This is a video of rapper T-Pain showing off his '91 Cadillac hearse done up in Miami Dolphins livery. You can skip the first minute if you want. As you watch this, I want you to pay attention to: (a) just how ridiculous this car is, and more importantly, (b)...
This weekend I believe I spotted a Bentley T1 or T2 hacked up and turned into a pretty phenomenal-looking shooting brake1. It looked pretty similar to the photo at right, which is actually a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow because I couldn't find any photos of Bentley wagons. And yes, even though...
Here's something leftover from my trip to Japan last year. I spotted this goofy coupe on Tokyo near the end of my trip and mentally wrote it off as a Tiffany or something similar. There are a fair number of weird one-offs like this floating around. But when I woke...
What's the deal with hi-risers covered in product branding? Are people just throwing random logos all over their rides? A few examples are over at You Drive What?....
Until very recently, Kansas has (bafflingly) allowed multiple registrants to get the same vanity plates, as long as those registrants were in different counties. The article details how they're heading back to the real world, and are recalling all but the first of each plate issued. They also list the...
We can take a quick break from the guessing game so more of you have a chance to weigh in. Here's a totally sweet Escort dolled up as an artsy car, in what looks like apocalyptic gear. Damn my camera phone—this one was done up really well....
Autoblog put together a lit of the dozen biggest automotive busts in the last decade. Lots of familiar faces in there—and a couple of surprises....
I really enjoyed this list of wacky cars suitable to be driven daily. This sort of thing comes from the same place as my big car checklist—it's all about finding something a little different....
Apparently Subaru put these fancy red ambient gauge lamps in their recently redesigned1 Tribeca. The reason I bring this up is that I can't imagine anybody I know will ever see Tribeca gauges outside of an auto show. 1 I just found out that "recently" is circa 2008. I guess...
It's a little hard to see, but this mid-90s Chevrolet C/K pickup has Cameo man and a skull in a cowboy hat airbrushed onto the tailgate. Also, a ribbon bar. Spotted on the way to the auto show yesterday....
Kyle and I went to the Seattle Auto Show today. It was much larger than I was expecting—I sortof imagined that a half-pint city like Seattle wouldn't feature as much show as, for example, motown itself. But it did. Unfortunately, it was all pretty predictable stuff: every manufacturer brought most...
Actually to be fair, it's not body cladding. The silver outline around the body of the vehicle is actually painted (or stickered) on. It's pretty ... weird stuff. We saw one in traffic a few days ago and were baffled about the styling....
I finally got my stereo part today, over two weeks after I ordered it. It came from Hong Kong. Apparently $3.59 is enough to manufacture this part, package it up, ship it to the US in a container (where it individually passes through customs), and then mail it out. Amusingly,...
...is putting NASCAR rims on a car whose manufacturer does not participate in NASCAR. That's right. It's an Acura 3.2TL....
Pardon the photo quality—I had to much with the levels to illuminate the, uhh, additions to this truck. When he merged onto the road he left a huge cloud of smoke....
Worked-over old-style 911 with all sorts of great new toys? Give. Courtesy Autoblog since apparently I'm rocking that lately....
"Built like a tank" is not an entirely accurate way to describe the cars of yesteryear. Heavy as they are, their safety isn't at all comparable to modern equivalents—even those that are smaller. The IIHS smashed a 2009 Malibu against a 1959 Bel Air. The results are in the photo...
Try to spot why it's called Two Dogs....
I did a ~25 mile ride around Lake Sammamish this morning. 25 miles felt like a bit much without real road biking gear—plus, much of the route was on somewhat busy streets with lots of headwind. These 25 miles were way more work than 20 miles on the Sammamish River...
Given the dearth of car posts lately, you may be wondering what's up with the truck and Porsche. Well, the short version is absolutely nothing. I've driven the truck twice in the last six weeks and less for the Porsche—although I did run it last weekend to charge the battery...
This is a Daihatsu Charade body mounted on a full-size 4x4 frame. Washington. It's like New Mexico but with irony....
Every once in a while I spot a pickup truck which has had its cab chopped and replaced with a folding soft top. Weird....
I sat in traffic for a few minutes today at a broken stop light—you know, the sort of broken where it flashes red in all four directions. I noticed that jackasses running through the light when it's not their turn don't actually screw things up all that much. At most,...
I don't believe I've ever posted about Colani here before, but he's long been one of my favorite obscure independent industrial designers. Colani's incredible history of work includes a bunch of interesting household stuff and furniture that eccentric industrial designers seem to like to spend an awful lot of time...
You may remember it from my super-blurry shots at the 2008 North American International AutoStravaganza, but it looks like the Geely China Dragon (also known as the Coupe or the CD) is finally going on sale. The (prototype?) China Dragon was one of the most haphazardly styled and assembled cars...
This car's front-end reminds me of the Ko-Dans1 from The Last Starfighter. You remember—there's that assassin who climbs off his ship at one point and who always gave me the heebie-jeebies before he looked through his bizarrely-shaped binoculars. The SsangYong design team sure does have some interesting, uhh, taste. 1...
Let's go for three in a row: this jacked-up Taco with double-wide mud flaps was spotted near a movie theater in Redmond. I thought parking like that only happened in the southwest....
I ran across this Mercedes-Benz SL in front of the local Fry's. Check out the plates. Yesterday was a good day for spotting silly cars....
This one's for Rob E. What you see here is an Action Package-equipped seventh-generation Toyota Celica GT with homebrew two-tone paint, and some aero effects mounted on the ... hood. Right in front of the wipers. I'm pretty sure I've seen these "splitters" optionally available below the front fascia on...
This photo was reportedly taken on "I-5 on Mercer Island," which isn't true since I-5 doesn't go across Mercer Island (I-90 does)...but regardless, this is pretty awesome. Video here....
I've never understood the appeal of stick-on plastic scoops you can affix to your cars hood to make it more ... aggressive. This particular Dodge Ram pickup truck features said scoops (in the traditional snout pattern), chrome flame inserts in the grille, and some weird wide fatty fog lamps mounted...
