Luxury for a Bargain

Every now and again you find a real gem. It's a car that is overlooked by most yet contains a little something special that just isn't quite reflected by the price tag. When I was driving to work yesterday, I was reminded of this by a VW Phaeton that shared the lane next to me.

It really got me thinking about what a great bargain the car is. The Phaeton was a car that came to the US in 2004 and had both a V8 and a W12 engine offered. The car was not well accepted, and although the factory that produced the car could make 20,000 cars a year, only 25,000 cars were made in a total of 4 years. I think the reason is that most people didn't want to pay upwards of $80,000 for a car that looks a bit like a Passat and an Audi A8 had babies and then came out with too many V's and W's and not enough rings. Most people don't realize, though, that the VW actually shares more in common with a Bentley Continental than an A8. It shares the same basic steel platform of its Bentley brother and takes the strong engine lineup from the Audis.

When new, the W12 Phaeton fetched about $95,000 while today, you can find them on ebay and craigslist for less that $25,000. That's amazing considering the car you're getting is basically a Volkswaggened Bentley that goes 0-60mph in 5.9 seconds using it's 420hp 6.0 liter engine. Not only that, the car has 4Motion and an air suspension system that load levels based on the mass in the vehicle. Every seat has a heater, and the front seats are massaging 18-way adjustables that will relax you as you listen to the 12 speaker audio system and remain at a steady temperature since the windows are made with metalized foil that reflect heat. I really don't think you can find a better deal for a luxury car.

Joke

What do you call a Knight who becomes a Nascar Driver?

Sir Leftalot

A Purist Car Commercial

Show the exterior, show the exterior, show it power sliding, show us what it sounds like, and use dramatic music. Pagani has hit a home run with this one.

2010 Racing Season Begins

Today marks the official start of race season with the F1 Grand Prix taking place in Bahrain. The petrol is thawing from my veins and the red mist is slowly returning so here's your race season preview of what's on my radar.

Formula 1
With the failure of USF1 to make the grid this year, there are 3 new teams.

• Virgin Racing - This team brings the technical expertise of Nick Wirth's Digital Flow Systems company which will develop the aerodynamics on the car entirely in Computational Fluid Dynamics, his engineering company Wirth Research, the Manor Grand Prix racing team, and Richard Branson's money. It's rumored that Branson's Virgin money won't last the team the whole season so its results in the first half of the season will determine their longevity. With major reliability problems such as hydraulic failures and the front winning falling off Timo Glock's car at the beginning of the season, the teams has many doubters.
• Lotus Racing - With some historic colors and Malaysian money, Lotus has returned to the sport of F1 that fills its rich racing history with success and fans. Despite the company having no affiliation with Lotus other than in name, it's exciting to see the car on track. The car's early season reliability has been rather impressive although the simplicity of the car (other than the front wing) has gained criticism due to its blocky shapes and seemingly undeveloped exterior. I expect to see good things from the team as the car develops through the season and as its race winning drivers become comfortable.
• Hispania Racing Team - Formerly called the Campos Meta team, this group has somehow managed to make it onto the grid. The car was designed by Dallara in Italy and only made it to the grid due to an 11th hour monetary bailout which prompted the name change. The car was up to 11 seconds off the pace in the first practice sessions where only a single car made it on track. In fact, the sport's first Indian driver didn't make it out onto track until his qualifying run. I don't expect much from this team other than as back-markers who will slowly improve but still without sufficient pace. It will take quite some time for this team to get settled and begin developing their car.

The championship team of Brawn GP was bought out by Mercedes GP and promises to be a formidable competitor to the other front runners of Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren. BMW Sauber, Torro Rosso, and Renault don't seem to be much of a threat to the front runners, but only time will tell.

American Le Mans Series
With Audi and Acura's P1 cars not being present at the season opening 12 Hours of Sebring this year it seems a bit of a slow start to the season, but I hope I'm wrong. At least Aston Martin is bringing their P1 car to the US to compete with Peugeot. However, Aston won't have much of a chance against the diesel as the rules certainly still place a handicap on the petrol cars in comparison. In any case, watching the Dysons duke it out with the Patron Highcroft Acura ARX-01c will be fun to watch along with the new challenge series which promises to match equally matched cars against one another for a true driver battle. In GT2 this year the battle will be fierce between the Corvettes, Porsches, and Ferraris. Also Jag is going to put in a full season this year, but based on their performance last year I'm not expecting much.

More later...

Big Boy Car Show

Yesterday afternoon I took some free time to go check out a local car show just to see what showed up and if I was interested in anything there. We showed up at half past 4 and there were only a few cars which were mostly very mediocre American cars. It was still neat to take a look at what people had been working on and to see the amount of chrome the one mustang had. I took a few pictures as well and you can check out the So Cal Car Culture website for future shows at Bob's Big Boy in Signal Hill.

A Revelation

Our cars are used for many things these days. We have our commuter cars that are fuel efficient beaters that get us from A to B to our luxury beasts that exude maximum 'ballerness' to the hyper cars that cruise the strip removing panties as they rev. However, one of the most important parameters for a young man with petrol flowing through his veins and a libido the size of a Rolls Royce Phantom is a car's ability to attract girls

On my drive to work yesterday I passed a Toyota prototype vehicle that was camouflaged and looked much like a tamer version of the $450,000 Lexus super car called the LFA I'm sure you've heard about. As I passed the car kicking myself for not having a camera ready to capture a picture for my readers, I began to wonder:

What is the best car to buy to attract young, beautiful females?

