I am truly sitting here agape, trying to hold my jaw up off the desk, after watching one of the most incredible displays of tire meltage at the hands of Mr. Ken Block.
While many people revere the Top Gear gang as being the ultimate hoons, Block has just upped the ante yet again.
4 days. 4 sets of tires. 530 wheel horsepower. An old airport. A Segway.
Unfreakin’ believable!!!
We’ll do our best to bring you some interview footage from Tall Pines next week to follow this one up.
Many, many years ago I remember visiting the Toronto Auto Show with my whacked out step father, who freaked that a certain Germanic pocket rocket was over $8000. That same year, my Mom fell in love with a Skoda of all things, which was somewhere around the 4 grand mark if I recall correctly. That was a very long time ago and the automotive landscape has changed dramatically. For some time now, the cheapest car on the market has hovered in the 14 to 15 thousand dollar mark. That all changed earlier this year when Hyundai offered a specially priced Accent that was actual sub ten grand: for a while. Currently, the entry level Accent stickers at $13,595 here in Canada and $11,070 south of the border. Nissan is raising lowering the bar with the introduction of the 2009 Versa sedan.
$12,498 in Canada, $9,990 is the States.
This is not a sale price, this is MSRP! Beyond the price, the list of available items is unbelievable: power windows, air conditioning, keyless entry, 6 airbags and more. For those looking for an entry level vehicle that gets great fuel economy, Nissan has just become the place to begin their search.
Oh yes, fortunately the parental units never brought home one of those Eastern European abominations!
Extreme is a pretty good word to describe Lotus products of late. Even the road going cars like the Elise and Exige look extreme and have been taken to some pretty absurd levels of tune by their enthusiastic owners. Fortunately, the folks at Lotus aren’t just sitting around admiring their past achievements. No sir, they keep themselves busy building new variations.
It isn’t like the 2 Eleven isn’t one of the motoring world’s coolest track day weapons already, but the Lotus folks just had to make it even cooler. Add in a full cage, more ponies, sequential gearbox and other safety and suspension goodies and you have a race ready tool for the European SRO
GT4 Supersports class. I’m pretty sure a few might find their way to a NASA event somewhere on American soil this year too!
Read the press release for full details after the break Continue reading →
The launch of a new car brand is a very tricky operation. How exactly does a team introduce their brand to a totally new locale and ensure that their target audience will notice? One of the surefire tools is the black art of viral marketing. Seed the market with info, planted in some key spots and hope the spots grow. The good folks at Nissan have gotten pretty good at using viral videos, so it makes sense that they would work towards the launch of the Infiniti brand in Europe with some well produced video.
Today’s release shows some of the behind the scenes stories as they get ready to launch the Infiniti Visualiser next week.
There are few activities a gearhead loves more than that first spring drive in his classic car. Add in some spectacular scenery and you might just have one of the best days of the year. That is exactly what inspired Dave Hord and Warwick Patterson to host the first annual Spring Thaw Classic Car Adventure.
Unlike some of the other popular driving adventures, the Spring Thaw is a driving adventure, not a rally. Beginning in Squamish, BC, the route will take on some of Canada’s most incredible driving roads. Couple the twisties, scenery and great food along the way and you have the makings of a magical journey.
The Adventure will happen May 1-3, 2009. To get all the details, visit the Spring Thaw web site and register to receive e-mail updates. You never know, you might even see us there!
Now we just need to find a classic car in BC that someone will let us borrow!
I don’t think there are many gearheads who don’t truly get the mystique of the Lotus name. The heritage behind the marque comes from years of racing success and innovation. The modern cars are nothing short of spectacular, combining lightweight construction that would do Colin Chapman proud with modern Toyota drivetrains which are infinitely tuneable and absolutely bulletproof. Oh yeah, they look killer too!
Now, I’ll let our video guru, Scott Simmons take up the story:
As the creator of the Garage Blog videos I had to indulge myself by creating a little piece of car porn. The Lotus Elise and Exige are two of my favorite cars. Brian Shepherd of Lotus Cars USA brought a yellow Exige S to the 2008 IMPA test days. At the end of the event I was able to hop in the car and take the last lap of the day around the track with Brian at the wheel. We didn’t have time to mic up for on track commentary but the lap around was one of the best of the day. The Exige S is one helluva car. Thanks Brian!
If it seems like The Garage is all about the West Coast these days….well, it kinda is. Let’s face it, here in the North East, our cool season is almost completely finished so we have to live in awe of our west coast peeps. Of course they just love to tease with all the fun stuff going on in their world.
That Von Minden guy is a member of a car club called Them. Some of the other guys in the club have some pretty cool stuff going on too, so it’s always fun to see what goes on when they get together. This past weekend, they all got together at the annual Hollywood Hot Rods open house, hosted by Them member Troy Ladd. Right next door is Bobby Green’s Old Crow Speed Shop, so you just know there is a ton of incredibly cool stuff going on. Herr Von Minden was kind enough to share a whole bunch of shots with our readers.
Never one to shy away from the camera, be sure to look for the Von Fonda riding lucky number 13. Don’t forget to check out his stylin’ footware too!
I’m not one to get all awestruck when one of those brush with smarminess moments comes along, but the circle of friends of The Garage keeps producing endless introductions that just blow my mind.
Now I was never a skater, other than a bit of transportation here and there in high school, but that was back in the day when the legends of skateboarding were doing their thing. Steve Caballero was one of those guys. What more can you say? The guy is a legend.
This legend has become an artist and works in a variety of mediums. His topics revolve around that other California lifestyle: Hot Rods.
Last weekend, Caballero held a show to display some of his new work last weekend and while our West Coast contributor, Aaron Von Minden, wasn’t able to drop by the show he did score the original piece you see above. The 35 Ford truck belongs to Steve & Aaron’s mutual friend Nacho. If you look around Steve’s blog, you’ll catch a photo of Von Minden’s Model A Coupe in there too!
I’ve been saying for years that these retro cars from the old skool Big Three would be absolutely perfect to fire up some old skool, showroom stock style Trans Am racing. With Chrysler and Ford going whole hog on building race ready cars, could The General be too far behind? What’s that you say? The General cut his racing budget? I say poppycock!
Apparently, the Chevy boys missed that memo and showed up at Sema this week with the smoking hot Camaro GS Racecar concept. Built by the folks at Riley with the aid of GM, this “concept” appears to be a race ready addition to the Grand Am Koni Challenge series.
While they say this is an early prototype, this car arrived at Sema covered in dirt and dust, fresh off the track. That’s right, this is no show queen, its a full on race car. Seam welded, lots of carbon fibre, lightweight this and hardcore that show that Chevy means business.
Check out all the details from Chevrolet’s press release after the break Continue reading →
