Fred, from www.carleasingmadesimple.com contacted me and asked if I wanted to share a fun study they did recently on the cost of doing Top Gears great road trips. The crew often headed off to foreign destinations and purchased cars according to various criteria and enjoyed winding their way across beautiful countryside and fascinating cities. If you are curious about how much it might cost to put one of these shows together, read on...
Fans of the wildly irreverent yet incredibly informative British automotive show 'Top Gear' will be happy to learn that the show will be back on the air next season. A new main host has been chosen, veteran TV and radio personality Chris Evans, and his co-hosts will be announced shortly. While it will be hard to top the Jeremy Clarkson-era Top Gear style, here's to hoping that Evans can create something equally entertaining and inspired out of the ashes of the Top Gear franchise.
Fred, from www.carleasingmadesimple.com contacted me and asked if I wanted to share a fun study they did recently on the cost of doing Top Gears great road trips. The crew often headed off to foreign destinations and purchased cars according to various criteria and enjoyed winding their way across beautiful countryside and fascinating cities. If you are curious about how much it might cost to put one of these shows together, read on...
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Just call me eagle-eye. While locking up my bicycle the other day on the sidewalk before going for dinner, I noticed a small white sedan parked on the street. What really grabbed my attention was the tape over the logo, which is often a manufacturers way of hiding the identity of a prototype car being tested. While the rest of the car was not hidden, it was the kind of simple, plain design that wouldn’t turn too many heads. However, this is ME we're talking about here... I walked around the car, and realised that the badges on the trunk lid and steering wheel were all covered up. Even three of the hubcaps were taped over, though one on the driver’s side was missing the tape. To my eyes the logo bears a resemblance to that of Tesla, the American maker of high-end luxury cars. Upon further inspection, no brand or model name was present on the car. There were no licence plates either, just a few labels taped to the front and rear windows. These carried the ‘Magneti Marelli’ and ‘Magneti Marelli Powertrain (Shanghai) Co, LTD’ names, and the number 76. A search on Magneti Marelli reveals that it is an Italian company specialised in the “design and production of hi-tech systems and components for the automotive sector” (taken from their website). I had never seen this logo before, and was unable to find any trace of it online. There are countless automotive brands in China, so this is either an existing brand that isn’t well known, or an all-new one. To further my ‘prototype car being tested’ suspicions, I saw that an electronic box was wired into the cabin. While I was unable to determine what purpose this served, such additions during prototype testing can give information on various performance factors. A tow hook had been screwed into the front bumper, and seeing the car sitting at night in the middle of Shanghai made me wonder if there wasn’t a problem that had left it stranded. The whole point of test driving prototype cars is to detect and work out any problems, so it isn’t such a stretch to think that this car had suffered a break-down during real-world testing. While it may not be some exotic sports car or ground-breaking performance vehicle, I still get a kick out of stumbling across this little sedan. And if anyone is as disappointed as I am in the quality of the photos, don’t hesitate to start a crowd-funding page to buy me a proper camera! I promise to keep my eyes peeled and find more prototype vehicles around Shanghai.
“Where did Paul go?” I heard my colleagues asking each other during an excursion to a Shanghai Auto Mall last week. We were visiting a vehicle service center with some work-related questions, which was in a long strip of luxury car dealerships, including BMW, Cadillac, and Infiniti. While we were waiting for our driver, something caught my eye, and I wandered off to see what it was. Turns out I was looking at a black Nissan Cedric, a classy and regal near-luxury sedan (the Y31 model, produced from 1987 until 1991.) When my coworkers noticed I had strolled off to the used car lot, they came to see what I was looking at. All were surprised, even shocked, even horrified, to see me drooling over the old Nissan. “Why do you like that?” I was asked, and I had a hard time giving a simple answer. A lack of old cars has maybe made me all the more receptive to anything a bit dated and uncommon, but I really do like the upright and formal profile of the Cedric. A ‘VIP” label made it clear that this car had once been considered to be something special, and I wonder if it was used as an official vehicle or luxury taxi. It was far from pristine, with its faded black paint, tarnished trim, and dirty interior, but it was the kind of car that I could picture looking decent after a little care and attention. A 'V6' label pointed out what was under the hood, but I doubt it was ever much of a sports sedan. That said, the Cedric WAS rearwheel drive, which can make any car more fun to drive. As a bonus, a used black Volkswagen Santana sedan was sitting nearby, but it was getting quite rusty, so after a quick look I turned my attention back to the Cedric. No price was posted, and we had to leave before I could find a salesman and ask the price, but my coworkers assured me that it would be dirt cheap since no one wants that kind of car in China anymore. The more I poke around the more I see that old cars are rare but not inexistent, so I’m going to start snooping around even more to see if there are other jewels like this in and around Shanghai.
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AuthorWelcome! My name is Paul, and I am an old-fashioned, low-pressure, low-buck car fan with lots of automotive stories to tell! Archives
February 2020
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