Saturday, August 31, 2013

The World's Tallest Hotwheels Wall Track Puts Your Childhood to Shame insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

Written By Unknown; About: The World's Tallest Hotwheels Wall Track Puts Your Childhood to Shame insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com on Saturday, August 31, 2013

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® The World's Tallest Hotwheels Wall Track Puts Your Childhood to Shame

Remember that awesome Hotwheels track you built when you were a kid? The one that went from the bedroom all the way down the stairs and into the kitchen? Yeah, that was cool, but this one tops it. Meet the setup Hotwheels' is calling the largest wall track in the world.


Hotwheels rigged up the monster at this year's fan fest in Barcelona, showing off all its seven story glory to 40,000 adoring Hotwheels fans. Unfortunately the video is in Italian Spanish (note: I am an uncultured swine!) but the joy of tiny cars can bust through a language barrier no problem. My only hope is that next time, they'll vary up the track types a little bit. Oh, and go for like 70 stories. Please? [Autoweek]


The World's Tallest Hotwheels Wall Track Puts Your Childhood to Shame

Lovely '66 VW Beetle Stolen From Hawthorne, CA insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Lovely '66 VW Beetle Stolen From Hawthorne, CA

Man, I hate writing these posts. I'm glad to help, of course, but I hate that there's still people out there stealing beloved vintage cars. Lately, we've seen a lot of old Beetles stolen — I got lucky, of course, but let's see if we can help again. This one is a teal blue '66, stolen from Hawthorne, CA.


Here's what the owner, who goes by Graysky over at theSamba, had to say:



My car is gone.


I feel like I have lost a family member. My 1966 was stolen from the parking lot of the school my wife works at in Hawthorne CA yesterday. The school surveillance camera shows a grainy video of the two men who stole it. They were good. It took less than two minutes and it was gone. I am still in shock. Sometimes I hate the world we live in.


My car is gone.


We didn't have the car for very long. We bought it a little over two years ago as a Cal Look and I have spent the last few years bringing it back to stock. I'm not much of a mechanic so I let people who know what they are doing take care of that end of it.


My car is gone.


I am mourning the loss of the car as a whole, but also some of the little things that brought me such joy - finding original 66 only door panels and replacing the generic ones that were in the car when I bought it. Replacing the crappy aftermarket bumpers whose edges would give me paper cuts with German ones, buying the chrome buckles and making my own useless seat hold down strap, having my seats reupholstered in the one year only 66 pattern and in the process getting rid of the Ford Mustang vinyl that was on the seats previously, finding and installing NOS SB19 SB20 SB21 headlight glass, even dealing with the incompetence of the DMV while I endured the YOM license plate process I can look back on and shake my head but still smile.


My car is gone.


I know in my head that it is truly gone and that I will never see it again, it is off to some other part of the world either whole or in a thousand parts taken away by people too lazy to do the work themselves, too lazy to spend the time in a labor of love, too cheap to spend their own money to get the car they want, but my heart holds out hope that somehow by miracle it will be recovered. But I know it won't be.


My car is gone.


So now I am left to wonder what next? Am I up for trying to find another bug and begin the process all over again? If I decide not to can I live with the jealousy I now feel when I see another VW on the road? Am I willing to put love into another car and risk someone else stripping it away from me again? This will take some time for the hurt to go away, for my mind to clear so I can make a rational decision, but I wanted to share my story here on the samba with perhaps the only people who can truly understand my grief and relate to what I am going through.


Thanks for listening, and feel free to talk me into getting another VW.


My car is gone.



Buddy, I know the feeling. This '66 is in really lovely shape, and '66 may be my personal favorite VW year, too. The '66s had a number of one-year only details that may make it easier to spot— '1300' on the engine lid, flat hubcaps on 5-lug rims with narrow cooling slots, and a 1-year only 50 HP 1300 engine. This particular one seems to have its front indicators shaved off, and an amber bulb in the headlight housing acting as the turn signal. This wasn't stock, so it's a detail that may help.


Lovely '66 VW Beetle Stolen From Hawthorne, CA S


I'll keep an eye out, of course, and I know our terrific Jalopnik community will as well.


Let's find that Beetle!


Lovely '66 VW Beetle Stolen From Hawthorne, CA

Luckiest man alive miraculously survives landslide and falling boulder insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Luckiest man alive miraculously survives landslide and falling boulder

You ever see those signs that say something along the lines of "Watch Out for Falling Rocks" and you scoff and wonder who would care about a few pebbles? Yeah, this giant goddamn boulder that almost completely crushed a car in Taiwan is what that sign is talking about.


Originally posted in reddit's r/videos section by user marvinjenkins, the video shows a car just tootling along, minding its own business in a rain storm along Taiwan's northern coast when a giant boulder comes flying out of nowhere at about the 20 second mark. Luckily, it doesn't appear as if anyone was killed in the landslide.


And as for those "falling rocks" signs, in situations where it's been raining or the ground is likely to be loose, use caution, drive a little more slowly, and try to remain hyper-aware of your surroundings. And if you can, try to find an alternate route.


You don't want to end up on the Internet as the guy who didn't miss the giant boulder smashing into their car.


Luckiest man alive miraculously survives landslide and falling boulder

Your Ridiculously Awesome Mercedes-Benz 190 SL Wallpaper Is Here insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Your Ridiculously Awesome Mercedes-Benz 190 SL Wallpaper Is Here

The historic Mercedes-Benz 300SL is in such high demand that the manufacturer goes out of its way to destroy replicas. Luckily, for people who want a lot of the look but don't have the millions for a 300, there's always the 190SL. And it's beautiful.


Of course, the 190SL was structurally pretty different from the 300SL, but that meant you could get the classic 300SL styling in convertible form without having ridiculously high doorsills. Sure, it wasn't as good a racer with its soft top (though there was the option of a removable hard top), but damn did you look good. James, who sent this photo in, tells a bit about the history of this particular example:



I was at a Cruise Night tonight, and I met the very proud owners and their 1956 Mercedes 190SL. Attached is a submission for Weekend Wallpapers of the car. For a brief background, the car has been family owned since new. It was an older married couple, the car is driven by (and belongs to) the wife, as it was originally purchased by her father. The car went through a complete nut and bolt restoration. It has 90410 miles on it and counting, and has won best in show, best show car, etc etc (insert excessively long list of trophies here). It is a convertible, and is possibly the most stunningly gorgeous car I've ever had a chance to just stare at.



A little over 90,000 miles ain't bad at all. Especially when those miles are spent looking great.



Photo credit James Grabow. Used with permission. For a giganto-desktop version, click here.



Weekend Wallpapers are featured on Saturdays. Got one you'd like us to run? Send it to ballaban@jalopnik.com with the subject "Weekend Wallpaper." Just make sure you have the rights to use it.




