By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

Hey, it’s the end of the year, so why not toss off a few top ten lists? 2008 was a pretty crazy year for the CarDomain Blog. We ran all over the place and wrote a ton of blogs. After a few too many helpings of holiday food, I didn’t have the energy to go back and read through the entire year—which probably adds up to around 4,000 posts. So here goes, off the top of my head, and in no particular order.

1. Test Cars. For some reason, a bunch of the big OEMs decided to let us play with their cars. Some of the highlights include the Mustang Bullitt, the Challenger R/T and the Jaguar XF. Jen also compared the Hyundai Sonata to her “new” AMC Concord. Guess which one came out on top.

2. CarDomainTV. We decided to mess around with video a bit this year. Some of my favorites were Earl Smith and his RX-7, driving the Tesla and our visit to Northwest Auto Salon. My buddy Scott Smith also got some great footage from the Detroit 24 Hours of Lemons.

3. Motorsports Coverage. Jen went out on One Lap and got the first pics of the wrecked Challenger. She also covered a bunch of NASCAR stuff and did this great write-up on the the post-race teardown at Dover. John and Jen both covered American Le Mans and John went to Pikes Peak where he was harrassed by bees. And I made it out of the office to cover the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge.

4. Dinner with Bob Lutz. This was probably the highlight of the year for me. I mean, come on—Bob Lutz! Of course, John, Jen and I all wrote about it.

5. Bullrun. John went on Bullrun and got the ride of his life with Rachel. And Mr. Angry wrote a great recap of the rally, including his account of the Daytona’s epic wheel failure.

6. CarDomain Garage. We can’t just work on the site. We have to play with our cars, too. Jen got a bunch done on her Diesel Escort. Ryan decided not to put wing doors on his smart car. Weston chipped his GTI. I didn’t do much to my Satellite, other than wash it, change the oil and take it to the Mopars Unlimited Spring Roundup. We even managed to hold our third annual employee car show. But the real news was that John got his Jag running!

7. SEMA. We really went all out at SEMA this year, with five bloggers, one photographer and one videographer. Mike talked to Goldberg, I talked to Topo, John talked to the dudes in the Giovanna booth, and Katherine scored some killer swag. Oh, and Jen and I learned how to tig weld!

8. CarDomain Finds. We like to try to dig up some ride pages that might not make it to SOTW or the Top Rides page. Like this amazing wrecked GTO or the moneyed out Crown Vic. But the one that really blew up the comments was the Challenger on 24s.

9. Random Weird Stuff. Of course it’s the really weird stuff that brings in the mad traffic. The two posts that almost broke our servers this year were this squashed Volvo in Sweden and this bizarre Auto Trader ad.

10. New Voices. We added a whole slew of new bloggers this year (too many to list—I really need to update our contributors list). From our awesome Detroit insider Kathy Helmetag to JDM know-it-all Ben Schaffer. Today we even added former Hot Rod Editor-in-Chief David Freiburger!

So that’s about it for 2008. Or did I miss something? Thanks to all our loyal readers—we’re definitely looking forward to an even crazier 2009. And stay tuned for more top ten lists tomorrow and Wednesday.

With gas approaching $4 per gallon a lot of folks are starting to think about getting an econobox for their daily driver. There are a lot of cool options out there. My buddy keeps threatening to buy a Honda Fit. I kind of like the looks of the Yaris–I loved this one at SEMA. And the new Fiat 500 really needs to come to the US. How about old school econoboxes? Of course Jen loves her Escort. And I have a soft spot for Mark 1 Ford Fiestas. But if I had to pick I’d probably go with the Mark 1 Rabbit or the original Mini.

What’s your favorite econobox?

Is this the most pure out-of-the-box dedicated track car you’ve seen or what? I really want to drive this car. After putting it through its paces on two different tracks, Peter Egan of Road & Track writes in the March issue that the 2-Eleven is "perhaps the most fun, balanced and just plain easy-to drive car I’ve had on a track, like a dream of racing without the usual annoying alarm clocks." Lotus has built 40 of these cars so far, with another 160 orders taken. The car goes for $80,000. Not cheap, but if you are rich and want a fun weekend track toy, why even consider anything else? Full gallery at Left Lane News.

