Fastest convertible for $2.2 million, while supplies last

Just because I don’t have $2.2 million right now — and won’t in the next few years — doesn’t mean I can’t dream.

And what sweet, speed-filled dreams I have.

After the past few years of living in Southern California, I’ve learned there is nothing more relaxing than dirivng south on Pacific Coast Highway and ending up at some beautiful beach. But I might be wrong.

Sure I always rolled the windows down, but I’ve recently found out that I could be making the drive in a Bugatti Veyron 16.4 GrandSport. OK, maybe I couldn’t be driving that. After all, it is the drop-top version of my favorite — yet totally out-of-reach — auto, the Bugatti Veyron.

The Veyron 16.4 GrandSport will be sold for about $2.2 million, if not more. The major catch: Only 150 are being made. One of the best ways to secure this formidable convertible is to already own a Bugatti, according to Car and Driver, the first 50 Veyron 16.4 GrandSports will go to current Bugatti owners, leaving only 100 for the rest of us. Production is set to begin in the spring of 2009.

Car and Driver reported that with the top up, the Veyron 16.4 GrandSport matches its Veyron brother in a top speed of 253 miles per hour. If you choose to enjoy the sun on your face and wind in you hair, losing the top will lost you about 20 mph in speed as the car will only go 229 mph.

If you want to drive with the top down, you should only take the car out on days you know will be beautiful because there is no place to store the removable hardtop. For those freak out-of-the-blue showers there is a soft top that you can use, but avoid it at all costs — it will slow you down to a normal speed of 80 mph. Who wants to drive with the flow of traffic when you can leave it all in your wake?

For those of you living on a budget, there are still over 50 hardtop Veyrons left to buy. They go for the bargain price of $1.7 million.

Personally, I’ve always enjoyed the look and feel of a hardtop instead of a convertible, but it is nice to dream about that targa top cruising down PCH in the California sun with a 16-cylinder, 8-liter, 4-turbocharger engine.

Will it be worth the wait?

It's finally happening. The Chevy Camaro will make its comeback early next year. Should muscle car fans prepare themselves for another pony car competitor? Or should they start getting ready for something more?

The Chevy Camaro made its debut in 1966 (1967 model year) to compete with Ford's original pony car, the Mustang (1964 1/2). Since then the line has been clearly drawn between Chevy enthusiasts and Ford fans, it has been the Mustang vs. the Camaro for many years. Sure at some points other muscles factored in, the Dodge Challenger, Pontiac Firebird, Mercury Cougar - you get the point - but I've always noticed the rivalry between Mustangs and Camaros. So what's different now?

According to an article in Motortrend, Chevy has been testing the new Camaro against the Dodge Charger, Nissan 350Z and Infiniti G37. Chevy looked upmarket, higher prices and performance, for vehicles to compare 5th generation Camaro to.

I'm an avid Mustang fan but since I first saw the Camaro concept I've been looking forward to seeing it on showroom floors and maybe even cruising down Pacific Coast Highway. I have to admit, I admire Chevy's bold move to develop the Camaro against more upscale cars. I also admire the guts Chevy is displaying by bringing in another V8 (there is a V6 options) car when in just a few years the new CAFE standards will be enforced.

I'll give some more technical details after I do a little more research, but the estimated price for the new Camaro is between $22,000 and $33,000.

It's been a long time coming, I hope the new Camaro doesn't disappoint.


The new Camaro enticed audiences when it starred as Bumblebee in the 2007 blockbuster "Transformers."

