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Year: 2021
Quotes
Peter DeLorenzo: Automakers have gone overboard on ‘all-terrain’ vehicles
“As I’ve said repeatedly since founding this website, the automobile business is first and foremost a fashion business. It is consumed by trends, fads and what’s perceived as ‘hot’ at the moment. And before we’re […]
Multimedia
Joe Ligo is overly kind in Nash/AMC Ambassador film
(UPATED FROM 7/3/2030) Joe Ligo’s (2020) film about the Nash/AMC Ambassador is well-researched but overly kind in discussing the car’s dying decade. The “History of the Nash/AMC Ambassador” walks viewers through the unusually long life […]
Random Shots
How did we ever survive without trucks: Exhibit 45
Without trucks, how could our young people enjoy giant unicorn flotation devices? This family was camping near Lake Quinault in the Olympic National Park (Wikipedia, 2020). RE:SOURCES Wikipedia; 2020. “Lake Quinault.” Page last edited Sept. […]
Fake Design
1965-69 Chevrolet Corvair: What if it had a front-engined companion?
(UPDATED ON 10/14/22) The second-generation Chevrolet Corvair was one of the best cars General Motors has ever built. Its styling was exceptionally clean for the mid-60s, which were dominated by fussy gingerbread designs. Meanwhile, the […]
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Media Analysis
The downside of auto historians writing about their friends
(EXPANDED FROM 7/17/2020) One of the hazards of any kind of writing is that you can get too close to your subjects. In anthropology this has been called “going native.” Because we are human, we […]
Quotes
Matt Posky gets an earful from commentators at The Truth About Cars
Let’s post-mortem this thread, shall we? 1) Basically, what we have here was a ginormous food fight in which not one word was spoken about cars.2) Rehash of the same basic anti-employers-setting-COVID-safety-rules arguments from the […]
Design Notes
1955 Packard Request: Retro styling doesn’t always work
(UPDATED FROM 7/24/2020) The 1955 Packard Request is a good example of how “retro” styling doesn’t always work very well. This show car took too literal of an approach in trying to evoke Packard’s classic […]
Multimedia
Film shows Fred Hudson’s design talent — and groupthink
(UPDATED ON 1/25/2023) Fred Hudson comes across as a talented designer and a nice person. At least that’s my impression from an oral history that was videotaped before he died in 2010. Hudson oversaw the […]