Jalopnik: Connecticut

Oreo Cookie Made Me Do It, Claims Busted Speeder

Murilee Martin — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:30:00 EDT

Even though drivers who do Wrong Things as a result of distraction caused by cellphones, radio adjustment, or 8-hose hookahs get no mercy from John Law, Justin Vonkummer figures he has an airtight excuse for speeding through Salisbury, Connecticut, in his '93 BMW: he was dunking an Oreo in a cup of milk while driving and dropped the cookie. If this one works, look for the Oreo Defense to become a national phenomenon. [KMEG News]

Don't Shoot! Man Shot After Crashing Car

Matt Hardigree — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 17:15:00 EST

Note-to-self, knock before trying to get help if ever in an accident in Southbury, Connecticut. The details are a little hazy, but it appears that a man drove his car down a river bank and broke into the home of John Nagy down the road. We assume the crash victim was looking for a phone or help when he startled Nagy, who then pulled out a gun and shot him. To his credit, Nagy called the police and the victim is currently in stable but serious condition in a local hospital. There are a number of possible scenarios at work here, which we'll explore after the jump.

Scenario One: The crash victim went to the house, maybe partially disoriented, looking for help or a phone. Nagy shoots him.

Scenario Two: The crash victim crashed his car, decided he needed money to fix the car, breaks into the house looking for valuables. Nagy shoots him.

Scenario Three: The crash victim was actually on his way to rob the house when his car went off the cliff, he decided to rob the house and take off with what he could carry. Nagy shoots him.

Scenario Four: Nagy throws oil on the road, waits for someone to crash and look for help. The hapless victim walks into the open house looking for assistance. Nagy shoots him.

What do you all think?

[Republican-American]

Fairfield County Gold Coast Concours d'Elegance

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 11:00:22 EDT

Ahhh, the Gold Coast, that stretch of far Southwest Connecticut where the real estate is lapped gently by the salt water of Long Island Sound and residents' asses are lapped gently by exotic car dealers. In a place where income is as disposable as toenail clippings there's bound to be some hotness, and I'm not talking about Stepford wives and the Postfather's favorite lemon tarts. I mean cars that draw from grown men the same sounds Marcus Vindictus made at Empress Nympho. Falls ends the summer concours season the way a blue light and metal grate end a moth, so I hope this gallery is enough to sustain us all until the next time we can lay eyes on a '27 Isotta Fraschini.
Words after the jump...

Everyone knows the importance of making a first impression. My first impression of the show was a '28 Maserati T-26B/M grand prix car. The official writeup for this car indicates it was a Grand Prix winner in 1930 and raced until WWII when it was hidden in an Algerian cave until the end of hostilities. The Afrikakorps burned, but this car still runs. See? Justice prevails.

I may be a "Who dat?" writer on this site, but anyone who knows me knows I can't resist Cords and Packards. Check out the 812 and the shot of the '29 Packard "Super 8" 320 ci straight eight. Of special note is the Pack's hood ornament, which looked like a girl on a water slide. You'll also see a '42 Packard 110 convertible elsewhere in the gallery.

There is a great story told by a favorite sports writer of mine about a time he found himself in a room with Anna Kournikova. He watched her walk in, but immediately averted his gaze and put on a "so what" attitude when she caught him. "Enough people fawn over her," he thought. "I don't need to be another one." Shortly later he looked up to see her defiantly making eye contact with him, and he melted on the spot. The point is: old Bentley cars will do this to me every time. Look at the '36 4 1/2 Liter Sports Coupe with the body by Vanden Plas and the '49 Shooting Brake and tell me it doesn't happen to you.

Almost everything at the show was worth a pause. Here was a '61 Maserati Sebring Vignale made to commemorate the marque's victory in the '57 race. You'll see a '60 Eldo in the background. Turn left and there is a van Goertz-designed '57 BMW 503 with a 3.2L V-8 and a '60 Ferrari California Spyder, a car that should be near and dear to the heart of anyone who has ever presented themselves as Abe Froman, Sausage King of Chicago.

Sometimes you have to go out and get lost just to see what's out there. Sometimes you get out beyond the boundaries of what you know and choke on dust, and sometimes you see a '58 Dual-Ghia concept with wings as high as your hip. This product of Dual Motors of Michigan was built on a '57 Chrysler 300 chassis and features a 400hp motor, a Ghia body, and an in-dash record player. Ronald Reagan purportedly owned one and lost it to one Lyndon Baines Johnson in a poker game.

Take a few steps with me and we'll see two vastly different cars with the same will to get sideways. In the foreground you'll see one '68 911 T/R homologation special. These came with either 160 or 200hp motors and this one has fender flares from a '72 added to qualify for later group racing. Behind it you can make out a Road Runner with an original 440 Six-Pack. A few generations of owners have made the world a better place by not spinning either of these cars into an immovable object. Bravo.

Under the Pebble Beach tent the cars were gem-like. Feast your eyes on the lines of a '38 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900. This one is a Superleggera with a body to die for... er, by Carrozzeria Touring. This car has a 2.9L eight cylinder (8C, get it?) with two Roots blowers and two Webers and put out about 180hp.

The Isotta Fraschini stood almost as tall as I am. The hood was shoulder-high and the glass hood ornament, a Rene Lalique original placed there when the Queen of Yugoslavia owned the car, was almost at eye-level. Isotta Fraschini makes marine engines now, but this Tipo 8A S features a Duesenberg I8 displacing 427 cubic inches.

Let's just take things back down to Earth, shall we? Wine, cheese and Franz Liszt are great, but you'll suffocate from your own smug if you don't get some malted hops in your system, and quick. An '84 Lamorghini Jalpa sitting outside the tent was my moment of re-entry. We do like the Jalpa.

Enough fussing with cars who shiver in the rain, look how becoming one can be when it's made to have mud, oil and bug guts splashed all over it - like this dirt track racer. In the early days cars that were raced on tracks raced on dirt ovals where horse races were usually held. Many communities had their own horse tracks, and the fairgrounds in Danbury, Connecticut were no different. This is a '35 Ford Danbury Fair special, and I wish it wasn't so clean.

You can only be star-struck when you're in the presence of this '61 Ferrari 250 TR1/61. This is the ex-Phill Hill '61 LeMans winner, ex-NART Stirling Moss, Innes Ireland, et. al. car. You see those velocity stacks under a clear dome, the way the body looks blown back by the wind and the number makes sense: this is a perfect ten.

Heavy clouds rolled in as I was taking a photo of a '70 Porsche 908. It was only the camera car used in the filming of the movie LeMans, not like you'd want decent lighting to shoot it or anything.
You'll see an orange dragster in the gallery, a '57 made by Chassis Research design with a flathead and a ScoT supercharger. How would you like to have all the moving parts in front of your face and the differential between your legs?

Louvers are another detail guaranteed to flip my switch, and a '53 Studebaker hot rod had a stated 400 of them. This one sported a 472 ci Cadillac motor, making it a "Studillac."

The best pair of cars at the show was an Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 parked next to a Bugatti 57C Cabriolet. These two represent some of the purest distillation of automotive come-hither ever to take to the open road.

The sun's rays came back out just in time to roar back at me off the perfect orange paint of a McLaren F1 and a nearby '65 AC Cobra - an FIA car bearing numbers which make it the very last example to run off the original tooling in Surrey, England.

What a show. – James Gribbon

Children Should Be Seen and Not Heard: Connecticut Boy Wants Smoking Ban

Davey G. Johnson — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 20:30:00 EST

Common sense: you shouldn't smoke in the car with anyone who can't stand cigarette smoke. If you have children, you shouldn't smoke in the car when they're in it. That said, you shouldn't let a ten-year-old boy dictate whether you can smoke in the car or not unless the child happens to be in the car with you. Ten-year-old boys are notorious demagogues and need a slight amount of beating down to determine whether they shall remain demagogues or actually grow up to become normal humans. We chose the chain-smoking demagogue route, but young Justin Kvadas' petitioning the Connecticut legislature against smoking in cars containing kids below the age of 7 or under 60 pounds just smacks of asshat parenting and cloying yuckery. Geesh. – Davey G. Johnson

Boy Wants Smoking Banned In Cars With Children [NBC30]

Duck and Cover: International CXT Spotted

Mike Spinelli — Mon, 08 May 2006 12:05:37 EDT

Not since we spied James Gandolfini eating a hot dog in New York City have we considered the phrase, "Hooha! That Mofo is freaking huge!" In his monstrous hands, that wiener looked like a Vienna sausage wrapped in a Band-Aid. Now, blogger The Comedian has caught a shot of the ber-pickup International CXT on the road in Connecticut. Connecticut? Must be owned by a tuba player.

Spotted in the Wild this Morning [The Comedian]

Related:
International to Unveil New Extreme Pickup [internal]

Doofus Dept: Don't Take Pix of Cop Cars When You're Packin'

Davey G. Johnson — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 20:22:49 EST

If you're 19 years old and you're packin a .38 and you have some weed on you, what's the most natural thing in the world to do? Go take pictures of police cars with your cell phone whilst they're parked at the station. Officers in Manchester, CT, noticed William Davis acting supiciously, snapping pictures of their license plates. Upon confronting him, they found the gun and the herb. Cry for help, much?

Man Nabbed for Taking Pictures of Police Cars [WFSB]

NYT Skeptical on Connecticut AC Cars Deal

Davey G. Johnson — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 13:47:41 EST

As soon as plans were announced for AC Cars to begin production in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Farago started cryin' foul like an on-the-take referee, and now the New York Times is starting to wonder, as well. AC frontman Alan Lubinsky, whose rep is not exactly stellar, chalks it up to jealousy. Jealous of what? That he can't seem to pay his bills? That he allegedly leaves investors hanging? That he doesn't deliver on his promises? Yeah, that's a lot to be jealous of right there.

Skepticism Over Automaker's Plan to Build Sports Cars in Bridgeport [New York Times]

33 Percent of All Cars in US to Fall Under CARB's Rule in 2009?

Davey G. Johnson — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 18:37:49 EST

Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington are expected to adopt the policies of the CARBies today, following the lead of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont in adopting California's set of stringent emissions standards, putting the number of states under the California Air Resources Board's authority by 2009. The combined 11 will make up 33% of the United States' automotive market, which gives the Golden State's agency a truly unique power.

While some groups are saying that this will pressure the Feds to adopt more stringent standards, we're not so sure. What it will do is pressure automakers into making cleaner cars across the board by creating a share of the market too large to simply ignore, as well as push speed-parts manufacturers to pursue CARB certification. Listening, Audi? Now if CARB could just do something about the gunk pumped out of the ships and trucks at the Ports of LA and Long Beach, we'd be happy campers.

AC to Build Cars in Connecticut

Davey G. Johnson — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 20:47:38 EST

Apparently inspired by the success of BMW's rethink of the Mini, AC Cars has decided the time is right to begin building cars in the US of A, and they're doing it in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The 40,000 square-foot facility will create 141 jobs and will be underwritten in part by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development. The plant's sports cars'll sell in the $90-150k range, which is becoming a rapidly impacted niche. We're rooting for old AC; still, we're curious to see if the cars will be up to snuff when pitted against venerable British companies with American and German megabucks and berbrains behind them: i.e. Aston Martin and Bentley.

AC Cars to build plant in Connecticut [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]