Car Lust

April 15 Weekly Open Thread: "'Leisure Suits and Avocado Ovens' Theme Week"

April 15 is a very historic day. The Titanic sank, Abraham Lincoln passed, and our federal income taxes are due. So to cheer things up a bit today, we're announcing a time travel "Theme Week" back to the 1970s.

We're taking some light looks at a few automotive subjects, staying silent about that little thing that happened in Washington, and we'll totally avoid the dreaded "D" word as well.

Plus you won't even see the word "Vega."

Now get out your CB radios, squeeze into that blue leisure suit, and climb into the Gremlin for a few days.

Oh and today, this is also the place where we can talk about anything even remotely concerning cars, trucks, bikes, station wagons, convertibles, and stuff.

--That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credit: Our totally hip cruising van image is from WIUX.org.

2013 Honda CBR500R: The First Ride

Dreams can come true. Some time around last November, I read that Honda was about to build the bike of my dreams. And since I'm quickly reaching the age where the "Sunny Acres Trailer Park" in Retirementville, Florida, is looking more appealing every day, I figured this may be my last motorcycle. So I wanted to go all out and do it right.

On January 16th, 2013, for my birthday (Which I surprisingly share with Top Gear's James May), I put a deposit down on a red, white, and blue CBR500R, like the one pictured here. I knew the bike would not go on sale until sometime in April, which was fine with me. Turns out we had a longer winter than normal, and I was not going to be able to ride it anyway. Plus, waiting for the bike gave me something to look forward to as the dreary winter day pages fell off of the calendar.

I had about three months before the bike was to arrive, so internet shopping, here we come. First, a new all-white helmet was in order. Sounds easy enough, but that was harder to find than first imagined... most of today's helmets look like a custom shop has spent hours airbrushing each one of them. New boots and a riding suit to match the bike soon came in the mail as well.

April 8 Weekly Open Thread: The More Things Change... (Episode 1, Part 2)

Yesterday we showed three similar views from recent-model cars, and everybody was invited to decipher what was what. Today, we reveal which is which.

The first image is from a Subaru Imprezza.

April 8 Weekly Open Thread: The More Things Change... (Episode 1, Part 1)

I'd like to start a comment series on car design, if I may. That's because people are saying that lots of today's cars look the same. We're not talking rebadging here, but makes and models from just about everybody.

This series will focus on parts and pieces of cars, and you get to guess who made them. On Mondays the images will be presented, and participation is encouraged. On Tuesdays, the answers (and image credits) will be revealed, and any more discussion is welcome. This won't be a weekly feature like our Carspotters' Challenges, it will just pop up from time to time.

In fair disclosure, I had to reverse two of these images (The third and fourth) so that they all faced the same way. But since both sides of these cars should be mirrored, the reversed images should accurately depict the passengers' side.

Our first post will focus on C Pillars, that area where the rear door meets the roofline. Lately, I've noticed many "hockey stick" looking designs that all look the same in this area. So if you can, please look at these images and see if you can tell what 2012 or 2013 model cars they are from:

April 1 Weekly Open Thread: Don't Open That Door!

We've all seen it played over and over in hundreds of movies and TV shows: The hero or heroine is trying to escape from the bad guy, monster, zombie, alien, TV critic, etc. They rush to a car -- either theirs or any random car sitting nearby which miraculously almost always has the key left in the ignition -- and start it up. . . .only to find it won't start! After thumping the steering wheel and looking at the approaching fiend a couple of times, the car miraculously starts just as the bad guy reaches it! Saved! (loud clip, btw)

I'm not entirely certain when this particular cliché got started. Some have argued that it all began with Double Indemnity when the director, after his personal car didn't start on the set, decided that a little more drama was required and had the actors pretend to have difficulty starting the car a couple of times before really turning it over for real and speeding away. This made sense to me growing up because, let's face it, anyone over the age of 30 or so remembers when cars quite often did have trouble starting. This scenario has gradually changed as cars have become far more reliable and the idea of, say, a Honda not starting up is kind of unthinkable.

David's Greatest Hit: The 1992 Mercury Marquis

Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame:  I never met David. We didn't spend extra time talking via emails, and I never once heard his voice.  We never shared a special friendship above all others.  But we shared something: a silly love for cars that didn't always deserve the passion.

John Donne said, "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

Do not ask for whom the car horn honks; it honks for thee.

I hope that my alteration of the quote isn't taken as a lack of respect.  It is my first reaction to try to lighten serious moods, to make it easier to carry the burden.

At times, as I've participated in various online communities, I've wondered what would happen if I died.  How would anyone know?  How would I be remembered?  Would I be missed?  Would my absence even be noticed?

David, you are remembered.  You are missed.  This man, whom I have never met...his friendship, the bond created through a common love, touched me in ways I never realized until he was gone.

Car Lust Classic: Our Cars--1951 Cadillac Sedan

by David Drucker, posted May 2, 2008

I want to tell you about the 1951 Cadillac sedan I bought in 1970. Not because it was such a wonderful car--although it most definitely was--but because of a defining experience I had behind its enormous, non-power-assisted steering wheel. First, though, let me introduce the car.

