When you spot first-generation Mazda 3 rims on a second-generation Mazda 3, mumble to yourself out loud that 'that's interesting', other people ask 'what is?', you explain, and then and everybody looks at you like you have two heads.

#petrolheadlyfe

Let me preface this by saying I live in the relative middle of nowhere. There's a pretty big town (Bridgewater) about 15 mins away, but Halifax (the provincial capital) is an hour away and very little of interest ever happens around here.

That being said, as I was out and about doing my computer work the other day, I noticed a sign saying a local car club was going to have a little show at local antiques shop....which happens to be like....3 minutes from my house!

I've not really treated myself to any 'me' time in awhile, so I took it upon myself to go if I had time today and, as my morning appointments finished in enough time, I was able to stop in and....boy howdy, am I glad I did!!!

The first thing I saw was a very modified Foxbody Mustang...very cool but no pics as this caught my eye. This was a 100% original Dodge...the paint was faded, it had a few little rust spots in places, the vinyl top was worn....but you could tell it was well-loved and everything on it came on it from the factory. Cool old thing!

I loved the two-tone blue/white color combo on this old Meteor - Meteor was a Canadian-only brand of Ford, basically selling in the lower price segments of the market

Next to the Meteor was this INSANELY mint Lincoln Town Car - it had a digital dash, or so it looked, so I have no idea how many kms were on it, but it could not have been many at all!

Here's something you definitely don't see anymore....ever........at all. It's an accessorized Mercury Zephyr coupe in a surprisingly good-looking two-tone beige/brown! These were basically just a rebadged Ford Fairmont of the time.

Next was this very cool hot rod - Ford I think...?....not really my thing, but it was a drag car and sure is menacing...

Next up was this sporty Dodge Aspen....love the logo script on the front fenders!

Then we had this hot rod. I know it's a Ford because it said so.....it was VERYYYYY modified. I really liked the handpainted pinstriping details though....a lost art that...

Next to it was this '57 Chevrolet. These were my favorite car growing up as a kid (how my tastes have changed! ), but I still think they are gorgeous now, especially with the gold badging in a bright color with the chrome!

Such cool details all over these 50s machines...

These are pretty rare up here...and I think pretty rare in general, if I'm not mistaken? It's an AMC AMX in a lovely shade of orange!

And next to that AMC was this modified Foxbody Mustang convertible.....loving the customized side skirts...5.0 'Stang!

And, in complete defiance of everything 'Stang stands for....was one of my favorites of the show, this absolutely lovely Ford Model A roadster in a very pretty green and light yellow paint scheme. I am doubting this was a factory combo, but is looks very nice on this old girl.
Amazing details...

That motor looked so original it almost made me wonder if it's never been opened in it's life....knowing how durable those old Model Ts and As are, I wouldn't be surprised if it never has!

Next to the 'A' was a very cool Datsun 280Z! Digging the engine bay on this one....Straight-6 goodness!

I loved seeing that it still had it's original little engine bay work light!

Oh, now here's a pretty rare one! A North American spec Ford Capri! Amusingly enough, as far as I know, they were never sold as the 'Ford Capri' here, but only as the 'Capri' under Ford's Lincoln-Mercury dealership network. I didn't see one Ford badge on this one! Even the steering wheel simply said 'Capri' in the center!

Next we had another Meteor in a lovely light blue....this one would be around a 1959 model or so.

Next to that Meteor was this gorgeous old 1947 Mercury Eight!

Just past this was a late 70s Corvette and 2 modern Mustangs....but oh boy, next to those, well....I'm saving that for last because it was my second favorite car of the show and, to me, the star of the show...so, we move onward!

This lovely Thunderbird was gorgeous and had all sorts of wonderful little details....I liked the badge 'gems' in the hubcaps!

Then, we had yet another AMX! I've seen very few in my lifetime, but here are two at one show! This one had some cool red pinstriping:

Next to that we had a 100% stock Chevy Vega....yup...definitely not modified at all...

Next to that was my third-favorite car of the show, which we will come back to as you guys have seen me mention it before!

But nearby was this early 50s Ford Crestline in a lovely light mint green. Love the Crestline logo embedded in the front tip of the side chrome strip - classy!

Last, but not least before we get to the best stuff....was Mercury Marquis, which I haven't seen one of since I was a kid! This one had been quietly breathed upon and blacked out a bit!

