By Sam Barer

Sound Classics

One of the most frustrating things about do-it-yourself auto repair is dealing with vanishing parts. The only thing worse than turning a twenty-minute job into a two-day event by dropping that special nut, bolt or spring is to break the part outright due to sheer frustration or stupidity.

I’m well experienced with all forms of parts losing, but I seem to specialize in fumbling nuts and bolts into the depths of the most inaccessible places. With this in mind, I wasn’t surprised when during the process of replacing the eight too-lean jets on the four Weber carburetors on the Infamous Craigslist 1976 Ferrari Dino 308 GT4, I bumped one of the tops of the carburetors sitting on the edge of the air cleaner housing. I heard it go falling down into the engine bay with a succession of clanks and pings.

I figured it was no problem. After all, an air horn of a Weber DCNF is too big to lose, right? Read on…

Continue reading "How Is It Possible To Lose A Part This Big?" »

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

When it comes to drifting, the world of Saudi drift is very spectacular; most of the time. But watch as this amateur Saudi drifter gets stuck on top of a barrel. This brings up the question, how do we get it off the barrel? Read more about the epic drift failure at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

The Volvo 1800, kind of like the Edsel Bermuda, is one of those very few-and-far-between cars that I feel looks better in wagon form than as a sedan. George has some great examples of these diminutive long-roofs on his ride page, including his own very clean ’73. Take a look!

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Mike is well into parting out his Grand Prix. It was his daily driver and a project car he’d put a ton of detailed work into, and I’m not entirely sure why it’s now going to rest in pieces, but I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes. See some lovely photos of the car intact on page 8, and its grisly dismemberment on page 9. Wow.

By Karan Singh

StreetFire.net

Fifth Gear’s Tiff, Vicky, and Jason test drive the Lexus LFA, BMW 5 Series, Audi RS6 and Mercedes ED63 AMG, respectively. Johnny becomes more familiar with Volvo’s “cars of the future” (including the “naughty Volvo”) at their top secret Crash Test Facilities outside Gothenburg, Sweden.

Fifth Gear – [17x06] – 2010.07.08

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

My photos from the Nationwide Series segment of the 4th of July weekend in Daytona are live over in our Events section (full coverage here), so you can now get an eyeful of the new NASCAR Challenger, Mustang, Impala, and Camry during their first competitive weekend at the track. In addition to Friday night’s race, there’s a ton of pics from qualifying and the starting grid, back when it was still reasonably light out, so you can check out these new race cars in pretty decent detail. Enjoy!

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

One of Joe Gibbs’ NASCAR Toyota teams recently went out for some aero testing at the massive Kennedy Space Center runway, where the space shuttle lands. They were going for vehicle dynamics rather than top speed, paying particular attention to downforce and handling during deceleration between 205 and 150 mph.  Testing at facilities like Kennedy is actually cheaper than the wind tunnel, which can cost NASCAR teams upwards of $4000 per hour–and for their part, NASA has a whole program dedicated to pushing “business development uses for the spaceport’s unique assets.” Good for them–as fundraisers go, it probably beats the hell out of a bake sale. Check out the article at NASA’s website.

Continue reading "Far Out: NASCAR Team Tests At Kennedy Space Center" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Today’s photo is from the ride page of Doug’s Mitsubishi Evo: a nice tracking shot in the desert. Awesome!

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

GM LSx engines have been swapped into just about every car under the sun, but this is the first time I’ve seen this. It’s an LS6-powered Toyota MR-S/MR2 Spyder that’s being built by Speedhunters reader Erven as a track toy for a customer. A couple more photos can of the build can be found here.

By Mike Garrett

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

When our boy Chris (65longroof on the BangShift.com forums) told us about a killer website featuring cars for sale that are all under $1000, we were intrigued. Hell, we like cheap junk, just look at our garages! But when he also told us that a couple guys bought one of these $1000 beasts and drove it from coast to coast, we were honestly aroused. I mean who doesn’t dig a road trip where the car costs less that the fuel you’ll spend to finish the trip?

The best thing is that not only did Chris and the gang grab hold of a near mint  1974 Pontiac Lemans for only $899, but they documented all of it on video. www.carsforagrand.com has the full story and all the videos, but until then check out the fast forward version of the trip below.

For the entire story, including the car, the route, and the mission, click here.