Favorite moments from Jalopnik's past

Kinja'd!!! "Teh Penguin of Doom" (thepenguinofdoom)
08/26/2018 at 21:15 • Filed to: jalopnik, misty-eyed

Kinja'd!!!14 Kinja'd!!! 32

Sometimes I like to reminisce about the Jalopnik of past days, when I first started visiting this site some forty years ago

Back then, of course, Jerry Jalopnik wrote most of the articles himself. That gave the site its singular voice, at least until he had to sell the site in his acrimonious divorce from Murilee.

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Murilee Martin, Jerry Jalopnik, and their dog Ballaban going to see Jerry’s favorite band, Rusted Root

Jerry had no compunction on how often he’d sing the praises of the Merkur XR4ti. Overkill but fun.

Going to any Jalopnik event would always include an hour or so at the beginning of Jerry sipping his ever-present can of Tab going on and on (and on) about the XR4ti. And if you came late, of course he’d put the XR4ti speech at the end. Those were the days. Wonder what those who complain about “repetitive” articles now would’ve thought back then.

Remember Hunter Thompson’s stint working for Jalopnik after he was fired by Rolling Stone? Before Jerry Jalopnik got uncomfortable with some “office supplies” Hunter liked to keep in his desk?

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An FCC agent shows up at Hunter Thompson’s jammerpalooza. A very young Jason Torchinsky in the olive shirt in the background, and yes, that’s Mike Valentine grinning on the right.

There was Hunter’s big open-to-the-public radar jammer comparo, which got a visit from the FCC and had Jerry writing a letter of apology on Hunter’s behalf.

Remember Csaba Csere taking an AMG Hammer for a month-long stint as a taxi in Bucharest, just after the fall of Ceaucescu? I’ll never forget the photo gallery of the babushka who loaded it up with her pigs and chickens and got driven to her home village at 250 km/h.

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Csaba Csere plying his trade as a “Bucharest taxi driver” in an AMG Hammer smuggled in from West Germany

There was nobody else like Csaba. He actually learned Romanian for that piece.

Today’s “Are you faster than a Jalopnik writer?” races are all fun and good. But I miss the days when nobody would let the Jalopnik crew into their go-kart track. They ended up just racing a fleet of Buick Reattas through downtown Cincinnati the first Sunday morning of every month.

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Just a friendly Sunday morning race: Jerry Jalopnik, Bob Lutz, PJ O’Rourke take a well-deserved smoke break by the Ohio River

Many years later, Jerry Jalopnik confessed to always putting leaded gas in Bob Lutz’s Reatta for those races. It was all in good fun.

And seeing a Rolls-Royce Corniche always takes me back to Gertrude Lee’s Fancy Gertrude review, wherein she deemed the Corniche “perhaps adequate for the chauffeur of my chauffeur.”

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Gertrude Lee out for a jog, ca. 1981, before her tax troubles began

Too bad Gertrude quit writing in protest of the Alternative Minimum Tax. At least her granddaughter carries on her tradition today.

What are your favorite moments from Jalopnik’s storied past? What moments from today’s Jalopnik will we remember in the future?


DISCUSSION (32)


Kinja'd!!! interstate366, now In The Industry > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/26/2018 at 21:21

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I remember when Oppo articles got shared there.

*drops microphone*


Kinja'd!!! Cash Rewards > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/26/2018 at 21:26

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This is good oppo


Kinja'd!!! Teh Penguin of Doom > interstate366, now In The Industry
08/26/2018 at 21:27

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Do you also remember when said O ppo authors demanded payment, employee status, and press cars?


Kinja'd!!! Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/26/2018 at 21:32

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Yeah, we fired them in the first Purge. Good times.

Good times...


Kinja'd!!! interstate366, now In The Industry > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/26/2018 at 21:39

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Honestly? No, I don’t. Nor would I expect any of that, being a reasonable person.


