Wednesday, July 31, 2013

The Best Little Checkpoint In Texas insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

Written By Unknown; About: The Best Little Checkpoint In Texas insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com on Wednesday, July 31, 2013

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® The Best Little Checkpoint In Texas

Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we've got reports from Texas Monthly, Popular Mechanics, and Petrolicious.


The Best Little Checkpoint In Texas S


I'm a big fan of Texas Monthly and have a couple of friends who work there, so I was delighted to see a story I could include in Must Reads. This take on the Border Patrol station where celebs regularly get busted was worth it just for the Willie Nelson anecdote.



The evidence room of the Hudspeth County jail is a pothead’s treasure trove. There are stacks and stacks of bags and sacks and big cartons and small white boxes, all full of marijuana and crammed to the ceiling of a cinder-block vault the size of a four-car garage. Each bag and sack and carton and box is stamped with a case number and sealed with evidence tape, but the skunky aroma of all that pot is irrepressible, overwhelming, positively intoxicating. According to West, when he showed this room to Willie, the pothead king exclaimed, “Whoa! Y’all got a lotta shit here. You don’t need mine, give it back.”



The Best Little Checkpoint In Texas S


Brett Berk takes on the Tesla v. Dealers war that's raging in courtrooms and showrooms and finds this interesting tidbit.



However, despite Tesla's current combative nature toward the established dealership system—and in what might be a disappointment to those hoping Tesla will disrupt the current car-buying experience—O'Connell tells PopMech that the EV-maker is not ruling out the possibility of establishing its own dealer network once the company grows large enough. "Elon and I have both said that there is a time when we will also want to sell our cars through franchise dealers," O'Connell says. "When we're selling a high-volume vehicle, hundreds of thousands a year, it's going to make a lot more sense to place 100 cars at once with a franchise dealer than to sell them one by one as we do right now."



The Best Little Checkpoint In Texas S


Rooftop race tracks are such a brilliant/terrible idea it's a wonder we don't see more of them.



Built partially on the local football team’s grounds, partially inside the factory’s walls, and most notably on top of and in between the factory buildings themselves, the approximately one kilometer longtrack was made of brick pavers with sectioned concrete banking for its southwest and north west bends, needed to allow the nearly 90 degree turns between the peaked rooftops of the huge assembly buildings it ran atop. These corners look pretty tame in photos, but they’re actually quite steep—it’d be very difficult to climb, let alone thread a primitive, speeding car through one. A causeway allowing public access to a nearby hill allowed people to sit and watch cars being flogged high above the surrounding greenery, making it a popular picnic spot.



Photo Credits: AP/Petrolicious


The Best Little Checkpoint In Texas

World's Biggest Asshole Robs Car Crash Victim Instead Of Rescuing Her insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® World's Biggest Asshole Robs Car Crash Victim Instead Of Rescuing Her

An unidentified man stole up to $100 from a woman trapped in her car after her Toyota collided with an SUV. The thief could have helped her, but he robbed her instead.


KSLA 12 News reports that early Monday afternoon in Bossier City, Louisiana, a woman driving a 1980s Toyota MR2 collided with a Chevy Tahoe pulling out of a dentist's office. The Toyota spun across an intersection and then flipped onto its roof. In the spin, around $200 flew out of the car.


Witnesses told police that a man scooped up some of that money and then leaving, all while the woman remained trapped in her upside-down Toyota.


The Tahoe driver was cited for failing to yield from a private drive. The woman was taken to LSU Hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.


If you happen to find this thief, please alert the authorities and resist the temptation to punch him directly in the testicles. KSLA 12 News reports he may face a misdemeanor theft charge.


(Hat tip to abggrnboot!)


Photo Credit: KSLA 12 News


World's Biggest Asshole Robs Car Crash Victim Instead Of Rescuing Her

This image isn't a 3D game but America's newest stealth death machine insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® This image isn't a 3D game but America's newest stealth death machine

This is an awesome shot of a test F-35 zipping around California's Edwards Air Force Base sent to us by a tipster. Can you imagine this buzzing by your window?


The F-35 might have a hard time getting off the ground, but when it does, it's a majestic sight.


This Intense Real-Life F-35 Picture Looks Like an Iron Man Frame S


This image isn't a 3D game but America's newest stealth death machine

'The 2014 Acura MDX Is A Modern Day Xover' insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® 'The 2014 Acura MDX Is A Modern Day Xover'

This is not a joke. Instead of writing crossover, MotorWeek wrote 'xover.' This'll be a good one.


The MDX has gotten the new LED headlights from RLX, which makes it look like the old MDX, just kind of insane. Or sleeker, if you ask John Davis.


A new MDX has a lot of features, it's big, and it's no longer based on an Odyssey. It also has a great energy impact score, so that's a win there.


Unfortunately, we don't get to find out how it does in the slalom. I wish we did, because that's relevant to all MDX buyers.


MotorWeek Theater is our showcase of some of our favorite classic reviews from public television's finest motoring program. How does this video only have 11,089 views on YouTube? It's 10 headlights of wonder.


'The 2014 Acura MDX Is A Modern Day Xover'

What Would You Give For A Proper Small Pickup? insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® What Would You Give For A Proper Small Pickup?

Today we learned that for the past 50 years, the United States government has been stifling the American pickup market with the Chicken Tax. What would you give to get a proper small truck?


