Look, It's Godzilla

If there's one thing that almost all car blogs have in common it's pictures of cars found "Down on the Street," as Jalopnik calls it.

There's a difference between seeing pictures of a car and seeing it in real life. In a picture it's just an object, a piece of metal sitting on a platform or driving down a road.

In real life though, you can feel a car's presence. You can see just how it sits on the ground or how tall it is compared to you.

But more than that, you know that it really does exist in the real world.

So behold the Nissan GT-R (2007-Present), aka Godzilla, as found in Savannah, Georgia.

It's Nissan's halo car. A $76 thousand sports car that is, supposedly, faster than some $100 thousand plus Porsches.

It also beat the bullet train across Japan.

It's a car that suggests raw power just by the way it's styled. It looks brutal, almost chiseled from a solid piece of metal.

Under that bulging hood, and behind the snarling grill, is a 480hp.

The Japanese call it Godzilla because it combines a 3.8L twin-turbo V6 and an incredibly well tuned suspension system. It rockets around corners and, in keeping with the nickname, destroys competitors.

At least now I know it really does exist.

My Name Is Ram, and I Have a Bad Commercial

Chrysler, and its Italian owners, have come up with new idea to save the company: make the Dodge Ram pickup truck its own brand.

So it's not called the "Dodge Ram" anymore, it's just "Ram."

I don't know why they've done this. While the Dodge name is a bit tarnished right now, in terms of public perception, people still think that Dodges are tough, rugged and powerful cars.

So why do they want to take that image away from the Ram? I don't understand. While people will know that Dodge makes this new Ram, it just doesn't sound right.

Whether the name change makes a difference or not remains to be seen. The bigger problem is the new commercial Chrysler and Fiat came up.

Here it is:



First thing first: it's boring. No one is going to sit and watch a minute long slideshow with a man reading a script.

Second, what does this say about Dodge and Chrysler as a larger company? They say they're ready, that they are built to outlast.

But platitudes and empty marketing slogans don't work. Show this new Ram pulling a 747 behind it. Have it crash through a brick wall. Show other pickup trucks cowering in fear of its massive chrome grill.

While I'm not sold on the idea of the Ram being its own brand, I wish Chrysler the best of luck. As I've said, I want them to make it.

But they need better marketing than this to survive. They need to go on the offensive, especially since they don't have many new products in the pipeline.

GM Would Do Better Than This

Behold, someone's idea of a resurrected Pontiac Trans Am: the Lingerfelter Trans Am Concept (2009).

Now, Pontiac is dead, buried and phased out. But there are enough people, apparently, who lusted for a Pontiac version of the Camaro. So Lingenfelter Performance Engineering, an American tuning house made this:

It's about as subtle as a brick going through your window. That being said, its inspiration wasn't exactly understated either:
Still, it has better proportions than the Lingenfelter car.

The Lingenfelter is too cartoony, almost like a parody of the original. If the headlights were bigger, and not as deeply inset, it'd be a different story.

It also doesn't help they basically dropped a brick of plastic on the front of the Camaro.
The back isn't much better, unfortunately.

The rear is basically a massive, squared off block. You can tell that they just added some plastic to the rear of the Chevrolet Camaro.
While the Camaro isn't exactly rounded either, it doesn't have a vertical rear end and the inset taillights help make it look less blocky.

The "Trans Am's" interior isn't much good either.
I thought we'd left blue vinyl back in the '70s. Even if it is actually leather, which it might be, it doesn't look like it.

The only saving grace to the Lingenfelter is its awesome engine. It's a 455 cid (7.5L) V8 that makes 655hp and 610ft-lbs. of torque. It's the good old days of muscle car power brought into the modern age.

That's a good thing because people won't see the "Trans Am" when it pulls away from a stoplight. Then it will be the best it's ever looked: a white and blue blur.

Bet You Haven't Heard of This

Behold, quite possibly the best known car of the 1960s: the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car.

William Schmidt, Lincoln-Mercury's chief designer, supposedly came up with the design when he went scuba diving. He saw a shark cutting through the water and dreamed up a wide car with sharp fins.

Whatever the inspiration was, it worked. It has a very '50s futuristic feeling. Think the Jetsons stamped into angled, sharp metal.

The rear end just looks pissed, especially in color.
It's going to eat anything that comes too close.

The interior is like any other concept car. It looks really cool, yet is incredibly impractical.
The speedometer, odometer and every other possible instrument and idiot light is crammed into the middle of the steering wheel. All the dashboard controls were concealed behind rolling metal covers.

A compass is on the top of the driver's side of the dash and a clock on the passenger's side.

Oddly, this is one of the few driveable concept cars. Everything, even the instruments in the steering wheel, worked.

So how is this the best known car of the '60s? Because the Lincoln Futura became this:

Yes. Lincoln built the original Batmobile. Kind of.

Instead of getting scrapped at the end of the '50s, George Barris bought it. When ABC called and needed a Batmobile in three weeks, Barris decided to modify the Futura.
On closer inspection, it's fairly obvious. Barris just slapped on some extra fiberglass, some props and altered the front end a little.

He didn't even change the interior that much.
Chop off half the steering wheel, change the instrument pod, and there you go.

Its good that the Futura managed to live on even if it had to get customized in order to survive. Most concepts from the '50s got scrapped. Even if it managed to survive that fate, history would've forgotten the Futura.

Instead it got a second life as a child's dream car. After all, who wouldn't want a jet powered two-seater?