Can't Beat The Boss

The most beautiful of all Munstangs, the '69 and '70 represent the pinacle of Ford design. The angles, proportions and overall stance of this car are absolutely striking. Soon, they would butcher the original pony car, expanding it's proportions, packing on the plastic, and just generally slathering it in 70's boredom. My appologies to 1970's Mustang fans out there, butElanor has nothing on the '69 and '70.

This 1969 Boss Mustang shot was taken at a car show in Simi. I cut out the background, fixed up the grass, and dropped in a view of the hills by my house. I'm glad that the near-noon sun didn't kill this shot, as it's harsh light and shadows have a tendency to do. A nice low angle close to the car helps to give this shot some strong perspective and interest. I've always been pretty surprised at how well the Photoshop work payed off on this one to yeild a pretty believable fake. One of these days I need to go in and finish it up by cleaning up the reflections from the side of the car, so that it looks even more like it's on some plateau all by itself.

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2007 Ford Mustang

This generation of the Ford Mustang is great, from a design perspective at least. I really think the designers at Ford did a phenominal job updating a classic into a car that is both incredibly cool and retro, but also relevant in the automotive market today. The proportions are well balanced, it's clearly a throwback to the classic Mustangs, but it has plenty of interesting angles and touches that make it a truly unique and cool pony. The crease that goes back from the front fender and swoops up behind the door is one of the strongest homage details of the car and my favorite part. The interior is great, if you get the metallic dash face. The design here is clean and distinctly retro without being either boring or cliché. The ride is nice, though in the V6 Mustang I drove, it's not terribly exciting. It feels big and heavy, a little light on the HPs, and has a bunch of body roll. Mechanically it's simply acceptable, nothing bad, but very little excitement factor. From a performance standpoint it falls short of what the wonderful design promises.


This shot was taken behind the mall in Simi in front of a pretty cool red wall I found. Unfortunately, I feel that the car gets a little too much red/orange cast from the red wall on the OTHER side of the car(not visible in the shot). All in all, I'm really happy with this snap; nice, interesting angle, a little distortion from the wide angle lens but not too much, nice action line at the base of the wall that leads the eye to the front of the car, and good overall lighting without distracting reflections.

This is the 2007 convertible V6 Mustang with the Pony Package that adds the "Mustang" side rocker decal and the horizontal chrome line in the grille with the smaller, less-ridiculous-than-the-GT "fog" lights. This is my favorite look for the Mustang. It looks the most retro to me and really finishes off the retro exterior design perfectly.


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Tiny Screamer, the 2008 Lotus Elise

My friend has wanted one since they debuted, so when he found out he could rent a 2008 Lotus Elise from a local Enterprise Rent-a-Car, he was ecstatic. For a sticker of around $50k, and interior space just slightly over that of a go-kart, the Elise is a seriously tough sell. It's cumbersome to get in and out of, but once you shoehorn yourself into one...it's on.

Extremely easy to drive, the Elise offers very few creature comforts, in fact, looking back, I'm almost surprised it even had a radio. The foot rest for the passenger is merely a bent piece of aluminum sitting loose on the floor for Pete's sake! Even it's powerplant is skimpy, a Toyota 4-cylinder eeking out about 200 horsepower. As wholly unimpressive as that sounds for a sports car, the Elise's feather-light body makes it more than enough.

When launching the Elise off the line, it's practically impossible to tell if the guy in the next lane is racing you. You simply blast off like a well-aimed bottle rocket, and everyone else simply vanishes into the rearview with a blip. It's so empowering. The engine's variable valve set-up gives you a strange, sudden boost of power at about 4500 RPMs, as if the blue log just ignited in the steam-engine furnace. It's a bit unsettling and strange, but the only odd characteristic of the taught and agile little coupe. The ride is a little rough, as the suspension of the ground-hugging Elise is tuned for cornering and agility. And let me tell you it handles like the rail-bound bobsleds on the Matterhorn at Disneyland. The seats are only slightly more padded than the bobsled too, ensuring that this won't be your commuter car. No, this car is built for speed, cornering, and mad-scientist-cackle inducing fun.

