Culture|Garage

Not quite sure why it illicits such a strong distaste among enthusiasts.  Personally, I think the FX is one of the best looking SUV/CUVs on the market.  And the sound they make, even in v6 form is beautiful.  What you are looking at here, is one of the first spy shots of the FX55.  One would expect that it is powered by a 5.5l v8.  It looks to feature a revised front fascia and some GTR’esque headlights.  Nissan will be having the initial unveiling at the Geneva Auto Show later this year.

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The new CAFE standards are taking their toll on some automakers. Bob Lutz, has said that the GTO (Holden Monaro) and the upcoming rear wheel drive Impala are “gone for now.” Lutz told GoAuto, “that’s not the end of the market where we want to stimulate demand. We have to find ways to stimulate demand and desirability in cars that will get us closer to the 35 MPG average.”

The interesting thing about the comment regrading “demand and desirability,” is that the GTO had neither of those.

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I ran across this before skiing today. I’m not sure how this could have happened without being intentional. Luckily, I keep a stash of youparklikeanasshole.com tickets in my car at all times, and was happy to fill one out for this dipshit person. Amazingly, after a day of skiing, it hadn’t been towed when I returned.

I’ll go ahead and apologize for the low quality of my cameraphone. culture|garage hasn’t quite grown to the level where I’ve been given a corporate spending account needed for a real camera.

Any speculations?

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Being born in 1982, all of the modern cars, either my family or I have owned have been chock full of cupholders. That was, until I bought my 240Z. No cupholders. No powersteering. No power locks. But I digress.

Modern Mechanix found this advertisement (pictured after the jump) in the Nov. 1950 issue of Popular Mechanics.

It’s just two simple suction cups that stick to the dash, two cords dangle down to support a folding plastic tray. Which appears to be perfect for holding glassware, napkins and half eaten English muffins.

It conveniently folds up for stowage in your glove compartment.

Full retro ad here Read the rest of this entry »

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This is a new video/commercial for the Audi R8 and its subsequent launch in the UK. According to Audi it takes 70 workers to fit  the 5,000 unique parts together. Thus, they only produce 25 R8s a day. So I am hoping you get the whole, “slowest car we’ve ever built” bit. Check out the R8’s microsite, but don’t be surprised if the 360 functionality crashes your Firefox.

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A couple of interesting things about this:

1. that dog looks like it has been “training” in the MLB

2. if you put wheels that ugly on an S2000, you kind of had it coming

I have no context to what exactly happened here, so feel free to speculate all you want!

Scary ass dog and another shot of fender destruction Read the rest of this entry »

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Looks like the new MKVI Golf/Rabbit has been caught doing some road testing.  Looks to be very similar to the current generation model, likely just minute changes to the fascia treatments.  The new models will likely be launched at European dealerships late in 2008, with US launch following sometime in 2009.

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The Porsche RS Spyder is facing revised rules for classification this year. You may remember that the underclassed and underpowered (by 200hp) Spyder was regularly putting a hurting on the the Audi R10.

This year LeMan Series (in Europe) is making the RS Spyder bulk up in weight while also dropping the minimum weight for the LMP1 cars. The governing body has also dropped the fuel tank capacity on the LMP2 from 90 liters to 80 liters.

In ALMS (American), the RS Spyder also has to bulk up, but not as much as in Europe and they still retain the 90 liter fuel tank.

More from Porsche’s Racing Director Read the rest of this entry »

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