Illuminati-R-Us

I like cars. I have at various times coveted an MG, an XK-120, various others, and of course Porsche. I loved the 904, but a 911 would due just fine too. I think a car should have a certain style, a self-confidence. I appreciate my namesake's cars. They are not somehow just what appeals to me, but OH are they sexy. A remark attributed to Enzo himself "Aerodynamics are for people who cannot design engines." I even found myself half-way rooting for the GT40 from Ford at Le Mans many years ago.

But I have my priorities. Imagine a Citroen or Volvo formula one car? And likewise I was, and still am, offended by the Porsche badge on a freaking SUV. But I still somehow thought there would be limits. Then...

Relatively recent changes now allow online gambling here in Michigan. We already have casinos on "native American" land. Once we allowed them to build casinos on tribal reservation land. The localities got wise and made agreements with tribes to designate a parcel of land in their area as tribal, in exchange for whatever. SO now we have real casinos scattered around the state. But they don't want to lose out on the online, so now our TV is blanketed with ads for gambling. Onlines from the big houses like MGM Grand, and also from our tribal affairs. SPorts betting is big, and all the ads are similar. SOme sort of babe anouncing all the great stuff at such and such a place.

Now online is great, you can lose a month's income just sitting in your underwear at home. But they still want us to visit the real casinos. SO they have "hourly giveaways" and stuff, and one is even giving away a car. Yes a car. And not just any car, it is a Bentley. Well now, if any car summons up images of posh elegance, and staid class, surely Bentley does.

As I walked by my TV, they announced this, "A brand new Bentley Bentayga". OK, they are giving out Bentleys now. But then They flashed a picture. OMG, the Bentayga is a freaking SUV. A Bentley SUV for Christ's sake.

A Bentley SUV... one of the signs of the apocalypse.

I’ve seen one here.

Actually when I pulled up that photo I was struck that their model was a black man. My brother in law is black, and he was a executive at General Motors. He got a brand new Cadillac twice a year, the used one them became a "program car". Black man driving a brand new top of line Cadillac? Got pulled over on a regular basis. he referred to this as being cited for "driving while black."

So I am wondering how long that black man could drive that $200,000 car before he gets pulled over for DWB?

We see so many older people driving SUVs we just refer to them as "hip replacement waiting lists".

I'm somewhere in the middle here. I like SUVs. When we lived in Florida, we had a small saloon (do they still use that term?), but rented an SUV for our two road trips as a present to ourselves. Now, back in the UK, we have our own - as Arneb will remember. (I forgive Heid's comment!)

But I'm with Enzo that certain brands have a certain image - and SUVs don't fit that image. Porsche and Bentley are definitely among those. And I regret to say that there's even a Maserati SUV - I've seen it around Cambridge. Yes, I deplore that as well.

I always have a 4x4, currently a Suzuki Grand Vitara, but that's because I live rurally in the Highlands and we get a lot of snow and I need to get about. Also, of course, I'm an archaeologist and I sometimes need to drive through the woods or across fields. If I was an accountant in Manchester or something, I wouldn't get one to drive my kids half a mile to school. The Porsche one is interesting, as it's a shite Porsche and a shite 4x4, bought exclusively by arseholes with too much money and no actual requirement for either a Porsche or a 4x4.

Anyone care to guess how many Porsche/Jaguar/BMW/RangeRover 4x4s I see doing the school run in Edinburgh? I also see a lot of electric cars so swings and roundabouts.

My brother who lives on Mull usually has a 4x4 for the same reasons as The Gentleman from The North.

Lianachan wrote:I always have a 4x4, currently a Suzuki Grand Vitara, but that's because I live rurally in the Highlands and we get a lot of snow and I need to get about. Also, of course, I'm an archaeologist and I sometimes need to drive through the woods or across fields. If I was an accountant in Manchester or something, I wouldn't get one to drive my kids half a mile to school. The Porsche one is interesting, as it's a shite Porsche and a shite 4x4, bought exclusively by arseholes with too much money and no actual requirement for either a Porsche or a 4x4.

