There is shockingly little rhyming in the car world. Car brands love naming their new releases through alphabet soup cans, and press releases rarely have any linguistic fun. Imagine a modern car launching with a poem instead of words like “disrupt” and “dynamism;” it would be like something from another planet.
Anyway, I say this because Brian wrote about the Citroën Ami’s new wheels. Etancheite made a poem after noticing that the digital wheel in the press renders say “Brillantis”:
The tire says Brillantis
because it’s on a Stellantis.
Were it on a Citroën,
the tire would say Michelin.
A. Barth added:
Burma Shave.
If you’re as young as I am, I’ll save you the Googling. Burma Shave was an American brand of shaving cream, and it loved to advertise itself with rhyming poems on road signs. Here’s one that tried to convince drivers not to drink and drive:
Matt wrote about a rumor that’s going around that 15-year car loans are going to be a thing. Thankfully, the rumors are untrue, at least for now. But that begs the question. What would be an acceptable 15-year loan? Bob the Hobo found one way to make a 15-year loan acceptable:
What car would you take a 180-month loan to buy?
One that comes with a 180-month warranty.
Harvey Firebirdman makes a good point:
Also on a serious note on the 15 year loan topic. In the Midwest you will be lucky to have a car for that long before rust kills it so to me that is just ridiculous for this area of the country.
3WiperB also makes a good point:
The 15, 20 or even 30 year vehicle loan already exists, it just has to have a kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom in the back of the vehicle. And there are many people who finance their RV’s for that long too.
When people make financial decisions based on monthly payment only, there will always be people out there to take advantage of that.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Hey one of those is me *inserts Wayne’s world we’re not worthy gif*
First – thanks, Mercedes!
Second – ouch to this 😀
Those signs were actually (very slightly) before my time as well, but they are referenced in the excellent 2005 film ‘The World’s Fastest Indian’ featuring Sir Anthony Hopkins.
For those who are unfamiliar, it tells the story of Burt Munro – an extremely talented mechanic from New Zealand – who built his own streamlined motorcycle and took it to the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1967.
Yeah, seconding that as an excellent film! Highly recommended!! To be sure, the film is some 20 (!!) years old but I’d read an Autopian review of that film 🙂
Been a while since I last saw it but, IIRC, 1967 was when Munro set at least one record at Bonneville that’s still unbroken to this day; he was 68 at the time. The first time he raced at Bonneville was in 1962 when he was 63. So one could say that film is also an ode to old geezers, lol. Also IIRC, he went to Bonneville a total of nine times or so.
The film is kind of an amalgamation of all those trips but is surprisingly accurate for a docudrama (you know, where some artistic license is employed as it’s not a documentary film per se) partly because the director of that film actually made a bona fide documentary film in 1971 about Munro when he was still alive so he personally knew Munro and had ample first-hand knowledge. I think the title of the 1971 documentary is Offerings to the God of Speed where the title comes from a label Munro had put on a shelf in his workshop where he put broken parts from his constant tinkerings with his 1920 Indian motorcycle in his quest for speed.
It looks like the documentary is available (in three parts) on YT – woohoo!
In the 2005 film, the “Offerings…” label was applied to an impressive collection of failed pistons 😀 I suppose the filmmaker(s) wanted to use parts that were easily recognizable.
For those that don’t know, one aspect of the Burma Shave signs is that each small segment was spread out by miles. So, you’re driving across the open plains, and it may take many miles to read the entire poem. They were something to watch for and to stay engaged to not miss the next one.
Also that. The Eisenhower Interstate System was fairly new at that point and had not yet been equipped with billboards every hundred yards. 🙂
Not Burma Shave, but the best signs, and they were full size billboards, I have ever seen were in Nevada somewhere.
The first sign = This Sign Don’t Say Nuthin’
And by the time you have registered what was written, and then settled back to desert gazing comes the second sign.
This Sign STILL Don’t Say Nuthin’
I dearly wish I had taken pictures, but I was well below driving age at the time.
See also: Wall Drug
The one who depends on you drives when to do his thinking he’s been drinking Burma-Shave?
Only if the guy who put up the signs was drunk.
DataLore!
don’t dead open inside
SASA LELE