By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

From the reports coming in, it doesn’t sound like the cops are playing particularly nice with the Gumballers this year. Big surprise. As you can imagine, the smokies probably aren’t pumped about a bunch of rich dudes piloting exotics through their jurisdictions at Mach 3. But while I’ve seen cars get impounded, I hadn’t even heard about anyone getting their license plate jacked—until now. According to the LuxuryVice’s video description  over on StreetFire, after getting pulled over for speeding in Arizona, the officers popped the plate of their Bentley and told them they’d have to go down to City Hall to get it  back. Ouch. But the team was undeterred, and vowed to continue on to Miami Beach sans plate.  Something tells me next time they get popped, the lack of a plate will be the least of their worries…

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Before you start watching this video of the recent Ferrari Challenge at Road Atlanta, you should know one thing: it’s long. Like 16 minutes long. So don’t play it if you think your boss is going to come look over your shoulder—you won’t want to turn it off! StreetFire member andythomason not only shot some killer footage of this parade of Prancing Horses, he also added some well-placed title cards so you know what you’re looking at. Nice work man! Along with a laundry list of “regular” stallions—430s, 360s, 599s—there are a bunch of sweet shots of the red-hot FXX both in the pits and on the track, and a great clip of the 333SP getting its motor warmed up. If you’re like me, you could just listen to this video and be totally stoked! Enjoy!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Let’s settle this right here, right now. Fans of affordable RWD muscle have more choices now than they’ve had in a LONG time. We’ve got a major pony car war from the big three, and I’ve decided to throw in the Genesis Coupe to make it interesting  (and yes, this is our first four-way Showroom Showdown). The Camaro 1SS starts at $31,040. The Challenger R/T starts at $30,945. The Mustang GT Premium starts at $30,995. And the Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track starts at $29,500. Which would you choose?

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

For me, it’s the fear of another driver senselessly jackrabbitting out of a side-street into my path. In the last two weeks, I’ve had to lock up the wheels and lean on the horn on multiple occasions to thwart some fool intent on getting T-boned when I had the right of way. I’m not sure why someone would so desperately want to put their fragile driver’s door in the path of an oncoming steel bumper–maybe they just figure they did their part by stopping at the stop sign, and what’s everyone so upset about? Whatever the reason, it seems this disturbing trend in bonehead driving is on the rise, and it’s made me pretty paranoid about intersections.

How about you? What bonehead drivers’ habits do you fear will one day be the death of your ride?

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

We’ve all seen camouflage painted cars, but what about an invisible painted car? I just came across this art project and I think its pretty cool.

I’ve seen the same concept done for computer desktop backgrounds, but I’ve never something this difficult attempted. The coolest thing I’ve seen similar to this was a guy’s Halloween costume that simulated a large gunshot wound. The guy wired up a LCD screen in front of his stomach and ran wires to a camera on his back at the same position so that you could see right through his stomach out the back of him. I still think that’s the coolest costume I’ve ever seen.

“Twenty-two year old Sara Watson, an art student at the University of Central Lancashire, spent three weeks painting an old Skoda Fabia to blend in with its surroundings. The ‘invisible’ car is now used to advertise for a local recycling company. -BC”

Continue reading "Better than Camo: Invisble Paint" »

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

News comes that the Obama administration and the House have reached some sort of agreement or compromise on cash for clunkers, and the vague news reports make it seem like this compromise has somehow paved the way for this bill. If the compromise simply means removing the clauses that stipulate the money is to be used for domestic cars only, then I can see how that’s the case; most of the political opposition to cash for clunkers plans came from foreign automakers and associations for dealers that sold foreign makes, so removing those clauses removes that slice of opposition. And from the $4,500 figure bandied about today, it appears that of the three cash for clunkers bills in Congress, the one they’re concentrating on is Rep. Steve Israel’s H.R. 520, the House counterpart to Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s S. 247.

What’s most disconcerting about today’s news is that there seems to be no vocal opposition to cash for clunkers on Capitol Hill. Sure, we have SEMA fighting the good fight, but they’ve been rather slow on the uptake lately. And as heard in a local NPR piece, there is opposition to cash for clunkers, but what steps is that opposition taking other than writing letters and opining into microphones? Continue reading at Hemmings

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Here in the USA, the factory race cars that got the big headlines back in the 1960s were mostly the drag-package cars. Relatively stripped down and bolstered with equipment to aid in straight-line acceleration, they were the pieces to have for the demanding performance driver. Over in Europe, the racing favored the road course rather than the drag strip. Seeing an opportunity to sell some cars and boost their performance image, Ford teamed with Lotus to produce one of the hottest little cars of the 1960s: the Lotus Cortina.

The program started when Ford approached Lotus after hearing that it was working on a twin-cam version of the venerable Kent four-banger. That engine was a stalwart powerplant for Ford in its small European cars, and had the good architecture to benefit from a better breathing cylinder head and other performance upgrades. Ford came to Lotus and wanted to have enough of the hotter engines installed into the Cortinas to qualify them for competition in FIA Group Two competition. Continue reading at BangShift.com

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Volvo may not be part of the VW Audi Group, but this drift-tuned 740 from Sweden was too cool not to post. The widened steel wheels match perfectly with the Volvo’s boxy styling don’t they? I can only imagine how fun this car would be on a snowy Swedish road… The world needs more Volvo drift cars like this one. Found on the Drift Works Forum

By Mike Garrett

By Steve Neill

Steve Neill

She sat there, her aura all too familiar. Maybe someone had tried to recreate her into the legend that so many people knew? Maybe they tried to find a car that suited them? Either way, it didn’t matter now. Her blue paint faded under the harsh Tokyo sun, and peeking through the window, I could make out her tendered soul. The seats were worn, and the roll cage was starting to push down into the unibody. God could only wonder how hard she had been driven. 150? 180? 200 miles per hour? I didn’t know.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "On the Side of Route 16" »

By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

As the Automotive Traveler team’s resident AMC-oholic, it gives me great pleasure to present this car to you: an Argentine-built 1977 IKA Torino (not to be confused with Ford’s Torino) now available on eBay. But first a quick history lesson. In 1963, American Motors (AMC) won Motor Trend’s coveted Car of the Year award with the introduction of an all-new mid-sized Classic and Ambassador, and in 1964 a completely redesigned compact Rambler American was added to the lineup. It replaced a car whose basic design dated back to 1950. In an effort to minimize tooling costs, many stampings, including the doors and much of the glass, were shared among all three models. In 1964 AMC introduced stylish 2-door hardtops to both the Classic and Ambassador offerings along with the restyled American. All three models were the work of noted AMC Vice President of Styling Dick Teague. Continue reading at Automotive Traveler