 Tom KlockauThis generation has been referred to as the “Glamour Birds” for some time. I reviewed a friend’s immaculate ’71 Landau last year. Not to be confused with the 1964-66, AKA the “Flair Birds.” |
CC Capsule/QOTD: 1967 Thunderbird – What Nickname Shall We Give It?
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2018/03/01 at 7:39 am
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It’s too bad about what’s going on at the site I used to write for. What was a nice little community that just liked yakking about old cars is slipping away into a fiefdom. Hell, I’m not the only one who took a powder from there; we could start a club. Oh sure, if you agree with the big cheese, you’ll probably be fine, but heaven forbid you stray from the party line.
It was my own fault. I commented and should have known better…
It’s funny, I’m still in fairly regular contact with most of the old guard over there, (Like Lincoln, I never refer to the competition by name, i.e. “The other luxury car make”) with one large exception, heh! But I rarely visit any more, due to the degrading commentary and content. But recently, there was a post on Thunderbirds, which are a favorite. It was the expected short and sweet post, but I was surprised at the content. “Hey, let’s come up with a name for the 1967-71 Thunderbirds!” Well, it’s common knowledge among T-Bird fans that that generation is known as the “Glamour Bird,” with some specifying the 1970-71 models as “Bunkie Birds” due to their old schnozzola!
Most of the classic Thunderbirds have nicknames: The 1958-60 Squarebirds, 1961-63 Bullet Birds and 1964-66 Flair Birds. But apparently said author of said short and sweet post couldn’t be bothered spending one minute on Google. Or perhaps he simply wanted everyone to join in and come up with a condescending name instead? That would be par for the course. Who knows. At any rate, I foolishly left an innocent comment, seen above, informing them that there was indeed a common term for those T-Birds, and the comment was of course deleted. Lesson learned. Stick to RG, haha!
sadly, i have to agree with you. i still scan the old site for tatra, idocracy and some of the other writers but it’s mostly crap now. the thing that blew my mind was when i was corrected for pointing out the racism in the naming of a pontiac “chief.” you know who corrected me. he was then disagreed with by a very thoughtful comment by a native american. and then… you know who doubled down and corrected him! some chutzpa 😉
http://www.curbsideclassic.com/cc-global/the-curbside-classic-cuban-vacation-part-5-finale/
Thats the common MO there, if you are on the same page with the Head Moron, then whatever you do or write is OK, as long as it goes along with his agenda, i.e, no making fun of Prius drivers, because thats “negative” and “not inclusive”, but calling every Pontiac driver white trash, 100% OK!
I compare the scenario over there to a favorite steakhouse or supper club. You go there for years, usually see friends there, the food is terrific and you love it. Then they get a new maitre’d there who is a totally toxic, negative waste of human cellular activity. You hang in there a while, but it’s pointless. So what do you do? Find another frickin’ steakhouse.
Which is what I did!
Is this the Carmine with the corvair?
Which Corvair?
I don’t actually remember which one, I used to see your avatar at cc, remember has being a corvair fan.
Thats not me, I had Mayor Carmine de Pasto as my avatar on CC.
But I do own a Corvair…….
Ok
Aw thanks for that link, now I have to re-watch Cuban Chrome again 🙂
Count me among the displaced number, as well. I was invited, privately, to take a hike.
I never checked to see if I was banned – why bother? One annoying characteristic of Leftist hipsters is, they cannot keep their politics OUT of ANYTHING.
And when discussing old cars, and the question of why we can’t have such dramatic, innovative, game-changing cars, in style or engineering, anymore…when discussing this, it’s hard not to refer to the stifling, choking atmosphere of government regulations.
You don’t have to agree; but when your politics are your religion, and there’s a contrary view…it’s blasphemy.
Anybody following the SJW’s converging institutions knew ttac was dead with this post http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2016/07/commenting-policy-updated-ttacs-six-rules-civility/
It took awhile for the rot to finish but the writing was on the wall with that one.
Is always used to kick people you don’t like out. “oh, he’s a bigot”
A visual representation. Hopefully doesn’t get caught up in spam
https://i.imgur.com/vn6LVD1.png
If you think thats bad, you should try Jalopnik, that site is full of the softest triggered wussies I’ve ever seen, I swear they wrote a review about the 1969 Italian Job and one of the main things they focused on, was that the movie was “racist”……no joke. I’ve left or was semi banned a few weeks ago because someone else was triggered by something and my post was completely deleted.
