On the Topic of Racism as an Asian

An Off Topic Rant

Image: AFP.

<Full Disclosure: Yes, I know this is a car blog. But this is also my blog, and I do feel the need to use this tiny shoebox of a platform to get this off my chest. Don't like it? Move on to another article.>

As we watch America descend into chaos on a scale that we haven’t seen since LA in 1992, whether it be the result of systematic racism, the militarization of the police, and / or the socioeconomic factors that lay underneath, I profess not to know enough to provide any educated commentary on any of those. Does it matter? Another day, another life of a black person taken, this time by the name of George Floyd.

It’s been eating me inside for the past couple days, and I do feel compelled to touch on an uncomfortable observation as an Asian living in North America — that Asians, myself included, are sometimes just as culpable (knowingly or not) in perpetuating racism against other ethnic minorities, particularly against black and brown people.

Modern Cars are Too Darn Fast

Volvo accidentally makes a great point while doing something utterly pointless. 

The car world has been a bit outraged lately, because of something that Volvo has pledged to do: From 2020 onwards, all cars sold by Volvo would be electronically limited to 112 miles per hour, or 180 km/h as its top speed. This is all part of their "Vision 2020" principle, as they aim to cut the number of deaths in a Volvo car to zero.

Go on Twitter, and you'd see all kinds of car people chirping Volvo about it. The automotive press had a field day on this subject. Chris Harris, the God himself, has pledged not to buy a Volvo V70 as he originally planned to. Which is a bit of a shame of course, because the V70 looks like such a good car.

You also see all kinds of predictable arguments against Volvo as well -- how are they going to sell any cars in Germany, where the autobahn is a thing? Other German automakers are probably snickering as Volvo commits themselves to a PR disaster.

And you know what? I don't really care. For the reasons I am about to state below.

Pretty proud of this.

A Quick Praise on Need For Speed: High Stakes.

Got pretty bored on Gran Turismo Sport so I used their excellent scapes mode and created this. Pretty proud of this effort, so I am going to create the rest pretty soon.

Remember back when the Need for Speed series was about sports cars and police chases? Those were the days. And then Fast and Furious happened and now they are all about urban street racing. Not exactly complaining, I guess, as they will never be able to compete against the race simulators like GT or Forza.

Back when I was still in elementary school though, the game was mind-blowing. The cars were great. You can see into the interior. There's traffic and police. The music was rad too. My particular favourite was, of course, Need for Speed: High Stakes. You can even play as a cop and chase the racers down -- with regional police vehicles and radio communication in their respective languages. There was even a damage model for vehicles -- for a PC game from 1999! The level of detail was quite mind blowing.

The graphics may not be great by today's standards, but they did look great to my eye as a 10-year-old, playing on my sister's Windows 98 desktop.

The game also featured one of the coolest opening intro for a car racing game.

A Porsche 993 Turbo racing against a Honda Civic, which embarrassingly stalls at the light. Also features a Diablo and a C5 Corvette. Man, the 90s had great sports cars. 

Singing the Praises of 1970s Driving Music

The 1970s may not have been great for the automotive industry, but you wouldn't know it judging by the music. 

The Greatest Hits of horrible hairstyles... And driving music? 

I have been driving a lot lately.

Don't blame me, this pandemic has gotten me a severe case of cabin fever. I have been driving a lot, but the main point is to just go for a drive. Once I am done driving -- usually after two hours or so -- I head straight home.

During these two hours, I usually listen to music. A lot of it. Yes yes, as much as it is nice to listen to the rumble of my inline six, sometimes you just need a little something on the side. Having some music is nice, if not to take my mind off the one Honda CRX driver tailgating me on the highway with a cracked muffler, no brakes, that's also missing a front wheel.

So, just like what anyone else would do in this situation, I loaded up on my iPod. Okay, maybe not everyone since it's not 2011 anymore. I still have an iPod though and use it regularly, because it's just better and y'all can bite me.

Anyway, then it dawned on me: almost 80% of the songs in my driving playlist consist of bands from a particular era. More specifically, the 1970s -- the era of the Apple II and the, um, the Ford Pinto.

I strongly believe that the 70s was the Golden Period for driving songs -- which really makes no sense, for the reasons I'll explain below.

In The Classifieds: Quarantine Edition.

JDM Rally Cars, Rusty French Sedans, American Muscle / Pickup Truck, Swedish Beauty, and... a Fire Truck?



This is a recurring feature where I daydream about taking up other bad ideas (in addition to the two that I already own), because if I had the money I'd totally pull a Hoovie's garage and throw money at junkers that nobody else would be interested in. What can I say, I am an automotive hipster with a Craigslist disease.   

I have the incurable disease that makes me browse Craigslist every now and then, despite the fact that I already own two German coupes and couldn't really afford a third car unless I sell off one of my organs.

The major problem is, instead of looking at stuff like a Civic or a Corolla -- stuff that my Asian parents would surely approve -- I look at things that usually is a) quirky; b) old; c) rare; and d) about as good of an investment as Enron. Therefore, most of the cars I regularly check out are over 25 years old, impractical, equipped with a manual, and very likely to be allergic to rain.

Especially now when everyone is stuck at home thanks to COVID-19, I now have even more time to browse. There has been a noticeable uptick in the amount of cars on the marketplace right now, which is probably the unfortunate result of our current economic downturn. Which is bad, because I am even more tempted than before to buy a third car, which will undoubtedly cause my own economic downturn.

I mean, while it is very unlikely that I will go off and buy any of the cars I spotted, that is kind of how I discover and made my purchase decisions on 4 of the last 5 cars that I've ever owned, so...

Thanks to Craigslist, I also came close to buying a Peugeot 106 GTi once, but that's a story for another day.

Anyways, these are the cars that I spotted on Craigslist this past week that made me go "oooooh". Consider this my version of day dreaming.