BUT, now it's time for my third-favorite car of the show, the piece de resistance! It's the Citroen SM I've mentioned here before! :
I just love these things! So French and sleek with so many cool details! This one is an NA-spec car, I believe, but has Euro headlights on it

Sadly, the gentleman that owns it (who I vaguely know through one of my computer jobs) has it up for sale now....I hope it goes to a good home!

Much pretty Maserati V6....

SPHERES! Citroen's famed hydro-pneumatic suspension on view for all to see. He actually had it parked with the suspension set to the highest setting as well, so it had some good off-road cred going on!

I love how the hood Citroen logo vent acts as the air intake for the cabin!

The engine design is just bonkers....it's TECHNICALLY a mid-engined car because the transmission is in FRONT of the engine....heck out the crazy jackshaft and belts that come forward from the engine to run the power steering and the A/C compressor!

And now we get to my (well, it just has to be, doesn't it?) favorite car of the show! It actually wasn't there and I was literally just walking out to leave when it puttered in and, of COURSE, how could I leave then??? FIAT 500!!! I've been up close with two in Lunenburg before when workers had them outside at a local collector's garage, but the owner wasn't there at that time, so I spent very little time there.....so this was the first time I've been able to spend time near one and appreciate everything! It's funny because I heard it before I saw it and despite never hearing one in person before, knew exactly what it was! (don't worry, that blue smoke was from a nearby BBQ, not the 500! )

Epic!!! I got to chat with the owner, a really nice guy named Ron who imported it from Napoli in Italy. It's a 1971 FIAT 500F, the 'F' being the 'base model' 500 at the time. You could've splurged on the fancier 500L if you had the cash, and that would've got you a padded dash, different gauge cluster, chrome bumper guards and a few other cool details, but no...this one was gloriously simple like all 500s are!

It had a lovely tan interior with white wheel and trim...

...and the wonderful fabric sunroof almost all classic 500s came with as standard, which means lovely interior pictures!
The car is factory-original, so the 499cc, 17hp Inline-2 and 4-speed non-synchro gearbox were resting in their house at the back and made a pleasant, cheerful and eager-sounding noise.

I so desperately want one EVEN MORE THAN USUAL now! It was like a cute little puppy in car form!

But, as amazing as that little 500 was, even if it was my favorite at the show....I had to save this ride for last.

OH yes....it's an Alfa, but this is not just any Alfa.

Recognize it yet? It's an Alfa Romeo Giulia...but a very special Giulia (literally and figuratively!), it's a Sprint Speciale! 1 of 1400 ever built....here in semi-rural, middle of nowhere Nova Scotia!!!
It was heart-achingly beautiful in a deep wine-ish red...so many wonderful details, like these authentic glass-lensed original Carello lights!

Or the original Italian plate hiding under the Nova Scotian plate on the rear!

You can tell every curve on the car was drawn by eye and by hand and that it is something very unique...


And the Giulia script on the front fender badges is amazingly Italian and 50s/60s at the same time!

Not sure what year this beauty was, but I was graced by it's prescence

Sadly, then it was time to head home for lunch...but don't worry, Humdrum was in good company in the car park!

Still here, still COVID lockdown. My side computer work job picked up a lot this week and I got a huge pile of free stuff out of the blue (2 sets of Harmon-Kardon computer speakers, a full Dell XPS desktop PC with keyboard/mouse/monitor, 3 USB keyboards, 3 optical mice, a 1TB external HDD, etc)....so that was pretty cool. Housing market still bonkers, so that's frustrating...still no permanent job, so that's frustrating....lockdown still means no sub teaching work, so that's also still frustrating. But you take what you can get right?

Things rarely seen - this pre-facelift Pontiac Sunfire convertible white-on-white:

An older-but-not-that-old lady (in her 70s?) somehow backed into the ditch after she picked up her laptop from me that I had just repaired. Our driveway is almost perfectly straight with only a slight curve....amusingly, my last words to her as she was about to leave were 'Did you need any help getting down?'....to which her reply was, and I quote 'No, I'm good thanks! I've been driving for over 40 years!'

Yup....

Ended up calling the tow truck and, because we have CAA and I was here, it cost her nothing to get pulled out. The car was beached and that left-front wheel had just dug it's way into the ground JUST next to the pavement because she kept flooring it trying to get out + open diff.