Yeah, but Jalopnik has always* sucked.
*At least as long as I’ve known about it which is probably north of 10 years.
Disappointing to see an MBaruth article there this week…..I guess they needed a man to drive something?….I mean Jalopnik/Univisions money is a green as anyone elses,but I would think that they wouldn’t try to associate with such a site…….
What you’re seeing is the blowback from a TTAC policy that would rather have Buick tests by scumbags like Aaron Gold than a Lotus test from Bark.
Wow. Mark’s introduction of censorship guidelines coincided with the unmasking of the SJWs in the community. If everyone attacking BTSR had been banned that day and Mark Stevenson shown the door, TTAC would still be worth following.
Mark S. was a poor editor.
He was brought in to sterilize the site and make it just like every other third-rate automotive copypasta news blog. I have to say that he was very effective.
Honestly, he wasn’t even very good at that. Mark S. didn’t really shy away from posting controversial things, but when controversy actually did develop he’d fold to any pressure like a cheap umbrella, memory-hole the entire event, and post a lameass “Awesomeness Manifesto” in response.
The current guy handles the sterile “copy-pasta” mandate a lot better.
For every single writing job I’ve had I was either asked to contribute by the publisher or I was suggested by a colleague. No brag, just fact.
Under Mark S. I went from having 95% of my submissions published, almost all of them without any pitching or prior approval to about 70% of now mandatory pitches rejected, and it wasn’t stuff like “let’s do a story on…”. He required detailed pitches from me, in essence expecting me to work hard on stuff for free with no guarantee of a payoff.
As an actual editor, he had a hands-on approach. Nobody likes their words changed, but a good editor like Farago makes your writing better. My work was rarely improved by Mark. Considering the grammar and syntax errors of a fulltime editor that he specifically brought on (no longer at the site), I found that ironic.
He also lied to me more than once and likely sabatoged my relationship with McLaren and other car companies. I haven’t gotten a press car since 2016.
what’s referred to as the left in u.s. isn’t even leftist. i am a political progressive but i’m comfortable on this kind of a site. i’ll happily debate any issue on it’s merits. that’s how we all learn. these so called leftists don’t understand the importance of free speech. they’ve been played into thinking that jawboning for minority rights makes them noble while they vote for corrupt war mongers. sorry for the rant but this stuff really pisses me off.
Congratulations and welcome to the American political right. Remember, if Dave Rubin’s a right winger because he talks to people he disagrees with in a chat show format, and Roosh V is a right winger because he wants to be free to corrupt the yoots with pick-up manuals, you are a right wing thought criminal for thinking that anybody can have any damned-fool opinion he wants and, provided he stays orderly and nonviolent, you’re happy to debate him in the marketplace of ideas (a regressive, privilege-imposing structure of imperialism if there ever was one).
ded
I was also asked to take a hike. To be fair, it his site and therefore he can put forth his opinions at great length. He is quite knowledgable about models he likes. Not so much about those he does not. Yet he continues to post articles about them as well. It is quite difficult to write at a high level about an old model you don’t like as you may not have taken the time to learn about it. He should probably just stop having a comment section. He really seems to blow a gasket sometimes, even at his own writers
Tom, I was surprised you still occasionally comment over there. It seems he should be respectful as he often reruns your old work. That has to be difficult with you now at a rival site. Does he even know that?
With all that said, Jack, Mark and Tom, if my comments are not welcome or too stupid, let me know.
Never say no to free content you can re-run again and again….and again……….and again…..that plus some scans of old R&T’s you bought on ebay and tah-dah….you’re a blogger!!!
I’m surprised he hasn’t taken to posting links to old Motorweek reviews on YouTube and calling that “content”, I just checked out their site, the lead article is from 2013……hahahahahaha
My understanding was, he was trying to sell his site to the same outfit that bought the site Jack and Bark write on. No deal; but he still hopes.
