June 26: Exhausting topic

Take a good look at this recent Acura. What is wrong with this picture? Smooth, if uninteresting lines, ending in a clean rear end. Any guesses? Give up? Ok, I understand that not everyone follows auto-minutiae, but what we have here, folks is a car lacking an important fashion statement. Now take a look at the rear of the latest TLX after a slight mid-cycle redo........ 

Spot those dual exhausts? Maybe you don't notice the rear end of cars, suvs or whatever these days, but those pipes are an important part of a vehicle's design in 2019. And they sure add to that plain Jane rear end.

Take my new Maxima as a case in point........

Nothing much changed with the 2019 mid-cycle refresh. They say the front was modified, but I still can't see it. The butt? Well, that's a different story. Those wild and crazy Nissan designers changed the exhaust tips. Used to be a single round tip on each side, but now there are oval shaped dual splitters. A new fashion statement, even if they are lying, since there is only one single pipe hidden behind each new rectangular twin. But that "look" is important even if it is "fake news".

How important, you ask? Check out the latest Camry.......

A vanilla Toyota with four exhaust tips? Sure, they are also fake, but a great look regardless. And on a Camry! 

Those pipes send a message to those of us who find this feature interesting and of value (get a life, Barry)

A few other examples.......

A Corvette's "must have" multi-tip exhaust screams power

Veloster N's centre mount duals

Civic R Type with three on a four cylinder?

No matter whether the rear exhausts make sense or not, they are something that adds to the sex appeal of the car. And yes, once again, even on that Camry, which used to have the sex appeal of a fully clothed Mennonite lass at the beach.

This bit of frivolity is being added to everything, not just those poor selling sedans or hot sports cars. Want a potent looking Honda CR-V.......

.......or a really potent Ram pick-up? Both sport those big round pipes, for which we can thank those dedicated followers of fashion designers.

No longer just a must have on a hot muscle car or muscular suv or really muscular pick-up. No sir, these days any fashionista worth the name is going to check out the butt of their prospective purchase, before laying out that hard earned coin. And the with-it buyer is going to make sure the new ride has this look........

Remember, these days Adele is not the only one that needs a great set of pipes.

Until next time........

June 21: Summer means ice-cream

June 21st, the first day of Summer.

What comes to mind when one hears "Summer"? Ice cream, of course, and these little darlings are ready and waiting outside of their favorite Summer haunt (money providing). Ah, the iconic ice cream truck, that for years has been plying their frozen wares across the world.

One hears that familiar ring-a-ding-ding, as the ice-cream vendor cruises the neighbourhood streets and parks, enticing the little ones of all ages to that open window and a tasty treat. Wait a minute, didn't a Stephen King villain drive an ice cream truck? Oh well, back to more positive thoughts.

When I think of the ice cream truck, I think of those beat up old step vans, that have been converted after being used up delivering whatever over the years. Oh, Barry, how wrong you are. These "works of art" are often built specially for the ice cream trade. Let's take a quick walk thru history, as I so love to do........

A very early vendor's ride shows where those folks across the pond at the palace, bought their ice cream. But what would a double scoop or float cost from this Rolls-Royce?

The traditional ice cream truck has come in a variety of sizes and shapes from tiny.......

........to gargantuan, with this self proclaimed, world's largest (over 1000 flavours and never out of stock?)......

From purpose built, like this old Good Humor from the '60's........

.......to a very personalized number from way back when.........

Love the idea of making people happy on those sweltering Summer days? Capable of delivering the goods, but staying away from eating all your profits? Then you may be a candidate to contact Whitby Morrison, the world's biggest ice truck manufacturer and have one of their custom trucks whipped up just for you. Cost? Variable, of course, but anywhere from the high five digits to nicely into the six figure range. And for those high rollers, they'll even supply a very nice Mercedes Benz, for trolling the better 'hoods.........

Your worse nightmare? Picking a location with a bit too much competition.......

Unlikely? Maybe, but one never knows what might happen, when great minds have the same idea at the same time on the same hot Summer's day.

So happy first day of Summer. Time to start looking for the nearest ice cream vendor on wheels. Sure, the line up is long, but that chilled reward is worth the wait.

Until next time.......

June 18: Happy Fathers' Day!

Happy Fathers' Day! This is the time when you plan to spend quality time with your dad, to make up for all the other times during the year, when you blew him off, oblivious to his hurt feelings. A car guy might find that taking your pop to a car show would be a good way to connect, at least that is what the merchants of Toronto's Mink Mile thought when several years ago, they started a Fathers' Day tradition, the Yorkville Exotic Car Show..........

