by Zack Klapman
It’s a 1972 Chevy Nova. It has hubcaps. It has a paint job any mom would hate. If it was in a movie it would be “Nondescript bad guy car #7.”
But it has two superchargers, and 1160 horsepower at the wheels. It has a parachute, and line lock, and a 2-speed transmission. The stock steering wheel has lots of play. And Mike Musto got drive it on DRIVE‘s “Big Muscle.” I hope you like burnouts. (more…)
by Zack Klapman
Oh automotive rivalries, how silly you are. This video was sent out by Ford-trucks.com with the un-biased, factual tagline, “we’re all friends when wheeling—even if some people happen to drive inferior trucks….” As you’ll see below, it’s obvious Chevy built an inferior truck. Not the truck owner in his back yard, but Chevy. Obviously this is a dream video for any unjustly biased, all giant trucks are basically the same die-hard Ford fan. Like a geek seeing Star Trek placed alphabetically on a higher shelf than Star Wars at Blockbuster, it has nothing to do with the mods on the truck, but purely on the brand, right?
In the video you’ll see a lifted Chevy S-10 stuck in the mud, and only the Thor-like power and conviction of a Ford truck could get it out. Is it because the Ford truck is sitting on tractor tires and has the ride height of an office building? Of course not! It’s because Ford trucks are better, duh. They give it 110%! The don’t quit when the going gets tough! Did a Ford get stuck? Didn’t think so. Jump and watch the ease with which this monster completely-equal-with-the-stranded-truck-other-than-factory-of-origin truck navigates the mud pit, rescuing the other truck. It’s right after the part where a Dodge pulls a different Chevy out. FORD IS BEST TRUCK MAKER EVER! (more…)
For those who haven’t yet subscribed, Matt writes many reviews for Road Lanes, an online magazine chock full of new car reviews. In this month’s issue, Matt pretty much takes over, writing reviews on the new 580-horsepower Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 as tested at Virginia International Raceway, the Porsche Panamera Turbo S (which you will also see video on The Smoking Tire coming soon), the Cadillac CTS-V Wagon, and three Fords that have been updated for 2013, including the Flex, Taurus SHO, and Mustang GT.
You can subscribe to Road Lanes here, and it will be delivered to your inbox every month. If you like Matt’s writing, you’ll get a shitload of it here. Leave your comments about the cars reviewed as well (since Road Lanes doesn’t have comments).
**Side note – I have gotten several emails from people who have subscribed to Road Lanes, but are not receiving issues. If that’s the case, please leave a comment here and I’ll make sure that the editors over there know about it.
by Zack K
God damnit. I saw this press release on Autoblog yesterday and said, “Oh, sweet!” Usually an exclamation reserved for things with horsepower or a gift from grandma. Thad looked over my shoulder, “That’s pretty good lookin’. Looks like a Saab 9-3.” I agreed, “Fine with me, they had a good shape.” Then I rode through town on my horse with two lanterns shining, telling the people that in addition to the Chevy Sonic hatchback and Cruze sedan (both of which we had this month and both of which we liked, a lot.) a good-looking, spacious, efficient wagon was coming. If it was priced near the other two, it’d be a great buy. As the horse took water and I basked under an apple tree with a smile on my face, I read the fine print….motherfu- (more…)
Tires are a difficult item to shop for. You can test drive a car, and you can read a dyno sheet and hear a YouTube clip if you want to know which exhaust to buy, but when you buy a set of (probably very expensive) Ultra-high Performance tires for your sports car, you can’t return them after a full day of track testing and say they didn’t work. Tires can mean the difference between setting a record-breaking lap time and dying a very painful death inside a ball of metal that used to resemble a car. And when you buy a set, you’re stuck with them, even if they suck. That’s why I’m a big fan of tire tests. They are always at a race track, so you can push the tires to their limits, and they offer an opportunity to feel how a tire responds to your hands and feet, instead of reading a data sheet, marketing jargon, and user reviews on Tire Rack from people you don’t know or necessarily trust. So, when BF Goodrich invited me out to California Speedway to test their new g-Force Sport COMP2, I simply had to say yes. Hit the jump to find out how they (and I) did.
Rarrrr! Keep talking and I'll rip your face off!
by Zack K
By now everyone has heard of the Chevy Volt fire, and what a complete non-issue it is. ONE car caught fire, 3 weeks after the accident. If you crash your car and want to wait 3 weeks before you get out of it, the world really doesn’t need your genes in its pool. But the news grabbed the story, because they’re bored and terrible at their jobs. So they turned it into a big hullabaloo, hurting a recovering manufacturer all in the name of ratings. CNN-for example- has been in the shitter for years, so thinking this would be their big break is retarded. But another news organization has also been shouting “fire” all to stick a thorn in the Obama administration for funding the Volt with the auto bailouts. And that’s what has Bob Lutz so pissed off. This man doesn’t like a twisting of the facts. (more…)
Manufacturers have the tough job of building a car that pleases a big market. Not too stiff, not too soft, not too fast for the tires but not too slow to feel like (god forbid!) last year’s car. It’s a hard job. I imagine it’s like waiting on-or eating with-someone with 3 fake food allergies (“I just don’t like green things.” True story). The aftermarket lets you make a car your own. Add power, sticky tires, sway bars, ultra-stiff track suspension, air bags, whatever. The goal-although people often fail-is to make the car better.
Using that math you’d assume the more money you spent the better the car would get. I spent $4k improving my last car, but absolutely wished I’d been able to spend $10k, because i knew what issues it would have solved. It’s this ideal that has led me to be annoyed at the SLP Camaro ZL1. If you want to see $80,000 squandered, make the jump. (more…)
Cars, even relatively “simple” ones, are incredibly complex pieces of machinery, which can be built at astonishing rates in a modern factory. Take the following equation: The average car is made up of about 30,000 parts, give or take. And, GM built 4,873 Chevrolet Sonics between June 2nd and November 21st of this year. That means assembling 146,190,000 parts in perfect order, every time. Well, almost every time. You see, every once in a while, parts get mixed up, or worse, forgotten completely. I remember seeing, at the local Chevrolet dealership a few months ago, Chevy Colorado pickup trucks with GMC Canyon rear tailgates and chuckling to myself. This time, the mixup wasn’t nearly as funny.
GM has issued a recall notice for the 4,873 Sonics built during this period of time because “approximately 20 to 30″ of them could be missing brake pads. Now, one missing brake pad out of 8 doesn’t mean we all need to worry about out-of-control Sonics running around our cities with no brakes at all. However, braking performance will obviously be affected, especially if it’s a front pad (which they all are, according to GM).
In general, 20 to 30 missing parts (that we know of) out of 146 million parts assembled is still a pretty good average. But, note to GM, if you’re going to double check whether or not cars have all their parts before leaving the factory, do us a favor and check the brakes first?
We’ll check for ourselves when we review the Sonic LTZ in January.
One of the sickest 458 Italias in existence!!
YouTube / Facebook / Jason Thorgalsen Photography
