Such is the power of this film to make you think, to make you examine your own attitude towards an issue that remains very topical here in Australia – asylum seekers.

When refugees take it upon themselves to migrate to Australia outside of the official channels, they are detained until their case can be investigated and assessed. They are asylum seekers, looking for protection from persecution in their home countries. If their situation is found to be legitimate, they are eventually allowed to stay. If not, they are deported to their home country. The debate in this country is mainly focused on where/how they are processed and how long it takes.

Mary Meets Mohammad tracks the meeting of two vastly different cultures.

The first is that of Mary, a 71-year-old Australian woman who belongs to a knitting group in a community near the detention center. The group decides to knit woollen hats (called ‘beanies’ here) for a group of asylum seekers who are sent into mandatory detention here in Tasmania.

The facility they’ll be living in is new and the movie opens with a community meeting in the area where the asylum seeker detention center is to be established. Tension in the community is high. Tasmania successfully accepted hundreds of temporary refugees from Kosovo in the late 1990s. This time, with the refugees all being men from Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan – and despite the fact that these men will be living in detention, with big fences surrounding them – there’s a lot more fear in the community.

The filmmaker interviews a number of locals living close to the detention center and it’s confronting to see the prejudices evident in people’s words. It’s these sections of the film that were the most powerful for me. This documentary was made in Tasmania. What you in see, the prejudice, fear and misinformation, is a reflection of the community that I live in. It’s not confined to Tasmania, but it’s all the more confronting because whilst this isn’t me, my wife, our friend Sarah who we saw the film with or many of our friends, it is still US as a collective. The reflection is difficult to take in.

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As you can see in the trailer, Mary’s initial attitude towards the asylum seekers is that they’re heathens and cowards. She declines participation in her knitting group’s charitable act at first. Eventually, she’s part of the group that visits the detention center to deliver the beanies and it’s here that the changes begin. Mary, like most of us, is open to learning the truth about what are generally a desperate group of people.

At one point, Mary meets a group of old friends from the local Seniors Group and a discussion ensues about the asylum seekers. The opinions shared by her Seniors friends are caustic, almost offensive. You can tell that Mary is doing her best to remain calm amidst their misinformed claims. More importantly, however, is the implicit understanding in Mary that this is how she used to think. As viewers, we’re confronted by the film as a mirror to society. This scene is Mary’s personal mirror as to how she used to be, how she used to think.

Mary’s main point of contact inside the detention center is a young Afghani named Mohammad. He fled Afghanistan to live in Pakistan with his family and they remained there, facing genuine threats from the Taliban, while Mohammad made his way to Australia.

Mohammad is eventually released into the community and the friendship between he and Mary is genuine, unexpected, and touching.

Mary meets Mohammad is an important film that all Australians should see. Unfortunately, it’ll most likely only be seen by a relative handful. The filmmakers are hoping to raise enough money to take the film on tour around the country. It’s a real eye-opener; a film that forced me to examine my own thoughts on the issue and a film that will educate you on the reality of who these people are.

The Tasmanian experience is much more humane than the situation faced by asylum seekers sent elsewhere by the Australian Government. What you see here will embarrass you in terms of Australian prejudice, but it doesn’t shock you the way the film might have if it were focused on Australian detention centers in Manus Island or Nauru.

My own thoughts – Australia does need to address how it processes asylum seekers. It needs to be faster and more humane. I can understand the need for it to be an ordered process and I understand the need to prevent people from jumping on rickety boats that are prone to sinking on their way here. But there’s got to be a better way and there’s got to be more understanding in the community.

I could make some minor complaints about the film dragging in some areas, but that would deflecting the point. This is an excellent piece of work and I hope as many eyes see it as possible.

One automotive equivalent of a crucial academic examination (a crunch test, if you’ll pardon the pun) is the regime of crash testing that new models have to pass in order to get a decent safety rating. In Europe, that’s the EuroNCAP regime.

A Renault vehicle chief has recently come out with the rather stunning, but perfectly sensible admission that Renault now build some of their cars specifically to pass the test – and no more.

