Here’s something fun. The venerable New York Times has a “Style” section that it puts out every week, featuring everything from advice about Tinder dating to trying to explain the KHive/CharliXCX to your grandma. In between all of that, they did an article on the Tesla Cybertruck and included the most stylish man any of us know: David Tracy.
Yes, that’s right, David Tracy was in the big feature from the freakin’ New York Times right in the Style section. If you didn’t already think we were living in unprecedented times, you do now.
The story is from Joe Berenstein, a great reporter who was tasked with trying to explain why people are getting so excited/so upset about a car. And who better to ask than David? He both reviewed the Tesla Cybertruck and then had to write about getting blown up for writing about the Tesla Cybertruck.
People have some big feelings about Elon Musk and Tesla, as the article notes:
Mr. Musk’s public image hasn’t entirely eclipsed the Tesla brand. David Tracy, the editor in chief of the car culture website The Autopian, said the company’s other offerings still exist apart — to a certain extent — from the man himself.
“They’re logical,” Mr. Tracy, an automotive engineer, said of the rest of the Tesla lineup, sleek, electric sedans that largely blend in with other vehicles on the road. “They are aerodynamic, they are efficient, they make sense from a usability standpoint. You can convince yourself anybody would have developed this car.”
Still, Mr. Musk’s politics may be repelling some potential Tesla buyers, contributing to a recent slump in sales. Perhaps that makes the drivers of Cybertrucks stick out even more. And in a culture obsessed with the political implications of consumer decisions, it’s probably inevitable that owning a Cybertruck reads as an endorsement of Mr. Musk and his ideas.
“The Cybertruck is very hard to separate from Elon Musk, because it’s not really logical,” Mr. Tracy said.
Indeed! If you were all wondering where commenter rootwyrm has gone, after we wrote a barely positive review of the Cybertruck he sent me a long email about why we’re terrible for doing so. It was nice to hear from him even as he was calling us Nazi sympathizers.
Musk, of course, brings this on himself. Even worse, he now owns one of the best platforms for getting into useless debates on the web, meaning that he makes more money the more all of us get upset. It’s like he’s supercharging his own grievance engine.
At least that’s one take. It’s far easier to try to explain away some of what he says as ruthless calculation than him just being a dipshit. It fits more nicely with the “but he’s a genius” narrative.
Either way, let’s not let whatever Musk said deter us from recognizing the greater point: The New York Times Style section quoted David N. Tracy. This guy:
Delightful!
Congrats on getting in the Big Paper and all and I’m glad you mentioned the inseparability of the CyberTruck from the CyberSchmuck (whose comments saying his own daughter is dead to him are so morally reprehensible that I would encourage you guys to stop even linking to Twitter), but I gotta push back on the usability claim.
Shoving nearly everything onto a big screen, removing stalks, adding capacitive buttons on the wheel and briefly trying to force owners to use a goofy yoke for a steering wheel has given Teslas some of the most dangerously hard-to-use interiors on the road. Forcing people to take their eyes off the road for simple tasks is dangerous, plain and simple, and that bears calling out as often as possible until the auto industry responds. That’s not just a Tesla beef, either—VW and everybody else who’s pulling it needs a Come to Button Jesus moment, too.
I’ll admit that the overall normal Teslas are still decent cars, though, even though they’re also inseparable from Musk and his downright inhumane views nowadays. “I bought this before I knew he was crazy” stickers exist for a reason, and I had a lot of friends who did: these were the EVs that fit their needs and wants at the right price, and they’re good fun to drive, too. I just wish that company would put a damn adult in charge who isn’t using his profits to platform and promote hate.
People, live the business alone.
I love this as a way to start my day.
I hadn’t realized rootwyrm has boycotted or took a stand against the site. I figured he just swung by to drop some knowledge in the comments periodically and there just hasn’t been anything he felt the need to comment on lately, now I realize its been a minute since I’ve seen anything
It’s a principled stand, I’ll give ’em that.
Eh, his ore was low yield. Absolutely bonkers knowledge of obscure Mopar facts. The rest was tiring.
David is the best! I remember the first time I read one of his articles. It was about his Jeep collection, of course. Been following him ever since.
Next thing, the Atlantic will have Jason write a monthly column about taillights.
I will look forward to that. Very much.
People pay big money for jeans that have been shot with buckshot or look pee-stained. But only David would be able to sell jeans worn while eating shower spaghetti. Or jeans washed in a dishwasher along with greasy car parts. He should start a line of automotive fashion accessories and clothing. Gear oil air fresheners, spaghetti key chains and more. Jeans that have sat in a rusty puddle of soggy postal seat foam for 2000 miles while driven from Moab to NYC: Nearly Priceless.
I would buy a pair of genuine DT Trenchfoot slippers.
I’m so here for the shower spaghetti cookbook.
So has he gone ‘Hollywood’ or Manhattan socialite? I’m confused on which elitist style to rally against here. 🙂
Hello, Police? My friend David is missing. Describe him? He’s wearing a plaid shirt, khaki pants, and tennis shoes. No, he’s not style challenged!
…in California. We promise you won’t miss him.
Musk is a disordered narcissist doing what disordered narcissists predictably do — having achieved success as a hype man through exuding irrational confidence and a hyperactive motivation to be loved, he’s slowly surrounded himself with yes men (because his ego is too fragile to hear from anyone else), and eventually realized that negative attention feeds his never-ending need for the spotlight as much as positive attention does. It’s a boring pattern we’ve seen a million times before. Build something, get insecure as attention wanes and you are expected to do the dull work of maintaining success, and so destroy what you built in a desperate bid to seek new attention as well as validation from those who love to watch things burn. Yawn.
Of course David is a style icon! People pay literally THOUSANDS of dollars for “distressed” jeans when we all know David has a few pairs he dragged to LA from his previous life that cost maybe $25. That’s what fashion people call “authenticity.” Now he has the look, but his hands are getting dangerously soft…
And clean.
No dirt no cred!
He almost lost cred with me for having clean hands, and then we saw him cleaning those hands with a bottle of Fireball whisky that he found inside of a trashed car that got traded in to Galpin. Cred restored.
Hell, Fireball alone probably brought the callouses back.
I’m a geologist, not an automotive journalist, so it stands to reason that I was once quoted in the NYT’s Automobiles section:
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/automobiles/collectibles/23LEMONS.html
In my own immortal words, “I towed it all the way down from Washington behind my MGB.”
I stand by that statement.
That’s a brag I can deal with. What a beautiful car.
Thanks!
https://live.staticflickr.com/4103/5072064860_872de135d8_o.jpg
hell yeah
Did that guys parents write the Berenstien bears?
My vote is for the 35 tux is best!
I got 20 dollar suit at goodwill for some high end Japanese business people I had to pick up once.
I shoulda spent more money on a better fitting suit. But it got the job done. I wasn’t fooling anyone though
Eh, tailoring a cheap suit frequently looks better than an off-the-rack expensive suit
You must get a well fitting suit, no excuses. I have a co-worker who I’ve determined has inherited his suit collection from a taller and heavier relative. All sleeves and legs are too long, neck too large, everything is too baggy and bunched up by the belt. To me it looks like a kid wearing dad’s clothes. I’ve had more than one client say hey that guy in the other office looks homeless.