The Man Who Hated Little Cars, Part Four

“Gentlemen, thank you all for coming,” Virgil boomed, standing on an overturned parts crate outside the double-padlocked doors of Project Bay Four, the home to many of his creations over the years, and now to this, his crowning achievement. The sun was coming up over the San Fernando Valley, burning off the misty chill of a desert morning.

Virgil addressed them as a group, but took care to make eye contact with many of the familiar faces he recognized in the crowd. “I appreciate your... sticking with me over the past few months, and I know that my latest design probably won’t be earning you any advertising dollars anytime soon. Cars generally need to get produced before people can buy them.”

The fifty or so assembled journalists laughed amongst themselves, then quieted to let him go on.

“But I feel that what lies behind these doors, what these fine, loyal individuals here have helped bring into existence, represents the highest evolution of modern automotive design. It’s where four-wheeled transport is going... or should go... and the embodiment of everything we love about cars.”

Virgil paused for emphasis, scanning the faces of his audience to make sure they were eager and expectant. They were.

“...This, despite the assumptions of some, that today’s consumer is seeking a smaller, more economical... appliance-like automobile, something with no element of personal expression, just pure... transportation.” He tried not to sneer as he uttered this last word, to no avail.

“What you will see here today, what you will go back to your offices and write about, is... more than just a car. It is... a new era in the history of the automobile. Gentlemen, I give you...

"The Behemoth.”