Your Ridiculously Awesome Mercedes-Benz 190 SL Wallpaper Is Here

Bacon-Wrapped Ford Is Nothing More Than Brilliant PR And I Don't Care insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Bacon-Wrapped Ford Is Nothing More Than Brilliant PR And I Don't Care

It's hard to hate someone when they're driving a bacon car. Even when they're stealing your parking spot on the LES.


(Full disclosure: Ford wanted me to ride in their bacon-wrapped Fiesta so badly that they offered to feed me a whole bunch of bacon dishes and cocktails from Crif Dogs, Prohibition Bakery, Mission Chinese, and the Wayland. The only thing they didn't pay for was the cholesterol medication that I now require.)


It's Thursday night at 7 PM and I'm cruising across St. Mark's in the most conspicuous car in New York City. It is not a chromed Aventador. It is not a Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. It is not the presidential limo. It is not some garish SEMA-bound Civic SI. It is a pre-production 2014 Ford Fiesta. And it is wrapped in 10 strips of 3M bacon.


Happy hours are winding down and slightly inebriated professionals are leaving the first bar of the evening in search of food. Every single one that we pass stops, stares, points, and smiles at the Fiesta. At least 90% of them snap a photo.


Chances are that none of these people will buy a 2014 Fiesta and wrap it in bacon. But who cares? They all love the car and they're all going to tell their friends about it. Maybe a couple of them will buy one in a normal color and hang a bacon air freshener in it. Honestly, it's what I'd do.


Bacon-Wrapped Ford Is Nothing More Than Brilliant PR And I Don't Care S



These are Crif Dogs. Specifically, a Tsunami and a Good Morning. Both are delicious, largely because both are wrapped in bacon.



I waited a full 48 hours before I started to write this post for one simple reason: I had no idea what to tell you about. I wasn't allowed to drive the car, so I couldn't tell you about the performance. I could tell you about the food, but you don't actually care about that, do you?


Then I realized that this isn't the story of a brilliant car. This is the story of a brilliant PR campaign. And I'm ok with that.


Bacon-Wrapped Ford Is Nothing More Than Brilliant PR And I Don't Care S



If you do care about the food, listen carefully. This is the cumin lamb from Mission Chinese. It is worth waiting up to 2 hours for a table just for this.



It's really easy to shit on PR campaigns. God knows I do it all the time. For once, let's all salute those who are given the thankless task of selling us things we don't want or need. Because this time, at least they wrapped it in bacon.


Bacon-Wrapped Ford Is Nothing More Than Brilliant PR And I Don't Care

Best of Oppositelock: August 26, 2013 insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Best of Oppositelock: August 26, 2013

Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people put a good deal of effort into writing from last weekend. Today it includes asshole pedestrians, the (mostly) correct way to measure specific power, discussions about NASCAR and more.


Best of Oppositelock: August 26, 2013


Pedestrians are the bane of the motorist's existence. You idiots in your walking shoes, headphones, cellphones, newspapers, and tall skinny mocha lattes love to walk blindingly into an intersection– crosswalk present or not –fully expecting a 2000-4500 lb. chunk of metal, plastic, and glass traveling at 40 mph to stop on a dime for your useless body. We all know yield-to-pedestrian laws are there for a reason, but you somehow find a way to exploit even that. You asshole.


To set the mood, lets talk about the car; that indispensable tool that opens the world to us. A good car is like a good friend; loyal, ever ready to serve, and always happy to see you. It's there in the garage waiting for you in the morning, and it shines like a beacon in the parking lot waiting for you after work. Yup, the car is awesome. So what is equally loyal and awesome? Dogs. So lets take a look at 5 of my other favourite cars compared to man's best friend.


Best of Oppositelock: August 26, 2013


Some would say that winning the first of three racess in a week is usually the start of an amazing weekend, and if you're Kyle Busch you're certainly hoping that come Sunday there's a big trophy to go with your two little ones. But then again, should Kyle Busch even have his two little trophies to begin with?


I've been hearing this argument a good bit lately. I do agree, to an extent, but not in the way most people think. When people make that statement they are basically saying 2 things: 1. NASCAR needs to adopt the V8 Supercars and ditch the current car and 2. NASCAR needs to ditch ovals and run more road courses. Personally I think the current cars are some of the best looking and certainly the fastest ones NASCAR has ever had (some would argue they are too fast). While I do love the V8 Supercars, there are some problems with adapting their cars for use in NASCAR.


Best of Oppositelock: August 26, 2013


The speed limits in this country suck, it’s true. That’s why everyone complains about them. 65 is an absolutely useless speed if you want to get from one place to another. We need a speed limit of at least 80 mph if we’re to stop complaining, but that won’t address the real problem: we suck at driving on highways.


This trip also afforded me the opportunity to figure out just how well the E39 would handle a road trip. Obviously the Estate version would have been preferable for luggage storage and Jalop-ness, but V8/6MT/RWD checks enough boxes on the Jalop-o-meter that I'm ok missing out on wagon greatness. Anyways, I had three days and 500+ miles to answer some very pressing questions about this soon-to-be classic automobile that had mostly seen duty in North Atlanta's commuter traffic where the fastest one wins, and nobody goes fast. Without further ado, here we go.


Best of Oppositelock: August 26, 2013


"An RB26 can get 380HP per liter if tuned!" "Nascar engines take four times the displacement to get the same power as F1 engines!" "All big, fat american V8s are inefficient" "There's no replacement for displacement!" Please stop. Let me explain why you are wrong.


.


.


If you or a loved one/family member is looking for a small SUV/crossover... you can't go wrong with the Forester. The new one has a better ride, a bit more room, and a better drivetrain while still keeping the fun handling. Personally I would choose a Forester over even a BMW X3 and Audi Q5... not just cause they're twice the price but rather I like the Forester THAT much. I don't like small SUVs much and I've been in many, driven a few. This is the ONLY one I have ever liked. I am sure some of you would enjoy it too.


Best of Oppositelock: August 26, 2013


Welcome to One Car Garage, in which I choose a manufacturer, and you decide one single vehicle that they make or made (no matter how old, no matter how exclusive) to live with for the rest of your life. This is your only vehicle, and all expenses are paid for, including price of entry, insurance, gas, etc.


After the summer break, the F1 teams have all returned to fight it out at one of the most spectacular racetracks in the world, Spa-Francorchamps. Nestled in the forests of Belgium, Spa is a favorite with the drivers and fans. It’s a long, fast, steep, and sweeping circuit made mostly of formerly public roads. Until 2000, parts of the track were still converted back to road use after the race. This was most notable at the Bus Stop chicane, so named because it was actually a bus stop on the side of the road!


Best of Oppositelock: August 26, 2013


Welcome to Daily Drive, Track, Or Burn! 3 choices, 3 cars, you know what to do. Summer is over and it's time to start going to class again. Since good class schedules are for chumps, I have massive blocks of time between classes which means you guys get these again. I don't actually remember what I wrote the last article was about so we'll just say that the Mazda Miata won daily drive and track and the Mercedes R class got burnt. Today I've chosen three cars that I've seen around campus recently. Get ready to judge what my fellow Aggies drive.


