Sit at the Cool Kid's Table with Sporty Sedans from Volvo, Alfa Romeo, and Cadillac

Think about the popular kids who went to your high school. Likely, the popular guys were athletes, drumming up entertainment by poking fun at anyone outside of their circle and listening to Kid Cudi, while the popular girls could be likened to the 2005 movie Mean Girls. (now a bit dated, but gives a good idea nonetheless)

One common strand shines through with this group, though. Given their position, it was nearly impossible for them to break out--lest they risk being considered "unpopular." Think of your established sports sedans in this way. Your BMWs, Mercedes, and Audis are all very attractive in the most conventional ways, and their athletic performances often earn them top marks. But behind all that, they're not very interesting--they're simply not allowed to be.

But, like Bob Dylan first belted back in 1964, "the times they are a-changin.'" Today, performance alternatives from Cadillac, Volvo, and even Alfa Romeo are part of the mix, taking swings at the cool kids. And in some cases, offer higher performance than their beige counterparts.

Let's start with the Volvo S60. This compact sedan traces its roots to the economical S40, which came out in 1995. But for its second generation, debuted in 2004, Volvo added more flavor to the mix. This S40 shared chassis with the Mazda3, but employed Volvo's signature turbo five-cylinder engine, which gave luxury buyers up to 218hp. Nowadays, thanks to a lineup consolidation, the S60 picks up where the S40 left off.

On the outside

The S60 is far from being the new kid on the block. We've had this generation around since 2010 but, thanks to sharp Swedish design, it's managed to stay fresh. Most recently, those at the drawing tables smoothed some of the features that made Volvo's of yesterday distinctive, like nixing most of the chrome from around the grille, trimming headlights to fit in a single lens, and adding splitter-like style elements to the front and rear bumpers. Still, there's no mistaking its Swedish heritage. All trim levels offer attractive wheel choices, with honorable mention going to the 18-inch Tucan diamond-cut wheels--a clever 10-spoke design with the middle section painted gloss black-- and the 20-inch, ten spoke alloys offered exclusively with the Polestar trim.

On the inside

Most eyes that land on the base model Dynamic S60's interior will find it a bit drab. There's a certain lack of flavor in this cabin, and the large, flat, sparsely-populated dashboard could be a turn-off for some. But I take a certain joy in Swedish minimalism, especially given the 'Vo's materials are up to snuff. The signature "floating console"--where radio and climate controls sit on a thin, curved panel with a storage cubby underneath-- retains its charm. It's trimmed in a finely-textured aluminum and hosts a Coliseum of buttons in its center. Dynamic models get a plain, but nicely contrasting white lettering on the gauge cluster, while higher trim levels receive a modern LCD display.

Front seats are given generous side bolsters across all trim levels, with Polestar trims sporting black, alcantara-lined, 8-way power seats with blue stitching. In the back, the S60's sloping roofline manages to encroach on taller passengers, but this happens across the board for small performance sedans and the cold hard truth is: those rear seats are hardly ever used anyway.

Which trim?

If you've got the cash and the desire, Polestar is the trim you want. Named after the performance arm of Volvo, the Polestar S60 is an end-of-term project engineers worked all semester for. Polestar limits production numbers of these high-performance variants of normal Volvos, and they're essentially an exercise in the very best of what these engineers can do, given a vast playpen full of parts and a generous budget.

In true Volvo fashion, the S60 also comes in a wagon variant, S60, pictured here in Polestar trim.

Pricing for Polestar models starts at $60,000. This will net you a turbocharged and supercharged four-cylinder good for 362hp and 347lb-ft of torque, mated to a remapped Aisin 8-speed automatic. (chosen for its compatibility with the inline-four) But the most interesting parts are those connecting Polestar to pavement. Power is split--with bias thrown to the rear wheels thanks to a Haldex all-wheel-drive system--and meets the road via Michelin Pilot Super Sport 245-section tires. 14.6-inch Brembo brakes up front provide maximum stomping power, while 11.9-inch discs bring up the rear. Multi-link cleverness in the suspension should come as no surprise, but the most impressive units are the Öhlins racing shock absorbers, which are 80% stiffer than those found in the 2016 Polestar S60, and a carbon fiber strut brace up front.

