By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I like this shot of Kitty’s Eagle Talon lined up with a bunch of other track toys under the lights.

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

If you’ve had a rocky financial year due to the recession but came out of it basically in one piece, you’re grateful for the little things. Still, and especially if your ride had to bear the brunt of your economic turmoil, there’s some seriously ouch expenses you just wish you could just claim. For example, during the darkest days of ’09, I had to take a job at a tire shop north of Seattle while circumstances forced me to move way south–suddenly inflicting a 50-mile round-trip commute on my 29-year-old Eagle. For an older, hard-driven car, a daily run like that will bring out gremlins (no pun intended) you never knew you had. For my Eagle, at nearly 200K on the original drivetrain, that meant worn-out carrier bearings that nearly caused the the front differential to come apart on me.

Faced with a burly disassembly project, I decided, hell, why not just get both front and rear diffs rebuilt with steeper gears for better acceleration (I went from the stock 2:73′s to 3:22′s), and ended up dropping a hefty sum to have the job done right at Randy’s Ring and Pinion. I still kind of feel like Uncle Sam ought to chip in–I incurred that catastrophic repair bill because I was doing my part to stay gainfully employed, dammit!–but somehow, I get the feeling I’m not going to catch a break.

How about you? Any vehicle expenses that you think you should get to write off?

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

It’s become standard practice to pick up holiday gifties for the pets, but has automotive gift-giving caught on yet? My Eagle pretty much broke the bank this year: it got a full front and rear differential rebuild at Randy’s Ring and Pinion, with both pumpkins re-geared to 3.08 for a slightly better launch than its stock 2.73′s. Not exactly a planned purchase–but when I found that the front diff was ready to come apart after 175,000 hard miles, I decided I might as well go the whole hog and do the gear swap front and rear. I was lucky enough to have boyfriend, mom, and sister pitch in to help defray the colossal expense, though still, I kinda feel the Eagle is set for about the next ten Christmases or so.

How about you? Did your ride get any presents this year?

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

This one-off recreation was built by Eagle, who specializes in restoring Jaguar E-types. The lowered and raked windscreen, lowered floor plan and seamless and flush body set it apart from the original. It’s motivated by a custom 300 hp 4.7 liter straight six. Like what you see here? You can learn more about the car at jaguarspeedster.com. Via Car Magazine

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Earlier this week, a lot of play was given to the Mythbusters episode that tried to pancake a Fiesta out in the desert, which was rather entertaining, but last night’s episode pissed me off just a little bit: As part of Alaska week, the Mythbusters B-team decided to test some myth that if you hit a plow head on, the plow will split your car right down the middle. (Have you ever heard of that myth? Me neither.)

So to test it, they found some test track that could hurtle a car at highway speeds into a stationary plow. And the car they chose for the test was an AMC Eagle station wagon, from which they removed absolutely none of the parts that Eagle restorers could have, y’know, put to good use. Grille, fenders, headlamp doors, all intact as they smashed the Eagle into the plow. It didn’t split in two. Continue reading at Hemmings

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Okay, so say you’re down and out, you’ve got four cars, and more than one of them needs a new set of tires. You know that “all season” tires don’t really cut it in hardcore snow and ice—you need a set of real honest-to-goodness snows on your winter car. Say this winter car gets driven only occasionally in the summer (you’ve got other toys), and you can’t afford a whole new set of summer tires for it in addition to the snows. So what’s the harm in running snow tires on it year-round? Of course, snows are made of much softer compounds, and they wear down fast if you’re clocking a lot of miles on warm summer roads. But if you’re talking about a winter workhorse that doesn’t travel more than a few hundred miles in the summer, it’s not like the tread life is going to take that much of a beating. Besides, there’s something kind of satisfying about the handling characteristics of sticky snow tires on hot asphalt, their grippiness in the wet, the meaty stance they give to your ride, and if applicable, their “diggability” in soft-surface four-wheeling conditions. Sure, it’s a little trashy to still have snows on your car in July, but only if they’re there due to sloth and negligence. Right?

When Lotus took the cladding off of its Eagle project, I was a little underwhelmed—and I’m hardly alone in that opinion. Plenty of folks who piped in on my original post agreed that the company missed the mark, and even on Lotus Talk, the car has gotten mixed reviews. So I was a little curious to see what the guys from Garage 419 thought about the new British 2+2. Check out the video below. 

Unfortunately, it looks like it hit every branch of the ugly tree on the way down. Up until now, all the images of Lotus’ new V6 2+2 covered in a boxy, burqa-like cladding, and personally, I liked it better when there was a little left to the imagination. Now, I absolutely love the curvy, aggressive styling of its stablemates—the Elise and the Exige are some of the best looking cars in any price rage—but I can’t wrap my head around the angular reboot they’ve given this car. Sure, it have room for a bag of golf clubs, and rear passengers up to five feet, but those aren’t reasons why most people purchase a Lotus, and I’m curious to see whether the Eagle has wings. What do you think about the styling? Am I smoking crack? More pics after the jump.

via Autocar

Continue reading "Lotus' Eagle Has Landed…" »

Well, I’m back from Bullrun, and I while I had amazing time, I feel like I could sleep for a week. But hey, nobody said that assignment was going to be easy. Anyway, here’s the news:

• Apparently, Max Mosely—AKA: Nazi orgy guy—had been told that some enemies were gunning for him, but he still didn’t curtail his hyper-freaky sessions with prostitutes. I still wonder if McLaren honcho Ron Dennis was involved. Times of London
• Lotus has released the a teaser pic of the Lotus Eagle, and even though there’s a lot left to the imagination, you have to love how aggressive the front end looks. World Car Fans
• How bad were auto sales in June? We’ll know for sure tomorrow, but those with any vested interest in the financial condition of the Big Three, should be afraid. Very afraid. Freep
• Those worried that the standard interior on Lamborghini’s new LP640 might be a bit on the cheap side can rest a little easier. The Italian Stallion will be available in a Versace edition, which is sure to be dead sexy. Auto Express

In the six months I’ve been contributing to CarDomain, I’ve become known as the one with the odd-car gene. Pontiac Fieros, station wagons, and especially AMCs—my avatar pretty much says it all. And I’ve learned that Jen also seems to have a similar affliction for the odd cars from Kenosha, particularly the ahead-of-their-time all-wheel-drive Eagles. More AMC action after the jump!

Continue reading "AMC, Mopar's Red-Headed Stepchild" »