Is Less Really (Worth) More?

Hello followers of Tuned, all for of you that are left. Sorry its been so long since my last post, but its been the week from hell. However, while at work, Rebel and I had a bit of a debate. We did this to keep from envitably lynching our supervisor, but its been stuck in my head ever since. Can less ever be more when it comes to cars?

We were specificly talking about the Catheram R500 Superlight, one of my Top 3 Favorite Cars Ever. Rebel was questioning why the little Catheram costs so much (in his opinion) when you get so little in it. The options list includes such luxury items as a windscreen, radio,  carpets, and paint, none of which come standard. In Rebel's mind it was hard to justify the money.

Now a car is always going to cost more than the some of its parts, as labor has to be factored in and both the company and dealer need to make a profit. Even on the Catheram, which has no labor costs as you assemble it yourself, its easy to see where the money goes. The engine has to be purchased from Ford and sent to Cosworth for tuning, the body parts have to be made out of carbon fibre, which is quite pricey, and the whole kit has to be shipped to your door. All for a car that's quick, and kinda neat to look at, but not much else.

So the question is, are stripped down, single purpose cars worth the money? Its quite relevant as many car companies are following this trend. Ferrari has the 360CS, and the F430 Scuderia, Porsche the Boxster Spider, and the 911 GT3 RS, and Lambo has the Gallardo Superleggero. And every one, despite having less parts (the Boxster Spider doesn't even have door handles!) costs more than the standard model. A lot more.

Rebel says its hard to justify where the money went when you drop thousands on a barren car. And he's right. But you don't need to justify it. As long as the car is good at whatever that single purpose is, that's justification enough (and for what its worth the little 45k Catheram is faster around a track than the $1.5millon Veyron). And yes you probably can get a different car for similar money that's "more balanced" (read, normal), but as we said in our "what makes a car post" we all have our reasons for choosing a car, and if we're looking at car A and not B, there's a reason. Plus chances are its rarer than a normal car, which is always cool. So yes, less can be worth more, and when someone asks where the money went, say "watch this!"

New Cars That You Can Actually Buy!

Greetings all, today's post is a breath of fresh air, in a sense. Yes, its another "new cars coming out soon" post, but these are cars that the common man can actually buy! Normalcy abounds today folks, so if your looking for tyre smoke and stupidity, you'll have to look elsewhere.

First, there's the New, uh, New Beetle. Now I'm not gonna sugar coat it, I love this car. It looks like the original, which was epic. Instead of being a double mirror image of itself, this one has an elongated snout and a short, choppy back. Also, rumor has it that it will be rear engined again. Now while odds of that are slim, that would be beyond awesome. Think baby, baby 911. Doubtful given that Porsche owns VW and they won't have anything competing with their cars, will they? Either way, I don't think Beetles will be chick cars anymore, and as you can see by these photos, this new interation will only add more credence to the jokes about 911s being hopped up Beetles.

Next, there's the new Chevy Malibu. As much as I hate to say this, I don't like it. It looks cheap, slapped together. Rather than an evolution of an existing car, it looks like something cobbled together from GM's massive parts bin. And it looks like a very fat Cruze. Yes, I know they're going for brand identity and they want the cars to look similar, but come on. Its a fatass clone for god's sake! And what the hell is with the radio? Flip-up flat screen? In a family sedan? Yea, that won't fall apart or anything.....And why does a car need a second glove box? Oh well, at least the taillights are nice, new cars have some awesome taillights nowadays.

Well that's it, photos below, judge for yourself. Normal service will resume tomorrow......maybe.

The Viper is Coming Back.......And I Think I Need New Pants.....