Don't ditch domestic design

In a recent article in Automobile magazine, Preston Lerner wrote that more auto manufacturers were closing down design studios in Southern California and that those still open aren’t really hiring.
According to Lerner’s article some people say “Southern California is losing its advanced design mojo.”
So who’s taking over? Some people say China and India are the new up-and-coming places for automotive design. And thanks to this neat little thing called the Internet, it’s easier than ever to work inter-continentally. Labor is already largely outsourced, so why not outsource design too?
That might not be the best idea. I’ve never been to China or India (although I’d like to visit) but from what I’ve seen in pictures and movies, those places don’t really resemble L.A. or Orange County.
I know fuel prices are climbing and some people are looking for energy-efficient cars, but that doesn’t mean we want to drive around golf carts all day (no offense to those of you that do).
Tata Motors Limited, India’s largest automotive manufacturing company according to wikipedia.org, recently began producing the Nano, a small car to be driven in a city. The Nano is roughly the same size as the Smart Fortwo, but the Nano is about 16 inches longer. Those extra inches make the Nano a four-door with a backseat. There is a great demand for the Nano in India, but I don’t know how much of a demand there will be from the U.S., especially Southern California.
Will India try to bring the Nano to the U.S.? I (sort of) hope not. I was initially excited about the idea of Smart cars in the U.S. until I realized that the compromise of size leads to a compromise of speed.
I don’t mean to hate on the Nano. I think it’s a great car for India, probably China and Europe too. But Hot Wheels weren’t made to drive on the U.S. highways.
Two years ago, I visited Germany with some family. We opted to rent a car instead of trying to use public transportation (I think the sizes of the suitcases factored into this decision). Since there were six of us, we rented a van — an Opel Zafira to be exact. The funny thing is, what the Germans called a van, seemed more like a tall station wagon.
Why such a difference? That should be obvious. Globalization may bring the world closer together in terms of music, movies, clothes and other information, but it can’t change the roads. Cities in Europe and Asia are designed with a good public transportation service, or things are within walking or biking distance. But here in the U.S. many large cities require a car. You could walk around some areas I suppose, but come on, nobody walks in L.A.
I love seeing cars in foreign countries because they are so different from what we have here in the U.S. It’s exciting to see what other people consider to be “big” and “compact.” That doesn’t mean I want their definitions at my local dealership.
The future of cars may be in India or China, but until all the giant trucks and SUVs are off the roads, I don’t think closing down design studios is a wise choice. Instead of outsourcing immediately, why not send designers abroad for inspiration? They can observe designs in other countries and adapt them to better fit the needs of the U.S.

C U SUV

It's finally happening. It only took $4.50 per gallon of gasoline to start it, but the wheels are turning.
OK, so the wheels actually aren't going to be turning anymore. That's probably a good thing.
With gas prices on the rise, SUV sales and sales of large trucks have been falling. And for good reason.
If you drive a GMC Yukon, that gas tank holds about 26 gallons. If gas costs $4.50 per gallon, to fill the tank would be over $100. And with the wonderful fuel economy of such a large vehicle, you'll probably have to fill about about once a week, maybe once every two weeks depending on your commute and driving habits. Either way, you're looking at spending between $200 and $400 a month on gasoline alone. When I combined my love of cars and love of online shopping, I found a number of different small cars that I could buy for about that same amount of money. I'm not the only one who's seen the light, either. People are buying smaller, more fuel efficient cars and automakers are finally catching on.
According to a press release from General Motors, four factories, "Oshawa Truck Assembly in Canada, which builds the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra, will likely cease production in 2009, while Moraine, Ohio, which builds the Chevy TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy and Saab 9-7x, will end production at the end of the 2010 model run, or sooner, if demand dictates. Janesville, Wisconsin, will cease production of medium-duty trucks by the end of 2009, and of the Tahoe, Suburban and Yukon in 2010, or sooner, if market demand dictates. Chevrolet Kodiak medium-duty truck production will also end in Toluca, Mexico, by the end of this year."
GM also said it would "work closely with its union partners to mitigate the impact of these difficult actions, which are made necessary by long-term changes in consumer demand for trucks and SUVs." But the SUVs aren't going away entirely. GM plans on fitting more models with their Flex Fuel system. Flex Fuel gives drivers the option of filling up with E85 ethanol, gasoline, or any combination.
GM is also offering cash incentives to move different SUVs and trucks off dealers’ lots.
Since GM isn't going to be making as many large vehicles, it is going to shift its attention to smaller, more efficient cars.
GM isn’t the only automaker feeling the effects.
Ford, noticing the decline in truck sales, has offered customers the opportunity to buy trucks at the same price Ford employees pay.
But sales of these automotive monsters don’t seem to be improving.
Instead of the traditional SUV, it seems like more consumers are choosing crossovers. Crossovers have almost as much space as most of the large SUVs, but they ride and behave more like cars because their structures are similar to cars. SUVs
I never thought people would abandon their SUVs and trucks and drive smaller, more efficient cars, but when gas prices near $5 per gallon I guess they realize that driving your kids to soccer practice in a tank maybe be just a little extreme.

