By Rob

Editor-in-Chief

Hector just put up this ride page for his 71 Charger project car. He definitely has his work cut out for him, but he's gonna have a killer ride when he's done.

By Jen

Editor

CarDomain member Roadkill150 seems to be economizing: though he owns two awesome and pretty pricey vehicles, he's shacked them up together in a single ride page. His Viper looks pretty badass, but I think the amazing shots of his ultra-burly rock-crawling Unimog are what really make the page, and the pic of the vehicles side by side is truly priceless. However, each of these fantastic rides definitely deserves to have its very own home on the site, and now that we've added the Mercedes-Benz Unimog to our vehicle database, it shouldn't be a problem. Come on Roadkill, just because you live in California doesn't mean you can't spread out a little! 

By Jen

Editor

Though the actual production of the Chevy Volt is still several years off (by most credible estimates), the manufacturer is apparently confident enough about its state-of-the-art plug-in hybrid to start running TV ads on it. GM Inside News recently posted this commercial, and while we found the whole children-are-the-future angle to be a little sappy, we have to admit that the image of a row of tots with their ears pressed to the Volt's fender is somewhat cute. Jalopnik, however, just found the whole thing kind of confusing and weird.

By Rob

Editor-in-Chief

Renault was so excited about their recent crash test scores that they decided to wreck a bunch of cars and put it to music.

By Brian

Say When...

Check out the Scion XD Ride Page. We just updated the pictures with the latest from the Snake Pit Install, and I can't wait to see how it turns out. It's naughty time!

By John

Community Editor

I learned to ride dirt bikes when I was a little kid, on my buddy's farm. And by the time I graduated to  street bikes, traffic wasn't an issue, since I was living out in the sticks. So it was a pretty rude awakening when I moved to Seattle. Dealing with the constant traffic and the Emerald City's notoriously awful drivers made it feel like I was learning to ride all over again, and it was quite a while before I was comfortable enough to take a passenger. One of the first things I learned about urban riding? Don't ever, ever, think a green light means a clear intersection. All it takes is one dude blowing a red light to send you to the hospital—or your grave. Just check out what happens when this dude on the scooter gets clipped. Ouch.   

By Jen

Editor

Found this on VWvortex, a sleeper project if there ever was one: a 1929 Ford Model A, restored to look basically stock right down to the painted-on woodgrain spoke wheels. While Makela Auto Tuning in Finland built it to resemble a museum piece, this fierce tin lizzy is powered by a Group 4 BDA Ford Escort motor, the 250hp, DOHC 4-cylinder that helped Ford of Britain win all those rally races.  The video of the Model A taking off is pretty spectacular (listen to it on the dyno!), though the car also looks great just sitting in the driveway.

By John

Community Editor

Artist Benedict Radcliffe crafted this Camry sculpture for an advertising campaign in the Middle East, and I think it's incredible. Looking at this photo, it's hard to believe it's even real, and not some clever PhotoShop doodle, but the other shots are even more trippy. Here's hoping it finds a good home after it helps move some units.

By Jason

Marketing Lackey

The NY Times has a pretty comprehensive writeup on the count down to the new Nissan GT-R. Be sure to check out the quote from product planner Hiroshi Tamura. When you've done that, go ahead and read what I've been reading:

• Toyota's fuel cell test car tested at a 480 mile range. The big question is when you'll be able to find two hydrogen fueling stations within 500 miles of each other: DetNews
• This article, featuring a picture of Kermit the Frog in front of an Escape Hybrid, details how much the Big Three are falling over each other to tout their "green-ness." The picture made me turn a little green: Seattle Times
• This is why they say you shouldn't talk on your cell phone while driving...especially if your cellphone is almost the size of your car: English Russia
• It's now apparent that F1 drivers were inspired by Talladega Nights. Jacques Villeneuve will join Juan Pablo Montoya in NASCAR, beginning with the UAW-Ford 500: BBC Sport

By John

Community Editor

I'm such a fan of Top Gear. I love the show so much that at one point, Rob actually had to put me on restriction from posting their clips. But now, I have to say I feel vindicated. Why? Because Top Gear just created a group on CarDomain, and they gave us a bunch of clips to post! How cool is that? Over the last few days, I've been tempted to go in and totally hijack that group, but so far, I've managed to resist. So don't delay! Go join and start posting in the forums—before I get my grubby mitts all over them. But first,  watch this video of the Hamster racing a sky diver!

By David

AKA Highspeedhijinks

The entertainment chief for NBC, Ben Silverman, was inspired by the Transformers movie of all things to revive the hit TV show Knight Rider. His logic behind the move was that TV special effects have become advanced enough to make show about a shape-shifting, talking car look decent on a weekly basis. It will not start out as a show right away, though; Knight Rider will first be a two-hour made-for-TV movie which is already in the works as we speak. If the movie is a hit, then NBC will most likely have a new K.I.T.T. ready for us by next fall. Reguardless of the plot of the movie, the series will most likely revive the one-man vigalante and his super-advanced automotive sidekick. The only bummer I see to all of this is that there is no new Trans Am for them to use. Most shows go for brand sponsorships and brands like GM dont go with old cars. Would we all be upset if K.I.T.T. was a Pontiac Solstice?

By Rob

Editor-in-Chief

Here's a recent creation by the Amorphic Robot Works art collective. Founder Chico MacMurtrie chose the Citroën DS "because it is an icon for European cars, and I felt that the live qualities it represented (hydraulic suspensions, organic curvature, and mechanical ingenuity) were emblematic of the time." See all the pics of this car unfurling and extending all Transformers-like. There's also a somewhat crappy movie on YouTube. And here's a better one.

By David

GRM Editorial Director

Thanks to a busy summer travel schedule, I wound up missing a bunch of our local autocrosses. We have two area series--the Central Florida Region SCCA hosts one, and the other is run by our local Martin Sports Car Club--and I try to participate in both of them.

I got back into the swing of things this past weekend at an SCCA event at the nearby DeLand airport. I'm not a big fan of runway-style courses, but on the plus side it's only 20 minutes from the house. This coming Saturday I'll be at the Martin event in Gainesville, Fla. Twice a year they do a high-speed autocross event where they use the Gainesville Raceway road course.

You know, some people put down autocross because you don't get a ton of track time. To be honest, it's the six hours spent with friends that's more important than the few minutes of seat time.

By Jen

Editor

Maintaining an almost-vintage American car in Europe has got to be no small task—do they even have Autozone over there?—so it definitely warms my heart to see an across-the-pond resident doing it with as much style as MoparBCN of Barcelona, Spain. His 2.2L turbo LeBaron convertible has had its share of setbacks: after traveling all the way to Germany to pick it up, he'd had it for only a couple of months when it got wrecked, crunching in the front clip pretty badly. Fortunately, he was able to restore it using panels from a donor LeBaron he happened to have in stock; then he had the whole car repainted Daytona Red. For the rest of the story, be sure to check out his very awesome ride page.

By Brian

Say When...

Ever feel like the beater you drive is getting you down?  If so, you might want to check out XM's Wild Ride Sweepstakes, where the prize is a $30,000 car. You can enter here, and if you're looking for a way to kill time until the winner is announced, you can even sign up for a free 30 day test drive of XM radio! Of course, if you're just looking for a way to kill the next minute or so, you can check out the awesome XM commercial below. Snoop sure looks pissed!

By Sean

ICE Merchandiser

I've always been a fan of "sports utes" such as the El Camino and the Subaru Brat; heck, even the old Ford Ranchero was cool! Subaru came back recently with the Baja and now GM announced the possibility of the Holden Sports Ute coming stateside. So if you're not the biggest fan of domestics, and prefer a little Euro flavor rather than the tastes of the East, good news! Pick up a new 2008 Audi TT, ship it over to Denmark and have Eurobiler convert your 2+2 into a 2+Ute! Automotive taxes are so high in Denmark that it's actually cheaper to convert a car like the TT into a "ute" than to purchase and own an actual pick-up truck! Of yeah, if you prefer to pick up your TT in Denmark it'll cost you a mere 637,895DK, or $120,500 US-- that's more than twice what you'll pay in the states.

You gotta admit, though: that TT actually looks pretty hot as a ute!