By Karan Singh

StreetFire.net

Mark Webber ran his car into the back of Heikki Kovalainen’s Lotus this past weekend at the European Grand Prix at 190 mph! This propelled his Red Bull race car into the air and safety barriers. Fortunately, neither driver were seriously injured.

Mark Webber Crash at Valencia (GP Europe 2010)

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

This weekend, Chris and I checked out the Greenwood Car Show, a community event which saw close to 1000 rides roll in and line the main drag of a sleepy Seattle neighborhood. I didn’t enter a car this year–keep in mind that “community” means a massive and densely-packed crowd of joe-public non-car-enthusiast spectators who don’t necessarily understand the risks that their kids, dogs, bicycles, belt buckles, and double-wide SUV strollers can pose to a car’s paint job in such close quarters, so the show can be a little stressful if you’ve got a car there that you care about. I found it way better this year to be able to kick back in the NASCAR chairs, enjoy a couple of beers, walk the show without freaking out over who might be manhandling my ride, and let Chris handle all the worrying about his Impala and the photography. Speaking of which, he snagged a ton of great photos of the cars early in the day before all the riff-raff showed up. Check them out over in our Events section!

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

Car restorers sit in two very distinct camps when going about their business. There are those that meticulously try to stick to an authentic, close to factory look and feel while others don’t see the problem with injecting a certain modern flair into their vehicles. Rocky Auto most definitely belongs to the latter! Their cars have, over the years, become nothing short of legendary and I thought it was about time that we took a look at some of them. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

We knew it was coming, but not when. Ford has announced that they will close the plant currently building the Ford Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car in a little more than a year. Currently the Crown Vic is only sold to fleets while the Town Car is available for public purchase. This will be the official end of body-on-frame car construction in North America as they are the only two models still assembled that way.

The most interesting perspective on the loss of this long running vehicle platform comes from the taxi industry in New York City. Police departments have other options to chose from in the form of police package Chevy Impala and Dodge Charger models. Taxi companies however are left in a lurch and by all accounts, having the “Panther” platform cars pulled away from them is akin to stealing a kid’s wubby.

The big rear-wheel-drive sedans really are decent people movers and although the Mercury Marauder was not a massive sales success, it was an interesting mild-performance car that looked good and spun the correct set of tires (the ones in the back).

Ford’s reasoning is a projected drop in sales due to stricter environmental standards that police and taxi vehicles will be held to over the coming years. In our feeble minds we’d guess that Ford would have an upper hand with this market simply based on their buyer’s familiarity with the model, ability to score cheap parts and ease of repair, but what the hell do we know?

Ford has announced the Taurus police package and we’re guessing that they could cook up a taxi version of that which could include all the heavy duty suspension and handling pieces, engine durability enhancements, and maybe even the shotgun rack for flair.

It’ll be a sad day when Ford puts the Panther down. It’s been a good piece of equipment for some time and frankly, who among us hasn’t felt the smooth surface of a vinyl rear seat in a police car before?

Was that last part out loud?

Source — NYTimes.com — Two Car Models, New York Emblems, Discontinued

By David Clarke

highspeedhijinks

Word on the street is that Chrysler is interested in selling more minivans to men. To most families, the minivan is the point of no return after exhausting the categories of smaller-cargo-capacity “cute utes” and massive SUV’s that are simply not necessary for normal-sized families. While the details of Mopar’s proposed man-van are sketchy, Dodge did tease a Caravan R/T back in 2008 at the Detroit Auto show. Sporting a “Rumble bee” type hood, a blacked-out grille and wheels that look just like the Challenger SRT’s burly 5 spokes, it does indeed look manlier than its beige monotone counterpart. But Dodge must know that looks alone will not sell a minivan to men. Being that the 3.8L V6 and 4.0L V6 drivetrains have plenty of room under the hood, I think a nice roots-style supercharger should be on the menu as well. Add some thicker sway bars, 18-20in rubber, and some vintage-style wild Mopar colors, and it’d probably be enough the blow the doors off the armada of beige, white, and silver baby carriers clogging the roads. Could Chrysler rekindle another minivan war with Honda and Toyota? Could the Caravan R/T do for minivans what the Magnum did for station wagons?  If Chrysler does decide to make an R/T Carvan, what would they have to do to make you want one ?

By Chris Bicknell

Bick66

Early Saturday morning I drove the Impala into North Seattle to enjoy the 18th annual Greenwood Car Show–stay tuned for the full photo gallery later on.  While at the show, I finally managed to diagnose the Impala’s unintended acceleration problem: it turned out the powerful 383 had sheared off the left-hand motor mount during some spirited driving, and the motor was then able to torque far enough to sporadically stick the throttle mechanism.  I stopped by the parts store on my way home from the show then spent Sunday afternoon leveling the motor and replacing both mounts.

How about you?  What did you do this weekend?

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Most of these vehicles should never have disappeared in the first place, but all of them need to come back. Now. Let me know what you think of my list. What did I miss?

Ford Bronco

I really don’t know what Ford is waiting for. Seems like a no brainer to me.

See the rest after the jump!

Continue reading "Top Ten Vehicles That Need to Come Back" »

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

This is the corniest race I’ve ever seen, literally. This race is totally unfair, but we still get a great comparitive to measure Subaru’s all-wheel drive capabilities.  This brings a whole new meaning to “cob” performance.  Read more about the Subaru action at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Some idiot falls asleep at the wheel of his pickup, rampages into a gas station, and manages to take out a gas pump in a ball of flame en route to demolishing the storefront and nearly killing the cashier. Is staying awake while you’re driving really so difficult?

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

There’s some things that, when you look at them, your eyes need to adjust for a few moments before you can figure out exactly what it is you’re seeing. Aaron’s Dodge Caravan, which has had 34 inches chopped out of its midsection, is one of those things. Visit the ride page for more views of this mini-minivan!