Truth be told, the grass is not always greener on the other side when it comes to foreign car markets, as Two_wheels_good pointed out.



Good thing I live overseas. I get to experience higher crime rates, non-existent social security...and Ford Ranger Diesel pickups...'tis a thing of beauty.



MontegoMan562 said what we were all thinking.



FAIR TRADE



So what would you give to get a proper small pickup in the States, and which one do you lust after?


Photo Credit: Ford of Not-America, AP/Charlie Neibergall


What Would You Give For A Proper Small Pickup?

Is Ferrari Going Back To Le Mans? insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Is Ferrari Going Back To Le Mans?

Today has been a day of rumors, and this one is a dooooozy. Auto Motor und Sport is reporting that Ferrari is looking into a return to Le Mans. And if that's true, holy crap. We could be entering another golden age of sports car racing.


In what sounds like a lot of far fetched speculation, AMuS thinks that the new 2014 engine regs in Formula One along with hybrid powertrains would make a return to LMP1 at Le Mans possible in 2015.


There aren't many details, and honestly, I don't see it happening. What this could be is Ferrari once again throwing a fit so the FIA and F1 works harder to keep them around. Ferrari makes these idle threats all of the time about a breakaway series or when things aren't going their way in F1. They never leave and they never will, but when they talk people listen.


That's what I'm betting on.


Still, seeing Ferrari back at Le Mans with Porsche and Audi in LMP1? That would be the business and I'd love to see it happen.


Is Ferrari Going Back To Le Mans?

Scion FR-S Vs. Ford Focus ST: Which To Buy? insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Scion FR-S Vs. Ford Focus ST: Which To Buy?

Car Wars is where we pit some of today's hottest cars against each other and then, in a commenting fight to the death, decide which one we'd buy. Today we have two of the most popular budget performance cars on the market.


The Scion FR-S/Subaru BRZ and Ford Focus ST are fairly similar in intent and price. They're lower budget fast cars that value fun handling and accessible performance over huge horsepower and unreachable limits.


That's where the similarities end.


In the American corner, we have the Ford Focus ST, a front drive hatchback with four doors. It can carry you and your friends (or your gear) in speedy style. It scored a Jalopnik Review score of 69.


The FR-S is different. It's Toyota's Miata: lightweight, rear-drive, narrow tires, low center of gravity, and hilarious fun. It can also, supposedly, fit an extra set of tires in the back seat for your autocross or track day fun. It got a Jalopnik Review score of 76.


At the same time as being very different cars, these cars are also very similar. Here's the question: Which would you buy?


Matt would buy the Focus ST. I'd buy the FR-S. Follow us down to the comments to see our debate in full.


Scion FR-S Vs. Ford Focus ST: Which To Buy?

If You're Naming Your Kid After a Car, What Will It Be? insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® If You're Naming Your Kid After a Car, What Will It Be?

Automakers have been giving their cars wicked names but we're not that good at giving humans wicked names. There's a lot of people with fatally boring names like John, Bob, and Mik—*gasps* Uh-oh! *dies* More unique names are needed to keep us awake.


Can you imagine letting your favourite automaker name your kid? Oh dear, I forgot some automakers have a history of giving their cars hilarious sexually suggestive names. Well, I hope it's nothing like… *drum roll* Probe, Homy Super Long, Naked, or Scrum.


If my soon to be husband Ivan and I decide to adopt a boy, we'll replace his original first name with Diablo, named after Lamborghini Diablo. Diablo means "devil" in Spanish. To be quite frank, I don't think there's a car name that's wickeder than Diablo.


If you've been given the honour to name your kid after a car, what will it be?


Warning: unfriendly comments will be dismissed.


If You're Naming Your Kid After a Car, What Will It Be?

Beyonce Loves Detroit More Than Your City insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Beyonce Loves Detroit More Than Your City

I'm sure the Texan Jalop Alliance might disagree with that headline, but other than shouting out Houston a bunch of times over her career, I can't recall Beyonce making a specific dedication to any other city.


Beyonce's Mrs. Carter Show stopped at the Palace of Auburn Hills two days after the city of Detroit filed for municipal bankruptcy. She could have easily worked in a jit or engaged the crowd in a mass hustle to Janet Jackson's "Feels So Right" instead of the Single Ladies dance to pay homage to the city, but she admirably went the extra mile and sang Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" while a montage of Detroit scenes played in the background.


That was a few weeks ago. Yesterday, Beyonce posted a more refined video of the performance with some added footage on her YouTube page.


I've had my fair share of criticism of Mrs. Knowles-Carter over the years; I think she's immensely talented but some of her output (the lyrics of "Dance For You" are a prime example of this — "tonight I'm gonna put my body on your body" sounds like something her nephew wrote in latchkey) doesn't always match what she's capable of. For this one rare moment, I'll give her a pass.


It's not this stubborn Detroit pride that makes me like this video, but rather that Beyonce included so many of the musical artists that made Detroit the musical powerhouse that it is.


Whenever I write something on Jalopnik Detroit about...anything, really...I have to explain that this is still the "Motor City." I usually get a response like "Yeah, the Motor City until you got your asses whooped by Japan" or something like that. OK, I'll take that.


But you can't strip away our sonic heritage, and many of those influences — Motown, Aretha Franklin, even the gone-too-soon Aaliyah, whose career trajectory laid the groundwork for where Beyonce is today (fight me on this, I dare you) — made Beyonce the superstar she is today. And for her to honor that legacy, I salute. Beyonce and the rest of us love Detroit, even if you don't.


