Here in The Garage, hidden deep within the archives, we’ve got well over a thousand posts. There are road tests, photo galleries, videos and some pretty cool vintage stuff too. Sometimes though, new readers miss out on some of the coolness because, well, it’s buried in the archives.

The techie guru around here, Jaimie has just given us a cool new tool that we’re calling Stumble Post. What it does is send you on a trip through the archives of The Garage, showing you cool, random stuff that you might never have seen before.

Look up, look way up on the navigation bar. Now click on Stumble Post, it’s fun!

The results are up for the Fawcett Movie Car auction by RM Auctions and I have to say that I’m more than a little bit bummed that I decided not to bid on anything. The prices that cars went for were, on the whole, beyond cheap.

Being new to the auction world, I don’t pretend to know much about the value of cars, but something strikes me as wrong with these prices. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t a field of show cars. With a few dozen exceptions these were indeed movie cars, many in different states of finish. Some had been painted many times, others had been painted with a brush. There were some really decent looking drivers though. Cars that many collectors would be happy to detail, do a bit of maintenance and head to their local cruise night.

Complete auction results after the break
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Looking up and down the pit lane at Pocono Raceway, it was tough to make a choice for my first drive of the day. I wanted a platform that I was comfortable in and I wanted a front driver. Something from the Nissan world made sense and I took note that the 350Z convertible was available, but that would have gone against my plan of spending the morning with front wheel drive cars. Sitting there all alone, was the 2008 Altima Coupe 2.5S. Perfect. Not too much power in a family of cars that I’m familiar with.
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At the IMPA test days, we met up with some incredible car people, including Kenny Herman, the Executive Producer of Fast Lane Daily. Kenny and his team have put together a pretty slick package and some good on air talent. Last Friday, they took a chance and brought in some celeb talent in very shapely form of Olympic skater Oksana Baiul. FLD commentors seem to have a problem with the production on this one, but I didn’t notice any problems. Maybe that’s because I keep rewinding to look at Oksana’s lovely sculpted torso. You mean they were talking?

Day two of the International Motor Press Association’s Test Days takes us to Pocono Raceway, where the real fun begins. Not that off roading isn’t fun, but it’s a whole different type of session once the adrenalin kicks in.

As I’ve mentioned before, it’s been 15 years since I’ve driven on a track. Also, I’ve never done any competitive driving in a rear wheel drive car, unless you count a single autocross in my 1975 Fiat 124 coupe way back in high school. In other words, I was more than a little nervous and had put together a plan to prevent me from embarrassing myself. Also, it would be pretty bad for one of the new guys to bend some tin the first time out! My plan was to begin with a low horsepower, front wheel drive of some sort, possibly a platform that I’m used to so I could comfortably get back into the swing of things. As the day progressed, I would move to the faster machinery and then the rear drivers in the afternoon. Ultimately my plan worked, but that wasn’t without a bit of excitement on the first lap.
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Like anything automotive, car auctions mean different things to different people. Some go to dream, others go to fulfill their dreams, some are looking for project ideas, while others are just looking to pass an afternoon. The RM Auctions Fawcett Movie Cars event had something for all of these enthusiasts. This event was quite literally a field of dreams.

Huge photo gallery after the break
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It truly saddens me to report that rally star Colin Mcrae has been killed in a helicopter crash near his home in Lanarkshire. Also killed in the accident were Colin’s young son and his friend, and another adult family friend.

The racing world has lost one of it’s truly great participants. Our thoughts go out to all 3 families.

Source BBC

Wow, what a time we’ve had here in The Garage since the last Carnival of Wheels. I’ve been to the Pocono Mountains for the IMPA Test Days, where I spent a day testing 4×4’s and another day lapping Pocono Raceway. During that time, there has also been RM’s Auction of the Fawcett Movie Car collection. Out west, Gary Faules finally got Lucky on the road and managed to rip the spring perches off the rear axle and get a 3 car police escort home from a toot around the neighborhood! Today will be a day to catch up on some work, relax a bit and watch the Belgium Grand Prix. So grab a coffee and enjoy the race with me!

First up, we have Jody DeVere from Ask Patty with a new video about BMW’s clean energy program from a new service that claims to be BMW Web TV. Now I am having a bit of a tough time with this one. I received the same press e-mail that Jody did earlier in the week, but there seemed to be a problem. The site is slick and very well put together. The content looks great. There is just one problem. It doesn’t conform to BMW’s brand image in any way, and BMW is VERY careful about anything their brand is attached to fits their standard. I replied to the person that sent out the original e-mail to query this and he hasn’t responded. Maybe I’m skeptical, but something doesn’t feel right here.
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Cars and road trips… You just have to love them, the good with the bad. It seems that long drives are either uneventful or riddled with excitement but no in-between.

Several years ago my mother was driving the 8 hour drive from their summer home in North Eastern Oregon back to their winter home on the South Western Oregon coast for the last time because dad had Alzheimer’s and mom wanted to be near their favorite ranch where she felt as if she could take better care of dad in their golden years.

On the way back mom was getting tired so she pulled into a truck stop with a restaurant that was sitting up on a hill that sat along the freeway. She asked dad to go inside and get her a cup of coffee to help keep her alert. But when dad got out of the car and because of his condition he accidentally let their pet dog out of the car. Frustrated and no longer able to deal with such problems he just said to hell with it and walked on into the cafe. That left mom panicked and rushing around the parking lot trying to catch the dog that was running away from her and out into traffic and so on. All of a sudden mom realized the car was rolling and as she frantically tried to jump back in the car and as she fell began being dragged along on the ground and almost ran over herself. As she helplessly laid on the ground in tears watching in horror she saw her car roll down the hill towards a hotel. There was only one single parking space that was empty in front hotel rooms and as amazing as it was her car drove perfectly into that spot without hitting a single car before crashing right thru the wall into the only empty hotel room. As mom collected herself Dad walked out with two cups of coffee in is hands and saw Mom laying on the ground, the dog running around and he asked, “Where in the hell is the car?” Mom just pointed to the car sticking out of the hotel wall and so Dad just turned around and went back into the cafe sat down and drank his coffee.

Don’t feel bad, it’s ok to laugh along. It sounds like a terrible story but if you knew my dad I’m positive he would make us all laugh until we cried with this story. He was such an awesome man… I sure miss him.

When Toyota first revealed the FJ Concept, enthusiasts the world over pretty much begged them to build this retro off roader. And so, build it they did and they stayed true to the concept, adding in lots of cool details along the way. Stylistically, funky details abound from side marker lights to dash vents and roof rack to body colour inserts around the center controls. This thing really is cool.
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