Best Commercial Of 2015

And it's only January!  My nominee is (Best Soundtrack Category):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lN5yZd1YPY

Unfortunately, there is a problem.  One of these things is not like the other:

The commercial needs different video.  And if Chevy wants to mix the audio from this vid with the audio from their Colorado effort, that's fine.  Or maybe use their sound track for a Camaro or 'Vette commercial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XXXbiatnMA

Brian Johnson of AC-DC owns a Bentley LeMans Replica, so I guess you could say he drives a truck.  ;-)    But he's
better-known for his ownership of, and exploits in, this Lola T 70 at vintage races, including the Goodwood Revival.

Defensive Parking

Here's a news item about a Jerry Seinfeld tribulation on Long Island:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2728950/Jerry-Seinfeld-intervenes-woman-gets-close-rare-vintage-456-000-Porsche.html


I know the feeling, Jer, although the most expensive car I've owned was worth 10% of your RSR.  It's not the money (mostly), it's about your baby.  It's striking that the woman who crowded Seinfeld's car was simultaneously "very sorry" and puzzled (as I read in another account).  She wouldn't have intentionally upset the owner of another car, but was mystified that he was upset.  "It's just a car, for heaven's sake."

I live in daily fear of people like this.  I don't parallel park for three reasons: 1) I live in the suburbs and don't have to, 2) I lost the ability to do it properly about a nano-second after I passed my driver's license test five decades ago, 3) a driver like the one who found Seinfeld's car will find mine.

My Mustang never gets parked in a "group setting."  I try to avoid driving it in traffic, let alone leaving it stationary where someone can get a good fix on it.  Even when I park it at track days, among (but not too close to) like-minded people, I worry.  So far, so good: seven years and counting, no dings or scratches.

My daily driver always gets parked away from other cars, a good distance from the door at the grocery store/mall/airport.  I justify this as personal exercise, but we all know it's defensive parking.  And sure enough, just like that insurance TV commercial, somebody will park next to me, berths and berths away from other vehicles.  And he's not driving a shiny desirable car.  He's driving a beat-up pickup truck or an old minivan.

If I do have to park next to someone, and my grandsons or octogenarian friends are with me, they fling the doors open.  Young people are heedless and old people can't extend their arms fully without falling out.  My sharp intake of breath is audible.  It's the same sound my grandmother used to make when she thought my grandfather was tailgating and he applied his brakes.  (Were she still alive, my grandmother would refuse to ride with me, as my sister now does.  My Dad taught me to drive, but Grampa taught me some of the finer points.)

Despite my obsessive parking, there's a small dimple on the rear quarter of my daily driver.  It got there within months of leaving the dealer's lot.  I have no idea how.  I wasn't around.  Oh... and there are stone chips on the hood.  I know how they got there: following dump trucks too closely on two-lanes, looking to pass them ASAP.

"Still The One" (GTLM At Daytona 2015)

My little circle of car buffs has lately been batting emails around about how these days are the Good Old Days for high-performance cars.  And they're the Good Old Days for GT racing too.  Every bit as good--maybe better than--the early 1960's.  Try as I might, I can't get interested in the Prototypes.  Even when it was pointed out to me that a Honda-engined car was on pole for Daytona and Fords are in the backs of many others (a "no lose" situation for a marque-rooter like me).

The GTLM (LeMans) class did not disappoint at Daytona.  All the top teams suffered slings and arrows, often of the drivers' making.  It's the grind of endurance racing that makes me an enthusiastic spectator.  I admire perseverance for hours in the face of adversity, especially when it is rewarded--as it was for some GTLM teams at Daytona this year.  They didn't Press On Regardless if they were a couple of laps down: they persevered when they were 6-10-20 laps down.  Oh... and the cars are bloody fast.

What would Daytona be without a Brumos Porsche, even if it ran in the "low rent" GTD (Daytona) class, and was entered
by Wright Motorsports?  Hurley Haywood was in their pit to cheer them on.  Factoid: he shares the record for overall
Daytona wins with Scott Pruett (six, I think the presenters said).

Saved From The Crusher (The Wheeler Dealer Porsche 993)

The last air-cooled 911 had a fatter butt than its predecessors, but it was still lithe: not the wide load that current 911's are.
Teal doesn't work for me on a 911, although I recall liking it on a Honda Accord, and it seemed like just about all the
manufacturers had some variation of it in the  '80's and 90's.  The blue tint of the interior with the sunroof closed is
a bit creepy.  Maybe Porsche could have specified grey tint instead? 

A better view of the roof.  Porsche called this model a "Targa." That was news to me: I thought only the earlier models
with a basket-handle hoop behind the front seats and a removable roof panel were called Targas.

The thing that appealed most to me about the teal Wheeler Dealer car was its glass roof.  I like a sunroof, and I like one that's the entire roof even better.  Yeah, it weighs more than other materials, thus raising the car's center of gravity.  Don't care.