The best of the rest


Best of Oppositelock: August 26, 2013


Jagvar and TheDriver met up with Patrick George and several other Jalops at the DC Car & Coffee meet. Erob599 showed us more of the exotic cars found in Shanghai. CRZRSN ran into a Cadillac 500 V8 powered Pacer wagon. Offroadkarter went late-night car browsing. 190e30 took some pictures of his Audi Quattro coupe. JayhawkJake went to the Blacktop Nationals, as did PlayerWAN. Benzed92 posted about a GT40 at Pebble Beach. Bandit had an impromptu photo-shoot with a '69 Olds Toronado. TwinTurboBMW attended Cars & Coffee in Portland as well as the 503 Motoring Block Party. Mkbruin attended Cars & Coffee in Richmond. Snapundersteer shared pictures and video of his autocross exploits. TheMyth attended Cars & Coffee in Memphis. MR2_FTW continued work on his project Cressida wagon. Audi for Life posted photos from PDX Cars & Coffee. Chase introduced his new Saab Sonnet. Agrajag took his 240d to an autocross event. Maximillious shared his photos from the Milwaukee Masterpiece, especially notable was this '84 935 Street 3 Kremer Porsche.


As always, If I've missed something and you would like me to include it, let me know.


Fun Discussions


There were several posts that asked questions and sparked some good discussion over the last day. Take a peek and chime in on some of them listed below:


Just the #tips


Honourable Mentions


These posts have already been shared with Jalopnik directly but deserve to be mentioned again because they were first posted in Oppositelock:


Best of Oppositelock: August 26, 2013

American Le Mans Race In Baltimore Almost Finishes Before It Starts insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® American Le Mans Race In Baltimore Almost Finishes Before It Starts

The Baltimore Grand Prix of the American Le Mans Series is underway, though it's not off to a great beginning with eight cars being taken out before they even crossed the start.


Nobody was seriously injured, but the surviving cars are stopped and waiting on the track for everything to be cleaned up and for the competition to be restarted. Even still, it looks like it's going to be a truncated race:



Street courses are always a bit dicey owing to their narrow tracks, but Baltimore has proven itself especially dangerous for the second year in a row. In 2012, a big pileup was caused right at the first tight corner:


That crash wasn't as bad as this years, but it still shows just how bad it can be. Another angle shows just how quickly the red flag was waved:


Of course, we'll update you if we get any more information about what happened.


UPDATE: The race was waved off once more before finally re-starting as Chris Dyson jumped the gun, but we're not even a lap in and there's already a three-car pileup on Turn 3. With this sprint version of an ALMS race lasting only an hour, this is pretty ridiculous.


American Le Mans Race In Baltimore Almost Finishes Before It Starts

This Is What It Looks Like When Your Car Gets Wrecked By A Landslide insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® This Is What It Looks Like When Your Car Gets Wrecked By A Landslide

You ever see those signs that say something along the lines of "Watch Out for Falling Rocks" and you scoff and wonder who would care about a few pebbles? Yeah, this giant goddamn boulder that almost completely crushed a car in Taiwan is what that sign is talking about.


Originally posted in reddit's r/videos section by user marvinjenkins, the video shows a car just tootling along, minding its own business in a rain storm along Taiwan's northern coast when a giant boulder comes flying out of nowhere at about the 20 second mark. Luckily, it doesn't appear as if anyone was killed in the landslide.


And as for those "falling rocks" signs, in situations where it's been raining or the ground is likely to be loose, use caution, drive a little more slowly, and try to remain hyper-aware of your surroundings. And if you can, try to find an alternate route.


You don't want to end up on the Internet as the guy who didn't miss the giant boulder smashing into their car.


This Is What It Looks Like When Your Car Gets Wrecked By A Landslide

This Ridiculously Funny Lego RUSH Trailer Is The One To Beat insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® This Ridiculously Funny Lego RUSH Trailer Is The One To Beat

You know what seems to improve every single movie trailer ever created? That's right! Legos! And when you completely re-do the trailer for RUSH in stop-motion and Legos, the end result is hilarious.


Alright, so we may be accused of putting up too many RUSH trailers, but it looks to be an awesome movie about Formula One, and this Lego one looks like it could almost be a preview for a special Blu-Ray bonus Easter Egg. Either way, it's a great homage to the film. The party scenes are especially great.


And just in case you missed it or forgot it somehow which would be totally weird, you can see RUSH for the first time next month at the Jalopnik Film Festival.


Matt hasn't said yet whether or not Legos will be provided, but a person claiming to be an adult suffering from arrested development can dream, right?


H/t to Jonathon!


This Ridiculously Funny Lego RUSH Trailer Is The One To Beat

How To Barbecue Ribs: A Guide For The Perplexed insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® How To Barbecue Ribs: A Guide For The Perplexed

Pork ribs are to Serious Barbecue—which is something distinct from the burgers-and-dogs routine for which your average Suburban Dad-type unfurls his "Kiss The Cook" apron on the odd sunny July weekend—what the four-seam fastball is to pitching.


You may throw a mean curve (chicken thighs), a wicked changeup (brisket), and even a devastating splitter (pork loin), but if you can't rear back and throw a hard four-seamer for a strike—that is, if you cannot produce succulent pork ribs in your chosen barbecuing apparatus—ornery fartbags in baseball caps and mirrored wraparound sunglasses will grumble and bitch about how you don't have "what it takes" to succeed in "the big leagues." Also ribs are often cooked with wood smoke, and people sometimes refer to hard fastballs as "throwing smoke"? Fuck it, this analogy sucks, never mind.


The point, though, is that pork ribs are very important business in the world of giving a shit about barbecuing. There are a couple of reasons for this exalted status. The first, and lesser, is that well-cooked pork ribs are quite literally delicious enough to cause the skin, muscle, and connective tissue of your head to burst into white hot magnesium flames of pure ecstasy and burn away to nothing, leaving behind a happy-looking and perfectly bleached skull with a charming barbecue-sauce beard. The second, and much more important, is that cooking perfect pork ribs is a tricky, delicate, eminently fuckupable process, which can be used by the sorts of people who care about such things as a way to divide the Serious Barbecue Dipshits from the Amateur Dilettante Dipshits, so that the Serious Barbecue Dipshits can get down to the business of waging holy wars against each other over rib-cooking esoterica—dry rubs! barbecue sauces! wood varieties! grill types! heat sources! cooking times! sleeveless t-shirts!—while the Amateur Dilettante Dipshits busy themselves with, like, contributing productively to society and having sexual relations with people.


