Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

Jaguar F-Type Driven!

Yes, I have driven the new Jaguar F-Type sports car, the first real two-seater Jag sports car since the E-Type, launched in 1961.

Fifty-two years is a long time. Has Jaguar managed to catch up?

I am not allowed to tell you what it's like to drive until next Wednesday.

But from the already-released details - supercharged V6 engines of 340 or 380 horsepower, supercharged V8 with 495 horsepower, and weight starting at 1,597 kg - I'm sure you can guess.

Prices start at $76,900.

The cars start arriving this summer. Start saving now.

Mimi and Lady Leadfoot go Topless

Does this mean winter is finally over?

We actually drove Mimi - Lady Leadfoot's Mazda Miata - top-down for the first time this year today.

Heater on, and one window down - for some reason, that seems to generate less turbulence than both windows either up or down - and aside from the hair getting quite a work-out, it was very pleasant.

We don't drive her in winter unless there's an emergency. We keep her outside, under a cover, with a trickle charger on the battery. She never fails to fire right up.

If there were some sort of award for the car that best discharges its responsibilities, best fulfils its brief, does exactly what it is supposed to do - do you understand what I'm driving at here? - then the Mazda Miata would surely win in a walk.

More accurately, it would win in a lovely drive through the countryside.

In a nutshell, it was supposed to be a two-seat British sports car that didn't break and didn't leak oil all over your driveway.

That was pretty much what Mark Jordan, a designer for Mazda North America, and Bob Hall, previously and subsequently a car journalist but then a product planner for Mazda, had in mind when they conceived the car on a cocktail napkin in a bar in Irvine California back in the 1980s; in profile, the original Miata looked more like the 1964 Lotus Elan than the Lotus Elan did.

Despite considerable upgrading and improving over the intervening decades, that's pretty much what the Miata still is today.

I.e., damn-near perfect.

Oh yeah, the company can try to call it 'MX-5' if they want, because the marketing people say that's how it is marketed in other countries.

Marketing people can be such idiots; like anybody over here gives a damn what they do over there.

It was originally sold in Japan as the 'Eunos Roadster'. Does that mean we should have called it 'Eunos Roadster' too?

Um, I don't think so.

The Miata Owners Club is still (I think...) the largest one-marque car club in the world, testimony to the affection people have for this car. Lady Leadfoot and I aren't 'joiners' per se, but might be talked into going on some of their cruises this summer.

We understand that the next-gen Miata will be a joint venture with Fiat through its Alfa Romeo brand. That company has no shortage of sports car heritage, although dead-nuts reliability like Miata enjoys has never even been hinted at chez Alfa.

Can the joint venture pull off a car that's as spectacular as Mazda was able to do on its own with Miata?

I hope so.

But I must say, I have grave doubts.

Do Pick-up Truck Drivers Really Want More Fuel Efficiency?

Every major manufacturer of full-size pick-up trucks is going on and on about improved fuel efficiency.

Ford has their 'Eco-Boost' Direct Injection turbocharged V6 engine, claimed to offer the performance of an eight with the economy of a six.

Chevrolet advertises the most fuel-efficient V-8 in the class.

Ram (yclept 'Dodge') boasts 36 miles per gallon on the highway. (Er folks, Canada switched to Metric about four hundred years ago - isn't it time you caught up?...)

But is this something their customers give a flyin' wahoo about?

I guess if you're a business owner and your trucks are racking up thousands of klicks a month, fuel costs are a Big Deal.

So how come when I'm on the highway, all the pick-ups I see seem to be going a buck-forty?

And in town, the "That Thang Got a HEMI?" dude is rocketing away from the stoplight, seemingly trying to spin all four wheels at once?

I think the only reason truck makers are doing this is that in the States, Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards for trucks are getting tougher and tougher to meet. So the manufacturers have to build more fuel-efficient trucks whether their customers care or not.

The trick then is to get the customers to buy them.

