Having plundered the vehicle modification scene for the past eighteen years, the crew from West Coast Customs is moving on to restaurant design. Chronic Tacos in Corona, California now sports a taste of the modification shop’s style.
We’ll do our best to skip the easy meme joke and move forward.
The press release is markedly skimpy on details about what sort of modifications the shop made to the restaurant. We imagine plenty of fish tanks and subwoofers along with bad paint and tacky underbody lighting. The Corona location is now officially called West Coast Customs’ Chronic Tacos.
West Coast Customs has moved out of the “Pimp My Ride” game and into a new show. “Inside West Coast Customs” is officially in its second season on the Velocity channel, with the newest episode airing on October 16. for the full press release.
Take one , hand it over to Germany’s TuningWerk, ask for the second-stage tune that the company characterizes as “a little revitalization,” and the sedan you get back will top out at 720 horsepower, 803 pound-feet and 217 miles per hour.
The super stormer gets bigger, lighter brakes, a new sound system, a sport exhaust, and a weight-loss totaling 264 pounds, The eight-speed transmission is swapped for a beefier unit with either five or six speeds. It all makes getting from zero to 62 mph a minor inconvenience, taking but 3.5 seconds.
If all that’s too much – and at €198,000 ($274,982 U.S.) it may be – you can hold steady at the Stage One tune that raises the game to “just” 530 hp and 546 lb-ft. There’s more info in the presser after the jump.
Tailgating is an important part of going to see a sports event in person, and in the city of Detroit, that pastime also includes something called the Booty Lounge. The Booty Lounge is a low-rent strip-club on wheels, and it has been a somewhat shady part of the game-day experience in Detroit since 2005.
Owners of the mobile strip club were likely hoping for a big payday thanks to a Lions appearance on the NFL’s Monday Night Football, but instead, the bus was impounded by Detroit Police. Detroit’s NBC affiliate reports that the bus was towed way because it was parked illegally, the driver didn’t have a commercial license and the vehicle wasn’t inspected by the Michigan Department of Transportation. The fuzz reportedly weren’t targeting the rolling tribute, but the bus recently came under fire after a local TV station uncovered the goings-on inside the bus.
The Booty Lounge will reportedly be cleared to exit the impound once it provides proof of inspection, but we’re getting the feeling that this tailgater is going to be sitting out a quite few more games. Click to watch Sports Time Out’s coverage of the Booty Lounge.
Electronic Arts seems hell bent on capitalizing on its , announcing a new contest to win a as part of a promotion for its upcoming video game. Apparently, all you need to do to be entered into the giveaway is log into your EA account or register a new account for free. No actual purchase of the game is necessary.
Naturally, there’s some fine print – the contest is only open to people living in the United States, Canada or the UK, for instance. We know there are some angry (and very vocal) fans of the series out there holding a Porsche-shaped grudge against EA, but we’re guessing even the hardest of the hardcore Forza fans of the world would be willing to accept a free Carerra as at least partial compensation…
Turn 10 Studios sent us a copy of Forza Motorsport 4 to review, along with a special press kit that includes a key-shaped 2GB USB metal flash drive, a tire pressure gauge and press binder with Forza Motorsport 4 pad and pen. , so Autoblog is giving away the game plus press kit to one lucky commenter.
To enter, just leave a single comment on this post telling us which racing game you think is better, Forza Motorsport 4 or Gran Turismo 5.
HOW TO ENTER:
Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, the District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 and older.
To enter, post a comment on this article telling us which racing game you think is better, Forza Motorsport 4 or Gran Turismo 5.
The comment must be left before 12:30 PM Eastern Time, Friday, October 14.
You may enter one time (if you comment more than once, your entry is disqualified)
One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
The Grand Prize is a two-disc copy of Forza Motorsport 4 for the Xbox 360, a press kit, key-shaped 2GB metal flash drive, tire pressure gauge and press binder (valued at $100).
has posted an ‘interactive’ video on YouTube promoting its new . “Closed Course” is nearly two minutes of video game animation showing an A6 hot-shoeing it around an autocross course with a picture-in-picture view of the driver.
If this sounds boring, well, it is. But you’re not supposed to just sit there and watch the video. By pressing the number keys, you skip back and forward to different parts of the video, thus creating the impression that you’re actually controlling the car.
By timing your button-pushing just right, you can make the Audi navigate a course of your own design in a fairly seamless fashion. While this little game is no Dragon’s Lair, it’s worth wasting a few minutes at work – just be sure to let the entire video buffer before you start your tire squealing fun. to check it out.
Maybe it was the Detroit Tigers decisive win in game three of the American League Championship Series, but something put the United Auto Workers and negotiators in the mood to compromise last night. The Detroit News is reporting that the union announced a deal just before 7:00 AM today.
