Role-reversal.

My future husband (19 days from now!) and I are in the market for a home. CNN and MSNBC tell me the economy is crashing and the housing market's catastrophic. As a buyer, that's good.

 

We toured a house Saturday, a lovely little fixer-upper bungalow that we absolutely adore. Immediately afterward, we steered the Rabbit over to the local building supply warehouse to check out tile and flooring options. From there, we headed out to our editor's house for a barbecue.

 

We want the same features; we have similar tastes. We have been talking about our home search more-or-less nonstop, so our friends ask how the search is progressing.

 

"How was the house?" says Random Person at Party.

"We can build a master bath!" says Husband. "We can choose tile and buy new appliances and paint walls and build equity!"

"It has a four-car garage!" says I. "I can store my GTI! I can pull the engine and powdercoat all the brackets! If I let it sit on the 15s all winter, I can upgrade to Corrado G60 brakes! Garage!"

 

I like painting. I'm looking forward to laying tile. Master bath with corner tub? Oh, hell yes. But nothing beats the sweetness of that garage. A woman's got priorities, after all.

Moving day

Volkswagen's move to Northern Virginia was announced last thursday. Taking 400 jobs with them, they plan to leave 600 jobs in Auburn Hills. However.....

Three hundred of the 600 jobs remaining in AH are contract jobs, and at least one of the contractors (ProCare, handling customer care) have contracts set to expire in 2008. Technical staff of around 20 are in-house, however another 25 or so are contract, and considered replaceable. This leaves one wondering exactly how many jobs will remain in Auburn Hills say, over the next five years. My bet is very very few.

Rumors of Chrysler's interest in the VW complex are already floating around Detroit. The VW campus includes two leased buildings (including the one with the shop) and one building owned by VW. Sources indicate that certain staff groups are waiting for news of the location of a proposed manufacturing site to plan their relocations.

Speaking of factories, what better place to build than a US government-certified brownfield? With brownfield locations increasing as the armed forces shutter bases, certain locations in, say, South Carolina or other right-to-work states begin take on a certain golden hue. No doubt significant tax incentives can be made available for use of one of these sites. Port locations with rail facilities should take top consideration. I'll be very disappointed if VW screws that up. I expect a site location to be announced within 6 months.

I'm amazed by the vehicles sold through "any of Chicagoland's eight CarMax locations." Specifically, I'm amazed that the buyers of upscale or expensive cars, such as the owner of a Jaguar parked in my apartment's garage, leave CarMax stickers and branded plate frames on the car long after the purchase. Why are they content to advertise for a megastore, and why don't they mind telling the world they purchased their luxury car at a chain that thrives on peddling Dodge Neons and Chevy Aveos?

 

I might buy my Dr. Martens at Marshalls and on eBay, but I don't wear them with the "factory seconds" price tag still attached.

The Volkswagen gods must hate me....

I got the transmission out. I had to, because the release bearing was stuck in and I figured the throwout plate was bad. It wasn't. The pressure plate wasn't bad, and the pushrod wasn't bad. I got nothin', as the saying goes.

So I did what every normal person does when they are faced with a problem they can't diagnose - I decided to throw parts at it. It worked with the distributor.....

Throwing parts at the car would require finding a pressure plate. A 190mm one, to be exact. I called. And called. And called. Finally, I found a shop that could get me one overnight. Yippee! All would be well in Rabbitland today.

Yeah, right. Even I know that the driven plate and pressure plate have to match in diameter. Is there a reason Valeo doesn't?

The only explanation is that the Volkswagen gods must hate me. Because I still got nothin'. Not even a clutch.

Weight from the shoulders...

This weekend, I got around to working on a project that has been haunting me for over a year. One year, one month, and 26 days, to be exact.

On 30 June of last year, I ran my project car nearly dry of oil. I was so excited to have good weather that I grabbed a fresh battery (spare me the lecture, I forgot to take the ground off over the winter) and fired her up without performing basic PMs. I then drove the car happily for three weeks until it began squealing in a very frightening manner. Of course, I had to have it towed from work. This added the proverbial insult to injury because my day job involves the lubrication of assorted industrial processes, and I am supposed to understand the basic concepts of oil pressure an preventive maintenance. Even worse, I have an oil pressure gauge in the car that I could have simply checked once in a while.

I had the bottom end pulled apart and the main bearings fished out within a week. I found that they weren't bad so much from my failure to maintain oil pressure, but at 156K miles, pretty much trashed from previous owners' poor maintenance practices. It sounds like I'm copping out, but at least I can claim expertise in analyzing bearing failure - it's part of my job. I carry those bearing shells with me as a reminder to always check pressure and do PMs. I scouted around for a new used engine and swapped it in in less than a week of hour-here, hour-there worknights. The great part was I did it almost completely by myself, only asking for assistance with the final locating of the mounts.

