Pull the other one, it's got bells on it...

"It can babysit your kids, walk your dog..." says frequent Dad of the Year candidate, Elon Musk.

Yeah, let's pick two activities that are more complicated and require more attention and interaction than driving a car: Interacting with a live critter or a small human.

Given how low Elon’s bar is for adequate involvement with a child, I cannot imagine what he thinks is sufficient dog walking capability. I can just see C3P0’s idiot cousin taking the family cocker spaniel for a drag around the block.

Oh, also, that windowless death box with no windows or internal controls and seating for twenty, the "Robovan"? Have you heard how he pronounces it?

"Ruh-BOE-vahn". 

Christ, what a dork.

Edited to add BONUS CONTENT!

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Some Links...

• Marko's writing update...


• Bobbi's omelette tips...


• I updated my older posts on the 1967 Plymouth GTX and 1968 Plymouth Road Runner with period road test data.

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Going off half-cocked...

*rubs temples*

He was charged with the misdemeanor crime of Battery against the woman, as well as the misdemeanor crime of Assault on an Unborn Child.

The headline and article are poorly and unclearly written, but for heaven’s sake, people, would it kill you to do a little journalism of your own before setting your hair on fire and running in circles?

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Torn...

Some dude has put together a book of a bunch of Army uniform photos from Natick Soldier Systems Center dating from the early Seventies to about the Gulf War, and the nerd in me wants to buy it, but I'm not sure I want to buy it this badly...

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Tab Clearing...

• Why is it so hard to produce good infantry?


• Afghan man arrested in Oklahoma, said to be plotting ISIS-inspired attacks on Nov. 5th.


• Why was Roman infantry weaponry so weird relative to other Mediterranean nations?

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As the Wind Blows...

There's a good explainer here on what caused the rapid intensification of Hurricane Milton, why "bigger" doesn't necessarily mean "stronger" when it comes to hurricanes, and what's likely to happen over the next couple days as Milton continues to track to the northeast and encounters less favorable (for the hurricane) atmospheric conditions while still remaining over unusually warm Gulf waters...

The hurricane went from a Category 1 storm at midnight to a Category 5 hurricane by noon. And it didn’t stop there.

By 8 p.m. on Monday, the storm’s maximum sustained wind speeds had increased to 180 miles per hour, making Milton one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes ever. Based on wind speed, it joined a handful of other hurricanes to rival the strongest Atlantic storm ever recorded: a 1980 hurricane named Allen, which had a peak wind speed of 190 m.p.h. before it made landfall along the United States-Mexico border.

As a small, compact system, however, Milton was more similar to Hurricane Wilma in 2005, which holds the record for the lowest pressure in a hurricane, another measure of a storm’s intensity. Its small size, an excess of extremely warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico and calm atmospheric conditions allowed Milton to “explosively” intensify, as hurricane center forecasters noted Monday afternoon.

The standard meteorological definition of “rapid intensification” is 30 knots in 24 hours, or roughly 35 miles per hour daily. Milton increased by more than double this definition on Monday, at a pace similar to that of Wilma and another record storm, Hurricane Felix in 2007.

It's funny that, like, the sixth post ever made at this blog, just over nineteen years ago, was about politics making people stupid about hurricanes...

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Automotif DLVI...

If the Jaguar XK-E, properly referred to as the "E-Type" in the land of its birth, isn't the best looking car ever, it's close enough that it's not worth having a big argument about.

Launched in 1961 as a replacement for the increasingly archaic-looking XK150, the XK-E used an aerodynamic body envelope drawn from the design of Jag's successful D-type race cars, rather than the old narrow hood and separate fenders of earlier roadgoing Jaguar sports cars.

Under the hood was the XK inline six from the XK150, with dual overhead cams, and cylinder heads with hemispherical combustion chambers and two valves per cylinder. In addition to the DOHC head, the E-type featured other technologies that were still pretty exotic for the time, including independent suspension and disc brakes at all four corners.

The 3.8L XK engine was bored out to 4.2L starting in October of 1964 for the '65 model year, upping performance even more. At the same time, a 2+2 was added to the lineup to complement the FHC (fixed head coupe) and OTS (open two seater).

The Series 2 XK-E, exemplified by the Cream colored Fixed Head Coupe in these photos, debuted for the 1969 model year with a slew of changes, most (but not all) of which were to accommodate increasingly stringent US emissions and safety requirements.

Dash controls were redesigned to be less likely to cause injury in crashes and front seat headrests were added. Externally, the plexiglass covers came off the headlamps, side marker lights were added, and the enlarged wraparound rear bumper required the taillights to be relocated lower, beneath the bumper.

