Corvettes, Integras, and Blazers. Oh My!

Here's the thing,

I was born in a small town into a GM family. Growing up, the first two cars I remember were my dad's Bonneville and my mom's two-door Blazer. The first memories I have of speed were of asking my dad to go faster down this hilly side road near the house because it "made my tummy feel funny". We had no idea then, but that experience was the clear sign of car junkie in the making.

Being raised in a GM family, my Holy grail growing up was the Corvette. My parents often joke that Corvette was my first word. And it's a love that has carried over into my adult life, so much so that I now sport a "Jake" tattoo on my left calf. For those of you that don't know, Jake is the Corvette Racing Team mascot. Yeah, it runs that deep for me.

However, my true car 'aha' moment didn't come until I was about 15 years old. My brother had gone away to college. And in an attempt to show my dad how independent he had become, he bought a 1989 Acura Integra RS for $700. My father, being the good American car buyer that he was, called it my brother's "700 dollar mistake". But I loved the thing. Even with more than 200,000 miles and a clutch that had seen much better days, I loved driving it even just up and down the driveway. And after watching my brother put it through constant trips up and down the highway to school, running a paper route every night, and just the all around abuse a car receives from a 21 year old owner, it earned my father's respect too. Needless to say, I ended up with a 1994 Integra GS-R of my own a few years later. I'm still addicted to 8000 rpm redlines.

The second big car move for me was taking a porter job at a local car lot at 21. It was the second job I ever had, but after throwing freight at a local pet store for 5 years, I was in heaven. For those that don't know, a porter's job is to drive cars. There's other stuff too, like cleaning them or assisting the sales team with presentation, but at the end of the day we drive cars. Thanks to my borderline OCD and constant need for organization, I was assigned lot organization duties. Most days were spent on the lot with a box of keys driving every car we had in stock from one spot to another. Like I said, heaven. My secondary responsibility was as a DX Driver, or doing dealer exchanges. It was through this function that I got a chance to drive my first real sports car, a 2013 Chevy Camaro ZL1. For those that don't know, that car is everything they say it is. It's brash, angry, raw, and most importantly, face-metlingly face. Why they let me drive it, I still to this day have no idea.

And that pretty much brings us to today. I'm no longer working at a car lot, though I wish I was, and I'm currently daily driving a 2008 Civic Si. For those of you that don't know, it's the grandson of that poor Integra I tortured through my first 3 driving years. The Civic has the same 8000 rpm redline and can-do attitude, albeit with a better working air conditioner. Most of you know my writing style by now, and you've seen some of my opinions on the different facets of the industry, but I hope this gives you a little bit better insight into your Editor-In-Chief. I'm excited for the things we have in store, and I can't wait to get the wheels turning the way I always knew HTTA could.

And that, that's the thing.
- Shawn

Product Planning

Here's the thing -

I've never worked for a car company. I don't have an engineering degree. But what I do have is a keen eye on the industry, and a degree based around things like logistics, business analysis, and management. That combination wouldn't take me far off the beaten path of your average product planner. In that vain, with a bit of ego, and some serious thought that should've been applied to things like work or, you know, a life, I present you with the top 3 cars that should have been made:

3: A Falcon-based Lincoln LS:
The CTS is the car that single-handedly revived Cadillac. During the years leading up to it, Cadillac was on its deathbed, ironically like most of its customer base. However, with their sites set on their best European rivals, they went back to the drawing board and created what was to be one of the most astounding come-back cars of the century. Love it or hate it, the CTS was the first Cadillac to truly bring the fight to BMW and Mercedes. And now, with their position secure, we can't help but wonder: what's taking Lincoln so long to do the same? Instead of rehashing the entire Ford lineup, just with longer taillights and a split grill in the front, how about we make the Lincoln lineup special again? And you know just the car to lead the charge? The Falcon. I know I've talked about this before, but if you want to gut and remake a Ford, make it a memorable one. Make it one that when you're done can take the fight to the CTS. Make one Henry would be proud to drive, so long as it's black.

2: A new Monte Carlo -
Let's just face facts, the Australian-based GTO was a flop. It's not for lack of ability, or for being subpar. It actually blew everything that it was competing with at the time out of the water. The reason was GM's usual product fumbling. They phoned in a product that was clearly meant to be something else, and put the most legendary muscle car name ever on the side. However, the formula was a good one, and under a different set of conditions, it would have been a huge splash instead of a horrendous belly flop. A luxurious, sporty interior, a decent stack with a real stereo, and the ability to spin the world backwards with muscle car torque. Sounds like a Monte Carlo SS to me. At least the kind that they built before it was just an Impala coupe. If you still don't believe me, here's a picture of a concept of the latest generation of Monaro (what was our GTO):

1: A proper Integra successor -
Full disclosure: I don't hate the RSX. I actually really like it. And I like the generation of Si that took the place of the RSX, so much so, that I own one. But the Integra was bigger than that, bigger than a lineage of just what was capable in a FWD "rice rocket". It was a cultural icon that united the Fast and Furious crowd with serious tuners. They could be made to be as much about show as they could be for go. The name came to symbolize the idea that we can, in fact, all just get along. Whether you were a fan of a clean looking sleeper, or you came for the neon lights and custom sub-woofer enclosures, you were sure to find one at any car show that fit your tastes. And now what do we have? The ILX?! I was so excited to think what that I meant when they first announced the product, and now I fear that it may in fact, in Honda's mind, may be their attempt at being the new Integra. It deserves better than that. We Honda fans deserve a car that will look straight at the BRZ, the Focus ST, and the Mazdaspeed 3 and announce with a natural aspirated, stratospheric redline: "We're back".

So there they are. The best cars that never were. Some, I'm sure, were kicked around the offices, but never saw the light of day. But I can assure you, if ever given the chance, I'll make sure they do.

And that, that's the thing.

- Shawn

Cars That Definitely Have Come With a Manual Transmission

Here's the thing.

So I've decided to drudge up my repressed memories of cars that were never offered with a manual, that definitely should have. There are any number of cars that didn't get the standard transmission love that were perfect candidates. There's several older options that may fit this bill too, but being that I am a whipper-snapper, I've decided to keep mine out of muscle and classic car territory. We all know that they should have all come with one, and many didn't. My dad claims they were faster as automatics also, but I highly doubt that as well. 

Anyways, I'm picking my top 3 and, in the comments, I encourage you to do the same. Here we go:

3. 1st gen Acura RDX: This one simply because it was one of the best, if not THE best, engines to come out of Honda's new obsession with their valve-deactivation version of VTEC. "We'll use it to help spool a turbo. Slap it on a de-bored K24. And stick it in one of the most capable CUVs on the market. Oh and we'll add our torque-vectoring AWD system while we're at it. Freaking brilliant! Except for the 5-speed autobox.

2. MkV R32: I would really like to be able to get a 4Motion, fire-breathing VR6, manual equipped hot hatch without having to go back to the crap that was VW's MkIV generation. Who was the genius that decided we only get the DSG over here in the states? Leave that shit for the TTS and A3 and people that bought this car in the "upscale" skinned versions.

1. The Caddilac XLR: So you're telling me that the company that came up with the awesome idea of dropping the C5 Z06's LS1 into their mid-size luxury sedan couldn't figure out that their Corvette-based, sports-car flagship needed a standard option? Chronic GM resource mismanagement at its best..

So those are my 3. What are yours? Let me know below. I'll be curled up, crying in the corner, thinking about the current condition of the automotive market.

And that, that's the thing.