Prom cars

The Superbowl (Supertazon in Spanish) is this Sunday, which means lots of car ads.  Here is Audi's prom ad.

This reminds me of my prom, circa 1992.  The coolest car by far that showed up was a brand new Porsche Carrera 4.  It belonged to the girl's father.  And he let her date drive it to/from the prom!  Lucky bastard.

Pemex HQ explosion video

Huge explosion at Mexico's nationalized petroleum company's HQ.  At least 14 dead.  Simple natural gas explosion, or something more sinister?

Also, the dress code for female anchors down there.  Wow.

Soviet-era tractor and bulldozer pull out Nissan Patrol

Jump to 0:35.

Are these the same?

I'm missing a cupholder plastic trim piece.  I don't want to shell out money and pay for shipping from GB, if they're incompatible/asymmetric.

Carspotting (Hong Kong edition): Toyota Century

Tim, Zachary's cohort at The People's Wheels, spotted this in Hong Kong last week.  Can't wait for a full debrief on the trip.  I asked Tim to take lots of pictures.

Model bloat: Old Hondas edition

Via Gimmi@Oppo.

VW Phaeton cupholder internals

I'm still missing the small black plastic tab (1 of 4) for my cupholder (1 of 2).

Via Pan-European at VW Vortex.

French troops liberate Timbaktu

Coda electric car review

It'll be out of business by year's end.

Immature jerks shut down 880 in Oakland yesterday

Once again, a few bad apples ruin it for everyone else.  To the right is where the Raiders, A's, and Warriors play.  To the left is the exit to Oakland airport.  I drive on that stretch fairly regularly.

Video here.

Ferrari FF versus Bentley Continental V8, in the snow

Accidentally cool car day in Benecia

Benecia is one of those towns near your house that never garnered your interest.  You have no friends there.  You don't know of any restaurants there.  You have no business to conduct there.  It's just a freeway exit.

Today, I went to Benecia to see my friend's artwork at a local exhibition.  The exhibit, along with many artists' studios, are housed in what was the Benecia Arsenal.  For a century, it was the largest ordinance facility on the West Coast.

In Benecia, thousands of new cars are unloaded off of ships every year.  A lot of petroleum products are refined here as well.  So if you are a car, ship, train, or industrial design buff, this is Disneyland.

This isn't my friend's piece.  It's a Plymouth grill.

Right outside the Arsenal was this behemoth, a Wallenius Wilhelmsen-owned ship.  The company is Norwegian-Swedish.  It's unclear if all those Priuses in the foreground came out of that ship.

This was a cool find.  A whole bunch of Coda electric cars.  They are sold only in California.  Would anyone buy a $37,000 electric car with Chinese build quality?  The answer is a resounding no.  These cars are not going to find any buyers.  This may be Coda's entire world inventory.

Nearby are the camel barns.  In the mid-1800s, the U.S. Army cavalry had a camel corps.  And it was based in Benecia.

Across the street from the barns was a huge lot.  There were a few of these Holden/Chevy police interceptors.  The rest of the lot was filled with Buick Encores, a compact crossover.  It's apparently the Opel Mokka in Europe.  It is made in South Korea.

Seeing these Encores being delivered was amazing.  Hundreds of them were being transferred from the ship to this parking lot.  Drivers in identical cars would follow closely to each other and speed into the lot.  Every 10 cars was followed by a 15-passenger van.  As soon as the cars are parked, the drivers would hop into the van and the van would haul ass and transport the drivers back to the ship to pick up more cars.  It was beautifully choreographed, and so fast.

Here are a bunch of police cars being delivered.

Diesel 240SX

Via AutoNeurotic:

Carspotting: Porsche 356

Crazy slot car track in Finland

Edvin, any insights on this?  How do you keep track of your car at those speeds?

Carspotting: Willys Jeep truck

Kubica's right arm/hand

He's not coming back to F1, unfortunately.

Carspotting: 1996 VW Golf Mk3 Harlequin Edition

I don't often go to the courthouse in Vallejo, but when I do, I often see this car along the way.

According to Wikipedia, only 264 were sold in North America in 1996.  There are four color combinations.  This combo is considered as "ginster yellow".  I peered inside.  It's an automatic.

Porsche PDK transmission

I was chatting with a colleague about his newish 911 and he told me that it is for sale.  I asked if it was a manual or an auto, and he said, with a proud grin, that it has PDK.  The car is also mildly modified so that it's comparable to Euro-spec models (I didn't ask for details) and he claims it gets 25 mpg.

If I had the money, I would definitely buy it.  I don't know what the name of the color of his car is, but it is gorgeous.

ProForm Tour de France stationary bike

I can't tell if this is brilliant or dumb.  I'll go with brilliant.

All the James Bonds combined

This is what he would look like.

Curb rash

I am so mad at myself.  While driving out of a parking garage, I didn't notice a curb to my right and hit my rear passenger side wheel with it.  I was so proud of my flawless eight year old rims.  Ugh.

So can these be repaired?  Sanded out?  Buffed?  Or should I leave it alone?

Dodge Charger Daytonas

Via Oppo.

Assembling Bugatti's W16 engine

Bachelor Party and The Hangover

Here in the States, we just had a three-day weekend.  I turned down an invite to a friend's bachelor party in Vegas.  We are not that close and frankly, I'm getting too old for the festivities/frivolities.

Here are two classic bachelor party movies.

Farewell, Timo Glock

Good driver.  Too bad Toyota was not quite there.

First podium: 2nd in Hungary (2008)

Second podium: 3rd in Malaysia (2009)

Third podium: 2nd in Singapore (2009)

Inauguration photo

Taken today near the National Mall.

Martin Luther King Day

Reagan reluctantly signing into law which designated MLK Day as a federal holiday.

Madagascar's Avenue of the Baobabs

Source.

Cars I saw today

Today, we went to Alameda for lunch and some shopping.  All of these cars were found within a three block radius.  Alameda, a.k.a. The Island That Rust Forgot, as you may know, is where Murilee Martin based his Down On the Street series.  

First, we've got this 1991 Honda Civic Si.  It's got a manual transmission.  The plastic wheel covers are peeling but otherwise, the exterior looks great.  I looked in the back seat and there were Maxell VHS tapes!  According to the state vehicle test history website, this car had a hard time passing smog last year.

Old beaters, like this Chevy Belair wagon, are everywhere.

I'm not a big new Camaro fan, but with these optional Chevy black steelies, the car looks very appealing.

Just as we were loading our Honda with drug store purchases, this Ford Capri drove by.  It sounded strong and was driven by an old lady.

After we got home, I decided to wash our cars.  It was supposed to be relaxing, but I've got a couple of neighbor kids who are clueless.  I told them to be careful as I was going to move the car.  And while I was moving it, one of the kids blindly rode his bike into and out of my garage.  Dumb kid.

Subaru car wash ad

Guess what I'll be doing during today's Niner-Falcons game?  Washing our cars!

Dumb kids:

Batmobile documentary

Somebody paid over $4m yesterday for the original.  Crack.  Pipe.

Mercury Montclair Breezeway

Yesterday, I went to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury District to meet up with Tim from The People's Wheels.  I spotted this weird looking gigantor, which I'm wholly unfamiliar with.  When I showed this picture to Tim, he immediately yelped "Breezeway".  What's a Breezeway?  The rear window rolls down!

Four very different Dodge Stealth commercials

I saw, or rather, heard, a Dodge Stealth Turbo warble past me the other night.  I always preferred the looks of the 3000GT, but the Stealth was a seriously fast car as well.

What I learned to drive in at age 15 1/2

My mom's white E30 325i sedan.

My step-dad's brown 450SEL.

Ford Fusion Hybrid ad

WTF is this supposed to mean?

New American Airlines livery

Reminds me of:

Road & Track Vector

From Brendan.

Obama kids NRA ad

Isuzu Impulse dash

Hooniverse has a piece on my first car here.