Cuz We Said So

Triumph Spitfire in the Wild

No, I’m not turning this into a car blog, honest.  But can you blame if I spotted some interesting cars during my recent time in New Hampshire? 

No.  Of course you can’t.

Anyway, this specimen I spotted it on the way to lunch one day.  It is, if my eyes do not deceive me, a Triumph Spitfire.  You don’t see too many of these on the road these days; the last one rolled off the assembly line in 1980, making this piece of rolling automotive history close to thirty at minimum.  (The chrome bumper might suggest the car was older still—no later than a ‘78—but of course, there’s no way to know if it’s the original bumper.)

David Regards Ferrari 458 Italia, Approves

It is irrelevant in nearly every way how much I like or dislike the design of the latest Ferrari.  But I’ll still toss out there that I think the 458 Italia (seen here in the wild back in August via Autoblog) looks pretty hot, particularly compared to the F430 it replaces, which never really did much for me.

Side note: I enjoy that Ferrari’s promo site for the Italia lets you play sounds clips of the car starting, accelerating, passing at the track etc.  Ferrari clearly understands their target demographic, which essentially = me + a whole boat load of money.  And yes, the car sounds fantastic.

Fun Car Sighting of the Week

…at my hotel here in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, standing out among the rentals that festoon the parking lot: this Ferrari F355 GTS.

Wikipedia says the F355, last built in 1999, is “more common than other Ferraris,” and it’s not even the fastest car around—a base C6 Corvette should beat it to 60 by half a second.  Yet somehow, I find the appeal of the cavallino rampante to be undiminished by the car’s life among the hoi polloi.

The Spectacular Gull-wing SLS AMG

I don’t happen to be in the market for a German supercar at the moment.  But if I were looking to drop $225K on a new ride… the SLS AMG, unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show earlier this month, would be very much in the running.  I’m not often a fan of Mercedes styling, but wow, what a beautiful car this is.  Car and Driver has a nice review here.

Interestingly, Wired reports that MB is working on an all-electric version of the car.  Between that, the Tesla roadster, Porsche’s upcoming electric, and the Fisker Karma, we’re starting to see some electric cars on the market that are actually awesome, instead of just awesomely pretentious.  Now if someone would just bring one to market for less than the price of a house…

22 Pounds

LaborPains.org: “Ever wondered what a UAW contract looks like?  Here is all 22 pounds of it (in this case, Ford’s 2,215 page 2007 master contract; Coke can is for scale and because I was thirsty).  I’ll tell you this much, those 2,215 pages don’t include much regarding efficiency and competitiveness.”  Click through for the picture—it’s impressive, in its own, sad way.

links for 2008-12-09

• Court: No review of Obama's eligibility to serve
  I think the Court made the right decision here. I'm no Obama booster, but this struck me as a lame argument from the beginning.
• Texas lawmaker defends $140K lounge renovation
  But not convincingly.
• New rule allows concealed carry in national parks
• Big Three bailout gains traction
  My sense is that this is bad policy throwing good money after bad. It's also a great example of why the GOP deserved to get fired in November. We don't need *two* parties spending money we don't have.

The Infiniti G37 Convertible—Finally!

After years of making fans of the G Coupe wait for a convertible, Infiniti finally rolled one out last week, at the LA Auto show.  And I have to say… I think it looks pretty sweet.  While I still prefer the look of the G35 to that of the G37, I think I could learn to adapt, given the convertible hard top, which functions through a mechanical ballet that is a beauty to behold—check out the video to see it in action.

Gas Prices in the UK, By Comparison

Per the Times Online:

The average price of unleaded petrol on BP forecourts yesterday stood at 99.5p a litre. The industry average is 95.8p.

Math+Google tells me that 99.5p/liter is $6.04 per gallon, a reminder that as much as we might dislike gas prices that are higher than we’re used to, we’ve still had it very easy in the US.  And of course, gas in Houston is down to $1.95 this morning.

Meanwhile, what’s a forecourt?  Do our gas stations have those?  Perhaps forecourts are pricey, and that’s why BP’s gas is so expensive.  I propose a move to cheaper, forecourt-free fueling stations would do the British a world of good.

Gas Prices in Houston

below $2 a gallon.  Ditto Tennessee (via Professor Reynolds.)

Are Tiny, Gas-Saving Cars Less Safe?

I suspect yes, notwithstanding Nick Chambers experience:

I rolled my Toyota Yaris three times this morning after hitting a six-foot-high dirt embankment at highway speed. I crawled out with no more than a bump on my head, seat belt burn, and a massively stiff neck. So, for all you small car safety-doubters out there, I’ve now got personal experience to say otherwise.

I’m glad Nick is okay—but I don’t buy that his experience demonstrates what he seems to think it does.  There is a huge difference between the forces a car would experience in an oblique impact and roll, such as what Nick describes, and those it would experience in a head-on collision with either a stationary object or with a more massive moving object.  And, of course, Nick may just have been lucky.

It’s not force that kills you in an impact, it’s deceleration.  All else being equal, a less massive car should experience greater deceleration in a moving impact (given F=ma), and is likely to have smaller crush zones than a larger vehicle, which will logically have less energy absorption potential than a larger zone of equivalent construction.  Furthermore, I would expect a Yaris on Escalade collision may well see the larger vehicle climb over the smaller one, given the relative offset of the respective bumpers, further enhancing the risk of trauma.  Finally, see this study (PDF), which finds that you are, in fact, more likely to be killed or injured in a less massive vehicle.

There may be many good reasons to buy smaller fuel efficient cars, but we should be aware of the trade-offs we’re making.