Yesterday my wife and I rode our bikes to the local coffee shop for a quick cappichino and treats. This particular parking lot is a stone’s throw from LAX, and is on the corner of a busy street. We sat on the patio so we could watch the cars, something I really enjoy doing. This had the added benifit of making sure our bikes didn’t get lifted by a passer-by.

Anyways, we see this guy hop into his Black / Black Ferrari 612. When it gets closer we notice the GIANT (22″?) chrome rims on it, clearly exposing the now 5″ gap between the Carbon-Ceramic brakes (with the signature yellow paint) and the wheel. It ruined the car.

Ferrari (and Pininfarina) design good cars. They don’t choose rims, rim size brake disk size, or any of that other stuff lightly. The 612 has a well balanced, soft design. Throwing giant rims on it is like garnishing a beautiful Kobe Fillet with a slab of lard.

So, if your reading this and you own a Kobe Fillet, leave it well enough alone and enjoy it.

Today I found an article (via autoblog) that details the 10 sexiest cars that a woman can drive. Orignal article here

The article labels the following as the top ten:

Top 10 cars to turn men’s heads

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

Now, I have a thing or two to say here. First, these are obvious demonstrations of style, or class (or a lack thereof) so a women driving a car with a motive says a lot. So your standard Jetta’s and Beetles are out. What is the coolest car that I think a women could drive? Well, the cars I like are obvious choices, but what is truly impressive is something that I don’t like - but can respect. When I was driving home from work not long ago, in the normal drab of Merc’s, Bimmers, and Lexi - I saw something that really stood out:

This is an ’80’s Toyota Land Cruiser. The example that I saw was similar to the above, restored and in great condition. You have to respect an old oddity that you don’t see often in urban environments. I loved it, and now I want one.

So this ferrari 430 here, it looks nice incredible. The company Risi Competizione plans to bring it to American Le Mans Series in the GT2 class, to join bmw, lexus and others. To debut at Sebring in march. I can’t wait to hear the wail from this motor.

Original Press Release as found on some euro website italiaspeed

So, these guys thought it would be a great idea to put the following things into one:

1) Dirt
2) Water
3) 10 Bareback guys wearing cowboy hats
4) Trucks / Jeeps
5) Ropes
6) Screaming in your ear emo music

In any event, if you turn off your speakers you might find this entertaining, at least when they crash.

ExtremeSledding.wmv

Now, in this set of lunacy, Hanook tires wanted to get a bit of exposure with their key demographic. What did the marketeers come up with? none other than a race with 3yr old ‘Sam I Am’ around the track. Now, at first glance this looks like market-death.

Here is the saving grace, ITS NOT IN THE US. Of course not, who in their right mind would do this in the US. You cannot mix cars with animals in the good old states, PITA would attempt to awkwardly smack you for doing so. No, this great stunt was staged down under, oh the lovely auzies cease to amaze me.

DANGER… TO… ANIMAL. What about the jockey?

Oh, and the porsche won, of course.

herald sun

So, Emile Ratelband - some northern european modern thinker, who happens to have one of the coolest cars ever made, had to take it in for a checkup. He did, and promptly left the keys with the oh-so-happy mechanic who then decided not only to do the work, overcharge, and take 3 times longer than expected to complete. But in addition to all that, took the car for a spin, running it through a few pylons and then up a light pole. Wonderful, below is the orignal story in a language I cannot begin to understand.

bndestem.nl

So, to sum up this story, this woman goes to a burger king in san clemente, she orders a western bacon cheeseburger. However the staff for some reason or another doesn’t make it correctly. She goes through this like 5 times. She wiggs out and calls the police, below is the mp3 recorded.

Be warned this is a glimpse of the downturn of america, her kids, traffic, and the buger make this woman go balistic and call the police to enforce hamburger making practices!!!

recording of woman calling police

Okay, so I am not really into this sort of thing. I am just in shock / awe that this sort of thing got through corporate filters and is actually on a big corporate website, i mean good god. I feel bad for watching it, alone in my living room right now. And I have seen some VERY bad stuff in my day. I mean, it’s not everyday you see a beautiful women in a leather bodysuit that is whipping / spanking / teasing on a big corporate website.

Is this like a canada thing? I mean I couldn’t see anything like this happening in the US, maybe france. I guess canada is full of french people. There that explains it, that makes it okay. Okay, so enjoy, or not, depending on your perversion.

“click as hard as you like”

prepare yourself!!!

So, the new evo, planned to be released in 2007 as an ‘08 model year. Major updates include a new 2.0L turbo 4, an updated awd system…. and, are you ready for this? a manumatic paddle shifting gearbox! When I read this my stomach churnned. This could be a killing blow to a rally legacy, or it could be the saving grace. I sure hope that this paddle gearbox is everything they hype, but somehow i doubt it will be up to par.

In any event some clever germans caught the prototype looping the ring while tuning. Pics in the link below.

Evo X Spy Shots

Edmunds has a story detailing how the Ferrari F430 does not meet all US crash saftey requirements and is under a pannel now to ban all cars produced after Sept 1,2006. According to the NHTSA, the F430 provides inadequate crash protection for small children and some women. Who in their right mind would have carseats in their ferrari? If the car does indeed get banned it would be a big blow to ferrari, who is selling as many of the fabulous f430’s as it van build. Furthermore ferrari doesn’t have a model-line update slated for the f430 until 2008, ouch.

edmunds article