Tag Archives: review

book review (erm, partial): “Gold Plated Porsche…….”

Yes I am in the midst of a Porsche phase right now. Bought this fantastic book entitled Gold Plated Porsche: How I Sank A Small Fortune Into A Used Car And Other Misadventures.  The author is journalist Stephan Wilkinson, who has worked at Car & Driver in the past, among other places.   I am calling this a “partial” review….even though i should probably call it “fractional” as I am only on pp. 50! ha.  But i think the book is definitely worth picking up.  Wilkinson’s banter about cars, the culture of petrolheads, and how he selected his 911 has already paid the measly $10 i paid for the softcover.

Summary so far: he wants to restore a car…by himself…and properly restore it.  this is the story of him buying a run down old 911 SC and pouring money into it to turn it into exactly what he always wanted; HIS perfect 911.

Apparently, Mr. Wilkinson has written some other car books as well.  Will have to check them out after i finish reading this one.

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592287921/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1592282563&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0NY9T0VNY14G4VFN5T1X

 

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GTV6 & a story.


I really dig this article published on Motoring Con Brio about fellow Brooklyn-ite Brad Automobiliac and his Alfa Romeo GTV6.

“I never really loved the car’s looks before, but it has a kind of cool wedge-like hatchback shape that is getting old enough to be reappraised, and they are a pretty rare sight. In fact I had never laid eyes on one in the flesh ‘til I drove the one I was to buy up in Maine, two months later.  From the first moment I got into the car, I was hooked.”

read the whole article here:

http://motoringconbrio.com/2010/07/16/guest-contributor-bradley-price-on-his-alfa-romeo-gtv6/

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The best looking production BMW today is…

yeah it’s the 1-series.  I know plenty of people are going to disagree with me…..and i know that plenty of people hate the way the 1-series looks; however i have always loved the styling of it.  It’s the only modern BMW that has an interesting design, aside from the strange 6-series which started to grow on me towards the end of its current life cycle.

There’s plenty of retro going on in the 1-series styling, some cues of the E30, some cues of older BMWs from the 70s liked the fabled 2002, even some NSU TT in there.  One of my favourite Coupe designs since the MK1 TT, for sure.

I will have a 1-series one day!  The question is when?

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3 reasons why IEDEI does NOT like the VW Scirocco.

I’ve grown quite tired of people gushing over the “good looking” VW Scirocco. I’ve seen several in person and I find it to be quite an ugly little machine.  A couple reasons why the Scirocco makes no sense to me:

1. It is a low budget, uglier, misproportioned, and german copy of the Alfa Romeo Brera.  Sure the Brera may suck to drive, but who cares!!! It is drop dead gorgeous.

2. The MK2 Audi TT is a better car; better interior, better proportions, and much more interesting to look at.  Of course I concede that the MK2 TT is a much uglier and nastier affair than the original MK1 TT which will go down as one of the 20th centuries landmark automotive designs; but the MK2 is close enough to the MK1 that it can carry at least a little bit of that over in legacy.  The argument that the TT is a “squashed Beetle” is countered by the fact that the Scirocco is a “squashed Golf”.

3.  The “new” Scirocco carries almost NONE of the passion the beautiful ORIGINAL Scirocco carried.  The original had very unique proportions in its time, different to the other notchbacks of the time (Audi Quattro, Alfa GTV, etc).  It was small and cool.  The new Scirocco is bulkier than a Golf, worse proportioned than a Golf (i much prefer the looks of the MK6 Golf to the Scirocco), and doesn’t really perform any different than a Golf.

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Mazda – Peugeot = 0

Has anyone else noticed how similar the front ends of the Mazda 3 look with the Peugoet 207? yeah they’re not identical, but clearly Mazda has been borrowing some ideas, and changing them jusssssst enough to avoid plagiarism.  Cheeky.

I recently drove a MAZDA 6 rental car on my trip to San Francisco last week, and I am delighted to report that it was a slow, soul-less, derivative pile of rubbish!  “Zoom zoom” my arse…

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IEDEI is away for the next week, BUT…..

