Dec. 28 Weekly Open Thread
As always, this is the venue for discussion that doesn't really fit anywhere else.
- Saab's future is still up in the air, but Saabs United has a good analysis of the situation. I'm not sure what to make of the speculation that the Saab 9-5 might be rebadged as a Buick. Should I be pleased that Buicks might be a little more interesting--sort of the opposite of the Saab Trailblazer 9-7X--or whether I should be annoyed at another bastardization of Saab.
- Over the past week I have been obsessed with this traffic simulator, which simulates how easily traffic backups can form. My favorite mode is the on-ramp, in which you can tweak the volume of highway and on-ramp traffic to generate backups. Call me a geek if you wish--but I have had that traffic moving for about a week straight now, tweaking the traffic volume to simulate high- and low-traffic times. It's a time-waster par excellence.
--Chris H.
David Colborne on December 28, 2009 at 12:27 PM
I was just thinking this morning as I drove to work that it was a shame that Buick didn't crank out more GNX-style sleepers. They could throw together a series of commercials showing staidly styled Buicks looking as anonymous as ever with some middle-aged guy behind the wheel. In one commercial, he'd be sitting at a stoplight next to a kid with a tricked out ricer revving his engine like an idiot. The guy would just be sitting there thinking, "He sees my Buick. He sees its mature styling, its understated elegance. He sees it's reliability. He doesn't see the supercharged Northstar V-8 under the hood, though. He doesn't see the 469 horsepower under my feet, or the 439 foot-pounds of torque under my command. He doesn't see the traction assist system that keeps my wheels firmly planted on the ground for maximum thrust."
Then, there would be a pause.
"He doesn't see me coming."
Then, the old guy would floor it at the light and leave the unctuous youth in his dust.
How that ties into Saabs, well, I have no idea.
Cookie the Dog's Owner on December 30, 2009 at 05:39 AM
Studeblogger's '63 Lark is back on the road after a three-year restoration effort.
http://studeblogger.blogspot.com/2009/12/home-at-last-home-at-last.html