By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

I’ve been noticing quite a few Nissan Cubes driving on the highways here in California recently. Every time I see one the road, I think about how cool it would look with some proper wheels and good stance. This Z12 Cube dropped low on what look to be SSR Professor MS1R’s shows just how nice these things can look when done right. Found on Minkara of course.

I’m interested to see if there’s going to be any of these on display at SEMA this year…

By Mike Garrett

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

For those of you not in the Studebaker cult, this is the mother of all Studebaker performance engines. It’s the Hemi, ZL1, and SOHC Ford of the Studebaker world and because they are as rare as hen’s teeth, when one comes up for sale, it demands big numbers. This one went for $25,000.

The engines were built by Paxton Products for Studebaker back when Andy Granatelli was being hired out to make horsepower and publicity for Studebaker. As is stated in the ad, engines identical to this one powered two Studes to international speed and endurance records with Andy himself behind the wheel.

It’s not the romper, stomper flashy piece that a Hemi is, but put in a light car with the right gearing, this sucker could terrorize the streets with the best of them. There was lots of super tuning done to these motors with respect to balancing and precision machining, but the coolest parts in our book are the dual quad intake manifold and the special Granatelli-only (not repopped) cylinder heads.

This is the ultimate “factory” Studebaker motor. Thanks for the tip Joe Roberts! Here’s the ad

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

Following up on the popular garage life post from a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to share pictures of one of Nigo’s homes and specifically his garage (pictured above). Nigo is of course the founder of A Bathing Ape clothing in Japan and owner of the hilarious pink BAPE camo’d Bugatti Veyron featured years ago on this blog (as well as a BAPE camo Phantom and camo classic gullwing SL Benz).

I think Nigo’s goal in spending is to singlehandedly keep the Japanese economy afloat. With the mass of stuff he manages to accumulate, he might be pulling it off. Next time you blow a couple hundred on some Bapestas, you’ll clearly know where a bulk of your money is going… Continue reading at The Read JDM

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I just realized that I hadn’t written anything about Emilio’s Duster this season. So I just checked his ride pageand saw that he ticked off a string of 9.68s at Englishtown in May. Check out the video below, and if you’re interested, here’s the longer uncut version with less music and more engine sounds.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

After Chris sent me this disturbing wreck photo of a squashed smart today, I was cruising for pics of smarts met with violent ends and stumbled upon this story. Apparently, the latest and greatest in the persecution of the quirky microcars is to lift them up and dump them into the nearest drink. (Relax: the photo is fake). With a curb weight of around 1600 lbs, they’re among the lightest rides on the road. I guess they’re easily liftable once you dial in the right mix of strapping lads and alcohol, and something about the combo of the smart’s diminutive size and the stigma attached to their nerdy owners is clearly making them a target for rugby teams and roving herds of middle-aged frat boys. There’s been a quiet trend of such cases in Europe, and law enforcement is said to be keeping it hush-hush to avoid encouraging a rash of copy-cats. Via The Sun.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

You know the drill: Come up with a caption for the picture below by noon PST next Thursday. If you submit the funniest one, we’ll send you some CarDomain swag. Three entries per member max. Good luck!

By Chris Borrelli

Chris Borrelli

Motor Trend has recently put the biggest of the big dogs head-to-head. MT put the Dodge Challenger SRT8, the Chevy Camaro Hennessey HPE550, and Ford Shelby Mustang GT500 in an all out comparo. You may remember a similar comparo back in March, but there was so much controversy with that one that MT did this one all out with the top level of all three vehicles.

Drum Roll please…………… Third place goes to the Dodge Challenger SRT8, second place goes to the Chevy Camaro Hennessey HPE550, and first place is the Ford Shelby Mustang GT500! Full article at Motor Trend

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

Yea, some interesting things appeared this week in design, although some of it came and went kinda quick. But here’s what caught my eye and a lil’ somthin’ from the Fireball. Ready… set… GO!

1. THE MORGAN LIFECAR

This is really cool, although LIFECAR seems to be a name given to a type of car that includes some sort of Paramedic activity. Actually, that could be cool. Imagine heading to your harem when your ticker begins to give you a palpatation or two. TADA! The Lifecar! Stick you fingers in the appropriate “LifeHoles” on the “LifeWheel” steering apparatus and ZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPP! Ticker Re-Start!

Off to the “LifeHarem” you go… Done.

Continue reading "Fireball's Cool Designs of the Week!" »

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

Remember the sexy silver machine from last week’s post about Seattle vintage race car builders Racecraft? The 1966 BMW 2000CS served as the design inspiration for some of the most gorgeous BMWs ever to roam the Autobahn, dazzling enough to warrant closer inspection on MotorMavens. Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

We rushed to get up footage of the qualifying rounds last Friday, but here’s a slightly more polished look at the action by our videographer Andy Hanson. Stay tuned for video of last Saturday’s action from Will Roegge.