@MaxSmart32: See my link above. An ad for the car used was found. intact drivetrain, no rust issues.

TTAC found the car that was used in this demonstration. Complete good-condition car with a complete drivetrain and no rust issues.

@Pixel: Another commercial, with the leaping falcon!

I love the 80's Argentinian Falcons. I keep getting the urge to import one to the US just to confuse the hell out of people at car shows.

@theart: I'm guessing once the pole went through the truck the driver had little influence on the direction of travel. He was "riding the rail" at that point.

@wheatieboy: no vertical supports, except the clearly visible bent over ones in those same pics. Like the line of them in pic 2, each with a dent in it about at the height the front bumper is relative to the one in pic 1. Or the one you can see under the Rover jsut behind the front wheel in pic 4, or the top of one…

@Pesti-Esti: It is cracked, look at the front shot, and at the bottom of the black part of the bumper below the pole there is a horizontal crack that is not there on the other side.

@wheatieboy: So you think this guy had a pre-existing hole in the front of the car, and a pre-existing hole in the back (with missing taillight), and just happened to find a half-knocked over piece of railing that had been cut off.

Two thoughts:

@pauljones:

@Pixel:

[www.courier-journal.com]

I love the modded beetle you end up chasing around the track

I use an address from my own domain, though someone else hosts it and deals with the technical side of everything. I have pondered going to gmail only because having used the same email address fro 10 years means my spam count is pretty high.

@Pixel: I take back what I said about the delay, I just found an NY Times article about them. but it does confirm it was the 2000 catalog not the 1999 one.

@skaycog misses lost friends: Press releases about these cars date from late 2000. I think he's incorrect.

@Flathead Smith: I'm guessing its condensation from the A/C, especially since the police cruiser has it too. Hell if I was sitting in a car in LA in August for over an hour I'd want the A/C on!

That Granada is a nice little Q-ship for not-stupid money.

@trev:

That isn't silver paint, there are hundreds of tiny mirrors glued to the car.