You Know You’ve Found The Right Woman When
This is not your day job.
She gets excited when you put on the newest episode of Top Gear.
Also, when I came home with a white motorcycle helmet she looked at it and said, "Like the Stig! Awesome!"
Big V8, Big in Japan.
via Jalopnik.com
To Whom it May Concern,
My name is Christopher LaCon, one of the hot shoes for team Big in Japan. I'm a Virgo, I like long walks on the beach and I absolutely adore driving long distances as fast as possible. I've been a long time fan of Japanese cars. In fact, my last three cars were Hondas (one civic hatch and two del Sols). Having just made a switch to an American muscle car (1999 Cobra), and with the big lump under the Lexus' hood, I thought it would be appropriate to use this as my inaugural contribution to this blog.
Sincerely,
Christopher "Nocal" LaCon
Good News: You’re Stupid!
Autoblog, that site best known for the loving regurgitation of automaker press releases (sorry, Justice Lieberman), is reporting that Honda has chosen to settle the class-action suit filed by owners of the Civic Hybrid over supposedly inflated EPA fuel economy claims. Just how badly were the numbers fudged? The cars sold with stickers advertising 49mpg city and 51mpg highway, and plaintiffs claim to have only achieved 34.6mpg. Those poor souls thought they were going to save money/carbon by buying a hybrid, and look what happened!
Of course, the best part of this story is in the fine print. As with any class action suit, the late-comers to the class got screwed. How bad? Well, Honda graciously awarded class members a $1,000 voucher toward the purchase of a new Honda (but not an Insight, Civic Hybrid or Fit - the most fuel efficient models). If managed to keep a copy of your indignant letter to Soichiro, then you get a check for $100. Awesome! The class leaders did a bit better, getting checks for $12,000 and $10,500.
The lawyers? They made fees of roughly $3,000,000 - then drove home in their BMW 760Li's.
How Much Power is in Your Garage?
Jalopnik asked this question a few months back, which I find really interesting. It stems from the article over at Inventing Green that suggests that American motorists (to say nothing of American motoring enthusiasts) have 35x more power sitting in their collective garages and driveways than is available in the current American electrical grid. Of course, this article assumes peak horsepower, a figure most motorists achieve only in white-knuckled highway on ramps and ill-advised last chance overtaking maneuvers.
I sort of like the idea of taking stock of your piece of the pie. For one, it gives a great, and completely arbitrary way, to track your involvement in the material world. You can also create some interesting data sets. Observe.
Total Household Peak Horsepower
- 1968 Karmann Ghia: 44bhp
- 1992 Lexus LS 400: 250bhp
- 1999 Ford Crown Victoria P71: 215bhp
- 2004 Infiniti G35x: 261bhp
- 2005 Infiniti FX35: 275bhp
- 2006 Triumph Speed Triple: 131bhp
Total: 1,176bhp. A Bugatti Veyron produces approximately 1020bhp (although they won't say for certain exactly how much). Now for some maths.
That works out to 196bhp per vehicle, or as much power as a factory-fresh Aston Martin DB2. Before the Lucas Electrics got to it.
It also works out to an average curb weight of 2994 lbs (not counting the LS400's SERIOUS diet), or the same as a new VW Golf.
But what about the average power to weight ratio? Well, thanks to the Speed Triple, my driveway weighs in at 15.3lbs/bhp, or about the same power-to-weight ratio as a Cessna Skyhawk. Pretty crazy.
Rocket Launcher…
via Hell For Leather
So, what do we think about putting something like this on the Big In Japan LS 400? I mean, all the other drivers on the track will be wearing firesuits and helmets anyway. I think it'd be a GREAT way to win the coveted Dangerous (Banned) Technology Award!
Bonus points for the balls this guy has for (1) shooting rockets down a freeway into oncoming traffic at night, (2) nearly taking himself out with one in a parking lot, (3) hitting the camera with one.
What I Love About Cars: Cutaways
You don't see cutaways too often, but they are the true stuff of awesome. To love your creation enough to dissect it for all the world to see, oily bits and all, is the right kind of crazy. Especially since these these cutaways are usually wheeled out to show us all the big balls advanced technology on the latest and greatest cars. Unfortunately, too few automakers have the chutzpah to build a proper cutaway for the autoshow circuit, so you sometimes get stuck with a colored pencil drawing. Yawn.
Let's see some of Japan's greatest hits!
LF-A Cutaway Wireframe. Too bad they used recycled shelving to make the wireframe.
R35 GT-R lifting its skirt.
The only quick Nissan Sunny ever produced.
First Generation LS 400. We plan on doing the same thing to our car after the race.
Honda Insight, Showing off all its boring bits.
Some kind of Subaru, as is clear from the bonkers engine layout.
Last Gen RX-7. Note the absence of torque in this illustration.
Godzilla, as pictured after close inspection by the University of Toyko School of Medicine.
Gamera, similar treatment to Godzilla.
What the World Needs
Are More Hood-Mounted Wing Mirrors.
Oh, and lots more rotary engines. Because who needs torque (or good gas mileage, or fuel consumption, or reliability...) when you can rev to 9,000 rpm?
Big In Japan
Welcome to Big In Japan's official team blog. This your Captain and Chief Conspirator speaking, and I'd like to welcome you to what will probably be a very weird countdown to the 2010 Rod Blagojevich Never-Say-Die 500 in Joliet, Illinois.
We here at Big In Japan are have very sophisticated tastes for the worst that human culture has wrought. We love cheap cars (old ones, too), strong bourbon, loud music, fast driving, and most things weird and despicable. So naturally we're always keeping an eye on that crazy little island nation in the East - Japan, authors of 98% of the strange and bizarre in the universe.
So what better way to make our entrance into the grand stage of The 24 Hours of LeMons than to pay homage to Japan's great history of cultural non-sequiturs? Exactly.
See you soon, Joliet!
