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Let’s see… “The third time is a charm,” or is it “Strike 3, you’re out!“?

The final installment of this trilogy is Nissan’s competition to their own Sentra SE-R. That’s because there were basically two of these… the NX1600, which had 110 horsepower, and the NX2000, with the engine found in the SE-R. The SE-R, of course, had a trunk.

Gone is the “Pulsar” name. The NX2000 gets a “Hot Hatchback” rating over its predecessors because it outperformed them in both power and handling. It went from being “sporty” to a downright proper machine.

A photo of a stock NX2000 engine was very hard to find; this one has a few obvious mods. And not only did the NX2000 get the SE-R’s engine, its brakes were so good that some folks retrofit their SE-Rs with them. Add a limited-slip axle for some more equal power distribution (Very handy with front-wheel-drive).

And while the NX’s performance was first-rate for the time and class, its styling left many cold. As Car Lust commentor IGoZoom said, “The car that replaced the Pulsar for 1991 was very unfortunate looking, and that’s the kindest thing I can say about it!”

The hidden headlights were gone. Any familiarity to its predecessors did not exist. It did offer T-Tops as the second version did, thankfully. This was a Nissan NX in name only, and it showed.

Its interior took a giant step… backwards. Very mundane, maybe even rental car class… there was just nothing exciting about these digs.

So the NX2000 was faster, better handling, and… well, too bad its looks spoiled the package.

Of the three cars, I’d choose the middle one. Yes, you give up some fun that the third car would give, but its better looks make it the one I could live with every day.

—That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credits: The Nissan NX front view was found at CurbsideClassic.com. Its engine photo came from Photobucket.com. The interior image is from CurbsideClassic.com. The NX’s rear shot was found at All-Nissan.info. The NX 1 profile is from Hooniverse.com, the NX 2 profile (reversed) came from Static.flickr.com, and the NX2000 profile shot was found at ProductionCars.com.

Related articles:

2017 Nissan Sentra NISMO Spied: Extreme Makeover, Sentra Edition!

Let’s see… “The third time is a charm,” or is it “Strike 3, you’re out!“?

The final installment of this trilogy is Nissan’s competition to their own Sentra SE-R. That’s because there were basically two of these… the NX1600, which had 110 horsepower, and the NX2000, with the engine found in the SE-R. The SE-R, of course, had a trunk.

Gone is the “Pulsar” name. The NX2000 gets a “Hot Hatchback” rating over its predecessors because it outperformed them in both power and handling. It went from being “sporty” to a downright proper machine.

A photo of a stock NX2000 engine was very hard to find; this one has a few obvious mods. And not only did the NX2000 get the SE-R’s engine, its brakes were so good that some folks retrofit their SE-Rs with them. Add a limited-slip axle for some more equal power distribution (Very handy with front-wheel-drive).

And while the NX’s performance was first-rate for the time and class, its styling left many cold. As Car Lust commentor IGoZoom said, “The car that replaced the Pulsar for 1991 was very unfortunate looking, and that’s the kindest thing I can say about it!”

The hidden headlights were gone. Any familiarity to its predecessors did not exist. It did offer T-Tops as the second version did, thankfully. This was a Nissan NX in name only, and it showed.

Its interior took a giant step… backwards. Very mundane, maybe even rental car class… there was just nothing exciting about these digs.

So the NX2000 was faster, better handling, and… well, too bad its looks spoiled the package.

Of the three cars, I’d choose the middle one. Yes, you give up some fun that the third car would give, but its better looks make it the one I could live with every day.

—That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credits: The Nissan NX front view was found at CurbsideClassic.com. Its engine photo came from Photobucket.com. The interior image is from CurbsideClassic.com. The NX’s rear shot was found at All-Nissan.info. The NX 1 profile is from Hooniverse.com, the NX 2 profile (reversed) came from Static.flickr.com, and the NX2000 profile shot was found at ProductionCars.com.

Related articles:

2017 Nissan Sentra NISMO Spied: Extreme Makeover, Sentra Edition!

Gotta love the Mazda3.

But something’s just wrong here:

[embedded content] 

0:14: The reflection in the passenger’s side mirror is correct.