Under the hood, the triple SU carbs found on the home market E-Type were replaced by a pair of 2-barrel Strombergs, causing rated horsepower to drop from 265 to 246 SAE gross on U.S. market cars.

Road & Track tested a '69 XK-E FHC against a Corvette, Mercedes 280SL, and Porsche 911T in June of 1969. With a base price of $5,775, the magazine's test car added wire wheels, tinted windows, A/C, and an AM/FM radio, bringing the as-tested price to $6,495 and curb weight to 3,020 pounds.

The Jag managed a zero-to-sixty time of 8.0 seconds and a best quarter mile of 15.7 at 86 mph on the way to a top speed of 119.

This one was photographed in October of 2024 using an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens.

Tab Clearing...

• Head of RT admits in interview that there are more clandestine influence operations where that one came from.


• A tour of Fort Wayne... the one in Detroit, that is.


• Beware of acorns!

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Meme Dump...

Automotif DLV...

In the mid-Seventies, Pontiac's wagons were positively enormous cars. For 1975, you could get the Safari, based on the Catalina sedan, and the Grand Safari, which was derived from the plusher Grand Ville Brougham and distinguished by its woodgrain flanks and deluxe interior appointments.

Both rode on 127" wheelbases, and cast shadows over 19 feet long on pavement that groaned under their 5100-plus pound curb weights. This Pinemist green Grand Safari has rectangular sealed-beam headlamps, first allowed in the US for '75, and the Grand Safari model was discontinued for '76, so that narrows down the date range pretty well.

With a station wagon of this length, unloading the 105.7 cubic foot cargo bay in a small garage or other confined space could be tricky, so GM engineered a clever two-piece power-operated clamshell tailgate arrangement. The upper glass half and the lower metal tailgate would slide into the roof and floor, respectively, at the touch of a switch.

Under the hood, the base motor was 185 horsepower 400 cubic inch small journal Pontiac V-8 with a four-barrel carburetor. Optionally, a buyer who needed more towing oomph could spring for a large journal 455 4-barrel, boasting 200 SAE net horsepower and 315 lb-ft of trailer-yanking torque.

After the '76 model year, Pontiac's big wagons got downsized, and a 1977 Pontiac Grand Safari rode on a 115.9"wheelbase, shared with the Chevy Impala/Caprice B-bodies. No longer needed, the complex, bulky, and heavy Glide-Away tailgate was axed, along with fourteen inches of overall length and half a ton of curb weight.

This one was photographed in June of 2023 using a Nikon D700 and 28-200mm f/3.5-5.6G zoom lens.

Automotif DLIV...

In 1979 disco was showing signs of its impending demise, and so, by all indications, was automotive performance.

The big block American V-8, already strangled by lowered compression ratios and emissions reduction systems, had all but disappeared from most American performance cars, with the 6.6 liter in the '79 Trans Am being one of the final holdouts. The fuel crisis sparked by the Iranian revolution, as well as increasingly stringent Corporate Average Fuel Economy mandates would come for it, too.

Into this world came the 1979 Corvette, distinguishable from the '78 model mostly by its lack of 25th Anniversary badging. Under the hood, a less restrictive exhaust gave both the base L48 and optional L82 engines a 5-horsepower performance bump over the previous year.

That base L48 350 small block had an 8.2:1 compression ratio and was rated at 195 SAE net horsepower, while the L82 gave the buyer an alloy intake manifold, higher-lift cam, 8.9:1 compression, and 225 horsepower. Both could be had with either a three-speed auto or four-speed manual, and an L82 customer could also opt for a close-ratio 4-speed.

While the Corvette was still one of the quickest and fastest cars you could buy in America, that was damning with faint praise in the depths of the Malaise Era. Car and Driver tested an L82 'Vette with the 4-speed and optional 3.70:1 rear end and only managed a 6.6 zero-to-sixty time, while the quarter mile took 15.3 seconds at 95 mph. The car would pull all the way to redline in top gear, which resulted in a maximum velocity of 127 miles per hour.

All this could be yours for only $11,951 dollars in 1979 money, or roughly fifty-two grand in today's terms.

The Black 1979 Corvette in the photos, with the Red interior, was photographed with an Olympus OM-D E-M1X and M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens.

Meme Dump...

I'd forgotten about that dude...

Jay J. Armes has left the building.

