News and Features

According To Yale, Vibrating Things Are Now Bad

Richard Read
Once upon a time, vibrating things were awesome. There were vibrating mattresses at roadside motels, vibrating chairs at Sharper Image stores, and vibrating…well, other vibrating things. Now, Yale is out to change that. Associate Professor John Morrell from the Yale School of Engineering has developed a car seat that vibrates when a rear-end collision looms. (Watch it.) Morrell has tricked out a garden-variety driver’s seat with 20 motor tactors — the same devices that cause your mobile phone to vibrate when you’ve turned off the ringer at dinner or the theatre because you’re a thoughtful person and not some knuckle-dragging, loud-mouthed cretin. [...]

Beginning July 24: Gears And Gowns Collide (In A Good Way)

Richard Read
Need a break from the summer heat? Do you live in Los Angeles, or are you planning to visit soon? Then take our advice and set aside an afternoon to visit the Petersen Automotive Museum for a stroll through its newest exhibition, Automotivated: Streamlined Fashion and Automobiles. As you might have guessed from the snazzy shot above (or from the show title), Automotivated is all about wheels and wearables, centering largely on vehicles from the Art Deco period. The rides on display include a 1913 Mercer Raceabout, a 1938 Delahaye 135MS Figoni et Falaschi Roadster, and numerous sleek, exotic models made in-between. [...]

General Motors’ “Designing Women” Exhibition At The Museum Of The City Of New York

Richard Read
General Motors presented its “Designing Women” exhibition, a look back at the influence of female automotive designers within the American automotive giant, on Monday, June 28, at the Museum of the City of New York. From post-WWII North America, through the era of horn-rimmed glasses and tail fins, and up to modern-day machines like the Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept, the event offered a candid take on the female influence within the halls of the GM design world. [...]

Subaru Owners: Wear Your LGBT Pride On Your (Car’s) Behind

Richard Read
Time and again, Subaru has proven itself one of the most LGBT-friendly brands on the market, and you guys clearly know it. Unfortunately, that knowledge hasn’t always translated into sales of Outbacks, Foresters, and the like: Gaywheels readers do consider an automaker’s record on LGBT issues when cruising the car lots, but that doesn’t mean that it’s their top purchasing criteria. Now, Subaru has launched a new campaign that aims to fix that — at least in part. Taking a page from Foursquare and Gowalla (which took pages from the Boy Scouts, the Brownies, and class rings), Subaru is not offering badges for owners. The badges come in two parts: one that tells the world how many Subarus you’ve owned (e.g. “This is my 4th Subaru!”) and another that says a bit more about your personal interests. [...]

The Dangers Of Five-Inch Pumps And New Car Launches

Richard Read
When Katy Perry first entered the national consciousness, it was mostly because of (a) her semi-provocative song about kissing another girl, and (b) the thumping bassline that accompanied it. I say “semi-provocative” because the lyrics of “I Kissed a Girl” read like a college freshman’s “I was sooooo drunk” story. You know: it was an exciting roller coaster ride, but she’s not getting back on it anytime soon. Nevertheless, many in the LGBT community thought they’d found a friend in Perry, whether or not she was 100% serious about the girl-on-girl. [...]

Lexus Is Still Pursuing Perfection

Casey Williams 1
Since introducing the LS400 and ES250 at the Detroit and Los Angeles auto shows in 1989, Lexus has adhered to its famous tag line, “The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection.” That pursuit gave Mercedes and Cadillac a rude awakening, and it has led to an array of excellent products. It’s interesting to consider all Lexus has become. Before Lexus, Toyota’s flagship was the Cressida sedan — a car that would be completely out-classed by today’s Camry. The idea that Toyota would rival the mighty Mercedes-Benz for prestige luxury seemed like a joke, but people didn’t laugh long: the $35,000 LS400 earned a reputation as one of the finest cars in the world with near-perfect durability – a Mercedes S-Class at half the price. The ES250 was a well-appointed mid-size competitor to the Cadillac Seville, Acura Legend, and Mercedes 190E. Lexus service was (and is) beyond compare, earning heaps of awards and schooling rivals. [...]

Today In Staycations: Watch Bonnaroo Live, Courtesy Of The Ford Fiesta

Richard Read
If you’re a music fan, you probably know all about the Bonnaroo music and arts festival. But what you may not know is that Ford is sponsoring a live video feed direct from the event, starting today at 12:15 CST and running through Sunday evening. It’s part of Ford’s massive marketing campaign for the brand-spankin’ new 2011 Ford Fiesta, and it’s a fairly brilliant idea. Music fans get free concerts, Bonnaroo gets future visitors, and the Fiesta gets loads of visibility among the young, hip demographic it’s meant to reach. True, Bonnaroo probably skews a little older than other music fests, but we’d wager that it’s still within the Fiesta’s ballpark. [...]

Betty White, The Parakeet, And Me

Richard Read 1
A couple of weeks ago, a friend sent me a link to a New York Times article called “Betty White and a Cadillac called ‘Parakeet'”. It was the story of Betty’s beloved Seamist Green 1977 Seville, which she called “Parakeet”. The car had been given to her as a surprise gift by her late husband Allen Ludden. It was intact and original, with just over 18,000 miles, and it had been donated to the AACA Museum in Hershey, PA by its owner in Texas. Years earlier, Betty herself had donated the car to the Humane Society when she decided she could no longer care for it appropriately. And I am the missing link. [...]

1955 Ford Thunderbird: Named For A Country Club

Richard Read
One of the most famous cars of the 1950s was the Ford Thunderbird. A low, stylish two-seater V8, with creature comforts like power windows and automatic transmission, it wasn’t a sports car in the European tradition, but rather an American interpretation — and it has a strong connection to the desert paradise knows as Palm Springs. Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California opened in January of 1951 to a swarm of publicity. It was the first golf course in the valley and one of the first anywhere to be surrounded by home sites. It was an instant celebrity hangout, and within a year all of the home sites were sold, many to celebrities of the day…. [...]