Brockville, Ontario, is a small city known for being peaceful and quiet, just the way the citizens like it. Which would probably explain why everyone was staring at us
'31 Ford Phukeneh gassing up
Morley Ouderkirk, friend and fellow hot rod enthusiast, was chauferring the entire editorial staff (me) to Brockville’s annual “Automotion” car show. For those of you who remember our past stories on Morley’s ’31 Ford, the little pickup has a list of quirky and interesting features. Mufflers, however, aren’t on that list.
This is the 24th year for the show, organized by the 1000 Island Street Machines Association, and what a year it was-700 cars, thousands of spectators, and $3,000 raised for the local United Way. Although most of the chatter yesterday revolved around how well it was organized, the chatter today is about the amazing range of cars that showed up.
Cruising is something that gives us a sense of community, of belonging. It’s a tradition that ties the young, the old, and everyone inbetween together for a common interest. And if the amount of funds raised for charity by car shows and car clubs is any indication of our true intentions, our common interest is in the best interest of society.
However, the Winnipeg Police Service seems to have other thoughts. With the rising number of roadside inspections and the strange nature of the inspections themselves, it appears someone is trying to stop Sunday night cruising for good.
As a result, a grassroots movement started on Facebook this week, helping to organize members of the cruising community–both those with special interest vehicles and those who like to watch. The eventual goal is to figure out a proper method of protest, and to make it happen.
As of yet, nothing has been decided. However, things are happening fast-in less than 48 hours, the group has grown to 236 members from across Canada, and that number is still growing. Ideas have started to appear on the group’s message board, and a flyer has been prepared to be handed out at this weekend’s cruise nights.
If you want to be a part of this, hit up the Facebook group and stay tuned to your computer. It looks like the summer of 2010 will be the summer that cruising will be saved!
The Acura NSX was a hell of a car; an amazing work of automotive genius that made the world sit up and take notice of the great things that Honda could produce. Going up against the legendary Corvette, it became a serious contender in the hearts and minds of a certain type of car guy. Namely, the ones that would be offended at low-brow art, oldskool hot rods, and cars that get terrible mileage. The kind of adult who would get teary-eyed at this video:
Picasso once said “Every child is born an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” This is where the NSX has truly risen to the challenge. It is a beautiful work of art, yet it is still a grown-up car. It is the artist as an adult, the kind of vehicle discussed by wealthy, educated people over Cosmopolitans and burnt martinis at black tie cocktail parties.
The Corvette, however, did not rise to the challenge of being the grown-up artist. Mainly because it didn’t grow up. It’s the kind of car that we dream of as children: fast, loud, and able to make the tires scream. The kind of car that gets smack-talked on the internet by people with perfect spelling and rational arguments. It’s what you want to own so you can drive the piss out of it, instead of sitting in your mahogany scented study, reading leather-bound books on dead people who used to drive one. It’s an ADHD child-artist with 700 horsepower who just ran out of Ritalin. And that, is why it still kicks more ass.
“Schnoodles,” a painting inspired by his son’s first year of life, shows a little bat baby sucking the life out of his parents (shown here as a bottle of blood). Morbid, yes, but any parent with a newborn kid knows what he’s talking about here. And yes, this was painted on Papyrus. Check out this (and others) on Bat Daddy’s own Flickr site here.
“Close Up The Honky Tonks” is one of the cooler images we found from Jasun “Bat Daddy” Huerta’s collection-and not just because of the raging cowgirl in pig tails. This particular piece was, we believe, originally drawn on a post-it note, just one of many that he’s done. Check out the entire series on his Flickr page.
Here’s more from our Artist of the Week, Jason “Bat Daddy” Huertas. We mentioned the influence that his bat fetish has had on his work, which you can clearly see in “Free Tailed,” the artwork above. Want more? Come back tomorrow!
Yesterday, we introduced you to Jason “Bat Daddy” Huerta. And we teased you with just one of his pictures. That was really mean of us, to get you all excited about his work and only show you one image. Yeah, we’re jerks. To make up for it, here’s one more picture-but only one. You’ll have to come back tomorrow to see more of his work.
Hot rodding isn’t just about the cars-if it was, we wouldn’t have so many interesting people among us. In fact, the great part about being a part of the cruising ‘scene is the fact that we’re a culture first, and the cars really do come second.
Of course, a culture is nothing without art, and we’re no exception. Some argue that the cars are our art, while others point out that the cars are a canvas for our art. Alternatively, there are some of us that create art that is physically separated from the vehicles, yet still captures the feeling, the attitude, and the emotion behind what we do.
One of those artists is Jason “Bat Daddy” Huerta. Since 1987, “Bat Daddy” has been creating his crazy, cartoony works with one eye on the surreal and one eye on the grotesque. The latter inspiration isn’t so much an influence but a result of being raised on Alfred Hitchcock, monster movies, rock & roll, and hot rods. His fetish for bats has also become a major influence as well, becoming apparent in many of his works.
We’ll talk more about Jason later in the week, but you’re probably sick of reading-and we’re sick of writing. Here’s one of the first pieces that came across our screen.
This year’s Cruz-In Downtown car show is coming up soon-August 7th, to be exact. It’s one of the highest-profile events of the summer, with a huge chunk of Winnipeg’s downtown closed off for it. There’s lots to do and see, from live bands to the infamous burnout competition. To find out more, contact John or Bev Dyck at (204) 889-7822.
Earlier today, Jalopnik featured the recent review of the 2010 Camaro SS on Top Gear. It went something like this:
Did you watch it to the end? I didn’t. Most true car fanatics wouldn’t, either. It’s almost as if someone brought the Mercedes on-set to piss off Chevrolet, or to make American cars look bad, or some other petty, vindictive reason.
However, it does bring up a good point. Here in Canada, the Camaro in the “2SS” trim package has 422 horsepower, 408 lbs. of torque, gets 19mpg, and has 93 cubic feet of interior space, all for a whopping $41,430. The Mercedes E63 AMG has 518 horsepower, 465 lbs. of torque, gets 15mpg (which qualifies our American readers for an additional “guzzler tax”), and has 97 cubic feet of interior space, for a mere $106,900. And no, it’s not available with an actual standard transmission.**
Now, Top Gear doesn’t really care about what a little website like this says, so I’m not going to call them names. I’m just going to call them out.
What we need is someone-anyone-who has invested up to, and including, $106,900 into their 2010 Camaro. And a track. I’m throwing down the gauntlet for Top Gear and for Mercedes, to compete against a Camaro your own size (and price range.) If you’ve dropped $2k on a supercharger, that’ll work. If you’ve dropped $10k on a supercharger, bigger meats, lowered suspension, headers and a loud exhaust, that’s better. And If you squeeze 500+ ponies out of a V6 Camaro, we DEFINITELY want to hear from you.
We also have no budget whatsoever, so don’t expect to receive any compensation or payment unless we pick up a big sponsor (GM? Hennesey? Lingenfelter? Buhler? Buhler? Buhler?). But, should you choose to accept the challenge, we’ll find a Benz, find a track, and find a video camera to make sure the results are spectacularly displayed on Youtube for all teh intrawebs to see.
Got car? Shoot me an email at jordan.morningstar (at) gmail (dot) com. Someone has to stand up to the hampster’s tyrrany, and that someone might just be you!
