Greased Lightning (1977), a review:

While Pam Grier is a beauty in her own right, her pic in the movie poster is a completely inaccurate portrayal of her character in the film. I guess they were leaning heavily on her “Queen of Blaxploitation films” fame.

Wendell Scott (Richard Pryor) has always been speed crazy ever since he was a bike-riding kid. Even as a returning G.I. he still harbored dreams of being a racecar driver. Few took him seriously, as he had a couple of things going against him: he’s a black man, a black man living in mid-century southern United States. To put it mildly, it wasn’t the status quo. Setting a relatively practical goal of opening his own garage, Wendell starts out as a taxi driver. With income not that great despite the long hours, he’s seduced by the money and speed from the local bootlegging operations.

Wendell became one of the best bootleggers in his area. The local authorities couldn’t catch him neither on the roads or off; it looked like he was untouchable. Wife Mary (Pam Grier) wanted him to quit due to the too many close run-ins with the law, including them visiting their home; they knew it was Wendell, so it was only a matter time before he got caught.

Caught he was. Local law enforcement was thrilled… until Wendell was set free. The local racetrack promoter Billy Joe Byrnes (Noble Willingham, from Walker, Texas Ranger fame, which I’ve started watching) worked out a deal with Sheriff Cotton (Vincent Gardenia), so Wendell could be something of a sideshow attraction: a black racecar driver. Wendell started to actually make the local boys sweat before he got driven off. Wendell may have been driven off track, but no one counted that he didn’t get driven off racing, quite the opposite: Wendell was going to become a professional racecar driver.

Finding the Leak, Extra Rage Edition:

This is what happens when you don’t have a clear answer for a problem.

What you see before you is the remains of the dash of Mom’s 2000 Dodge Caravan Sport. It’s been in the family since new. Since 2016, it has been inconsistently leaking rain water in the passenger footwell area, leaving me to vacuum it up and use newspaper to dry what’s left for the following days. Confusingly, it fixed itself. Years passed and the Caravan is still with us. And the leak came back. By this time, I’ve finally found a good shop and decided to let them take care of it. They did. I was told that the plastic housing of the A/C box (that holds the blower motor, blend doors, some ducting, stepper motors, etc.) was cracked and the best course of action was to close the A/C door leading outside and just run the A/C in recirculating mode.

I accepted this.

Then the leak came back.

I got angry.

The Knight Industries Two Thousand – K.I.T.T.- Behind the scanner

8 years ago, on CarLustBlog.com, I not only wrote about Knight Rider’s K.I.T.T., but also about how he was made real through the magic of 1980s television. It’s been edited and expanded upon slightly, but essentially the same. In the years since this was first published, hardcore fans like the likes of the Knight Rider Historians have upgraded and expanded from their previous online efforts, becoming ambassadors of the franchise. They’ve delved deeper in the behind-the-scenes action of the show, so this post might be a little dated as I’ve yet to cross-reference with a lot of their material. Feel free to comment below.

I liked Knight Rider so much that I wrote not one but two posts about its star, the Knight Industries Two Thousand- K.I.T.T. for short. The first one had to do with K.I.T.T. the character; this one is how that character came to be. Just like the first post, websites and blogs have been made and books have been written about the making of K.I.T.T., the stunts and how they were made, so I’ll try to keep those details to a minimum, too. Which was easier said than done.

The Knight Industries Two Thousand – K.I.T.T.

Knight Rider aired on September 26, 1982. It’s only fitting that I bring out my old K.I.T.T. post, originally published on CarLustBlog.com 8 years ago. Given that the Knight Rider fandom is alive and kicking (and growing!), I’m proud to say that almost no hyperlinks were replaced. Aside from grammatical editing, this post is the same.

2022 marked the 40^th anniversary of many things. This date took me by surprise when I found out that movies like Tron and The Last Unicorn (both Jeff Bridges flicks. Wild, huh?) and albums like Yaz/Yazoo’s Upstairs at Eric’s, A Flock Of Seagulls’ self-titled album and Rush’s Signals turned 40. The youngest of the Checker A11/Marathon taxi cabs as well as the original Suzuki Katana also turned 40 their odometers. Other 1980s wheeled-sweethearts turned 40, the MkII Supra and 3^rd-gen Celica, the S-series trucks and the 3^rd-gen Pontiac Firebird… and Camaro. But out of that model year, there’s one 3^rd-gen Firebird and 1980s icon that also reached this not-insignificant cornerstone: The Knight Industries Two Thousand– K.I.T.T. for short.

Before we begin, it’s worth mentioning that the body, the hardware, is called the Knight 2000, while the computer A.I. itself is K.I.T.T., but to avoid confusion, for this post K.I.T.T. is the whole machine, as it should be. Websites and blogs have been made and books have been written about Knight Rider and K.I.T.T., with lists of all of his gadgets, including those one-offs seen only once, so I’ll try (emphasis on the word ‘try’) to keep those details to a minimum.

1997-2002 Mitsubishi Mirage

The 5^th-gen Mitsubishi Mirage is celebrating its 25^th USDM Anniversary. Originally posted on April 20, 2016 on CarLustBlog.com, it’s been edited, dead hyperlinks have been removed, mistakes fixed, and gloriously expanded.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a car that clearly belonged to the category of ‘CarLust’ when others lusted after Dodge Vipers, Ferrari F50s and Lamborghini Diablos back in the 5^th-7^th grade; a car that I often drew in class Study Hall and even used as a writing assignment subject; a car that I daydreamed about making radical modifications (ah, blissful youthful mechanical and economic ignorance…); a car whose name I respected and whose USDM “successor” -the 2014 Mitsubishi Mirage- I rebuked for setting back such a proud name 37 years (the ’14 Mirage had a three-cylinder engine, solid rear beam axle suspension and a whole lotta ugly, whereas all previous Mirages were superior in these regards); a car whose information –it pains me to say- lives up to its name by not being there.

Ladies and gentlemen: the 1997-2002 Mitsubishi Mirage.