Carnival of Wheels: Edition #58

Well folks, I guess the two week cycle for the CoW is going to be more of a guideline, as I just can’t find the time to sit down and do this much reading in one sitting. I’ve got a couple of free hours this afternoon, so grab me yourself a cold one and let’s strap in and take a hot lap around the auto blogs.

First up, as we’ve done so many times, we have Brian from RaceDriven, who has a bunch of suggestions for the bigwigs at NASCAR. Hellooooo….anybody listening? Mr. V has some good ideas!

At PipStore, Alex has a bit of a history of the evolution of Hybrid cars.

Newcomer to the CoW this time around is the Customized Girl Blog. That title is giving me some warm fuzzies a la Weird Science. Mmmm…Kelly LeBrock! Ah yeah. so CGB has posted about the top 50 sexy gadgets. Ok, so the Garmin GPS is the only one that is even remotely automotive, it’s still a cool list. Who the hell needs an Electric Martini Maker? Most of us do just fine with a shaker.

Fewer and fewer people are smoking these days, and even fewer are still smoking in their car. Those that do still partake of the evil weed (as opposed to the happy weed) may wonder how to get the stench out of their car. Another newcomer to the CoW is Mark Bartlett from AutoWirez, who still smokes in his car too. Fortunately, Mark has a few ideas how one can eliminate the stink from your ride.

I wish I had a happy face vacuum named George!

Mark also has a few tips on how to make your car less attractive to thieves. I hate to say it, but most of them are common sense.

There is nothing I hate more than seeing a tech who is sidelined by a wrecked back. Unfortunately, it happens here and there, it’s just part of the gig sometimes. Long time friend of The Garage, Craig Wilson is one of those guys. On the plus side, Craig is putting his brain to good use to help enlighten the masses. This week’s contribution to the CoW is a tutorial on art of painting a car. If you follow Craig’s instructions you’ll end up with much better results than we had years ago painting a Fiat 124 Special race car with a wide brush and Tremclad!

That’s it for now. I’m taking the kids for dinner and I’ll finish up the CoW during the ad breaks in Lost.

So much for same day re-posts! Now we shall continue with the Carnival of Wheels!

Funny lady Mad Kane swerves to avoid some wayward cutlery.

As if we didn’t need another reminder of the cool metal that European buyers get that us poor North Americans can’t get our hands on, Alex from What you will drive tomorrow has some details on the Ford Kuga and Fiesta being shown at Geneva for the first time.

Car sharing programs are sprouting up all over the place. One of the car rental giants has set up WeCar in St. Louis and Vihar Sheth went along for the ride at the project launch in a Toyota Prius. For those who live in a downtown setting and don’t need a car every day, something like this could be a great solution.

Finally, this edition of the CoW wraps up! Sorry for the delay folks, but there has been tons of stuff on the go here in The Garage. Don’t forget to submit your post for the next Carnival of Wheels before midnight on March 8. The next edition will be published within a couple of days after that! Ok, so I’m getting non committal. It takes time to get this thing done!

See you then!