Have you ever noticed those cool swage lines on the side of the Mazda 5? It just hit me out of the blue on this silver Mazda5 I saw not that long ago...you don't really truly 'see' them on dark paint colors on the 5!

The sky was very cool the other evening...

That is all...keep on keepin' on Oppo!

I spent $450 on Humdrum yesterday to get her 193k km timing belt replaced. A big payout when I'm trying to save for a house, but it was time for it to be done! Also, my mechanic is VERY reasonable, so that's a LOT less than I'd pay at the dealership or another local garage.

He replaced the alternator/water pump and the power steering belts as well as they were starting to crack and the power steering belt was starting to slip ad squeal at full lock.

Otherwise, my Accent seems to be in pretty good health! Oil change is due in another 1000km, and though I've seen two or three small rust bubbles popping through, I started to see those several months ago and they haven't grown since - one is on the passenger's side door sill that hasn't gotten any bigger yet and is on the inside of the door seal (and hence, out of most of the weather), so I'm not worried about that one at the moment. Another is on the passenger side front fender, which I'm also not as worried about because fenders can just be removed and replaced if I ever had to - it's rust on the main body I worry about. There's another spot on the driver's side front fender where it meets the drivers side rocker/door sill...something flaked off there and I think it could be some paint from a rust spot but, honestly, as I get the car undercoated yearly and that spot is COATED in the usual oily/waxy grime on it, I can't tell if it was paint from rust or just dirt...so, as Vice Grip Garage would say, I'm going to do the right thing and ignore it for now...

The oily residue there doesn't look very nice (the car really needs a wash), but I'm tempted to not wash it with winter coming to leave that extra oily/waxy undercoating everywhere it is outside as 'extra protection' from the salt in the winter. Still have to get it undersealed this year too! Oh, and I have a feeling at 192,000kms that I'm going to need a clutch replacement soon....it's not slipping and still feels strong, but I'm starting to notice that the bite point is higher on the pedal - it's the original clutch to the car, after all!

Otherwise, for fun, I've been doing some hypermiling techniques lately to see if I can beat my old record of 657.59kms on a tank. I'm no crazy hypermiler as I mostly drive normally, but you'd be surprised with what little things (like rolling to a stop as much as you can in gear without breaking, or shifting at lower RPMs, or accelerating a little more slowly, or skip-shifting here or there) will do! I filled the tank last week just before my timing belt replacement and managed 666.6km! Not bad for a 45L tank - that's about 6.47L/100km or 36.5mpg. Hopefully that number isn't a bad omen... 0_o

This has been your update on beloved my crappy Korean ecobox that most people wouldn't care about

Greetings! Welcome to the official...

Oppositelock Glossary of Terms

Here, you will find an overview of words, abbreviations and their definitions which are commonly used here on Oppo!

Some are carryovers from our time connected to Jalopnik, some are plays on already existing terms and phrases, and yet others are wholly of our own creation...unique to us and our wonderful community here.

Some are serious, some are weird and some are just plain silly.

Please enjoy and hopefully this ever-changing list will help you understand the various conversations and goings-on here at the Hyphen as you partake in this awesome space! If you have any further suggestions, feel free to post them in this thread as time goes on so we can strive to enlarge and improve our glossary!

Bananas per second - A joke speed measurement invented by Oppo's own @awesomeaustinv. Assuming the average length of a banana is 8 inches, an easy conversion is 1 mph = 2.2 bananas per second, or 7920 bananas per hour. The term originated from a post by @awesomeaustinv, who, bored on an airplane journey, calculated the speed in bananas per hour to pass the time.

Brown, Manual Diesel Wagons - Originally a Jalopnik reference, this is still a common, ongoing joke reference on Oppositelock. It was mostly originally intended in the sense of 'these are the kinds of cars we like', i.e vehicles that are interesting, quirky and something only true car enthusiasts would appreciate (Brown being a less common/less liked color, manuals being the less popular transmission in the world, and diesel [especially old non-turbo ones] being noisy and slow but loved anyway).

Chicken vs Duck Controversy - A reference to former Jalopnik contributor and current The Drive writer, Stef Schrader who has often been a big contributor on Oppo - Stef is a fan of the classic 'Puffalumps' stuffed animals and this ongoing mock argument is over whether or not one of her Puffalumps is a chicken or a duck.

