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.
Chili Pepper Racing's MK5 Jetta TDI was the world's first professional bio-diesel touring car. Their mission? To raise money to fund research into the diagnosis, treatment and development of a cure for pediatric cancer. And they will be competing in the green track car category at the Ultimate Track Car Challenge at Buttonwillow in June!
If you want to be involved with the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge, time is running out. Check out cardomain.com/grm. And yes, we're looking for more green track cars!
The journey of a thousand steps starts with the first one, which I took, oh, about a year ago when I started designing a new headliner for my Rabbit. About a week ago, I took the thousandth step--I finished installing the new convertible top, pad and headliner just in time for decent weather here in the D. This was, hands down, the most complex job I've done on the car. It's right up there with doing a head rebuild on an OHC engine with chains, only there are about twice as many steps! I hesitated to tell you about it until the car saw some rain and didn't leak, and as of yesterday, that's the case. There are some jobs that you just can't call a success until Mother Nature has her say. I can see some spots where it's pretty clear this was my first top install, but it fits and is watertight enough to stand up to a spring rain. I've had the car on the road for a week solid and it's running great aside from a small vacuum leak at idle and a possible motor mount issue. I'll take a look at those this week--it's hard to even think of putting her back in the garage for any length of time right now as the sun is shining and warm summer nights await. More pics on my ride page.
Since both places have drive-up windows, I'm going to go out on a limb and call the fact that Arby's just bought Wendy's car-related. Founder Dave Thomas opened the first restaurant in Ohio forty years ago, and one of his daughters described her family as "devastated" by the sale. All I'm saying is that Arby's better not mess with the menu at Wendy's—it's the best fast food out there. Anyway, here's the news:
- Don't be surprised if you hear some execs in Dearborn humming AC/DC today, as Ford just announced that—for the fiscal quarter at least—the company is back in the black. Given most analysts expected the Blue Oval to still be hemorrhaging cash, this is big news. Auto Observer
- Ferrari will open its first retail store in the UK later this year, which should come as a real relief to all the blokes looking for a great way to drop $50 on a ball cap. CarScoop
- Pininfarina has announced it plans to open a design center in India. Something tells me that in the next decade, India will be a major player in the automotive world. Stay tuned. World Car Fans
- VW is looking to build cars in the US, and the company has narrowed its search to three states. Who says having a devalued currency is so bad? Freep
- The American Axle strike is beginning to feel a lot like the Democratic primary. It's going on and on, with no end in site. Will we have a new President before those AA and the UAW reach a deal? Detroit News
Brenda Priddy, the femme fatale of car spy photography, got us one heck of a scoop today--real, live and non-blurry photos of the new Volkswagen pickup truck tester. We've been told this mid-size hauler will be called the 2010 VW Robust in certain markets, but that's speculation as of now. What's also speculation is whether we'll end up seeing it here in the United States and of course whether the new four-door pickup from the brand all about "Fahrvergnügen" will end up hitting showrooms as a 2010 model year product. What we do know is current plans are for it to be built in Hanover, Germany as well as Argentina. Full-sized pics and spy report from Brenda Priddy at Jalopnik.
It was 60 degrees here in Detroit on Saturday, and that meant one thing: spring fever. I have it, and like every other convertible owner out there, the only cure is less top. I've been working hard on my Rabbit resto lately, and the headliner installation has been giving me fits for the last two weeks. I've had about every fitment problem imaginable, which is what I get for making my headliner myself, I guess. The summery air breathed new life into me as it warmed me up, and I dove back into the project in earnest. By dinner time, I had the headliner re-fit and re-glued. I had started stapling and got well beyond my goal for the day. As I was driving out to meet my patient spouse for dinner, my friend Scott called up to lament not putting his Miata on road insurance in time for the warm day. I could only sympathize: he had the fever, too. By the end of Sunday, I was two springs shy of ready to put the top skin on. Another sunny, warm day was just making the fever worse. I'm hoping to have a cure by the end of the week--a fully installed top and an insurance card that no longer says "storage only." Oh, and that soft-looking gray stuff in the picture--it's Alcantara. I'm not skimping on anything!
