I’ve been knee deep in the front-end restoration of my ’66 Impala convertible for a few months now and I recently found myself faced with a surprisingly difficult question: power or manual brakes? Getting rid of those old stab-n-steer front drums and single-chamber master cylinder was obvious, but after making the decision to do a full front disc brake conversion I found that car enthusiasts seem to be quite opinionated on the issue of power vs. manual brakes. Some of the sources I tapped claimed the power booster only created more potential for malfunction, and in the event of a stall, the car would be more difficult to bring to a grinding halt than it would be if it just had manual in the first place. Still, others swore that power is the only way to go, for reasons ranging from pedal effort to stopping power. The only opinion everyone seemed to share was that I’d be crazy to not to agree with them. In the end I decided to go with the power brake booster. How about you–what’s your preference and why?

Check out pictures of my new stock-spinal power disc brake conversion kit after the jump.

Continue reading "Brakes: Power or Manual?" »

Dodge may have canceled their plans to build a Challenger convertible, but you can’t stop the aftermarket. Coach Builders Ltd. will chop the top off the new Challenger for $16,000. The topless Mopar is reinforced via strut bars hidden inside the trunk, and includes an acrylic polyester cloth hydraulic top, matching fabric headliner and a heated glass rear window. The green SRT8 they are bringing to SEMA also sports a Vortech supercharger, a KW coil-over suspension kit and 22-inch Foose Challenger wheels. More pics after the jump. Via TopSpeed.com

Continue reading "Dodge Challenger SRT8 Convertible Coming to SEMA" »

This has to be one of the darndest things I’ve ever seen: it’s a 2002 Ford Explorer that runs on two 500-hp hydraulic motors, which are in turn supplied by a hydraulic pump powered by a 1.9L VW TDI motor that runs on biodiesel at a constant RPM. Hydraulic pressure is built up by the pump to 5100 psi, stored in high-pressure accumulators, and then discharged to turn the hydraulic motors. A project of some very brainy students at Cal Poly, the Explorer runs a 10-second quarter mile, does 0-60 in 3 seconds, and still gets 35 mpg. If I was more of a engineering geek I might be able to explain it better—hopefully there’ll be some more info on the ride page as this awesome project develops. We’re exepcting to see this monster at the Ultimate Track Car Challenge in in June, so stay tuned!

With fuel prices increasing, I have recently been wondering if the car companies are doing all they can to develop alternative fuels. According to Today Tonight, Ross Blade from Harcourt Australia has started to produce his own electric car, the Blade Runner. Based on a Hyundai Getz, it’s been recognized as Australia’s first zero-emissions car by the CSIRO. For the conversion, Blade removes the motor and exhaust system and replaces it with an electric motor that’s powered by two banks of batteries. With a range of 100 km (62 miles), the Blade Runner’s main market will be those living in urban areas; however, at a cost of $35,000, it’s expensive for a small car. Of course Blade is not the first person to attempt this, but if an individual working from a shed in a small country town can produce a funcitonal all-electric car, then why aren’t the large car manufacturers doing the same? Personally I have my doubts about Blade’s car. Generally the batteries for electric cars are expensive to replace and they do more harm to the environment than good, and don’t even get me started on that wonder of modern marketing which is the Prius. However, Blade does deserve a round of applause for showing what could be possible for the large car manufactures if they really tried.

Jake Von Slatt bought this 75-passenger school bus on eBay for two grand, then did a full motorhome conversion using a lot of recycled materials and advice from a few online conversion guides. Now, the inside looks like something out of Better Homes and Gardens. Nuts to paying a mortgage and property taxes, I could totally live in one of these! All I’d have to do is figure a way to build in mobile garage space. Check out Jake’s video on his project here, and see more pics below the jump, and read about the conversion at his site. And to gets started on your own, check out school bus listings on eBay!