Excited and proudly full of myself for the quick swap, I tried to start it. It wouldn't fire. I gave up after about a week of fooling around with it, doing every diagnostic in the book without finding the source of the problem. Then I cried. I was angry at myself for not being able to figure it out. In frustration, I mentally shelved the car for nearly a year. I'm very singular about DIY - I hate asking for help. I want to be able to say I did it myself and mean it.

About a month ago, I went out and grabbed (yet another) fresh battery (and a charger) and started fooling around with it again. I'd managed to shake most of the guilt I felt for taking up garage space and the fear of not being able to figure it out. That fear was paralyzing me. I didn't find the fault, but I did start to feel better about the possibility of getting the car running again.

Friday afternoon, a friend called up and offered to help out. I decided to get over myself and accept the help. Three hours of diagnostics (all positive), a trip to the parts store, and the decision to start throwing parts at the car (a decision I repeatedly refused to make when arguing with myself), and the engine fired strongly for the first time since being removed from its previous host. We let it idle for a bit while calling up other friends to share the sweet exhaust note over our cell phones. I would drive to work on Monday. My demon was exorcised, if for a few precious minutes. A third friend showed up to return a tool while we were enjoying our successful day and broke the reverie. The clutch was soft, and I'd been hoping to get his foot in there as he's got plenty of experience with the same setup. He infomed me that after all of my pain with the engine, either the clutch was toast or the throwout pin was broken, and I most certainly was NOT driving it to work on monday.

The engine is already chained up and the chassis is in the air. I have a spare known-good transmission in the garage and a clutchpack is available same day from my tuner. Let's hope I can get this problem solved in less than a year. I want to drive my car again. I miss her and what she does for my soul.

And yes, I unhooked my ground this time.

Saleen Troy Assembly

While out at lunch today, I spotted a sign reading "Open House" in front of a building that hasn't had a sign on it since it was a Stanley Garage Door factory some time back in the late 90s. This wouldn't have raised an eye, but I knew what was inside. The owners have a habit of displaying their wares in the large front window, and you can only see so many S7s before you figure out that the old garage door plant is the midwest base for Saleen.

I swooped back to work, begged my boss for the afternoon off, and hightailed it out to the daycare to grab the kids - you only get so many shots at a racecar factory, and we weren't missing this one.

Saleen's Troy, MI assembly plant is micro-OEM facility. If you've been in a "regular" auto assembly plant, this is the Matchbox (or is it HotWheels?) version. Chasses come in one end, supplied by Ford, and are processed on two separate assembly lines. The main line is for Mustang conversions. That is too limited a word, the cars are stripped when they arrive and given new VINs indicating Saleen as the OEM. The parts that are stripped off the cars are graded for quality and shipped to a variety of recycling shops around the US that get the parts to owners and shops that need them for repairs. They are not sold as new. The chasses are painted if a Saleen color is selected, then go through what the rest of the OEMs call "final assembly". About 5 cars a day process through the Mustang line, starting with interior extraction and working through undercarriage, suspension, engine work, interior insertion, and final trim. Final trim frequently includes replacing the bonnet.

The paint line is a work in and of itself. Saleen has the expertise and equipment in-house to produce a fully baked factory primer/color/clear process and does so on all painted vehicles. They recently received the contract to paint the 08 Dodge Viper. Working with the RIM material for the Viper parts requires a unique buck assembly to protect the shape of the parts during the bake cycle. Each group of trims is painted as a body so that all parts will match exactly when the car is assembled. This commission comes on the heels of the Ford GT, a car fully painted and assembled at Saleen, short of the drivetrain insertion.

The second line in the plant processes vehicles delivered from Ford that will keep their Ford VINs. These vehicles receive factory-certified Saleen powertrain upgrades, such as the supercharger on the Ford F150 Harley Davidson. Up to 15 trucks can process each day, meaning a car carrier is showing up to unload and pick up about 8 times a week. The supercharger was designed out of Saleen's California headquarters, like most of Saleen's offerings. Troy Assembly includes several test cells for flowbenching and a brand new Dynojet for powertrain validation. If you're going to claim 400 horsies, you better be able to show you've got them. One of the modified trucks was strapped down during our visit, and plunked down a very respectable 390hp and 440ft-lbs at the wheels.