What you are looking at is a test mule of the 2012 Viper. I'm struggling to type this over the drool pouring from my mouth, but I'm going to try to persevere. Now first thing's first, there won't be a 2012 Viper. Relax, its going to be released in late 2012 for the '13 model year. Now the year is very important. In 2013 the government in all their infinite wisdom is going to require Active Stability Control on all new vehicles in the US. Yes, another useless electronic nanny that will do nothing but make people in this country worse drivers. It also will be the first driver's aid of any kind fitted to a Viper, ever. That's why they're testing it in the snow, to make sure the system works. By the looks of the testing, the system works and Dodge engineers have tapped into my dreams at night. Good news is that the system is supposedly going to be able to be turned off, and there will still be no traction control, or automatic gearbox, so I'm cool with it. It's also going to have around 700bhp from its V10. No idea on the looks, as they've been testing an old 2010 chassis. Either way, since its still my second favorite car of all time, stay tuned here for additional updates on this awesome project. 

The 5 Greatest Racing Games You've (Probably) Never Played

Greetings all, Wallio here with another list (a man can never have too many lists). This one came to me in the shower, where I do some of my best thinking. Now I love cars, and I love video games, so I got to thinking, what are the greatest racing games ever made? Well obviously you have the Forzas and the Gran Turismos and the Need for Speeds. But I wanted to go deeper than that. See I collect video games. And I have over 50 racing games on 14 different systems. Some are epic (Any Gran Turismo, Burnout 3, or Flatout 2) others are dismal (The new Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, or any Test Drive)  So I got to thinking, what are the greatest games no one, besides me, have ever played?

5.) Hot Rod: American Street Drag
Platform: PC

I picked this up for five bucks at Staples one night. Basically the idea is you start off in a junkyard with 5 grand and have to build a car that can get featured on the cover of Hot Rod. Its selection of cars (both new and old muscle) and nearly endless customization (shown below) are awesome. The game also has a neat in game clock. You only have 3 hours per weeknight and ten hours per day on weekends to work on your car, and every job takes so many hours to do, so you literally spend in game years building your baby. This may sound bad, but its insanely realistic and very cool. The realism of the cars isn't have bad either, and if you know how to tuned you can build utter beasts (I had a '70 Cuda that ran 7.90s!).

The bad is that the game only featured drag racing, no biggie really. It also had a "life meter" for parts which went by way too quick. Every run "hurt" your parts (regardless of what they were) and after so long they would break. This meant you were constantly grinding races to get cash to fix shit. Yawn. Also the car rating system was wayyyy to detailed. You got points for your bloody radio (and you had to have one installed or you couldn't race!) The game also got repetitive, but if you ever see it for sale, pick it up, for 5 bucks its fun as hell.

4.) Star Wars Episode 1: Racer
Platform: Nintendo 64

Here's an idea: let's take one scene from one movie and make an entire video game out of it! True George Lucas money-grabbing at its finest. Problem is, it was an awesome game. Based off the opening pod racing scene of Episode 1, you picked one of a series of aliens all with insane pods, won races, spent credits to buy pit droids and parts and raced all over the universe at speeds approaching 1000mph. The sense of speed was definitely there, and the customization and set-up were intense. Also, anyone  who has ever played it will never forget the two-headed announcer shouting "IT'S A NEW LAP RECORD!!!" that got me so hyped up, I crashed so many times trying to get that sum bitch to say that.

But it wasn't all epic speed and awesome announcing. The game was flat out hard, brutally so. The last dozen or so races were basically impossible, and the reason being the tracks got longer and longer (some flirted with 8+ minutes a lap!) and no matter how much you sunk into your pod, you were always unlocking new opponents with better pods, so you had to constantly upgrade. The game was also way too long, I never finished it in fact. But for flat out arcade racing, few games are better.

3.) Streets of SimCity
Platform: PC

What happens when Twisted Metal and Need for Speed have a bastard child? You get Streets of SimCity. A game with no real purpose, it featured car violence missions, delivery missions, and straight up races. In addition to engine and handling upgrades, you could add armour and rocket launchers, so if you can't drive past an opponent, just blast'em out of the sky. The game also allowed you to import your custom cities from SimCity 2000 and drive around in them, which was stupid fun.

