By John Coyle

Editor

Here's a strategy ripped straight from the "go big or go home" playbook. To advertise its new M-Series in Moscow, BMW has constructed a humongous 65,000 square foot billboard, and mounted actual vehicles to its face. Even in pictures, the effect of the enormous ad is stunning, so in person, it must be something else. More pics after the jump. via CarScoop

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Frankly, we can't exactly blame California for having some of the strictest emissions laws in the country—when your major cities are that obscenely overpopulated, you kind of have to. But now, the Golden State is going after cars built prior to 1976, which have historically been exempt from its strict emissions testing, largely because these cars didn't yet have much in the way of modern emission-control equipment—it wouldn't make any sense to test them using today's standards. Polluters though they might be, here's why even these antiquated hulks don't spew out as much smog as a modern commuter car: they represent only a tiny sliver of the automotive population, and they're almost never daily drivers—how many people do you know who drive a '59 Cadillac to work, anyway? We're talking about cars that are more than three decades old, that are largely gas-guzzling V8s, and are likely as not to have personality tics, such as a low tolerance for idling in traffic for extended periods. In other words, no one in their right mind would use them for everyday driving; these are the pampered rides that are saved for car shows and sunny-day cruisin', and over the course of a year they probably put out less total C02 than a Corolla. The proposed legislation, which would impose emissions tests that pre-'76 cars would be unable to pass, simply amounts to another way to persecute enthusiasts over their infrequently-driven hobby cars. And the Hot Rod Blog makes the point that legislation that first gains traction in California rarely stays in California—you don't need to look much further back than the national smoking ban to prove that.

Of course this is by no means the first time that Cali has pushed car-unfriendly legislation, and lawmakers probably think that the current climate of anxiety about gas prices and pollution will make the public more prone to scapegoating older cars. Wanna prove 'em wrong? Express your opposition to S.B. 1549 to the California Senate Transportation and Housing Committee through the SEMA site.

Via TTAC

By David

aka Highspeedhijinks

Many of us have owned a car that's great but needs a little help under the hood. You don't want to rebuild  the engine or swap it—it just needs a little reconditioning. Each day this week, I'll be covering one of the basic steps for reconditioning any engine on a reasonable budget.

The first step to doing a good job is to do a little research and documentation before you start. Knowing exactly what engine you have will save you a lot of hassle at the parts counter. For instance, the car I'll be using as a reference, my grandfather's 1970 Buick LeSabre, has a 350ci engine. It's not the same as the common Chevy 350, though, so I have to be careful to make sure the parts guys know this when they give me my gaskets. You 4 cylinder guys know that not all 2.0 litres are created equal.

Now that you know what you have under the hood, you've got to decide how far you want to go. Base this decision on how long the car can be down and your own mechanical ability. With that information figured out you can then start making your list of items that you're going to need. On my first trip to the parts counter, I got hoses, belts, intake gaskets, caburator gaskets, vacuum line, paint, a case of brake clean and a 5 gallon jug of concentrated degreaser. That brought me to about $110.00 to start. Continued...

By John Coyle

Editor

Frontier Airlines has an all-new fleet of planes with cute animals painted on the tail. And I have to admit, the squeaky-clean Airbus 319s I flew in yesterday were pretty spiffy. But you know what would have been super-cool? Getting home from Detroit in less than 14 hours. Anyway, here's the news:

• BMW is sending its Hydrogen 7 sedan on a world tour, and while the idea of cars which only emit hot air and water is pretty cool, it'd be nice if this example got more than 5 MPG. Does it really need a V12?  Auto Observer
• Can having too many choices be a bad thing? Ford seems to think so, and it's easy to see why. After all, should there be 100,000 different ways to configure a Focus? Probably not. Automotive News
• There's nothing SFW about this story, so be warned. Over the weekend, a tape of FIA boss Max Mosley participating in a sadomasochistic, Nazi-themed orgy surfaced, and it's even more ugly than it sounds. If that's possible. Jalopnik via News of the World.
• The strike at American Axle has gotten even uglier. The company is now placing help wanted ads to fill positions left open by striking workers. Will this standoff kill the company's American plants? Detroit News
• Smart has hired a Detroit native to run the brand's USA operations. Think his high-school buddies will still talk to him? Freep

By Sean Cahill

Editor

When the sun starts to set, Spring Break Nationals really starts to shine. The NiteGlow Competition is a cool twist to the car show scene, and offers a truly unique view of competitors' show cars not usually available at your typical car show. This MKII Supra was one of the more subtle examples we shot, sporting a multicolor LED underbody kit that transitioned between purple, blue, and red. The collection of show cars on display were dressed in LEDs, Neon, strobes - even a full police lite bar on Crown Vic cruiser! Stay tuned to the CarDomain events section for full coverage.

