It seems with every passing day, the world, or at least your local area, changes in a way that’s hard to grasp. Maybe you live in one of the increasing number of states that are hostile toward imported vehicles. Maybe your living expenses have changed in a way that you can’t enjoy cars like how you used to. Or, perhaps Walter White and Jesse Pinkman have downgraded to a Ford Econoline…your Ford Econoline.
Whatever’s going on in life, I’ve found one thing that is always able to cheer me up: Cars. Or, I suppose more specifically, anything with an engine or motor. Even after nearly three years of writing about planes, trains, automobiles, and motorcycles as a job, I’m still curious about what I don’t know.
Part of why I love Holy Grails is that you, the reader, tell us what you love. You dear readers have sent me down countless rabbit holes and each and every one of them have been exciting. I never knew that the Mazda MX-3 had a baby V6 and through Thomas, I’ve learned that BMW has an unfathomable number of rare production cars. I am just as happy to research a Mercury Tracer as I am some million-dollar hypercar.
And when just about everything sucks, like not being able to sell a stolen and broken Audi TT or not being to buy some silly wheels, I found comfort in the car community. Now, I won’t say that every community is great, but places like Opposite-Lock or our own comments? The warmth feels so good you could take off your coat in a blizzard. Wait, don’t do that.
What I’m getting at is that you all rock, and thank you for the comments and emails that make our days better. We’re issuing two COTD noms today, but technically, we could give out over one hundred.
One for StayPutReachJump:
Ug, what a rollercoaster of shit! Hopefully you have other high points so that the ride isn’t completely brown!
I’ve really enjoyed your articles (and comments too before you started writing for that other virtual rag) over the years! I was blown away, and frankly, still am blown away for being such a strong, visible and positive representation of trans women! I wish I had half as much courage as you do!
My wife and I run our own small business in a reddish-blue town (maybe its purple with a bluish hue, dunno), and when I came out as a trans woman to my professional network, I got about 35% very vocal support, 8% positive responses and just a few outright transphobic responses. The remaining +50% of people never responded at all. These are all people I’ve worked with professionally for years.
Since then, we’ve just kept our heads down and focused on doing our work to the best of our abilities. We try not to attribute any negativity to us personally and just keep doing what we’re doing. That includes me working on my crappy BMW e21, teaching my teenage nieces how to change the oil in their cars (ya know, grooming), and building out a Sprinter camper van (which, when its done, will friggin blow away any other van you’ve highlighted here so far!).
Sometimes people amaze you! Some of the support we’ve received has been so heartwarming its made me cry! And sometimes, a lot of times, people just suck.
Thank you so much for your strength and mostly for your awesome articles!
Thank you so much! Your comments honestly really made my day!
Stephen Walter Gossin has chosen a COTD winner from his piece about restoring a $600 Dodge Ram. This one comes from Scott!
Stephen,
When I came over here from that Lighting Site a year ago, following two of MY favorite auto/culture writers, I admit that I was honestly a bit worried that they’d wind up being the lone draws at TheAutopian.com
I needn’t have worried. Not only did they continue to be as absurdly prolific as before (or perhaps even moreso) they also acquired assistance from another J-writer that I already very much enjoyed (Mercedes) and somehow, they managed to locate and secure the services of people I’d never even heard of, but who turned out to be as sharp/creative/amusing as David and Jason. By which I mean you of course. And Adrian, and Matt, and Thomas, etc… I’ve literally read things here this past yearish by EACH of you that I’ve enjoyed JUST as much as my favorite stories by D&J …and that’s high praise. ????
This piece, about your regular cab/short bed RAM, is just such an item. Personally, though I acknowledge the usefulness of a long bed, IMO something just looks right about the smaller cab and shorter bed: it’s still a huge vehicle, but compared to all the big/expensive trucks people buy just to get their groceries, your white RAM looks charmingly Lilliputian in comparison. At least it would, unless I parked it next to my slightly ratty NA Miata. ????
The teal bench alone would have sold me on your RAM (so perfect!) and I thank my lucky stars that I’m out here in LA, instead of somewhere near you, and that I’ve never used Facebook …had I seen the ad for your RAM, I’d have been tempted to add it to my own (currently) 3-car collection (which is at least one car too many, especially since I’ve worked from home for years). My ’04 Volvo XC90 will have to continue to suffice for truck-type-stuff such as bringing home 1,500 lbs. of broken chunks of concrete slab to build a retaining wall, etc… I even managed to get a washing machine home in it once (on its side/by myself/with a bad back/with a fraction of an inch to spare) but of course I’d love a pickup with all that major-appliance-compatible headroom.
BTW, your fireworks friend and your nephew are both adorable, though in somewhat different ways.
Thanks so much for your great article! ????