The remarkable thing about the news today that Rick Wagoner is resigning as the CEO of General Motors is that—at least, reportedly—Wagoner was asked to step down by the Obama administration. Incredible. Requests for people to step down are almost exclusively sent in the other direction: to public office holders....
What's he going to complain about?, you may be asking. Will it be the six faux exhaust ports on the fender? How about the "turbo" badge ripped off of some other car's rear end? No, and no. Some of you may even think I'm going to go for the horrifically...
I'm now completely convinced that the local auto parts store is only good for buying hub caps and steering wheel covers. I went to the parts desk earlier tonight and asked for some vacuum hose, and the guy behind the desk said, What? Vacuum what? Let me look it up...
Spotted this locally on a walk around town yesterday. The primer adds back a little of the machismo ripped unceremoniously from this burgundy pickup truck bed....
I just ran across Girodano Vintage Cars in nearby Carnation, WA. Excellent! Loads of old cars....
The local police department has temporarily placed a trailered radar speed sign up the road from us. This is the best thing ever. It's not because people speed on that stretch of road. In fact, far from it. It's a 35 zone that cuts straight through a residential section, and...
Found this on the local craigslist while looking for new turn signal sockets for the 914 (no dice). Pictured is an all-wheel-drive automatic transmission out of a 2001 Porsche 911 (specifically, a 996 Turbo). The arrangement of transfer case and differential is really interesting. Contrast this with the layout in...
I'm still not sure which is the best part. Is it the paint job? The doors? Or is the awesome sideways photo of the interior (complete with "HONEY BROWN WOOD GRAIN")? Courtesy craigslist. P.S. Please remember that the ad says, "NO STUPID OFFERS." Serious offers only. P.P.S. Click on the...
Alfa Romeo hasn't sold cars stateside since 1995, but rumors of their return have been circulating across the internets for a few years now. Originally slated for 2007 (and confirmed by savior of all things Fiat and all-around übercoolguy Sergio Marchionne) the date has since been pushed back year-by-year until...
You know those obnoxious difficult-to-replace rubber wiper blades that don't come attached to a whole wiper arm? The local auto parts store apparently stopped carrying them. That sucks, because I actually love those little refills. The big three points here are:they're like, half the cost they're far less wasteful (no...
Perhaps you're wondering, "what is this?" Well, it's a 1973 Corvette frame with a Cadillac Eldorado body dropped on top, and it's called the Corvarado (get it?) It was one of eight built by Les Dunham—one of which made it into the Live and Let Die Bond film. It's quite...
I spotted this Rolls-Royce at the post office earlier today. I'm thinking it's a Silver Cloud I. Swanky....
I found this outside my house today. I left for the office around 2pm and noticed this ~1930s pickup truck on a tow dolly in the middle of the road a few hundred feet from my house. When I got home a few hours later, it was being loaded onto...
Also spotted in Ballard....
When I'm driving in an unfamiliar far-away city, I prefer driving a rental car instead of own car since the local license plates on the rental don't scream that I'm an outsider. So it's a little obnoxious that my rental Focus—more on that later—happens to be fitted with license plates...
For a limited time only, you can snap up the rolling-door Lincoln prototype on eBay. Bidding is already at $6k—how high will it go? ...remember this thing?...
Is it a:Squashed Cayenne? Stretched Cayman? A 924 with some strakes and rear windows from an Alero?...
I just realized I've never owned a V6. And up until the truck, I haven't owned a V8. Flat-4: Subaru GL, Subaru XT, Porsche 914 Inline-4: Volvo 240, Toyota 4Runner, Eagle Talon, Toyota Camry, Volkswagen Scirocco, Toyota RAV4 Inline-6: Dodge Dart, BMW 325is, Mercedes-Benz 250 V8: Ford F-250 Seems I...
I only got two see one or two examples of Dekotora (think deco truck) while in Japan. None of them were all that great—this one, with its goofy rear-view-mirror-frames-gone-wrong was the only one really worth mentioning. I spotted it right outside the Toyota Automobile Museum in suburban Nagoya, and proceeded...
Spotted at the Toyota Automobile Museum: the Flying Feather, a microcar produced in the 1960s. It's built for lightness, as evidenced by the oversized bicycle-like spoke wheels. Between the dubs and the chopped roof, it's surprisingly modern in its stance. Hummer Microcar, anyone? Oh wait, no more Hummer....
It's difficult to tell in this photo (sorry) but Mazda built and sold Mitsubishi-branded motorcycles for a brief period when first getting started. The reason? Mazda had no dealer network and relied on Mitsubishi showrooms to move product....
This is the Mazda 787B racecar, which won LeMans in 1991. It's the only rotary-powered car to ever win at LeMans, and that win got rotary engines promptly banned the following year. Even among rotaries it's notable: it has a four-rotor engine, which was once thought infeasible due to the...
One of the more interesting vehicles on display at the Mazda Museum was the Autozam AZ-1, a mid-engined turbocharged two-seater with gull-wing doors, produced by Mazda but branded under the then-new Autozam brand. Fascinating little car. It's like a Japanese DeLorean....
This is one of the more remarkable engines on display at the Toyota Automobile Museum. I believe it's in an early 20th-century Isotta Frachini car, and it's an inline four with two separate cylinder blocks. I couldn't tell if the crankcases were separate, too. In the background is a fantastic...
What next? P.S. This is actually a Toyota bus built for the 2005 Aichi World's Fair....
I got into an argument with my coworkers last week about the Toyota product line and where the Century fits in. Americans (and in fact, some Japanese) expect that the top models built by the Toyota corporation would be branded and sold as Lexus vehicles. And for the most part,...
I went to the Toyota Automobile Museum (TAM) earlier today. In contrast to the Mazda Museum, which is more Mazda than Museum, the TAM is more Automobile Museum than it is Toyota. They do have a good number of Toyota models, but much of the collection is comprised of other...
