In the movie Gone in 60 Seconds, the main character has a car that always gives him trouble when he tries to steal it. Its name is Eleanor. My Eleanor is the 1974 Dodge Dart. While I don’t make a habit of stealing cars, the 1974 Dart has given me plenty of trouble.

My first experience with a 1974 Dodge Dart was ten years ago. She came to me with knife stab holes in the hood where a ritual sacrifice had taken place. The previous owner had left some pictures of head wounds in the trunk. The car would die randomly and start randomly. This should have been a sign to me.

When my friend Art called me and said, “Hey I found a 1974 Dart for $100! Wanna help fix it up?” I should have warned him. I should have known better. After helping him, I now know without a doubt that all 1974 Darts are possessed.

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Continue reading "My Eleanor: the 1974 Dart" »

Supercars are famous for being a lot like exotic snakes – if you’ve got enough cash you can own one, but you do so at your own risk. In either case, if you lose control for just a split second, you are going to get bit; though unfortunately no anti-venom in the world can quell the humiliation and financial ruin of a totaled supercar. Or at least that’s how it used to be, until the advent of the Audi R8.

Named after Audi’s five-time Le Mans winning prototype, the R8 may go down as the world’s first truly forgiving supercar. Its mid-engine balance and Quattro all-wheel drive make the relentlessly fast and immensely capable R8 astonishingly easy to drive at speed. And now they’ve gone and wedged a V-10 in it. Don’t get us wrong, the standard V-8 R8 was no slouch, but it hung out more in the Porsche 911 circle than it did with the supercar crowd. But now that it boasts 525 horsepower and a robustly exotic V-10 soundtrack, it has true supercar credentials. Inside, drivers enjoy typically stellar Audi build quality, not to mention the sound of that mid-mounted engine cranking away. Certainly people will find a way to wreck even this most tolerant of land rockets, but with such impeccable balance, grip and agility, they’re going to have to kick this snake pretty hard before it bites back.

Continue reading "The 2010 Audi R8 5.2 FSI is Pretty Darn Fun" »

What is going on in this world? Ideas are merging, blending, taking shape, radically departing but staying the same. And that’s our world. Change.

Many people fear change. Maybe because it’s unknown. The question is, “What if you DID know the answer?” To everything? Would life be the same? Would you even be interested? Change is good. It keeps us on our toes, makes life adventurous, and forces us to have faith in things unseen.

Fortunately for you, you get to SEE this week’s designs. Some are wicked cool, some way not. But change is in the air, therefore, this week’s theme. Entitled?

CHANGE!…… DANGIT!

1. THE AUDI E- TRON ELECTRIC

Remember the Audi in “IRobot?” How could you not? It was in every DANG scene of the movie. Along with Will Smith’s beefy bod. (I had enough of that after the first scene… whatever) Well, Audi has taken their R8 and made it sweeter. Electric. And… Red. And red is good. Electric? Yea, that’s cool, but RED is cooler. Just think of RED things. Cherries. Megan Fox’s Lips. A stubbed toe. Ok,… maybe not the last one. But red is cool, dangit. (Check out the AutoDissection on the R8 here.)

Continue reading "Fireball’s Cool Designs of the Week!" »

Well, the Gumpert Apollo Sport sure didn’t get much time in the spotlight. After a it made a trip around the Nurburging in a blistering 7:11.57, everyone—myself included—was calling it the fastest road-legal car to ever lap the ‘Ring. And while Radical’s Hayabusa-powered SR8LM—which sports a Le Mans prototype chassis—isn’t what you would call a grocery getter, it was actually driven from England to Germany to with the aim of breaking the Apollo’s record, and instead smashed it into a million little pieces. And while it might be time to lay out some rules which define what a road-legal car actually is—I mean, the LM chassis seems a bit extreme—it’s hard to argue with a time of 6:38. Watch the driver wrestle this baby around the circuit.

This weekend, I attended the annual world-class car event at Keeneland. That event is the Concours d’Elegance. The featured manufacturer this year was Morgan. It really was great to see so many world-class vehicles in such a stunning venue and my camera sure did have a blast eating up all of the scenes. From the classic Packard to the straight-off-the-boat Audi R8, this show had it all and I did my best to capture as much I could in the little time I had. Feast your eyes on the scene below and check out the full gallery at my Flickr page.

Today started out where no Power Tour participant wants to be…the shop. As I had mentioned yesterday, when we arrived in Racine we noticed that the alignment on the Pacer was WAY off. Could have been the hammering at the drag strip, but somehow a few of the adjustment cams in the front suspension slipped and the front tires looked like they were ready to fold over. We woke up early and busted out the Yellow Pages and made a call to the guys at Alignment By Klamm in Racine, WI.