Interestingly enough, some of Michigan's own pop stars — looking at you, Madonna — have been silent about Detroit's recent troubles, which makes Beyonce even more OK in my book.


One more request, B: Hurry up and give us the goddamn fifth album already.


Beyonce Loves Detroit More Than Your City

Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future

In coffee shops and bookstores across Seattle this summer, advertisements for concerts and gallery shows shared space with a less common urban invitation: to a party for a really big drill.


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


The drill—specially designed to dig a tunnel underneath downtown Seattle, building new car capacity to replace an aging, earthquake-damaged viaduct that has dominated Seattle’s waterfront since the 1950s—has a name (Bertha, in honor of Seattle’s first female mayor), a wisecracking Twitter account, and a smiling, shovel-wielding cartoon likeness.


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Last Saturday, some 5,000 people came to its going-away party, the last chance for Seattleites to see the machine that, on Tuesday morning, began grinding through the earth beneath their feet for the next year and a half. It was as much a party as any construction site can be, with food trucks and confetti amid the bulldozers and reflective vests.


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Image courtesy of WSDOT.


Bertha’s certainly big enough to warrant the hoopla. The largest-diameter drill in the world (its boring face is five stories tall), it was shipped from Japan to Seattle in 41 separate pieces back in April; its cutterhead alone weighs almost 800 tons.


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Images courtesy of WSDOT.


The whole thing is over 300 feet long—and that’s not counting the two miles of conveyer belt that will stretch out behind it, carrying hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of sand, dirt and rock out of the tunnel and onto waiting barges.


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Bertha comes with its own control room, workshop, and lunchroom for the 25 workers who will work inside it (that’s right, inside–even many of the cutting surfaces are designed to be replaceable from within), as well as a pair of giant arms designed to secure the tunnel’s walls (assembled inside Bertha’s shield and installed, ring by ring, behind it as it goes).


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Image courtesy of WSDOT.


Still, all the festivity—the I Heart Bertha stickers, the gee-whiz signage—couldn’t help but feel a bit forced: an effort to close the door on the long and often contentious path that led to the champagne bottle exploding across Bertha’s broad back.


The viaduct that the new tunnel is meant to replace was a 1950s answer to a 1950s traffic problem; even the city engineer at the time reportedly looked at the designs and said, “It is not beautiful.” The viaduct raised a double layer of cars, trucks and buses above the city’s center, leaving the streets below in perpetual shadow and noise and partially cutting the city’s waterfront, with its beautiful views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains, off from the rest of downtown.


Dave Bird, a general contractor who attended the launch party, said he looked forward to Seattle gaining a multi-use waterfront more like Vancouver, British Columbia’s. “Ours is just a big concrete thing with cars on it,” he told me.


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Bertha began her life in Japan, constructed piece by piece, in sections. Image courtesy of WSDOT.


In 2001, after an earthquake damaged the viaduct, it became clear that it could not withstand another strong one. And so began a decade-long process of coming up with an alternative. The city looked into another elevated road and a cut-and-cover tunnel, but voters rejected both. The deep-bore tunnel idea, too, was initially rejected as too expensive.


A number of groups pushed to simply remove the viaduct without building a direct alternative, arguing that surface streets, improved transit, and other, upgraded routes could absorb the viaduct’s traffic, and that other cities had removed downtown freeways without ill effects.


Arguments raged in public hearings and editorial pages about which approach was the best for the city’s future: the greenest, the most effective, the most forward-thinking (which, to many, means the least car-centric). At times it felt like a debate not about a commuting route, but about the soul of the city.


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Bertha is assembled inside her future shaft in Seattle. Image courtesy of WSDOT.


There are still hard feelings. Some come from those who feel that politicians rammed the tunnel idea through; from taxpayers who worry the dig will be a boondoogle; from transit advocates who mourn pouring billions of dollars into ever more infrastructure for private cars; and even from commuters who are upset to lose the viaduct at all, with its quick downtown access and beautiful view.


One woman told me that she was excited about the tunnel plan, but asked not to print that information alongside her name because “there are those in my life who are still extremely angered about it, who cry when they think about anything to do with the tunnel.”


At the launch party, though, there were plenty of Bertha boosters, and the emotion most in evidence was curiosity. Seattleites strolled around the site asking questions of engineers and Department of Transportation employees: How will the drilling affect buildings? How will the tunnel be ventilated? What will happen to all the dirt?


They stood in long lines to lean over catwalks, craning their cameras to capture the scope of the drill and the 80-foot deep pit in which it rested. Many brought children, who gaped at the sheer size of the machinery and collected stickers from a succession of information stations: conveyor system, power source, cutterhead.


One sticker came from checking out some unassembled sections of a future tunnel ring—massive, curved slabs of concrete that, together, will eventually combine to form a miniscule slice of the completed tube. The sections were set out so that people could sign them or write messages—a kind of 21st-century cave art—which would be cemented underground as long as the tunnel lasts.


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Many of the messages people chose to send underground with Bertha were simple: “Good luck,” “Bon voyage,” “Dig straight!” and “See you on the other side.” People wrote their names, their hometowns, their pride that they or their family members had worked on the project. Someone wrote, “Civil engineering rules!” Someone drew a bicycle and wrote, “Yah, put all the cars underground!” Someone else: “In 2013 we really loved our cars. Sorry.”


