lunchbox newsletter

lunchbox 84

Is it possible to hate Big Oil but love cars and still have fun with ’em? Absolutely, here’s why:

michael banovsky

27 Oct 2022 — 3 min read

Picture a Venn Diagram with three circles: cars, marketing, and oil. I grew up in Canada’s oil refining capital, Sarnia; I work as a marketer; I write about cars.

You’ll have to take my word for it: I’ve long been obsessed with all three topics and know so much that, in normal human conversation, it’s like trying to describe what the bottom of an iceberg looks like.

So when a creator like Rollie Williams and Climate Town comes around to expertly nail 2/3 points, I have to insist you check it out. Being a good driver means getting rid of your blind spots, right?

The long and short of it is: yes. The mainstream media 🖤 oil & gas. How did we get here, and what are we going to do about it? Rollie, you have the floor…

The News Media Is Selling You Out • Climate Town

He says it, and I agree: Cody Detwiler, aka WhistlinDiesel, does better durability testing than Top Gear. Why should you care about this chaos?

Because I was laughing out loud at the sight of a Mercedes-Benz G63 AMG at full throttle on a race track…scraping along a Jersey barrier.

No, that’s not it: in the words of Gilles Villeneuve (d.1982), “The simplest way to find the limit is to go quicker and quicker until you go over it. Then you come back from it a bit and think about the next corner.” Is that not what Cody is doing?

Whereas other creators would do the stunt and end the video, Detwiler points out areas where the G-Class simply doesn’t hold up, like a front fascia that’s unbelievably flimsy, ESP that’s overly intrusive, and an engine surprisingly easy to hydrolock. Its traction, though? Legendary.

Armed with income from apparel, YouTube, and sponsorships, Detwiler is reminding other independent creators it’s both tastier and more fun to break their own eggs benedict than to rely on producing corporate-influenced milquetoast.

Might be a faux pas to eat the rich; why not snack on their SUVs for views & profit?

G-Wagon Durability Test #2 • WhistlinDiesel

see also :: previous mention in speedster.news (lunchbox 24)

This ain’t your granddad’s Opel / Vauxhall.

After being re-introduced once Stellantis had a chance to take the former General Motors outcasts under Stellantis’ Amsterdam-based umbrella, the Vauxhall / Opel Grandland fraternal twins have completed their GSe’s. Er…there’s a GSe Grandland.

Interesting because it’s tuned to run on EV propulsion until prodded by its Rowdy Rowdy Driver to kick its 1.6-litre turbocharged engine, two electric motors, and a combined 300 horsepower into action. (It’s 22:50, the grocery store closes at 23:00…)