I would be astounded enough to take a picture of this gold-plated 1980s Cadillac even it were found in the fantastically funkalicious U-S-of-A. But in Japan? I nearly wet myself....
All manner of totally awesome vans. Pictured are marginally-less-than-sweet bigger vans (the one in the center is a second-generation Previa) but there are plenty of kickass box vans all over. Fancy parking....
There's a guy who lives somewhere in my neighborhood who apparently drives his crappy first-generation Altima1 without his headlights on at night. I've seen him driving around twice (last night, and a few months ago) cruising down a relatively well-lit road at 35mph without any headlights or even marker lamps...
Instead of leaving a car at the airport or trying to mooch a ride off of a friend, I've lately been getting a town car to drive me to and from the airport. It's way more comfortable than being stuffed in the back of a Prius taxi, and is cheaper...
This chopped 8x8 Tatra T813 was parked right next door to Scotty's. Last I checked, you could get one of these 8x8s trucks (with an 18L V12 diesel engine) for around $20k. Sweet!...
Cars rust like crazy out here. This is true anywhere salt and water are plentiful—but the effect is really dramatic on the Hawaiian islands since nearly everything here has been exposed to saltwater for its entire operational life—even in super-salty places on the mainland many vehicles only spend a fraction...
I believe it is healthy to maintain a distrust toward individuals with heavily modified and immaculate full-size pickup trucks....
Nothing says classy quite like plastic-chrome automobile accessories affixed with double-sided sticky tape....
This is what happens when rednecks Camaro aficionados get fed up with Craigslist. Pity this didn't make best-of....
This is what happens when you throw $184,000 of upgrades onto a ... Toyota Prius? I can't imagine any other car which is so hip by being so low-bling....
I spotted this in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco while I was in the area last weekend. What the hell is it? It's a weird huge orange bus. The first two things that popped into my mind were "firefighters" or maybe "Chinese government group."...
The folks over at Moletech sell a typically nonsensical mileage enhancing product called MTech which uses the magic of molecules and ions (and science!) to magically increase the fuel efficiency of your vehicumobile. I could write for hours about the product, but I'll skip it because even if it did...
Handicapped placard Big stupid dubs 22" in shiny stones on the fender Spotted near yesterday's fishes....
Got a hankering for crazy photos of oddly proportioned and amateur-assembled kit cars? Well I'm giving you the link anyway. Price of His Toys is a car blog all about nutty kit cars—the vast majority of which are based on either VW bug or Fiero chassis. Anyway, there are tons...
I spotted this 1935 Monaco Trossi over at Jalopnik a while back. Mounting a huge-ass radial engine to the front of a sports car is quite possibly the coolest idea to come out of the 1930s....
I promised yesterday to assemble a big list of overgeneralized, stereotypical, and even somewhat vague categories you could put cars in. All of them can (or do) overlap with others. The purpose is for me to wrap my head around the things I really do want to own and experience—having...
I realized today that as far as cars go, I'm a variety snob. I'm sure many of you have long ago come to the same conclusion. The evidence isn't particularly well-hidden. In contrast, the majority of car nuts who aren't me are brand snobs. The anthropologist in me thinks that...
I've had no success with the Porsche 914s here over the last few days, but something interesting caught my eye: a Volvo P1800ES. The photo is one I had lying around from two and a half years ago....
Spotted over at Kotaku....
Any of you who have talked to me about cars anytime in the last year or so have probably immediately dismissed most of whatever it is I said—and it's possibly because I've been on a big Chinese car kick lately. They're nutty and cheap, and I think it's vastly interesting...
Flipping through Craigslist earlier I ran across this (cached). It's a torbo! I'm still waiting for someone to sell a fixed semi-convertible as a Torgo1. You'll notice I haven't yet made progress on the 3. I've decided to hold off until this next weekend as there's a remote possibility I'll...
This is a first-generation Oldsmobile Silhouette sporting a Mugen sticker just under the rear window (you can't really see it in the photo—trust me, it says Mugen). Yes, the same Mugen that makes Honda parts. I wonder if it has a MoTeC exhaust....
I have to admit—I'm a huge sucker for crazy door designs. So when I saw the Mégane Coupé Concept (Concépt?) from Renault, I nearly crapped my pants. The design is cool enough without the doors...but just look at those things! As far as I can tell (I haven't seen it...
...or maybe Avalanche? Either way, just before going tubing on Saturday night, I spotted this totally sweet ZJ Jeep Grand Cherokee modified with sweet new fenders, headlights that appear to have been stolen from ... some other Jeep, a superlight front bumper. Oh, and let's not forget the truck bed....
I still can't explain exactly why, but the roads in western Washington (and particularly those on the east side of Lake Washington) are filled with courteous drivers who practically never speed. It's a little odd traveling down the highway and noticing that the biggest differential between posted limit and actual...
Here's a hint to all of you aspiring young ignoramuses out there: if you're planning on drifting a car you've just "borrowed" from the dealership where you work, it may not be best to do so at the parking lot marked 1 in the map at right. Why is that?...
BMW revised the taillights on the 2008 5 series, and I'm very impressed. The lights now have an Art Deco feel and look even better than they do in the photograph at right. Bravo, taillight designer. These are particularly well-executed....
I saw this picture in a post over at English Russia (agh, the ads!) and although the post was titled Bad Parking 5, I have to admit that "bad parking" wasn't the first thing through my mind. It was closer to, "I think I know what kind of truck I...
Nearly as cool-looking as the Geely CD (ahem) is the Honda CR-Z. The only catch? It's a hybrid. Why can't we just get back to small+light+simple?...
Well, you get a blurry picture of the Hànzi/Kanji on the rear-end of the Mazda Furai. It's still my favorite car from the show....
Unlike yesterday's post on Chinese cars being imported to the US, I'm going to talk today about US cars being imported to China. This is non-news to anyone involved in the auto industry, but I'm not entirely sure how well-understood it is otherwise: Buick is totally hot stuff in China....
