Let’s talk about the Death Star a little bit. Not the first Death Star, the one that destroyed Alderaan and was about to blow up the Rebel Base on Yavin 4 when it was wiped out. Rather, let’s discuss the second Death Star. That’s the one that was hovering over the moon of Endor—home to those annoyingly marketable Ewoks—when Lando …
Grassroots Minivans
The minivan dwarfs nearly any sports car, so how can it compete against the classic Porsche 356 (center) and Jaguar XKE in timed competition?
Let me back up a little bit. You see, our publisher recently got himself a fancy new Honda Odyssey minivan. Now, anyone who’s read this magazine for any time knows that we are all great fans of minivans. They’re practical, economical, useful, and although they are what most people really need, they’re still rather underappreciated contributors to our busy society.
If you’ve read the magazine for any time, you also know that Tim can get a little, shall we say, “enthusiastic” about stuff. Soon after the new van arrived, we were treated to lunchtime rides where we were sure we were being chased. He drove that poor van like it was his last day on earth, bragged about how stable it was at 100 mph-plus, drifted it around every corner in the Daytona Beach metro area, and dared Civic Si drivers to race from stoplight to stoplight.
We figured it would wear off, but a couple of weeks into the new van, he said those magic words: “You know, today’s minivans would kick the ass of pretty much any classic sports car.” Go back and read it again. We’ll wait.
A few weeks later, we were on our way to the Michelin facility, anticipating a meeting between the V6-powered Honda van and not one, but two examples of everything that a sports car is supposed to be.
Once we got to the test facility, we’d be met by a Jaguar XKE and a Porsche 356. If you look up “sports car” in the dictionary, you’ll probably see a picture of one or both of those cars next to the definition. I was making up excuses for nearly the entire drive to Laurens.
“Gee, Tim, the van’s awesome and all, but it just isn’t a sports car. I mean, it was designed to haul people and stuff. You can’t get a 4×8 sheet of plywood in an E-Type, can you? That’s the whole point of a sports car.”…
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