By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

I got back to Los Angeles from Florida late Tuesday night, and I’m completely stoked to be back in La La Land. It’s not home yet, but I guess it’s close enough. Anyway, this week’s winner is leojmcca, who came up with; “You darn Autobots are going to have to sleep outside if you’re not house broken.” Congrats, man! Tune in tomorrow for the next installment of our insanely popular Caption Contest, and have a safe and happy New Year!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

So this is the fourth year I’ve done this. Not an easy task with over 700,000 rides!

Ratiki has the coolest headliner on CarDomain!

This Dodge Polara has a great story.

The ISMA Challenger kicked butt at this year’s Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge.

Vance built one crazy Fox body!

Eighty 1 Design’s Nova is amazing.

Casey’s Willys restomod is too cool!

Afrim’s MR2 is nuts!

Henry’s Shelby GT350 is beautiful!

Robert has done a great job with his $300 Civic!

And finally, the Veilside Fortune RX7 is a an awesome work in progress!

Of course, this is just a snapshot of the site as a whole, and obviously I missed a ton of cool stuff. Check out my lists from 2006, 2007 and 2008 and then post some of your favorites below!

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Welcome to the year end wrap-up of the Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot. If you recall, this series was all about uncovering obscure makes, and redefining what a Muscle Car could be. We have discovered that Muscle originated during the 1950s, blossomed during the 1960s, and continued on through the 70s and 80s in a somewhat de-tuned state only to find a re-birth we are enjoying today. My focus was not to highlight the already established Muscle Cars like the Chevelle SS, the Pontiac GTO, or the Hemi Chryslers, but to find hidden gems that you may not have known about.

So during this week, it is now up to you, the Car Domain reader, to vote on your favorites. There will be specific categories, like today’s example, the 1960′s Unknowns. In the end, sometime after the New Years Holiday, there will be one car crowned as your favorite Obscure Muscle Car, and park it in the Parking Lot, with a few CarDomain Members rides highlighted.

So, what is your favorite little known Muscle Car from the period dominated by muscle cars?
- The 1962-1963 Oldsmobile F-85 Jetfire, Americas first Turbocharged V8!
- The 1963 Studebaker R2 Super Lark, and the R2 Super Hawk, both with Supercharged V8s!
- The AMC Rambler Marlin, predecessor to the great Javelin and AMX models.
- The 1968 – 70 Oldsmobile Toronado W-34, the first Front Wheel Drive Muscle Car!
- The Ford Galaxie 500 7 Litre, from 1966 – 67, Big Power in a full sized car!
- The 1963 to 1965 Buick Riviera. Classically proportioned Muscle, that was also luxurious!
- The 1968 Dodge Dart GTS 440; a very rare compact Muscle Car.
- The 1965 Chrysler 300-L; The Bankers Hot Rod!
- The Turbocharged Corvair, an unusual choice, and the second Turbocharged American Car.
- The Beaumont SD, and mix of Chevrolet and Pontiac for our Canadian Neighbors.
- The 1968 Mercury Cougar XR7-G; A tribute model for Dan Gurney.
- The 1969 AMC Hurst S/CRambler, an outrageous Rambler, in an eye searing color scheme.
- The 1968 Pontiac Grand Prix; Different Body, the year before the Mid Sized Grand Prix debuted.
- The Studebaker Avanti – Ahead of its time, too little to save Studebaker.

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

I wish I knew more about transmissions and how to rebuild them. Since I don’t, I’ve farmed my 5th gear swap out to the same shop that’s doing my clutch, as they will have the trans out anyway. I’m going from an 0.84 to an 0.79. The perfect 0.74 gear that I would like to be putting in does not exist, and jumping to 0.69 would require re-gearing third and fourth as well. It would also make for some hilariously impractical ratios, as the Volkswagen gods gave the US the short 3.5 input shaft and the second-shortest top gear available in an 02M box. In my dream world, I have the DVS gearset – the tall 3.1 input shaft with an 0.64 top gear. Top speed for that set is over 180mph. The 0.84 gear limits me to 140, perfectly compatible with USDOT.

