If you are reading this…why? There is so much going on out there right now! Just this weekend Power Tour and the Holley Hot Rod Reunion wrapped up, Ratty Muscle Cars held another gathering of rough and ready muscle at an Alabama dragstrip and there was Bristol, and LeMans, and…you get the point. There’s lots to do and lots to see! So get a bit of Scrapple in your system and get going, man!
1. It keeps going…and going…and going…
The Scion FR-S Subaru BRZ? Toyota 86 was always meant to be a tail-happy little car, but this is ridiculous. Nearly six hours solid of drifting for a new world record? Hats off to South African journalist Jesse Adams, who kept the 86 tail-out with the tires spinning for over 104 miles, but six hours…can you picture him sawing the wheel while yawning? We can!
2. Stevie Wonder could’ve seen this one coming.
Takata, the maker of mini pipe-bombs that inflate airbags and shrapnelize during the process, is expected to start bankruptcy proceedings any second now, and it appears that one of the mandates that will come from said proceedings is that Takata will no longer be able to make airbag inflators. Anybody surprised? Between one of the biggest recalls in the industry and the extreme amount of negative press, you shouldn’t be. Oh, by the way, where are the replacement inflators for Chrysler products? Been waiting on some for Angry Grandpa for quite some time now…
3. This is just sad.
Photo: Green Car Reports
Car and Driver recently interviewed Peter Mertens, the new development guy at Audi, at a Formula E race and they couldn’t help but ask him about whether or not Audi could, or even would, attempt to bring a diesel-powered anything back into the market. We’re just going to use the quotes they printed:
“I would say no, and why is that so? I do not believe that Americans in their true belief and heart, their cultural way of driving, are suited to diesel. They aren’t. Everybody tried—we Europeans tried to give an answer maybe to a question that wasn’t asked.”
“Diesel can be clean with technology, but the problem is the image,” Mertens said. “People think that diesel is bad. It’s not helping us and it’s not helping the environment, speaking frankly. It would be great if we could come back to technical terms and realities instead of alternative facts when it comes to diesel, but it’s very difficult to fight them.”
4. Wait, Australia! I thought we were friends!!
According to Hemmings, there is a law being floated in Australia that is aimed at keeping “culturally significant vehicles” in the country, and to give the government the ability to “seize any vehicle illegally exported since 1987.” What does that mean? It means, in short terms, that there is a chance that the government of Australia might find a way to word law that keeps any Ford of Australia, Chrysler of Australia, or Holden product in Oz, since they were designed, or built, or does it mean cars with a genuine historical significance, like a Peter Brock race car or the first Ford ute? Given Australia’s tendencies towards anything automotive (can you spell “draconian”, boys and girls?), something tells me this will not end well for anyone.
5. You’ll buy the CT6 AND YOU’LL LIKE IT!!!
GM has gotten into a very bad habit lately: building concept cars that are drop-dead knockouts, only for them to simply be nothing more than “styling exercises”. Buick and Cadillac have been exceptionally bad at this the last couple of years, and for Cadillac, it’s starting to bite them in their hind quarters. The car above is the Escala, a car that has actually been driving traffic into Cadillac showrooms. People are ready to sign over paychecks, IRAs, first-borns and more for the chance to own one…and instead they get the milquetoast CT6 instead, because the Escala is nothing more than a concept car. Maybe putting an actual car on sale, and not a one-off concept car in an ad that aired during the Oscars, would’ve been a smarter move?
the Australian thing says illegally exported – if the paperworks been done correctly there shouldnt be any vehicular seizure….