By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

How about Darrell’s 2009 Challenger SRT-8 on 24 inch Dropstars? Keep those photo of the day PMs and e-mails coming!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This year’s People’s Choice was a hard fought battle. BFG, Mobil and BBS repeated their victories from last year. Best exhaust was a very tight race between Borla and Magnaflow, with Magnaflow winning in the end by just a few votes. But the biggest fight by far was for Showoff of the Year, which extended beyond CarDomain and out to the forums. Terry’s awesome 240Z took an early lead, but in the end the Mustang community came through big time and delivered a victory to the very worthy ChevyKiller. Congrats to all the winners, and thanks to everyone who voted!

1. Best Tire Manufacturer: BFGoodrich

2. Best Motor Oil: Mobil

3. Best Suspension Upgrade: Eibach

4. Best Wheel Manufacturer: BBS

5. Best Exhaust Manufacturer: Magnaflow

6. Best Place to Buy Parts: eBay

7. Most Exciting Enthusiast Vehicle Lineup: Nissan

8. Best Video Game: Forza 3

9. Best StreetFire Video: Ken Block’s Gymkhana Two

10. Showoff of the Year: ChevyKiller

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

So this is the fourth year I’ve done this. Not an easy task with over 700,000 rides!

Ratiki has the coolest headliner on CarDomain!

This Dodge Polara has a great story.

The ISMA Challenger kicked butt at this year’s Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge.

Vance built one crazy Fox body!

Eighty 1 Design’s Nova is amazing.

Casey’s Willys restomod is too cool!

Afrim’s MR2 is nuts!

Henry’s Shelby GT350 is beautiful!

Robert has done a great job with his $300 Civic!

And finally, the Veilside Fortune RX7 is a an awesome work in progress!

Of course, this is just a snapshot of the site as a whole, and obviously I missed a ton of cool stuff. Check out my lists from 2006, 2007 and 2008 and then post some of your favorites below!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

As many of you know we lost John and Jen at the end of 2008 and I had to run the blog solo this year. Lucky for me a bunch of friends agreed to syndicate us their stuff, including Brian Lohnes at BangShift, the guys at Speedhunters, Dan Strohl at Hemmings, Ben Schaefer at The Real JDM, Antonio Alvendia at Motor Mavens and of course Fireball Tim. We also added a bunch of new contributors, including Chris Trout, David Belau, Michael Berenis, Patrick Ernzen and Ryan Brutt. And of course let’s not forget old friends like Mike Musto, Sam Barer, Katherine Helmetag, Steve Neil, David Wallens and Jim Brennan. Ryan Porter even managed to blog from time to time, when he wasn’t too busy looking for the perfect 993. So thanks to everyone! (And I’m sure I probably missed a few folks!)

Things started to pick up in May when John got back on board in Los Angeles (though he now spends most of his time working on StreetFire). I’m really hoping to find a way to get Jen back in early 2010. We have a few other schemes for 2010, so stay tuned… But in the meantime, here’s the best of the blog for 2009:

The Caption Contest has become the most popular feature of the blog. I think this pic was my favorite.

We found a ton of cool and crazy rides on eBay this year. I really loved this chopped Duster.

We always go all out at SEMA and this year was no exception. And as usual, you guys helped us pick the best rides of the show.

Since we merged with StreetFire, we’ve had a bunch of great video in the blog (John will post his ten favorite StreetFire videos tomorrow). Me? I’m torn between the Ram SRT-10 burnout gone wrong and the Ken Block spoof.

We covered the heck out of Formula D this year. I made it to the Seattle stop and had a great time. This 240SX blew me away (best paint of 2009?). Here are the walk-around videos I shot in the pits.

I think the Fox body with the leaf blower supercharger was the single most hilarious thing in the blog this year.

VWVortex is always a great source for material. The Rabbit with too much camber killed me. So did this Vette.

Will rusty hoods continue to be popular in 2010? How about stretching tires?

Jim Brennan really went beyond the call of duty with his Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot series. I think the 1970-71 Plymouth Sport Fury GT was my favorite, but I’m biased.

After the whole cash for clunkers debacle, it was refreshing to read Chris Trout’s post The Value of a Beater. We all really enjoyed Steve Neil’s The Forgotten Man of Chiba’s Shop. And David Belau’s tale of the possessed Dart was cool and creepy. Where else could you read a story like that?

Let me know if I missed anything, and post your favorites below!