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Continue reading "Power Tour Day 3: Shop Day" »

Are you a gamer? Is being a gamer anathema to someone who’s got game? Excuse the bitter cynicisms of an old man who hasn’t fondled a joystick since it was attached to an Atari 2600 console. But if you are a gamer then the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is your joint. The crew at the id agency hooked me up with an invite to Microsoft’s E3 presentation no doubt to see what’s up with Forza Motorsport 3. While this latest and greatest Forza looks to be all that the bigger news is a revolutionary new Xbox controller – and that controller is you.

Continue reading "All Your Base Are Belong to Xbox" »

My Dad grew up Irish in Italian-dominated South Philly, and he used to joke that his hyper-expressive Italian buddies wouldn’t be able to talk with their hands cuffed, because they seemed to need 15 distinct gestures to say anything. Anyway, provided there aren’t any weapons in the vicinity, I don’t think there are many things funnier than a pissed off Italian. So I loved this clip of an R8 rolling through Ferrari’s home turf.  And even though I don’t actually think Audi’s halo car looks so hot in red—Enzo’s Cavellinos have a lock on rosso—it makes sense for this spot. Enjoy.

Welcome to the CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot, a regular feature which aims to expand the notion of what a muscle car is, and to showcase those cars that you may have forgotten about. It was late in 1973, and the Detroit automakers were celebrating because of a record production year. However, there were ominous clouds gathering, with pending emission regulations, newly enacted crash and safety standards, and federally mandated bumper regulations. Engine output was being choked with air pumps, and a myriad of vacuum hoses, to try and clean up tailpipe pollution, so the performance market was lagging. During this dark period, a distinctly designed two door coupe was let loose on the market, from the smallest of the Detroit automakers. Let’s take a look at the 1974 Matador Coupe (with the 401 V-8).

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Continue reading "CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot: The 1974 AMC Matador Coupe 401" »

VW has been toying around with the idea for a two seater convertible. The Bluesport, unveiled in Detroit in January, has a slightly awkward look from some angles and can look a little feminine from others, but overall I have to say I like this car a lot. It would appear from the pictures that they are taking some design queues from the Audi R8, but I could be wrong. First mods : debadged, slammed, exhaust and rims. Interior is drop-dead sexy, so I wouldn’t touch it. What do you guys think?

Continue reading "VW Bluesport Concept?" »

I ran a story on my Four Wheel Drift site recently titled “Five Classics That Aren’t Nearly As Fun To Drive As People Think They Are” that proved to be pretty controversial. Call a baby ugly and evidently you’re bound to be read the Riot Act from a number of angry parents.

To even out my Karma (or Car-ma, as the case might be), I’ll let CarDomain readers know that there are also five guilty-pleasure cars that are much more fun to drive than people think. We’ll see if you all agree with my picks.

Continue reading "Five Guilty-Pleasure Cars That Are More Fun To Drive Than You’d Expect" »

If you followed my independent rear suspension build, you know that I wasn’t happy with how the brakes were working. I decided that what I needed was a smaller-bore master cylinder. This would provide more line pressure and enhanced braking power. Instead of going back to an original master cylinder with a smaller bore, I chose to install a late-model aluminum master. This one’s from an early Dakota, and offers a few advantages–it’s much lighter and it doesn’t leak like the old style.  So what does all this have to do with fabrication? The new cylinder uses 2 studs to mount, whereas the old one uses 4 studs. An adapter plate is needed. These are available from a number of vendors for about $40, but what fun is that? I’ve got more skills than money. Follow along as I make an adapter for about $6.

Continue reading "How to: Simple Adaptor-Plate Fabrication, or How to Save $34" »

A couple of days ago, Jalopnik ran one of their “question of the day” features. It asked, “who is your favorite spokesperson?” Thus, the inspiration for a new series of posts on influential automotive spokepersons. So first up is one of the most memorable automotive ad men ever created. Meet Mr. Joe Isuzu himself, David Leisure.

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Continue reading "Favorite Automobile Spokesperson: Meet Joe Isuzu, David Leisure" »

Not many people think of the Netherlands when they hear the phrase exotic car, however, that small corner of Europe does have one exceptional vehicle whose US identity can be as shrouded as the vehicle pictured below. I have never seen one of these cars in person. My only experiences has been from web pictures, and in simulation mode on Grand Turismo on my PS2. Thankfully they have brought a couple examples of this car to the show, and I aim to spend some time looking them over. For those unaware, this car was the first widely available (in Europe) production car to feature a Mid Engined Audi 4.2L V8 engine, predating Audi’s own R8.

Ryan and I headed down to LA for the weekend on some company business and decided we should probably drive around looking for cool cars. Wasn’t all that hard to find some and WOW does LA not seem to be effected by this economic crisis! I dare you, ask someone on Rodeo Drive if they feel the recession and they’ll look at you like you’ve got a cucumber growing out of the side of your dome. Seriously, if you don’t want to spend $20 on a bottle of water just say, “ice water is fine.” More pics after the jump!

Continue reading "What Did You Do This Weekend?" »