By Ron

aka WayTooFurious

This really is one of those incidents that you’d only expect to see in a movie. A failed overtaking manoeuvre left an 18-year-old driver hanging vertically off the edge of a bridge in New South Wales, Australia, staring down a 65-foot drop at the cold, turbulent surface of the Williams River. He was stuck this way for a good hour and twenty minutes before emergency services were able to secure the vehicle, cut the railing, and winch him to safety. Talk about a lucky break. I've had a few close calls in my driving career, but nothing like this—what was your lucky break?

Thanks for the tip, Kaylene!

By Sean Cahill

Editor

While checking out the cars at the Tuner Jam portion of SBN, I noticed a hot little Mazda 3 with a CarDomain sticker in the rear window. Turns out the car is part of a "little" show car group that's no stranger to the pages of CarDomain, the International AllStars. A red-on-black color theme is featured both inside and out with a carbon hood and black wheels on red paint that perfectly compliment the black interior with red accents. A 6.5" LCD is molded into center of the dash, and the hatch was filled with Eclipse amps and subs trimmed in glossy red fiberglass. Here's a teaser shot for now. Want to see rest? Stay tuned for the SBN coverage later this week!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Two of my favorite imports, BMW and Subaru, just can't seem to get it right lately when it comes to exterior styling. BMW is still working through the whole Bangle nightmare, and I personally have not quite recovered from the travesty that is the new Impreza/WRX/STI. Seriously, is it that hard to design a good looking car?

Maybe these manufacturers should just focus on what they are good at: building kick-ass cars. Maybe they should leave the exterior design to people who know what they are doing: Italians. No one ever decided not to buy an Italian car cause it was ugly. People decide not to buy Italian cars because they are too expensive, or because they are too fire prone. But Italians know how to design great looking cars.

Isuzu figured this out back in the 70s. When they wanted a new Impulse, they went to Giorgetto Giugiaro, and he penned something pretty cool. VW has gone to Giugiaro, too--he penned the first generation Scirocco. In the early 90s, Lexus went to Giugiaro for the GS 300, and Subaru went to him for the SVX. So what's the deal now? Are BMW and Subaru too proud? Come on guys, make it easy on yourself and hire an Italian. You'll end up with better looking cars, and you'll sell more of 'em, too.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I reaped the predictable result of applying too big a breaker bar to too cheap a ratchet extension (see below). The culprit was a head bolt that had been torqued down hard and then drowned in a solidified pool of JB Weld. After working at it with Simple Green to soften the epoxy (weird: that actually works), I chipped away most of the stubborn blob, but the bolt still wouldn't let go. I had to get a length of steel pipe to put over my breaker, transforming it into a 4-foot oar. That eventually did the job, and so this weekend I was able to make incremental baby steps toward my diesel Escort head swap.

How about you—what did you do this weekend?

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

My buddy Scott Smith was at Mopars At The Strip in Vegas this weekend. Phil Painter, the organizer for MATS, decided to invite any current owner of an original LO23/BO23 1968 Hemi Dart or 1968 Hemi Barracuda to attend a 40th anniversary get together. He also invited many of the cars original owners/drivers who were Super Stock Racers from back in the 60s.

Some of the bigger Mopar driver names from back in the day included Bill Stiles, Arlen Vanke, Dick Olfield, Judy Lilly, Don Grother, Shirley Shahan, and other Hemi legends such as Tom Hoover (the inventor of the Chrysler Hemi) and Buddy Martin (the "Martin" in Sox & Martin). These people all showed up and signed memorabilia for attendees all weekend, and Scott reports that it was a really nice bunch of people. I have eleven more pics Scott took of these awesome rides after the jump.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This is the car forum story of the year, if not the decade. A guy missing two fingers steals a 1991 GT-R off a Calgary car lot, the car salesman posts about the theft on Beyond.ca, and within hours the forum members track down the thief, box the car in at his house, and get some good video as the cops haul the guy off to jail. And now, to add insult to injury, the thief's hat, which was found in the recovered Skyline, is up on eBay. Ain't the internet great?

By Katherine Helmetag

AKA atomicalex

Have you ever wondered what was inside an ABS sensor? After an hour of pulling, drifting, wedging, and yes, even torching, I can now tell you. There is a cylindrical magnet inside a coil of lots of very fine copper wire, a backstop, and a whole lot of this gooey gel stuff. It's all stuffed into an aluminum sheath and fused to a rubber boot thing that gives the tech something to bang on when trying to remove or insert it. I learned all of this on Friday night while trying to remove the failed ABS sensor from my driver's side front spindle. It took quite an effort - included removing the halfshaft - and I ended up completely destroying the thing in the process. Fortunately, the car gods smiled on me and I got the new one in the car all buttoned up with minimal fuss. And most important, no broken fingernails, thank you pink camo Mechanix gloves! I turned on the ignition to check and was rewarded with no ABS light and no traction control light for the first time in weeks. I'll take it out for a test drive in the morning. I hear that if the sensor doesn't pick up the ring signal, all sorts of hell breaks loose. But no idiot lights - yahoooooooo!