Cruisin' the Grand: Escondido, CA, August 10, 2012

H folks -- Friday night in Escondido, visiting Lisa and Tony for a few short hours. The downtown cruise-in is always a treat, even on an extra warm evening.  The top photos are of a 1956 Plymouth Fury, and you can tell the fins are getting bigger as designer Virgil Exner's influence at Chrysler was on the rise.  Note the 45 rpm record player, an option that year and extremely rare.  The other car featured is a 1953 Glaspar,  a very rare and remarkable vehicle of the period.  I had never seen one until last night.

Think Pink: Some Pink Cars that Mary Kay folks should consider instead of the Cadillac!

 Paris Hilton behind the wheel of her Bentley

 Nissan Micra

Hi folks -- Mary Kay employees are to be honored for their initiative, get-up-and-go, and hard work.  The end game is a Cadillac, I guess, but here are some other pink cars worthy of your attention. Note how a subtle shift in shade makes all the difference in the world in terms of how hard these cars are to your eyes.

The Top Five Vehicles for Bachelors Wanting to Attract the Right Girl

Frankly, I think the notion of a car as bait to attract the right girl is highly over-rated.  But thanks to a conversation I had last night with fellow tennis player and marketing Guru "Stevie Wonder" Sunshine, what follows are ten cars guaranteed to improve your chances to attract the right woman.  Note that there is no one type of vehicle  guaranteed to create a magic mojo, just as there are no one type of woman. And just because you strike an emotional cord with your wheels, doesn't mean there is a substitute for looks and personality. In the film American Graffiti Toad gets to drive Steve's "hot" 1958 Chevy Impala, but Toad's appearance and geekiness can't be taken away from him no matter he has for wheels. In some cases, the best thing you can do is go to the gym.

1. BMW 650i convertible. My 5 Seasons friend Bill Palmer has one of these and I still don't see the women flocking around him! The 650i is one of the most magnificent cars on the market today, and it will attract a refined middle aged women who has good taste and knows how to spend money on the finer things of life. You will attract a woman who not only looks at the luxury articles advertised in the first section of The New York Times, but buys them. Take he on a winding road at sunset, top down, playing Pavarotti, and you may win a true friend.

2. Toyota Prius.  So you don't have 108k to spend on a BMW. The Prius will attract the Eco-friendly woman who wears Birkenstocks and lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Unless you are an Obama/Biden supporter, a true believer of Global Warming and Climate Change, and totally against human trafficking, you should be wary of taking this route.  A double-minded man who secretly desires high performance and clean lines need not apply here. And these women often prove to be quite unstable.

3. Cadillac Escalade.   Women attracted to the BMW tend to be more sophisticated, refined and cultured, with broader philosophical outlooks. Those who like the Escalade are more grasping, crude, and materialistic without thinking carefully about what they want. An Escalade women shops at Macy's; a BMW 650i woman goes to Von Maurer (Patricia D.?) or Bloomingdales.  These Escalade types are very irritating -- so if you want to attract one, God Bless you, because you will need it. They wear Jewelry that is without true distinction, read trashy novels, and generally have poor manners. People who drive these vehicles are generally jack-asses, and jack-asses of either gender tend to attract each other, subsequently breeding small jack-asses that torment fellow children at school

4. Ford F-150 Lariat.  This is the vehicle for those who want to attract the nesting type of woman.  She is looking for a handy-Andy who will spend weekends going to Home Deport and bringing back paint, drywall, and lumber. You must like Country music, TV, guns, and preferably attend a Baptist Church. Need I say more?

5. Volvo S-60.  This is a good car if you wish to attract a professional women who is either an accountant or scientist. It is luxurious enough to impress them with your ability to be a good provider. Yet, with the T-5 engine it has enough power to vent aggressive tendencies after a day working with Dilbert in a corporate setting.  A steady and reliable car that says you are comfortable with your middle class values and work ethic, and do not need to impress those around you with flash. A very safe car,that projects a safe person.

P2O == Porsches to Ohio, July 28, 2012

 What is this thing doing here!  Nice eccentric VW, but it perpetuates a historical misconception.

 Friend Kirby with his newer acquisition!

