If you’re a fan of all things Clarkson, then you’ll want to add the new TomTom Top Gear edition GO Live to your holiday wish list. In addition to voice guidance from none other than Jezza himself, the special edition GO Live includes Top Gear themed startup and shutdown screens, and unique icons (although we can’t confirm whether or not one is really a hamster). In case that’s not enough, there are also Top Gear-themed points of interest, which leaves us Americans scratching our heads wondering what they may be. Perhaps the Miami used car lot where the salesman showed Clarkson his Saturday Night Special?

If you get tired of Clarkson verbally berating you en route, you can switch over to “Stig Mode,” which includes no voice narration at all. On the plus side, it doesn’t play 1980’s power ballads, sung in Italian, either.

If you want one of your very own, the price of admission is $269.95, which is $20 more than the standard GO Live. Top Gear licensing doesn’t come cheap, and someone has to pay for Jezza’s ever-expanding vehicle collection.

Source: CarTech

States are getting smarter when it comes to vanity plates, and the days when you could sneak a tag like A55 MAN past the DMV are long gone. Ditto with FOR PLAY, which really can have a relatively innocent meaning on a Jeep or sports car (though probably not on a Harley). Still, you’d be amazed at the tags people request, assuming that no one at the state motor vehicle office is paying attention.

The Sun Sentinel, a south Florida newspaper, recently ran a photo essay on banned plates, complete with a mock-up of some of the more, um, interesting requests, Since Florida’s DMV shoots down some 1,800 requests per year, the list is hardly comprehensive. Still, why would you want a plate that reads WE SWING? Do you think that’s going to help with your jihad to spread herpes and genital warts to the entire state of Florida?

Then there’s GANGMBR, which may as well read TRFFC STOP or SHOOT ME. ORGAZM is another odd choice, and if it was a guy driving I’d be inclined to avoid his slip stream. A55 KIKR and ASL BOSS are guaranteed to get you a solid beat-down, sooner or later, but we could all benefit from a good beating now and then. DAM YNKE is a particularly bad choice north of Daytona Beach, since a lot of natives around here aren’t convinced the Civil War is really over.

If you’re inclined to pop for a personalized license plate, we wish you the best of luck in getting one with any amount of innuendo approved. Even if the state says yes, all it takes is another driver to be offended, and then you can kiss that plate goodbye. Just remember that there aren’t any laws on offensive bumper stickers (yet), so let your adhesive-freak-flag-fly, EZ LAY.

Source: Autoevolution

Form over function... Image: Flickr user yapsnaps

There’s a fairly active Volkswagen community in Jacksonville, and the guys from Stateside Euro are regular attendees at the monthly Cars & Coffee event here. All are well versed in their rides, and can fill you in on an incredible amount of obscure detail about Volkswagen and their specific year, make, and model. Most have invested a significant amount of scratch in their rides, and by anyone’s definition of the word, these guys are hardcore enthusiasts.

The flip side of that coin is that most of these guys run pneumatic suspensions, ridiculous drops and wheels that weigh nearly as much as the air-cooled flat four from an original Beetle. Their cars have a certain look, but the mods made won’t reduce lap times or quarter-mile times. In fact, I’d argue the point that most of these guys have made their rides slower around a racetrack, or at least have greatly reduced gains made thorough tuning the ECU, intakes, larger turbos and custom exhausts. In other words, form, or how a part makes a car look, takes precedence over function, or how a part improves acceleration or handling.

I’m building a GTI for next year’s One Lap of America on an extremely limited budget, so every single change has to improve acceleration, handling or braking. I’m currently sweating the details over a 17-inch wheel setup, which (with tire) weighs 38.2 pounds per corner, versus an 18-inch wheel setup, which bumps the weight up to 40 pounds per corner. Those 1.8 pounds per wheel may not sound like much, but unsprung weight is the enemy of acceleration, braking and cornering. I really don’t care which setup looks better – I only care about which setup goes faster.