I'm fascinated by Chinese cars. It reminds a lot of the Japanese invasion of the mid-1970s (and the Korean invasion of the late 1990s) and I can't help but think that it's going to be really interesting to watch the evolution of these currently-crapmobiles. The thing is that the NAIAS...
We did the auto show today. I'm tired, so I don't have a ton to say. Except that the Mazda Furai is seriously cool. More pictures later this week....
I'm spending the weekend in Detroit, in part because of the NAIAS. But I'm not going until tomorrow, and I need to write about something tonight. So here's the deal: I drove nearly an hour between the airport and Raven's place up in Pontiac. In that hour, I encountered hundreds...
Car parts coming unstuck—always good times. P.S. The video is loud. Turn your speakers down....
Yes, that's a BMW Z3 sporting a stupid front fascia, blingin' chrome wheels, and a ridiculous curly spoiler-looking thing....
I like to pick on automotive marketing departments (...a lot, actually) but from time to time they're saddled with the unenviable task of drumming up interest in absolutely horrifically engineered cars. Often, the best that they can do is to slap an interesting-sounding name on the car in the hopes...
The first local craigslist post of note is this gem (cached) from someone fed up with his new truck payments. Yet more evidence why people just can't have nice things. The seller is clearly an intelligent fellow, since he blew some (probably big) bucks on stupid-huge chrome wheels and matching...
That's right—I'm talking to you. You, as a member of the human race. As a participant in society. As a driver. Specifically, as the first driver in the left-turn only lane at a stop light. You've got a responsibility to pay attention. Both of the chumps in the lanes going...
I saw this earlier today at Jalopnik—it's a 1994 Lincoln Mark VIII heavily modified to feature the coolest doors this side of Countach. Or this side of Z1, for you car nerds out there...or anyone who's seen Armour of God II: Operation Condor: Jackie Chan's most hot-doggin' movie. I realize...
This is a really old cameraphone picture of Manuel taking a cameraphone picture of the front end of a BMW E32 7 Series sedan. The license plate translates roughly to, out of the way!...
The huge tires in the bed of this Ford Ranger make the bald passenger-car tires look teeny tiny. P.S. Someone needs to clean my windshield....
I spotted this at Bonnie and Abigail's triathlon last weekend. My first thought was, "dammit, what would possess someone to put hideous rims like that on their promotional vehicle?" But now I've posted about it—corporate logo and all. Touché, bling rims....
This happened nearly a month ago, but I forgot about it until today. The Volvo C30 is, in my opinion, a really neat little car. It's a Ford Focus/Mazda3 that looks better than both and is available with a turbocharged straight-five. This car actually has more potential than even the...
Note to video game makers: I'm sick of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. I realize it's a fantastically technical and brilliant track, but every other game studio on the planet thought it was necessary to include it in their game, and so by now I've already looped the damned thing thousands...
Day 3 of no blog: I spent last night helping Manuel install some hot car stereo action into his wee Miata. That took significantly longer than expected, so no progress on actually fixing the blog problem. Maybe tonight? P.S. It looks like Layla took this picture right when I was...
This is a picture of a Ford Contour. This particular Contour has had a white driver's door put in place of an ostensibly damaged original door. And on this replacement door is a Huge. BMW. Logo. This was spotted at the Bellevue PRO Club yesterday morning. Enjoy....
I've loaned the truck to a friend for the weekend, and as collateral, he's left me his Saab 9-3 2.0t. I can't help but think he got the bum end of this trade. I think this is the first time I've driven a turbocharged car since I sold my Talon...
Do you all remember Rob's old Supra? Well, I was up early this morning (don't ask how early) tagging pictures when I ran across this little gem—which I appear to have taken just two weeks after I posted the aforelinked entry. I guess I never got around to putting up...
Let's all 1337 like it's 2003....
If you look closely at this photo, you can spot the ridiculous wheel arches housing megaspaced bling rims. Oh, and the two-part handle spoiler? It's got Hamann stamped on the bottom. I'm sure somebody paid a pretty penny for this set of upgrades....
I snapped this first picture on I-405 (no, I wasn't driving) on March 31 of this year. Today, at Lowe's, I spotted the same car. Yowch. Judging by the camber in the first picture, I don't suspect that rear tire lasts very long—and that's a bummer, since I'm guessing that...
Since I'm sure you're all still so excited from yesterday's post, here's another picture of a truck exceeding its payload capacity. In this case, it's a 2wd Dodge 2500 longbed (so...a direct competitor to my 2wd 3/4 ton longbed, only newer) but it's far more heavily loaded than mine was....
This may be a little out there for some of you, but anyone who's ever driven on a racetrack (heck, even in traffic?) can probably appreciate what's going through this guy's head. What comes out of his mouth, on the other hand, is something else entirely. Don't despair if it...
I've occasionally spotted this car driving around Bellevue for the last two years, and I've finally got a photo of it! In a handicapped spot in front of a Trader Joe's. As far as I can tell, it's a first-generation Buick Riviera (likely 1965, due to the lack of faux...
It's undeniably shlock Americana: the Jeff Gordon coffee maker. It comes equipped with a water level indicator, ten-cup capacity, racing stickers, and a picture of Jeff Gordon looking mildly affected on the box. Merchandising, merchandising, merchandising!...
It annoys me to no end when some backwards-hatted kid in a riced-out Civic pulls up next to my BMW at a stop light, hauls ass when it turns green, and is assuredly smug as he pulls away entirely too quickly for the bouncy suspension and stock brakes I'm sure...
Remember the Lada Niva? Well, English Russia caught one stuck on a chunk of ice (cached)....
This is a picture of a painter's truck cruising through Bellevue. In related news, I bought an 8' ladder today. It barely fits inside my garage, but it's fantastic for getting me onto the roof and into the attic. I'll be doing a lot of both soon, since our gutters...
