By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Jalopnik posted this an hour ago. Looks like it’s the same car they had in the Mopar booth at SEMA last year. My buddy Dale in Detroit thinks it’s the same car. I know Dodge cancelled the production Challenger vert, but are they really gonna just scrap the show car?

Update: I’m being told that Coach Builders Ltd. built two of these cars, and both were painted the same green. One is now privately owned by Coach Builders, and the other is owned by Chrysler and is being scrapped.

Update #2: Now I’m told that Mopar Performance stepped in and saved the car. The new plan is to mod the hell out of it. I’ll keep you posted.

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Welcome to the CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot, a regular feature which aims to expand the notion of what a muscle car is, and to shoot bullet-holes in conventional thinking while we’re at it. This particular featured car should stir up a lot of debate, not only because of its debut in 1975, but also because it was built in Germany. Without further delay, I present the Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot – The Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9" »

By Chris Bicknell

Bick66

With the current economic climate and unpredictable gas prices, fuel efficiency is on everyone’s mind. Although big SUVs and gas-burning muscle cars are still plentiful on our roads, smaller cars are becoming more common every day. I found this Tango from the Commuter Cars Corporation in the Home Depot parking lot yesterday and couldn’t help but think about how the way some of us view transportation is changing. This narrow electric road pod won’t haul much home from the hardware store but it does 0-60 in 4 seconds and you can park four of them in an average parking spot. It also runs a 12-second quarter mile and comes standard with a steel roll cage–and this one was a even little tricked out with a Momo wheel and one-behind-the-other Sparco seats.

Personally, I’m still attached to the idea of having a vehicle you can haul a trailer with, and I’ll never retire my love for 60s American muscle. However, if you pay attention to how many empty seats there are in the cars around you on the highway, you might wonder how much fuel we’re burning just to push unnecessary weight down the road. How about you? Could you ever see owning something like the Tango if the gas situation gets bad enough?

Continue reading "Would Desperation Drive You To This?" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I don’t know about you, but I just about flipped out when I first saw these concepts back in 2003. Well, Ford has decided to auction them off at Barrett-Jackson in April. Apparently they run and drive, but it’s doubtful they could be registered. How much do you think they will fetch? More pics and a full press release after the jump. Via Autoblog

Continue reading "S197 Mustang Concepts to be Auctioned Off at Barrett-Jackson" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Zipcar, the company that enables noncommittal commuters to borrow an economical ride when they don’t want to bother owning one, has whipped up this cute astrology-themed artwork to promote its new “Zipcar Overnight” campaign. Quick, what’s the easiest way to make fun of them–anyone want to photoshop a Hummer constellation into that sky?

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Superstar drifter Samuel Hubinette did the driving for this promotional video recently released by Lamborghini. Have a look–it’ll make you dizzy.

By Austin Gaddis

1lowscort

My friend, Jason, happens to be an air-cooled VW nut. So he was the first person who came to mind when I received a text message last Friday from a friend saying that his co-worker had a VW Baja Bug and a split-window van that he was trying to get rid of.  He said the guy wanted $200 for the pair, so I got his phone number and then called him immediately to tell him I’d take the VWs. Right after that, I called my friend Jason and let him know that he’d just bought a splitty van and a baja bug for $200. He didn’t seem very interested in the bug, as he likes his Beetles to be original. I had gathered over the phone with the seller that the VW sale was kind a package deal–so, being the good friend I am, I split the cost of the pair and took the Beetle off his hands. We went for the 65-mile drive North to Ronan, Montana, to look at the cars on Saturday. The van was pretty rough and the bug was ok–at best. More…

Continue reading "Basketcase Rescue 2-for-1: 200 Bucks Takes Both" »

By David Clarke

highspeedhijinks

Some of you out West or down South may not understand this feeling, but out here on the East Coast where the harsh climate chops our car show season down to just a fraction of the year, you can almost hear the buzz of anticipation when spring is finally on its way. Just the other day, when it happened to be 60 degrees and sunny (warm for March where I live), I got three different flyers for upcoming car shows this season. The three shows were the Hemmings Cruise In, the Guptills Cruise In, and the Eastern Lincoln National meet which is being held at Guptills this year. I look forward to these shows not just for the cars, but for the friends I’ve made that I only see during the show season. You see them once or twice a year, catch up on everything you’ve done to the car over the winter and bid them farewell till next year. So as you can obviously tell, I’m itching to get out there. What shows can’t you wait to get to this year?

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Mark Rebilas is clearly a heck of a photographer, and at this year’s March Meet he did a great job of putting himself in harm’s way to capture some truly astonishing mayhem out on the strip. He’s got a whole heap of crazy wreck photos posted up on his blog, including an animated sequence of this Mopar funny car blowing its whole body into the air as its guts continue ondown the track in flames. Check out the photos here–and thanks to Brian at Bangshift for finding ‘em!

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

The Mobil 1 GT-R project car we built for the SEMA show, as documented earlier here in The Real JDM, has made the trip back home to Hawaii into the hands of its owner, Brandon. Brandon recently shared some pictures of his GT-R back in Hawaii. I thought you all might like to see them…

Continue reading "Mobil 1 GT-R In Hawaii" »