We just got word from our buddies over at Royal Purple about “The Forum Wars,” an event that will pit owners of various enthusiast vehicles against each other, and it sounds pretty cool. The bad news is that to compete, you have to been able to be in Los Angeles by Friday. But the good news is that all the battles will be filmed for broadcast on SPEED, so if you’ve ever wanted to show the whole world that your driving shoes aren’t a fashion statement, this is right up your alley. Right now they’re looking for a CTS-V or an E63 Mercedes Benz to race a BMW M5, a Honda Civic Si or Mazdaspeed3 to battle a VW GTi, and a C6 Corvette to pit against a GT500 Shelby Mustang, and there are still plenty of spots. Apparently, the producers are having a hard time finding a ‘Vette owner who’s up to the challenge, so if you own one and know what you’re doing on the track, you should hit them up. Read the full press release with all the details on how to enter after the jump.

SoCal CTS-V, E63 AND C6 ‘Vette Owners, Royal Purple’s “The Forum Wars” Needs You!

Royal Purple’s “The Forum Wars” is giving real members of real online car communities the opportunity to go head to head with rival counterparts in the ultimate racing challenge. Each video battle will be broadcast on SPEED and all over the web.

The producers are looking for the following:

* Stock 2009/2010 CTS-V owner/driver or a stock E63 Mercedes Benz owner/driver to go up against a stock BMW M5.
* Stock C6 Corvette owner/driver to run against a stock GT500 Shelby Mustang.
* Stock Honda Civic Si or stock Mazdaspeed3 to go head to head with a stock VW GTi.

This is YOUR chance to represent your badge, your community and your peers. Forum vs Forum. Car vs Car. Owner vs. Owner. Official drag race. Slalom. Solo laps on a road race course. Three events. One winner.

If you have the car, some experience on the track, and the eggs to bring it in front of a TV/Web
audience then Royal Purple WANTS YOU!

So if you…

* Own one of the above vehicles (street legal, DOT approved tires, current registration and
insurance)

* Have track experience

* Live in L.A or surrounding counties, or are willing to drive

* Can come fully trash talk equipped and ready to be on camera

* Are available 11/13/09 for the whole day at a local racetrack

The producers want to hear from you RIGHT NOW!

Email theforumwars@gmail.com briefly stating why it should be you representing your community.

Please also include a phone number, details of your location, driving experience and a picture of your car (if you have one). Please note, there will be no tire changes or trackside allowed. This is your chance to be the pride of your online car community!

Ride along with the Mercedes-Benz  CL55 AMG as it drifts through the Nurburgring. The Nurburgring is one of the most challenging tracks in the world for both driver and vehicle. Various turn cambers, slopes, hills, and thrills create an amazing challenge that wears down parts, requires specially built engines, and drivers with intense stamina. Watching the CL55 AMG drift through Nurburgring, you can see how the advanced technology built into the Benz helps it achieve maximum drift angles at mind-boggling speeds.

Mercedes-Benz builds their vehicles with Nurburgring in mind, testing each model for performance and reliability on this course. The close ratio steering, large amounts of low end torque, and high horsepower of the CL55 AMG make it an ideal drifter. Read more about the Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

Cash for Clunkers is over and the government and many dealers proclaim it as an overwhelming success. But at what cost? Many rather unusual and possibly valuable cars were sacrificed during the program; a few that will make the car enthusiasts among us cringe.

There were a number of questions raised when scanning through the list published on September 9th by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). To be eligible for the Cash for Clunkers program, vehicles were specified to only get 19 miles-per-gallon or less, measured by their previously published EPA rating. Yet a few vehicles that were submitted generally get better fuel mileage than the benchmark set by the program rules.

As troubling as that was, it is underscored by the list of truly desirable enthusiast cars that were traded in as clunkers. This raises some troubling questions as to the reasoning behind the transaction. Scanning through the list, here are 12 different vehicles that should have been saved from their eventual fate of being scrapped. These 12 cars will be met with the usual questions as to how this was allowed to happen in the first place, or what kind of person would trade such a vehicle, replacing it with a Hyundai or a Toyota? Continue reading about the “Dirty Dozen”, with details about each one at Automotive Traveler.

I remember in the mid 1990s thinking Brabus was an incredible, almost mystical brand. I knew of a guy in Boston with two absolutely sick Brabus built cars back then. Those cars were pushing the limits and when you saw them you felt somehow like you were looking at the future, everything else looked old sitting next to it. This was the era of the Brabus 3 spoke rims, which were super hot at the time and now are an ugly memory to most, after being copied by just about everyone for a decade or so.

