Cars! Cars! Cars!

Initial 2008 NY Auto Show Car Notes

One: Chrysler's boss Bob Nardelli gave a speech that was so uninspirational that we plotzed. We're fairly certain that if Mr. Nardelli's M.O. is to read a boring teleprompter to inspire anything... well, Chrysler is screwed. On the flip side, they didn't release a car/truck. Caruck!

Two: Acura. Ack-ya-ruh. Not Ackra. The dude who introduced the new Acura TSX sounded exactly like Hank Hill. To hear it better in your head, think of the way Hank Hill says "video game." As in, "Dang it, Bobby. Put away your vidya game!" Heh, Bobby Hill. Oh, we dislike the way the new 2009 TSX looks. Too bad. The previous version was sweet!

Some other stuff happened at the car show, but we forgot most of it once the hot blondes drove cars the way you see on Cops. But inside. With explosions. We're not making any of that up.

Name That Loser!

Yeah, so it's 100% true. Pontiac introduced the G8 truck! Yeah, a truck. But with the front of a G8. How awesome is that?

The world has been yearning for a car truck since the dawn of time. And even though Subaru sold one recently and discontinued it because of very, very poor sales, Pontiac thinks you'll want one. Only bigger. That uses more fuel.

Bigger AND uses more fuel. That's what Pontiac thinks.

But what's it's name? Well, Pontiac doesn't know. But they know you want one! And they know you want to name it.

So, go to Tame the Name and enter your idea there. That's right, be a naming ninja! <--Honestly, their words!

Come on! How long before this turkey is canned?

Sunday Morning Review Roundup!

Man, we so want a rocket-powered New Beetle. That's a real people's car!

Referenced articles:

UberReview: The Strangest Vehicles In The World

1. Yeah, this is an old article. 2. Thanks to Gizmodo for the link, Gizmodo rocks!

Hate Wins!

Hate has prevailed over Ford. After calling on a boycott because Ford advertises in gay media.

Why would the AFA want gay folk to buy anything other than American products? Oh, because the AFA is a hate group.

Anyway, the AFA has decided it has defeated Ford so its boycott is ending. We bet the real reason is that the AFA wants to get in on some good Ford deals rigth about now. Pssst: Buy a Fusion.

Referenced articles:

Americablog.com: Religious right drops Ford boycott, claiming victory 2 years after they lost

The Race To Save The Cougar Ace

While this isn't exactly a car story, it's about a ship carrying cars... so it's close enough for us! Read! Read! Read!

Referenced article:

From Wired: High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: The Race to Save the Cougar Ace

Yo, Bumper! Fix Yo-self!

If this new rubber material is paintable, it would be awesome if car bumpers were layered with it.

There's probably other neat car applications, too. Maybe tires? That'd be cool.

Referenced articles:

From BBC News: Self-healing rubber bounces back

Hydrogen On Demand

Honda is going to be putting its FCX Clarity on lease in California this coming summer. As in a production ready (more or less) fuel cell car. That's right!

Now, right, you're thinking, big freakin' deal. Even if they rock how can they be sold anywhere else? There's no infrastructure to deliver the hydrogen!

True. Or it was. Maybe. Some long-haired learnin' dudes might have cracked it:

"We now have an economically viable process for producing hydrogen on-demand for vehicles, electrical generating stations and other applications," said Jerry Woodall, a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue who invented the process.

The new alloy contains 95 percent aluminum and 5 percent of an alloy that is made of the metals gallium, indium and tin. Because the new alloy contains significantly less of the more expensive gallium than previous forms of the alloy, hydrogen can be produced less expensively, he said.

When immersed in water, the alloy splits water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, which immediately reacts with the aluminum to produce aluminum oxide, also called alumina, which can be recycled back into aluminum. Recycling aluminum from nearly pure alumina is less expensive than mining the aluminum-containing ore bauxite, making the technology more competitive with other forms of energy production, Woodall said.

Dude! On demand hydrogen production! On demand hydrogen production!

In unrelated news, Mr. Woodall has gone into hiding based on a hit being put on him by Exxon Mobil and BP and Texaco and...

Referenced articles:

From Physorg.com: New aluminum-rich alloy produces hydrogen on-demand for large-scale uses

Smart Speed Bumps

Autoblog reports: Selective speed bumps only nail you if you speed. Now this is hawesome. We don't have much to add to this except that it's about time. At a recent vacation resort in whitelandia, we were subjected to what had to be 15 speed bumps every time we left the compound. And a body cavity search. Not sure what that was about.

Hawesome Parking Garage

It’s not every day that we say we’d live next to a parking garage, but in this case we’ll make an exception. This is the coolest parking garage ever! Ever!

We do say this every day. But now we mean it.

Classical Drive Now Live

Our dear old friend Philip Powell has taken to the web (again)—this time writing about old... uh, classic cars. And sometimes young women (which is really why we're mentioning it).

Phil's site is going to focus on... heck, here's what Phil has to say:

Created for that vast number of enthusiasts who simply enjoy beautiful old autos and express their interest in a variety of ways, Classical Drive is an ever-changing cornucopia of "what's new" in the old car hobby. It includes auctions, automobilia, shows and concours, vintage racing, models, art and photography, museums, history... all the fun things that make the hobby so entertaining.

I spoke with Phil and he said he's not going the restoration route—more the memory route.

So if you are a fan of old cars, car memorabilia and car history in general, Classical Drive is the site for you. Despite this sounding like an ad, it's not. Phil is a close friend, but we don't plug our other friend's sites. This site stands on its own and we think you should look at it.