It’s official: the temperatures have sank like a brick. Here at BangShift Mid-West, just in the course of two hours, the temperature dropped thirty-five degrees, turning the outside air from “cool but still seasonably warm” to “war that a penguin?!” in short order. No bueno…forget outside work, my cold-averse backside is in the house warming up and yours should be too. Since Lohnes is busy soaking up the warmth in Las Vegas, I’ll do the right thing and fire up the griddle for some Scrapple.
1. Fiat’s Spyder is back, and already has racing rumors flying around
That creature above you is the new Fiat 124 Spyder, a reskinned Mazda Miata with Fiat power trains under the hood. It’s been seen in the flesh for all of a couple of days and already there are rumors that FCA or some private groups will take this …thing… rallying. Just a thought…maybe give FCA a few weeks to actually ramp up production before assuming that they will race it, huh? That’s almost worse than my desire to see every last 124 Spyder mangled and stacked, ready for the crusher (Sorry, SBG…)
2. Patience is a virtue, after all.
If Nissan’s GT-R has a knock against it, it’s that it is getting long in the tooth and is more than overdue for a refresh. Guess when that is happening? 2020! Yes, that means the current design, which was last freshened up in 2011, will be around twelve years before getting replaced. Hopefully, during that redesign, they figure out how to make the V6 sound less like an industrial-strength Dyson and something a little more angry.
3. Recall ALL the Teslas!
90,000 Model S sedans, to be precise, as a precaution after one car in Europe was found to have a seat belt that was not properly connected to the outboard lap pretensioner. It is a voluntary recall and owners can make an appointment with their nearest Tesla Service Centers to have the car checked. At least Tesla is actively recalling the cars, instead of waiting for the NHTSA to kick them in the backside.
4. You’re feeling woozy…very woozy…
5. We miss the Evolution already.
The Mitsubishi Evolution is dead, but here’s the good news: They refreshened the Outlander and Mirage! If you think that’s actually good news, leave, now. Both of these cars are penalty boxes of the highest order. It’s a sad day for fans of the Evo, Eclipse, 3000GT and Pajero/Montero.
Have you noticed that the “drug drive suit” has what looks like large lumps of hash fixed to it?
Ford of Holland carried out this research after spending WAY too much time in a local coffee shop and came up with a way to turn drivers into joints so they could concentrate on their driving whilst getting high. You can’t drive if both hands are busy doing something else so this is perfect!
Many years ago a mate and I drove back to Newcastle from seeing Frank Zappa in Edinburgh high on LSD. One burning question still haunts me from that night – what does a blue traffic light mean?
The red light was my baby and the blue light was my mind…..
#2 – given the Fiat is a part of Mopar, I completely agree with you – but doesn’t something sound wrong when you say “Japanese styling with Italian engineering?”
#4 – it was only a matter of time until Ford had to use drugs to get people onto their lot.
Just one question about the Fiat Spyder, Does a LS fit in it?
That Mitsu Mirage looks like a purple jelly bean with tires stuck in the sides. A perfect hideous example of zero thoughts of looks and all function. Gag!
Has Mitsubishi just completely given up?!
They killed off every model that actually SOLD.
At least every model anyone had actually heard of. Good luck with those anonymity-econo-boxes, Mitsubishi.