Cigar Lounge - 'Cigar Lounge' is the old name for the 'anything goes' section of Oppo from the Kinja days that is a less moderated discussion section, mostly for discussing politics. There is no longer a section on Oppositelock NAMED 'Cigar Lounge', but we do have a replacement section that has been renamed Oppopolitics. Aside from our main Oppo Discord server, we do also have an 'anything goes' mostly unmoderated Oppo Discord server that is still called 'Cigar Lounge', so feel free to join that!

COTD - A now-defunct tradition of 'Comment of the Day' where the funniest/wittiest/best comment would be pulled from the replies to posts on Jalopnik and Oppo and shared on it's own. Still often referenced on Oppo when somebody makes a good response, i.e. 'That should be COTD!'

cotomer sevis - (definition from @Chariotoflove ) A misspelling of "customer service" that first appeared on Jalopnik in 2006 as the title of a thread called "Jalopnik Has No Good Cotomer Sevis". Jalopnik journalist Davey Johnson had posted a conversation he had with a person called "Zach" that was upset when Davey had told him he couldn't help him find motorcycle parts. The thread starts out, "Dear people of the world. We do not sell or install things. We are a blog..." https://jalopnik.com/jalopnik-has-no-good-cotomer-sevis-184374

Doggo - Common Oppo parlance for the canine variety of man's best friend, aka...the dog.

DOTS and DITPL - Oppo terms for 'Down On The Street' and 'Down In The Parking Lot', most often used for interesting vehicles spotted while going about daily activities and on trips. There are a few other small variations as well. The term began when past Jalopnik writer Murilee Martin did a series on Jalopnik detailing interesting vehicles he found on the streets of San Francisco and the surrounding area: https://jalopnik.com/500-old-cars-and-trucks-down-on-the-streets-of-alameda-5367238

DT - Oppo parlance for Drivetribe - Oppo maintains an Oppositelock page there for posting users more in-depth and properly written work: https://drivetribe.com/t/oppositelock-WsyTisBFQiuJU7cDJZttOw

FP - An abbreviation for 'Front Page'. This will eventually be used to refer to Oppo's own upcoming front page (a work in progress), but has historically and is currently most commonly used in reference to Jalopnik as Oppositelock was originally a community automotive sub-blog of Jalopnik during the Kinja days and therefore Jalopnik was actually historical Oppo's 'front page'.

Fur Face Friday - A weekly post(s) every Friday on Oppo containing pictures, updates and stories of the pets of Oppo!

GIB - Commonly used on Oppo as a synonym for 'give', often when it is something that somebody wants a lot. For example:
Person 1 - 'Oh man, check out this brown, diesel, manual transmission station wagon that I saw earlier today!' ~posts picture~
Person 2 - 'WOW! That's awesome! GIB! GIB!'

GTFAC - (definition from @e90m3 ) Oppo's version of 'GTFO', but it originated with us (through Jalopnik) and this one even has it's own Urban Dictionary entry! GTFAC = 'Go to fuck a camel' - it was originally a reply by past JalOppo user Roberto G to a comment on a Jalopnik COTD post and has entered common Oppo parlance and lore - this is the comment as it appeared on Jalopnik in 2012:

Herb / Jim is a herb / Jim Spanfeller is a herb - A reference to Jim Spanfeller, CEO of G/O Media from April 2019 to Present. Spanfeller is universally disliked by many of the editors and staff at the various websites G/O runs for not caring about his staff, caring more about money than anything and insisting heavily on directing and controlling the content his staff and sites released. The 'herb' nickname came from former Deadspin journalist, Emma Carmichael, who posted a scathing article about their site being asked to only 'stick to sports' despite the site being popular and well-loved. An excellent article on that topic is here. MANY sites, celebrities and politicians supported Deadspin and Emma and 'herb' became a huge buzz on Social Media and is still widely used today. Also, Jim is still an herb.

Hour Rule - A term that refers to the Oppositelock practice of ensuring there is a post at least once an hour. If no other user has posted in the last hour, fellow Oppos will often make a quick post titled and tagged 'Hour Rule' to keep the flow going. The story (according to OG Oppo user @Nibbles ) goes that 'Hour Rule' posts were "...originally started because users were bored and nobody wanted to sit around repeatedly refreshing a stagnant page, patiently waiting for content but not willing to post content themselves. Originally some folks would shitpost to encourage non-shitpost content hourly. Then we started to find neat things." Nowadays, most 'Hour Rule' posts are brief, but are generally better quality content than basic 'shitposts' and are usually automotive-related - interesting web links, cool photographics or video links etc. 'Hour Rule' posts are most often seen from Oppo users on the Asian and Australasian side of the world as they are a small majority and are awake when the least amount of content is being posted by far more common European and North American users who are asleep. Aussie user @pip-bip is well-known for being one of our best 'Hour Rule' posters!