Being the level headed and logical person that I am, I began to determine the return on investment for different vehicles I was interested in.

Porsche Carrera GT - Cost: $414,800
You get a bad ass car that can pull 1.5 lateral g's and will cost you $50k a year at minimum to maintain, not to mention you'll probably put it into a wall since the clutch is a digital device - on or off.
Chick Magnetism: 9 (out of 10)
Return on Investment: Poor

Bugatti Veyron - Cost  $1.2 million
At 1001 bhp you'll probably never be able to get out of this car without a raging stiffie so I hope your dates don't mind just staying in the car for a few minutes once you park. On top of that, if you peel out in this puppy a new set of tires costs 7 grand to mount as you have to send the wheels to France to be mounted and a new set of Michelin rubber will be about $25,000. Ouch.
Chick Magnetism: 10 (out of 10)
Return on Investment: Poor

At this point I've decided to let you in on an idea so epically magnificent that I feel bad even giving away my new unfair advantage since this morning I purchased the absolute perfect chick magnet.

Ladies and gentlemen, a fire truck.

1975 Mack RD 686S Cost $3,995
At a whopping 285hp this bad boy is sure to dissolve female pants without a second glance. On top of that it pumps out over 1000 gallons per minute of water which means you can fill a pool faster than a Veyron will go through a set of tires.
Chick Magnetism: 14
Return on Investment: Exemplary


What? No? Doesn't do it for you? Hear me out...

What chick do you know that doesn't have a firefighter fantasy? The list is short. You buy a truck that you probably don't even need to drive and since the ladies will flock to you if you have it parked outside the maintenance would be almost nonexistent. Plus, now you'll have a valid explanation for that pole you have installed in your living room and the dirt on your face which is really from not showering since last week but serves as away to tell these women about the multiple children you saved from burning buildings in recent memory. Maybe I should copyright this idea.

3D Scanning

Scanning in the last few years has certainly taken leaps and bounds. In the past few years, it has saved my ass and sped up the process of many projects I've worked on where CAD data isn't available or the owner isn't willing to share the data.

For those of you with no idea what I'm talking about, the technology I'm describing involves a scanning gun, camera, or probe to produce a cloud of points that can be connected to produce a surface in the digital world that very accurately represents the real world. So you can scan your cars then make a part to fit onto it without ever going to Ferrari and asking for data!

At the Performance Racing Industry show last year in Florida I checked out the Dynamica booth which is a company that offers scanning services to small race teams throughout the country so they can turn their production cars into racing machines. As a demonstration, Tim had me put my hand onto the desk and he waived his magic wand (well really a 3d scanning gun) and there was my hand in 3D. Freakin' amazing.

Unintended Acceleration

I'm sure many of you have heard about Toyota's recent recall involving unintended acceleration and the effect that it has had on Toyota sales in the last month. In order to see for ourselves how easy it would be to recover from an unintended acceleration event, my buddy Lars and I went out to Toyota's headquarters in Torrance to do a few tests of our own. Our predictions were that the car's brakes would be significantly more powerful than the engine. Have a look at the video to see for yourself.

Alan and Lars' Toyota Test Video

We completed 3 test. First, Lars put the gas pedal to the floor at about 45 mph and used his left foot to slam on the brakes. The car stopped easily. Next, he pegged the throttle to the floor and shifted into neutral. The car bounced off the rev limiter and the hand brake brought the car to a stop. Finally, Lars brought the car up to 45mph and turned the key to the off position so the column did not lock but the engine died. The brakes still worked to bring the car to a stop.

So what are our conclusions? Even if your Toyota accelerated suddenly without warning, an application of the brakes will stop the vehicle quite easily.

Disclaimer: Do not try this at home. Lars is much like the Stig. He's well trained and his heart is actually made of chocolate pudding.

Simulator

Simulators are becoming more an more prevalent in the automotive industry. They're not the arcade games you used to sit in when you were a kid and begged mommy to give you a quarter for. Now big budget race teams are buying their own 6 degree of freedom simulators to develop their cars and drivers. On top of that, they looking freakin' awesome. One company that offers a system is Moog. Most F1 teams are using this technology including Ferrari, Red Bull, and the Nick Wirth's Virgin Racing Team. I wouldn't mind a few laps in one of these bad boys if nothing else than to see how realistic it really is. With tensioning seat belts to simulate massive brake loads and realistic view of what the road looks like from inside the cockpit, it would be a great ride.

On the other hand, a simulator you may be able to afford is the new Toyota Driving Simulator. Although I feel bad for Toyota as mistakes certainly do happen to all the OEMs and not just Toyota, it doesn't hurt to poke a little fun at the situation.

Tool Transporter

Check out this impressively terrible picture I took of a tool transporter in Hollywood on Friday night on Sunset. I call it a tool transporter because the only person who pays money to rent one of these bad boys for the night must be a complete tool. The rear has 4 solid axles on a frame which was polished to a mirror finish, which means there was probably little if no interior room past the first axle. It really does take all kinds.

A 'gasm for Your Ears

I know it's been a while since your ears have been treated to a V12 flogging so you're due for a view of this Ferrari 'Through the Years' video which features race cars from different eras driving on the streets showing off some awesome eargasmic engine sounds. Take a listen.

Ferrari Video Link