Saleen are pretty much the only OEM that is expanding in MI. The facility opened to build the Ford GT, as Dearborn wanted it done close to home, and Saleen have a very good relationship with them. An engine plant is on the drawing board - plans to bring 281s in from Ford for stroking out to full 302 spec are on the table. This will further expand not only Saleen's capabilities for modifying Fords, but the ability to produce very specific crate motors. A possible retro roadster project is also on the table, as witnessed from the assorted body and frame bucks observed around the plant.

I hope to secure a future tour that can include my camera. It's a great treat to visit an assembly shop that isn't beating me over the head over a paint defect for once. At Saleen, it didn't appear to be an issue.

I need an SUV to get over this writer's block. I heard the new Touareg's a great off-roader!

Writing new car reviews is freakin' tough. I don't know why I thought it would be simple. I've spent upward of 25 hours so far this week attempting to summarize 10 hours of driving a 2008 Touareg.

 

How people do this for a living, day in and day out, I don't know. According to a source of mine, Jim Mateja (recently retired from The Chicago Tribune) had access to several hundred press cars last year; this review of the 2008 TT is representative of his general style. The facts are jammed in wherever they fit amongst copy that reads like a hypothetical conversation between the writer and a neighbor.

 

"Oooh, what have you got there, Jim?"

"Well, this here's the new..."

 

Such pedestrian prose makes the opposite end of the spectrum (for example, the highly-controversial Dan Neil ) seem positively poetic, although that's an unfair comparison, because I don't generally enjoy poetry.

 

Style and talent in this industry run the gamut, and I'm positive I have a niche here that I can't yet define, much less carve out. I'm struggling to grasp the words that suit this vehicle. I need to describe the good elements of my experience, of which there are many, and force myself to evaluate the not-so-good from another perspective, because they are tainted by my own biases. I thought that my brief time with the car was enough to accomplish this, only to be later surprised and dismayed that the fleet management company retrieved it earlier than expected. And I allowed myself until tomorrow to wrap it all up.

 

Wish me luck. I'll post a link when the review goes live.

"...Foregoing being the king." --Geely media kit

Wes and I talked about China last night, an amateur international relations conference from the booth of a Milwaukee McDonald's.

 

I mentioned I read an article about a wildlife preserve in China that allows googly-eyed Westerners the opportunity to hug panda bears for a hefty fee. For at least as long as I have known Wes, he has wanted to go to China to observe and write about Chinese auto manufacturing, such as Geely or Chery. My motives are clearly much more superficial.

 

I asked Wes if he thinks the recent news stories about tainted Chinese-made products would hurt the chances of auto manufacturers. I'm convinced they're doomed before they even start; after all, I saw Geely's exhibit at NAIAS in January. I collected their press materials with the intention of making a kind of "what not to do" collage. I examined the display cars with fake disc brakes bolted over the drums, paint overspray peeling from rubber gaskets, and interior upholstery that closely resembled dollar-store terry cloth dish towels. If they don't have the good sense to, at the very least, hire a North American PR firm to review their press materials to fix errors and smooth over goofy translations before distribution, I don't think Chinese auto manufacturers stand a chance.

 

Wes disagrees. In the wake of the Chinese tire nightmare, his news post on The Car Lounge delved into the background of Chinese manufacturing: why the culture enforces such shoddy quality and why he thinks that dynamic will change. (Rather than paraphrase him, I'll rather post the link when I'm not blogging from work.) He's nothing if not thorough, that man. And since he's done far more research on the subject than I have, and these are the sort of conversations take place in our non-working hours, I'm looking forward to watching it play out. Multiple sources (manufacturers and analysts) estimate Chinese cars could land here as soon as two years from now.

 

He's still planning to visit an auto plant in China someday. I finally conceded that I'd like to accompany him, as long as I get to visit the pandas.

 

VW's location question

We heard that VW is considering leaving MI for greener pastures out east.

This is intriguing for a few reasons. Moving to the coasts would put VW smack into the centers of population where their cars sell best. And Germans do love to fit in. This would fit well with a Volkswagen strategy of staying in the US as a niche player without any aspirations of true mass-market participation. If that is what VW are going to be about, it's not such a bad idea to move. It's not good for the bubble buyer, who will now know for a fact that VW is not interested in them, but it may result in a more refined VW product line that addresses their unique position in the US marketplace. Unfortunately, this will hamper Audi's gains in the luxury market.