Those looking for a more pragmatic S60 should go for the Inscription trim. Volvo's approach to the Inscription line is one of refinement, craftsmanship, comfort, and elegance. The same 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder shows up here with more modest internals and returns a healthy 240-horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque. Sensus, Volvo's in-car tech suite also shows up here, allowing Inscription owners to adjust power steering response and braking distribution. Volvo stretches the S60's wheelbase three inches in Inscription trim, which improves rear legroom and overall comfort. A $925 blind spot safety system and a $1400 Park Assist Pilot system (allowing semi-autonomy) are available, along with an $800 convenience package, a $1300 climate package, and a $1500 technology package, (offering adaptive cruise control and lane assistance). Tick all the boxes, and you're looking at an MSRP of $44,620.  

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Let me smash up some romantic musings about Alfa Romeo really quickly. The name Giulia has been on Alfa Romeos since 1962, when the name first showed up on a compact coupe and rumor has it, the name's inspiration came from one forbidden Italian damsel who's story has funded fortunes of more condensed-novel-summary-study-guide writers than any other; or Juliet, in American renderings of the Shakespearean tragic.  If rumors are indeed true, it's proof that a carmaker selling on passion and beauty can still nod to the hokey side of things. But that evaluation alone massively undervalues this machine.

Alfa Romeo returned to American soil in 2008, after a decade-long hiatus, with the 8C. Chrysler Group's restructuring led to confusion and budget problems soon after the 8C debuted, and Alfa took another break from the American market, returning again in 2014 with the 4C, which is still being sold. But their trophy child, the one they've put all their chips on, is the Giulia.

On the outside

The first thing you'll notice about the Giulia, compared to its 60s and 70s predecessors, is that it's got four doors instead of two. Next, you'll notice the "Trilobo" shield-shaped grille, a familiar shape gracing Alfas since 1954. On the Giulia, it's sculpted into the front fascia, giving an aggressive, hunkered-down appearance to the front end, regardless of trim level.

From the drawing board, the Giulia's design is fairly unique for Alfa Romeo, given it's been produced entirely in-house. The walk around reveals more conservative styling, with the rear even hinting at contemporary KIA designs. But the restraint pays off in this instance, as it generally has with Alfas previous.

Wheels on offer are nothing short of spectacular. Alfa have used the Italian motorsport's lucky charm clover to their advantage, and offer a range of 18 and 19-inch wheels inspired by the green symbol. Base models come with a plainer 10-spoke aluminum wheel, but buyers can upgrade to 18-inch, five spoke sport wheels, 18-inch Turbine wheels, or a 17-inch, 7-hole design inspired by earlier bottle-cap wheels (the jury is still out on those). Bumping up to the Ti trim gets you two more wheel options: 19-inch, five-spoke dark aluminum alloys or a more-attractive, 18-inch ten-spoke variant. Quadrifoglio buyers get deep-dish, 19-inch Bright Technico wheels standard, which are more than sufficient.

On the inside

You won't mistake the Giulia for a Volvo, but stepping inside, you'll notice the equally conservative approach. Seats and driving position were at the top of the engineer's list, and an open spread of glass mated with thin pillars gives drivers an excellent view of what's going on outside. Ti buyers can get retro, shuttered inserts in the seats with the Sport Package. The minimalist approach to the inside--the high-contrast elements of the dash even include the monotone steering wheel emblem--work together to aid the driver and connect him or her to the experience. There's no coddling here, apart from heated seats of course.

Entertainment is controlled by three large knobs placed on the center console. One drives the 8.8-inch display, but the others are far more interesting, chiefly the one that controls Alfa DNA--a drive-mode system that tailors the car for either malaise or terror, with a couple notches in between. A dual-pane sunroof is a $1350 extra, and really only worth it in Keeping up with the Joneses-fashion.

Which Trim?

I've already name-dropped Quadrifoglio (which roughly translates to "cloverleaf") and this is the trim you must get if you're able. At $72,000, it's certainly not cheap, but as an engineering exercise, the Quadrifoglio is top-of-the-line. Start with the twin-turbocharged, 2.9-liter heart. This 90-degree V6 is the six-cylinder sister to the ballistic, Ferrari-designed V8 that powers the 488GTB. The six is more tame than it's big sister, but is still good for a less-than-slouchy 505 horsepower and 446 lb-ft of torque. But the most delightful news of all, this all-aluminum thoroughbred sends all of its power through a carbon fiber driveline to the rear wheels because, well, it should.

