Definitely weird, but it was only tested and did not actually compete in the Le Mans race, if I remember correctly.

Similar to the Nardi posted elsewhere in this thread, the Panhard X89 entered in 1953 was another one of those 1950's aerodynamic experiments that looked like it was designed by and for Martians - There are not a many good photos of it, so some of these are from other races or test sessions, but it was entered at Le…

You beat me to it, but here are a couple more pictures - This was back when there was a true spirit of experimentation at LeMans. Weird design ideas like this weren't always based on sound technical analysis like they would be nowadays with windtunnels, computer modeling, etc., but you can't fault them for trying to…

I'm sure my local Buick dealer will have lots of manual Veranos in stock to test drive!

I never understood the appeal of the Smart Car, apart from city parking in Europe. Considering its size and design compromises, gas mileage is underwhelming, to say the least.

Isn't the Smart Car supposed to be suspended on davits from the hull of the Hummer as a lifeboat?

I'd love to see them all - Audi Porsche, Ford, Ferrari, Peugeot, Japanese mfrs, in it - The problem will come after 2-3 years, after one make (Audi? Porsche?) establishes dominance and the underdogs cut their losses and pull the plug - these things run in cycles.

Trying to induce a laugh?

Car sales are one of the few big-ticket retail businesses there are. That's why they've got a political lobby that protects franchise laws. In a lot of small towns, car dealers are the biggest businesses in town. Appliance retailers, for example, never had that kind of political clout and organization behind them.

And if you can't afford a new one, there's always certified pre-owned.

Yes, he was running for a fourth term, but was still serving his third term until Jan. 20, 1945.

Interesting - I've got a passing familiarity with German and French, but still never would have guessed Cholmondeley was Old English- Hence my guess it was Gaelic. Sometimes I get the sense that modern German and English resemble each other more than they resemble Old English (a Germanic language), even though the…

I have always hated the expression "begs the question", since the wording is especially murky and unclear in conveying its original meaning of "assuming the premise". The shift in meaning to "entices you to ask a question" doesn't surprise me, since the meaning is much more straightforward.

A pet peeve of mine is people saying "I could care less...". It means the opposite of what they are trying to express.

"nuWin" - I can remember news coverage of the Vietnam War, and the President of South Vietnam's name was always pronounced this way.

Left-ten-nent is British and Commonwealth pronunciation, Loo-ten-nent is standard American pronunciation. If you go to a US military installation and say Left-ten-nent, they'll think you're a (Anglo) foreigner, weird or being pretentious.

Yes., the soft "ch" sound in standard German unknown in English, and is used after "front vowels" (such as i, e and the dipthong ie). The closest approximation in English is the "H" in Houston, or maybe a heavily aspirated "sh", so "Richard Wagner" is something like REESHHH-art VAHG-nuhr. The hard "ch" (as in J.S.…

In the 1970's, Lincoln came out with a compact, tarted-up luxury car called the Versailles. My Pittsburgh-born and bred father, from a blue-collar steelworker family, thought it was so cheesy and chintzy-looking, he said "They should pronounce it 'Ver-Sales'." He meant that as a commentary on the car, he was well…

A co-worker of mine is from Glasgow, but she's been in the US for decades and her accent has assimilated into a hybrid British-American "Mid-Atlantic" one. Once a bunch of us went out for happy hour after work and asked her if she could talk to us with a true Glaswegian accent. She said "I could, but every other…