Passenger Cars
The killing of Pontiac is analogous to the sudden death of an old but distant friend; you were aware he wasn’t well, but you didn’t think it was as bad as all that. And when the news arrives, you wish you’d done something to help somehow, the regretful—and futile—hand-wringing that so often follows abrupt departures.
To be accurate, the brand’s departure won’t exactly be abrupt. GM’s initial announcement states merely that the division will suspend operations sometime in 2010. That leaves plenty of time to get good and bummed out.
But sentiment has little weight in business, and GM’s current desperate straits mean the company has room for none at all. So we will apparently bid farewell to another of the General’s middle divisions, as Pontiac follows Oldsmobile into the sunset.
The Beginning Pontiac was very much homegrown by GM, but not, as some historians seem to believe, a rebadged clone of the Oakland Motor Company range. Organized in 1907, Oakland became part of the General Motors empire in 1909, one of the earliest acquisitions of the irrepressible William Crapo Durant, who had established the giant-to-be earlier that same year. It held a solid position in the aspirational product hierarchy set up by GM president Alfred P. Sloan: Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Oakland, Buick, and Cadillac.
But by the mid-1920s, Sloan was worried about a product gap between Chevrolet and Oldsmobile. And so talks moved forward about a brand-new car.
Chief Pontiac The prescription was for a six-cylinder lineup. The name hadn’t been chosen—GM’s code name was X-car—but as the concept inched toward reality, the Pontiac name crept into internal correspondence.
What was the origin? Was the name chosen, as some say, for the legendary 18th-century Ottawa chief? GM certainly used plenty of feathers and faux Native American schlock at the launch and through the car’s first decade. If tribal lore was indeed the source, it’s a good thing the marketing guys didn’t have to deal with the chief’s real name. Imagine trying to build excitement around a car named Obwandiyag.
Although Chief Pontiac figured prominently in the new car’s marketing, including lending his profile to the hood ornament, a more mundane explanation is plausible: The business foundation for the Oakland Motor Company was the Pontiac Buggy Company in, of course, Pontiac, Michigan. (Pontiac is located in Oakland County.)
Bright Beginnings The first Pontiac—the Series 6-27—was unveiled at the New York auto show in January 1926. It was offered in two- and four-door sedan models, with a 187-cubic-inch flathead-six delivering a modest 36 or 40 hp (sources are split) at 2400 rpm.
Oakland was nominally the parental division, but most of the engineering was handled by Chevrolet, which supplied most of the hardware as well.
The new car went on sale with a base price of $825, and it was a hit, selling more than 200,000 units in an 18-month run. As initial market response overwhelmed Oakland’s ability to build cars fast enough, a huge Pontiac factory opened in 1927—35 acres, $15 million, and the biggest single construction project in the U.S. that year.
Sloan and his colleagues were ecstatic, although with one asterisk: Pontiac sales immediately eclipsed those of the established Oakland models, making the parent company look much like an afterthought.
The Silver Streak The Great Depression arrived, and in an industry that diminished by as much as 70 percent, Pontiac, like every other automaker, suffered. But the new make survived, something that could not be said for its progenitor. GM pulled the plug on Oakland at the end of 1931.
Oakland’s only legacy to Pontiac was a 251-cubic-inch V-8, rated for 85 hp and distinguished by a one-piece engine-block casting, preceding Ford’s famous flathead V-8 by a year. Pontiac adopted it for 1932. But the new V-8 was a flop and disappeared from the Pontiac inventory after one year. Pontiac substituted a 223-cubic-inch, 77-hp inline-eight in 1933, an engine that would remain in the lineup in some form until 1954.
Another Depression effect at GM was making sheetmetal common among the various divisions. Does this sound familiar? The brands were distinguished primarily by their front and rear styling. But in 1935, Pontiac made this work with its “Silver Streak” look, which entailed liberal applications of chrome, an approach that lasted into the 1950s.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q2/hold_the_excitement_pontiac_killed_by_gm-feature
Most often senior citizens are left wondering about how to avail good deals on auto insurance. It would be ideal if members of the family or friends can do a little bit of research in this regard. Senior citizens have been on the road for a long time and are generally never comfortable with the idea of being driven around. Sometimes, they might even consider not taking auto insurance due to the costs that are involved. However, it is important for family members as well as the seniors themselves to understand that purchasing auto insurance is generally done in the interests of the person behind the wheel.
There are many factors that will come into play while arriving at the auto insurance premiums. Senior citizens need not worry about the auto insurance rates as there are ways and means to avail discounts and seniors can be rest assured that they can drive around safely for a long time without having to depend on someone to drive them around from one place to another. It is also important for family members to understand that it is better to get the seniors behind the wheel insured in everybody’s interests.
There are a few important things to bear in mind while purchasing auto insurance for seniors. The first and foremost thing is to enroll the senior in a good certified driving course. This will not only help in refining their driving skills, but will also help in keeping them as well as the rest of the motorist’s safe on the roads. This course is meant for those over the age of 55 and having a valid certification will help avail a lot of discounts.
When seniors have more than one policy, it makes sense to combine them and get the added advantage. If you have home and health insurance, you could purchase the auto insurance from the same insurance provider and avail good discounts.
Having a good driving record has plenty of advantages and seniors with a good drivers’ record can avail plenty of discounts. Seniors in general, don’t drive around as much as a working professional would and hence they are less exposed to the risks on the roads. They are also not easily distracted while they are behind the wheel, unlike the youngsters. This makes them safe drivers and they can take advantage of being safe on the roads and avail a good driver’s discount.
The DMV says I have 1200 cars," says Tom Merkel, "but what do they know?" But Merkel really never merely
says anything. Instead, his voice floats constantly through a sweet spot, somewhere between talking and singing, as if everything coming out of his mouth were running in meter with a melody inside his head.
It’s true, however, that Merkel has something near 1200 vehicles—cars and trucks and buses and vans and motorcycles and meter-maid scooters—and he lost count by never starting a count. And he has them all in one spot: the Car Garden.
He bought his first car at 15 in 1973—a 1949 Cadillac with 337,000 miles on the odometer—and he has never stopped buying or started selling. "I couldn’t believe the cars people in California were throwing away," he croons. "They were just behind on their maintenance."
He’d snatch up dozens at government auctions. He could never resist near-junkers with for-sale signs in their windows. He saw beauty in old street sweepers and in mobile chest-X-ray vans, where their institutional owners only saw potential liability. Occasionally, he’d find an odd bit of history—a television production van from WGBH Boston in danger of floating to the crusher—and snatch it away from oblivion. There’s rhyme in his acquisitions, but not much reason.
"They were such a deal," he nearly shouts. "To buy something like a ’55 Buick for $200! The junkyard people thought I was crazy, but they knew my checks were good."
At first he squirreled away the machines along the streets of Santa Barbara, California. Then he began stuffing them onto five leased lots. These weren’t extraordinary cars but the used-up relics from different times that were quickly passing by. In short, to most people they were eyesores.
If Santa Barbara is obsessed with anything, though, it is its own beauty. And eventually, Merkel’s epic personal quirk was running up against the limits of the coastal city’s tolerance. Plus, some of the cars were being vandalized, and Merkel had accumulated so many that he was running out of room around the city and its immediate suburbs. So in 1984, after a two-year search, he bought an 80-acre parcel of land so remote it’s hard to believe it’s in Southern California. He moved his fleet there—one at time if they were drivable. Or two or three at a time on the back of the ’62 Ford two-ton truck he bought for $600 and equipped with a $13,000 flatbed. Or on the eight-car GMC carrier he has that ran until being consumed in a brush fire (along with 100 or so of his cars). There the collection sits today, many of the vehicles last having turned a wheel more than two decades ago, open to the elements, melting into the landscape as nature has its way.
That’s how Merkel, 47, wants it. He sees the conglomeration as massive art. His Car Garden isn’t visible from the road, it doesn’t have an address, and it isn’t in Santa Barbara County. To be permitted entry into his garden (and his head),
Car and Driver had to promise Merkel, in writing, not to reveal the location. And even if you knew where it was on a map, you’d probably still need to bring Merkel along to lead you to it.
Merkel was electric with enthusiasm (he’s always electrically enthusiastic) as he took us to the garden. Protected by a half-mile of dust road, the husks of a couple of abandoned mobile homes and two padlocked gates from the nearest public thoroughfare, at first sight the garden is unimpressive. At the entrance it looks like just another place where somebody has abandoned some cars, with the only clue there’s something else going on being the distinctive greenhouse of a boattail ’71 Buick Riviera sticking up through the ground like a turnip top.
But venture deeper into the garden and it becomes astonishing—particularly for this writer, and photographer Jesse Alexander, since we both grew up in Santa Barbara (although in different generations) and still live there. Around the first bend heading toward the collection sits a familiar ghost: an AMC Matador police car that prowled the town when I was still riding my Schwinn to La Cumbre Junior High. Further on there are a few of the GM "old look" city buses I took downtown as a toddler with my grandmother. Almost hidden is a ’71 Fiat 124 Special sedan, the same creamy color and wearing the same "Emilio’s Foreign Cars" license-plate frame as the one my mom drove. And there are plumbing trucks bearing the names of once-prominent local firms that haven’t unclogged a drain in 30 years. I even found a free-floating American Racing wheel wrapped in a P165/70R-13 Pirelli P3—exactly like the wheels and tires I bought for the ’69 Fiat 124 sport coupe I drove back and forth to UC Santa Barbara. Hell, it
has to be off my car. It’s like discovering the props from an old movie on a Hollywood back lot. Except the old movie is my childhood.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/05q3/midnight_in_the_garden_of_eldorados_and_e-types-feature
2008 Mini Cooper S – Car and Driver
:: I’ve always tried to pursue a spiritual life. Whether it’s being faithful to the religion I grew up with or concern for social justice, I believe that enriching one’s soul is important. These days, I find spiritual sustenance in the simple things – an inspirational book, beautiful music, a quiet meal, time alone to meditate. In my opinion, the different cultures around the world have so much to offer in terms of spirituality. The beliefs in the West focus on rich ritual and contemplation. The Eastern values talk about the flow of energies in the universe. Both practices are enhanced by the presence of candles. Throughout human civilization, candles have been used to accompany our spiritual encounters. The presence of candles as I meditate, read a book, or think about the universe, enhances every experience. There is something about candles’ colors and scents that heighten intimacy and mood, making them ideal for mystical pursuits. In fact, many Eastern approaches depend a great deal on the colors and scents of candles as transmitters of positive energy. I am personally fascinated by feng-shui and chakra meditation, two Eastern arts that focus on positive energies, one inside the body and one outside. Feng-shui is the Ancient Chinese discipline of placement and location. Feng-shui is all about harnessing the positive aspects of the energy, “Qi” (ch’i), and avoiding the negative by balancing, manipulating and accessing certain elements within a particular space.
For instance, Chinese people believe that when their homes are located in an auspicious site, they can expect the flow of wealth, stability and social position to come to them without impediment. On the other hand, if a space is located in an inauspicious area, Feng Shui can tell you what elements are blocking the positive energies and how to remedy this. Meanwhile, according to the Indian traditions of Kundalini and Tantric yoga, a person can harness energy through energy centers in the body called “chakras.” The word “chakra” actually comes from the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit and it means “wheel.” Chakras have actually always been described as “a wheel-like spinning vortex” that draws in vibrations or energy. Candles can be used to create a mood anywhere or used for specific purposes such as chakra meditation or feng-shui practice. Candles come in different waxes as well as types, scents and colors.
Palm wax is a new type of candle wax made from the oil from palm trees. Palm wax has proven to be an excellent wax which allows candles to burn longer and hold more scent than other waxes. Candles are particularly important in feng-shui because feng shui believes that a room can be positively transformed and energized with the use of color. Color can bring in the hidden energies from the five vital elements in feng-shui. These elements are: wood, water, metal, earth and fire. These elements cultivate different spiritual energies. For instance, earth, represented by the colors orange or brown, kindles confidence, patience, and stability. In contrast, burning a red candle ignites passion and romance through the element of fire. Blue candles represent water, the element that inspires wealth, wisdom and abundance while green candles fuel creativity thanks to the wood element. Finally, white candles symbolizes the metal element, which brings success and career accomplishments. I love lighting feng-shui candles when I feel my life needs a little push.
To me, it’s not that I fully depend on feng-shui energies to give me success, wealth and wisdom. It’s more like when feng-shui candles are burning I feel a shift in focus from inside my spirit, I feel inspired to concentrate on achieving my goals. Feng-shui moves me to arrange my environment in such a way that gives me a sense of direction. If you are interested in feng shui, explore the concept and introduce elements of the practice into the personal space where you would like to change the energy. Chakra meditation does the reverse. It works from the inside to settle me, to cultivate personal values that help me grow as a person. Chakras are also believed to balance the body’s functions, aiding in real physical healing. The energy within chakras are stimulated and balanced through prayer and meditation, enhanced by the scent and colors around us. Candles are ideal meditation aids because they bring both color and fragrance through the act of burning.
There are seven major chakras in the body. Each one resonates to particular color and scents:- a. The root chakra, located at the base of the spine is called by its Sanskrit (Ancient Indian) name of Muladhara. It inspires self-confidence, success and a sense of personal security. The Muladhara responds to the color red and the scent from red essential oils. According to Hindu Tantrism it is the first of the seven chakras meaning “root place” and is known as the foundation chakra. b. The Svadhisthana or spleen/navel chakra, cultivates the emotions. It is the second primary chakra above the Muladhara. It has six petals. The color orange stimulates this chakra. c. The solar plexus chakra is stimulated by the color yellow and by scents associated with yellow fruits such as lemon. Called the Manipura, this chakra has 10 petals and inspires personal power and self-control. d. The Anahata chakra is located in the center of the chest, the heart. It rules our ability to love and have the right relationships. Interestingly, the Anahata is stimulated by the color green and allows a person to open his or her heart to the possibility of love. In Sanskrit the word anahata – means unhurt, un-struck and unbeaten. Anahata Nad refers to the Vedic concept of unstruck sound, the sound of the celestial realm (Wikipedia, Accessed April 23, 2011). e. Stimulated by the color blue, the Visuddha or throat chakra governs communication and draws you to meet new and wonderful people. This chakra has 16 petals and is located in the throat. f. Are you interested in going within? Then explore the energy within the Ajna or area directly behind the eyebrow – third eye center. Represented by 2 petals. g. Finally, the Sahasrara chakra at the top of the head (known as the crown) the abode of the thousand petaled lotus, relating to pure consciousness. At this height it is said that one can experience Samadhi or union with the God Head.
Isn’t it interesting how candles can be good for one’s spirit? Still, it’s not a matter of only depending on candles as the source of one’s spiritual growth. What’s important is the intent behind them: connecting us with the positive energies and all our good wishes for ourselves and for our lives.
Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Karen-Davis-8308/chakra-178627.php