If VW want to pursue their mass market strategy that is serving them well in the rest of the world, staying in the D is a better (non)move. Nowhere in the US is the American auto consumer more king that in Detroit. If VW is to truly understand what American drivers want, they will do best to put their collective ears to the ground in the heartland and mix product accordingly. They've had 50-plus years to get it right, what's a few more? I find it interesting that most of the new VW owners I know now (MkV and PQ46/B6 platforms) are people who skipped the past 20 years of VW. They are choosing the VW cars over Japanese cars. This means VW is starting to get the mass market right, regardless of what the noisy enthusiast crowd claims. Same goes for Audi.

This could all be a moot discussion - chatter indicates that some of the significant tax breaks VW received during the move to Auburn Hills require a few more years of residence to fully pay off. The cost of moving a company is not small - even if 25% of the staff transfer (an optimistic estimate based on other corporate moves), moving costs and COLAs add up. Add in the edifice complex that invariably results in a fancy new building and you've got a one-time hit that could wipe out profits for the next five years (assuming they make any). The same attrition could be achieved by cleaning house at Auburn Hills and picking and choosing from the abundance of ex-Ford, GM, and Chrysler staff that are currently overwhelming the local economy.

A third possibility is Chicago. I doubt it's being considered, but it would give VW exposure to both the coveted Euro-friendly crowd that populate the large cities of the coasts, along with maintaining access to the heartland. While staying in the D is a cheap no-brainer, a move just a bit west would offer the best of both worlds and give the Germans a bit more time to decide whether they're going to pull out entirely or stick around for another 50 years.

The time is coming. I must obtain an Illinois driver's license. Really, I should have done it months ago, but since my Vermont license expires next month, I can no longer feign ignorance.

 

It brings a sense of finality to my life. Funny how that works--it's as if once a government-issued photo ID says I live here, I actually do live here. Before that, it seemed kind of haphazard, like I woke up one day and found myself on the outskirts of Chicago (which isn't too far from the truth).

 

I just found out, though, that I have to surrender my Vermont license at the time the Illinois license is issued. I don't want to surrender it. I want to keep it. I like having a souvenir I carry in my wallet. I enjoy the looks and comments I get from liquor store clerks--"Oooh, what's it like there?"--and I don't see why they can't just snap it in half and hand it back to me, so I can frame it or something.

 

I am kind of a pack rat. I do get way too attached to everyday inanimate objects.

 

I still have my Massachusetts license, although it expired long ago. I was supposed to surrender it to the State of Vermont that September day I took an afternoon off from work, headed down the lakefront to the Burlington DMV, applied for my LB6ZGTI vanity plates, sat for a new photo, and lied about my weight. The reason I didn't hand it over? The clerk, a cute young man about my age, came out to the parking lot to verify my VIN, stopped short when he saw my GTI, and spent the next few minutes smiling at me and asking questions about the car. Government-mandated procedure was a mere suggestion at that point. Like the bumper stickers say, ILOVERMONT.

 

 

 

No show

Around 15 April, the thoughts of auto enthusiasts in America turn to two things: What to spend the tax refund on, and where to show it off.

My family can only survive so many car shows each year, so I get out the calendar and try to pick and choose early on. I confess that while I do like attending big ones, the smaller, more focused ones offer better chances at bringing home the hardware. Yes, I'm competitive about my car. I admit it. More trophies is better. As I expected to run the BABE 2007 in May, I cut the show schedule a little trimmer than I normally would. One of the perks of the planned BABE event was going to be spending a week driving cross-country with my co-host here at Vanity Plate Blog, something we were both looking forward to doing, and to writing about. I selected my hometown show - Motorstadt, the Woodward Dream Cruise, and the Michigan Bug-Out. The most glaring omission from my schedule was the largest midwest show for Volkswagens - Midwest Treffen.

Now that Treffen is on the horizon, I'm rethinking my decision. I can't change it due to other plans, but I'm regretting writing it off of the calendar so quickly. The show is a huge conflict for me - it is invariably scheduled for the weekend of the Dream Cruise, popular voting produces some interesting results, and Chicago is an expensive place to get a room. The Dream Cruise (watch for coverage this week as I hit Woodward) is the single largest automotive event in the United States, and when you live in the Detroit area, impossible to avoid. So you cave and enjoy it. You revel in the exhaust fumes, the ornate bodywork, and torque that, were Woodward a one-way street, might affect the rotation of the earth. With at least one budding gear-head building LEGO cars at home, it's a crime to leave town for this amazing event. And while you're supposed to go to shows for fun, my competitive streak really got the best of me last year when the first place vote in my class went to a stock car with wood-grain shelf liner stuck to its rocker panels. I swore I would never go back. It was a pretty sucky weekend - I got rained on on Saturday at the Cruise, drove like a banshee to Chicago that evening to stay in a $150 Hampton (good grief!), got displaced by the shelf liner, and returned home, rock-chipped and empty-handed, to hear that the weather improved on Sunday and there were "Ferraris EVERYWHERE, Mommy!". Staying home this year felt right, way back in April.

