass until the early 90's. At which point they were still very nice cars, just not badass.
<img src="http://images.classiccars.com/classifieds/120095_2811792_1966_Cadillac_Fleetwood%20Brougham.jpg" width="500/">
<img src="http://vehicleappraisalsbyalan.com/1968%20Cadillac%20Fleetwood%20Brougham.jpg" width="500/">
<img src="http://www.theolivepress.es/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/cadillac_fleetwood_brougham_franco-01.jpg" width="500/">
<img src="http://www.carautoportal.com/car-images/cadillac/cadillac-fleetwood/cadillac-fleetwood-1977.JPG" width="500/">
<img src="http://www.chicagocarexchange.com/resize.asp?image=3268pside.JPG&size=800" width="500/">
<img src="http://www.kitfoster.com/images/2007-8-22_48CadillacFleetwood75Web-Large.jpg" width="500/">
(I know they weren't always built in Fleetwood, but they started the town gave them it's name.)
Awesome, several old school Cadillacs.
Stupid comment success on my part.
And here I thought you were kidding about Fleetwood since I don't live that far from there. We do have a pretty rich automotive heritage in Berks County Pennsylvania. All you have to do is look back at Duryea for proof
Puebla, Mexico.
VW kicked over 500,000 units out of that plant last year!
Monaco.
That city has accepted motorsports into it's blood like no other.
Came here to say that.
I've got to go with Modena. I mean, come on, it gave us Ferrari (and a bunch of other supercars), can't argue with that.
<img src="http://www.sierracollege.edu/ejournals/jsnhb/v1n3/img/railtown/DodgeCity.jpg">
Hoonah, AK http://g.co/maps/ktpzq
Bah! You can't even drive to it! You have to take a ferry!
<img src="http://forums.watchuseek.com/attachments/f2/495254d1313683313-if-you-won-$5-000-000-3-027-185-pounds-p-carboat.jpg">
Tacoma. It just drips with vehicular cred…otherwise Toyota would never have used it.
I know you posted in jest, but consider that Tacoma is home to one of the largest private car collections, and soon to be museum … http://www.lemaymuseum.org/
I can't wait to check it out!
I'm old enough to have experienced the "Aroma of Tacoma" firsthand, then they shut down the pulp mill.
Before I married Sarah, I used to live down in a Quality Hill highrise at 10th and Jefferson, very near the Folgers plant. I didn't have A/C and left my windows open all summer. Everytime I go downtown now, I miss the old roasted coffee smell it used to have.
It hadn't occurred to me that the aroma is no longer there. When did they stop?
They announced the shutdown in 2010 and they're just now sweeping the floors and locking the door. All the locals have been laid off.
I've been conscious of the aroma's absence for maybe the last six months, but I don't get downtown all that often anymore.
I was stationed at Ft. Lewis from '83-'85. I spent a lot of time down at Pt. Defiance, and it was pretty nice then. This was before the old boathouse complex burned down.
Really? That's all kinds of awesome.
So. Where the hell is Hilux?
Bonneville, Utah. So great, they named a car after it.
<img src="http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s320x320/402423_1780026117876_1756113561_855612_626752894_n.jpg" width="600">
Can't argue with that logic.
<img src="http://www.northwest-national.com/montana/st._regis.gif">
<img src="http://www.andysautosport.com/images/vehicle_top/dodge_st._regis.jpg" width=500>
Nor can I…
<img src="http://www.onlineutah.com/images/pintomap1.jpg">
Disclaimer – never been to Pinto, although I spent some time in Toquerville and far too long in Virgin.>
In the same vein…
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6d/The_Dakotas.PNG" width="500"/>
<img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/2nd_Dodge_Dakota.jpg/800px-2nd_Dodge_Dakota.jpg" width="500"/>
How can you spend far too long in Virgin? Once you're in, it becomes something else.
Is that pronounced "Torkerville"?
How about Tolyatti Russia? It's named after an Italian communist leader and thus is the perfect place to build Soviet…err Russian copies of 1960's Fiats. Yes, you guessed it, it's the home of AvtoVAZ -makers of fine Lada automobiles.
I think it's a rather common thought that Tolyatti was established just for producing cars. While this is probably a misconception, it can't be far away for the truth.
It was already an established town before the Lada but most of it's growth into what it is today is solely from the VAZ plant. Originally it was named something else but Brezhnev-era communists renamed it Tolyatti for propaganda points.
Arlington, Texas
<img src="http://www.arlingtontx.gov/articles/images/articles_business_041311.jpg" width="500">
It's so awesome new GM is building a plant there.