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


The messages were a small, surreal reminder of the future Seattleites who might someday encounter them, who will see in today’s public works a relic of how the city once envisioned, rightly or wrongly, its own future self. Their inscriptions transformed the tunnel into a time capsule, a reverse archaeological site: burying a fossil message for the future instead of digging one up from the past.


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future S


Bertha makes contact, breaking ground on Tuesday, July 30, 2013. Images courtesy of WSDOT.


Uncaptioned photos by Brooke Jarvis.


Bon Voyage, Big Bertha! Seattle Digs a Cave For the Future

Let's Celebrate The 50th Birthday Of America's Worst Tax By Killing It insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Let's Celebrate The 50th Birthday Of America's Worst Tax By Killing It

Quick, what do potato starch, dextrin, brandy, and a smallish pickup truck have in common? The makings of an amazing weekend in Vegas? The contents of Godzilla's stomach after a really weird bender? Close. Those are the things slapped with a 25% tariff known as the Chicken Tax, and it's killing innovation in the truck market.


Everything about the Chicken Tax is weird. You may notice that the list of items the tariff includes is suspiciously free of chicken for something known as the "chicken tax." That's because the tariff is in retaliation to other countries (France and Germany, mostly) that put a tax on American chicken. In 1963.


I'll explain. See, after WWII, the US found that we'd become really good at factory farming, and as such could really crank out some chickens, at rates never before known. Around this time, chicken was a rare delicacy in Europe, which is hard for my chicken-saturated American brain to comprehend, but that's how it was.


Let's Celebrate The 50th Birthday Of America's Worst Tax By Killing It S


Once cheap American chickens came on the market, everything changed. Chicken prices plummeted, and European chicken-gorging reached new heights. This started rounds of accusations — the Dutch claiming chickens were being dumped on the market below cost, the West Germans going all the way and suggesting American chickens were artificially plumped with arsenic (some sort of were), it was a mess.


Eventually, it all ended with a bunch of import restrictions on American chickens into Europe, causing a 25% loss of business for US chicken exporters. This pissed off the US so much that a senator from Arkansas once even interrupted a NATO conference about nuclear armament to complain about chickens. We were pissed.


So pissed that, in 1963, the tariff on potato starch, brandy, dextrose, and light trucks was added. I can't speak for the first three (maybe check Gawker's dextrose-and-sugars-related blog, Sweetly, for that) but the light trucks thing was a direct 'fuck you' to West Germany via Volkswagen.


The tariff added a 25% tax to the price of the trucks, meaning that the VW Type II pickups, double-cabs, and cargo vans that had started to become popular in the US were now all but priced out of the market. The Microbuses with seats and windows were classified as passenger cars, and as such weren't affected, but for any foreign truck maker, this was the end.


Let's Celebrate The 50th Birthday Of America's Worst Tax By Killing It S


And that's how it's been ever since. Sure, there's loopholes that get exploited. The Subaru Brat famously included a pair of daredevil seats in the truck bed to get around the tax, and for a brief while in the 1970s and 1980s there was a loophole for trucks that came as cab-and-chassis, with no bed, which is what allowed all those little Datsun and Mazda trucks to briefly flower. The loophole was eventually closed, and all those great little trucks went away.


The Chicken Tax just doesn't make sense anymore, and it's doing more harm than good. For example, Ford, one of the companies the Chicken Tax did the most to protect, is a much more global company today. That means this American company sometimes builds trucks overseas and brings them back into the US, as they do with their Transit Connect van, which is built in Turkey. To get around the Chicken Tax, it comes to the US with seats and windows, both of which are removed upon entry. It's wasteful and crazy.


Even worse, the Chicken Tax has caused the US truck market to stagnate without competition. The US builds some terrific full-sized trucks, but you're out of luck if you want anything smaller. And even those full-sized trucks are getting to be pretty damn overpriced.


Remember that map we did of the best-selling cars by state in the US? It was a huge Ford F-150 sandwich. The truck market in the US is huge, and it is dominated by at best a few key models. There's some token foreign competition, sure, and companies like Toyota and Honda get around the tax by building factories in the US, which is great, but they're nowhere close to unseating King F-150 the Large.


The US truck market needs more variety, more competition, more innovation. Ford's Atlas concept proved this— more of the same, but bigger, fancier, more expensive. There's so many parts of the US truck market that don't want or need that, and what they do need just isn't available in the US.


I ask every manufacturer I meet why they don't have a good small truck. The foreign ones usually do, just not sold in the US, and the reason they're not sold here is still because of a 50-year-old dispute over chicken that doesn't even matter anymore. If you want a new truck and you live in a reasonably urban area, your choices are abysmally slim for anything you'd feel comfortable riving and parking on a daily basis. Same goes if you want a gas-saving little delivery van (MINI recently tried it with the Clubman van, and abandoned it thanks to the Chicken Tax).


The stifling of innovation becomes more apparent if you look at what American companies were producing right before the Chicken Tax, when they had to approach foreign trucks with innovation. Take Chevy, for example.


Let's Celebrate The 50th Birthday Of America's Worst Tax By Killing It S


Chevy's early '60s truck lineup is pretty terrific. You've got full-size pickups (Apaches), heavy-duty trucks (vikings), smaller, ice-cream-style delivery vans, and, the most direct response to competition, the Corvair-based rear-engine vans and pickups.