I’ve followed the psychodrama here for about eight years. The owner of the site Tom, you and I were ejected from…is a person of marginal worth who struck it lucky a couple of times. Seems he stumbled into a California UHF TV station, without credentials and willing to work for low pay…hey, good on him. Made enough money to buy a house. Housing prices exploded; and when he was forced out with a sale of the station, he made enough money to move north and buy about five rentals.
Fan-frikkin-tastic. Now he does odd jobs for his own property and collects rents, while – so far – housing prices in his State Of Hipster, repeat the explosion. He’s set for life.
Which is grand; but that teaches him little about the bigger world. Pot, PC, Virtue Signalling and Social Justice Warfare, are not what the world beyond, are about.
Re: occasional commenting. *in southern accent* Ah was insane at the tahm…
Kidding aside, I think the reason my posts get rerun (other than the fact that he’s lazy as crap) is because they generate clicks and that’s really all he cares about. He certainly doesn’t care about any readers who don’t like rusty old Japanese cars and trouble-prone European econoboxes, from the way he insults them, mocks them, then deletes their comments. Then deletes his own comments when he realised how bad it looks…
If he saw some of the genuinely nasty comments on places like YouTube his head would explode.
Although I’m not one of the people you list at the bottom of your message, I can say that I have never found any of your messages stupid.
And while I am convinced that this will never happen at Riverside Green, should the powers that be decide that your messages are unwelcome here, I’ll consider my contributions to be unwelcome too. Should you be given your leave, I’ll take that hike right along with you.
GET OUT YOU ANTI-SEMITIC F…
oh, wait, you wrote “hike”
Carry on
Thanks Thomas, I remember for a brief period you were a reader valued contributor there as well. The fact is though there was a really high level of commentary there on all sorts of cars. I do a small postage stamp collecting web site, and I would really like to attract the level of expertise in the comment section that they had. It is really a shame that he chased them all away. It is not easy to attract.
Carmine, I remember one time you did a homage to the current CTS and he started putting up pictures of his dream car, the Camry, as if they are the same. You said, I am sorry, I didn’t know you were legally blind. I almost fell out of my chair. Gosh even if you never agreed on a single car, he should have welcomed you with open arms as a valuable counterpoint.
John, I never have a problem with your comments. You’re welcome here as long as I am. 🙂
Yes, I did contribute there a few times and, honestly, I never had any conflict with the site’s owner. The reason I stopped posting there had more to do with my struggle with depression and a lack of motivation. I’m sorry to hear that it has become a place where people can no longer freely express themselves.
I still have a tinge of that depression from time to time and don’t even post here as often as I like. But I certainly appreciate Jack and Mark making their forum available for my contributions. Note that much of what I write about doesn’t focus in cars and while I would like to get thoroughly embroiled in politics, it’s probably better that I stay well clear of those topics.
When you get back from Japan you will have time to decide where you great talents are best utilized. When you shipped a Town & Country to Japan that proved your heart was in the right place. Experience the new place but show the flag also of where you are from. When I was in Japan in 2004 on vacation, I got to experience Megatech, where Toyota and Japan puts their best foot forward automotive wise and with current.offerings. Wouldn’t such a thing by GM be a great catalyst for a real renaissance in troubled Detroit. One that Dems and Reps. could enthusiastically agree upon. On their own to define who they are..
I have never commented at Tom’s “ex”, even when some of the posts are riddled with error’s. I’m not an expert on any one particular make or model, but having owned a large variety in my 60 years I’ve learned a fair bit about many. And for what you dn’t know, well, there are many marque/model specific websites where you can learn a lot in a short period of time.
As for Jalop, wretched commenting system, 1 in 10 posts worth reading, psychotic commentator’s
TTAC, less useful/interesting post’s these days, way too much SJW from most commentor’s, as exciting as watching paint dry.
Sigh, commentor’s. Not commentators. Stupid autocorrect.
Don’t they turn psychotic common taters into vodka?
Judging from what some type there, I would guess that they imbibe heavily of that tater juice.
Mmm, taters!
Toms Ex…LOL.
When I’m researching a car or other story idea and the search results show the site, I won’t even look. Actually, it makes me start thinking of another idea.
“…he started putting up pictures of his dream car, the Camry, as if they are the same. You said, I am sorry, I didn’t know you were legally blind. I almost fell out of my chair.”
