Culture|Garage

DrivingSports is covering off on a WRX that decided to bite hard and roll end over end seven times.  Apparently this happened at Subiefest in 2006, but it is just now making the web.  The car was built as a show car, but the owner wanted to prove that it had some track prowess.  Somehow, the driver survived the wreck…I have no idea how.  Sorry I can’t embed the video…view it here:  DrivingSports

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This comes from Saatchi Australia for Toyota’s new/facelifted Landcruiser.  The production budget must have been pretty padded, it appears to have been filmed on Mars.  It’s a bummer that Toyota has softened the Landcruiser so much, they used to be such awesome vehicles.  It just looks like a bloated Rav4 now.  The FJ 60 (below) was the last of the “true” Landcruisers.

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All we had when I was in school was the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! program.  Off in the UK, if you behave well and show marked achievement, Subaru and Prodrive will take you rallying.  Seriously.  Six students from Grace Academy were able to tour the Prodrive facility, check out the new STI and meet some of the engineers and drivers.  Then they were off to watch the Welsh GB Rally.  I mainly only got “talks unnecessarily in class” so I doubt I would ever get anything, but if I had the chance to go behind the scenes of a rally race I may have improved my behavior.  Although, in the US we would probably be stuck going to a NASCAR race…

via Motoring-News

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via Lafayette Journal & Courier

Like pay for a truck with $25,000 worth of change. That’s right, Paul Brant, a 70 year old Chrysler employee, saved up coins over the past 13 years with the intention of buying a truck. He purchased the 1/2 ton Dodge Ram with 1/2 a ton of coins. He said that he used the vending machines frequently (union workers get too many breaks) at the Chrysler plant and that is how he accumulated all of the change. Apparently, he also just saved them up at home, he didn’t put them into a savings account or a CD, etc. To hell with compounding interest! It also took him over half a day to load up all of the coins to take them to the dealership. Paul then backed the Dodge into seven vehicles trying to do a three point turn.

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Some guy swears he is now getting 85 mpg at 70mph.  He claims that his excellent body work which includes a lexan hatch, “aero” wheel covers, boat tail, internal side view mirrors, etc have helped him reach that goal and lowered the Cd from .34 to .17.  While I really do hope that his intuition and mad tight aero skills helped him achieve this, I am a tad skeptical.   If he is indeed successful, this will mark the first time in history that a body kit on a Civic has ever been effective.  Check out EcoModder for his whole build.

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You know that phrase, “money can’t buy taste?”  That’s pretty much spot on for this concept.  It’s like those guys that show up to car shows in a Ferrari badged Fiero.  Only the opposite.  Let’s get over the fact that I am like a month behind on this whole thing (shown at SEMA in Nov.) and just focus on the absurdity of it.  John Haugh decided he wanted the best of both worlds.  And apparently, best of both worlds involves a Lamborghini Gallardo reskinned as a Mustang.  Yeah, you read that right, ‘ol boy spent $500,000 to turn a Gallardo into a Mustang.  It’s still the same old ’stang, but now with Lambo underpinnings (AWD and 520hp).  He also redid the interior to give it a bit of Lambo flair.  John, the orange stitching and piping goes great with red and white paint scheme.  I can’t wait until I earn trash cans full of money.  I am going to buy a Veyron and reskin it as an SRT-4.

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Someone on Nasioc just threw 17×8 and 17×9 BBS on his WRX. He took the VW (read poseur) route and made sure they had a bit of poke (wheels extending past the fenders) and a dash of stretch (putting narrow tires on a wide wheel). The end result is a very confused WRX. If this car were a person, it would be a Japanese teen with a man bag, a faux hawk and tight jeans. Rumor has it the owner will be putting his name, in gothic font typeface, across his windshield soon. In all actuality, I give him credit for doing something different…

EDIT: the owner just sent a few more pictures (shown after the jump) Read the rest of this entry »

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Some of the best advice I received from my parents was, “buy a nice coat, spend the money, find something that will work with dress clothes or jeans, it will last you forever.” They then gave me a cashmere and lamb’s wool car coat as a graduation gift. Which was then stolen, along with my car keys and Treo. Awesome. So as I see it, here are the two must haves to be a car guy.

A car coat, a 3/4’s length coat, it will come down to about mid thigh. Generally they zip closed and then button across and have a standing collar. It can be very difficult to find in stores, so just do a Google search for “car coat.” The herringbone car coat (picture above) is what I replaced my stolen one with. Found at Johnston & Murphy.

Driving gloves, leather. Typically unlined. Prices can vary from very cheap to very expensive. Now obviously, you aren’t going to go out and scrape the snow off of your car with these gloves. But driving with skiing mitts on can prove difficult. Driving gloves are an excellent choice when having to deal with a frozen shift knob. Pictured above at SaabExpressions.

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