Long over due, but still no where near...

I know it's been ages since I've updated this blog, but please pardon my absence. Between finals, setting up a new staff and trying to organize my own life, I've failed the dedicated blogger aspect.
Sadly, this isn't even a real post, I'm just trying to distract you while I finish my first issue.
But fear not, real posts are on the horizon, one may pop up as early as next week.
If it's any consolation, I haven't been shopping much either.

24 hours of LeMONS

What do chickens, blow-up dolls and pirates have to do with racing?
Probably nothing, unless the race you're watching is the 24 Hours of LeMONS.
No, I didn't misspell LeMans; I meant to say LeMONS, because that's exactly what the race is about. Imagine a track full of cars all valued at $500 or less (before the safety equipment is installed), lemons, if you will.

Can you imagine those cars lasting 24 hours? Probably not, but that's half the fun.
This year, at SF LeMONS, which is held at the Altamont Motorsports Raceway in Tracy, Calif., some of the cars I saw were Honda CRXs, Toyota MR2s, Volvo wagons, even a Ford Pinto and Chevy Cavalier.

If the cars used for racing weren’t crazy enough, you should see how they are decorated. One car masqueraded as a chicken, another appeared to be driven by a pirate, and I saw more than a couple blow-up dolls riding along.

Why the wild outfits for the cars? Because they – the participants – can. Wouldn’t you like a pirate driving your Miata? I thought so.

This was my first LeMONS event, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect, although I’m pretty sure I’ve seen pictures of the chicken car, from the team Mother Cluckers, in past issues of Car and Driver.

For those of you unfamiliar with LeMONS, it’s a little like the 24 hours of LeMans. It’s an endurance race. The winner is the one who completes the most laps in a certain amount of time. The 24 Hours of LeMONS happens at racetracks across the country, some are actually 24 hours.

In Tracy noise restrictions prohibited a 24 hour race. Instead the race was scheduled to last 14 hours, but about 10 ½ hours were actually completed.

You don’t need to be a professional driver to enter, but you do need to make sure your car meets the safety requirements.

The winner of this year’s race completed over 480 laps. And it seemed like in each lap, something exciting happened. Since these cars weren’t actually made for racing, most of them had problems going into sharper turns which resulted in spin-outs and collisions. It felt like for each lap completed under a green flag, 10 were counted under the yellow flag. Whether it was pushing a car that stalled off the track, putting tire barrier back in place or picking up miscellaneous parts, the flag guys and clean-up crew certainly earned their pay.

The Risk of Racing

It doesn't matter if your car is worth $500,000 or $500, there is a risk involved every time you pull out of the pit on to the track.
At my frist 24 hours of LeMons experience, I saw that risk first hand.
It was around lap 207, or 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon when car number 39, a volvo sedan crashed head on into a wall. The driver had apparently accelerated without making the effort to turn. It was in the fraction of time when he hit the gas without turning the wheel that he risked his own life. A yellow flag went up before anyone realized the severity of the accident. A red flag soon followed. After the rest of the cars had been sitting still on the track, they were ushered to the pits to make way for the rescue crew. The Altamont Motorsports Park safey and rescue truck was first on the scene. The team began working but it wasn't enough. An ambulance showed up later, followed by 3 full-size fire trucks, another ambulance, a smaller fire truck and a fire department SUV.
One photographer was scolded for taking pictures and in an effort to block what was going on, the security guards put up a tarp.
Speculations of what actually happened could be heard by spectators in the stands. Some say the driver may have had a heart attack, or lost conciousness while driving and that's what caused him to challenge the concrete wall. Regardless of how it happened, the outcome left a pall over the grandstands. Though no official anouncements have been made, death is on everyone's minds. The rescue crew did not make a speedy getaway to the nearest hospital.
Events were postponed until Sunday. There was serious damage to the wall, but it seems as though the driver suffered the most crucial damage.
As always, when I get more official information, you will too.
Hopefully tomorrow will end on a happier note.