BMW Art Car on 39th Street

This car started out life as an E36 318is and Artist Ryan has turned it into what he calls "Half-Art Car, Half-Rat." He uses it as his daily driver and puts different pieces on the roof rack to keep the art alive.

BMW art cars have a long history and the current marketing campaign for the new Z4 is tapping into it, so it's good to see such a young BMW enthusiast pumping out his own work. Some of his smaller pieces were amazing too, especially the re-imagined 3.0 CSL etched on the rusty slab of metal. Might have to save up a few bucks and get one of these.

The artist had a whole wall of ideas, inspirations, rough sketches, media-collages and random thoughts on the world of art and the automobile. They also had another 3 series BMW in the show room being worked on connecting everyday mechanics to the aesthetic in life.

To contact the artist about his work, email Ryan Lawrence at nosamind@gmail.com

The Transporter - Spotted on a Mission

I saw this license plate and it cracked me up. Could you imagine this guy in his Mazda 3 kicking ass and causing the kinda of mayhem and destruction usually reserved for Jason Statham and his German auto-sidekicks.

You Can Fix It...no one's gonna help

Our old truck, dubbed The Great White Hope affectionately by friends, sits around for weeks at a time gathering snow, bird poop, pollen, honey suckle flowers, wind-blown seeds, until someone calls and inevitable says "Hey, I was wondering, but could I borrow your truck." The call every truck owner learns by heart.

When I bought the truck I let all my friends know that the truck was there to be used, just put some gas in it and go. So when someone does give me a call it also gives me an excuse to lash a bit of sideways TLC on the G DUB H.

Today, I washed it and waxed between the rust spots, vacuumed the bench seat, Rain-Xed all the glass and polished the dash. Then I got carried away and started to clean inside the engine bay too, which is like the old phrase "polishing a turd."

A few months back my hood was sticking open and I asked some of my mechanically minded friends to see if they could fix it and brought it to Jiffy Lube, after all they do open a lot of hoods. Everyone offered their advice from "You need a new hood" to "Your hood needs readjusting, just need to take her off and bla, bla, bla..." Needless to say I did none of these things and drove around all Winter and Spring with it popped up an inch or two playing hell with my already shitty gas mileage. 

Then today I sprayed a dab of DW 40 into the locking mechanism and jiggled it about and slammed it down once or twice and then had the genius idea to tug on the inside hood catch. It clicked and I thought "Just maybe" and I slammed the hood down once more. Eu-fucking-reka it worked.

Fixing the hood gave me a great, smug sense of satisfaction, knowing that I let the Great White Hope survive for at least another round.

The Great White Hope...you know you want some

Fiat's New Marketing Strategy

With Fiat merging with Chrysler to form a company destined to produce some serious ugly duckling joint-venture cars, it's nice to see they are sparing no expense to make their presence known in the US market.

 Well, I'll take '86 Croma, a new Panda 100hp and a '97 Bravo please and thank you

Can't wait to see the new Alfa-Romeo marketing campaign: Buy two, get one free and a yard of mulch.

CCI Motorsports - Kansas City

The back tires on the M3 were more than shot, in fact they looked like an old bald guy's head. Since I put hardly any miles on the car I was in no rush to change them. Then a dirty, big bollox of a nail last week expedited my decision!

I found a great deal on a pair of Yohohamas online and called Pete over at CCI Motorsport to switch them over. The guys at CCI Motorsport are real car lovers and if you're looking for more performance from your car or have tire and wheel issues these are the people to call.

They had a 700BHP Camaro up on the lift when I was there and were just starting a project to make a 1200BHP Chevy Blazer street racer. I don't know crap about working on cars, but I love walking around a shop like this listening to the employees shoot the shit with each other, the noise of the pneumatic guns whirring away and the smell of motor oil and car exhaust. I could hangout there all day.

The M3 is riding smoother than ever and the road noise is much lower on the new Yokohamas.

CCI Motorsports
4870 Merriam Drive,
Overland Park, KS
913. 766.3672

Porche 944 - The German Siren

The Porsche 944 is like a mildly good looking girl. When its all cleaned up, splash of makeup on, looks amazing and you say to yourself "That's a nice car, I should get one."

Then you see it looking like this running an afternoon errand to the hardware store and you're like "Jaysus, would you look at that, she's looking rough" and you're glad you didn't leave your current car after all.

If the Porsche 944 was launched today, we might be tempted to call it a Hatchback or if we were being very generous a Liftback. Maybe at a great, big, giant stretch of the imagination the 944 could be reinvented as a Shooting-Brake. For now we'll leave this sports car on our 80s excess of desire list like Kim Wilde or Olivia Newton-John.

And for old time's sake let's get Physical with Olivia

"Right, listen here, I got it...we'll take a really great looking Japanese car, change it till it looks like a pig's ass, put Dodge badges on it and call it the Stealth, people will flock to our showrooms. Success." Can you imagine this pitch at Chrysler back in 91 and then the other fool who actually green lighted the project?

The Mitsubishi 3000GT (GTO JDM) is still a fantastic looking car, a true Japanese Ferrari, especially in red. The first time I saw one I actually thought it was an Italian Stallion and my mind was blown when I realized it was a Mitsubishi. It has a design that will endure and inspire future generations of car enthusiasts and designers.

Fast forward 10 years and I'm living Stateside and I start seeing these certain ugly cars made by Dodge that look vaguely familiar. Then it hits me, like a Chrysler Group marketing man jumping off a building, somebody fucked up a 3000GT. 

I get infuriated when I see a Stealth on the road. Like when you see a beautiful building that has been tagged by graffiti and you just can't understand why someone would do such a thing to a piece of art.

And don't get me started on the fecking monkey who pitched the idea of the Eagle Talon...ahhhhhhh! What were they thinking back then, no wonder Chrysler got into such a mess.

They made it look like a Ford Probe or something else totally redundant

The wheels remind me of a washing machine, even this girl walking past is grossed out

"Yeah, and we'll put a boomerang shaped little spoiler on it..."

"And you know the way the 3000GT looks good from the front, well we'll make sure the Stealth doesn't."

This video is practically saying "An old car in a barn is more of a car than your brand new Dodge Stealth."