Sat, 31 December 2016
12.30.16 (MP3): New-For-2017 @ San Diego Auto Show Show! Truck & Car Intros, Robot Cars VS Your Liberties, Diesel & Eco, CF Wheels, Pickup Beds, Cute Utility Vehicles + Gearhead Christmas, Good Beers, Candy Snatchers & Fatso Jetson
The Garage Hour goons did a slow troll through the halls of San Diego's International Auto Show, but the fireworks didn't hit until they got back to the garadtch. They also tried to get HCM Carbon and California Motorsports on-air with us at the show, but the exorbitant table-rental fees levied by the show-hall unions meant they couldn't even afford to sit down. On new cars: what's small is bigger, what's tested in steel is tried in aluminum, what's electric becomes efficient, and what's ugly was far too many. Luckily, there's still a high-Q selection of pretty metal coming from dealerships near you, so don't fret. Dirty Dave made a rousing defense of Miatas come and gone, but his protestations regarding the new big Volvo fell on poorly manufactured Chinese ears. Majid from GSR Car finally got a nickname (Diesel Ayatollah), and he was a serious threat in the second inning on the issue of Kia's robot triathlete chaser, the Rino (did we spell that right?). Hostus Maximus Justin Fort argued the logic of making cars with less content more expensive, and espoused on the coming fall of Elon Musk's government-funded pyramid scheme. From that point, it devolved into the usual Garage Hour spectacularity: far-ranging conversations about Germans in hotted-up station wagons, the practicality of carbon-fiber wheels, cleaning guns with diesel fuel, what medication is necessary for Miatosis, the shame that is market-engineering cars with genres that only make sense to two people at a time, the Volvette, the new turbo'd 2.3-liter Mustang, and why idiots getting stoned at the Pike's Peak are very economical. The beer was pouring, with the show graced by Helix Brewing's red, Garage Brewing's Marshmallow Stout and Leiny's Grapefruit Shandy, and there will be a second hour of ale-fueled coverage to follow this episode - stay tuned (because gearhead). |