REVolution Road Trip

Yeah, it happens. They occasionally allow us out and take us to see the sights. At least, that’s what they tell us but we’re pretty sure they’re just taking the opportunity to change the padding in our cell. Whatever, it’s great to breath in fresh air and of course, we’re fixated on the cars around us. Here are a couple that caught our eye and we had an opportunity to take a picture of with our Polaroid.

AACA Museum Station Wagon Exhibit - Part 2

Our series exploring the AACA Museum’s “A Family Affair: Station Wagons” exhibit continues with an interview with Nancy Gates, Director of Marketing and Communications. She sat down with us to give us the inside scoop on the fascinating selection of station wagons and how they came together.

Photo: AACA Museum

1927 Volvo ÖV 4

This is where it all began, production-wise, for Volvo (the prototype was shown in 1926). Soon came the hardtop version, the PV 4. Aren't the origin vehicles interesting for each company? We think so!

AACA Museum’s “A Family Affair: Station Wagons” Exhibit

Most gear heads love a great car museum. Scratch that; they love any car museum. Geographical proximity to where they live more often or not is the deciding factor to which is their favorite. Regardless of these criteria, the Antique Automobile Club of America’s Museum (AACA) is an absolute knockout.

Photo: AACA Museum

Trivia; Shared Component

Quick, which major component is shared between all of these vehicles; Kia Borrego, Maserati Quattroporte, Rolls Royce Phantom VI and Jaguar XK? Note that the 2009 Kia Borrego had an MSRP of less than $30K and the 2003 Rolls Royce Phantom was $320K...you could buy nearly eleven Borregos for the price of the BMW-owned Phantom!

Photos: Wikipedia

Hum by Verizon

Operating through a proprietary OBD reader and a small remote controller that has a speaker built in that you attach inside your 1996+ vehicle, you can get vehicle diagnostics, maintenance reminders, roadside and emergency assistance, stolen vehicle tracking, parked car location and other features via an associated app on your smartphone. For roughly $15 a month, it isn't a bad option if your car didn't come with these features. So shut up, all you Tesla owners; just because you're rich doesn't mean you get all the toys.

Design Element

Do you know what make and model this is? Take a guess then hover over the image with your mouse to confirm or deny your answer.

Henry Ford...Racist?!?

Yep, you read that right. Here's a quote from the man himself; "I know who caused World War I - the Jews!".

Lovely. What a nutter. Don't believe it? Then you need to read this book. There are actually several books on the subject.

1992 Volkswagen Jetta Limo

Stick that in your diesel pipe and smoke it!

Photos: Craigslist

2016 Fiat 124 Spider

It's high time for a Fiata update!

Photo: FCA

For visual comparison:

Desirable 2011 Model Year Cars

Recently, our pal Gianni posed the question, "Which 2011 model year car would you be interested in?" That's a great question! Here's the list we came up with.

Photo: That Hartford Guy

"Cars" by Gary Numan

The 80s live (late 70s actually, but who's arguing?) here at the REVolution with "Cars" by the great Gary Numan. BTW, if you like his music, he's still pumping out albums and they are spectacular!

Numan's classic new wave song should not be confused with Cledus T. Judd's "New Car".

Jigsaw Puzzle

Have some fun and waste a little time putting together this jigsaw puzzle!

Photo: Miniclip.com

1960 Devin Spyder

Our apologies for all THE SCREAMING. We're not sure why the seller chose to do such a thing but it doesn't take away from the fact that this is an extremely rough but still amazing car.

THIS RARE ALTERNATIVE TO A PORSCHE 550 AND MORE AFFORDABLE DEVIN SPYDER SPORTS CAR / CLUB RACER WAS DROPPED OFF TO US BY ITS CURRENT OWNER WHO IS ROTATING HIS COLLECTION. . . NOT YET HAVING A CHANCE TO FIND OUT THE EXACT HISTORY OF THIS PARTICULAR CAR -- THIS IS WHAT I KNOW:

LINK TO A BRIEF HISTORY OF DEVIN

Photos: Craigslist

Joke

Last Tuesday, the chicken went out to her car. Turning left out of her driveway, her destination was a seance a couple of miles away. Soon, she came to a four-way stop.

Do you know why the chicken crossed the road?

1977 Airstream Argosy 20 Motorhome

From the seller...

Built on a “Motor Home P chassis” by Chevrolet, 1 Ton VIN CPY3773304611 454 CI Motor, New long block approx 3000 miles ago. Custom exhaust system. Transmission the THM400 was removed and replaced with a purpose built 700R4 approx 1000 miles ago. This a four speed automatic with the fourth gear being an overdrive. New radiator and hoses new air conditioning compressor and filter dryer. 4KW Onan generator, two cylinder, new exhaust and muffler.

Photos: viewrvs.com

Complete new dashboard and gauges.

The bodywork was stripped ,primed and painted by an aircraft painting craftsman who also remade all of the cabinets and counter tops .New teak floors, new upholstery. New stainless sinks and faucets. New Force 10 2-burner gas cooktop. New Microwave.

