Sharing is caring: most surprising car part sharing occasions

On Tuesday I was doing something that only 10% of Twitter users do: scroll through and read the messages posted on the main feed. Since I’m following 216 accounts it is quite a messy feed, ranging from posts from people I actually care about to some stupid, unreasonable reposts, like “you will not believe what Justin Bieber posted on Facebook. To see it, click this link here”. Uh-huh, yeah, I’m not that stupid. There are two things I don’t care about in these situations: Justin Bieber and getting my laptop infected with every single computer virus there ever has been.

But it’s not all that bad. I find out some surprising facts and I found something quite shocking car-wise that I decided to do some research and find out more of this trait in car world. CAR PART SHARING.

The post that caused this interest was about McLaren F1. An engineering marvel. It still is the fastest naturally aspirated car in the world with 390 km/h (240 mph) in the record books and it is sort of a hypercar that you wouldn’t be expecting to see a cocky rapper or a pretending genius, teeth-whitened producer behind the wheel. No. These cars are owned by true professionals like Jay Leno, Eric Clapton, Michael Schumacher, Elon Musk and Rowan Atkinson (who occasionally kept crashing and restoring his F1). The car had a price tag of $1m and, because only 106 were produced, this price won’t be decreasing for sure. So you expect this car to be made out of exotic materials and genuine parts created for the car. But you’d be wrong, because there was a set of parts on the car that you would be least expecting to be shared with some other car. I am talking about the rear lights.

Now an ordinary human being would just say “no big deal”. But then you have to see what other car (or I’d rather say “motor vehicle”) shares them. Surprise, surprise, it’s a DAF bus.

If the car DAF would’ve shared its parts with would’ve been a Ford or a Hyundai, I wouldn’t be surprised, but cost cutting on a million dollar supercar seems unjustified. It’s not like the company was short of cash. With McLaren having four consecutive F1 championship titles before the car was released in 1992 it’s not like they were short of cash. Or maybe they rushed it. That’s the only explenation I could think of – them rushing to finish the car in time before potential buyers turn away. Luckily McLaren aren’t the same anymore, having all their cars and technology designed “in the house” as they say in the car world.

But McLaren ain’t the only ones who fell into the misery of car part sharing. Here are a couple of other cars with some cheap parts and the cars these parts originated from.

ASTON MARTIN DB7 REAR LIGHT MODULES – 1989 MAZDA 323F

I now understand why in 1990s James Bond didn’t drive the Aston. Because as you can see, cost cutting in the company was pretty horrible. The rear lights out of a economy car? It’s the only design element of that car I didn’t really like. Aston wasn’t all that great on the inside either, having a gearstick so close to the stereo that you couldn’t really change your cassette (or CD if you were tech-savy in those days) unless you had your car in a low gear if it was an auto box or if it was in 2nd, 4th or 6th. The switchgear and the console itself was very Fordish (which is no coincidence, as Aston was owned by Ford from 1987 to 2007. Ford also had a small share of Mazda as well, which explains the light sharing). It’s a shame, because it’s an Aston Martin.

ASTON MARTIN VIRAGE FRONT AND REAR LIGHTS – AUDI 200 and VW SCIROCCO

It’s Aston again. But this car basically shows how bad things were before Ford took Aston Martin over. It’s no surprise that you haven’t heard of the Virage, because it was Aston’s call for desperation to stay alive. Just over 1000 cars were produced and they haven’t really found their place in classic car hall of fame. Partly it was because of its gopping looks. This car really looks like it was designed in a hurry by an accountant and a salesman. Then there was the parts sharing. The front lights were from Audi 200 and rear lights – from a VW Scirocco. They could’ve used parts from other manufacturers because these don’t fit at all. It makes the Aston look like a kit car built by some car enthusiasts during weekends. Some really could mistake this with a VW Scirocco coupe which for an Aston would be such a resentment.

MG SV-R – FIAT PUNTO

The last years of MG were a pain to many car enthusiasts. Here is a brand with racing pedigree and charm dying a suffering death. This suffering also was reflected into cars they built. The MG SV-R was a weird project. Firstly because it was a super car from a brand that already earned a reputation for building cars for British pensioners (thanks to Rover). Secondly because though it was supposed to be a super car it was still built like a pensioner’s car. The front lights were inherited from Fiat’s Punto. It’s not a bad decision as it suited the design, making it look like it squints at you with a mean stare.

