Last week I had a date with some guy that I met on the internet. It was pretty awesome as far as first dates go. We met at Bear Mountain State Park, took a few nice rides together and got all sweaty in the backseat of a vehicle! Then we had lunch, hung out in a $400,000 Rolls-Royce and had some fun with my BubbleBum. Seriously, how can you top that?
Okay, since we’re both married I guess I should elaborate before someone winds up served with divorce papers. The guy is new CPS Tech “Nopanegain” (aka Brett) and we met online at car-seat.org. Since we’re both New Yorkers, we struck up a little conversation and found out that we share many of the same interests. Brett has been a serious automotive journalist for more years than I’ve been alive (haha – just kidding, Brett!) and he’s got a lot of connections. He gets invited to cool automotive events that I don’t even realize exist. Since this particular event (where they allow the select group of invited journalists to drive all the vehicles present) was going on in my neck of the woods, he invited me to join him. I was lured by the eloquence of this one particular line in his invitation: “If you are a car person, you’ll basically crap your pants.” ROFL! I’m sold, dude!!
Here’s a peek at how we spent our grueling day at the International Motor Press “Spring Brake”. I hope all our readers will appreciate the sacrifices that we made and the hardships that we endured to bring you this very important information. Unlike the rest of the attendees, we were more interested in exploring the backseat than we were in zipping around on the park’s back roads. I know that sounds so lame but that’s how true CPS geeks roll!
2012 Jaguar XK Coupe in Crystal Blue: Beautiful luxury vehicle. Not sure why they bothered to make it a 4-seater, though. I guess the backseat is really meant for your briefcase/handbag/miniature purebred in a puppy tote. My head hit the roof back there! But we were determined to find a functional cps solution for that seating position. BubbleBum and Huggable Images to the rescue!
2012 Fiat 500 Arbarth: Considerably less luxurious but cool nonetheless. Rear seat only accommodates two but is surprisingly roomy for a vehicle so compact. Rear-facing seats will be a very big challenge. We installed a Chicco KeyFit30 and rear-facing Britax Roundabout 55 but that left no room for anyone taller than 5′ in the front seat. I’m 5’4″ and my knees were crammed painfully into the door of the glovebox with the RA55 installed behind me. On the flip side, due to the contour of the back of the front seats – I had enough leg room to sit comfortably in back so forward-facing carseats and kids in boosters may not be a problem.
2013 Rolls-Royce Phantom Series II saloon: Hands-down the most awesome vehicle I’ve ever sat in. I’m totally sold. Now I just need to come up with about $420, 000 plus taxes, title and fees. The optional $4k sheepskin floor mats are not optional at all. Those are a necessity – trust me. I have no desire to actually drive the vehicle myself. I just want to sit in the back seat, drink Champagne in excess and eat Grey Poupon straight from the jar. As for kids and carseats – even though the backseat is wide enough to easily fit any combination of CRs, I wouldn’t dream of allowing children or carseats in this vehicle. Not even a Foonf (sorry, Clek). Hey, that’s what the Au Pair’s Mercedes E63 AMG Wagon is for! Hence the lack of carseat pictures in the Rolls-Royce. Even *I* would not defame and disrespect this vehicle in that way.
2012 Bentley Supersports Convertible: Another outrageous luxury convertible that costs more than many average American homes. I would have loved to try some real installs in this vehicle but we only had a few minutes with it. Just enough time to grab the BubbleBum and the 6 year old Huggable Images doll again! The looks we got walking around with these things were priceless!
It was a fun and fantastic day and I’m greatly indebted to my new friend Brett for the experience! I do have more to share but it’s boring stuff that might actually be useful to our readers so that’s going to wait for another day. Stay tuned!
ROFL @ Jennie’s comment!
Gosh, what a tough job sitting on all that fine leather and sniffing all that new car smell. But I guess someone had to do it ;)! Thanks, guys!
Awesome post! Although the best part of it is how the first few lines show up in a post under Admin’s name at car-seat.org, leading me to temporarily believe that Darren is dating guys off the Internet.
It was a terrific day and I am so glad Kecia had a good time. I didn’t even get a mouthful from the other auto journalists who saw me walking around with the crazy lady with the big doll- that’ll be at the next event!
Although I would have had no problem besmirching the Rolls-Royce with carseats. After all, those vehicles must show up at the typical car seat check all the time…unlike those pesky Town & Country’s and Siennas. Plus, my daughter gets the title for the first carseat passenger / install in the Rolls-Royce Ghost last year. But then again, at only $303,000 that is the ‘economy’ Roller and clearly the vehicle for the kiddies.
Her favorite feature of the Ghost was the button-actuated motorized rear suicide doors. Everytime mommy would try and buckle her retainer clip she would press a button to smack her butt with a motorized door! I have a video somewhere…
Brett
Your comments on the RR are awesome! Makes driving home in you regular car not seem so great huh? :o) My husband is going to be drooling all over the screen when i show this to him!
Sorry! It wasn’t up to me to invite others. If it was, the place would have been crawling with carseat geeks! Lol.
And why didn’t you inform me? sigh. Sounds totally awesome!
Oh how awesome! I’m in love with those backwards seatbelts in the Jag, though I don’t guess they are much easier to buckle than regular seatbelts, without the car being a 4-door!
BubbleBum needs to come up with some neutral colors to keep stylish car-lovers happy, hehehe.