Category Archives: cars

Mission Delta 88

People drove big cars in the early 70s. My father bought a four-door Delta 88 Royale in 1973. Only 7000 were made that year. The overhead-valve high-compression V8 engine owed its existence to muscle cars such as the GTO. The Delta 88 was no family car. A heavy foot on the pedal rocketed the ton […]

Demo Derby Redux

Three Labor Days ago Richie Boy drove to Ditch Plains for a morning surf session. His Brazilian wife was intent on taking in the sun. The incoming morning tide was building green glassy tubes held up from a rare offshore breeze. Within an hour they’d be overhead. I wasn’t joining my longtime friend in the […]

I, Robot Kill Kill Kill

In I ROBOT Isaac Asimov’s 1950 short story collection about robots in the future, he sets up the Three Laws of Robotics: 1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm 2) A robot must obey orders givein to it by human beings except […]

Slingshot Dragster 1954

The other day an old nightclub owner was denigrating the influence of Islamic thought on civilization. “They really created nothing.” “What you mean nothing?” I didn’t mention that algebra succinctly meant ‘reunion of broken parts’ in Arabic. “No rockets, no telephones, no TVs.” “That’s all crap.” “Crap?” John and I liked to argue. “Yes, plus […]

Soviet Hot Rods

soviet hot rods, lada, Pobeda-Sport, 1934 GAZ A-Aero, Gaz-Torpedo, ussr The USSR was criticized by the West for their failure to provide consumer comforts. The grocery stores were devoid of potato chips. The TVs were Black and White. Fashion was puritanical, but Detroit reserved a special disdain for Soviet cars and with good reason. All […]