Superclass watchmaker TAG Heuer recently took some footage of Steve McQueen from his 1971 classic film Le Mans and awkwardly stuffed it into a commercial so they could pit him against the current F1 champ, Lewis Hamilton. It was interesting to see McQueen go head-to-head with Hamilton, but all the ad really did was make me want to watch the original film.
So keeping with the Ridelust tradition of bringing you the finest automotive cinema (The Italian Machine and C’était un Rendez-Vous), here’s the 1971 Steve McQueen classic in it’s entirety… Le Mans:
Just like some revolutionaries from a couple hundred years ago who froze their asses mostly to death one winter in nearby Valley Forge, modern-day agitators against the regime of boredom currently gripping the suburbs of Philadelphia have adopted guerrilla entertainment tactics to fight back. We’re not talking about killing Hessians on Christmas – we’re talking here about Guerrilla Drive-In, the secret entertainment phenomenon that beams its revolutionary propaganda right from the sidecar of a BMW R100/7 motorcycle!!! Want to see Repo Man in a junkyard with strangers? This could be the ticket!
If you fancy a lift, bring coal and lithium-ion batteries!
You’ve seen steampunk laptops, steampunk guitars, steampunk iPods, pretty much everything under the sun. But how many steampunk vehicles have you seen outside of Howl’s Moving Castle? Slap on your goggles, work up a head of steam, and take a gander at these 10 steampunk vehicles, ranging from modestly altered to completely bespoke.
Students enrolled in a unique degree program at a southeastern Michigan community college are building an “Eleanor” tribute car to benefit charity. With the help of Chip Foose, Dynacorn and Roush Performance, students taking automotive restoration and customization coursework at Washtenaw Community College will finish the car in advance of an October drawing to benefit the Salvation Army of Washtenaw County and the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan.
Film director and Archduke of Action, Michael Bay, has bestowed a gift upon us useless mortal bags of jelly with the release of three new trailers for the upcoming sequel, Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. Although we’ll never complain where cars, explosions, and witty/manly catchphrases are concerned, we do wish Bay’s sneak previews showed a little more of the new Chevy stars in their pre-monster machine form. Nevertheless, car porn is car porn, and far be it for us to ruin any of the excitement by talking – that’s your girlfriend’s job.
Hit the jump to check out the new clips, and for those of you with weak constitutions and/or who are easily offended by gratuitous violence, we recommend you exit your browser immediately. And surrender your Man Card on your way out.
The original pony car has gone through a lot of changes in the 45 years that Ford has been producing it. By and large, the majority of those years have been filled with both a stylish and sporty car that has made the Mustang one of the most popular cars ever (which is why it’s still around, of course). Consequently, narrowing down a list of the best Mustang models of all-time is not easy, but in this compilation of the best Mustangs ever (followed in Part 2 by some of the worst), I present to you the five ’Stangs that are most deserving of the galloping pony badge.
It was 50 years ago today, May 8, 1959 that you were born to your proud parents the British Motor Company (BMC) and Sir Alec Issigonis. You’ve come a long way since then, Mini. You’ve accomplished things that no one ever imagined you could. We’re quite proud of you.
You were developed in response to a fuel shortage in the United Kingdom; designed to be as small, practical and fuel efficient as possible. You were originally powered by a tiny, 898cc BMC A-Series water-cooled four-cylinder engine mounted transversely, driving your front wheels. Your suspension system utilized small rubber cones in place of coil springs which made you handle, famously, like a slightly larger go-kart (only slightly). You were released fifty years ago today and you became an instant hit.
While C’était un Rendez-Vous may be my favorite 8 minute French film, David Cronenberg’s The Italian Machine is my favorite 30 minute Canadian film. The center of the film’s attention: a 1976 Ducati 900 Desmo Super Sport.
The plot basics: Some Canadian bike enthusiasts find out that a bizarre local art collector has bought a Ducati 900 Super Sport with the intention of keeping it for display only, in his living room. Obviously, this upsets the enthusiasts, one of them almost to the point of frenzy. So they come up with a scheme to liberate the 900SS from it’s freak warden.
It’s short, awkward in some spots, and a little bit absurd as it shows motorcycle enthusiasts as some sort of hardcore cult, but it’s still a great flick if you’re into bikes. And here it is in it’s entirety:
When TV cops need a car, they just pull out their badge and their gun and tell a passing motorist to get out. They then get into a high speed chase and leave a trail of mayhem behind them. Usually driving the car off the roof of a parking garage near the end. At the very minimum, the car’s going to have some bullet holes, that’s just everyday police business. Meanwhile some poor jerk is getting fired because he’s late for work again.
Can it possibly happen that way though? Does James Bond have a license to kill and carjack? Kind of. Or to put it more definitively, maybe. It’s a complicated issue. Police have commandeered vehicles before. Snopes.com has some info about an officer who had commandeered three vehicles during his police career; and a 1942 Ohio Supreme Court case involving a police officer who ordered a driver to use his vehicle to chase a fleeing felon. So it happens, or at least, it happened; but is it legal? Read on:
Akira has always been popular with anime freaks and film buffs, but recently there’s some renewed interest because the 2 part live-action version has been announced. Supposedly the new version will be less of remake of the film, and more of an interpretation of Katsuhiro Otomo’s graphic novel series. Each film will be based on three of the six volumes of the original novel.
Warner Brothers paid seven-figures for the rights to the movie, so there should be an adequate budget fitting for the scale of a film like Akira. The studio’s describing the film as “Blade Runner meets City of God”, which sounds pretty freaking outstanding. Hopefully it won’t disappoint.
BTW, check out cartoonist Harry Partridge’s hilarious spoof of the mistakes an American Akira might make:
