Sunday Signs

Less than two hours ago I had another post title in mind with a specific beginning. Once again, the diminution in mental acuity that results from age has banished those ideas from my consciousness.

 

 

Not long ago I finally finished hanging most of the signs I have that refer to defunct American car companies. All of these signs are reproductions. Unless my wonderful wife and I win A LOT of money in a lottery, I will not buy original signs with four-figure price tags.

These are hanging on the wall in front of the parking space for our Hyundai Elantra. The other space in the two-car bay is occupied by my wonderful wife’s Corvette and has many Corvette-related signs hanging on the walls. I will show them someday in the blog.

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On our way to breakfast yesterday, my wonderful wife and I witnessed a collection of about ten high-performance cars traveling quite quickly to get on Arizona Loop 101. Among these cars were three McLarens, two or three Lamborghinis and a car that I had only previously seen on TV and in photographs.

 

 

This is a TVR Cerbera. TVR was a British car company that used to adapt running gear and chassis from other car manufacturers, but on bodies they designed and built. The Cerbera, which was manufactured from 1996 to 2006, was the first car from the company that used an engine of their own.

The best way I can describe the Cerbera is as a British version of the early Dodge Viper: fast, brutish, and lacking ABS or traction control. Given the first date of manufacture for these cars, those early models of the Cerbera can now be legally imported to the US under the 25-year rule.

I have always liked the way these cars look and the idea of a fast car with a great power-to-weight ratio. The earliest edition of the car was powered by a 4.2 liter/255 cubic-inch V-8 that produced 360 HP/320 LB-FT of torque in a car that weighed about 2,500 pounds. The car could accelerate from 0-60 MPH in 4.2 seconds with a top speed of 180 MPH. Subsequent versions of the car (about 1,500 were produced in total) had engines that produced even more power and, of course, made the car even faster.

In reality, though, I would never drive one of these. First, the condition of my left foot and left knee prevents me from driving a car with a manual transmission; these cars were never available with an automatic (just like the Viper). Second, the lack of ABS and traction control in a light car with that much power just seems like a prescription for disaster.

In a similar vein, just a couple of days ago I “complained” to my wonderful wife that I didn’t see many, if any, versions of the new Nissan Z car on the road around here. This morning on the way to breakfast, we saw not one, not two, but three examples of the car, including one in this color.

 

 

It is a striking car, in my opinion, but obviously not common if I don’t see them in this car-crazy part of the country where a morning drive to breakfast can lead to witnessing McLarens, Lamborghinis and a TVR Cerbera.

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Sadly, Israel has caved to pressure from the US and has withdrawn its troops from southern Gaza. That act will allow Hamas to re-group and to attack Israel again in the future. Although the Israeli government “is leaving open the possibility of a future new invasion of Rafah in deep southern Gaza” the terrorists have won again, but only because of foolish decisions by those–supposedly–on the side of good. Oh, the hostages are still being held, and the female ones are still being raped every day.

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In another related vein, here is a list of actions by the so-called religion of peace, which of course is nothing of the sort, as listed in this Why Evolution Is True (WEIT) post:

 

– Islamism: the desire to dominate the world with Islamic doctrine, including sharia law

– The codified oppression of women. In many places women must be veiled, put into cloth sacks, can’t go out without a male guardian, can’t go to school or get many jobs, must walk behind their husbands, can be beaten (or divorced) by their husbands without sanction, can be stoned to death for adultery (a practice just resumed by the Taliban in Afghanistan), and so on.

– Honor culture: killing of family members who supposedly sully a family’s “honor”

– Female genital mutilation, which is encouraged in many places by Islam

– Sharia law, which is also oppressive. For example, the testimony of women under sharia law counts only half as much as a man’s

– The oppression of gays, including outright murder in places like Gaza and legal execution in places like Iran.

– Blasphemy laws, under which you can be killed for insulting Islam or burning the Qur’an

– The demonization and sometimes the killing of apostates or atheists

– The issuing of fatwas when Westerners insult Islam, sometimes calling for killing those perceived to insult the religion (Charlie Hebdo, Salman Rushdie, etc.). This is connected with the blasphemy laws mentioned above

– Divisiveness within the religion that leads to war and death: Sunnis kill Shiites and vice versa, so there are internecine killings as well as cross-cultural killing

– The propagation of hatred of Jews and propagandizing of the young

– Favoring religious teaching in madrassas above secular teaching

– The suppression of freedom of speech in general, particularly that which criticizes the government, often an explicitly Islamic government.  Masih Alinejad, for instance, fears for her life in America because she criticizes Iran, which has tried to both kill and kidnap her in separate incidents. Why? Because she’s against mandatory wearing of the headscarf (hijab) for women.

 

Yes, from about the 12th through the 18th centuries, Christianity was hardly a bastion of peace and tolerance. The Spanish Inquisition, anyone? The problem now, though, is the vast number of Muslims with 15th century views, but 21st century weapons.

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Back to cars…this CNBC article reports on the under-the-radar growth of the Genesis brand as a force in the luxury car market. In the last pre-damn virus year, 2019, Genesis (the luxury make of Hyundai) sold about 20,000 vehicles in the US. In 2023, Genesis sales in the US approached 70,000. In fact, Genesis outsold Nissan’s luxury brand, Infiniti, in 2023.

While the Genesis performance model, the G70, is based on the well-reviewed Kia Stinger and is probably the reason the Stinger has been discontinued, the top of the line G90 was named the best luxury car of 2023 by Cars.com.

 

 

While sales of the Stinger no doubt suffered because of the Kia label, the G70, G80 and G90 should not suffer from such snobbery. Although many potential car buyers are probably still unaware of what the brand represents, others know that Genesis is supposed to be a luxury make.

 

#SundaySigns

#TVRCerbera

#Genesis