Via Auto Motto

Continue reading "Picture Perfect Schoolbus Conversion" »

I grabbed my favorite little local rag this morning to find one of my favorite types of car pics above the fold: the "standing in the empty engine bay" shot. The remarkable thing about this one is that it was Neil Young standing in the empty engine bay of his 1959 Lincoln Continental. He’s working with UQM Technologies and H-Line Conversions to put a "bio-hydro-electric" series hybrid drivetrain in what is pretty much America’s largest production car ever. The 1959 Continental Mark IV is a whopping nineteen and a half feet long, keeping it out of countless garages built in the 80s and 90s. The "Linc-Volt," as Young is calling the car, will debut in a documetary that Young is expecting to start shooting in April. The biodiesel-fired ICE from H-line will drive a 200bhp/480ft-lb UQM electric motor that will supply the power to the transmission. The conversion has already started, and H-Line has a couple of pictures of Young up on their website as the work was getting started. Young follows in the alternative-fuel footsteps of rocker Willie Nelson, who now runs his entire road crew on biodiesel.

Pro surfer Taylor Knox managed to get his sponsor, Rip Curl, to finance the grease-car conversion of his F-250 diesel pickup. Now that’s using your sponsor dollars wisely, since the side-effect of the stunt is, of course, free gas for life: "I transfer all their [restaurants'] unwanted grease into the tank, and I’m good to go," Knox says. What could be better? Rip Curl paid Grease Not Gas $3700 to install the necessary parts to run the truck on waste veggie oil, including a massive 73-gallon tank. The price seems a little steep compared to the original Greasecar conversion, but when you’ve got a multinational footing the bill, it probably doesn’t hurt to pull out all the stops. Knox says he’s "only had to fill up a few times" since the conversion. With that race-hauler-sized tank, I should hope so!

Source: PacSun via Auto Motto

• Over the weekend we showed the first part in Alpine’s Sinister Six demo car build videos, and we wrapped it up with Part 2. It’s still hard to believe this beast started life as an $80,000 BMW 645…. The resemblance is there, but this demo car is a work of art!
• Griffin sent us a few of their in-car iPod charger/wireless transmitters to take for a test drive and we just finished our review of the first product. The gadget worked very well – we were impressed!
• Pioneer’s MINI-mino impressed us both on CarDomain and SoundDomain, so we couldn’t resist writing about it either! We got a few details on the product line-up and modifications, but not much info was available at press time. It’s definitely worth a second look and we’ll do our best to get even better details!

• The Alpine Imprint RLS will always be one of the most amazing demo cars ever produced. But before the Imprint made it’s impression on car audio history, the Alpine crew built the Sinister Six. What started out as an innocent $84,000 BMW 645ci ended up a jaw dropping, road raging, Sinister sports coupe. And SoundDomain has two videos  from Alpine following the crew through the amazing build.
• It interesting what you can find in life if you just look a little bit closer…. SoundDomain’s new guestblogger, Ben, writes about the hidden easter eggs found on circuit boards. Who’da guessed engineers had a sense of humor?
• Car manufacturers aren’t the only ones getting hit by Chinese knock-offs; even car audio manufacturers have to step into the ring. Check out the pics of this bogus Alpine amplifier found out in the wild. Would you have spotted it?
• Our main man Steve Meade is back and shaking up a ruckus at Taco Bell. Watch what happens when the two drive thru guys ask for a sample of the Tahoe’s beefy beats. Notice the bills in Taco Dude #2’s hand when Steve gives the magic knob a twist… The looks on their faces are pretty priceless too: from excitement to satisfaction to shock & awe. It’s always a good time with Steve.
• Bored? Add Bluetooth to your 5G iPod.
• We’ve also got a video of CarDomain member Jamminwagon plugging in and jammin’ out on his electric car through his Dodge Magnum’s sound ssytem. Boy’s got some skills, car’s got some beats!
• Scosche built out a pretty crazy demo car for SEMA 2006: a bright orange FJ Cruiser stuffed with EFX gear: eight 12" woofers, twelve amplifiers, seven monitors (including a 32"monitor in the rear door!), twenty speakers, three batteries, and over 9000 watts of power!

There comes a time in every man’s life when he has to make a decision. You should weigh the positives, and negatives carefully because you don’t want to make a hasty decision and figure out it was the wrong one after its too late.** Well, while you’re thinking about your decision, maybe you should catch up on the SoundDomain news:

• We told you about Realm’s ‘63 Lincoln Conti not to long ago; the car is just plain hot. Well, apparently MC Hammer thought so too and at CES he tested out his new CD on the Conti’s system and the guys at Realm snagged some video of Hammer getting down to his album. Hammer didn’t hurt ‘em, but you still can’t touch this. Oh yeah… I went there.
• The guys at Thought Out developed some pretty unique iPod and iPhone accessories and the Ped3 for the iPod Touch and iPhone is by far one of the best desktop solutions I’ve seen yet.
• Tim from HzEmall Customs is back and his most recent installment for SoundDomain gives us an in-depth look into the progress on a 1969 Camaro project car. The crew is basically customizing the entire interior, re-doing most of the electronics, suspension, etc. This is going to be one big, bad-ass old school when the wrap it up. Custom seats, VERY custom car stereo install, custom center console, custom trunk, custom suspension, big ‘ol LS2/6 motor and tranny swap, air bags, and chrome 18s up front and big ‘ol 20s in the rear. You don’t want to miss this.
• And don’t forget to check out the last two installments of the Alpine Million Dollar Imprint RLS demo car build videos. In Part 3 the guys get the exterior skeleton built for the custom body panels and the fabrication of the interior panels. In Part 4, with 1 week to go before CES, it’s paint, prep, and finished product. I’m surprised Gary, Steve, and Brent had any skin left on their fingers after all the sanding this project needed!

**The CarDomain editors are not responsible for pointless, mindless, babble contained in these blog posts. And what are you doing reading this anyway?? You should be reading the SoundDomain news!!

Sure, I may be a little cross at eBay right now, but that doesn’t stop me from spending half my workday dropping by there once in awhile. Get while the getting’s good, right? I found a Jet Electrica on eBay today, which happens to be just the car I need to complete my 1st-gen Escort stable—I’d have a gas, a diesel, and an EV version of the same car, get it? Sadly, this one’s way out of my price range. The prices that the 80s-vintage EVs are fetching right now, like the Solargen and the Jet, are nothing short of amazing, especially when you consider they’re basically just cars stuffed with car batteries. I think part of it is that these rides have their own thriving geek-hobbyist culture growing up around them, mostly well-monied science professors and eccentric business execs, and since it’s such a small community, everyone knows when one of them puts a car up for sale and then they all clamor to inherit it. That’s my theory, anyway. I mean, look: this auction’s up to over $4500 and still the reserve’s not met! Maybe I should just get a bargain on this pro-street Vega instead.

Yep, you sure heard that right. These two crazies made the trip from England to West Africa in a ragtag collection of junkyard-salvaged diesel trucks—including this Ford Iveco Cargo flatbed that spent a good part of the journey hauling the Land Cruisers—converted to run on "waste chocolate." Their goal was for the trip to be "carbon-negative," which in biodiesel terms means that the plants used to "grow" the fuel took more carbon dioxide out of the air than the vehicle exhaust was able to put in. Once they made it to Timbuktu, one of the trucks was donated to locals to run on used cooking oil. Everyone wins! Read more at Kicking Tires, and check out the official site of the Biotruck Drive to Timbuktu.

Yeah yeah, we know illegal immigration is—well, illegal—but it’s hard not to admire the determination of the handful of Cubans who have over the years converted their rides into boats for the perilous journey across the Florida Straits. Check out this Chevy truck, converted into a kind of pontoon boat, for an attempted crossing in 2003 (good to see everyone wearing life jackets—safety first!). I wish there were some clearer pics of this 50’s Buick, which was reported to be cutting through the waves using its orginal V8. The most recent attempt I was able to find involved a 1948 Mercury taxi cab (pictured), which ferried thirteen people most of the way to the Florida Keys in 2005. Some of the people involved in engineering the first Chevy truck-boat were members of the later amphibious-crossing parties as well—check out Car and Driver’s 2006 interview with one of the builders. I love how the style-conscious border-hoppers painted the boat-hulls the same bright colors as the car itself, but I cringe a little to think of all the salt damage, as well as the fact that the Coast Guard is believed to have sunk all three of the craft.

The Checker has always been one of my favorite workhorses, and here’s one you can run all year long without breaking the bank. Propane power is already extensively used in fleet vehicles in Canada and elsewhere—there’s been interest in this propane-fueled Checker from as far away as Germany—but it hasn’t caught on as well in the US, though propane-conversion services are plentiful. Propane, a byproduct of fuel refining, is cheaper per gallon than gas and produces fewer emissions; and you fill up your tanks at the local hardware or farm store instead of at the pump. Some nice solid brush-guards front and rear might help prevent a fireball in the event of a collision, though I’m sure any propane devotee would tell me that such fears are unfounded. Check it out on eBay!