PAGANI ZONDA AIR CONDITIONING CONTROLS – MG ZS

Now this one I found by pure chance and I started doubting Pagani. Up until the moment I found out about this I believed (sort of) what Horacio Pagani was saying, that he sprays a fresh grass air freshener around his office so he can concentrate better, that he was spending hours walking around the finished car and watching every single detail of it before redesigning it, that all the parts for his cars were made by Pagani. RUBBISH! So did MG just steal a batch of air conditioning units from you and dropped them into their cars? What’s more, they just kept washing petrolhead’s brains that all cars are “crafted to the absolute perfection” and hey used this claim to justify their £500k price tag. Why couldn’t you just rise the price for another £50k and insert proper electronic switch gear, not one that costs £60 (I did research. The MG air conditioning control unit costs £60). If your cars were an automotive perfection, why did you cut costs so early?

LAMBORGHINI DIABLO FACELIFTED MODEL’S HEADLIGHTS – NISSAN 300ZX

It’s nothing huge, but I really preferred the pop-up headlights on the Diablo. That’s all because of the legislation that is supposed to “keep people alive by removing this fatal headlight design”. Thanks.

NOBLE M600 ENGINE – VOLVO S80 V8

This last one though might not be a visual part, but it sure is quite an interesting one. The hard-core supercar maker Noble used the conservative Volvo’s mad V8 engine, added a couple of turbos and created a monster. It’s really a shame we will never see a V8 engine in a Volvo again because they’re now staying with 4-cylinder engines, but it’s weird that a Volvo engine powers a 200+mph supercar. What’s more, remove all the silencers on Volvo’s exhaust and you will have the best car to confuse people with, because when they’ll hear this roar and then see an S80 coming from that way they will think that they’ve lost their minds. These cars are called “sleeper’s cars”, because until you beat the guy next to you at the take off from traffic lights, he will never know that you have something sinister at your disposal.

Hot Pursuit: Countries where you really should obey the law on the road

Today let us look at various police forces around the world. But we are not after just speed ticket fines here, oh no. We’re after police cars that are powerful and quick enough to give the baddies a hard time.

USA

The land of the free – free speech (sort of), free enterprise (that they are blindly following), free choice to hold a gun (this has entered a dead end, unfortunately) – but when it comes to police cars, it’s not as free as you think it is.

First of all it’s the violence of the police force when attempting to stop the bad guys. You have seen endless hours of footage where police cars are ramming the “bad guys” off the road. And it’s not some soft push, saying “please, can you stop now?” It’s like in the films: “FREEZE, BASTARD!” Like they do in Gran Theft Auto.

Then they have proper cars for the job. Long gone are those fat, long Ford Crown Victorias you used to see in films. Now there are new kids on the bloc. First one is Bloomfield Township Police Department’s Cadillac CTS-V. For those who don’t know, the V in a Cadillac model name is the performance designation, i.e. it is a hard core version of that model. Same as the M is for BMW, AMG is for Mercedes, the R for Jaguar etc. This car is powered by the same 6.2 litre V8 engine that you find in Chevrolet Camaro. It’s no surprise, as everything GM does is then freely shared among other cars in the company. Cost saving at its best….or maybe finest…or purest…it’s hard to find the right word because this kind of cost saving practice isn’t anything positive. Why not? Google “GM Recalls” and you’ll see why.

But there are some cars they have that don’t spend their time at a dealership having everything stripped and rebuilt. One of more famous recent police fleet updates are Dodge Chargers. Just recently, Dodge updated the Charger and, indeed, made a police version of that new car too. Unless you have a high-end exotic like a Lamborghini or Pagani or Bugatti, when you see the Charger and red & blue lights in the mirror, pull up, just for your own life’s sake.

UNITED KINGDOM

On the other hand you have the UK and the police force mainly containing old Vauxhall Astras and Volvo V70s. On the plus side, before police leave the station to trace down and apprehend the miscreant, they have to go through the thing Britain is doomed with nowadays – health and safety checks, so by the time police cars in London will get the backup they’ve asked for, the criminal will already be in Poland by then. And there is no ramming or bashing either. They are tactical there. So I would like to imagine police trying to catch a fast, out of control maniac who’s going all over the place on the motorway.

But luckily for them they have a couple of cars that could be up for the job. One of them is one of ultimate “I-didn’t-know-it-is-that-fast” cars: Lexus IS-F. Yes, a Lexus IS-F! In a fleet alongside those Astras and Volvos the Lexus is like a unicorn. A quick unicorn too. it has a 5.0 litre V8 engine, a top speed of 168 mph (270 km/h) and 0-100 km/h time of 4.7 seconds. This very car is one of official vehicles of the Humberside Police squad. The reason for that is, as one of police officers said, “to help the force run down drug dealers in high-powered sports cars, and it has been used to seize criminal assets, too.” Good thing Breaking Bad wasn’t set in Humberside.