Hyphen / The Hyphen - A commonly used nickname for the 'new' Oppositelock site. As discussions and work went on for creating this new site after G/O Media killed off the original Kinja Oppositelock in November 2020, @Tripper unknowingly coined the 'Hyphen' nickname on the Oppo Discord and a lot of users were amused by it to the point it has, so far, stuck:
The 'Hyphen' name comes from the fact that the original spelling of Oppositelock excluded a hyphen, but the new site had to add a hyphen to the website URL.

jalop - A staff member or user from the Jalopnik website. Also used on Oppo as a general term for somebody who likes cars/vehicles.

Jalopnik - Referring to www.jalopnik.com - the automotive site that Oppositelock was originally affiliated with and spawned from.

Jellopicnic - A joke name used to refer to the Jalopnik automotive website.

JRITS - 'Just Rolled Into The Shop' - An abbreviation originally and currently still used for a series of posts made on Oppo linking to amusing, stupid and interesting stories taken from the sub-Reddit 'Just Rolled Into The Shop'. Also often used in general when talking about vehicles being worked on in garages and workshops.

Kinja / Kinja'd - Kinja was the web platform the original version of the Oppositelock website ran on, and is the platform that current Jalopnik and related G/O Media sites run on. "Kinja'd" is a long-standing joke term that on Oppositelock that has come to be used in representing something going wrong as the Kinja platform was known to often be buggy or have things changed on it at random causing usability issues often. "Kinja'd" is now often used to refer to ANYTHING that goes wrong, not just something related to the website.

Kinjapocalypse - A reference to G/O Media's shutting down of the original Kinja Oppo and various other Kinja community sub-blog websites in November 2020 wherein the communities were given VERY little warning. This was the event that spawned the new 'Hyphen' Oppo here, as we know it!

KinjOppo / Kinja Oppo - A reference to the original version of Oppositelock hosted on the Kinja platform that was a spinoff/tie-in community fan page from the Jalopnik automotive website.

LEGOlopnik - A nod to the tradition defined above of adding 'opnik' to things - specifically relating to LEGO building kits, which many Oppo users are fond of.

Liferafts - During the Kinjapocalypse, before Hyphen Oppo was started up, Oppo users spread to several different sites and chat and social media platforms in an attempt to hold the community together until a proper replacement site for KinjOppo could be launched. These various sites and platforms were collectively nicknamed our 'liferafts' and are still sometimes referred to as such. For example, Oppo has a DriveTribe page, a Facebook group, a Discord server, a Twitter page and there were several other now-disused Oppo 'liferafts' as well.

Lurker - A general term for an Oppositelock user who has a member account on the site but prefers to read content and tends to either rarely create new posts themselves, or never posts at all.

Nibbles - (definition from @CB) Not to be confused with Oppo user @Nibbles , this is a now-antiquated, rarely-used term that was used to refer to posts on pre-Kinja / Kinja Oppo where photos failed to upload. 'Nibbles' was the fictitious hamster that would 'eat' those photos, causing them to disappear.

NP or CP OR NP or ND - An Oppo term based on an article series originally from Jalopnik - 'NP or CP' standing for 'Nice Price or Crack Pipe'. Used when posting ads to get the opinion of others if something is a good price (NP - Nice Price) or a bad or insane price (CP - Crack Pipe). The current iteration also sees 'NP or ND' being used in the same manner - 'Nice Price or No Dice'.

opnik / lopnik - A continued Oppositelock joke tradition of adding 'opnik' to the end of words, usually used in post tags and in reference to a specific topic. This stems from the original Oppositelock's close ties to the Jalopnik automotive website. For example, a post about computers might be tagged 'computerlopnik', a post about gardening might be tagged 'gardenopnik', a post about food might be tagged 'foodlopnik'. etc.

Oppo - An obvious nickname / shortened form of 'Oppositelock', referring to the Oppositelock website. Often also used as a nickname for Oppositelock users, i.e. "I met him at the car show, he's also an Oppo too!"

