Car Lust

The Natchez Trace Parkway at Highway 96 West

Just southwest of Nashville, Tennessee, lies the Northern Terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway. And about 8.7 miles down the Trace, where it crosses Highway 96 West, sits this amazing structure. This intersection also happens to be the first exit after you enter the 444-mile-long Parkway.

Here we are looking East toward Franklin, Tennessee; Google Maps shows a nice picture of it. And as one indication of the magnificent scenery here, the view from the bridge won me a Car and Driver "10 Best Straightaways Contest Winner" sweatshirt and some ink in the January, 2000 issue.

Carspotters' Challenge #57--Maybe Diamonds Are Forever, But Police Cars Sure Aren't

There's a great car chase scene in James Bond's "Diamonds Are Forever" that was filmed in downtown Las Vegas. I've seen this whimsical pursuit at least 50 times, and still get a kick out of it every time.

In this chase, our favorite double naught spy, along with the lovely Miss Tiffany Case, are being pursued by Sin City's finest. Among other treats, this chase introduces moviegoers to the right way (and the wrong way) of driving a car on two wheels. There's also some great smash-'em-up scenes, yet nobody gets hurt.

Here's a frame from the 1971 feature during the wild pursuit. The blue & white police car is a bit out of focus, but there's plenty of other vintage sheet metal that can be identified:

Some Cars Just Should NOT Have 4 Doors

"You're travelling through another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. At the signpost up ahead, your next stop... the twilight zone." --Rod Serling

Yes, folks, some cars just should not be 4-doors. A lot of folks felt this way when the Dodge Charger was reintroduced in the 2006 model year, but we did get used to it. For the most part. I know the cops sure did.

And usually, if a car has a back seat, I'd like back doors there. I learned my lesson in a 2-door Chevette about leaning forward to let folks in the back.

But there are some cars that no amount of time will ever pass to let them be. They are surely from, or should go to, the twilight zone.

Carspotters' Challenge #56--Sunset Strip, 1979

Swimmin' pools, movie stars... and great '70s vintage cars! Why, Cecil B. DeVille himself couldn't have assembled a better cast of Car Lust Delectables for this week's Carspotters' Challenge.

Our occasional contributor Tigerstrypes found this beauty shot. And if I may, I'd like to suggest that we all click here to get the best resolution of the image, sweetheart. That's better than sunglasses; there's no need to squint while you're in Tinsel Town. ("Look, is that John Belushi I see over there? Hey, John!")

1972-1976 Volkswagen SP2

While searching images for the Buick Centurion / LeSabre post, I stumbled on this car by accident. I had never heard of an SP2... and now I'd love to have one.

But I'd probably have a better chance of going to Mars than getting one. Only 670 of them left their home in Brazil, and none of them ever came to the United States as new cars.

That racy bodywork included a rear-mounted engine under a hatchback lift gate. Not an easy trick to design, I'm sure. And it's got to be safe... look at all that front crush space. The only styling reservation I might have is that I think a little more time should have been spent on the grille-less front end... though it does grow on one after a while. And just imagine some rallye or fog lights there.

An SP2 is stunning to look at, even 40+ years later. The long hood/short trunklid styling screams Italiano! As well it should, since the SP2's designers included Jose Vicente Martins, Jorge Oba, and Marcio Piancastelli, who studied under the great Luigi Segre at Carrozzeria Ghia. Its cabin appointments were also first class for the time, and the rear engine area shows engineering packaging of sheer genius.

April 22 Weekly Open Thread: The "New Car" Blues

Our recent $100,000 Fantasy Garage Challenge has inspired me to seek out and find a new vehicle. I won't say the brand so that nobody gets offended or sued, but I will say that so far, the experience has been a borderline nightmare.

On my first visit to the dealer, they said they can't discount any new ones at all. Then I got on the internet, and saw that they are advertising a $1,500 discount or more on all of them (after a "Dealer Fee" of $598 is added).

Now I'm getting the usual runarounds... "There's no markup to work with," and "It's the time of the year where everybody wants one."

There was the perennial favorite, "There aren't any incentives on them right now." Then I got hammered with, "What are you going to trade in?" (I never trade.) Also, "Who do you have your financing with?" (It's a cash deal, folks.) Seems they're exploring every other opportunity to stick me as well. At this point, I'm seriously thinking about forgetting the whole thing.

But the biggest "pisser" has been when I have twice placed a vehicle request all over the Middle Tennessee region, and the local dealer sees it. They saw the requests and quickly called me back to say, "You won't get a better deal than we will give you," and, "You need to come back in so we can toss some numbers around."