Carmine, must’ve missed that one. LMAO!
I would be disappointed if this site was destroyed was destroyed by SJW types in some sort of ideological battle with the Baruth bros. I have seriously enjoyed Mr. Klockau’s articles, Mr. Kreutzer’s stuff, & Mr. Schreiber’s very-detailed-articles. Even the Baruthbro stuff I don’t agree with is thought provoking & when BTSR jumps in I think there is a some semblance of a salon. Please keep it going.
Thanks for the kind words. I don’t think you have to worry about this site being destroyed by SJWs. Having sparred with the Baruth brothers on political topics, I can assure you that they are well-armed for any ideological battle, and remember, they’d be fighting on their own turf with the home field advantage.
So, others have “articles” and I have – – – – “stuff.”
I see how it is…
Must be the right “stuff” tho. 🙂
I used to frequent that site, the proprietor blew a gasket about some sort of abuse leveled at the Prius, deleted the post, it was downhill from there, eventually stopped going to that site because even an honest misty would get you a tersely worded reply from him, life’s too short!
IIRC, that was me.
The Prius, to me, always seemed a dead-end – a lot of hardware and technology, cobbled together to give phenomenal mileage – but only in certain circumstances. And there was a lot to go wrong and all of it would be costly.
These days, we know better how the story is ending – better than I would have expected. Toyota did phenomenally well with the engineering – something I wouldn’t have expected, given the X-cars, the Corvair, the GM Diesel…yes, and the Toyota flat-front van and the Tacoma with its rusted frames. But be that as it may, the amount of work, resources, mechanics’ time, and loan payments, seems to be far more than marginal savings in gasoline.
I had a Geo Metro once, that did as well in fuel usage. I can hear you snicker; but three cylinders and a clutch, are a lot cheaper to maintain and repair than engine, transmission, main generation system, computer logic modules, wires to batteries, voltage regulators, wires to traction motor.
I said that; and I stand by it. Mr. P.N. didn’t want to hear it. As I said a few posts above…contradicting hipster dogma is BLASPHEMY.
IIRC, again, I think he scrubbed that writeup of my comments – after ejecting me.
Tom your posts and comments will always be welcome at my group.
The proprietor of Der Ozzer Zite makes me think of Kenneth Mars in “The Producers:”
“I AM ZE BLOGGER! I OUTRANK YOU!”
Sal, that’s perfect! “You shut up! You are the audience! I am the author! I OUTRANK you!” 😀
“Ha ha ha, ja ja, you see zis? You see zis here vat I have told you? Yeah, zis is an example of smartness here. I have said zat zis is ze qvick fuse. Huh? And zis IS ze quick fuse…”
*pause*
“THE QUICK FUSE!”
KA-BOOM!
Chalk me up as a Bullet Bird fan. I have a ’63 in Caspian Blue, lowered 3″, steelies, spider caps and skinny whitewalls. Noteworthy about the ’63 is the body flare that runs the front fender down the door. Not present on the ’61 or ’62s. Takes away some of the slab-sidedness.
Tom,
Whatever happened at the “other site”, I’m glad you’re here. It is funny that, up ’till the 60s, the conservatives were generally thought to be the side that inhibited contrarian speech. Now, the left seems to be even more militant in attacking whatever seems to contradict their consensus. Well, it’s America, the pendulum is never quite in the middle!
Interesting thread here .
Paul seems to have gone off the deep end, that’s a shame as I liked TTAC for a long time .
I too was banned for being honest .
Oh, well, time marches on .
-Nate
I want Danio’s Tbird profiled on this site ASAP. I loved the Thomas Kreutzer series about bring his Grand Caravan to Japan back when a certain website was relevant. Keep independent & fearless content coming Baruth Bros.
I had a super busy weekend (and not just because I’m married to an Irish woman!) and have just gotten around to catching up on my car-reading. I have mixed feelings about the way CC has turned out; I think some of the writing there is still rather good and I appreciate most of the posts.
