By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

When Ken Block released the Ken Block Gymkhana video six months ago, it blew up like a bomb. Now the follow up is in the can, and we’re all wondering just how the hell he’s going to top it. Unfortunately, we’re going to have to wait until June 1st to see exactly what he’s come up with. But he just hosted a little preview session for the media down in LA, and StreetFire’s cameras were there to get the scoop.  Enjoy this teaser and stay tuned!

Ken Block’s Gymkhana TWO video

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Lots of people just wake up with a hangover after Memorial Day, but one Seattle man greeted Tuesday with the knowledge that he’d trashed his Porsche. Of course, given the car left the road at high-speed and hit a utility pole before flying into 15 feet of water off Seattle’s Alki beach, that doesn’t exactly rule out a hangover. Details come from KOMO News, which has reported the accident occurred about 2AM, and that the 50 year-old driver—who was alone in the vehicle—was able to free himself before firefighters arrived. Alki is a beautiful stretch of road and a popular cruising spot, and this isn’t the first time speeding drivers have lost it on this corner. But this Porsche might hold the distance record! We’ve got one more shot after the jump, and KOMO has a bunch more pics and a video of the story.

Continue reading "Seattle Man Crashes His Porsche Into the Drink" »

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

I got a firsthand look at Rhys Millen’s Hyundai Genesis bodykit packages at SEMA last year, and I thought the car was  pretty sweet. From what I can tell, the ride he’s racing in Formula D is sporting the same carbon fiber panels, and in addition to being drift-ready, it’ll be able to handle the Pike’s Peak Hill Climb and run time attack. But while a lot of development has gone into the new machine, Millen hasn’t been having the best season. The former champ is currently running 15th in the standings, and in this clip, he doesn’t sound too happy about the judging. Hopefully, he’ll have some better luck in New Jersey next weekend.

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Engine swaps are always going to be tricky, and that’s ten-times as true when you plan on monkeying with any of Enzo’s handiwork. But it looks like the guys at Nimik did one hell of a job swapping a 355 motor into an old Citroen 2CV. The way all those Italian ponies look splayed out in the back of the van is one thing, but the way this baby moves—and takes a corner!—is something else. Bellissima!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This week it’s the battle of the city hipster cars. The Mini weighs 2,850 pounds and is powered by a turbo four banger which puts out 172 hp. The Volvo weighs 3,200 pounds and is powered by a turbo five cylinder which puts out 227 hp. The Mini gets 26/34 mpg while the Volvo gets 20/28 mpg. Both start around $24k and are available with 6 speed manuals. Which would you choose?

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

By a general consensus, most gearheads feel that the Chrysler takeover by Fiat will end in some sort of disaster. The question is only if it will be long-term disaster, short-term disaster, or the latest option, an explosion on the launch pad.

Several pension funds in Indiana have filed court paperwork that if recognized would delay the merger/sale/government takeover of Chrysler to the point that it would not longer be feasible and the company would be liquidated and essentially dissolve in front of our very eyes. The documents have been filed because those pension funds are not being paid their outstanding debts while other debtors with less debt and less tenure are being paid first.

Interestingly enough, the papers filed by the funds are asking the court to check the constitutionality of what is happening and state their concern that the government does not have the authority to do what they are doing.

This has much larger implications that Chrysler. If the case is taken up and makes its way up the food chain we could literally be seeing a scenario with the Supreme Court ruling on this. If that happened, Chrysler would be dead and buried, but the legal precedent would be huge.

Click here to see the whole Reuters story and join us in counting down until Fiat jumps ship.

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

There’s no doubt that the Honda S2000 is an amazing platform for tuning, especially with its 240hp, 9000rpm F20C. But ultimately, the S2000 has limitations that were imposed by the manufacturing, comfort, safety and cost targets that Honda had to reach. The World Class Motorsports never had to deal with any such issues when creating the Ultralite S2K. Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "The Ultimate S2000 Bolt-On" »

By Ryan Porter

IN-N-OUT Editor

I’m sad to announce that we are planning to remove Groups from CarDomain in June. We released Groups in 2007, but it never really caught with the community. There have been a few popular groups, some clever groups and number of off-topic and random groups, but none of them are very active. So we had a choice to make. Do we invest considerable time and energy to try to make this feature a success, or do we continue to focus on our core strength—ride pages and member functionality? We chose the latter. We’re sorry that we have to take away a cool product, but we hope that this step will lead to a better overall experience for all of our members. Stay tuned for more cool features, and of course, we always welcome your input and feedback.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Ryan just sent this to me. Nicely done.

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

A good number of the vehicles at the 2009 Cruisin’ Nationals were pickup trucks, and to overlook them would be to ignore an important and fast growing part of the rod and custom scene. Check out the full gallery at Speedhunters

By Mike Garrett