By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

I am a road trip junkie; this should come as no surprise when you edit a magazine called Automotive Traveler. Road trips are and remain an important part of my life and that of many of the contributors and editors here on CarDomain (just ask a sleep deprived Jen Dunnaway). I often joke about the weight of the large number of travel guidebooks that cause the shelves of the bookcases that line my office to groan.

So when I find a great road trip book I want to shout from the mountaintop, or at least tell fellow enthusiasts. And the book I want to tell you about, that gets my vote as automotive book of the year, is Classic Motorsports Routes, 30 Legendary Routes You Can Drive Today by Richard Meaden, contributing editor to one of my favorite auto magazines, evo from the UK. On the evo staff, Richard has the reputation for finding great roads to drive, restaurants to indulge at, and hotels to bed down for the night. After reading this book, I now know why. More...

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 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.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Here's the latest from Rich in Salt Lake City, Utah:

We're now at Larry H. Miller Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep. Steve Hinckley, who runs the show car portion of Mopars at the Strip, arranged with the local Salt Lake City Mopar community to meet us and meet us they did. Two '70 Challenger R/Ts, a '71 Plymouth Road Runner, Steve's '69 Dodge Polara 2-door hardtop and we were finally nabbed by a member's '06 police package Charger. While we wait for Buzz to arrive from the SLC airport from Reno, we're positioning all the vintage, high performance Mopars in front of the Dodge show room. It's actually snowing here! That means these Moparaholics brought out these nearly priceless Mopars to meet us. The red rocks shot is Canyonlands NP from early this morning.

Four more cool pics (including the red rocks shot) after the jump. Stay tuned for more from Rich...

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Rich "Kowalski" Truesdell made it to Lakewood, Colorado last night after a 530 mile drive from Utah. The Challenger is running flawlessly, other than a blown fuse that resulted from plugging in an inverter and laptop power brick into the power port. Full details on yesterday's drive over at Automotive Traveler. And I've got one more pic of the Challenger with the two old Mopars who met up with Rich in Lakewood after the jump. Stay tuned for more on the Vanishing Point road trip.

Update at 3PM Pacific: Rich just called in from the road. He's behind the wheel of the 1970 Hemi Challenger pictured below, with the new Challenger in his rear view. It's a 4 speed car with manual disc brakes and a shaker hood. He said it's perfectly sorted out, and does not drive like a 38 year old car. He's listening to Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline on the 8-track, but he likes the music coming from under the hood much more. Oh, and he's planning a bulldozer shoot later on, so stay tuned.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Rich Truesdell of Automotive Traveler leaves tomorrow on his Vanishing Point road trip in the new Challenger. I've been working with my friends at Moparts to set up a few meet ups along the route, and have shipped Rich a bunch of CarDomain t-shirts to give out. So if you're in Colorado or So Cal or anywhere in between, you should try to get out for this.

Here's what I have so far (and I will update and edit this post as I get more info): First meet up is Tuesday at Best Western on 3440 S Vance Street in Lakewood, CO. It's near the intersection of US285 and CO 121. Rich will be there by 5PM. Rich will then retrace the route of the movie (meet ups still TBD), and arrive at at Cars Coffee in Irvine Saturday morning.

The pic below is from a cruise with the concept Challenger two years ago. And after the jump I have a pic of one of the period correct cop cars that should be at Cars and Coffee on Saturday. Stay tuned for more on this road trip/meet up--this is your chance to see the new production Challenger up close, along with some cool old Mopars!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Long before there was the Dukes of Hazzard, there was Vanishing Point, every Mopar guy's favorite existential movie. The hero of the story is the white 1970 Challenger driven by Kowalski. So what's the first thing Rich Truesdell thought of when he learned he'd get a chance to drive the new Challenger? That's right. And he's gonna hook up with Buzz Graves and his 1970 Dodge Challenger Hemi R/T to retrace the route from the movie. Let's just hope he doesn't crash into some bulldozers at the end. Stay tuned for exclusive video and photos of the drive on CarDomain, just as soon as Dodge lifts the embargo on driving impressions on May 1. And right now Rich is serving up a teaser for his 2,600-mile trip next week over at Automotivetraveler.com, with a wallpaper-sized image of a 1970 Dodge Challenger T/A alongside the 2006 concept version of the Dodge Challenger--both "painted" white.