The Captur is built without any rear airbags because Renault knew it would score well in NCAP without them and it would save money.

Pejout admits the Captur would be safer with rear airbags, while providing plenty of justifications for the omission. “It’s always a money issue,” he tells Carsguide. Asked straight-out if the Captur would be safer with rear airbags he answers “Yes”.

But he says rear seats are often left empty, that ESP stability control means fewer side-on impacts away from junctions, and that the Captur is still likely to get a five-star Euro NCAP ranking.

Pejout goes on to say that customers don’t count the number of airbags when looking at a car. They look for the EuroNCAP rating. If the Renault Captur has a five-star rating, which I’m sure it will because engineers design it with the EuroNCAP deformation standards all loaded into computer testing models, then the customer will be happy.

I think there are a few things to learn from this.

First, don’t think that Renault are the only ones doing this. Car companies make decisions about what to leave out of a car all the time and I’ll bet my mother’s life that Renault isn’t the only one ‘compromising’ the safety content of their vehicles.

Second, when you shop for a car, know your priorities. Renault are only doing this because they know what customers look for – the EuroNCAP rating. If their customer feedback told them that people were counting airbags then guess what you’d see.

Third, think about this story the next time you complain about the cost of a new car.

Fourth, there are plenty of people for whom Pejout’s reasoning is perfectly valid. I can’t remember the last time I needed a rear seat in my personal vehicle (my wife’s car – yes. Mine? No.). For a lot of people, rear seat airbag protection is unnecessary and ESP systems do indeed reduce the incidence of driver-induced side impacts.

None of that, however, takes away from the fact that we are in an age where car companies do indeed make (cost) conscious decisions to leave out technology that, if mindfully considered, should be considered a baseline essential for a family car. There was a time when car companies clamoured to see just how much technology they could fit INTO a car. Now we live in a time when they’re all assessing what they can leave out.

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My personal favourites from today were the Ferrari Dino and the Porche 356 Super 90. The Dino, especially, simply oozed class. Its curves were magnificent and my only regret is not being able to hang around long enough to hear it start up.

My favourite image is of the Porsche Spyder replica’s dashboard, with what has to be the prettiest tachometer ever made. Just outstanding. It was an unintended bonus to end up with 3 Porsches in that photo.

My apologies for the sub-standard photos. The conditions weren’t great for the compact camera I was using. And also apologies for not knowing all the names and models. I’ll do better next time, I promise. Enjoy!

Classics By The Beach – April 2013
Classics By The Beach – March 2013

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Here’s Hammond’s review of the Dacia Duster. And here’s his review of the Dacia Sandero.

Neither car is available in Australia and I haven’t heard of any plans to bring Dacia here, either. But I have a feeling that I’d be charmed by one, too. I’m not sure I would ever buy one, but just from reading the reviews above, I feel like I get it when it comes to these vehicles.

I bought two cars last year – an Alfa Romeo GTV6 and a Subaru Brumby. The Alfa is for sale right now and there’s a good chance the Subaru will be on the market in a few months. I have to say, however, that I’ve really, really enjoyed my time in the Brumby and that I see the Dacia models as a modern day equivalent: cars built simply with a specific purpose in mind.

The Subaru Brumby, or Brat as it was known in some markets, is a no-nonsense small ute with a reputation for being able to get in and out of places other small utes would fear to tread. It was (and remains) rock-solid reliable, had no creature comforts as standard aside from a heater and a radio and was (under)powered by a small 1800cc boxer engine.

It’s the little-car-car-that-could.

Whilst my Alfa’s basically been a garage queen the whole time I’ve owned it, the Brumby has been my workhorse. It’s not fast. It doesn’t handle great. It’s certainly not an image-builder. But it does absolutely everything I ask of it and it never complains. It’s the honesty of the car that endears it to you.

I think the Dacia siblings would be much the same. On the base model Sandero, you can have any color you want as long as it’s white…. and that comes with un-painted bumpers. There’s no radio. No aircon. Just a reasonable amount of room, good modern safety kit and an engine. It’s what the Tata Nano was supposed to be in India only the higher Euro-centric price means you get more car as well as getting a car that you can count on, and one you can actually use.

