Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

The Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 - Canada's Supercar

580 horsepower.

 

$58,000.

 

Do the math.

 

Is this the most spectacular supercar value ever?

 

On a hundreds of horsepower-per-dollar basis, nothing can touch it.

 

And it's more - much more - than simply stuffing a 6.2 litre supercharged V8 under the hood.

 

Although as we know from the Corvette ZR1 and Cadillac CTS-V, that's not a bad way to start.

 

And, it's built in Oshawa.

 

Full details in next weekend's Wheels, and on wheels.ca.

 

BTW, maybe it's just me and my diseased mind, but to me, the Camaro's taillights always look like the logo for those 'Underalls'...

McLaren MP4-12C

Is the McLaren MP4-12C, soon to be launched in North America, as good as the fabled Ferrari 458 Italia?

Find out - well, find out MY opinion - in this weekend's Wheels section, and on www.wheels.ca.

 

Random Notes from Southern California (4 of several) - YOU GOT MAIL!

Highway 74 running west out of Palm Springs is a terrific little stretch of highway - the 'two-lane twisties' of song and fable.

Yeah, too many motor homes, too many trailier-hauling pick-ups, too many gawking tourists in their Sebring convertibles.

And, according to my local host, too many cops!

But if you're lucky, and catch 'the moveable chicanes' at the occasional passing lane, it's an exhilarating if too-brief run, up or down.

At the top, there's an odd collection of what seems like about a hundred mail boxes, testimony to the fact that a LOT of people actually live up in them thar hills.

But the US Postal Service isn't gonna risk their staff running into rattlesnakes or other varmints while on their 'appointed rounds'

If 'You Got Mail', you're gonna have to come out here and pick it up.

 

Random Notes from Southern California (3 of several)

Went the other day to put some gasoline in the BMW 135i Convertible BMW USA has arranged for me to test while I'm down here.

As some travellers to the US may have noticed, some American gas pumps now require you to key in your 'zip' code when paying at the pump.

I was going to use 90210, the only American zip code I know. But my friend down here in Palm Desert told me it has to match the billing address on your card.

He also said that if you key in the three numbers of your Canadian postal code, followed by two zeros (so, M5E 1E6, for example, would be entered as 51600) it usually works.

Pulled into an ARCO station just off Interstate I-10 near Palm Springs. There was no card swiping thingee on the pump; had to go over to a separate kiosk on the island.

No worries.

Swiped the card. Entered the 'postal code' as above.

Card rejected.

Tried again.

Card rejected.

Crawford tried his card.

Card rejected.

Hey - Canadian money is worth a lot down here now! What's up?

I went into the store to inquire. The lady said, 'We only accept debit cards."

WHAT? A gas station that doesn't accept credit cards?

Who ever heard of such a thing?

Debit cards of course make no sense whatsoever. Why use YOUR credit when VISA will let you use theirs for free?

Assuming of course you pay your balance off every month. And why wouldn't you? You CAN afford the things you buy, can't you?

I know credit card fraud and 'drive-aways' at self-serves are fairly big issues down here.

And I guess debit cards take the money out of your account BEFORE you fill up, so they got you without having to worry if you DO have money, or whether you WILL pay off your credit balance - eventually.

But a gas station that doesn't accept credit cards?

Come on!

Sometimes down here it feels like you're in a different country...

 

Random Notes from Southern California (2 of several...)

I've always said that until gasoline in the United States stops being (essentially) free, nothing is really going to make Americans stop driving big, heavy, gas-guzzling cars.

Oh sure, the Feds can force car makers to BUILD small, fuel-efficient cars.

But they refuse to create any pressure on consumers to actually buy them.

Is there a sign that this might finally be changing?

Gasoline in the Los Angeles area this past weekend was over four bucks a US gallon.

Yes, I know - still 30 percent less than WE pay, and have been paying for years.

And about half what most of the rest of the civilized world pays.

But $2.50 used to be considered some sort of car-buying-behaviour-changing threshold down here.

What if gasoline DOES get to five bucks, as most experts are predicting?

It may not happen any time soon.

For starters, it was a holiday weekend here (Presidents' Day), and we all know what happens to gasoline prices on a long weekend, don't we?

There have been some refinery shut-downs in this region recently which may have affected supply.

But the ads in the daily newspapers (yes, they still do have them...) show Toyota Prius hybrids being offered for zero down, and zero percent interest.

Maybe the gas prices haven't be high enough for long enough to make the appropriate impact.

As with everything else, time will tell.

 

Random Notes from Southern California (1 of several...)