Barbecued ribs also turn out to be something of a perfect Labor Day foodstuff: Since they are the product of a slow, insidious process designed to render too broken-down and diminished to resist its own consumption what was once tough, hardy, and muscular, they make a handy and poignant metaphor for the current state of the holiday's namesake. The cool thing about this is that, when you make ribs on Labor Day, you get an excuse to pretend that you are Ronald Reagan—Mr. Gorbachev, tear open this bag of charcoal!—and that your grilling tools are his army of bowtied Rand-humping sociopaths hell-bent upon the creation of a permanent American underclass. Sweet, right?


Economic savagery aside, the key concept in the preceding paragraph is that the process for making tasty ribs is a slow one. There are many barbecue rib preparations—for smokers and charcoal kettles and propane monstrosities and regular old kitchen ovens and stone-lined holes in the ground and so on—but what nearly all of the very best of them have in common is very low heat, and very slow cooking. The basic idea with making tasty ribs is that you want the lowest sustainable heat you can manage, but that it is considered unfashionable in our puritanical culture to walk around with a rack of ribs stuffed into your armpit, so you make do with the next-lowest sustainable heat you can manage, which is usually around 200 degrees or so. You apply this heat to your ribs for a very long time, and at the end, whether you used a spice rub or barbecue sauce or both or neither, whether you used wood smoke or charcoal or both or neither, you will have tasty, juicy, tender ribs.


All of this is to say that we are going to take a crack at making ribs this weekend, and by "we," we mean "you," except for in the previous we, in which we meant "I," since only one of us is actually writing this goddamn thing, and it sure as shit isn't you. We (you) are going to make by-God barbecued ribs on your by-God shitty charcoal kettle grill, and they are going to be glorious. We (really we this time) will walk through the steps carefully, to minimize our (your) odds of fucking things up. And at the end, you will have some tender, juicy, beautifully cooked ribs, and the discovery that, hey, that really wasn't all that hard, after all.


Let's do this.




The first cooking step is to prep your ribs. But before we get to that, let's talk about ribs for a moment. Another moment. Shut up.


Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of racks of pork ribs that you'll find in your local supermarket or butcher shop: baby back ribs, which come from the top of a pig's ribcage (up by the pig's back, as the name indicates), and spare ribs, which come from the lower part of the ribcage, down near the pig's belly. There are different regional cuts of spare rib, which vary in the amount of bone and meat they retain, but they're still essentially spare ribs, which is why we're only working with two categories, here.


Baby back ribs have a higher ratio of meat to bone; spare ribs have a lower ratio but also more fat, which means that when they're cooked well, spare ribs can be tastier and juicier than baby back ribs, even though they won't return as much meat for your effort. For the purposes of this preparation, it doesn't particularly matter which variety you're working with, so you can go with what's cheapest, or what's freshest, or what's wiggling itself seductively at you because you are profoundly psychotic, or whatever criteria you like. Spare ribs often have a little folded-over flap of meat on one side; when you're applying a spice rub and/or barbecue sauce to your ribs, you'll want to remember to tuck some of that flavorful stuff under this flap, but otherwise, the two varieties of rib can be treated the same.


So. Prep your ribs. This entails rinsing the rack under cold water for a few moments, then patting it dry with a fistful of paper towels, then placing it on a flat surface without somehow getting hit by an asteroid in the meantime. The most difficult part of this step is figuring out how to perform it without spattering assuredly germ- and parasite-rife pig fluids all over your kitchen, a challenge over which science has not yet come close to triumphing. Get a bottle of bleach-based kitchen cleaner for later.


Now your rack of ribs is rinsed and dried and, oh man, that was really kinda gross. It's time to season your ribs. Do what you like, here: Your seasoning can be as simple as a generous application of salt and black pepper, or as elaborate as a 53-spice rub passed down through your family ever since your ancestors were barbecuing field mice in the caves at Lascaux, or some sensible middle-ground between the two. If you decide to combine several large fistfuls of dark brown sugar with a few tablespoons of cumin, some chili powder, some cayenne pepper, several very big pinches of kosher salt, and ten or so go-rounds on the pepper mill, that will be a good idea, but if you want to dismiss that idea and go with some crazy shit of your own devising—mustard seed and tarragon and fenugreek! Turmeric and onion powder and white pepper! Garlic salt and powdered cheese sauce!—that's cool, too. Make sure to include plenty of salt. In any case, whatever you use and in whatever proportions, coat your rack of ribs very generously with it. Fistfuls, if you're using a spice rub, particularly if that spice rub is the one described above.


(A note, here. Many rib preparations advise you to apply your spice-rub to the ribs a day, or even two days, before you intend to grill them. The thinking here is that the extra time allows the salt in your spice rub to perform some curing action on the meat of your ribs, which, I dunno, I guess some people like their ribs to be especially hamlike? Is that a thing? Like, don't we already have enough ham without making all the other things taste like ham? Anyway, you don't have to do this. You can apply your seasonings—your spice rub—whenever you want, up to and including immediately before you stick the ribs on the grill. If you wait until after your ribs are on the grill, though, you will just be rubbing fistfuls of your spice rub on the outside of a closed grill, and then you will have to explain that to the police.)


Now that your ribs are prepped and seasoned, set them aside for a moment and prepare your shitty charcoal kettle grill. This is pretty straightforward. Build a deep pile of charcoal on one side of the grill, and leave the other half empty. If you have a sturdy metal baking dish with deep sides that will fit into that empty space next to the pile of charcoal, go ahead and put it down there: not only will this catch the liquefied pork fat as it drips out of your ribs during cooking, safeguarding against that fat igniting and burning your ribs, but it'll also help prevent your pile of charcoal from spreading across the floor of the grill as it burns and settles. (If you don't have a metal baking pan, your local supermarket likely sells disposable aluminum baking dishes that will work just fine, too. It's also perfectly OK to not worry about this.)


Go ahead and build a fire in your grill. If you don't feel confident in your ability to control and maintain low heat in your cheap, crummy charcoal job (and that's perfectly OK, whatever your haughty neighbor with the Big Green Egg might think about it), this is one instance in which you may be better served by charcoal briquettes than by the otherwise superior lump charcoal. Briquettes don't burn as hot as lump charcoal, and they burn more evenly, which will give you a more predictable heat source at a lower temperature than if you use the lump stuff. It's OK to use lump charcoal, too—just be aware that you'll have to be vigilant about keeping it under control.


(Another note. Commonly, rib-cooking instructions for charcoal grills advise you to stick some hunks of smoking wood—mesquite, say—on top of the charcoal, either before you light the fire or after the fire has retreated inside the charcoal. That's a fine thing to do if you're particularly interested in doing it—you'll get a smokier-tasting final product, which is nice—but your ribs will taste just fine even if you can't find any big hunks of wood or aren't interested in trying to find any.)


(Don't say that out loud, though. You could get shot.)