You all know I like Fox bodies, and I love Mike’s SVO Mustang, which is currently near the top of the heap in the GRM UTC Challenge rating category. Mike says:

"I cant afford a dedicated racecar, and a fun street car, and a V8 ground pounding racer/driver would kill me at the gas pump. So, here is the compromise, Ford’s SVO 2.3 Turbocharged 4 cyl, it’s good on gas, but still able to run a decent lap at the local track, I can enjoy it on and off the track."

Mike built this car to compete in NASA’s American Iron class, and when he was done, he had the world’s first four banger car to compete in the class. How cool is that? I’m definitely hoping Mike makes the cut for the Ultimate Track Car Challenge at Buttonwillow.

Back in the mid-70s Steve’s dad shipped his ’67 GTO over to Cyprus (an island near Greece). Then, while driving back home from a wedding with three friends, his father lost control of the car on a treacherous mountain road and pitched over a steep cliff. One of his father’s friends was killed, and of course, the car was destroyed. Flash forward thirty-five years. Steve, who had heard the story from his father, who had seen the faded photos of the GTO in scrapbooks, who had searched for the car on several trips out to Cyprus, was finally able to locate the wrecked GTO after a fire burned away all the surrounding brush on the hillside. He even got a photo of himself standing on the wrecked car, just like the photo of his dad thirty five years ago. You can see all the pics and read the full story on Mike’s ’67 GTO ride page.

Mike wrote: "This story actually gives me the chills." No kidding! Thanks for sharing it on CarDomain!

Continue reading "Son Finds Dad's Wrecked GTO Thirty-five Years Later" »

The Honda Civic was voted "most mod friendly car" two years running in our People’s Choice Awards, so I guess you guys really hate hybrids. Either that or you really love the TDI. Cause the poor Civic Hybrid only got two votes in our latest Showroom Showdown. Even a Civic owner voted for the VW. Oh well. The Jetta is a pretty cool car. And I guess it doesn’t hurt to have a kick ass race series, too.

Post your ideas for new week’s match up! If I use it (and you leave me some way to contact you) I’ll send you a CarDomain t-shirt!

CarDomain member artie99 spent yeserday at the IIHS crash test facility in Ruckersville, Virginia. The photo below is of a 2008 Chevy Malibu waiting for the side impact test (it did pretty well). Be sure to go to page 5 of Brian’s ’67 Impala ride page for a full writeup and a ton of cool pics. He even got some video of the Malibu being smashed! Nice work, man!

Edmunds just started up a little fantasy car stock exchange game. Basically, you buy and sell stock in upcoming models–their value is based on predicting U.S. sales figures. You start off with a cool $1 million. It’s kind of cool. They don’t have a lot of models to choose from right now, but will be adding more. I’m waiting for the G8 to IPO. For the time being, I bought a bunch of stock in the EVO, and seem to be doing ok so far.

You guys have all been hating on the Civic Hybrid in our latest Showroom Showdown, but I figured you’d still like to have a shot at winning one. The sweepstakes started yesterday as part of a promotion for the Honda Civic Tour, featuring Panic At The Disco.

If you won the car, what would you do with it? Repaint it? eBay it? Give it to your mom?

Check out these promotional shots for a short-lived 1980 TV series called B.A.D. Cats (B.A.D. stands for "Burglary Auto Detail"). There are a few clips from the pilot on YouTube. These photos were probably taken shortly after the first episodes of Dukes of Hazzard had aired, so Daisy Duke may have inspired Pfeiffer’s outfit (and her co-stars look kind of like Bo and Luke). Michelle Pfeiffer didn’t get famous until she starred in Scarface in 1983. See the rest of the promo shots for B.A.D. Cats after the jump (most likely taken at Ascot Park Raceway in Gardena, California, which closed down in 1990).

Continue reading "Michelle Pfeiffer in Daisy Dukes, with Hemi" »