It’s been a crazier week than normal here in The Garage. I took a 3 day business road trip to Connecticut and back, while Gary Faules and the rest of Team California’s Best are on the road trip of a lifetime to La Carrera Panamerica. I was pleased as punch to arrive home yesterday afternoon to find my advance copy of The Driver had arrived, complete with a personal note from Herr Roy. I’m already 4 chapters in, so you can expect to hear more on that topic soon. For now, it’s time to strap in and take a hot lap around the auto blogs for another week. It’s late in the day, so crack open a cold one and join me, won’t you?

Let’s start this week’s CoW with some splash for a good cause. On November 11, GM is hosting a night of stars and cars in Dubai with proceeds going to the Dubai Autism Center charity. As one of the most opulent places on the planet, you can be sure that GM is going to pull out all the stops on this one. I’d love to go, but I believe GM is already sending me to Santa Monica on the 12th. Hmmm..let me think a minute. I suppose I could be convinced to switch venues and join Ask Patty for the trip! Look out Jody, I’ll take the seat next to you!
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It’s Thanksgiving weekend up here in Canada and that means falling leaves, drizzle and soon the scent of turkey wafting through the house. We have a lot to be thankful for here in The Garage this year and we fully intend to enjoy our long weekend with friends and family. Now that the early morning hockey practice is over, it’s time to take our weekly hot lap around the auto blogs, so grab a coffee, strap in and get ready for some reading.

It’s been a while since we’ve had any really good tech stuff in the CoW, and this week Henry from The Pansy Patrol comes to the rescue. Henry’s Protege has been a bit sloppy of late and installing a new set of Energy lower control arm bushings was just the ticket to keep things pointed in the right direction. Henry walks us through the install with a few helpful tips along the way.
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Sometimes, work in the real life version slows things down in The Garage. Over the past week, we’ve been dealing with month end, year end inventories and the like which means I haven’t had an awful lot of time to keep up on all the happenings in the blogosphere. That’s one of the nice things about the CoW. It let’s everyone keep up to date with a few of the weeks hot topics. So, without further ado, let’s strap in for a hot lap around the auto blogs.

First up, Jeff Fisher is reporting on Car & Driver’s report of a press day road test of a JDM Mitsubishi Evo X. Even though it’s not the same as the cars we’ll see here in North America, it’s still pretty cool. This is kinda fitting for us here in The Garage, because if all goes well tomorrow we might have some special Evo stuff to share with our readers.
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Wow, what a time we’ve had here in The Garage since the last Carnival of Wheels. I’ve been to the Pocono Mountains for the IMPA Test Days, where I spent a day testing 4×4’s and another day lapping Pocono Raceway. During that time, there has also been RM’s Auction of the Fawcett Movie Car collection. Out west, Gary Faules finally got Lucky on the road and managed to rip the spring perches off the rear axle and get a 3 car police escort home from a toot around the neighborhood! Today will be a day to catch up on some work, relax a bit and watch the Belgium Grand Prix. So grab a coffee and enjoy the race with me!

First up, we have Jody DeVere from Ask Patty with a new video about BMW’s clean energy program from a new service that claims to be BMW Web TV. Now I am having a bit of a tough time with this one. I received the same press e-mail that Jody did earlier in the week, but there seemed to be a problem. The site is slick and very well put together. The content looks great. There is just one problem. It doesn’t conform to BMW’s brand image in any way, and BMW is VERY careful about anything their brand is attached to fits their standard. I replied to the person that sent out the original e-mail to query this and he hasn’t responded. Maybe I’m skeptical, but something doesn’t feel right here.
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It’s hard to believe that summer has flown by so fast and is coming to an end. Here in The Garage, it’s been a whirlwind of races, road tests and running kids around to baseball. It looks like September will be more of the same, as we are heading to the Poconos for the IMPA Test Days at Pocono Raceway later this week. As a result, the CoW is going to take a week off next week while we spend a couple of days enjoying the scenery. Don’t worry though, we’ll still be posting lots of photos. For now, let’s strap in and take a hot lap around the automotive blogosphere.

First up, the NASCAR world has been all abuzz with rumours of a big move between manufacturers. The story goes that one of the big Chevy teams might cross over to the Toyota camp. Many pundits suggest that team might be Joe Gibbs Racing. That’s got Brian Vermette at RaceDriven wondering what Chevrolet is failing at. Let’s face it, the combo of JGR and Chevy is a winning one. What flaw could be so bad that Gibbs would consider switching brands?
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Like all of you, we’ve had a busy Labour Day weekend here in The Garage. Barbecues and racing have filled up the last couple of days, so this week’s CoW is going to have to wait till tomorrow.

See you in the morning!

Good morning everyone and welcome to the lazy Sunday morning, I slept through the start of Turkish Grand Prix edition of the CoW. It must have been the excitement of being at the track yesterday, or maybe just the residual soggy feeling, but I just didn’t want to get out of bed. The coffee is ready though, so let’s get rolling through another big honkin’ Carnival of Wheels.

First up, the folks at Automotive.com are all excited that Top Gear has found it’s way to BBC America and it’s a damn sight better than Pimp my ride. If you’ve never seen Top Gear then you owe it to yourself to give this a look. It’s damn good TV. The Brits manage to do the crazy things we just wonder about. Wouldn’t it be cool if we could blow up a limo to see what would happen? These guys do it. Now if we could just figure out a way to get it back on BBC Canada.
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The Carnival of Wheels has been a bit lame for the past few weeks and I’ve been chalking that up to summer activities for everyone. Then, earlier this week, I discovered that this week’s CoW didn’t even have a submission page! I’ve been screwing with everyone’s timing over the past few weeks. Now, after an appologetic plea, we have all sorts of cool reads for this morning. It’s a good thing we decided that The Girl was to wiped out to race today following a full day at the beach yesterday. So sit down, grab a java and strap in for the first real hot lap in weeks! The Carnival of Wheels is up and running!

Every time I get a visit from Hello Kitty Hell, I get a little excited. What crazy new Hello Kitty nonsense has the Mrs. dragged up this time? Now, Hello Kitty is getting a little sexy and joined the Zent Super GT racing team. Now there isn’t just a bevy of super hot asian girls, but also a little furry kitty in a short skirt. Do I need to say more?
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Welcome once again to the late summer Carnival of Wheels. As automotive bloggers, like everyone else, take vacations during the summer, things are a bit sparse again today. That’s ok though, as I’m off to a golf tournament for the dealer group. Silly thing is, I don’t really want to go. At least there are some windy cart paths at this course & I should be able to do a bit of creative driving in the cart! For now, let’s get on with the show!

Formula 1 has always had a somewhat rocky relationship with the United States. Canada has been a bit more stable, other than a brief squabble over TV rights a few years back. The US Grand Prix is done once again, and Brian from RaceDriven thinks that’s just fine given the current formula which seems to have become more of a procession than a race.
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It’s the middle of summer and everyone’s schedules are jam packed with activities. Things are no different here in The Garage, where non automotive activities are taking up far too much time. Call it the realities of life, and obviously all our regulars are working hard to enjoy the summer, as we’ve only got one submission this week. That’s ok though, as we’re enjoying a long weekend here in Ontario and spending time at the computer doesn’t make me a popular dad. So grab a coffee, sit down and buckle up for one super hot lap of the blogosphere.
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