By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

You know the drill: Come up with a caption for the picture below by noon PST next Thursday. If you submit the funniest one, we’ll send you some CarDomain swag. Three entries per member max. Good luck!

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

Universal is on the move again with “FAST FIVE.” They’ve inked deals with Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, director Justin Lin, screenwriter Chris Morgan (Tokyo Drift, Fast & Furious, Wanted), and producer Neal Moritz to smack the pedal to the plastic and lay the cool car smackdown. This time, it will follow Dom and Brian as they are chased by legendary lawmen.

Fast & Furious was Universal’s highest grossing film of last year at $343 million, so doing another one makes sense. NICE!

By Mike Musto

RideLust.com

Over the last few years values in the collector car market have gone up and down more times then Oprah’s scale. Cars that were once in the six-figures are now in the five-figures with more market flux to come. Buyers who are new to the market can easily become confused and it is very easy to get taken advantage of by sellers who are less than honest.

I get e-mails constantly inquiring as to what cars to pick up as future collectibles. I also get asked my opinion on what the best bang for the buck is amongst these automobiles. After doing a bit of research, I’ve put together a list of automobiles that I would classify as having “future collect-ability”. These are cars that can be purchased right now and are priced between: $8,000 – $20,000.

1. 1983-1984: VW Rabbit GTI
90 hp / 106 ft-lbs tq. 1.8-liter 4 cylinder, Top Speed: 114 mph

What you are looking at here is the first real hot hatch to be brought into the United States. Even though it only had 90 hp, the high-revving GTI was a total blast to drive. It was quick, handled great and looked the business with its signature grill and wheels. Good examples can be had for between: $8,000 – $10,000.

See the rest of the rides on my list at Ridelust.com

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Late Model Racecraft’s latest package for the Corvette ZR1 named “Reaper” takes Corvette performance to the next level. Pushing 750 rear wheel horsepower on 93 octane pump gas, the Reaper package is the ultimate for the daily driver craving race car power. Read more about the Reaper package at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Today’s photo of the day is from Jacob’s Chevy S-10 ride page. Vandals poured two gallons of neon yellow paint on his truck. Luckily, it came off–but only after seven hours of cleaning!

Keep those PMs and e-mails coming!

By John Coyle

Deputy Editor

When I announced last week’s winner, I wrote about how happy I was that the rain that had been pounding Los Angeles had stopped. Well, I guess I spoke too soon. Tomorrow it’s supposed to rain again. When I moved here, everyone told me it never rains in LA, and I was dumb enough to believe them. Seriously, for a place where it “never rains,”  it sure rains a hell of a lot. Anyway, this week’s winner is fatratmatt, who came up with; “Confucius say man who eat’s fat duck surprise, will find van too top heavy to drive. Nice work, Matt! You got extra points for phrasing your caption like a classic fortune. Tune in tomorrow for the next installment of our additive-free Caption Contest!

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

The new year is upon us, and it’s time for a brand new season of the CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot, where I profile a car (or in this case, a truck) that you might not consider a muscle car, and try and change your thinking on what a muscle car can or should be. It’s been a while, and I’m glad to be back at CarDomain, writing about obscure muscle, like this entry on the Dodge Dakota 5.9 R/T.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot: The Dodge Dakota 5.9 R/T" »

By Rich Truesdell

Automotive Traveler

Vacationers wanting to get away and business people traveling to their next meeting over the next several weeks shouldn’t get too upset if they have to drive off the rental lot with a less than desirable make and model. At least they’ll have a car, and it probably won’t be a Toyota.

Last week the four largest rental operators in North America all announced that they would stop renting Toyota vehicles that could be affected by sticky accelerator pedals. So what percentage of the vehicles at the nation’s major rental companies are Toyota cars and trucks? And how will the nation’s travelers feel in the long run about picking up the keys to a Toyota at the rental counter? Read more at Automotive Traveler

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Who would of ever thought that a lowly Isuzu Amigo could ever be considered awesome sleeper hotness? We didn’t see this one coming, but once we laid our eyes on it, we fell instantly in love. The sick bastard that decided to bolt a 450hp 383ci stroker into this little cute ‘ute should either be given an award or a straight jacket. We want to buy him beers.

From the photos shown on an ad at RacingJunk.com, the only initial judgement we have is on the exahust system which looks to be hanging really low and kind of awkward. We’re thinking that’s because an off the shelf header was used (not that there is one for this swap, but something that fit was shoehorned in) so a trip to the header shop would probably result in a cleaner job, and more sneaky approach to suprise unwitting victims.

One of the more interesting things mentioned in the ad is the fact that the body has been lowered three inches and “braced” to handle the massive power infusion.

Don’t get us wrong, the outside of the truck is still hideous. The graphics and half convertible top are enough to turn our stomach, but in our world, horsepower cures all evils. Just for a second imagine how awesome it would be to blow off “fast” stuff left and right with this thing.

We want it, bad!

Source — RacingJunk.com — Radical 1993 Isuzu Amigo

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Today’s HFOD, a 1961 Ford Econoline van, will cross the block at the Palm Springs auction in late February, but we have a preview of it up now at Hemmings.com. From the consignor’s description:

I am the third owner of the van. The first owner owned a plumbing business and owned it until the late 70’s. The second owner purchased the van where it set until the late 90’s which he put in the 302 engine and 9 inch rear end the he lost interest.

So whaddaya think it’ll go for? Four figures, five figures, six? Also, note how the consignor neatly avoided mentioning the color…