I would usually write this sort of thing over at AA but I'm feeling particularly ranty and I'm not in the mood to polish the article enough to make it worthy of anything other than, well, /dev/null. Here's the deal: every car nut out there starts on a complaint rant...
This came over the news wire recently. Apparently some kid came barrelling down a local road and lost control of his shiny red RX-7, and then dumped the car up a tree. Oddly, no serious injuries. Photo archive: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8...
Washington State Department of Transportation: completely out of touch since 1904....
Those of you who haven't seen the redneck rollercoaster should watch that video before you start the one below. Redneck-licious!...
Get a ton of people together. Strand them somewhere stupid. Let them each buy a car for no more than $1,000. Make them drive it somewhere less stupid. Hilarity ensues. If you've been watching Top Gear recently, this is probably pretty familiar. The stupid place was Miami, and the less...
I've been on the phone (or email) daily with the guy selling a certain Fiat X1/9, but the snow and ice have been conspiring to keep my ass stuck in Kirkland. And even though I've got the 4WD RAV4, it doesn't do me much good, as I'll still have to...
I've already got a thread open with the owner. And, if all goes my way, I'll own an Italian car by this weekend....
Those of you who know what a 2JZ-GTE is will get a hefty chuckle out of this picture....
Some of you may remember my post about Family Guy and the Volkswagen Scirocco. Well, this time, they've tackled the Hummer. See the clip here (3.35MB WMV). This is marginally NSFW (see P.S. below). I'll leave that at that. Comment as you will. P.S. This was taken from a Canadian...
This is one badass half-spray-painted, half-Rhino-lined Subaru that Layla and I spotted outside of a local Target. At least, I presume it's Rhino-lined...the black tag on the grey strip along the left edge of the trunk lid is a Rhino Liner logo. And the "support our *" ribbon? It read,...
Oh kids, when will you learn that not even hilarious ad copy will save you from your oddball cars. This particular ad comes from craigslist (cached) and notes that this car:"was used in a Mexican street race gang." I'm still puzzled by the use of the word in—was the car...
I've long posited that the Volvo 240 wagon (preferrably in turbocharged or, ahem, blown 350 form) is the coolest of the Volvos. It's about as new as you can get without going Swedish-brickish, but it's still got that IKEAn style that made famous that company run entirely by tall blonde...
Tonight's pictures come courtesy of Rob and the extent of my laziness. This is an E23 BMW 7-Series doped up in a totally bodacious paint-job (growl!) and the world's coolest wing. Oh yeah. That's how it's done....
Go ahead. See what this guy has to say about his RX-7. (cached)...
Automatically spammed with automotive spam. 3000gt trans gears allison 1000 trans filter Amused. That picture there is, in fact, a 3000GT transmission. Ehhh...at least this is better than the "bigcock" porn spam I usually get....
I caught wind of this video about a Ford GT whose owner didn't seem to think a blown 5.4L V8 wasn't quite enough....
I have to admit, I've got a lot of pet peeves. People who talk to me while I pee, people who leave "0:17" on the microwave by failing to press "Clear" after removing their pot pies, and people who post pictures of their kids on their office door at work...
It may be something in the water. It could possibly be all the fumes I've been inhaling while driving the Mercedes recently. Or maybe it's the fact that I've worked at Microsoft for over a year now and have already owned a BMW—but whatever the reason, I can't get my...
There is simply nothing manlier than driving around in a convertible festooned with pink breast cancer awareness stickers. I could be John Elway or Sean Connery or Hulk Hogan and still would have swished and sashayed my way through Seattle, had I been driving one of those vinyl-clad pinkmobiles. All...
I can't remember who sent me this picture originally (Justin?) but it's just far too damned funny to not post. Hint: Mustangs are exclusively rear-wheel-drive cars....
Spotted this earlier tonight in Bellevue. Of particular note are the blingin' brake lights, totally radical rear spoiler, dog hanging out the driver's window, reflection of my big gut and cellphone in my window, and—of course—those absolutely killer wheels. They're nearly as cool as those awesome three-spoke wheels that Neal...
I spotted this at the Taqueria the other day. Yes, it's a Honda Civic sporting some sort of ... homemade exhaust pipe. Impressive. Plus, if you look closely enough (and your eyes don't go all buggy—apologies for the soft focus) you'll notice that the camber angle on the wheel is...
Layla and I came home the other night to find, hilariously, the Batmobile parked on the curb right in front of the hydrant for our block. Batman was nowhere to be found, but apparently someone had written "Achetita" on the seat and had drawn a crude picture of a jack-o-lantern...
Rob Williams sent me some pictures he snapped out in Taipei. The car here is a Mercedes-Benz 500SEL tartared up to look like a ... well, that. I really like what look to be Havoline and Texaco stickers applied backwards on the driver's door. Rob comments, It isn't just New...
For those of you who haven't yet seen this, it's required. In 1976, Claude Lelouch made C'était un rendez-vous, a short film of a car driving through Paris at breakneck speeds. The film was shot entirely on one roll of film and is presented below completely uncut. The sounds are,...
Similar to the Audi event presented earlier this year, BMW is presenting its Ultimate Drive event. Unlike Audi, which was something of a bonanza at a local convention hall and which featured five-minute-long drives in a half-dozen different vehicles, the BMW event is going to be held at a dealership...
So it turns out that the Windows Mobile folks brought an Alfa 159 wagon to the conference as a showcase piece—Microsoft and Fiat (who owns Alfa) announced a parternership a while back and the Euro-only1 159 bears some of the fruits thereof. Oh, that's hot. 1 Damn, damn. Damn damn...
Spotted today on the way to my flight....
During the ~90 minutes I was around downtown Kirkland last night, I saw:A mid-1950s Mercedes convertible Two C3 Corvette Stingrays A half dozen 911s, including a 997 Carrera and a 996 GT3 Easily a dozen BMW M3s Ferrari 308 Ferrari 360 Spider Some odd mid-1980s Rolls Royce And this wasn't...
