By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Ok, I know I’m biased, but I think Mopar always has the best OEM booth at SEMA. And it looks like this year will not disappoint, despite the whole bankruptcy thing. Just check out this Wrangler “Lower Forty” with its 40-inch tires! Badass! Apparently there is no suspension or body lift on this Rubicon. But the fender flares are four inches higher and an inch wider. I really dig the chopped, integrated roll cage.Three more concepts after the jump, and you can read more about these vehicles over at Autoblog

Continue reading "SEMA Preview: Four Mopar Concepts" »

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

There’s a lame saying about old drag cars and how they never die. That it is total crap. Old drag cars get bent, wrecked, blown up, burned down, hacked up, and restored to factory condition all the time. That’s why one that survives with the total package of history, coolness, a winning pedigree, and a brighter racing future is special. The King Komet 1968 Mercury Cyclone is so special it’s nearly sublime. Continue reading at BangShift.com

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Though listed as a “1953 Unspecified” on Hemmings.com, I was able to turn up a little bit more about this fiberglass-bodied roadster built by brothers Wally and Harry Hansen of Inglewood, California. Commonly called the Hansen Cobra, they only built two such examples: this one, for sale out of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, for $75,000; and another in the Petersen Automotive Museum that Geoff Hacker spotted on a recent trip to Southern California. One of the two also appeared in the 1959 movie Roadracers, which featured the tagline “Screeching Hell on Wheels … is it Sport or Murder?!” Continue reading at Hemmings

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

This past weekend when I was in Fuji Speedway for the D1-GP there was another event back in central Tokyo that I really wanted to check out, the yearly Mille Miglia Japan classic car race. 103 cars set-off from Harajuku, right in front of the Meiji shrine on Saturday afternoon and headed on a 3-day, 1000-mile drive that would take them all the way up to Fukushima-ken and back down towards Tokyo, passing Honda’s Twin Ring Motegi race track in Tochigi-ken and the famous Umihotaru Parking Area in the middle of the Aqua Line expressway. Their return to Harajuku was scheduled to begin on Tuesday evening so I jumped on the train and headed to what has to be one of Tokyo’s most fashionable areas. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

You might not immediately think of the Dominican Republic when you think of drifting, but last month, the biggest drifting club in the DR, the Club Dominicano de Corredores de Drift (referred to as CDCD) put together a huge drift event and concert together with their racetrack’s title sponsor, Brahma Light. Casper Canul and I were invited to do a drift demo with our US-based Formula D cars during their drift series-opening event on September 19th, 2009.

We went out there a couple of days early to prep our cars, test and setup their new drift track, marking all of the clipping points and track outline of the course. We spoke with the drivers and setup a driver’s meeting on competition day to go over all of the judging criteria and track rules with their local judges.  Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Worried that your EV might be powered by electricity produced by burning coal? Then charge it at one of these new portable solar EV charging stations built by SunPods. This solution is being rolled out in San Jose, but could come to your city in the near future. Via Autopia

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

So, off I went up into to town to have coffee with my buddy Ted Silverberg at the local Starbucks. As I pulled into the parking lot, I was nearly run over by another buddy of mine, Mr. SuperSurfer and Waterman Laird Hamilton. You know when Laird’s around because his Hummer is way bigger than anyone else.

This is not a show truck. This monster does the real deal and is always dirty. And since Laird travels the world doing things that no one else would ever consider, this car is all him. Check THIS out. Yes, that’s Laird. Heart of stone cold adrenaline, plus coffee. And you thought I was nuts…

Continue reading "Fireball Hanging with Laird Hamilton and a Beast…" »

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Who knew that a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution was capable of a 221 mph standing mile run? The ultimate in JDM performance, this EVO II is an amazing tribute to the tuner’s ability to outperform larger displacement engines. Extensive work went into rebuilding the entire vehicle for this run, and the small two liter was pushed to the limit. With an original OEM spec top speed of 112 mph, this car nearly doubles that top speed within one mile, from a dead stop launch!

All-wheel drive and a lightweight chassis create a very high horsepower to weight ratio. The total power of this vehicle is unknown. How much power do you think it has? By the sound of boost, engine grunt, and high RPM red line I would guess somewhere around 600 to 800 awhp. To run this kind of power in the EVO II, a complete rebuild is required. High strength transmission and drive line combined with race quality engine internals is the only setup that will withstand this kind of boost. Chances are, it won’t last for long even with the best parts to run the type of boost required for a 221 mph standing mile.  For more information about the 221 mph Lancer, visit Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Check out our new copper red mica Mazda3 i Touring 4-Door test car! Ok, so it’s a boring FWD automatic sedan, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun with it. With the auto and the moonroof/6CD/Bose package, the MSRP is pushed up close to $21k. But still, it seems like a pretty decent car for the money. I’ll be driving it around town and then down to Portland this weekend, and will give you my full review next week. Stay tuned…

Continue reading "In the CarDomain Garage: Mazda3 i Touring 4-Door" »

By admin

admin

Adam Carolla is a car guy.  Sure, you may know him from The Adam Carolla Show, Comedy Central’s The Man Show, Loveline or his feature film, The Hammer, but what you may not know is Adam is a diehard car enthusiast with a great love for racing.

Adam Carolla has launched a new podcast series called CarCast.  Carolla, with co-host Sandy “The Professor” Ganz, takes your calls, chats with celebrity guests and discusses just about everything cars that you can throw at them.  Recent guests have included Jay Leno, Christopher Titus, Steve Saleen, Dax Shepard and more.

Carolla is great and rants in his typical, hilarious fashion about everything from front-wheel drive cars to automotive movie muffs.

Adam Carolla’s CarCast is available on iTunes and you can visit Motorator for all the CarCast videos.