Eventually your charcoal will be ash-covered and glowing orange and ready for cooking. Almost. Down on the bottom of your shitty charcoal kettle, there's an intake vent that feeds oxygen to the fire; close the intake vent on the bottom of your grill nearly all the way, so that there's just a wee sliver of an opening for air to flow into. This will ensure that, once you stick your rack of ribs on the grill and clamp on a lid, the fire will cool dramatically due to the very small amount of available oxygen, but will not burn out all the way. You want your fire to be just hot, under there; just alive.


(Your charcoal grill also has an exhaust vent, or chimney, on its lid. Go ahead and leave this all the way open, so that your fire will be able to ventilate the gases it produces and create room for the oxygen coming in the small sliver of space you left open in the intake vent on the bottom. Otherwise your fire will go out, and you will be a sucker.)


Now, place your ribs on the half of the grate that is not sitting directly atop the hot charcoal, clamp the lid on the whole friggin' thing, and walk away. Cook your ribs! Oh wait, let's pause for another note. Sorry.


You'll see rib-grilling recipes out there that suggest placing a pan or small pot or other fireproof vessel filled with water on the grate of your grill, directly above the charcoal, next to the rack of ribs. This is kind of a neat trick. The water evaporates over time, which moisturizes the air inside the closed grill, which both moderates the heat of the fire and prevents the ribs from drying out—but also, even more coolly, the water gives you a handy dandy way to check the heat of your grill if you happen not to be an obsessive-compulsive lunatic and therefore do not own a precise grilling thermometer. Pop the lid open for one second: If the water is boiling furiously, your grill is too hot and you need to restrict the airflow even more; if the water is simmering gently, or isn't quite simmering but is giving off a lot of steam and looks like it's close to breaking into a boil, that's more like it; if it has a penguin in it, my God what have you done. On the other hand, if for whatever reason you can't or don't want to do the pot-of-water trick, that's fine too. Once again: All that really matters is that you keep the heat extremely low. If the heat in your grill is low enough, and steady enough, your ribs are going to be great, and that is all that matters.


So your ribs are cooking in there. Leave them alone. Hopefully you possess the restraint to let your rack of ribs cook unmolested (save for perhaps the occasional very brief peek to make sure it is not, say, burning to ashes or not cooking at all or actually your cat) for at least three hours, or even four. You can do that, right? Go throw a frisbee. Hobnob with the relations. Swing by every 20 minutes or so, just to eyeball the closed grill and maybe hold your hand over the exhaust vent to make sure that the fire has neither gone all the way out nor somehow become thermonuclear. Leave the ribs alone.


At some point during the three- or four-hour wait, grab a bowl and a whisk (or fork) and make barbecue sauce. That's right, dammit! Make barbecue sauce, even if you used a spice rub! Listen. Here's the thing. Yes, the barbecue aficionados are right: perfectly-made ribs should be—and, in your case, will be—juicy and tasty even without the added moisture and vivid flavor of a gloopy barbecue sauce. That is true. But, dammit, gloopy barbecue sauce is fun! It makes a wreck of your face, and your fingertips, and whatever pretense of coolness or reserve or shyness was preventing you from relaxing and having fun with all these weirdo losers you invited to your Labor Day cookout. Gloopy barbecue sauce is a social lubricant! Make barbecue sauce, dammit.


Use what you like. We've covered this before, but you can make a tasty barbecue sauce out of stuff you can find in damn near any kitchen, so long as you've got something sweet and sticky (like, say, honey or pancake syrup or molasses or grape jelly) and something tart to balance it (ketchup or mustard or vinegar or sriracha or whatever). If you should happen to have, say, a cup of ketchup, a few big tablespoons of dijon mustard, a few big tablespoons of molasses, a generous squirt of sriracha, and a few splashes of worcestershire sauce, that will make a delightful barbecue sauce. So will maple syrup and tomato paste and beer. Use what you have.


Now, take a bowl of this horrible mutant dumpster-sludge out to the grill and paint your rack of ribs with barbecue sauce. Be quick and generous, then get your ribs back under the lid immediately, because your fire probably doesn't have much life left, and you want it to spend its death throes warming that barbecue sauce and maybe even caramelizing its sugars just a tad. Yummmmmm. Oh man, are you excited? Because you're definitely doing a lot of frantic pelvic-thrusting, over there, and hey whoa, you're kinda grossing everyone out.


If the fire's been steady—low, but steady—and you were able to resist the urge to do a lot of peeking under the lid, you should only have to wait another, oh, 30 to 40 minutes before you can yank the lid off your grill and check the ribs for doneness. With a pair of tongs, grab the rack right in the middle and lift it up. Do the ends of the rack immediately sag downward when you lift the rack of ribs off the surface of the grill? They're done. Get 'em outta there. Carve between the bones to separate the rack into individual ribs, and serve them with corn on the cob and all the beer there ever goddamn was.




You've noticed, surely, that there were a lot of variables in this rib preparation. Whether you worked with baby back ribs or spare ribs. The contents of your spice rub, and whether or not you even used one, and how early or late you applied it to your rack of ribs if you did use one. Whether you used a drip pan. Whether you used lump or briquette charcoal. Whether you used a pot of water to moisturize the inside of the grill. Barbecue sauce is not optional [stares daggers], but its ingredients are.


What will not vary—so long as you stuck to the basic outline (very low heat, very slow cooking) and didn't, say, boil the ribs for a month beforehand or stick them in a fucking taco shell with half a cup of your signature Habanero-Bourbon Blue Cheese Aioli (ahem, Guy)—is that they are soft and juicy and richly porky and delicious, and you made them yourself, and that's something to feel good about, and oh goddammit you are still hung up on the dig at the Gipper aren't you, Jesus, get over it already Grandpa, for chrissakes eat some ribs and shut up.


Happy Labor Day.




The Foodspin archive: Chicken thighs | Popeye's biscuits | Salad | Candy corn Oreos|Chili|Red Bull Total Zero | French toast | Sriracha | Halloween candy | Emergency food|Nachos |Meatloaf | Thanksgiving side dishes | MacGyver Thanksgiving | Eating strategies|Leftovers | Mac and cheese | Weird Santa candies | Pot roast | Bean dip | Shrimp linguine|Go-Gurt | Chicken soup | Lobster tails | Pulled pork | Pasta with anchovies | Sausage and peppers | Bacon, eggs, and toast | Indoor steak | Cool Ranch Doritos Tacos | Chicken breasts|Baked Ziti | Quiche | Pimento cheese sandwich | Potato salad | Popeyes Rip'n Chick'n |Crab cakes | Mother's Day brunch | Cheeseburgers | Uncrustables | Peach cobbler | Alfredo sauce|Kebabs | Soft-shell crabs | Ruffles Ultimate | Omelet | Pesto | Poached eggs | Bivalves


Albert Burneko is an eating enthusiast and father of two. His work can be found destroying everything of value in his crumbling home. Peevishly correct his foolishness at albertburneko@gmail.com, or publicly and succinctly on Twitter @albertburneko. You can find lots more Foodspin at foodspin.deadspin.com.


Image by Sam Woolley.


