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Saturday, August 16, 2003
Thursday, August 14, 2003
Gaddafi's Confession?
Is it just me, or does Muammar Gaddafi look a little too much like Tom Jones? Have you noticed that you never hear one sing "What's New, Pussycat?" while the other one is drinking water? Hmmm...
Is it just me, or does Muammar Gaddafi look a little too much like Tom Jones? Have you noticed that you never hear one sing "What's New, Pussycat?" while the other one is drinking water? Hmmm...
Monday, August 11, 2003
Some of you may have heard about the Tango, as blogged by TonyD a couple of weeks ago. (For those who didn't, the Tango is a new prototype two-seater electric car that is half the width of a regular car, allowing two to run abreast in one standard highway lane.) Some of you may be mildly interested to know that I actually got to sit in a Tango this weekend.
It wasn't just a Tango, however - it was the Tango. It turns out that there is only one in the universe. It, along with its inventor, Rick Woodbury, were at the street fair on the Ave on Saturday. Although it is street legal, the Tango doesn't yet have certification to be mass-produced or sold at dealerships. Without this, they can only sell the car in "kits". According to Rick, this means that they give you the car pre-built except that it doesn't have any brakes. You're supposed to go buy brakes and then put them on yourself or take them to a mechanic.
They plan to start selling kits once they get ten orders. The kits will initially cost $80,000. Once they can mass-produce them in volumes of 100,000 cars per year or more, the price for a fully-assembled Tango will be between $10,000 and $29,000, depending on the options you choose.
I liked the car. The interior was somewhat spartan, but it was nice. It had black leather upholstery on the dash with red stitching. It had what appeared to be an LCD tach/speedometer, and they'd put in a Nakamichi stereo. It Sparco seats with high side bolsters and 4-point racing harnesses.
It was small, as you might expect. It's shorter than it looks in the pictures, and it's very narrow. Although there are two seats, the back is a tight squeeze. There's a lift-gate trunk in the back that allows you to access the cargo area, which is small. If you took the back seat out, though, you'd have quite a bit of room for stuff.
One interesting fact: the weight. The Tango weighs about 3000 lbs., which is heavy for such a small car. Over 1100 pounds of that weight is batteries, however, which are mounted on the bottom. This gives the Tango a lower center of gravity than most cars, which makes it more stable.
In short, I want one. $80k is a bit steep, but for $15,000 this would be a great commuter car. Not only is it eco-friendly, it would be super fun to drive. Its top speed is 130 MPH, which is more than adequate for American roads. More importantly, its electric motors provide great torque (0-60 in <4 sec), so it will smoke any car on the road short of a Ferrari 550. (I wouldn't be talking too much smack, though; the Tango can only go 80 miles before it needs a recharge, which means that the owner of that $90,000 Acura NSX you just blew off the line would only need to chase you for about 37 minutes to give you your comeuppance.)
This is an electric car that performs like a sports car and will sell for less than $20,000. I predict it will be a success if he can get it off the ground. I hope he does, because there are a lot of Porsche owners around here that need to get knocked down a peg. At least for 37 minutes or so.
It wasn't just a Tango, however - it was the Tango. It turns out that there is only one in the universe. It, along with its inventor, Rick Woodbury, were at the street fair on the Ave on Saturday. Although it is street legal, the Tango doesn't yet have certification to be mass-produced or sold at dealerships. Without this, they can only sell the car in "kits". According to Rick, this means that they give you the car pre-built except that it doesn't have any brakes. You're supposed to go buy brakes and then put them on yourself or take them to a mechanic.
They plan to start selling kits once they get ten orders. The kits will initially cost $80,000. Once they can mass-produce them in volumes of 100,000 cars per year or more, the price for a fully-assembled Tango will be between $10,000 and $29,000, depending on the options you choose.
I liked the car. The interior was somewhat spartan, but it was nice. It had black leather upholstery on the dash with red stitching. It had what appeared to be an LCD tach/speedometer, and they'd put in a Nakamichi stereo. It Sparco seats with high side bolsters and 4-point racing harnesses.
It was small, as you might expect. It's shorter than it looks in the pictures, and it's very narrow. Although there are two seats, the back is a tight squeeze. There's a lift-gate trunk in the back that allows you to access the cargo area, which is small. If you took the back seat out, though, you'd have quite a bit of room for stuff.
One interesting fact: the weight. The Tango weighs about 3000 lbs., which is heavy for such a small car. Over 1100 pounds of that weight is batteries, however, which are mounted on the bottom. This gives the Tango a lower center of gravity than most cars, which makes it more stable.
In short, I want one. $80k is a bit steep, but for $15,000 this would be a great commuter car. Not only is it eco-friendly, it would be super fun to drive. Its top speed is 130 MPH, which is more than adequate for American roads. More importantly, its electric motors provide great torque (0-60 in <4 sec), so it will smoke any car on the road short of a Ferrari 550. (I wouldn't be talking too much smack, though; the Tango can only go 80 miles before it needs a recharge, which means that the owner of that $90,000 Acura NSX you just blew off the line would only need to chase you for about 37 minutes to give you your comeuppance.)
This is an electric car that performs like a sports car and will sell for less than $20,000. I predict it will be a success if he can get it off the ground. I hope he does, because there are a lot of Porsche owners around here that need to get knocked down a peg. At least for 37 minutes or so.
Sunday, August 10, 2003
I went to a party last night. Here are two sentences that actually came out of my mouth:
BTW, "Cabana Boy" is a kind of rum. There is a picture of a cabana boy on the bottle. Here is one of the experiments:
I think "Experiments with the Cabana Boy" would be a great name for a book. I think I might use that for my NaNoWriMo novel this year.
"Always remember to flash pasteurize your sex bacon!"Can you imagine the kind of things that I would say if I drank alcohol?
"If anybody asks, John and Scott are in the kitchen experimenting with the cabana boy."
BTW, "Cabana Boy" is a kind of rum. There is a picture of a cabana boy on the bottle. Here is one of the experiments:
I think "Experiments with the Cabana Boy" would be a great name for a book. I think I might use that for my NaNoWriMo novel this year.