RideLust

For those of us with old cars buying parts can be somewhat of a nightmare. While parts houses may carry some of what we need, most parts are generally bought used at swap meets and car shows. That process takes hours upon hours and even when you find the correct part it’s usually not in great condition and the process just becomes arduous. A company called NextEngine has now developed a machine that can scan the original part, be it broken or in full working order. When the scan is complete it then makes a composite duplicate of the part in plastic. These parts can then be reproduced in metal essentially allowing you to reproduce any part on the car. In all honesty I have no idea of the cost of this technology, but if it can be made reasonable then it would mean that we could make our old iron last forever. Click the play button and watch Jay Leno check it out because this is some really cool stuff.

I’m a sucker for FJ40 Land Cruisers, probably because I had lots of friends with them in college. Even in the hip-deep snows of a Colorado winter, the little FJs would get you anywhere you needed to go. I started looking for one as a project a few years back, but could never find the right combination of condition and affordability.

Dan Strohl of Hemmings Blog posted this mint condition example, and it’s too good not to pass along. For sale is a 1966 FJ40 soft top, restored to original condition, for a hard-to-wrap-your-mind-around bargain price of $18,500. Restored and modernized examples sell north of $50k, and you couldn’t restore a rust free example yourself for less than the asking price. And that’s assuming you could do most of the wrenching, paint and upholstery work in house.

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I’ve got one week from today to get my 1968 Dodge Charger ready for The One Lap of America and so far things are thankfully on schedule. My Charger is my rock. It’s 18 feet long, weights 4000lbs. and has a big old dirty 440 big block under the hood. When I bought the car way back it was beautiful. The paint didn’t have a nick or a scratch on it and those billet aluminum wheels looked brand spanking new. Today it’s another story and while the paint still looks good, my old sled definitely has its share of war wounds. Our cars speak volumes about who we are, what we do and how we like to be perceived. They tell stories about our personalities and through their lives may even pick up some battle scars. They get us from point A to point B and everywhere in between. They are, in a sense, our teleportation device from the every day.

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Turning your passion into a career is something that very few people on this earth get to do. Whether you enjoy medicine, automobiles or accounting it simply doesn’t matter. Artists have always amazed and intrigued me. They see things differently than you or I and through their own vision of creativity, get to show the rest of the world their vision through whatever medium they choose. We’re all on this website because we love automobiles and they fulfill a part of us that would otherwise be left empty.

This next list is not a listing of who’s who in the art world. It is more so a list of artists who present us with their amazing visions of what the automobile is to them. Now take a look at some very cool visuals and make sure you pay their sites a visit because this is only the tip of their creative icebergs.

1. Christophe Desse

http://www.xtrm3d.com

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The words “affordable” and “Italian” generally don’t play well in the same sandbox. Italian sports cars as a whole bring up thoughts of big dollars, big repair bills and big ego’s, that is, until now. I recently had the opportunity to view one of these rare Italian beasties in person and was pleasantly surprised by what I found out, that being, that most anyone whose employed can own one.

What you see here is a 1960 Alfa Romeo 2000 and it is a beauty. Think of it as the Mazda Miata’s illegitimate great grandfather. These cars, although rare are actually quite affordable with the price spectrum ranging from about 20k-40k which really isn’t that bad when you consider this car was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro… never heard of him? Well, he’s the guy who also designed the Ferrari 250 Berlinetta Bertone, De Tomaso Mangusta, Iso Grifo and Maserati Ghibli, so in short… he’s got mad skills.

Performance wise the little Alfa is no pavement shredder. It’s little four cylinder cast iron mill churns out about 105 HP @ 5300 RPM and sounds glorious, not to bad for a car that weighs less than 2300 lbs. Although, if you want to get really crazy the later 2600 models did have an 2.3L inline-6 that produced 145 HP… BOOYA!! Make no mistake, these little Alfa’s are all Italian, all sports car and everything you’d need to fit in to any car show anywhere in the world. So before you go out and spend that 30k on some new pasta rocket or strudel wagon, take a look around and think outside the box, because if you do, you may just be amazed at what you’ll find.

