By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

I don’t know about you guys but I love these HHR panel vans, and Kevin has done some very tasteful mods to his bowtie. Check out his ride page for more pics and details.

By Ryan Porter

IN-N-OUT Editor

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Chevy HHR but I never see any modified HHR’s. I’ll admit that I’ve never went looking, but when I saw this HHR on CarDomain I got pretty excited. It’s fairly stock, aside from the airbags and custom painted 18s. Congrats to CarDomain member tribalflamemini for stepping out in the HHR, and make sure to stop by his garage and check out all his rides!

This week’s Showroom Showdown wasn’t even close. I almost stopped counting, but then decided to just stick it out. I came up with 80 to 30 in favor of the MAZDASPEED3. I guess it shouldn’t come as a huge surpise, but still, Chevy went down hard on this one. And with GM stock tanking heavily this week, it just feels like piling on.

This week’s Showroom Showdown features two fun and practical family haulers. The Chevy weighs 3,280 pounds and has a turbo 2.0 liter four banger which puts out 260 hp. The Mazda weighs 3,153 pounds and has a 2.3 liter turbo four banger rated at 263 hp. The Mazda is available with a 6 speed manual (the HHR only comes with a 5 speed manual) but the HHR gets slightly better gas mileage (21/29 vs. Mazda’s 18/26). Both cars come in near the $25k mark. So, which would you choose?

With the average price of gas now over four bucks a gallon, is it really possible to purchase a car that is affordable and fun? I’ve recently been asking myself this question, as I am starting to get the new car bug. Lets start at $25K and roll with coupes only. Now ten years ago $25K would actually buy you a pretty fun car, but in today’s car market what can one really get? I’m rolling with domestics here kids, so don’t start throwing Civics and WRXs at me, ok?

Ford’s V6 Mustang starts off at $21k. For this money you get a full plastic interior, a 210hp weezo-matic V6 (drive one and you’ll understand), about 25 mpg hwy and great styling. Not much in the performance department, though.

Chevy’s got the HHR SS turbo with 260 hp, 28 mpg hwy, 0-60 in 6.1 seconds. This little box not only hauls ass, but some pretty big boxes as well. I like this thing. And for 2010 the V6 Camaro with 306 hp is coming out AS A BASE MODEL! Don’t know about the price, though, but I’m VERY CURIOUS about this one.

Dodge is about to release the Challenger SE, which will be priced well below 25k. Now for this money you’ll get 250 hp, around 25 mpg hwy, a VERY nice interior and some really nice styling. As for performance, that is something we’ll have to wait and see about, but I’m excited about this car as well.

Pontiac has the G6 Coupe with 219 hp, around 29 mpg hwy, a nicely appointed interior and styling that makes it look like a door stop wedge… ugh. While all reviews state it handles well and is fun to drive, I just don’t know if I can get over the styling.

I am sure I have left some stuff out, but what do ya’ll think? Out of this group I think I’d be leaning towards either the Challenger (if the performance is there) or the Camaro… Hmm… decisions, decisions, decisions….

Continue reading "Have Fun and Save Money? Can You Really Do Both?" »

Ok, the pics kind of suck because the camera was stuck on some kind of closeup setting—but this has to be the closest scrape I’ve seen so far on One Lap, so I had to share ‘em. Robert Dubler in the HHR got onto the outside grass on the last turn before the frontstretch at VIR, snapped it across the track into the pit lane entrance, nearly lost it into the inside wall, then changed direction to stay on the track, missing the pit-wall tires by a hair. He was later heard saying that he just really, really didn’t want to pit because that would’ve meant a DNF and the accompanying huge penalty. Another 3 inches to the right and it could’ve been a lot worse! See the whole sequence after the jump.