Kinja'd!!! daender > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/26/2018 at 21:40

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I reverse GIS’d the XR4ti and I got this response.

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Kinja'd!!! For Sweden > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/26/2018 at 21:40

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They crossed the union

Never cross the union


Kinja'd!!! facw > interstate366, now In The Industry
08/26/2018 at 21:42

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As I understand it, that stopped because a plagiarized article was shared to the FP, which meant they were copyright infringing. Stuff posted here would fall under the safe-harbor provision of the DMCA which means they aren’t liable (as long as they follow the takedown rules), but if they are actively posting stuff to the front page, they lose that protection (or at least you could make a strong case that they should). Even if they could verify that the writing is original, they still have to worry about any included imagines and such. Other than for original works, I don’t think we are very good about checking ownership of such assets. I’m pretty sure e ven well-sourced and attributed pieces like This Day in Aviation History occasionally use non-public-domain images, and of course an image that is licensed for non-commercial use (which probably makes oppo ok) may not be legal if it’s being posted to the front page of a for-profit site like Jalopnik.

That said, Kotaku does post these little blurbs exposing interesting things on TAY, and it seems like if the lawyers signed off on that, Jalopnik could so similar for Oppo pieces:

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Kinja'd!!! Teh Penguin of Doom > daender
08/26/2018 at 21:43

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Jerry works in mysterious ways.


Kinja'd!!! interstate366, now In The Industry > facw
08/26/2018 at 21:52

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That makes sense, thanks . I wasn’t around here when whatever happened happened.


Kinja'd!!! facw > interstate366, now In The Industry
08/26/2018 at 21:55

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To be honest, I don’t know the specifics either, but I’ve seen others refer to it. Even if I’ve been misled and it never happened, the concern that it could happen seems entirely valid.


Kinja'd!!! WilliamsSW > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/26/2018 at 21:57

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Remember when Pontiac slipped a highly modified Catalina past Jerry in to a comparison with a Ferrari, and that car held the Jalopnik 0- 60 record for 25 years?

Jerry and Pontiac never did admit that car wasn’t stock - I think he thought it would hurt Jalopniks reputation to fess up.

And rumor has it that Gertrude partied as hard as Hunter did - and when those two hung out together, the National Guard frequently got called out. Th ough Gertrude’s private “ security force” held them at bay. 


Kinja'd!!! AestheticsInMotion > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/26/2018 at 21:59

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I like this article. But in all seriousness I have three favorite memories from Jalopnik.

The Sean McDonald Era of Lanesplitter-

https://www.google.com/amp/s/jalopnik.com/my-plan-to-make-motorcycle-journalism-not-suck-anymore-1726031006/amp

The interview with Dartz CEO where he talked with all of us in the comments (and all other Dartz articles, really) -

https://jalopnik.com/ask-the-guy-behind-crazy-ultra-luxury-suv-maker-dartz-a-1690788009

And lastly there's an article going over every special edition Miata everywhere, including available options, colors, etc. Super useful. 


Kinja'd!!! WilliamsSW > AestheticsInMotion
08/26/2018 at 22:06

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Sean McDonald is awesome. I’ve never rode a bike in my life but I would read the hell out of everything he wrote. 


Kinja'd!!! daender > AestheticsInMotion
08/26/2018 at 22:11

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That Miata article is super useful for knowing most of the rare US-spec Miatas.


Kinja'd!!! AestheticsInMotion > daender
08/26/2018 at 22:16

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It really is. I was going to say it needs to be updated, but I think the only special edition ND so far has been the red soft top, right..?

When someone asks me for advice on which Miata to buy, I send them that link, and a link from Turbomiata.net on the base performance and optimal upgrade path of the different years


Kinja'd!!! Jayvincent > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/26/2018 at 22:22

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I’m relucant to admit Murilee articles and Le m ons racing may have been a gateway drug... but I miss those days

https://jalopnik.com/5387975/make-your-own-animatronic-screaming-skull-brake-lights-with-junkyard-parts

https://jalopnik.com/305947/news-flash-murilee-martin-is-a-man

https://jalopnik.com/5584028/three-time-lemons-champions-step-on-own-wieners-black-flagged-out-of-contention

I ... < may> have said too much... I’m going back to the greys, aren’t I?