I really can't say enough about this rad little racer. My friend keeps a vigil eye out for any Elise that dips into the low $30,000's, and I can't wait for the day when he gets one, cause that is one fun little ride!!!

A Sports Car Bargain, the 2006 Pontiac GTO

With gas prices going stratospheric recently, last week in particular, I'm sure I'll be hard pressed to find anyone who cares, but the 2005 and 2006 Pontiac GTO may be one of the best sports car bargains out there.


Sometime in the '05 model year they started selling them with the 6.0 litre Corvette LS2 V8 that pounds out 400 horses and 400 ridiculous lb/ft of torque, and for around $25k you can find them with 30,000 miles or less. It's crucial to find one with this engine because along with the bigger powerhouse and more impressive numbers, this version of the GTO gets the serious looking hood scoops and dual tail pipes in the back. Without these details, the car just does not look like a sports car.


The C6 Corvette which debuted in 2005, a car that I cross-shopped with the GTO, is still about $10,000 more expensive with the same mileage. Granted, the GTO's 3700 lb weigh-in is pretty hefty and about 700 lbs heavier than the Vette. But when you consider that you still get a ton of power, an impressive exhaust sound, absurd 0-60 blasts, along with an actual back seat that allows you to cart 4 adults very comfortably in an all leather interior, the Vette loses a bit of it's luster.



I've had mine for a little over two months, and I still get giddy when I fire it up. Giving it some gas and letting the revs spool up to 4 or 5000 RPMs is enough to give you chills. I find myself driving with the windows down more often than not so I can listen to the sweet sounds of pure American muscle. That said, with gas prices reaching brutal levels, I usually try to cruise it, and with it's bountiful torque and six speed manual, it's actually pretty easy to do. My current commute is 4 miles, I know, poor me. But what that means is that all of my driving is stop and go, so my MPG suffers. So I try to watch the instant MPG readout that shows you what you're currently getting, and keep the number above 20. Last I checked I had my average MPG up to 17, which is pretty impressive all things considered.

So, if you're like me; still not ready to be rational about the gas crunch/environment and you've always wanted a sports car, you can't go wrong with the 2005 or 2006 Pontiac GTO, but stay away from Brazen Orange, cause that one's mine.

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Too Many Cars

For a long time I've felt that the US car market was headed for a major fallout. The problem I see in the automotive market is the incessant manufacturing and purchasing of cars. As the world has sped up, and as people have become more selfish and engrained in consumerism, so has the automotive market increased it's speed. I read a statistic the other day, I'll source it and be more specific once I find it again, stating that people who used to buy cars on a 10 year cycle are now buying them at 5 and people who used to be on a 5 year cycle, now buy a new car every 3 years. Again, this is a major generalization of a somewhat generalized survey, but you get the point. Buying and selling of goods as expensive as cars (and with their shelf life)
at this rate is not sustainable and just plain isn't good for anyone.

The raw materials, the amount of money wasted on marketing, producing and shipping these cars it doesn't take a lot of complicated math to figure out it can neither be sustained by the earth or by car manufacturers themselves. And we've seen it in recent years, in order to entice buyers out of their new cars and into newer cars, they have to constantly add features, cut prices, and cut costs. Luckily that hasn't resulted in a bunch of rolling death traps thanks to safety regulations and the high quality of the overseas product coming in to compete.

What's happening though is that they are squeezing all of the profit out of the cars, so they are suffering, and putting pressure on their suppliers (partner companies that supply most of the parts for the manufacturing process) to cut costs, so much so that they are suffering and dying off one by one. This threatens car production as parts are simply not available, and will mean layoffs when the car companies can't produce cars. The REALLY bad thing about this is that car companies love to cut jobs in the 10s of thousands...all at once. Which has bankrupted entire towns in the past.

So, we'll see where this all leads as the big 3; Ford, Chevrolet, and Chrysler, continue their downhill slides, as gas prices continue on their express elevator to infinity, and people continue to be motivated by the selfish need to have the biggest, newest, bestest of everything, unless of course it starts to affect their pocketbook negatively, then they're suddenly into green living.