Teh Car Blogz

So a few week ago, dad and I decided that we both sort of… needed a vacation. A plan was hatched. We would drive northwest (generally) from Raleigh, making a few stops along our way, to our destination of Jackson Hole Wyoming for some peace and quiet in the wilderness. As we planned the trip, the question came up: “What do you want to see along the way?” Without a minute’s hesitation, I blurted out: “Tail Of The Dragon!” This was met with stares of incomprehension and confusion, and so I explained: “318 curves, 11 Miles.”

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Spotted this gem while I was sitting outside my local Starbucks today, sipping on a cold beverage. This is, apparently, a prototype for the upcoming “Short Bus” edition Mustang Cobra.

Rumor has it that it’s powered by a twin-charged Honda F20C from the S2000, has all-wheel-drive from the Subaru WRX STi Type RA Spec C 5.9 Cummins Type-R LSD R1 Turbo, and that each door comes complete with a poorly made vinyl silhoutte of an utterly retarded Horse on the side. This will be a serious performance car - Lotus had better watch it’s puny little back. Those Elise’s are going to be littering the sides of the road, doors blown clear off, like so many dead leaves during the cold nights of Autumn…

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in a continuation of the last “Uncommon Q-ship” article, we now move our geographic concentration from Sweden to the good old US of A. Or well, sort of. A bit of Japan, too.

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Even people who know nothing about cars, know that there are cheap cars and there are expensive cars, and there are cars in between. It’s a pretty simple concept.

People automatically assume that a more expensive car is, by definition, a better one. You pay more, you get more. There’s a reason that a $10,775 Hyundai Accent has a 1.6L 110bhp engine, and a $320,000 Mercedes SL65 AMG Black has… 670 horsepower.

Still, when you boil cars down to their most basic, they all do the same thing (if they’re working): you get in them, turn them on, operate the controls and they transport you from starting point A to destination B. A $10,775 Accent Coupe then is exactly the same as the $320,000(estimated) SL65 AMG Black. Obviously, this makes no sense! There must be something, some reason for Gallardo’s to exist!

Of course there is. Otherwise, it’d be a pretty bleak world for us car guys to exist in. Here are some of my findings I attained after exhaustive research.

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I was on my way to class the other day when i spotted this parked next to a curb on campus at UNC Chapel Hill. I so rarely see them that I figured it warranted a few pictures. It’s an early-90’s Subaru SVX, known in it’s native Japan as the Alcyone SVX. It was the replacement for the unsellable but loveably strange XT coupe of the 80’s - the one that looks like a door wedge, has a one-spoke steering wheel, electrohydraulic steering and some bizarre adjustable ride height feature. Coming from that perspective, I suppose the SVX was a bit normal. Compared to most cars, though…

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The PCA (Porsche Club of America, as opposed to the SPCA) has a relatively strong presence in my locale of Raleigh, NC. Maybe it’s because Raleigh is one of those booming up-and-coming towns, but when there is an “exotic car show”, the turnout is always impressive. I’ll begin with this little gem of a picture:

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One of the most common themes of the American automotive marketplace is that, compared to most the rest of the world, we really get the shaft when it comes to automobile selection. This is because carmakers tend to make cars designed for the “stereotypical American mindset,” that is to say, cars for fat people who don’t like corners or clutches. It’s quite painful to see the rest of the world get sweet small cars, awesome rear-wheel-drive sedans, and many other things while we’re (for the most part) stuck with the stale leftovers. Here’s a few cars I think should be brought in - and a few cars that I think should just go ahead and pack their things.

Import it: Ford Mondeo/ Ford Falcon

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One of the most rewarding experiences you can have while driving a car is attacking a truly challenging piece of tarmac. At least, that’s my opinion. Some people get their jollies from heads-up drag races. That’s interesting once; then the result is the same every time if your technique is any good. Revs up, drop clutch, spin tires lightly, hold till redline, clutch and shift, rinse, repeat, snore. Great, your Mustang runs 13.1 seconds in the quarter mile.

But a good road is different every time you go down it. On a long curvy piece of tarmac, there is an infinite number of permutations as to how you can take it, what line to follow, how late to brake and which gears to use. On a truly good road, a better driver in a slower car will beat a mediocre driver in a more capable car every time. That’s why I love a good road. Plus, lateral g-forces are more fun that frontal.

The question then becomes: what exactly is the best conveyance to fling yourself down that favorite backroad like your hair’s on fire? The answer: there is no answer. Like the cat-skinning question (as an aside: who would want to skin a cat? That’s just mean. I love cats) there are many answers.

1) With A Scalpel

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When a manufacturer releases their latest and greatest innovation on society, they usually pump it up with great fanfare, a huge advertising budget, and all the hoopala they can possibly drum up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s completely unnecessary (VW sold out the entire US allotment of 5,000 first-generation R32’s without spending a dime on advertising), and sometimes it just doesn’t make a difference to the fact that the car they’re selling is complete, unmitigated crap. Hey, it happens. Just ask Ford:

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This is the beginning of another new series called Uncommon Q-Ships. It’s meant to highlight some of the performance cars that are mostly forgotten now, cars that are surprisingly quick but mainly anonymous. These were the cars that the smart sports-car buyers got back in the day to fly under the radar. It’s a favorite genre of mine and hopefully this series will jog your collective memories.

My first nomination would be the Aero version of the old Saab 9000. The 9000 was Saab’s first effort at a full-on Luxury car, and it was co-developed along with three other cars to keep costs down: The Alfa Romeo 164, Fiat Croma, and Lancia Thema. This is why unlike all other modern-era Saabs, the 9000 had the key where it normally goes. Beyond that, though, it was all Saab: a 5 door full-size hatchback/sedan that came with turbo power. The original engine was Saab’s 2.0L 16v Turbo straight-four, with 175 horsepower. This is a first-generation 9000 with a nice set of wheels. Classy shape.

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