These were created in direct response to VW's Type IIs, and they were truly innovative. They borrowed the VW's flat engine air-cooled layout, but added more size and power and even included such innovative features as the side-loading Stepside pickup truck. These were real reactions to competition, and showed that American companies could have competed, if they'd been allowed to.


But that's not how it ended up. American trucks have been walled-off from an incredible amount of competition since the 1960s, and it's time for that to end. We've seen how well American cars have come back lately, with cars like, say, the Focus showing that the US can compete in traditionally European and Japanese-dominated areas like small hatchbacks. It's time to do the same thing with trucks.


Enough with the Chicken Tax. I'm not the only one who thinks this. American truck companies should be plenty confident at this point to do this. In fact, I'd put this in terms of a challenge to American truck companies: show us what you got.


No more hiding behind the "there's no demand" for small trucks in the US bullshit. The proliferation of them through the '80s loopholes should show that's not true, and there's still plenty being nursed around today in cities like Los Angeles. There's plenty of people who would love to have a smaller truck or van.


So, happy 50th birthday, Chicken Tax! Don't let the door smack your cloaca on the way out.


Related Related Related Related Related

Let's Celebrate The 50th Birthday Of America's Worst Tax By Killing It

Gawker Anthony Weiner's communications director calls ex-intern “slutbag” | Deadspin The Trouble Wit insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Gawker Anthony Weiner's communications director calls ex-intern “slutbag” | Deadspin The Trouble Wit


Weiner Spokesperson Calls Former Intern a “Fucking Slutbag” and “Cunt”

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In Theory, This Is How Xbox One and PS4 Graphics Compare

There’s no doubt that on paper, the way Sony’s designed the PS4 and the AMD components it’s selected offer 50 per cent more power in the GPU… Read…





These guys want you to crowdfund their space railroad

Meet the team behind the Slingatron, a massive coil of railroad tracks that could shoot a train into low Earth orbit. They are hoping that their… Read…





FarmVille Suing Bang With Friends

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Gawker Anthony Weiner's communications director calls ex-intern “slutbag” | Deadspin The Trouble Wit

Nissan GT-R Nismo Might Get To 60 In A Ludicrous 2 Seconds insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Nissan GT-R Nismo Might Get To 60 In A Ludicrous 2 Seconds

The Nissan GT-R gets to 60 in 2.7 seconds. That's fast. Nissan doesn't think that's fast enough. Rumor has it a Nismo tuned version is coming to Tokyo this year that will get to 60 in two seconds flat. Holy hell.


Insiders told AutoExpress that the car in question, the Nismo GT-R, is being developed with help from Williams. Yes, the Williams of F1 fame.


There is no word on how exactly they'll achieve this insane acceleration, but I have my ideas. I bet they take out some of that weight, add some of that sweet sauce we call horsepower, put some more tire on it, and call it a day.


Or does it go hybrid with Williams' flywheel system? Or is this all just a made-up rumor and we'll never hear more about it?


We'll find out at the Tokyo Motor Show.


Nissan GT-R Nismo Might Get To 60 In A Ludicrous 2 Seconds

This Is The Craziest Minivan I've Ever Seen insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® This Is The Craziest Minivan I've Ever Seen

Of course it's French, glad you've asked! Meet the De La Chapelle Route, available with a Jaguar V12... or a Mercedes V8 with 326 horsepower. It is the ultimate upscale minivan experience.


Forget the Renault Avantime of the Espace F1. This is a whole new level of French awesomeness.


De La Chapelle is mostly know for building replicas, but in the late eighties, they came up with a concept for a very upscale minivan, packed with the most advanced technologies of the time after being approached by a foreign client. Was it the Sultan of Brunei? Was it King Khalid? Was it the Stig?


This Is The Craziest Minivan I've Ever Seen S


Only three cars were built. The first prototype was powered by 5.3-litre Jaguar V12 producing 273 horsepower and 303 foot-pounds of torque. That clearly wasn't enough, so for the next two cars, they switched to Mercedes power with a 5.0 V8 giving the minivan 326 hp and a top speed of over 150 mph.


The tubular and aluminum honeycomb chassis was covered with composite body panels for light weight, while the ride was comfortable even though the car was running on monobloc OZ Racing 16" wheels wrapped in 235/60 ZR Michelins, thanks to air suspension and all-wheel drive.


This Is The Craziest Minivan I've Ever Seen S


The De La Chapelle brochure offered everything from 4 to up to 8 power seats with automatic climate control and all the infotainment and portable telecommunication 1991 could offer.


Xavier de La Chapelle displayed the car at the 1992 Geneva Motor Show, but it never went past the prototype stage. Still, there's at least one somewhere in France with a license plate...


This Is The Craziest Minivan I've Ever Seen S


Photo credit: De La Chapelle


This Is The Craziest Minivan I've Ever Seen

Are McLaren And Honda About To Build Road Cars Together? insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Are McLaren And Honda About To Build Road Cars Together?

McLaren and Honda had a short but incredibly fruitful partnership in Formula One in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They're getting back together for 2015, and now the rumor is that the partnership could transfer to road cars as well.


The deal between Honda and McLaren starts in 2015 and is only for the F1 team, but Team Principal Martin Whitmarsh has said that they are being very open and sharing automotive tech as well.


