On that Note:

This is how you use a car effectively in an ad!

Things I hate: People Sitting on Car Hoods in Ads

On a recent trip to Hong Kong, I spent a lot of time looking at luxury ads. They are a pervasive presence in this city, which has an obsession with luxury consumption.  Since I run my own brand, I am always studying what other companies are doing to project their image.  As a car lover, I always take particular notice when cars are employed in fashion shoots. 

There is one common use of cars that I simply abhor, and it's about time someone said something!  I hate ads where a guy or girl is sitting on the hood of a classic car, often with their feet on the bumper! I suppose this is meant to imbue the model with a casual "Oh this old heap? Yeah I like to cruise around in it" attitude. But let's be honest here, no one EVER sits on the hood of a car they actually own.  I can only imagine the hood of that poor MGA above bears the model's ass prints in its flimsy steel. And that E-type below surely needed some help after that smug-looking douche alighted from the weakest spot in the hood.

So why do I hate these ads so much? Becuase they are so unnatural, and display a contrived behavior that doesn't exist in real life. Imagine if you walked the lawn at a car show, and saw each owner sitting on the hood of his car posing for photos! That would be absolute lunacy. And the fact that it doesn't exist in real life just magnifies how out of touch the creative directors --most of whom probably don't own a car and couldn't even tell you the name of the car in the ad-- are, and therefore how little credibility the brand has to actual car aficionados despite their use of a car in the ad.  It just rings incredibly hollow, and makes the use of the car all the more superficial.

You'll never see this BS in any Autodromo campaign, I promise you.

Silver Arrows at Goodwood

The goodness just keeps on coming from my Goodwood Revival photo archive!  Enjoy the full gallery of Silver Arrows photos, from the period paddock to the on-track demonstration laps.  Note the ace driver lineup at the wheel of these machines! Click HERE for the full Gallery!

Isle of Man TT: The last true test of Man and Machine

About a year ago, we posted a hauntingly beautiful video about the Isle of Man TT.  Autoblog just posted this much more up-tempo video, which is equally spine tingling.  If you want to know what the human mind and body are capable of when pushed to their limit, just watch this. Sorry about the music, by the way.

Hat tip to Off Camber

Streamlining at its best

I love this 1952 Salt Flat racer featured on KarzNShit recently. It combines the very best of Auto Union's prewar aero ideas with the best of 1950s hot rodding for one super sexy, super sleek speed form. Wow.

Click over to see a whole bunch more amazing photos...

PS, just wanted to point out--look at how much nicer the graphics and numbers look on the restored car than how they actually looked in period! Talk about taking creative liberty in the name of aesthetic improvement!