By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

See this van? Epic, eh? It was built as a rolling promotional tool for NationofGO.com. We tried something like this to promote StreetFire but our budget only allowed for a clapped-out ice cream truck, which oddly enough, gave off more of a chester vibe. To this day I don’t understand why it didn’t work; we even gave out free candy. Enough of our misconstrued marketing attempts, this post is about the Nation of GO. You might be wondering who exactly is the Nation of GO. Well… you are. Hit that jump to read more. And don’t worry we won’t be offering candy this time.

Continue reading "Won't You Make a GO Nation?" »

By John Naderi

StreetFire.net

Went to Southern California’s El Toro military base today to check out the three-car Fiesta effort that Ford is hucking into this year’s X Games Rally. Normally this event is a Subaru-only affair with a light dusting of Mitsu Evo for good measure. Ford hopes to change things up at this annual super special that historically features an all-STI podium. Ford’s blend of Fiesta Rallycross cars and drivers could do the trick. Hit the jump to see a video of Tanner Foust’s car in action as well as some pics of the other drivers going for X glory.

Continue reading "Ford Fie-Xsta" »

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

In the past, I’ve been accused of being obsessed with donks, so it might come as a surprise to some of you that I’ve never plus-sized my tires and wheels. Now, it’s not that I don’t think bigger wheels look better—they almost always do—or that I don’t acknowledge the associated performance gains. Mostly, it’s because I’ve always liked my stock set-up, and since my cars have generally lived in urban environments, I also don’t want to worry about curbing some spiffy wheels. So how about you? Have you plus-sized your tires? And did you notice a difference in performance?

I was recently invited by the Air Resources Board (ARB) of California to attend a meeting to discuss the development of a regulation to reduce emissions from under-inflated vehicle tires. That’s right, the State of California wants to figure out a way to implement a means to control how much air you have in your tires, as well as a means to enforce it.

I can’t wait to hear how they intend to do this. Back in the 60s and 70s, the California Highway Patrol had random road-side inspections in which an officer would perform a checklist of required safety items. A list consisting of things like horn, lights, turn signals, emergency brakes, cracked windshields and yes, even bald tires, was checked. If there were any infractions, the motorist was then given a fix-it ticket and the safety items would then need to be repaired within a given time period and signed off, or suffer the consequences. Continue reading…

Continue reading "The State of Tire Inflation in California" »

And do they match the nationality of your vehicle? For example, do you roll with Cooper tires on your Chevy, or Falkens on your Nissan? Obviously, a lot of OEM tires don’t match the nationality of the car. For example, our Jag XF test car has Pirellis. And Ferrari uses Goodyears on many of their cars. I’m sure it might piss some old school muscle car guys off off, but this guy went with Yokohamas on his ‘Cuda.

As I wrote on Monday, last weekend Jen helped me get my old XJ6 back on the road. I was super stoked to hear it fire up, and I was even more stoked to see that the junkyard alternator we put on was alternating like a champ. But even after that success, we weren’t out of the woods. Since the car had been sitting for so long, the tires had lost a bunch of pressure—one of them was down to a scant 12 pounds—and since we didn’t have any way to pump them up, I had to drive to a gas station. Of course, there aren’t any gas stations in downtown Seattle, which meant I had to travel a little bit to get properly inflated. Jen followed in her Escort as I limped along, and as you can imagine, it was a pretty tense trip. Even though I kept my speed below 20MPH for the entire 2.5 miles, the tires were squealing so badly that I was afraid they were going to roll right off the rims. Fortunately, even though the first place we went had a broken air machine—yikes!—I managed to make it to a 7-Eleven—oh, thank heaven—and get the tires all squared away. The whole ordeal made me wonder exactly how low tire pressure can get before it renders a car impossible to drive, and if any CarDomain members have had a similar experience. So how about it? Has anyone else done anything this sketch?

With all the hype about gas mileage and tire inflation, everyone’s familiar with the kind of tire wear caused by overinflated and underinflated tires. But do you remember what your rollomundos can tell you about some of the less obvious suspension and alignment issues? Read on for a quick refresher.

Shoulder wear (outer edge more worn down than inner). Usually due to excessive positive camber—the wheel is angled inward from top to bottom. Check the alignment, but also look for thrashed control arm bushings, bad tie rod ends, and bent suspension parts or body structures (i.e., shock tower pushed out of place from crash damage). Shoulder wear can also be caused simply by frequent hard cornering. More…

Continue reading "Tire Whisperer: How To Read Your Weird Wear Patterns" »

Some idiot went berserk in Ohio on Tuesday and slashed tires on at least 21 vehicles. Over 60 tires were damaged. Talk about stupid and pointless. Have you ever had your tires slashed? Source: Newark Advocate.

Do you suffer from driver’s remorse? Is there something you’ve done on the road that you regret, like cutting someone off in traffic or flipping them the bird? I did something about 20 years that I’m ashamed of and would never recommend as a course of action. Some friends and I were out on the town, but the area we were in was notoriously difficult for parking. After driving around for half an hour we finally came across a spot, only to be cut off by another car. To add insult to injury, the occupants laughed and pointed at us and one of them gave us the bird! I simply kept driving and eventually found another spot. But the mistake those guys made was that I knew where they were parked, and yep, I responded to their slight in a totally idiotic and childlike manner. At the time I was carrying a tyre valve tool that allowed me to remove the valve internals and let the air out of the offending car’s tyres. I knew it was wrong, but I had to wonder what their reactions would be when they realised that not only were their tyres flat but they were unable to pump them up. Still—hardly my proudest moment. Do you suffer from any driver’s remorse?