OCTOBER 25, 2023

The original - and still our favorite - Autoextremist logo. 

The AE Quote of the Century: Everybody loves The High-Octane Truth. Until they don't. -WG 

(Mercedes-Benz images)

If Mercedes-AMG cars/SUVs turn you on, this is the new Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 HYBRID, which will be available available as an SUV or Coupe. It is equipped with an AMG-enhanced 3.0-liter inline six-cylinder engine delivering 443HP, combined with a 134HP electric motor, 31.2 kWh capacity battery and AMG Performance 4MATIC+ fully variable all-wheel drive. The 354 lb-ft of torque from the electric motor is available nearly instantly, and the peak system total output is 536HP and 553 lb-ft of torque. Acceleration from 0 to 60 mph takes 4.6 seconds and top speed is electronically limited to 155 mph. All-electric driving at speeds up to 87 mph is also possible under certain conditions. An 11 kW AC and 60 kW DC on-board charger provides efficient charging times. But don't get too excited, because it won't be in this market for two full years as a 2026 model. Editor-in-Chief's Note: Why is Mercedes-Benz hyping this model now? It might have something to do with the fact that its BEV push in this market is completely stalled out due to sky-high prices mostly, but also because of a decided lack of interest by the consumer driving public in BEVs from Mercedes-Benz. Watch other European luxury auto manufacturers embrace more and more hybrids as they back off their headlong rush into fully-electric vehicles. The ICE Era lives on. -PMD

 

(GM images)

From the "Run For Your Lives!" File, GM, Cruise and Honda have announced a memorandum of understanding to establish a new joint venture (JV) company to launch a driverless ridehail service in Japan starting in early 2026. The opportunity for the ridehail service in Japan, which is expected to be the first of its kind, is huge, according to GM. Japan has the potential to be one of the largest driverless ridehail markets in the world as large cities experience high demand for taxis. The region also has a growing need for new forms of transportation, with ongoing driver shortages and an increasing need for accessible forms of transportation. To address these needs, the JV will leverage the Origin, a people-centric vehicle co-developed by GM, Cruise and Honda specifically for autonomous transportation. The vehicle allows for six passengers to sit face-to-face, enabling customers to comfortably travel in a new way. Editor-in-Chief's Note: "The End" is near, folks (see below). -PMD

 

The AE Song of the Week:

This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend, the end
Of our elaborate plans, the end
Of everything that stands, the end
No safety or surprise, the end
I'll never look into your eyes, again

Can you picture what will be, so limitless and free
Desperately in need, of some, stranger's hand
In a desperate land

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain
And all the children are insane
All the children are insane
Waiting for the summer rain, yeah
There's danger on the edge of town
Ride the king's highway, baby
Weird scenes inside the gold mine
Ride the highway west, baby
Ride the snake, ride the snake
To the lake, the ancient lake, baby
The snake, he's long, seven miles

Ride the snake, he's old, and his skin is cold
The west is the best, the west is the best
Get here, and we'll do the rest
The blue bus is callin' us, the blue bus is callin' us
Driver, where you takin' us?

The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on
He took a face from the ancient gallery
And he walked on down the hall

He went into the room where his sister lived, and, then he
Paid a visit to his brother, and then he
He walked on down the hall, and
And he came to a door, and he looked inside
Father, yes son, I want to kill you
Mother, I want to fuck you

Come on, baby
Come on, baby, take a chance with us
Come on, baby, take a chance with us
Come on, baby, take a chance with us

And meet me at the back of the blue bus
Doin' a blue rock, on a blue bus
Doin' a blue rock, come on, yeah

Fuck, fuck, ah, yeah
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, yeah
Come on, baby, come on
Fuck me, baby, fuck, yeah
Fuck, fuck, fuck, yeah
Fuck, yeah, come on, baby
Fuck me, baby, fuck, fuck
Yeah, fuck me, do, yeah
Come on, yeah, yeah, alright

Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill

This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend, the end
It hurts to set you free
But you'll never follow me
The end of laughter and soft lies
The end of nights we tried to die
This is the end

"The End" by The Doors from the album "The Doors" (1967).* Written by Jim Morrison, John Paul Densmore, Raymond D. Manzarek and Robert A. Krieger. Publisher: Doors Music Company. Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind. Watch the video from "Apocalypse Now" here.

*"The End" is death, although the song also deals with Jim Morrison's parents - it contains Oedipal themes of loving the mother and killing the father. Morrison was always vague as to the meaning, explaining: "It could be almost anything you want it to be." The Doors developed this song during live performances at the Whisky a Go Go, a Los Angeles club where they were the house band in 1966. They had to play two sets a night, so they were forced to extend their songs in order to fill the sets. This gave them a chance to experiment with their songs. "The End" began as Jim Morrison's farewell to Mary Werbelow, his girlfriend who followed him from Florida to Los Angeles. It developed into an 11-minute epic. On August 21, 1966, Jim Morrison didn't show up for The Doors gig at the Whisky a Go Go. After playing the first set without him, the band retrieved Morrison from his apartment, where he had been tripping on acid. They always played "The End" as the last song, but Morrison decided to play it early in the set, and the band went along. When they got to the part where he could do a spoken improvisation, he started talking about a killer, and said, "Father, I want to kill you. Mother, I want to f--k you!" The crowd went nuts, but the band was fired right after the show. The Doors had recently signed a record deal and they had established a large following, so getting fired from the Whisky was not a crushing blow. Morrison sang this live as "F--k the mother," rather than "Screw the mother." At the time, the band couldn't cross what their engineer Bruce Botnick called "the f--k barrier," so they sanitized the lyric on the album. When Botnick remixed the album for a 1999 reissue, however, he put Morrison's "f--k"s back in, which is how the song was intended. This was famously used in the movie Apocalypse Now over scenes from the Vietnam War. Director Francis Ford Coppola had it remixed to include the line "F--k the mother." Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek recalled in a 1995 MOJO interview: "To sit back in an audience and hear 'The End' come on at the beginning of Apocalypse Now, it's absolutely thrilling." (Knowledge courtesy of Songfacts.com)

Editor's Note: Click on "Next 1 Entries" at the bottom of this page to see previous issues. - WG