We all met Paul several years ago in Auburn, Indiana and had a great time, but something changed along the way. As an example, I got into a semi-nasty dispute with him recently about the last generation Malibu’s (Uglibu II) wheelbase to knee room relationship. Oddly enough, I managed to dig up an old TTAC post authored by his son (no less) on this very subject, that proved my point (IMO). I even contacted Mr. Klockau to see if I was way off base in the matter, mostly because we correspond on FB fairly frequently and I think he knows my disposition. Fr. Tom absolved me of any sin, but I have since become super reserved on any comments offered over there.
I’ve had a tortured relationship with TTAC, especially when Ed Niedermeyer was running the show. He once nuked me for interpreting someone else’s post in a particular way (it’s been so long I no longer remember what it was about) that he didn’t like. Why I stuck around through Bertel’s tortured reign (and I mean that literally) was really beyond me, I should have given up on TTAC back then. Jack was a pretty decent EIC, but I actually enjoyed his works of fiction more. Kreindler was OK, but since his departure, they have completely wandered into Jalopnik’s space. I think their overlords have completely clamped down on *any* kind of creativity of any sort. If they didn’t have QOTD to rely on, it would make more sense to read AutoGuide’s website instead. In fact, I’m thinking they’ll combine both sites into one.
This site has been kind of fun, though, as I see a lot of folks I haven’t heard from in a while. For a while there, I seriously thought Carmine had died or something, because he just quit (or was he banned?) posting on CC rather suddenly, so I’m glad to see he’s still kicking. Thomas Kreutzer, Just Passin Thru, Ronnie Schrieber, Nate, Danio and several others I’ve either jousted or corresponded with in previous times, it’s good to see all of you here.
Frankly, I’m not a huge fan of the political stuff, but for the most part, I just scroll past. It’s not that I agree or disagree with what’s posted, I just get enough of it in regular life. I come to these kinds of sites for a little bit of escape and enjoyment of cars and the folks who surround them. There are usually great stories involved, which makes this fun for me.
Carry on…
Just so G.D. ;
I wrote paul a note the other day and he had a hissy fit instead of just saying ‘ I have nothing to do with TTAC’ .
I still like reading a few of the posts, looks like I’ve been banned forever there though .
It’s not good to e chicken shit .
-Nate
Agreed that there are still quality writers there-particularly Tatra, JP and Jason. The problem is the person behind the wheel. Being so touchy about certain things does not a pleasant site make. If one is that antisocial, why in the world would one want to manage a blog?
To reply to both of your posts: I wonder if the stress of managing his properties and the site have driven him ’round the bend? I’m trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, here. It seems odd to me the guy we met five and a half (!) years ago has taken this turn. I know at one time he considered taking down the site, I see on here he may try selling it? FWIW, that will kill it.
A while back I used to manage the website for our soccer league, it was a continuous clusterfsck then. We didn’t have a blog or feedback area of any kind, but keeping up with local events made my evenings difficult sometimes. I can’t imagine trying to keep up with submissions, editing and patrolling the comments section. And doing stuff like building houses and dealing with tenants, etc…
paul said he has nothing to do with TTAC, he runs another site .
What I miss the most was the ability to ASK QUESTIONS and get good, useful answers along with the kiddie rubbish .
-Nate
Nate, the other site is the one I’m talking about. CC. I never wrote on TTAC, but was a regular reader there during the Farago years.
George, the proposed sale thing was some time ago, when I was still there. I’ve no idea if that’s something still being pursued.
to all-
i had a severe run-in with CC proprietor several years ago concerning diesel engines. he ended up writing an entire column the next day to denounce me. i did some research on him and i found out his (youngest?) son has had many run-ins with the law. By his mugshot i suspect he is a meth head (“bugs” on his face). i think that is the source of him going round the bend but i also suspect maybe the severe Austrian father may have contributed.
I know that he and Ed have had difficulty getting along and that they only really agree on how much they hate my guts.
As Colonel Cathcart once said, “I have a happy facility for getting people to agree.”
I understand one of their contribitors went on to write the funniest posts on Facebook.
I thoroughly enjoyed getting kicked off of the hippies web site. I’m just glad Tom is still writing for someone and Carmine is still dishing it out somewhere occasionally.
Still brings a smile to my face.
So here’s where all you guys went….
Joel! There you are! Haven’t heard from you in a long time! I talked to Jason B. and he hadn’t either! Glad you’re OK!