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A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

Lamborghini has already pre-sold 700 Huracans

It's barely been two months since Lamborghini revealed the new Huracan. The latest ten-cylinder Raging Bull hasn't even had its public debut yet, scheduled to take place next month at the Geneva Motor Show (the same show where McLaren will reveal its new 650S and Ferrari the revised California T). But the Bolognese automaker has already managed to take a whopping 700 orders for the new supercar.
Not that the customers are waving their checkbooks sight unseen, mind you. Over the course of the past month, Lamborghini has been carting pre-production Huracans around the world for VIP clients, 700 of whom have put down their deposits.
To put that number into perspective, consider that in 2012 (the last full year of production), the factory in Sant'Agata built just over 1,200 Gallardos. Assuming Huracan production continues at the same pace, that means Lamborghini already has over half a year's worth of production spoken for. So if you want to get yours anytime in the coming year, you'd better get your deposit in lickety-split.

YouTuber Alex Choi charged with shooting fireworks at a Lambo from a helicopter

YouTubers often do crazy things to get views, and the stunts sometimes run afoul of the law. Alex Choi, a popular content creator and social media personality, recently found the limits of the law the hard way. He was arrested for a video posted last year in which people in a helicopter shot fireworks at a Lamborghini. The 24-year-old is charged with causing the placement of an explosive or incendiary device on an aircraft. He made his first court appearance yesterday. If he’s convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, with charges stemming from ChoiÂ’s alleged lack of a permit to film and carry fireworks in a helicopter. In the now-deleted video, Choi drove the Lamborghini while two women in the helicopter shot fireworks at the car. He said he coordinated the shoot and was listed in the credits as a director, so it will be hard to deny that he had a part. ThereÂ’s no word on charges for others in the video, but the FAA revoked the helicopter pilotÂ’s license for the stunt. Choi is no stranger to auto-related stunts and controversy. In 2022, he hosted a Tesla meetup in which a person jumped a Model S. He filmed the stunt and posted it to YouTube, capturing the driver hitting a parked car. They also allegedly had passengers and a stray cat in the Tesla at the time. Choi is well-known in tuner circles, as heÂ’s been involved in several social media drag races and other events. He raced a 1,000-horsepower Lamborghini Huracan against an 800-horsepower Dodge Polara on HooniganÂ’s YouTube channel a couple of years ago and has been known to do crazy things with expensive cars for views, though this stunt might be one that causes him to think twice going forward. Video Weird Car News Lamborghini