As a bittersweet farewell to one of the most tumultuous years in automotive history, RideLust presents to you a re-cap of all the biggest industry events in 2009…and a few that slipped in under editorial bias.

Rick Wagoner, Bob Nardelli, and Alan Mulally spent weeks feigning humility and destitution in three piece Brooks Brothers suits in an attempt to wrangle a billion-dollar loan from an apparently benevolent Uncle Sam. Eventually, the government acquiesced and agreed to bail out both General Motors and Chrysler so as not to interrupt their steady production of poorly built, aesthetically unappealing vehicles.

Stunt double Ben Collins outed himself as Top Gear’s infamous masked driver, The Stig, potentially blowing the sweetest gig on planet Earth. Rather than kill him off, Top Gear attempted to counter the rumors by fingering (::snicker::) legendary racer Michael Schumacher as The Stig. Gearheads in America with an Internet connection that’s too slow to cope with downloading the weekly BBC broadcast still don’t give a rat’s ass.

There was some sort of F1 scandal involving Renault intentionally throwing the Singapore Gran Prix, but we were too immersed in our rally obsession to care. Just Google it or something.

As per their plan to cut costs and pretend to pay back taxpayers, GM made the logical decision to axe one of the only remaining brands that consumers still cared about, Pontiac. Shortly after the announcement, rumors began to circulate that the late John DeLorean’s company was interested in purchasing the rights to produce the Pontiac Solstice. The idea, much like the DMC-12, was short lived.

Drawing heavily from the blatantly phallic styling of the Ambiguously Gay Duo’s car, Porsche released it’s first 4-door sedan, the Panamera. Read More…

More grist for the mill in the ongoing debate about the aftereffects of Cash for Clunkers and the current recession: Kelley Blue Book reports that small car sales unexpectedly rose in September, after tumbling precipitously when gas prices stabilized. This is despite the fact that the Cash for Clunkers program ended on August 24th, and that overall sales of new cars have been down after the program. This also contradicts a recent survey among new car buyers that suggested that large numbers of the C4C buyers who purchased small cars were unsatisfied with their purchase and would buy a larger car next time.

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In Wilmington, North Carolina, Alliance Credit Union will be rewarding the egregious aesthetic taste of Mr. Saintard at the awards ceremony for the first Ugly Car Contest. Aimed at helping one lucky driver ditch his jalopy in the charitable spirit inspired by the Cash for Clunkers program, Alliance opted to bestow one lucky (or unlucky, depending on your perspective) winner to receive a $5,000 cash prize to be put towards the purchase of a new car or a gallon of Bondo and a few cans of spray paint.

While it doesn’t seem to be in miserable enough shape to warrant a five grand prize – especially not when compared to the other truly hideous contestants – Mr. Saintard’s scratched up Saturn apparently offended the senses of enough voters to earn him the crowd favorite and Alliance’s Grand Prize. Hit the jump to check out photos of few of the more, ah, deserving vehicles. Read More…

Comrades, if you think the Jeep started the SUV craze, you’re wrong. It was in fact the glorious people’s GAZ M-72. While the Jeep was indeed a popular 4WD vehicle, it wasn’t until the Grand Wagoneer came around in 1963 that the United States fully embraced the full-on SUV bodystyle. But in this particular arms race, we were behind the Ruskies, who’d created this trucklet behind the iron curtain by stripping down a GAZ “Pobeda” (“Victory”) car shell, and grafting it onto a GAZ-69 military 4WD truck chassis.

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Today, at least one Chinese auto manufacturer is one step closer to strengthening the quality and integrity of their brand without wasting millions on, you know, actually building a better product. While we all expected Volvo to be the first brand to be raped and pillaged of its technology, in a surprising twist of fate it seems as though the honor of one’s hard-earned reputation comprised will be awarded to Volvo’s fellow Swedish automaker, Saab. Read More…