While they may describe Polo as the sport of kings, racing spec Ferraris could be considered equally demanding of a princely pocketbook. Here we have a procession of the well-heeled heel and toeing a bunch of 458s through the lead turn in Laguna Seca’s infamous Corkscrew. Everything seems to be going as planned when. . .
Bonneville, Katana, Commando, Ninja, Express; just like their four-wheeled brethren, motorcycles have come with a lot of great, vivid names. Some recall famous races while others arouse an emotion akin to waking up with morning wood. There have been some great bikes over the years, and many of them have carried even greater names.
What you call a product can have as much to do with its emotional connectivity as does the physical manifestation. Occasionally a product takes off, perhaps in spite of its moniker – Apple’s women’s hygiene conjuring iPad being a prime example. But when it comes to bikes, rarely do the makers miss the mark in badging. After all, think of Honda’s Pacific Coast, a fully enclosed bike that only sold like two copies but can still evoked visions of leaning through turns on Highway 1 in Big Sur, maybe stopping at Nepenthe for a brief recharge before once again saddling up.
So, we all can agree that what something is called can drive its emotional positioning and even its place in the historical lexicon. With that in mind, and this being Two Wheel Tuesday – it is Tuesday, isn’t it? – which motorcycle do you think carries history’s greatest name?
Image: [moto ancienne]
Google has changed the way we find things both on the Interwebz and in the real world. They also apparently want to change the way we drive, if this Google Maps topographical nightmare is any indication, making our commutes a little more like a Coney Island coaster. Click here for some more Google Map fails.
Image: [Imgur]
When it comes to designing cars, it may not come as a shock that all the money doesn’t get allocated across the car equally. Instead, each group- interior, steering, exterior lighting, etc, each gets a percentage of the overall development budget, and some are slighted to the benefit of others. That’s painfully evident when you get in a car that has great specs on paper – room, road competence – and then discover that the quality of the interior materials is on par with carnival tchotchkes.
One way to mitigate that is for various models across a manufacturer’s stable to share parts, all the way up to the basic platform upon which they ride. Ford’s a big believer in the mantra of the shared platform, having underlain damn-near everything they built in the U.S. during the late ’70s to early ’80s on the generosity of one Mr. Fox. The Fairmont, Mustang, Thunderbird, LTD, and Granada, plus their complimenting Mercury and Lincoln products, all shared basics of suspension mounting points and firewall design. A later version of this is Volvo’s P2 platform, the basics of which underpins such diverse products as that company’s XC90, the Lincoln MXS (Ford D3) and the Ford Flex (Ford D4).
And Ford is not alone in playing this game – GM has also practiced platform cloning, their products sometimes being referred to by their family design code – B-body, F-body, etc. And of course Volkswagen cranks out platform sharers across not just makes but nations – Skoda and Seat getting platforms from the German maker to clothe regionally. Sometimes this ubiquity of platform can breed out individual brand personalities, while other times it’s hardly even noticeable to either casual observer or even the driver. Considering that some makers do a better job than others at hiding all the similar bits, which shared platform do you think does the best job at keeping things under wraps?
Image: [best-selling-cars]
The Peru Guide says that ‘the Barranco district is the bohemian part of Lima, a strong concentrate of bars and clubs that in the after-dark hours becomes the party heart of town.’ If you want to go bohemian, you could do a lot worse than to do so in a sweet Renault Caravelle.
Image: [GT-Click via Flickr]
It’s May 18th, and on this day in 1980 Washington State’s volcanic Mount St Helens experienced a magnitude 5.1 earthquake and ensuing cataclysmic event. This resulted in the largest known debris avalanche in recorded history – mixing with snow and water to create volcanic lahars – flattening everything for miles and filled the Toutle and Cowlitz rivers with tons of debris.
Hopefully today will be a little less eventful. But, this also being Friday, we will shake things up with today’s Mystery Car. This one is tangentially related to the 1980 eruption in Washington, but you don’t need to come up with the connection. What you do need to provide is the make, model, engine and year, but seeing as we’re not looking for anyone to blow their stack over it, that’ll be all.
The identity of today’s Mystery Car may not be earth shattering, but hopefully determining it will be a reasonable challenge. And so, if you don’t have too much on your tectonic plate today, let’s get solving!
If Ötzi the iceman is any indication, then humans have been marking their bodies with ink for more than 5,000 years. That 5,000-year old hunter is not only only the oldest known tattoo parlor patron, but as evidenced by the arrowhead in his back, he’s also the earliest confirmed murder victim. Several millennia later, we’re still inking and piercing and mohawking ourselves in an attempt to exhibit an individual sense of societal conformity. Oh yeah, and we’re also still offing each other like it’s a carnival game.
Personal expression is not limited to our personages either; in fact it’s extended to almost every accouterment we possess. We dress our cell phones in chic, expressive cases, and similarly embarrass our pets with sweaters, garish collars, and grooming that would shame Miss J. Alexander. And that fetish does not stop when it comes to our wheels.
Now, most of you very likely do not participate in any of this, car nuts being far less likely to care how their nether regions are coifed than the average person, but that doesn’t mean you can’t weigh in on what car adornment most catalyzes your rage and disgust. Perhaps it’s Carol Channing eyelashes, applied without consideration of the car’s personal shame. Or maybe it’s that bastion of redneck contempt for societal norms – truck nuts. Whatever the visual blight, which is your most hated car fetish?
Image: [carlashes]
If loving PBR is wrong, then he don’t wanna’ be right.
Image: [Imgur]
Did you know that you can’t easily buy ranch dressing in England? What’s up with that? I mean what the hell do the Brits dip their hot wings in while watching the Super Bowl? That’s just one of the obvious limitations of national borders, albeit one of the more egregious ones. Of course for those of us who get car-d ons the worse examples are all the iron denied an eager buying public because of concerns like safety and market viability.
Pish-posh I say. Let us have it all and let God sort ‘em out. Or something like that. Whatever the reason, not having certain cars in your country of choice can be a right pisser. Sure, as Antti has shown us, resourceful types take matters into their own hands and pretty much run what they brung. But not all of us are that capable. Or are willing to extend any effort at all for that matter.
And so, for those of us unable to make our dreams come true, which car or truck is the most dreamy? Is there one car that you worshiped from afar – across an ocean perhaps? If so, which one do you most lament not being sold where you could actually buy it? You know, if you actually had money?
Image: [freebestwallpapers]
Not content to simply foil his ex’s attempt to commandeer custody of their car, Darren decided to make the most of the opportunity.
Image: [Moxiecrimefighter06 via Flickr]
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