Editor’s Note: In this week's column, Peter presents an unexpected way to look at being thankful. In On The Table, we remind everyone that no car company in the world is more skilled at extracting as much ca$h-ola as possible from its faithful than Porsche. And Toyota breathes new life into the Prius by actually designing it – and rather successfully – for a change. In Fumes, Peter continues his much-praised series on “The Drivers,” this week featuring the great Sir Stirling Moss. And The Line wraps up the 2022 F1 season from Abu Dhabi (we frankly couldn’t wait for it to be over). Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! -WG
By Peter M. DeLorenzo
Detroit. Being thankful is a wonderful, soothing concept. It gives us an opportunity to take stock of the positives in our lives and count our blessings, however miniscule or grandiose they may be. For most of us, somewhere between those two extremes is perfectly fine, especially given the various hostile climates exerting pressure on our day-to-day experiences.
I’m thankful for a lot in fact, too much to go into here, but suffice to say, even though it’s the cliché of clichés, I’m thankful for my health and that’s perfectly enough for me. But being The Autoextremist, when it comes to “the Biz” I’m thankful for a few other things as well.
I’m thankful for egomaniacal CEOs, the kind who have grown accustomed to having certain “less than” members of the press hang on every thought balloon they utter, giving them the unfortunate – and pathetic – impression that people actually hold them in the highest esteem, when in fact, the complete opposite is true. “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is a wonderful literary folktale by Hans Christian Anderson, but it plays like an endless documentary around these parts when it comes to certain delusional CEOs who have too many sycophants, recalcitrant twerps and spineless weasels feeding their boundless egos. It’s the Runway Show that never seems to go out of style or run out of new seasons. And thank goodness for that.
I’m thankful that Elon Musk has finally been exposed for the carpetbagging mercenary he always has been. He fleeced Tesla customers to the tune of millions of dollars by pushing “Full Self Driving” and charging them through the nose for it, even though it never worked and it cost several blindly devoted “muskateers” their lives while “beta” testing it on public streets and byways. He allowed seriously flawed vehicles to be churned out to meet sales numbers designed to appease industry analysts who were looking for vindication of their outlandishly optimistic pronouncements about Tesla and its Visionary Esteemed Dear Leader. His fabled car company has lived on “regulatory credits” for years, a fact that was vastly underreported by certain slavishly gullible members of the media who bought into the Cult of St. Elon hook, line and sinker. And now that Twitter has become a full-blown Muskian Nightmare, exposing his management “style” for what it is, which is a chaotic exercise in seat-of-the-pants whims, reactionary missteps and bloviating whiplash, we are finally – finally – finding out who Musk really is: A self-indulgent, painfully self-righteous blowhard/user who is always a half-step away from flying the whole damn enterprise into the ground, while taking everything and everybody with him. He is truly America’s Creep-in-Chief, an embarrassingly vile facsimile of a human being who has too much money for his own – and this country’s – good.
I am thankful that the “Grand Transition” to the electrification of our nation’s fleet is playing out in very measured, incremental steps of progress. As in very s-l-o-w-l-y. Forget about range anxiety, because let’s face it, 250-350 miles of range is more than most people will need for their urban travels. The real issue right now and one that will remain the issue for years to come is that the charging infrastructure buildout is woefully lagging behind the arrival of the more mainstream BEVs due in 2024. Let me restate that – except for a very few pockets of availability, the charging infrastructure in this country is damn-near nonexistent. Will that change? Sure, eventually. But we’re not there yet, in fact, we’re not even remotely close to being there. In the meantime, I am thankful for the finest array of ICE vehicles ever built at our disposal. For enthusiasts, the time is now to enjoy the kind of visceral high performance that will slowly fade from view over the next decades. I will admit that it has fostered an “End of Days” feel, but all the more reason to savor the glorious machines that are available and are begging to be driven right now. Drive, we said.
I’m thankful for the gutter trolls who send missives to our website hiding behind their phony email addresses (at least they think they’re being clever; it’s amazing how easy it is to find out who people really are “out there” -WG) and spewing their embarrassingly tedious and hate-filled vitriol at me, thinking that it somehow derails my day or my focused train of thought. I’m exceedingly happy to report that it in fact has the exact opposite effect. It makes me that much more motivated and inspired to double-down and bring the High-Octane Truth to these pages every week. So, go ahead, keep making my day.
And finally, WG and I are thankful for the industry people from all of the various disciplines - especially the True Believers - the authentic media practitioners, the accurate analysts, those in the motorsports community, and the astute readers from all walks of life who come here every week.
We wish you and yours a Peaceful and Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you can enjoy the moments.
That’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.