APRIL 15, 2026

The original - and still our favorite - Autoextremist logo. 

The AE Quote of the Century: Everybody loves The High-Octane Truth. Until they don't. -WG 

SPECIAL EDITOR'S NOTE: We are relaunching Peter's book with a new title, The Knowing One. It seems there was some confusion that this was a religious book, which could not be further from the truth! This is Peter's first work of fiction, and as we said previously, it doesn't resemble anything you've read from him before. In fact, it is quite a dramatic departure. It is mystical. It is sexy. It is funny. It's moving. And it is a flat-out wild ride unlike anything you've experienced. Having said that, it is definitely not for everyone, but then, it is from PMD, so that probably shouldn't come as a surprise! Check it out on Amazon Kindle here. -WG

(GM)

Editor-in-Chief: Longing for something completely different? This is the Infantry Squad Vehicle-Utility (ISV-U) from General Motors Defense, and you can bid on it at the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at approximately 3:30 p.m. EDT, with 100% of the hammer price benefiting the Medal of Honor Foundation in support of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s mission. Originally engineered to meet U.S. Army and allied requirements, the ISV-U is a five-passenger, ultra-light tactical vehicle built for high-speed, off-road mobility and demanding operational environments. This auction marks a historic moment, as the platform is made available to the public for the first time.

Built on the Chevrolet Colorado midsize truck platform, the ISV-U is powered by a 2.8L Duramax turbo-diesel engine paired with a six-speed automatic transmission. Its open roll-cage design and expeditionary footprint enable it to support a wide range of mission applications, including logistics, command and control, reconnaissance, electronic warfare, and counter-unmanned systems.

The featured vehicle also carries a custom livery honoring the Medal of Honor, recognizing America’s 250th anniversary, and acknowledging the U.S. Army units actively employing this platform in service today.

(Meguiar's)

One of the cars displayed at the Meguiar’s booth at the upcoming Goodguys 25th Meguiar’s Del Mar Nationals this weekend will be Greg Heinrich’s 1935 Chevrolet Coupe “Fairway 35,” built by Ironworks Speed & Kustom and winner of the Goodguys 2025 Meguiar’s West Coast d’Elegance Award. The ’35 still resembles the original, yet almost nothing remains factory. The streamlined profile, for example, has a chopped and filled top, a lengthened and wedge-sectioned body, reshaped fenders, custom rear apron and hood sides with CAD-designed vents. Ironworks crafted dozens of one-off parts, such as the pop-out windshield to accommodate the lower roof height, the multi-piece grille and multi-layer floor that conceals the wiring and plumbing. Other machined details include a custom firewall, toe board and transmission tunnel. To highlight the perfection, Mick’s Paint spent thousands of hours prepping the body and painting the custom PPG blue paint, while Sherm’s handled the chromeplating throughout. It took almost eight years to complete.

(Hyundai images)

In a surprise debut at the New York International Auto Show, Hyundai introduced a design preview of the brand’s first U.S. body-on-frame vehicle, a production midsize pickup truck due by 2030. The Hyundai Boulder Concept's upright two-box silhouette with “Art of Steel” form language "promises to deliver confident new levels of off-road prowess, with genuine towing/hauling ability," according to Hyundai PR minions. Hyundai confirmed that future body-on-frame vehicles will be designed in America, developed for America and built in America using Hyundai U.S. steel. Editor-in-Chief's Note: 2030 is a long way away, but make no mistake, Hyundai's competitors are quaking in their boots over this vehicle. - PMD

Editor-in-Chief's Note: For our video this week, we're featuring "The Outlaw That Nearly Destroyed NASCAR," which is the remarkable story of Curtis Turner. Watch it here. -PMD   

The AE Song of the Week:

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?"

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

And you may ask yourself, "How do I work this?"
And you may ask yourself, "Where is that large automobile?"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful house"
And you may tell yourself, "This is not my beautiful wife"

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was

Water dissolving and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Under the water, carry the water
Remove the water from the bottom of the ocean
Water dissolving and water removing

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, into the silent water
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Leting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

You may ask yourself, "What is that beautiful house?"
You may ask yourself, "Where does that highway go to?"
And you may ask yourself, "Am I right, am I wrong?"
And you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done?"