I remember seeing this dude on daytime talk shows in the early Seventies. One of the kids in my neighborhood had the J.J. Armes action figure, even, and we all thought he was cool. Supposedly J.J. even knew kung fu and had a pistol built into one of his hands.

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That's good news!

Better check and see if Costco will let you return those three cases of toilet paper you bought on speculation, hoping to sell it to your less-foresighted neighbors in a couple weeks, because the longshoremen's strike is off (at least for the next several months.)

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Meme Dump...

Automotif DLIII...

Chevrolet's fourth generation of Corvette debuted in January of 1983 as an '84 model, replacing the C3 'Vette, a.k.a. the Stingray, which had enjoyed an uninterrupted fifteen model year run.

With the introduction of the Tuned-Port Injection L98 350 Small Block V-8 in 1985, it brought performance back to the model line, after the dismal 200hp "Cross-Fire" dual throttle body injected 350 of the '82-'84 models. In '89 the clunky Doug Nash "4+3" transmission, needed because the Borg Warner T5 of the era wasn't up to the torque of the L98, was replaced with a proper ZF 6-speed manual.

Finally for the 1990 model year came the ultimate factory C4 Corvette option, the ZR-1.

GM had acquired Lotus in '86, and they proceeded to design a new 5.7L V-8 that shared nothing but its displacement and the spacing of its bore centers with the existing Chevy Small Block. An all-alloy DOHC 32V motor, it was largely built by Mercury Marine before final assembly and installation at the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Known as the LT5, it was rated at 375 SAE net horsepower and 370 lb-ft of torque.

Car and Driver's test ZR-1 bolted to sixty in only 4.5 seconds, which was legit supercar territory in 1990 and still not too shabby today. It dispatched the quarter in 12.8 seconds at 111 miles per hour and topped out at a buck seventy-five. These wwer Ferrari and Lamborghini performance numbers, but with a GM warranty and a $51,500 price tag, roughly $124k in today's coin. Only 3,049 ZR-1s were produced that first model year, one of which is this Bright Red example.

They were subtle, too. The only external cues that this wasn't a regular 'Vette were those super meaty 17" rear skins (315/35-ZR17s mounted on 11"-wide rims) and a convex, rather than concave, rear end that had four squarish tail lamps rather than the traditional round 'Vette units. Of course, since most other cars would only be viewing it from the rear, maybe it wasn't that hard to spot...

(For 1991, all Corvettes got the convex rear, but the nose and fender vents mark this as a 1990 car, so it's a ZR-1.)

It was photographed in March of 2023 using a Canon EOS-1D Mark IV and an EF 70-200mm f/4L IS zoom lens.

Speaking of which...

I just linked to a piece about Diego Garcia the other day, and now comes the news that the United Kingdom has agreed to hand the Chagos Islands (of which the Diego Garcia atoll is a part) over to Mauritius.

That was the last British colonial possession east of Suez, so this is kinda historic.

As part of the conditions of the treaty, which is still being finalized, the UK/US base on Diego Garcia will be permitted to remain. That's a good thing because it's of enormous, and growing, strategic importance.

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Tab Clearing...

• The only skyscraper designed by Frank Lloyd Wright is up for sale. Opening bid is only six hundred grand! It has a really baller penthouse apartment with built-in furnishings designed by Wright, too. I dunno what the nightlife is like in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, but I bet you can see clear to the horizon.


• How do you say "Join the army or go to jail" in Russian?


• Try something new. You might have a good time!

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Meme Dump...

Great Moments in Bad Ideas

On this day in 1995, Robert Overacker rode a jet ski off the brink of Niagara Falls and into history...and eternity.

Currently off the shelf...

Well, it's not really off the shelf since I'm reading it on my iPad via the Kindle app, but at any rate, I'm reading Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter after seeing several good reviews complimenting the writing style.

They were not wrong! This is well-written and hard to put down. I started yesterday afternoon and I'm about a third of the way in. (It's early 2020 and Elliott Management has just tried a boardroom coup to oust Jack Dorsey... again ...from the CEO's chair.)

I imagine I'll be done by this evening so I can write a proper book review.

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Charlie Hustle has left the building.

Pete Rose was controversial for a whole bunch of reasons, but there's also no denying he was one of the greatest to ever play the game.

After stints with the Cincinnati Reds, Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos, Mr. Rose retired as a player in 1986 with 4,256 hits and a career batting average of .303, hitting above .300 for a season 15 times. Most baseball historians and stat aficionados presume that the combination of Mr. Rose’s skill and longevity — the average MLB career is about six years — will make his hits record impossible to beat.

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