Detroit - the Motor City
Spud was concerned about the growing miles he was putting on his Ferrarri Tuberrosa. He had taken his trusty hot rod on many travels over the years and was worried that this additional wear and tear might affect his car's racing performance. Finally, after landing a gig flogging snack crackers called 'Spuds', the tater collected his pay and made his decision to go out and buy another vehicle. Always one to make sure he stood out from the other potatoes, Spud opted for a 5 litre, nitro burning, Mustang Cobra Turbo convertible.
As these cars (especially in Spud's size) are in very limited production, Spud made a trip to Detroit, home of the World Headquarters of Ford Motor Company, in May of 2002 to pick it up.
Detroit is known by many names. Since this is a PG site, I'll won't refer to the predominantly offensive ones. The most familiar moniker is 'the Motor City' - as the area is the base of the three largest Car companies in North America: Ford, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler. Detroit was no doubt chosen by 'the big three' as it is an ideal location to design and test automobiles since the road system is a natural proving ground - in fact, each of the city's roads have more craters than a teenager's face with rampant acne.
Careful to avoid turning his new suspension into hamburger, Spud slowly crept around town in his new wheels. Apparently, the city's Tourist and Convention bureau had petitioned the mayor's office to avoid repairing any of the perforated road surfaces as it forces to keep visitors in town longer. I guess experiencing the giant mushroom cloud of carbon monoxide emissions just doesn't draw the crowds the city once had.
While he was in town, Spud decided to take an opportunity to visit one of the city's many automotive museums. The potato had always wondered why North American car parts only seem to last 3 years while their foreign counterparts last so much longer, and thought the Henry Ford museum might house the answer.
Inside the mammoth complex, Spud found hundreds of cars and trucks from throughout the years. There were Model Ts, classic roadsters, muscle cars, luxury sedans, prototypes, ... each wonders of American engineering and all having one thing in common - much more reliable after-market parts.
There were also some important historic vehicles on display in the collection - most notably, the 1963 presidential limo in which U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. As intriguing as this car was, Spud was more transfixed by the museum's most prized possession: the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile.
Groundbreaking in its design, the large, orange phallic-symbol-on-a-bun paved the way for crack smoking auto designers to produce such gems as the Pacer, the Gremlin and the Pontiac Aztek. Always one to capture these symbols of greatness, Spud coughed up a dollar so that he could create his own plastic souvenir of the Weinermobile using the Mold-A-Rama. Rumour has it that Ford employs a larger version of the same machine to cast the bodies of its 2002 product line.
Click Here for Spud's tour of the state!
Spud goes racing in the Irish Hills