Vroom Room

Good Morning!

Its Friday, its the Vroom Room, come in make yourself comfortable, we have cappuccino and biscotti, join the conversation.

Yes...Corvette won the GT Class at the 12 Hours of Sebring...huge!

Refreshing to see Mercedes-Benz finally get with the program and smooth out the creases and bumps on the new 2014 S Class, are they admitting that the squarish, creased look is/was not the best styling direction. Although the prominent grille will become a casualty of inattentive driving/parking.

We published a video of the new Cadillac Twin Turbo V6, while watching the video of the components coming together...it was "there is even a windage tray in the oil pan" wow...really cool. On a small block Chevy, if you remember the elongated main bearing cap studs to accomodate a windage tray...take a moment tell us about it, leave a comment.

If you were a hockey fan back in the day when players did not wear helmets, agreed a few decades ago, you surely remember Bobby Orr, well the guy is turning 65 next week. 

The other day we were reflecting on a dark green 1963 Buick Wildcat 4 door hardtop, and suddenly it was a "Its a 50 year old car" moment...in a strange way technology seems to make time stand still for a fleeting nano second moment.

Want to see How Millenial you are...take the test.

Our online friend Ralf Becker of Chromjuwelen kindly published this link from Bumpsteer which has a fascinating photo gallery of Porsche BBS wheels. A classic case of the photos telling the entire story...of German engineering. The wheel design...in case you did not know...look at photos of early Chapparals.

Our usual old race cars from the SVRA at the 12 Hours of Sebring

Cadillac Twin Turbo

Cadillac has a new Twin Turbo V6 with 420 HP and a totally cool video

CTS-V vs E63

Fascinating...enjoy

The Love Affair Endures

1962 Lincoln If you are of a certain age, you remember the various comments that cars in North America, were huge, with monster engines, not refined, heavy, land barges, gas guzzlers, and another gazillion describers. 

Back then the difference between a luxury car (Cadillac) and a regular car (Chevrolet) was substance with most components and size being bigger on the luxury car, than the regular car. Those old school luxury cars had a size advantage, as well as a performance advantage compared to regular cars, or European cars with 4 cylinder engines. 

They had an imposing physical presence, accompanied by performance to substantiate the presence.

The best selling vehicle in Canada is a Ford F Series (a pick up), could you compare an F Series to an old school Lincoln with a 460 cubic inch engine, and suicide doors on the 4 door version. 

Is a Ram the equivalent of an Imperial with a 413 cubic inch wedge motor, or a 440? 

Is a Silverado the equivalent of an Oldsmobile 98 with a 394 V8?

Is a GMC Sierra the equivalent of a Cadillac Fleetwood with a 429?

The old Cadillacs, Lincolns, Oldsmobiles, Imperials would pull any kind of trailer, same as a modern pick up. The old cars easily accommodated 5 passengers, same as a modern crew cab. The trunks were positively huge, comparable to a 5 and a half foot box on a modern crew cab with a short box. The old luxury cars were from the Detroit 3, same as modern pick ups...perhaps some things never change!

The old cars were body on frame, same as a pick up. Solid rear axle, some with leaf springs same as a pick up.

The old luxury cars were physically imposing, similar to a modern pick up.

Need we mention big gas tanks...

In 2012 F150's, Rams, Silverados, Sierras are 15% of the Canadian market, back in the day were Lincolns, Imprerials, Buicks, and Cadillacs 15% of the Canadian market? 

Can we conclude that the love affair endures with vehicles that have morphed from old school North American luxury cars to modern North American pick ups.

What do you think?

Vroom Room

Good Morning!

Always "Dream Big"...Its the first Friday of the month, Christmas is approaching fast, its the Vroom Room, come in make yourself comfortable, enjoy the cappuccino, join the conversation.

While uploading the photo of the Cadillac ATS, we noticed that we are at 80 vehicles in our Wall of Reviews, now if someone a few years ago would have told us....

We are confident that through our reviews we have assisted folks to finalise their vehicle decisions. 

In case you missed it, scroll down and take the time to watch the Project Re Brief video, its an hour well spent...fascinating to see differences, and similarities.

Canadian sales in November continue to uphold their momentum, which is developing into a strong year...one of the strongest. Encouraging to see sales at such a robust level for the year. Yes...we anticipated slightly softer sales results.

Some time ago we started publishing our thoughts on Canadian sales, which have garnered interest, have been dowloaded, have been widely read. We have to clear impression that some folks are emulating what we started...are we flattered...should we be flattered...what do you think?

This week Lincoln provided a myriad of pundits with fodder on their renewed vigor to establish a presence in the luxury segment. There are folks that probably remember Lincoln being a luxury car in the distant past, when the pecking order was Cadillac (GM), Lincoln (Ford), and Imperial (Chrysler), and at some point they all lost their ways, and gave the segment to others (we all know who they are).

Cadillac after literally being pounded underground a generation ago, has been in revival mode for close to half a generation (10 years), with moments of brilliance, and moments that have been less enlightening. Some of the cars are much better than the sales numbers indicate...a case of the product not getting a fair opportunity in a competitive market, and branding gone astray.

Now Lincoln is emulating Cadillac from half a generation ago, lets see how well they do, what innovative thinking they will bring to the segment, how much fortitude, and endurance they will have to sustain a long term effort.  

Lets congratulate Lincoln's boldness, while wishing them well....

This week we had the unique opportunity to witness first hand the migration from a Motorola Razr to an iPhone 5, from "I don't need a smart device, I just make calls"....to "This is a fun smart device". One quickly realisizes that smart devices are a lucrative product for the various phone and data carriers, providers. The phone plan doubles by becoming a data plan (we knew that).

Our usual old race cars from the Zandvort Historic Grand Prix 2012