Every enthusiast knows the term "Slow in, fast out." So why is it that everyone in this prius-loving, MPG-bitching, FWD-worshipping hole of a regional subcontinental automobile market seems to floor it into turns and brake out of them? It's spectacularly baffling. Watch the next time you take a turn behind traffic. Particularly on the highway. People gather speed approaching the turn, then awkwardly fling the car into the turn on a goofy line, bleed off a bunch of speed, and finally just seem to forget about that little pedal on the right for the exit. Half a mile down the road they'll have idioted back up to the speed limit.
Fast in, slow out makes me angry. If your car can pull off your bassackward "what's an apex" entry to the turn without ending up in the guard rail, it can certainly manage to accelerate back out of the damn curve.
There's never anything smooth or fluid about the way Americans drive. Everything's so abrupt. They can't do two things at once, and on the rare occasion that they do it's usually the two most wrong things possible.
Now, for the random musings bit.
First off:
Holy s*** the Lexus RX has gotten ugly. I mean the first gen was not exactly much to look at, and the clear-tail-light versions looked like a minivan driving backward, but the current gen is a mess. The tail lights aren't even clear anymore, they're white. It looks like s***. The C-pillar is a mess, the body lines don't know what they're doing, and it's waistline is higher than Steve Erkel's. The attempt to shape the nose to hide the vehicle's height from the front fails miserably, with fog lights sitting sky high and an expanse of black plastic. And what in the name of flaming s*** is going on at the bottom of those doors?
Why do people buy these things again? They have no cargo space. It's a farking crossover with nothing behind the C-pillar! But it doesn't even pretend to be "coupelike" like the synapse-liquifyingly-stupid RDX and X6.
Look at that horrid piece of dessicate slop. 12 miles tall and it manages to do absolutely nothing with it all and still somehow come out looking terrible.
Next up:
Ferrari F12 Berlinetta. HO. LEE. s***.
Amazing. Gorgeous. Spectacular. Gorgetaculazing!
THIS is how you do swoopy s*** with your doors and end up with something that looks like more than a parking lot mishap. I'M LOOKING AT YOU DODGE.
And THAT a**! I miss the uniqueness of the 599's flying buttresses and sleek rear glass, but the new roofline and windows are masterful and far more elegant if a little traditional by comparison.
The wheels are amazing, too. A nice modern twist on the Ferrari-classic 5-spoke-star design.
Oh, and 730hp @ 8500 rpm (8700rpm redline). That also is important.
Third on our list:
Kia's KH (I will not call it the K9, I don't care what Korean dealers are printing on the window stickers):
This is Kia's upcoming Genesis-sedan-based offering. It's admittedly a little tall, and I'm not sure about the wannabe-upscale version of Kia's corporate grille, but overall it's pretty damn nice looking. Like the rest of Kia's lineup, it's subtle but striking. It kinda reminds me of the third-gen Lexus GS with less dump and more sharp. The fender vents are not welcome. They should call it the Crescendo, or the Mercato.
And that's it for now.
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