Tribute 2010 Chevrolet Camaro – Click above for high-res image gallery
To some, Memorial Day is the first real kick-off to summer. Swimming pools open, the grill is fired up for burger and hot dog duty and we all take a day to kick back and enjoy the warmth. (Especially up here in the northern half of the country where the winter seemed to drag on forever.)
But the real purpose of Memorial Day is to pay tribute to the men and women of our armed forces who have died serving our country. So, while you may be enjoying a Monday off from the work-week grind, make sure you take a moment to honor the fallen, and salute those who voluntarily fight to keep our country free.
And if you didn’t see it , be sure to scroll through our attached image gallery for the most American we’ve ever come across. It practically screams, “Born in the USA!”
Italian gas station by Damilano Studio Architects – Click above for high-res image gallery
When luxury becomes a commodity, there’s little left but to make commodities luxurious. This is a newly constructed gas station in Cuneo, Piemonte, Italy, designed by Damilano Studio Architects, and it’s rather pleasant to look at if modern architecture is your thing. Reinforced concrete enclosing a glass wall creates staggered, latitudinal forms that are sliced by aluminum canopies front and back, with blood red fuel pumps.
We have no idea if a beautiful station sells more fuel or makes the Skittles taste better, but a little more pulchritude in one’s day never hurt, did it? As to that absurdity, around back is a red steel block bearing a work of art that looks like a long armed, dog-headed man on a toilet. It is actually “a wolf howling, illuminated at night, draw[ing] attention to the urgent needs.” Now that will definitely make the Skittles taste better. Thanks for the tip, John!
When gearheads aren’t trawling Craigslist for the next old-lady-owned tucked away in a barn, they’re dreaming of cool places to put their toys.
Usually, dream garages never become reality. It’s rare to find someone with enough ambition and/or cash to make it happen, but credit one Florida couple for creating something remarkable: the Hangar Home.
Their house’s rear facade doubles as a garage door that conceals a cavernous work and storage area, complete with a set of cushy-looking armchairs for when the weekend project is over. We can’t imagine how long this place took to complete, but all the time and effort really paid off. for two videos of the Hangar Home in action.
2011 Indianapolis 500 – Click above for high-res image gallery
The crowd at the Brickyard for today’s Centennial running of the Indianapolis 500 certainly got their money’s worth. Once all the was out of the way, the 100th Indy 500 provided a spectacle full of drama, lead changes, and a shocking, exciting finish. Click past the break to see how the race shook out, right up to the final corner.
Boris Bally Transit Chairs – Click above for high-res image gallery
Industrial designer and artist Boris Bally has taken the urban decay aesthetic to a new level, crafting tables and chairs from worn-out . Bally cranks out everything from high-backed dining-table chairs, to coffee tables, to armchairs.
Bally has been working with metal in one sense or another since he was just 13 years old. Rumor even has it that he cut his teeth in metalworking by building himself throwing stars and brass knuckles.
By using recycled materials, Bally isn’t only doing the environment a good turn, he’s ensuring uniqueness in each piece of furniture. Bally leaves the source material’s patina alone-and makes sure it’s visible. Such individualism comes at a price, naturally; chairs start at $1,100 and tables range from $900 to $4500. Have a closer look in the gallery below.
2010 Volkswagen New Beetle Convertible by CFC – Click above for image gallery
German company Car Film Components decided to add a little style to the outgoing Volkswagen New Beetle. It seems strange to supply radical appearance modifications to a car that’s leaving the marketplace soon, but CFC hopes its sticker package can add some much-needed love to the New Beetle’s appearance.
The foil-wrap aesthetic upgrade covers the fenders, bumpers and side skirts. Some interior bits get the treatment as well. Setting off the look of the busybody sticker package is a set of 19-inch Oxigin wheels wrapped in Kumho rubber. Buyers can also specify a coilover suspension kit.
The bad part? Customers should expect to pay around €5,000 to achieve the look. That’s a lot of coin to stickerbomb your . To hear more, check out the CFC press release after the jump.
Team Hot Wheels’ “Fearless at the 500″ record jump attempt – Click above for high-res image gallery
Prior to the start of today’s Indy 500, fans finally got to see the Team Hot Wheels world-record jump attempt. The mystery “Yellow Driver” piloted specially-prepared truck down the 90-foot ramp that had been in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s infield over the last several weeks. The neat gimmick behind Hot Wheels’ “Fearless at the 500″ event was that the launch ramp itself was built to simulate that orange track we all grew up with, hung from a giant 10-story door. Talk about pandering to a guy’s inner child…
Anyhow, the stunt itself was a success, and fans at the Brickyard watched the truck sail, ramp-to-ramp, 332 feet through the air, setting a world record for four-wheeled vehicles in the process. Upon landing, the mystery driver doffed his helmet to reveal himself as American Top Gear host Tanner Foust. If you want to see the jump yourselves, be advised that ABC will air the stunt at 3:30 PM Eastern time today, following the conclusion of its Indy 500 race coverage. Check out the first few photos from the event below, and for the press release.
