Quattro. The name evokes thoughts of white, yellow and black Group B rally cars cresting wet yumps at the 1000 Lakes Rally, or drifting past stone houses in the hills above Monaco. With the evolution of the Quattro, that beast has become known as the über Quattro. Every AWD Audi since has been a Quattro, but never as outrageous as that early Eighties monster. Until now.
Audi has combined modern German technology with German/Italian motivation to create the ultimate road going Audi. Audi’s Quattro system, aluminum construction and a high revving V8 shared by Lamborghini, this really may be the new über Q. Time will tell if this model will back up the motorsports dominance that the original Quattro displayed. What is certain, is that Audi has built a hyper performing, road holding new über Quattro that could be an equally important part of the Quattro legend.
Visit our gallery of shots from the Canadian International Auto Show, taken by Jaimie from Random
It’s been many years since I’ve worked in this end of Toronto. It seems the community have welcomed me in the nicest of ways. Monday, I was treated to a killer smoked meat sammich, complete with pepperettes and pickles. Yesterday, yet another customer sent pizza. What a nice treat, to find that people appreciate being looked after. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen food arriving at a dealership, courtesy of customers. Continue reading →
Henry Ford once said: Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.
Now, the British arm of the company he founded is offering a limited edition Land Rover Discovery 3. Available in any colour you want, just so long as it’s Java black. Decked out with 19 inch wheels, body coloured mouldings and a healthy dose of chrome and leather, this is one Disco that would look out of place off road.
That said, seven passenger seating, diesel power and dripping with cool, Land Rover really needs to build another 500 of these and ship them across the pond!
Over on the west coast, our California contributor Aaron from Savage Speed has been hard at work moving the toys to a new shop.
Once the interior decorating was done, work got started on the fun stuff! Good news, the Merc has been fired up and purrs like a kitten. Can’t wait to see what awaits for this sweet old ride.
It’s pretty rare to find someone who shares the same artistic sense of racing history that we have here in The Garage. Today, thanks to the world of the internet I met Paul Chenard. The Cobra Daytona on the front page of his current site just jumped out at me, as it’s done in a similar style to the image my tattoo is based on. A browse around his site shows a great collection of classic racing images that obviously have influenced Paul’s own art.
Soon enough, Paul will have a new home site, set up to sell his work. We’ll let you know as soon as it’s up. Continue reading →
They promised us a World Premier. Having watched all other International shows, we had visions of a new sports car or something fun. We got a BIG surprise. There was nothing sporting about it though, as the premier at the Canadian International Auto Show was none other than the 2007 Dodge Sprinter. This thing is huge! Check out the gallery and look notice the shot of media types climbing in. Notice the people standing beside the giant work machine. The roof towers at least 4 feet above most people.
A quick look through the press info shows a wide range of versions as well, from cube van to flat side cargo van. From Pick up to mega people mover, the new dodge Sprinter really seems ready to do it all.
Like many of you, I spent hours and hours of my youth building plastic models from Revell, AMT and the like. Later, I gravitated towards the more detailed kits from Tamiya. Then, gradually life caught up with me and all my model building supplies sat on a shelf, never to see light again. The 8 year old in the house has received a few kits for his birthday and he’s been bugging me to get him started. My excuse has been that the workbench is buried under other stuff, we can start once I get the workshop cleaned up.
Today’s post from Coop over at Positive Ape Index just might have lit a fire under my fat ass. Coop has taken some time and built a trio of cool Gasser models, complete with a few mild mods of his own creation. Continue reading →
It’s Daytona 500 Sunday. I figured now is as good a time as any to put together this weeks’ Carnival of Wheels, with the race on in the background. While I don’t normally watch the good ole boys, I need to keep an eye on the Home Depot car during the big ones. So far, Tony is staying near the front, in fact he’s in the lead after this latest round of green flag pit stops. Let’s hope he can keep that trend rolling, as he’ll be tough to beat if he’s at the front near the end.
The submissions are a bit on the lean side this week, but that’s a good thing, as the house will be full of people soon. While the ads are on, grab a fresh cold one & sit back for a quick read while the cars go round and round. Continue reading →
It looks like Ontario is set to become the muscle car capital of North America. Following The General’s decision to build the next generation Camaro in Oshawa, Chrysler has announced that it’s new machine will be built at it’s Brampton plant. When production begins in the summer of 2008, that will bring the total models built in Brampton to 7. It’s a good time to be an autoworker in Ontario these days.
For someone who spends a good chunk of time reading automotive stuff, I missed the fact that Chrysler is about to lay off 2000 people at Brampton. Perhaps not such a good time to work for Chrysler, even with exciting products coming down the pipe.
