Unlike other auto shows in the world, the SEMA auto show is one of the few that celebrates the art of car customizations and fine tuning. This year’s event has so far lived up to the hype with a number of specially-customized vehicles taking center stage.
Then again, SEMA wouldn’t be complete with some rather amusing cars that catch everyone’s attention for reasons that have nothing to do with vehicle itself. This year, a late 80’s Chevy Impala/Caprice was on display and it had a very unlikely - yet extremely amusing– paintjob: SpongeBob Squarepants and friends. The whole depiction of SpongeBob and gang was really intricately done and what’s even better is the fact that pretty the much the whole cast of characters could be found in the Caprice. Too match the SpongeBob’s yellow skin, the Caprice’s hardtop roof, as well as the front grilles, the linings on the front and rear of the bumper, and the wheels were all given the yellow treatment.
You can just imagine taking your kid in school with this car. You’ll become all
of his friends’ hero.
It seems that around Halloween people’s imagination is simply going crazy.Take this Mustang GT for example spotted in Ukraine, and they don’t even celebrate Halloween!
The car look like and an ex-murder’s car: it is painted with blood and their is an arm on the hood!
Just last week we reported about how the satellite service Onstar stopped its first car jacking by disabling a 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe only 16 minutes after it was taken thanks to their Stolen Vehicle Slowdown system. Well this time the little blue button was still on alert, except that there was no cause for concern. The American tuning house Hennessey was testing their 700 HP Cadillac CTS-V at the drag strip when a hard launch measuring as much as .99 G of longitudinal force triggered one of Onstar’s safety parameters and caused an operator to contact the driver mid run down the 1320. Luckily no one was actually in need of assistance at the time, but this is just more reassuring proof that Onstar has you covered.
Mini has released a pretty cool commercial that teaches us how to recognize a Mini driver! Apparently, according to the company at least, a Mini driver is characterized by a mixture of life, individuality and spontaneity. And of course his pet!
Imagine what you can do with a self-shifting Ferrari F430 Challenge. For this one owner, it turns out that you can sneak in a text message to your friend, finish a personally-knitted sweater, and finally, drink wine and get yourself intoxicated.
Of course, all of the gimmicks didn’t actually happen while this guy was driving the F430 around the track. If you look closely at the way he steers the wheel of the car, it’s not exactly consistent with the track layout. So, yes, this is nothing more than a spoof.
Nevertheless, as far as shifting gears is concerned, the man has it easier than the rest of us. Calling it the ‘Ferraromatic’, he cleverly illustrates just how fun it is to drive a supercar without even bothering to shift gears every few seconds.
As far as matters that aren’t related to cars, when it comes to Top Gear’s Stig, it’s best to take anything he does with a grain of salt.
According to Top Gear, the popular British car show where the Stig is one of the mainstays, the white-jumpsuit-and-helmet-wearing mystery man was ‘SENSATIOALLY ARRESTED by a FRIENDLY POLICEMAN following an ALLEGED INCIDENT of some kind’.
Yes, those were the exact words from Top Gear. It doesn’t really strike you as completely sincere, does it?
According to the story, the Garda – the Irish police, if you’re keeping track – pulled over the Stig for what appeared to be a minor traffic infraction. While no details were unveiled at the time of the ‘arrest’, one eye-witness said: I didn’t see what happened exactly but it was probably really bad. Maybe he punched a swan or tried to push one of the Hairy Bikers into the river. Again."
Again, we find nothing about this story that sounds remotely like what would happen if in fact the Stig gets caught driving with his pants down. Top Gear’s been known for laying out some wicked pranks in the past, so don’t be surprised if this is just one of them.
When you’re as established a car brand as MINI is, you can afford to make up your own figment-of-the-imagination holidays.
That being said, MINI has officially kicked off the third annual Motor-Tober celebration. The month-long holiday celebrates, among other things, horsepower, go-kart handling, great car buys, and of course, celebrating because…well, we can.
Comedic marketing nothwisthanding, MINI goes all-out for the Motor-Tober (get it? Motor-[Oc]Tober) celebration by unfurling a series of funny and amusing ads, as well as promoting the joy that is driving a MINI.
According to Jim McDowell, Vice President of MINI USA, “MINI wants to celebrate the ramp-up to the winter holiday season, which is usually a stressful time, and make it a time to thoroughly enjoy motoring.”
“Nothing says exhilaration like getting behind the wheel of a MINI, and our Motor-Tober celebration encourages customers to do just that,” he adds.
As part of the celebration, MINI will offer its prospective buyers a 1.9% financing – valid until November 2 - that runs up to 60 months if said buyer was to purchase a 2009 MINI. Moreover, the brand will also drop their lease rates to $259 per month for a select number of 2009 MINIs.
We all like holidays, legitimate or otherwise. So if MINI wants to give Oktoberfest a run for its money with Motor-Tober, then we’re all for it. As they say, you can never have enough things to celebrate about. Let the good times roll!
Time and time again the old adage that “you can’t buy taste” is all too evident in the world of high end customizing, and while the Beatles used to sing “Can’t buy me love” it appears that English Premier League soccer star Stephen Ireland is trying to dispel that with his girlfriend Jessica Lawlor’s 24th birthday present, an extensively modified Bentley Continental GTC. He got the idea after Jessica jokingly suggested that he get her something in the style of Pimp-My-Ride to match Stephen’s blue accented Audi R8. The 23 year old midfielder kept the entire ordeal a secret from almost everyone, especially Jessica who was simply stunned when she received her gift.
The modified 200 MPH drop top is full of special details that make this Bentley truly unique. Stephen had the flying B on the hood of the car replaced with a J and even the two tone deep dished rims have Jessica’s initials panted on them. On the inside Stephen went the extra step and had an oversized heart stitched into the red headrest with the message “To Jess Love From Stephen” monogrammed inside. Despite the extreme lack of a taste and absence of style, Jessica is absolutely delighted with her birthday gift, after all what 24 year old female wouldn’t.
Although the Bentley Continental GTC underwent £264,000 worth of modifications, the mighty 6.0 Liter W12 was left alone and still produces a maximum output of 552 HP and is capable of accelerating the all wheel drive grand touring car from 0 to 60 MPH in just 4.8 seconds and keep on going all the way up to a top speed of 198 MPH.
The creative team at Maverick Business Adventures organizes creative high octane ways for up and coming entrepreneurs and Million dollar a year Fortune 500 CEOs to get together for very unique networking opportunities and in some instances a chance to give back to charitable organizations while doing it. Back on the first of the month MBA organized a group of twenty different corporate big wigs to participate in the "Totally Rad 80’s Maverick Road Rally." They started off by having their hair dyed pink in recognition of cancer awareness month by students from hair care expert John Paul Mitchell’s school of all things styling related at the Marina Del Rey in sunny Southern California. Shortly after the group jumped in their high prices Italian exotics and continued up the Pacific coast highway, ending up in Napa Valley for a few sundowners.
Along the way the group stopped to pose for pictures with members of the Variety Boys & Girls Club of East L.A. From the looks of things, everyone who participated in the road rally had an absolute blast. After all who wouldn’t feel great after a day of driving along one of America’s most memorably thoroughfares while donating to charity and making important business decisions all at the same time. Maverick Business Adventures founder Yanik Silver’s “Mavericks” gave a total of $7,000 to Fran Drescher’s Cancer Shmancer foundation and another $8,000 to the Boys & Girls Club of America. The "Totally Rad 80’s Maverick Road Rally" was an absolute success and we are pretty sure that Yanik is already working on another high octane event for up and coming “Mavericks.”
Remember that enraged customer that drove a 1983 Rolls Royce straight through a Tesco store?
For his uncalled for act of destruction, the man – Robert Caton – has won for himself a 16-month, all-expense paid trip behind bars. In addition to serving time behind bars, Caton has also been slapped with another 3-month sentence because he didn’t take a breath test, plus a five-year suspension of his license.
But that’s not the most depressing part, as far as we’re concerned. His beautifully restored 1983 Rolls Royce was severely damaged beyond repair after Caton decided to use it as his preferred weapon of store destruction. You can say he was partly successful too because the Tesco store he decided to crash into ended up losing over £60,000 in damages and lost sales.
For his part, Caton was remorseful at the sentencing and owned up to his reckless stupor. “I gladly offer my sincere apologies to all affected by my reckless and irresponsible behaviour,” he said.
Kudos to him for finally manning up and taking responsibility, although if he had shown this much poise at the time of the incident, then none of it would have probably happened.
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