Problem was the game was short, horribly so. And the missions were repetitive, so there was little replay value. Importing cities helped some, but you couldn't do much in them, other than terrorize your populace. And the graphics were awful, even for 15 years ago, as can clearly be seen above. And the game was buggy, crashing once a day at least. Still any game that lets you by the Back to the Future hover conversion, deserves a place on this list.

2.) Combat Cars
Platform Sega Genesis

This game should be number 1 really, but its too unrealistic. Think "Death Race 3000" and you have the idea. Combat Cars let you pilot one of eight cars all with different drivers (ranging from a 900 year old alien named Andrew, to a Mama Cass rip-off, complete with tasteless ham sandwich joke in the instruction manual) all with weapons ranging from missiles to land-mines. The was fast and simple, no tuning, no upgrades, just go race, beating the hell out of anyone in your way. It was also the most addictive game I can ever remember (simple pleasures I suppose).

Trouble was the game, like Streets of SimCity, was much too short. And it was horribly balanced. Andrew's heat seeking missiles destroyed all, whereas guys like Ray only had a nitrous boost. How is that a weapon? Beating the game with certain characters is basically impossible. But for insane action, and hilarious storylines, you can't beat Combat Cars.

1.) R: Racing Evolution
Platform: Nintendo Gamecube, XBox, Playstation 2

The greatest racing game you've never played, is without question R: Racing Evolution. The game featured a ton of fully-licensed raced cars ranging from the Audi R8R and Bentley EXP Speed 8 to the Corvette C5-R and Ford Focus RS. It also featured circuit, rallye (with co-drivers), time trial, historic, and drag races. And had prototype, GT, and rallye classes of cars (amongst others). You could also race bosses for pinks. However, its most innovative feature was the "pressure meter". Every opponent had a bar above his/her head that filled up as you applied pressure. After it filled, the driver would make a mistake, giving you a chance to pass, or causing a wreck for you to avoid. Lower level drivers had small bars, while bosses had massive ones that took several laps to fill. No other racing game ever has had this. The AI was also brilliant, serving down the straights to break up their slipstream, and applying the chrome horn when needed.

It wasn't all good, however. To unlock all the cars took massive amounts of grinding, and the games storyline, featuring two ladies racing with nothing on under their firesuits (and them unzipped to reveal that fact) was pointless and silly. The games drag racing was a joke too. Four-wide racing a half-mile uphill! WTF? And with a good launch you could get out in front and serve and block the other three cars, not cool. And while the game had great tuning options, only four upgrades per car were available. and only on roughly 80% of the cars! Still for how deep, realistic, and varied it was, nothing beat R: Racing Evolution.

This is "Hollywood"

This blog is about a car I found on Ebay, and cannot put into words how bad I want it. This is a 1958 Plymouth Fury, most people relate this to the movie/book car "Christine". Which was a red car....I believe that a Sport Fury only came in this color. I like this car because it is all there one doesn't have to restore it, just turn the key and go. Also throughout its lifetime the person was able to hold back and not paint it red.

Although it is not Christine red....it is Christine mean. With the V-8 and Dual 4bbl carbs. This is one of my dream cars, not to mention something with my personality. This is when cars had style, chrome and white walls. Not to mention when Chrysler was great. I can hear Thurston Harris' "Little Bitty Pretty One" playing just by one look of the photos...... what a car.

-Hollywood

Suddenly I No Longer Want a Boss 302........

Greetings all, check this out:

That is the new 2012 Shelby GT500 Super Snake. It is the newest, baddest halo Mustang. Besides some visual mods, the main change is the Super Snake now starts at 800bhp. Now you could always get a Super Snake with over 800bhp, my buddy has an orange '08 with 820bhp. However, it was always a step up, never the entry level. That's all about to change. The new onw will have an 800, with the next level having 850. Add in better brakes and a new functional front splitter, and the new Boss seems puny. All of this is rumored, as the car won't be officially unveiled until the upcoming New York Auto Show. Also to be revealed, is the price tag, which is expected be be an even $100,000.

In other news ALG Automotive, has conducted a survey of the worst car brands based on quality. The findings really weren't that surprising overall, but the "worst" brand was a bit of a shock. According to those polled Fiat is the worst car company quality wise. Funny, usually French cars finish first. And didn't the Fiat Panda just win EU Car of the Year a year or two ago? Oh well, obviously that was a Chevy Vega type situation. Suzuki was second, followed by Kia in third (why are Hyundai's winning awards when Kia's aren't? They're the same company, different badge.....) Smart was fourth (aren't they Mercedes-built?) followed by the three Mopar brands rounding out the top 7. No real surprise there, Chrysler is basically a walking corspe as much as it kills me to say that. Hopefully Fiat will pull them out of it.......hey, wait a minute...........

Anyway, that's today's post. Since the most successful racing engines post was so popular, I'm working on a "worst engines ever" post. Submit your suggestions today!

Ultimate Powerplants: The Greatest Racing Engines of All-Time

"You know, aerodynamics are for people who can't build proper engines." - Enzo Ferrari

The above quote to me is one of the greatest lines in all of automobilia. It sums up the great Mr. Ferrari's philosophy on life. Build a great engine, and nothing else matters, the car will be great regardless. There is some truth to this, a car with 50-60bhp more than everyone else can overcome a great deal of problems, aero, poor, tyres, even a crappy driver. I've bought into this thought process from day 1 of my life. To me, the engine should be the focal point of any car, with everything else coming second.

In the past, certain racing cars and teams have taken this idea to the extreme and built insane lumps that have powered them to glory and changed racing forever. These engines have made my list for various reason, dominance, ingenuity, or just sheer genius. But they are without a doubt, some of the greatest engineering achievements ever.

5.) Porsche 917's Twin-Turbo Flat 12 (I couldn't find a "real" picture of it, so here's a magazine scan, click to enlarge)

I'm weary of putting this engine in at all, as it is the reason many people love, or in my case hate, Porsche. But in terms of sheer dominance its hard to argue with it. In the early 1970s this Porsche engine caused rule changes not once but twice. After winning two consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans in dominating fashion, the FIA changed the rules, basically to exclude the car. Porsche then entered it into the legendary Can-Am Championship, an insane series, with basically no rules. The dominate 8.5 litre Chevy-Mclarens were no match for the Porsche 917. The car itself wasn't that great (the Mclaren was a much better handling chassis) but the Porsche had an insane twin-turbo 5.4 litre flat 12 engine. In race trim the lump produced 1100bhp and could run quite reliably. In qualifying trim it produced nearly 1400bhp, and figures of over 1600bhp were achieved on a dyno! With mind-blowing figures like that, the Porsches easily drove away from anyone, and with Roger Penske's team won 15 out of 18 races in two years! This dominance, however, had its price. With no hope of winning, most teams pulled out and Grand-Am died, leaving us without a true "Formula Libre" series, and the 917 without a home.....again.

4.) The Novi V8

The Novi is proof dominance isn't a requirement to be a great engine. In fact despite over three decades of use, the Novis never won a race, and only managed to score an amount of podiums you can count on one hand. However, they were completely insane. Appearing in the mid-1930s and lasting until the end of the 1960s, the Novis were an engine designed to blow everyone away at the Indy 500 by being an absolute rocket down the straights. When it appeared it had nearly 300bhp more than its main rival the Offy! In fact except for two years (one of them being its last in 1967) when the Novi only had 85-100bhp more than its rivals, every other year it featured an advantage of at least 200bhp! So why didn't it win? Well first off drivers were scared of it. In fact the first few years pilots used to place blocks of wood under the accelerator so they would never use full throttle! It was also too heavy, and a gas-guzzler (it required a 400+litre fuel tank, which made it still heavier), and it shredded tyres like I chew gum. And its owner was a total idiot and had it placed in FWD chassis for over a decade (dumbass). Regardless, the Novi is still the greatest example of "engine comes first" mentality and despite never winning a race, is still regarded by racing fans as one of the greats.