Unfortunately, there's one hitch for the motoring enthusiast that can be spelled out in two letters: ZF. It's the eight-speed automatic you'll get in every Giulia on the American market and, though it's very good, it holds no candle to a third pedal experience.

Weight is saved in the Quadrifoglio by the fitting of a carbon fiber hood, trunk, and roof, along with aluminum doors and fenders. This, not so much for weight savings themselves, but for a near perfect 50/50 weight distribution. An active carbon fiber splitter up front can provide up to 220-pounds of downforce, and a clever torque-vectoring differential keeps the power down.

For those who want to enjoy Alfa's return to the sedan market without breaking spine, bank, and all local traffic laws, the Ti trim offers a great alternative. The Ti starts at $39,995, offering all-wheel-drive for an additional $2,000 up front, and a turbocharged inline-four good for 280 horsepower and 306 lb-ft of torque. Like the Quadrifoglio, you're limited to the ZF eight-speed, but in this trim it nets you a respectable 27 combined MPG. You can also choose between Sport and Lusso packages, both $2,250 extra. The former offers the aforementioned 19-inch wheels, column-mounted aluminum paddle shifters, as well as painted brake calipers and Sport Seats. Lusso gives buyers the ten-spoke, 18-inch wheels, an eight-way adjustable driver's seat, and leather trim on the dash and upper doors. A $1,200 Performance Package adds Active Suspension and a mechanical rear differential.

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Our third contender is a potent rear-wheel drive sedan that arguably gives the best overall track experience out of the three. As if the world weren't already toppled over; it's a Cadillac.

Now, it's no secret American car manufacturers are and have been behind the eight ball when it comes to sporty sedans for some time. Cadillac first tried the formula in 2004, with the original CTS sedan. Instead of going for a muscle car with two extra doors, they mated the rear-wheel drive runner with a peppy V6 and multi-link suspension.

As a contender for the German big-three, though, it still missed the mark. The new ATS-V, though, is our strongest ever rallying cry. And it's aimed directly at the establishment.

On the outside

The borderline-compact sedan started life in 2013, but the V-variant--now little brother to the CTS-V--only arrived on the scene last year. Designers had one word in mind when shaping this thing: aggressive. It sits several inches off the ground, with the flared-out haunches you'd find on a Bulldog. 

Every line on this car is sharp, from massive air inlets in the front bumper and hood to the nearly-vertical spoiler crowning the rear, like an arrow pointed back. A carbon fiber front splitter gives a bit of down force, but worlds of curb-appeal--world's more important when you're climbing into the ring with BMW and Audi.

Unique in this group, the ATS-V is available in both two- and four-door trims, the coupe costing a couple grand more than the sedan. 18-inch forged alloys come standard and for an extra $600 you can have them with a polished aluminum or dark grey finish. Base model ATS sedans come with even more wheel options, starting with 17-inch alloys and moving up-market to 19's finished in graphite, silver, or black, for an additional $2,600 to $3,200.

On the inside

Stateside manufacturers have always struggled with interiors in both design and materials used. By domestic comparison, the Cadillac's interior eclipses that of most offerings from the American Big Three. Compared to the Europeans, it's at least enough to elicit a curious "Hmm."

 ATS-V buyers get optional Recaro buckets inspired by Robo Cop, handsomely trimmed in leather and alcantara. They're heavily bolstered on both the sides and bottom, which means there'll be no thrashing about up front when the roads get twisty. Rear passengers aren't so lucky, with leg room and lateral-G support taking hits. But the likelihood of your Uber driver showing up in an ATS-V is slim to none--they'll be too busy reeling in the twin-turbo V6's lush power band.

Go back to the dashboard, and you'll find Cadillac's familiar and oft-infuriating CUE system, housed in a somewhat cheap black plastic surround. Haptic feedback buttons show up instead of traditional knobs and buttons, and are likely to sour some buyers. But as with any new car, this just takes some getting used to.

Which trim?