In other words, I’m a function over form guy, and always have been. If it doesn’t make the car go faster, I’m going to have a hard time justifying it in the budget, and that even carries over to things like nav systems (my Garmin and iPhone are good enough) and audio systems (to my untrained ear, even the base GTI audio system works just fine).

Which brings me to my question of the day – are you a function over form guy, or a form over function guy?

Ford's latest innovation? Seats that monitor heart rate. Image: Ford Motor Company

I drive an average of about sixty different new cars per year, and every end of the price spectrum is represented. I’ve driven bare-bones transportation, complete with crank-down windows and manual door locks. On the other end of the scale, I’ve driven European sports cars and luxury sedans that cost more than my first house; hell, I’ve even driven some that cost more than my second house. In between is the pond that most automakers want to be the big fish in, and I’ll call that “cars that most of us would buy”. In order to grab the attention of new car buyers, automakers are packing a lot of content and technology into mainstream vehicles these days. Every car, it seems, is now available with a “premium audio system”, and you can get most models with factory navigation. Back up cameras (or at a minimum, back up sensors) are now common, and Bluetooth integration generally includes both cell phone and audio. All of these features were once the exclusive domain of luxury cars, but they’ve now trickled down to the common man.

As nice as these features are, they add expense to a car and don’t necessarily represent desired features. J.D. Power and Associates recently completed a survey that asked consumers which technologies were important, after pricing was revealed. The results are surprising, at least to me:

- 55% chose remote diagnostics as the most desired technology
- 52% wanted non-brand-specific premium audio
- 50% wanted wireless connectivity
- 46% wanted a rear view camera system
- 45% wanted blind spot detection
- Nearly 60% were willing to spend $200 for full integration of their MP3 player
- 54% said they’d be willing to subscribe to satellite radio at $12.95 per month
- 45% would pay $300 to use their smartphone as a “remote control” for their car

So what does this mean? Consumers want technology that makes them feel safer or more confident behind the wheel, and they don’t necessarily want things like expensive integrated navigation systems and rain sensing wipers. While a single study probably won’t change the way that automakers build or package cars, at least someone finally took the time to ask consumers what’s important technology and what’s tech for tech’s sake. As for me, keep all the electronic gadgets, but give me an auxiliary input for the audio, all-wheel drive, a butter-smooth and precise six-speed manual gearbox and lots of horsepower.

Source: J.D. Power, via Inside Line

Image: Callaway SportTrucks

What do you do if you like to go fast, but still need the ability to haul stuff? You could buy a Ford Raptor, but the truck is set up for desert pre-running, not on-pavement fun. Dodge no longer makes the V10 equipped SRT-10, and the Chevy 454 SS is a distant memory. If your pickup tastes run to something with a bow tie on the grille, Callaway has a bolt-on kit for the Silverado 1500 that adds 135 horsepower and 115 ft lb of torque to the stock 5.3 liter V8, bringing it up to 450 horsepower and 450 ft pounds of torque. In case that’s not good enough for you, Callaway also offers a kit with 540 horsepower and 522 for pounds of torque, which should ensure you get the mulch home from the garden center, pronto.

Both kits use a Roots-type blower, manufactured by Eaton, to generate the bulk of the additional thrust. The kits include an intercooler, higher flow fuel injectors, custom intake, low restriction exhaust and Callaway badging, and each kit comes with a 3 year, 36,000 mile warranty. Callaway claims that the kits have no penalty in fuel economy, but that assumes the driver has the self-restraint of Mahatma Ghandi; I’ll go out on a limb and guess that I could burn though a tank of gas (and a set of rear tires) a lot quicker in a Callaway tuned Silverado than in a stock one. Prices start at $15,995 (plus your donor Silverado), so check out Callaway’s SportTrucks page if you’re interested.

Source: GM Authority

It’s no secret that car manufacturers are always trying to get us to buy their products. They offer us incentives, rebates and love to shower us with statistics on fuel economy, performance and safety. Media outlets like Facebook and Twitter are used to silently inform us of new product revelations that have come out of their R&D departments in the hopes that we will be enticed to enter their showrooms. However as consumers I sometimes wonder if automakers are truly hitting the nail on the head when it comes to marketing. Most of us out there are brand loyal in one way or another. Some of us like Ford’s, others Honda’s or Audi’s. I’m more curious though as to the factors that influenced your purchasing decision and why, at the end of the day, you bought what you bought.