The Duster has the same simple approach but stump up an extra 2K for the 4WD model and you’ve got a modern day Brumby with a roof and a go-anywhere drivetrain. It’s basic nature and price means that you’re not going to have a heart attack if and when the car actually gets used for its intended purpose.

It’s very refreshing to see a manufacturer placing their pride on their simplicity and value. At a time when manufacturers are busy crafting contrived corporate images based on nothing more than a Don Draper wannabe pitch, Dacia’s basic “here’s a car” approach is more comforting than pants.

And if the Duster and Sandero prove to be reliable, I think they’re a good chance to go down in history with the likes of older VW’s and Subarus – cars that aren’t glamorous but compel you to love them because of their honesty. Cars that are built for a purpose and conduct themselves honestly and against the odds deserve our kudos.

Some people won’t understand that. But those that do will love them.

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From the photo below, it looks like the Duster Cult is well underway…..

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I think Alex Jones and his website, Infowars, is deceptive to the point of being outright dangerous. As a web publisher, I’m interested in how he and his team weave their stories. What are their publishing standards? Sadly, I’d say they’re either non-existant or based on ‘whatever creates the most fear’.

For me, the saddest story from the Boston Marathon bombing – aside from the obvious – is that of Sunil Tripathi. He was the university student who went missing back in March who was mistakenly named as a suspect in the bombing prior to the actual perpetrators being identified. The amateur sleuthing that led to Tripathi being named was mostly conducted on social sharing websites 4Chan and Reddit.

Infowars took great delight in the online identification of Tripathi. For them, it meant that someone other than the authorities (i.e. their kind of people) had done the job quicker than either the police or the mainstream media.

Infowars shared their delight, giving the cops, the feds and the media a good poke in the eye in an article titled Sunil-Tripathi: 4chan beats out FBI, news-media in identifying Boston bombing suspect.

As news reports come in identifying FBI Boston Marathon suspect as missing student Sunil Tripathi, it becomes clear that major community-driven internet boards like 4Chan are actually light years ahead of the mainstream media.

Of course, that story was wrong. Tripathi wasn’t a suspect. The online vigilantes and conspiracy theorists identified the wrong man and put his family – who were already deeply troubled by his disappearance – through an even greater hell for a very short, but intense period. Sadly, Sunil Tripathi’s body was found in water last week near his university. He’d been missing for around six weeks.

The authorities used dental records to identify the body as Mr. Tripathi’s. They did not immediately determine the cause of his death, but said his body had been in the water for some time.

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Infowars is a massive site. Their media kit (which is a good hint as to why they really exist) claims 3 million unique visitors a month. When they run a story, a lot of people see it.

So when Infowars furthered the story of Tripathi being the suspect, they identified an innocent man as a terrorist based on no authoritative evidence and they pushed that story out to millions of readers – and they took pleasure in doing so.

When it was made known that everyone had got it wrong, you’d think there might be some concern for the hardship they’d caused. Any site with even the slightest grain of integrity would have stood up, acknowledged and then corrected its error with some sort of apology, right? The head of Reddit apologised, after all. What about Infowars?

Sadly, if you clicked that first link from Infowars to read the full BS story, you ended up on a 404 Error page – “Page Not Found”. Rather than standing up and showing some personal or corporate integrity with an apology, Infowars simply erased the erroneous Sunil Tripathi story from the archive.

Having spent some time in the web publishing business, I figured that might happen, so I took a screenshot when it was still live.

What’s even worse, however, is that they’ve now distanced themselves from the snoopy-dance they did in the first story by placing the blame with 4Chan alone. In the Infowars coverage of Tripathi’s body being found, they write the following:

One of the individuals identified by 4chan users as a possible Boston bombing accomplice has been found dead in the Providence River…..

…..Tripathi’s possible connection to the Boston bombing was first raised by users of the 4chan website when it was pointed out that his image bore a similarity to one of the suspects first named by the FBI who later turned out to be Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev.