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Nearly shattering the dyno with almost 2,000 horsepower, the NRE 1969 Camaro sports 1750 horsepower. To keep a monster like this a daily driver takes exceptional skill and mechanical engineering. Chugging along, the high power is available almost instantly thanks to twin turbos. Read more about the 1750 horsepower 1969 Camaro at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

Ron Bergenholtz of Bergenholtz Racing sent us the cover shot from the upcoming February 2010 issue Super Street before it even drops on newsstands. As you can see the cover star is BR’s Formula Drift RX-8. The Bergenholtz brothers made the switch from drag to drift a few seasons back and with Justin Pawlak on the controls this car came in Ninth in the 2009 standings. In the Super Street story Ron describes the details of the build and having seen the car up close and personal I can assure you it is quite a fine piece of fabrication. The issue goes on sale on January 1 on newsstands everywhere. Well, every newsstand that sells Super Street that is.

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

In writing circles, it’s totally fashionable to bitch about having to do “Best Of” lists at the turn of the calender. But I love my job, I know I’m spoiled, and honestly? I like looking back. So with that in mind, and in no particular order, I humbly submit my top ten car videos of 2009.

Rhys Millen’s Climb Attack: Pike’s Peak is the spot that inspired “America the Beautiful,” and it looks even better when Rhys Millen is tearing up it.

Ken Block’s Gymkhana Two: Whether he topped the original is up for debate, but regardless, Block’s video was one of 2009′s best.

Latvala’s Outrageous Crash It’s not like I’ve never seen a rally car crash before, but damn. Latvala’s hillside wreck is beyond burly.

Larry Larson’s  Nova Runs 6.93: I’ve driven a lot of fast machines, but I’ve never driven a six-second car. I imagine this is like launching in a fighter.

Roger Keeney’s Driving Lesson: In-car racing clips get uploaded to StreetFire all the time, but this is the most magnificent one I’ve seen. Ever.

IMV Films Gymkhana Spoof: Ken Block deserves credit for his Gymkhana videos, but this spoof proved that anything can be topped.

Jeff Siefert’s Glamis Canal Jump: There are people who have balls, and then there are people who have cojones. Wow.

Bugatti Crashing into Texas Lake: The internet is loaded with pics of wrecked exotic cars, but how often do you see an accident like this?

SRT-10 Burnout Goes Big Time Wrong: “Epic fail” gets thrown around a lot these days, but is there a clip that it describes better than this one?

Crazy Finns All-Motor Rally Crash Comp: Most crash comps have terrible Euro-tech soundtracks, but this one is all-motor, and it’s beautiful.

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Look, I know that there are a lot of rich people in the world. And I know that while they’re hardly common, the Bentley Continental and the Maybach 62 are produced in numbers, and that the distribution of wealth is such that these two uber-rides are going to wind up in close proximity. But what are the chances these two cars would actually hit? Only in Russia…

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Welcome to the year end wrap-up of the Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot. If you recall, this series was all about uncovering obscure makes, and redefining what a Muscle Car could be. We have discovered that Muscle originated during the 1950s, blossomed during the 1960s, and continued on through the 70s and 80s in a somewhat de-tuned state only to find a re-birth we are enjoying today. My focus was not to highlight the already established Muscle Cars like the Chevelle SS, the Pontiac GTO, or the Hemi Chryslers, but to find hidden gems that you may not have known about.

So it is now up to you, the Car Domain reader, to vote on your favorites. There will be specific categories, like today’s example, the 1950s Cruisers. In the end, sometime after the New Years Holiday, there will be one car crowned as your favorite Obscure Muscle Car, and park it in the Parking Lot, with a few CarDomain Members rides highlighted.

So what was your favorite 50′s cruiser from the Series?
- The 1957 Rambler Rebel, defined as the one car that started the Muscle Car Period.
- The 1958 Packard Hawk, with it’s Supercharged V8, and were very rare.
- The 1957 Pontiac Bonneville, the car that ushered in Performance at Pontiac.
- The Studebaker Golden Hawk, with either a Packard Big Block, or a Supercharged Small Block.
- The Fabulous Hudson Hornet, a car that virtually dominated NASCAR during the first half of the 50s.
- The 1957 Supercharged Fords (Called the F-Series), which included the Thunderbird, and at least one Wagon!
- The Dual-Ghia, with Chrysler Power, and Movie Star Panache.
- The Dodge D-500, with rip snorting power, and huge tail fins!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Reserve not met. Go figure. eBay via Jalopnik

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