Tamerlane's Thoughts

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Bentley Continental Flying Spur / VW Phaeton interior comparison

As you may know, 2005 and 2006 Flying Spurs were built alongside the Phaeton in Dresden. So how similar are these two cars? The biggest difference is the engine. American Phaetons came with 4.2 liter V8s or normally aspirated 6.0 liter W12s. The Bentley came with a twin turbo 6.0 liter W12.

But looking at the interiors, the layouts are virtually identical. It's just that the Bentley has a lot more leather and chrome. I've gathered some interior pictures of the four-seat models of the Bentley and the VW as well as saabkyle04's comprehensive videos of each car.

Bentley front:

Phaeton front: (Note that the vents are behind the wood dash paneling.)

Bentley back:

Phaeton back:

Bentley dash:

Phaeton dash: (The gauges are identical, except the VW also gets oil temp and volt readouts.)

Republican presidential candidates' entourage size comparison

The New York Times created this neat little graphic. Here is the full version. Iowa results are at the bottom of this post. As you can see, the size of the entourage has no correlation whatsoever with how many votes are garnered.

2012 Iowa Caucus results:
1. Romney 30,015 votes 24.6%
2. Santorum 30,007 votes 24.5%
3. Paul 26,219 votes 21.4%
4. Gingrich 16,251 votes 13.3%
5. Perry 12,604 10.3%
6. Bachmann 6,073 5% (She dropped out today.)
7. Huntsman 745 votes 0.6%

Facebook, circa 1984

Click to enlarge.

Source.

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Obama's 2008 Iowa Caucus victory speech video

After months of hilarious jockeying, the Iowa Caucus is finally here. It's hard to imagine that just four years ago, Obama beat Edwards and Clinton there. His victory speech is worth listening to, if not just for nostalgia's sake. Though some progress has been made since Obama became president, some of his supporters have been left disappointed. The biggest failure has been his inability (and the Republicans' unwillingness) to work together on anything substantive.