By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

You can now build and price a 2011 Ford Fiesta at fordvehicles.com. Pricing starts at $13,320 for the sedan and $15,120 for the hatch. I got to drive one in New York earlier this year and was impressed. Should give the Honda Fit a run for the money.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I’ve subscribed to Road & Track all my life, but tend to only read Car and Driver, Motor Trend and Automobile at airports or in doctor or dentist waiting rooms. Looks like Car and Driver is getting some minor tweaks with Eddie Alterman at the helm. Anyway, I’m curious, which is your favorite generic car mag?

[polldaddy poll="2336857"]

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

SEMA is so big and so crazy that it’s hard to really know what the hell is going on while you’re at the show. It’s definitely useful to come back home, sort through all the photos and blogs and video and reflect a bit. So John, Jen, Jim and I did just that, and then we posted our five favorite rides in each of ten categories. We then turned it over to you guys to vote for your favorites. Well, without further ado, here are the winners of our Best of SEMA 2009 voting, selected by the CarDomain community!

Muscle Cars: Tjin Edition Camaro
Hot Rods: Piss-off-Pete
Light Trucks and SUVs: Cherry Bomb Dodge D-100
Exotics: Underground Racing’s Twin-Turbo Gallardo
Motorsports: Formula Drift Camaro
Off Road Vehicles: Ken Block WRX on Tracks
Sport Compact: Tuner Challenge Scion xB
Green Cars: Factory Five Electric Hot Rod
Luxury: Widebody Bentley Continental GT
Restoration: 1967 Ford Mustang GT500

Thanks to everyone who voted. See pics of all the winning rides after the jump!

Continue reading "Best of SEMA 2009: Here are the Winners!" »

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

We got tipped off to this awesome video by Bangshift forum member and blog contributor Speedzzter. It is footage of a 1964 Galaxie 500 being wrung out on a frozen lake in Sweden. The car is a four speed and there are some shots of the driver doing some fancy footwork to guide the car around the frozen course.

There is an old Chevy in the video which puts up a futile chase, but the big Ford owns it by a lot. We’re going to attend some ice races this year, sadly our Javelin won’t be coming with us unless the Brinks truck breaks down in front of our house with the doors unlocked.

The big old Ford is painted up like an old stock car and it sounds healthy when the driver gets into the loud pedal and starts hurling shards of ice all over the place. This is one talented Swedish wheelman!

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Or, at least, one of ‘em. TA pointed out this 1969 Dodge Charger, alleged to be an actual, Warner Brothers-used General Lee, currently for sale on Hemmings.com for $110,000. Continue reading at Hemmings

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Most people might find it hard to believe but finding a properly modified VIP sedan in Japan is not that easy, especially up in the Kanto region of the country. VIP is a style that began down south, in and around Osaka, and has over the last decade or so spread around. Different takes on this style have emerged but for my slammed feature from Japan I wanted to bring you the most authentic car I could find, which is where my friend Kenji Yamada came in. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Dino Dalle Carbonare

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

While the true debuts at this year’s LA Auto Show were far and few between (note to OEs: we know times are tough, but you can do better than dress up the sloppy seconds of your Frankfurt and Tokyo debuts), Honda always manages to roll out something cool and concepty (yes, that will be the new auto journo “it” word of 2010).

This year was no different as Honda’s designers created what they feel an urban car would look like twenty years in the future (we can only hope Doc Brown’s iridium shades will be in the mix too). The Personal-Neo Urban Transport (P-NUT) looks sort of like what would happen to an Element in the hands of Frank Geary and the three-person seating arrangement is configured a’la McLaren F1 with the driver up front and two passengers arrears. Since this is a concept there are a few different powertrain possibilities from an efficient gas engine to a gas-electric hybrid, or even a pure electric set up. We’re hoping this is a hint of things to come from Honda. Hit the jump to see more images of this nutty concept (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Continue reading "Honda’s P-NUT Concept is Quirky and Fun, Like a Filbert!" »

By Chris Trout

Troutster52

I wish everyone thought as highly of me as I do. Unfortunately, I have to live in a sad reality where that is not the case. I desperately want the corporate opinion of me to be so hight that everyone wants me to try their product just on the chance that I might like it. In this dream-land, my opinion is so highly valued by manufacturers of all types that they are tripping over each other just at the chance to be the benefactor of a favorable opinion from THE Chris Trout.

Everyone has opinions about something; many people have opinions on nearly everything. I find myself in the second category.

Not shockingly, automobiles are the focus of how I spend the majority of my opinion-forming energy. My wife and I only have one vehicle right now and new cars are way outside of our price range for most of our foreseeable future. However, my sharp and effective opinion-forming mind knows no limits, running wild through the world of consumer products as though the 20 foot electrified barbed wire fences of my financial limitations don’t exist.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Dream Job" »

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

When the brown Rabbit arrived, one of the first things I did was pull the interior. Two reasons: it was trashed, and it smelled bad. The source of the smell was a bottle of Power Service Diesel anti-gel additive that had overturned under the driver’s seat. The law of unintended consequences applied in my favor – it had soaked into the asphalt-based sound deadening material (that weighs about 20 pounds!) and softened it sufficiently that I was able to scrape it off. I had a friend record the event as it seemed too good to be true. I’ll be experimenting with the other side of the car to see how to replicate this excellent mess and will report back when I figure it out. Meanwhile, check the video.

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

A rough day for this Nissan GT-R, which gets slammed into the barrier. A race is much different than time trials, and it can cause drivers to become over anxious to get the lead which in return clouds their judgement. Read more about this accident at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.