Cool New Projects From CarDevotion.com
Creating something on the Internet, like CarDevotion.com, is relatively easy. Note that I said ‘relatively’… but still, it’s easier and more affordable than starting a print magazine. But making it a success is much harder because the Internet is constantly changing and evolving at a ferocious rate. Basically it’s the old saying ‘swim or die’ but now its ‘swim as fast as you possibly can every second of the day or die.’
So, we here at CarDevotion are stripped down to our Speedos and paddling like mad, and we’ve got two new ideas that we’d like you to take a look at – HotorNotAuto.com and a new Facebook app called AutoBuddies.
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- Submitted By: PFREY - 01/30/2008 13:05:04
- TAGS: Technology
An Ecstatic Overdose of Wealth and Taste
As the sleek, powerful Mercedes SLR Roadster nosed its way through bumper-to-bumper traffic on Sunset Boulevard like a tuxedoed commando at a cocktail party, a small but telling incident provided a crystal-clear demonstration of what this car is really all about.
As the 617-horsepower, 202-mph, carbon-fiber supercar with gull-wing doors and a price tag only slightly south of $500,000 idled down the road at 20 mph past a sidewalk café in front of which were parked, nose-to-tail, a silver Bentley Continental, a red Ferrari F430 and an orange Lamborghini Murcielago, every head in the place turned and three young men – presumably the owners of the aforementioned parked cars – stood. A plaintive voice, presumably belonging to the owner of the Lamborghini, cut through the din of traffic – “Aw, man….”
Which pretty much says it about the SLR. Mechanical, performance, styling and heritage credentials aside – and it has plenty -- anywhere it goes, it’s the coolest ride, the magically potent silver arrow that makes the owners of other megabuck supercars instantly green with envy, the vanishingly rare kinetic commodity that proclaims (with all due Sympathy for the Devil)… “I’m a man of wealth and taste.”
Dan Gurney - Doorways to the Past
Sliding sideways in an aluminum time bomb full of gasoline, Dan Gurney became a legend in a era that demanded the ultimate sacrifice from most of its heroes. That he lived is testament to the power of luck -- and a talent big enough to make room for both victory and survival. Some few of his contemporaries managed to survive, and continued to drive long past the point at which he retired in 1970. For the most part is was a mistake for them to continue, their talent diminishing with the baggage of years, their legends eroding away day by day, race by race, like a statue left too long in the rain.
Gurney was the one who had the sense, and the strength, to step from the stage at the top of his form, like a rocket frozen magically in mid-flight, leaving in the hearts and minds of fans worldwide the indelible image of a star ascending, an American hero at the height of his powers.
Nor did those powers diminish over time, though their focus has been re-directed several times. Gurney, son of an opera singer and arguably one of the most intelligent men in auto racing, pirouetted gracefully, though not without a talent for brinksmanship -- and the occasional moment of drama – from the cockpit to the corporate suite and the helm of a racing enterprise that has added luster to his legend with successes as a car builder and team manager.
Lending credence to the credo that "When an eagle bends to make its nest, such nests are built as only eagles may inhabit," Gurney's mastery of technology and tactics produced several Indy 500 winners. And, in 1992, his team won the IMSP GTP driver and manufacturer championships driving Toyota-funded, Toyota-powered cars driven by a new generation of legends; P.J. Jones Jr., son of Parnelli Jones, and Juan Manuel Fangio II, nephew of the five-time world champion. In recent years, he has focused his energies on an innovative new motorcycle of his own design, called the Alligator, and on the racing career of his son, Alex, who won the 2007 Grand-Am Rolex Series Daytona Prototype championship.
So history marches on, leaving its black-and-white footprints on the walls of the long hallway that connects the front door of Gurney's All-American Racers facility in Santa Ana, California with the shop where his Toyota Eagle racing cars were built... a hundred-foot-long, floor-to-ceiling art gallery covered with frozen moments of time, framed and hung, their very numbers prohibiting more than passing interest by the frequent, awed visitors.
If, as they say, the eyes are windows to the soul, ‚then surely photographs are doorways to the past and on one afternoon that will live forever in memory, Dan Gurney unlocked a few of the most special of those doors, and allowed us to walk through. On the pages that follow is what we found on the other side.