3.) The Ilmor-Mercedes Benz 500I

Yet another "Indy Only" mill, the 500I is the greatest example of a motor changing everything, and it only ever ran in one race! The 500I ran in the 1994 Indy 500, and won, and then was banned. Not only that it ended up killing off Indy's stock block formula all together. But not before garnering international recognition and a slew of engineering awards. Why? The engine was quite crude. It was only 209ci and featured one cam, in block, and pushrods. However, it was turbocharged and Indy's ruled allowed it an insane amount of boost (55inches of mercury), so it produced 1100bhp and dominated the race. Well not really. It made 1100bhp on the dyno, but was frail. In race trim it "only" produced 880bhp. And Penske (what is it with him and insane turbo motors?) never really dominated, yes they won, but out of three cars only one finished! And one retired with an engine failure. However, Team Penske was running 1-2 for 90% of the race (and their two cars were the only two on the lead lap!) and Indy was scared of a Can-Am type scenario. The motor had to go. More telling was the test at Indy later in the year, the Penske cars were horribly off the pace. Why? The 500I was so good, it hid the horrible understeer their chassis were plagued with. Without their wonder weapon, the Penskes weren't that great at Indy, in fact next year they all failed to qualify!

2.) The Renault RS1 V10

The Renault RS1 was a 3.5litre V10. It was also innovative, being the first engine to feature pneumatic valves. This allowed the RS1 to rev much higher than its rivals and thus produce more power. The RS1 produced over 800bhp in race rim, more than enough after the ban on turbo engines in F1. It was dominate winning the constructors title every year from 1991-1997 and winning every drivers title save for '94. The engines holds the record for most wins in a single season at 15 (out of 16 races!) and was used by Lotus, Williams, Benetton, and finally the factory Renault team. The engine powered the all conquering Williams FW14B and FW15C, widely regarded as the two greatest racing cars ever produced. While many said it was the car, the RS1 proved the engine had a lot to do with it when in 1995 Benetton acquired the engines and won both the drivers and constructors titles. The RS1 also had longevity on its side as it lasted in one form or another until 2006 by which time it was producing a staggering 980bhp and spinning to 20,000rpm!

1.) The Ford-Cosworth DFV

Without question the Ford-Cosworth DFV (Double Four Valve) is THE greatest engine ever produced. It wasn't the most powerful (when it was launched in 1967 it only produced 408bhp) it wasn't the most reliable, but it was the most versatile. The DFV has raced in F1, Indycar, Le Mans, USAC, Can-AM, F3000, Group C, and the Tasman series, just to name a few. It has easily won over 1000 races in its lifetime (which spanned from 1967 to the late 1990s!), and has been run naturally aspirated, turbocharged, twin-turbocharged, and supercharged in displacements varying from 2.0litres to around 5litres. While badged a Ford, Dearborn only funded its design, the motor was more commonly know as the Cosworth or "Cossie". However, next to its versatility the greatest asset of the DFV was its availability. Cosworth would literally sell one to anyone, if they had the money. Because of this Cossies showed up everywhere. By they end the DFV could claim 12 F1 Drivers Championships, 10 F1 Constructor's Titles, 12 Indycar Championships, 10 Indy 500 wins, 2 24 Hours of Le Mans wins, and 6 Formula 3000 Championships, and this is just a sampling of its exploits. The world of motorsport had never seen anything like the DFV, and indeed it will never see anything like it again.



