I've got the DMC-12 on my mind these days, after seeing Evil Clint's DeLorean doing pace car duty at the 2009 Arse Freeze-a-Palooza 24 Hours Of LeMons. Yes, Clint has his Northern Irish import running just fine now!

So, on to the cool shots taken by Brownie for us:

This was parked a few weeks ago on 7th Avenue, between 12th & 13th. Circumstances were such that I was only able to take 3 shots, and in retrospect they're not the 3 shots I would have taken if I had more time to think about it. Also, it was at night and I didn't have a flash - c'est la vie.

But whatever - it's a DeLorean! It's a much smaller car in real life than I imagined. The photos do not do justice to how ridiculously small it looked in comparison to 7th Avenue traffic - the minivan in the first photo looks tall next to it, but in person it seemed like the DeLorean might get run over.

"These new plates, in the official colors of the State of New York, will help maintain highway safety, reduce the number of unregistered and uninsured vehicles on our roads, and generate $129 million in General Fund revenue over two years, which will help address the State's financial crisis," said State Commissioner of Motor Vehicles David J. Swarts yesterday. It's that $129 million that people are taking issue with.

Where most private owners will only be responsible for one or two cars' worth of $25 fees, small business owners fear the "plate tax" unfairly targets them. It's hard to understand the kerfuffle over a $25 fee, but multiply that by a fleet of, say, 300 vehicles and you begin to understand the objection. An anti-new NY plate site has already sprung up, NoNewPlates.com, where over 57,000 people have already signed a petition opposing the plate's implementation.

Rather than simply representing a permanent increase to registration fees, the new plates are controversial because they're being added as an additional one-off cost for all motorists. Albany is perceived to have manufactured the need for them, suddenly citing visibility concerns with the old plates seemingly out of the blue (and white).

The plates will begin rolling out in March next year, and will be mandatory with all new vehicle registrations and renewals. The state already raised general license and registration fees 25% in September.

Bracci was given 56 tickets for that wild drive, police said. He was charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, first-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle, driving while intoxicated, reckless driving, unlawfully fleeing police, resisting arrest and criminal mischief, among several other offenses.

Good grief is there anything he wasn't charged for? [Democrat and Chronicle via AOL News]

Rust seems to have taken a few bites out of the Pontiac, but it hasn't surrendered! Here's what Nuyear68 has to say about his finds:

Not necessarily an island that time forgot, but still a home for some neat DOTS candidates. Here's a 1965 Oldsmobile Starfire convertible. Pretty low production, it was the last Starfire ragtop, with the 1966 coupe being the end of its run until unceremoniously brought back as a dinky hatchback in the 80's (I think).
This one sports wheels from a 1972 Olds, and the neatest feature of this car is the side exhaust outlets at the rear of the fenders.
Must be an Olds guy who owns this, notice the nice Olds 98 Regency coupe in the driveway.
Rust hasn't forgotten this oldster I spotted here on Staten Island. It's a 1952 Pontiac - plain jane model with not too much trim, but a real neat chrome treatment up the deck and down the nose.

Yup, there's a 2010 Ford Mustang sitting right behind the General's beefy bitch of a pony looking to grab some gullible New Yorker looking to take a weekend getaway for a mere $725. Yes, just like the Camaro at Avis, the Mustang at Budget's no cheap steal of a deal.

There are cars whose whiny sound would benefit from the addition of Al Pacino’s booming baritone to their exhaust note. The Porsche 928 is definitely not one of them. Powered by a 5-liter V8, it’s got boom aplenty with a classic grand tourer shape to match it. Still, the 928 is one of the cars which appeared in Scarface and if you’re selling an example in these derelict economic times, you might as well make note of the celebrity connection. Especially here in New York City.

The car is parked mere yards from Jalopnik’s New York City headquarters and there is only one thing wrong with it: the seller is called Toby as opposed to Tony. Otherwise, it appears to be a fine cruiser.

If you do purchase it, try and not make much of its less than spectral motion picture history as an accessory to score with women: the 928 is the car Al Pacino’s character Tony Montana purchased to impress Elvira Hancock, played by Michelle Pfeiffer—to no avail.

I sincerely hope the American flag draped over the luggage area comes with the car.

[ myfoxny]

Manhattanhenge (sometimes referred to incorrectly as "Manhattan Solstice") is a biannual occurrence in which the setting sun aligns with the east-west streets of Manhattan's main street grid. The term is derived from Stonehenge, where the sun aligns with the stones on the solstices. It was coined in 2002 by Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. It applies to those streets that follow the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which laid out a grid offset 28.9 degrees from true east-west.

At sunset, a traveler along one of the north-south avenues on the West Side looking east can observe the phenomenon indirectly, being struck by the reflected light of the many windows which are aligned with the grid. An observer on the East Side can look west and see the Sun shining down a canyon-like street.

As with the solstices and equinoxes, the dates vary somewhat from year to year. This year, one of those days was yesterday — July 12, 2009. We took a few moments out of our day and went over to 42nd St (it could also be seen over at 34th and other cross-streets, but 42nd gets the awesome Chrysler Building in the viewfinder, and who wouldn't want that? Anyway, the lovely folks over at Rocketboom were there as well and got us the following epic video. Take a look:
[info via Wikipedia, Hayden Planetarium]

Photo Credit: Ray Wert's uber-ninja phone

Click here for a bigger view.

According to Jennifer Morales, her father had been incomunicado since the beginning of May. She'd even reported his disappearance to the NYPD, but it wasn't until recently he was discovered dead in his minivan. A city marshal discovered George in his Chevy Venture as he was attempting to tow the car away due to the load of tickets which had been issued for repeated parking violations. You stay classy New York. (Hat tip to Chad!) [WCBS TV]

After the city sealed off Broadway to traffic at Times Square and at Herald Square, from 35th to 33rd Streets, where it intersects with the Avenue of Americas, that might be a logical question. Especially when on Monday — Memorial Day — the Times Square Alliance, a group that represents local businesses, set out 350 lawn chairs and 26 chaise lounges.

While you shouldn't expect to see traffic-limiting measures such as the Times Square shutdown to hit places like LA or Detroit with their limited mass transit options, in other large cities with a developed alternative to appliance-driving, expect to see more of this.

And you know what? We're OK with it. That may seem anti-auto to some, but frankly, we're sick of cars being ruined by commuters. This desire for independence while commuting has turned cars into something more akin to refrigerators — a commodity. So in a time when once-proud automakers have developed into milquetoast shadows of the icons they once were, we're happy to see commuters forced to look at alternatives to their Camccordibus and taxis. Get off the roads and onto a bus or subway, you McDonald's breakfast sandwich-eating, 7-11 big gulp-drinking cows — they're for enthusiasts. Or, as is the case on this small patch of asphalt in the Big Apple — the lawn chairs. [via NYT]

Photo Credit: Marc Isler @ Flickr

The Transit Connect occupies the same territory as the old-as-nails Econoline van, but manages the same job in a smaller, lighter, friendlier way. That old Econoline is a hulking beast of a vehicle, stuffed mostly with tried-and-true F-series pickup truck parts. It's reliable and completely foolproof as it's been constantly developed since the early ‘60s, but it's a massively wasteful leviathan of a vehicle that's difficult to maneuver through our ever-tightening urban jungle.

Enter the 2010 Ford Transit Connect. It's light, readily steered and is comparatively frugal at 22 MPG city and 25 MPG highway. The maximum load height is a useful 52 inches with only a two-foot unloaded deck height. Cargo capacity is voracious, at twice that of the Chevy HHR panel van (135 cubic feet behind the front seats). The total length is 167 inches, shorter than a Ford Focus, but there's a crazy 1,600-pound load capacity. Still, the Transit Connect may be a bit small to supplant the traditional pickup truck in the working American's mind. At 72.6 inches long, the load bay is too short to accommodate full-length pieces of lumber, ladders and pipes, which poke comfortably out the back of a truck.

In and around Manhattan's crowded streets, the Transit Connect drives as easy as a comparable front-wheel drive hatch. Sure, in comparison to the European Focus on which this Transit is based, the ride is firmer and you can feel the height in a smidge of bodyroll, but it's still a more capable and easier-to-drive vehicle than the American psyche has been trained to expect from cheap compact cars. Rearward visibility is incredible, even in side-windowless panel trim; which is completely due to the huge side mirrors and large rear door glass.

The brakes are confident and responsive, even while hauling the maximum allowable load. Power output from the 2.0-liter Duratec is more than sufficient at 136 HP and 128 ft-lb of torque, helped by four well-chosen gear ratios and smart autobox programming. Ford doesn't quote a 0-60 MPH time, but we'd hazard a guess at something in the 10-second range. Sadly, a manual transmission won't be available in the US market. Front and rear sway bars control bodyroll during brisk handling - even through the wonkiest NYC traffic roundabouts. The turning circle is a minuscule 39 feet, so U-turns are a cinch.

In addition to the fundamental rightness of the basic Transit Connect platform, it comes with a host of optional electro-wizardry, including DeWalt's ToolLink system. Using RFID tags, the system keeps track of what tools are inside of the vehicle at all times, so you can know if you've left your spanner at the job site or your tool belt at the mistress's place. The same system is employed on the current F-series line of trucks.

Next up is the Crew Chief vehicle tracking suite. For a price, you can have a snitch box integrated with your fleet of Transits, which reports everything from throttle position, location and speed, to seat belt usage and excessive idling. The entire Crew Chief control panel is accessed through a web interface, which brings up the last major technological aid developed for the modern working man: Ford's wireless mobile in-dash computer. Using both 2G and 3G wireless data networks, drivers can surf the Internet, create documents and print them off on the optional Bluetooth printer on the spot. Back to using the Crew Chief web interface, the boss man can manage his fleet from any computer-equipped Transit whenever the vehicle is stopped.

We've joined most savvy auto enthusiasts in calling for Ford to bring its genuinely world-beating European range of vehicles to the States. Like the segment-busting Ford Fiesta, the Transit Connect proves us right. It mixes capability and quality in a wholly unprecedented level for the price: $21,475. Unlike the Fiesta, which we have to wait till next year to buy, the Transit Connect goes on sale this summer.