Pixar’s Cars

As a major car guy, I had to see this flick. I would have to give this movie 7 out of 10. It’s not quite as good as Finding Nemo but it had its moments. The story is about a race-car who encounters incredible success early in his racing career and lets his ego get ahead of him. On the way to a racetrack, he gets lost and ends up in a boon town where he discovers that there’s more to life than just fame and fortune. The story starts off good with lots of high octane action scenes and superb animation. Towards the middle, it slows down – a lot. Not like it became boring or anything, but it definitely tries the patience of smaller kids who just want to see action.

There’s lots of good parts to the movie, namely the witty humour and how Pixar transfers human qualities into cars. One of the main characters is Sally Carrera who is – you guessed it – modelled after a Porsche Carrera. It’s interesting how they decided to give a Porsche a feminine quality since Porsches have always been associated with speed, thrills, and testosterone. How many moms begin trading in their minivans and wagons for this sporty coupe remains to be seen. The animation is top notch, as is the sound effects. As one with discerning ears, I can say that Pixar got the sounds of Sally’s engine just right. From the idle burbling to full acceleration, it really does sound like a Porsche.

So what’s my recommendation? Save your money for Superman Returns.

 

Miata hardtop ups the ante

I realize that there are many naysayers about the status of the Miata as a man's sports car. And I also realize that we've been through this discussion already in an earlier post on The Scroll Bar Bimonthly but I have to raise the issue just one more time (or a few more times, who knows). The Discovery Channel ranked the Miata as the number two greatest sports car ever (losing only to the Porsche 911, but beating out the venerable McLaren F1). So if Discovery Channel says so, then it must be true. And now with its retractable hardtop, you're looking at a true four-season, daily driver sports car with good looks and a peppy engine to match. What remains now is the manliness quotient. Maybe giving it a more masculine name would change that. Miato?

 

Mini credit cards

Here's a great idea from the marketing guys at Mini (or BMW, I should say). Anyone can apply for the card, but I'm certain that Mini owners will most likely get the biggest kick out of this campaign. Still, the idea is pretty good. It's definitely a great conversation starter and compliments the unique image that Mini drivers value. Now only if they adopted this tag line: The Mini VISA – helping Americans spiral into credit card debt while simultaneously bolstering brand loyalty. Fantastic. Click here to apply.

 

China’s mobile execution van

Can't wait to arrive at a facility to execute your state criminals? Need to eliminate that suspected activist in the hard-to-access, small farm town of Ching Chang Chung? No worries, here's China's solution – execution on wheels. It is equipped with everything needed to perform a lethal injection on-site and on-the-go. Plus, it also has room for up to six spectators to make certain that the farmer activist is dead. I suppose this is the perfect antithesis to what is known in the Western world as an ambulance.

 

Good things from Toyota

I had all the best wishes for the Camry when I first saw photos of it's 2002 redesign. It was a significant departure from the previous generation and sported a sculpted and sleek look, as opposed to the flat and wedged shape of its predecessor. Early pictures looked great and slowly, I was being pulled from the Accord camp towards the Camry camp. Then walking to Rose Garden parkade one day, I saw the redesigned Camry in the flesh for the first time. It was a huge disappointment. The height of the car seemed tall enough to qualify for the Jeep Jamboree. And did I mention sculpted? I actually meant bulbous, like someone who had too much beer over his lifetime. I liked the front facsia a lot however, especially the dramatically swept back headlights. It seemed like Toyota was trying to do something exciting but then abandoned it halfway through and resorted to conventionalism for the rest of the vehicle. I was back at the Accord camp in a jiffy.

Fast forward five years and enter the '07 Camry. Having lost its baby fat, the mature Camry emerges. It looks like Lexus engineers had a lot of influence as this Camry is easily mistaken for the new GS and IS. And it's appeal is more than just skin deep. How does a six speed auto box and 3.5 litre, 268hp sound? The SE V6 model tops out at $36,945, which isn't bad considering you'll get a nice chunk of that back at resale. One complaint though: those Corolla rims has gotsa' go.

So here we have a car that finally appeals to a broad consumer demographic, from someone in their mid-20's to retirement age and everything else in between, male or female. I'm really interested to see the redesigned Solara. And I'm really interested to see what Honda has to counter with. But in the meantime, I hope there's still vacancy at Camp Camry.

