The Automobile Thread

So the front end doesn't look like its had a stroke in real life?

 

Interesting. OC was hardly empty of people. It took about 30 minutes just to park and it was jam packed with people.

It was small though. No BMW, Ferrari, Porsche, Volvo or Subaru just to name a few of the missing manufacturers.

 

Ferrari has been out of the LA Auto Show for several years as well. I think a lot of the exotic car manufacturers have pulled out of most auto shows and do most of their debuts at Monterey and to a lesser extent Geneva.

 

I go to the LA Auto show for the Galpin Calendars anyways, so everything else is a bonus

 

A master class on fitment (the pic, not my words). The stepped lip mesh style wheel straddles the line between classic and passé. Unless the fitment is perfect it can look pretty beat, as demonstrated by that e-tron GT. My buddy’s RS6 gets it so, so right.

 

Perfect. As I said earlier, their Lexus is done very well. I have no idea what the off road look is about on their Audis.

 

Just think - you coulda had this:


304 CID motor and all!!!

 

Burnout machine right there. No weight on the back wheels. Fun - not fun in ice and snow.
Good luck finding any left as they were junk

 

Remove the Audi from that photo and it looks like it could be about 1972 based on the other two vehicles.

I know the gray Travelall or whatever that is is much older than that, but the "woodie" station wagon...

 

I’ve been selling a mess of these. q4 e-tron. We had 4 yesterday morning, and none by this afternoon. Guessing the spike in gas prices is playing no small part in this. This car has actually grown on me more than I thought it would.

 

Motor shows are dying. Attendance numbers are dropping. Manufacturers don't want to spend the money to show up with concept cars and thus the downward spiral becomes self perpetuating. To be honest I can't blame the manufacturers. Building flashy concept cars to get the attention of punters / tyre kickers at these events is not a cheap exercise. In a past life I was involved in a few concept car builds for some motor shows with Fix Or Repair Daily. We'd easily spend 250k* plus on a one off concept car that was no more than a fibreglass shell on top of a rolling floor pan from some donor vehicle we'd pulled out of the crashed car compound out the back of the garages. Literally no steering (kick the wheels), no powertrain, no interior, probably a cable hand brake somewhere hidden underneath the car to stop it rolling away.

*I'm talking about just build cost here, no design time or modelling etc.

Thats a lot of wasted money down the gurgler when reality is a lot of concept cars will never go anywhere near making it to market. Much easier to drop a cool render and get all the fan boys frothing over that instead of actually committing real $$$ to building something.

So now instead they turn up to the shows with their current line-up and wonder why everyone goes "meh".

Anyway I'll stop shouting at the clouds, I'm probably a bit bitter and twisted cos I miss playing with cool toys that'd machine the entire exterior surface of a car out of a huge block of foam.

 

That's interesting about the construction of the concept cars. Audi has put out several of what appear to be pretty elaborate EV concepts over the last couple years. I assumed they were, for the most part, functional cars. The designer of one of the more prominent ones gets his company cars delivered through our dealership, so I'll have to pick his brain the next time he's in about what actually goes into the concepts. And I believe they were all unveiled at Monterey/Pebble Beach, and perhaps even exclusively shown there with social media left to do the heavy lifting with that scenery as the back drop.

 

Drives me nuts with all the 4x4's I see all the time that have some sort of wheel set up like that, or any number of things that make it clear that it will never see dirt.

And then...I get this on mine. Note: the comment on the right was MY response.

 

40.3 mpg in the CRV for the drive back from the high desert yesterday, which included some excessive speeds for stretches on the interstate.

 

Another brilliant double negative! You aren't bad at this!

 

We all have our gifts, useless as they may be.

 

This is one of the more recent high profile ones that backfired which springs to mind

"The Nikola drama spilled into Monday as the startup refuted the accusations in last week's bombshell report from financial researcher Hindenburg Research that the company and its founder, Trevor Milton, lied to work their way into big-name deals. In the process, Nikola admits its first semi never ran under its own power, as it carefully maneuvered around accusations.

Nikola got very, very granular in its rebuttal, saying the company never said the One moved under its own power, or via a powertrain at all. Instead, the startup pointed out it simply showed the fuel-cell semi truck prototype "in motion" in a 2017 video, but nowhere did the company take the opportunity to clarify what powered the vehicle."​

They simply filmed it rolling down a hill the dodgy buggars

 

I really like it when they disconnect the front drive shaft.

 

Pfffffftttttt…..you all need smoke stacks for your 4 cylinder……

 

Swan song for the V10 R8. 602 HP RWD, with lots of race car bits. 333 units worldwide, and my sources say 150ish destined for the U.S. Oooff.

 

I saw an R8 on my route yesterday. The guy actually opened it up when he took off. Those V10s sound wicked when revved properly.

 

I admire this car the way I admire a P-51 Mustang. 333 examples for private museums is probably adequate.

 

I don’t know, as much as I love Audi and R8, I just don’t think they really have the cachet to be museum trophies or investment cars. Maybe this one will be different? I have a would be buyer for our first allocation, and I at least know his will get driven as intended. I hope that’s the norm.

 

I have always thought the R8 to be a great daily driver. The lady who owns a salon across the parking lot from us drives hers 3-4 times a week. If I had the money id definitely have one as a weekend car.

 

Rivian has issues:

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/07/rivian-recalls-13000-vehicles-due-to-loose-fastener.html

 

Reminds me of the ancient woman on the assembly line at McDonnell Douglas. She had issues with doing her particular job, so she was cutting the rivets and gluing them in instead of shooting & bucking.

Or maybe it was Boeing. It's been a while.

 

Beat to fit, paint to match. . .

 

The sh!t I see while walking my dogs...



Never realized this place was in town either. It's easy to find, right near the homeless encampment...

 

Look like have some high rollers in the parking lot today…

 

Stealth Russian Zilboat. Invisible to them.