At this point, my coverage skews heavily towards the ATS-V. At $60,695, it rings in several grand cheaper than its German rivals and bests all but the mighty C63 AMG in horsepower. (Caddy: 464, Benz: 469) Under the hood, you'll find an old family friend who's been on a triathlon bender. The L-series V6 has been in GM's stable in one form or another since 2005, and has made appearances in everything from the Camaro to the Colorado. In the ATS-V, it's a twin-turbocharged screamer with titanium connecting rods and high flow fuel injectors, egging you on into the highest reaches of the rev-band.

But the most delightful part of all is the optional Tremec six-speed, also as familiar as an old Seiko watch. The ATS-V is the only car in this group to have a manual transmission option, and with both rev-matching and no-lift tech built into its programming, makes it the only reasonable choice.

However, buyers shouldn't rule out base and Premium Performance trims, which start at $35,590 and $47,990, respectively. Base model buyers get a turbocharged 2.0-liter four cylinder good for 272 horsepower, while Premium Performance buyers get the same 3.6-liter found in the V, only sans-turbos and upgraded internals. That engine is good for 335 horsepower. Both come standard with a ZF eight-speed auto and rear-wheel drive, with base buyers gaining the option for all-wheel drive.

For an additional $695, Premium Performance buyers can get the 600W engine fan from the V (part of the Track Package), and for another $945, buyers get performance springs and dampers.

We've got more options than ever now for a truly potent performance sedan. No matter which you choose, you'll get stellar performance and road handling, along with features you've come to expect in luxury cars from the establishment. But today's difference? You don't have to buy from the most popular kids in school anymore.

(special thanks to Jim Ellis Alfa Romeo, Capital Cadillac, and Volvo Cars of Marietta for allowing me to photograph their fine offerings of each vehicle)

Memphis don't Bluff: Night and Day in Tennessee's Blues Capital

The girls have it, or at least, that's how I see it. Once, a kid in my middle school homeroom said that country made by women couldn't be considered real country. We didn't talk much after that. In my mind, you can never go wrong with Pam Tillis or Trisha Yearwood. Both were bona-fide Nashville Queens by the late 90s, but their hearts stayed in Tennessee's other music city: Memphis.

I've never been to Memphis before, and in fact I sort of arrived there on a whim this past weekend. I planned on visiting some small cities in northern Alabama, one of which being Florence, boasting the only Frank Lloyd Wright house in the state, and one of only a handful in the south. But, as happens most often on these sort of trips, after a four hour drive I yearned for much more than one museum house that was closed for the day.

Memphis has been on my list for some time. But due to its odd location relative to Atlanta--close map dots, but over six hour's drive--I've never managed to get there. Late that afternoon in Florence, though, I decided to give Memphis a shot.

Two and a half hours, about 160 miles of rural Mississippi highway lay between me and Beale Street, so I brimmed my gas tank and wound south through Muscle Shoals. Soon I was past the small town of Corinth, Mississippi, when a golden sunset sky painted the plain rolling hills.

I only had a faint idea of Memphis as a city, knowing Beale Street as a landmark home to some bright neon, street performers, and the blues. But other than that, I knew very little about Tennessee's largest city. (when factoring in metropolitan areas, Nashville is much larger, but Memphis beats its in-town population with around 600,000 residents)

Since the trip was last-minute, I used my old standby, Tripadvisor, to scope out some sights beyond Beale Street. I decided I'd pay a visit to the National Civil Rights Museum and maybe try to squeeze in a visit to Stax Records, a Memphis Soul recording studio and the only museum in the world dedicated exclusively to soul music. I arrived in Memphis around 9 and decided to trek down to Beale Street first thing.

If you've ever traveled with me, you know that it's my personal principle to pay as little as possible for parking regardless of where I go or how far I might have to walk because of it. Ideally, I'd like it to be free and usually that's is well within the realm of possibility with just a smidge of planning and luck. The first thing I do when approaching parking in a big city is to pay attention to where most people are parked on the street, but on streets without meters. You'll usually find this in more residential areas, but there be sure to look out for my next point which is: once you've found a place like this with a spot available, park and do a quick walk up and down the block to read enforcement signs. Sometimes there are none, in which case it's sort of a "power in numbers, park at your own risk scenario." But usually there are signs marking enforcement only during certain times of the day, and usually parking isn't enforced on weekends or after a certain time in the evening.