I’ll be out of town to Chicago for a conference, AND I had some choices when it came down to what my rental car would be.  I usually pick the smallest cars, as they are the most fun to throw around recklessly most economical, but this time I changed my initial selection.  WHY? Because i’ve decided for the next 7 or 8 days, i am going to LIVE with a Ford Fusion Hybrid rental car…just to find out what it feels like to live with a hybrid car.  This should be fascinating…i’m not sure what to expect.

I didn’t expect Hybrid rentals to be so cheap, however the Fusion Hybrid was less than the equivelant gas model….$180 for 7 days? pretty good deal, i reckon!

So even though IEDEI is away formally this week, i’m going to try to pop in and leave some short observations about the rental car at some point!

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McLaren MP4-12C: how to build an unimaginative, ugly, and boring supercar.

The McLaren MP4 can do blahblahblahblahblah in blah.blah seconds.  It can reach a top speed of blahblahblahblahblah.  It has technology everywhere, including a blahblahblahblahblahblah….it is the successor to the legendary blahblahblahblahblah.

Don’t even care.  It’s so bland and painfully boring from every angle.  It looks like a rejected 90s build-your-own-supercar-kit-car.  Yeah you copied a Ferrari from the front, you copied the outline of an R8, and you tried add some Lamborghini-ness……BLAH BLAH BLAH.  blech.

Hey McLaren! YOU SUKZ AT DESIGN!  try again sometime…..

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BMW 2002 Turbo. video.

My favourite BMW of all time. GIVE ME ONE.

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wheeler dealers: BMW E30 325i Touring

After Top Gear, one of my favourite automotive shows is Wheeler Dealers. Broadcasted out of the UK (as expected), it starts Mike Brewer and his trusty mechanic Ed.  They buy cars cheap, do some work on em, fix em up, and try to sell em for a proflit.  They pick up some pretty great stuff.  Makes me jealous of the UK used market!

In this episode, they get the rare-in-the-USA BMW E30 Touring for 900 quid!

(PARTS 1 through 5).


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Toyota cars unsafe?

toyota prius

Is Toyota covering up some sort of a real unintended acceleration problem?  Could this be a re-hash of Audi in the 80s? Audi nearly went bust after this issue…could this mean that the Toyota empire is on the brink of getting into a ton of trouble? Guess we’ll have to wait to find out…

Here at IEDEI, we are just hoping that the Prius is the main car affected by this, and all the cars are collected and destroyed! ha!

Meanwhile, read this article at ABCNews

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/toyota-cover-runaway-car-concerns/story?id=9007163

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Gran Turismo for PSP: A quick review

GTPSP_coversheet_Mech1

Earlier today, I picked up a copy of Gran Turismo for my little PSP.

The game does NOT have a Career Mode as Playstation versions of Gran Turismo have previously had.  In those versions, you can collect cars, compete in multi-car races, and keep a garage with a collection.  In this version, the gamemakers have NOT incorporated those features.  Basically it is single player race mode, time trial mode, and then a series of driving challenges to win you money and open up new cars you can buy with that money.

I think the purpose of this game was to give people a copy of their favourite tracks in the world—-to keep in their pocket, and play whenever one wants.  And for that purpose alone, GT for PSP is a superstar. Fantastic graphics and gameplay, and superb rendering of classic race tracks such as Suzuka, Nurburgring, Laguna Seca, etc.  All in all, a very cool idea.  I AM HOOKED ON the NURBURGRING, as always!

9/10.

LINK to buy: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002BSC57U/ref=s9_simz_gw_s0_p63_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1J2H8DJ9EPY9SVDSE3AG&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

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IEDEI vs. Toyota Prius (Part 3)

toyota-new-2010-prius-hybrid-photo-03

Continuing the trend of IEDEI attempting to destroy the virulent grip that the Toyota Prion….err..Prius has on our american society; this video blends perfectly to showcase the WORST car in the world——the Toyota Prius.  Our good friend Jeremy Clarkson is gonna show you ’round…

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IEDEI vs. Toyota Prius (Round 2): extincting rare metals.

