By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Via Hella Flush

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

David Schmader, who writes a column for Seattle’s local alt-weekly, The Stranger, has probably made me laugh harder than any other writer, and he’s often said that “one of the funniest things a human being can do is fall down.” Now, I don’t really agree with that statement—I think one of the funniest things a human being can do is write like David Schmader—but that doesn’t mean Michelle Heaton’s faceplant yesterday wasn’t hilarious. The British pop singer was helping contestant Steve Rayner unveil Ford’s new Fiesta on the Irish version of The Apprentice when her heel got caught on the cover, and she hit the deck. She was totally fine, but it does make Rayner’s prior characterization of her as “slick, stylish and attractive” sound somewhat ironic. Head over to Sky News, for all the details on the show, or if you’re an American and don’t care, just watch the video below.

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

All kinds of new stuff at THE HOLLYWOOD GARAGE for the Holidays. Sport some MAD MOVIE CARS and be stylin!’

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

OK, it’s not like it takes very long for things to go sideways during a drag race, but Steve Gasparrelli’s accident at the Auto Club finals must have set some kind of record. He barely got past the Christmas tree before his funny car jackknifed and nailed the opposite wall! And while there are plenty of repeats and a few different angles in this clip, I’d really love to see a sideways shot from his competitor’s pit, because it looks like you couldn’t get a credit card between his machine and the hind quarters of the other car. Luckily, everyone was OK.

By Ryan Porter

IN-N-OUT Editor

You have no idea how many e-mails we get about ratings. Members are constantly concerned about the members who’ve rated their car and until now we couldn’t really help anyone out all that much. Well guess what, now you can see who rated your car and how they rated it!

I don’t know about you, but I find this to be awesome. I’d much rather know who took the time to leave me a rating verses who left me a comment. From there I can check out their rides and leave them a more personal message.

To find this, go to your ride page, scroll down to your guestbook and click on Ratings on the right hand side.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

UPDATE: 12-18 8:15AM

I wanted to give you a heads up on a few changes that we’ve made.  First we’ve gone through cleaned up votes from nearly 17,000 non-authentic users who over the years had joined only to leave bad ratings.  We looked for users with out complete profiles who had been leaving notoriously bad ratings to everyone.  (Our search was far more complex than my above statement but that covers the gist of it.)

Second, XTZTwinTurbo pointed out another behind the scenes feature that I would like to address.  Behind the curtains there is a lot of magic going on to keep ratings fair and one is a tool to stop repetitive votes coming from the same IP or in other words from the same household.  What this means is that uses can no log in from multiple accounts a the same location and voe for the same car weather it be good or bad.  Tools like this and many others are all things we’re doing to make ratings the best feature we can.  -Ryan

By Ryan Porter

IN-N-OUT Editor

If you’re like me you have a hard time coming up with a Christmas list that has genuinely good gifts on it and that’s why guys like us end up getting socks for Christmas every year. Why not put some items on that list that will make you happy every time you step foot in your garage? Yeah, I’m talking Griot’s Garage style!

Check out some of our Christmas list picks from Griot’s Garage after the jump.

Continue reading "Garage Gift Ideas For The Holidays From Griot’s Garage" »

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I decided to mix it up a bit for this week’s eBay Motors Showdown. How about this wild Hudson Metropolitan pro street vs. this cool Volvo PV544 hot rod? Check out the auction links for all the details on these rides and then let us know–which would you choose?

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

When I moved to Seattle in ’96, my first job was valeting cars for a hotel. And while I personally never did anything totally heinous with a customer’s ride, I saw plenty—read, plenty—of unprofessional behavior during my stint there. Of course, none of the hooliganism I was saw was documented on the internet, because way back then, computers still ran on punch cards. Anyway,  according to Jalopnik, the guys responsible for this video worked for Atlanta-based AAA Valets, which was contracted to drive for the Hyatt in St. Louis, and unsurprising, the hotel no longer uses AAA. Most of the shots in here are just of burnouts, but there are some pretty close calls… Does it make you think twice about using a valet?

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

There are few cooler guys or cars on the planet than Don Prudhomme and his killer restored 1970 ‘Cuda flopper. It is the car that launched the Snake and Mongoose rivalry that packed drag strips from sea to shining sea for years and launched Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen into super stardom. In this video, Jay Leno and Snake check out the car and the incredible transporter it rides around on. Ace tipster Darr Hawthorne pointed us in the direction of this video.

The interesting thing that not everyone may know is that this tandem, the car and the truck, are going up for sale at Barrett Jackson this winter. The truck, as you will see in the video, carries the original crew shirts, Prudhomme’s original driving suit, and a spare, period correct Hemi. This one will probably be the highest bid item at BJ 2010. It is going to bring a fortune.

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

During my past trip to Japan I had dinner with one of my friends who is a famous aero parts designer. In the course of the evening’s conversation on design he schooled me on something that I should have known but never did…and it blew my mind!

Did you all know that the Lamborghini Diablo uses Z32 300ZX (Fairlady Z) headlights? I consider myself to be a bit of a car nerd and I had no idea of this fascinating fact, which looking back is quite an embarrassment because I should know things like this!!!

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Interesting Piece of JDM x Italian Supercar History" »