Saturday, August 25, 2012

Matching each Devils' player with a car

Some Twitter followers suggested that I do this "segue" post between Down Goes Avery and this, my new blog for gearheads.  So, I've come up with this helpful guide for each current Devils player, and the topic has been something I've actually been thinking about for a long time.  Based on their style of play, what kind of car should they be driving?  What car do they represent as a hockey player?


Johan Hedberg - It's not the most glamorous car on the road today, but it's a reliable, fun second sports car.  You always look forward to driving it and some people say you should drive it more often.  It's not only still good at its job, but it's still a very good performance car.  Still, it is aging a bit and it's never been your most exciting car.

Johan Hedberg's car is a used Camaro Z28.



Marek Zidicky - This car isn't as appreciated as it should be.  While it can perform with cars that are more expensive and more flashy, this car quietly gets the job done and can be pretty fast in the process.  The average person might laugh at this car, but it's actually quite good and a well-kept secret to those who don't pay attention.

Marek Zidlicky's car is a Cadillac CTS.



Adam Larsson - This is a brand new car that has potential to be revolutionary.  It's had some growing pains early in its production, but a lot of experts believe that this will be the next big thing.  It's already caught the eye of many, but there's still work to be done in order for this to be the high-end car it could become.

Adam Larsson's car is a Fisker Karma.


Thursday, August 23, 2012

Would Enzo Ferrari be happy with his company today?

The horse that inspired the infamous logo for Mr. Enzo Ferrari's company.

Any passionate Ferrari enthusiast can tell you how the company was founded: Enzo Ferrari was working for Alfa Romeo's racing teams in the 1930s and needed to fund Scuderia Ferrari, so he started to produce road cars as a side gig, and well, the rest is history.  Enzo never wanted to produce road cars, but for the sake of the entire sports car and supercar industry today, it's a damn good thing he did.

Throughout the course of Ferrari's storied history, most of their road cars followed one of two platforms: a mid-engined car with a six or eight cylinder engine or a twelve-cylinder engine in front of the driver.  There were rare exceptions to these platforms under Enzo Ferrari's reign, but for the most part, that's how he wanted his cars to be designed.  And Enzo was a perfectionist, so everything had to be done his way.

Ferrari's mid-engine V8 458 Italia.

The new V12 F12 Berlinetta.
Since Enzo's death in 1988, the company he left behind continued to produce road cars with the traditional pair of layouts, the mid-engine V8 and the "front-engine" V12 (the engines on V12 cars are in front of the driver, but the layouts of the car are not necessarily traditional front-engine cars).  Just as the 308 and 328 were designed under Enzo's watch, the 348, 355, 360, 430 and 458 have all taken each other's places as the company's line of V8 cars, while Ferrari's other current production cars are all different layouts of V12 cars.  So everything is status quo at Ferrari...or is it?

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Preview: 2014 Corvette C7 - Hit or miss?

As a lifelong Corvette fan, I decided it would be appropriate to dedicate this blog's inaugural post to be about...yes, you guessed it: the 2014 Corvette C7.  Of course, since it doesn't exist yet, I can't go out and see it or drive it.  In fact, nobody really knows what it'll even look like yet (unless you work for General Motors, in which case please go ahead and tell us everything you know about the C7!), so this whole post is essentially speculation.  So welcome to the blog and thanks for reading (or at least making it this far).

Pictured: variations of the C6 Corvette, the car that is about to expire.

Over the past 60 years, the Corvette has evolved from an almost failed experiment to America's premier sports car.  There were several growing pains along the way, as with many cars, but now, as the sixth generation Corvette (C6) has been around since 2005, it has become an elite performance sports car.  Now the time has come for another update.  The seventh generation (C7) Corvette is coming.  What should be expected with the new 'Vette?  How is General Motors prepared to kill the C6 and make the new Corvette even better?

Unfortunately, fuel economy is the primary focus of almost every car maker in the world right now, and for good reason.  Since most of the general public is obsessed with how many miles per gallon they're getting in their car, car companies should be focusing on what the public demands (umm, yeah...something like that).  As the cost of gas continues to rise, this likely won't be going away anytime soon.  This has also directly impacted the world of sports cars.  Since most sports cars are either a part of a major car maker or owned by one, the parent companies are so focused on fuel economy that there's been less time and money to develop the cars that us sports car fans really care about, because I'm assuming that if you're reading this, you're probably not a fan of the Toyota Prius.