Honorable Mention: BMW M12

This is the BMW M12. A 1.5litre turbo in line 4 cylinder. It was raced by Brabham, Benetton and Arrows throughout the 1980s in F1. It produced an astonishing 1300bhp in race trim. So it produced more power than the 917 with 4-litres less displacement! Its turbo was massive and rammed nearly 5 bar of pressure into the motor. That's roughly 73.5psi! In qualifying trim it flirted with 1600bhp! The engine lead Brabham to the 1983 World Title. So why didn't it make the list? Reliability, or rather the lack their of. The block was basically BMW's road car I4 beef-up in places and simply couldn't handle the power output. Overheating, and massive turbo lag (legit turbo lag, not E-Brake related) were the main problems, as was the minor problem of the motor exploding on a somewhat constant basis. Qualifying engines rarely lasted more than 4 or 5 laps. The M12 gained the nickname "The Grenade", never a good moniker for an engine. The '83 title was the only one for this engine, proof that power sadly, isn't everything. Another strike against this engine is that it could not overcome the weaknesses of the various chassis it was placed into, something a truly great engine can do with ease. Once boost limits were introduced in 1987, the motors reliability improved, and Arrows scored several good placings with it, but its awe-inspiring power and scream were gone. And when the turbo era ended in 1989 so were BMW altogether

Psst! Wanna Buy a Piece of History?

Now that my panic attack over stupid laws is over, we can resume business as usual. Well sort of as its only a quick post today. Bartone, Italy's second most famous design house. Is selling off its priceless collection of cars in a bid to make some money during this recession. While the name Bartone itself may not be recognizable to you, you have heard of their cars and don't realize it. The Contach and Stratos are their too most famous designs that were actually produced. Most of the cars for sale were concepts, simply design studies, never to be actually built. As a historian, it pains me to see these great cars sold off, but it truly is a sign of the times. And since only muti-millionaires will be able to afford them, they'll go to good homes. Below are two items up for sale:

First the Lancia Stratos Zero concept (check out the cockpit!):

Next, a Chevy Corvair Design Study (looks like a n E-Type Jag to me):

UPDATE: BMW has released official photos and an official story behind the M3 pickup I told you about a few days ago. It was built as a side project by the M team (nothing unusual there) and is being used by BMW motorcycle techs as a parts truck. WTF? Anyway, they are testing it to see if its worth building. That's a god sign (of course we all remember what they did to the M8 about 15 years ago....)Depending on what you read, this could go either way. Some sites say the project is a gag, and will never be built, others say there's hope, still others say its a done deal and will be on lots by 2012. Then those same three sites all change their stories. Is there any reason that BMW released the photos on April 1st? I hope not, as I cannot strees enough how this needs to be made. Anyway, below are three of the photos, and I think you'll agree, that this car is pure sex on wheels.

Love the interior, but the tailgate leaves a lot to be desired. Anyway, that's it for me today, I'm working on a great racing engines post, but it needs more research. Hollywood should be on later tonight. I'm sure we're all looking forward to that.

The War Against the Automobile Has Begun

Ok so there's much to talk about today. I have several posts in my head, one on racecraft and driver skillsets (since I was lectured yesterday on car preservation), one on the most dominate race engines of all time (since the Buick naming post has proven to be quite popular) and one that I'm working on to coincide with our first film segment (hopefully Sunday, keep those fingers crossed). We've also expanded the Tuned line-up by adding Hollywood, our Caddy-loving mack-daddy whose as smooth as silk. Plus we have nearly 325 hits (simply unbelievable). So there's big doings afoot. But today's post comes out of necessity.

I don't have time to find the link (google it, its there) but the EU has been discussing a law that would ban all gasoline or diesel engined vehicles from major cities by 2050. Now before everyone panics, this has only been discussed at the subcommittee level, and the public outcry from this after it was leaked has been so bad, the EU has backtracked pretty quickly, but still. It is obvious that in the not-to-distant future, the car as we know it, will be dead, and illegal. Now laws against cars are nothing new, we have emission tests. congestion laws, and noise regulations, all aimed at taking the car out, or at the very least turning it into a soulless, emotionless appliance. But these are easily circumvented, and generally are a nuisance at best. This is an outright ban. No car powered by anything but hydrogen, or electricity would be allowed. So none could be built. Or driven, at least in cities anyway.