So why, in the face of three Plymouth GTXs, hundreds of Chevelle SuperSports, half the mobile Model Ts, and a wind-up Type 1 with a hydraulic body, do I regret staying home this year? Because Cherise missed out on the BABE ralley, and I missed out on her company. I'd be enjoying it this coming weekend at Treffen, while we planned and plotted for a bigger, better Vanity Plate Blog. This year's Treffen would have been what car shows are supposed to be about - hanging out with friends, looking at cars, enjoying yourself. My reasons for not going were pretty selfish, and here I go again, selfish in my reasons for wanting to go.

Instead of making the trek to Chicago, I'll be visiting the Seiberling estate outside of Akron, OH, built as home to the founder of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. We're throwing in a trip to the World of Rubber for some educational content. Not the car trip I wish I was making, but tyres count for something, right?

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Yikes. That sums up my response to the announcement of the installation of Bob Nardelli as chairman and CEO of Chrysler this morning. As long as Bob Lutz holds on to GM, it's Planes, Trains, and Automobiles here in the D.

My dad worked for General Electric Locomotive Division some time ago. He never really talked about GE much, only to relate the occasional anecdote about the mystical manner in which GE was managed. The engineers weren't really in charge of much, to put it mildly. Justifying costs on a locomotive with safety instead of customer-inspired product upgrades means product planning isn't going the way it should. It's not happening at all. And when it comes to things that cost a lot of money, product is king. Bean-counting, Mr Nardelli's best skill, was making life hell for the guys who build the locomotives that keep the lumber moving from forests to homesites. It's a miracle the guy made it to Home Depot - cost cutting doesn't keep the locomotives rolling out of the factory, and it sure as hell doesn't make home centers the best places to shop. A quick survey at any Lowe's will tell you that. Our local HD is so bad that we call it Tent Depot in response to its lack of product and inventory. I'm sure it's efficient as all get out, though.

Bringing a cost accountant with expansionist tendencies into a business that already sets standards for efficiency and overcapacity looks like a recipe for a bad trip. Considering that Wolfgang Bernhard has been waiting inthe wings to return his successful formula for automotive branding and product planning (too successful for Hrs P&P of VAG, apparently), the choice of Nardelli is even more confounding. Bob Lutz has shown over and over that Car Guys are what it takes to turn around an automaker. Alan Mullaly harbors no misconceptions about the role of product in the product line. But Nardelli? Chrysler doesn't need his kind of Evolution.

Requiem for a brand

I'd be pretty remiss if I didn't comment on the end of things yellow and couch, too.

My role is more that of innocent bystander, but not a bystander and not innocent. Comments were made, tempers flared, and foci shifted. Motive is set to launch and it will be a bright new era in auto mags. The right things have happened for someone I respect and want success for.

Like Cherise, I won't be there. Not like I was on the couch, that's for sure.

I first sat on the couch about three years ago. I'd been partaking of its knowledge and collective automolove for a few years already when I was invited to sit down and come clean. Oh, the humanity, the joy, the fun. Most of the time when you write, you don't know 100% of your audience. You know their demographics, and you know the basic stats on the readers, but you don't know them personally. On the couch, it was different. We knew the people we wrote for - many of them personally, and we knew when we were going to get slayed for our words. I took a pasting from the design department at GM once. People I had to face at work and socially, no less. It was painful, but it was offset by the many times I got to scoop or be the loyal opposition.

I like the Car Lounge brand. No premise other than cars and car chat. No claims, no goals, no motives. I want to see it transition successfully. I'm afraid some of what made it special might get lost, though. That being the couch.

You see, the Car Lounge was automotive therapy - sometimes you were the doctor, sometimes you were on the couch.

Chagall at the Mall - 29th Annual Meadowbrook Concours d'Elegance

Today marked the 29th Meadowbrook Concours d'Elegance, the midwest's annual tribute to cars that cost more than you could possibly imagine. It only costs $25 to look, unless you shop at the Somerset Collection, and then it's sort of free. Promotion of the Concours d'Elegance consisted of display of several cars from both this year's and last year's events at the local super-pricey shopping mall. The absolute star of the mall feature was a 1936 Stout Scarab, which I understand has been willed to the Smithsonian institution by its owner. Eight cars and a motorcycle made the trip to the shopping mecca in Troy. That wasn't enough for me, so I plunked down the cabbage and spent several hours on the golf course at Meadowbrook Hall with my family, admiring and twittering about everything from the effortless spunk of a tiny Topolino to the grand and imposing elegance of a massive Packard 180 Darrin.

