RoAb #133 - Stay Reich

A kiwi girl fails her driver’s test for THE most absurd reason imaginable.  We’ll teach you how to drive in Lebanon AND we have a very special guest joining us in the studio tonight.  He’s the founding member of the “United Corvair Federation of America,” has a PH.D. in biomedical engineering from Cal Tech and is a former U.S. ambassador to Seattle.  Who is it?  Find out next!

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Play RoundAbout Episode 133

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Featuring: Scott Burgess, Michelle Naranjo, Craig Cole and Ben Sanders

With additional research and assistance from: Mark Malonzo

Video after the jump!

RoundAbout records LIVE on Fridays at 6:30PM ET/3:30PM PT. Visit RoundAboutShow.com and click Watch Live to watch our webcast and look in on all the antics.

Show Notes

Heard of Driver's Arm? What About Driver's Face?
Yeah, it’s a kind of sad, kind of scary, kind of one of those early warning things that makes you think. If you haven’t seen it, check out the photo of the guy who has half of his face turned into leather and the other half looks more normal - at least normal for a 69 year old truck driver who spent 25 years on the road. The important lesson here? Wear sunscreen. Some carmakers are starting to include UV protection with their windows, but still, if you spend 25 years driving around every day, it could happen to you.

Hype Timelapse: Watch The Two Year Construction Of Cars Land
Disneyland is officially opening Car Land today at the California Adventure Theme park - all based on the Cars franchise of not just for kiddies movies! This may seem like trivial data to those of you who don’t have season passes to the Happiest Place on Earth but for me, this is really exciting! MotorWorldHype has some videos of the building progress and while my passes haven’t given me access to the venue yet, insider friends who have managed to get sneak peaks have assured me that the design feels like you are in the animated world, including a bumper car style ride that used hovercraft technology. Instead of steering,  body shifting makes the “car” turn and speed up on a bed of air.

How To Drive Properly Explained In One Simple Graphic
Driving ain’t that hard, especially here in America where everyone’s entitled to a license.  Hell, it’s in the Bill of Rights.  But unfortunately for those of us blessed with common sense, our lax driver’s training has led to vehicular incompetence at every level and on every road.  It’s commonplace to see people cut other motorists off without so much as a wave.  Individuals NOT using their turn signals is the norm.  But probably THE single most hated troublemaker on the road is the left-lane bandit.  These day-time dawdlers always seem to have nowhere to go and all day to get there.  To help alleviate the issue Jalopnik has posted a nifty infographic that explains, and in simple language, just how to use the passing lane . . .

A 12-Step Guide To Driving in Lebanon
You think driving in America is a hassle. Try driving in Lebanon. I have some experience with this, having driven a motorcycle in Egypt and cars in places like Iraq, Kuwait, Israel, Kosovo and Bosnia. The only thing the 12-step guide doesn’t cover is how to deal with an armed checkpoint -- and the correct answer is Don’t stop, unless they have really big guns. Also, it never mentions the driving intuition some drivers claim to have. One time in Bosnia, we were driving up a hill, around a corner and my driver decided it was time to pass. How did she know when to go? It’s just a feeling, she said, as we overtook the car.

Of course, later, as we were going up another hill, just as we were about to crest it, we saw two buses coming straight at us. The driver of that bus, had a feeling too. We ended up in a ditch, and that’s a different kind of feeling, I think it’s called whiplash. And, sadly, the article doesn’t even mention driving through a minefield. That’s a completely different set of tips there.

Mathematically-challenged woman sues for $500 billon after car towed
As I have told you guys 10 billion times, I can’t do math to save my life but one woman (in Columbus, Ohio (the Midwestern equivalent of the Dangle State, all in one township) has it worse than me and is suing the city for $500 billion dollars for the seizure and impoundment of her Saturn SC2. If it wasn’t bad enough that she wrecked her car, worth an estimated $80 million, she spent 48 years in the hospital at a cost of $400 million (probably that part is true), only to return to the scene of the accident and find that her car was GONE! Columbus, Ohio - this woman now OWNS you!

How To: Rob A Truck While Driving On The Highway
Yay, another “How To!”  In this instance, how to rob a moving truck.  A night-vision video taken by Romania’s Organised Crime and Terrorism squad shows us how this sort of crime is committed, in South-Eastern Europe anyway.  One square-shaped gray cube -- the truck -- is followed by a smaller dark-gray blob -- the perpetrators’ car.  As the loaded lorrie lumbers along the thugs pop out of the sunroof, scamper down the hood and hop on the bumper of the cube van -- all at highway speed!  Are they nuts?  Probably.  Desperate? Absolutely.  Scott, is this something you tried in college?

Driving test failed over hairy seat
So a girl fails her driver’s test because the seat is covered in dog hair. Imagine the outrage if this would have happened in the U.S. instead of New Zealand? Good on the tester, bad on grandma (whose car it was) for having a seat covered in dog hair. More people need to shut up and clean their cars.

IN THE GARAGE

2013 BMW 328i - Scott

2012 Bentley Continental - Scott

2013 Nissan Altima - Michelle

2013 Chevy Camaro ZL-1 - Michelle

2012 Volkswagen Golf R - Craig

LIE OF THE BEHOLDER

Round No. 1 -- Scott

Round No. 2 -- Craig

Round No. 3 -- Craig (minus two points)

Round No. 4 -- Jim (half credit) Michelle

Round No. 5 -- Michelle

Round No. 6 -- Scott

Round No. 7 -- Scott

Round No. 8 -- Craig

Round No. 9 -- Scott

Round No. 10 -- Scott

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