electric relaxation

Ride: BMW M1
Where: Northbound Foothill at Page Mill in Palo Alto

Amdur and I were on our way home when this ridiculous contraption pulled up at the stop light. You may or may not be aware of this, but I have a wildly irrational predilection for dated exotic cars. Anyway, this definitely set my new bar for car spotting in the Peninsula.

Update: More bitchin pics of the M1

Ride: Honda Element
Where: Bay Bridge Eastbound

I’ve been trying to convince Amdur to get a Honda Element for a while. One of the chief objections people have with this car is that it’s ugly. But as evidenced below, clearly that’s a solveable problem…

The blades are nice, but especially noteable is the debadging; truly a clutch move.

Car: 911 Turbo, I think
Where:280 S near Sand Hill Rd.

A 911 Turbo, with custom wheels, and a goddamn bike rack. Though I’d give him props if he takes it to the track with the bike still on the back.

Car: A Monte Carlo maybe?
Where: Chevron on Bayshore and Cesar Chavez

Simple and plain. A nice clean ride. It might actually be a Cadillac, thought I doubt it. Since it’s big, boxy and two-doored, that leaves only the Monte Carlo and Mercury Cougar. But it ain’t no scraper: the wheel wells have been nicely cut away. Anyway, those are definitely at least 22’s, maybe even 24’s, and it looks like it’s got the lift kit in the front. You know, for increased visibility. Or something.

Update:
Actually now that I think about it, it’s probably a Caprice.

Ride: Datsun 1600
Where: 21st and Guerrero St.

This crazy ass car was actually in pretty good shape when I first saw it, and a quick look in the interior revealed an alarm system and new stereo. A month later though, it was still parked in the same spot, covered in bird droppings and booted. The next night I saw it getting towed. I’ll leave it up to the reader’s imagination to explain that strange turn of events.

Ride: Some kind of bike
Where: Apple campus in Cupertino

I saw this thing parked outside Ann Thai’s building when I gave her a ride to work a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea what kind of bike it is, but it looked like something out of a cartoon. The back tire was absolutely ridiculous; I’ve only rear wheels that wide on choppers.

Update:
I originally said I’d only seen wheels like that on hogs, but what I meant to say was on choppers. At any rate, mginzton theorized that it was in fact a hog.

Car: Jaguar HRs
Where: The Mission

It could just be that I didn’t notice them before, but there certainly seems to be a recent upsurge of nice old Jaguars in the Mission and Bernal. My working theory is that these cars have hit an inflection point that puts them within reach of enthusiasts, that is to say, slightly older yuppies who always wanted one of these things.

Car: Bad Ass Corvette
Where: 18th and Mission St.

This thing was P.I.M.P. Unfortunately, I was scared off by the owner, a large angry-looking Danny Trejo-type PIMP so I didn’t get the picture I really wanted. Namely, me, in it.

Ride: Lamborghini Gallardo
Where: Chillin’ outside the Bottom of the Hill

It must have still been in the break-in period, or maybe this guy was just a little tipsy of the liquor and very worried about damaging his extremely expensive automobile; either way, I’ve seen electric wheelchairs make faster exits.

One of the less obvious benefits of life in the Bay Area is that the preponderance of weather, wealth, and all round irrational behavior leads to an abundance of fairly ridiculous automobiles. Of course, I’m not only a client: in the years since my arrival here I’ve done my part to perpetuate the trend.

However, I’ve become convinced that the current state of affairs is not meant to last. Leaving aside the fact that common sense and physics dictate an upper bound on the lifetime of a ‘72 Mercury Cougar, it’s my belief that given the current trend in gas prices, we’ll all soon be driving around in nausea-inducing electric retardo-cars.

In that vein, I’ve taken it upon myself to document the ephemeral beauty of the San Francisco Bay Area automotive ecosystem. Naturally, since one man - even an Übermensch such as I - can only do so much, I encourage all of my reader to send in contributions.