Long-Term Road Tests

The 10-year-old boy in me lived a life-long dream this past weekend when I attended a taping of "American Gladiators." Now, Hulk Hogan is no Larry Czonka and there was a disappointing lack of teal and pink No Fear wife beaters decorating the crowd, but heck, it was sure fun. They were only doing one event (which still took 2 hours to film four contestants), but it was Hang Tough and we got to yell out such classic heckling as "Oh yeah, scissor her! Yeah scissor!" Plus, I got a high-five from Wolf. Not Tower, Turbo or Laser, but certainly the awesomest new Gladiator.

Oh, and Magrath and I drove to the taping in the Silverado. They now tape Gladiators at USC's old arena, so when the parking attendants saw our crew cab behemoth coming, they knew quite correctly that the Silverado wasn't fitting in the normal makeshift parking spaces they'd set up on a nearby access road. Instead, we got a primo spot right-smack next to the arena. If you look closely, that scaffolding is part of the Eliminator set. The famous handbike is located in there and we also got a peak at the Atlaspheres! Atlaspheres people!

So, the moral of the story is: "American Gladiators" is awesome, drive there in a Silverado.

James Riswick, Automotive Editor