By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

Norm Kraus, better known as Mr. Norm, is legendary among Chrysler fans. His dealership, Grand-Spaulding Dodge, was the epicenter of the Mopar performance universe from the mid-sixties into the early seventies when the first muscle car era came to an untimely end. When you wanted to drive the very fastest Mopar off the showroom floor, you headed to Chicago with your checkbook in hand. When you left, you could rest assured that you had one of the fastest street-legal Dodges on the planet. Times really haven’t changed all that much in the last 40 years; to get the fastest new-gen 2009 Challenger you still visit Mr. Norm, only this time he’s semi-retired in Florida. However, he still has his thumb in the high-performance pie. Together with Mike Staveski and Bill Sefton, he has reincarnated Mr. Norm’s Garage. Continue reading at Automotive Traveler

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

On Friday two guys got a major beat down after after urinating on what they thought was an unoccupied vehicle. The car’s owner came out swinging—with a golf club—and put one of them in the hospital. Via Yahoo News

By Chris Borrelli

Chris Borrelli

Ford has announced that it will use $550 million to transform its Michigan assembly plant. The plant has been building Expeditions and Navigators but will converted to build the next generation Focus and 2011 Focus battery-electric variant (BEV). Is this a good move or a little too risky? Via Left Lane News.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Someone backed into our Volvo in a parking lot on Saturday. They left a note and are being cool about it, but still, it’s a major pain cause we will need body work to get the new tail light to seal properly. How about you? What did you do this weekend?

By 993C4S

Porsche Purist

Here’s a Porsche that just won’t go away. A little over 14 months ago the 1990 Porsche 964 C4 was listed for sale by Metallica’s former tour manager. Now, more than a year later, this 911 (previously owned by Metallica’s Kirk Hammett) is once again for sale on eBay but with a slightly reduced still absurd price.

Here’s the problem. While I’m a Metallica fan (I grew up listening to them) they just aren’t the band they used to be (fame wise). That’s not to say they don’t still have tons and tons of loyal fans, I’m just not sure anyone of them is going to pony up the $10k or so premium being asked for this car. Call me crazy but I don’t think the “autographed gas charge slip” is enough to justify a significant premium on what is otherwise an ordinary 1990 964 C4. Check out the listing and you be the judge.

Continue reading "Kirk Hammett's (of Metallica fame) Porsche For Sale Again" »

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Jason Joaquin from Barbados has recently been sending us emails about a Pan-Caribbean series called the CMRC or Caribbean Motor Racing Championship. It consists of three rounds: the Jamaica meet is on May 24th, this is followed by round two in Barbados in August and finally the championship concludes in Guyana in November. There are some pretty wild cars running in the CMRC like this 20B powered RX3 along with a whole host of hotted up tarmac spec ex-rally cars.

I’ve heard the ex-AMS unlimited Evo is in the Caribbean now…. looks like we’ll need to uncover this scene in more detail! Follow this link for a taste of the crazy cars running in this series.

By Rod Chong

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

We could hardly believe our eyes while catching up on the news from over the weekend. No less than four major news sources wrote negatively about cash for clunkers, and on varying rationales.

First, Brian J. O’Connor of the Detroit News writes about how he’d be the perfect potential cash for clunkers customer, with his deer-magnet 1995 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon, but decides against taking Uncle Sugar up on his offer, should it become reality. Continues reading at Hemmings

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

This is one of those cars that catches your eye for a second, and just when you are about to move onto the next thing, you can’t. The seller claims that this is the only three-door Bug in the world, and we’ve got no reason to doubt him.

The most impressive part of this car is just how factory the custom work comes off. Nothing about this tips the casual observer off that the car is anything but a “typical” three-door Beetle, of which none were made.

The stance is pretty hot as well with its chin right down in the weeds. We would shamelessly drive the wheels off of this thing.

No idea what the reserve on this eBay auction is, but the bidding is still at a supremely reasonable level. Make it happen people. We want to try out that trick back door.

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

Mike Haviland is a man just like you and me. He puts his pants on one leg at a time, but when he puts his pants on, he can be satisfied with the knowledge that he has created greatness in the form of a B Mod Honda Z600. To call the car a Z600 is to miss the point, as this car is really a complete one-off with a shell that happens to resemble a Z600. 1195lbs, 168hp in place of the armrest and enough rubber for a weekend at the mansion. This car absolutely rocks.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Hardcore Honda Z600" »

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

Summertime in Detroit doesn’t get into full swing until the cool people start bringing the cool cars out for cool treats: drive-in ice cream shops dot Woodward and attract car nuts from all over. I swung by the Dairy Mat in Birmingham after Little League last week and spotted Brett and his 1963 purple Ford Fairlane Sports Coupe. It’s got a 302 in it and makes a ton of good noise. I snapped a couple of pics before he made some smoke pulling out. Check them out after the jump.

Continue reading "Cool Treats: 63 Fairlane" »