Category Archives: Cars

Going Digital – scratch that – Electric

June 3, 2025CarsCarsSteve Stern

We got a new transportation appliance a couple of weeks ago and, as Michele says, “We totally love it!”. I hesitate to call it a car because it is so far from what I traditionally think of as a car. Car may be a small word, but it can carry all kinds of implications. Our new transportation appliance doesn’t seem to have any implications, or at least any of the usual implications. It’s a Hyundai Kona, which should be a bland small SUV, except that it is a super fun, nimble, everyday driver that is anything but bland. The 2025 Kona is surprisingly very much like Michele’s 2002 Volkswagen V-6 GTI, which we both agree used to be our favorite daily driver.

I’ve owned a lot of different cars, and at first, what seemed to make this one stand out was that it was digital. When I say digital, what I mean is that, like my Sony a6700 Camera, it seems to be almost infinitely adjustable. When I walk up to the driver’s door of the Kona, without taking the key fob out of my pants pocket, all four doors unlock. But when Michele walks up to the door, only the driver’s door unlocks. That is because the number of doors unlocking is adjustable by each key fob.

In addition to the breaks, when I take my foot off the gas pedal, the car slows down by regenerative braking, and the amount – zero to 100 percent – is adjustable by paddles on the steering wheel. When I turn on the left turn indicator, a television camera turns on, showing me the left lane behind the car in what would normally be the speedometer.

Still, after owning the Kona for a week, unlike the Sony a6700, I became used to most of the digital goodies, even thinking they were necessary. The electric-ness of the transportation appliance was a different thing. Because it takes longer to recharge the battery than to put gasoline in the tank, the remaining range of the battery is a constant presence. Electric motors do not have a torque curve; they have full torque from zero to whatever, so putting my foot on the gas – foot on the gas still seems to mean hitting the go button – at a stop sign or a freeway on ramp provides instant acceleration.

I’ve had a lot of great cars in my life, and the Kona is near the top. That is surprising to me. I expected bland and got fun.

Lewis Hamilton Has Become an Italian Gentleman

January 20, 2025CarsSteve Stern

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A post shared by Lewis Hamilton (@lewishamilton)

“Best of The Low” At The Peterson

August 14, 2024Art, Cars, UncategorizedSteve Stern

All of which makes lowrider culture perfect for a museum exhibit, where those familiar with the art form can appreciate the chance to look more closely at cars they’ve only seen in motion, and those new to the scene can marvel, slack-jawed, at the incredible imagination, artistry, and history that goes into making the perfect lowrider. Car and Driver Magazine.

The lowrider show at the Peterson Automobile Museum was astounding. I took about 42 photos at Macchinissimathe – all Italian cars, my fav – and 134 photos at Best of The Low. Going in, I thought it wasn’t my aesthetic, but I’m not so sure anymore. I’ve never seen a group of cars with this level of workmanship, this level of attention to detail, and this level of imagination.

When I say that these cars are not my aesthetic, that’s still true in that I wouldn’t want one as a daily driver, but these cars are not meant to be daily drivers, they are works of art. If I had a big house and were rich, one of these cars, or bikes – in a plex box would be great in the entry.

The cars – and bikes – speak for themselves, but I do want to point out some commonalities. Part of being a Low Rider is not just being low; they all have hydraulic systems that enable them to raise themselves and even jump up. They all have huge speakers, usually in the trunk along with the hydraulic systems. Many of them have airbrushed murals, which I found most interesting.

Still, walking around, the entire car, details, and murals all contribute to the energy of the exhibit. Rather than show a car and write about it, I’m just going to show a bunch of photographs.

I’m ending this post with the Red Bull Formula One car that was driven by Sergio Michel “Checo” Pérez Mendoza and was just outside the entrance to the Low Riders exhibit.

A Weekend in LA with More Cars Than A Sane Person Would Want to See

August 8, 2024California, Cars, UncategorizedSteve Stern

We went south to Los Angeles last weekend to see Macchinissima, which billed itself as Equal parts Villa d’Este, Punk Rock, and L.A. car culture, and a show at the Peterson Automotive Museum of Low Rider cars that celebrates the end of the discriminatory anti-cruising ban in California. I want to write and show photographs of both shows, but first I want to make a couple of general comments.

I’ve driven to Los Angeles a lot, more than a hundred times, for sure. When I first started driving back and forth, it was on Highway 99 or along 101 near the coast, then on the newly constructed I5 (the I5, if you live in LA). I5 is the fastest way to get to LA, Death Valley, or my sister’s home in Albuquerque, so it has become my default route going South or back North. It is also the default route for trucks traveling between Northern and Southern California. Much of I5 runs along the west side of the Central Valley, which is the largest flat place on Earth at about 18,000 square miles – or about 42,000 square miles, depending on which sentence in the same Google-generated AI paragraph you want to believe – so it is a very boring, but front brain, drive.

On this last trip, on the way home, we started in LA at about 91°F, climbed up the south side of the San Gabriel Mountains at ten miles an hour in 110°F heat, and ran north in an almost constant straight line up the Valley for about 190 miles in 105°F heat. In the car, it was a balmy 75°F, and the coolant temperature gauge was at less than the halfway mark. The whole way, I kept thinking that our SUV being able to do this was amazing. I also kept thinking: Don’t try to tell me that the Earth isn’t getting hotter at an increasing rate, and do acknowledge that, at some point in the near future, it will be too hot to grow anything in the Great Centraal Valley.

Back in LA, on Saturday, we had a great time at the Macchinissima, which was held at the Los Angeles River Center & Gardens. I had never heard of the Los Angeles River Center & Gardens, and when Michele showed me where it was on her iPhone, I thought: this is crazy; there are literally 11 sets of railroad tracks between the Los Angeles River Center & Gardens and the actual river. But, it turns out that the Google map was outdated. The land was an abandoned railroad equipment repair area, LA bought the land and took out the tracks as stage 1 of a future park next to the river. The city has been spending about $800M a year since 2000 on the river, and this is one of the early stages.

The show was great and a kind of throwback to the car gatherings I used to take in when I was really into cars. The Villa d’Este part was covered by a dozen, maybe two dozen, Concours d’elegance grade cars, motorcycles, and even bicycles. The Punk Rock portion was covered by live DJs playing mostly loud Italian Italo-Disco music while we ate pizza and drank Campari spritzers. The L.A. car culture cars were mostly spread around the blocked-off parking lot, and, in many ways, they were the most fun. There were lots of exotic cars in good shape but not perfect, several of which I’d never seen before. Rather than bore us both with details, here are some photos.