By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

You've been hearing about 'Dega all weekend, and now we've got full photo coverage of both the Aaron's 312 and the Aaron's 499 live in our Events section. Check out the fan's-eye view of all the three-wide, bump-drafting, paint-trading, high-octane chaos—and don't forget that we've got images of nearly every one of those hot vintage race cars from the International Motorsports Hall of Fame thrown in as well!

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I've never owned a car that has any cupholders at all, so I've never really understood how people can get so worked up about how many their ride has, how fabulously adjustable they are, how much temperature-regulating gadgetry is built into them, and so on. But this adorable french-fry holder accessory really had me tickled, until I started wondering: have we as a society become this soft and useless, that we need to be inventing ever more expedient ways to stuff our faces with greasy junk food—while we're driving? Something about it just seems wrong, and the clip-on ketchup reservoir just seems like a great way to get your ride's interior really sticky. Fortunately, the product is listed at the Improvements catalog (how ironic) as currently "not available." So our civilization is safe. For now, at least.

By John Coyle

Editor

The 2008 Bullrun is still a couple months away, but as you can imagine, something this epic doesn't come together overnight. So while nobody—including yours truly!—will be hitting the road until late June, preparations are currently in high gear. Despite all the activity, rally founder Andy Duncan managed to send me some shots of the one of one, Shelby West Coast Customs, Bullrun Edition Mustang. As you'd expect, the crew from WCC went to town on the creature comforts—adding a bumping system, satellite navigation and some two-tone leather to the interior—but they didn't stop there. Along with the WWC/Shelby body kit, this pimped pony also sports American Racing rims wrapped in Continental rubber, Eibach suspension, a full Gibson exhaust system, and a Whipple supercharger—which means it's pushing almost 500 horsepower. Pretty sweet! There are four more pics after the jump, and stay tuned, as I'll be posting about more Bullrun cars as soon as the info is available!

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I'm setting out for One Lap of America tomorrow with Steven Rankins' Boxer4Racing Subaru team, and I couldn't be more excited! Just take a look at our route map, complete with all the track locations we'll be hitting—I guess there's a reason Brock Yates Jr. has called this enduracnce event "a season of racing in a week." Another cool aspect of the tour is that we have to run the entire 4000-mile journey and ten gruelling track events on a single set of tires, when racers will often go through multipe sets during a single race weekend. Steven decided to use a fresh set of the Continental ContiSportContact3's he ran last year, because they held up so well—and we do get to bring along a spare for emergencies. Stay tuned, as CarDomain's going to be bringing you up-close coverage of the track racing and the long hauls for the entire 4000 miles. We'll be kicking off the tour in South Bend, Indiana this weekend. See you there!

By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

Driving from LA to Denver and back will give you ample opportunity to get to know almost any car, and Dodge’s new 2008 Challenger SRT8 is no exception. What makes this adventure even more compelling is that on the second leg, from Denver to LA, we’ll be joined by a restored 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T Hemi. Have we died and gone to Mopar heaven? Read after the jump to find out.

By John Coyle

Editor

The trailers for Iron Man look awesome, and with Robert Downey Jr. in the lead, I'm confident the big screen adaptation will deliver the goods. But as it turns out, the stunt team had a lot more trouble with some of the car shoots than they anticipated. In the clip below, the storyboard called for the R8 to flip, but like a stubborn puppy, Audi's halo car just didn't want to roll over. And when they tried use mechanical claws rip the roof open like a tin can? You guessed it. The German steel just wouldn't cooperate. In another scene, a Q7 was supposed to come skidding to a halt, and as you can imagine, the Audi's anti-lock brakes kept bringing the crossover to a nice, controlled stop. Apparently, German engineering doesn't dig drama. Enjoy the clips.

By John Coyle

Editor

For someone who loves sitting around watching auto racing, I have a lot of friends who just don't get it. So obviously, I've heard pretty much every whiny, race-bashing comment you can think of—boring, waste of fuel, only for the super-rich—but there's one which completely pisses me off. So what is it? The bone-headed assertion that race drivers aren't athletes. Once, some dude made that statement to me, and in the next breath, argued that chess—the game with the little plastic pieces—is a sport. None of my arguments about soaring cockpit temperatures and insane g-forces seemed to register, and eventually, I just stopped talking to him. That's why I was so stoked to stumble across this awesome piece from Wired, which shows exactly how physically demanding racing is. I've forwarded it to all my skeptical, pointy-headed friends, and you should check it out too.

