By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

This week, the weather has been absolutely hideous in Los Angeles, and by hideous, I mean “perfectly normal for winter in Seattle.”  Now most of the time, the Emerald City’s climate didn’t bother me.  I got used to being wet and cold, and I didn’t see any reason to bitch about it. But it took me about ten seconds to get used to the California Sun, and when it even looks like it’s going top drizzle here, I get pissed off. Anyway, I always say there were a bunch of good submissions, but this time I actually mean it, and picking a winner was tough. But in the end, I had to give it to carsick30, who came up with; “Does this make my pants look red?” Tune in tomorrow for the next installment of our totally trippy Caption Contest!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Here’s a question to follow up on the Acura Type-R post. Let’s say you are going to retire in twenty years. For your retirement fund, you can either mothball one (1) Ford GT or ten (10) Acura Integra Type-Rs. You can visit them but you don’t get to drive them. Sorry. So, which will be worth more in twenty years?

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Conan O’Brien has been taking shots at NBC since he found out he’s getting screwed out of The Tonight Show, and last night, he decided to start introducing  “new comedy bits that aren’t so much funny as they are crazy expensive.”  And while the Masturbating Bear is still my favorite character, I think the Bugatti Veyron Mouse is sheer brilliance. This whole clip is funny, but the Bugatti bit starts at 1:25.

By Ryan Porter

IN-N-OUT Editor

I’m thinking about getting a personalized plate for my Porsche but at the same point I can’t get what I really want. The rules here in Washington don’t allow you to mimic convention Washington state plates, and since I want RWD-993 I’m SOL. How about you guys, do you rock personalized plates?

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

One other thing I asked J Mays at NAIAS was if they had given any consideration to bringing back the notchback body style on the Mustang. He said no. He also didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm for the Fox body notch, like Desiree’s ’89 below. Oh well…

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

This mud bogging El Camino is completely BangShift.com approved! Sporting four-wheel drive, a 408ci small-block mounted in the bed, a nitrous bottle located next to the shifter, and 35-inch Boggers at each corner, it is rougher than a cobb, but would provide a level of horror-induced thrill nothing else could possibly match.

Some would shudder and call the truck a death trap, to those people we would point toward the roll cage and brilliantly colored yellow racing seats. They would then point out the nitrous bottle next to the shifter that is not vented with a tube through the floor. We would point to the snappy looking red belts that are threaded through the yellow seats, and so it would go on.

We’re thinking the mounting of the motor in the bed was an effort to move as much weight off the front of the truck to get it to plane over the top of the mud as opposed to slogging through it. Regulation mud bogs are 300 feet long and top level competitors can traverse the distance in three seconds and change. This truck has some serious snot if it makes the advertised power numbers, but even it pales in comparison to some of the blown rails we have seen at mid bog races.

So what do you think? Would you own and race this truck, or is it too creepy, dirty, crude, and rude for you? We’d drop the hammer. Here’s mud in your eye!

Source: RacingJunk.com — 850hp rear engined El Camino

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

Tokyo Auto Salon brought the goods as expected, but some things were not in the same packages as traditionally expected. One of the topics I’ll continue to talk about when thinking of what went well at TAS is the resurgence of old school JDM tuning and styling. Rays wheels predicted it early with their release a couple months back of a retro sized and styled TE37 wheel. However it was not until TAS started that the world saw the resurgence of vintage JDM!

As much as I love modern cars and especially the latest R35 GT-R, this Rocky Auto S31Z Fairlady Z does everything that the modern cars can’t.

Yet it does it with modern technology in an old school package. Let me explain…

Continue reading "A Favorite Of Mine – Rocky Auto S31Z Fairlady Z" »

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Everybody knows that drifting is not all about going sideways, there is also a element of being different. Remember the Samurai drifter? Or Paul Vlasblom and his BMW touring. But when I got an email with this picture attached, I didn’t realized at first this was a drift car. So it certainly is different but can it drift? .

The base car is 1940 Chevy Coupe, the owner Karl Ebel bought it 10 years ago. The plan was to build it as a traditional hot rod but after Karl became more involved in Motorsport wiht his compnay Creative Carversions, the car evolved into this Drift Rod. The main body is still original but the front and rear fenders, hood and trunk have been made from a composite material.

The engine is a built 327 (estimated 400hp) with all the usual go fast goodies and it transfers the power via a Getrag 262 gearbox. The exhaust fumes exit through 3″ Magnaflow mufflers just behind the front wheels. They use a custom independent front and rear suspension which is still being improved. So now it is time to see this beast in action, can’t wait for some moving shots or maybe a video.

-Jeroen Willemsen

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Slapping a turbojet backyard kit on a Rascal mobility car has got to be the ultimate in oddball performance. Racing it down a runway at 47 mph, the driver hangs on for dear life and prays the jet housing holds integrity. There is so many things that could fail here, luckily it went smooth. Read more about the jet powered Rascal at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

I made the short trek last weekend to the Winter Park section of Orlando. It was cold out by Florida standards, but was at least warmer than it had been the past two weeks. Last Sunday’s event was the first of it’s type (for this area) and the title stated it clearly. Simply Clean….. Proper stance, perfect wheel fitment, quality paint job…. Almost everything a car enthusiast should dream of! There were of course big horse power cars, so they filled in the missing link that we gas mileage savvy people left out. But lets think about this for a second. One one-thousand… Do you really need 500 horsepower when your car sits 1 inch off the ground and has a 95% chance of losing a bumper at every divot? Well, I know I sure as hell do! I can’t think of anything better than the ability to yell louder than the passenger screaming in the seat next to you “SHUT UP! I F*CKING GOT THIS!” as you drive over your front lip, while laughing hysterically…Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens!