By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

To me, this picture is the death rattle of full carbon (unpainted) cars loosing their “cool factor”. Speaking for myself here, I have always had a thing for full carbon cars. Whether it was the first time C-West rolled out their full carbon S2000 time attack car, or seeing a Pagani Zonda without paint, full carbon cars were the epitome of a hardcore tuner car. I always loved seeing those testing version Super GT cars with the bright green rims and the raw carbon bodywork much more than the finished cars with the flashy livery. My dream for many years was to have a full carbon car and leave it all raw carbon. But times change…

In the past couple of years I’ve wanted to cover my carbon fiber parts up more. It can be seen on my gold S2000 with just slivers of exposed carbon on the carbon fiber hood or mirrors. It can be seen on the painted carbon of the various GT-Rs that I’ve produced where carbon was used sparingly as an accent. And in the future I’ll surely cover up the carbon fiber more and more on the car’s I’m involved with. Why? Because it has gone from a functional display of tuning prowess into a gaudy display of wealth without any of the underlying meaning for its existence. Nothing defines that point more than a full carbon G-Class Mercedes, one of the heaviest and least aerodynamic road going cars.

Continue reading "Have Full Carbon Cars Jumped The Shark?" »

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

C…. Stands for cool. Or maybe crunchie. But seeing as how this is about cars, crunchie makes no sense whatsoever. Cool, eh? See how I just whipped that out?

Cars. Cartomobiles. Ooo. That’s a word. You ever wonder how car companies come up with their names? Like Continental? Corniche? Cordoba?

Wait. I’ve got one. … Cooltinental. And so… here are some Cooltinental C’s.

Name ‘em, and win a Million Doolareshlattens!!

Continue reading "Fireball’s Alphabet of Awesomeness… The C’s" »

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

Adios 2009! Welcome 2010! We don’t have flying cars. We don’t teleport our asses around the globe. And we don’t eat square Star Trek food. BUT, we do have G3 phones. We DO have bluetooth contraptions hangin’ on our noggens and WE DO…

…have bitchin’ rides. Bring it, Fireball.

1. THE AUDI AVATAR

No, not designed by James Cameron. Although, he coulda had it in the movie. Audi is poised to create future car badness with this and the ETRON. Although, I think they’re going to too many movies. Their next car is their wind-powered SUV called the RAMBLOW.

Continue reading "Fireball’s Cool Designs for the New Year" »

By Sam Barer

Sound Classics

I’m here to tell you that automotive journalists do not like to car shop. Sure, we love most things on four wheels, but I, like most of my industry-mates would rather get a prostate check by a broken-knuckled rugby player-turned-urologist than to interact with on-the-prowl car salespeople.

For me, specifically, it’s because I know way too much. I spend more time researching cars than the frequently-wrong-but-never-in-doubt people who sell them. As for the business and sales tactics side, much of my life I’ve been surrounded by dealership owners, salesmen, service managers, and attorneys who represent them. Let’s just say that I know all the tricks, which would be enough to turn most people to public transportation.

My personal log of horrible car shopping experiences is longer than Danny Bonaduce’s 12-Step “people to make amends to” list.They range from the frustrating: arranging for a test drive of a Honda S2000 over the phone with a sales manager at a Honda dealership in Houston, only to be told upon arriving twenty minutes later at that I could “drive it after I bought it”…to the surreal: having a clown-shoe car salesman at Bruce Titus Chrysler in Olympia, WA challenge me and my 2002 Corvette “to a race for pink slips” first against his (meaning the dealer’s) Crossfire SRT6 and then against his “Shelby” (meaning 2.2-liter Turbo I-powered Dodge Shelby Charger) when all I was there to do was take a test drive of a 300 to see if I liked it better than the Toyota Avalon…which I didn’t.

I can’t even remember how many times I’ve been asked “what will it take to get you into this car today?” And if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a car salesman make a claim about a specific vehicle that was such a blatant falsehood that any kid with a car magazine subscription or Internet access could call the bluff, I feel like I could pay cash for a Maybach.

Still, my wife’s twelve-year-old Oldsmobile is in dire need of replacement. She’s going to take the 2006 Toyota Avalon, which leaves me needing another four-door sedan. Like it or not, that means car shopping and the chance of adding to the list of dealer horror stories.

Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "Mercedes Dealer’s Tactics Added To My List of Horrible Car Shopping Experiences (And I Still Need To Buy A Car!)" »

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

Ouch. Today was the first Press Day so expectations were high. And did they hit the mark? ……Welcome, to the MORGUE.

