G8 is no more, is there hope?

So GM went and killed one of the best car companies in American history. No worries right? At least they won’t let the best car of that company (the Pontiac G8) go down in flames. Surely they’ll recreate it as a valiant Chevy impala or caprice, right? If bob Lutz has his way, then yes, exactly that, and for awhile there was a shimmer of hope that the G8 would live on as a BMW killing Chevy. But ol’ Fritz Henderson shot down those comments in short order, both correcting the public, and forcing Lutz to correct himself via the blogosphere. So, no G8 re-body for the US?

This writer is not convinced.

Lutz may have been over enthused to recreate the impala into a street fighter that would do the ‘90s 4 door corvette justice (not to mention the 427 powered monsters of the past), but an impala is not viable for a brand aiming to recreate its image as something small and efficient. Fritz-y boy realizes this, and he realizes that the G8’s pavement pounding nature doesn’t suit the “new GM’s” green coated image.

Yet there remains another brand in the GM compendium, another brand in desperate, desperate need of a new image. Buick, the brand our grandfather’s drive, needs to become the brand that anyone who can’t afford a Cadillac drives. Granted Buick is attempting this with the newly revised (read: heavily revised) Lucerne, and honestly it looks like a perfectly good and capable car. But Buick is boring, really boring, it seems like every one of their cars is displayed in cream or dark grey metallic in advertisements, and they just look like a real dream to sleep drive in. A nice, pleasant, restful dream.

But I don’t want to drive a dream, I want a nightmare. And frankly, Buick has been subsiding long enough on the pleasant rest of the elderly. They need a Halo car, a car that brings attention, a car that shows the public that Buick isn’t a warm nap on a long stretch of highway, Buick is a driving machine capable of delivering comfort on long trips and excitement on even the shortest of drives. The G8 is dead, we’ve all shed the collective tears of a broken love, but GM, PLEASE, give it back. And this time, make it a Buick. I know GM is sitting there just wondering “but Daniel, how do we bring such an exciting car to such a boring brand”. Well GM, if only Buick had a few brief periods of truly hardcore performance to pull ideas from, if only Buick redefined the word “sleeper” by reinventing the GM V6 and create a monster. Dear GM, dear Fritz Henderson, please re-release the G8 as an almighty four door incarnation of the legendary Grand National. Hell, you can even call the GXP model a “GNX”; it even shares two of the three letters.

And PLEASE, if you are enlightened and intelligent enough to revive Buick’s most enticing and interesting car (tied with the muscular GS I would suppose), please please please recreate the appropriate “Darth Vader your car is ready” advertisements to go with it.

Jordin Sparks is more hardcore than your typical rockband.

It's wednesday morning, and the boredom of a day-off from work and customary laziness has lent itself to the watching of VH1; if nothing else than for the wonder of watching a music channel that plays music videos at SOME point of the day (the author does not recieve FUSE in his cable package.) During this exploration into a truckload of bands not to be particularily loved, but also not particularily hated, the image of a classic auto or two found itself arbitrarily plastered on the screen for effect. Two videos used classic '68 Camaro's for this effect. Daughtry utilized a '68 soft top (maybe '67, I wasn't inspired enough to care) for the singular purpose of making the frontman look more credible as a "bad ass". Perhaps someone should have informed him that a flat black hardtop with an 8-71 blower sticking out of the hood may have suited the purpose more aptly, but I digress. The next video to utilize the famed Chevrolet moniker was Safety Suit. They improved on Daughtry's feminin mistakes by utilizing a '68 SS with cowl induction and wide white rally stripes accenting the appropriate hue of blue. In both these cases, the Camaro served it's classic use in real life, making men of questionable maculine prowess into unavoidable examples of testosterone.

But all of this leads to the title phrase for this post. After seeing the two aformentioned videos (in Daughtry's case, VH1 felt is necessary to play it twice) a video panning across a lovely grass field came on the screen. Jordin Sparks name cited on the lower left of the screen, but good lord! the central character of the video is an all black DeTomaso Pantera. Not only was this mountain of car displayed in the video, but it remained a central piece of setting that commanded camera from the very first moment of the video, before even our dear Jordin made an appearence on screen.

This all leads to one pretty simple fact, directors can try and make frontmen look masculine and powerful by thrusting a typical american muscle car on the viewer. But when a director (or one could only hope, an artist) recognizes the beauty of a vehicle and utilizes that vehicle simply because it will catch the eye and draw in the viewer, that is the reason a vehicle should be used for a medium such as television (especially music television.)

For that, Jordin Sparks is more hardcore than either of the "rock" bands listed above.

See the Video here

My 20 Favorite cars...

that are not normally on everyone's top XX list.

The big problem with lists like these are that they are all the same. Chalked full of Ferrari, Austin Martin, Lamborghini, Corvette and whatever number of typical, can't argue against their awesomeness, muscle cars.

This list, however, is going to be a little different. So essentially this is a list of most of the cars I love that I usually have to defend in one way or another for loving them. These are the kind of cars where you say you like them and your "gearhead" buddy says "yeah, but for the money you could just get a 5.0 mustang that runs an 11 second quarter". So this list is for all the guys who thought that something a little different and a little harder to work on wasn't necessarily a bad thing.


