By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Human beings have the strange ability to continually develop new and fascinating ways of transportation. We also have the ability to create modes of transportation that could lead to the grisly demise of their passengers. Enter the “Amfibus,” a passenger bus that also doubles as a ferry boat. They are built in Holland and Glasgow, and Scotland may be the first place to put one into service.

The bus would replace a ferry that was operating at a loss. The initial cost for the bus is no small change, they go for more than a million dollars US. Based off of a Volvo bus, the company adds a water tight hull and the jet drive used to propel the bus in the water. It will go 60 mph on land and a leisurely 8 knots in the water. The bus/boat/submarine has seating for 50 passengers.

The bus will be used to ferry people across the Clyde river.

We think this is kind of a cool idea, but if the yellow bus decides to head for Davy Jones’ Locker, we’d rather be on a boat we could jump off of than inside a spacious Volo bus. It would be bitchin’ to up fit the thing with a bar and other fun stuff and float it around a lake for the day like a massive pontoon boat, although we’d outfit ours with twin, blown, 572ci big block Chevys.

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 Chris Trout

Troutster52

The peaks and valleys in the emotional life of a car-guy are often marked by brilliant or poor decisions made by auto manufacturers. The day the F-body’s (Camaro/Firebird) cancellation was announced was a sad day in the lives of many dedicated GM muscle car fans. However, when the new Camaro was re-introduced as a concept car, the hearts and minds of the faithful followers leapt with rediscovered bliss. Supra kids still weep over the loss of their pearl from the American market. In the same way, my heart sank when I heard that the Ford Ranger would be cancelled, and the Explorer moved to a car frame. Despite some automotive pessimism and distrust for automakers, excellent decisions about great products are still made daily. The conception and fruition of the Nissan GT-R, the 29 mpg 300 hp V6 Camaro, the F150 Raptor, and the BMW 1 Series all show that car producers can still make excellent products to keep the dreams and minds busy of an adoring automotive community.

2004 Ford Bronco Concept

Continue reading "Ford Bronco: Make it Now!" »

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

The Mazda Miata is an autocross favorite vehicle due to it’s extremely light weight chassis, low center of gravity, and rear wheel drive. They are good vehicles, but not perfect. Read more about the wreck at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

Mazda Miata Flips at Speed

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

Even a week later, this image still makes my head spin. I can’t imagine what the driving dynamics of this Franken-van are like, but I know that if I saw it anywhere near me, I’d get the hell away from it as fast a I possibly could. That said, I’d like to let all our Caption Contest winners that our perpetually delayed swag shipment should be coming in any day now, and I’ll ship prizes out as soon as I get my hands on them. Thanks to everyone for being so patient. Anyway, this week’s winner is kiidstaytru3, who came up with; “I say she’s at about eight months…” It was a tough call, but that’s the submission that made me laugh the most. Tune in tomorrow for the next installment of our professionally customized Caption Contest!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Today’s photo of the day is from John’s Ford Range ride page. Bonus question: where are the tail lights? Keep those photo of the day PMs and e-mails coming!

By Mike Musto

RideLust.com

Recalls, recalls, recalls… man, they’re everywhere aren’t they. Obviously Toyota has had the worst of it over the last few months, but now Honda? What the hell is going on? These two automotive giants are the ones that set the standards for quality and reliability in this country and forced our own American manufacturers to play catch-up. Now it seems that the tides have turned. All of this recall action makes me wonder–is the American government pressuring foreign automakers to release recalls in a more public manner? Continue reading at Ridelust.com

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Anyone who reads the four-wheel-drive mags or scans YouTube for videos of guys rock crawling, mud bogging, or snow wheeling, will absolutely love this piece of video. Hell, any gearhead worth his or her beans will love it for the sheer plucky nature of people who refuse to cry uncle when the odds are stacked up against them. This is a great video tale of buddies banding together to help one another out.

Long story short, you’ll see a guy roll his ’70s Bronco onto its roof while attempting an obstacle (we think at Moab). The scary part of the roll is that the Bronco has no cage or roll bar and the roof basically crushes flat. We’re assuming that the guy tucked in and was ok, but the truck apparently suffered damage to where it could not be driven. Cue the brotherhood of gearhead-dom.

A friend on the trail has what looks to be an F-250 Ford of the mid ’80s. That truck has a flat bed. By using a winch, some ratchet straps, and pure gumption, they fix the wounded Bronco’s front end to the F-250 and proceed to haul that mother off the trail, at one point using the Bronco (which has its rear tires on the ground) to push the flat bed up a steep rock.

This is awesome stuff.

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

I believe this is our old friend Per, he of the unique Swedish truck collection, selling this 1954 Volvo TP21 on Hemmings.com. Rare in Sweden, it’d be even rarer in the United States if you shipped it over here. From Per’s description:

Original Volvo TP21 Sugga 4×4, radiocar. No radios. 6-cyl. Pneumatic differentials. 30000miles. A little rust in fenders. 720 of theese where produced.

See more pics at Hemmings

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

I came across lollerfest of a gem a while back on Banpei’s twitter page. For those of you that are missing some of that on-track sideways action during the winter months, this would be a fantastic and entertaining way of practicing during the off season!

By Linhbergh