By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

From compact commuter cars and SUVs, to GTs and supercars, most in our “scene” have seen just about every imaginable car “upgraded”- with the possible exception (in my case) of Zach Dunn’s 2007 Volkswagen Passat. I must admit that I had yet to see one of these cars done right. And, since I seem to be in the mood for confession, I’m not going to lie, I’ve never been the greatest fan of VWs. However, the more I see of them (especially this one), the more they’re starting to grow on me. Zach’s 2007 Passat was the first I’d seen that had been slammed and enhanced with superior fitment – and that made all the difference in the world. Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens!

By Ryan Porter

IN-N-OUT Editor

When you want to sell your car you have to think about exposure. I doubt any of you would just put a For Sale sign on the window and call it good in this day and age. Of course not, we have tons of great resources that help you get rid of your car like your favorite forum, AutoTrader (various listing fees apply), eBay Motors ($125 when it sells) and now eBay Motors Local Classifieds, which is free! Yes, you can now list your car on eBay and get the increased exposure for free. On top of that, if you’re a buyer there are some cool things, too. Every car that is listed gets an AutoCheck score so you don’t have to pay for it. No other service provides this to you for every single car in the system.

Well enough of that. If you are in the market for a 2009 Audi A5 S-Line take a look at mine. It’s for sale on eBay Motors Local Classifieds! Maybe eBay will give me a badge to put on my ride page since it’s for sale!

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Two Turkish street racers were having “fun” and ripping up the lanes in traffic when one racer loses control and slams into another motorist. The racer regains control and flees. Read more about this accident at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

We just got word from our buddies over at Royal Purple about “The Forum Wars,” an event that will pit owners of various enthusiast vehicles against each other, and it sounds pretty cool. The bad news is that to compete, you have to been able to be in Los Angeles by Friday. But the good news is that all the battles will be filmed for broadcast on SPEED, so if you’ve ever wanted to show the whole world that your driving shoes aren’t a fashion statement, this is right up your alley. Right now they’re looking for a CTS-V or an E63 Mercedes Benz to race a BMW M5, a Honda Civic Si or Mazdaspeed3 to battle a VW GTi, and a C6 Corvette to pit against a GT500 Shelby Mustang, and there are still plenty of spots. Apparently, the producers are having a hard time finding a ‘Vette owner who’s up to the challenge, so if you own one and know what you’re doing on the track, you should hit them up. Read the full press release with all the details on how to enter after the jump.

Continue reading "SoCal CTS-V, E63 AND C6 'Vette Owners, Royal Purple's "The Forum Wars" Needs You!" »

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

Tri-Point Motorsports is opening the doors to its facilities tonight. The Tri-Point team has taken its familiar blue Mazda6 and Mazda3 Touring Cars to the Speed World Challenge podium more than 12 times over the years. This makes Tri-Point BFFs with MAZDASPEED and as such Mazda’s motorsports arm is also using this opportunity to preview its 2010 World Challenge efforts. Did I mention that this is going down tonight? If you find yourself in SoCal’s San Fernando Valley (yes, it is home to more than porn and Valley Gurlz) feel free to swing by. I’ll be the one caressing the Tri-Point cars inappropriately. Here’s the deets:

Who: Members of the Automotive and Motorsports Press, MAZDASPEED enthusiasts, current, retired & future Mazda racers

What: 2010 MAZDA3 –World Challenge Touring Car Spec Product Walkaround. Join us for a soda, snacks, and high quality bench racing.

Where: Tri-Point Motorsports 21345 Deering Court Canoga Park, CA 91304

When: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Why: To check out what will be Zoom-Zooming World Challenge in 2010. Tri-Point Motorsports is now taking orders for customer cars.

How: RSVP to nicolen@tripointengineering.com

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I’ve found it a little funky-looking in some of the renderings and photos that have been circulating, but when I saw it in person in the Ford booth at SEMA, the new Nationwide-Series Mustang just looked plain mean. Plus, this is seriously historic: while Mustang has dominated a ton of other motorsports series, it’s been largely absent from national-level stock car racing, so its entry into NASCAR is a pretty big deal. And moreover, the rear sheetmetal, even though it’s a NASCAR-mandated template, looks better than the factory Mustang’s 2010 back end. The Nationwide Mustang will be running the new Roush Yates FR9, an all-new beast and a complete departure from the 351-based motor that Ford’s been running in NASCAR since ’91. More pics…

Continue reading "The New NASCAR Mustang at SEMA" »

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Now, I’m not a master mechanic or anything, but even I know that you’re supposed to shut the engine off before changing a belt. But hey, this dude seems to have the whole quick change thing under control, so who am I to judge? I’m not sure if the tension is exactly where it needs to be, but that’s another detail I’m going to overlook in light of the general trickiness of this whole operation. Damn…

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

This hybrid-electric LMP1 ran a partial season last year, even scoring a third-place finish on the first run of its fully-enabled hybrid drivetrain at Lime Rock. For 2010, Utah-based Corsa Motorsports is hoping to have the last of the bugs worked out and to put its green race car on the track for the full American Le Mans Series season. Built by Ginetta-Zytek, the car is running both a 4.o L V8 and a 45 kW electric motor. It uses a kinetic energy recovery system that stores braking energy in a large lithium-ion battery pack located under the cockpit. It was pretty cool to see it at SEMA, this car that’s likely going to make history next year and that’s on the crest of the movement toward cleaner racing. See more pics below the jump.

Continue reading "Corsa Motorsports' Hybrid Le Mans Car At SEMA" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Are you sick of SEMA yet? I just realized I never blogged Neil’s Camaro, which won the 2009 SEMA Design Award for Best GM Vehicle. Well, here are the pics I snapped of the car on Tuesday. More pics after the jump, and you can get more details on this car on Neil’s ride page!

Continue reading "Neil's Camaro" »

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

The weekend before we headed off to the SEMA show, we were running errands on a Sunday morning and crossed paths with this bad ass, totally laid out Chevy truck. We’re thinking it is a 1998 as the 1999s were restyled. There’s a bunch of subtle stuff going on here that makes us think that this truck was a professional build.

One of the neat things that we missed at first is the removal of the stock body line that runs from the front to the rear on the sides of the truck. The slab sided look is cool, and the flat blue paint is cool and different. Flat black is pretty well played out, but this flat blue is working its mojo on us. Continue reading at BangShift.com