During the early moments of performance vs. strict emission standards, the emissions won out and performance enthusiasts were faced with a slew of overrated blow hard vehicles that had much more bark than bite. But that did not stop Hollywood from using the magic of cinematography to make these cars into classics in our own hearts… and hey, they still are kind of cool even today despite their short-comings!

The 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am from “Smokey and the Bandit”-

This sleek black curvaceous classic body style of the 77′ Trans Am had a beautiful 6.6 liter engine and a slick looking shaker hood scoop to boot. Unfortunately, this was back in 1977, which was the golden era in engine humiliation. This beast pumped out a putrid 200 horsepower with the optional W72 engine. The standard L78 was rated at an even more embarrassing 180 hp. It was still a beautiful car and made some breathtaking scenes laying some thick rubber during some of the movies highlights.

1981 De Lorean DMC-12 from “Back to the Future”-

The movie version may have ran off of a 1.21-gigawatt nuclear/electric hybrid with a five-speed manual, but the actual car had a 2.8-liter Peugeot V6, which certainly could have used the extra nuclear waste to propelled it off the line beyond that of a Volkswagen Van. It was truly amazing to witness this car on the big screen make it up to 88 mph on several occasions on motor alone without a steep hill, a strong tailwind, and Carl Lewis pushing it. But all jokes aside, the gull-wing doors were certainly a nice touch, as well as the stainless steel (unpainted) body panels.

It has come to be over the past few days after publishing an article in UMM (Urban Male Magazine) considering the possibility of what the fastest street car in the world is. That there is not really any clear line as to what the actual ‘fastest’ is…

In the article I casually named off the Ultima GTR720 as one of the most capable, even perhaps beyond the Bugatti Veyron, which was a big mistake.

I was given a quick and proper tongue lashing by fans of the Veyron who quickly reminded me that it is important to point out that technically it is not faster than the Bugatti Veyron if you consider top speed as your main factor.
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Howdy folks, I am excited to be in the Garage this morning. I’ve been into car customizing and performance engineering since he first crawled out of the crib and got my kool-aide stained mitts on my mother’s 67 Camaro SS.Since that faithful day, I have had the pleasure to build up a stroker 78′ Camaro, 944 Porsche, 930 Porsche (widebody), 67′ GTO, 2000 New Beetle with APR Stage III turbo, and most recently a 2005 Mustang.

As an international journalist and columnist who has written for UMM (Urban Male Magazine), Askmen.com, Turbo, Import Tuner, Alternative Trends, The Las Vegas Strip, MAD, D’Luxe, etc… I have found a niche incorporating humor and trivia into the serious business of current auto trends.

Confucius once said, “Young dung beetle who does not look before leap, land in crap pile without napkin to wipe mouth.” This is what it means to me to be involved in the auto trend industry. Around every corner there is at least one golden steaming pile, such as the 2009 Corvette Stingray!

But alas, there are also the brown piles, such as the AMC Gremlin…

My grandfather used to say, “you can’t polish a monkey’s dung,” and when it came to the AMC Gremlin… he was right!

But alas, if you can’t laugh a little while your learning and making mistakes, you might as well give up and drive around in a Toyota Prism Hybrid for the rest of your life.

What lies beyond this first post?

Well, I can only speculated a 2010 COPO Camaro… but since I’ve got a ways to wait for that, I’ll see what else I can dig up in the meantime!