I was 21, living in Brooklyn, and needed something to replace the '65 Dodge Custom 880 that I had, in a fit of pique, sold. For a while I looked at first-generation Corvair convertibles which, thanks to Ralph Nader, were as cheap as cheese. I was about to answer an ad for a red four-speed when a nearby listing caught my eye. It read, “1951 Cadillac 62 sedan. Black. Good shape. $150.” I was intrigued, and not just by the price. You see, in 1970, a car from the early Fifties looked positively ancient. It made a fashion statement that your average late-Eighties sedan wouldn’t begin to duplicate today....

Click here to read the rest of the original post.

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The David Drucker you saw here at Car Lust, unashamedly singing the virtues of V-8 Yankee road barges like the one above, was just one small part of a very large picture. He was the author of Billboard's Complete Book of Audio, an avid musician and guitar collector whose musical tastes ran from the Grateful Dead to Frank Sinatra by way of Alison Krauss and Widespread Panic, a fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books and Monty Python's Flying Circus. He was one of those people who found joy in life, and brought joy to everyone around him. Though I never physically met him, my life is richer for having known him.

As he walks the Streets of Gold, I have no doubt he'll come across a pristine '92 Grand Marquis with the keys in the ignition and a copy of American Beauty in the cassette deck--that or a '51 Caddy.

--Cookie the Dog's Owner

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David's work here at Car Lust inspired me before I became a contributor. He brought the perfect cars to the limelight, and contributed to our long-running "Very Good/Bad Years" series. I can't remember a bad word he ever said about anybody or anything... in fact he even defended minivans.

I, too, never met or chatted with David. But I still felt I knew him. He, I, and the rest of the Car Lust writers and readers are united by our interests in these jalopies. I just wish he was here to write some more about them.

And if I take anything from this, I want to reach out and meet as many of this group as I can. I'd like to call some folks and put a voice to a name. Maybe even meet one or two more in person. We've lost a member of the Car Lust family... but maybe this will knit the rest of us a little closer together.

David, I hope you enjoy that Grand Marquis up there.

--That Car Guy (Chuck)

$100,000 Fantasy Garage Challenge: Readers' Responses

Our readers seem to have had at least as much fun with the Fantasy Garage Challenge as we did.

Here's what they came up with:

$100,000 Challenge, Take 2: Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame's Max Cars Edition

After reading Chris Hafner's post, I realized that if I hadn't gone so Mazda-heavy, I could have gotten some great 20- and 30-year-old cars in my garage.

I wanted to try again, with a fresh slate.  I hope you'll indulge me, and I hope you even find it entertaining.

But I've got to change the rules, slightly.  I'll still have limitations, because limitations help channel and inspire creativity.

First change: no "car currently on sale" requirement.  All cars need to be 20 to 30 years old.  Maybe 15, at most.  The point is to get cars that are old enough to be great value, but not so old as to be "classic".  The point is to catch cars near the bottom part of the trough, where the value has declined as much as possible, but not to the point where the value starts to rebound from rarity/coolness.

Second change: I have to have exactly 20 cars.  No more, no less.  The point is to see how close I can get to the $100k total without going over, for exactly 20 cars.

Third change: All car prices will be according to the NADA "clean retail" price, but here's the twist: if you can manage to find a 20-year-old car in "clean retail" condition, it won't really be ready to go.  The coolant system will be having problems, or it will consume oil as lustily as Vikings drank mead, or the paint will be starting to flake off, or a few minor rust points, or the alignment will be horribly off, or...you get the picture.  A 20-year-old car that wasn't lovingly restored to new condition is going to have some issues.  So right off the bat, I will budget $2000 per car to get it up to speed.  That might go to a tune-up, or a paint job, or a replacement door + paint, or an alignment, or a new radiator, etc.  That might be an underestimation, but we are starting with a "clean retail" example, so I think an average of $2000 will work.

That leaves me with $60,000 to get 20 cars.  So I'm looking for cars I can get for averaging just about $3000 each.

That's the rules I have.  Let's see what I come up with.

$100,000 Fantasy Garage Challenge: Chris Hafner

When Cookie the Dog's Owner proposed the $100K Fantasy Garage challenge, I was immediately intrigued. Who among us has not dreamed about which cars we'd purchase if only we had the funds available? This challenge is a license to mentally catalog our old and new favorites, weigh pros and cons, and show our tastes and brand loyalties through the creation of a carefully curated collection.

The genius in this challenge is the $100K value limit. Without that, we wouldn't have anything to keep us tied to reality. After all, why add a Mazda to your list when you could add a Maybach? Why add a CRX when you could add an FXX? But the $100K limit, combined with the requirement to include one brand new car, is almost perfect. A cool hundred grand sounds like a lot of money, but it doesn't go as far as one might imagine. I could easily concoct a scenario in which two very nice but still fairly ordinary vehicles consume the whole budget, so turning this into a true fantasy garage requires some creativity.

I chose to put my own spin on this challenge by laying out a series of tasks that I want the cars in my garage to fulfill, and then picking the cars I thought would best fill those roles. This required a lot of revision, as I shifted resources from one bucket to the next, and leaves me without some of my all-time favorites (omitting the Porsche 928, E28 BMW M5, and GMC Typhoon was pretty painful). Overall, though, I'm pretty pleased with the results.

Since in some cases I'm linking off to listings on Craigslist and eBay there's a chance that those links will be dead fairly quickly. My apologies for that, but I'll try to capture some of the pertinent details in the text so that the story doesn't suffer too much.