”Marcos Ambrose just cheap-shotted me and took me out. He either made a mistake, or he’s incredibly stupid. He hooked my left rear in Turn 1. He had me sideways for a while and then just turned me around. (Now I’m going) to go apologize to his crew chief because it’s going to cost him a car.”

Following an incident during the Nationwide Series race in Mexico, the curly headed Californian let loose with a mouthful. Move over Tony & Robbie, Boris is coming for a visit in the NASCAR trailer!

Quote source TSN

Almost every bike has a one defining element, something that differentiates it in a crowded market place. Occasionally that’s luscious looks, cosseting comfort, prodigious power, outstanding handling (okay, I ran out of alliteration there); with the BMW R1200R you’ve got to dig as deep as your first good pull of the throttle. There it is, what defines an otherwise plain Jane “naked”… an engine that gouts torque like a Monty Python skit gouts blood.

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I recently read a biography of Michael Schumacher and while it did little to change my opinion of him as a sportsman, one thing became very clear. Michael values his family above everything and does everything possible to try and give his kids a normal upbringing. Sometimes unfortunately things go a bit too far in the quest for normalcy.

Schumacher’s 9 year old son competed in his first kart race last weekend. Unfortunately, the boy’s father chose not to attend in order to keep the spotlight away from the young lad. He was entered as Mick Betsch, using Mom’s maiden name and was accompanied by Grandpa Rolf. I too have a 9 year old boy who will be driving in his first race soon. While he would be happy to have Grandpa there to watch, he would be devastated if dear old Dad didn’t come to see his first race.

So much for normal.

Image from AS.com, fully story at F1 Live

I don’t know about the kids in our house, but the boys in The Garage are counting down the days until May 9, when Speed hits the big screen. For now, we’ll have to settle for this cool preview clip. Sure, there isn’t a shred of reality to any of it, but it still looks pretty cool. It’s still a shame that Christina Ricca had that dastardly surgery though, that red top would have looked killer with her natural equipment.

Big, bad Jesse James, the fabricating master who hosts TV’s Monster Garage and his wife, movie star Sandra Bullock came very close to becoming drunk driving statistics on Friday night. The pair were passengers in an SUV, when a drunken sailor housewife crossed over the center line in her station wagon near Gloucester, Massachusetts. Fortunately, both vehicles were only traveling at 15-20 kmh and there were no injuries.

Perhaps Jesse can make a monster of some sort out of the remains of both vehicles.

Source AP

That guy giving you the thumbs up is none other than Jalopnik scribe Wes Siler, who took a bit of a tumble last week on a two wheeler. It must have been a pretty substantial whoops, as Wes’ protective gear was all pretty much demo’d. Siler wouldn’t know though, as he can’t remember anything of the event.

Get well soon guy!

Not to be outdone, Mikey Mike Schumacher decided to one up Siler with his own on track escapade. They’re called brakes Mr Mike, you might want to try them some time.

How’s the ego feeling Mike?

One thing I love about really old auto magazines is looking at the old adds in them. The articles they offered about the cars in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s where well written for the day but what I found to be great reading was the advertisements promoting all sorts of goodies to make the cars even better. It never ceases to amaze me how many people think that because these products are published in reputable magazines they must be for real. In the mean time the companies who own those magazines are thanking the powers that be for all those gullible enough believe all that hype. After all, that’s what kept those magazines in business for so many years.

All the auto magazines from the good old days are fun to look through but so are Popular Science, Popular Mechanics and believe it or not the really old National Geographic magazines have some wonderful old car advertisements too. It’s interesting to look through these old advertisements and see if any of them had any effect on today’s automotive world. Trust me… not many did.

Here is a fine example of an advertisement found in the the August 1932 edition of Popular Science.

With our last hybrid experience here in The Garage, we were a bit underwhelmed by the on road experience, so what was life with the 08 Saturn Vue like? It was actually a lot more fun than we expected. Just as the new Vue looks playful and stylish, it plays that part well out in the commuter wars as well.

The Green Line model is equipped with a 2.4L inline 4 cylinder, mated to a 4 speed automatic transmission. Working alongside the conventional stuff is an electric motor/generator that provides additional power on acceleration, and regenerates it’s power on deceleration. Along with this, the engine shuts down when the vehicle is stopped and early fuel cut off on decel further aids fuel economy. All this adds up to give the front wheel drive Vue Green Line decent acceleration for a 4 cylinder cuv of this size.
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When I first began driving as a teenager I really wasn’t bothered by the price of gas primarily because like most country boys raised on a ranch we had our own gas pump. I had actually driven for almost a year before I ever had to pay for a tank of gas. I recall a couple of cute gals from my high school cruising around with me on a Friday afternoon when we all decided it would be cool to drive over to a nearby town and check out the sights. Before we got ready to leave I asked, “Since it’s about 15 miles over there how much gas will it take us to get there and back? Do I have enough?” The gals didn’t know any more than I did so we pulled into a gas station to ask a friend. He asked me how much cash I had and after looking in my ash tray where I kept my money I found about six dollars. I remember him saying. “SIX BUCKS! That’s enough to drive all the way across Oregon and back.”
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