Another super busy week has come and gone here in The Garage and there has been some great stories and photos to go along with it. Right now though, I’m in front of the telly, where the Monaco GP is down to 8 laps left. I’m absolutely stunned by the camera quality. The new front wing cameras offer an unbelievable view of the speeds these cars travel at. It’s almost frightening. So now, let’s take our own hot lap around the blogosphere and see what happening.

Buying a used car can be a risky experience and most people have had at least one bad experience. Speaking from the depths of her wastebasket, Wenchypoo offers her thoughts on some things you can do to protect yourself and get the best deal. There is some good advice here, though I disagree with the Import vs Domestic comments. I think there is another post brewing there.

This week at Houston Cars, Leroy is abandoning his product lineup recommendations and has given us the 500 hp club. Nice list Leroy, I would never have thought there were so many production cars that broke the 500 hp barrier. With the inclusion of #12, I would guess that there must be a Cobra of some vintage that probably could be included.

I’m really out of the loop these days when it comes to the roundy rounds. I didn’t even know there was an All Star race. Brian has a few thoughts on last weekend’s race, along with more CoT stuff.

More on the used car front now. Steve at Debt Free has the stuff on yet another used car buying trick. Sometimes the differences between the US and Canada blow me away. Here in Ontario, we are pretty heavily regulated around what we can do financially when selling a car. This sales scam is a new one to me and I’ve got 2 decades in the car industry! I can’t imagine a dealership up here letting a car leave the lot that wasn’t bought and paid for.

Now, it’s time to get out and go shopping for a while. We’ll finish up the CoW later this aftenoon.

We’re back from our mission at Toys R Us and we came out more or less unscathed. So now, on with our Hot Lap.

We have a newcomer to the CoW this week. Charles at Trusted Advisor Associates writes about financial buying and selling. It takes him a while to get to his automotive point & when he gets there it’s a weak one. I hate to welcome a newcomer with a raspberry, but Charles you’re missing the point. While there are many crappy body shops out there, there are far more good ones. The guys who’ve been in the body shop world for a while know that a half assed repair will always come back to bite you in the behind somewhere down the road. It’s just not worth the risk. I feel another retaliatory post coming on!

Speeding tickets. The bane of the enthusiast driver and commuters all across the globe. Over at Broken Arrow, we have a great post about some traffic cop myths written by an ex officer. The only one I take issue with is the quota comment. I’d be willing to bet that quotas do exist in small town America where being Chief of Police has nothing to do with qualifications and everything to do with the campaign trail. I’m sure that more than a few small town police forces are owned! Why do cops hang out at the donut shop? You’ll just have to read and find out!

Over at Driving Enthusiast, Jeff is having some SHO flashbacks! I think the coolest SHO’s ever were the McDonald’s/Teenage Mutant ninja Turtles cars that Sean Hyland Motorsports campaigned in the Firehawk Series back in the early Nineties. Those things were fast and noisy as hell. So noisy in fact that they had to muffle them because they were hurting other driver’s ears on the track! Now that was cool.

And that wraps it up for this week’s carnival of Wheels. Be sure to visit next Sunday evening for the biggest ever hangover edition. Why the hangover? Because the old guys are having a kegger here in The Garage on Saturday to celebrate a bunch of 40th birthdays. Bloggers, be sure to submit before Saturday at midnight and have a pint on us!