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, into the silent water
Under the rocks and stones, there is water underground

Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground
Into the blue again, after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, look where my hand was
Time isn't holding up, time isn't after us
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was (I couldn't get no rest)
Same as it ever was, hey let's all twist our thumbs
Here comes the twister

Letting the days go by (same as it ever was, same as it ever was)
Letting the days go by (same as it ever was, same as it ever was)
Once in a lifetime, let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by, water flowing underground

"Once In A Lifetime" by Talking Heads, from the album "Remain In Light" (1980).* Written by David Byrne, Phoebe Esprit, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison, Christopher Frantz, Brian Peter George Eno and Ronald Amanze. Lyrics source: Musixmatch. "Once In A Lifetime" lyrics © WB Music Corp., MCA Music Ltd., E.G. Music Ltd., Index Music Inc., Universal/MCA Music Ltd., Universal Music MGB Ltd., Hanseatic Musikverlag Gmbh, WC Music Corp., Status One Music, Index Music, Inc., Wolfsheim Musikverlag Peter Heppner Und Markus Reinhardt GBR. Watch the Official Music Video here.

*This song deals with the futility of not being happy with the things you have. Like trying to remove the water at the bottom of the ocean, there's no way to stop life from moving on. The forces of nature (like the ocean) keep you moving almost without your conscious effort - like a ventriloquist moving a puppet. David Byrne shed some light on his lyrical inspiration when he told Time Out: "Most of the words in 'Once in a Lifetime' come from evangelists I recorded off the radio while taking notes and picking up phrases I thought were interesting directions. Maybe I'm fascinated with the middle class because it seems so different from my life, so distant from what I do. I can't imagine living like that." Some of these evangelist recordings also made their way to a 1981 album called My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, by David Byrne and Brian Eno. This stalled at #103 in February 1981, but when MTV launched that August, they played the video a lot, giving the song much more exposure.

David Byrne's choreography in the video was done by the Toni Basil, who had a hit as a singer with "Mickey." It was a very odd video, and for many viewers it was the first look they got at the Talking Heads (or at least Byrne - the full band didn't appear in a video until "Burning Down The House" two years later).

As you watch David Byrne spasm like a malfunctioning robot interspersed with gesturing in Martian sign language, ponder this excerpt from the book MTV Ruled the World - The Early Years of Music Video, in which Toni Basil fills in some details about the choreography for this video: "He [Byrne] wanted to research movement, but he wanted to research movement more as an actor, as does David Bowie, as does Mick Jagger. They come to movement in another way, not as a trained dancer. Or not really interested in dance steps. He wanted to research people in trances - different trances in church and different trances with snakes. So we went over to UCLA and USC, and we viewed a lot of footage of documentaries on that subject. And then he took the ideas, and he 'physicalized' the ideas from these documentary-style films."

Basil adds: "When I was making videos - whether it was with Devo, David Byrne, or whoever - there wasn't record companies breathing down anybody's neck, telling them what to do, what the video should look like. There was no paranoid A&R guy, no crazy dresser that would come in and decide what people should be wearing, and put them in shoes that they can't walk in, everybody with their own agenda. We were all on our own."

Some critics have suggested that "Once In A Lifetime" is a kind of prescient jab at the excesses of the 1980s. David Byrne says they're wrong; that the lyric is pretty much about what it says it's about. In an interview with NPR, Byrne said: "We're largely unconscious. You know, we operate half awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else, and we haven't really stopped to ask ourselves, 'How did I get here?'"

Brian Eno produced this song and wrote the chorus, which he also sang on. David Byrne wrote the verses, which he talk/sings in an intriguing narrative style. "Remain In Light" was the fourth Talking Heads album, and the third produced by Eno, whose artistic bent and flair for the unusual were a great fit for the group.

Unlike their previous album, the songs on "Remain In Light" were mostly written in the studio (Compass Point, the Bahamas) and all credited to the four band members plus Eno. (Knowledge courtesy of Songfacts.com)

Editor's Note: Click on "Next 1 Entries" at the bottom of this page to see previous issues. - WG