Culture|Garage

In Soviet Russia, wood…oh nevermind.

Vasily Lazarenko from Chernovtsy, Ukraine fashioned this car all on his own out of wood.

Unfortunately, the spring/wheel combo is just all wrong.  And who knows how well it does in crash tests. Word is, Splinter from the ninja turtles has already spoken for this one. See, I can go on for hours, the jokes are endless.

The chassis and engine are from a 1981 Opel with a 100-horsepower engine, so this wooden creation is definitely all show and no go. Word has it the car is for sale for “as much as it cost to make,” which Lazarenko will not specify.

Check back after the jump for more pics and an unusual surprise from this car. Read the rest of this entry »

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designboom is running a contest called “Dining in 2015.”  Designers are supposed to enter anything from cutlery to cookware.  Exhaust Burger was submited by some designers from Iran.  Skip to the jump to see the diagram of how it works.  Essentially, you would plug this into your exhaust pipe, it routes the hot exhaust over the top of the cooking surface.   Something about this just seems disgusting.

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The 24 Hours of Lemons is expanding further for 2008. They just announce the addition of two more events, an October race at Mercedes-Benz of Sugar Land Road Course, in Houston and a December race at Thunderhill Raceway Park.

The full schedule of 2008 schedule can be found on the 24 Hours of Lemons website.

You may remember that culture|garage will be entering a car this September in the Ohio race. Jalopnik also announced that they plan to enter a Swedish brethren in one of the California races.

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Wait. When did Suzuki make interesting cars? Looks like Suzuki will have a big year at Geneva (March 4-16). It appears that they will be bringing at least four concepts (some of which have debuted at other car shows) and their SX4 WRC car which will mark Suzuki’s first full year in the World Rally Championship.

Many more pictures Read the rest of this entry »

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Lotus is using the color scheme from the original Elan Sprint (which entered production in 1971) to celebrate the company’s 40th anniversary (the first car went into assembly in 1967)

The Exige Sprint was built to honor that accomplishment.  You get some fancy decals, ugly paint, foglights, color matched interior, etc…  Read the rest of this entry »

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Automotive News sat down with an executive that works on the Corvette line, Tom Wallace, and chatted about the new CAFE standards and its effect on the Corvette.

The ‘vette will live on, but Wallace says, “I don’t think we’re going to design a 700-hp Corvette.”  While he doesn’t go into specifics, he hinted that the next generation ‘Vette (due in 2012) will probably shed 3-400 pounds and move to a more efficient engine (shedding 150hp?) all the while still maintaining the current performance figures.

Wallace continues, “I think we need to say, ‘We reached performance levels that are pretty good. Let’s maintain those and improve fuel economy.”

via Automotive News (subscription required)

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The UK’s Telegraph reports that Saudi Arabia will be lifting the ban on female drivers in order to stem the suffragette-style movement. Government officials hope to have this all in place by the end of 2008.

While we may not see it as a big deal, there are much larger intricacies, i.e. insurance companies needing to develop new policies and practices.

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They say imitation is the biggest form of flattery right? Recently we have seen a couple of car clones coming out of China and to name a couple: Toyota RAV-4, Scion XB, Smartcar, BMW X5, Honda CR-V.

The latest clone coming out of China is the Lifan 3-series, a 5-door MINI clone, similar in wheelbase to the MINI Clubman I suppose. The car will go on sale in China during the first half of the year.

Lifan decided to create a 5-door version of BMW Group’s MINI Cooper, and while its disproportionate to the original, a monkey could see its striking resemblance. Although I wish I could feel safe for the monkey during the crash testing of these Chinese clones.

Full Gallery Read the rest of this entry »

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