Automotif DXLII...

There are two automotive phenomena in play with today's ride: The Indy 500 Pace Car, and the Indy 500 Official Car.

First, there's the Pace Car. Pace Cars have mostly been convertibles, but more importantly, the Pace Car needed to be able to be able to perform the chores of the actual pace car in the race. During the Malaise Era, this resulted in actual Pace Cars that were heavily modified to be up to the high speeds involved, and those modifications were not applied to the replica Pace Cars sold for the street. As an example, the actual '83 Riviera convertible Pace Cars for the track (there were two built) had 4.3L twin-turbo intercooled V-6 motors that pumped out more than 400 horsepower and were in no way remotely street legal.

Then there are the Official Cars, which are used in 500 Festival events and parades leading up to the race and in the festivities on race day. Frequently these are the same make and model as the Pace Car, but not necessarily. In 1983, they were, though: Riviera convertibles.

Of the Official Cars that Buick provided to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway that year, sixty were white Riviera convertibles with maroon interiors, making these somewhat rarer than the 502 Pace Car Riviera XX replicas.

This one was snapped in September of 2024 using an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and Panasonic 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens.

Super New

The more mature a technology is, the harder it is to release a really jaw-dropping product:

So even if the engineers manage to improve an already near-perfect model, the new camera will not really be all that different.

That is exactly what happened in case of the Nikon D6: Like the D5, it still is a lighting-fast camera, it still has incredible high ISO performance and it still is indestructible. On top of that, the autofocus was improved significantly, but no one really took note of that, as the D5 was already practically infallible.

It is important to understand that major breakthroughs in physical engineering are far less likely to happen and if they do happen, they often go relatively unnoticed.

Always keep the Pareto-principle in mind: An improvement of 20% requires 80% of total development resources and is neither needed nor noticed by 80% of all users.

Meme Dump...

A penny saved is a pain in the ass.

People save pennies, but don't spend them. They pile up in coffee cans and pickle jars around the country and once in a blue moon someone gets arsed to roll all theirs and take them to the bank, or go dump the jar in a CoinStar machine.

So the government has to keep minting a jillion of the things so that retailers can make change for every purchase which totals up to a number that doesn't end in a 0 or 5. It costs three cents to make a penny. We're flushing money down the toilet and we've known it for almost my entire life.

But when it comes time to get serious about eliminating the penny, the legislature and the Treasury Department, and the general public make like that Spiderman meme.

The one thing I do know is that there's a particular flavor of conservative who absolutely lose their tiny little minds anytime you change anything about the money.

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Automotif DXLI...

I've been trying to get a shot of this mirror-wrapped Maserati Ghibli fo-evah, and finally got some good ones.

Automotif DXL...

1970 was a watershed year for Buick's Electra model. It was the last year of the third generation of the model, which had launched as a '65. Further, it was the final appearance of an Electra convertible in showrooms.

It was the first year of Buick's newest iteration of its big block V-8, the 455, created by boring out the older Buick 430 V-8. It was also the last year of high-compression motors under the hood of Electras. The 455 in this Burnished Saddle Iridescent 1970 Electra 225 Limited convertible had a 10.0:1 compression ratio and was rated at 360 SAE gross horsepower, but for 1971 it would be reduced to 8.5:1 so that it could run on regular pump gas, giving it a horsepower haircut to 315 SAE gross.

1970 would also be the last year for finned aluminum brake drums on all four corners on the Electra. The 1971 model year would see power front discs appear as standard equipment up front on the big Buick.

What was unchanged for 1970 was size. The 1970 Electra 225 Limited still stretched a hair longer than 225" between the bumpers and pressed down on the earth with just shy of 4500 pounds of road-hugging weight.

It still showed off the classic Buick styling elements, too. On the front fenders are the four Ventiports proclaiming its status as a top-of-the-line Buick, and stretching down the flanks is a chrome styling line echoing the classic Sweepspear.

This one was photographed in August of 2024 with an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and a Panasonic 12-60mm f/2.8-4 zoom lens.

Hey, Look!

Always be learning!

The first few times at the range with a handgun are a real big deal for most folks, and you’re likely to imprint pretty strongly on the first pistols you tried, the words of wisdom from your dad/cop friend/whoever took you to the range that first time and the coaching from the instructor at your first concealed-carry class.

For most people, that’s about as far as it goes. Shooting isn’t a hobby, nor are guns a lifestyle for most firearm owners. They’ll get to the range a couple times a year, maybe, and 20 years from now they’ll still be shooting the same way they were when they started out. They may retain some of the basics, or they may not.

The fact that you’re reading my column in this magazine indicates that you’re probably a little more into shooting than the statistically most common handgun owner. Like the music enthusiast who seeks out new bands to listen to, you’re probably more open to broadening your shooting horizons than Joe and Suzy Average. Perhaps you seek out coaching from different instructors in order to learn new techniques. I know I do.

Haven't we seen this movie?

Interesting choice of words for its headline from The Economist, there. I'd say this is pretty well-charted territory, actually.

The elections in the two states in the former East Germany were being closely watched in Berlin as a measure of the rising strength of extremist parties, left and right, as well as of the weakening position of the centrist parties that make up the current federal coalition. It was the first time since the Nazi era that a far-right party had won a state election.

The returns were seen as a worrying indicator of the health and future of German democracy, and they were likely to intensify a quandary over whether and how mainstream parties can isolate extremists and keep them from entering government.

Well...

Automotif DXXXIX...

The second generation of the Toyota Camry, dubbed the V20 internally, launched in the North American market in autumn of '86 as a 1987 model. Available as either a sedan or a wagon, and in base, DX, and LE trim levels, the Japanese-built sedans were soon joined by ones built at Toyota's new U.S. manufacturing plant in Georgetown, Kentucky. All Camry wagons sold in the American market were imported from Japan, however.

This Dark Blue '88 DX wagon could have been equipped with either Toyota's 3S-FE 2.0L inline four, rated at 115 SAE net horsepower, or the 156hp 2VZ-FE 2.5L DOHC 24V V-6. While a five speed manual was theoretically available, manual wagons were already vanishingly rare by '88, so this one's likely sporting a 4-speed automatic, but one never knows. I'd do bad, wrong things for a longroof Camry with a stick.

Despite being dull as dishwater, these things were phenomenons of reliability, doing as much as any other model to help establish Toyota's reputation in the US for boring longevity. The fact that this 36-year-old car is still out there tooling around as a daily driver attests to that fact with a positively Camry-esque blend of blandness and eloquence.

When the rats and cockroaches are doing drive-bys on each other in the post-apocalyptic wastelands with Glocks and AKs, they'll be driving Camrys like this one.

This one was photographed with an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and Panasonic 12-60mm f/2.8-4 in August of 2024.

Yowza

How in the heck can it be September already? It was April only five minutes ago!

Time has gotten so wonky since March of 2020. Things that feel like they happened just the other day actually happened a year and a half ago. Meanwhile, the last three weeks of this election season have dragged on for months.

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Meme Dump...