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Year: 2021
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 […]
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Current Events
Automotive News’ report on EV startups has revealing gaps
Last week Automotive News acknowledged that “there has never been a better time for EV startups.” Even so, the trade journal couldn’t bring itself to fully explain why it has been “at least a century […]
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Readings
Peter Grist views car designer Virgil Exner through rose-tinted glasses
(UPDATED 12/6/2022) Peter Grist stated that he tried to make this authorized biography of car designer Virgil Exner “as unbiased as possible” (p. 5). Even so, Visioneer has a family scrapbook quality, replete with childhood photos and purple […]
Current Events
Auto media largely ignore ‘code red’ IPCC climate change report
Few auto media outlets have acknowledged the most important climate change news in a number of years. Last Monday the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2021a) came out with its first major report since 2014. […]
Media Analysis
Comments about ‘grand merger’ of independents show value of dialogue
One of the things I most appreciate about Curbside Classic are the comments. As a case in point, a recently reposted article about the 1957 Nash Ambassador had a lengthy exchange from 2015 regarding a […]