0:15: The cop car is now on the right side of the Mazda… maybe in an emergency lane or something. But the problem is, that there’s no lane for the cop car to be in… unless the Mazda is now the oncoming traffic lane.

0:20: Then the cop appears to pass on the right, which is illegal.

0:24: Now the cop car and “magic” lane are gone.

So…

Is it me, or is something wrong here?

—That Car Guy (Chuck)

Video Credit: The commercial was found at Youtube.com.

We’ve been revisiting some 80s gems here at CarLust these last couple of weeks, and before we head into the ’90s, it feels right to share this period artwork that I’ve had stashed in my hard drive for some time now.

Yes, they’re neither that many nor that hard to figure out for our seasoned veterans, but for the novice CarLust carspotter, it couldn’t be a more perfect exercise.

The Starter Pack includes:

-North America’s sports car

-Defunct French-North American collaboration

-Swedish steel

-Quirky-yet-endearing Japanese people-mover

-Germany’s off-the-wall sports car icon

-Obscure North American sedan

Learn them and collect them all!

I have no idea where the artwork is from but I sure wish I did know why someone would take the time to airbrush this amazing action shot with humble automobiles plus a couple of sports cars thrown for good measure. Thankfully, they did and the world is a better place because of it.

–Tigerstrypes

References: Tumblr

When the 1986 Taurus hit the market, it turned car styling on its head. Gone instantly were straight line creases and wedgie shapes. Curves were now in, and oh yeah, were they!

This second generation Pulsar NX followed the trend, and looked so much better with a reskin. It also offered more FUN things like T-Tops and a removable hatch panel that left flying buttresses for strength. With the hatch gone, a small canopy covered the trunk area so your stuff didn’t get wet or stolen… hopefully.

It also kept some of the old car. Flip-up headlights, boxy tail lights, and from the side, you could see enough of the old car to know what this one was. Good job, Nissan!

I left Nissan at exactly the time these were released, so I never got to play with one. But I really wish I had leased one when the Sport Coupe’s time ran out. This car was not only sporty, it was versatile and fun!

Styling changes aside, the big news for the car was the optional Sportbak. This rear hatch replacement turned an everyday commuter car into… an everyday commuter car wth more storage room.

The Sportbak had a triangular window, much akin to the then-new Nissan Pathfinder. Was Nissan starting a new styling trend with triangles?

Maybe the big hatch cover was a good idea, but it also presented a few problems. Like… it was a bit of a chore to change the pieces. Also, one had to store the original hatch panel where it didn’t get damaged. And storing the Sportbak when not in use took even more room.

The interior was all-new, and much for the better. It looked more expensive than the first car, the dash flowing into the upper door panels. Switches became more modern, and made the car much more “sporty.” Where the old car looked anemic, this one was toned.

Engines for the Second Gen varied from year to year. But the Twin Cam was usually found in the upscale SE Trim. The base NX trim was the XE.

So the second car was truly better. And when it came time to replace this one, the next car could only be better …right?

 Stay tuned for Part Three.

—That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credits: Our front beauty shot was found at BestCarInf.com. The Sportbak rear quarter picture came from ConsumerGuide.com. The Coupe/Canopy image is from Kinja-Img.com. The Nissan NX’s interior image was found at Photobucket.com. And the engine compartment photo is from CarDomain.com.

It was the early to mid 1980s, and everybody was having fun. But some of us Datsun Nissan fans couldn’t afford a 280Z or 300ZX, yet we wanted a sporty ride. What to do, oh, what to do.

Enter the first generation Pulsar NX into the American market in 1983. Its timing was superb, since the Sentra Sport Coupe was still a few years away, and a regular Nissan Sentra (2-Door, 4-Door, 5-Door Wagon, and 3-Door Hatchback) was for the sensible, not the sporty.

I nearly ordered one of these puppies (I worked at NMMC at the time), but since a 1984 Sport Truck was already in the stable, something more car-like and less fun was in order to replace that wretched Pontiac T100 that I just had to have at one time. So I took the sensible route and got a 1985 Sentra 4-Door XE with a 5-speed. This NX would have been more fun. And a lot more sporty.

From the rear, the NX’s straight-line angles and creases abundantly abound.