I always knew this day would come, but like all car guys I figured the hippie-mobiles would merely become the main mode of transit, and would save fuel for our real cars, the toys, owned only by a select few. I also doubted I's be alive then, but if this goes through, I would be in my 70s, still drivin hard. However, what the EU is proposing is an world without the internal combustion engine, a world not seen since the 1870s. And what defines a "major urban area"? Surely, London and Paris. But how big of a town does it need to be? When this comes to the US (and it will give it time) what standards will they use? Wilkes-Barre Scranton is the third largest metro area in PA, so wll be be in the ban?

Now, this is facing a massive backlash in Europe, and probably will be tabled....for now. And this hasn't been discussed yet in America, it surely has been thought of. We need to fight this. I'm not against non-gas cars. But electric isn't the way to go, and hydrogen fuel cells (which is the only real alternative to what we have now) are a ways off yet. But regardless, the government simply can't tell me what to drive, even though they've been trying for decades. If a proper hydrogen car comes on the market, I'll probably buy it, saving my gas for Roxy. But until then don't force me to by a shitty electric. Which is what this law will do. Can you imagine a gas-less free future? I know I can't. Maybe one day, but yet.....

What's in Name? And Other Crap

Greetings Tuned-Heads, Wallio returning after Jury Duty and the Valet-night from hell damn near killed me. I'm sitting at my parents house waiting for my shipment of cigars to arrive (I only use their house as a mailbox anymore) and I'm quite bored. I was going to a post about Roxy, my Dodge Charger, but eh, that's just copying Reb. Instead, I thought I'd share a neat tidbit I've always known about, but never really realized.

Okay, so in 1982 Buick released the Regal Grand National, powered by a Turbo V6. Everybody knows that. But what you might not know is where "Grand National" came from. It came from NASCAR. NASCAR's main series used to be known as the Grand National Series. Buick used to race in NASCAR (imaginethat today?) and won the Manufacturers's Cup in 1981 and 1982 so they released the car to celebrate. So? No big deal there. Well, the turbo V6 used in the GN, wasn't NASCAR legal, as only non-turbo'd V8s were legal. Again, not really strange "road-legal race cars" often have different engines than their actual racer counterparts (like the Challenger T/A). But what was interesting was that that very same V6 was used in NASCAR's main competitor, CART's PPG Indycar World Series. Indeed, it was the very same engine as Indycar had "stock-block" rules, where the very engine blocks (and valvetrain layout, the Indy engines were OHV too) used in the road cars were used in their racing counterparts.

Pictured above is the official Buick PR photo of their engine from the 1988 Indy 500 (after the GN stopped production I know, but it was the "oldest" picture I could find, Buick used the engine from '83 until well into the '90s). Aside from the turbo location, it looks exactly like the road engine. So Buick created an oddity. A car named for one major racing series, powered by an engine banned in that racing series, but used in their main rivals series with great success, all in a car that never raced in any series. Confused yet? I can't think of other car that even comes close to this level of strange-ness.

Also on the wire is an M3 pickup. Now, when this was first spotted BMW said it was just a running concept car. It was never going into production. However, the car/truck/El Camino wannabe/whatever went viral and people around the world flat out demanded this project to continue. Or something like that. Anyway, after some more testing, and after looking at how popular the Ute is in Aussieland, BMW has announced they are "considering" putting this unnamed beast into production. Sources claim that it is all but a done deal, and this thing will be in production by mid-2012. I fucking hope so. We need more stuff like this. And since GM flatout refuses to bring the Ute to America, this is our best hope. See it below being run around the Nurburing.

Lastly, I've decided to embrace my inner redneck and put a CB in my daily. Why? Solely for my own amusement. I doubt I used it to talk much (yeah, okay) but it should be quite humorous to listen. Plus, some people are still hardcore CBers and continuously broadcast speedtraps, traffic jams, etc. Which is quite useful.  However, CB as a craze ia quite dead. It reached its undisputed height in the late '70s. Want proof? In '77, '78, and I believe '79 you could order a Corvette with a CB from the factory. Yeah, how nuts is that? Anyway, once I put it in we might have Tuned Radio, wait that doesn't quite work.........

Oh well, that's all for me. Wallio out.