Despite the recession, high gas prices, and a growing rate of unemployment, there is always room in the market for diamond-coated rims. That’s right, among the sea of chrome in the Tires & Wheels portion of SEMA 2008, there were plenty of ridiculous and over-indulgent wheels meant for rap stars, football players, and general high-rolla’z.
Below you will find the Top 10 most ridiculous and ugly wheels we could find at SEMA 2008: Continue Reading…
Happy Fourth of July to all you car buffs out there!
Since the Fourth of July is a celebration of America and all things American (except maybe gas prices), I’ve put together this little Fourth of July Special, an article dedicated to all American cars. I actually got the idea from Car and Driver, and you can see their article here. Anyway, this is compromised of what I believe are the current finest examples of the American automobile. Not all are in production, but those that aren’t will be. I chose these cars because they herald the new “era” of the Big Three, , who are just beginning to make cars that you actually want. So if you’re a car buff and you love your country, this might just make you proud to be an American again, and just in time for the Fourth of July. And if you aren’t American, these cars might just make you wish you were.
You might not agree with all the choices, and if there is a car you disagree with or if there is one you think should be on the list, any and all comments are welcome. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion of cars that have that good ol’ American feel— and make me proud to be an American. Continue Reading…
I have a theory, and it seems to be holding: Top 100 (or 1000 or 50 or whatever) lists are mainly there to start discussions, and on many occasions, arguments.
It’s very rare when you’re going to look at a list of something like “The Top 50 Bourbons”, and say, “They’re right ‘Ol Rebel Rot-Gut Special Reserve IS the best bourbon there is!”
Take for example this list from the good folks at the Rotten Tomatoes movie site. They have generated a list of the 50 Most Memorable Movie Cars (apparently that would be to date). As both a movie, and a car guy I braced myself for the seemingly inevitable onslaught of 40 to 45 glaring mistakes.
I made it no further than #s 40 and 39.
#40: Milner’s Deuce Coupe from American Graffiti
#39: Cobretti’s Mercury from the Sylvester Stalone movie Cobra
Are you kidding me?
Are you frickin’ kidding me?!
The fact that Milner’s Deuce Coupe barely scrapes into the top 40 is insulting enough, but to be ranked below an unwatchable Sylvester Stalone vanity piece?
That’s an insult to both car guys AND movie historians.
Milner’s Deuce Coupe is pretty much the rolling definition of “hot rod” and American Graffiti will probably be played to space aliens to show them what “cruising”, “illegal street racing” and “youth car culture” is (assuming it hasen’t been shown to the little grey guys at some theater out at Area 51 already).
But no-oooooooooooooooo.
The dinguses at Rotten Tomatoes said, “You know, Cobretti’s Mercury from Cobra is a totally bitchin’ ride. MUCH better than, say Milner’s Deuce Coupe from American Graffiti .”
Talk about a waste of machinery.
Full list after the jump.
As near as I can tell Top Ten lists exist primarily to start arguments.
The latest installment/evidence for this is an article entitled “Ten sexy cars to turn men’s heads”, from the British Eve Cars mag.
Essentially, it’s a list of cars for women so they can impress men.
Here’s the list:
1. Mercedes 300SL Roadster
2. Porsche 911
3. Mitsubishi Evo
4. Land Rover Defender
5. Subaru Impreza
6. Rolls-Royce Phantom
7. Range Rover Sport
8. Fiat 500
9. VW Golf R32
10. Caterham
Eve Cars said they interviewed “hundreds of men”. OK, I won’t go into debatable points of what constitutes a “man” for ladies at Eve Cars (or hell, what even counts as a “man” in England), but honestly, you roll up next to me in #s 4, 6 or 7, you won’t be turning my head, ladies, you’d probably be turning my stomach.
Now, if you pull in a Caterham …
If you like the kind of sports cars you have been seeing, then you might want to consider buying one of your own. There’s nothing like owning your own performance sports car and they’re more accessible than you might think. With these 5 easy steps for buying a sports car, you can be closer than ever to buying your dream sports car.
The first step is to come up with a budget for your sports car. You want to come up with a realistic look at how much per month you could afford to pay on payments for your dream sports car. $200 a month, $500 a month, $600 a month, whatever figure is, make it realistic and write it down. A general rule of thumb for new cars is that every $100 in monthly payments gets you $5,000 worth of car.
You would be surprised at the sports cars available that you can actually afford. For example, I recently saw a 1999 Porsche Boxster available for sale for less than $15,000. That means you could easily own a Porsche for less than $300 per month! Sure it’s no 911 Turbo, but it’s still a nice Porsche. You can also own a mid to late 90’s Nissan 300ZX TT, a Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 (Twin-Turbo,) or a Mazda RX-7 TT for less than $15,000 as well, and all of those are very fast cars. Have a little more money? Try an early model Acura NSX or Dodge Viper for mid-$30K’s. Yes, they’re out there. Continue Reading…
Back in March I wrote a post listing the 10 Fastest Cars in the World. It was hugely popular (and still is,) but I’ve received so many comments telling me that the list isn’t accurate anymore. I plan to do another comprehensive post on this in the future, but for now here is a quick update on the fastest production cars in the world, ranked by top speed. On the last post, I also received a lot of comments about cars such as the Lingenfelter Corvette being faster. Just like the last list, this is only for production cars. Fastest cars in the world:
Top Speed: 256 mph
Horsepower: 1183
Torque: 1094lbs
On September 13th, 2007, the SSC Ultimate Aero broke the official top speed world record, traveling 256.18 mph down a closed section of a Washington State highway. Impressive, considering the Ultimate Aero’s engine is only a twin-turbo V8 - half the size and turbo count of the Veyron below. Continue Reading…