New 13,500 BTU Brisk Air RV air conditioner. New Zip Dee awning. New Dometic RM2510 Refrigerator. 2 new (3/15) house batteries deep cell (DC24MF). All storage closets have original Tambour doors.

Capacities Gas 50 gal, LP 50lbs, Water 28 gals, Grey 18 gals, Black 28 gals.

FOR SALE ..over $55M spent. Asking price $39,500.

If the seller truly did spend over $55 million dollars on this vehicle, it's our brave prediction that they're going to lose money on the sale.

2004 Oldsmobile Alero

Uhhhhh....we're at a loss, here. Somehow, the manhole cover has spoken on this, uh...once again, we're at a loss.

Photo: Craigslist

2015 Minivan Sales

So, are people really not buying minivans? Clearly, they must be out of their minds if they'll choose something other than the most efficient and best-driving (of vehicles most optimized to haul people and things) vehicles on the market. Let's see if they aren't; here are the sales number as of October. Note that things are highly unlikely to change by year end.

That's pretty bad. As a somewhat random comparison, the Acura MDX, which shares much of its DNA with the Honda Odyssey, outsold all minivans combined. It occupies the #88 slot on the YTD (as of October) total sales. That's awful. Not only that, but MDX sales are down by over 17% compared to last year.

Photo: Kia

Americans have truly chosen form over function and this truly saddens the REVolution. The end is nigh. Do you have your Prepper stock ready?

1970 Radio Shack Catalog

Remember going on long trips and talking to each other from car to car with these bad boys? Those were the days...literally. Check out this article reminiscing about the 1970 Radio Shack catalog!

Photo: Radio Shack

Remote Voodoo

One of the REVolution fleet has suffered a terrible blow; the remote doesn't work. Though we currently have vehicles that are completely manual in this and all other respects, this particular vehicle actually needs this feature. We could tell you why but then we'd have to kill you.

Bozatwork Correspondence

Like a Venus flytrap, occasionally outsiders get caught up in the REVolution. Mostly, it's a misplaced attempt to help someone buy a used car or deal with current car issues. You might find this correspondence between one of the REVolution staff and someone who goes by the handle "Bozatwork"; it most certainly accurately reflects many of our thoughts here.

Begin message...

Photo: WreckedExotics.com

Urbamobile Replaces The Car

"Before introducing the UrbamobileTransportation System one thing should be noted: however unbelievable or fantastic it may seem, implementing this System on a broad and global level, without exaggeration, opens up a new era in the history of mankind.

Unfortunately, it is exactly the fatally hopeless organization of motor-car traffic in the actual absence of feasible alternatives that predetermined a rather bleak picture until recently.

Photo: Alexey F. Khoroshev

But now when the Urbamobile is invented giving the realistic chance of organizing everything in a fundamentally different way. Implementing the amazing urbamobile ability to easily move around disregarding contact and ensuring good maneuvering in a squeezed space environment due to optimal design and control offered by the Urbamobile TransportationSystem."

Click the links for more description, details and images. Imagine how difficult it would be to implement this idea; what a task of monumental proportions! But it might work if a city closed its borders to cars and provided safe and secure free parking on the city limits and made these available for within. Say, that could work...

"Yours To Keep" by Teddybears

Now that November is here, we're missing warm summer evenings around here at the REVolution offices. This great pop song will alleviate some of that angst, we hope. Enjoy!

2105 VW Jetta TDI Depreciation Update

How can it be time for an update on the depreciation of our example 2015 Volkswagen Jetta TDI? It's only been two weeks! Surely the value hasn't gone down much...or has it? Well Buffy McBufferson, the last we took a look at the KBB, it was $19,230. The current value is now...wait for it...$18,744. It's only lost $486. Is that good or is it bad?

Design Element - Jan 27, 2016

This is the engine from the Lancia Aurelia. It's important because it was the world's first production V-6.

2016 Nissan Titan XD Design Analysis

You’re probably already aware that full-sized trucks outsell every other kind of vehicle in the United States. The bestselling car, the Camry, is still outdistanced by the Ford F-Series, often at nearly a 2 to 1 rate per month. To say that big honkin' trucks are the lifeblood of American car manufacturers is an understatement.

Photo: Nissan

Atkinson Cycle Engine

Click here for the Wikipedia entry describing the Atkinson cycle engine.

 

1981 Delorean

It's hard to quantify what's rare in the car world. To some people, anything less than several thousand vehicles produced is rare while to others nothing is rare unless it's less than a dozen. And when you factor in special editions and options...well, things get messy and there's gonna be a smackdown.

How about 7? Is seven vehicles produced with a special paint job rare to you? How about if the car is normally unpainted, with a stainless steel body? Okay, things just got weird.