In reality, it's the same reason they build hybrid cars; if they can force-feed enough of those down buyers' throats, then they can sell some of the less-efficient cars that the customers actually want.

Of course none of this would be necessary if the US government would only act logically and raise the price of fuel to something even approximating the world level. Then the market could decide how it wanted to spend its money, on efficient cars, or on fuel.

But asking any government - especially these days, the US government - to act logically?

Hahahahaha.....

 

Happy Birthday Aston Martin and Porsche!

Aston Martin has renewed the fourth car in its year-long total-product-plan refresh program - the Rapide S.

A new front end, designed largely around European pedestrian crash standards, the new more powerful and torquier engine and a revised rear deck spoiler are the main upgrades. 

Driving impressions to follow in a few days.

Aston Chairman Dr. Ulrich Bez also let slip at dinner last night here in not-so-sunny Spain that Aston will be the featured marque at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance this coming August, celebrating the company's 100th Anniversary. The official announcement will come on Wednesday.

Porsche will also be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the 911 at Pebble.

This might be a good year to go...

How Clever Are Those Germans?

This certainly is no Big Deal.

But I thought it was interesting.

This is a picture (don't worry; it was taken when I was stopped on the shoulder of the road) of the SatNav display in the instrument cluster of a new Porsche Boxster.

It shows the 401 interchange I take every time I drive into The Big Smoke.

Now the normal route when coming southbound on 25 to follow Highway 401 eastbound into Toronto (what the road signs say you should do) is to take the on-ramp to the right, swing around on what we used to call a 'cloverleaf' - that would be the white circular piece of road below and just to the left of 'Chisholm Drive' in that pic - and join the highway.

But the route Porsche's SatNav is indicating suggests turning left heading towards the commuter parking lot (which isn't shown on the map) then continue onto the on-ramp from northbound 25.

This is in fact the route I often take, if the traffic lights look right, because you can gain a few seconds, especially if you would otherwise be following one of the multitude of huge, slow gravel trucks we have to put up with in our neighbourhood.

Can't beat local knowledge, right?

But how would Porsche's SatNav system know this?

I can only assume that the system integrates all possible routes, determines which is the shortest, and presents that route to you.

Clever, eh?

 

Can you really fly to work?

The dream of a flying car has kept engineers sleepless for maybe a century.

Dr. Paul Moller has been trying for over 40 years alone, so far without much success.

Perhaps just as well - we have enough trouble handling commuter traffic in two dimensions, let alone three.

But if the product this Dutch company appears to have invented is real (assuming the following YouTube clip wasn't fabricated by the video equivalent of Photoshop) it may be just around the corner.

The 'vehicle' appears to be more of an enclosed motorcycle than a car, and there's no indication of how much this thing might cost.

It also may end up being like the Amphi-Car, which was a terrible car and a worse boat - but it WAS both.

But it does look intriguing.

I guess time will tell...

 

MINI Makes a Big Bang

Does anyone else watch Big Bang Theory?

Yeah, pretty much everybody - it is at or near the top of Canada's TV ratings charts every year, and not just because Toronto's own Barenaked Ladies sing the theme song.

The episode I saw last week (originally shown last fall, according to CBS's web site) revolves around Howard Wolowitz getting a new car and taking over Sheldon Cooper's parking spot at the University where they both work.

Even though Sheldon doesn't even have a driver's licence, let alone a car, he decides Howard should not have 'his' spot, and tries to take it back.

First, he tries to push the car out of the spot - hard to do with the car presumably locked, in gear, and with the parking brake on.

You'd think a guy as smart as Sheldon professes to be would have known that...

Then he tries to prove he does 'use' the spot by setting up a work space there...

...and by painting his name over Wolowitz's on the curb stone.

I am ashamed to admit that even I didn't get this part of the joke, so thanks again to an 'alert reader':

Howard's car was a MINI Countryman Cooper S.

This might have been one of the most clever if most subtle product placements in television history...