Enter the Black Baron by Brabus. I get that feeling all over again when I look at this car. Too bad the damn thing costs $800,000 USD. Anyway, have a look at some inspiration right here. Continue reading at The Real JDM

This car is hot! When the fellas take it out on the highway for the first time and head out to Vegas, it was hard not to become reminiscent about taking a road trip with my best buds. Now I must ask , what is your favorite road trip car? How many times have you seen The Hangover? List them below and check out the rest of the post over at LuxVelocity

I had the opportunity to road test the Freightliner version of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van, and came away quite impressed. With this morning’s announcement that makes it certain that Dodge will be losing the Sprinter, Freightliner dealers will still be in the hunt, along with select Mercedes-Benz Dealers.

Owning a home usually means that you have to call a contractor every once in a while to fix a drain, add some electrical outlets, service your air conditioning unit, or perform some general repair that you don’t have a clue on how to fix. And it seems that more plumbers, electricians, handymen, heating and air conditioning technicians, and general contractors are showing up on the job with an unusual vehicle, the Sprinter. And after spending a week with one, performing the jobs that these guys do, it’s no wonder that you are seeing them everywhere. Over the past half decade they have been sold through Daimler’s Freightliner subsidiary and its former partner Dodge. That is about to change as effective January 1, 2010, when Mercedes-Benz will take over the distribution and sales of the popular vans, it’s another sign that the divorce between former partners Daimler and Chrysler is getting increasingly acrimonious.

The Sprinter is built in Germany by Mercedes-Benz, and is one of the most popular vans on the continent. It started showing up on these shores wearing Daimler’s North American truck brand, Freightliner. To work around the so-called “chicken tax” on imported trucks, final assembly is handled at a plant in South Carolina. One of the first customers for this “do-it-all” van was Federal Express in 2002, and it was a revelation. Read my entire test at Automotive Traveler.

I still haven’t made it to NorthWest MogFest. Thankfully, my friends went again this year to prove how lame I am.

Mogfest started out as a gathering for Unimog owners to hang out and drive their machines. It’s grown into a gathering for all European off-road machines.

I’ll try to go next year and prove my manhood. Until then, enjoy the pictures my friends sent to me. (Special thanks to Doug, Luke, Art, Andy, Pete and the rest of the clan.)

For more images from MogFest, head here, here, and here.

VITT is a rarely discussed Japanese tuner with a penchant for producing widebody Mercedes-Benz street and show cars. Since widebody Benzes are hard to come by already and JDM tuned Benzes are even rarer, I thought it would be a unique topic to share here.

VITT also produces various other tuning parts for Mercedes to accompany their aero parts for a full conversion. As expected from JDM VIP style tuning, VITT uses wide three piece rims with stretched tires to complete the aggressive look.

I must say that although I appreciate what they are doing, I don’t think they’ve quite hit any home runs as far as design goes. I wouldn’t say any of their design is bad, but for a commitment as big as a widebody is (both the produce and to buy/install) I’d like to hope that it would be something spectacular. Their newer stuff like this CL widebody below is seeming to improve a bit over their older widebodies. I like the lines of the rear fender and rear bumper on the CL, there are some nice design concepts in there.

Continue reading after the jump!

Here’s a widened S Class for good measure:

For more information on VITT – http://www.vitt.jp/

Up until now, we’ve avoided big-name companies in the Hemmings Six Degrees of Separation Challenge series simply because the bigger a company gets the more pies it has fingers in. But why not see how two big companies are connected? After all, as we’ve stipulated (and as you’ve so eagerly responded), the point of this little exercise is to come up with obscure links rather than to connect two companies in the shortest way possible. Continue reading at Hemmings.

The Benz G Class is one of those cars that never seems to change. With a life span comparable to the Lotus Esprit, the G Class has outlived numerous decades of design and techological change. With a history of textbook function over looks philosophy, one has to look in amazement at this modified G Class.

The G Classless as I’ll refer to it, was modified by a private owner (I’m presuming) who felt that what the G Class really needed was a E Class front end. I think any good friend would tell you that doing this is a terrible idea, but somehow nobody warned of what it would end up as.

So here we go, your hater fodder for the day. The G Classless Benz. Via Autogespot