 

A Brabus beast

I have to honest. I am major Bavarian Motor Works fanatic when it comes to Euro luxos. My fondest memory of that marque was back in the 90’s when a silver 760iL starred as James Bond’s vehicle of choice in Tomorrow Never Dies. Fellow afictionados will recall the twin five-spoke rims, which have transcended to being classic in design in my books. But that was 10 years ago, before the era of Chris Bangle. I’ll save my gripe about him for another post.

But when it comes to being impressive, BMW falls flat. It’s like parking a bicycle beside a 1000cc sportbike. In another German town, Mercedes has been coming out with good lookers of their own. I loved the look of the last S-Class and DCX has stepped it up again with the redesign of their new flagship. The new S-Class is bold, dramatic and sleek. But apparently, that wasn’t enough for motorsport tuner Brabus. They took a stock S600, slapped on a twin-turbo, increased the engine displacement from to 6.3 litres, installed a new aerodynamic and suspension kit, fitted an upgraded exhaust system with quadruple tailpipes and bolted on a big brake/rim/tires package. The result – 730hp and 811ft-lb of torque, which is electronically limited to prevent the transmission from stripping the teeth off its gears I suppose. To put all that power into perspective, this thing goes from standstill to 200km/h faster than my Civic can do naught to 100.

 

Used car buying tip

Recently, I've been thinking about the prospects of buying a used car – not that I can afford one or anything. What triggered this mindset? Summer. Convertibles. Vanity. So one day out of complete curiosity, I checked autotrader.ca and this came up. Yessir, a badass 2002 M3 convertible with that wicked 333hp motor for around $58-large with under 50,000km on the meter. Here's the kicker: no insurance claims. Not too bad considering a new one would retail for well over $100,000.

In the excitement of getting a new car, it's easy to overlook a couple of things. A common misconception about used cars is that if vehicle has no insurance claims, that means it hasn't been in an accident. It actually means: this car hasn't been through a major accident. But what about the minor accidents?

The first thing to do is to check all four rims for scratches. Be especially careful of deep gashes where it looks more than just a mishap with a curb while parallel parking. It could have resulted from hitting an object while in motion, meaning that the car's alignment could be off.

Take the car for a drive to confirm your suspicions about the car's alignment. If it starts pulling to the right or left, bingo – the alignment's off, and that's at least $100 just to diagnose. Be diligent: even a slight deviation from the steering wheel's centre is enough. Let go of the wheel and does the car begin to track off-centre? Does the wheel vibrate or shimmy when you bring the car up to speed? At this point, anything could be suspect from a simple camber/caster/toe correction to replacing the struts or even the entire suspension frame. Congrats. You now have some leverage in the bargaining process.

Have the car checked out by a trusted mechanic and ask for their opinion. Not all alignment problems are serious. You could probably live with most misalignments, again it depends on the extent of the damage. Having a few hundred bucks knocked from the final price might just make it worth your while.

 

The latest reincarnation of Erkx

After having deliberated the future of my previous site, I have decided to shut it down and migrate to wordpress.com. It's been fun running members.shaw.ca/cxvi but I don't think it could have survived another redesign (to version 5, if I've kept track correctly). Reasons? For starters, simple HTML simply doesn't cut it anymore for me. I need mySQL, PHP, RSS, and all the other goodies that I've wanted to use but couldn't. Also, the fact that I've just graduated might have something to do with this.

So what's new? Well, if I had to categorize this site, it is a blog about cars, as you can probably tell by the title. With the whole Web 2.0 thing, everything seems to be tagged into one category or another nowadays. Oh, something I really like about this site is the ability to leave comments without having to be a member. Blogger, MSN Spaces, Xanga: it's time to get with it.

Any promises? Not really. I won't guarantee that this site will be the supreme authority on automotive talk, in fact it'll probably be just another blog about cars written by just another author with things on his mind.

So why am I reading this? That's a good question to ask yourself. Maybe you know me from somewhere and reading something by someone familiar makes it more real. Or maybe you really do find what I have to write interesting. Whatever the case, here's a toast to the close of Erkx Online and the launch of The Six Speed Transmission.