The car was a period-correct wedge design with the only curves being the wheel openings and tires. It looked modern (For the time), maybe even a little futuristic… like a small space ship. And maybe that was its attraction and best feature.

OK, this car isn’t a muscle car or even close, but it did offer a Turbo Package with a 1488 cc (E15ET turbo) I-4 with 94 horsepower spinning the front wheels. Everybody else here got the 1597 cc (E16) I-4 with a measley 70 ponies. Handling was fair, but “sporty” and “sports car” are two different terms.

Its interior might be described as “Adequate, but uninspired.” All the pieces were there… full gauges, sporty seats, 3-spoke steering wheel… But somehow it just seems this could have been… better.

“Holy Drop Top, Batman!” Wow, we Americans didn’t get this, but the NX (They were called the EXA over there [Which was anywhere but here]) was offered in true convertible form. However in the 80s we didn’t need soft tops, we had T Tops. The Pulsar NX had a pop-up/removable sunroof. Well, some of them did.

But their appeal wasn’t widespread, and they probably will never be a collector’s car. You don’t see them much any more, which is a shame because they really were so… “1980s.”

There was a second generation NX sold here as well. Please stay tuned.

—That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credits: Our first Pulsar NX image was found at CarDomain.com. The rear shot came from BlogSpot.com. Its profile photo is from Hooniverse.com. The engine image came from Photobucket.com. The NX interior photo is from CoPart.com. The EXA convertible picture was found at Wikipedia.org.

It was the early to mid 1980s, and everybody was having fun. But some of us Datsun Nissan fans couldn’t afford a 280Z or 300ZX, yet we wanted a sporty ride. What to do, oh, what to do.

Enter the first generation Pulsar NX into the American market in 1983. Its timing was superb, since the Sentra Sport Coupe was still a few years away, and a regular Nissan Sentra (2-Door, 4-Door, 5-Door Wagon, and 3-Door Hatchback) was for the sensible, not the sporty.

I nearly ordered one of these puppies (I worked at NMMC at the time), but since a 1984 Sport Truck was already in the stable, something more car-like and less fun was in order to replace that wretched Pontiac T100 that I just had to have at one time. So I took the sensible route and got a 1985 Sentra 4-Door XE with a 5-speed. This NX would have been more fun. And a lot more sporty.

From the rear, the NX’s straight-line angles and creases abundantly abound.

The car was a period-correct wedge design with the only curves being the wheel openings and tires. It looked modern (For the time), maybe even a little futuristic… like a small space ship. And maybe that was its attraction and best feature.

OK, this car isn’t a muscle car or even close, but it did offer a Turbo Package with a 1488 cc (E15ET turbo) I-4 with 94 horsepower spinning the front wheels. Everybody else here got the 1597 cc (E16) I-4 with a measley 70 ponies. Handling was fair, but “sporty” and “sports car” are two different terms.

Its interior might be described as “Adequate, but uninspired.” All the pieces were there… full gauges, sporty seats, 3-spoke steering wheel… But somehow it just seems this could have been… better.

“Holy Drop Top, Batman!” Wow, we Americans didn’t get this, but the NX (They were called the EXA over there [Which was anywhere but here]) was offered in true convertible form. However in the 80s we didn’t need soft tops, we had T Tops. The Pulsar NX had a pop-up/removable sunroof. Well, some of them did.

But their appeal wasn’t widespread, and they probably will never be a collector’s car. You don’t see them much any more, which is a shame because they really were so… “1980s.”

There was a second generation NX sold here as well. Please stay tuned.

—That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credits: Our first Pulsar NX image was found at CarDomain.com. The rear shot came from BlogSpot.com. Its profile photo is from Hooniverse.com. The engine image came from Photobucket.com. The NX interior photo is from CoPart.com. The EXA convertible picture was found at Wikipedia.org.

…at least not without saying something about it.

I thought this pet peeve belonged just to me, but apparently there are quite a bunch of folks that hate this. And it’s not often that one sees a disguised “colorful” metaphor in the title of a Car Lust post. But if there’s one method of bad driving that gets my blood boiling… it’s people that think they have no need to hold onto the steering wheel in their cars or trucks.