Photos: Craigslist

Design Element: January 4, 2016

Many enthusiasts believe the Porsche story begins with the Beetle but that's not true. They also believe that the original Porsche-designed vehicles were powered by gasoline engines. Neither of those assumptions are accurate; witness the very first Ferdinand Porsche-designed car, the 1898 Egger-Lohner C.2 Phaeton, which was electric. Yep, Mission E be damned!

With six forward gears, two for reverse and four for braking, this lil' German zapper could utilize an overboost function ("Insane" mode, anyone?) to pump out 5 hp and dash to 20 mph at the time (don't forget that "roads" were not the same that we're used to). It had a range of about 50 miles and was, incredibly, a rally race winner.

A museum piece now, the car pictured was rescued from a permanent dirt nap by none other than Wolfgang Porsche, Ferdinand's son and is on display in Germany. The ghostly purplish-blue pieces are plexiglass reconstructions of what the body looked like. I'm not sure why they chose to do that instead of actually recreating the missing pieces with materials that would correctly represent the time it came from, but it gives the vehicle a fantastical appearance that is certainly suiting. When I was in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, seeing this vehicle in the flesh was nearly a religious experience. It's that amazing, regardless if you're a Porschephile or not.

There, now you know. Impress your frenemies with your vast knowledge. Just don't expect them to care.

Black+Decker 300 Amp Portable Jump Starter

They're on to you...them, those pesky people that own cars but don't know or want to know anything about them. Of course, they won't admit that and they'll do their darnedest to convince you otherwise but their level of understanding is paper thin. That's okay, except they aren't interested in increasing that knowledge either and your enthusiasm gives them IBS.

Still, if you have a truck then you're helping them move. And if you have jumper cables, then you're getting a call in the middle of night, fifty miles away. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways.

Photo: Home Depot

What Would Satan Drive

In our desperate attempt not to feature a hearse or a car painted an orange hue from the factory -Seriously, that’s what they came up with?- for Halloween, one of the concepts we conjured up was the question, “What would Satan drive?”

In the ironically beleaguered television show Lucifer, the Lord of Hell drives a mildly customized C1 Corvette. But that seemed too Hollywood (which is another kind of Hell); he’d drive whatever he darn well pleased and most likely something that is a major polluter. Not that the 'Vette isn't...and there will be no diesel VW jokes here, thank you very much. No, the car would need to have a nameplate related to whom or what he was. Ah, now we’re getting somewhere.

So we put our thinking caps on and these are the vehicles we came up with that include a name related to bad old Ash-Shaytan. We’ve included examples currently for sale if we could find one and a tiny bit of buying advice.

Photo: eBay

2006 Toyota Corolla...Camper?!?

When you see a ninth generation snow white Toyota Corolla, the first word that comes to mind is....adventure. Is that right? Did we nail it? Surely we did.

What you didn't probably think is, "Hey, that 'Rolla would make a super sneaky camper!" We here at the REVolution offices have been doing a mountain of research on motorhomes lately and we stumbled across this 182,000 mile absurdity with an automatic transmission; it's practically beyond words. In fact it is, for us. So let's just let the owner do his sales shuffle and jive...

Photo: Craigslist

Design Comparison

Too close for comfort? The Koreans have nailed this design language over the past years, supported by fantastic sales numbers. Now the Americans and the Japanese seem to want to get in on the act. Who can blame them.

2016 Chevrolet Volt

2016 Honda Civic

What's your take? Too boring and copycat for you or is it nice to see a little excitement in what's arguably one of the more quiet segments of the automotive world?

George Barris RIP

Genius legendary kustom car king George Barris has passed away. The REVolution is saddened to hear the news but acknowledges the joy he brought to us and fellow brother and sister gearheads. His creative influence will continue to live on forever.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Honda V6 Excessive Oil Consumption

Whenever somebody asks me for a used sedan recommendation and they're not a "car enthusiast" (but then, they wouldn't ask me in that case anyway), one of first cars I think of is the Honda Accord. In the past, Honda has been a go-to for that sort of thing, despite past issues with rusting, short-lived automatic transmissions and the current airbag recall(s).

Photo: Wikipedia (4-cylinder SE pictured)

El Cheapo Challenge

Ready for a challenge? You bet you are! In our theoretical scenario, we need to replace a wrecked Mazda sports coupe with a car with the following criteria.

• Car is located in the NorthEast
• Under $4K
• Ugly and cheap interior
• Reliable and easy to maintain

Psychology

The modern age has presented an interesting opportunity to the car enthusiast with some time on their hands who is willing to search for information online (not all are). Unlike magazines, they can specify the content they want to read and they can often interact with that content in ways otherwise unavailable.

Photo: EVE Online

1958 Velorex-Oskar

Here's one of the ideas that got rejected for our Halloween theme.

Photo: eBay

This 1958 Velorex-Oskar is fabulous but just because it's skeletal doesn't mean it necessarily worked for our purpose. Well known to REVolutionaries, so we won't get into the details, this Czechoslovakian manufacturer produced vehicles from the 1950s through the early 1970s and still lives on as a maker of sidecars under the name Velorexport.