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!

After 3 weeks of motorsports madness here in The Garage, we have a racing free weekend. We are having a floor laying good time however, as we are installing our new laminate in the living room. You now the stuff, we bought it months ago, did the dining room and then spent May and June recovering from an oddball illness in the house. So today, it’s nice that we’ve got a short CoW. The only problem is that I’m groovin’ to The Clash and not concentrating on reading! Why not join me, top up your coffee, crank up some old punk and see what this week’s hot lap will bring.

There were a few notable happenings in racing last weekend. From wild and woolly John Force finally breaking his slump, to wild and woolly parents from the IRL at The Glen, to NASCAR fighting passing on the grass, Brian from RaceDriven has a bunch of details. As a racing parent, I have to weigh in on the Hornish incident, but I think it may take a post of it’s own!
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Another week has come and gone, and what a week it has been. We had 2 days at the Steelback Grand Prix, overloading on the sights and sounds and we had Miss Shelby’s first kart race of the season. Arrive & drive is great, it’s now 1:30 in the afternoon and we’ve had practice, qualifying, 2 races and we’re already back at home with the rest of the afternoon to enjoy! Or in my case, a few moments to work through this week’s CoW. Whatever you’ve been doing today, take a few moments to sit back with a cold one, tighten the shoulder straps and get ready for a hot lap around the blogosphere.

This week we have a couple of newcomers to the CoW. First up is Christian Personal Funds. Now it’s never occurred to me that the church would have even the slightest thing to do with cars, other than the occasional on track nirvana, but Christian PF has a maintenance plan that seems to work for him. The Spring and Fall maintenance concept has worked for many people over the years, but twice a year maintenance really depends on the mileage you drive and the climate you live in. For most of us here in the north half of North America, our climate is considered severe service and we should be thinking about a 3 month plan.
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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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Spring finally seems to have arrived for real here in The Garage. Mamma G’s P5 has new summer boots, I’m cleaning out The Garage and today will be the 8 year old’s first time driving a go kart. On a track. I’m afraid. You’ll read more later about all 3 topics, but here’s a bit of a hint. We’re about to have our first ever contest in The Garage! For now though, grab a pail o java and let’s check out this week’s submissions to the CoW.

The Nextel Cup race in Texas last weekend was full of bumps and drama, and Brian from RaceDriven has the full scoop. One question though. Where the hell was Kyle Busch? Having a sit down with the latest Speed Sport News in the nearest porta john?
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There is now another way to find the Carnival of Wheels. Blognetbiz has now featured us on their front page! For those up and coming car bloggers, Blognetbiz is an aggregator of automotive blogs. Sort of a public feed reader. It’s a nice tool and a good way to find new feeds for your reader. Thanks for including the CoW!

So we’ve woken up to the news that Paul Tracy has broken his back in practice for todays race in Long Beach. Let’s hope things go well for him and he’s back in the car soon. The Formula 1 grid is about to take the green in Bahrain, so let’s get rolling with the first couple of submissions.

Sporting a new look, Alborz from Australian Car Advice is tackling an age old beef. Does speeding really kill, or are our governments just trying to rid us of our hard earned dough?
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The sun rose way too early here in The Garage today. Well, the sun really didn’t rise early, as it was rainy and crappy when I started into the Cow this morning. A couple of doses of hockey and a headache induced nap later and here I am finishing things off, now that the Car of Tomorrow has run it’s first race. We had some great submissions this week, so sit back with a cold one and enjoy this week’s Carnival of Wheels.

Would having diarrhea get you off a speeding ticket? I don’t know about that one, but the cop is sure to have a giggle. Over at WiseBread they are having a little bit of a contest to find the best lines to get out of a speeding ticket. They are even giving away a car for the best entry! I still think that nothing beats great cleavage and a tear or two.
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