Cars.com rounded up the year’s crop of new minivans for a comparison, the rare thrill being that minivans from every major maker are completely fresh for 2011. The entrants were the (pictured), , , , and .
The testing format was also novel, in that Cars.com paired its own editors with reviewers from USA Today and the MotorWeek television show, plus the Weatherby family, an ‘average’ family of five – husband, wife and three kids.
After three days of testing and the tallying of numerous criteria, there was, of course, one 7-seater to rule them all. We won’t tell you which one it is, but its reviews included both “It doesn’t look like such a mommy car” and “Distressingly ugly in profile.” The Cars.com videoreview is after the jump, or head over to the link for the long-form skinny.
Note: Due to a technical issue, the addition of race photos to this post has been delayed
The funny thing about speed is that it’s relative, at least in a cognitive sense. Sure, you can measure the pace at which a moving object travels over ground, water, air, or even space. But place a Formula One race car on a wide-open track-say, Turkey’s Istanbul Park, for example-and it doesn’t look or feel like it’s going nearly as fast as the same car does along the tight, winding streets of Monte Carlo. That’s what makes the Monaco Grand Prix so exciting. This year’s especially, packed as it was with nail-biting action. Follow the jump to read how it went down.
Monaco Grand Prix is as tight as it gets [spoilers]
2012 Chevrolet Camaro 45th Anniversary Edition – Click above for high-res image gallery
officially unveiled the to a crowd of dealers and enthusiasts on the eve of the Indianapolis 500. The droptop muscle car boasts a slew of tweaks that are destined to eventually make their way to the greater lineup, including new soft-touch materials on the dash, a new steering wheel that’s not ridiculous to use, and a few suspension changes. GM tells us that SS models will be equipped with the new FE4 suspension package, born from the development the upcoming Camaro ZL1. V6 Camaros will now pack 323 horsepower, a gain of 11 over the 2011 model-year cars.
GM will produce the Camaro 45th Anniversary Edition to meet demand, so there should be plenty to go around. In addition to the interior and mechanical adjustments, the car wears special logos on the fenders, seat backs, door sills, steering wheel and dash to separate it from the rest of the Camaro stable. Pricing will be available closer to the convertible’s fall launch date. for the full press blast.
After the endless parade of rumors, conjecture, spy shots and even official information, has finally dropped the full batch of details and photos of its latest flagship: the Roadster.
The new droptop loses the gullwing doors of its coupe counterpart, but those German engineers have gone to great lengths to ensure it loses nothing else in the process. Chopping the roof, fitting conventional doors, and stiffening the body as required results in a convertible that only weighs 88 lbs more than the coupe. The roof-available in black, red or beige-can be dropped or raised in just eleven seconds at speeds up to 31 mph.
Top speed is electronically limited in either position to 197 mph, while officially quoted acceleration times, for some reason, drop from 3.8 seconds in the gullwing coupe to 3.7 in the Roadster. Along with the convertible roof, Mercedes has also packed in a new electronically-controlled Adaptive AMG Sport Suspension, AMG Performance Media system to track and display vehicle telemetrics, and an AMG Drive Unit to control it all.
The Roadster – which beats the anticipated convertible versions of the Ferrari 458 Italia, , Pagani Huayra and to market – will be officially unveiled this fall at the Frankfurt Motor Show, around the same time that deliveries are set to begin Stateside. In the meantime, you can follow the jump for all the details and check out the extensive photo gallery for a closer look.
How not to flip a car carrier back over – Click above to watch the video
We’ve seen a lot of how-not-to videos over the years. How not to load your , , from a frozen lake, and . It’s also become clear that tow trucks frequently play a big part in these matters. Today’s example is no different.
to see what happens when a tow truck attempts to return a tipped auto transporter to the upright position. Hint: It probably wouldn’t have been posted to YouTube if it ended well.
Are you a owner? Are you tired of watching r drivers effortlessly fly across desert sand dunes and mall parking-lot curbs? Well, it’s payback time. Mopar is ready to sell you the Ram Runner Kit.
Designed for installation on 2009-2011 Ram trucks, seven component sets compose the full Mopar Ram Runner Kit (they can also be purchased separately if you want to do the build in stages). The largest and most expensive item on the list is the Pre-Runner Stage II Lift Kit. Priced at $13,270, it includes a five-link coil-spring rear suspension, 4130 chromoly lower control arms, upper control arms, rebuildable high-angle ball joints, and forged steel, high-angle tie rods. Couple that with three-inch internal bypass shocks from Fox, and you now have fourteen inches of suspension travel.
All those suspension components can be dressed up with a variety of Mopar exterior upgrades. An off-road bumper, front and rear fenders and a Mopar sport performance hood are offered as individual add-ons. Mopar also offers a rear tire carrier and a cat-back exhaust system to let your 5.7-liter HEMI breathe a little easier.
Twenty-five-year-old Australian Jessica Dunn spent five months riding a motorcycle in Indonesia as a foreign exchange student, and that meant hauling a helmet around all that time. Weary of that grind after just 150 days, Dunn developed the Proteus folding helmet and it is now shortlisted for the .
