We’ve been hoping to grown the team here in The Garage for some time now, but it’s been a bit of a challenge finding someone who is the right fit. Someone who, like The Garys has somewhat of a background in the auto industry and is a total gearhead to boot. Someone who likes to have a bit of fun with a topic, but has the knowledge to back his or her opinions up. So we’ve gone and done it. We’ve brought in a real live jurnalist type who has actully been published and stuff. Aw crap, that means he’s gunna judge owr writin.

That’s right, Mike is a real, live journalist type, with an actual degree in journalism. He’s been writing for a living for the last 10 years, and now he’s here in The Garage to write for free! Well, let’s hope it’s not free for long, or I’m gonna go broke. One thing that has been sorely missing around here is some focus on the biz side of cars. Even though I work in the retail side of the industry, I have little or no knowledge of the big business end of the industry. That is Mike’s specialty, and working in the Detroit area, he has access to some of the industry’s big wheels. If we’re lucky, Mike might even bring us the odd interview. Plans are already in the works for The Garage to make an all out assault on next year’s Toronto and Detroit auto shows. Business stuff gets a little boring at times, so Mike will also be flexing his fingers and publishing the odd road test or news story.

Welcome aboard Mike and try not to knock over that oil drum in the corner!

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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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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As a young car enthusiast reading car magazines, I used to wonder what it would be like getting to meet all manner of special car people, just like the writers did. What a thrill it would be to meet artists, celebrities, racers and even race fans who shared my love of cars. Fast forward a few decades and here we are visiting the Carnival of Wheels. Each week, car bloggers and readers alike join up for a bit of an automotive love in. It just gets me all warm and fuzzy. Now that you’ve got that wonderful visual, strap in and hold on while we take a hot lap around the blogosphere.

Usually, we hear about brawling over at our brother blog 8 Feet, but lately there has been a bunch of dust-ups in the racing world, both on and off track. In ALMS, an on track battle has been brewing all season between Mika Salo and Tomas Enge with the cars acting as hockey gloves. The series penalties weren’t enough to deter these guys and as Brian from RaceDriven points out, the team has taken things into their own hands. On the topic of Formula 1, Brian has a few words about last week’s activities. It’s hard to say what was more soggy, the European GP or the court proceedings.
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Finally, I’ve got a chance to sit down and get to work on this last week’s Carnival of Wheels. It was a crazy week that finished up with the eldest kid having a great final race yesterday. I’ll tell you all about that later, but for now buckle up and we’ll take a hot lap around the auto blogs.

With all of our running around these days, I haven’t had any time to keep track of any NASCAR rumblings. Brian at RaceDriven does keep tabs on the good old boys though and it seems that they’ve entered their silly season. You’ll have to visit to get all the details on the driver moves that are coming. It’s good to hear that our boy Smoke finally won a race again! Come on boy, get your stuff in gear and take a run for the top 12.
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For some time now, I’ve wanted to add a few new faces to the writing staff here in The Garage. My vision of where I want to see The Garage go will take a lot more content than I have the time to write. The key is though that it has to be quality content that you, the reader, want to read. The Garage really is a big part of who I am and any new writers must complement the feel we’ve already have come to enjoy.

With his long racing history and the fact that he owns a repair facility, Gary Faules was a welcome addition to The Garage. He has wonderful stories to tell and knows the car industry inside and out, not to mention that he has friends in the car hobby around the world. Our other west coast contributor, Aaron Von Minden is a bit more shy, contributing stories and images of the California hot rod scene. It’s a world I can only imagine and I’m becoming addicted through Aaron’s work. Now we just need a handful more enthusiastic bloggers to round things out.

Enter the CASC message board. I posted a few days ago looking for folks who might be interested and a whole bunch of guys responded. There were technicians who race, a racer who is an engineer in the auto industry, corner workers and a gentleman who’s been a racer since the Sixties. What they all share is a passion for cars and the experience to back up their passion. Just what we need here in The Garage. Later on today, we’ll introduce our first victim!

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.
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Happy Father’s Day and welcome to the 25th edition of the Carnival of Wheels. It’s another big day for racing, as the 24 hours of Le Mans has finished up, the US GP is today and the NASCAR boys are in Michigan. I didn’t get to watch too much of the French summer classic, but it looks like Audi won again and Corvette was beaten by Aston Martin. Of course, Villeneuve didn’t finish, surprisingly it wasn’t his fault. Now it’s time to begin our hot laps around the auto blogs, we’re going to do a couple of sessions today, as this week’s CoW is a big one. So grab a coffee and away we go!

We all know someone who has a saved by a Volvo story and this week, Rickey adds his story to the list. Sounds pretty lucky that all his brick received was a bit of a bump. Much better that the other car.
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