Hi folks -- I wan't planning on going to Granville, Ohio on Saturday to P2O, as the site change from Oxford, Ohio disgruntled me a bit and I was simply tired.  But I got a call at 7 a.m. from Cliff asking if I had left yet, and him wanting to go.  So I slowly woke up, got my car ready to go, and took off to Xenia to pick up cliff.  As it turned out, Cliff wanted to drive his 944, so off we went in a non-air conditioned water pumper Porsche.
Starting in Centerville, this trip is not nearly as scenic -- much of the way is typically on I-70 unless you make a new off-the-beaten-path route that is not as direct.  It was sort of weird on the road, as we did not see one Porsche until we got to Granville, and for a while I thought this event had been canceled or moved! When we got there, traffic was terrible and parking was worse, as the town had put so many no parking signs one had to park far away if not clever and resourceful. We were the latter, and took in what proved to be a good but hardly great event.
Complaints include no real swap meet or used parts; folks only rarely opened their cars front and rear, so only infrequently could we see engines and boots; some folks friendly, but also a number of pompous owners and trophy wives with relatively new cars. "My dog is bigger than your dog." I depise those non-technical materialists.

Review II: Driving America at The Henry Ford

Labeled as the "World's Premier Automotive Exhibition," the Driving America exhibit at the Henry Ford comes with very high expectations.  With an emphasis on users of the automobile rather than producers, this exhibit does depart from the norm of "place one car after another on the floor with little to guide them and let the viewer decide what, if anything, to learn." The exhibit is far more nuanced than what is found in the majority of automobile museums, and reflective of recent historical scholarship in the history of technology and American social and cultural history.

                 On several levels it succeeds in teaching the public, young and old, gear head and disinterested wife, about how everyday Americans lives were profoundly changed by this machine that changed the world. By using a number of immersive interactive kiosks, and a well-done short film shown in the Driving America theater, the museum visitor, during one afternoon, has the opportunity to learn about as much as one would be exposed to in a good introductory course on the automobile and American life.  Further, it is more than appropriate that this exhibit is at the Henry Ford Museum, since automobility had such significant and important Michigan and Dearborn roots. With an extensive in-house automobile collection that includes numerous rare cars, including a Bugatti Royale and Tucker 48, and a repository of ephemeral materials second to none, there are plenty of artifacts to put on the floor and in display cases that contain excellent explanatory descriptions.

                Upon walking into the exhibit, this reviewer's first impressions were striking. The light from several neon signs coupled with colors reflected from the automobiles immediately takes one into a Disney-like world.  One section of the exhibit is chronological, and begins with walking shoes, horses, and stage coaches. But then the panels quickly move into turn of the century pioneer automobiles, including as one might predict, Henry Ford's Quadricycle.   From that point onwards this section takes us predictably from one decade or era to another, finally ending with plug-in electric cars.  Adjacent to this is a section on auto racing, which is a favorite among auto hobbyists and the young.  The cars and colors are luscious, and the backdrops are artistically and thematically well done.

                To write that Driving America is the end-all of automobile museum efforts, however, would be disingenuous, however.  First, the exhibit suffers from a common shortcoming among those who put these car presentations together. Namely, there seems to be this need or urge to put all of one toys out on the table. Consequently, the exhibit ends up being choked with cars placed on every square foot of the floor, overwhelming the scene at the expensive of meaningful learning experiences.  To be sure, the most historically significant cars are out there, including the 1924 Chrysler Touring Car and the Essex closed body design of the early 1920s. But some of the cars placed on the wings just clutter things up, and diffuse the main theme that should be the focus of the work.  Secondly -- and I know that there is considerable debate on this point -- to isolate the cars behind barriers takes so much away from the potential learning experience.  I know these cars are extremely valuable, but at the Audi Museum at Ingolsadt, Germany, for example, one can walk right up to the cars and even touch them  -- and some of those cars, including several Rennwagens from the 1930s, are worth just as much as a Tucker 48, if not more.

 1896 Ford Quadricycle

 1903 curved dash Oldsmobile

 1906 Thomas -- for the rich and elite!

 1924 Chrysler Touring

A Coffin Nose Cord 812, 1937               

 Finally, much use is made of the interactive learning kiosks throughout the exhibit, and they can be great learning tools. Yet, I wonder where the "driving" comes into this exhibit.  An interactive driving section -- using simulators or some other kind of device like that -- would take a static presentation and make it dynamic.  After all, driving in America is about fun, exhilaration, and freedom, and one gets it by doing, not just watching.

A Review: The Driving America Exhibit at the Henry Ford

 One highlight of the exhibit is an a excellent short film on the history of car culture in America.

 As you begin (or end) your walk through you can stop and eat at a dinner from the late 1940s!

 As you go down a walk way and change levels, this 1955 Chevy looks right at you!

 A 1955 Corvette Headlight

 Neon signs are used very effectively throughout this exhibit.

 The Engine of Henry Ford's famous 999

 A Land speed breaking vehcile from the mid-1960s

Ohio George's drag car -- from Dayton, Ohio!

Hi folks -- I just got back from the Henry Ford and wanted to post a few photos.  Much more on this exhibit   and other photos will shortly follow. My compliments to Bob Casey and his staff for a terrific effort!