By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

LFingA is right…having just returned from SEMA and seeing a production version LF-A in the flesh I am impressed all over again. I’ve seen a couple of LF-As in the flesh leading up to this, there was a nice red concept version at Toyota Megaweb in Japan that I molested, and then there was the Nurburgring race car at Tokyo Auto Salon last year. Yet something was different about seeing this production LF-A at SEMA.

First off, it looks F-R-E-S-H in matte black. As much as I think everyone wants to say matte black has jumped the shark as a color, it still looks damn good and I don’t think its going away anytime soon.

Continue reading "LFingA" »

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

It’s long been known that Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison were camping enthusiasts, motoring out into the wilderness for a good ol’ time (and, likely, leaving the wives at home). But did they build RVs to serve that purpose?

Allegedly, Firestone did, and one of them recently turned up in South Carolina on a 1929 Studebaker chassis, and H.A.M.B.er mottsrods shared some pics of the behemoth with us. The only real clues as to its origin – beside the apocryphal Firestone story – are the “Dulce Domum – San Marino” painted on its flanks and the Advance Auto Body Works plate screwed to the body. Continue reading at Hemmings

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Let’s put all the cards on the table: this car is ridiculously stupid. The build quality is shoddy, the care that has been given to this car is questionable, and the ride height is by no means produced by a human with a single ounce of rational thought. Why would you take a prized relic such as this Nissan 240z and completely ruin it, turning it into some pretentious piece of metal that serves no function other than itself? Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Linhbergh Nguyen

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

This little number was residing over at the “Green Car” display area, in which the Ugly Prius, and the Electric Porsche 912 was also on display. So you are wondering, why is a tricked out 1956 Ford Pickup hanging around with electric and hybrid vehicles? Two Words; Liquid Propane. Read more after the jump!

Continue reading "Propane Powered 1956 Ford F-100 Pickup by Steve's Hot Rod Shop at SEMA!" »

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

To make the decision about my Rabbit rot issue, I called on a few of my friends in the MkI VW world. The answer was unanimous: major frame repair on a unibody car is an expensive ordeal that is not always successful. Even if I restored the rear end, I’d still have to deal with the front end, which has its own host of rust and rot problems. By the time I got done with it all, I’d have the most expensive 160K mile VW Rabbit on the planet. I put out some feelers to see what I was looking at in the way of replacing it and turned up a tired but structurally sound example sitting in a field about 50 miles from my house. It was delivered last week for the princely sum of $50, and I’m well into stripping it bare after filling up every trash can I own with the ratty interior. It’s another 1982 (yay!) – a big plus as all of my year-specific trims will transfer over nicely. The few parts that require welding can be cut out of Jinjur’s shell. So here it is – meet my new bunny, Tip!

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

At a recent quarter mile track meet, a Corvette running nitrous oxide exploded! Within a flash, flames and smoke start pouring out of the hood of this nimble C6. What happened here? Was it a leaky fuel line, or was it a result of running too much nitrous? Corvette’s do not randomly explode, so obviously it was hopped up on the funny fumes. This is one reason why I don’t like nitrous oxide. If you want more power, build it don’t spray it! Read more about this nitrous explosion at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

Earlier this summer, I posted about some of the problems I’d been having with my Rabbit. My rear axle swap turned into a nightmare of cut studs, mangled metal, and major frame rot. It seemed like every time I thought I’d found some good metal to weld to, well, I was wrong. I realized that the unitbody was pretty much beyond salvaging at that point, so I faced the decision no car person likes to make: scrap it and move on, or kill myself trying to fix it. I spent two months meditating on the matter. I made my decision last week. What would you do if you were staring at this, and this was the good side?

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

It’s a sad day when you see a luxury sports car as grand as the Jaguar XK8 be a part of a parking lot failure. Watch as this Jaguar gets driven over the curb. Dangling for its life like a cat stuck in a tree, the Jaguar patiently waits for the rescue team. Read more at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

In case you missed it, we uploaded over 200 SEMA videos over at StreetFire.net! These are mostly quick walk-around videos shot with small hand-held cameras. We’ll be posting more produced video from SEMA in the coming weeks. Here’s one I shot in the DUB booth while they were setting up on Monday.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I went out with John, Jen and Michelle on Thursday night for our traditional post-SEMA Vegas blowout. We started with a ride on the NASCAR roller coaster at the Sahara, followed by a somewhat barfy meal in the casino. Next stop was a huge cheesy souvenir shop (John was hoping to find another Lucky 777 hat, but failed) and then we headed over to Terrible’s for a night of cheap drinks and quality entertainment. Thanks again to John, Jen and Jim for all the awesome blogs, and to Michelle for the great walk-around videos (and Jim, next time you have to go out with us!). And thanks to all the CarDomain members and readers for making this all possible (and sorry the blog comments don’t seem to be working for many of you–we know about it, and we’re working on it). So tune in again next year for another round of SEMA coverage! Oh, and we’ll start our Best of SEMA voting on Wednesday.

Continue reading "Last Night in Vegas" »