You see them every day. Drivers going along with traffic, doing most everything correctly, except for one thing… they aren’t holding the steering wheel. And this is not a momentary thing… this is how they always drive… a limp wrist laying on top of the wheel for many miles at a time, sometimes their fingers drumming on the dash.

The safety implications are obvious… hit a good bump, and your wheels dart. Somebody else in the car can grab the wheel and yank it out of your control. A slower turn reaction time. “Too bad you didn’t have a hold on that wheel bud, you could have kept your car in your lane.”

A recent Lincoln ad featured a famous actor driving limp-wristed. The ad was pulled, then re-edited without showing that questionable driving position.

Driver Training 101 tells you to place both hands on the wheel, near the 9:00 and 3:00 positions. Why people don’t do that is beyond me. Are their arms too long? Is it a lack of attention? Are they arrogant? Or do they just not care?

Of course, there are also other improper ways to hold the wheel.

I can’t stop anybody from driving like this, but l will refuse to ride with them.

So there, I’ve had my say. Now what do you think about drivers who “steer” with their wrist?

And of course, this is the place to discuss anything even slightly automotive-related. Especially new Tesla models.

—That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credits: Our first image came from WordPress.com. The proper method of holding a steering wheel picture came from MotoringAlliance.com. Our final photo was found at BostonBiker.org.

Posted in Car Lust, Car Spotting, Convertibles, Economy Cars, Everyday Iron, Family Sedans, Hot Hatchbacks, Luxury, Motorcycles & ATVs, Motorhomes and Travel Trailers, Motorsports, Muscle Cars, Othermotive, Personal Luxury, Prewar Cars, Sports Cars, Sports Sedans, Technology, Trucks, Vans, Wagon Fever View blog reactions | Email this post |

If I were to put this year’s Nashville British Car Club Show description into a few words, they would be…

“Quality, not Quantity.“

For the last few years ( 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 to be exact), I’ve had the pleasure to try to showcase the magnificent automotive examples presented at the Nashville British Car Club Shows. But sadly, 2014’s event was washed out by heavy rain. There was a make-up show in November, but yours truly never heard about it until this year’s show. And from what I heard, not many folks were able to reschedule their cars for that show as well.

So Saturday, October 10, was this year’s date. And the day before we also had some rain, which is why I suppose few drove the distance (Cars have been here from Ontario) to attend this show. The ground was still a big mushy, and there was straw in a few areas to cover the mud. But overall it was a very pleasant day, and the lesser number of displayed vehicles gave time to enjoy what was there, rather than being rushed to take them all in at one viewing. Oh by the way, there were many nice cars in the show that weren’t featured here, mainly because I’ve shown them in posts of yore.                                                 So let’s get started!

We begin at what may be the most fundamental example of British motoring, this nifty 1963 Austin Healey Sprite…

…and proceed to the other end of the automotive spectrum, this 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom 1 motorcar. It was a head turner, both coming…

…and going!

A 1988 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur looked right at home here as well.

A bit down the path rested this 1959 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud 1.

Not far away from the ‘Cloud’ was this Singer, awating…

…a restoration to make it look like this 1952 Singer Model 4AD.

This 1961 English Daimler SP250 (No relation to Daimler-Benz) is from the UK’s first car company, which started producing vehicles for Royalty in 1896. Originally called the Dart, this car is Number 840 of 2,645 ever made.

A locally-owned 1937 Riley Linx was featured in the 10th Anniversary Special Issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Cars magazine. Some of its special features include a 1496cc Twin Cam engine, preselector transmission centrifugal clutch, and Colonial headlight bracings.

The only 1935 Hillman Minx registered in America was here. 

How about one of only 22 MG J3s ever produced? Supercharged and fitted with larger brakes, the J3 is the racing version of the MG J2. The engines were originally painted blue, and its body colour is Carmine Red.

A circa-1968 Ford Good Humour Humor Ice Cream truck was on site, selling delicious ice creams for $3 each. I spent several dollars here this day.

Speaking of trucks, this 1965 Land Rover Series II A was poised and ready for immediate speed and dispatch.

Possibly my favourite car at the show, this 2001 Jaguar XK8, in proper British Raging Green paintwork and tan leather interior was begging me to make its owner an offer. Discipline, Chuck… Discipline.

Another “Jag” at the show, this XK 150 prominently displayed its polished aluminium pieces for all to see.

Another kitty here was a black 1958 XK 150.

And the latest generation of Jaguar was represented by this 2015 F-type R.

Similar cars to this 1980 Aston Martin V8 were used in James Bond’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and The Living Daylights. Usually well-hidden from view, I’m not sure if this car had Q Branch’s host of the “usual refinements.”

I’ve said it before, and I’m sure I’ll say it again. Nobody can do an interior like the British, with fine woods and supple leather. Nobody.

Surprisingly, only a handful of gleaming MGs were here…

…and I only recall this single but superb example of a 1979 Spitfire.

As I was leaving, I caught this AEC Routemaster double decker bus pulling into the show. Please note that its lower deck seemed empty save for the driver; the passengers were enjoying this very nice Autumn day.

My bud David Booker brought his doggie Arrow to the show. Arrow seemed more interested in other pups than the Austins and Mini, since he’s only about 15 months old.

2016 should be an interesting show. Hopefully the weather will be more cooperative, and probably more unfeatured cars will attend. I hope to see you then.

Cheers!

—That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credits: David Booker took the image of his puppy; I did the rest.

Posted in Car Lust, Car Spotting, Convertibles, Economy Cars, Everyday Iron, Family Sedans, Luxury, Personal Luxury, Sports Cars, Trucks, Vans, Wagon Fever View blog reactions | Email this post |

They are as associated with London as Big Ben. They have a reputation for being as clean as a crumpet plate. And they are as recognizable as Parliament.

And perhaps they should be, since they have been around for quite the while. Perhaps the best-known is the Austin FX4, which was made from 1958 to 1994.

They also have a reputation for being all-black, but they do come in many colours. In fact, there are no rules and/or regulations requiring any of them to be black. They can also carry five passengers in comfort, and can turn on a dime. 

They had diesel engines of various sizes and makers, though a gasoline engine was available starting in 1962. Automatics were standard from Day One, but manuals became an option later. Why? I have no idea. I mean… a manual tranny in London???

Their “boots” weren’t really designed to carry luggage in a most proper way; this is a Chinese market Taxicab.

Many pains have been taken to provide access for disabled persons, as well as comfy and clean seats for others.

To steal a line from “Skyfall,” “Sometimes the old ways are the best.” And speaking of the old ways, if you like to see vehicles assembled in a factory as much as I do, this video will be all eye candy. In this outstanding segment from “How It’s Made,” we see that most of the Taxicabs are built by hand. Its frame is stamped and placed into a welding jig by experts. The body is assembled and spot welded by technicians. Even the body is placed on the frame by human hands (With a little help from an overhead lift). In other words, the old ways:

[embedded content] 

Well, that ran for a bit, so I won’t keep you here much longer. But before we part, here’s a few examples of ye olde Taxicab that followed the trusted FX4:

TX1 (1997-2002)

TXII (2002-2007)

The TX4 (2007-Present Day)

So the London Taxicab is a purpose-built, timeless conveyance. And if I ever get over to London, I will definitely make a special effort to take a ride in one.

In this case, I would say that the olde ways are the best.

—That Car Guy (Chuck)

Image Credits: Our first image of the Taxicabs is from YellowTaxiBlog.com. The Taxicab boot photo was found at PhotoShelter.com. That Taxicab interior shot is from Media-Cache-ec0.Pinimg.com. “How It’s Made” produced that really cool video. The TX1 image is from Wikipedia.org; the TXII picture came from Wikipedia.org; and the TX4 photo was found at, you guessed it, Wikipedia.org.

Tonight we here in the US of A bid a fond farewell to Top Gear when the last show featuring the trio of Jeremy “The Orangutan” Clarkson, Richard “The Hamster” Hammond, and James “Captain Slow” May airs on BBC America. I’m sure I don’t need to go into the details about how their run on the show came to an end, but there was some doubt whether we would get to see the last of the programmes that were filmed before it all went belly up. It was a bit of a let down, just sort of petering out mid-season series like it did. I have no idea what tonight’s episode will include, if anything, regarding their exit from the Top Gear stage, but at least it’s something we know is coming this time and we can treat it with the profound respect it deserves. 

