The Beauty of All Wheel Drive

Think back to the turn of this millennium and remember how good things were.  Y2K failed to do anything to the infrastructure, the economy was booming, and the Fast and the Furious franchise wasn't a franchise.  People were living their lives a quarter mile at a time, had jobs, were buying all sorts of extravagance, and 401Ks seemed secure.  Everyone was happy.  That is, everyone except the car enthusiast.

Cars and Coffee

This past week has been a hugely exciting time to be a petrolhead.  Chrysler's unveiling of the new 2013 SRT Viper left jaws dropped at the New York International Auto Show on Wednesday.  Pictures of that can be seen here.  Halfway across the world in Qatar, MotoGP started its season with a tooth and nail fight amongst Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo, and Casey Stoner that lasted to the checkers.  Right here in Boston, the Lars Anderson Auto Museum kicked off the Cars and Coffee season with great showing of exotica.  Kick back and click the pics!

Force Fed Friday

Alliteration is a great device to use when telling anecdotes to a group of friends.  It can turn an awful storyteller into an amazing one... or at least make the words more interesting to hear.  I don't think a story about a partially petrified paleolithic pancreas is that interesting but it's fun to say!  Sorry to all the archaeologists out there!

Where was I?  OH!  Alliteration!  Yes, it's fun.  In fact, this being the weekend, make a drinking game out of it.  At a wedding reception, we, the wedding party, all had to take a drink every time a word started with the letter "L."  We were soon talking about litigious lesbians loving lipsticked lawyers.

You should convince your friends to give it a shot.  You can use words that start with "F" but try to use innuendo more than cussing and swears.  I'll start you off with Force Fed Friday.

Incidentally, that sounds like a great title to use for a bunch of videos about turbo and supercharged cars too!  Enjoy these somewhat artsy, kind of informational, partially awe-inspiring videos.

Fragile females fracture forearms from falling. Drink! (responsibly and don't drive)

Happy Friday!  Feel free to add your own alliteration or video in the comments!


Streetgasm Top Secret Twins - RPM Online from Seifer Chimera on Vimeo.



MRC WIDEBODY S4 - THE SEQUEL 204.4MPH from MRC Tuning on Vimeo.

Harlem Shakes

from: http://www.sntrl.com/nyc-life/nyc-nights-vraceworks-meet/

Take a step back, and you'll realize that Hip Hop has had quite a long love affair with cars. Pathfinders sitting on Lorenzos, boomin' 1000 jigga-watt sound systems in Flo-Benzies, hydraulic lowrider '64 Impalas, lifted Chevy Caprices, Escalades on Dubs, what have you.

Hell, CarEnvy did a whole Fiesta-VS.-Countryman review in G-speak. I dare anyone to try to write a review in the tongue of any other sort of subculture. Punk Rockers from Liverpool? Please, it just isn't the same.

But let's face it. To us, an Olds Cutlass on spinners is a subject of ridicule. We hate Dubs. Tweeters and Subwoofers are tossed in the name of adding lightness. Hip Hop and whatever the mainstream media enjoys putting on display doesn't represent us. Real car enthusiasts never TiVo "Pimp My Ride." We're not even disappointed because we expect it all to have little-to-no contribution anyway.

But we're wrong. I am wrong. From Vimeo, I came upon some footage posted by Henry Rojas' of a VRaceWorks' Harlem Meet (yes, that Harlem), chock full of clean JDM tuners from a Civic Si-R fitted with a Garret turbo, rare and tidy Integra Type-R's, S2k's, to even a silver MK IV Toyota Supra and a Nissan GTR. Not a single whistle tip. More than that, the whole event just looks so well organized. The cars are well prepped for photoshoots, the attendees and photographers are all genuinely supportive and respectful to the cars and its owners. I've never been more pleased about being wrong!



TGIF, everybody!

eBay Finds: MR Opportunity

Looking back for a second, the nineties was a decade filled with almost too many choices for the sporting enthusiast.  Aside from the usual suspects from the US and Europe, almost every Japanese car maker had their hat in the ring as well.  Supra, RX-7, 300ZX, and 3000GT were all big hitters but the grand daddy of all Japanese sports cars had to be the NSX.  It's mid-engine rear-wheel drive layout meant that it could compete not only with the aforementioned Japanese muscle but also with the likes of Ferrari.  All of this ability came at a price too high for mere mortals and the only affordable mid-engine car came from rival Toyota...or did it...

Designed by Pininfarini, the Honda Beat was a tiny car with a tiny engine that produced big smiles.  While never sold in the United States, one can be had with a couple of mouse clicks on eBay.  Here's one with a pretty high reserve but exclusivity never comes cheap.

Japan Week: Toyota

Freak of the Week: Green Machine

Welcome to Freak of the Week #9. A while back, I posted a FoTW on the "Angrier" Dodge Daytona pro touring. The idea behind the car was to modernize a muscle car so that it can accelerate, brake, and turn as well as a present day sports car.

Well, it seems like the idea has already been very popular and have ventured to less likely platforms. I present you Anthony's pro-touring Datsun 510.

Affordable Supercar Series

The 80s were a dark time for the automotive world.  Manufacturers hadn't figured out how to make horsepower after federally mandated smog equipment had been bolted onto motors.  The giants of the sports car realm - Supra, Corvette, 928 - didn't break the 300 horsepower mark until the very end of the decade.  However, if you look hard enough there's always a light in the darkness.  In the mid 80s, the light could be found in music by a still black Michael Jackson, the inherent goodness of Darth Vader, and the turbo V6 in the blacked out Buick Grand National.

autogaleria.hu

Car Porn

Here's a selection of car pictures to get you over that Wednesday hump.  They were taken by Keqing Song, a good friend of mine from school.  For more info, check out his website at here.

Obligatory Chevy Bel Air