Ben the Antipodean Navigator - Update 2

Several 'alert readers' (Dave Barry isn't the only one), including one from Canberra Australia (!) have given me the answer to the New Zealand slang queries posted here a couple of days ago.

I had wondered what it was that 'Ben', the Kiwi voice in the Mazda6 TomTom SatNav system, was saying in the following audio clip, when reporting that you had reached your destination:

 

Download Ben_the_kiwi_2013-02-24-185000

 

Turns out he's reminding you to take your 'jandals' (that'd be 'sandals', more specifically flip-flops), 'togs' (an old British word generally meaning 'clothing' but in The Antipodes, more specifically 'bathing suits'), and 'chilly-bin', (another word for 'cooler'; the Aussies also often use 'Esky' as in Eskimo, which is an Aussie brand name for coolers, now owned by Coleman).

What was that about countries being separated by a common language?

Ben the Antipodean Navigator - Update

I have had some more time in the new Mazda6 (nice car, BTW...).

And, some more time with its TomTom-based SatNav system.

Turns out I was misinformed. The voice I was told was 'Ben' from New Zealand, whose advice upon reaching your destination was, "Windows up, grab those sunnies and don't let the seagulls steal your chips!" was actually 'James' from Australia.

You can listen to it again here:

Download TomTom_message_2013-02-17-151139

(My apologies if this link takes you away from the main page of this blog and forces you to go back one page to return. Seems to be how this blogging software works with audio clips.)

Now, there are two places in the Mazda6 SatNav system where you can select the voice you want to give you directions.

Why there are two perhaps only Mazda and TomTom know. Wasted about half an hour figuring that out...

In one place you can't get either Ben or James, but if you go to 'Settings' on the main SatNav menu they are both available.

To hear how Ben tells you you have arrived, click here;

Download Ben_the_kiwi_2013-02-24-185000

Now, my time in New Zealand - by all accounts, the most beautiful place on earth - has so far been limited to a two-hour layover in the Aukland airport on my way to Australia some years ago.

So my ear has never really become attuned to the Kiwi accent.

Hence, I can barely make out a syllable of what 'Ben' is saying here.

OK, I get the '300 yards', 'you have reached your destination', and 'Cheers for the ride, mate!'

But what is he asking us to grab?

Sounds like 'jandals, togs and chil-e-van.'

Anybody got a clue?

Please let me know...

Tidbits from the Auto Show - Kids and Cars

So you think young people aren't interested in cars any more?

You should have been with me at the Toronto Auto Show today. I was standing beside my Kia Optima Turbo Targa Newfoundland car, and there was no shortage of kids (of all ages) wanting to sit behind the wheel, making the classic 'vroom-vroom' noises, even if most of them couldn't see over the bottom of the steering wheel rim, let alone out the windshield.

I wish I could show you some photos of the kids, but there are various issues about printing candid photos of children. So I'm just including a shot of the car.

Rocks, fog, fishing boats - could that be anywhere but Newfoundland?

Quite a few of these kids were girls too, and most of them knew that Danica Patrick is on pole for Sunday's Daytona 500.

I've always maintained that car racing is one sport where women don't have a built-in disadvantage.

There's no real need for huge muscle mass or upper-body strength in racing, where women generally trail men.

If you think that competitiveness is solely a function of testosterone, well, did you ever see the Williams sisters play tennis?

Given that weight is always the enemy of race cars, there's actually (typically) an advantage for women here.

NASCAR in fact has a weight equalization rule; lighter drivers have to add ballast. But because of the way the formula works, Patrick - who only weighs about 100 pounds - has to carry just a 40 pound penalty, so she probably gains about a 40 - 50 pound net benefit over most of the field.

Given the size and weight of NASCAR cars, this might not be as crucial proportionally as it might be in a lighter formula car.

But when races are won by hundredths, sometimes thousandths, of a second, every bit helps.

Whether any of these kids become our next Paul Tracy - or Danica Patrick - it seems that enthusiasm for the automobile is alive and well in our young people.

So my job should be safe for a while anyway...