Aston Martin’s new car, the Cygnet, is a Toyota (soon to be released as a Scion in the US) iQ city car (think a Smart car, only smaller and cheaper) which has an A/M nose and a bespoke interior. For over twice the cost of the donor vehicle Aston hopes to sell 2000 Cygnets to existing customers. Let me restate that, Aston Martin plans to sell 2000 $35,000 cars based on a sub $15,000 car to a group of people who bitched and moaned when they introduced a “bargain priced” $120,000 car.
To convince people that this is not a bad idea, the Brits have released this video which is full of Parkour/Free Running (there is a difference, one is concerned with efficiency, the other includes flourishes think racing v. riding trails). Ok, it’s not full of it, it kinda uses it really poorly and it’s just a really bad ad. I guess there’s always a possibility that when a new sport is being used to sell an old product it will be done wrong. This is pretty high on the “it makes everything look lame” scale.
Still, after seeing Jake Kooser’s Redline strapped to the back of his Smart car, I can’t dismiss this abomination and a bike rack as not a viable mode of BMX transportation.
Larry Ellison routinely shows up as the world’s second or third richest man (non sheik division). While the other two guys (Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, if you’re wondering) are off giving billions to charity, Ellison is doing this
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison commissioned the fabricators at Kirkham Motorsports to build the ultimate, cost-is-no-object roadster. After years of labor, they’ve completed the all-billet aluminum Cobra.
More, obviously, in the original article. A limited edition, leather bound book chronicling the build – machined from a billet of aluminum, natch – is available for a cool $4500. Or, you know, you can check out the 23 PDFs here.
Yeah, usually the perfect BMX car requires the ability to haul at least two bikes and two people. Yeah, exceptions can be made.
Somewhere euro car snob and occasional BMW Wagon owner, Mike Ardelean, just shat himself.
A while ago the dealer gave me an E91 3 series wagon while my car was in the shop. While, overall, the car was enjoyable enough, I couldn’t get over just how unbelievably shitty the ergonomics were. I, a man with a 6′5″ wingspan, could not reach the window switches, there was no position that the steering wheel could be in that didn’t block gauges and things were changed from the E46 for no apparent reason. Also, the start button was just stupid.
When it came down to it, I liked it, but not enough to upgrade. In fact, I disliked it enough to tell people I know not to buy one.
I’d forgive it all for this. It’s an E91 3 Series wagon, fitted with an E90 M3 body kit and an E60/61 M5 drive train. Let me repeat that. BMW does *not* make an M3 wagon. They make a sedan and a coupe, but no wagon. This puts out around 400hp from a v-8. BMW *does* make an M5 wagon, which puts out around 500 hp from a v-10. What this is is an M3 wagon with an M5 drivetrain.
It’s also $120,000. So, yeah, I won’t be getting this. But I want it. bad.
I’m not sure if this is a cool triumph of a small family business with a dream made reality, or just what you need when you absolutely, positively, MUST prove to your neighbors that you’re hung like a baby’s pinkie toe. Either way, it’ll seat you, half of your friends and every bike ever made.
In case you couldn’t figure it out, the bed tilts to make a ramp to load stuff on the roof.
I’ve become a fan of the show Wheeler Dealers on HDTV. It’s a British show where a kind of annoying car salesman buys up old cars for not that much money, gives them to his friend – a surfer who apparently suffers from giantism – to fix up, and then sells them for not that much money plus not that much money. A couple of weeks ago they did a VW Micro Bus, which they converted into the perfect surf vehicle and which the giant surfer promptly bought for himself.
All the things that make the Bus a perfect surf vehicle make it a perfect BMX vehicle. It’s cheap, big enough to carry a bunch of your friends inside and a bunch of your gear on the roof. It has possibly the single most insane aftermarket of any vehicle, ever, ranging from hot rod to camper transformations and it is from an era where “Volkswagen” wasn’t German for “electrical problems.”
The only real downsides have to do with the driving experience. The VW Microbus in full tune makes about the same horsepower as a Suzuki SV (the motorcycle everyone suggest for those who’ve never ridden a motorcycle) and handles about as well as your couch on casters. But the fact is, you don’t buy one of these for driving excitement. You buy one for vibe, which it has in spades.
If you’ve got five grand burning a hole in your pocket, you could do a lot worse than a pristine, restored example of one of these for your bike hauling duties.
