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Who Invented The Cup Holder?
2008-01-21 16:45:00
The good folks over at modern Modern Mechanix bring us this report about what could be the first cup holder. According to them, it first came around in 1950: “Travel snacks can be enjoyed while the car is in motion with a dashboard tray which prevents cold drinks or water glasses from tipping over. The tray hangs from two cords which are held on the dashboard by suction cups. Bottles or glasses rest on two disks which are suspended below the tray on chains. When not in use, the tray can be folded into small space for storage in the glove compartment.” Gack! Talk about not understanding the driving environment … I remember hearing a quote from a Mercedes engineer back in the 80s. A person at an autoshow mentioned the lack of cup holders in the upcoming S-Class, to which the Merc engineer responded, “I do not have a steering wheel on my dining table, why do you need to hold a cup in one of my cars?” Silly German engineer with multiple degrees … t...

Avocet? Yes Please!
2008-01-18 23:01:00
Ah, now we’re talkin’ … I like lightweight sports cars, no, I LOVE lightweight sports cars. The smaller, the lighter, the better, as near as I can tell. Put a license plate on it and make it reliable, and I’m happy. I’m even happier when it’s cheap. Sure, this ain’t cheap, but the more of them out ...
More About: Avocet

GPS Tracking Unit from LandAirSea
2008-01-18 19:32:00
Back in July 2007 in New York, a man was arrested for the murder of a 12 year-old girl. The case was solved with evidence from a GPS tracking device that his wife apparently placed in his truck because she suspected that he was having an affair. The GPS Tracking device that was used is a ...
More About: Unit

Aston Martin Wants A Seat At The Big Le Mans Table
2008-01-17 19:50:00
Well well, I could chalk this up to Dave Richards having too much time on his hands since Prodrive isn’t gong F1 racing any time soon, but why dwell on a (potential) negative. According to the race shop itself, Aston Martin is moving up to compete with the big boys in the LMP 1 class at ...
More About: Racing , Le Mans , Seat , Table

Test Drive: 2008 Honda Accord Coupe
2008-01-17 15:50:00
It was one year ago, almost to the day, that Honda unveiled a new direction they’re taking with the popular Accord. They chose a 2-door coupe to showcase the new design (because coupes are always more attractive than their 4-door counterparts,) but the sedan was being redesigned as well. The Accord Coupe Concept unveiled at ...
More About: Drive , Test Drive , Test

Ban Them? When They Pry Them From My Cold Dead Hands!!
2008-01-16 06:19:00
“It comes to a point where there are certain things you just can’t do. And putting testicles on the back of a truck is just too much.” Thus spake Lionell Spruill, Virginia lawmaker who wants to ban Truck Nuts. And who am I to argue … Of course, when you start talking about legislating what’s in good ...
More About: Idiots , Cold , Hands , Dead

2008 Shelby GT500KR, with how much HP??
2008-01-15 23:43:00
OK, Detroit Auto Show, Detroit Auto Show, Detroit Auto Show … let’s see, what do we got this year … something called an A-Bat, a whole bunch of hybrid this & that, SUVs renamed something-or-other-Vs, a whole bunch of Chinese cars with safety “standards” that will give Nader fits, the roll out of the 2008 ...
More About: Mustang , Shelby

Lincoln MKT Concept
2008-01-15 15:01:00
Ah January … in these cold, bleak days, things are also pretty bleak for the car guy. Apart from Paris-Dakar (canceled this year, due to parts of Mauritania being crazier than an ER on Halloween night), there’s only one thing that holds interest for a car guy: Auto Shows. And the big one for America is the ...
More About: Lincoln , Concept Cars , Concept

The More You Talk, The Slower You Drive
2008-01-11 20:14:00
From the files of the obvious, comes word of a new study that points out that driving in traffic and talking on a cell phone makes you drive slower. Well duh! Psychology professor David Strayer, at the University of Utah says that drivers on the phone tend to cruise “about 2 miles-per-hour slower on commuter-clogged roads than ...
More About: Funny , Idiots , Drive , Misc , Talk