A great idea? A chance to show your dad what he could have bought, if he hadn't had to sink all his hard earned coin into you and your siblings. And for his special day, all you can do is take him to a free car show?

But what a show. Not too many cars, but the creme de la creme. The high rollers' rides, that one seldom gets to see everyday. Quiz time.......when was the last (or first) time you saw an Aventador SV, the insanely fast and costly Lambo? Yorkville had two...........

or a Huracan Performante, like this red coupe (or the white spyder in the first pic)........

Coincidentally, when my wife and I were out for dinner at a nice Italian bistro last week, a matte black SV drove by. How appropriate. Just like being in Rome.

Now for something even rarer than one of those Lambos........

What is it? This is a Shelby Series One, produced from 1998 until 2005. A grand total of 249 cars were built with an Oldsmobile (remember them?) motor. I'd never seen one until last Sunday. Put a note in my diary.

What beauty contest would be complete without a stunning Aston Martin DB11......

And just when you've caught your breath and your heart beat is approaching normality, you spot this atrocious Morgan........

Sorry folks, but you've got to take the good, the bad and the ugly (sorry, Clint). Morgan should stick with their anachronisms, that they do so well, although the ones below were the real deal oldies........

At Yorkville one can always count on seeing a classic(?) or two that you'd never see anywhere else. For example this '60's Jensen........

.......parked beside the pride of Israel, a Sabra.......

Even if you knew that this car existed, I'll take big bets that you've never seen one before or will never see one after this.

And then of course, there are the line of rather rare Porsche and Ferrari models, including a $2.5 million plus tax, La Ferrari. But hey, I've seen two or three of those on the road, so no big deal, right?

And to top off the day.........the Toronto Indy race is right around the corner, so what better place to let people know about it and what better way to draw attention to William Ashley's very high end China.........

 Take a close look, dad, as each of those big racing slicks are resting on a delicate China cup.........

Wonder if that would work with eggs? This demo points out that one can stand on these fragile cups, but for Pete's sake, don't you dare drop one, as a million pieces will become a reality. And if you were thinking of going to the big race with junior, forget, as he's busy.

So dad, are you thrilled with what you saw on your special day? Did it make you rethink your life decisions? Wonder if junior or whatever was worth it? Well, dad, you've got an entire year to ponder it, before the next Yorkville Exotic Car Show.

Until next time........

June 14: Hot hatches, etc

Once upon a time VW introduced a heated up Golf and called it the GTI...........

This little wunder child became the first in a long line of hot hatches, that set the benchmark for sporty (i.e. better handling) and more powerful small cars. Seeing how well VW was doing with the GTI, other manufacturers cast their covetous eyes on this growing market segment, that VW had created and put out their own versions of the GTI.

The GTI arrived many years ago, like the dark ages of the 1980's. Since then, many hot hatches have rocketed to market. This term also came to mean any small, but powerful and great handling small car, hatch or sedan. We missed quite a few of them, since most were European and didn't come to our hallowed shores. Things change. 

First off, those hot "hatches" have gotten hotter, for example, Vdub's R.......

......which blows away the almost bargain priced GTI in price (the R is much higher) and power (26% more). Kind of set the tone for the competition, which consists of some very sweet and rockin rides. 

Secondly, the other big change is that many of these little hot rods are now available over here. Cars like the brutally ugly, but crazy, Honda Type R........

......which proves that the manufacturers have no imagination, after all there are many other letters in the alphabet. Or the Ford Focus RS.........

........which has been amusing those lucky Europeans for several years.

One of the first of these junior hot rods to come our way after the GTI was the Impreza WRX and later the much more potent and costly STI........

.......originally a hot hatch, now a hot sedan. High price and high power, a lethal, but fun combo.

Now there is a new player to the "hot hatch" game and with a new letter, N. Get used to seeing this N designation on anything heated up from Hyundai. The first was the 2019 Veloster........

Those folks from South Korea are taking this car business seriously. First they nail down their quality, then they tackle design, now they are going after the enthusiast. Gawd, where will it all end? After this potent little sportster, the Elantra GT is the next in lime to receive the N treatment.......

Bigger wheels and tires. Dual exhausts. A spoiler. More power. Perfect receipt. Oh, one more thing......being a Hyundai, the value for coin quotient beats the other guys hands down. One caveat though. The Europeans still get more power. Come on fellas, sure we don't got no stinkin' autobahn, but can't we have the chance to blow by our lower speed limits with reckless abandon?

