To Finish 45th Out Of 60, First You Must Finish
It was six years ago that my Neon last completed a NASA race. In the time since, I’ve raced everything from the 24 Hours of Lemons to Grand-Am Koni Challenge, Continue Reading →
1975 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham: Best Of All, It Has Mmmmmonticello Velour!
Ladies and gentlemen, we have here one of my favorites, the 1971-76 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham. The top-of-the-line owner-driven Cadillac. Luxurious in space, in gadgets, and in power. The best “owner-driven” Cadillac money could buy. Despite the upper-crust European makes seeing increased sales, here in the heartland Cadillac and Lincoln were still the go-to marques for full-sized, uncompromising American luxury.
Weekly Roundup: It’s A Start Edition
After the minor heartbreak of last weekend’s losses at NCM’s American Endurance Racing double enduro, it was really nice to come back and win both days at MidOhio with SCCA in my Neon. Yesterday I qualified 7th overall, 1st in class, and finished 6th overall, 1st in class. Despite being hit four separate times by the same Miata in this morning’s qualifying race, I was able to qualify 7th and finish 4th overall in the afternoon, just 0.6 seconds behind the third-place Mustang and picking up another first in class.
Click the jump for a video of my reasonably strong start, where I grabbed 3 places in the first 700 feet, and to read a rundown of this week’s contributions.
Sneak Peak: 1976 Bonneville Brougham
My friend Jason Bagge, also known as the Brougham Whisperer, has just purchased this magnificent 1976 Bonneville Brougham!
Speaking Of Cadillacs… Amarillo By Morning!
The ever-perceptive Mr. Klockau found this Fleetwood Talisman for sale in Amarillo. Those of you us listen to George Strait — that did not include your humble author until he met a country girl from New Mexico — will no doubt be reminded of the relevant song.
If you’re bored today, here are some links to my last Fleetwood Talisman adventure:
Reader Review: 2018 Range Rover Velar
Please welcome Martin, whose loaner-vehicle experience was somewhat more upscale than most, yet not quite up to the level set by his everyday ride. As you can see from the picture, this one’s been in the queue a while — JB
During my time with the 2018 Range Rover Velar, the SiriusXM subscription included with the car introduced me to a variety of contemporary pop music that I had “missed” since I basically stopped listening to terrestrial radio about a dozen years ago. I guess that my arrival into my thirties might have been accompanied by a vague bigotry against modern pop culture, which had become so brainless, coarse and artificial that I retreated to earlier books, movies and music, looking for the intellectual and emotional meat that the current culture could seemingly not produce. I am sad to say that my negative suspicions of the mainstream music industry were confirmed, and in fact my expectations were too high. Top 40 radio is truly the negation of art, a soulless industrial product defecated from a machine fired with cynicism and hypocrisy. I sailed to the safer harbors of earlier decades, jazz, and classical.
Similarly, I had a bias against the small crossover segment. Here it is, the industry giving you what you want, or at least an imitation of it: tall, stilted hatchbacks, offering no greater interior space and worse fuel economy than the vehicles on which they are based. In many cases, actual ground clearance is only the matter of an inch more than the equivalent normal car. But you are sold the frisson of a ruggedly independent lifestyle, in which mountains are crossed and streams forded.
If you want to drive an SUV, you should buy one, and not these poor simulacra, which are neither fish nor fowl. I wanted an SUV, so I bought a Range Rover, and when it was down with the British flu recently (located in some part of its electrical sensor package, obviously), the dealership gave me the keys to a 2018 Range Rover Velar, in P250 S trim. Here was my chance to test my biases against reality. Ain’t nothing like the real thing?
(Last) Weekly Roundup: Failure To Proceed Edition
It was a bit of a heartbreaking weekend. We had everything we needed to take two wins at NCM Motorsports Park: the fastest car, the strongest driver lineup, a cadre of volunteers who could do everything from lift a fuel jug one-handed to swap a water pump in minutes. Sure enough, we were in first place by nearly ninety seconds at the 7-hour mark of Saturday’s 9-hour race. Then the overheating problems began — and they persisted through Sunday. By 5:30 that afternoon, all we could do was send Danger Girl out for the checkered flag, knowing that we’d barely managed enough completed laps to avoid being classified as a DNF.
On the positive side, we made some great friends and enjoyed some good times to go with the bad. I also had a chance to qualify a competitor’s car, which has to be one of the odder things I’ve ever done in racing. (The fact that I qualified the car ahead of ours was just the icing on the proverbial cake.) Marilyn the MX-5 Cup Car and her friends will be back in October for the AER event in Mid-Ohio. There’s a lot of work to be done, and a lot of money to be spent, between now and then.
1985 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham Coupe: See You On The Dock, Senator!
One 1980s Cadillac you don’t see often is the Fleetwood Brougham coupe. Wait, you may be thinking. Fleetwood Broughams were always pillared sedans or four-door hardtops! At least until the downsized front wheel drive Cadillacs appeared for model year 1985! Au contraire. Mid-year in 1980, for the first time ever, a Fleetwood Brougham two-door entered stage left!
Hey Buddy, Wanna Buy A Corvette?
Danger Girl’s old C5 Corvette is currently on Bring A Trailer with a top bid of $16,000.
That’s a good deal, and I’ll explain why.
Housekeeping: Cash Me Outside
The first (and probably last) recipient of the Wes Siler Derek Zoolander Center For Kids Who Can’t Write As Bad As The Grownups Scholarship is the hardworking and talented Connor Sahs. Early praise for Connor’s work from my readers includes phrases like:
So Long, Toys R Us
Well, the party’s over. This past Friday, all the remaining Toys R Us stores closed, permanently. Rather than rehash all the tired woulda, coulda, shoulda, I’d just like to talk about what was.
I can thank my grandmother, Ruby Klockau, for getting me addicted to Toys R Us. Way back when I was a little kid, she would often take me out to lunch. We’d usually go to Bishop’s Buffet, then to the local dealerships, and then to Toys R Us, where I got to pick out a model car.