Welcome to the 23rd edition of the Carnival of Wheels, the first one to be posted a day late. Even when the co-pilot was hanging out in the local hospital, somehow the CoW managed to get itself done on time. This weekend was a bit different, what with the biggest BBQ of all time here in The Garage and a keg of Upper Canada Lager in the kitchen. There just wasn’t a quiet, coherent moment available. Special thanks to our new friend Kaz for showing off his mint E30 M3 at the party. It’s a shame I was a bit too inebriated to take the machine for the flogging it deserves. I hear it’s for sale if anyone is interested. Shoulda taken some pics, but…alas I wasn’t thinking! And now, tighten down the belts and let’s take a hot lap around the auto blogs…

One of the coolest things I’ve found about The Garage has been it’s ability to allow people to interact with some of the good guys of the car industry. Craig from Autofix is our fave Down Under tech and this week he’s done a great job trying to paint a picture of the delicate balance between shop owners staying in business and consumer trying to keep their car on the road without being taken for a ride.

Last week’s submission from Wenchypoo’s Mental Wastebasket stirred up some conversation here in The Garage and this week may be the same. Wenchypoo has a somewhat different approach to saving gas. Quit commuting and move closer to work. Once again, I feel a response coming on!

Hmm…It seems like cost vs benefits of maintenance might be a bit of a theme here.

This week at Debt Blog, Steve is weighing the costs of not doing your routine maintenance. Tire rotations are a good thing, but some people will never learn. You tell em Steve!

So you rushed out and bought the latest sports sedan. You know the one. It has a 3 liter, normally aspirated V6 that puts out almost as much power as a Trans Am car. On the inside of the fuel door there is a little sticker that says use premium gasoline only. Egon over at Automoblog decided to try a real world experiment. What did he find? Well, you’ll have to read to find out but I’ll give you a little hint. They don’t make a little engine push out all those ponies based on the gas you put in your lawn mower.

Wow, even more on the maintenance topic! Chuck Russell at Car Buying Tips has a bit of a GM marketing post going on this week, as related to the cost of maintenance. As a sales guru, Chuck has been fed a marketing tactic and taken it hook, line and sinker! Sorry Dude, but the little black box isn’t really doing an oil analysis on every car The General builds. Do you honestly think that leaving plain old dino oil in the engine for 9000 miles is a good idea? I think I’m going to have to do a bit of research into this one and take the discussion a bit further. For now, let’s just chalk it up to another manufacturer trying to dupe the customer into thinking their cars are cheaper to maintain.

So Memorial day weekend has come and gone. Brian at RaceDriven has taken a bit of a cue from Wind Tunnel and spends some time pondering what was the best race of the day. I’m thinking it might have been one of the open wheelers, the one that’s a really big deal. Oh wait, they’re both pretty big! You’ll just have to visit to find out which.

Believe it or not, I’m exhausted and I’ve written enough CoW for this late night. I’ll finish up in the morning. Till then, be sure to visit all these fine blogs for today’s automotive fix.

I’m back and I’ll add things slowly as the day goes on.

At Fast Machines this week, we’ve got a pretty cool travel post from Jon Symons. He’s been working with Sheila Scarborough on a new online project called Automotive Traveler that has taken him to Charlotte. During his 10 day stint in NASCAR country, he has visited all sorts of really cool racing related places. I gotta say though, the Dale Trail sounds a tiny bit creepy.

Beginning this week’s overachievers club is Egon who has a second entry this week. this one is a fun little wallpaper along the lines of Where’s Waldo. Except that this one is automotive. How many automotive things can you find?

Ever had to remove a window winder handle, but can’t figure out how it’s attached? They use these funky little spring clips that are a bugger to get off without the correct tool. Craig at Autofix has a great, low tech solution. Nice one!

And now Jeff from Driving Enthusiast has been working overtime on this week’s submissions.
Jeff really does miss his SHO. I think you should contact Multimatic or Sean Hyland and find one of their old race cars!

There has been some speculation lately about the possibility of a new Toyota Supra and Jeff has put his two cents into the pot.

And finally, to finish things up, Driving Enthusiast has a couple of classic Nissan ads. Why buy a 350Z? Because they are an absolute how to drive!

Finally, that’s it for this week’s Cow. Be sure to visit next Sunday when the Carnival will be on time! Bloggers, don’t forget to keep those thought provoking posts coming and submit before Saturday at Midnight.