*Photo Credit: BuyingCarsHerWay.com

For most of us the two main factors in buying a car are price and reliability. Hell, if it wasn’t we’d all be driving around in Porsche’s, Mercedes or some other kind of European built machines. Sometimes purchasing the car you need as opposed to the car you want can also be more difficult then you anticipated, especially if you’re an enthusiast. So, the real question is; how do you decide? I know we’d like to say that what we drive doesn’t matter, but we all know that’s BS. I mean when you think about it, why wouldn’t we want to drive nice automobiles. They make us feel good, look good and can totally pull you out of a bad mood if you own the right one.

I used to be a brand snob, but over time that’s changed. You see I’ve been fortunate enough to experience offerings from just about every manufacturer. What that’s taught me is that each automaker has their own unique pro’s and con’s that only you as the customer can source out. First you need to define your price range. Second source the options that you want in your vehicle and third combine that with some research and a test drive appointment, and Presto! It really is that simple. Don’t worry so much about who makes the car, but instead concentrate on what a car does for you on every level. Once you do that I have a feeling that the car you purchase will actually choose you and not the other way around.

Years back, buying wheels for your ride was a pretty simple task. Unless you had a Camaro or a Mustang, chances are that you only had a few custom wheel options open to you. Today, it seems like every auto parts store sells custom wheels, ranging in price from “unbelievably cheap” to “you’re kidding about those prices, right?”. Even reviews aren’t always a big help, since it’s hard to find an objective opinion on wheel quality or even appearance. A buddy of mine just launched a Wheel Buyer forum, with the intent of building an online community dedicated to custom wheels, tires and related products. It’s still in the early stages of ramping up so there’s not much content (yet), but I like the idea. As far as I know, there isn’t another forum on the internet dedicated to non-marque specific wheels. Give Wheel Buyer a look and feel free to offer suggestions for content. I’ll pass them along to the site owner, who’s a true gear head with the rest of us.

If you spend any amount of time on the road, one of the most important things you can invest in is a decent pair of sunglasses. I’m not talking about the $10 Fauxkley wrap-arounds you pick up at the flea market, which are disposable at best. On the other hand, you don’t have to spend Sunglass Hut prices to pick up a decent set of shades. I’ll admit that I’m heavily biased when it comes to sunglasses, since my eyes are particularly sensitive to color (the by-product of too many years spent color correcting photographic images and digital files). I literally can’t wear knockoff sunglasses with cheap plastic lenses, since their odd tints and distortion give me a brain-splitting headache in just a few minutes. Bad drivers are nearly enough to turn me into a serial killer, so I don’t need any help from cheap sunglasses.

I also wear prescription glasses, which means I either drive with prescription sunglasses or with contacts and retail sunglasses. Since options for prescription sunglass lenses are limited (and damned expensive), I’ll just say this: I prefer the dark amber tint for driving, similar to the lenses used in Serengeti Driver sunglasses. On really bright days, a dark, neutral gray tint (like the kind used by Ray Ban) also works well. If you ride a motorcycle, sunglasses with some wrap-around protection (like Oakleys) help keep the wind out of your eyes with the visor up.

Epic.Sunglass.Fail

I know that polarized sunglasses are best for reflected light, like sun off of snow or water. Polarized lenses also cause distortion when used with motorcycle faceshields and even when viewing a car’s instrument cluster with a polycarbonate face. Tuning the radio may be a challenge, since the polarized lenses can make all or part of the display look black. I own both polarized and non-polarized sunglasses, but my preference for driving is non-polarized. When it comes to brands, my favorite choice for non-polarized sunglasses is Serengeti Drivers. Most of their lenses are photochromatic, so they darken in bright sunlight and lighten in cloudy conditions. I find I can see through fog and light rain better with them on, as they add a bit more contrast to low visibility settings. You can get them in just about any style you want, and the company even makes prescription Drivers sunglasses, as long as you’re willing to pay the astonishingly high price of admission.