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The Brits Throw Their Hat In The Ring For Greatest Plate Of All Time insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® The Brits Throw Their Hat In The Ring For Greatest Plate Of All Time

America has already staked its claim on the Greatest License Plate Ever Of All Time Forever, but a challenger has arrived. In the opposite corner comes Great Britain, with this absolutely gorgeous JA10PNIK plate, stuck on a Jaguar F-Type S.


The guys over at Car Witter saw a gauntlet being thrown when Ciecierskif put his beautiful Jalopnik plates on his Ford Focus, even though they're soon to be attached to his BMW 2002. They felt that the plates needed to be on something with a bit more vroom than the Focus, and when they received the Jaaaag to test they stuck the Euro-Jalop plates right on the back.


The Brits Throw Their Hat In The Ring For Greatest Plate Of All Time S


In all fairness, the guys at Car Witter may have cheated a bit. It turns out that the JA10PNIK plate is sadly not road legal. Unfortunately the actual name is one letter too long to fit on a standard, legal plate, so in real life it would just read "JA10PNI." Close, but this is for the title of Greatest License Plate Ever Of All Time Forever, and the reward of Boundless Respect, and we like to keep it kosher around here.


Even still, Car Witter went out and got the plate custom made anyways just to snag a great pic, according to editor Adam Tudor-Lane, so that's got to be worth something.


The Brits Throw Their Hat In The Ring For Greatest Plate Of All Time S


The challenge has been issued. Which license plate is the Greatest License Plate Ever Of All Time Forever? Let us know below in the comments!


Oh, and if you think that with two challengers this question can be settled, you're wrong. Keep creating fantastic plates, and one of these days we'll have a true battle royale to find the winner.


Photos credit Car Witter


The Brits Throw Their Hat In The Ring For Greatest Plate Of All Time

Vehicles That Don't Quite Mesh With The Company Tagline insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Vehicles That Don't Quite Mesh With The Company Tagline

If there's one thing four years of watching and analyzing Mad Men has taught me, it's that businesses run on taglines. Without them, people would be questioning why Acura took it upon itself to describe man for a full minute (that MDX ad is horrible), why the Swedes bother to stack cars in their print ads, and why Volkswagen bought a full page in the newspaper only to put a small car there.


Marketing departments of car companies spend many months and enormous amounts of money to develop a slogan, only to make a car that doesn't mesh with their ad campaign in the quest for greater sales volume. Usually, this happens when an automaker realizes it needs to compete in a certain market segment and turns to rebadging a competitor's product rather than developing their own.


This, in effect, leads to amusing moments, especially when an ad campaign struggles to connect the new car to their existing tagline. In fact, to this day I don't know how VW got away with their ad campaign for the Routan (it's both hilarious and sad at the same time), essentially a rebadged Chrysler Town and Country. Thank goodness it's gone.


Author's Note: I really didn't have as many automaker slogans to work with as you might think. Apparently, there's no longer a tagline beneath the automaker logo on print, web, and TV ads. I asked the automakers for their slogans on Twitter, but only 12 out of the 35 responded. It seems many social media marketing managers may not know their company tagline...


Vehicles That Don't Quite Mesh With The Company Tagline S


Porsche Cayenne

Tagline: There is no substitute.


Unfortunately, there are. One of them gets vinyl seats on the base model while the other can seat seven. One offers a hybrid option and the other offers a 3-liter supercharged V-6. Both have daytime LEDs standard. And most importantly when you're substituting for a Porsche, they're much cheaper.


They’re called the Volkswagen Touareg and the Audi Q7. And the Cayenne, Q7, and Touareg share the same 3-liter diesel engine. At this rate, VW Group is doing to their PL71 platform what GM does to the Lambda platform (Acadia, Traverse, Enclave). I actually don’t know if Porsche even uses the "There is no substitute slogan" anymore, but I’m going to assume that it is. After all, they didn’t reply to my question on Twitter.


Vehicles That Don't Quite Mesh With The Company Tagline S


BMW 5-Series

Tagline: The Ultimate Driving Machine


Considering how much I’ve gone after the current 5-Series, I must be on some sort of BMW blacklist by now. But steering feel makes the car and the current 5 just doesn’t have it. The 7-Series has better steering feel than the current 5-Series. The Lexus GS F-Sport has better steering feel, something I thought I'd never say five years ago. Having learned to drive on a 2002 530i, I know what a good driver's car should feel like.


But the current 5-Series is the first BMW I've driven with such a disconnect between driver and car. It’s best that BMW uses a different slogan in the US because the worldwide slogan, “Sheer Driving Pleasure,” won't apply once the driver contends with iDrive to change the radio station.


Vehicles That Don't Quite Mesh With The Company Tagline S


Cadillac Escalade

Tagline: Standard of the World


Not the Escalade, unfortunately. In a world where Land Rover and Mercedes-Benz take their SUVs across the world to highlight their off-road capabilities, Cadillac couldn't be bothered. The problem is I actually like Cadillac as a brand because of how they acquired "Standard of the World" reputation. You know, back in 1908, when Cadillac demonstrated that even car parts could be interchangeable, showing up all the European marques at the time. (Ah, the benefits of being a history major.)


However, you won't find an Escalade in every country, unlike a Land Rover or Toyota Land Cruiser. Instead, the Escalade is clogging school pickup lines across America and featuring in rap/hip-hop/R&B music videos.


Vehicles That Don't Quite Mesh With The Company Tagline S


Honda Civic

Tagline: The Power of Dreams


Back in 2012, Honda decided to release an "all-new" Civic which clearly wasn't. The fallout was so bad that there was an emergency redesign by 2013. Unfortunately, the redesign was due to critics' censures rather than dreams, after the exercise in vision that was the 2006 Civic. The only dreams the current Civic fulfills are those of the money men. It shows with the derivative redesign and cheaper interior materials.


You thought Raphael Orlove was hard on the Corolla, but 95 percent of buyers purchase it as an appliance. And Toyota's slogan is "Let's Go Places," a pretty good tagline for its products in my view. When the Honda ad campaign stresses dreams, innovation has to happen every generation, which didn't occur with the current Civic.


Vehicles That Don't Quite Mesh With The Company Tagline S


Mercedes-Benz Citan

Tagline: The best or nothing.


Usually, I try to use US-market cars for these lists, but the Citan is notable because the word "best" clearly wasn't uttered at any point during its development. First off, know that the French-built Citan is actually a rebadged Renault Kangoo, a small van for Frenchmen who believe in hard work. Mercedes needed a small work van to sell in Europe. The Kangoo got a four-star NCAP rating back in 2008, so Mercedes thought the Citan would be fine and didn't bother crash-testing it.


However, Euro NCAP decided to test the Citan anyway, and it got 3 stars, demonstrating to Mercedes that if they don't engineer and test everything, even a simple rebadge job, it will blow up spectacularly in their face.