Oppo Gold - A reference to a joke, fictional, paid 'premium membership' for the Oppositelock site. Jalopnik Gold was historically also used in the same context.

Opponaut - Another nickname for Oppositelock users.

Orlove'd - Used when referring to anything that has been rolled or flipped over (usually vehicles) - a reference to the time Jalopnik journalist Raphael Orlove accidentally rolled his beloved Baja VW Beetle: https://jalopnik.com/i-rolled-my-dream-car-a-1973-baja-bug-1453599778

Secret Senna - Oppo's annual version of the Christmas tradition of 'Secret Santa' - Oppo members can partake to send gifts to fellow Oppos near and far for the Holidays! Named for the late famed racing driver Ayrton Senna based on similar pronounciation.

shitpost - An Oppo term for a post made on Oppositelock that is usually a topic of a comical and/or whimsical nature, often containing quirky or off-color humor. USUALLY not automotive-related, but they sometimes can be!

Short-throw shifter - Of course, referring to the vehicle modification for manual transmissions that shortens the shift stroke between gears Here though, this term also refers to a specific story in Jalopnik/Oppo lore when a news story was run on Jalopnik about a Subaru owner that claimed to have avoided a falling tree because he had ad short-throw shifter installed in his car: https://jalopnik.com/how-a-modified-subaru-sti-saved-three-lives-5786877

'Should've used a digital tire pressure gauge...' - A joke statement often brought up when referring to accidents, often specifically accidents due to driver error. A reference to a past Jalopnik article where a BMW owner lost control of his car when leaving a Cars and Coffee event and blamed the accident not on his poor driving/lack of skill, but on the fact he had used an analog rather than a digital tire pressure gauge and that the incorrectly inflated tires caused his loss of control. Source article here: https://jalopnik.com/how-not-to-explain-why-you-crashed-your-car-via-this-b-1677523538

SR20 / SR20 Rule - (definition from @e90m3 ) Essentially Oppo's version of 'Pics, or it didn't happen!' It is a reference to a former Jalopnik commenter who went by the username 'sr20spitfirehotrod' - he made an unsubstantiated claim about buying a V8 Lotus Espirit, and would often make posts about it from time to time...yet would never post any pictures as proof, always citing a convenient excuse. He also made a post about how he got out of a speeding ticket due to being a Jalopnik commenter that was even re-posted to the Jalopnik front page...but he later admitted he made the story up:

Svended / Svending / to 'svend' - A term used across Oppositelock in reference to the act of cleaning the inside and/or outside of a vehicle - a kindly reference to Oppo user @svend 's amazing vehicular cleaning skills and his common posts to that topic.

'Theme Days' - Theme days are just as the name implies - days on Oppo past, present and future where some (though not all) members participate in making various posts around a given theme, often automotive in nature.

TOIF - The Oppo version of TGIF or 'Thank Goodness It's Friday - 'Thank Oppo It's Friday'

Torchbug / Traveling Torchbug - A reference to a small die-cast model of Jalopnik journalist Jason Torchinsky's VW Beetle that has been passed around through hundreds of car enthusiasts and had interesting pictures taken of it over the years.

Two Wheels Good/Bad - Not all of us on Oppo are enthusiasts of motorbikes, scooters and bicycles, but a not insignificant number of us are! 'Two Wheels Good' or 'Two Wheels Bad' are often seen in threads referring to the two wheeled powered and unpowered vehicles of the world.

UppU / Lord UppU - A reference to one of the Summer 2021 Oppositelock logo header images. This was a series of 'summer' logos created by Oppo users for fun to cycle constantly through over the summer months. @Taylor-Martin created an amusing crab-ized version of the Oppositelock logo that the site quickly took to liking immensely to the point of 'Lord Uppu' becoming the joke religious mascot of the site. The word 'UppU' is a reference to the visual of the crab's upheld claws and eye stalks while being a play on the word Oppo:

Original Oppo logo for reference:

Limited-edition t-shirts have also been created for Lord UppU as well. May his crab-ness protect you and your vehicles....UppU be with you!

Voice of UppU - A joke member account on Oppo referring to 'Lord UppU' (defined directly above) used to comically post things on Oppo, often used for important news regarding the site.

Wrong wheel drive - Jokingly used to refer to any vehicle that does not have rear-wheel-drive...most often used to describe front-wheel-drive vehicles. Based on the idea that RWD is best for performance and is the 'right' and 'best' drivetrain variant.