The only damper on the show was the weather, and even Bob Lutz (chairman) couldn't manufacture sun. The rain held off to a now-and-then drizzle. It was just enough to keep the chamois going and the tarps on. I admire the many owners who let the raindrops fall on their beauties - it made the show that much more outstanding for everyone.

This year's show focused on Alfa Romeo. The constellation of little stars inside the juried area included the trio of Alfa B.A.T.s, brought to life by Bertone. The Berlina Aerodynamica Technica 5, 7, and 9 showed an exuberance of design that has long left the industry. Tall recurving tailfins graced each body, obscuring the view from the giant sloping rear glasses. My sons gravitated to the cars for their futuristic bent and simple lines. I wondered when Bertone would get a commission like that again. Nearly 25 little Italian stars graced the show field, each one waiting to stand up to the 8C Competizione sitting outside of the gate. With the bonnet of the 8C open, you had the feeling you were its food, and it was coming for you. The 8C's engine sounded nice. It didn't have any of the gritty rumbles or pops and burbles of the cars on the show field (Concours cars must be driven onto the field under their own power). It was a technical sound. Not bad, but not dangerous.


Our favorite Alfa? A tossup between the B.A.T.s, a very clean 1964 2600, and a 1952 1900C. The 2600 was Giorgetto Guigaro's first production design, and I am very partial to his work. The 1900C competed in the 1952 Mille Miglia, making it one of several honest-to-God racecars showing. Who can't love an Italian racecar?

Although Alfa was the marque of note, I also found several cars that felt the hand of Howard 'Dutch' Darrin. Several Packards showed, along with his last body, the 1954 Kaiser Darrin. Beating the Corvette to market by a month, it holds the title of first fibreglas car. The 1937 Packard Darrin Convertible Victoria featured a hood ornament that did double duty as an antenna for the car's radio. Darrin's styling could easily be the source of the word swank.

While this is indeed Vanity Plate, it's time to detour to Hood Ornament. No show I attend provides more variety and detail in this class than Meadowbrook. The illuminated class takes us from the crystal eagle on a 1930 Cord L29 Phaeton to the naked glass lady on a 1934 Duesenberg Model J. t's hard to run out of stuff to look at. Last year we were treated to the naval turret guns on a pair of DuPonts, but none were found this year. A mistake, if I may say so. Hood Ornament fest continued apace with the non-illuminated variety. Hood ornaments serving dual purposes as decoration and gauges of various sorts dominated the 20s and 30s brackets.

I was humored by a 1932 Ford V8 Convertible Victoria that was built in Germany and still had its original toolset. The 1923 Kissel 6-45 Gold Bug Speedster had a lock on "best feature ever" for its outrigger seats that slid out of the chassis and allowed a rider outside of the box on each side. More like mother-in-law seats, if you ask me. I learned that "fix-it" cars are not just FIATs and Fords - the 1910 EMF Model 30 Touring was known (by marketers, no doubt) as "Every Man's Favorite", however owners apparently designated them "Every Morning Fix-it"s. The placards at the Concours are excellent in their presentation of details and history of the cars they describe, frequently supplying humorous and family notes that bring the cars to life even in their museum-like conditions. They make the show very accessible for children and encourage extensive tale-telling when one has personal experience with a marque or particular model.

A second designer of note that seemed to pervade this show was Charles Knight, the designer of the sleeve valve. Unlike last year's unabashed noisefest, this year was all quite on the front nine. The little Alfas putted around. The Rolls Royces wafted imperiously. A Ford GT40 (help me, I'm going to faint!) noodled by. A deTomaso Magnusta sputtered about under its own power. Adding to the miracle of that, a second Magnusta was found in the parking lot, also apparently having arrived under its own power. Did the world stop rotating or something? Only a subdued Yenko Camaro tripped any car alarms.

Post World War II groups featured their own oddities and concepts. Two of my favorites at this year's event were the Jeffords AMX R and the 1966 Jensen FFII. The AMX R concept, executed and hopped up by Jeffords, featured a "Ramble" seat in place of a trunk. Taking its name from history and its concept from the original goals of the AMX program, the car was the 1968 equivalent of one of today's tuner specials. We also saw the AMX/3, the last of the AMX line, and a concept that would never see production. The Jensen is a sentimental favorite, being the first production car with ABS, AWD, and traction control, all things we take for granted 40 years later. The Chrysler Turbine, on loan from the Walter P. Chrysler museum attracted the usual crowd. More interesting to me was the La Femme (I wonder why?), recently restored and also on loan. The most interesting thing about the La Femme is not its lipstick case, but the eight gauges that dot its dashboard. Now we have idiot lights. Apparently women of the 50s were somewhat more capable than we are assumed to be today.

