Saturday Car Thread 8/9/2014- [Niedermeyer's Dead Horse and KBDaBear]

Happy Saturday and welcome to new and improved Saturday Car Thread.

Due to returning to work and because of travel, posting has been spotty as of late. My former co-blogger, Countrysquire, hasn't had much luck in his schedule either. Now, another Moron rides to the rescue: Welcome long-time Moron KBDaBear to this week's edition of the car thread. I'm hoping he'll stick around for a while.

And with that, take it away KBDB!

In the late 20's, GM took notice of the work of a custom coach builder for a Los Angeles Cadillac dealership named Harley Earl, who had designed custom bodies for many of Hollywood's stars of the Silent Era. Commissioned to design the 1927 LaSalle, the success of the model convinced GM to hire Earl to head GM's new body design department. Earl brought in new concepts of automotive designing such as modeling clay and one-off Concept Cars to test consumer reaction to new ideas. Under Earl's direction for the next 32 years, production cars would evolve from steel boxes on wheels to integrated streamlined works of art formerly done only by custom coach builders.

Topping off with the introduction of the Corvette in 1953, the 1950's would be the glory years of Harley Earl's era
with the tail-fins and wraparound windshields reflecting the designers fascination with aircraft, and large bumper bullets reflecting Harley and his design crew's fascination with big boobs.

Cars have become so technically advanced in our age that we take for granted the inventions that changed driving a car from something slightly less challenging than herding bulls to something we do while checking the Morning News dumps or Tweeting kitteh pics on the dashboard interface. While most non gearheads would not know nor care about the first unibody, the first fuel injected engine, or the first alternator, there are many which are apparent like power steering, heating, air conditioning, and GPS which enable men to ask for directions without turning in their Man Cards.

What I believe is one of the top 5 is the electric starter. Prior to pushing a button or turning a key, the engine had to be started with a hand crank which was not only hard work, but resulted in not a few broken bones and separated shoulders. After that invention, starting your car no longer posed a risk of serious bodily harm with the exception of Chevy Cobalt owners or anyone who pissed off the mob.

Cars in TV Shows: Rockford's Firebird, Penny's VW Cabrio, George's Jon Voigt Car, Jerry's Saab 9000, Magnm's Ferrari 308, Sonny Crockett's Testarossa, Sam Malone's 1964 Vette, just many examples of a car's supporting and starring role in many popular TV shows. In “My Mother the Car” and “Knight Rider” the cars even had speaking roles, and in the case of KITT it was a better actor and better singer than Der Hoff.

My personal favorite TV Car? It was the 1962 Corvette from Route 66. I just LOVED that car

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee: Jerry hasn't sat idle these last 16 years collecting residuals, this site features Jerry picking an unusual, classic, or iconic car and picking up a fellow comedian, driving to a coffee shop, and enjoying a cup of coffee together. Jerry and his guest discuss the car they're in or cars in general, then talk about what they've been doing over the cup of coffee. I was surprised at how good the episode with Letterman was, as Dave was quite normal and interesting. I strongly recommend skipping the Sarah Silverman episode unless you like listening to a foul mouthed obnoxious motormouth who never shuts up. There's funny reunions with Jason Alexander and Larry David too.

Jay Leno's Garage: When you have some time, check out Jay's website. He's got a massive collection of classics and supercars that he's quite knowlegeable of as he gives histories and details, then he takes the cars out for drives north of Burbank.

As you would expect from me, kbdabear; a Car Thread Compliance Pic with Stompy Boots:

Please feel free to send any complaints or commendations to us at Twitter: Nied's Dead Horse and KBDaBear. Also, check out KBDB's "obscure blog" called Gears and Gridirons.

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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