I'm in sunny Southern California for a Fisker Karma preview (more in next weekend's Wheels) and the McLaren MP4-12C (the week after).

I hate my job.

Driving along Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills the other day, a group of four cars parked nose-to-tail along the sidewalk consisted of:

- a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Coupe;

- a Porsche Panamera;

- a Maybach;

- and a Nissan Versa.

Hey - I guess the scullery maids have to shop too...

(I would have taken a picture but, well, you know, I was driving and all.)

 

Watching Big Brother Redux...

Apologies to those who saw my post on 'insurance fraud', which was up briefly last week.

It included a video showing what appeared to be one guy deliberately backing into another guy in traffic, then trying to get the 'follower' to cough up $500 to repair the bumper 'without going through insurance' because the guy 'behind' is always at fault.

In the video (which has recently been removed from YouTube), the 'victim' had a dashboard camera in his car which recorded the whole thing. When confronted with this evidence, the 'perp' vanished.

I wasn't even aware, but apparently the Ontario licence plates were visible in that video, and I guess our legal folks get a bit cranky about that, so the post was removed.

Apparently though, the police are investigating the situation.

I do plan to follow up on this topic later, not this particular incident per se, but the general theme of deliberate - hence fraudulent - crashes...

 

Walking in the Dark?

OK, this is not a driving issue per se - it's a pedestrian issue, and I'm not saying that in the 'boring' sense of that word.

 

But all of us drivers are walkers at some point. And when pedestrians are walking at night, particularly on the edge of a roadway or crossing a dark street, can they all please understand that NOBODY CAN SEE YOU!

 

Unless of course you're lucky enough to encounter one of these new-fangled cars that can 'see' pedestrians in the dark (a couple of companies have tried 'Night Vision' systems, and Nissan at least - perhaps among others - is working on a specific pedestrian-detecting system).

 

How many times have you drivers seen - at the very last minute - someone walking along or across a road at night, wearing a black jacket, black jeans, black boots, with a black hoodie pulled over their heads?

 

The latter item of course makes it more-or-less certain that the pedestrian won't see you either.

 

Of course, I understand that carrying a flashlight or wearing some sort of miner's lamp on your head is the ultimate in geekiness.

 

A fluorescent jacket hardly raises your hip quotient either.

 

But there isn't a whole lot of coolness involved in lying in a hospital bed hoping the surgeons can stitch enough of you together so that your friends and family will at least recognize you at your funeral.

 

Also - not that you'd care at that point - but whoever ran you over would carry the guilt around with them for the rest of their lives.

 

My own family went through this - not involving night-time, as it happened - and the repercussions never end.

 

So, at least maybe find a jacket with some light-reflecting stripes on the sleeves? Get a toque or earmuffs and keep the hoodie down?

 

At the very least, watch where the heck you're walking?

 

And if there's no sidewalk, walk on the side of the road so you're facing traffic, not walking with it. Gives you a far better chance of noticing on-coming danger.

 

Pedestrian casualties constitute a very large portion of our overall traffic safety problem - and interestingly, alcohol appears to play about as significant role there as it does in car crashes.

 

And of course, all of the above pertains equally to bicyclists, one of whom I damn-near ran over a few weeks ago.

 

Collision Reporting Centres - Anybody got any Stories?

Got an e-mail from a reader the other day - yeah, they don't stop coming in, and I'm delighted with that.

He was asking if I had any comments on the pros and cons of the Collision Reporting Centres, renting of replacement cars while yours is being re-assembled after having been backed into by an SUV, sorting out insurance claims, the whole gamut.

I do know the theory of CRCs - among other things, they are supposed to get cars off the road faster to avoid or at least minimize massive traffic jams, and to make the whole bothersome business of getting your car fixed simpler, faster and cheaper for everyone.

However, I have been very fortunate to have dodged all wayward SUVs so far, I have never utilized the services of a CRC, and hence have no first-hand experience to bring to this particular discussion.

So I am recruiting you, dear blog-readers, to see if you can fill in some of the gaps?

Do tell us your stories - good and bad.

 

A Car that Runs on Air?

If something sounds too good to be true, it is probably neither good nor true.

I can't tell you how many times I've received the e-mail about the micro-car from India's Tata Motors which runs on compressed air, will cost less than ten grand, and is supposed to be on sale some time this year in certain markets.

Never mind that it would probably have the crash resistance of a wet Kleenex box...

The interesting thing is that if you go to the Tata Motors web site, you won't find a word about this project, not even in their archives.

Apparently they were working on something along these lines three or four years ago, but eventually ran into something called 'reality'.

Like all electric car makers will eventually too...