Bugatti CEO Mate Rimac’s personal Chiron was taken from outside his company’s campus in Croatia, because he left it with the key still inside! Thank you Doug!

 He jumped into his Porsche 911 and chased it across Slovenia until police finally stopped it in Austria.

Odd choice of actions to take when your Bugatti is stolen

Someone local came in looking for a job and decided that he would take the Chiron instead. People noticed, they contacted Mate, and he got the police involved. But like nearly every modern car, there's plenty of telemetry that can, among other things, share the car's location. Being the owner of the company, Mate was able to see where the car was (and how much gas was in it) and let Croatian police know.

Instead of letting the police handle things, he saw the car heading to Slovenia, so he jumped into his own Porsche 911 to give chase. He hoped to get the border closed in time, but Slovenia is only about 10 miles from Rimac's campus in Zagreb. From there, it's only about 100 miles to Austria and, since the thief had a one-hour head start (and a Chiron), they were in that third country before police could coordinate.

Mate wasn't able to catch up to the thief, at least until Austrian authorities got the car stopped. The Chiron was recovered, and Mate had to spend the night doing paperwork. Surprisingly, Rimac said he didn't want to press charges.

https://carbuzz.com/mate-rimac-chases-stolen-chiron-in-porsche-october-2026

https://www.hotcars.com/mate-rimac-stolen-bugatti-chiron

Corvette Specialties of San Diego went out of business when the owner retired, and now, the assets are getting auctioned off

https://calauctions.com/auctions/V2ofF8RU8IqUeSPkGE3H/a/Corvette-Specialty-Service-and-Parts

Why don't the "close doors" buttons on elevators work?

 it's even a trope in tv shows and movies, that the main characters desperately need the doors to close, but no matter how they smash the button, the doors won't close. 

Last week at SEMA I was reminded of the stupid door button. Yup, tested it every day when using the elevator, and the doors close with the same time delay no matter if you wait for them, or hit the door close button. 

So... why does Otis build their elevator with those stupid buttons

I forgot to mention that Dodge is returning to Nascar, with one team and two cars, in 2027

The team indicated that it will announce its 2027 driver lineup at this weekend's race at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 8th, 2026, while the Dodge race car itself will be revealed at the Snowball Derby in Florida on December 4th.

https://fordauthority.com/2026/11/nascar-dodge-race-cars-to-battle-ford-in-cup-series-in-2027

Diane Disney Miller at the Family Foundation’s headquarters opened the lid on the Lilly Belle caboose to peek inside the legendary caboose built by her father for his famous backyard Carolwood Pacific Railroad.

Working late at his studio workbench, he had hand-built a miniature bunk bed complete with upholstered mattresses, tiny clothes lockers, and customized seating areas designed to flawlessly replicate a real conductor's resting space. 

Right next to that miniature bunk sat a fully functional, highly detailed miniature potbelly stove that Walt machined from scratch using his workshop lathe.

https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfDisneyHistoryAndScholarship/posts/pfbid038P6UrUuaVx1yvDPdEK6ND1Du26YCba3u4Q81NzsjW8R89jutPBJJMVhjfbZMamDLl

Cool booth podium base, and innovative pen holder

an award winning paint job on a cool old Econoline

great airbrushing on this trunk lid

Betty Boop never looked cuter, and Felix with Impala tail lights for eyes? Interesting

VW van with wheelie bars that have been put to the test

 

there's always something cool to see in the One Shot (pinstriping paint) booth (outstanding product that's never needed to change, it was perfect from the start)

Really cool idea/concept that brings in Von Dutch's flying eyeball and a pinstriping brush

I got a kick out of this pair of seats that act like eye magnets to get people to look at the seats in this booth

 

Toyota had a booth theme that seems to indicate they are ready for a LOT of snow... they had 5 of these caterpillar tracked trucks

Suzuki Jimny at SEMA (the JDM version of the Suzuki) with a legit govt registration expiration decal on the windshield

 

back in 1988, Michael Jackson was given a Suzuki RG 500

a documentary - The Immortal Lincoln -, about depression and finding the strength to go on, will be screened at the Carnegie Museum, the Detroit Public Library, and The Henry Ford museum

Directed by C. John Anter and executive produced by automotive journalist and contributing car culture columnist for the Detroit News, Phoebe Wall Howard, The Immortal Lincoln was inspired by a story published by the Detroit Free Press and USA Today Network about Douglas Burns, an Iowa newspaper publisher who struggled with the loss of his family's fourth-generation newspaper business.