Users of the Reddit website later apologized to Tripathi’s family for making the erroneous connection, with one moderator writing, “We cannot begin to know what you’re going through and for that we are truly sorry.”

That’s almost kinda nice. They nearly sound like they’re writing about Tripathi from a caring point of view. But note that they completely neglect to mention their own pushing of Tripathi as a suspect as outlined in the first article, a mistake they made worse when they deleted the article and again when they dumped the blame on everyone else.

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There are rules for evidence in a court of law for a reason. There are professional standards in journalism for a reason. The courts and the media don’t always get things right (especially the media), but I believe in the system. I believe the courts get it right more than they get it wrong and I believe there are still news sources out there that strive for factual reporting based on sound ethics and the substantiation of material.

Infowars? Forget the notion of editorial integrity. Their burden of proof seems to end at working internet connection.

The advent of the internet has been a good thing in some ways and a bad thing in others. The emergence of sites like Infowars is one of the more negative, even toxic aspects of the web. Sadly, I think the fear that Alex Jones and his cohorts peddle on that site – quite deliberately for the purposes of cultivating an audience to sell product to – that relentless fear will one day lead to some paranoid individual going over the edge and doing something terrible as a result.

Of course, they’ll cover it and report it as a ‘false flag’ attack perpetrated by the government in order to restrict your freedoms.

That’s just how they roll.

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Article one: A week with the Dacia Sandero (Sniff Petrol).

Article two: The 6 dullest cars in America (Yahoo Autos).

Done that? Good.

Now compare and contrast to figure out why one of these articles is great and why one of them is complete bollocks.

Your submissions will not be graded, but feel free to contribute anyway.

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My Take

Sniff Petrol is more commonly known for its spoofing of the real-world motoring industry but in the last few months, Richard Porter has taken to doing this short car reviews. His reviews don’t discuss the 0-100 time of the car. They won’t tell you how many G’s you might pull in the corners, nor are there any WOW-factor statistics about the number of cow hides used in the interior. It’s just him and the car, day-to-day for a week, with him noting down the things that are either pleasant or unpleasant to live with (along with a little bit of Sniff humour thrown in for good measure).

They’re not detailed, but Porter’s generally do manage to communicate the essence of the car that he’s spent a week with.

In the Sandero review, he manages to break the car down into what makes it good – its simplicity and the fact that it’s 100% fit-for-purpose. He covers the one main thing that makes it a pain – no central locking (which I’d have to agree with as our Saab 9000′s central locking gave up 12 months ago – it IS a monumental PITA).

But he also sums up what makes it a great, cheap runabout vehicle. The trick is to see the vehicle in the right light.

By contrast, the Yahoo Autos article manages to treat its subject vehicles with shallow contempt. That the author seems like a willing participant makes it all the more embarrassing. It pretty much sums up some of the reasons the car industry is heading down a rocky path – stupid expectations and an inability to see a vehicle in light of its intended purpose.

Yes, it’s up to car companies to build vehicles that people want. Yes, it’s up to customers to find the vehicle that matches their intended use. The role of the reviewer is to try and bring the two a little closer together. If you can do that in an entertaining way, then more power to ya. If you simply want to bag a bunch of cars in the name of getting page views, then the publishing industry’s in poor shape.

Actually, the publishing industry IS in poor shape, which is probably why stuff like this persists.

I don’t think anything of particular importance has crossed my automotive radar in the last 7 days. Amazing.

I reckon this is pretty good, though. It might just be my next car. The current internal battle is between this exact car and a new-ish RenaultSport Megane. This 968 looks to be in pristine condition, has good mileage and a price I should be able to manage comfortably when it comes time for me to make a purchase. Hopefully it’s still available at that time.

The Alfa hasn’t sold, by the way, but I still have a buyer interested. Neither of us are in a hurry for our own reasons. He’s got things to take care of and I’m gearing up for Agfest next week, where Mrs Swade and I will be selling her prints and greeting cards for the first time. The greeting cards are so new they’re not even on that website, yet. It’s been a massive month of preparations and the last week has been especially busy (hence no new stories here).

