Antisocial Media

Elon Musk (Twitter) has agreed to meet Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) in a cage fighting ring.  Here's the BBC News take on it.  Basically, they think Zuckerberg has MMA experience and Musk is not serious.

But is Musk serious about anything?

I know that he must be a fan of the brilliant Mel Brooks comedy Spaceballs - here's a clue:

Supposedly (and I tend to believe it) he got the idea for the Tesla Ludicrous mode and the Model S Plaid from those.

But that's yesterday's story.

So here today is a Lexus in Plaid Mode:

It is also purportedly approaching 290kph in an 80kph zone.

Drive.au.com have the story here.  This was on Instagram so one nil to Zuckerberg.

It looks like it was faked by a content creator called North Borders who says on his Insta page, "I don't have much to write here mainly because I can't be f----ed writing some heartfelt message about myself, I got other s--- to do"

Sounds like a charming young man.

Although that quote comes via Drive - I can't be f---ed checking it out for myself.

It May Be an Automatic - But You've Still Got to Be There

The boss of Tesla's Autopilot programme has just quit.  Probably not connected but it is on the back of a couple of accidents including, tragically, a fatal one.

 

So, not a good idea to put too much faith in the system right now.

 

Like this bloke from Nottingham did:

The BBC report on how Bhavesh Patel moved into the passenger seat after putting his car into autopilot while at 40mph on a motorway.

 

The twerp.

 

Patel said he was the "unlucky one who got caught", the court was told.

 

That implies others do it regularly without getting caught.

 

I doubt that, but if it is true, then hopefully his 18 months driving disqualification, 100 hours of unpaid work and Crown Prosecution Service costs of £1,800 will put them off.

 

Especially as it is so easy to spot a Tesla driving under autopilot by the blue lines and circles emanating from the car: 

Her Name is Rio...

...and she's based on a Triumph Dolomite Sprint.

It's a Panther Rio.  I've never seen one in the flesh before - but it was one of the first cars I saw at The Manchester Classic Car Show.

 

Although I didn't see any actual Dolomites.  There were plenty of other Triumphs there though including TR6s, TR7s, my favourite Stags and even an Acclaim.

There were also plenty of excited dads like me wandering about telling their bored children why various cars were very interesting or had been owned by their ancestors.

As well as a car based on one of my former cars, there was also a green Jag estate a bit like I drive now - only much classier:

Having said that, I did spot this:

Now that may be in much better nick than my own car, and a few years younger, but it would imply that my car is a classic.

It isn't.

I suppose that this Porsche 914 is a classic - but it is clearly the Boxster's grandfather and I dislike it for the same reason that I dislike the Boxster - you can't tell if it's going forwards or backwards.

 There were a few cars I'd never heard of before  - like the Rochdale Olympic:

The Rochdale owners club had two and a half of them on display:

 Then there was this Berkeley:

I had to look them up on Wikipedia.  If what it says is correct, they seemed to have a large model-range considering they only lasted from 1956 to 1960 when they went bankrupt.  This model, which looked a bit lonely and ignored, looks like a Berkeley Foursome - 20 were produced and it had a tiny 492cc engine.

They did have some modern cars too.  It was difficult getting near the Tesla:

It was near the Tesla that I was handed my "goodie bag" which turned out to contain an issue (No 348) of Classic Car Buyer - and nothing else.  I shouldn't complain because it retails for £2.50 and the carrier bag will be worth 10p too.

Not too sure about this Mini Hatchback.

It's very clever and all that but the proportions looked all wrong.

Never mind, this makes everything good again:

Check out more pictures here.

Tripping

Three linked stories from America.

Although the first one is really from South Wales.

But it is reported by Fox News.  It is about a guy called Gary Egan who has to commute 187.5 miles each way every day between Porthcawl and Watford.  He uses a Renault Clio Diesel which Fox describe (quite accurately) as a "subcompact car" - don't know what they'd call a Twingo though.

Fox suspect this commute would be a World Record if such a category existed.

Which it doesn't.

A category has been invented though for the second story - also from Fox News.

The category is “the least non-driving time to cross the United States in an electric vehicle.”

Tesla are going to drive two Model S's from L.A. to New York to try to take this record and since this is a new category, if they get there they will take the record.  Speed records of this nature are not allowed, presumably for safety reasons, so this will be measuring the least time stood still - ie recharging.

The third story also involves a Model S going on a road-trip - up against a Model T - a Ford Model T from a hundred years ago.  It's basically a race from Detroit to New York and it is a brilliant article from Car & Driver.

Now I've always found C&D to be quite anti-electric cars so I did read it with some trepidation expecting the Model T to win (which it didn't) and C&D to be quite scathing (which they weren't despite the closeness of the result) - but, in the end it was just a very, very interesting piece.

Many of the readers' comments praised the article and several likened it to something Top Gear would do.

I concur.

And I really liked this picture: