#LosAngeles

When was the last time you saw a mint-condition first-gen Tercel on the freeway? This early-80s Tercel (Corolla Tercel, according to Toyota’s goofy “tack on the model name the Americans already know” branding experiment) apparently drove into a time machine around the time the Iranian hostages were released and reappeared on the 405 yesterday afternoon, as I was driving an RX-8 out of LAX.

I wrote about this fine movie four years ago yesterday, but so far it hasn’t attracted the cult following I think it deserves. Entitled “What’s The Big Hurry” and released in 1970 to no-doubt-bewildered Driver’s Ed students, the film was directed by Sid Davis and features extremely weird electronic music by Louis Barron. Junkyard employees pulling a GM A-body’s wiper motor with a gas-axe, long pans past wrecked Porsche 914s and VW Beetles, and all of it taking place in Huntington Park, California.

We have covered the Governator wooing not-so-gloriously-doing BYD to come to California, well, at least with a headquarter building. We were also interested to hear that BYD “is in talks with officials in Los Angeles to supply all-electric battery buses in the city.”

The Wall Street Journal revisited old investigative reporting glory and did some thorough digging into the matter. And here is what transpired, all as per the WSJ: