Grand Theft Auto Cars and their real world couterparts (part 1)

Since I got my first copy of Grand Theft Auto in 1998 -yes, the original one, the one with the zenithal viewpoint- I’ve always tried to find resemblances between cars in the game and real world cars. Well, since now I’m hooked to the latest version of the series I’ve decided to find the resemblances between cars in the game and their real counterparts. So here goes the first lot of comparisons between them, with pictures showing them together to ease your opinion when deciding if Grand Theft Auto’s IV designers and programmers got inspired by my choices or not.

Since I’m European I don’t know much about American cars, so if anybody has suggestions please let me know and I’ll put it in one of my next posts.

Blista Compact

I had my doubts with this one, but I was sure it was a relatively old Volkswagen. I was dubious between the Corrado and the old Scirocco, but after seeing pictures of both of them I’ve finally decided that the most similar one is the Corrado.

Cavalcade

This one is a very obvious one, because Cavalcade sounds suspiciously similar to Cadillac’s pimp-mobile, the Escalade SUV. When you see the picture of both of them together the source of inspiration becomes clear.

Cavalvade FXT

And if anybody was still unconvinced about the Cavalcade-Escalade duo, here comes the irrefutable proof. The game has a pick-up version of the Cavalcade called FXT, and guess what, so does the Escalade and it is called EXT.

Patriot

And another very easy one, the monster-truckish Patriot is like a mirror image of Greenpeace’s nightmare the Hummer.

Highlands breakdown

On Sunday we headed towards the Scottish Highlands to spend some days visiting a part of Scotland we hadn't seen yet. The trip was going great, we visited the Devil's Elbow, Balmoral Castle, Aberdeen, Peterhead and when we were heading towards Inverness we stopped for a second in Burghead, a little town close to Elgin. The exact point where we stopped can be seen in the map below. We stopped here because there is a Picti Fort right at the left. The problem is that the fort is not even ruins, it says it was a fort and you have to believe so, because there was nothing which resembled a fort.

Mostra un mapa més gran

When I tried to lock the car the central locking went on and off very fast, and when I tried to close it again the remote key didn't work. I thought it was the battery of the key, so I didn't worry about it. After seeing the grass field supposed to be a fort I headed back to the car and tried to start it. And from there everything went wrong. The car wouldn't start. I tried to push the car down a slope and start by changing gears, but it wouldn't start either. I tried for a while and when I gave up I called my road assistance service.

My road assistance is given by the Catalan company RACC and I just love the service they give, it is just awesome, I highly recommend it. They sent me two tow trucks, one to try to fix the breakdown on the spot (it was a blown fuse and he didn't have one) and another one to tow me to Inverness and to find a hotel.

When I woke up in the morning I walked to Ness Motors Inverness, the official Renault service in Inverness. When they told me they were full for the day so they could not help me, maybe the next day or the other I freaked out, I thought I would stay forever stuck in Inverness. At noon I had to buy another night in the hotel and I just didn't want to spend the whole week up there, so I phoned Ness motors every two ours begging to look at the car and fix it, because I was in a hurry and it was not a major failure. Before they closed I popped by and ask for my car. I was ready to get mad and then they gave me my car back, and fixed, I was so happy I wanted to kiss the car when I sat back in. The next day we came back to Edinburgh.

I want to finish by thanking a good Samaritan who helped me when I first realised the car was broken in Burghead. He was passing by and I asked him where could I find a mechanic. He told me the town's mechanic was closed, but a while after leaving he came back and asked us if we wanted to go spend the night at his house. I refused his offer, but I was extremely thankful to him. I don't know your name, but thank you!

Side effects of the London Congestion Charge

As I said before in the blog, I have recently visited London. I had already been there some years ago, when no Congestion Charge was applied and the law has really changed the looks of the streets. For those who ignore what the Congestion Charge is, just say that is a fee for some motorists travelling within those parts of London designated as the Congestion Charge Zone.

This law has created a funny situation. Now the centre of London is posher than ever before since only rich people can afford to pay the tax on a daily bases. I was amazed by the number of Mercedes Class S parked around the city, unbelievable, is there an offer that if you buy three the fourth is free?. Another side effect of the law is that electric and hybrid cars are exempt of paying it, so the city is full of Toyota Prius and some sort of wee car called G-Whiz, an electrical and quite ridiculous car. Finally, I was amazed by the amount of mopeds ad motorcycles around. Since they don't have to pay the tax many people has chosen to circulate by motorcycle. It's funny, because I had never seen so many motorcycles on a northern Europe city (even though is far from the numbers of Barcelona). In conclusion, many times laws have weird side-effects that can deeply change the looks of a city.

Figure-8 Racing

This afternoon I was watching a newly discovered channel, Men and Motors, and I watched the most crazy car race I had ever seen. It is called Figure-8 racing, and it consists on turning hundreds of times (the race I saw finished with around 450 turns done) around an eight shaped short track with powerful cars. The image on the right is a diagram of the track, with the crossing section highlighted. The crazy thing about this is that the crossing between the two directions is not made by a bridge but at the same level. As you may be thinking right know crashes are quite common.

Even though I didn't know the names of any of the racers the race was quite amusing and I enjoyed it. There was some serious driving skills and it is the first race I had ever seen where the pilots have to look around in an intersection in order to complete the turn.

By the way, as you may have already imagined the races are held in the USA, where else could people do this kind of racing...


I have added a video so you can see some Figure-8 Racing action:

Paris traffic

To come to Edinburgh I drove all the way from Catalonia. I am frequently asked if it isn't hard for me to drive on the other side of the road with a "continental" car. The truth is that is not hard, after a couple of days with scary moments one becomes used to it and drives happily around. The only problem is to pass other cars in standard roads and to pay in tolls, parkings or drive thrus. For all that a co-pilot is highly appreciated.

The thing is, that on the way up I drove thru Paris to have a quick glance of the city. With the help of my GPS device everything went fine, I drove in front the Eiffel Tower, around the Louvre or along the Champs Elisees. The problem came when I headed towards the Arc de Triomphe, there you can find one of the most dangerous roundabouts I've ever seen. As you can see in the map provided below, twelve (!) avenues meet at the same point. It is just insane.

There are no road signs and everybody thinks the roundabout of their property. For the non 'Parisien' is one of the most extreme driving experiences one can have, every five seconds you suffer a near crash. In fact, there is a non written agreement by which if there is a wreck each vehicle affected pays its own bill, no insurance companies are involved.



I even made a video of the Place de l'Etoile experience:

All politicians are crooks

The Pinker Tones were right, all politicians are crooks. What I don't know is if we are karma hunters. Last week I posted a video about how the government is making money at our expense by changing speed limits and putting ultra-sensitive speed cameras everywhere. Any person may think: "oh, that's not bad, it's all for the sake of safety". I'm sorry, but they are not doing that for the safety of their citizens, they do it to get money from us.

If they really wanted safer roads they should be the first ones to respect all speed limits and become an example of conduct. But they are not. Look at the two videos provided below, one is from the mayor of Madrid and it shows him in his official car speeding through the whole route. The other one is even worse, it shows the traffic security chief of Spain speeding in his official car!!! Unbelievable. And of course no one is going to resign.

The mayor of Madrid:


The chief of traffic security of Spain:

Security or money?