The Henry Ford offered up a Bugatti Royale with a very checkered history. The car had been junked due to a cracked engine block, and was rescued for restoration. Prior to being junked, it had been "sent for repair" during the rise of the Nazis in Germany, as it could only be worked on by the factory in France. A second Bugatti on the field was walled off in an underground garage, the driveway backfilled, and roses planted on the fill. These anecdotes serve as reminders of how universal automotive enthusiasm really is.

As usual, Meadowbrook includes a fashion show, in which models parade clothing while seated in cars from the field. My eight year old was entertained by one model's ensemble featuring pieces from design house Graham Paige - he pointed out that there was a 1928 Boattail Speedster of the same marque on the field and inquired if they were related. I promised to check on that.

I'll add pics as I get them uploaded. In the mean time, make plans to come to Detroit next year for the 30th annual Concours d'Elegance. bring your family and make a day of some of the most beautiful and influential cars you'll ever see up close. And no celebrities, either, unless you count ol' Bob.

Thank you, Chicago.

From The Chicago Tribune: City may quit fueling up with BP

 

The basics: BP is dumping waste into Lake Michigan. Chicago City Council members say, "Don't do that, or we won't do business with you anymore."

 

Choosing a fuel company sucks; it's a prime example of finding the lesser evil. But I won't be buying BP gas anytime soon, even if I do think their green and yellow flower logo is cute.

 

 

The death of the Big Yellow Couch.

Motive Mag will be launching any minute now. Really, I swear. I have been privy to days' worth of last-minute chores, partook in their celebratory strawberry-frosted cake, and made a beer run for Jamie.

 

And I'm not even a staff member, nor will I ever be; I just sleep with one.

 

Motive is replacing The Car Lounge, Vortex Media Group's catch-all auto forum, when the switch is flipped at some point today. Motive will be much more than TCL's crazy forums, news blogs, and occasional feature stories. I've been a bystander on the process since January, and I promise, Motive will dazzle. It's sexy and sharp, and VMG has landed some phenomenal talent.

 

There's something sad, though, about that yellow couch fading away. It's symbolic of TCL's accessibility. Motive, for a million different reasons, is anything but.

 

 

Getting dirty.

In my quest to tell the stories of others' project cars for VWvortex, I've kind of lost sight of my own. The parts I need to acquire, problems that need to be fixed, skills I need to learn--well, they've all fallen by the wayside, as my car sits parked in a barn 100 miles north, I struggle to plan my rapidly-approaching married life, and I become accustomed to the comforts of a new car. (Yes, I've learned to appreciate air conditioning and in-dash factory CD players; however, I still loathe cruise control and daytime running lights.)

I'm working on two feature stories, both of which need to be wrapped up by Chicago Volkswagen Organization's Midwest Treffen on August 19. Incidentally, this is also the first time I'll be showing my car since spring of 2006. In some ways, it feels like a life I've left behind--the constant scheduling, parts acquisition and installation, logging hundreds of highway miles and fearing every bird bomb, rock chip, and gravel patch along the way. I wasn't satisfied with being middle of the pack, but somehow I am now.

Attending a VW show used to mean weeks of preparation. I'd drop every dime of my discretionary income on new parts and spend an entire day scrubbing the engine bay with a toothbrush and a gallon of Simple Green. If it weren't for the feature stories I'm writing, I probably wouldn't be going to Treffen at all. I can't even get motivated to order and install basic parts; I'm only mildly excited about showing off my newly-completed European digital cluster conversion, a task so complex that it's been managed by only a handful of people on the continent. (Thanks again to my electrical-genius, German-literate husband-to-be who appreciates the unique opportunity to give a girl car parts for Christmas--and then install them for her.)

I have a feeling, though, that the people I have made plans to meet will make it all worthwhile--the late nights hunched over my keyboard, the hours of backbreaking polishing and scrubbing, and even the $4-per-gallon 93 octane gas that the GTI demands.

I'm already working on an appropriate mix CD.

In just a couple of weeks, happiness arrives in the form of a Saturn Sky.

