The Littlest Supercar turns 25

Posted on Oct 9, 2017 in Antique | Comments Off on The Littlest Supercar turns 25

“And in the end, it is not the years in your life that count. It is the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln If someone asked me to name the greatest sports car ever made, I am sure my answer would include names like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa Romeo or Jaguar. These were marques with history, pedigree and tradition that instantly evoke a time of motorsports...

Unintended Acceleration’s New Victim: Ford Taurus

Posted on Oct 5, 2017 in Safety | 3 comments

I’ve never been in a car that accelerated on its own. Well, this one time, I was in a Dodge Viperthat leaped to 100 miles per hour faster than I could buckle my seat belt, but I was a passenger. The driver giggled in glee as I tried to hide my panic. Yes, that was an episode of unintended acceleration from my point of view, but not one that would cause any...

Panoz Abruzzi Straddles the Line Between Ugly and Beautiful

Posted on Oct 1, 2017 in Racing | 2 comments

Little-known carmaker Panoz has taken the wraps off its all-new supercar, the company’s first since 2008. Coinciding with Le Mans week in France, American Le Mans Series founder Don Panoz has revealed the new limited-production Abruzzi Spirit of Le Mans road car. We don’t know too much about what’ll power the Abruzzi, other than the car will make 600-plus...

So just where did Toyota sell its first car in the United States?

Posted on Sep 27, 2017 in Featured | 2 comments

Inside Holt Motor Co. in Los Angeles. In 1958, a little Japanese car called the Toyopet showed up in California. It got ridiculed. It got amazing mileage. And by the end of the year, it got about 288 sales. Who exactly made the first of those sales, however, remains a mystery, one which Toyota itself can’t resolve even though several entities have laid claim to...

Fisker Karma Belonging to Consumer Reports Breaks Down

Posted on Sep 26, 2017 in Safety | 1 comment

List of things you don’t want to happen: Have spinach stuck in your teeth for the duration of a first date. Buy a new car and have it break down on the way home. Have the car you built and sold to Consumer Reports break down even before it’s checked in. A positive Consumer Reports review can make or break a new car. Even established cars can suffer when the...

The Perfect Summer Cruiser

Posted on Sep 20, 2017 in Antique | Comments Off on The Perfect Summer Cruiser

The summer night is like a perfection of thought – Wallace Stevens Now that summer has officially started, I decided to take a look at eBay and see what they had to offer in the way of summertime cruisers. When I was younger, I had a perfect 1976 Oldsmobile 98 Regency Hardtop, and I loved to gather up the family and head off to the local ice cream shop on a hot...

What Should I Buy For My First Whip?

Posted on Sep 18, 2017 in Editorials | 1 comment

Ask Bark? is picking up steam like a train on the island of Sodor, man! Thanks for all of your questions after last week’s installment, as well as the great advice you gave our friend, Josh. However, be warned — Bark will not be punked like the author of “Ask Amy” was this week. Don’t write in with any questions about buying a Saab convertible, okay? I’m not...

Ford Focus Electric Receives EPA Rating of 105 MPGe Average

Posted on Sep 13, 2017 in Technology | 1 comment

Set to arrive as the first publicly offered Ford-branded fully electric car, the Ford Focus Electric’s will journey out into selected markets through the second half of this year. Still awaiting the all-important price tag for the electric vehicle set to break 109 years of Ford Motor Company tradition, the United States EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)...

Sorry, Too Late, the Lexus LFA Is Sold Out *UPDATED

Posted on Sep 8, 2017 in Racing | 3 comments

We know how frustrating it can be to miss out on a real bargain. And you had the spot ready for the Lexus LFA in your six-car garage, with reservations made on the private road course to exercise its 202-mph top speed. Well, you missed it, Jack, because all 500 copies of the $375,000 supercar are now not only spoken for (Lexus demanded buyers put down $125,715...

Bill Ford Says Car Networks Are Coming

Posted on Aug 26, 2017 in Safety | 2 comments

At a speech before the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Ford Motor Co.’s Executive Chairman Bill Ford (Henry’s great-grandson) made some notable remarks about how the future will need to accommodate 4 billion cars on the road by mid-century. (We already have about a billion.) While people around the world keep buying cars at a rapid pace, traffic jams are...

Personal Luxury Cars: The Cadillac Eldorado

Posted on Aug 12, 2017 in Antique | Comments Off on Personal Luxury Cars: The Cadillac Eldorado

For almost 50 years, the Cadillac Eldorado was the epitome of the personal luxury car. Originally built as a show car to mark the anniversary of Cadillac, the Eldorado morphed first into the ultimate Cadillac model, then into a caricature of the 1970’s, and finally into a soulless car that reminded us more of what we lost, than it did of personal luxury. In...

GM’s Cobblepot: The Chevy Vega

Posted on Aug 10, 2017 in Technology | 2 comments

In the popular TV series, Gotham (it’s a prequel to the Batman story) there’s an episode called “Everyone Has His Cobblepot” — a reference to something embarrassing in one’s past. The Chevy Vega is GM’s Cobblepot. Like most failures, it wasn’t intentional. But it was — in retrospect predictable. Chiefly because then-GM President Ed Cole rushed the car’s...

Here Are the ‘Winners’ of the ‘TEXAS EDITION’ Badges

Posted on Aug 8, 2017 in Editorials | 2 comments

Last week I offered you, the man or woman in the street, a chance to own a “TEXAS EDITION” badge at my expense. I asked you to tell me what you’d do with such a badge. After an exhaustive selection process consisting of me having a couple shots of Ketel One Citroen and picking shit at random, I’ve come up with the “winners.” I’ll be contacting each one of you...