Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

Still Think You Don't Need Winter Tires?

Judging from the chaos on the roads today, a lot of people still don't.

I was in a big four-wheel drive SUV which only had no-season tires on it (a sharply-worded e-mail is in the works...) and even that got stuck a couple of times.

I know there's no point in whining to you people (my audience) about all the stupid drivers out there - you know this, and (I hope...) you aren't among them.

But so many people spinning out, everywhere!

I heard from one reader that several ramps off the 407 were blocked this morning because drivers who were presumably still doing the usual buck-forty on that road despite the obviously limited traction and visibility found out when they hit the off-ramp that - hmm-mm, my brakes and steering don't seem to be working as well this morning...

No s__t, Sherlock.

On Highway 25 heading up the Escarpment towards my house this 'prevening', to use Big Bang Theory's Sheldon Cooper's term, there are two lanes northbound, to accommodate the big trucks climbing the hill. But the Jim-Only lane was not being travelled in, hence was still snow-covered, so only the left lane was clear enough for traffic.

That didn't stop several cars - a red four-door Jeep Wrangler, a black Ram pick-up and a black Infiniti EX Crossover among those I personally witnessed - from diving out into the on-coming downhill lane to pass me and several other vehicles, including an eighteen-wheeler which was struggling to, literally, make the grade.

Yeah yeah, brave guys - we all got four-wheel drive too. Remember; mostly what that does is let you have your crash at a higher speed.

Seriously; what is SO important that you have to save four seconds getting home? At the risk of a very serious head-on crash? For which you would be 100 percent at fault?

The best us sane people can do is to back off, and let them go have their crash with somebody else.

Or a guard rail.

Oh yes, one more thing, one more time - just because your dash lights are on doesn't mean your taillights are on. With most Daytime Running Lights systems, they aren't.

So nobody coming from behind can see you. Particularly critical in inclement weather like today's.

Not sure about your car? How about doing a walk-around before leaving home tomorrow morning and find out?

Better still, just develop the proper habit - fire up your car, then fire up your full headlights.

All the lights on, all the time.

Simple.

Safe.

No-brainer...

 

Watch Lamborghini's Chief Designer draw the Aventador Roadster

I used to draw cars as a kid.

Who amongst us didn't?

They didn't look like this one. In fact, I couldn't - still can't - draw a straight line with a ruler. I had to find some other way of expressing my interest in the subject. Whatever you may think of my writing or photography, they beat the heck out of my drawing.

So when I see someone who CAN draw, it just impresses the hell out of me.

This video below is long by the standards of today's video clips - about 8 minutes.

It shows Filippo Perini, Chief Designer for Lamborghini, sketching the Aventador Roadster freehand at the recent press preview for the car in Miami.

If you have any interest whatsoever in this car, or in drawing cars, I think you'll find it a worthwhile investment of your time.

The sketch is a bit - well, sketchy - from paper to overhead projector to my camera to YouTube to your monitor, you lose some resolution.

You may have to squint; it gets clearer as he progresses.

And Perini's voice is a little muted - crank up your speakers, and please enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Toughest Guy in the GTA?

I get it; some cyclists think I'm prejudiced against them.

Not at all.

I think they're crazy to ride in downtown traffic, but that's not a prejudice, or even merely an opinion.

That's a fact.

But credit where credit's due - some of them can be pretty tough.

During my foray into The Big Smoke the other day, I saw a cyclist, a big, buff dude, wearing his helmet, with his massive legs stuffed into - lycra bike shorts.

My dashboard thermometer read Minus 4 degrees.

That is one tough guy.

Cycle where you wish, my man. You'll get no arguments from me.

 

Craziness in the Inner City

Had occasion to drive in downtown Big Smoke yesterday, in the afternoon rush hour.

Yikes.

Do half the smokers left in this city work at King and Bay? Must be the stress of working there.

Or maybe driving there.

Among the many egregious bits of driving I witnessed was when I was westbound on King Street, in a line of maybe five or six cars all of which were preparing to turn right on York Street.

The light was red, so we had to wait for northbound traffic to clear.

Except for someone in a black Lexus RX350 whose timetable was obviously so much more important than anyone else's.

So from the left lane on King, (s)he ran the red light, turned right cutting in front of all us other patiently-waiting cars, and rocketed up York.

Geez - where are the cops when you need them?

Probably out writing speeding tickets in front of a cemetary somewhere.

If ever there was a case for red light cameras, this was it.

Lamborghini Races a Jet Plane

At Homestead in Miami helping to achieve the long-term objective of all professional automotive journalists - pushing forward the advent of hydrogen as a fuel by burning up petroleum as fast as we can.

The Lamborghini Aventador LP 700-4 Roadster is a willing and able assistant. More details soon on wheels.ca and in Wheels.

To see a video of the public reveal video of the car in Miami, click here.

If it doesn't work as a hot link, cut-and-paste the following URL into your browser:

 

http://www.thenewsmarket.com/lamborghini-aventador-lp-700-4-roadster-high-speed-demonstration-on-closed-miami-international-airport-runway/s/48b54b59-aafa-42a2-8b25-ccc0a69d259d#

 

Click on the little video camera icon with (1) beside it, then on the little red arrow just above the HD logo. This will give you a demo of this video.

Assuming you have seen it and have come back here, think about it: who in their right mind would even think about asking an American airport for permission to use a runway for a car unveiling?

They are so paranoid - perhaps justifiably - about security down here.

And we're not talking good ol' Amurrican cars like Corvette or Mustang here; we're talking an Italian super-car company.

Turns out Lamborghini's PR folks had spoken with the city of Miami about how they could use this 'lifestyle' city to show off their car, and give Miami some coverage too.

The parade through the city - and the closed freeways - were arranged.

Lamborghini then asked the airport if it would be possible to have a separate customs inspection line for the media and other VIPs.

Turns out that was not on.

But the airport authorities suggested that maybe Lamborghini might like to use the runway for a photo shoot of some sort? Turns out there's a local reality TV show based on the Miami airport, and it would also provide fodder for that.

Um, sure...

They could only spare 20 minutes, and if an airplane had to land in an emergency or whatever, the FAA would insist on it being scrubbed.

No worries - it was an opportunity too good to pass up.

American Airlines tossed in the Boeing Triple 7, and the rest you can see for yourself.

 

Driving in Fog is not like Operating in The Cloud

It was foggy, wet and miserable in the GTA this past Monday.

(I actually wrote this then, but never got around to posting it...)

And - an old beef, I know - about 90 percent of the cars on the road did not have their lights on, just their Daytime Running Lights.

Which meant of course that especially on the highway, you couldn't see them until you were right on top of them.

I really wish I could pull people over and ask them, "Did you notice that the car ahead of you just now did not have any taillights on? That you could barely see it in the haze and the road spray? Doesn't it make you even the slightest bit curious whether other drivers are saying the same about your car?" 

I mean, what were these people thinking about as they drove through this mess?

Or are they in a fog in the metaphoric sense too?

Some of you folks out there are much savvier about this whole InterWeb FaceTube thing than I am.

Somehow, that set of media has managed to make cats and hamburgers world-wide phenomena.

Geez; it has made Justin Bieber the world's Number One Twit.

Isn't there some way we can use modern information technology to get the message across:

TURN ON YOUR FRIGGIN' LIGHTS!

OK, so maybe turning on your lights isn't 'cool', hence isn't worthy of attention by this cohort of our population.

But I don't know that there's anything all that cool about standing at the side of the highway exchanging insurance information with the guy who just rammed into the back of your car.

Or, waiting for an ambulance.

I must say, it was considerably better in the evening Monday. Maybe people understood that after 5 p.m., it is supposed to be 'dark', and lights might be a good idea.

But there are always a few. Just last evening, 7:15 p.m., 401 eastbound at the airport, a guy in a newish Subaru Legacy (I think; obviously, it was hard to see...) was cruising along, nearly invisible from behind. As I drove up to then past him, I flicked my lights off and on (in the new Range Rover, you can actually do that; you can't in most new cars) and tooted my horn to try and indicate that he had a problem.

I could see his dash lights were on which, as I have noted several times, should not be allowed when DRL is active by Transport Canada regulation because of exactly this reason - it fools you into thinking your real lights ARE on.

He pulled on his turn signal lever to flash his high beams at me. Not sure what he thought he was trying to communicate to me.

But he never turned on his real lights.

Since Transport Canada doesn't seem to think this is an issue, and I've received lots of feedback from you to indicate that I'm not alone in thinking this IS an issue, I am appealing for help.

I assume you all know how to fix this for ourselves - always run with full lights on, all the time.

You do, don't you?

I do. Always have, since I first started to drive.

It's the only sensible thing to do

But how do we fix this for the Great Unwashed out there?

Motoring TV's Car of the Year Show

Do we need another Car of the Year?

Sure, why not?

Well, its not really 'another' Car of the Year.

It's been a feature of TSN's Motoring televsion - if not from the very beginning, way back in 1988, then from a long way back.

I always kid host Brad Diamond and road tester Graeme Fletcher that they almost always pick the wrong car - while I am a commentator on the show, I don't participate in this choice.

Motoring's 2013 Car of the Year will be announced on a one-hour special episode of the show, debuting Saturday Jan. 25, at noon EST.

On TSN, of course.

Because I was part of the taping of this show, I know whether they got it right this year.

But am I gonna tell you now?

Of course not.

So, take a few minutes off from wheels.ca and tune in!

You can also check out the Motoring web site at www.motoringtv.com .

Sometimes, you just wanna kiss a cop right on the lips...

OK, so not often - unless she's like the Oklahoma State Trooper I 'met' during my search for this video...

But I digress...

The original version of this clip was accompanied by a voice-over of the young male driver whose female passenger actually shot it. The commentary, shall we say, was not fit for a family blog.