That whole segue is to say that I arrived at Beale Street, which is almost always blocked off for safe pedestrian-only access, and discovered I'd have to find a place to park away from the main drag. A good place I found was by the riverfront a few blocks west. There's a long row of diagonal end-on spaces, and a couple dozen of these are enforced by the city with another 35 or so being run by a private parking company. Choose the city spaces, because enforcement ends at 6p.m. From there, it's a safe five-minute walk to the westernmost end of Beale Street.

The street itself began as a project of entrepreneur and real-estate developer Robertson Topp in 1841. Originally it housed trade merchant shops, as Memphis had long been a center of the cotton and lumber industries and a major trade hub thanks to its location on the Mississippi River. Starting in the 1860s, traveling black musicians started performing here. But Beale Street mirrors the city of Memphis in its tumultuous history, which integrally involves race and public health.

In 1878, a Yellow Fever epidemic broke out in the city. It's said to have been transmitted by passing river boat passengers and by the time it was over, it had taken more than 5,000 lives and spurred 20,000 people to permanently leave the city. For Robert Church, though, it would mean a tremendous opportunity. Soon after the epidemic, Church, a black entrepreneur, purchased several plots around Beale Street and headed a large redevelopment effort. This effort resulted in the building of the Grand Opera House, which burned down in 1923 but was rebuilt and is now the Orpheum, and Church Park, an outdoor auditorium where blues musicians and speakers soon gathered. These efforts made Church the first black billionaire in the south, and kicked off Beale Street's new renaissance.

Walking down Beale, you'll see plaques commemorating this swinging period in the corridor's history. Many African American-owned shops, clubs, restaurants, and newspapers created a lively stretch of pavement in the early 1900s. Ida B. Wells, a black journalist, news editor, and civil rights leader co-owned and edited Free Reason and Headlight, an anti-segregationist newspaper based out of the Beale Street Baptist Church in 1889.

According to Beale Street's official website, the corridor hit its stride in the 1920s, when it resembled a "carnival atmosphere" with nightclubs and restaurants alongside gambling houses and brothels. Of course, this rough-and-tumble picture and the stories that go along with it enjoy their fair share of embellishment, but this time period left no question that Beale Street was the center of activity in Memphis.

Walking around it in 2017 yields a different feeling, although you can still feel bits and pieces of that past atmosphere. From the 1920s to the 1940s, Memphis Blues developed along Beale street. B.B. King, Rosco Gordon, Muddy Waters, and Louis Armstrong were just a few of the names who performed in the bars and parks along Beale street. Nowadays, Memphis Police monitor most intersections in the main drag, and bars offer walk-up windows that sell pitchers of frozen drinks instead of absinthe. (the latter can still be found if you ask the right people)

By the 1960s, many businesses on Beale Street had closed. Only one, A. Schwab, has been open continuously since 1876--its original sign can still be seen through the maze of neon that lights up every night. Conditions on Beale became so dire that in 1977, the United States Congress officially declared Beale Street "The Home of the Blues," in an effort to thwart destruction that was already taking place in neighborhoods surrounding it. Eventually, a grassroots group formed and began redeveloping the area with the help of grants in the mid-1980s, but eventually lost management rights to the area in 2012, when they were turned over to the city of Memphis in a court case.

My walk down that historic street gave me a good idea of what Memphis might feel like as a city, but it wasn't until my visit the next day to the National Museum of Civil Rights that I gained a bit of context regarding its oft-troubled history.

To understand the unique place Memphis holds in American history, you've got to go all the way back to the beginning. It's a fairly young city, established in 1819 by a group of wealthy founders including Andrew Jackson, but true Memphians know that their history must begin shortly before the American Revolution, when millions of African slaves were forcibly brought to the colonies to fuel an industrial boom and sparked a human rights debate in this country that lasts to this day.

Getting a comprehensive view of the history of Civil Rights in America requires looking beyond the textbooks and lessons you were given in grade school. In many cases, these skirt the main issues and practices that took place during the Atlantic Slave Trade and far beyond. In all cases, these fail to address the uncomfortable truths that all Americans should realize about our country, ones which took place centuries ago, and those which still take place today both here and in other parts of the world.

