RideLust

Being an avid car nut means taking advantage of every automotive opportunity that is thrown my way, be it big or small. First off, you never no where these opportunities are going to lead, and second most of them are just a ridiculous amount of fun. Case in point – this past holiday weekend I received a last minute phone call from a buddy asking me if I could fly down to Tampa, FL from NY and help drive his newly purchased motor coach home to the Big Apple. When most of us think of a motor home we think of a pick-up truck chassis with a big ole’ box on the ass-end of it that houses a few bunk beds and a small porta-potty. This baby however was not your average motor home.

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Photo by Jesse Hammer

Friend of RideLust Jesse Hammer spied this cheese-tastic 8-bit van on the streets of San Francisco. No, it’s not painted like that to lure minors into the dank lair beyond its tinted windows. It’s a rental. New Zealand-based Escape Campervans has a small fleet of custom GMC vans for hire in the US. This one, of course, features video game classics. Others rock wicked flames, tropical fish, peace signs, and more. All of them have been hand-painted by professional artists. Right on. Hit the jump for more of Jesse’s photos.

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For sale on eBay, for a reasonable “Buy It Now” price of $30,000, is this extensively modified 1951 Chevrolet pickup. Equipped with pontoon outriggers and a driveshaft-driven propeller, the truck is a replica of one used by escaping Cuban refugees in 2003. Not authentic enough for you? It’s built by the same guy who built the original.

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We all could use a break from the daily grind of getting to and from the Amazonian village where we do our missionary work. All that arboreal congestion and humidity really makes the commute a drag. The iFly project wants to make your life a little easier by constructing you a Maverick flying car (more like a buggy, really) that will carry you far above the rat race and off to your tropical destination.

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If you fancy a lift, bring coal and lithium-ion batteries!

You’ve seen steampunk laptops, steampunk guitars, steampunk iPods, pretty much everything under the sun. But how many steampunk vehicles have you seen outside of Howl’s Moving Castle? Slap on your goggles, work up a head of steam, and take a gander at these 10 steampunk vehicles, ranging from modestly altered to completely bespoke.

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We’ve been ridelust-crazed for months now in anticipation of the 2010 Ford F-150 Raptor SVT finally hitting the market, but speculation over the price tag has continuously placed a significant damper on our amorous affections. Dangling juicy morsels like “6.2L BOSS V8″ and “400 horsepower” in front of our face, Ford made sure we were good and seduced before dropping the buzz-killing bombshell: the price. According to the official release, the 2010 Raptor will begin with a base price of $38,995, which includes the standard 320-horsepower, 390 lb-ft of torque, 5.4L Triton V8 engine and all the promised desert-hauling goodies. To get their hands on the 400-horsepower, 400 lb-ft of torque 6.2L BOSS V8, SoCal baja bro-skies will have to shell out $41,995, which doesn’t include the $1,995 luxury leather seating package, the $1,075 exterior graphics package, or the $395 interior accent package. What both the $38k and $41k models do include, however, are 35″ of BF Goodrich All-Terrain TA/KO 315/70-17 tires and custom built Fox Racing shocks (capable of 11.2″ of travel in the front, 13.4″ rear) that effectively make the 2010 Raptor the first production pickup to ever come outfitted with position-sensitive internal bypass shocks. Read More…

The all new 2010 Land Rover Range Rover debuted at the New York Auto Show today, and despite the fact that we secretly (ok, openly) deem the Range Rover unworthy of living up to the utilitarian, rough ‘n’ ready promise of the Land Rover nameplate, if we have to cover the debut of one more 50-horsepower micro compact, the next piece of news you’ll hear about the NY Auto Show will involve the NYPD Crisis Negotiation Team attempting to talk us down from the ledge of the convention center – so the 2010 Range Rover it is.

Unveiled alongside the Range Rover Sport, the new 2010 Range Rover represents a fairly drastic change for the über luxury SUV and, we must say, a marked improvement. The exterior modifications are relatively subtle and don’t venture too far beyond the traditional “update” most automobiles receive every 5 years or so – because the real changes were made where it counts. Beneath the hood, the 2010 Range Rover receives two new, powerful engine options designed by Tata to provide both the road-hugging performance of a Jaguar with the rugged off-road capability of a Land Rover. The first of the new engines is a naturally aspirated 5.0L V8, conservatively rated at 375-horsepower (280kW) and 375 lb-ft (507Nm) of torque and allegedly capable of sprinting from 0-60 mph in 7.2 seconds. The second powerplant is a supercharged variant of the 5.0L V8 and boosts engine output to a staggering 510hp (380 kW) and 461 lb-ft (624Nm) while simultaneously cutting the Range Rover’s 0-60 mph time down to a mere 5.9 seconds. For those owners who actually use their Rover for the purpose with which it was intended (all 3 of them), the 2010 Range Rover also comes with a highly advanced Terrain Response system that electronically adapts both the traction control and suspension system to deftly maneuver any surface, be it a treacherous mountain range or sandy desert. Read More…

I’ve commented on this, oh-so-subtly, in articles previously, but it’s time that something was said in more straightforward terms. I’ve been going through articles written by some of the “old media” types. Automotive journalists who write for big, respectable, recognized outlets. Newspapers like the Wall Street Journal or the Globe and Mail; car magazines like Motor Driver or Car and Trend… or whatever it is. I’ve been surveying the conclusions these journalists tend to arrive at, and by-and-large, they usually seem to agree wholeheartedly with one another, like some kind of Old Boy’s Club circle-jerk.

Let me be perfectly clear, then, on what needs to be done: the Old Media journalists need to be taken out to the back forty and Old Yellered as soon as possible. Read More…

Unlike most production-ready models, the new 2010 Subaru Legacy is almost a carbon copy of the Subaru Legacy Concept that debuted back in January at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, which may or may not be a positive thing. During the months preceding the event, rumors were running wild that the as-yet-unidentified concept vehicle Subaru would be towing to the 2009 NAIAS would be the long-awaited Toyota/Subaru Celic/STi mashup. Obviously, it was not. Instead, Subaru’s mystery concept was a prototype version of the next-gen Legacy which, as we learned today, was a fairly accurate representation of the production variant. As expected, some of the more “futuristic features” like the digital touch-screen interior door handles got the axe before heading to the assembly line, but the structural aesthetics remained largely unchanged. For 2010, the new Legacy has packed on about 50 pounds and 20 total inches to its frame, but thanks to the sleek yet sturdy design, it carries it well. Read More…

Looking to move as much merchandise as possible, Jeep as unveiled the Rocky Mountain Edition ultimate off-roading package. Available on either the 2009 Jeep Patriot, Liberty, or Compass, all Rocky Mountain Edition Jeeps come standard with a power sunroof and a wide array of accessories intended to bolster the out-of-doors, original Jeep experience.

We’re just kidding, the Jeep Rocky Mountain Edition isn’t anything more than a Jeep premium accessory package with a vaguely macho badge slapped on it. Seriously, we’re not even being snarky (for once), Jeep’s Rocky Mountain Edition package literally adds nothing more than a sunroof, premium wheels, premium entertainment system, 4 new paint colors, and a “Rocky Mountain” badge. The total cost of the package is about $2,000, give or take a couple hundred depending on the particular Jeep model, which is roughly the same amount you’d fork over if you just checked off the “Premium Package” when configuring a standard Jeep. Read More…