Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people have put a good deal of effort into writing since the last edition on Friday. Today it includes racing in Formula-e, the inspiring story of Page Jones, the Porsche Macan and more.
I travel a lot. That's not the first time I've typed that sentence. I occasionally report on my Rental car. So far I've had some alright cars, but nothing to get excited about. After turning in my so-so Nissan Rogue (more on that in a different post), I strolled past this Penske Hertz Rent-a-Racer. It was definitely eye watering. I mean it. I had to wipe tears away knowing this was here for the taking.
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Those words form the tag line generated to sell the automobile you behold: AMC Concord. When I was a teen, I looked at anything from AMC, save the AMX and Jeep models, as junk. My sister had an Ambassador. It was the ultimate old lady car. My parents hated her. It's the only explanation. I mean look at it for yourself and decide. What on earth did she do to deserve this?
Yep that's right. Formula-e, short for Formula Enjoy. The first rung on the ladder of Japanese single seater racing. These cars only race at Suzuka circuit and use the 1.3 engine and gearbox straight from the Honda Fit (or Jazz if you're in the UK).
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I'm a motorsport junky, I specifically love the NASCAR series but give me a guide and a race and I'll watch no questions asked. Say what you will about most NASCAR races being on super speedways and "they only go left!", but to deny that NASCAR driving takes real skill is to deny that childbirth is painful. Nowhere is this fact more apparent than the two road courses in the Sprint Cup Series, Watkin's Glen and Sonoma.
I'm loving the amount of love the GTO/Monaro is getting around these parts at the moment, and it got this kiwi gearhead all nostalgic, so I thought I'd share my nostalgia with you lot. The car you see here is one of the first generation Monaros, a 1969 HT Monaro GTS, a slight revision of 1968's HK. Based on Holden's popular series of Australian designed and manufactured sedans, utes and station wagons, the Monaro was Holden's first two-door that didn't have a tray on the back.
Parnelli Jones is one of the top names in American motor racing, from TRANS-AM to Indy to off-road racing he's been there, done that, and probably won whatever it was a few times. If you've ever heard of a Boss 302 Mustang, I'm hopefully preaching to the choir here so help fill in the rest of the congregation. What most people don't know (and I didn't until yesterday watch the B-J auction) is that Parnelli had two sons, both accomplished racers in their own right. What possibly even fewer people know is that he nearly lost one of his sons, Page, in a race at Eldora Speedway in 1994.
This is The Opposite Locker where we try and sort out the cool from the square. This is a discussion system detailing how cool a car is, not how fast, fun, or frivolous it may be, but how well it looks in the cat's pajamas.
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Do you watch racing out of habit or excitement? I believe today's races are generally out of habit, and honestly, you know you've seen it before. Its the same thing, every year, nothing really changes. I know how to fix racing.
The Macan will be the cheapest car in Porsche's line-up. The Boxster costs £37,000 in the UK, so expect the Macan to be priced from £30,000. The base models will feature a flat-4, 2 litre petrol engine or an inline 4, 2-litre diesel. The flat-4 is should also appear in the Boxster and Cayman in the next year or so. Other engines will include a 3.6 litre, V6, twin turbo petrol engine, a 3-litre, V6, twin turbo petrol and a 3-litre, turbocharged V6 diesel.
The only person you can truly trust is yourself. You never know when anyone else is lying, or if their judgments and agendas line up with yours. For example: if you voted for Barack Obama in 2008, you expected a certain amount of financial regulation and healthcare reform, and a decreased global military presence. Now, while he’s come to achieve most of his goals in a sort of roundabout way and watered-down fashion, I’d argue that he hasn’t done quite what he said he’d do. You can’t trust a politician. They say they’ll do one thing, and they’ll do another. It’s the same thing with journalists...
I've had a couple of Z28s, both 4th gens. Nothing about the 5th gen appealed to me until this car was unveiled. I absolutely love the concept: A/C & radio delete, more motor, race hardware, manual only. I'm not much of a track guy, and I'd pry never race it. But I might get it and drive it every day.
Every true car enthusiast has their great white whale. That ultra rare beast they're always on the lookout for that they simply must own someday. It may not be the best car out there, but something about it calls to you. Some of us have even owned our Moby Dick at one time or another, hell some people are so obsessed they collect them. But regardless of our situation we all have that one, often rare, often specific car that defies all logic. Yet for some reason, we must have it.
Car Spotting, Picture Threads
StuttgartObsessed saw three rare Corvette prototypes on their way to Pebble Beach at the Le May museum. MattP123 made a reproduction city/inspection sticker to add to the time capsule look of his 1972 Cutlass Supreme. Desertdog5051 went to a local car show. AddMustard plastidipped parts of his G35. BJohnson11 fixed a wakeboard. Happy Panda took some pictures of his Citroën C6 before going for a drive. BTLegacyGT introduced us to his LS2 Legacy GT, rwd of course. Coriolis went to a Skid control driving school and posted some videos. SnapUndersteer shared a video of him auto crossing his e36 M3. TwinTurboBMW got to ride in a Ford GT on a racetrack, spotted a stunning E-type outside his neighbour's house and went to an Intel car show. Doodon2whls took some photos of his VFR. 190E30 shared the results of his carspotting over two weeks of being on vacation. Audi for Life posted photos from PDX Cars & Coffee. CalzoneGolem took the bed off his rat-rod truck and was greeted by gratuitous rust. Monovich put his mountain bike on his Porsch 912 and entered a race. Mastapoof spotted a DeTomaso Mangusta while on vacation. (I should really start being more picky)
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 weekend. 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 12, 2013