This weekend I took my first road trip in my new Audi A5, and while I kept it cool for the most part, I did have a little fun just to see how the car felt at higher speeds. Here is what I found: The sweet spot is in the 95-100 MPH range (on closed roads of course), vehicle speed is limited to 130 MPH (going to need to fix that), average gas mileage at highway speeds is just above 26 MPG, the S-Line suspension is awesome, and I don’t think there is any need for the H&R coil-over kit aside from stance. Lastly, I think it’s time for a new radar detector because the Valentine 1 was a little too quiet throughout the trip. 

Some dude in Croatia decided to stuff two VR6 motors into a humble VW Lupo, and he’s been updating a thread on VWVortex with a ton of pics to document the build. As you might imagine, two engines creates multiple problems opportunities, but it looks like he’s been able to make the most of them, with plenty of ingenious fabrication work along the way. Don’t believe this could even work? Check out the 20+ page thread on VWVortex and watch the video of the car on its first test run.

Continue reading "Twin Engine Lupo" »

Just blast the AC…   

John is still with Hankook in Korea, Jen just left for Road Atlanta to cover Le Mans, and Ryan called in sick to install wing doors on his smart car. So I’m all by my lonesome.

• Lamborghini just released more teaser shots of their four door grocery getter. Look for the full unveil Thursday. Autoblog.
• Porsche accused Nissan of cheating on their GT-R Nurburgring Lap Times. No word from Nissan… yet. Jalopnik
• The Truth About Cars thinks that the General is about to file Chapter 11, and that only Cadillac and Chevy will survive. And they are predicting that all this will all be even worse for Ford, Chrysler and… Toyota? TTAC
• The New York Times has a nice little writeup on the Detroit LeMons race. And if you watch the video, you’ll see the Team Size Matters Fury. The New York Times

I miss Japan days of old. These days I see less and less of this hardcore stuff on the street in Japan, but back a few years ago I’d be amazed often while just walking down the street. I took this picture in a parking lot in Japan and that’s all that really needs to be said. The car pictured is a beautifully done Monocraft widebody ZZW30 Toyota MR-S. It even has a bag over the seat, so I think the owner just had it serviced or detailed.

Anyway, the Monocraft widebody is always a classic. It was kits like this and the natural light weight of the MR-S that always made me want to get one. This setup with a 300hp turbocharged engine would be a whole lot of fun.

Named after a sleepy town just 17 miles north of the Mexican border, where Carroll Shelby, Bill Neale, and crew would spend their downtime drinking, shooting guns, and blasting Shelby cars on the vast expanses of open highway, the Shelby Terlingua Mustang represents a slap in the face to what society expects a muscle car to be. So says Shelby President Amy Boylan, who spent some time with me yesterday talking about the history of this wonderful town and the inspiration for their latest creation. I wouldn’t want to mis-quote her, so I will simply paraphrase:

Amy said that Carroll Shelby and crew spent long hours for weeks on end building race cars for Ford, designing new components, testing, and racing, and Terlingua was a place where he could get away from everything and everyone. He bought 120,000 acres, built a small ranch on it, and when he wasn’t racing, would head down to Terlingua and break all the rules. Continue reading…

Continue reading "Driving the Shelby Terlingua" »

We’re working with Yuichi of GenCoupe.com to get pics of the car Rhys Millen is building for SEMA. Mods will include a turbo kit for the 2.0-liter four banger, HKS sequential race transmission, coil-over suspension, big Brembo brakes, Enkei wheels, eight-point roll cage and a RMR wide body kit. Check out the ride page for shots of the teardown, and stay tuned for more pics of the build! 

John’s comment the other day about print being dead or dying got me thinking about the car magazines that I buy. It’s true that newspaper and magazine circulation has been shrinking, but like anything, the pick of the crop always survives. And really, if you’re going to spend your hard-earned money on car magazines they may as well be good ones, right? Being a one-eyed Mopar fan, I subscribe to Mopar Muscle and Mopar Action. Both are always informative and have a lot of tech articles, but I’m probably going to drop my subscription to Action because I prefer the editorial style of Muscle. Also, because I’m a car nut, I do occasionally stray to the dark side and read about other makes, and for this reason I can often be seen browsing the pages of general-purpose mags Muscle Car Review and Car Craft. Those are my top choices—what are yours?

More than 100 officers swarmed on the street racing scene in Ontario, California early Sunday morning, arresting two drivers and one flagger, and citing almost 200 spectators and impounding over 70 cars. Check out the sensationalistic TV coverage on KTLA. Techweasel