Toyota?s Deadline
2008-01-10 07:17:00
Well, it had to happen sooner or later, and although the hammer hasn’t fallen yet, the big cheeses back at the home office in Japan have announced that they’ve at least raised the hammer over Toyota ’s F1 racing division. Just to bring you all up to date, Toyota’s F1 racing program is huge, easily dwarfing the ...
More About: Racing , Deadline

Jaguar is Being Bought By Who?!
2008-01-09 15:52:00
Well well, it seems that Jaguar , long rumored to be for sale by it parent FoMoCo, might be bought by Tata, of all people. All right, all right, knock it off, you dirty minded perverts in the back of class! For those of you who don’t know Tata is one of the largest car companies on the ...

Jaguar is Being Bought By Who?!
2008-01-08 19:52:00
Well well, it seems that Jaguar , long rumored to be for sale by it parent FoMoCo, might be bought by Tata, of all people. All right, all right, knock it off, you dirty minded perverts in the back of class! For those of you who don’t know Tata is one of the largest car companies on the ...
More About: News

The New Bullitt, Better Then Frank?s Original Ride
2008-01-08 19:47:00
As one would expect, Ford is making a Bullitt version of its current iteration of the venerable Mustang . As an adopted San Franciscan, I feel that it is incumbent upon me to let you know and discuss this with you. For those of you that don’t know, Bullitt, was a movie produced in 1968 and starred the ...
More About: Movies , Original , Ride

Brits Anti-Speed Cam Revolt
2008-01-08 15:55:00
So, is there a British version of Howard Beale out there that I didn’t know about? I ask this because it seems there’s an organized group of Englishmen out there that really, really hate traffic cameras. For those of you that didn’t know, England has one of the most spied upon populations on the planet. There are ...
More About: Misc , Speed , Anti , Revolt , Brits

The Top 10 Cars For Women That?ll Make A Guy?s Head Turn
2008-01-07 15:50:00
As near as I can tell Top Ten lists exist primarily to start arguments. The latest installment/evidence for this is an article entitled “Ten sexy cars to turn men’s heads”, from the British Eve Cars mag. Essentially, it’s a list of cars for women so they can impress men. Here’s the list: 1. Mercedes 300SL Roadster 2. Porsche 911 3. Mitsubishi ...
More About: Funny , Women , For Women , List

BMW Goes Apple?
2008-01-06 15:58:00
What’s this? Please, oh please let it be true! Is BMW really thinking about dropping that accursed iDrive? I sure hope they are … I know what they’re trying to do, what with all the new systems and nav screens and what not, why not just have them all in one spot? Why not just have ...
More About: Apple

My Christmas Gift: Sleep Deprivation!
2008-01-05 15:27:00
Following up on Tony’s post So What’d Ya Get, I got an auto-related gift for Christmas … In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a huge video-game fan - particularly of racing games. Previously, my obsession with the Playstation 2 has gotten the better of me with awesome racing games like Gran Turismo 4 and Need for Speed: ...
More About: Misc , Gift , Video Game , Sleep

So, What?d Ya Get?
2008-01-04 15:32:00
So Christmas 2007 is over (whew!), and the current question is: What did you get for the holidays? Me? I got a bunch of non car related stuff, but more importantly, it looks like my folks (still going strong in their late 80s) re-upped my Automobile Quarterly subscription. Ah, Automobile Quarterly … and it’s not all brass ...
More About: Misc

Tokyo Traffic Control Center
2008-01-03 19:47:00
And you think you’ve got job pressures? Good God, just think what it must be like for these guys. Imagine what it must be like, you’re just sitting there, things are going along just fine when BANG, a transformer pops and down goes a traffic light at the third busiest intersection in town followed two minutes later ...
More About: Traffic , Tokyo , Misc , Center , Control

Mazda Furai Pictures Leaked
2008-01-02 15:06:00
What’s the Japanese word for wow? Honestly, I wasn’t expecting this in the slightest. Sure, it’s not perfect, some of the detailing around the rear wheels is clunky and there seems to be an over usage of gills & frills and various marine lifeform, er, forms (which I note is a growing trend in Japanese cars ...
More About: Pictures , Mazda , Concept Cars , Leaked , Mazda Furai