I have an update to last week's story, Hit and Run Sleuthing at VWVortex involving the damage done to Runin2Rich4FSi's parked GTI. Looks like Runin2Rich4FSi's mom stepped in and saved the day:
UPDATE!!
THEY CAUGHT THE FU*KER!!!!
My mom got home before me, she saw the car, called the cops, the guy came out, amitted hitting my car even though he had already fixed his head light!!
The cops did their job. they confronted the guy along wiht my mom. The cops knew they had enough evidence, the guy cracked. he did the right thing in the end. it took some muscle flexing from the justice side, but I am happy that I dont have to use my insurance and pay a deductible to fix this crap.
Nice work, mom!
Anyone involved in motorsports knows that racing is big bucks, and sadly, the initial outlay for some series has become so prohibitive that it keeps a lot of talented folks out of the running. I'd really like to not see this happen to our buddy William Worley, who's been invited to qualify for the extremely awesome Volkswagen TDI Cup at the upcoming driver selection event in Phoenix. Problem is, William only has about 24 hours left to come up with the $15,000 entry fee, and though he's been doing a great job of absolutely busting his ass to scrape together sponsor dollars and private donations, he's still come up a few bucks short. If CarDomain blog readers can come together to put him over the line, VW will provide him with a turbo-diesel track car to run and we'll get to follow his very exciting path through the TDI cup series this summer! Check out his ride page, and if you're feeling big-hearted and wanna help put William in the race, follow the link to the PayPal donation button on his website. Remember, every little bit helps, and he's only got until the end of the day tomorrow to finish raising the funds!
Volkswagen has been running a Toyota-based pickup in South America for a couple of years now. But Pickuptruck.com reports that a new pickup for 2010, the Robust, will be an entirely in-house design. The truck will be built primarily for European and South American markets, though there's some speculation, fueled by the inordinate interest shown by VW officials for American pickup trucks at the Detroit Auto Show, that the new truck could be offered on the US market as well.
While no promotional vehicle quite matches the Muffler Hut in sheer idiotic awesomeness, this can car on eBay is apparently pretty appealing as a rolling billboard as well—bidding's up to $1425, with two days to go. It's based on a '79 Karmann Ghia chassis, and the seller warns that it's neither highway-safe nor likely to be legal in your state, so buyer beware. It's also yet to be painted up with any particular sponsor, though the seller considerately offers a series of hilarious photoshops of the can car decked out in various corporate schemes. I like the Duracell battery.
Next week in New York, I'm going to have dinner with the folks from Hyundai, and since I have a big, fat crush on the company, I'm pretty excited. But in between laughing at every joke and batting my eyelashes, I'm definitely going to ask why the Genesis Coupe's engine bay isn't big enough to accommodate the new V8. Here's the news:
- White is the number one color for cars in the US, followed by silver and black. Since most people are pretty boring, it's to be expected most that people are will choose a boring color for their car. But the world would be a better place if more cars were painted like Skittles. World Car Fans
- Chrysler has just announced it will shut down all its facilities for two weeks in July. The company isn't saying why, but something tells me it has something to do with money. Freep
- Volkswagen had a pretty good 2007—everywhere but the US, that is. What's the problem? Well, there are a whole mess of them. Auto Observer
- Here's a surprise: Ford is "disappointed" with a California court's decision to reinstate an 82.6 million dollar judgment against the company. What's the problem? It's only 82 million bucks! Automotive News
By David
aka Highspeedhijinks
Ever since I had a license to drive my matchbox cars on the kitchen floor, I've liked my cars low. I think it must've come from leaning on the little die-casts too hard. As an adult, I still like them low. Take this Karmann Ghia I found on eBay for example. This car doesn't have fanciest wheels or the craziest paint job—it's just low. Yet this car is still cool as hell. People who own big trucks are typically the first to say that,"lowriders are for guys who cant get it up." To them I say "lifted trucks are for guys who cant get layed." Seriously though, I don't see why the whole high/low issue has to be so polarized, but we all have our desired vehicle ride heights. My preference is trucks high, cars low. What's yours?