1971-1973 Buick Centurion vs. 1971-1973 Buick LeSabre

"Uh-LLLLadies... and... Gen-tle-men! On the left, weighing 4,329 lbs. and standing 54 inches in height with a wheelbase of 124 inches, we have the 1973 Buick Centurion. And on the right, also weighing 4,329 lbs. and standing 54 inches and with a wheelbase of 124 inches, we have the 1973 Buick LeSabre."

"So, from the Car Lust home office here in the great United States of America..."

"... Uh-Let's get ready to rum-bullllllll!"

Quite a while back in a discussion here at Car Lust, we swapped stories comparing the similarities and differences of Buick's Wildcat/Centurion vs. their LeSabre. If memory serves, the outcome more or less stated that the Wildcat/Centurion was Buick's "sporty" full-sized car while the LeSabre was the more practical one. Of course, the Electra 225, Buick's flagship luxury model, had enough differences to not be included in the discussion.

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:

$100,000 Fantasy Garage Challenge: That Car Guy

Let's see... a hundred grand for garage toys. Where to start?

How about our brand new vehicle first. For that, I'd get a 2-door Jeep Wrangler Sport, which is their base model. And from their somewhat limited palette, I'd get this color called Commando Green, which looks somewhat military to me.

I built and priced one; they come standard with tilt, cruise, traction control, steering wheel-mounted audio controls, fog lamps, a 285-hp V-6, a 6-speed manual, and more. Oh yeah, it also has 4WD standard... a Jeep without 4WD? Heresy!

The only options I'd want are air conditioning and a hard top; soft tops are just way too noisy on the highway. Its Grand Retail Total, minus shipping, is $24,085. Not bad.

Why get a Jeep? Well, I've always liked them, they make great service vehicles, if you get stuck it's your fault, and despite new model year updates, I think we know pretty much what the next one will look like.

February 18 Weekly Open Thread: More Electric Car Whining

The automotive world is slowly accepting electric cars and the like. But there is controversy of late. It seems that a test drive of a Tesla went wrong... that it didn't meet the advertised claims of its parent company.

Or did it fail? There are two sides to this story, and Tesla has a great argument.

Rather than me trying to retell the story, here it is from Wikipedia:

"On 8th February 2013, the New York Times published a review, written by John Broder, about the real possibility of a Tesla Model S making a trip between Washington, D.C. and Boston using Tesla's Supercharger network, which only has two stations in the East Coast. In this review Broder made a variety of negative claims about the limitations of batteries during cold weather, and the separation between Tesla's charging stations, that resulted in finishing the trip with the Model S carried by a flatbed truck to the Milford station in Connecticut.^[81]

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk responded in a blog on Tesla's website, publishing logs of the charge levels and driving speed that contradicted Broder's account on several factual details.^[82] Musk implied that Broder's behaviour in charging and driving the car forced the car to fail. Broder replied to Musk's criticism in a blog post.^[83] In the middle of the controversy, a reporter from CNN recreated Mr. Broder's trip, and he was able to make it with battery capacity still left. However, there were two key differences with CNN's test from the one from the New York Times. The weather was about 10 °F warmer, and the reporter did the trip in one day; the reviewer from the Times split it into two.^[84]"

February 11 Weekly Open Thread: T Tops

Ever since Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, and Jackie Gleason made a little movie with a black Trans Am, T Tops have become a staple in our automotive land. For about two decades, every American automaker offered them. The Subaru BRAT, Nissan 300ZX, and Toyota MR2 were a few foreign models that had them as well.

After all, convertibles were gone forever after 1976 (Or so we were told), so this was the only way, other than a sunroof, to open the skies for us motorists. And they just looked, well... cool!

Even the Wikipedia "T Tops" link shows a "Smokey and the Bandit Mobile" as their example of a car with T Tops. In fact, this is that image. So please behold, in all of its splendid magnificence, a 1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with T Tops, which is still the desire of many diehard car chase movie fans, truck drivers, and Coors beer enthusiasts.

Car (Truck) Disgust: 2002 Lincoln Blackwood

We here at Car Lust haven't done a "Car Disgust" post in a while. That's because these posts are usually reserved for the most vile aberrations of automotive expression, the lowest of the low, cars that either have the soul of the devil, or maybe no soul at all.

Car Disgust also includes vehicles so poorly designed or rebadged that the public takes one look, and either laughs histerically, runs away from them, or shrieks in terror en masse. Or worse, we aren't affected at all.

And I think we have one here today folks, that fits many of the requirements of true Car Truck Disgust.

