the way of Car-Fu.

In the wake of the Wachowskis' "Speed Racer", and car-centric cinematic franchises like "Fast & the Furious" and "The Transporter", classics like "Bullitt" and "Grand Prix", or cult favourites "Gone in 60 Seconds" (1974 original) or "The Road Warrior", or "Death Race", the subversive "Drive" (2011), and grindhouse horroramotive "Death Proof", the theme of cars equipped for aggressive and offensive driving pervades and fascinates as a highway accident does rubberneckers. The guilty spectacle of cars duking it out sells tickets, but as with everything the roadtrip begins with the written word, realized to the vanishing point where death imitates art. 



Taking it back to source materials, Ib Melchior's "The Racer" inspired Roger Corman's "Death Race 2000" leading to its 2008 update, while Alan Dean Foster's "Why Johnny Can't Drive" influenced Steve Jackson's enduring "Car Wars" boardgame that later seeded Sony's "Twisted Metal" titles. Both short stories passenger us into a creepy dystopian near-future where the worship of the machine outweighs the value of an annoyingly overpopulous humanity. 



That annoyance makes itself felt on the highways, as the stories both key into road rage where lies the inevitable confrontation of ineptitude & obstacle followed by the immediate emotional reaction of frustration, a roadblock to the 1950s idea of the car as ultimate freedom and vehicle for liberation, an impedence to the "grins" as many automotive journalists like to characterize the joyride of high speeds granted by performance cars. 



In Arizona last year a man who believed he'd been caught speeding, drove up and shotgunned a photo van, disabling not only the equipment but killing the non-police technician inside. The state pulled all the monitoring vans off the roads for awhile, fearing more of the same might happen. If authorities aren't able to stay on top of it, such doubly wrong minor revolutions might become more widespread. 



With ego and identity being wrapped up for so many owners in their rides, some drivers' automania manifests in a "Move Bitch", my car is better than yours, bolstered by the false sense of unstoppability. Whether that exoskelton is 2000 musclebound pounds of Detroit steel, a carbon fiber sword cutting through the windflesh, or a drifter carving a mountain, the need for proving one's superiority on the road has the aspect of an armoured arms race. Given the exponential fast-forwarding of technology, and the widespread popularity of aftermarket kits, it may not be so far off the map that customizers could install such modifications under the pretense of personal on-the-road protection to take care of business. 



Such may herald the grim way of Car-Fu.

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1/21/2014 Addenda: Yes! Pima County has eliminated the totalitarian speed enforcement cameras in Tucson! Hopefully this will be followed by the City of Tucson removing their financially onerous & legally entrapping intersection cameras, too!

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While a mostly happy bookstore fixture for over two decades, Guillermo Maytorena IV is currently willing to entertain your serious proposals for employment as a literary/cinema critic, goth journalist, castellan, airship pilot/crewperson, investigative mythologist, or assisting in a craft brewery. Should you be connected to any of the above or equally interesting endeavours, do contact him via LinkedIn or G+.