I arrived at the Lorraine Motel around 11a.m. Saturday morning. It was an overcast day, but already a large crowd formed outside of the museum and surrounding the faquade of the motel. A wreath marks the precise location where Dr. Martin Luther King stood on the balcony outside of room 306 in 1968 when he was fatally shot by a sniper from a bathroom window across the street.

As I mentioned earlier, Memphis has an inherently tumultuous relationship with race that stretches back to the time of its founding. Being a major transportation hub, Memphis was the center of the cotton trade, much of the raw material came from plantations just outside of the city. It was processed in Memphis and shipped to South Carolina via the Memphis to Charleston Railroad, which was completed in 1857. From Charleston, it was shipped to England, this trade benefitting all who took part--except those slaves who performed the hard manual labor to harvest it.

The Old Slave Mart on Chalmers Street in Charleston. The city prohibited public slave trade in 1856, so this private facility opened. It later became a tenement, car showroom, and now houses a museum.

In 1862, the Battle of Memphis saw Union occupation of the city and during this time, many fugitive slaves relocated here, joining a large group of Irish immigrants who'd arrived a decade prior. Irish and black populations clashed in the Riot of 1866, during which white residents, mostly Irish, destroyed homes, churches, and schools in predominately-black South Memphis--killing 46 black residents in the meantime. After this riot, and the Yellow Fever Epidemic that followed two years later, many of the middle and upper class white residents fled the city--a trend that would continue into modern times.

The museum's exhibits comprehensively cover the history of the Civil Rights movement in America, beginning with the Atlantic Slave Trade. The first room in the museum holds this exhibit, which features a reproduction of cramped slave quarters Africans encountered during the months-long passage. There's also quite a bit of information regarding just how big a part of the economy slavery was during this time, and the exhibit does a great job of tying together how raw materials were often harvested in the south, processed in the northeast, then shipped to England. Visitors can also watch a 12-minute film that serves as a primer for the rest of the exhibits.

You can be sure there was still strife in Memphis following the race riot and fever epidemic. The city afterwards gained a reputation for being a dirty, sickly place and indeed there was no water treatment system in place until much later on. The big news, however, only picks back up during the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement where, coincidentally, the museum heads next.

Beginning with a recreation of a Montgomery City Bus and somewhat interactive exhibit on the Montgomery Bus Boycott sparked by Rosa Parks in 1955, visitors wind their way through colorful, succinct, and well thought-out exhibits marking important and dark moments in Civil Rights history. Birmingham, Albany, Georgia, Oxford, Mississippi, and Memphis, Tennessee are major settings for demonstrations and violence that took place, largely in the deep south, during the 1950s and 1960s. There's also a great exhibit on integration, which follows several of the first students to integrate southern schools.

It isn't until the very end of the winding path through that visitors get to learn about the events that led to Dr. King's death on that balcony in 1968. A fairly inconsequential exhibit, at least on face value, outlining the Memphis Sanitation Worker's strike of 1968 follows an exhibit that looks at the Black Pride movement. Soon, though, you find out the significance of the strike, as it was King's last project before being assassinated.

The night before his death, King made his ominous "Mountaintop" speech at a local church, in which he says: "Longevity has its place, but I'm not concerned about that now." King goes on to say,  "I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you.. And I'm not worried tonight. I'm not fearing any man."  

Visitors cycle slowly through the open space between two restored motel rooms. The one on the left was where Dr. King stayed, and the one on the right, where Ralph David Abernathy and several other associates stayed. Every detail of both spaces was brought back to the way it looked on the day of King's assassination, right down to the cigarette butts in the ashtray. Two picture windows give every museum patron a view from the balcony, the same one King saw before he was shot. I'd been in the museum for over two hours at that point and the clouds had cleared; the sun shone bright and I stood for a moment longer.

The two-story building in the middle right is where authorities believe the shot was taken. It is now a part of the museum, housing an exhibit on James Earl Ray, Kings assassin's, eventual capture.

A recreation of the motel room occupied by Ralph Abernathy and others, directly adjacent to King's room.

