Dressed to kill

Click on photo to see full gallery via Autoblog.com

He's the new Camaro trying on some accessories from GM. A special thanks to the guys(and gals) at Camaro5 for sharing these.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

Click on photo to see gallery at Autoblog.com

There is a rumor that Gran Turismo 5 is considering damage modeling. That should be interesting. It's still a full year away from release but those lucky enough with a PS3 can look forward to teaser with the release of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue on April 17. Right now a PS3 is a luxury item I can't afford but perhaps I may sacrifice for the full release in a year or so. I still haven't completed GT3 or 4 yet anyway.

2010 Camaro video

Here's a video via Autoblog of the 2010 Camaro out for a test drive to some classic rock. I think the song is appropriate for the occasion. Enjoy!

Dust them off

With the weather warming up so is the upcoming car show season here in New England."Cruisin" Bruce Palmer has updated his website with new car shows coming up. He'll be having shows in central Mass. and Rhode Island. I'm looking forward to them for sure. His updated listings can be found here.

The actual "Garage"

A man's house is his castle as the saying goes. I do beg to differ though. If your married like I am it's more like the basement or the garage is the castle. The house in reality belongs to the woman. Perhaps thats a bit stereotypical but let's face it when is the last time you were able to hang a favorite pinup picture or a cool poster of a 911 Turbo on your bedroom wall? I thought so. What's left? The basement or garage right? Well at least that's where I stand. My damp and musty basement is my computer repair hang out and my unheated, leaky roofed, broken window, paint peeling over stuffed garage are my domain. The garage is going to be the focus of this article. What has inspired this is a class I'm taking currently on Lean Manufacturing. More specifically what is called the 5S's which are Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. This part of the lean manufacturing system developed by the Japanese. A leader of this system is Toyota.

A first steps in this process is to:

• Document the existing conditions.
• Do a work area checklist.
• Take photo's before work has begun.
• Put up a display board with checklists, photo's and etc. documenting the project.
• Train personnel.

To document existing conditions I did take some photo's and did area scan worksheet(provided by my instructor). On my worksheet I scored an embarrassing but not surprising 18 out of 100 points. Here are some of the photo's:



This one is looking from the entrance from what is considered my side of the garage. I have a hand me down work bench. A Craftsman toolchest, gallons of used motor oil, old useless computer stuff and other assorted clutter.





As you can see that I've got my work cut out for me. Right hand side is filled with clutter from when our stuff was in storage for awhile(another story) which will have to be sorted through. I use the garage is used by my car but also for basic car care and the sort. My goal is to make it an efficient garage that I'm not embarrassed by. Also to show that the 5S system can also be done at home too. I will post more as the project moves along with what I hope are weekly updates as my schedule permits. Enjoy!

1970 VW Beetle Convertible

Spring time is here and that means car show season is coming up(at least for those in the northeast). "Cruisin" Bruce Palmer has started posting scheduled events on his website. Right now there is only a few confirmed cruise nights but I'm sure more to come soon.Other listings for shows can usually be found at Hemmings.com.

1970 VW Beetle Convertible
Originally uploaded by Bob Cutlass

Library of Congress on Flickr

The Library of Congress has posted photo's in Flickr in an effort to help identify them or things in them. The coolest ones I've found are the color photo's from the 30's and 40's. It's nice to see crisp color photo's(like the one above) from a generation where we've been pretty used to only seeing in black and white. I especially love the people and cars from that era. I think it brings them to life and is a great piece of Americana.

Camaro SS spotted

Click on photo to see original photo.

I know that I've been on a Camaro kick lately but I just can't seem to help myself. This photo was taken in Mesa, AZ outside GM's proving grounds. It's a cellphone shot so pardon the quality. This one was taken by an alert Camaro5.com member.

Source via: Autoblog

Porsche Boxster RS 60 Spyder Limited Edition

Click on photo to see full gallery at Autoblog

I found new pictures of the Porsche Boxster RS 60 Spyder Limited Edition at Autoblog.com. I was immediately awestruck by this photo above. I love Porsche's with a passion. They are the type of sports car that look fast standing still. The Boxster RS 60 Spyder is a tribute to the original 718 RS 60 from the late 50's and early 60's. Seeing this photo makes me want to break out my old copy of NFS: Porsche Unleashed and go racing.

Or white. I'm not too picky

Click on photo to see gallery at Autoblog

Corey Roginski is one lucky guy. He's the same guy who brought you the previous spy shots of the new Camaro(in black). He actually got to pose with it this time. Thank you Autoblog for posting these. I know I'm drooling over them.

Porsche to aquire majority of VW

I thought this was interesting news item that Porsche was to go from a 30% stake in VW to over 50%. I had just finished reading Lean Thinking by Womack & Jones which had studied Porsche who back in the early 1990's was losing money faster than there cars and in danger of bankruptcy. Now they are poised to challenge Toyota for title of worlds largest auto manufacturer. I think its a testimony of the power of Lean Manufacturing. Where did the Germans learn it from? The Japanese.

Make mine black

Here are some of the latest spy photos of the new Camaro. Looks great in black. These are courtesy of Autoblog.com

Jet powered Caravan

How about this one for getting the kids to soccer practice on time. It's got more than a Hemi. Maybe I could put one in my wife's Caravan?

Why import tuners?

I've often wonder about how and why the fascination with import cars have with enthusiasts over the last ten to fifteen(maybe longer) years. In my youth American cars with big V8's ruled the streets. If you had anything less than a V8 it was a commuter or economy car. It puzzled me it as I saw more and more automotive enthusiasts turning to Honda's, Nissan's, Toyota's and more for high performance cars. Most of them hot rodding out 4 cylinder cars. Why the majority of them were Japanese imports to boot. I didn't understand it because American automakers had small cars with 4 cylinders also.

Part of how this came about was partly by accident. Apparently Japanese automakers in the 1970's and early 1980's had invested billions of dollars in engine plants. Banking on the continued climb of gasoline prices they assumed that the demand for small engines would increase. The gasoline prices eased and demand for bigger cars continued. Now faced with the dilemma of what to do. They couldn't very well retool the plants as that would be too cost prohibitive they had to come up with a solution to compete as far as engines would go. Product development teams turned to engineering to see if they had any solutions. They suggested something that was to simply to turn to ideas that themselves were not new. They would turn to fuel injection rather than carburetors, overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder(instead of two), turbochargers and superchargers. Essentially what you got was a factory hot rodded out engine. With all the bugs worked out.

What happened afterwards was that public perception was that these were high-tech ideas when in reality these were not really new. They just refined it. Most American cars at that point were carbureted and were seen as low-tech. Domestic automakers were slow to react and often fumbled to catch up. Further adding to the perception that domestics were falling behind.

I believe this was the birth of tuner cars.

Source: The machine that changed the world by Womack,Jones and Roos

Jap crap?

Photo courtesy of Adclassix.com

Now I know the title is politically incorrect but that was the real thinking back when I was a kid about Japanese cars I grew up as a kid in the 1970's when almost everyone had American built cars. About the only exception to this was VW Beetles which it was hard to sneeze without hitting one. I believe sometime after the first gas crisis in the early 70's my mother after our late 60's Ford Station wagon bit the big one bought a 1970 Toyota Corolla. I don't remember the exact details of it but what I do remember about it was that it was a white 2-door model with a manual shift. I also remember it was small.

What brings me to this subject is that I've been taking a class on Lean Manufacturing. Toyota pretty much invented it with there much talked about Toyota Production System(Aka: TPS). I'd have to admit through the years I've been an American automobile fan and I still am. I can now see where though where domestic auto makers lost there edge. A very interesting book on the subject called "The machine that changed the world" by James Womack,Daniel Jones and Daniel Roos. Though it's close to 20 years old I think the principles still stand about Lean Production methods. It compares Lean Production vs. Mass production.

The book and class have been an eye opener and I've slacked off on my distaste of Japanese automobiles in general. I do respect the quality in which they come out with. I'm not even sure where my original prejudice against them came from. Be it from cheering on the home team mentality or perhaps old school mentality. I do realize though it was perhaps the American automakers who who stuck in the old way of doing things that made them fall behind. Does it mean I'm trading in my Impala for a Toyota? Nope. I still like American automakers styling better and the quality has improved since the days of my childhood. I'm not as likely to bash Toyota's or other Japanese automakers as much (as far as quality is concerned) in the future.