It started as yet another skirmish in MotorTrend’s ongoing Detroit-versus-Los Angeles interoffice rivalry. Editorial chief Erik Johnson and I were down to the usual below-the-belt tropes—Los Angeles offers nothing but traffic and plastic surgery, Detroit is made of snow and despair—when I, the idiot-genius, blurted out, “What do you have in Detroit that we don’t have in L.A.?”
“Basements,” Johnson replied. “Snow shovels. Gas under four bucks a gallon. Faygo soda. Detroit Red Wings merch. Coney dogs. Detroit-style pizza.”
“OK, I—”
“150-year-old buildings that haven’t been destroyed by earthquakes or fires,” he barreled on. “Car factories that haven’t been turned into shopping malls. How about a working Pontiac, Plymouth, or Mercury?”
“We have all those things in L.A.,” I said, my witty retort backed by 80 percent certainty.
“A hundred bucks says you can’t find all those things in one day,” Johnson said.
“Make it fifty,” I said, “and you’ve got yourself a bet.”
Gold + ’Vette: The Right Tools for the Job
A little Googling made it clear that finding all the stupid items on Johnson’s stupid list of stupid Detroit things would take me across a huge swath of Los Angeles, covering a lot of ground in very little time. If ever I had a need for speed, this was it. I called features editor Christian Seabaugh, who handles the choreography of our long-term fleet.
“I need the Corvette Z06 on Monday,” I told him.
“It’s scheduled for—”
“Whatever it is, cancel it,” I said. “Nothing less than the honor of our fair city is at stake!”
Cheap Gas and a Snow Shovel
I wake at the crack of dawn on Monday then go back to sleep when I realize
