And I Don’t Even Remember Her Name

Saturday night I went to a party in New Jersey and saw a beautiful 1972 VW Baja Beetle parked in the driveway.

I asked the owner, Adam Brick, if he’d show me around the car a little and he was happy to show it off. It has the oversized tires and wheels (larger in the rear), the Baja style steel tube cage welded to the front and rear, and the rear engine decklid and sheetmetal totally removed. But the best part is the 1914cc engine which apparently puts out 125 hp.

Trouble with the local homeless window washers? Want that extra measure of safety in this murderous world? Well, you need a 100,000 volt tesla coil strapped to the roof of your vehicle, it’ll bring new meaning to the term “electric car”.

Check out this video of the bizarre device in action:

I love internet radio, it has more selection than satellite radio and it’s free. Granted most of its crap, but still, even if only 10% of internet radio stations are any good, they still have satellite beat. And remember: free. So why don’t we have it in our cars? The technology obviously exists, I can surf the internet on my tiny little phone. And cheaper manufacturing costs means it’s economically feasible, so whats up?

Most new cars already have small computers and some level of connectivity, but they’re still not interactive the way personal computers are. Microsoft has apparently come out with a new service called “Microsoft Live Search for Devices”, which would allow automakers to install localized search services on in-car navigation systems.

I’ve had a long abiding interest in the effects of Nitrous Oxide. In college, I convinced a seller of nitrous tanks that I was an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania and that I teach a class where we build high altitude miniature rockets using the stuff.

I had seen a feature of nitrous propelled rockets the night previous on the Discovery channel.

So you’ve locked your keys in your car and you need to get to work, but you don’t feel like paying a locksmith $100 dollars to do it and you don’t feel like smashing your window and having to pay for a new one later. What do you do?

If you owned a slim jim, you could use that, but slim jim’s are unreliable at best. Most of the time they just damage the mechanisms inside your door. Here’s the way professional locksmiths do it.

A lot of people are talking financial doom and gloom right now; but people in the know, people like Peter Lynch and Warren Buffet, will tell you that when most everyone else is saying ”buy”, be wary; and when everyone is telling you to sell, look for the value buys. Even when the market looks bad, there are always opportunities, in fact, some opportunities are created by the “down market”.

So where are some opportunities now? Not in the auto makers, but in auto parts suppliers.

Here are some micro-cap stocks in the auto parts field that I think deserve further review. Check them out, see what you think.

The folks over at Cracked.com have put together a list of the Top 6 gas-saving schemes created by “companies” of dubious distinction looking to cash in on the ever-increasing gas prices. The products all claim to produce better gas mileage, and almost all of them require some kind of mechanical alteration to you car.

In a contest sponsored by the publication “Law & Order”, law enforcement vehicles throughout the nation compete for the “best design” award. This year, a police cruiser from Newport News, Virginia took first place; largely because, said judges; “It’s got bling.”

The cruiser is not a standard issue Virginia patrol car (I can personally attest to this fact inasmuch I, personally, have had the luxury of closely observing quite a few of them in my rear view mirror) but actually a recruiting tool used by the Newport News Police Department – thereby accounting for its “flash”.

There are all sorts of things car lovers need. One of them is furniture with a car motif. Or better yet furniture made from car parts.

Jakes Chop Shop is a custom furniture maker that does just that.

After working in an auto body shop in North Carolina, Jake figured he’d rather be working for himself, and opened his own shop Richmond, specializing in pre-’64 customs.