2018 highlights so far

The year is 3/4 over! The lowlight has been Bourdain's passing. But we should definitely celebrate life.

January: Finishing the Pan-American Highway. One of the greatest accomplishments of my life.

February: Baku gifts from Tarlan.

March: @rchen starring in Autoweek's cover story.

The writings of @bzrong have nudged me into a 300ZX, Seiko Giugiaro watches, and seriously consider the new NSX. And now, he has me traveling in questionable cosplay all the time. Read about #Radwood in the latest @AutoweekUSA pic.twitter.com/2DT89IKN9B

— Crazy Rich Chen (@rchen) March 10, 2018

April: Spring break in Palm Desert, California.

May: Wedding in Sedona, Arizona.

June: Austrian dinner with an old friend. I got to catch up with a college bud and I got to check a country off my list.

July: Lake Michigan vacation. So serene. Summering in the Midwest is very underrated.

August: Bonneville Salt Flats. My travel bucket list is now one item shorter.

September: We spent a few days down in Laguna Beach. The last time we were there, we were on our babymoon (vacation before birth). The boy loved it.

Japanese actors as sports balls.

More here.

Flintstones Jetsons electric car ad

As a part of the Dieselgate settlement, VW has to promote electric cars in America (without promoting VW itself). This is the first ad to air on TV.

An-225 takes off from Oakland!

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Dawn patrol to catch Antonov 286 hella super heavy, departure OAK-HNL-GUM. Caution wake turbulence! 🇺🇦 #an225 #an225mriya #sparetheairday #antonov #avgeek

A post shared by Crazy Rich Chen (@rchen) on Sep 10, 2018 at 4:23pm PDT

Orinda Car Show 2018 photos

The local car show is a favorite because it's so close to home (Bay Area traffic, even on weekends, is getting ridiculous) and because there is always a diverse mix of cars. It's not just ultra-expensive supercars or 1960s hot rods.

This Isuzu-Lotus-Kia Elan belonged to a spectator. I also saw a Cayman GT4 with the vanity plate APX NOOB.

This E12 528i is beautiful and very rare. Here is an intro produced by Driving While Awesome.

Next to the BMW in the glare is a Panoz Esperante! I really appreciate these Georgia-built cars. The owner was very patient when explaining the car to passersby. Is it Italian? Is it American? Is it a Ford kit car? He was very patient. He bought it new in 2001 and told me that he saw another Esperante at the show and it's the more aggressive version.

I took a few photos of this Audi 4000S and was ready to walk away when I saw the functioning QUATTRO pattern on the rear defroster. What a neat idea!

I had no idea that there was such a thing as a Vanden Plas Supercharged. Apparently, it's sort of a stretched XJR with a more supple ride.

The unappreciated 968 in a sea of 911s.

Has anyone here owned or driven a 968 before?

Here is a 1979 Ranchero with lights from a Thunderbird(?).

And here is the souped up Esperante. It's apparently a JRD. It came with an enlarged Ford engine and a supercharger and cost over $150,000 new. I had never heard of it before.

Eating the Globe: Serbia

An eagle-eyed friend informed me that a Serbian church is having a food festival today, so I took advantage. The food was cooked by amateurs and was unfortunately not that great. I had the lamb and the Serbian version of crepes. One had feta and spinach. The other had ham and cheese.

Countries tried so far:
Africa: Algeria, Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Somalia, South Africa, Tunisia, Zimbabwe
Asia: Afghanistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, Cambodia, China, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen
Europe: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine
North America: Belize, Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Trinidad & Tobago, USA
South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela
Oceania: Australia, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga

Tour of $250m Los Angeles mansion

The Smoking Tire podcast described this mansion recently. I just hope it gave a lot of laborers lots of work for a while.

Brazilians are sick of Venezuelan migrants

Kansai Int'l Airport typhoon damage

Maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all.

In the mid-90s, Kansai airport was built on an artificial island to relieve congestion at Osaka airport. It is connected to the mainland by a bridge. Kansai is now the third busiest airport in Japan. The recent typhoon flooded the entire airport and a boat has crashed into the bridge.

Weird Peugeot ad running in Brazil