20. Acura (Honda) NSX



















-Yes, it's a super car, and yes a lot of people love them; but these things get about the least respect in the super car world and can be got for around 30,000 bucks. Find me another super car for 30k that will run everyday and spank a corner without thinking about it and I'll eat my shoe. Until then this kicks off the list at #20-

19. Porsche 911 Targa (1st gen)



















- Yes 911's are always cool, and yes they are always dangerous (especially the early years), but Targa's are the MOST cool and the MOST dangerous of them all. Open roof and no weight tends to make for an exciting ride. But everyone likes Porsches, so this little gem is relegated to #19.-

18. 1971 Chevy ElCamino




















-It's not a '70 and it's NOT a Chevelle, but it's damn cool and totally pointless. And that's all I ever really want in my cars.-

17. Datsun 260z



















-I know it's a 240z but a little bigger. I know everyone and their mom loves a Z, but I seriously like the 260 better than the 240. And I think it deserves a place on the list simply for being less loved than it's smaller, older brother.-

16. Chevy Malibu (late 1970's)

















-So they take some work to be cool, but they CAN be cool. Grocery getter they are, but they are light and the engine bay is huge.-

15. TVR Sagaris
















-I'm a child inside, you are too. So stop being embarrased and admit you love it.-

14. Caterham 7


















- Top Gear made it pretty obvious to everyone, but these things are awesome. "Motoring" seems to be the only word that can do this car justice. These cars ARE the embodiment of motoring.-

13. Subaru Impreza 2.5RS

















-The WRX is great, and everyone with a trust fund and a new pair of Oakleys has one, but the 2.5 has presence, the 2.5 is dangerous and most importantly, the 2.5 gets respect.-


12. 1964-1967 Oldsmobile 442












-I know, the Olds crowd will say "you picked the WRONG years" but these were some of the coolest cars. The recipe was simple. Big inch Olds V8, Hurst 4-speed and posi-track. Simple is good, and in this case, simple is fast. Who wouldn't like that?!-


11. AMC AMX


















-The forgotten muscle car, these things are just cool. Never caught on, because AMC was just too small.-

10. Volvo 142































-Ok, so this is my current car and I might be a little biased. But come on, this is the vehicle that invented the "boxy" Volvo look, and admit it, Volvo started out with a pretty sound design scheme. It's not their fault that a once cute and pretty good looking design took a back seat to size and function...-


9. Alfa Romeo GTV

















-What can you say about an Alfa, especially this one. It's just good looking and all I want to do is get in and drive it.-

8. Volvo 122



































-I saw this particular 122 at the Route 66 rendezvous in San Bernardino. While it ditched the ol' B18 four cylinder for a radical (and amazing sounding) Chevy 2.8L V6, it retains much of the original 122 body. It's beautiful.-


7. Ford Escort MK1

















- I don't know why Ford insists on making some of the world's coolest compact cars...and releasing them over seas only. But the MK1 started it all, rally cross, cup car, off-road rally, name it, this car raced it. -

6. SAAB 96

















-The SAAB that invented the "quirky" Saab trend. A two-stroke later replaced by a V-4, this thing never had a "conventional" power train; and it didn't matter. It still dominated Rally racing for years and revved it's little cylinders off without throwing a rod for thousands of miles. So cool, so weird, slap on some studded tires, find a frozen lake, and do your best to lose control.

5. VW Type 3 Notchback




















-Charm. The little romancers over at VW tried to win over Americans with cute Beetles and free-lovin' buses, and it worked. But for whatever reason, the most charming car ever to come out of Wolfsburg, never really made much of a release in the US. Some things are a mystery.

4. Buick Grand National/Turbo Regal/GNX




















- As the license proudly proclaims on this GM High Tech Performance feature, this RTegal makes it into the 8's. The stockers could pull 12's, but they all looked a lot like grandma's car, which is exactly why I love them. Owning a car that can blow the doors off anything on the street and still not get a second look from the uninitiated, is a joy I can only hope to have one day. Anyone can be Flashy...

3. 1961 Chevy Biscayne




















-You can shove your Bel Airs and Impalas, Bubble Top? who needs 'em? The Biscayne had all the style with a lot more attitude. Eventually a 427 would find its way under the hood in the mid sixties and make this boat into the ultimate underground sleeper (until the Regal Turbo and Grand National, of course)

2. 1953 Studebaker Starlight Coupe




















-Easily one of the most beautiful cars made in the USA, let alone one made in 1953 when most manufacturers were bloating their fenders to accomodate rather bulbous lines. This car was at least 10 years ahead of its time and (to me) defines what it means to turn motoring into a work of art.

1. DeTomaso Pantera (any year, but preferably the early 70's)





















-A 351 Cleveland coupled to a trans axle with gorgeous Italian lines. What's not to love? One of a very few cars that makes me feel like weeping with joy when I see one in public-


So that's the list. Not much left to say other than to keep wrenching (if you don't, you don't deserve to drive) and "be safe".



(All images are property of their respective websites/owners --except for the Volvo 142, that thing is my car and my image-- please feel free to right click away and get the original addresses for the images)