Domino’s adds some Spark
Pizza, like beer, is one of the most important food groups, so this little nugget of goodness from General Motors and Domino’s makes The Good Oil very happy. GM has teamed up with the cheesy disc maker to create the perfect pizza-delivery car.
It is a Chevrolet Spark with all the seats (apart from the driver’s) removed and a small oven jammed into the driver’s side rear window.
Domino’s says the DXP can carry as many as 80 pizzas on its internal non-slip surfaces, with special compartments for dipping sauces, napkins, drinks and utensils.
The small oven can hold two of Domino’s “heatwave” delivery bags, which can carry three pizzas each. Under the colourful livery and interior, the DXP is a bog-standard Spark, powered by a 1.2-litre four-cylinder hooked up to a — sigh — CVT, so you would probably need that oven.
Because it ain’t gonna be fast.
Before you go thinking the DXP is a one-off concept, GM and Domino’s is teaming up with Roush Enterprises to build 100 of them to be used at Domino’s restaurants across the US.
Yes. Roush, the company best-known for its wild Ford Mustangs is building tiny pizza-delivery Chevs for Domino’s. The Good Oil doesn’t know whether to be excited or disappointed.
We are the world
■A Florida man has been arrested and charged with felony drink-driving. What’s new about that? Well, Ronny Scott Hicks, 54, was in his motorised wheelchair. Police said he was “blocking multiple lanes of travel” on a bridge and smelled strongly of alcohol. On top of that he refused to take a sobriety test, as well as declining treatment for “an unexplained head wound”.
■ At a recent BMW launch the Good Oil attended, one of the cars picked up an unexpected hitchhiker. Somehow a kingfisher got wedged in the grille of a 3 Series and couldn’t get out. Despite a rescue attempt on the side of the road at Matakana with no tools to hand, the hapless bird — now, for some reason, named Kevin — remained well and truly trapped. And not at all happy about it. After ra trip back to BMW’s headquarters in Mt Wellington Kevin was released unharmed but rather unimpressed. We have no word on if he made it back up north.
Forward to the past
Marty McFly’s dream pick-up (top) and Ford’s fake flux capacitor ad.
Back to the Future Day was last week — which The Good Oil is sure you knew — and a number of car manufacturers got in on the act of celebrating the day Marty McFly actually got back to the future.
Given that DeLorean is (essentially) not a thing anymore, who can blame them?
Ford jumped on the time-travelling bandwagon by briefly offering a flux capacitor as an option on the Fiesta and Focus on its website for October 21 only.
Featuring a great description that includes the warning to avoid your past self at all costs, as it may cause a rift in the space-time continuum, it does (disappointingly) end with: “This upgrade is not actually available.” Y’know, just in case you are really dumb.
Toyota went all out, unleashing a fantastic version of Marty’s dream car — a 1985 Toyota Pickup 4x4.
The ute was a jacked-up 2015 Toyota Tacoma with a custom 1985 Toyota Truck exterior paint job, off-road suspension, TRD wheels, BF Goodrich off-road tyres, custom bumpers and lightbar, KC HiLites LED driving lights, a custom tailgate, “vintage” headlight and taillight design and, possibly best of all, custom 4X4 mudflaps.
In a nice touch Toyota also fitted the Tacoma with a barcode-style number plate that the 2015 cars all sported in the 1989 sequel Back to the Future 2.
The royal rig
Our cousins across the ditch recently had a quick visit from His Majesty Ibrahim Ismail Sultan of Johor. He popped into Brisbane to pick up a new ride built in the Lucky Country.
It wasn’t a tarted-up Calais that His Majesty was collecting. Nope, it was the most expensive ever customised Mack truck.
While the exact price is not known, the previous record was AU$481,000 ($514,000) and the sultan’s ride apparently “smashes” that.
According to ABC News, the big Mack has a six-camera CCTV system, two flat-screen TVs, a stone-topped kitchen area, a barbecue, double bed and seats with “72,000 stitches of gold thread”.
The exterior is a subtle shade of — oh, no. It’s a garish display of patriotism, the Mack being painted in the colours of the Malaysian flag.
Sultan Ibrahim said he was delighted with the result and has always appreciated Australia’s engineering skills, having “collected a few Holden cars over the years”.
So what does a sultan need a Mack truck for? After an initial charity run when it arrives in Malaysia, His Majesty will use it to tow his boat. Now that is a boat we would like to see!
Born-again (and again) Saab
Harder to kill than a Terminator, the Saab 9-3 is back.
Again.
The birth, death, rebirth and, umm, redeath of the Saab 9-3 reached the point of comedy a few reappearances back.
But now it seems the car with the wildest and weirdest life and death story of all might be back for good.
The Turkish Government has bought the intellectual property for the 9-3 sedan (but not the Saab name) and is about to put it back into production with a new nose that’s said to be “Cadillac-inspired”.
Apparently the government is striving to promote cleaner vehicles and the deal includes the electric drivetrain developed for the car during its time in the hands of Chinese company NEVS.
So, an electric Saab with a Cadillac nose made in Turkey.
We still want one!
Number Crunching
150,000 CARS The most cars Saab built in one year.
90,281 CARS The number of cars Saab built in 2008.
162 CARS The number of cars Saab built in 2013.