In the Wheeler Dealer episode on this 911, Mike Brewer stressed that it was the most unloved Porsche he'd seen.  The two-piece road wheels were so corroded that they wouldn't have passed an "MOT," the British roadworthiness inspection.  (I was surprised that, brakes aside, the power train and running gear were in fairly good shape.)

I've seen only one 911 in worse condition, back in my Porsche dealership days.  Those were also the days before rust-protection was done at the factory.  It was an early series 911, not more than six years old.  By 1970, it was a rust bucket with a Swiss cheese chassis.  The only thing holding it together, it seemed, were the P O R S C H E side-stripes.  It had been taken in trade and was for sale "As Is--No Warranty."  No takers.  Apparently it was winter-driven and unwashed, with results even worse than the Wheeler Dealer car.  Who treats a car like that, not to mention an expensive sports car?

Why We "Never" Get The Good Stuff

Above and below: the SEAT Leon SC.  The Fifth Gear presenters liked it a lot better than the base model Volkswagen
Scirocco.  The Leon SC is both faster and cheaper in the U.K.  And I think it's better-looking.  Of course we won't see
it over here: VW owns SEAT and the Leon S would be a direct competitor with base Golfs and Sciroccos.

The main thing that appeals to me about this car is its restrained styling and use of creases (except for the "triangulated" front).  It's not a true pocket rocket, but a slightly-optioned entry-level car.  But the Fifth Gear people liked it a lot better than its direct competitor, the entry-level VW Scirocco.

Now and then, I get a bit weepy over the excellent cars available in Europe that don't make it over here: the hard-edged Golf GTI, the Honda Civic Type R, the Citroen and Peugeot hot hatches, previous hot rod Ford Focuses and Fiestas.  (In launching the current Focus ST, Ford stressed that we North Americans were getting "the good car," identical to the one sold in Europe.)

But it makes commercial sense.  The European hot hatches are more hard-edged.  And, in my two trips to France and Belgium, I didn't see one over there.  It's a small market segment with a lot of competitors.  On both continents, a hot hatch is a daily driver, not a weekend toy.  The European versions can be smaller cars than their North American counterparts (the Civic Type R, for example).  A softer-edged car makes more sense for our stop-and-go traffic and long Interstate runs.  My Civic Si is a 4-door and I needed one.

I've not seen figures for sales of the GTI vs. the regular Golf, or the Civic Si vs. the regular Civic, but would not be surprised if the hot rods were outsold 20 or 30 to 1 by the normal cars.  So firms like VW and Honda have to ask themselves "Can we sell even more hard-core cars in North America?"  Firms like Citroen, Peugeot, and Vauxhall aren't even in our market.  When Fiat bought Chrysler, it apparently decided (sensibly) not to sell Fiat 500's and Alfa Romeos through Chrysler dealerships.  Instead, the new Dodge Dart has Fiat engineering and components under its sheet metal.

Give the customer what he wants.  There aren't many of us who want a Nurburgring-capable hot hatch.  And of that small number, many need 4 doors.

Thanks, Sid

Sid Ramnarace

One thing you can glean from watching too much Barrett-Jackson on TV is new factoids.  I learned that Sid Ramnarace led the team that designed the Gen 5 (S-197) Mustang.  Ford's then Senior VP of Design,
J. Mays, called the look "retro-futurism," which sounds like desperate marketing-speak to me.

The executives who approve taking a fashion risk (even a retro one) on a new model deserve all due credit.  But the people who conceive the look and refine it in engineering drawings and models scrubbed from all angles deserve the most credit.

It was the modern powertrain and bang-for-the-buck that sold me a Mustang.  But it was thinking "That's a good-looking car!" that got my attention in the first place.  Thankyou, Sid.

Best of the best: the '08-'09 Bullitt.  The lines of the early S-197 coupes would be hard to improve upon.  The Power Pak
and Ford Racing suspension were standard on the Bullitt.  Ford even checked the "spoiler delete" box for you, and the
only color available was Steve McQueen Green.  Henry would have approved: build a good one, on a take it or leave it
basis, and see if they vote with their wallets.

Without the visual mass and smoothness of the fastback roof, the lines of the convertible are less satisfying.  But this view
shows the fine front end of the early Gen 5's.  Which unfortunately packs air under the hood at very hight speeds, causing
it to flutter.  The aero is hardly state-of-the-art.  But I love the look.  Did I mention that the top goes down?

Another Bite At The DS 19 Apple

This Jay Leno "walk around" is the best explanation of the Citroen DS 19 I've seen.  He gets to the core of the matter much better than I did in my blogpost.  As usual, he's very sympathetic to the philosophy of the engineers behind it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzW_ERSgFRY

Anything useful I might say was already said in my previous post about the car.  Oh...  the engineer and car collector mentioned in my post has sold his Citroen SM, which I doubted he would.  He loved the car.  But, he said, "This guy kept pestering me, and eventually he threw so much money at me that I couldn't say no."

http://pilotesanciens.blogspot.com/2014/01/bring-it-back-citroen-ds-19.html