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

For many of us 2009 will go down as a year to forget. But there were a few bright spots, right? Anyway, here’s my list of the top stories of 2009. Let me know what you think, and what I missed.

Cash for Clunkers - This was probably the hottest topic this year. Was it a success? Some say yes, some say no…

Bailout and Bankruptcy - GM and Chrysler take taxpayer dollars, then file for bankruptcy. Are we out of the woods yet?

GM Kills Brands – First Pontiac, then Saturn, now Saab?

Chrysler Goes to Fiat – I still don’t know what to think of this one. I guess all we can do is wait and see…

Ford Kicks Ass – It was good to see Ford hang tough this year. No bankruptcy, no bailout money, just a solid product lineup. The Fusion won a ton of accolades, the new Taurus appears to be a success, and the Fiesta looks like the winner. And don’t forget about the Mustang. Now we just need a new Focus.

Pony Cars Wars Get Hotter – The Challenger looks best, the Camaro is the fastest, but I think the Mustang is the most fun to drive. And Ford has really upped the ante with the 5.0.

RWD Toyota/Subaru is a go – Hey, Detroit can’t hog all the headlines. The new FT-86 looks great and hopes are high for the Subie version.

The Fast and the Furious – Still stupid, and still a lot of fun.

Green – Ok, so green technology may have been drowned out by some of the drama this year, but that doesn’t mean it’s slowing down. The third gen Prius is a huge success, Tesla might actually be a real company, and the Nissan Leaf looks very promising. Oh, and do you remember the Chevy Volt?

Media Mayhem – First Riceboy went to StreetFire. Then CarDomain merged with StreetFire. Freiburger went back to Hot Rod. Motive shut down and then Alterman went to Car and Driver. Sounce Interlink filed chapter 11 and fired a bunch of people. What’s next?

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

It’s time again for our annual People’s Choice awards! Every year CarDomain members vote on the hottest brands, cars, and trends. And let’s not forget the hottest StreetFire video and Showoff of the Year! Voting will be open through December 31. Your voice will be heard loud and clear when we announce the winners in January!

Voting is now closed. Thanks for voting!

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

Ouch. Today was the first Press Day so expectations were high. And did they hit the mark? ……Welcome, to the MORGUE.

Okay, maybe a morgue is a bit extreme, but there were some serious things missing. Namely, NISSAN. And with the Leaf coming soon, you have to ask… “WUT UP, NISSAN DOODS?” Now, I did get my fair share of automotive fixations, but I was left a little… dead. Ok, another mortality reference. Wups.

Follow the jump to see the COMPLETE highlights of the show. Not many, but some cool stuff. I decided to make it easy for y’all to understand how I felt about each one. I call it the “SHOCKSWEETSNORESUCK.” That’s the long version. Let’s just call it the “SHNUCK.” The LA Shnuck Show. Yea, I like it….

Continue reading "Fireball does The LA Auto Show… Ouch." »

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

I’m a bit worried about SEMA this year. It seems like most of the good companies have pulled out of the show for financial reasons. Usually trade shows are some of the worst hit by the recession and this year SEMA looks ultra depressing.

I’m left with all of the really cool ideas/concepts of cars I want to make, but no booths to put them in. I really hope SEMA wont be as dissapointing as I’m afraid it will be.

As most of you already know, I built Toyo’s SEMA booth and ad cars two years in a row and now there’s no Toyo booth at all this year…

I think I might need to go one better this year and build a car for Tokyo Auto Salon instead of SEMA. I always wanted to build a car to compete on JDM home turf. That would be a really fun challenge. Plus I always wanted to run Tsukuba…hmm, now I’m dreaming up something worth while.

Is there any actually good news about SEMA this year? Anyone?

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I finally got to meet J.G. Pasterjak from the Grassroots Motorsports crew at the Nissan 370Z drive two weeks ago. In addition to handling the production and art direction for the magazines, J.G. shoots a lot of video for GRM. Here’s his recent review of the 2009 Pontiac Solstice, which includes some of his thoughts on Pontiac and GM. I thought it was pretty hilarious. Check it out.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Sadly, I couldn’t make it out to the Hankook Ultimate Track Car Challenge this year. It sucks, cause VIR is such a great track, it’s always a blast hanging out with the Grassroots Motorsports guys, and I really wanted to see Glenn’s IMSA Challenger in person. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked to learn that the old Mopar took home third place “using a classic recipe: more tire, more cubic inches.” Read the race recap over at Grassroots Motorsports