Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to 2026 – and the first Car Connections of the year. If you don’t remember this series from 2025, here’s how it works: I have the Random Word Generator come up with a trio of random words, then I link each of them with cars in some way. Sometimes it’s quick and easy; sometimes it’s a more laborious, convoluted process. Either way, I connect seemingly unrelated ideas to automobiles (the way you do in your everyday life, I’m sure).
This week’s random words are: annual, record, and queen. Here we go…
Annual: Oldsmobile Starfire. Why? A few years ago, when I was working for one of our sister sites, AutoHunter.com, I saw a few 1962 Oldsmobile Starfires come through. My research showed me that Olds changed the side trim (among other things) annually in the early 1960s. If you ask me, the ’61s look the best. Which model year gets your vote?
Record: Now, let’s flash forward several decades to the 2025 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. A pre-production version of the 1,064-horsepower mega-Vette set five record lap times at four American tracks, including a 2:32.3 run on Virginia International Raceway’s Grand Course – beating the 2:34.9 time previously hit by the much more expensive 2019 McLaren Senna.
Queen: This one takes us from GM to another domestic automaker. Queen is a band that was formerly headed by Freddie Mercury. (I think you can see where this is going…) Mercury made a car that’s always interested me and was on my short list of vehicles to buy before I purchased a 2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt: the 2003-2004 Marauder, which had a cool monochromatic exterior treatment and a 302-horsepower 4.6-liter V8 with four-valve heads.
How would you associate these words with cars? Tell us in the comments section below. And be sure to share your ideas for random words to use in a future installment of Car Connections.