Honda wouldn't be involved in the P1, the 12C, or the upcoming Porsche 911-fighting P13, but perhaps a model down the line could utilize Honda power? Maybe something smaller where McLaren's 3.8 liter V8 won't work?


What if there was an ultra-lightweight McLaren Lotus Elise-fighter with VTEC in the back? Yeah, that sounds nice to me too.


Honda is also apparently using the 12c as a benchmark for the new NSX that they're currently developing.


Photo Credit: Getty Images


Are McLaren And Honda About To Build Road Cars Together?

Parking Jerk Taught a Valuable Lesson About Not Taking Up Two Spots insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Parking Jerk Taught a Valuable Lesson About Not Taking Up Two Spots

In parking, as in life, there really is only one basic rule of thumb: Don't be a jerk.


YouTuber crisp330's Jag-driving coworker failed to abide by that rule, which meant open season on teaching him what happens when the social contract becomes null and void.


"Sick of this guy taking up two spots every day, so we showed him you actually can still fit another car beside his," Crisp330 writes in the video's description.


Sure enough, by the following day, the jerk had straightened up:


Parking Jerk Taught a Valuable Lesson About Not Taking Up Two Spots S


[H/T: Reddit]


Parking Jerk Taught a Valuable Lesson About Not Taking Up Two Spots

Colors in titanium versus stainless insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Colors in titanium versus stainless

Colors in titanium versus stainless


A lot of people talk about color in welds, but don't always get into why color does or does not matter.




On stainless steel(bottom), heavy colors show that an oxide layer has formed, which can effect corrosion resistance. That can be cleaned off(mechanically or chemically). It doesn't necessarily mean the weld is bad. If it's super bright, you *may* be welding too cold. If it's a dull grey, you *might* be too hot.




But on titanium(top) the big deal is that at elevated temps, the material sucks in contaminants in the absence of shielding gas. These contaminants will actually effect the integrity of the weld. Titanium gets pretty colors when it's at those elevated temps while exposed to the atmosphere...therefore the colors are a good indicator of a compromised weld. Thus you want plenty of shielding gas for good coverage (with a gas lens, trailing shield, or even a chamber) and short passes to keep the heat down. You'd like it to come out a bright silver, but typically a light gold color is acceptable (and sometimes beyond that, depending on the application/code). But the less color in Titanium, the less chance it's contaminated.


I know in the tuner world a lot of cats like having those bright, vibrant colors in their high dollar Titanium exhausts...but it's not really a good thing. Honestly, it might now matter on a relatively low stress part, but "now ya know."


Colors in titanium versus stainless

The 2013 Shelby Raptor is ridiculous, wonderful insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® The 2013 Shelby Raptor is ridiculous, wonderful

What do you do with a truck that comes equipped with seventeen Shelby logos? A truck that has 4 LED light bars, three feet of suspension travel, a Whipple twin-screw supercharger that, when mounted to the Ford Raptor's 6.2-liter V8, churns out 575 horsepower and a whine reminiscent of a Klaxon on an exploding spaceship? What about a full chase rack that can hold ICBMs, a couple hundred Yamaha dirtbikes, or the World's Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, Kansas (approximate tonnage: 17,886 lbs) and adds to the truck's estimated total weight of three and a half tons?


You take it out to the desert—Hungry Valley outside Gorman, for starters. And you do your best not to eat your gun-toting friends.


That's what we did. (Guns aren't allowed in Hungry Valley, we know—that came later.) It's a ridiculous, balls-out, silly truck that costs entirely too much but is still fun as hell. How silly is it, exactly? Read on, at Autoweek.com.


The 2013 Shelby Raptor is ridiculous, wonderful S


The 2013 Shelby Raptor is ridiculous, wonderful

Now This Is How You Jump A Curb insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Now This Is How You Jump A Curb

I've seen a lot of race cars and I've seen a lot of racing drivers try and take the curbs, but let me tell you this is how it's really done.


If you ever needed more proof that Alfa Romeos were cool, even the oft-forgotten 33, look no further than this video.


Now This Is How You Jump A Curb

Can You Give A Woman An Orgasm Using Your Car's Stereo? insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Can You Give A Woman An Orgasm Using Your Car's Stereo?

Top Jalopnik researchers are investigating the presence of the female orgasm, and they've come across a surprising piece of video — a girl on camera claims a car stereo produced so much bass that it brought her to climax.


The female orgasm, like Bigfoot or the Yeti, is often discussed and filmed, but sightings are rarely verified.


While video evidence exists of extreme bass shredding phone books, this video titled "The Pleasure Of Bass" remains mysterious. Is it indeed possible that this car's stereo brought the featured girl sexual pleasure?


Jalopnik's continuing research in this field will continue, and if you have any contributing evidence for or against the veracity of this video, please let our Orgasm Research Team know.


(Hat tip to Takuro Spirit!)


Can You Give A Woman An Orgasm Using Your Car's Stereo?

Utterly Gorgeous Rally Cars Shot On Hexacopter insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Utterly Gorgeous Rally Cars Shot On Hexacopter

A hexacopter camera rig does not a brilliant video make. Stunning views of West Virginia, dotted with rally cars, all shot from above — that makes a brilliant video.