Thank you VW. What you brought our way those several decades ago has spawned a small but tasty cornucopia of little road rockets built to engage and amuse those among us for whom a BMW or Audi is a bridge too far. 

Who said all the new cars are bring?

Until next time......

June 11: Alphabet soup

Way back when, no one at Mercedes-Benz or anywhere else would have thought that this workhorse suv, developed for the German army and Bavarian farmers would be the beginning of an alphabet soup of Mercedes suv's. Well, to be honest, it didn't exactly happen that way, but for the purposes of this blog, let's roll with this story line. We all know that the G Wagon features prominently in every youngster's and sports star's wet dreams. It was the beginning. Now good folks everywhere seem to worship at the altar of the god SUV. 

Now Mercedes is adding to that bottomless pit of sport utes..........

Let's talk names and assume a "GL" in front of each. Mercedes already has the A (very small), the C (compact), the E (mid-size), the G (truck size) and the S (luxury size). Whew! Did you follow that? Good, because yesterday Benz unveiled the latest in their alphabet soup of suv names. The covers have finally come off the much spy photographed new model shown above.

The astutest of those reading this blog will see that the above camo'd vehicle is small, but not tiny, so checking out the alphabet they will figure that the newest Mercedes will be a GLB. And they would be absolutely correct........

 

This one is almost a GLC, as it is a mere 1.7" shorter than that model. Never enough of these things, no matter how tightly they shoehorn into the line up. The big deal about the new B is that it features a third row of seats and is the only suv of this size to do so. Does that mean that anyone sitting in the last row will be happy? Not a chance. Better that they be "little" people, whatever you'd like that to mean. Benz knows that it will be a tight fit, as here is the spokesperson showing how big anyone in that back row can be.........

Think that this will be the last of the suvs from Mercedes? Surely you jest. Again, the astute among you will notice the absence of a D or F in the line and of course there are a ton of letters beyond that. 

Alphabet soup indeed! Mercedes will sell every single one they make with the dealers begging for more. The B is a nice addition to the line, but if you are ever asked to ride in the third row, well, just tell them you are busy elsewhere.

Until next time.......

June 7: What might have been

Dead? Buried?

One is never too sure in the world of big business, automobile or otherwise, but the latest headlines say that Fiat-Chrysler (FCA) has walked away from their offer to partner with Renault. This would have been an excellent arrangement for both companies (even FCA still says so), but it appears that something got in the way? Ego? Unreasonableness? A bad dream? Who knows?

Further to my blog last week about what treats from the Renault catalogue might eventually appear in our North American showrooms, I have one more that could have been. This one hurts.

Ever heard of the Renault Alpine? Sure, as car enthusiasts you must have. This sports car made a name for itself on the rally circuit and with the possible merger, it may have found its way to our shores.

Started way back in 1955.........

 

......these lumpy coupes bore the Alpine name, but they were definitely not what made it famous. No, it was the third generation that stoked the fires of sportscar enthusiasts. This hot to trot rally rough houser is the version that captured the gonads of red blooded car folks........

 

Tough enough even for the gendarmes of the French highways, who managed to fit themselves into its tight confines to chase down scofflaws driving those other European hot rods. This almost comical photo shows two coppers ready to shoehorn themselves into their Renault Alpine to catch that errant BMW driver. No wonder they look so grim...... 

So, yes, this car got respect on the Continent. Followed by a bit more conventional looking model.......

And then the next generation, which was bigger and more like a GT cruiser, not a famous rally bruiser (it rhymes!)........

 

 Losing its way as it drove into the '90's. It also lost its appeal and by mid decade was a name for the history books.

Now about that name, Alpine. Initially, none of the Renault Alpines could be sold in England under that name, since Sunbeam (not the appliance company) had had a model using that name for many years. So, why in the world did this French company chose that name? All I can say is that it must be a French thing.

Car people love history, so going into the 2000's Renault found that car folks still had a fond spot for the Alpine. Back as far as 2007, there were rumours, that the name would return as another fire breathing sportscar, maybe with Japanese underpinnings from a Nissan hot rod (does the Toyota Supra come to mind?).

Thus is what came to pass just a couple of years ago...........

 

 A virtual reboot of the early rally warrior and all for a reasonable $60-$70,000 USD, but of course, only available in Europe. They even have a version that can race and re-establish the old Alpine cred. It was being offered at a slightly more hefty $250,000 USD........

Might we have had the Renault Alpine show up on our shores? Who knows and maybe we'll never know.

Dead for now, but maybe not dead for good?

Until next time......