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One Lap of the Web: Packards -- Ask the man who knows way too much about one

-- For some light Wednesday reading, here's more information than you ever wanted to know about Packard. It includes the horrible neoclassics that plagued the 1970s, and the 1995 revival of the Packard name that attempted to stick a shortened rendition of the famous Packard grille in front of a 440-hp V12, all wrapped in a shape that looked like a melted Twix, as shown above. Our august associate editor Graham Kozak owns a Packard, so he could have filled us in on the details.

Bruce Meyer: A good guy gets recognition

Bruce Meyer, one of the best ambassadors of the collector-car hobby, will be honored as an "Automotive Icon" at the 30th anniversary of the Dana Point Concours d'Elegance, June 23-24, 2012, in Dana Point, Calif. Meyer's list of boosterism for the car hobby is long and impressive. He was the founding chairman of the Petersen Automotive Museum and founder of the museum's support group the Checkered Flag 200, he was inducted into the Dry Lakes Hall of Fame and the Grand National Roadster Show Hall of Fame, and he has driven in the Italian Mille Miglia, the French Tour Auto, the Goodwood Festival of Speed and on the Bonneville Salt Flats in the United States.

One Lap of the Web: Willys CJ2 rat rod, Blade Runner sketchbook and vintage Alpine A110 footage

-- Even if you don't remember every nuance of the plot of the 1982 film Blade Runner, or even which of the myriad versions of the film you saw, its powerful visual images and bizarre-but-plausible technologies have likely stuck with you. From glowing umbrellas to the unforgettable flying "spinners," Blade Runner was fascinating look at a future that wasn't. Although technically the film was set in 2019, so we've got a few years for replicant technology, and Los Angeles smog levels, to catch up with fiction.