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May 15, 2008

Jay Leno Drives the Tesla

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Tesla is too nervous to bring their car out to Buttonwillow in June, but they were ok with Jay Leno doing this little video review.

Holden GTR-X: The Car That Never Was

By Ron

aka WayTooFurious

Holden, like a so many other car manufacturers, has come close to producing what could have been a legendary car only to pull out at the last moment. Its GTR-X design was reminiscent of cars produced by Lamborghini and Ferrari, with its wedge-shaped profile and concealed headlights. Running an inline six producing 160 bhp, the GTR-X was able to achieve a top speed of 130mph and go from 0-60 in 8.3 seconds. To keep costs down, the mechanicals were borrowed from the Holden Torana, and the six cylinder was chosen over an eight due to its economy and widespread availability. Interestingly, it would have been the first Holden to be fitted with 4-wheel disc brakes if it had gone into production. There are a number of reasons why the GTR-X never made it that far, including both competition from the Datsun 240Z and restrictions faced by Holden in export markets—and Australia didn't have a big enough domestic market for the GTR-X because of our small population base. So instead, it was the Monaro that became Holden’s first coupe in Australia. Check out this cool footage of one of the GTR-X prototypes being tested in 1970.

Holden GTR-X

Mother's Day Gift

By Katherine Helmetag

AKA atomicalex

The picture is pretty crappy--cellphones do that--but you can clearly see what a friend of mine gave me for Mother's Day: coilovers! His wife is working on getting the extra parts out of the garage, so he made two ladies really happy in one move. They'll be going onto my Rabbit in the near future. It's riding at stock height right now, and yes, it looks like an SUV. It also has just about the squishiest stock springs ever made. The humor associated with the stock springs is that they are so soft that they rattle, and VW's fix was to slide plastic tubing over the coils to quiet them down! I don't think that rattling will be a problem with these coils. This is shaping up to be an amazing week for my bunny--if all goes well, I'll pick up a new powerplant this weekend that kind of just dropped into my lap. For the price I'm paying, it's a lot of hp. I'll be keeping you updated on my progress as I move along.

coilovers

This Just In: New on the Net

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

John has gone off to Florida again. This time his sister is graduating. Or something like that. So anyway, you're stuck with my version of the news for the next two days.

  • New pics of of the 2010 Nissan Cube have surfaced. Looks cool in a dorky kind of way. Jalopnik.
  • The convertible CTS Coupe is a no go. I think GM is high. Can we get a petition going? Autoblog.
  • The Volt prototype is already going 40 miles in electric-only mode, and all signs are pointing to GM actually hitting their 2010 launch goal. Motor Authority.
  • Some jackass rear ended Drew Barrymore and then tried to get away. Barrymore chased down the driver, got the license plate and turned it over to the cops. Nice work! UGO.

New on the Net

Nick Hogan: In Jail Already

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

After initial drag-assing, the criminal justice system is now doing a swift job on Nick Hogan, who on Friday was sentenced to 8 months in jail for the street-racing wreck that totalled his Supra and put his friend in a coma. The little hulk is already behind bars, his booking shots are making the rounds online, and professional busybodies TMZ have already posted video of his first jail visit by his parents. So do you think he'll serve anything close to his full sentence, or pull a Paris and whine and bribe his way out?

Via edmunds.

More Big Scooter Madness

By Ben Schaffer

Bulletproof Automotive

Last time I posted I said that I wasnt sure if I thought these were cool or not. Since then I’ve been starting to dig them. Still very odd, but maybe that's why I like them. It takes equal parts balls and stupidity to actually show up somewhere riding one of these things. More pics after the jump (and you can’t tell me the exhaust in the second to last pic isn't badass).

More Big Scooter Madness

Continue reading "More Big Scooter Madness" »

White Letters or Blackwalls?

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Here's an age-old question: white letters or blackwalls? Does it depend on the vehicle? Does it depend on the wheel? Let us know what you think and why. Whoever has the best-reasoned response and links to their ride page will get a CarDomain swag pack. Me? I like blackwalls. Tim (below) likes white letters. So does Jen. Which do you prefer?

Tim's Road Runner

Caption Contest: This Week's Winner!

By John Coyle

Editor

This pic was obviously a good choice for the Caption Contest, as there were a ton of great submissions. Unfortunately, there were more than a few that the VPs won't let me "dignify with a response." So let me state some guidelines I used to select this week's winners. First, if your name is Tim DeLong, you're immediately disqualified. The fact that we tore around Vegas in a Gallardo means you'll never win a Caption Contest—sorry buddy. And I wasn't stoked about the whole misspelling-words-to-sound-like-redneck thing. Misspelling words on purpose just isn't rock and roll, and I'm more rock and roll than Motley Crue stuffed inside Chuck Berry. So our first runner-up is Ash, who came up with "GM's new Suburban provides aid to families with foreclosed homes," and our second is Shreffy, who dropped "You might be a redneck if... Your truck has more doors than your house does!" But the clear winner was Michael Johnson with: "You think he has a lot of doors... You should see how many keys he has." Sorry, that's just funny. Congrats to all! And stay tuned, we'll launch another Caption Contest tomorrow!