Another surprise is in Norfolk. Of course, to represent local car manufacturing traditions, Norfolk police use Lotus Evora. It actually is one of the best cars for the job, because it is quick enough to stop runaways and it sticks to the road like glue (as you would expect from Lotus). There’s only one drawback – it’s Norfolk, the county that has the lowest crime rate in the UK. That’s like getting bouncers to watch there are no fights in the kindergarden. But it is still cool.

Finally, London Metropolitan police. They made one of the stupidest decisions in the world. What they did was they bought a Lamborghini Murcielago (which alone cost around £200 000 when it was new. And that’s tax payer’s money, ladies and gentlemen, that they used. They said they didn’t, but so did Viktor Yanukovych when he built a villa for himself) and turned it into a police car. So they got a bit over the top with expenditure. Secondly, it’s completely useless. They did make it just for an MPH Car Show in 2006, but a Lamborghini supercar as a police car in CENTRAL LONDON? Where fastest you can go is walking pace? Besides, of all the beautiful cars in 2006 (like Aston Martin DB9, Jaguar XK, Pagani Zonda or Mercedes SLR) they chose one of the ugliest Lamborghinis ever made. Well done, Rozzers.

GERMANY

Of course Germany have been known for those fantastic autobahns with limitless speeds and fantastic cars. It seems like it is a country that has a match made in heaven. But just to be sure that this limit is not exceeded too far, they have made sure that those on the Autobahn still obey when they see Porsche 911 police cars in the mirrors. You have seen them, probably, in Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed, but they are real. German “autobahn politzei” actually use 911s in their fleet for a good reason – most of production cars nowadays come with a speed limiter of around 250 km/h or 155 mph. The Porsche 911 top speed in its model range starts from 180 mph or 290 km/h.

UAE

When it comes to exclusive police cars we have to talk about Dubai. They have the fleet of police cars so exclusive that some actually want to break the law just to be apprehended and taken around in one just to enjoy the ride of their lives before landing behind bars and getting lashed by their judges.

Just have a look at this escort:

Back to front in this picture you see a Bentley Continental GT, McLaren MP4-12C, Ferrari FF and Bugatti Veyron. And judging by those people taking photos in the background, this picture is absolutely real.

I have no issues with the Dubai police….well I didn’t, until I saw THIS:

If it was a Bugatti Veryon, I wouldn’t be bothered. But it isn’t. It is, in fact, an Aston Martin One-77. A car that is a masterpiece. It is the ultimate toy of a petrolhead car collector, an ode to automotive industry. What those morons in the Dubai police force did was take the actual painting of Mona Lisa and with a graffiti spray paint wrote “PROPERTY OF THE DUBAI NATIONAL ART GALLERY!” Why? The name One-77 is a clue. This car has only 77 hand made, patiently crafted beauties on the road. They basically ruined one of them. Just strapped some police lights, put some liveries on it and just ruined it. This car deserves to be driven around Stelvio pass with windows right down, stereo off and revs going as high as possible, NOT to be a show car for the wealthy. I just can’t stand when such delicate car brands are being ruined by these filthy-from-money individuals. First it happened with Bentley. Before the Continental GT came out Bentleys were known for their Le Mans history, for being elegant and fast get-about for the true gentlemen. Since the Continental GT came out, people from such “talent shows” as “The Only Way is Chelsea” or “Made in Essex” (I know I’ve written it wrong but I am so mad I just can’t be bothered to write it correctly) are buying these cars to show off. Therefore the whole reputation of the brand is RUINED. Everyone now who looks at a Bentley is thinking “oh look, a snobs car”. Same applies to Mercedes. I don’t want Aston to be part of this terrible fate. It is supposed to be like James Bond – mysterious, sharp and masculine – not like James Packer.

Next time, let’s talk about countries where you don’t have to fear from police.

About Cadillac ELR and road rage

In the first “comeback” article I would like to talk about Cadillac ELR’s failure and road rage.

OUT OF JUICE WITHOUT LEAVING THE HOUSE: CADILLAC DEALERS REFUSE TO TAKE ON ELR

This is it, ladies and gentlemen. Cadillac’s answer to Tesla, Nissan Leaf and Toyota “Borius” – Cadillac ELR. It is supposed to be the “upper class hybrid car”, representing the new, high quality direction of GM and Cadillac as a brand. Expectations were high, reviewers loved this car…but just after they began to be shipped to the dealers in December, 2013 (pictured above) more than half of Cadillac dealers in ‘Merica looked at the car and said “NO! We don’t want it.” Why such sharp change of plans?

Well…it turns out that dealers in question (410 out of 940 dealers in the States) are ones located in areas where electric cars is a rare sight. They said that this car will be as had to get rid of as an Edsel because of low popularity of alternative energy and bad infrastructure for rechargeable cars. They justified their claim by saying that areas where most of ELRs will be sold are California (the hive of flower-kissing environmentalists), New York, Miami and other densely inhabited states.

If they do decide to sell ELRs, there’s also quite a lot of costs involved in tooling the dealer’s services, adding charging stations and other tools that would make these Caddies roll.

Personally, I think ELR is a waste of energy and steel. Why? Simple – first of all it is based on Chevrolet Volt’s (Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in civilized world) platform. That means the engine and the electric drivetrain is the same of the “cheaper-badged” sister. The similarities don’t end there because Caddie engineers weren’t bothered on changing the infotainment system a lot which, according to reporters from pages like “Wired” (http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/02/cadillac-cue-update-coming/) say it is an absolute, irresponsive and slow joke of a system on which Chevrolet’s system is based on.

Also, I do not see the point of Caddie putting this car into production. What is it’s direct rival? Leaf? That’s a cheap city car. Tesla Model S? COMPLETELY out of the league in looks, drivability, emissions and value for money. Fisker is dead…and there are no more cars that could be related. What idea did Cadillac’s Marketing Department came up with to put this pointless brick on wheels into production will remain unanswered…for now. For it to sell well you need a miracle and a couple of people who have lost their mind.

GET OFF MY LANE: Road rage

My friend from Uni Alex took me for a spin in his Mini yesterday and we were talking about how us two react of those people who, by an utter miracle, have received a driver’s license and ruin our days by their absolutely ridiculous maneuvers. And we both came to a conclusion that every time there’s an idiot on the roads, our faces turn red, we suddenly know how to do sign language and there’s a bit of steam coming out of our ears because they “sinned in front of God Asphalt”. But we don’t feel guilty for our rage. And our rage doesn’t lead us to “aggressive driving”, we just love expressing ourselves to help other motorists…at least that’s what I thing.

Judge this…

It happened last Summer in Riga. I was driving into town centre to go to the cinema with my sister (yes, she’s 14. No, I will not tell you her name). We had a great time, listening to music, playing “seat heater game” and looking forward to our film. Then, suddenly, music stopped, fun was interrupted and my hands started to play the game “show all of the signs you can” when a black, second-generation Porsche Cayenne with Estonian number plates and tinted windows (on a new car, tinted windows could mean: 1) you’re a politician; 2) you were bullied at school or 3) you think you see too well) suddenly pulled right in front of me without turning turn signals about 8 inches from the front bumpers.. The horn of the BMW I was driving squeaked into life, expressing my overall “love” towards the driver. There was no reaction, not even a “thank you” sign (i.e. flashing hazard lights for a little bit in order to express your gratitude. There are nice drivers in Latvia).

After a second, the Cayenne saw the traffic in the lane we both were in, so it went back into the right lane where it came from, again…without flashing turn signals. The thing is that intersection we were at, the right hand lane goes right and straight on (in Latvia they drive on the right-hand-side. So does 90% of the world) and the lane I was in goes left. I had my eyes clicking once a second towards the ridiculous Cayenne. At the very last moment, before I had to turn off left, guess what…the Cayenne changed its mind and came back in my lane. This time…driving painfully slowly. I honked and again no reaction. We turned into the street on the left and the grand finale came – the Cayenne was driving RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, on the lane-dividing line. I thought the driver is deaf, because there was no reaction from my horn and my Italian-like hand gestures.

After pulling up next to this evil Porsche my all emotions died down and feeling of helplessness kicked in, finding out that the driver of the Cayenne was…Paris Hilton-looking blonde. Seeing all those videos on the internet where their “intelligence” have been reflected by their chihuahua rat dogs and utterly pathetic general knowledge, I decided to drive on.

Is it fair that people like this are let on the road? So us, nice, polite and respectable drivers get our moods ruined by some truly questionable maneuvers. I am not talking about people who cannot concentrate until the music is turned down to 2 or who’s steering wheel is in their face. It doesn’t matter what is your driving position and your personal habits. If you are on the road, please, respect others.

The other problem on the roads is when someone is the other type – sneaking into your congested lane, overtaking people in the city on the oncoming lane, not letting you out of the street etc. The most common drivers that I have noticed of doing this have been driving BMWs, over-tuned japanese cars and cheap European hatchbacks who’s appearance is sacrificed for no good reason (in the automotive community we call them “Ricers”), van drivers and all of Bentley drivers. But I have noticed that the most polite drivers out there are SAAB drivers. Almost every time I see a SAAB driver I see a Halo over the car and they ALWAYS have let me go through. Makes me smile. ^_^ Also all of Ford Mondeo and Hyundai drivers. Probably because they are pensioners.

Anyone’s had any examples or views on road rage? Any idea which other car drivers have a terrible road rage? Or views on such “Barbie” drivers? Please, share it in the comments.

I’ll see you all next week. For now, I’m out of here!