The OFFICIAL Nissan Skyline Bullsh!t Thread! - Page 10
Originally Posted by h00t_h00t
Geography, for one thing. It's not bullshit. It's a pair of cultures and world views diametrically opposed, though inextricably tied in parts of the American South.
George W. embodies most of what rednecks hold dear, the good-old-boy 'my daddy used to be so-and-so' rise to power, the gratuitous (and I'm beginning to suspect intentional) misuse of language when he surely knows better, the endless parade of striped, button-up collared shirts and cowboy boots.
With hillbillies, think more of a William Faulkner sort of mindset. Simple, honest, prone to extended brooding and slow anger before getting drunk and seeking revenge. Hillbillies are actually a bit like hippies, except without all the celebration of freedom. Freedom comes naturally and is taken as a given with hillbillies.
I actually wrote a rather lengthy paper on the subject in a Southern Literature class a couple years ago while studying Faulkner. When, in another class, we got to James Joyce, I found many of the same hallmarks of the hillbilly/rednick relationship in Portrait of an Artist and Dubliners, though Finnegan's Wake is, as even a Joyce Scholar admitted candidly in one class, utterly impenatrable, and only a fool would claim to understand it.
Oh, yeah, uhhhhhmmm. Skylines, Skylines, umm. Yeah, a Skyline was outfitted with a larger turbo and beefed-up half shafts to set an unprecedented record recently.
Using a series of whistles, calls and clicks transmitted from an experienced shepherd to a cockpit-mounted speaker, a Welsh sheepdog, sitting on several thick phonebooks and operating the three pedals via wooden blocks lashed to them, was able to lap the 'Ring in 48 minutes, 17 seconds, simultaneously herding 50 head of fine sheep around the 14-mile circuit without losing one in gravel traps or through gaps in the armaco.
BMW plans a similar assault to steal the record back from Nissan. In 1988, BMW set a record of 35 sheep in 107 minutes 33 seconds using an unskilled, but charismatic and famously lucky pig driving a 525is.
A purpose-bred German Shepherd is being rigorously trained for the record attempt by Walter Rorl at an undisclosed location within Bavaria. The canine will pilot a specially prepared car yet to be revealed by Alpina, who is working in conjunction with PETA to develop a set of what Rorl described as "squeaky toy-like contols" aimed at giving the dog "a greater sense of connectivity, allowing for an integration of beast and machine." Hopefully, this will allow it to keep the sheep on a constant gallop — smashing the Nissan Skyline/Welsh sheepdog record by a projected 11 minutes. "It's the final solution" one source close to BMW leadership said Wednesday.
However, with Nissan's new GTR due to hit European shores within the year, don't count on the Nurburgring Dogs Driving Cars Herding Sheep record standing long.