Russian GPS
2007-12-28 07:09:00
Well, it looks like the Russian s have finally gotten their GLONASS satellites up and running (literally in both cases.) Like the EU with their Gallileo system of satnavs, the Russians have been working on the lyrically named GLONASS system (always in all caps) that will be dedicated to just their needs. What you see pictured ...
More About: Misc

The Aptera Typ-1e; Yeah, but if it works ?
2007-12-23 20:43:00
This thing is called the Aptera Typ-1e. It’s been bouncing around various geek, gadget and green sites for the past 9 months or so (or near as I can remember at the moment) and, if it works (and that’s always a big if with vehicles of this nature) it is capable of getting 300 miles to ...
More About: Works , Yeah

The Second Coming, the 2008 Scion xB
2007-12-22 16:00:00
It’s wider, longer, and faster! The 2008 Scion xB is 167.3 inches in overall length, which makes it a foot longer than the first generation xB. It’s also 3 inches wider and rides on a wheelbase that’s 4 inches longer than the previous incarnation. The 2008 Scion xB maintains it’s Scion heritage and it definitely ...
More About: Gallery , Second Coming

When Does a Coupe Have Four Doors?
2007-12-21 15:19:00
Looks like VW is trying to keep up with Mercedes (and possibly BMW if they build their show car, and Aston Martin, if they build that delicious Rapide). There have been rumors afoot for some time that VW is working on a four door coupe version of their Passat sedan, and now, uncamo-ed spy shots are ...
More About: Coupe , Doors

Is Alfa THAT Serious?
2007-12-19 16:00:00
For news of the weird comes the little tidbit that Alfa Romeo is planning on opening an assembly plant here in the U. S. of A. OK, and why not … the dollar is sinking, labor is cheap here, and you’d think there’d be a whole bunch of blue collar types floating around out there looking ...

The New Aston Martin V12 Vantage RS - A Shot Aimed Square at Maranello
2007-12-18 15:39:00
My first instinct was to start this off with some sort of boxing analogy, but that would be just too trite. OK, so Aston Martin has decided to put a V12 into the Vantage, making it the Vantage RS. Now, I don’t know about you, but when someone says to me, “Front engined, V12, grand tourer (more ...
More About: Shot , Square

Knight Rider - Out With The Old, In With The New
2007-12-15 02:12:00
OK, so there’s been a lot of buzz over the past while concerning the new upcoming version of Knight Rider. Thankfully, they are only re-doing it as a TV series, and not trying to make it into a mediocre movie, and, as with everything widespread and hyped these days, there’s good news, and there’s bad ...
More About: Movies , Ford , Shelby , Knight Rider

Corvette ZR-1 - Can GM follow up the Z06?
2007-12-10 14:23:00
There has been a lot of speculation on the name of the new GM Super Vette . But the rumors have been confirmed by sources inside GM. The new 650hp snarling beast powered by a supercharged LS9 will be called The Corvette ZR-1 unless GM makes any last minute decisions. It will begin production in May ...

Video: Gran Turismo 5 - The Reason to Buy a Playstation 3
2007-12-06 14:57:00
So far, the Playstation 3 has been lacking in terms of games. The exact thing that made owning a Playstation so great (lots of good games) is the very thing that’s lacking in the third console. It looks like they’re starting to change that, and some of the racing games for it simply look amazing, ...
More About: Video , Video Game , Playstation 3 , Reason

Hennessey Venom GT Supercar Revelead
2007-12-04 14:23:00
Hennessey recently released sketches and details of their upcoming supercar. It has massive power, coming from a twin-turbo version of the already powerful 8.4L V10 from the Dodge Viper. The Venom GT should push out at least 1000 horsepower. In a body weighing 1500 pounds lighter than the Bugatti Veyron, I could see the Venom ...
More About: Supercar , Hennessey