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- Submitted By: PFREY - 12/06/2007 15:24:29
- TAGS: Uncategorised
Prince Charming and the Midget
Put the words “Celebrity” and “Cars” together and the first response of 99% of Americans would be “Jay Leno.”
No doubt that he is the most famous car guy in the world, and given that he attends all manner of automotive events, from high-profile appearances at major auto company events to Alfa Romeo Club get-togethers in the park, it’s obvious that this isn’t some Hollywood affectation… Leno really loves his cars. And he has a substantial and eclectic collection that even has its own web site: www.jaylenosgarage.com
View Jay Leno video here:
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/index.shtml?vidID=182992
The Sex Doll and the Ferrari Penny -- Meditations on the power of inanimate objects and the nature of luck
My wife, the formidable Jungle Book Kim, and I just got back from seeing an interestingly odd little art film called “Lars and the Real Girl.” The gist of the movie is that a nerd with a socialization problem buys a life-sized sex doll (not the inflatable kind, but rather a fully-formed, anatomically correct 125-pound plastic sculpture with moveable arms and legs) and introduces her around the small town he lives in as his new girlfriend “Bianca.”
Such is the communal nature of the town, and the affection they hold in their hearts for this guy, Lars, that everyone goes out of their way to treat the doll as though she were a real person. She goes to parties, is elected to the school board and volunteers at the hospital. All very heartwarming, though needless to say that once Lars’ attention turns to the cute little blonde in his office who has the hots for him, Bianca suddenly falls ill, is rushed to the hospital and ultimately buried next to his parents in the town graveyard.
Not the kind of movie I would have chosen to see on my own, but actually quit
e a nicely-done film with none of the typical Hollywood ‘twists’ or smug, nudge-nudge/wink-wink attitude. Although I did come out of it wondering what would happen to this new girl if his interest in her waned… would she too suddenly become ill? Were we watching the creation of a serial killer? Anyway, not to get too far afield, it’s an interesting meditation on the power of inanimate objects.
Such objects (inanimate, not sex dolls) have had a powerful influence on my life. When I started in this business, cars had carburetors, the writing machine on my desk was an IBM Selectric typewriter, there was no such thing as a cell phone or computer and the internet was the stuff of science fiction. Inanimate objects all, yet life-changing in their day, and yet again as new technologies supplanted the old and what were sold to us as labor-saving devices turned out to be chronologic black holes that turned free time into the rarest and most precious thing of all.
- Submitted By: PFREY - 11/14/2007 01:58:05
- TAGS: Miscellaneous Ramblings
Dali Lama's Land Rover On E-Bay
Seems odd to think of one of the world’s spiritual leaders as driving around in a car… much less that car winding up for sale on E-Bay. But hey, Ferrari gave a car to the Pope.
And, if you care to think about the nature of the Catholic Church and the Bhuddists… and expand that thinking to the idea of dogs and their owners looking alike… then give it a surrealist twist and substitute cars for dogs, it all seems somehow appropriate that the Pope should drive a Ferrari and the Dali Lama should drive a 1988 “88” Land Rover station wagon. And while the Catholics are selling off under-performing churches to raise cash for their problems, apparently $75,000 (what they’re asking for it on E-Bay) is enough to keep the Bhuddists flush... guess the Dali Lama must fly coach.
Support Your Local 'Mad Inventor'
Once upon a time, back in the bucolic days when cars were a new form of freedom, there was the opportunity for some mad inventor working out of his garage or back yard to come up with something new and interesting, perhaps even significant in the larger scheme of things.
As cars grew more complicated, and the maze of rules that shaped them became more restrictive, that sort of tinkering never died out totally, but found itself re-directed to areas of appearance and audio systems and such. The window for anyone to make a genuine contribution to the national automotive scene shrank until it reminded you of the old quote about “…it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19:24
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- Submitted By: PFREY - 10/29/2007 13:40:07
- TAGS: Technology
Bad (On)Star Rising
A story I read today in USA Today is making me feel like Howard Beal, the ‘raving’ newsman that made the movie “Network” so memorable. He finally got such a gutful of the bullshit that the world dishes out in such quantity that he took to the air shouting “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
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- Submitted By: PFREY - 10/10/2007 23:09:21
- TAGS: Technology