Over six months ago, Manuel and I drove way up north to go check out some dude selling a 1991 Toyota MR2. Hilarity ensued when we actually drove the car—the car drove like the frame was bent and the engine was making double-digit compression. The automatic (yes, automatic) transmission didn't...
I spotted this earlier this month on Craigslist but forgot to post about it until now. Wowee, wowee. It's a MkIII Toyota Supra—odds are good it's a non-turbo, but it's impossible to tell with the, err, modifications. Which involve...the front fascia from a 6th generation Honda Accord. My apologies for...
Hoorah for another post over at Autos Articulated. I got a chance to ride in (not drive—ugh) a brand-new Audi RS4. It's goes quickly, stops quickly, and turns like a cow. Behold the excitement...and videos!...
At around 11am I've got my appointment with the Audi folks for the Audi: Streets of Tomorrow car tour thing. Since I'll be driving some pretty damned pricey vehicles (the RS4 goes for just under $70,000) I'm planning on showing up in my nicest attire. Unfortunately, I wore my banana...
There's not a lot in common between Aikido, flying, and auto racing. The setting is different, the people are different, and the philosophies behind each are very different. It takes a different attitude to succeed in each, and each results in a markedly different understanding of the way the art...
Do you see that? The 'M' badge tacked incongruously at the edge of the trunk lid, out in the farthest reaches of no-man's land? An abomination to taste!...
Over on Autos Articulated I've just written an article about why manufacturers throw events similar to Audi's Streets of Tomorrow I mentioned last night. But here's the short version: Next saturday, I'll be driving to somewhere in Seattle, where I'll likely be treated to good food, very upscale atmosphere, and...
Audi's Streets of Tomorrow is coming to Seattle next weekend. I'm already signed up. Booya....
This is by far the best windshield banner I've ever seen strapped to a riced-out Civic. The rest of the car sports the usual assortment of chrome and stickers, but the banner front-and-center reads "Retired." That's hot....
It's almost holy, really....
The reason that Layla and I were in New Mexico was a wedding, and the limo at the wedding was a 1956 Crown Imperial. Very nice choice. I tried to talk to the driver about the car but all I was able to squeeze out of him was that he'd...
I said I'd do it: I've launched a new journal. It's a whole new site. Autos Articulated. Layla actually came up with the name last night, and I liked it so much that I went ahead and registered it. For now, the site is sitting here on my home machine...
I'm tired and it's been a long day. So, here's a picture of a cow car in Bellevue. Moo! Update: I've been working on the article for the Maserati Biturbo for the past two days now, and it's finally nearing completion. Odds are good that I'll have enough time tomorrow...
...then this is what it would look like when I tried to enter "Software engineer" into the "occupation" field of my online tax filing software. Instead, it looks like "SOFTWARE ENGINE," which isn't exactly what I wanted to say. I dig on the plate, though. Due to the lack of...
I spotted this about a month ago at our old apartment. It's an old-school Civic with a slew of body modifications so outrageous that it'd actually look at place somewhere in southern New Mexico. I especially like the haphazard "BAD BOY" across the rear fascia and the big three-spoke rims....
I cranked this out last night. It still needs some polishing—and by the looks of it, some reworking around the front end. I'm thinking this may turn out like the Cadillac in the poster I did for the seminar back at NMT I did a year or so ago....
I spotted this on Sunday in the apartment complex where I live. It's a Toyota Tercel with its rear tires completely removed. The rims are still there, but there is no rubber mounted on them. This apartment complex was recently sold and last month, the new management went around tagging...
Layla and I were up in Kirkland today to get breakfast when I spotted this: I originally though this was some sort of old Noble or Mosler. It turns out Lee Noble has only been selling his own cars for the last seven years or so, but the Mosler guess...
I spotted this at MSNBC's This Week in Pictures for March 2–9. It's a Lexus RX300 stuck in the Gulf of Finland near St. Petersburg in Russia. No idea how it got there...but good luck getting it out....
What you're looking at is a scale model of the Napier Deltic marine diesel engine—this model was built entirely from scratch by Clen Tomlinson. The Napier Deltic is an 18-cylinder, opposed piston engine with three triangularly arranged crankshafts, built originally with a swept displacement of 88.3L—it was capable of up...
What happens when you put a Volvo on display in the middle of a mall in New Mexico? Well, you get breadsticks dropped on that car. And ... ugh. All out of energy for the day—hopefully I'll have some ... eventually....
Smart cars amuse me greatly. I actually spotted one yesterday on the way to pick Layla up from the airport. This one looks to have been imported independently as it looked fairly old and I don't think Zap has actually gotten their Smarts for official import yet. Hoorah!...
This topic comes up from time to time here on /dev/null, but since I've got pictures, I'll bring it up again today. Second possibly only to silicon valley, the Puget Sound area has more exotic cars than nearly anywhere else in the country. They're everywhere, and it just doesn't faze...
Layla and I spent a lot of time in Kirkland this weekend. Odds are good that in the future, we'll be spending even more there. While we were there, we spotted a few special cars. Of course, the usual handful of M3s (probably ... five or six, at least), one...
This is a total copout post because I've been working entirely too much lately and, as it turns out, a friend from NMT was in town. Things have been busy and I'm absolutely beat. But nevertheless, here's some hot eBay action. Behold....
I've talked (at length, ahem) about automotive forums before. In almost all cases, the forums that I've encountered contains largely misinformed discussion by disinteresting people. Whatever truth one does find is generally dispensed by the few knowledgable individuals who happen to hang around. My experience has been that anyone who...
At the grocery store earlier today, I spotted a doppelganger of my Eagle Talon—down to the leather seats and sunroof. The only two things I'm not certain about on this other car is a) whether it's a 1990 or a 1991, and b) whether it had the ABS or the...
There are many words to describe the state of the American automotive industry at the moment—most of them are too impolite for me print here. It's clear, however, that Detroit in 12 months is going to be a very different place than Detroit today. One of these big changes involves...