Anybody? Is anybody out there receiving me? Mayday, Mayday, may...


Kinja'd!!! daender > AestheticsInMotion
08/26/2018 at 22:24

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I could’ve sworn there were some sort of special first editions for the ND vert and RF but I can’t remember or find any examples after 10 seconds of late-night Googling.


Kinja'd!!! Teh Penguin of Doom > WilliamsSW
08/26/2018 at 22:26

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That's like the early days of "Are You Faster Than A Jalopnik Writer," where they didn't have go karts or a track and would just race Buick Reattas through downtown Cincinnati on Sunday mornings. Legend has it Jerry confessed to always rigging Bob Lutz's Reatta to be the very slowest. 


Kinja'd!!! Cash Rewards > interstate366, now In The Industry
08/26/2018 at 22:32

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They weren't asking jalopnic for press cars, they were asking manufacturers and saying they were journalists, and pointing at Oppo as evidence, iirc. The main issue was the incident with io9 and observation deck, where io9 shared an odeck article that was massively plagarized. That was when they removed the . jalopnic from the web address.


Kinja'd!!! Teh Penguin of Doom > Jayvincent
08/26/2018 at 22:41

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The "Murilee is actually a man" hoax was hilarious. 


Kinja'd!!! WilliamsSW > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/26/2018 at 22:43

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That’s right- Lutz’s Reatta had an Iron Duke and a Corvair Powerglide swap that Tavarish’s father cobbled together as I recall. 


Kinja'd!!! Teh Penguin of Doom > WilliamsSW
08/26/2018 at 22:50

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Who could forget Wilbur Hernandez and the salvage title Grosser he'd picked up for $80 at an impound auction. 


Kinja'd!!! Cash Rewards > facw
08/26/2018 at 22:53

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It was on io9 and observation deck. That was when the . jalopnic or .io9 got removed from the sub blogs, and they all became .kinja. As you said, plausible deniability.


Kinja'd!!! interstate366, now In The Industry > Cash Rewards
08/26/2018 at 23:11

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Oh. Fun.


Kinja'd!!! Cash Rewards > interstate366, now In The Industry
08/26/2018 at 23:52

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https://io9.gizmodo.com/how-modern-cgi-is-ruining-a-lot-of-movie-fun-1705075721


Kinja'd!!! M.T. Blake > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/27/2018 at 00:20

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I enjoyed this. Excellent job sir. 


Kinja'd!!! seoultrain > Jayvincent
08/27/2018 at 03:12

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I miss that saucy minx as well.


Kinja'd!!! CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Teh Penguin of Doom
08/27/2018 at 08:11

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I remember in 1968 when the then editor of Jalopnik was killed in a bar fight by the then head of PR for GM.


Kinja'd!!! WilliamsSW > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
08/27/2018 at 09:21

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That was after the editor wrecked the ZL- 1 prototype wasn’t it?


Kinja'd!!! CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > WilliamsSW
08/27/2018 at 10:17

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yeah, tragic.

Not as tragic as the time in 1876 when Lord Jalopnik from Jalopshire in Bentley -upon-ham mocked Charles Randolf’s steam carriage in a scathing review in Jalopnik’s Evening Post , a daily circulation.  

Randolf publicly accused Lord Jalopnik of slander in the “comments section” a forum in the centre of town for the free exchange of ideas. Lord Jalopnik challenged Randolf to a duel and both were wounded.


Kinja'd!!! Rude Negro > Teh Penguin of Doom
12/09/2018 at 13:48

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I had forgotten P .J. O’Rourke got his start at Jalopnik.

What a fat pile of crap he turned into.