Chrysler is the last of Detroit’s traditional “Big Three” automakers to come to terms with the UAW, as negotiations had been rockier than those with the other car companies. Last month Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne accused UAW President Bob King of playing favorites with General Motors, and putting his own political agenda ahead of the interests of union members. The UAW then to negotiate with , last week.
What effect this gamesmanship had on the contract remains to be seen, however, The Detroit News says that the agreement with Chrysler is expected to resemble those reached with GM and Ford. Those contracts call for replacing wage increases with a revamped profit-sharing system. But the Chrysler deal might have some substantial differences due to Chrysler’s weaker financial health, says the report.
Chrysler has 26,000 hourly employees in the U.S., but that number should go up under the new deal. The UAW says the agreement would add 2,100 new jobs by the end of 2015. Other sources told the newspaper that new workers are likely to be paid more, as well, with one of the key provisions of the contract being a raise for second-tier employees, to $19.28 an hour.
Cadillac’s Art and Science design ethos is easily one of the most ambitious in the industry. But hasn’t kept pace with its competition in a number of areas, including the realm of infotainment. That’s set to change when the XTS arrives next year and Cadillac introduces CUE – the Cadillac User Experience.
The all-new navigation, information and multimedia system is making its world debut at the CTIA Wireless show this week, but we’ve been given a sneak peak ahead of its coming out party in San Diego, CA. From what we’ve seen, Cadillac hasn’t just made a competitive system to battle the likes of BMW’s iDrive, Audi’s MMI and the (aging) COMAND setup from Mercedes-Benz – CUE portends another shift in how we interact with our cars, how we access information on the go and how we can adapt vehicles to suit our individual needs and tastes. But is it the right direction? .
What We Like: Technically, this is the first ad shot by Fiat with Jennifer Lopez. The first airing of the J. Lo/Fiat partnership was last month when the Italian automaker began running a cut-down version of a new Lopez video that features the . That video drew fire from some of the blogosphere. One wag actually said it was the worst car ad he had ever seen. Really? We don’t think so. Fiat is chasing awareness, and fast. What better way than to link up with one of the hottest music, film and TV pop stars. The video and this ad don’t get into the performance or experience of driving a 500C, but this is meant unabashedly to drive pure awareness, curiosity and conversation. Based on online search data and YouTube views, the strategy is working. Since Lopez has a big crossover audience among both Latinos and non-Latinos, she is also a pretty logical medium through which to attract people. Latinos are also arguably more aware of Fiat as a brand than U.S.A. drivers since the brand has long been distributed in South America. Fiat has for years retained the top spot in Brazil’s auto market, which is among the world’s fastest growing.
The ad features Lopez driving the 500C through the Bronx where she was born. It has a bit of the feel, in terms of the way it was shot, of the “Imported From Detroit” ads Chrysler is now running with gritty looking shots of Detroit.
What We Don’t Like: The opening of the video has J. Lo saying, “Here… this is my world…” Lopez was born in the Bronx in 1969. And while we have no doubt that she has a soft spot for the Bronx, she has, according to online reports, been living in a gated house in Long Island and just recently bought an $18-million place in the Hamptons. These neighborhoods – pickup basketball games, break dancers, barbershops and graffiti – may be in the veins of Lopez, in her roots, but they aren’t much a part of her life today. The closing scene of the ad with kids running after her car? What’s up with that? How about pulling over and hanging out? She does get out of the car and hug a few kids in front of what we are led to believe might be the building in which she grew up.
We figure Lopez exerted script approval before shooting the ad, but we might have suggested writing more honest sounding prose – and maybe just a little something about the car – for her to say in the voiceover.
Strategy: Fiat has been out of the U.S. for 25 years, and is unknown to most U.S. car buyers – unless they are from or have spent a lot of time in Italy and Latin America – under the age of 40. The company is about and . The company was , so it is behind in meeting its U.S. sales target. With a high-profile media buy on the NFL, and getting 500s into rental fleets, it is trying to jumpstart its awareness.
The Fiat 500 has a lot of potential. The engine is a little under-powered, the backseat a bit cramped, and the fuel economy under-delivers a bit on expectations for a car this small. But the design of the car inside and out is just plain fun. And the 500C, the cabrio, is a blast to drive with the cloth roman-shade-style top retracted. Fiat did a nice job of preserving the elements of the 500 that make you feel like you are driving a cool little European car, which, of course, you are.
The folks who bring you ABC’s Wipeout have changed the network and the challengers for their next creation: called Whipped and airing on Speed in 2012, the new “automotive-based game and racing show” will put drivers in their own cars through “an intimidating automotive obstacle course.”