Update:This post was confusingly written. I've cleaned it up (and changed the name) so it's more obvious. I want your opinion on what kind of car would fit the following needs. This car would be:A car or truck that's good on the highway safe enough for me and family members...
Oh yes. These are some hellishly good lines. Original link from Craigslist (cached copy)....
I'm not a big fan of side-by-side professional racing. Even reasonable sports (like F1 and CART) don't interest me all that much—and that's not even considering the backwards art of NASCAR and NASCAR Truck ... and so forth. My taste tends to sit in either rally or autocross: two types...
I'm at home right now waiting for the fixit guy to finish with the dishwasher. So, I'm poking around on craigslist. I just noticed this ad for a "monster" vehicle (cached copy). Wowee....
My head is clogged and I can't sleep, so I'm browsing through Craigslist for entertaining ads. I've found one. The ad in question (original link, cached copy) is for a 1992 BMW 325i—somewhat similar to my 3 except that this car is a four-door, gold, and is owned by an...
In the course of writing my previous post about the Volvo C30 Concept, I did some background research on a neat little car called the Volvo P1800ES. The P1800ES is a neat car because it's: (1) old, (2) rare, (3) Scandanavian, and (4) a station wagon. And like an idiot,...
Because Layla's new car is in need of a carburetor overhaul, I figured I'd talk a little bit about what a carb is and how it works. My experience is that most people treat it as a sort of black voodoo box incapable of being understood by mere mortals and...
Just to give you an idea of how reliable Layla's new Merc 250 could possibly be (although, admittedly, probably isn't): there's a Greek taxi driver who passed 2.8 million kilometers in his W114-chassis Merc 240D. That's 1.7 million miles. Autoblog has the details. This story was news a bit over...
I want to make this very, very clear: nobody cool has ever actually owned a Hummer. I really do mean that. I challenge you to present me with evidence to the contrary. Update: No, I really mean it. Somebody please send me an example of someone cool who owns a...
I've mentioned before that there are some seriously hot cars here in Redmond. This is due almost exclusively to Microsoft, and that's something I'm OK with. One of the things that I've noticed recently is that I don't really get surprised when I see something hot or really exotic anymore....
This is much too good not to post....
I gush about Autologic a lot. Not only are they not paying me to gush, I don't even get any kickbacks of any sort, really. They're just really nice guys and it's fantastic to see that sort of thing nowadays. Most people would stop at the point of saying that...
I'm a car junkie. Those of you who read this journal regularly don't need to be told that. At any given point, I can probably be found trolling eBay or something similar for cheap autocross cars. The point that I'm trying to make here is that I've seen a metric...
Over the last two days, I've driven a good deal around New Mexico. In Socorro as well as through Albuquerque, I've had to deal with the Best Drivers On The Planet. The number of drunks (or stupids—or both) on the road driving from Albuquerque to Socorro at 10pm was flat-out...
Matt was kind enough to link me to this analysis of automotive air filters. It's awesome. I don't expect you to actually, you know, read the report. It's long and drawn out and goes into amazing detail concerning things like how they came to their conclusions. You needn't concern yourself...
Rob has informed me (and you) that he's bought a Miata. Go, Rob. No seriously, though. That's damned hot. So I've mentioned before that I could definitely tolerate a Miata. And by "tolerate," I really mean "slobber all over and throw wads of money at." In fact, the only reason...
The Toyota MR2 isn't sold as the MR2 in France. The reason is because that in French, the name would be pronounced emm air deux, which sounds a lot like merde. Merde means shit in French. So it goes. To be honest, I don't think the MR2 is a crap...
That's right. Info after the jump....
A long time ago I posted about the kinds of retardation that automotive nuts can muster up when presented with the latest-and-greatest shitboxes from our favorite marques. One such story (as noted in the above post) involves the Fiat X1/99, which is a rebirth of the trusty old Fiat X1/9....
I'm still working on my mondo post about the BMW 8. So far, I've done the design analyses (much like the pictures in the Alpha Alfa article) but haven't finished wrapping them in text yet. I'm thinking of getting them wrapped up tomorrow evening or the night after. In other...
I admit: I've been trolling eBay for cheap autocross cars again. The big reason I'm doing this is that I really don't want to race the 3. I'm probably going to, but it would be nice to have something that I really can take the interior out of. For good....
I'm considering writing a long and ranty post, à la E36, Kankoku no kuruma, or Alpha Alfa. Especially Alpha Alfa. ...the thing is that I don't really have any good ideas for a topic at the moment. I've got this fantastic urge to write but I'm presently lacking the inspiration...
The title of this post is a line from the Logo programming language. Unfortunately, it seems that Logo doesn't support multiple commands on a single line. Maybe Logo 97 or Visual Logo does. Whatever. The real reason behind this is that I'm going to discuss automotive logos and emblems. I...
Raven sent me a message earlier: is this black pimped-out Volkswagen Eurovan MV the same vehicle as this black pimped-out Volkswagen Eurovan MV, which I spotted outside my temporary housing? Now, the thought that went through my head when I saw the one outside my apartment about a month ago...
In doing research for my previous article (you know, stealing pictures from the web), I ran across this image. Bahahahahaha...
I realize how much you people like pictures. Since I haven't posted anything visual for a number of entries, I went looking for something interesting. Unfortunately, I didn't find anything. But asians crack me up. DOWNFORCE!...
Remember my first automotive design review? I'm sure you remember seeing it. Reading it was probably another question entirely. I just want to point out that I'm dying to do another one of these. I'm not even sure what I'd like to do it on, but I've got enough of...
There are six (6) speed bumps between the entrance to my apartment complex and my parking space. Six. Sechs. Neigh, hoof hoof hoof hoof hoof hoof. That last part is in Clydesdalese, for those of you who weren't paying attention in this morning's lecture. So anyway, yeah, six. I'm not...
