Lindsay Bjerregaard and Tim Cadet are back at it again, this time asking everyday drivers the question above. Maybe the city is putting something in our water because these Taste of Chicago attendees’ answers range from curious to disturbing. Watch the video, then share your oddest find in the comments, if you have one.
UPDATE: More images of the set and new Autobots and Decepticons here.
The crew of “Transformers 3” has begun its takeover of downtown Chicago. While most of the press has focused on the movie shutting down Michigan Avenue this coming weekend, streets near Cars.com HQ were commandeered this past weekend. These images were shot by the crew of Chicago Pizza Tours — yes, they take folks to the best pizza joints in the city — on the same streets made famous in “The Dark Knight.”
In most of the images, you only see the devastation left in the wake of the Transformers and not the robots themselves. It seems most of the action for these shots will be CGI, but one shot we have below does snag one of the Autobots, Ratchet, parked right outside our headquarters.
Photos courtesy of Chicago Pizza Tours
If you caught last night’s season premiere of “Entourage” on HBO, you saw lead character Vince doing his own stunt that involved jumping a Subaru Tribeca SUV 50 feet over water, through flames and into the side of a building.
In the behind-the-scenes clip above — starting about halfway through — the stunt team and crew talk about how to get a car ready for such a feat. It includes removing the fuel and airbags and putting in a driver’s seat from a Baja race truck. Funny enough, Adrian Grenier, who plays Vince, commented that he doesn’t think he’d ever do a stunt as dangerous in real life.
The film stars Norman Reedus of “The Boondock Saints” fame as a driver who is on the run from gangsters (or something; the preview is not exactly stressing narrative coherence). You, the viewer, sit shotgun inside the CT 200h and influence the outcome of the movie.
By using an array of interactive features, you can insert your own likeness via webcam or profile pic (can’t wait to see how this looks), record your own dialogue, control the camera movement and make decisions that alter the plot of the film (for instance, stopping Reedus from making “The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day”).
Intriguing, or campy and laughable? Decide for yourself by heading to www.lexusdarkride.com. You can check out the trailer above, and get your hands on the CT 200h when it debuts in early 2011.
Above is a one-minute version of the spot, which debuts tonight during the AI results show. We’ll note we’re not sure the music is synched up right at the beginning, but otherwise it appears to be the real deal and was promoted via the Ford Mustang Facebook page. Overall, it’s the type of car commercial that muscle car fans will enjoy.
Audi will post the two-minute videos and then allow people to discuss the ideas through social media networks. The winner gets $15,000 to develop the idea, as well as a four-day trip to California for tours of Audi design centers and racetracks, not to mention spa treatment, tailored cocktail attire and grooming “to perfect their Stark style.” Weird.
The tie-in between Audi and “Iron Man 2” features Robert Downey Jr.’s character gallivanting around town in an Audi R8 Spyder. The A8 sedan also makes an appearance.
We assume that Audi is not expecting anyone to build an Iron Man suit, but $15,000 probably wouldn’t even pay to develop the “Iron Man 2” video game. Oh well, at least the budding YouTube scientist will be well-groomed.
Talk show host Oprah Winfrey will team up with the Governors Highway Safety Association and several other government agencies to raise awareness of the dangers of distracted driving. Her pitch focuses on the use of cell phones and other digital devices while behind the wheel.
Winfrey’s new campaign is called “No Phone Zone,” which she’ll kick off Friday on her show with interviews that include government officials and family members of victims of accidents caused by distracted driving.
She’ll follow up with rallies in several major American cities, including Atlanta, Detroit and Los Angeles — with a focus on encouraging people to leave their mobile devices alone when operating a car.
Oprah Teams Up with Government Agencies to Promote ‘No Phone Zone Day’ (Autoblog.com)
Otis Raring of Austin, Texas, went shopping for a minivan on Cars.com and found a 2008 Honda Odyssey Touring with only 2,600 miles on it at a dealership in Riverhead, N.Y. This already sounded like a great deal before the salesman said that the minivan had just been returned on a two-year lease by Jerry Seinfeld.
For anyone who doesn’t see the absolute majesty of this story, there is a classic episode of “Seinfeld” in which George Costanza buys an ’83 Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country because he thinks it used to belong to actor Jon Voight. (Turns out it belonged to a dentist named John Voight.)
Despite living in Texas, the barely used Odyssey was too good a deal to pass up for Raring — whether it was owned by Jerry Seinfeld or Gerri Seinfeld.
So he flew out to New York and used uShip.com to cut down on his traveling expenses. Through the site, Raring hooked up with a couple of people and agreed to transport a few items on his road trip back for money. We’ve heard many stories of users flying to pick up a car, but this is the first one mentioning this creative way to help offset the cost.
As icing on the cake and proof that it was once Seinfeld’s car, the GPS unit had the comedian’s Hamptons address still programmed in.
For the record, Cars.com does not claim it can find more celebrity minivans, though we hear Ted Danson’s Sienna may still have a lightly chewed pencil in the glove compartment.
From New York to Texas, a Seinfeld Odyssey (Wheels)
Premiering 9 p.m. (Eastern time) Sunday, “America’s Worst Driver” has contestants compete to prove they are not actually that bad. This includes real-world tests in different cities where the show takes place, as well as closed-course driving tests graded by a police officer. So far, episodes have been shot in New York, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco and Chicago.
The “winner” from each city watches as his or her car is destroyed. These finalists then compete for the title of Worst Driver. The “winner” gets a bicycle and a bus pass, while the “losers” get new cars, which makes the stakes pretty high.
The show apparently has been a hit in 15 other countries, according to the show’s producers, but we’re confident that American drivers have some very special bad driving habits to contribute to the competition. We drive in and around Chicago, so we’re confident this will be a highly competitive show.
Chicagoans in Running for ‘America’s Worst Driver’ (Chicago Sun-Times)