I checked the mail earlier today and found a nondescript yellow envelope addressed to one 'RallyDarkstrike' from one 'The Crazy Kanuck'....this could only mean one thing!

MY SECRET SENNA GIFT ARRIVED! WAHOO!

So, I opened it to reveal.....err....this

Clearly this is from the well-cultured crowd that is Oppo, for certain!

Yup....well-cultured! See! Top Hat!

@The-Crazy-Kanuck 's handwritten note was on the paper and also included an epic Juke self-portrait!

The Juke was without it's famous painters' tape racing stripes though....I always forget how many massive speed 'holes' are in that lower front bumper...but that lack of painter's tape was OK because the package was surprisingly well-constructed from the stuff and two pieces of cardboard, so things were still on-brand!

I peeled back the 'open here' tape and slid out my treat to find this! An epic little brochure for the FIAT 850 sedan! Now, I like the 850 Spider convertible as much as the next guy, but I've always loved the sortof honest, boxy styling of the 'sedan' even more!

It may be small, but when I say epic, I mean it, this brochure is complicated, haha! Here's the first page....which folds out to show how the trunk opens with some basic info on the car!

To get to the next page, you shut that fold-out and flip over to this picture of a pretty blue 850 with white-wall tires and oh-so-shiny hubcaps...and both sides here fold out to show the interior!

I love how 'front-hinged doors' are listed as a feature

If you fold those back in and flip the page, you find the details for the rear of the car and the tech. specs.....love that engine cutaway!

"Printed in Italy"! A little research shows this brochure is from around 1965-'66, so not long after the 850 first entered production in '64!

And on the back, we unsurprisingly find the shapely rear of the 850!

I'm super happy! Definitely going into my brochure collection....which amazingly has almost no FIAT stuff at all!

Thanks so much @The-Crazy-Kanuck !

Fun fact, microcar/VSP maker Casalini has Porsche's 'Miami Blue' as a factory option on their Twist and Twist+ models!

Noticed this the other week on their site when I was playing around for fun and decided to message Casalini themselves to confirm if it was indeed the same color:

...and indeed it is!

As some of you know, I am a substitute teacher, but I also do computer work on the side and ALSO also work for the local library on occasion when they need me.

Well, they called me up the other week as they are replacing their current mobile library / Bookmobile and are getting a new one, so I was asked to come set up the tech and get the books all moved over to the new one.

The old one is an International bus chassis that was specifically built from the factory as a Bookmobile, but the new one is.....more delivery-truck-y? And the old one looks like it had more space on the inside? Could be wrong....we'll see! To be honest, I much preferred the old one, but it'll be interesting to see the new one - maybe I'll be proven wrong!

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Wish us luck!

One HELL of a rain downpour/Thunderstorm this morning, then beautiful sunshine...dried everything off. Then, 10 minutes before I leave for one of my computer work appointments, another bad rain/thunderstorm with some crazy lightning rolled through...

Was an interesting drive to my appointment! Even caught a huge bolt on my dashcam in the distance coming from some low clouds!

TIL that some Renault 4 vans had a flip-up rear section of the roof to help facilitate the loading and carrying of larger objects....pretty neat idea!

@sony1492 Sadly, yes

@sony1492 Same, I've not seen one in like....8 years at least I'd guess...a first-gen that is. There are one or two of the last facelift of the second-gen still around.

@shoop That poor Tiburon

I actually liked all gens of the Tiburon....not great, but they were fairly reliable 'essence of basic sports car'....

That one, though....that one has seen some shit

@musashi66 It's is pretty awesome...but I am one of those weird people that would rather have an original Panda 4x4

@musashi66 OK, that is awesome...but at the same time, no thanks. Doesn't have an Italian drivetrain, so it's not really a Panda in anything but bodyshell. Now if it had the AWD, manual and V6 from an Alfa Giulia mid-mounted....then we'd be talking!

@racinbob Not a problem sir, glad your question was answered!

@mr-ontop Very true, I can think of all sorts of uses, even for more basic ones!

@annoying_salman Ah, damn! Sucks that's not a safe place, looks quite beautiful!

@cb I don't think they would ever try and repair one after an off as bad as that....that thing got RIGGITY WRECKED SON.

@carsoffortlangley Awesome work dad! I love KOFL's PJs, glad you're starting early