Well, I feel oriented. The first day wasn't unreasonable (although not exactly what I was expecting). Tomorrow I get to attend Orientation II: The Return of Orientation. Once I was done earlier, though, I headed over to drop off the old battery from my replacement incident, and get my $8...
I spotted three cars yesterday that make me giggle. The first is owned by a guy in the apartment complex where my temporary housing is. It's a late-model VW Eurovan MV—an absolutely kickass minivan, but comparatively rare here in the US. Two pictures follow. Sorry for the shitty shot. I...
Besides aerodynamics, I can't imagine why his lamps are aimed like this. Perhaps illuminating the unspeakable acts occuring in apartment 212?...
I have a really difficult time with things like driver's license tests. I tested for my New Mexico Defensive Driver Certificate1 sometime in September or so of last year so I could legally captain state vehicles to their assuredly undeserved destructions. The test was something like 50 or 100 questions...
Holy hell. I just saw on CNN a report stating that heavy truck traffic in the United States has increased 58% and automotive traffic has increased 41% between 1990 and 2003. That's incredible....
On Thursday night, James, Will, Sara, and Ashley and I went offroading at the sandbox. Ass was kicked ... mostly Will's. Overall, awesome time. Here's a photo. I don't have much else to say besides that. Enjoy....
The automotive scene in Socorro is very very hot....
To determine Aleph's attitude toward travel, I threw him in the cat carrier and took him to my parents' house in Rio Rancho. Somewhat unfortunately, he cried the entire way up there and was completely hoarse when we arrived. Thankfully, on the way back, he actually shut up and slept....
Awesome. I've mentioned previously that I was missing good shots of Rob's post-sale Supra. It turns out that the post was made just over two months ago, and I had said, "I'll try to get a picture in the next few weeks." So, eight weeks is now defined to be,...
Awesome. Hitting more of the Mitsuoka website brought me across two awesome models: Zero 1 This car looks totally sweet... ...but it's clearly Yet Another Lotus Seven Ripoff. See what I mean? Le-Seyde This car has one of the oddest names of all times. Le-Seyde? That's worse than Integra. It...
I ran across this website for Mitsuoka Motors (光岡自動車 damn you Movable Type! Respect my Japanese!) earlier. Among other things, they make microcars. The reason that this is notable is because the CONVOY 88 (ME-2) is supposedly the world's narrowest car, at 88cm. But the best part is on the...
I've had this damned image in my "to process" directory for too long. Up it goes. The short short version is that I spotted this while buying gas in Los Lunas. OH YEAH REDSKINS RULE WOOOOOOOO. Where's my gun?...
The Toyota MR2 page at the Wikipedia has been lacking known-free images for a long time. The old images were fantastic but the uploader didn't put source information on them. Since the Wikipedia purports to be "free," they needed to be replaced. I asked Peter about this a week or...
The adage goes, "the only people dumber than Socorro residents are NMSU students." Will and I were driving around yesterday, and spotted this jackass. His license plate frame indicates that he is an avid supporter of the AGGIES, which of course indicates residents of Aggtelek, a village in Hungary. Oh...
I know for a fact that this car is driven daily to-and-from an apartment building around a mile away from campus. Hit the image for a close-up. HOW DO THEY DO IT???...
14 And lo, Hosea came down from the mount 15and spake the word of the Lord: 16Be all good who look upon me with a respectful gaze, and always remember to use the fucking spellchecker. I was looking for phoon shots earlier. Don't ask why. I did, however, run across...
Aleph's hind leg markings look an awful lot like BMW Z8 taillights. The funny thing is that I've been waiting for a week to take a picture of my cat's ass....
More car painting fun. And yes, that's a draft copy of my EE334 homework....
I call this part of campus, "broken Saturn alley."...
Will called me around 30 minutes ago. "You know the ditch next to my house? There's a car in it." Sweet. I grabbed my sandals, and off I went. Here's what I've been able to piece together: Three gentlemen were driving a blue early 1980s Chevy S-10 Blazer (without a...
And the sign says, "long-haired freaky people need not apply." So said the prophet Hosea. I read recently that urban planners in the freaky-deaky Netherlands are considering removing nearly all street signs and speed bumps from their roads. [1] [2] [3] [4] In case you don't actually want to check...
The Pontiac Aztek* is considered by many notable automotive journalists to be a miserable fucking failure. In specific, its cross-generational marketing strategy didn't tap effectively into the go-anywhere spirit of emerging families of the US and missed lucrative marketshare opportunities in both high-energy, single 20-somethings as well as active older...
When you publish art, then saying goes, it no longer belongs to you—it belongs to the world. Your work of love and labor is tossed to the unwashed masses, who will subsequently proclaim you genius, spend a lifetime pointing out your works' flaws, and generally overanalyze the living shit out...
How many of you remember Rob's Supra when it was actually Rob's? Show of hands? Despite being old (and, admittedly, a bit rough in a few spots), the car was very very sharp. The only serious flaws that I can remember were a botched bumper paint job and a small...
Socorro was (here I am) rocked like a hurricane on October 5, 2004. On that day, a 1986 Nissan 300ZX with shattered windows was rolled into the garage. It has since been pulled out less than a half-dozen times. Today is the 138th day that it has been in there....
I've been keeping an eye on eBay when I have an afternoon off. The list keeps growing and growing, but here is a presumably exhaustive list of cars that I wouldn't at all mind driving.Acura RSX Type-S Audi Turbo Quattro Coupe Austin/Morris Mini BMW 325is, 328is BMW 850i/850CSi BMW Isetta...
It's around 8:30 in the morning. You could have figured it out by looking at the post time at the bottom of this entry, but it's important. Why? Because people driving past my house feel the need to honk their horns at one another. I like to imagine that there's...
Pending my imminent upward social motion, I'll be in the market for a new car. When I mean new, I mean used. I've been doing the math on a new car for the last ten years. Unless you're loaded, it makes no sense whatsoever. Go a year old, and you've...
