Thursday, May 19, 2022

I predict this will be a debacle: a new tv show series, "Downey’s Dream Cars", coming in late 2022 to Discovery streaming but without a clue what car show enthusiasts want to see. Instead, it's creating eco-friendly automobiles. Is THAT what you want to see?


 fans of the Iron Man movies will not need to try hard to remember that the reason we might associate Robert Downey with cars, is that the Marvel super hero movies had Downey's character working on a hot rod, in a garage with a nice small collection of cool sports cars

“My goal is to showcase that it’s possible to keep the integrity of classic cars while leveraging new tech and innovation to make them more eco-friendly,” Downey Jr. said.

His collection includes a 1967 Corvette Stingray Convertible, a Bentley Continental GT, several Audis, a Ferrari, an Acura NSX Concept built specifically for 2013’s Iron Man 3, a 1965 Chevrolet Corvette, and a Fisker Karma



and the movies even included the Mustang in some other garage where he met the kid. 


Serious, it's a no brainer to have him restore cool muscle and sports cars, but go green? Go woke, go broke ya dimwit

12 comments:

  1. Have to disagree. Hot rodding is about breaking the rules and Robert Downey Jnr is a master at that. His father's film Putney Swope is the wildest studio film ever made, even more out there than Skidoo.

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    1. you seem to be confused. Hot rodding is about increasing the performance of cars. What you describe as breaking rules? Is either anarchy, or hooliganism.
      I don't know anything about his dad's films, and that's not in the scope of this news that Downey is going to make cars "green" and "environmentally friendly" and, here's the bad news, that is NOT hot rodding.
      I hope you haven't been brain washed by the progressive liberal agenda, because they are looney enough without recrioting more people to their crazy ideas.
      I am not against being environmentally conscious, non-polluting, and leaving every cap site nicer than when I find it, and the rest of the boy scout principles... but I don't confuse hot rodding with "breaking the rules" or being environmentally friendly. Those are other things.
      Hot rodding? That's making cars faster, better handling, more powerful, and better looking.
      Are you sure you disagree with me on this?

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  2. True, hot rodding has become in many instances sanitized and corporate but its essence was about breaking rules and having fun. Rat rods evolved from the conservatism of the hot rod establishment and the desire to stir things up. Why hot up a motor if you aren't going to break the speed limit? By the way your film education is incomplete if you have yet to see Putney Swope or Skidoo. Also I am far more left leaning than the liberal progressives.

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    1. I'm not diving into a discussion on rat rods, they aren't any part of this story, nor a definiton of hot rods.
      Why hot up a motor? Oh, the expected reasons, to make a more powerful one because we humans are obsessed with power, with size, with value, ego, and pride.
      Some people simply are obsessed with having the best of whatever object can be made competitive, or can be compared with what other people have, and that is known all over as "keeping up with the Jones"
      Other guys just hot up motors to race that car, and some do it to make the best looking show car, as the 1960s obsession with chrome and tunnel rams proved. See my example of the Zingers? Not even involved with vehicles that can be driven, can't break the speed limit.
      My film education is just fine, I choose pretty carefully what I watch, and my I won't watch anything unless I get a good notion that I'll find it fun, or entertaining, or full of interesting characters in a lot of action. I've seen enough boring movies, and too many dull bombs that were "critically acclaimed" to be good, but the entire movie going audience failed to want to waste money to see.
      That sums up a lot of Oscar Nominated movies that the movie makers are all agog at, but no one else is interested in seeing.

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  3. I wouldn't call Putney Swope or Skidoo boring, though they won't be getting an Oscar nomination until hell freezes over. Read what Leonard Maltin says about them.

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  4. The segment of people who want what Downey wants is 'tiny'.....it's already being done, and it is NOT cheap. If you've been watching the MECUM Indy auction on Motortrend TV over the past few days and into the weekend.......You have over 3,500 cars/trucks/hotrods being auctioned and I have yet to see as single EV or EV conversion up for auction or showcased. The auction has been fantastic so far, maybe one will eventually cross the line but I'm pretty doubtful.

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  5. Hot rodding had it's day in street racing and still does today within a few small segments among us, that's about the only rule hot rodding has broken.......Jesse is correct here as it's basically about performance upgrades, as well as styling or in rat rod culture, going against culture itself with very little true performance 98.7% of the time.......Don't get hung up on street racing tv shows, they're mostly a lie..

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    1. I agree it had it's day (in the beginning) in street racing, that's what most of the 1st generation did to begin with, but it was so quickly molded by Wally Parks and the vast Hollywood production effort to get off the streets and onto the dragstrips, Bonneville, and El Mirage.
      I don't agree that hot rodders still street race, as hot rods are priced out of the range of everyone making less than 75k a year in So Cal, with no wife, kids, or mortgage. Frankly, hot rods are a type of car I distinguish a lot more strictly than Hot ROd Magazine, as they will have an article on an Impala, next to a 1990s Mercury, then a Camaro, and rarely has any Hot Rods anymore.
      Hot Rods, first, must be a rod. Then it has to be hopped up. This is basically pre WW2 cars, as most of the 50s cars are Street Rods, and the 60s cars are Muscle Cars.
      That's fairly generic, but, hot rods are not electric, and not street racer twin turbo tv show blank check cars.
      They are 95% not AMBR winners, they are raced, shown, but mostly driven.
      They are found at El Mirage, Bonneville, Pendine, etc.
      Not to forget about the styling, the painting, the custom mods for better parts, better brakes, etc.
      Are Barris Kustoms and Roth creations Hot Rods? Not so much. Those? Show cars, and tv cars, and Hollywood elite destined.
      Hot rods are closer to Norm's T Bucket, still great looking, but win at the drag strip. Ivo's T Bucket, McMullins Deuce, etc etc.
      They are not Foose named cars. They are not new cars with 1500 hp electric motors.
      Lets stick to the fundamentals, the basics, the originals, and not mess with the basics.
      Rat rods? Built at home, to make a statement about the theme of the build materials, and parts chosen, without a thought for paint, but lots for patina, and rust.
      Thanks for chiming in Mark!

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    2. Knew a guy that built a real hot rod , bits of this and that and made a car because he needed a car , the origin of the word .

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  6. Carroll Shelby said Cobras were hot rods.Jim Hall said his first Chaparral was a hot rod. A hot rod is really just an automotive concoction where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

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    1. so, either you choose to not use the term correctly, because other people you can quote do not, or, you can grow up.
      A Cobra is a sports car, the Chaparral is a race car.
      Why argue about it? I'm certain we can find the astronauts calling the rocket a candle.
      I bet you enjoyed George Carlin's performances about words

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  7. Love Carlin's work. I also live in a country where people with red hair are called bluey.

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