By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Vick is serious about the color pink. See a ton more pics on his 2008 Lexus LS ride page!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Truth About Cars writer Paul Niedermeyer rented a new 2.7 liter Charger along with a high mileage ’93 V6 Camry on a recent trip to Hawaii, and followed up with a review comparing the two cars. If you’ve ever read The Truth About Cars it probably won’t come as a huge surprise that he preferred the Toyota. Now, I’ve never driven a 90s Camry. I’ve also never driven the 2.7 liter Charger, but I rented the 3.5 liter Charger SXT for a week in the SF Bay Area and thought it was great daily driver and family hauler. Of course the 2.7 liter Charger is going to be slow, but it gets better gas mileage than the old V6 Camry (18/26 mpg vs. 16/22 mpg). The Charger is also RWD, roomier, has a bigger trunk, and it’s MUCH safer (though this isn’t a huge issue in Hawaii, where no one drives faster than 35 mph). I agree that Dodge probably does a disservice to everyone by offering the 2.7 in the Charger (then again, they offered a fairly wimpy 318 in the original, too). But Paul didn’t seem to like anything about the Charger. He complained about the quality of the interior materials and ridiculed the outward vision. Mostly, though, it seemed like Paul was embarrassed by the Charger. And whose fault is that?

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

The results of our annual People’s Choice Awards are in! Congrats to all the winners and a big thanks to everyone who voted. And a huge shout out to Bud, our 2008 Showoff of the Year! So, without further ado…

1.      Best Tire Manufacturer: BFGoodrich

2.      Best Wheel Manufacturer: BBS

3.      Best Exhaust Manufacturer: Flowmaster

4.      Best Car Audio Manufacturer: Alpine

5.      Best Motor Oil: Mobil

6.      Best Video Game: Midnight Club LA

7.      Most Mod-Friendly Car: Ford Mustang

8.      Most Exciting New Vehicle Launch: 2010 Chevy Camaro

9.      Best Racing Series: Formula D

10.     Showoff of the Year: OrangeKrate

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

It’s not easy picking just ten out of 647,000+ ride pages. But here goes, and in no particular order…

1. Brent’s Pro FWD Civic was one of the coolest cars I saw at SEMA.

2. Aydar’s smart fourtwo scored SOTW. Aydar was also a runner up in our pumkin carving contest.

3. Anna Beth’s awesome purple AMC Pacer was featured in Hot Rod, and now it’s on CarDomain!

4. Mike’s El Cutlass or Camino Supreme got a ton of comments in the blog.

5. Todd’s Uber FJ is beautiful and beautifully documented.

6. Dwayne’s Miss DD Doba is built to be the world’s fastest 1976 Chrysler Cordoba.

7. Cal Poly’s Ford Explorer runs on two 500-hp hydraulic motors.

8. Mr. Angry’s Dodge Daytona had a rough time on Bullrun this year, but it’s all sorted out now.

9. ICON’s FJ45 is an amazing feat of engineering.

10. Jay’s 240Z SCCA spec road car is simply incredible.

So there you have it. Like my picks? Hate ‘em? Post some of your favorites in the comments below. And if you want, check out my 2006 list and my 2007 list.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Yesterday I selected some of my favorite blog posts from this year. Today I’m going to focus on the big stories of 2008. So here goes…

1. Big Three Meltdown. This whole Detroit situation has been pretty ugly. Katherine was trying to keep a cool head, but it wasn’t easy. The bailout happened, but will it make a difference?

2. Tuners in Trouble. First Nopi got cancelled, then GReddy went bankrupt. SEMA was pretty quiet for the tuner crowd as well. Will 2009 be any better?

3. Nissan GT-R. The GT-R was hot this year. First there was the dealer price gouging. Then the whole Porsche rivalry was big news. And then came the stories of the electronic nannies and voided warranties.

4. Dodge Challenger. The Challenger helped bring back the pony car wars, and it was probably the hottest car at SEMA this year. We got a R/T for a week and loved it. Will it be able to stand up to the Camaro next year?

5. Fast and Furious IV. Jen did some great coverage of the upcoming Fast and Furious movie, and you guys couldn’t get enough of it. Some CarDomain members even got their cars into the film!

6. Gas Prices. First prices went up. Way up. Then they went down. Way down. What the hell is going on here, anyway?

7. Electric Cars. Tesla sure had its ups and downs this year. But we drove a validation prototype and came away impressed. Then of course there’s the Chevy Volt. But is it gonna happen? And don’t forget the electric 911 and Duster!

8. Nick Hogan is an Idiot. Not much else to say here. He’s loose again…

9. Death of Legends. Phil Hill and Paul Newman both passed away this year. And they will be missed.

10. Ken Block is Still Insane. The guy jumped his Subaru 170 feet at the end of 2007. So this year he upped the ante by doing a bunch of crazy stunts with his pal Travis Pastrana. And then last month he released this wild drift video. What does he have planned for 2009???

So let me know what you think of my list. Did I miss any big stories for 2008?

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Hey, it’s the end of the year, so why not toss off a few top ten lists? 2008 was a pretty crazy year for the CarDomain Blog. We ran all over the place and wrote a ton of blogs. After a few too many helpings of holiday food, I didn’t have the energy to go back and read through the entire year—which probably adds up to around 4,000 posts. So here goes, off the top of my head, and in no particular order.