This is the 6th annual Rally West Virgina, promoted by Bill Caswell and shot by HELISKOPE. If you needed a fix of American nature and any and every kind of rally car you can imagine (including a very sweet Ford Ranger), this should have you covered.


Related

Go See a Rally This Weekend.

You need to see rally in person to truly understand how awesome it is. Tv and slow motion WRC cars are cool but its 100 times better in person. If… Read…




Utterly Gorgeous Rally Cars Shot On Hexacopter

James Franco Talks Out Of His Ass About The 'Electronic' BMW i3 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® James Franco Talks Out Of His Ass About The 'Electronic' BMW i3

As a society, we have agreed to call cars powered by electricity "electric cars." When James Franco starts talking about the "electronic" BMW i3, that's the first sign that he's talking out of his ass.


Though some may not be big fans of the slightly frumpy i3, I like the idea of a mass-market, carbon fiber city runabout. What I don't like is when carmakers feel a need to stamp Hollywood faces on their eco-cars.


I remember when Leonardo DiCaprio was all over the news for buying a Prius and then getting the first Fisker. Never made me like either of the cars.


It certainly doesn't help me appreciate what is a genuinely interesting engineering feat for one of the world's last independent car manufacturers when I hear the guy from that Spider Man movie saying it's "world changing," "spacious in there, but not so big that you'll have problems parking" and, "just cool."


Related

2014 BMW i3: This Is It

The plug-in electric BMW i3 made its official debut on the web this morning, and shockingly — shockingly — it looks exactly like we thought it would… Read…




James Franco Talks Out Of His Ass About The 'Electronic' BMW i3

Dead Ostrich Takes Flight as a Cyborg Quadcopter Monstrosity insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Dead Ostrich Takes Flight as a Cyborg Quadcopter Monstrosity

If you thought things couldn't possibly get any more ridiculous than the catcopter, you were woefully gloriously wrong. Now, the same disturbed minds that brought you flying cats have an all-new monster. Enter the OstrichCopter.


Willed into being by visual artist Bart Jansen and technical engineer Arjen Beltman,the OstrichCopter is (obviously) a completely custom construction. After some calling around, the pair found a local farm willing to donate an ostrich corpse that could be taxidermied and outfitted with a few new robotic appendages. The result is a total beast, weighing in at a whopping 46 pounds. But the sucker can fly; take that, live ostriches.


Why would anyone ever do this? Jansen summed it up pretty well to Wired UK: "I thought it was really funny to make fly a bird that can't [fly]." Haha.


Next up, pigs. [Wired UK]


Dead Ostrich Takes Flight as a Cyborg Quadcopter Monstrosity

What's The Most Loved Car Among Non-Car People? insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® What's The Most Loved Car Among Non-Car People?

Non-car people. Sure, we have to interact with them every day, shaking our heads in disgust and pity as they curb-scrape their 2009 Corollas with clouded headlights into parking places. Sometimes, though, a car passes by which draws the attention of even these poor car-blind folks. What are those cars?


For something to catch the attention of a person who just doesn't give a rat's rectum about cars, it usually has to be pretty dramatic. Often it can't be too overtly car-aggressive, like a Countach or something, because that can turn non-car folks off, too. It has to have that right mix of beauty, drama, and presence.


That's why I'd say the Jaguar E-Type is the one that gets most car-ignoring wheel-blind bastard to wake up. There's just no way to ignore one, even if your idea of exciting driving is being "grounded to the ground."


What would you pick?


What's The Most Loved Car Among Non-Car People?

Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks

Standard car equipment keeps getting better, but there is always space for improvement. Here are ten brilliant car hacks you've probably never heard of.


If you're not into making your car better, here's also a great prank that uses the horn, just in case you want to surprise your friends...




10.) Use a shoe and some duct tape as a cup holder


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks S


POD says having a European car and an extra large soda is a win-win. Putting hot coffee close to your genitals is not.


Suggested By: POD , Photo Credit: K Mick




9.) Automatic disguised as a manual


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks S


Slacks just couldn't take the shame of having an automatic, so he made an improvement:



Back in my ricier days, I decided an automatic family car was too pedestrian, and to avoid ridicule, I replaced the shift gate with the manual trim pieces.


The new shift knob, however, couldn't accommodate the "Overdrive" button, so I rigged it to a hidden push button switch using the cigarette lighter housing. (I didn't smoke or ever plug in anything).


As "poser" as it was, it once delayed a would-be car thief long enough for me to arrive at the scene. He couldn't find the clutch pedal and didn't know how to get it in gear!



Suggested By: Slacks , Photo Credit: Jimmy@R.H.




8.) Cigarette lighter as a kill switch


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks S


This car won't go, unless you know parkrndl's secret:



For a while, I had an interesting hidden kill switch on my old Impala...


I disconnected the heavy orange 12v lead from the back of the cigarette lighter, and taped it off so it wouldn't ground on anything. (Zzzap!) Then I ran a wire from the contact on the back of the lighter to the negative side of the coil (same place you'd hook up a tachometer lead). When the lighter was pushed in, it grounded the coil and the car wouldn't start. Pull the lighter out and it starts right up. Same principle as the Chapman lock on the old Nova my dad had when I was a kid, but without the ugly little lock cylinder hanging under the dash...


I disconnected it and hooked the lighter lead back up when we all started getting tech-crazy and needed to be charging phones and shit all the time...



