Ahhh….the sound of 454 cubic inches of raw untamed muscle coursing through my body, beckoning me to summon all of its inner demons with each crack of the throttle. Almost forgetting the laws of the land, I release the clutch, smash down on the “loud” pedal, and let rip every pony that existed in that motor all at once, singing to the tune of five thousand rpm, snapping both rear tires loose in a ballet of sideways movements that even the best ice skater would envy.

To look back on the time that you could actually do that and be admired by your friends and neighbors would take you to the days that you could buy one of the beast muscle cars for under four grand. People nowadays have spent years, countless hours a day and a ton of rolled up quarters and dimes to make that once famous entry into “cool” another reality. Although theres a simple solution that has come about within the last 10 years of automotive development.

Its the NEW age muscle cars!! Cant put together that 68 Camaro sitting in your garage for the past 22 years? Buy a brand new one! With front and side airbags even. Want that rush of power that you missed since high school but cant seem to get it from your wifes minivan? Buy the new Dodge Charger!! Comes complete with a HEMI for all you wheel spinners out there. Continue Reading…

For those in the area, there is going to be a Hot Rod / Muscle Car Show in Daytona Beach, FL on November 22nd-26th. While I’m up here in Iowa freezing my ass off in late November, you can be at the 480-acre Daytona International Speedway looking at a bunch of cool cars.

It’s called the Turkey Run, and this will be the 33rd year it’s been around. They are expecting around 5,500 vehicles this year including classics, customs, sports cars, street rods, muscle cars, race cars and trucks, as well as a car raffle and swap meet going on.

• November 22nd - 26th, 2006
• 8AM-4PM Daily
• Thurs, Fri & Sat - $15
• Sun - $10
• Kids 11 and under - Free

Turkey Run 2006

Also check out the site for info on pre-registraion, hotels, other stuff in the area, etc. Anybody who goes, let me know how it went.

The last true muscle car of its generation rolls off the line in Australia by Holden. The Pontiac GTO was a beast of a car, but was expensive. And let’s face it, it looked kind of boring, at least before 2006. The performance was far from boring though; the car traveled from 0-60 mph in 4.7 seconds and was powered by a 400hp V8. That’s fast, but not quite fast enough to justify the $33,290 price tag, not to mention very few incentives. Bye-bye GTO.

GM just released a new video showcasing the Camaro Concept. I would be lying if I said this video is of the Camaro “in action.” For a RWD car with 400hp, this is the most BORING video I’ve ever seen. Not one burnout. Not one donut. Not one powerslide. I swear they didn’t go over 10 mph throughout the whole movie. It does deserve some credit however, the car sounds great. I’m sure the driver was just itching to punch the accelerator.

The long hood, short deck and wide stance of the Camaro Concept leave no doubt that it is a serious performance car. Those looks are backed up by a 400-horsepower aluminum small-block V-8, a six-speed manual transmission, and a sophisticated chassis with four-wheel independent suspension

You have to pay $350 to rent this car from Hertz for one day, and you only get to drive it 100 miles. Of course you could try to save $50 and not opt for the insurance, but we both know how you’re going to drive it.

That brings me to my next point. Hertz plans to trade these cars off to the Ford dealerships after 16,000 to 18,000 miles. Now I’m sure these are going to go for top dollar at the dealerships, but I would steer clear of them. I’m sure many are going to get the “Let’s see how hard we can run this until it blows” syndrome.

This time around though it seems Ford learned a little something. With the original GT350’s in the 70’s, some customers were known to swap out engines and even weld roll cages to the chassis. Ford now has security measures to insure this doesn’t happen again.

This ought to get some blood flowing on both sides of the fence. The new movie “Fast & the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” due to be released on June 16, 2006 will feature a ‘67 Mustang, powered by a Nissan RB26DETT engine, a twin-turbo straight-six right out of the amazing Skyline GT-R. There was also a ‘Stang powered by a 430-cube Ford small-block used for some of the shots on set.

When the two were lined-up on the dragstrip, the GT-R powered pony ran the quarter mile in 13.32 seconds and 109.83 MPH - over 1.2 seconds quicker and 13 MPH faster than the Ford V8. I’m sure that left some blue-oval purists hanging their heads. I suppose I would be OK with either of them in my garage.