Thank you, everyone! Have a great weekend!
Stephen is a KILLER writer.
Okay, I have a dumb question for StayPutReachJump: is that a reference to the Kids in the Hall’s ‘Brain Candy’ movie?
The city I live in is a mix of democrat (blue) and republican (red), surrounded by red. Red and blue make purple. Depending on the red and blue mix, you’ll get various shades of purple, so I was just trying to describe the political landscape fairly.
I understand how the colors relate to politics. 🙂 I am also in a blue-ish area surrounded by red.
However, I hadn’t heard that particular phrase used (that I could recall) outside of the movie. Cheers!
that tire fire was perfectly troy, mi. and a fitting goodbye to d.t. glad it happened, glad to have made it. also glad i didn’t have to make the fire and was able to just enjoy it.
At the risk of keeping this self-congratulatory love fest going another cycle, thank you for the COTD nomination! Was really happy to see this totally new and unique feature appear on this site, having never seen anything like it on any other automotive news site. This is also the very first time I’ve ever had a COTD nomination as well, so that’s pretty cool!
Now get back to work on those great articles! They ain’t going to write themselves!
Besides, I’ve got another 600 or so holes to drill this weekend for the star ceiling in my Sprinter. (Yeah, that’s right, I said it. Friggin stars in the friggin ceiling of our 4×4 Sprinter camper van…)
!!!! Rolls’ starlight headliners are one of my favorite weird, over-the-top features in any car ever made. You’re officially my new hero for DIYing one.
Thanks! We did it in the first van we built out a few years back (building Van #2 now). Before I did it, I thought it was going to be kinda cheesy, like a funny quirk. But damn, it was literally one of the best feature of the whole design. On full brightness it has the feel of the light of a full moon, and it makes the ceiling feel infinitely tall. You can see a dusk picture here (4th image in the sequence)…
I don’t know why we no longer have the ability to upvote stories, so take this as a “hear, hear”. There’s a lot of ugliness in the world right now, and hating people for who they are just contributes to the tire fire.
And bringing home ridiculous loads via a Volvo XC90 reminds me of using my del Sol as a DD: hauling a few hundred pounds of mulch home in/on top of my trunk (wish I’d measured the front lift on that short drive home) or the wheelbarrow I desperately held onto overhead (it was a very long and very stupid mile and a half) or the standup bass I rented that I had to place upside down in the passenger seat with the top off.
Del Sols were such cool cars. Just fun, more than anything, which is a super-rare automotive commodity these days. And always thought the trunklid screamed out for a luggage rack, since it was so flat.
I drove it for the better part of 15 years, and I still miss it. One showed up on BaT this week, wish I’d had money to spare for it.
Right on – one of the things I love about this site is the general air of positivity. The world needs more of that.
Re: hauling – years ago I had a Saturn VUE (with the Honda J35) that served as an enclosed pickup truck. I discovered that it would hold 2′ x 8′ pieces of plywood*… with the rear gate shut. I don’t know if that was intentional on Saturn’s part or just a happy coincidence, but I made extensive use of that feature. Frankly I overloaded the vehicle on more than a few occasions (think lowrider) and it did fine.
* Buy 4′ x 8′ sheets and ask the store (Lowes, HD) to rip them down the middle.
I still use my 2006 Saturn Vue with the 4 cylinder (couldn’t afford the 6 at the time) for hauling all sorts of things. It’s my dog hauler at the moment
We do need the article upvote button back stat.
Wish I could find a photo (I must have taken one) but the very first thing I brought home with the ’04 Volvo XC90 (which I bought on impulse one morning pretty much JUST for dragging stuff home, though now it’s my daily driver because it feels so big, safe, and comfortable) is a TEN FOOT LONG by FOUR FOOT WIDE by SIX INCH THICK hot water solar panel. Of course, it had to go on the roof, and it took three people to get it up there, but it worked. Once, I also got more than 20 Silicon Graphics Indigo 2 Unix workstations home in one trip in my ’00 VW Golf TDI. For those not in the know, SGIs were pretty much the only computers that ILM and others used to do digital VFX and CG for movies until Macs and PCs became powerful enough. ALL SGIs weigh a crapton EACH, even the smaller, desktop machines like the Indigo 2. I forget the exact math (and again, if I have a photo, it’s on some other/older computer) but 20+ Indigo 2s weigh WELL OVER 1,000 lbs. An A4 TDI (turbocharged direct injection diesel) Golf has only 90HP but about 150 lb-ft of torque, and once I merged onto the 405 North, the Golf barely seemed to care that it was carrying half a ton of semi-obsolete computers (which they were, even back then).
I just washed the TDI the other day, and as soon as I find the title, I’ll be putting it up for sale (it’s only got about 85Kmiles on it)… just in case anyone’s interested.