Latest Cars News Blog: favorite cars

Ah, the Rube Goldberg-esque Cog commercial Honda made for the new Accord back in 2003. That was awesome. Here’s a re-cap:

Honda shot that commercial in real time with no CGI. It took 606 takes to get it right. The equipment was so precisely set up that the crew literally had to tip toe around the set for fear of disturbing the bits and pieces.

Some people I know are convinced that the part where the tires roll uphill is fake. It’s not. They just put a weight up inside each tire so that, when it’s knocked, the weight goes off balance and tries to fall to the ground, which “pulls” the tire uphill. It’s simple actually.

Anyway, without further ado, here is The Cog:

And I Don’t Even Remember Her Name

Saturday night I went to a party in New Jersey and saw a beautiful 1972 VW Baja Beetle parked in the driveway.

I asked the owner, Adam Brick, if he’d show me around the car a little and he was happy to show it off. It has the oversized tires and wheels (larger in the rear), the Baja style steel tube cage welded to the front and rear, and the rear engine decklid and sheetmetal totally removed. But the best part is the 1914cc engine which apparently puts out 125 hp.

The largest standard factory Beetle engine they made was the 1.6L, that’s 1600cc; and the 1.3L (1300cc) was by far the most common on the road. So 1914cc packs a much harder punch than average. I asked him to start it up at around midnight, and we probably woke up all the neighbors on the street. It’s definitely a badass machine, my only regret is that I didn’t get to drive it around, but I don’t think any of us were sober enough for that.

Thanks to Tim Beitz for some of the drunken night time pictures, and Cindy Beitz for the sober daytime pics.
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