Okay, maybe a morgue is a bit extreme, but there were some serious things missing. Namely, NISSAN. And with the Leaf coming soon, you have to ask… “WUT UP, NISSAN DOODS?” Now, I did get my fair share of automotive fixations, but I was left a little… dead. Ok, another mortality reference. Wups.

Follow the jump to see the COMPLETE highlights of the show. Not many, but some cool stuff. I decided to make it easy for y’all to understand how I felt about each one. I call it the “SHOCKSWEETSNORESUCK.” That’s the long version. Let’s just call it the “SHNUCK.” The LA Shnuck Show. Yea, I like it….

Continue reading "Fireball does The LA Auto Show… Ouch." »

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Like the Land Rover and the Hummer, Mercedes-Benz’s Geländewagen came from militaristic roots before it became a yuppie status symbol, except here in the States, we tend not to see much of its “Franz goes to war” past, shown in this 1982 Geländewagen currently on Hemmings.com for $29,900. Continue reading at Hemmings

By Antonio Alvendia

Antonio Alvendia

Set in the beautiful country lanes of Princes Risborough, the Kop Hill Hillclimb is one of the oldest hill climbs in England. During the early 1900s it was one of the largest motorsport events in the UK. The hill itself is a pretty straight road, but it’s over 1000 metres long to the summit and rises to 100 metres high. Big crowds would line the edges of the road to watch drivers and motorcyclists try to achieve the fastest times and speeds up the hill. Unfortunately, as the speeds got faster, so did the risks, and on the 28th of March 1925 an accident involving a spectator led to the end of the original Kop Hill event and led to the RAC banning all motorsports on public roads.

On the 26th and 27th of September, organisers decided to do a Kop Hill Commemorative Run to bring the sounds and sights and even smells (mmm, Castrol R) back to Kop Hill again. Over 250 cars and bikes were there, ranging in age from the 1900s right up to 1980s and even some very special modern cars (which no doubt require the owners to compare car insurance carefully). Continue reading and view more photos on MotorMavens!

By Fireball Tim

Movie Car Design Master

What is going on in this world? Ideas are merging, blending, taking shape, radically departing but staying the same. And that’s our world. Change.

Many people fear change. Maybe because it’s unknown. The question is, “What if you DID know the answer?” To everything? Would life be the same? Would you even be interested? Change is good. It keeps us on our toes, makes life adventurous, and forces us to have faith in things unseen.

Fortunately for you, you get to SEE this week’s designs. Some are wicked cool, some way not. But change is in the air, therefore, this week’s theme. Entitled?

CHANGE!…… DANGIT!

1. THE AUDI E- TRON ELECTRIC

Remember the Audi in “IRobot?” How could you not? It was in every DANG scene of the movie. Along with Will Smith’s beefy bod. (I had enough of that after the first scene… whatever) Well, Audi has taken their R8 and made it sweeter. Electric. And… Red. And red is good. Electric? Yea, that’s cool, but RED is cooler. Just think of RED things. Cherries. Megan Fox’s Lips. A stubbed toe. Ok,… maybe not the last one. But red is cool, dangit. (Check out the AutoDissection on the R8 here.)

Continue reading "Fireball's Cool Designs of the Week!" »

By Speedhunters

Car Culture At Large

The idea was to make a car that would stand out and have an integrated, cohesive feeling. At the start of the build RJ had already pictured the car in his head. He says, “In the beginning I was set on giving the car a theme that combined South Beach chic and my love for BAPE (a popular limited edition fashion line from Japan) purple camo. I had most of the outside of the car already set.” But things in your head don’t always look good in real life, so together with Platinum Motorsport they came up with this black and white theme. Continue reading at Speedhunters

By Jeroen Willemsen

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Want more airbags? Mercedes has ‘em! The weirdest one is the “braking bag.” Here’s how Mercedes describes it in their press release for the new Mercedes ESF 2009 Concept:

Braking Bag:This auxiliary brake accommodated in the vehicle floor is a new type of PRE-SAFE® component. If the sensor system concludes that an impact is unavoidable, the Braking Bag is deployed shortly before the crash and stabilises the car on the road surface by means of a friction coating. The vehicle’s vertical acceleration increases the friction, and helps to decelerate the vehicle before the impact occurs.

Watch the braking bag in action in the video, then read the full press release after the jump.

Continue reading "Mercedes Braking Bag" »