More or less.

When I first started this post — if I’m honest it was about 2 months ago — I was trying to find some clever hook by which to hang many profound insights into the allure and worldwide popularity of the show. At first I thought it was simple writer’s block (heaven forbid), but then decided that attempting to be all and melodramatic ‘n junk would have done a disservice to what they’d accomplished over the last 13 years. So I ditched the profundity idea and decided to just blather a bit on what I think about it. Which will, if you bear with me for a few sentences, hopefully make some sense. 

Because I’ll come right out with it: Top Gear is probably the main reason why I’m even contributing to this pokey motoring blog in the first place. See, before Top Gear (BTG) what were car shows like? Well, unless you were a real “car guy” they were likely pretty dull. Reviews of vehicles concentrating on horsepowers, 0-60 times, G’s on the skid pad, ride quality and handling, and a few bits about torques and  rack-and-pinion steering, along with short infomercial segments for whatever products were sponsoring the show that day. Essentially the television equivalent of car magazines. Which isn’t to say there isn’t good, entertaining writing in these magazines or TV shows — there is, quite a lot of it — but to really appreciate it you pretty much had to be at least something of a car fanatic. Which I wasn’t for the most part. Oh, I’d occasionally check out the Car and Driver, Motor Trend, or Automobile magazines while waiting at a dentist’s office or at my mechanic’s (where I have spent far too much time and money, hopefully garnering some future discounts by shamelessly plugging them with a link), but I never pored over them to digest every detail and spec of every model that interested me. And I tried to watch Motor Week every week (never was much for Car Talk though).I certainly had my own thoughts about automobiles though, in part because they’re a wonderful subject for analogizing evolutionary theory with. 

But then one weekend afternoon I was flipping around the cable channels looking for something to watch when I chanced upon this BBC America show that had some guys standing around in a warehouse (as I thought at the time) surrounded by a bunch of other people standing around them while they talked about cars. Mostly cars I’d never heard of and would never (or rarely) see on the street, let alone buy, so why would anyone want to watch that? And I was, almost immediately, hooked. They were at the same time clever and intelligent and stupid and funny and entertaining. They weren’t just reviewing new cars (mostly) which is what any self-respecting car show was doing up to that point, they were presenting them for our entertainment and amusement. They used words and phrases with which most of us* are unfamiliar in our everyday lives and viewing habits (many of which I am busily sprinkling throughout this missive if you haven’t already noticed), but which have crept into our, if not daily, at least occasional, lexicons. They weren’t reviewing cars as much as just telling us what they thought of them. How refreshing was that?

Thus, when Hafner began this humble blog some time later, and I was directed here by Glenn Reynolds (to whom we owe much, much — pardon the pun — traffic), I felt comfortable blathering on in the comments about what I thought about whatever goofy vehicle was being featured. And Chris at least (hopefully a few others as well) liked what I thought and set me up here as a regular contributor. Not having been a classic “car guy” I never would have even considered writing about these things, but Top Gear made me realize that there was more to the whole “automobile culture” than new car specs and reviews, Concours d’ Elegance car shows, and building ‘project cars’ in one’s superbly equipped garage facility — which really only ever featured higher-end muscle cars and the like rather than the mass of simple mostly rubbish cars that the rest of us puttered around in. And with the right verbiage attached even discussing the humble Chevrolet Vega or Morris Marina could be entertaining. 

After all, how hard could it be?

Someone once said, probably here in the Car Lust comments at some point, that the essence of humor arises from two things: Smart people doing stupid things, or stupid people doing smart things. I daresay Clarkson, Hammond, and May managed to convince us on most occasions that they hit either one of those. 

It’s had its share of controversy, of course. I didn’t really care for the 9th series’ “US Special” all that much, not that I’m above having my culture mocked, but that one was a bit iffy, but we’re certainly not the only country to have had, shall we say, issues with their presentations on occasion. Among other things. To be fair, most of those I find to be pretty stupid things to get all huffy about, but then, that’s what satire is all about. 

