Yes, it’s another hideously late podcast, which means that it must be getting close to that magical time of year, when those of us who are so obsessed with learning stuff that we (well, not us usually, our parents) are willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars a year for the privilege to do so start pulling our hair out with frustration and stress as we approach the dreaded Final Exams. This will play havoc with the posting schedule for the podcast over the next few weeks, but hopefully they won’t be up as late as the last two have been. This week, BMW finds yet another place where they can go racing, the UAW starts throwing its weight around again, I express an opinion that’s sure to finally get me some bona fide hate mail, and a potentially world-record holding vehicle within the reach of the average consumer on this week’s Useless Automotive Tchotchke. Share and Enjoy™.

 

 SSL Radio 4/23/08 [12:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A slightly still sugar-buzzed edition of SSL Radio this week. If you eat too many of those marshmallow Peeps at once your heart explodes, so I’ve had to spread it out over the last few days. We wrap up coverage of the New York International Auto Show, finally get an answer to the ridiculous Z06 vs. GT-R battle, GM finds a way to put a stain on the until now spotless new Camaro, yet another corporate CEO is given an amusing characterization, and more miniature car fun on this week’s edition of Suspicious Solar Lighting Radio.

 

 SSL Radio 3/25/08 [15:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Behold, our new, colon-filled title! Seriously, Speed:Sport:Life is a much better title than Dubspeed Driven, despite my ineffectual and half-hearted grousing to the contrary, since, as I mention in the podcast, it’s hard to make a quality first impression that shows off our professionalism and dedication to the honest truth about the automotive industry when I have the word “Dub” tacked onto the front of my name badge. And the fact that I’m roughly 20 years too young to be considered a human being in the automotive industry. And my wardrobe, which consists almost entirely of jeans and t-shirts purchased off the Internet. But I’ll be damned if we didn’t fix that first problem! Anyway, we’ve got a quality but short podcast for you this week. Enjoy.

 

 SSL Radio 3/18/08 [11:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It looks like someone over at General Motor’s web division got a little overzealous yesterday, and published this teaser icon on the Pontiac website. If you can’t tell by glancing at the picture, the car at the bottom is the much anticipated Pontiac Solstice Coupe. We’ve heard that the official name will be the Solstice Targa, but we can’t confirm this beyond what we’ve heard. Hopefully the Coupe or Targa or whatever they end up calling it will resolve the biggest gripe I have about the current model; that is complete lack of storage space and a top that is annoying as hell to deal with. Either way, the new Solstice Coupe looks like it’s going to be a fantastic looking car, and an even better performer than the convertible.

We’ll have more from the 2008 NYIAS, including a full photo gallery, later in the week.

Post and Podcast by Kasey Kagawa

All of you who wasted two hours of your life on Sunday night watching the new Knight Rider TV movie, or as I like to think of it, Knight Rider, Brought To You By Ford, well, I thought about being sympathetic, but given that the show couldn’t have telegraphed the fact that it was going to suck more strongly unless it bought full-page print ads and one minute TV spots that were just “Knight Rider is going to be awful, don’t watch it” in white block print over a black background, you’re getting nothing from me. It was so bad that Autoblog, who in the days leading up to the show’s premier, had more than two different posts about it on the front page at any given time, gave it a hearty and resounding thumbs down (my favorite quote: “Bionic Woman is Goodfellas compared to this.”). Of course, the Hoff was awesome, but he’s the freakin’ Hoff. He is second only to His Holy Lutz himself. When the Hoff is assumed into Awesome Heaven, which is what Heaven would have been if God wasn’t kicked out by Lutz for being a total slacker and not paying His rent on time, he will be seated at The Lutz’s right hand. Anyway, enjoy the podcast.

 

 Dubspeed Radio 2/19/08: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Story by Robert S. Schultz

The Chicago Auto Show may not be first on the annual schedule of automotive extravaganzas. But don’t even suggest it is the “second city” of shows. In square footage alone—1.3 million—it is the largest show in North America. And though Detroit presents the majority of premieres each year, Chicago scores its share of noteworthy debuts. As a mighty winter storm pelted McCormick Place with rain, sleet, snow and the city’s trademark breezes, we visited the auto makers’ press events, among them the much-anticipated coming-out party for the Dodge Challenger.

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Story by Jack Baruth; photos by Zerin Dube and Carl Modesette

Are you sick of the Detroit Auto Show yet? Have the endless broken embargoes, family-vacation-disposable-camera-quality photographs, hilariously car-ignorant reporting, and faux-world-weary meta-coverage vomited across the blogosphere finally made you permanently allergic to the condition known as NAIAS? We don’t blame you. It’s been less than ten days since the ZR-1 made its majestic rotating-platform ascension above the crowd at the Friday-night “GM Style” opening event, and it already seems as if 2008 Detroit Show coverage has been with us longer than the previous-generation Land Cruiser.

The farther away we get from the show and its seven thousand sweating journalists, however, the easier it becomes to get a bit of perspective on the whole thing, and we therefore humbly ask you to hang on for just one more article. There won’t be any outrageous Chinese-car-company-chairman stunts in this one. Nor will there be any straight-from-the-show-floor photos that make those old shots of the Loch Ness Monster look like Ansel Adams’ best work. Instead, we’ll simply recap the show and award the Rockers, Suckers, and Snoozers which made the ‘08 show one to both remember and forget. Let’s get started.

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Post and Podcast by Kasey Kagawa

Due to a top-secret mission working as a liaison between US interests and an unnamed German third-party, as well as the Sea of Doldrums that was the Detroit Auto Show, this podcast is a week late in case you haven’t noticed. However, we make up for it by having this one be twice as long as the normal podcast. So long, the normal summary would make this post a novel in and of itself. Besides, the news is so old you probably not only know about it, but have forgotten about it already, which will make it seem like you’re hearing it for the first time on the podcast. Dubspeed Radio, taking advantage of short attention spans in our endless quest for adequacy.

 

 Dubspeed Radio 1/21/08 [21:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Photos by Zerin Dube and Carl Modesette

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Story by Jack Baruth; photos by Zerin Dube and Carl Modesette

“Please, broadcast media only.” Toyota’s bouncers were all up in our grille, yo, and we weren’t in the mood to hear it. It seemed like only yesterday (because, well, it was only yesterday) that we’d watched Dodge herd cattle down Jefferson Avenue for amusement, but as usual Toyota had done the American manufactuer one better, forcing the Press As A Whole to line up for approximately an hour at the entrance to Cobo’s Riverview Ballroom before being, er, herded through a narrow gate and a humiliating little inspection, as if we were… cattle ourselves! And just when Dubspeed Driven’s little herd of literary longhorns had made it to the entrance, we were shoved aside so the television people could just breeze through! What? The? Foxtrot?

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