Wait, there is an actual practical reason people would own a 4x4 SUV? Learn something new everyday

Full disclosure: We have an SUV too, although not as posh as Richard's VW. Ours was made by the poor relation down in East Bloc land.

I don't know about hip replacements; we call those big fat FerraBugaMasePorsche things ersatz dick enlargements.

I … umm … am very partial to mini vans. I can fit the whole family or group of friends in there, load it up with musical gear, move stuff from here to there, and I sit up fairly high, which is both good to see around me and comfortable. Currently I’m driving a 2021 Toyota Sienna Hybrid, which easily gets over 36 mpg. Yeah - a van doing that well! Never got more than 19 mpg in my old one.

Had a little SUV a long time ago (Honda CRV) and liked it, but quickly outgrew it for the reasons above. The bigger SUVs dwarf my van (which really isn’t mini anymore) and I can’t say that I have cared for any of them I’ve driven. Maybe I need to try a Bentley for the experience?

I generally rent some manner of SUV when I go hiking in northern New York (Adirondaks). Good for carrying a lot of stuff around, you open up the back, spread out all the gear while packing/unpacking, etc. I don’t really need it for the driving bit (the roads in that part of New York are actually pretty good), more the carrying and the packing/unpacking. And on a small number of occasions, it also served as a hotel room Such as while in the Mount Whitney (California) car park, while waiting for a delayed climber to come down the trail, holding a hiking stick while sleeping, in case a bear came to the SUV before the delayed hiker. (Neither bear nor hiker arrived that night.)

I just get whatever is not too outrageously expensive. The best I got once was a Volvo; sometimes they give you something a lot better than what you reserved, because that’s all they’ve got. (Hint - at least in the US, when the car rental agency tries to get you to upgrade when you pick up, say “no” - they don’t have the car you reserved. After you decline, they’ll put on this show, pretending that the car they’re giving you is what you paid for, even though it’s an upgrade.)

It occurs to me that I probably haven’t driven a car since August 2019. I did drive a motorcycle in March 2020.

On getting pulled over for driving while black, here is Will Smith in Men in Black III, which involves time travel back to July 1969.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S3pZB9UDBNA

The good part starts at 1:18.

What is next? Lamborghini Miura, probably the sexiest car ever made, with a trailer hitch on the rear? Lotus Elan pickup truck?

Was trying to think up any potential inappropriate juxta positioning of ends of the class spectrum...

Beef McWellington

Quite simply, he should be shot.


What salad goes with a Beef McWellington?

Kale Caesar.

Enzo wrote:Kale Caesar.

I was there when he came up with that. I laughed.

Wring … the enabler …

Enzo wrote:What is next? Lamborghini Miura, probably the sexiest car ever made, with a trailer hitch on the rear? Lotus Elan pickup truck?

Lamborghini started out making tractors.

I had forgotten that.

They still make'em.

Wow...

And the first company to mass produce tractors in America was Ford.

All of a sudden I have this vision of Arnie the farmer cruising down the Mulsanne Strait in one of those.

My spoiler is catching on the corn stalks.

I have cruised down the Mulsanne Straight, for most of the year it is Route Départementale RD 338.

Lianachan wrote:I always have a 4x4, currently a Suzuki Grand Vitara, but that's because I live rurally in the Highlands and we get a lot of snow and I need to get about. Also, of course, I'm an archaeologist and I sometimes need to drive through the woods or across fields. If I was an accountant in Manchester or something, I wouldn't get one to drive my kids half a mile to school. The Porsche one is interesting, as it's a shite Porsche and a shite 4x4, bought exclusively by arseholes with too much money and no actual requirement for either a Porsche or a 4x4.

Exhibit A. I spent this morning doing a geophysics survey (resistivity) across an enclosure site of presumed Iron Age origin and we used my Suzuki to transport the equipment a fair distance across fields to the site. Parked at a flat bit, but actually all low undulating hills of the kind you need to be careful with your driving angles on. Rolling over sideways on the slope would be, at best, extremely embarrassing,

We picked up one of these a few months ago. It's the 75th anniversary "Diamond Edition" Suburban.

Haven't rolled it down any hills yet but hope to try soon.