Afterwards I walked around downtown Memphis a little longer, taking in the lively restaurants, art venues, and the street scene in general. Faded murals and metal sculptures categorize the area surrounding the Lorraine Motel, and give a good glimpse at what Memphis is like moving forward. Due to the last-minute nature of my trip, I didn't have the funds to stay another night here, otherwise I would have visited other attractions like Stax Recording Studio and Sun Studio, both of which have signed musical rosters nothing short of legendary during their heydays.

Memphis is now home to a handful of Fortune 500 companies, Autozone and Fedex being the largest. It's still a transportation hub, too, with the Memphis Airport holding distinction as the second busiest cargo airport in the world next to Hong Kong. But it's still a city divided along color lines, as a map in the National Civil Rights Museum showed alongside maps of Atlanta, Kansas City, and New York City.

I'm not sure what the future holds for Memphis, but I now know that every one of us has something to learn from its history--the music, culture, commerce, and immense struggles that make up Bluff City.

The 80's in Car Advertisements

It was a zany time, a decade before I was born, but I read the stories afterwards. I saw the flourescent workout clothes and heard the synthesizers that backed up a moody Phil Collins. The 1980s were a time of discovery, and the decade sticks out in history as a time of life in color.

Car advertisements, of course, reflected that time. New, exciting, red, fiery, a blast to drive--these words could've been used to describe a Pontiac GTO or Pontiac Fiero.

One of the first things I noticed about these ads, which are lifted from 1985 and 1986 issues of Road & Track magazine was the sheer amount of information still present in ads at that time. Often, several paragraphs touted things like the oddball Peugeot 505's lackluster 0 to 50 time (it was still measured in that before the national speed limit was upped). Instead of slow, they said their customers cared more about just the power anyways.

Sadly, though, the 505, like a lot of strange cars for sale in the United States at the time, didn't sell very well at all. But those bad sales numbers weren't just limited to imports. This was a time when the auto industry in our country was having a bit of a struggle.

Japan had swept over the United States like a Kevin Bacon Footloose number. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and even Subaru had started to make a name for themselves here and in Europe, because buyers realized they could have a car that sipped fuel, was inexpensive to maintain, iron-clad reliable, and inexpensive to buy in the first place.

Echoes of the fuel crisis were still being felt in the late 80s, and American carmakers simply couldn't adapt as well to the small car market. Think cars like the Ford Grenada, the AMC Pacer, and the abysmal Cadillac Cimarron. Advertisers touted these cars' abilities like you wouldn't believe, even going so far as to suggest buyers were somehow "un-American" for choosing a car from an overseas maker.

Muscle cars were where the US held strong, though. The ad agencies knew this of course, and plastered the magazine with scenes of bikini-clad women surrounding a guy in a Camaro, edgy, almost Tron-inspired ads for cars like the Dodge Daytona, and slick spots for the fox-body Mustang that touted its handling prowess.

Indeed, this time in history marked a bit of a shift back to the gas-guzzlers that were alienated in the late 1970s. No longer was it as unwise to own a Corvette or a big Cadillac or full-sized pickup, but the market had certainly expanded further. Cars like the Plymouth Conquest, a six-cylinder turbocharged hatchback coupe, represented a new age of affordable sports cars that could hold their own on a road course.

Of course, the Conquest jumped into the ring with Japanese sports cars like the Toyota Supra, the MR2, and even the Isuzu Impulse, which all offered affordable, forced-induction performance.The high-pitched whines of those engines combined with the constant squealing tires must've meshed pretty well with the Miami Vice soundtracks of the era, I imagine.

And the Vice was certainly an inspiration for many an ad agency as well. BMW mixed that with James Bond to appeal directly to the types of folks they figured bought BMWs--slick, business types who liked to party. And of course, they were right.

Truthfully, though, most of the ads were pretty straight-laced. One or two pages, they usually featured a visual that took up 50-75% of the page, accompanied by quite a lot of text, as mentioned before, and usually a catchy slogan that went with the campaign. During this time, Dodge used "An American Revolution," which would interestingly enough be used by Chevrolet in the mid-2000s. Toyota liked the question: "Who could ask for anything more?" And  my favorite, from Hyundai: "Cars that make sense." Although, at the time, Hyundai's cars weren't doing very much more than that.

You can catch more of my vintage automotive advertising finds on my newly-minted Tumblr blog, Car Advertisements in Print.