By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

Now I love Ramblers (I own four), and this 1963 Rambler Ambassador on eBay looks really stunning in the photos, but it really is a stretch to call it, as its seller claims, "the first muscle car." If any AMC Rambler can lay claim to that title of being the first muscle car, it would have be the 1957 Rambler Rebel, which in 1957 would only be bested by a Chevy Corvette (it was even faster than a Chrysler 300). More...

By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

The Malibu is one of the most storied names in Chevrolet's inventory. Starting in 1964, it was attached to some of the most memorable mid-sized cars in the Bowtie's long and storied history. But for most of the last four years, it's been synonymous with "rental car," as a very high proportion of production has gone directly to Avis. For 2008 the Malibu is all-new and Chevy has a lot riding on its success; it is the frontal attack on the class leaders, the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry, as it hopes to re-establish Chevrolet as not only a player in this category, but to be the benchmark. Have they succeeded? More...

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Rich Truesdell of Automotive Traveler has just written a follow up to last month's Catching the Eye of an Editor. This month he focuses on the dos and don'ts of car photography. He covers setting, lighting, equipment, whether or not to use a flash, and how to do a tracking shot. Given the quality of the many of the pics I see on ride pages at CarDomain, I figured his tutorial might come in handy for some folks here. And maybe I'm biased, but I really liked the '66 Charger photo. Check out the full story.

By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

Even though we’ve all gotten quite used to getting great content on the web for free, there is still something to be said for reading a well-produced print publication. There's still that visceral appeal of seeing large photographs on a glossy printed page, or better yet, spread over two pages. That, combined with well-crafted words, is almost the next best thing to being behind the wheel. And I’m happy to say that there’s a new kid on the block worth a look, a new title from the UK, Performance Car. More...

By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

San Diego is one of my favorite cities. This is coming from someone who calls Southern California home, but is very disenchanted by the traffic and how difficult it now seems to get anywhere. That being said, I have few complaints about Jaguar having selected San Diego and the twisty secondary roads to the east of the city for us to get some seat time behind the wheel of the new XF sports sedan.

With Ford’s recent sale of its Jaguar and Land Rover brands to India's Tata industrial conglomerate, the importance of this launch for Jaguar's future can't be underestimated. If ever there was a make-or-break launch for a vehicle manufacturer, this is it. And thankfully for Jaguar, the new XF is an outstanding vehicle--albeit it one that is somewhat difficult to pigeonhole--that should help restore the leaping cat to a place of prominence in the luxury sport sedan marketplace. More...

By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

Lest you think that all I do is cover Mopar events, let me tell you up front, that's not the case. Sometimes it just seems that way, as it did last weekend when I took a quick sprint up Interstate 15 to pop in on Mopars at the Strip, an annual event held for Mopar fanatics at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

While it is just the last weekend in March, it was already uncomfortably warm, and the bright sunlight made it almost impossible to photograph some of the outstanding Mopars in attendance. The event--which is part car show, part vendor midway, and part drag race on the facility's 1/8-mile drag strip--had something for virtually everyone, if your interests tend to slant towards Chryslers, Dodges, and Plymouths (alas, there were no AMCs, Chrysler's red-headed step child).

A lucky break, as far as photography was concerned, was that on the way back to Los Angeles Friday night, I stopped off at The Cannery north of downtown for a bite to eat--taking advantage of an excellent $11.99 Prime Rib dinner--which just happened to be the host hotel for the event. And as participants returned from the track, they set up a car show in the rear courtyard and on the rear street which was blocked off.

Taking advantage of the great light, I was able to get some shots of some truly stunning Mopars. I have twenty more shots after the jump.