My second choice for off-the shelf sunglasses is Ray Ban, since their neutral gray or dark green tint doesn’t bug my eyes and works well on even the brightest of days. Their frames are (generally made well, so Ray Bans tend to hold up better than most other premium brands. The company also makes a mind-boggling number of styles, and has even branched out into the prescription eyeglass frame business (which doesn’t really mean anything, since virtually all frames are made by the same Chinese factories these days).

If you need a multi-sport pair of sunglasses, take a look at the stuff from Native Eyegear. I own a pair of Native Hardtop XPs, which I use primarily for mountain biking and outdoor shooting. Mine came with interchangeable lenses, so I can switch from a dark brown tint for driving to a high contrast yellow lens for shooting. The frames are more comfortable and more durable than anything I’ve seen from Oakley, and the Native glasses cost a whole lot less than the big name wrap-arounds.

Speaking of cost, where you buy your sunglasses has a huge effect on how much you end up paying. Avoid mall sunglass stores like the plague, unless you enjoy paying bend-over-grab-your-ankles-and-squeal-like-a-pig prices. If you belong to a warehouse club, like Costco, BJ’s or Sam’s Club, start there. Mail order outdoor retailer Campmor usually has some amazing bargains, especially if you shop their closeout or hot deal sections, and you can always find what you’re looking for at Amazon.

Got a favorite brand? Any we should stay away from? Know a good place to buy sunglasses? Let us know.

Chip Foose, Steve Strope, Troy Trepanier and the late Boyd Coddington, are and were considered to be some of the best hot-rodders and custom car makers in the business. Their vehicles are generally considered to be works of art, with their attention to detail being second to none. I’ve seen some of their creations in person and can safely say that these guys are the best at what they do. But what about everyone else; I mean how do civilians in the custom car world make it on their own? I’ve built two custom cars in the last six years, so I can tell you from experience that it’s no easy task. I have to confess that this article has nothing to do with the names mentioned above, good looking cars or actual customizing talent. In fact every one of the machines that you see below looks to have been put together with duct tape, vinyl siding and bailing wire. Oh, and lets not forget the bondo, lots and lots of bondo…

• 1986 called, they want their parachute pants back.

• Chicken wire grille is understated yet functional.

• Something tells me this guy is a blast at parties.

• Check out the Yugo in the middle – Bitchin’.

• Where did his left sleeve go?

• That is the teeniest, tiniest trophy I’ve ever seen… poor bastard.

• How cool, it’s got a landau top!

• Jumbo better grease himself up if he plans on getting back in that roller skate.

• Hello, my name is Dieter and I won a trophy that I will treasure forever.

• It’s all about the bondo.

• Check out the “Angels of the Road” windshield decal… nice.

• YEEEEAH BITCHES!!!!!

• Got wood?

• No really, rubber cement is what everyone uses to hold their hood scoops on.

• This poor Citroen is going to need months and months of therapy after having that thing planted on his face.

• Yeah, it’s got a HEMI… wanna’ fight about it?

• No doubt about it, this guy has the greatest hair on the list.

• Apparently she’s a “Street Fucker” – her mother must be so proud.

• Back Street Boy fan perhaps?

• Because every cool car needs at least two rear spoilers.

• Dig the sheet metal front spoiler.

• WTF? Is this guy smuggling plums or something?

• Umm… I have no words.

• I wonder if the drapes match the curtains.

• Does this car make me look fat?

• Ground clearance, we don’t need no stinkin’ ground clearance!!

• Chicks dig the car…

*Photo Credit: http://www.VWVortex.com

Since the site redesign, we here at RideLust have been throwing around the idea of selling RideLust branded merchandise. We’ll have the usual baseball caps, t-shirts and polo shirts, but we’re all for thinking outside the box as well. In addition to things like coffee mugs and RideLust branded thongs, what kind of stuff would you like to see? Would you pony up the cash if it were reasonably priced? Would you wear the RideLust fishnet stocking leg with pride?

We want your input on this, so let us know what you think.