There’s an extra hook at the end, when the last challenger standing – who would normally be the winner-take-all – has to run a final obstacle course in the show’s race-prepped car. Their mastery, or not, of that test “determines how much we trick out their ride.” You’ll find more information on the show in the press release .
Five years ago, a gent named Art Morrison won the Gran Turismo Award at for his . A come-hither restomod, Morrison had tucked a bucket of modern internals – like his own chassis supporting an aluminum V8 with 538 horsepower and a Viper transmission – under the body of a 1960 Corvette. The prize meant that his car would appear in Playstation’s GT5, which it did the following year (as seen at right).
Matt Farrah, in his guise as Mr. Smoking Tire, got the 3G Corvette out of the video game and onto the cambered apexes of Nevada’s Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch. What happens after that looks and sounds a lot better than anything you’ll see in GT5. to check it out.
There is no greater test of skill and dexterity than an arcade claw game. Open heart surgery? For amateurs. Watch making? Child’s play. Plucking an oddly-shaped stuffed animal from the clutches of its brethren with nothing but three flaccid claws and a joy stick is what it’s all about.
recently tapped into humanity’s bizarre fascination with robotics, oversize stuffed animals and, of course, the claw game in a promotion for the company’s tiny Ractis. Using a scaled-up version of the same game we all know and love, contestants battled for the keys to their very own sub-compact hatch.
Alright, so it’s all more than a little weird. Whatever. We’re more concerned with the fact that the winner will have a hard time fitting their huge stuffed bear into their apartment, much less their Ractis. to check out the insanity for yourself.
builds giant arcade claw game to sell cars in Japan
Polyphony Digital has something special planed if Sebastian Vettel manages to take the Formula One Driver’s Championship for the second year in a row. Vettel made history by becoming the youngest driver to ever take the title last year, and if he pulls off a repeat performance, Polyphony says it will release the Red Bull X2010 in game to anyone who logs on to Gran Turismo 5. As anyone who’s familiar with the franchise can tell you, the X2010 is ultimate prize in GT5, as vehicle is the award for completing every challenge in the game.
Currently, there are only five races left in the 2011 F1 season, and Vettel has an astounding 124-point lead in the Driver’s Championship. He only needs to score one single point in any one of the remaining five races in order to win the title. That means pulling off a 10th-place-or-better finish. Looks like GT5 fans will be enjoying their own X2010 very soon.
In addition, Polyphony has announced a sweeping update for GT5 that includes interior views for all vehicles in the game, reduced load times, the ability to save mid-race and 11 new NASCAR vehicles from the current season. The game’s price will also receive a big cut, dropping from $59.99 to $39.99… just as Forza 4 shows up.
Need For Speed and Sports Illustrated have paired up to melt the minds of our nation’s amorous and adrenaline-addicted young men. Need For Speed: The Run will feature a number of notable characters, including a pair of ladies based on genuine Sports Illustrated swimsuit models. Irina Shayk and Chrissy Teigen have lent their computer-generated effigies to the latest chapter in the Need For Speed saga. Shayk will play a rough-and-tumble girl who grew up in her father’s mechanic shop while Teigen’s character is cast as a wealthy, adrenaline-seeking party girl.
Shakespeare, it is not.
As Shayk so aptly puts it, the game is like stepping into a Michael Bay film. We’ll reserve any retching until we actually get our hands on the game for a spell. In any case, the premise pits racers against one another in an illegal cross-country race from San Francisco to New York. High-speed shenanigans ensue, the law arrives and everyone has a good old fashioned dirty time. to check out the teaser trailer as well as a quick making-of video.
A few years ago, only a handful of gearheads had heard the term gymkhana. But when Ken Block’s video went viral, the word went mainstream. More Gymkhana videos followed, each getting more elaborate and commercialized with . The video game .
With the popularity of gymkhana growing, it was inevitable that a competition would be created. Late last year, the Gymkhana GRID Invitational was launched, pitting professional drivers head-to-head on a course designed by Ken Block. Like many of you, we assumed that Block had organized the event. After all, his name was in the event title and it was even sponsored by DC Shoes and Monster Energy.
The man behind the event, however, was Chris Willard. And while Block had helped promote the event and get it sponsored, Willard was the one who organized the initial Gymkhana GRID. He had hopes of creating an entire series of competitions, with the next event scheduled for later this month in Hollywood, CA. That’s not happening now, as he’s received a cease and desist letter from DC Shoes regarding the use of the Gymkhana name. We dug a little deeper to find out more about why DC wants the event shut down and who really has the rights to the Gymkhana name.
“What you are about to see is a fantasy. It has no place in the real world.”
That’s how the latest trailer for begins, and when a videogame trailer needs that kind of warning, you know things are about to get good.
