By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Gus’s ride page is heavy on pics but short on text, so it’s not always easy to deduce the thought process behind his purposeful development of the patina on his 5-Series. The car has gone through various stages of the rusty hood trend, accent shiny body panels, primer, and stickers. But at some point, perhaps with those pics of various rusty buildings, corrugated metal, sunbaked mud, and deteriorated brick as his inspiration, Gus decided to go for broke, scour off all the paint, and let the cancer shine in. Interesting, kind of the same way it’s interesting to put a sandwich in a bag in the back of the fridge just to see how deteriorated it will become. The odd thing is, there’s pics of the BMW on page 2 that do not appear to be from too long ago, in black paint that really looked quite nice and shiny. Maybe it was one of those instances where there was some little nick or flaw somewhere, he started picking, and then just didn’t stop. See the whole sequence on his ride page.

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

These two Bimmers are parked across the street from our office—I just snapped this pic from my cube. I’ve always loved the 80s 5-series—they just look so tough. As for the newer 3-series… I’m still not so sure. How about you? Which do you prefer? Old or new?

As if Chris Bangle didn’t do enough to this poor 5er, this M5 got some more "help" from Kerscher and AC Schnitzer. Check out the partially smoked head- and tail-lamps. Max Factor called, I think he wants his eyeliner pen back. More views after the jump.

Continue reading "Eyeliner on an M5" »

• Aliph, makers of the cool Jawbone Bluetooth headset, released details on three limited edition Jawbones designed by the the device’s creator. Sweet Talk, Dirty Talk, and Trash Talk are pretty simple, but I appreciate that they don’t have that modern "Matrix" styling a lot of manufacturers have taken on. The trucker lady emblem is my favorite. Do ya dig?
• CarDomain member e34zoui’s e34 5-Series BMW is off the charts. I was surfing through the Top A/V Installs on CarDomain when I came across this kitted-up starch white BMW beauty queen. He’s completely reworked the interior: kick panels, custom consoles, a complete A/V system, carPC… And the quality is straight-up outstanding.
• Don’t forget!! If you live in the Vancouver, BC area, Varad is searching for a booth car for the Lordco Trade Show! You get a slew of free gear and your car featured in the blog! Get all the details!
• Speaking of contests– Sirius is taking entries for a free trip to the Winter Music Conference in Miami with guest host Paul Van Dyk! If you’re an electronic music music junkie like myself, this is a killer opportunity!
• Audiojunkies got the scoop on some new amplifiers from Italian amplifier manufacturer Tec. The sleek and simple design will look awesome flush-mounted or on full display!

Most of the time, a three-day week seems short, but this one has made me more miserable than a goth kid at Disney World. Time to up the lunch beers I guess. Anyway, here’s the news:

• Everyone has reported that oil just hit 100 dollars a barrel, but Ford is doing something about it. Their new nav systems will help drivers find cheap gas: Automotive News
• Terrorism has caused race organizers to cancel the Dakar Rally. Funny… as scary as this event is, I figured terrorists would be all for it: Top Gear
• Spy shots of BMW’s new 5-Series have leaked, and I couldn’t help but think that some of their recent models would have looked better had they left the cladding on: Auto Express
• Here’s a big surprise: Ford paid so KITT would be reincarnated as a Mustang. Is nothing sacred? Autoblog