The cars of Infineon's parking lot

A glorious day was had in Sonoma today.  Everyone had their babies out.  On the way to the track, I saw TWO 500Es (one with a weird integrated whale-tail like spoiler), a Rolls-Royce Ghost, and a ruby red Suzuki Swift GTi.  As you can see, there was something in the lot for everybody.

P.S. There will be a full write-up on Hooniverse.

Sausalito Cars, Coffee & Company pictures

Starting today, on the first Saturday of every month, there will be an informal car meet at the parking lot across from Poggio Restaurant in Sausalito.  About three dozen cars showed up.  I'm still kicking myself for not being quick enough to snap a picture of the Lamborghini LM002 that sped off.  You could hear it a mile away accelerating onto the Highway 101 onramp.

Bentley Continental R mule/test vehicle

H/t to Jagvar.

Corruption in China, a case study

Chinese sanitation worker pay stub.  Monthly net income: 1,061.08 RMB = $168.14.  Source.

Chinese government and Communist Party officials are a bit extravagant with their car purchases.  For example,

• a $560,000 chocolate-colored Bentley registered in Beijing to the CCP,
• the People's Liberation Army has a $330,000 black Maserati, and
• about 20,000 Audi A6s are owned by government officials.

So the well-meaning central government wants to curb excessive spending by limiting the cost of the cars and their engine sizes.  So what happens as a result?  There is a run on "2.0 liter" badges to downgrade the luxury cars.  And what's worse?  The corrupt officials demand inflated receipts on these badge purchases to pad their expense accounts.  Un-f'ing-believable.

Source.

Bentley Continental Flying Spur / VW Phaeton interior comparison

As you may know, 2005 and 2006 Flying Spurs were built alongside the Phaeton in Dresden.  So how similar are these two cars?  The biggest difference is the engine.  American Phaetons came with 4.2 liter V8s or normally aspirated 6.0 liter W12s.  The Bentley came with a twin turbo 6.0 liter W12.

But looking at the interiors, the layouts are virtually identical.  It's just that the Bentley has a lot more leather and chrome.  I've gathered some interior pictures of the four-seat models of the Bentley and the VW as well as saabkyle04's comprehensive videos of each car.

Bentley front:

Phaeton front: (Note that the vents are behind the wood dash paneling.)

Bentley back:

Phaeton back:

Bentley dash:

Phaeton dash: (The gauges are identical, except the VW also gets oil temp and volt readouts.)

Bentley's wood shop