And then Jeremy Clarkson’s voiceover begins, telling us all that we’re an endangered species. We, in this case, are those who consider themselves to be automotive enthusiasts. And there’s video to back up this assertion, as a man (in the back seat of an economy car, no less) sits in traffic seemingly on his way to work (All it’s missing is REM’s “Everybody Hurts” - Ed).
Fear not, petrolheads. Soon, a waiting is fired up, tires squeal and smoke and our protagonist finds himself wildly escaping the confines of the city and its traffic. But wait. What’s that? Uh oh, the local constabulary has caught on to our man’s actions, and they aren’t pleased. He’s trapped. Again.
The moral of the story? Get your kicks where it’s legal: in your living room, on your xBox 360, playing Forza 4. Thanks, Jeremy, for the friendly reminder. Check out the video for yourself , where you’ll also find an accompanying press release.
In related news, Turn 10 has announced that the Forza 4 demo is available to xBox Live Gold members beginning today. Enjoy!
LG Group has taken up legal arms against both and over a patent dispute. The technology company is reportedly aiming to have the sale of vehicles from both German automakers banned in South Korea over an LED patent dispute. According to Korea Times, LG Group is claiming that Osram, the manufacturer of LEDs favored by both automakers, is infringing on LG patents. Oddly enough, LG was once behind the patent game and had to pay Osram to use the company’s LED technology in LG products. Now LG has combined its relevant patents with those of a host of smaller companies, allowing it to skip paying Osram and sue the company for infringement.
Twisted.
Is there any chance of a court outright agreeing to ban such a large section of products from two companies that largely had nothing to do with the dispute? That seems unlikely, but Osram and LG Group may have to sit down and have a nice, lengthy chat with checkbooks in hand sometime in the near future.
The Olympics are coming to London and the games are apparently a perfect opportunity for Mini to launch a new special edition. To be fair, would view a sunny Tuesday as the perfect opportunity for a new special edition. Still, the Mini London 2012 Edition is here, and it’s arrival has been marked in a rather unique way.
Mini parked three examples of the all-new limited-edition Cooper side-by-side then enlisted the help of England Long Jump Champion J.J. Jegede to do what he does best.
Offered up in either Chili Red, White Silver or Lightning Blue, the Mini London 2012 Edition Coopers can be had in base, D, S or SD varieties. Each is outfitted with a pair of unique 17-inch gray wheels, red, white and blue interior stitching and a host of upgraded interior features such as lounge leather sport seats and chrome accents. The most notable interior feature, however, is the etching of the London skyline, which has a beautiful piano black backdrop.
Check out the Mini London 2012 Edition in the gallery, and click for all the details.
Meet Paul Copses, the first U.S. vice president of Customer Experience for . Starting October 1 2011, Copses will take responsibility for charming and keeping customers for the General Motors suite of automotive brands. Mark Reuss, GM North America President, will get direct reports from Copses, and regular updates will also be provided to Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson.
General Motors talks a good game about how important it is to not only build competitive products, but also treat customers like the lifeblood of the company that they are. Upset a whole bunch of car buyers, and it won’t matter how good the next Malibu is. To that end, Copses previous experience as executive director of Customer Care and Aftersales will be handy. That role, working with service and ACDelco parts, has at least exposed Copses to the ongoing relationship customers have with their automobiles and dealerships, so now let’s see if he can put that experience to practical use. If Paul Copses is successful, General Motors customers are going to be happier and more loyal, and perhaps even new to the fold. Read the press release .
Here’s a game that the first people who buy the 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-inHybrid should play with their other Prius-driving friends: Let them slide behind the wheel and see if they can even tell that it isn’t a standard, third-generation . Very few will be able to tell. That’s how subtle the changes are between the two vehicles, at least, to someone who isn’t looking too closely. After driving the corded Prius in California recently, we can confidently say that from both the outside and behind the wheel, the Prius Plug-in Hybrid looks, drives and feels pretty much like any other example of the world’s most popular hybrid. Of course, this Prius does receive some important advances – ones that hardcore fans will notice them right away – but it’s more than obvious that Toyota’s strategy with its new model is evolution, not revolution.
The changes start with the plug-in’s new lithium-ion battery pack. Much smaller than the packs used in the two most popular plug-in vehicles on the market, the Prius Plug-in’s 176-pound, 4.4-kWh battery pack offers just enough juice, says, for an “electric-only driving range of up to 15 miles at a maximum speed of 62 mile-per-hour” (More on how this isn’t exactly true after the jump).
Five years ago, a gent named Art Morrison won the Gran Turismo Award at for his . A come-hither restomod, Morrison had tucked a bucket of modern internals – like his own chassis supporting an aluminum V8 with 538 
