I’ve left New York. What started as a ten-day trip to hammer out some business with Alex turned into five weeks of sleeping on his blue velour sectional, plenty of brainstorming, a ton of new friends and adventures the wooly world of startups that I couldn’t conceive of when I boarded that eastbound redeye in Sacramento over 4th of July weekend. But come to an end it has. We’re off to Monterey in 144B. We’ve enlisted the talents of Autoblog’s resident Northern California boy, Damon Lavrinc, to handle additional driving duties. We’re also attempting to warp the poor man’s brain. We’ve never attempted a driveplan that involved meeting an airline flight before, but that’s exactly what we’ll be attempting this time when we pick up Liz Moses.
She claims that she’ll bring some much-needed sense to the proceedings, but we’re a bit curious as to how much sense anyone who hitches a ride in a fake German police car crewed by a bald man, a bearded man and a blogging man could possibly have. Nevertheless, we intend to make our trek a memorable one. We’ll be broadcasting live video from Seero, as well as putting together one of our signature maps. We’ll be ruminating on the nature of driving in today’s America, passing through hamlets large and small as we travel the entire length of Interstate 80 — from the George Washington Bridge in New York to the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, then tooling down 101 through Silicon Valley and south to Steinbeck Country — where we’ll take in the goings on during what’s internationally recognized as the most fantastic collection of automotive events in one weekend. If you call yourself a car guy and haven’t made it to Monterey, mark your calendars. And once you experience it, you’ll want to come back every year.
Alex and Matt Farah discuss the validity of ZR-1 vs. GT-R Nurburgring lap times, the new 7 Series, fast cars driven slowly vs. slow cars driven quickly, the Mercedes-McLaren SLR Speedster and tragedies in Funny Cars.
Remember when you pushed your Matchbox cars around as kid? Did you imagine yourself in the car? You know you did. Now a company called, Fat Shark, can put you about as close as you can get. Their first-person view camera mounts on the car and comes with VR-style goggles that transmits what the camera sees. The camera also tilts and pans in time with the movement of your head. This system can also be placed on radio-controlled airplanes. Think Predator drone technology for the masses.
On his radio show, Adam Carolla said he was told by the show’s execs that the show would be, "exactly as they do it in England," and that there would be "no meddling…get to say anything you want, good and bad, about any car you drive." He also name dropped Jerry Seinfeld as potentially coming onto the show to post a time in an econbox, a la Top Gear UK. Only time will tell how much honest reviews will affect advertising revenues. Click HERE for an audio clip of his show. Fast forward to the last quarter. And for a podcast of third host, Eric Stromer, on Adam Caroll’s show, click HERE
If you’re caught speeding in Holly Springs, Georgia, expect to pay an extra $12 surcharge to cover the cost of the police department’s gas bills. The city’s police chief, Ken Ball, said he got the idea after hearing about airlines, florists and pizza shops tacking on surcharges to cover the spike in fuel prices. Ball said he’s been inundated with calls from other police departments and city managers, so this surcharge cancer might be spreading. Atlanta just approved a similar bill that’s awaiting the mayor’s signature.
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