I’m not a huge fan of electric cars, but you have to check this out:

Link.

Apropos nothing, I would like to show you this fabulous Citroen from the category of “I’d love to have one if it wasn’t completely impractical”:

Fun facts:
- Maserati engine
- Self-leveling hydraulic suspension
- Self-centering, speed dependent steering
- Headlights connected to hydraulic suspension (to dampen bumps)

About 13,000 Citroen SMs were made between 1970-75. They are notoriously difficult to restore and maintain (hmm, let’s see a hydraulic suspension plus a Maserati engine = maybe some trouble?) but oh so beautiful and apparently very smooth and powerful to drive.

I definitely got the biodiesel bug now. Since my post on the topic I’ve gotten a lot of encouraging feedback and I’m now researching ways to import diesel Land Rovers and Land Cruisers (I’m also planning on test driving one of these). It’s occured to me that one of the reasons I like these types of cars (shall we say rugged and semi-obscure) because I was imprinted early on. When I was a teenager, my dad got a Gurgel X-12 as a trade from someone who couldn’t pay a bill. It came from Brazil, where Gurgel was a pretty big car manufacturer from 1969 until they went out of business (in the late 80s?). Our X-12 was made of fiberglass, built on a VW bug chassis and painted a faded army green. My dad gave it to my sister to learn to drive in it, and it was handed down to me a few years later (I promptly repainted it and added a stereo on some new wheels – hey I was 17).

I know it looks a little weird, but boy was it fun. In a VW bug with a light, convertible body it feels like you’re going really fast, sliding through corners, and you look down and you’re doing just 40 mph! Here are some random Gurgel links.

Yesterday I found a fellow car nut in Braughm. We chatted and realized that we both like old Land Rovers. I told Braughm that I’d love to drive an old (pre 1994) Range Rover if it wasn’t such a gas hog. He came up with the perfect solution: find a diesel Range Rover and covert it to biodiesel!
He got the idea from a mid 80s diesel Land Cruiser (another car I like a lot) that’s parked outside his office:

It has a biodiesel sticker on it which sort of gives it away:

Turns out it belongs to a guy who has driven several cars on biodiesel and has lots of good info on his site.

If you happen to have an extra diesel Range Rover sitting around, please call me…

I will now present a random car from the “I’d love to have one of these” collection:

It’s a Lancia Stratos, famous for winning several rally world championships in the 1970s (including winning the famed Rally Monte Carlo in 75, 76, 77 and 79). It has a Ferrari Dino engine, less than a thousand road cars were made and it’s too small for anyone over 6 feet (I hit the roof when I tried sitting in one). Still, what a great looking machine.

My friend Richard recently sent me this. He’s a photographer and likes to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats to take amazing pictures of crazy cars and people.

News that the Smart car is coming to the US made the rounds a couple of weeks ago. I love cars, especially energy efficient ones, so I decided to drive up to Zap (the distributor in Santa Rosa) to see for myself. They have 5 convertible Smarts in their showroom. These cars are great! Very big inside, totally fun and perfect for San Francisco. They are clearly better made than the various other mini and electric cars that Zap has on display. I’m pretty much ready to buy one. Unfortunately, the sales guy told me that he’s been waiting to make his first sale for 5 months – because the car’s EPA approval has been pending. Once they have it, they still can’t sell in California. That will require separate state approval. Could be a while.