Funkengroovin Wednesday - Cadillac
Today: A late 1950's Cadillac. It looks like a Cadillac Sixty Special model, but VB's no expert. We found it while we were in a different part of Maadi checking out two other old cars a few blocks away. VB decided to post on this car when she received a Sundance Catalog featuring a Cadillac convertible for sale. Check it out - The link is after the photos.
From Wiki: "In 1957 the bumpers gained black rubber tips which only heightened the relationship between the styling element and a stylized, exaggerated bumper design. For 1958 the element was toned down and was completely absent on the 1959 models."
From Sundance Catalog: Buy The Caddy (Loads of pics at the link.)
"1962 Cadillac Convertible
All hail the king of the road. Cadillac—the name evokes quality, luxury and iconic status of the great American variety. Built when the Rat Pack ruled Vegas and the Kennedys were still holding court in Camelot, our wonderfully vintage 1962 Cadillac Convertible is beautiful to behold—from the roaring V8 engine (which goes from zero to 60 in under 10 seconds) to the gorgeous interior and gleaming tailfins. Equipped with all the bells and whistles of its era, this baby is destined to turn heads and elicit excited ooh's and ahh's wherever the road may take you. Delivery charge is extra.. $28,995.00"
NEWS AND ARTICLES:
(Not so much about VWs, in the news, this week.)
From Esquire Magazine, a great article: Why Men Love Cars
"Scott Raab takes his eight-year-old son to the auto show. Might as well have been a peep show."
From Wiki: "In 1957 the bumpers gained black rubber tips which only heightened the relationship between the styling element and a stylized, exaggerated bumper design. For 1958 the element was toned down and was completely absent on the 1959 models."
From Sundance Catalog: Buy The Caddy (Loads of pics at the link.)
"1962 Cadillac Convertible
All hail the king of the road. Cadillac—the name evokes quality, luxury and iconic status of the great American variety. Built when the Rat Pack ruled Vegas and the Kennedys were still holding court in Camelot, our wonderfully vintage 1962 Cadillac Convertible is beautiful to behold—from the roaring V8 engine (which goes from zero to 60 in under 10 seconds) to the gorgeous interior and gleaming tailfins. Equipped with all the bells and whistles of its era, this baby is destined to turn heads and elicit excited ooh's and ahh's wherever the road may take you. Delivery charge is extra.. $28,995.00"
NEWS AND ARTICLES:
(Not so much about VWs, in the news, this week.)
From Esquire Magazine, a great article: Why Men Love Cars
"Scott Raab takes his eight-year-old son to the auto show. Might as well have been a peep show."
"You can slice it like a lab-slide sample, how American men love cars and why. Freedom, frontier, Manifest Destiny, the Kerouacian Zen of eternal Go, the yearning for a scrotum as meaty -- and a driveshaft as puissant -- as a four-barreled 440. I have no use for all that bullshit -- all of it revealing far more about the speaker than the subject.
I know this: I'm no cocksman or car expert, but I've had more cars than women -- and I've forgotten more of the women than the cars."
Free website will allow buyers to check a vehicle's hidden repair history
"The National Insurance Crime Bureau is creating a free public database of vehicles declared a total loss, "or totaled," by insurers, allowing individuals to enter vehicle identification numbers, or VINs, to see if a set of wheels they want to buy has a hidden history.
In the best case, these cars are carefully repaired and their histories are fully disclosed to future buyers. In the worst case, an unlicensed auto body shop performs a few Mickey Mouse frame adjustments, installs a phony inoperable air bag, sprays on a nice coat of paint and then washes the title in the interstate used car auction market."
As the Roads Turn Gray, Ways to Make Driving Safer
"Experts are studying how cars and drivers will need to adapt as the number of older drivers grows.
IT’S called the gray tsunami, the great wave of aging baby boomers nearing retirement, making older adults the fastest growing segment of the population. And by 2030, the roads will be full of them."
Bumper Stickers = Road Rage
"And the wording of bumper tickers was irrelevant. Someone who plasters his car with religious stickers such as “1 Cross + 3 Nails = 4 Given” is just as likely to go crazy if you pass him as the guy with “I Support the Right to Arm Bears.” To be safe, consider any and all bumper stickers as synonymous with, “This is my space, and if you get too close an obscene gesture will be the least of your problems.”
A photo essay of, Auto Test Tracks Revealed From Above, at WIRED:
"During the early days of the automobile, new cars were tested out on the open, public roads of the United States. As the technology grew more sophisticated and proprietary, car companies, beginning with GM in 1924, began to build vehicular test tracks that allowed them to privately assess the workability of new cars and features."
Car owners need the Web to escape information black-out
"RepairPal now has information on 80 different repair procedures for 42,000 zip codes and over 400 models of cars since 1980. It amounts to more than 10 billion individual data items.
Sturtz plans a feature where mechanics can bid for a job, which will give consumers a better sense of how much to expect to spend, and the ability to schedule an appointment online. The site will grow into a community evaluating auto shops, shining more light on untrustworthy mechanics. But Sturtz said user-generated content is not useful for pricing.
Another useful feature of the site is a place where consumers can keep track of all their repairs, regular maintenance, and get e-mail reminders for oil changes and the like.
RepairPal is free for consumers."
Reality star to go for a spin
"Alonzo Bodden is a car guy, and a funny guy. That makes the former jet-engine mechanic and "Last Comic Standing" champion the ideal host for the program "101 Cars You Must Drive," which debuts at 9:30 Monday night on Speed Channel.
The cars the program spotlights all have some iconic aspect, he said. "Some were obvious. Anybody would want to drive them, like the Ferrari Dino and Acura NSX," he said. "But the VW Bug is the best-selling car of all time, and the Chevrolet Corvair was so different from other 1960s American cars." (More information can be found at speedtv: 101 Cars You Must Drive.)
Many stories on the web this week about a Sure Girl deodorant ad featuring dancing in an old VW Bus. Check it out. ASA upholds complaints over Sure Deodorant ad
"Complaints about a television ad placed by Unilever UK for Sure deodorant have been upheld because it 'condoned and encouraged reckless behaviour'.
The TV ad, which was created by the McConnells Advertising agency for Sure Girl deodorant, showed three teenage girls dancing in the back of a moving vehicle without wearing seatbelts.
The company also said that because the van used to make the ad was a vintage VW model it was not fitted with seatbelts, and that the company had not been aware that vehicles of this age were required to be fitted with rear safety belts.
"Likewise, the company also stressed that the van was stationery at the time the shot featuring the girls dancing inside it was taken, a defining factor as to why the ad was approved for broadcast by the company." (video available at The Guardian.)
From The Spoof, A 1956 VW Beetle has been Discovered on Mars.
The Volkswagen Beetle - A success story
"The Volkswagen Beetle - A success storySince its inception in 1938, the Beetle has been the longest production run of any single car design ever, with over 21 million being produced since its creation."
The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Brand New Cadillac
(VB returns to Cairo tomorrow.)
"The National Insurance Crime Bureau is creating a free public database of vehicles declared a total loss, "or totaled," by insurers, allowing individuals to enter vehicle identification numbers, or VINs, to see if a set of wheels they want to buy has a hidden history.
In the best case, these cars are carefully repaired and their histories are fully disclosed to future buyers. In the worst case, an unlicensed auto body shop performs a few Mickey Mouse frame adjustments, installs a phony inoperable air bag, sprays on a nice coat of paint and then washes the title in the interstate used car auction market."
As the Roads Turn Gray, Ways to Make Driving Safer
"Experts are studying how cars and drivers will need to adapt as the number of older drivers grows.
IT’S called the gray tsunami, the great wave of aging baby boomers nearing retirement, making older adults the fastest growing segment of the population. And by 2030, the roads will be full of them."
Bumper Stickers = Road Rage
"And the wording of bumper tickers was irrelevant. Someone who plasters his car with religious stickers such as “1 Cross + 3 Nails = 4 Given” is just as likely to go crazy if you pass him as the guy with “I Support the Right to Arm Bears.” To be safe, consider any and all bumper stickers as synonymous with, “This is my space, and if you get too close an obscene gesture will be the least of your problems.”
A photo essay of, Auto Test Tracks Revealed From Above, at WIRED:
"During the early days of the automobile, new cars were tested out on the open, public roads of the United States. As the technology grew more sophisticated and proprietary, car companies, beginning with GM in 1924, began to build vehicular test tracks that allowed them to privately assess the workability of new cars and features."
Car owners need the Web to escape information black-out
"RepairPal now has information on 80 different repair procedures for 42,000 zip codes and over 400 models of cars since 1980. It amounts to more than 10 billion individual data items.
Sturtz plans a feature where mechanics can bid for a job, which will give consumers a better sense of how much to expect to spend, and the ability to schedule an appointment online. The site will grow into a community evaluating auto shops, shining more light on untrustworthy mechanics. But Sturtz said user-generated content is not useful for pricing.
Another useful feature of the site is a place where consumers can keep track of all their repairs, regular maintenance, and get e-mail reminders for oil changes and the like.
RepairPal is free for consumers."
Reality star to go for a spin
"Alonzo Bodden is a car guy, and a funny guy. That makes the former jet-engine mechanic and "Last Comic Standing" champion the ideal host for the program "101 Cars You Must Drive," which debuts at 9:30 Monday night on Speed Channel.
The cars the program spotlights all have some iconic aspect, he said. "Some were obvious. Anybody would want to drive them, like the Ferrari Dino and Acura NSX," he said. "But the VW Bug is the best-selling car of all time, and the Chevrolet Corvair was so different from other 1960s American cars." (More information can be found at speedtv: 101 Cars You Must Drive.)
Many stories on the web this week about a Sure Girl deodorant ad featuring dancing in an old VW Bus. Check it out. ASA upholds complaints over Sure Deodorant ad
"Complaints about a television ad placed by Unilever UK for Sure deodorant have been upheld because it 'condoned and encouraged reckless behaviour'.
The TV ad, which was created by the McConnells Advertising agency for Sure Girl deodorant, showed three teenage girls dancing in the back of a moving vehicle without wearing seatbelts.
The company also said that because the van used to make the ad was a vintage VW model it was not fitted with seatbelts, and that the company had not been aware that vehicles of this age were required to be fitted with rear safety belts.
"Likewise, the company also stressed that the van was stationery at the time the shot featuring the girls dancing inside it was taken, a defining factor as to why the ad was approved for broadcast by the company." (video available at The Guardian.)
From The Spoof, A 1956 VW Beetle has been Discovered on Mars.
The Volkswagen Beetle - A success story
"The Volkswagen Beetle - A success storySince its inception in 1938, the Beetle has been the longest production run of any single car design ever, with over 21 million being produced since its creation."
The Brian Setzer Orchestra - Brand New Cadillac
(VB returns to Cairo tomorrow.)
wow that is a beaut
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen it before...
You could do some serious pimpin' a car like that...
ReplyDeletelynda: Oh yeah, and I think it's much nicer than the one from Sundance, even though it's not a convertible.
ReplyDeleteabudhabi/uae daily photo: Definitely! I've read that "Pimp My Ride" is in Dubai now, but we really need them here in Cairo.