i remember seeing many bulky, boxy, overweight, underpowered cars like this Mercury Monterey convertible during my childhood and, while i would never buy one, i think i can see the appeal of owning one these days. case in point, the first time i passed by this particular Mercury from the ’60s, there was a shiny Toyota Prius parked next to it voraciously sucking all the fun out of the air.

why drive an anonymous econobox when you can be piloting 30 feet of heavy metal? sure, you’ll get terrible fuel economy and will be constantly overtaken by old ladies in motorized wheelchairs but at least you know that you’re driving something interesting, something with character.

something that’ll break down soon.

welcome to the Jensen Interceptor, an Italian-designed, British-built steel hulk of a grand tourer with a Chrysler big-block V8 capable of churning out an eye-popping 390hp at the rear wheels. this particular model, the Mark III, was produced in the early ’70s and is one of only 6,400 or so Jensen Interceptors to have ever existed.

doesn’t look too bad either, eh?


edit: on behalf of reader Basil Brush, i’d like to remind you all that while the Audi Quattro deserves credit for introducing four-wheel drive to rallying, the Jensen FF (which closely resembles the Interceptor) was actually the first sports car to come equipped with FWD. and it had anti-lock brakes.

because the Toyota Tacoma is about as rare and interesting as a coil of human excrement, someone at Toyota decided to get very drunk one night and came up with a special edition: the X-Runner.

so what makes the X-Runner stand out? a few aero parts, slightly different suspension, and some fancy wheels which doesn’t sound too bad until you realize that the price tag is 10,000 USD heavier than the most basic model. kind of a silly way to spend money, don’t you think?

to be honest, i think special edition trucks like the X-Runner, Ford F-150 Lightning and Dodge Ram SRT-10 are genuinely ridiculous. surely the entire point of the pickup truck is to be a workhorse so why do they bother prettying it up and making it more like a sports car? it’s about as useful and worthwhile as gold plating a wheelbarrow.

i forgot to post this when i saw it a couple of weeks ago: a convoy of six Porsche Panameras heading to a sleazy dealer somewhere in Los Angeles.