When I won my high school’s “Biggest Fuckup Who’ll Never Amount To Anything, Ever, And Is Ugly” award, I swore that one day I’d show them, all of them, even if it meant cramming myself into a tiny asphyxiating 67-year-old three-wheeled deathtrap with a man vastly more successful than myself. I’m happy to say I’ve done…
I know that the formula that usually works best for a Jason Drives episode is to cram myself into something tiny, obscure, ill-conceived, a bit dangerous, and very uncomfortable. I mean, who doesn’t want to see me struggle and hurt a little? This week is different. This week is the finale, so I’m treating myself. I’m…
There’s always a push by carmakers to get automotive superlatives—fastest production car, best fuel economy, longest electric range, cheapest or most expensive car, whatever. Carmakers eat that crap up and then inscribe it on plaques. But they’re not eager for just any superlative. Deadliest, slowest, dampest, none of…
Most people, no matter how mundane or unimpressive seeming at first glance, have some sort of hidden skill. Maybe the weird pale kid you ignored all through high school wowed everybody on graduation day by biting through a bike chain, or something. The SEAB Flipper is sort of like that: a clunky, sad little car that…
For some reason, just because I always seem to seek out slow, miserable, painful failures of cars to drive on Jason Drives, the idea has gotten around that I like to drive slow, miserable, painful failures of cars. That’s only half true. While I do, perversely, like that, I also like driving things that are, you know,…
The Martin Stationette was pitched as the American economy car of the future. It was supposed to make our lives better, our roads clearer, but only one prototype was ever built. That’s probably for the best. On this week’s episode of Jason Drives (I am writing the post for it because Jason is off doing stupid shit in…
I don’t know what the hell is wrong with me, exactly, but I just love a good, solid failure. And while I’m not sure you can apply the words “good” or “solid” to this thing, you really can’t argue that the Sinclair C5 was anything but a glorious failure. And it’s how we’re kicking off the new season of Jason Drives.
What are you doing right now? Stop it. Just stop. Drop that phone, fling that scalpel to the ground, let go of that control yoke, because Jason Drives is coming back, and I want everyone to just take a moment to let the healing begin. I’m excited, and I want you to be, too. Because, let’s face it, I love you.
You there! Why do you waste your day on Facebook? It’s a wasteland of baby photos and rants about immigration from your uncle. But we just made it better by adding the thing it needed all along: Jason Torchinsky and Jalopnik’s signature video series, Jason Drives!
Wouldn’t it be amazing if the Honda City Turbo and its Motocompo scooter were featured on Jason Drives? Hmmm...
Could it be that Jason Drives is coming back soon, to be the only ray of hope in our miserable lives? Hmm...
Part of the beautiful insanity that makes up modern America is the fact that anyone with a metabolism and some cash to throw around can get inside a genuine, no-joke tank and go on a glorious rampage of curated destruction. It’s fun and cathartic, and the magnification of your physical effect on the world is like an…
A couple weeks ago, you may recall that I drove a really lovely hand-built mid-engined aluminum roadster, all made with Chris Runge’s two hands, some hammers, and a big-ass English wheel. The very act of how the metal gets shaped to the body is fascinating, so we thought you might actually like to see how that works.
It’s funny how new technologies can have a sort of intoxicating effect on people. There’s a strange, almost irresistible urge to incorporate the latest technology into everything. Remember internet-connected refrigerators? Back in 1930s France, the latest and most exciting thing was the airplane, and the urge to put…
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m most nervous about Jason Drives episodes that don’t put me in some tiny, miserable piece of crap that’s likely to kill me. This is one of those episodes. This car, the Runge Frankfurt Flyer 004, while tiny, is about as far from being miserable as you could imagine. It’s rolling art,…
This amphibious 1994 Hobby Car is the pre-production prototype of only 52 actual Hobby Cars built. It was insanely overpriced in its day—about the cost of two contemporary BMWs or Jaguars—but then again, it’s an amphibious, mid-engined, roofless, doorless cab-over slab of crazy that you can drive right into the water.…
There’s almost nothing I love more than to drive strange, terrible, wonderful, and maybe slightly dangerous things, and to try to make you watch me do it. That’s why I’m thrilled to let you know the new season of Jason Drives starts soon, and it’s gonna be gooooood.
Our Jason Torchinsky is at the Lane Museum in Nashville, a place he considers close to his version of heaven here on earth (obviously sans the giant anthropomorphic Q*bert) and he’s done a live version of Jason Drives wherein he’s driven a real Amphicar. On the water!
The Macchine Italiane Rally at the Lane Museum isn’t just weird old three-wheelers. There’s some badass metal there, like this legendary Lancia Delta HF Integrale.
Italy has produced some of the most incredible dream cars the world has ever seen. Ferrari. Lamborghini. Maserati. Those are not what we are driving. Instead, our man Jason Torchinsky is at the Lane Museum for the Macchine Italiane Rally, and he’s driving a Casalani Sulky.
