Automotivated

My 'day job'... translating automotive-themed articles from German into English for a website regularly visited by viewers of the Motorvison TV HD television channel on the Orbit Showtime Network in the Sandlands... has turned me nolens volens into a bit of a car freak. In particular during the run-up to an important industry event such as the Salon de l'Auto in Geneva there are some wonderful concept vehicles which turn up and boggle the mind slightly... be they Veyron, be they Vantage or... van!


This one, which may well never see series production, reminded my that the first ever car to play a role in my adult life was the Mini van driven by wife number one... it was parked near the Chelsea Registry Office when we wed.

I do subscribe to a few automotive themed American blogs and during the past week one of them, Jalopnik, posed the question as to which university campus had the most exotic cars parked by students. This followed a photo reportage which showed the luxury autos driven by those attending Georgetown University, an institution much favoured by studious natives from the Sandlands who take with them their Lambos and 911s.

And so it was not a big surprise to learn that the 'top ten' was lead by the American University Dubai, whence the rides pictured here. But surprising indeed was the college placed second on the list... the American campus with the most ostentatious display of outrageously expensive autos in the parking lot... was Southern Methodist University in Dallas. No wonder, then, that during my four years at SMU as an impoverished scholarship boy I took the position that I didn't bloody want any damn car and really much preferred to ride a sky-blue Vespa.