It isn’t just that picture that makes it look that way...

Too many options, US car companies have a such a long-standing tradition of taking racy sounding names and sticking them on grocery-getters, econoboxes, and blandmobiles. Off the top of my head I can think of the Pontiac LeMans, Pontiac Grand Am, Pontiac Grand Prix, Pontiac Bonneville, Chrysler Sebring, Chevrolet…

1980 MGB, representative of the end of decades of little British roadsters, having been pre-deceased by a few months by the Triumph Spitfire, and years earlier by the Midget, Sprite, TR6, 3000, Elan, etc. Complain if you must about the rubber bumpers (they can be removed), the smog-strangled engine (also reversible),…

Exactly. I recall seeing that tip on an episode of “Wheeler Dealers” a while back. If you’re uncertain if it’s a dealer or a private sale, ask about “the car” not “the 2007 Jetta” or whatever it may be. If they ask “which one”, then you know what you’re dealing with and proceed appropriately...

I was unaware that "supercar" and "grand tourer" were mutually exclusive. Not certain I agree with that distinction...

Don't mean to nitpick, but... Not sure what part of the country you're looking at, but in my area (New England) 91 is far from being the "normal highest", I can't honestly remember the last time I was at a gas station that didn't have 93, and I've come across a couple that had 94 or 95...

Hadn't thought about the Jag thing, but definitely noticed the Porsche angle. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a nice looking car, much better than the current SLS. But in every photo I've seen of it so far if you cover the front end of the car with your hand everything from the A-pillar back looks like it could roll…

Judging from the shot of the funky headrest design on the driver seat, I think the passenger seat there is just tilted forward as if getting something out of the back.

Road crews would really appreciate those wheels. They think studded tires are bad for the road? "C'mon man, we JUST finished paving that...."

I don't mind resto-mods, I'm not a "they must be 100% original down to the last bolt" purist. And I'm fine with the fenders and the wheels, they give it a certain sporting aggressiveness, serve as a reminded that they did actually race these things in the ETCC. I don't even mind the gills. But to my eyes that front…

Yeah, what he said. I've known a few mechanics who worked on various makes and the common thread was that their view of what they worked on was generally poor. A friend of mine who used to be a VW service tech is fond of saying that Passat is German for "parts car". That's just how it seems to go...

Ah yes, because we live in a world where each and every vehicle, from the mightiest Bugatti Veyron down to the weeniest Chevrolet Spark, rolls off the assembly line in an ideal, optimum state (both mechanically and aesthetically) which cannot be improved upon in any way and perfectly suits the interests and tastes of…

I feel like including both Dark Cherry and Brown seems a bit redundant, given that most Dark Cherry cars just end up looking brown unless they are spotlessly clean and in ideal lighting. The first gen MINI had a color called "Velvet Red" that made the car look like a miniature UPS truck and anything other than…

Via a car club I was in I became associates with a die-hard NMA advocate. I was relatively ignorant about the group so I figured I'd look into it, see if it was for me. When I discovered that among the things NMA opposes are distracted driving laws, harsh DUI laws, inspections and emissions testing, DRLs, age-based…

7800 Vertical Stitch pads, 7800 Waffle blocker, LT90 glove. The color gets more comments than any other gear I've owned...

Yup! Played with the goaliemonkey configurator extensively before settling on a plain simple set in Vaughn's "California Tan" (retro brown) color...

Emelin is just branching out into injuring teammates via dumb plays, previous he only injured himself (some may recall last April when he tried to line up Milan Lucic for a big hit on the boards, ended up getting the worst end of the hit by a fairly wide margin, blew out his knee, and was done for the season)...

It's "Questlove". This probably makes me an uptight jerk or a spelling nazi or whatever, but for some reason I just can't bring myself to accommodate celebs with non-alphanumeric name spellings. Always reminds me of Sarah Jessica Parker's character from L.A. Story. And don't even get me started on Prince, I can't…

Comparing the relationship between tobacco marketing and people dying from tobacco related illnesses with the relationship between video games and violence is a false analogy of fairly epic proportions. The latter is largely a media-driven moral panic with very little in the way of data behind it, the former has been…

Indeed! I guess I'm unswayed by the "greatness" of tobacco liveries because my three favorite racing liveries (Gulf, Martini, Alitalia) aren't tobacco oriented. The only tobacco livery in the last 25 years that really did anything for me was the blue and yellow Mild Seven livery on the Alonso-era Renaults, and since…