(photo courtesy of jason mcginnity) jason mcginnity spotted and submitted this photo of a rare beast indeed….. lets hear it in jason’s own words, shall we ? “i heard this one coming while i was sitting at a light in downtown Portland. it is manufactured in the u.s. by tmi autotech under license from ariel atom, england. I’d never seen one in real life. amazing sound. luckily I was able to snap a couple photos as I heard him accelerating from down the block.” thank you jason…. this is an extremely interesting car, it does 0-60 in 2.9 seconds, has a minimalist exoskeleton and you can see all the controls and mechanical parts as you drive. very nice.

the first generation honda prelude was a curious ’sports car’… merely a sports car in name as surely a true sports car cannot be created based on a honda civic and conjured together with a few stretches of sheet metal, a paper-clip and some chewing gum. most first generation preludes (1979-1982) have been resting in the bone yard for quite a spell by now. this example sported large diameter wheels and was in excellent condition…… a rare sighting of a car whose philosophical heritage at best can be traced to the volkswagen beetle derived karmann-ghia, but that is giving the prelude and honda a hell of a lot more credit than due.

david berman describes snow best: “When it’s snowing, the outdoors seem like a room. Today I traded hellos with my neighbor. Our voices hung close in the new acoustics. A room with the walls blasted to shreds and falling.” i shot this picture of what ostensibly appears to be a nissan pick up truck, but really its a photograph of either the virgin mary, the grim reaper, a peasant woman or some-sort of unholy combination of the three.

i hereby declare this specimen a 1966 datsun 411 “bluebird”….. near as i can tell, thats what this contraption is. really, its a bloody miracle that this car is still on the streets….. as japanese cars were semi-disposable and still are. thin gauge body metal, cheap interior materials and hard, careless use has conspired to put these cars into bone yards faster than one can say ‘dextromethorphan‘. with styling cues taken from alfa romeo and lancia, this photo is proof the japanese have aspired to make knock-offs of fine european motorcars for a long time…. the only difference is now they have entire divisions dedicated to making knock-off mercedes-benz and bmw’s…. yes you heard me right….. lexus anyone ? shameful. but a 1966 bluebird that stumbles onto the freeway out of nowhere is harmless and cute…. the statute of limitation for this design infraction has long since elapsed.

continuing the theme started below by the geo metro festooned with trucker smoke-stacks, it is the perfect time to unleash this unholy low-riding creation to an unsuspecting world. spotted parading down interstate 5 on august 8th, this is the automotive equivalent of walking around with your jeans half-way down yer arse and your under wear showing…. you know the look. sometimes i am filled with wonder as to the extent the human race will go to to be deliberately ridiculous in the 21st century.

photo and testimonial provided by mark ford: i was on the freeway when this fairly new geo metro driven by two honyaks with their hats turned backwards entered the roadway and cut across two lanes of traffic. it looks like they bypassed the catalytic converter and ran basic steel exhaust pipe out behind both doors and up the sides of the car and over the roof line… the car had a ‘hole in the muffler’ sound upon acceleration and when I pulled up next to the driver for a closer look, he gave me the ‘rocker’ hand sign…. priceless!

Not too many of these have survived.