I can barely access YouTube, let alone edit the sound on a video clip. Someone with way more skills in this field than I possess has done that job for me, adding what I think is the theme song from 'Jaws'.

The hand-held, presumably cameraphone video is also very jumpy in places. Hang in there; it's worth it.

I am not able to identify which state the state trooper is from.

So (s)he is safe from my osculatory intentions.

All I know is that THIS is what traffic patrol officers in every jurisdiction in the world should be doing way more of.

Check it out here.

 

Even Rick Mercer is After My Job

Motoring TV has been on TSN for 25 years.

For 24 of those, I've been doing Kenzie's Korner, beefing about something or other.

Did we steal the idea from Don Cherry?

Hm-mm - no comment.

Did we steal the 'walking rant' concept from Rick Mercer, initially with This Hour, and now his own Rick Mercer Report?

I dunno - how long has he been doing that? I'm too tired to do the math.

Let's just say that all three of us have fun doing what we do.

Now, since I got my PVR, two things - I never see TV ads any more, or the boring parts of sports events (I've got the quickest fast-forward digit in town - I can watch a baseball game in 20 minutes); and, I can catch up on older stuff I haven't seen.

So while some of you may have seen this particular Rick Mercer Rant when it first appeared back in 2008 (or caught it on one of many car fori on this InterTube thingee where it has been posted) it was new to me when I stumbled across it recently. Maybe it'll be new to you too.

We'll forgive him for calling them 'snow tires' - they're 'winter tires' because they work better in winter even when there is no snow.

But the rest of it?

Spot on.

Check it out here.

 

Another MASSIVE Failure of Democracy

I've been involved in the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) Car of the Year evaluation process from the very beginning.

And while I haven't always - often haven't, in fact - agreed with all of the selections, I still believed it was the most thorough, most objective process of any such program anywhere in the world.

But today, I am really shaking my head.

The finalists for the Canadian Car of the Year were announced this morning at the Montreal Auto Show.

They are:

Honda Accord

Hyundai Elantra GT

Porsche Boxster

Worthy cars all.

But where is the Cadillac ATS?

This is the obvious overall Car of the Year, and has already been chosen (and in some cases announced) as such by several other competitions, some of which have some significance (the North American Car of the Year; others to come), others which don't (I won't dignify them with a mention).

But even the latter have got it right.

We have got it horribly wrong.

I'm not completely alone here; even some of GM's competitors expressed surprise that the ATS didn't make the Top Three.

The way it works in the AJAC competition is that to be eligible for the Overall title, a car has to win its category at the AJAC Test Fest, which took place last October. The ATS did (beating among others the BMW 3 Series, the perennial benchmark in the global sport sedan segment). Of course, Accord, Elantra GT and Boxster won their respective categories too.

Then the voting AJAC members cast another ballot ranking the category winners. It is weighted thus: Merit (40%); Value (20%); Environment (10%), Safety (10%); Market Significance (10%); Emotional Appeal (10%).

Given that all the cars have 'merit' - they wouldn't have got this far if they didn't - it's hard to see how there could have been much of a swing there.

Likewise value. Now, the Accord and Hyundai obviously cost less than the Cadillac, but the Boxster costs more - a lot more. And has two seats versus four or five, etc.

Environment? As I have said many times before, the modern automobile simply isn't an issue when it comes to the environment. But even so, there can't be that much difference among these cars on this count either.

Likewise safety. All cars must pass the same crash tests, and the Cadillac offers some unique and significant safety advances the other don't, such as the ''crash warning seat" (which as a member of the AJAC Best New Technology panel, I figured would be the overall winner but my colleagues on this panel didn't even vote for it to make the Top Ten cut...).

So, how could there have been much of a swing on safety?

The remaining two categories are where I figured the Caddy would have a strong showing.

Accord has 'market significance' because it sells in big numbers, in a big segment.

But a 'Car of the Year' should not be chosen based solely on sales. That'd be like the Oscar going to Texas Chain Saw Massacre XVII simply because it sold the most tickets.

A Car of the Year should somehow 'move the marketing goalposts', make some sort of a statement. And for a domestic manufacturer to take on the best of the foreign competition in the compact sports sedan segment and do so well (cf beating BMW 3 Series in the AJAC event), surely that is an amazing feat.

The Boxster was already among the top sports cars in its class, and sells in pretty small numbers overall. So how could it have scored that well here?

The Elantra? A hatchback version of the car that won last year's overall title?

Hardly significant at all.

True, the Boxster would score highly in Emotional Appeal. But so should have the Cadillac.

Accord and Elantra? Emotional Appeal?

Come on.

So it is a complete mystery.

And so I guess it shall remain because the ballots and vote tallies are kept secret.

Maybe that's how it should be, to save some of the individual electors from even greater embarrassment.

BTW, the finalists for Utility Vehicle of the Year are Ford Escape and Hyundai Santa Fe. No arguments from me there.