Autoblog

In the wake of Paul Newman's passing just over a week ago, we've seen countless, wonderful tributes to the man written from different points of view. He's remembered as an actor, a colleague, a racer, and most importantly, a towering philanthropist. One of the best non-written remembrances, however, comes from the mouth of David Letterman, who paid respect to Newman in one of his monologues on The Late Show last week.

The whole thing's worth watching, but at around 3:45 in, Dave gets to the story about when Newman called him up one day and talked him into buying a custom Volvo wagon (a 960) with a supercharged Ford V8 underhood. You see, Newman was having one made and was very pumped up about it, so he asked if Dave wanted one, too. And you know, how do you say no to Paul Newman? Dave recounts the whole affair beautifully, and of course, it's also funny.

After you watch the clip, head over to Swedespeed, where in 2003 they profiled a third car just like the ones built for Newman and Letterman, with even more background about Newman's car and what went into the build. This is the very definition of "sleeper."

[Source: The Sheila Variations]

You may remember Alex Roy as a member of Team Polizei, which drove a BMW M3 across the continental U.S. in the unofficial record time of 31 hours and 4 minutes in late 2006. The record is unofficial because maintaining an average speed of over 90 MPH for a day and a half isn't exactly... legal. You can read about the monumental effort required of Roy and his team in his book The Driver, or you could watch the video after the jump of Roy's appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman last Tuesday. Having met Roy, the amazing thing about him is that he's fully aware of how dangerous and crazy his endeavor was, and on some level agrees with those who take offense with what he did. It's a disarming quality that makes him easy to talk to even if you're one those who disagree with his need for speed. That comes through in his interview with David Letterman, who belabors the illegality of Roy's record run a bit too vociferously in our opinion. Roy takes it like a champ and we think, by the end, wins Dave over. And once you've got Dave, you've got Paul, too. Check out the video after the jump. Thanks for the tip, Chris!

[Source: YouTube]

David Letterman is at it again. And this time we're taking it personally. Long a fan of Dave and his destruction of household items for our amusement, we have to draw the line somewhere. In his latest shtick, Letterman has his crew drop a safe from the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater in which his show is taped. The 300-pound hunk of metal is unceremoniously dumped from the roof and plummets towards the street below, coming to a cushiony halt atop a Buick LeSabre's rear seat.

Not a particularly big fan of the Buick, but it did appear to be in good working order and we can think of more than a few people who could use some wheels to get themselves to work, so this seems especially wasteful.

Aww, we're just joshin'. This is hilarious! One only has to watch to marvel at the "precision" with which this stunt was arranged. It seems a miracle they even hit the car and didn't make a crater in the sidewalk. The suspension of the Buick appears to take the impact with aplomb and we actually discussed whether or not the car might still be drivable. Certainly the safe looks no worse for the fall. We're pretty sure there will be complaints about the vehicle's untimely demise, but laughter has been said to be the best medicine, so that and a chill pill should help everybody get over themselves it.

[Source: The Daily Reel]