By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I don’t know about you guys but I love these HHR panel vans, and Kevin has done some very tasteful mods to his bowtie. Check out his ride page for more pics and details.

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

It’s a good thing that Chysler hasn’t messed with the Wrangler. About the only thing you can do to it without messing up what could be the perfect vehicle is come out with new appearance packages. The Islander trim includes neoprene seats with tiki images, island blue paint, and some new hood stickers. 100% show, but who cares? It’s still an Wrangler underneath. More pics after the jump.

Continue reading "Tiki Jeep" »

By Katherine Helmetag

Atomicalex

I love it when manufacturers cut away entire vehicles. This Ram was on display at the NAIAS this year. Two detail shots after the jump.

Continue reading "Ram Truck Cut-Away" »

By Ron Honig

WaytooFurious

Well Christmas is now well and truly behind us. I found it tough getting back into the swing of things at work after my break. However when I think about it I really don’t have anything to complain about, after all Santa was reallllly good to me. It’s not every year that you have a new car show up in your driveway on the day before Christmas.

Okay Santa didn’t buy me a car, I did. As they say the best presents are the ones you buy for yourself. For a number of reasons I recently decided to sell my Valiant station wagon. Being a Mopar guy my daily driver obviously had to be another Mopar so I decided to buy myself a VJ. The VJ was Chrysler Australia’s attempt to stop themselves from plunging into obscurity. It actually worked for a while because it turned out to be their largest seller with 90,000 plus cars being picked up by the public. Unfortunately it couldn’t stop their eventual demise. Back in the day the VJ came standard with a number of items that you usually had to pay good money for. Among them were standard front disc brakes, retractable seatbelts and a lockable glove-box! I just love the look of a lowered VJ with a decent set of mags, and I can’t wait to get mine on the road. It’s currently with my mechanic getting roadworthied so hopefully it wont be to long before I have it registered. I will keep you updated as project VJ progresses.

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

On Wednesday night we headed to Van Nuys, California, for the new tradition of the revised cruise night on famous Van Nuys Blvd. It was the first one of the new year, and it was ice cold for So Cal, so the turnout was a little smaller than we’ve seen in the past. Also, the empty dealership lot where the hot rods park has been sold to a new owner. The good news is the owner is looking the other way and allowing the cruise to happen. The bad news is that they won’t turn on the lights, so it’s dark as the inside of a cow.

It was hard to get really great photos in the dark, but we did bring home a gallery of cool cars to see.

Click here for the BangShift.com photo gallery of the Van Nuys cruise on January 13, 2010.

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

(the car below is made out of cardboard! I can’t stop thinking about how amazing it is!)

Here’s a 2:30am early access report to Tokyo Auto Salon 2010.

I caught two themes to this show this year, the most obvious was the tuning of hybrid cars. The Prius and the Insight were everywhere as expected by most. Everything from a crazy widebody LF-A inspired Prius to simple tuned ones to VIP tuned by Garson, it seems like everyone had a Prius or an Insight. Mostly Prius though…

The other theme of the show was more subtle…the resurgence of retro JDM tuning. Two of my favorite cars at the show fit into this category.

1. A Hakosuka retrofit onto a Nissan Stagea which included a full Hakosuka GT-R front end swap and also even tail lamps that were Hakosuka styled. This takes the typical R34 front end swap and flips it on its head.

2. A Miata (1st Gen) fully converted both exterior and interior into a Toyota 2000GT Roadster. This car was flawless. I want one. Badly.

Continue reading "Tokyo Auto Salon – Day 0 Early Access" »

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

It’s not unusual for auction houses to pull cars from the docket prior to the actual auction, but two rather high-profile cars were pulled from Barrett-Jackson’s lineup this week, and the company has been none too shy about saying why.

The first, lot 1258.2, a 1958 Chevrolet Impala that the auction house previously advertised as once owned by Buddy Holly, was pulled on Wednesday because questions arose about whether Buddy Holly really did own that particular Impala. Continue reading at Hemmings

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

While this Silvia might look like a time attack car, and is detailed enough to be a show car – it’s primary focus is the quarter mile. After being inspired by the drag cars of Japan, George and Theo Spartalis of South Australia’s GT Autosound set out to create one of the world’s quickest S15′s. Originally established as a car audio shop, GT Autosound is now known as one of Australia’s premiere Silvia tuning shops and they have experience building S-chassis for every application. Combining the build quality of pro drift car with the focus of a drag car was one of the George and Theo’s goals for the car, and they’ve certainly accomplished that. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Mike Garrett

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

You know the drill: Come up with a caption for the picture below by noon PST next Thursday. If you submit the funniest one, we’ll send you some CarDomain swag. Three entries per member max. Good luck!

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

A true Japanese classic, aka “Jassic,” this Nissan Sentra SE-R from Nyce1s.com is pushing 600 whp thanks to a massive turbocharger and air to water intercooler. Read more about the 600 whp Nissan Sentra at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.