Welcome to the Canada Day edition of the Carnival of Wheels! It’s been a busy couple of weeks in The Garage. We are in the middle of three weeks of track action and we’ve picked up a new to us SUV, so our work here in The Garage has been pretty self centered. Don’t worry though, our selfish posting will continue, as there are still tons of photos yet to be edited from the VARAC festival and next weekend is a double header. First we’ll have 2 days in the pits at the Steelback Grand Prix for Champ Cars and then on Sunday, Miss Shelby has her first race of the season. Elsewhere online, autobloggers have been busy churning out all manner of hot content, so sit down, strap in and get ready for a smoking hot lap of the blogosphere while you watch the French Grand Prix.

First up we’ve got another visit from Hello Kitty Hell, with a truly frightening tuner mod. This poor guy’s wife has actually installed this happy feline exhaust tip on their car! Be afraid, be very, very afraid.

It’s no secret that we are drinking the Nissan Kool-Aid here in The Garage, but having worked in the dealer body, I can’t help but think that Michael from Hybrid Car Review has a point when he says that Nissan will always be a follower. They build some great cars that are fun to drive, but when it comes to innovation they are often behind the curve.

No matter where in the world you are, fuel prices are through the roof. There isn’t much we can do to fight the prices, but we can all do our part to make sure our car uses a bit less. Craig from Autofix has some great suggestions on how to save gas. Personally I think dumping the Mother in Law might be the best one! There is a reason we don’t have a 7 passenger vehicle in our house!

Vacations always bring some new challenges as one becomes accustomed to the little differences between countries and cultures. One of the most interesting activities can be driving as you get used to the local rules. If the country you’re visiting drives on the opposite side of the road from what you are used to, then it can be downright scary. Sheila Scarborough spent some time in Japan, where the fears of driving on the wrong side prompted her to recommend the ultimate travel accessory. A passenger who chants.

Newcomer to the Cow, Mark from Hot Strategies has laid out all the details about car batteries. I’m a firm believer that size does matter!

With the recent habit of the old Big 3 selling off assets to stay afloat, you can’t help but wonder if the traditional domestics are setting themselves up for bigger problems down the road. With the sale of Allison, Leroy from Houston Cars thinks that GM may end up diluting their truck brand. I can’t help but think he’s right.

It seems that all we hear out of NASCAR these days is talk about penalties. You can’t do this, you can’t do that. We’re penalizing you for this that or the other. This week, Brian from Race Driven writes about number swapping, CoT penalties and Petty oopses being ignored. I’ve got an idea, why doesn’t NASCAR just become an arrive and drive series! Think of it. All the cars are built, prepped and maintained by one great big shop. The teams pay a huge chunk of their sponsorship dollars to rent the cars, show up on Thursday to apply their sponsor stickers and then go racing. Of course then there will be squawking that he got the better car every week that you hear at amusement rental kart tracks all over.

That’s it for this week’s hot lap. Bloggers, if I missed anybody I appologize, but the Blog Carnival home page seems to be down this morning and I’m working from my inbox. Don’t forget to swing by next Sunday for the next edition of the Carnival of Wheels. As always, post submissions are due on Saturday at midnight.

Have a great Canada Day/4th of July weekend everybody!

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