Follies of the Madmen #208

Where to begin with this long ad? The surrealism of a Corvette on the Bonanza set? The notion that a sexy spy like Napolean Solo would drive a Corvair? The mashup of Bewitched with Bonanza characters, including the ultra-campy Agnes Moorehead? It's a commercial that just keeps on giving in the weirdness department.

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jul 13, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Business, Advertising, Television, Surrealism, Crossovers and Mashups, Fantasy, 1960s, Time-travel, Cars

Follies of the Madmen #207

Cartoon characters from one of the most politically incorrect films of Hollywood history shill for Rambler. Is this why that company eventually went under?

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jul 02, 2013 - Comments (17)
Category: Animals, Anthropomorphism, Business, Advertising, Racism, Stereotypes and Cliches, 1950s, Cars

E-Plates - the future of driving

License plates may not seem like a product that requires improvement, but Compliance Innovations begs to differ. They've come up with "e-plates" that use an electronic ink display. They cost a lot more than traditional plates — over $100 versus less than $5. However, they allow the DMV or police to remotely change what the license plate displays. So if you're late with your registration payment, "Expired" appears in bright red letters. No state has yet decided to adopt these e-plates, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time. [epoch times]

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jun 25, 2013 - Comments (10)
Category: Government, Cars

Million-to-one mix-up

Occasionally I find myself trying to get into the wrong car in parking lots, because I don't bother to look that closely at the car. If it's the same color and shape as mine, and parked in the same general location, I assume it's mine. But that's not always true. I realize my mistake when the key doesn't fit.

Back in 1985, a case like this occurred. A couple tried to get into a car in a shopping mall parking lot that was the same make, model, and color as their own. But it turned out that the cars had identical keys as well. So they got into the car and drove away. They only realized the mix-up when they noticed that the stuff inside the car wasn't theirs. When they drove back to recover their own car, they found out that the owner of the other car also had the same last name as them. And finally, this all happened on April Fool's Day, but I'm trusting that it happened as reported, since the news report appeared after April 1st. [Bangor Daily News - Apr 3, 1985]

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jun 12, 2013 - Comments (16)
Category: 1980s, Goofs and Screw-ups, Cars

Instant Car Crash Guaranteed!

Original ad here. (Scroll down.)

Posted By: Paul - Sat Jun 08, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Death, Chindogu, 1950s, Cars

They Warn the Car Behind

From the Washington Post - May 2, 1915. So whatever happened to the idea of electric gongs supplementing turn signals.? Seems like it could actually be useful.

Posted By: Alex - Wed May 22, 2013 - Comments (9)
Category: Motor Vehicles, Cars, 1910s

Irish Car:  The Shamrock

Why there is no Irish car industry today. From Wikipedia.

Shortly after production began, however, design flaws became apparent. Although the car was big and heavy, it used a relatively small Austin A55 1.5 litre engine, which limited performance. The A55 also provided the transmission and suspension. Another problem was that the rear wheels were shrouded by body panels and a rear wheel could not be removed (for puncture repair for example) without dropping its axle..... Production of up to 10,000 cars a year was talked about but as few as ten complete cars were produced during the six months before production ceased. After the factory closed, the unused parts were dumped into the local lake, Lough Muckno.

Posted By: Paul - Thu May 16, 2013 - Comments (5)
Category: Regionalism, Success & Failure, 1950s, 1960s, Europe, Cars

Wild at the Wheel

The filmmakers seem to have hired an Iron Butterfly cover band to do the soundtrack, which makes all the dangerous risk-taking seem alluring..

Posted By: Paul - Sat Apr 20, 2013 - Comments (3)
Category: Accidents, Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Death, PSA’s, 1970s, Cars

Fritz von Opel

Fritz von Opel was one of those early-20th-century rocket-besotted guys who pioneered this exotic means of propulsion. Just look at his rocket car go in the film clip above! (Narration in German, but not necessary to comprehension.)

But von Opel's innocent excitement had its darker side. I give you the 1929 newspaper article below. Specifically, the enlarged sentence.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 29, 2013 - Comments (7)
Category: Inventions, War, Space Travel, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, Europe, Cars

Early Solar-Powered Car

A 1912 Baker Electric car that was retrofitted with a solar panel by Charles Escoffery for the International Rectifier Corp. back in 1960. The panel cost $20,000. (I don't know what that would be in present-day money, but it wouldn't be cheap.) With the panel, the Baker could run at 20 mph for three hours. International Rectifier hoped to soon be churning out "noiseless, smogless" solar cars for $5000 each. It's 53 years later now, and we're still waiting. Source: Newsweek (Mar 7, 1960) & M3GA.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Feb 16, 2013 - Comments (4)
Category: Inventions, 1960s, Cars