Friday, February 22, 2008

$140,000 for Hot Wheels

Click on picture for story and more pictures from Autoblog


I came across this and I was amazed. To celebrate the 40th anniversary Hot Wheels commissioned this Hot Wheels car worth an estimated $140,000. Talk about bling. This car is encrusted with over 2700 jewels on an 18 Karat white gold body. That's more than I paid for my house. I bet this one won't get lost under the fridge!

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Another Oil Change today

Well I did my wife's oil change today on her 2000 Grand Caravan. It's actually been over due for a few weeks now. The between opportunity and weather this time of year it's been tough to get to. I personally hate working in the cold but it does have to get done. I had my five year old son helping me out. He's very inquisitive and it's fun trying to explain what I'm doing. It makes me wonder what automobiles will be like when he grows up. Will there be any V8's left? Will we all be driving some type of hybrid or electric cars by then? It is my goal to have some classic vehicle to tinker with someday and I hope he'd be interested enough to help out.

On another car related note we've started the process of building my son's race car for his upcoming Pinewood Derby race for his Royal Ranger's. We hit a minor glitch when my wife brought the cars to her cousins and had them cut already without me knowing. It kind of ticked me off a bit because I had ordered some plans for a police car and stock car and now they are already cut to different shapes. We may pick up another to build the police car which my son wanted. One of those miscommunication deals between husband and wife.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Million mile Chevy pickup


I'm a firm believer of 3000 mile oil change. That's what Frank Oresnik of Wisconsin believes as one of the things that helped his 1991 Chevrolet Siverado Pickup reach the million mile mark. Apparently GM or Shell are interested in buying the vehicle. You can read the whole story here.

Monday, February 11, 2008

2008 Dodge Charger Police Car

Click on picture to see gallery from AutoBlog.com


This is certainly not the sight you want to see cruising down the highway. I've actually seen a few of these in the local highways used by the local state police. Though the vast majority of departments still use Crown Vic's these are starting to make there appearance. The folks at AutoBlog.com were given the keys to one for a test drive. You can read all about it here.

Pinewood Derby project

In the next few weeks my son and I will be building Pinewood Derby cars. One for each of us. He's in the Royal Rangers(Assembly of God version of the boy scouts) . They even have a race just for the Dad's. I remember doing it when I was in Cub Scouts. It actually brings up some mixed memories because it was a period when my Dad wasn't around(which is pretty much the norm anyway) and so the Den leader had to help build mine. I guess it's time have some father/son time. Hardest part so far is picking a design. Here are some websites I've found on it so far:

http://www.pinewoodpro.com/pinewood-derby-howto-design.htm

http://users.aol.com/randywoo/pine/design.htm#design

http://www.gospelpublishing.com/store/startcat.cfm?cat=sRRPNWDDRB&mastercat=&path=sRRPNWDDRB

http://www.gospelpublishing.com/store/startcat.cfm?cat=sRRPNWDDRB&mastercat=&path=sRRPNWDDRB

http://www.abc-pinewood-derby.com/pinewood-derby-reviews.htm

http://www.maximum-velocity.com/

I'll try and post some pictures as we go along. It should be fun.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

How not to write an Ebay Motors ad


If you go by the pictures this appears to be a very nice example of a 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air. It's until you read the ad that's the kicker here. The guy did the pictures part very well I'll give him that much. Unfortunately the ad is very sloppily written and also it has too much information. He writes in caps,different colors, lack of punctuation, bad spelling, paragraphs and sentences run into each other. I think the phrase"less is more" applies here. I'm not perfect myself as far as writing but, this one was hard to pass up. To the average to serious bidder they will pass this one by just on the looks the ad. Which is unfortunate because it would seem like a decent car that if I read the ad right that he put a lot of work into it. He just won't get top dollar for it that he perhaps deserves.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

I've been a fan of the Gran Turismo video game series for many years and the primary reason I've bought a Playstation (1 and 2) in the first place. I came across this video preview for Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. It's not the full release of the game but merely a teaser. Though it may be interesting I doubt I'll rush and suddenly purchase a PS3 just yet. Maybe when the full release comes out. It does look interesting though.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

BMW - Augmented reality

Apparently this is a research project by BMW. An interesting way to repair cars.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Collector Cars of Tomorrow

Hagerty Insurance has named 10 vehicles which they think have the potential to be collectors items in the future. Such vehicles as the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Dodge Charger Super Bee and Ford Mustang Shelby GT500KR are on the list. Start collective now.