1. Test Cars. For some reason, a bunch of the big OEMs decided to let us play with their cars. Some of the highlights include the Mustang Bullitt, the Challenger R/T and the Jaguar XF. Jen also compared the Hyundai Sonata to her “new” AMC Concord. Guess which one came out on top.

2. CarDomainTV. We decided to mess around with video a bit this year. Some of my favorites were Earl Smith and his RX-7, driving the Tesla and our visit to Northwest Auto Salon. My buddy Scott Smith also got some great footage from the Detroit 24 Hours of Lemons.

3. Motorsports Coverage. Jen went out on One Lap and got the first pics of the wrecked Challenger. She also covered a bunch of NASCAR stuff and did this great write-up on the the post-race teardown at Dover. John and Jen both covered American Le Mans and John went to Pikes Peak where he was harrassed by bees. And I made it out of the office to cover the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge.

4. Dinner with Bob Lutz. This was probably the highlight of the year for me. I mean, come on—Bob Lutz! Of course, John, Jen and I all wrote about it.

5. Bullrun. John went on Bullrun and got the ride of his life with Rachel. And Mr. Angry wrote a great recap of the rally, including his account of the Daytona’s epic wheel failure.

6. CarDomain Garage. We can’t just work on the site. We have to play with our cars, too. Jen got a bunch done on her Diesel Escort. Ryan decided not to put wing doors on his smart car. Weston chipped his GTI. I didn’t do much to my Satellite, other than wash it, change the oil and take it to the Mopars Unlimited Spring Roundup. We even managed to hold our third annual employee car show. But the real news was that John got his Jag running!

7. SEMA. We really went all out at SEMA this year, with five bloggers, one photographer and one videographer. Mike talked to Goldberg, I talked to Topo, John talked to the dudes in the Giovanna booth, and Katherine scored some killer swag. Oh, and Jen and I learned how to tig weld!

8. CarDomain Finds. We like to try to dig up some ride pages that might not make it to SOTW or the Top Rides page. Like this amazing wrecked GTO or the moneyed out Crown Vic. But the one that really blew up the comments was the Challenger on 24s.

9. Random Weird Stuff. Of course it’s the really weird stuff that brings in the mad traffic. The two posts that almost broke our servers this year were this squashed Volvo in Sweden and this bizarre Auto Trader ad.

10. New Voices. We added a whole slew of new bloggers this year (too many to list—I really need to update our contributors list). From our awesome Detroit insider Kathy Helmetag to JDM know-it-all Ben Schaffer. Today we even added former Hot Rod Editor-in-Chief David Freiburger!

So that’s about it for 2008. Or did I miss something? Thanks to all our loyal readers—we’re definitely looking forward to an even crazier 2009. And stay tuned for more top ten lists tomorrow and Wednesday.

Scott’s Silverado is sick! No wonder it was featured in Sport Truck!

Racing can be and is dangerous and running in La Carrera Panamericana is no exception. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have read comments on various message boards saying things like, "It’s not really a race" or "It’s a race where CEO types compete in cars that really don’t go all that fast." The best reply I have to those types of comments is to invite them down to watch, and then afterwards I’ll ask them if they still feel that way. Then there are those who make the argument, "They stopped that race back in 1954 and now it’s just a rally format." This time I would ask them if they knew what in the hell they are talking about. The fact is, the cars today are a much faster than they were back then, not to mention in those days they couldn’t corner worth a damn, had very poor tires, and the roads were mostly unpaved. And back in the 50s the race continued at high speed right through the villages and towns, whereas today the only city we race at speed trough is Mexico City, with thousands of police on hand.

Continue reading, with tons of pics from the race after the jump!

Continue reading "La Carrera Panamericana 2008" »

We had to hand over the keys to the Bullitt today. I’m pretty bummed. Here’s my capsule review: I love this car.

I followed the development of the S197 quite closely a few years back, and I think it’s fair to say that Ford knocked it out of the park in 2005. I’ve always wanted a modern V8 Mustang, and our week with one just made me even more determined. Only, now I don’t think I’d be happy with a GT. I want a Bullitt.

I often hear people complain that Mustangs are common (Mopar guys tend say this a lot). I never saw that as an issue. Common means affordable with great aftermarket support and great parts availability. But the Bullitt is a rare car. It’s one of just 7,700 (5,600 were built for 2008, the remainder will be build for 2009).

Rare doesn’t make this car special, though. What makes it special is the Steve McQueen myth, and of course that beautiful Highland Green. I really wish that Ford had made this color an option on the GT, but they saved it for the Bullitt. I probably don’t have to waste time telling you what else is different about the Bullitt. I’m sure you read all the same stuff I read back in March when the car came out. Yeah, CarDomain is a bit late to the whole car review game, and we’re late to the Bullitt. But better late than never. Continue reading…

Continue reading "Bye Bye Bullitt" »

We’ve only had the Bullitt a few hours but have already had several fights over the keys. It’s amazing how many errands needed to be run today. Our test car came with almost 12,000 hard miles on the clock, but the clutch still feels pretty good and the cars seems pretty tight. The engine pulls nicely, we love the feel of shifter and the exhaust sounds pretty tough. Oh, and the Highland Green looks amazing. More pics after the jump, and stay tuned for more on this cool little pony car.

Continue reading "2008 Ford Mustang Bullitt at CarDomain Headquarters" »