Having just finished a 6 year stint there, it's hard to believe it's no Los Angeles…probably the city, but definitely the great LA, Orange County Megalopolis.
The entire place is car-dependent; you can't get around without one.
The entire place is car-friendly; aside from top-down oxidation, cars never rust
Aside from smog, there are no inspections, so people keep beaters on the road forever
The majority of the automotive aftermarket and media are based there. Any wanker with a blog can get press cars.
There are other great car places, but no have so much great car stuff with so little drawback as SoCal.
So many amazing things related to cars… so many terrible terrible drivers.
Southern Arizona in general and Tombstone in particular have some pretty serious motorhead cred, believe it or not. I started noticing this when I first started visiting this area, way before I moved here. Arizona is pretty lenient about licensing anything that rolls. You have people riding around on quads, side by sides, mopeds, golf carts, sandrails, classic cars going all the way back to Model T's, horses, stagecoaches, mules, skateboards, bicycles, big honkin' four wheel drive trucks, Willys flat fender Jeeps, all manner of hot rods, nicely restored classic cars, poisonous beaters, wailed on old trucks, restored old trucks, hot rodded old trucks, ricers, Corvettes, Vipers, Porsches, art cars, Deuce and a Halves, Pinzgauers, German tourists passing through in PATT's with websites advertising the fact that they're traveling around the world, adventure bikes, Solstices, Smart Cars, Urals, Triumphs, Harleys galore, bullet bikes, old Jap bikes, Gold Wings, RV's of every size and description, just plain regular vehicles, and everybody has a lawn monument or two in the back yard that would be Lemons-worthy. I could go on and on, but I just did.
Portland, Oregon
<img src="http://www.cycleexif.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/vanilla-bicycles-1.jpg" />>
Novi, MI (actually, pretty much any relatively affluent suburb).
People in Novi depend on their cars not only for transportation to-and-from their jobs, which could be 30 miles away in Detroit, but they rely on them to transport the offspring to cross country, football, hockey, soccer, ballet, and the other myriad of activities that kids these days can be involved with.
That's not too unique, though. No, the truly unique thing about suburban America is how aggressively people use their cars as a conveyance. In big cities, the denizens are used to having to park in a parking structure or a lot several blocks away from their destination. In many big cities, mass transit makes driving a car unnecessary. Not in suburban America. To suburbanites, it's a point of pride driving as close to the final destination as possible. Have you ever seen a soccer mom skip over the closest parking spot to the front door of Whole Foods to go park in BFE? These people love their cars so much, and they want so dearly to extend the time they are in them, that they will drive around for 1 hour waiting for the perfect parking spot, even though other spots may be open. I've even seen someone so infatuated with their car that they parked, got out, realized there was an open parking spot a few spots over (and closer to the door so they could minimize their time car-less when they were finished with their shopping) so they got back in their car and moved it over to the other spot.
So, it's suburban America — with Novi, MI as a perfect example — that is the ultimate center of car cred.
Not to mention the famous Novi racing engine…
60 mile round trip commute in Suburban KC. My wife and I combine for about 50K miles/year, down from the 70K plus we used to cover.
Holy cow.
This is the nature of the sprawling midwest, and a natural result of unrestrained breeding. It's also why I maintain a fleet of aging crapcans.
I can understand the crapcans. Unrestrained breeding is beyond that. I will soon be moving to some city beyond control and could end up with a crap commute, but that's a lot of miles. I think, if I was in your situation, a geo metro would become my new best friend.
The funny thing is, after living in LA and Seattle, my commute feels like a breeze. At least the wheels keep turning. As far as mileage, after four years piloting a 13 mpg behemouth, my 30 mpg Alfa spider is plenty efficient and is just exotic enough to keep me smiling.
Coming from the GTA, I'm in a similar boat – I've been doing 80 miles round trip to school for the past three years. Now that I'm working a real job, the commute's dropped to 65 round trip (or 25 if I come from my fiancee's place, but it takes just as long).
I vote Toledo, OH. Its my old hometown, the home of JEEP and GM's Powertrain Assembly Plant.
This is me not mentioning that the Dodge Nitro is built in the same plantAnd JEEP is getting FOUR new Fiat's to build!
I would say:
<img src="http://images.wikia.com/routes/images/a/a2/RN157_LeMans.JPG">
As far as I know, not a single car was built there…
But whenever you say Le Mans, everybody instantly thinks of Cars.
Actually, I instantly think of running.
<img src="http://www.race24.com/09lemans/race01.jpg">