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The Good, part 2

From Petrolicious, the Ferrari 250 GT Lusso. Magic ensues.

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The Bad

….and when I call this ‘The Bad’, I mean it’s the really, really, really bad.

Here’s a tip for all car companies – advertisements based on the theme of suicide are never, ever a good idea. It’s got to be about the 145,632nd best way to highlight a positive feature of your car. And given that most ads are meant to make you feel good about a product, you’d think that marketers would realise that suicide ads are just not funny (with one possible exception, which is more smirky than funny and wasn’t actually made by the company involved).

With all that said, what the hell were Hyundai thinking?

There’s so much they could say about this vehicle that’s positive. Why one earth would they go this route?

Hyundai’s kicked a lot of goals in the last 10 years with better vehicles, better warranties and much better sales as a result. They did that by having a plan and sticking to it with relentless focus and a commitment to executing the plan with precision.

This ad reeks of hubris. “We can be edgy and we have a big enough buffer to take a whack if it goes that way.” That’s your first sign that The Plan is starting to break down, that success has made you comfortable.

Stoopid.

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The Expensive

…. but still beautiful.

Watch this first:

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The print you can see Christian von Koenigsegg signing in that film is the start of a series of prints the company has commissioned to celebrate them making 100 cars in the last 10 years.

The series will comprise 10 different prints, though only three of them have been released so far. You can find them at 0to100in10years.com but be warned, the price tag isn’t for the feint-hearted.

The prints come in two sizes, what I’d call larger and larger. The smaller of the two is 80cm x 50cm, so it could hardly be classified as ‘small’. The prints will be super-exclusive, with just 5 of each design and size produced and then signed by CvK himself.

The price? The smaller of the two sizes will set you back €3,000, with the larger size (170cm x 120cm) costing a cool €5,500

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There are 29 Saabs for sale on Ebay – all in one lot. The cars are dated from 1955 to 1993. The seller is a collector in Portugal who’s not only selling his Saabs, but also his 34 Citroens and 29 Volkswagen buses.

The Saab lot includes:

• 1 Saab 92b Year: 1955
• 1 Saab 93 Year: 1959
• 4 Saab 95 Year: 1967, 1968, 1975, 1978
• 8 Saab 96 Year: 3 of 1961, 2 of 1966, 1969, 1974, 1978
• 3 Saab 97 Year: 1968, 2 of 1972
• 8 Saab 99 Year: 2 of 1970, 1972, 1973, 2 of 1974, 1978, 1979
• 2 Saab 900 Turbo Cabriolet Year: 1986, 1993
• 2 Saab 900 Turbo Year: 1980, 1981

It’d be nice if he were willing to separate. That Sonett II would be interesting to see.

The tough part? He’s asking 150,000GBP for this lot. That works out to around 5K per vehicle, which might represent reasonable value for some of the cars, but it’ll be overpriced for most of them, I think.

And who spends 150,000GBP on Ebay, anyway?

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A stunning video from Petrolicious about a man and his V12 Ferrari Lusso.

Be mesmerised.

This is why people lovelovelove classic cars.

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I’m actually making some progress on my own search for a new car.

I spent 4 days this week in the top-selling car for 2012 – a Ford Focus. The transmission was terrible and the car was way underpowered for enthusiastic driving, but the chassis and steering were very nicely balanced and it actually gave me some personal hope for modern cars.

As such, I’m spending more time combing the classifieds for a RenaultSport Megane. The current shape, at one or two years old, represents some pretty good value.

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It doesn’t hurt, of course, that I won some RenaultSport schwag this week in a Facebook competition. Here’s the booty:

Should I consider it an omen that the mirror was detached from the car when I opened the box this morning?

In Renault’s defence, all items seen here were packed in the box with the car by someone other than Renault – which they shouldn’t have been.

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If you want to watch one of history’s more obscure and interesting cars being re-built, subscribe to Mats’ Garage.