An outer layer of polycarbonate covers polystyrene foam, and the innermost layer is a material that’s pliable during normal use but instantly hardens when it registers an impact. The helmet itself collapses in a manner reminiscent of a hardtop convertibles, the visor slides back on top while the sides and back fold into the helmet’s interior cavity. The Proteus helmet has been engineered to meet Australian safety standards, and when folded fits into a standard backpack. Have a look at the gallery of high-res images for a better view, and if you think that’s funky, you should check out .
The UK-market Hyundai i30 – Click above to enlarge
It’s official: five million vehicles have been paired with paying customers in Europe since 1977. It began with a Hyundai Pony sent home with a UK buyer, and the latest milestone was achieved with the sale of an i30 (pictured). Although it works out to roughly 147,000 cars per year over those 34 years, the Korean firm didn’t hit the million-sales mark until 1996. The second million came in 2001, the third million in 2005, and it’s been another million every three years since.
More than half of those sales are accounted for by just five European countries, with Germany in the lead at 714,260 units. There’s a press release with all the info.
Automakers have traditionally had little luck owning car dealerships, but that hasn’t stopped them from trying. A recent effort by led to the creation of Motor Village in downtown Los Angeles, but about the facility’s location.
Back in 2008, Chrysler purchased La Brea Avenue Motors and in January, the automaker moved the operation to its current downtown LA location. The $30 million facility is now home to Chrysler, , , and stores. Unfortunately, it resides within 10 miles of three otherChrysler dealers, which is a violation of California franchising laws. The local dealer association brought the matter to the attention of the California New Motor Vehicle Board back in March, and the agency has since voted unanimously to have the California DMV open an investigation.
California makes one-year exceptions to the franchise law-for example, if the automaker partners with a local dealership that invests in operational improvements and plans to buy out the OEM stake-but in the case of the Motor Village, Chrysler doesn’t qualify. Lawyers for the automaker that the Chrysler has attempted to find such an investor but has been unsuccessful so far. The search for a partner continues, but for now, Chrysler says the store “a test bed for new retail and marketing ideas.”
If the DMV finds Chrysler to be in violation of the franchise agreement, California could pull its business license.
2010 Nissan Altima – Click above for high-res image gallery
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into two vehicles from the 2007-2008 model years: the and . The Altima has been the subject of 20 non-injury complaints regarding a loss of stopping power. The culprit is supposed to be a brake fluid leak which, if left unaddressed by drivers when the warning light “is ignored,” decreases braking force. There are 440,000 Altimas included in the investigation. recalled 180,000 from the same model years for the same kind of leak.
There are also 220,000 Wranglers under investigation for non-deployment of drivers’ airbags due to a failed electrical circuit. 29 non-injury complaints were received, and at least six of the Wranglers were found to have been right-hand-drive models.
If Alfa Romeo wanted to get people talking with the , they succeeded. The Internet is abuzz with rumors of its production potential. There have already been reports that the Alfa will spearhead the marque’s full-fledged return to North America, to be followed by both Spider and Abarth versions. Now, word is that could get a derivative, too.
If the reports prove accurate and the spinoffs come to fruition, that would mean three brands within the group will get their own versions of the lightweight, mid-engined, four-cylinder sports car. And that’s before any of the brands get a crack at it, because a version to pick up where the left off could be most tempting. The Maserati version would naturally be positioned and appointed differently from the Alfa or Abarth models. The question is whether the market can bear more than one Elise rival from Fiat/Chrysler, let alone multiples.
Ferrari 599XX at Laguna Seca – Click above for high-res image gallery
The last time Ferrari’s exclusive Corse Clienti program made an appearance at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca was back in 2008. At the time, the FXX was the only race car in the Corse Clienti stable, but the 599XX joined the party for the program’s return to Monterey this year.
A trio of FXXs and no less than seven 599XXs-almost a quarter of the total produced by Ferrari -took to the track last weekend, their high-revving 6.0L V12s echoing throughout the surrounding hills.
If you didn’t make it to Laguna Seca to see the Corse Clienti race cars in action, no worries. We’ve got a huge gallery of photos below as well as a video of the cars in action .
Nissan’s “Gas Powered Everything” ad – Click above to watch the videos
What would the world be like if everything were powered by gasoline?
Renault-Nissan has kicked off intended to highlight the advanced technology of electric vehicles with the debut of a pair of videos that bang home the point that consumers depend upon electricity to power items used everyday and that using gasoline is, in some instances, utterly ridiculous.
In one spot, a middle-aged man wakes up for work to the burning whistle of his gas-powered alarm clock and with a few fierce tugs at his coffee maker’s rip cord, manages to fire up the gas-gulping machine. That same man, while at the office, walks up to a miniature gas pump to refuel his laptop computer.
Oh, and the owner of a , while standing at the gas pump refueling his plug-inhybrid, watches in envy as another man across the street unplugs his and drives off as onlookers watch in amazement. Yep, that’s how Nissan sees the world if “Gas Powered Everything.”
Since the videos are, in our humble opinion, absolutely hilarious, we’ll refrain from revealing too much. to view the clips clip. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