So if I may, to get this post rolling, a little history first. At about the turn of the 21st century, the "Bling" movement was coming into vogue. Some requirements to be in this crowd were that your vehicle had to have huge-diameter (Dubs or larger) shiny wheels that attracted both attention and thieves, tons of chrome and/or gold trim, and all passengers were customarily attired in white wife beaters, excessive jewelry, and droopy trousers. The automotive term "grilles" took on a whole new meaning as well.

To cash in on some of this blingness, Lincoln took one look at this trend, took their F-150 pickup, and tried to turn it into an instant "Blingmobile." But despite a blingafied effort, I think their attempt of puttin' da 'Wood in da 'hood was epic fail.

Car Lust C7 Corvette Roundtable

That Car Guy (Chuck)

Few events stir a car guy's interest more than a dented fender or a new Corvette. Yes, even the slightest vehicle abrasion will cause us to become instant body shop professionals. We immediately and uncontrollably chime in with statements such as, "Yeah, just put some Bondo on it." Then there's always, "The paint will never match, it's a metallic." You know... really important stuff like that.

And now our interest is directed to what is unquestionably the biggest automotive excitement in recent time... the official unveiling of a new Corvette. Which happens about as often as, say, a mountain gets moved. This is one of the few times in our lives that we'll actually see a new Corvette... not disguised spy photos or an "artist's conception," but actual pictures from Chevrolet, of all places! One glance is never enough, we have to study and memorize the details of the brand new sports car for the next few days to come.

January 21 Weekly Open Thread: "The Beast"

About this time every four years in our Nation's capital, we get to see an amazing spectacle. That's right, we get to see live on TV the car we citizens provide to transport and protect our President.

"The Beast" will make its second inaugurational appearance today. And regardless of our political views, any inauguration is a time to relax and enjoy the peaceful transition of power that our country uniquely provides.

Some insiders say that this car is more truck than anything else. I don't believe it's a crossover though. And it definitely was not built for good gas mileage. It, in itself, is an ambassador to the world, as every other Presidential transport, including Air Force One, has been.

Car Lust Classic: Ferrari 288 GTO

Brrr! It's the dead of winter here in North America, quite chilly outside, and our blood is running as slow as 105W motor oil. So, what to do...?

How about a post to get our hearts racing? Something red and fast and gorgeous. How about... a Ferrari!

So to satisfy that, here's a Car Lust Classic by Chris Hafner. If you have any comments, please go to the original post and type away.

 

We don't spend much time talking about Ferraris here at Car Lust. Contrary to popular opinion, that's not really because we prefer oddball Citroens and Chevrolet Citations to Ferraris as cars, or even objects d'lust. Rather, it's because Ferraris are so obviously worthy of lust, and have been so widely feted for their lust-worthy qualities, that there's just not much left to say about them. The Ferrari America and the 360 Modena are obviously brilliant cars, but everybody under the sun already knows everything about them. That fertile ground has already been plowed, sown, and reaped many times.

The exception to that rule is today's car, the 1984 Ferrari 288 GTO. This latter-day 1980s GTO just happens to be that rarest of breeds--a limited-production, hyper-exotic Ferrari supercar that, due to a strange combination of circumstances, has remained far more obscure than its nameplate and performance would indicate.

January 7 Weekly Open Thread: Please Bring Back Opera Windows

A few weeks ago, December 10 to be exact, fellow Car Lust contributor Anthony Cagle helped introduce us to "The Lincoln Motor Company." A couple of commenters, yours truly included, suggested that Lincoln return to a 1970s Detroit styling icon, the opera window(s). This design element might help that "budding" company set itself apart from the rest of automobilia with perhaps a touch of class from a bygone era... just as their ads suggest.

From a Mustang II Ghia to a Cadillac Sedan de Ville and most everywhere in between, opera windows, along with padded vinyl roofs, upright hood ornaments, and wide bodyside mouldings were a staple of style. Some of them were done well, and others... weren't.

Presenting a few cars in their resplendent glory to whet one's appetite for the good old days:

Carspotters' Challenge #42--It's All Over But The Cryin'

♫ "It's All Over But The Cryin'."♫ If that's not a country music song, it should be. And our Holidays are now over, except for the surprise we'll get when we open our next bank statements. Oh the pain... the pain.

But at least the nightmare of the parking lot wars is over. So to take our minds off of the upcoming "obligations," here's a reminder, maybe from 1986 (See the scribbling?), of the fun we had finding parking spaces at the mall last month. And I'm sure glad that's over... till next time.

I have no idea where this was taken, maybe Florida since the trees are still green, but I see lots of cool iron!

--That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credit: HandInPocket.com.