Talladega Not As Racist Way

I was always going to do a follow-up to yesterday's post.

But it was going to be how Scalextric wouldn't be able to sell my favourite car from my childhood any more:

That is, of course, The General Lee - named after a Confederate hero and sporting a Confederate flag on the roof.

 

Not that I understood the significance of that when I was 12.

 

But they stopped selling that a few years back - now they are advertising the Pratmobile and the Reliant van from Only Fools and Horses: 

Which is all now a complete digression from the news that while some NASCAR fans are still racist, they didn't actually go as far as putting a noose in Bubba Wallace's garage.

 

Apparently, it was a door pull rope "twisted into the shape of a noose" - the new story (or noose story) is here.  It doesn't say who twisted it into the shape of a noose.  Or why.  Or when - but it was probably months ago.  I bet the pit crew team member who found it on Sunday feels a bit of a prat right now.  I wonder if he drives a green Capri.

 

Unless this whole door pull story is because someone important left the noose there?

 

No, I'm not one for conspiracy theories and neither are the FBI:

The Americans Are Interested in Vauxhall

Or are they?

Most of the American sites I follow are very interested in the Vauxhall Cascada - they are even showing photos of right-hand-drive cars with British Number Plates.

Although the Google images that stood out for me when I searched were this one of the Cascada's early predecessor, the Vauxhall Cavalier Convertible:

and this one apparently of a Singer Cascada:

I remember Singer cars from my youth but don't remember one that pretty - actually - I'll take that back - the later (1970s) Singer Rapiers were nice. Singer were part of the Rootes group who eventually found themselves under the ownership of PSA Peugeot-Citroen.

But I have digressed somewhat. Or have I?

The reason that America is so interested in this Vauxhall is that it may well get re-badged as a Buick Regal over there. Here is the Fox News story on it.

The Buick Regal, of course, should not be confused with the Reliant Regal:

Vauxhall, or as it is known in the rest of the World, Opel, is GM's loss-making, European arm - hence the interest in the Cascada being the new Regal soft-top. The GM accountants, however, are more interested in the loss-making part of that sentence - and a possible solution has been mooted this week. This Autocar story covers it quite well. It talks of a possible merger between Vauxhall-Opel & Peugeot-Citroen although GM would only own 30% of the new organisation.

I don't like the sound of this - it sounds more like a take-over and given the model-range overlap would probably lead to some factory closures - and probably not in France.

The article states that "According to Automotive News Europe, this tentative plan is said to have been one of a number of ideas being considered by the management teams of PSA and GM, including selling Opel outright to PSA or GM buying PSA’s automotive division"

I guess it will all come down to whether or not the Americans are interested in Vauxhall.

Inflatable Girlfriends

A 51-year-old Canadian man has been fined for driving in a high-occupancy vehicle lane with a blow-up doll in the passenger seat of his car.

That's the opening line and picture from a story in my new Car News source, www.caradvice.com.au

It is about a man who was fined for using a Car-Pool lane while travelling alone with a blow-up doll wearing a jacket and baseball cap in his passenger seat. I'm not sure about Canadian seatbelt laws but this doll was safely strapped in.

The picture is not of the offending vehicle, but looks like an advert for Reeses. I don't know if it was mocked up in Australia or not - do they have Reeses confectionary Down Under? - they generally don't in the UK.

The article concludes with the nugget of information, "For the record, police confiscated the doll as evidence, although the cap and jacket were left with the driver" - which conjures up the image of a patrol car driving through Ontario with a naked sex doll on board.

The story prompted me to recall the classic Only Fools and Horses episode with the exploding dolls and to find this picture:









And that, in turn, led me to this story from 2008 in The Mirror with this picture...Look closely at the rear window of the Fiesta - she was definitely not strapped in.