Driving

Oh my, Michael Lind writes in Tablet exactly what I’ve been thinking, so forgive the extensive quoting:

… The Western elite culture of transgression is an example of antinomianism … Derived from the Greek words meaning “against” and “law” or “norm,” the term antinomianism refers to the view that all laws and norms are oppressive always and everywhere, and that the act of transgression in itself is virtuous, if not holy.
…
The three saints of transgression are the illegal immigrant, the transsexual, and the woman who proudly celebrates abortion. All three are idealized by our revolutionary ruling class precisely because they violate traditional norms ⁠— the traditional norm of patriotism, based on the legitimacy of the city-state or nation-state or kingdom and its laws and borders; traditional gender norms; and traditional family norms, which celebrate the capacity of women to give birth and to nurture their infants and of men to provide for them. Most of what is called “progressivism” today is really transgressivism.
…
By now the antinomians in Western nations have won their war against tradition in every realm.
Having vandalized every premodern tradition, the elite antinomians of the modern West now don’t know what to do next. What should rebels against the bourgeoisie rebel against when the bourgeoisie has fallen?
The answer, it is increasingly apparent, is to rebel against the proletariat.
…
Whatever working-class “normies” believe and enjoy, the most influential tastemakers of the trans-Atlantic ruling class denounce and seek to ban, using one of their three or four specious all-purpose justifications. If non-college-educated Americans were to take up square dancing as a fad, the powers that be in the media and academia would solemnly inform us that square dancing is problematically racist or sexist or worsens climate change.

Check out this simulation of Tesla Cybertruck’s drag coefficient.

The design of Lotus’s upcoming electric vehicle looks like a sleeker Esprit, reports Hearst’s Road & Track; when it’s released we can say we saw the blueprints for this car two years ago.

All the keyboard-powered culture wars bullhonky is merely a distraction from the world’s most important problem: the impoverishment of the American blue-collar worker. Because without a prosperous American nation, there is no Pax Americana. In Newsweek, Hazmat truck driver Cyrus Tharpe writes:

Our jobs are essential because they are rooted in manufacturing and delivering goods, the underpinning of every major economy on the planet. And unlike politicians, we materially improve the lives of the American people.

And yet, this “essential” job pays a garbage wage. The median annual income for a truck driver in this country is less than $40,000 a year. For many of us, 50 percent of our take-home pay immediately disappears to cover rent.

Hiconsumption presents the lovely Lambos.

Carwow drives an Audi RS e-tron GT and a Tesla Model S 571 miles from Inverness to London.

Jay Leno shows us a 1959 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud.

Top 20 racing cheats by Preston Lerner at Hagerty, a reminder that rules are made to be… stretched.

Since the 1990s I’d had a mild hankering for the Mazda MX-5, and it seems I’m not alone, and it’s still selling well. The Telegraph compares some low-cost Miata competitors, including the Audi TT and Mini Cooper.

Lunaz Design’s electrified 1961 Rolls-Royce Phantom V.

Volvo unveils its first full battery electric model, the XC40 Recharge SUV with 402bhp a 248-mile range. Featuring no front grille!

AutoCar drives the electric Jaguar I-Pace from London to Frankfurt. As recently as two years ago such a journey simply wasn’t feasible. Now, once you have the more expensive car, it’s much cheaper than driving diesel let alone petrol. That said, charging stops are an hour rather than five minutes, and every 200 miles rather than say every 500. But I think there is some good here. Travellers must get out and stretch their legs for a longer while. All in all our automotive future looks improved.

Re Uber, Izabella Kaminska asks: “If you have a company with lots of employees, margins are very low and it is acquiring market share through subsidisation, and not necessarily through quality, how can you guarantee that this is going to be a sustainable and profitable model? You can’t.”

Frank Lloyd Wright trails in Illinois and Wisconsin.

New York Times photo essay: parking and staying overnight at the Wal-Mart car park.

From TED, Elon Musk is our leader.

With Rolls Royce’s convertible new Dawn, the tradition of silence extends to the roof (1-min video).

Awe-inspiring handywork (diagnostics, 3d-printing, junkyard salvage) by Paul Mangiamele on Bilford, an Audi A6 (C5) that had been standing around for 2 years and didn’t start. He paid $450.

Bentley film about integrating the iPad in the back seats ⁠— shot with iPhone 5s.

Could it be that so many million more cars are being produced each year than are bought?

Clap along if you feel like steering wheels are uncouth (via DrudgeReport).

Wild city: On the night shift: Bangkok’s body collectors by Al-Jazeera. Looks like it’s mostly motorcycle accidents, or should that be mortocycle.

Shai Agassi’s Better Place electric cars roll out in Israel.

“Nation on the Move” is the magnificent second episode of the America Revealed PBS series. Interestingly, the show is British-made.

Walking in America, or rather the lack thereof. A 4-part series in Slate, by Tom Vanderbilt (whom I met 1996). One thing to which he doesn’t correlate national walking statistics, and it seems to me the obvious thing, is the number of anti-depressants prescribed.

The new $100,000 Fisker Karma, The World’s Most Interesting Car, reviewed in The Wall Street Journal. James May in Top Gear Loves it too. Interior has been described as mid-century modern. Oh yes and made in Flinland.

On parking in LA Mag ⁠— the history, the psychology, the economics.

Arstechnica, the iOS 5 review. Featuring game-changers Siri and the iCloud.

The Mini Countryman.

Jeremy Clarkson: The Range Rover, quite simply, answers every motoring question that’s ever been posed.