I like cars. Like, everything about cars. Car fiction, car history, car art, car movies and television — all of it. And it’s clear you do too! This QOTD has clued me in to new animes and reminded me of old favorite books. We even had a movie expert chime in on the best automotive scene in film!
I think we need an official Jalopnik car song playlist, so if you have any rare cuts in that regard please drop some suggestions in the comments!
Johnny Cash’s One Piece At a Time.
It captures the heart of the American automotive experience. Wrenching, screwing your boss, and a very supportive significant other.
There was a racing anime called Cyber Formula that I used to watch as a kid that first started off as a spiritual sequel to Mach Go Go Go / Speed Racer, but quickly became a serious sport anime for young adults then straight up adults, and it taught me about concepts such as different disciplines, race formats, oversteer and understeer, aquaplaning, drifting, etc...
It also was eerily prescient in many ways. It predicted a Grand Prix taking place in Florida in 2022, DRS-esque overtaking mechanism that can be enabled at certain sections of a track (except it’s rocket boosters)...
...but most hilariously it predicted that Michael Schumacher would be a big fucking deal and introduced a genius level driver named after him even before his first F1 race *and* gave him a red fire suit (aired May 1991, Schumacher made his F1 debut in August 1991). And when Schumacher got embroiled in the contract dispute between him and Jordan after leaving for Benetton, animators put the character in this uniform:
From Pessimippopotamus
Songs: 1952 Vincent Black Lightning - Richard Thompson & Jesus Built my Hotrod - Minstry
Books: Lone Rider by Elspeth Beard; N0S4A2 by Joe Hill
TV Shows: Long Way Round (riding motorcycles around the world featuring everyone’s favorite hermit Jedi master)
Movies: The World’s Fastest Indian & Why We Ride
and
+1 for “1952 Vincent Black Lightning - Richard Thompson”
From Broken-Arrow, Slow Joe Crow, martin_english
Wow, this is a tough question.
I’d have to go with American Graffiti. It’s 1950s - early ‘60s cruising culture captured in one perfect night. Part teen rom-com, part coming of age, part rock ‘n’ roll film, and part automotive catalogue, American Graffiti captures a very specific moment in North American culture almost as good as a documentary film.
From JohnnyWasASchoolBoy
Cake “Stickshifts and safetybelts”
From Wierdisgood
This book contains a photo essay on how you tear down and rebuild a racecar, after arguably the most famous accident in Australian motor racing history.
For those of us who didn’t sleep that night, this is the photo essay reminding us that we weren’t going mad.
And the car which was built up overnight... still failed.
From Rollo75
RCR’s PT Cruiser review. May be the pinnacle of RCR. And RCR, together with Top Gear, are what got my younger son into cars, which resulted in me learning stick, buying an old car or two and getting on a track. So, literary theory, dick jokes, and (for me) all the feels.
Go Like Hell by AJ Baime.
The “Ford vs Ferrari” movie was very loosely based on this book. Which is an absolutely fantastic historical recording of everything that took place from before Ford tried to buy Ferrari, to finally beating them at Le Mans ‘66.
The book also does a great job, of jumping back and forth between the Americans and Ferrari. Showing what was going on behind the scenes at both companies, and all the dramas that unfolded for both. (John Surtees getting F’d over by Ferrari’s new race chief, Dragoni. Miles getting F’d out of the Le Mans wins, and so on.)
If you don’t have time to read it, the audio book is fantastic to listen to on long trips and drives.
From Knyte
As the co-host of Reels & Wheels Podcast, I’m putting in another plug for my surprise favorite movie in five years of podcasting - Sorcerer. Yeah, it’s got a very long first act before the wrenching starts, but man, from the time the main characters start working on the trucks to the very end it is pure awesomeness.
Friedkin was inspired by South American big truck culture - where work trucks were decorated and given names. The trucks in this movie basically represent the angel of death, so they have foreboding names and not-so-subtle teeth and horns.
From Sid Bridge
“Car Song” by Elastica. It could be about the excitement, freedom, and sense of adventure one feels in their youth when getting behind the wheel of a car for the first time.
Or, it’s about what people do in (and on) a car when they’re feeling randy. Take your pick.
From paradsecar
Red Barchetta by Rush
“I strip away the old debris
That hides a shining car
A brilliant red Barchetta
From a better vanished time”
From Gubbin
Nick Mason’s 1998 book, “Into the Red” - the version with the CD (yeah, CD) of soundtracks of the 22 cars featured from his collection. Damned near pornographic.
From Velvet Elvis
White pants and red socks.
From dug deep
I’ve been a subscriber for 30 years. This is the only automotive magazine i still read on a regular basis.
From Earthbound Misfit I