Suggested By: parkrndl will have a CVT with mayo on white toas , Photo Credit: DVS1mn




7.) Park facing east to defrost your windshield


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks S


The sun can do all your work for you when it comes to defrosting your car in winter, as tomtom615 explained.



During the winter, park your car facing East, the heat of the sun will help defrost your windshield for you.



Suggested By: tomtom615, Photo Credit: Rob Boudon




6.) Ford's oil pressure gauge as a real oil pressure gauge


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks S


Apparently, on mid 80s and up Ford pickups, due to the complains about low oil pressure, Ford decided to make the oil pressure gauge read mid-way as long as there was at least 6 psi of oil pressure. CobraJoe knows how to fix that:



First: Replace the small oil pressure sender (on the right) with a larger canister style one (on the left). (There's a PN in the link below, but it's an older Ford oil pressure sender, any parts store should have one in stock.)


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks S


Second: Find the resistor built into the gauge or the input wire and replace it with a regular wire. I know on early MN12 and SN95 cars it's built into the back of the gauge circuit board.


Third: Enjoy knowing what your oil pressure really is.



Built Ford tough, right?


Suggested By: CobraJoe , Photo Credit: ford8n




5.) Police car dashboards as tidy as in a Volvo


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks S


Takuro Spirit has some ideas for normal-sized humans driving police cars:



Since I know you Jalops love your Panthers, but are too poor to afford a Marauder, and all that's in your budget is used police cars (Hell, it was mine as well years back, and still is today), but DAMMIT! They don't come with center consoles/armrests, and the radio is SO HARD to reach with normal sized arms! So after spending some time with my car(s), and online forums (crownvic.net) I learned these two awesome mods!


First, you can quite easily swap the radio and HVAC controls around, placing the radio closer to reach, and the less often used HVAC controls up where the radio is.... IF you have a single DIN unit, that is.


AND, you can install a 2nd gen Taurus console (most commonly found in SHO's with buckets) with minimal trimming and you gain a cupholder that doesn't suck, a couple storage areas, and if you're REALLY crafty, you can add a floor mounted shifter! I did not.



Suggested By: Takuro Spirit has a Camry Race Car according to Matt Farah , Photo Credit: Rennett Stowe




4.) A hockey puck as a Canada special


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks S


After market air filter for an LT1 Chevy? No problem! The hockey edition sounds better too according to 472CID:



On LT1 Caprices you could remove the air box silencer (allowing after market air cleaners, and more/better noise) and plug the hole with a hockey puck.



Suggested By: 472CID, Photo Credit: Some Chevy Forum




3.) Ashtrays as your 12v power source


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks S


You have a Lincoln Continental, but you don't smoke. CleverUsername has a solution:



Turn an unused ashtray into a double 12V outlet for under $10!



Suggested By: CleverUsername , Photo Credit: Kaz Andrew




2.) A cassette adapter as Bluetooth


Brilliance, also under ten bucks.


Suggested By: Brian, The Life of




1.) Hidden compartments as extra security


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks S


The picture shows what's not a clever way of hiding stuff. Gamecat235 explained how the now-legendary secret-compartment builder Alfred Anaya had much better ideas, but they sent him to jail for it



Alfred Anaya's "illegal" compartments were pure wizardry, until he fell into the wrong crowd.


A sampling of one:



1. Sit in driver’s seat.


The trap is connected to a pressure sensor under the driver’s seat; someone must be sitting in the seat before the compartment can be opened.


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks




2. Close all doors.


The stash spot won’t open unless all the doors are closed—which would rarely be the case during a typical roadside search by law enforcement officers.


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks







To continue the unlatching sequence, you must activate the rear defroster while simultaneously pushing two window switches on the driver’s door.


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks





4. Swipe card.


A magnet is hidden behind an air-conditioning vent. A magnetic card must be swiped across the vent to complete the sequence that unlocks the trap.




A pair of hydraulic cylinders open the hatch for the secret compartment, which is located in the void where the passenger-side airbag should be.




Read Wired's story, the guy is a genius.


Suggested By: Gamecat235, Photo Credit: CBP Photography


Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!


Top Photo Credit: Jason Torchinsky/Nyan Cat/Jalopnik


Ten Awesome Secret Car Hacks

This Russian Lady Rolls In A Pink All Terrain Vehicle insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® This Russian Lady Rolls In A Pink All Terrain Vehicle

Nothing is more badass than a 6x6 TRECOL-39294 all-terrain vehicle. That is, except for a pink 6x6 TRECOL-39294 all-terrain vehicle, driven by a lady in Moscow.


Sadly, the woman does not own this 3.3 million ruble ($100,000) TRECOL. The whole thing was set up by Top Gear Russia as one of their test segments. It turns out that the lady handled the 5,500 lbs vehicle with relative ease.


This Russian Lady Rolls In A Pink All Terrain Vehicle S


The Trecol just has a weak Hyundai turbodiesel, but speed isn't the selling point. It's the low-pressure tires that safely roll over swamps, lakes, whatever. It definitely beats a pink Fiat 500, that's for sure.


You can watch the segment right here in Russian.


This Russian Lady Rolls In A Pink All Terrain Vehicle S


This Russian Lady Rolls In A Pink All Terrain Vehicle S


(Hat tip to Dmitry!)


Photo Credit: Top Gear Russia


This Russian Lady Rolls In A Pink All Terrain Vehicle