We here at Car Lust have had our own problems with the show at times. One trait in particular is the degree to which they, well, destroy cars. Especially to our readers, the thought of dropping a piano on, say, a nice example of a Ford Pinto, could be rather distressing. At first, this didn’t bother me since — truth be told — they were doing it to cars I wasn’t familiar with, so who cares?  But then when Top Gear USA (which I’ve never warmed to) did the same thing to some American cars which were dear to my heart, I got a little uncomfortable with it. 

That, however, goes to the heart of the matter: Top Gear was never really about cars, it was about what the hosts thought about cars, their owners, drivers, and anything else vaguely related to motoring. And what they thought was interesting, funny, and entertaining. Even people who didn’t really care much about cars could enjoy the show; they’d watch the latest supercars being run around the track, and then happily go back to their boring old Camry or (IMO) equally boring Corolla and think about flappy-paddle gear-boxes, maybe wonder about its brake horsepowers or torques, and watch out for the rozzers of whatever extraction. It made cars something more fun than objects to fuss and swoon over by a bunch of gearheads. And in the end they’re just cars.  

So while we may be tempted to place Top Gear and its now-former Clarkson-May-Hammond-Stig incarnation up on a pedestal in the annals of motoring history, I for one am simply going to remember these moments in TV history for what they were: A show about what some entertaining blokes thought about cars.

Oh, and if any of the three of you unemployed gentlemen are reading this, we have an opening for someone to write about non-North American cars, which we are somewhat lacking in experience with. We don’t pay much (read: nothing), but the hours are good and the best part is, we have diddly editorial supervision!

And since this is also a Monday when we traditionally have an open thread, feel free to discuss anything Top Gear related, especially links to your favorite clips. Here are a few of my favorites:

Has Communism ever produced a good car?

Top Gear motorhome challenge.

The Ultimate Caravaner’s Car.

The Race Across London.

Best Cars for Teenagers.

The One-Tank (of gas) Challenge.

* All us’s and ours’s referring to we here in north America, some parts of our northern Canuckistani neighbors excepted.

The summer season of long car trips and top-down joyrides is upon us–and we are again confronted with the critical question of what mood music to have playing in the stereo as we drive.

Today, we’ll discuss appropriate soundtrack selections for a mad dash down one of the squiggly lines on the map.

While music preferences are highly subjective, I propose the following theory for your consideration: There are exactly three objective characteristics that make a good backroads driving song: a steady fast tempo, a prominent beat, and a series of quick key and chord changes.

That’s all.  Nothing more required.

As long as it has those three characteristics, a tune for the twisties can come from almost any genre of music, with the probable exception of emo. Most of the examples I’m going to cite are from rock and pop, because that’s what I’m most likely to listen to, but one can downshift and carve corners to 1940s swing (“In the Mood”, “Hellzapoppin’,” “Jumpin’ Jive”), bebop jazz (“Tank!“), Swedish power metal (“Metal Machine“), and even NPR-grade symphony orchestra (the overture from the opera William Tell).

While a backroads driving song can be a song about cars or driving–one good example would be “Highway Star” by Deep Purple–it doesn’t have to be. “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina & the Waves is a happy love song. Dire Straits’ “Tunnel of Love” is a bittersweet ballad. “Incense and Peppermints” is vintage psychedelia. “Berlin” by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is (I’m pretty sure) a serious critique of modern secular culture. “The Real Me” is about mental illness. Entrain’s “Dancing in the Light” is a high-velocity word salad, while the words to Patty Griffin’s “Boston” are a three-layer cake of despair. Any of these could be the music bed for your dashcam video of a trip down the Tail of the Dragon–as could songs in a language you don’t understand (“Masitéladi,” “La Bamba“), or ones with no words at all (“One Big Rush”).

As I said, these are objective criteria: a tune you don’t like can nevertheless be fully backroads-compliant. I’m no David Bowie fan, not even close, but “Suffragette City” is as good in the twisties as they come.

I’ll finish up with a recent addition to my iPod: “Gotta Get Away” by The Black Keys. It’s a catchy little ballad of failed romance with a deliciously singable chorus: I went from San Berdoo/To Kalamazoo/Just to get away from you….. Perfect for your favorite S-curve.

–Cookie the Dog’s Owner

What’s on your corner-carving playlist?  Let us know in the comments below.