Monstrously Huge Truck

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This 2004 Ram was on eBay last month. It didn't meet the reserve. In fact, no one even bid on it (perhaps people were daunted by the fact that the starting bid was set at $50k). But it's pretty hilarious so I thought you guys would like it. So how tall do you think this woman is? It's hard to tell. More pics after the jump.

Monstrously Huge Truck

Continue reading "Monstrously Huge Truck" »

May 14, 2008

SoundDomain Sound-Off

By Sean

Editor

  • Boston Acoustics announced they're shipping their SPG555 Passive Radiator system. Adding this to your Boston SPG's subwoofer box gets you an extra 3dB of bass. May not sound like much, but to your ears that's almost twice as much bass!!
  • So you want to share some music from your iPod with your buddy, but since the iPod is an iPod and not a Zune, you can't do it.... That is unless you have a miShare!
  • Multifunction rearview mirrors are not new, but with all the technology that's coming to market lately, these things can do just about anything shot of walking of dog or getting you a cold one from the fridge!! They're not always the most attractive add-ons for your car, but does it matter?
  • I'm sure you've seen all the commercial on TV telling you that your normal cable and rabbit ears will quit working in early 2009; you need to upgrade to a digital box. But did you realize this also means your car stereo system's TV tuner is going kaput too? That means new things are the horizon for mobile digital TV. Welcome to the new mobile TV format wars!
  • SoundDomain would like to welcome our newest guestblogger, Adam Rayner! Adam comes to us from across the pond, and is the online editor for the UK's famous Talk Audio website. He has quite a history in the mobile electronics industry and of course, we're looking forward to sampling his sarcastic British sens of humor!

SoundDomain Sound-off, BOston Acounstics, iPod, Rearview MIrror, DTV, Adam Rayner, TalkAudio,

Watermelon Car

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Ever thought of painting up your ride as something hilarious just for the heck of it? It looks like a certain degree of planning and expense went into this watermelon-themed Daewoo, so maybe to the owner it was no laughing matter. Somehow I doubt it, though. More pics over at Jalopnik.

600K Rides Contest: Wednesday's Winners!

By John Coyle

Editor

As loyal blog readers know, the CarDomain staff thinks we're going to cross the 600K ride mark on Friday, May 16th. So to celebrate, we're giving a swag pack to our favorite new ride page and our favorite updated ride page each day until then. Well, there were some dope rides added today, but out of all of them, Mike's 1949 F-Series pickup stood out. While Ford purists might dig the Mustang front end this baby is rolling on, I get the feeling that the 350 mill might not go over as well. Hey, to each his own! As for our favorite updated ride page, we liked the one that Sly has put together for his ultra-clean Accord. He says he's almost done with this baby, but somehow we doubt he really means it. Are rides like this ever really done? Congrats gentlemen! Jen will pick two more winners tomorrow!

One Lap of America: Photo Coverage, Part One, Now Live!

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

One Lap of America pics are now live, and I better warn you, there's a ton of them. Our Boxer4Racing Subaru team was on the road for eight straight days of hard racing action, and over the course of it, we snapped pics of just about every car. If you wanna get a feel for what it'd be like to ride along for the entirety of the tour, to every far-flung track the One Lappers raced at—hell, if you're thinking of running a car in One Lap yourself next year—this'd be a good place to start. Watch for photos from VIR, BeaveRun, and the final Tire Rack stop to be posted separately tomorrow—there were too many to fit under a single entry in our Events section. Enjoy the pics!

Formula D Atlanta Pics Live!

By John Coyle

Editor

This weekend in Atlanta, the podium played host to some different faces, as none of the current points leaders—Forsberg, Hubinette, Foust—finished in the top three. Instead, Rhys Millen used the fifth anniversary of Formula D's debut to demonstrate that the broken back he sustained last season hasn't dampened his competitive zeal. His Red Bull Solstice dominated the field, besting Michihiro Takatori's Super Autobacs Nissan Skyline R34 and Ryan Tuerck's Gardella Racing/Mobil1 Solstice to take the win. Check out the complete standings after the jump, and for head over our events section for pics of all the action.

Continue reading "Formula D Atlanta Pics Live!" »

Crazy Renderings: Whatever Floats Your Boat!

By David

aka Highspeedhijinks

Independent designer Bo Zolland is at it again. Last time, you were all a little confused by Bo's "El Camero" rendering—blending an El Camino and a Camaro just didn't make sense to most of you. Well, how does his new design grab ya? A mashup between a high-performance speedboat and...a '63 Stingray Corvette? It sounds crazy, but look at the end result. The boats range from 26' to 28', and feature a sealed-cockpit design with gullwing doors. Bo also has the concept powered by an LS-9 marine block for 550hp worth of prop-twisting power. Too bad it's just a rendering!