He’s currently pulling apart his Porsche 914 in order to add some go-faster bits and then put it all back together again. I spent not-nearly-enough time in that garage when I was living in Trollhattan a few years ago. It’ll be fun to watch as Mats only does quality work.

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When I think cars and America, this is what I like to think.

OK, maybe not driving on the sand, but still….. an idyllic image.

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And finally….

Wired.com review the Fiat 500e. Given that Fiat seems happy to lose a bucketload of money on each one, I’d say it’s the first EV that makes sense, both practically in a built-for-purpose sense, and financially.

EV’s are city cars. The 500 is the right size for zipping around town and it has the right range for an anxiety-free daily commute. The reason all that’s even up for consideration by yours truly is because the Fiat 500e also has an affordable $199/mo lease – if you live in California.

It looks pretty cool, too.

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This year is unofficially dubbed (by me) as the Year of Renault. There are always plenty of Porsches at Targa and a good smattering of your modern Japanese REXEVOs but it’s rare to pick up a third dominant thread of cars. That changed this year with Renaults making a prominent mark.

There are at least five current model RenaultSport Meganes in the fleet, one RS Megane of the previous generation, as well as a couple of absolutely gorgeous vintage Renaults from a few decades ago, one of which is an Alpine. I went a bit overboard taking photos of the older Renaults so please forgive me if French metal isn’t your thing, but hopefully you’ll agree they were pretty compelling.

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It would be remiss of me to not acknowledge the tragic death of a Targa Tasmania competitor earlier today. This is the first Targa death in 17 years. A driver, age 71, died when his Porsche Cayman came off the road and hit a tree. His 26 year old navigator was severely injured and is in hospital.

This is very serious, very active recreation with very real risks.

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BEST IN SHOW…. goes to the aforementioned Renault pairing. It’s a Renault 5 Turbo2 and an original Renault-Alpine A110.

Renault 5 Turbo2 and Renault-Apline A110

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BEST PRESENTED….. goes to the awesome work done on this Mazda RX-7

Mazda RX-7 Targa Tasmania

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MOST QUESTIONABLE…. not only is this Porsche a most un-Targa-like Panamera, it’s also Left Hand Drive.

Porsche Panamera Targa Tasmania

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MOST AUTHENTIC…… goes to this Datsun 1600. I’d be surprised if his Targa preparation amounted to anything more than a change of oil and plugs.

Datsun 1600 Targa Tasmania

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MOST AUSSIE….. All that’s missing is the yobbo in a wifebeater with a tinny. Seriously Australian piece of machinery.

Holden Monaro Targa Tasmania

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MOST LIKELY TO MAKE MY MATE MATS SPIT HIS CORNFLAKES ALL OVER HIS KEYBOARD….. Don’t know if it’s original, but this Porsche 914-6 sure would be fast. Looked great with the flares, too.

Porsche 914-6

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MOST SENTIMENTAL FAVOURITE….. This Jensen CV8 is here every year and always looks awesome.

Jensen CV8

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MOST IMPRESSIVE CARBIES…. on this Datsun 260Z.

Datsun Triple Carbs

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BEST USE OF A DISPLAY CAR AS A DINNER TABLE BY ‘MODELS’ HIRED TO STAND NEXT TO IT….. The same Datsun. Launceston’s not quite Hollywood, ya know. The concept of hiring girlies to stand next to show cars is quite new to Targa. At this rate, I hope it doesn’t catch on.

Datsun 260Z

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The rest of the Gallery is below. Lots and lots of photos, including a few too many of those gorgeous Renaults.

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Spyker Cars took a new concept car to the Geneva Motor Show last month, the Spyker B6 Venator. I think it looks 100% A-grade HOT. Spyker say they’ll build it from 2014 and I wish them only the best of luck in getting themselves on their feet again. The B6 Venator looks like just the right car for the occasion, too.

In this 4 minute video, Victor Muller talks about the new car, revealing the inspiration behind it and his favourite design elements.

I’d buy one if I could. It looks that good.

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