Facing grief, financial hardship, and mental health challenges, Burns found an unexpected source of hope in his Lincoln. His story eventually led to connections with the Ford and Lincoln employees who designed and built the vehicle, showing how something as familiar as a car can take on a much deeper meaning.

https://fordauthority.com/2026/11/the-henry-ford-to-screen-the-immortal-lincoln-documentary

https://theimmortallincoln.com/

Nov. 9: Carnegie Museum, 1115 Sixth St., Port Huron, MI, on Monday at 6 p.m. 

Nov. 10: Detroit Public Library, 5201 Woodward Ave., Detroit, MI, on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. 

 Nov. 12: The Henry Ford museum, Dearborn MI, on Thursday doors at 6:30p.m. 

 Dec. 4: Iowa Farmers Union summit, Meskwaki Convention Center, on Friday at 6:45 p.m.

 Feb. 2: Grosse Pointe Public Library, MI, on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m

Per Elon Musk, the Tesla Cybertruck will end production sometime next year to make way for the Cybercab. (thank you Steve!)

Seven years ago Elon Musk introduced the Cybertruck at Tesla's design studio in Hawthorne, Calif., with a live demonstration of the car's "armor glass" in which Tesla's lead designer shattered two Cybertruck windows with a steel ball. Tesla advertised a starting price of $39,900 when it introduced the truck in 2019, but the Cybertruck starts at $92,490. 

Production delays pushed the vehicle's launch date to 2023 from a previously promised 2021 launch.

Tesla sold 39k Cybertrucks in the U.S. in 2024 and then just 20k in 2025, and only about 8k for 2026. 

The company launched a rear-wheel-drive Cybertruck in 2025 but pulled it from the lineup months later.

Since electric vehicles are not price compatible with internal combustion vehicles,  and no one seems to be able to undercut the price of internal combustion vehicles, without the govt subsidy, electric cars, and roof mounted solar panels on residential homes too, consumers are not diving in. 

The Cyber truck seemed to have a big initial rush of sales, probably from the many people who feel they need to buy the latest, greatest, most unusual things - to feel superior to their neighbors and co-commuters on the interstate in rush hour traffic... 

then there was no continuity of sales it seems... and I see fewer and fewer Cybertrucks. 

I heard rumors that owners were annoyed that they needed to be cleaned a special way, or hand prints were ugly and embarrassing. I heard a rumor that the tires didn't last long because the weight of the vehicle wore them out fast. 

No DOUBT in my mind the original owners were not going to get the batteries replaced so the vehicles would continue to be used for 10-12 years instead of 5-6. 

I heard rumors that the original claim that the side windows were impervious to baseball bats, made buyers over confident, and then they found the windows smashed pretty easy

https://fordauthority.com/2026/11/ford-f-150-lightning-rival-tesla-cybertruck-heading-to-ev-scrapyard
https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/musk-called-it-teslas-best-product-ever-now-the-cybertruck-is-being-scrapped-0d2249c2

https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-once-said-cybertruck-215957190.html

the annual rally in the Yoop is known as the Press On Regardless... I just learned this was also the name of a WW2 British bomber

Avro Lancaster B Mark III "Press on Regardless" of No. 550 Squadron

after it had completed 70 operational sorties at RAF North Killinghome, England, 1944

https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2026/11/the-crew-of-royal-air-force-avro.html

'74 Jeep J20! Outstanding!