By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

We think it will also result in a marked reduction in the amount of lovin’ you receive from the opposiste sex, but imagine the money you’ll save in gas! This modification was worth a 15 percent increase in fuel economy. We’re still not rushing out to do it, though.

The guy who made this aerodynamic boattail and who owns the Geo Metro it’s attached to is Canadian Darin Cosgrove. He’s one of the more well known guys in the “hyper-miler” community, where people modify their cars and driving styles to achieve far better MPGs than manufacturers thought possible. This little car gets about 65 mpg with its new tail, but according to the story on Wired.com, Cosgrove has another car that can average 99 mpg when driven properly.

Parallel parking that thing must suck.

LINK: Wired.com story about Darin Cosgrove’s Metro.

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Ah, we meet again, Mr. Waibel. I last saw your Porsche prototype in the Imperial Palace’s collection in April, for sale for $275,000, and it seems you found a buyer, because now Cooper Classics in New York has your prototype for sale on Hemmings.com for an undisclosed sum. Continue reading at Hemmings

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

For me, a car’s most important quality is the way it makes you feel when you jump behind the wheel. It’s something that goes beyond acceleration figures, chassis design, and the quality of the parts. Sure those things are important, but it’s that connection between man’s feelings and the machine that defines a great car. Many cars can trigger those feelings, whether it’s a high dollar exotic, a simple Japanese sports car, or a home-built race car. But what about an American muscle car? Now a lot of people might see muscle cars as wasteful, hulking, barbaric, sloppy machines – and maybe they are. But that’s what makes them so great. Continue reading at Speehunters

By Mike Garrett

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

GM has decided to drop the December 31 bidding deadline and has even announced that production of the new Saab 9-5 will begin shortly. More at Autoblog

By Sam Barer

Sound Classics

I’m here to tell you that automotive journalists do not like to car shop. Sure, we love most things on four wheels, but I, like most of my industry-mates would rather get a prostate check by a broken-knuckled rugby player-turned-urologist than to interact with on-the-prowl car salespeople.

For me, specifically, it’s because I know way too much. I spend more time researching cars than the frequently-wrong-but-never-in-doubt people who sell them. As for the business and sales tactics side, much of my life I’ve been surrounded by dealership owners, salesmen, service managers, and attorneys who represent them. Let’s just say that I know all the tricks, which would be enough to turn most people to public transportation.

My personal log of horrible car shopping experiences is longer than Danny Bonaduce’s 12-Step “people to make amends to” list.They range from the frustrating: arranging for a test drive of a Honda S2000 over the phone with a sales manager at a Honda dealership in Houston, only to be told upon arriving twenty minutes later at that I could “drive it after I bought it”…to the surreal: having a clown-shoe car salesman at Bruce Titus Chrysler in Olympia, WA challenge me and my 2002 Corvette “to a race for pink slips” first against his (meaning the dealer’s) Crossfire SRT6 and then against his “Shelby” (meaning 2.2-liter Turbo I-powered Dodge Shelby Charger) when all I was there to do was take a test drive of a 300 to see if I liked it better than the Toyota Avalon…which I didn’t.

I can’t even remember how many times I’ve been asked “what will it take to get you into this car today?” And if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a car salesman make a claim about a specific vehicle that was such a blatant falsehood that any kid with a car magazine subscription or Internet access could call the bluff, I feel like I could pay cash for a Maybach.

Still, my wife’s twelve-year-old Oldsmobile is in dire need of replacement. She’s going to take the 2006 Toyota Avalon, which leaves me needing another four-door sedan. Like it or not, that means car shopping and the chance of adding to the list of dealer horror stories.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Mercedes Dealer’s Tactics Added To My List of Horrible Car Shopping Experiences (And I Still Need To Buy A Car!)" »

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Fire in the hole! A modified Trans Am explodes its clutch in such a manner, it nearly amputated several appendages with its grenade-like fury.  Attempting a rolling power brake burnout, the Trans Am produced too much power for the clutch to handle, resulting in a total loss. Read more about the Trans Am clutch exploding at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

Although this is an industry only event, it’s going to be way cool. The SHOW PAGE will give you all the info you need, but you must work in the TV or Film Industry to attend. Bummer, eh… But I will be posting lots of cool shots after the show, so check back. January 9th.

There’s also a FACEBOOK page where you can get more info… Be sure to email Timothy Wong to register or you ain’t gonna make it!

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

Look carefully at the pic below. What is wrong? Could it be that hose that disconnected itself from the thermostat housing? I got a frantic call from my SO on the 23rd with a blinking “sailboat” light and lots of beeping. He was able to get some water in the car and limp it home (two or three fills on the four mile trip), and I dashed home with visions of a completely warped head. One of the reasons I put him in a TDI was their reputation for being extremely robust – according to the dealer techs, TDIs can run up to five minutes with no coolant and suffer no ill effects. Hopefully we never test that theory. Even more surprising to me was that our dealer didn’t find this hose clamp failure to be particularly unusual. Erm, that can’t be good. Guess I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

As many of you know we lost John and Jen at the end of 2008 and I had to run the blog solo this year. Lucky for me a bunch of friends agreed to syndicate us their stuff, including Brian Lohnes at BangShift, the guys at Speedhunters, Dan Strohl at Hemmings, Ben Schaefer at The Real JDM, Antonio Alvendia at Motor Mavens and of course Fireball Tim. We also added a bunch of new contributors, including Chris Trout, David Belau, Michael Berenis, Patrick Ernzen and Ryan Brutt. And of course let’s not forget old friends like Mike Musto, Sam Barer, Katherine Helmetag, Steve Neil, David Wallens and Jim Brennan. Ryan Porter even managed to blog from time to time, when he wasn’t too busy looking for the perfect 993. So thanks to everyone! (And I’m sure I probably missed a few folks!)

Things started to pick up in May when John got back on board in Los Angeles (though he now spends most of his time working on StreetFire). I’m really hoping to find a way to get Jen back in early 2010. We have a few other schemes for 2010, so stay tuned… But in the meantime, here’s the best of the blog for 2009:

The Caption Contest has become the most popular feature of the blog. I think this pic was my favorite.

We found a ton of cool and crazy rides on eBay this year. I really loved this chopped Duster.

We always go all out at SEMA and this year was no exception. And as usual, you guys helped us pick the best rides of the show.

Since we merged with StreetFire, we’ve had a bunch of great video in the blog (John will post his ten favorite StreetFire videos tomorrow). Me? I’m torn between the Ram SRT-10 burnout gone wrong and the Ken Block spoof.

We covered the heck out of Formula D this year. I made it to the Seattle stop and had a great time. This 240SX blew me away (best paint of 2009?). Here are the walk-around videos I shot in the pits.

I think the Fox body with the leaf blower supercharger was the single most hilarious thing in the blog this year.

VWVortex is always a great source for material. The Rabbit with too much camber killed me. So did this Vette.

Will rusty hoods continue to be popular in 2010? How about stretching tires?

Jim Brennan really went beyond the call of duty with his Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot series. I think the 1970-71 Plymouth Sport Fury GT was my favorite, but I’m biased.

After the whole cash for clunkers debacle, it was refreshing to read Chris Trout’s post The Value of a Beater. We all really enjoyed Steve Neil’s The Forgotten Man of Chiba’s Shop. And David Belau’s tale of the possessed Dart was cool and creepy. Where else could you read a story like that?

Let me know if I missed anything, and post your favorites below!

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

Suburban shopping mall? Check. Valet parking? Check. Crappy cellphone pic? Check. Woody paneled Hummer H3? Check. Wait….. what?