The Sky has been my "lust" car since its release; I love it so much that, were I in the market, I'd be tempted to choose a Sky over even the MINI Cooper S, which has been my "lust" car for the past six years or so. It's pure luck that it is scheduled to arrive at the office the same week as a bunch of much more exotic vehicles; while the full-time staff is busy arguing over Porsches, I'm thrilled with this particular GM.

I can't think of a better way to spend an evening in Chicago than taking a sexy, feminine roadster for nice twilight spin down deliciously twisty Sheridan Road to Lake Shore Drive.

More to come...

Volkswagen .:R GTI

We all have posters of cars on our walls at one point in our lives or another. My cubicle at work has some assorted Volkswagen posters and an old NSX poster that I've been dragging around for I think four jobs now. Four desks, for sure. Whether it was the Countach and Vector W8 posters that dominated the 80s, the "justification for higher education" poster of the 90s, or some of the factory sheets from the 70s, we've all pinned them on our walls as proof that we can dream.

Well, sometimes dreams come true, or at least take on physical reality for long enough to breathe on their own.

One of my VW posters is for the .:R GTI, a handbuilt car made of parts no one in the US will ever see again in real life. With a sticker of "somewhere around $250K" and a hop-up partslist that runs into novela range, it's a 390 crank horsepower beast that qualifies for exotic status. And I got to drive it yesterday.

Sure, it was just around the paddock at Gingerman. Sure, I never got out of third gear. I probably wasn't even at 10% load. But that can't take away from the fact that this is a hi-po powerhouse racer wrapped up in a (relatively) unassuming skin, and even 20mph is fun in it. And I not only sat in it, I fired it. The car from the poster on my wall.

The GTI lost its status as king of the pocket rockets over ten years ago, when you could buy a MkIII with a 2.sl0 and an automatic (a what?!?). All is forgiven in this leather- and alcantara-wrapped machine. The center-lock harness that runs over the stiffly bolstered racing seats is just a warning of things to come. I had to hitch the seat forward quite a bit, the usual driver is not only taller than me, but larger, too. A purview of the instrumentation reveals some surprises - including a remarkably stock looking instrument cluster. Not much more is needed, but the door open graphics do bring out the giggles as they seem completely out of place in the car. The key goes in and I fire it, bringing on some nice pipe music. I had to listen trackside to its laps to hear the full-throated songs it played, but that did not dampen my mood one bit.

Since my regular track car is an understeering hippopotamus, I appreciate things that both stop on a dime and turn. At all. The brakes on the .:R GTI imply a much smaller and lighter car, with even the slow maneuvers I did reminding me I was bound at four points. I didn't really get to test the steering, but it was not onerously weighted and seemed like it would hold its own under severe duty.

I'd be remiss if I didn't write about the shifter. I have a thing about shifter knobs. This one was attached to a very compliant and tight linkage selecting six gears and reverse. Two inch throws with nearly gated precision made for a trans that you think exists only in your mind. But back to the knob; what a fine knob it is....

Aluminium is not my first choice in materials under normal circumstances. It gets hot. This one was anodized red and silver, and with an embossed logo, it appeared quite normal. Until I grabbed it going around a corner. As my hand rolled up and onto it, it moved. Not the whole knob, just the silver ring around the fore to aft centerline. I had to stop and examine it - the entire center section rolled free of the rest of the knob, allowing a sort of approach to it, a way to insure your hand was in position and ready to grab on when the time was right. I confess to playing with it for a bit - movable feasts are common, movable knobs are most definitely not! I found that the rolling center ring enabled me to roll the locus of the shifting force without forcing me to release the knob. Quite interesting and Bravo! to the builder for selecting this feature.

I wish I could have taken it out on the track. But part of me wonders if I'm enough driver for something like that. I'll be scheduling some more track days this summer, just in case. Until then I get to be one of those really annoying people who walk into your cube, point at your wall, and say "I drove that car. Yes, that very one. It was awesome."

Untied

I like to drive a car, preferably my car, when I go places. Unfortunately, driving to California from Michigan is not time sensitive.

I had a run-in with air travel yesterday. It took the esteemed travel professionals at United 7 hours to cancel a flight that had no earthly chance of ever being equipped. At the car rental, if there's no car, they tell you, and you go to other rental counters until you find one. The trick here is they tell you up front: "We have no car for you."

My friends (as such) at United did not have such good manners, and I spent 7 hours waiting find out that I should have just stayed home. Instead of arriving in Cali at 1800 local time, United could get me there at 2200 the next day. I could have almost driven there that fast. I spent another 3 hours waiting for a flight home to DTW.

Blech. Air travel sucks. Just drive, and at least you can know you will eventually get there.