By John Coyle

Editor

Rob is out of the office today, so we've opened up the box wine a little early. We're still waiting to hear from Ad Sales about a Franzia sponsorship for the blog, but trust us, if it happens, you'll know. Here's the news:

• The General just announced a first quarter loss of 3.3 billion dollars. But look at the bright side. I'm sure there's one somewhere. Maybe? Please? MSNBC
• Rising gas prices have taken a serious bite out of the values of SUVs, so much so that some used car dealers are refusing to take them as trades. Could these modern-day codpieces be going the way of olden-day codpieces? US News and World Report
• Piero Ferrari—son of Enzo—will be buying shares of troubled Italian coach building firm Pininfarina, which seems like a no-brainer, given the firm's long association with Ferrari. Here's hoping the Pininfarina family will be able to retain control of the company. CarScoop
• Rick Suzuki, the Chairman of American Suzuki is stepping down because of the company's disappointing performance. But is he entirely to blame? Or did rising gas prices play a roll? Auto Observer

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I was under the illusion that cars don't rust in the South, so with a few hours to kill before my flight out following the races this weekend, I was more than stoked to go stump around in the at the Birmingham Pull A Part for a bit. Overall there was some pretty cool stuff, with 70's and 80's cars surviving in greater numbers than they tend to elsewhere. But over in their pre-70's section, I saw a whole pile of pickups that looked worse than Tow-Mater—this Ford truck had panels you could literally push your finger through. While I didn't find anything for any of my cars, I did talk with the owner of this survivor first-gen Escort that pulled up in the parking lot as I was leaving, complete with the badass 80's window louvers. The cars here may not be as rust-free as all the mythology led me to believe, but any state where 80's iron is kept in daily service is a great place as far as I'm concerned. See more gems after the jump!

If you love old cars, it's important that you support your local boneyard, because with the price of scrap metal skyrocketing, it's becoming more profitable for the yards to crush their entire inventory than to part out cars individually. Get the parts you need while you still can!

By Rob

Editor-in-Chief

GM really stepped up to the plate with 2009 Cadillac CTS-V. I mean, come on, 550 hp!!! It seems to be aimed squarely at the BMW M5, but will be priced a lot lower--probably in the mid-$60k range. I had to look around a bit for a worthy challenger in that price range, and finally (with Sean's help) came up with the Audi RS 4. Now, the Audi only delivers 420 hp, but you get AWD and "German engineering." So, which would you choose, the Caddy or the Audi?

By Ben Schaffer

Bulletproof Automotive

Sure, we’re a little embarrassed by the Disco generation. Yet the Bee Gees and John Travolta continue to be popular to this day. Decotora is kind of like JDM’s Disco cousin. Recently I got inspired by the beautiful photos of Tatsuki Masura’s book. So I thought I’d post some Decotora photos I dug up.

Decotora got its start in the Disco era, specifically the 1975 Japanese movie Trucker. These trucks are interesting enough during the day, but at night they’re incredible! I’d love to see one of those in the US at night. People would freak out--I suspect they would cause car crashes. Tons more pics after the jump.

By John Coyle

Editor

The National Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's crash test of smart's fortwo has leaked, and the results are pretty impressive. But maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. After all, Rob posted about a collision between a Nissan truck and a fortwo a couple of weeks back, and the micro-machine more than held its own. What do you think? Would you be worried about driving a smart?

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Well, Rich survived his epic journey. Full account of the last days of this awesome road trip over at Automotive Traveler. And there's a cool pic of the Challenger getting a much-needed wash after the jump. Thanks for sharing, Rich! And thanks to everyone who followed this story and turned out to see Rich and the car along the way.

• Ben Vollmer has been in the car audio industry for many many years. He's seen many many demo and competition cars come and go. But a few have always stood out from the rest, and when the opportunity arose for him to actually buy one of his favorites, still with the award-winning competition audio system still intact, he jumped on it! So what's he planning on doing with it? Find out!
• Al & Ed's Mr. Mobile is back, and this time he's featuring a SmartTop convertible roof controller. What the heck is it and what does it do?! Hop over to SoundDomain to find out. And if you're lucky, you might just win one!
• We jut can't get enough.... Steve Meade hooked us up with some video walk-arounds showcasing the current status of the Escalade's insane install. We've got three videos to show you, each one testing the system with a different style of music. The old school Micheal Jackson is my particular favorite!