By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I don’t know much about photography, but I know what I like, and I really like this HDR image of a ’68 Charger taken by my Moparts buddy Mark Brooks in Sacramento. According to Mark, “HDR Images are created by taking several photos of the same exact scene, using the same f-stop, but bracketing the images with different exposure values. Then, the images are combined in a program like Photomatix, so that a broader tonal range can be seen.” You can see a bunch more of his HDR car pics after the jump, or check our all his stuff at flickr.

Continue reading "HDR Charger" »

Sunday I did something that I generally do not do: attend a car show. I brought the Charger because its more fun to drive than my 118K+ mile Mercury Villager. However, I had absolutely no intention of being judged and/or entering the show. We rolled up to the entrance, I paid my $20 bucks and told the attendant that I would like to pay to park on the show field as it was safer then parking in the standard lot. He said, "ok," and we proceeded to park among the other cars. Now, at the entrance they generally give you a little card to fill out with your car’s stats, but having no interest in being judged, we just stuffed it in the glove box and proceeded to park. We then ran through the basic car show routine which is to buy a bottle of water and an overpriced pretzel and walk around to see the other cars.

Continue reading after the jump.

Continue reading "Car Show BS" »

I’d never seen a pic of a Lenco shifter til I got my September Hot Rod in the mail yesterday. Wow! What a burly setup! I just did a quick search on CarDomain and found a few rides with them installed. Just check out the Lenco shifter in Robert’s ’67 Camaro below. Two more pics after the jump–click on the pics to get to the member’s ride page.

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The Shelby GT350 and GT500 are American automotive icons. As we come out of the Fourth of July weekend, I want to attempt to settle the long-running debate of which is better.

An Olympia-area collector let me decide for myself. He gave me the keys to his 1968 GT350 and 1967 GT500 and told me to drive them back-to-back–and drive them hard!

First I made myself at home in the blue GT350. The interior is like “Mr. Ford goes to Italy,” with a combination of the standard Mustang spacious fake woodgrain-trimmed accommodations and Shelby-only Ferrari-like bus driver-angled wood-rimmed wheel, rollbar and racing harnesses.

I depress the clutch and turn the key. The V8 comes to life with a roar… and a whir. This GT350 has a Shelby-Paxton supercharger, a rare and ultra-desirable option offered by both factory and dealers.  Forced induction added 100 advertised horsepower over a standard 1968 GT350 302ci engine’s rating of 250 hp. Getting that power to the wheels is a four-speed tranny with a shifter throw that is as long and vague as presidential debate closing comments. Continue reading…

Continue reading "Driving Shelby’s Potent Pony Cars" »

A few days back Jen posted that she couldn’t understand why people trying to sell their rides on eBay or Craigslist post such crappy photos. As her blog popped up on my screen, I was editing some photos of a bitchin’ and rare 1968 Ford Mustang California Special that I had taken the night before. I started to think–always dangerous–how it might be useful to explain to CarDomain readers exactly what goes into a magazine feature-level photo shoot. So as soon as I was done editing, I pulled out a sequence of ten images from the California Special shoot and wrote some text explaining the process. If you would like to see what it takes to produce shots like this, check out Car Photography for Dummies over at Automotive Traveler.

I blogged about this ’68 GTX with just 5,831 miles on the clock two weeks ago. Well, it just sold today at a private estate auction for $203,000!!! I guess the muscle car market hasn’t softened that much after all…

Continue reading "Rip Van Winkle's Hemi GTX Sells For $203,000" »

As a consumer I suppose I do my fair share of complaining just like anybody else, but I have to admit I am getting my ass handed to me at the pump these days. I also have four cars, all of which fulfill a certain "purpose." You see, as an enthusiast, I love to drive–doesn’t matter if it’s to the grocery store, the local car wash or a on nice road trip. Well, this weekend pretty much beat me down in the wallet as I ended up making two round trip excursions from Queens, NY to Boston, MA. Thats 209 miles x 4 or 836 miles in total. For the first drive I opted to take our 2001 BMW M5. It may be seven years old and have 90,000 miles on it, but it runs like a clock and will still spank the majority today’s performance cars. Problem is, though, it takes only premium, that meant a $74 dollar gas bill for a round trip. Ooof.

Another problem arose on Sunday when I had to go back up to Boston. The weather was suppose to be beautiful for the next two days and as I was making the trip back up to Bean Town by my lonesome I opted to take the Charger. This was all fine and dandy until I realized I was only averaging about 8 mpg at speeds of 85 mph and up (I was practicing for my upcoming Bullrun). That meant four fill-ups in total as I still had some driving to do when I was actually in Boston. This is where it began to hurt, the first round trip run in the M5 was $74 bucks, then each subsequent Charger fill up was around $65- $68, and there were four of those. So lets see, 74+66+66+66+66 (I’ve averaged) totals $338… WOOF!!!!

This is actually a little scary, because for the first time in my life, I am going to have curb what I love doing the most–driving. Hopefully fuel costs won’t be doing the same to everyone out there in CarDomain land as well.

This ’68 GTX has been sitting for 40 years and has just 5,831 miles on the clock. And it’s not on eBay. It will be sold alongside a bunch of tractors, antiques and miscellaneous junk at an estate auction in Malvern, PA on the weekend of June 7. The 4.56 gears suggest that the car saw a bit of drag racing action before it was parked, but it appears to be very original and correct. These kinds of finds are getting to be fewer and farther between. Pretty cool. More pics after the jump.

Continue reading "Rip Van Winkle's Hemi GTX at Estate Auction" »

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.

Continue reading "Mopar Super Stock 40 Year Reunion At Vegas MATS" »

I saw this old Cragar ad on Leo’s 68 Charger ride page. Pretty cool, but I’m kind of glad white walls aren’t popular anymore.