Toyota-Prius

My quest to reduce the popularity of the Toyota Prius continues.  Hybrids are not without harm, in fact they cause their OWN sort of damage.  Here is further evidence, as the manufacturing of Hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prion…err…Prius is leading to depletion of rare, earch metals.  In their mad scramble for these metals required for the manufacturing of their cars, companies like Toyota are simply walking over and/or stepping over whatever or whomever it takes to keep their piece of the pie.

Hybrid FAIL….again.

http://www.smartplanet.com/business/blog/smart-takes/eco-friendly-hybrid-cars-push-rare-metals-toward-extinction/612

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IEDEI vs. Toyota Prius (Round 1)

toyota_prius

I’m really hoping some of you reach this blog, while researching information about the Toyota Prius.  If you were googling for reliability, pricing, consumer reviews, problems, troubleshooting, whatever.

Let’s start by stating the obvious; the Toyota Prius is a TERRIBLE TERRIBLE car.  It is SLOW, it is severely UGLY, it handles like feces, and it quite simply lacks any character.  The car is all hype, and for the several thousands upon thousands of minions who were too dim to actually bother trying to find a proper car and instead ended up with a Prius; think about what this car says about you.

Why bother dressing in a suit to go to work in a Prius?  You’ve already told the world you don’t give a crap what you look like; which is exactly why you’ve rolled into the work parking lot driving a misproportioned wedge.

tdi_logo

You wanted economy……OHHHHHHH.  So why have you not picked up a hugely efficient new Diesel which runs clean without spilling Nickel into the environment like the cancerous Prius seems to do.  Audi, VW, and BMW are all making solid diesel cars at the moment.  You can’t afford an Audi or BMW? Fine…..then drive over to the VW dealership and get a Rabbit (Golf in 2010) or Jetta TDI.  You’ll pull a solid 40-50mpg everywhere you go—and it won’t take you 15 years to get to 60mph.  More than that though, your friends will like you a little bit more, and the grass on your lawn will STILL be growing greener than ever.

Saving a few $$$ is not worth making an ass out of yourself.  The truth of the matter is; people hate seeing a Toyota Prius in front of them on the freeway, or getting stuck behind one in the city is generally worse than getting stuck behind a bus. Occasionally, you’ll see a minion of a human driving a Prius really really really fast (which is generally 40-50mph….fast for a Prion…err..Prius) and doing all sorts of weird maneuvers trying to draw attention to their strange little car.  Sometimes I wonder if these people think they are driving a Toyota Racing Development (TRD) tuned sports car?  Do they KNOW how slow and underperforming of a car they are actually driving?

You are NOT making the world a better place by buying a Prius.   You’re just making yourself look like a twit.

If I had extra money lying around, I would buy a Prius—-to have it junked and crushed for kicks!

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vintage Saab 99 Turbo promotional video..

This is a 2 part video, and the 1st part of it is especially entertaining when they do some drag races of older Euro sedans! right on!

I used to love these old Saabs….and still do.  Bring this kind of glory back, Koeniggsegg!

PART 1

PART 2

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AMC Javelin vintage video review…

I LOVE these old TV reviews….here’s one for the 1971 AMC Javelin SST.

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Drivers Republic reviews the R8 V10

r8DR

Drivers Republic have come up roses with a full R8 V10 review, done within their beautiful ‘virtual’ magazine layout.

go check it out here! —– http://magazines.drivers-republic.com/driversrepublic/perfect10052/

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DR drives the new 997 GT3 v2.0

dr911gt3blog

Chris Harris is by far the best automotive video reviewer i’ve seen in recent times….and this is a great review of the brand new 997 GT3 courtesy of Drivers Republic

Vodpod videos no longer available.
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1971 Dodge Challenger Review (vintage)

Don’t you wish american TV still had cool shows like this around? How entertaining……

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