By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

As I’ve written before, I’m not a big fan of scooters. I’ve ridden one twice, and taking one of those under-powered machines out into traffic feels like wading into a shark tank carrying a bucket of chum. So I thought this clip was pretty hysterical. I mean, what do you think is going to happen when you take something as unstable as a scooter and try to drag it? And how long does this thing’s wheelie bar really have to be? It looks a little excessive…

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Cars that radically shake up the status quo are rare, whether in racing, rallying, drifting or on the street. Often it’s down to performance or the implementation of new technology under the body, but upon its launch in 1971 almost every aspect of the Lancia Stratos was shocking. Remember, the car that won the previous year’s World Rally Championship was the Renault Alpine A110 with its ’60s curves. The Stratos didn’t just represent a new decade but a whole new style of race car attitude – dedicated to win on the track, to capture the imagination of customers and make their wallets follow. The livery of this 1974 example (chassis 1590, the 90th car built) may have changed to reflect current owner (and drinks magnate) Steve Perez’s sponsor, but the soul of the car hasn’t changed and Goodwood’s rally stage was the perfect chance to get up close. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Jonathan Moore

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

In our recent post on Checker dealerships, frequent commenter Errcoman informed us that Checker offered its cars in police trim as well as taxi trim. Reader Gene Herman also sent us a scan of a 1964 or 1965 Checker brochure that offered a police package Checker. Though, as with most other Checker products, one could order a Checker cop car pretty much any way one wanted. To confirm this, we went to John Weinhoeft, who pointed us to a few recent articles in the Checkerboard News about Checkers as cop cars, as well as this photo of Checker collector Ben Merkel’s Checker cop car, which originally patrolled Key West, Florida. Continue reading at Hemmings.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This Camaro, located in the UK, was “restored in the Japanese street racer style.” Um, ok. See the eBay auction for the rest of the pics. Thanks Tony for the tip!

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

I’ve been moving along on getting the rear disc setup on the Rabbit, and with four of the six required nuts loose, I crawled underneath on Saturday morning to tackle the remaining pair. Only they weren’t a pair. One nut was rusty and nasty, but came loose after a four-day penetrating oil-a-thon. The other nut was not cooperating. Since I was working a bit blind, I hadn’t worried that I couldn’t get my socket onto it when I first tried it, and just moved on to the other one. Now, I had to get my head in there and find out what the hold up was. It turned out to be a weld—someone had welded the axle mount to the captive bolt on the body. I admit, I kind of panicked. But there’s a light at the end of the story—more on that tomorrow.

By Chris Borrelli

Chris Borrelli

This past Friday the 22 year old driver of the Oscar  Meyer Wienermobile accidentally crashed into a home in Racine, Wisconsin. There were no injuries, but some serious damage to the house.  Via Associated Press.

By Ron Honig

WaytooFurious

I have always had an interest in alternative fuels. Don’t get me wrong, I am no tree hugger. However over time I have realized that there can be cheaper ways to power your car, rather than simply pumping it full of gas (petrol). For instance I have been running my Valiant on propane for 10 years. Before I converted it my weekly commutes cost me $100. The conversion cut my fuel bill in half! I commute by train these days, but hate to think what it would cost to do the trip on gas at today’s prices. That’s why I was interested to hear that the folks at Ohio University were conducting research to turn waste water into hydrogen. Apparently they convert waste water into ammonia which in turn is converted to hydrogen. As long as it’s cheap it sounds good to me. Get the full story here.

By David Clarke

highspeedhijinks

I’ve always had a pre-occupation with art, photography, and cars. But like my teachers always said, doodling in class doesn’t make it an art class. The same could be said about a car nut with a camera not being considered a photographer. But if you want a quick recipe for some cool shots, I’ve got some simple ingredients for ya. Take one junkyard, add a setting sun, and mix it up with some out of the norm camera angles and you might end up with some cool photos you can use as wallpaper or hang in your garage. Below are a few examples I took the other day of this slowly decaying Pontiac Safari Wagon. I hope to get them blown up in black and white and add a nice sophisticated touch to my otherwise dull garage. More pics after the jump.

Continue reading "Easy Art Photos" »

By Austin Knight

Gotadime

This weekend, I attended the annual world-class car event at Keeneland. That event is the Concours d’Elegance. The featured manufacturer this year was Morgan. It really was great to see so many world-class vehicles in such a stunning venue and my camera sure did have a blast eating up all of the scenes. From the classic Packard to the straight-off-the-boat Audi R8, this show had it all and I did my best to capture as much I could in the little time I had. Feast your eyes on the scene below and check out the full gallery at my Flickr page.

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

The Nismo version of the GT-R built for the Japanese GT series doesn’t have much in common with it’s road-going cousin. In fact, the only piece the two cars share is the roof. But really, who cares? There’s some great footage of the weapons-grade machine tearing up the track here, and Race Engineer Ricardo Divila provides some interesting info about the car’s specs in this clip, though he never tells us why Nismo went with a V8 instead of using the car’s famous six. Anybody have an idea?