By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

An excellent video hosted by WyldFantasies on Streetfire.net shows some good back woods fun. Mixing a pond, wooden ramp, old SUV, and a stick of dynamite always makes for a good time. Who needs shopping malls and urban development anyways? Special thanks to WyldFantasies for hosting this awesome video! Check out their profile on StreetFire.net for more awesome footage.

By Jim Brennan

UDMan

After completing my first ever SEMA, Rob gave me the assignment to nominate the five best light trucks and SUVs at the show. Are you kidding me? Trying to choose five out of literally dozens of deserving entries is almost beyond comprehension, but I’ll give it a go. So, here is is my list:

- The Cherry Bomb Dodge D-100
- The 1947 Hudson Project
- The Air-Zenith 6 Wheel Topless Mini Truck
- The 1957 Cool Cam Air
- The Pacific Performance Duramax C-10

Cast your vote below!

[slideshow id=3386706919818900763&w=426&h=320]

[polldaddy poll=2238243]

Continue reading "Best of SEMA: Light Trucks and SUVs" »

By Ryan Porter

IN-N-OUT Editor

2008 was the year of murdered out rides, but the guys down at Platinum Motorsport finished the year off with one of the sickest builds I’ve seen. Murdered out from the grill to the tailpipes.  No wraps here, straight paint! More photos after the jump!

Here is Platinum Motorsport’s latest work. Rob Dyrdek’s Porsche Panamera Turbo.

Continue reading "Murdered Out Done The Right Way" »

The Honda Pilot is a pretty uninspiring vehicle when viewed in stock form. However, with a few trick upgrades this mild mommy machine has been turned into a pretty rad rally machine. From the well thought out front push guard sporting four Hella lights to the cool Thule roof rack to the rally-inspired interior complete with roll cage and fully-adjustable oh sh*t handles, this little UTE is transformed into something I think Daddy would drive on a regular basis.

Continue reading "Rally Inspired Honda Pilot: Very Cool" »

By Mike Musto

AKA Mr. Angry

Subaru loyalist rejoice! Your mountain rescue vehicle has arrived. This thing is actually pretty badass considering it started life as a new Forester. Fender flairs, a warn winch and some crazy suspension mods have turned this mild-mannered grocery getter into a mean mountain rescue unit. Obviously, Subaru will never make this, but the cool thing, as with all concept cars and trucks, is they give the consumer ideas. Good ideas.

Continue reading "Bad Ass Mountain Rescue Scoobie…" »

This weekend is SeaFair, the Emerald City’s annual celebration of summer. The festivities involve a performance by the Blue Angels, and right now their F-18 Hornets are practicing over the city. While I really, truly, love watching fighter planes, seeing these babies ripping up the skies over Seattle always makes me realize how terrifying it would be if they were hostile. Anyway, here’s the news:

• Ferrari has denied that Michael Schmacher was behind the wheel during the recent wreck of a F430 prototype at the ‘Ring, but there’s no doubt that the van he was driving nailed a pedestrian on Sunday. The man wasn’t seriously hurt, and Schmacher was reportedly pissed at him for getting in the way. Classy. Daily Mail via Jalopnik
• Now, on the surface, letting anyone who can pay take a high-powered sports car out on to the road unsupervised seems like a great idea. But after one of its rental ‘Vettes smashed into a Dallas restaurant, the folks at Hertz might be able to point out some possible snags in that otherwise perfect plan. Winding Road
• High gas prices have caused SUV sales to stall—some dealers are even refusing to take them as trade-ins—but are these road monsters really dead? One writer seems to think so, and he couldn’t be happier. San Francisco Chronicle
• While rubble from a Dallas restaurant is pretty unusual stuff to find in a rental car, this list of weird items forgotten upon return is awesome. A half pint of beer and an instructional CD called the art of Speed Seduction? That combination has success written all over it! CarScoop

In case you were concerned that the beleaguered SUV and truck market doesn’t have enough to worry about right now, here’s a curveball: the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is advocating new regs that would bring truck, SUV, and van bumpers down to the level of regular passenger cars. It might make for some funny-looking new SUV’s, and would certainly take a bite out of the larger vehicles’ ground clearance, one of their few remaining selling points. But it kind of makes sense: I’m sure it’s no fun getting your radiator mashed into your engine, or all your rear lights smashed out, in the course of some minor collision with an SUV or truck simply because its bumper isn’t the same height as yours. And the insurance companies aren’t thrilled about the higher payouts that result from such accidents, either. What do you think? Should new bumper rules be imposed on new trucks and SUV’s, or should the insurance companies (i.e., everyone who pays into a car insurance plan) just suck it up?

Source: Kicking Tires.

Actually, their argument is similar to the one I made last month. If you have a gas guzzling truck or SUV and are freaking out, be sure to do the math before making any rash decisions. And if you need a cheap way to get around for short trips and errands, scooters are cool. Fox Business.

It’s no secret that anyone who hasn’t yet traded in their SUV is kind of screwed right now. At over a hundred bucks a fill, these hulks are collecting dust on dealer lots and presenting a major problem for anyone trying to sell one. TTAC today quoted a dealer report declaring folks still saddled with full-size trucks and SUV’s to be "owners for life": they not only can’t give ‘em away, but in terms of trade-in value and dealer incentives, an owner can’t even pay someone to take them off their hands. On my flight back from Carlisle this weekend, I talked to a guy who’d paid around $40K a couple of years ago for a then-brand-new H3, which he recently got appraised—for 5000 bucks. I told him he should either seal it up in a time capsule to unwrap up 50 years from now as a relic from the oil-rich past, or make it a badass Death Race-style demo-derby car. What do  you think: are SUV owners soon going to be stuck selling like-new rides for scrap? Or is the current oil-bubble going to burst, bringing gas prices back down and SUV prices back up? What would you do?

I guess Alfa Romeo hasn’t noticed all the traded-in SUV’s rotting on dealer lots, because they’ve decided that now is the perfect time to bring a new soccer-mom mobile to market. They don’t even feel they have to advertise their new compact behemoth, likely to hit the US in 2010, claiming that "Alfa Romeo is not a brand that requires huge marketing budgets" because "the brand is known worldwide." Well, maybe if the production version looks as mean as the concept sketch, the thing would sell itself. But that’s not altogether likely. Stay tuned!

Via The Truth About Cars