Now, the NCAP test was an unwelcome surprise to Mercedes, to whom a three-star rating is unacceptable, because presumably there's a tagline to uphold. So a recall of the side window airbags came right at launch. Such episodes, ladies and gentlemen, is why Dilbert appears in newspapers across the world. Though in the end, rather than a slogan not being followed, the lesson is probably that Franco-German partnerships don't quite work.


So what other cars don't quite fit their brand's tagline? There were plenty I had to leave off.


All images courtesy respective manufacturers.


Vehicles That Don't Quite Mesh With The Company Tagline

What's The Best Car Part For A Baby Name? insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® What's The Best Car Part For A Baby Name?

I've recently met parents who feel paralyzed about making decisions for their child. Which school should they go to? Should they eat all-natural, or only organic? And is Dora the Explorer evil? But the biggest decision of all you can make for them is the name they are bestowed with.


Earlier this week we learned that Josh Duhamel, who is in pictures, and Fergie, who sings songs, had a baby that they named Axl Jack. Now that's a fine name for any Jalop, if I do so say myself. But when AutomatchTom posed this question the other night, the best I could come up with was Wankel. Now granted, I was in the middle of the Bacon Tour of New York, so my brain was a bit salt-addled, and I didn't mean to name anyone's first born after a murderous nut who wanted to kill all of my people. Plus, if your kid was named Wankel (pronounced with a "V") I'm pretty sure he or she would probably get beat up on the playground, a lot.


But let's say you do want to name your kid after car parts, because you have nothing else really going on in your life or your family or you're Josh Duhamel. What name would you give it? Let us know below in the comments!


Photo credit: Wikicommons


What's The Best Car Part For A Baby Name?

Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York

Today is International Bacon Day, and what better way to celebrate than to go on a bacon tour of New York in a car wrapped in bacon? There were four stops, a billion milligrams of sodium, and way too many bacon-topped cupcakes, but it was just OH SO DELICIOUS.


(Full Disclosure: Ford wanted me to see their bacon-wrapped Fiesta so bad that they took me on a bacon tour of New York. I wasn't joking when I said it was delicious. They fed me bacon from Crif Dogs, Prohibition Bakery, Mission Chinese, and The Wayland. Did I mention it was delicious? Also, I wasn't allowed to drive the car because it was a pre-production model, and thus not representative of the offerings that will be on sale, as something was off with the transmission. So there's that. I really wanted to drive that car.)


The purpose of the tour was ostensibly to promote Ford's new vinyl wrapping program. Ford, in partnership with 3M, will basically wrap your Fiesta in anything you want. Dan Mazei, the Ford PR guy that took me on the Bacon Tour, said that Ford came up with the bacon idea because who doesn't love bacon, and the company expects most people to actually just go with some bacon racing stripes or some bacon strips on the side and call it a day.


Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York S


Oh, and to fully wrap your 2014 Ford Fiesta in bacon will set you back about $3,000, so there's that.


But anyways. When someone asks you if you want to go on a crazy bacon tour, you go on a crazy bacon tour. Also along for the ride was Josh Petri from Digg, and he seemed to know his bacon as well. And with four stops featuring many different wonderful flavors of bacon, who was I to say no?


Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York S


Stop #1: Crif Dogs


For those caught unawares, Crif Dogs is a bit of a hot dog sensation. They don't specialize in the weird pink sausage floating in dirty water that New York is known for, so much as a celebration of all that is the Frankfurter. Also, they have their own speakeasy, called Please Don't Tell, which you have to access through a phone booth. So there's that. Oh, and I just told you. So there's that, too.


I had the Good Morning, which is a bacon-wrapped hot dog, with melted cheese and a fried egg. It's basically like breakfast, if your breakfast was trying to give you a heart attack.


Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York S


Tasting notes: Lean, crispy, with a really tight snap, the Good Morning gives an overwhelming nose of what can only be described as "deep-fried smoke." The bun could have used a bit more toasting as it kind of fell apart, and the saltiness of the bacon combined with the saltiness of the cheese, which was a bit overwhelming of the other glorious flavors contained within. If I could've had the hot dog, bacon, and egg, and left the bread and cheese on the plate, I would do that the second time around. Still, the Arnold Palmer served with it more than made up for any thirst issues.


Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York S


Stop #2: Prohibition Bakery


Prohibition Bakery bills itself as "The Boozy Cupcakery," and specializes in attempts at getting you drunk through the joys of cupcakes, which is two kinds of irresponsibility. Luckily, bacon is representative of the highest irresponsibility, and in pursuit of our goal of bacon we went with their "For The Love Of Bacon" cupcake. There's no alcohol in this one, just bacon, bittersweet chocolate, and toffee.


Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York S


Tasting notes: Oh my word, joy of joys, this was fantastic. The very first bite brings an explosion of salt and smoke and chocolate and sweetness. The texture here is killer as well, with the crunch of a well-cooked rasher combining with the chewiness of what happens to bacon when you dunk it on top of chocolate. There are no complaints about this one, except for the fact that maybe the mini-cupcake itself was too small. If you're going to create a piece of the heavens, why limit yourself? This is America. America.


Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York S


Stop #3: Mission Chinese Food


Mission Chinese, like many Lower East Side hipster-y food-y places, is a font of fusion weirdness. Kung Pao Pastrami? They've got you covered. Stir fried pork jowl? They've got that, too. As were were celebrating International Bacon Day, though, and this tour was strictly for business purposes only, we got down to brass tacks and ordered the Thrice Cooked Bacon and Rice Cakes with Tofu Skin and Bitter Melon.


Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York S


Tasting notes: I was served a plate of what was ostensibly a plate of bacon, cooked three times because why cook once when you can do it three times or something, and what I got was a plate of confusion. Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It was kind of like the confusion you get when you order Fried Ice Cream for the first time and you get ice cream sort of covered in maybe granola or whatever it is they actually put on top of it and you're like hey this isn't ice cream in a sizzling skillet like I ordered but screw it I'm gonna eat this because I'm in the kind of healthy mood that leads you to ordering an item called "fried ice cream" off the menu and then you take a bite and it's delicious.


Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York S


So yeah. In terms of pure taste, there was definitely a bacon explosion, followed by an intense amount of heat. The mixed-in cilantro provided a brief respite from the spice, but watch out for the Big Red Peppers of Doom, as you'll definitely be feeling those. The bitter melon reminded me of fennel or black licorice, and it was an interesting accoutrement but black licorice was never really my thing, so I can't fault the restaurant. Spice was also offset to a degree by an underlying sweetness, which was a caravel to Tastytown in its own right.


The confusion came from the texture of the thing, as the bacon was so thick-cut as to almost qualify outright as just smoked pork belly. To be honest, I almost expected a bit of crunch, especially if something is being cooked three times. I'm not saying it wasn't incredible, just a bit like that fried ice cream. Also, we had some salt cod fried rice and some cumin lamb, and I can't recommend those enough. But we're here for the bacon – and we will not let anything keep our eyes off the prize.


Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York S


Stop #4: The Wayland


Alright, so we may have let ourselves drop our eyes off the prize, but the original intention of going to The Wayland was in order to sample a proper BLT and potentially some chopped liver with bacon. We were a bit baconed out, though, so we decided to consume our bacony flavors in liquid form instead. We decided to get a round of the "I Hear Banjos – Encore!" cocktail. Featuring apple pie moonshine, rye whiskey, house apple-spice bitters, and applewood smoke, the Banjos presents itself as an applewood-smoked drink of yore. It comes served in highball glass, with a brandy snifter of actual smoke turned upside down and placed on top to preserve the slightly burnt flavors.


Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York S


Tasting notes: Hints of cinnamon, spice, and everything nice, but above all a heady aroma of applewood smoke. It was incredibly smooth, and yet it almost felt like you were drinking a liquid form of a truly great bacon, one crafted with care and conscience, that left you feeling not drunk with booze, but drunk with bacony goodness. My only possible complaint is that maybe they could have switched out the apple pie moonshine out for a nice smoky rye to balance out the actual smoke contained within, but I'll take it as-is. Now I just have to find a way to make smoke pour out into my drinks at home.


Overall score for the Bacon Car and the Bacon Tour then?


Um, bacon.


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Taking A Bacon Car On A Bacon Tour Of New York

Gumpert Goes Bust With Bankruptcy insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Gumpert Goes Bust With Bankruptcy

Gumpert, the German maker of insane road racers with a flair for aggressive design, is no more. With the passing of Weismann last week, this is the second German automotive death in just the month of August.


The company is being liquidated, and the last employee was laid off in July, according to German publication Otz (not to be confused with Otzi). It's a shame, as the company apparently received a new investor back in March, and the company founder was quite literally euphoric:



The sports car manufacturer GSM GUMPERT Sportwagenmanufaktur GmbH is launching into the coming few years with a new investor. An enlargement of the product range is planned.


Managing Director Roland Gumpert commented euphorically on the future of his company, “Our distribution and dealer networks are being expanded worldwide and sister models will soon be added to the apollo . What’s more, we’ll already be presenting the first of these models this year at a major trade fair”.



Poor guy. The company had already attempted a comeback from insolvency once before, with the Gumpert Torante planned, but this time it looks like the shutdown is for good.


I'm honestly kind of fascinated whenever a new supercar company starts up. There's plenty of enthusiasm, especially from the motoring press, as we love anybody with a different idea of how to do things. Though it is hardly surprising when one who's product features fixed seats, racing suspension and trim, and an engine capable of putting out over 700 horses goes belly up. The European economy is still just barely stumbling along, and Asia still isn't great, and without US sales it can be hard to keep a company going.


Let's all remember Gumpert now with this wonderful in-car lap video:


And now let's all mourn it with Sarah McLachlan:


In the aaaaaaaaaaarms of an angeelllllllllll.....


Photo credit °mario°


Gumpert Goes Bust With Bankruptcy

The 16 cylinder BMW that almost was.... BMW 767i "Goldfish" insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® The 16 cylinder BMW that almost was.... BMW 767i "Goldfish"

It's 1987, and Dr. Karlhienz Lange, Adolf Fischer and Hanns-Peter Weisbarth, the very germanic gentlemen who would also be responsible for the 8 series BMW, decide to make a production ready 16 cylinder version of the e32 7 series.


Lange instructed Fischer to explore the possibilities beyond the M70 engine. And it was from then that the Secret Seven project was born and BMW’s first V16 engine came into fruition.


Less than six months after Lange gave the go ahead on the project, Fischer had a complete (and production ready) 6.7 liter V16 engine on a dynamometer on Christmas Eve in 1987. Naturally the numbers on the V16 engine were nothing short of impressive boasting 408 bhp at 5200rpm and 461 ft lb of torque at 3900rpm, more than 100bhp and 100 ft lb torque than the 5.0 liter V12. The engine was run by two Bosch engine management systems, essentially treating it as two straight-eight cylinders.


The 16 cylinder BMW that almost was.... BMW 767i "Goldfish" S


Within the walls of BMW, the Secret Seven project was also known as the “Goldfish”. Reason being, the 7 Series sedan that the V16 engine was fitted into was a golden color so the project was christened the Goldfish.


The V16 was 12 inches longer than the V12 in the engine bay. Naturally, this caused many problems, such as the fact there was no room for cooling. So, being pragmatic germans, the cooling was relegated to the rear of the car!


The 16 cylinder BMW that almost was.... BMW 767i "Goldfish" S


The best part of the car? It came with a 6 speed manual transmission also used in the 8 series! And BMW's first airbag steering wheel, and by far its ugliest.


The 16 cylinder BMW that almost was.... BMW 767i "Goldfish"


In the prototype phase, the V16 was ready for full production and BMW did consider building a “Super 7″ of sorts but securing approval from the board was too far fetched and the V16 never saw a garage or driveway.


Sure, 400bhp is what a lot of cars get out of 6 cylinders today, and its 0-60 times of just under 6 seconds isn't neck snapping, but owning a 16 cylinder 7 series must have felt very nice to say.


The 16 cylinder BMW that almost was.... BMW 767i "Goldfish"

Paraguayan Bus Drivers Crucify Themselves To Try To Get Jobs Back insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com

insuranceinstantonline.blogspot.com ® Paraguayan Bus Drivers Crucify Themselves To Try To Get Jobs Back

Eight bus drivers in the South American nation of Paraguay have crucified themselves after being fired two months ago. They say they were let go after demanding better pay and conditions, and have remained nailed to their crosses for at least two weeks.


We've heard of tough labor negotiations before, but this one may just be the most extreme. The protesting men in the city of Luque have have also been on a hunger strike since literally having driven nails through their hands and index fingers into the wood behind them, according to CNN:



Juan Villalba is one of the crucified bus drivers. Villalba is the secretary of the Paraguayan Federation of Transportation Workers. He told Paraguayan media that his group is willing to take the protest "to the very end," regardless of the consequences. His wife, María Concepción Candia, also nailed herself to a wooden cross Wednesday to show support.



The driver's wives are taking turns being crucified in one-day rotations, according to the Telegraph. The crucifixions are part of a larger labor protest by about 50 bus drivers, though only the eight and their wives have gone to such extreme measures.


The bus company, Vanguardia, has so far offered five of the drivers their jobs back but the men say they will not give up their protest until all eight are re-hired. I'm not a medical expert, though I can't imagine having nails driven through one's hands is very conducive to things that occur in the normal operation of a bus, such as turning a key, or gripping a wheel, or waving at passing motorists.


It's a little dramatic, I suppose, but it gets the message across. What message that is, is open to interpretation. Feel free to debate it in the comments below.


H/t to Creative Accidents


Paraguayan Bus Drivers Crucify Themselves To Try To Get Jobs Back