Make an entrance, don't just show up.

Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR Dickies 500, 2009... the Chevrolet Camaro SS pace car arrived at a race in style.
In a Chinook helicopter.
As a salute to US military veterans, the monster double-rotor chopper touched down by the side of track, releasing the Camaro driven by NASA astronaut Doug Hurley, who is not only a US Marine Corps colonel, but also holds a Texas Motor Speedway season ticket and piloted the shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station in July.

Just skip right to the 2 minute mark, go for the gusto, the rest is rubbish

Via http://micofeliciano.tumblr.com/page/63

Awesome photos from Spritied Drive Tumbler

Burn baby burn, the devil's got your number via: http://spiriteddrive.tumblr.com/

Bridgestone to invest Rs 2600 crore in Pune

Bridgestone India Private Limited, (BSID) has announced that it will be investing Rs.2600 crores towards building a new manufacturing unit near Pune's Chakan Industrial Area in Maharashtra. The company also announced that it has reached an agreement with the Government of Maharashtra for accquiring approximately 8.288 million sq ft of land. The factory will be used for manufacturing passenger car radial tyres along with radial tyres for buses.

Bridgestone is planning to start the production of radial tyres for passenger cars by January 2013 and that of radial tyres for buses by August 2013. The demand for these tyres have gone up cosiderably and is expected to further aid economic growth. The company expects production capacity of passenger car radial tyres and bus radial tyres to reach 10,000 and 3,000 units per day by 2020 respectively. The demand for tyres is further expected to grow owing to the development of road infrastructure and increase in automotive sales.

by Motoroids

Golden age survivor in Brazil

The photo posted by Fabio Almeida was made in the district Taquaras rural Burnt Ranch, Sierra Santa Catarina.

http://antigosverdeamarelo.blogspot.com/2009/12/monumento-ao-automovel.html

racing a Stutz in Brazil, 1938

Jos� Villafranca in 1938 aboard an interesting Stutz Ibitirama Street, Vila Prudente, Sao Paulo

http://antigosverdeamarelo.blogspot.com/2010/01/automobilismo.html

1920 method of obtaining gas in Brazil was a department store

The photo above is from 1920, highlighting the "torpedo" a Ford TT.

The coolest thing in this image is the writing on the wall of the warehouse: Custodian of gasoline "Motano"-Standard Oil of Brazil.

So this was the sale of "Gazolina" in the early days! Well before the gasoline pumps, fuel was sold in department stores in brass!
http://antigosverdeamarelo.blogspot.com/2010/01/jacarei-curiosidades.html

On their way to south Brazil

image via: http://antigosverdeamarelo.blogspot.com/2010/02/volkswagen-do-brasil.html

Power Tour 2004's all first gen Camaro photo shoot finally released to the public

Download any or all of 3 sizes here http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicles/hrdp_1001w_first_gen_camaro_photo/index.html

You won't see many '64-'66 Imperials in So cal for sale, the upcoming movie "the Green Hornet" needed 29 built

Seth Rogen (who is the lead in the movie The Green Hornet) unveiled one at the 2009 Comic-con http://www.accesshollywood.com/seth-rogen/comic-con-2009-seth-rogen-unveils-green-hornets-black-beauty_video_1138356 for the video, but a full gallery of photos are here: http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/comic-con-2009-the-green-hornets-black-beauty#6

The original was built by icon Dean Jefferies.

Dennis McCarthy is the picture car coordinator (just 6 years of doing this so far) in Hollywood that made the cars used during filming the last two The Fast and the Furious movies, which he had over a $7 million dollar budget on just Tokyo Drift http://www.hotrod.com/techarticles/general/hdrp_0607_movie_car_builds/index.html

and now he's building the Green Hornet "Black Beauty" Imperials.
29 of them.

great interview with Dennis here: http://www.latinoreview.com/news/fast-furious-week-continues-interview-with-car-coordinator-dennis-mccarthy-new-poster-6189 which is the same as the one here, http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/10961/tcid/1http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/10961/tcid/1http://www.collider.com/entertainment/interviews/article.asp/aid/10961/tcid/1 but with a different writer claiming credit for the writing... odd.

Some cool photos by Pairadocs in his Flikr stream

See a whole lot more at http://www.flickr.com/photos/pairadocs/page6/

Relix Riot at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners Michigan

Via: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=402654

read all about it http://westmichiganweekly.blogspot.com/2009/09/old-school-hot-rods-featured-at-gilmore.html

Ryan finds Mopars in fields and barns, even a Superbird

http://carsinbarns.blogspot.com/

Lots of photos, all of them are computer coded so they can't be saved and shown anywhere else.

Why don't we buy American cars? Jeff analyzed the situation (excerpts)

GM has 42 SUVs and trucks, 18 sedans, 8 coupes, 4 convertibles, 2 wagons and 1 hatchback.

.... little choice of American hatches in a sea of VW GTI's/Golfs/Beetles, Mazda 3's, Honda Civic Si's and Mini Coopers.

As much as I like the Camaro, I probably would never buy one because of the price and sheer principal. The day of the muscle car was over 30 years ago. If I want a muscle car I'll go buy a '69 Camaro for the same price and have a piece of automotive history.

Within my price range I had the Mustang, Camaro, and Soltice/Sky to choose from in the American market. Get ready for the competition now...Audi TT(Germany), VW Eos(Germany), BMW 1-series(Germany), Honda Accord coupe/Civic coupe/S2000(Japan), Nissan Z/Altima coupe(Japan), Hyundia Tiburon/Genesis coupe(Korea), Mazda Miata/RX-8(Japan), Mitsubishi Eclipse(Japan), Scion tc(Japan).....If you increase the budget by $5k there are a mess load of other imported cars to choose from.

Why doesn't GM or Ford offer sporty little sedans?

What happened to cool American cars ?

Read all about it: http://motoriginal.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-wont-americans-buy-american-cars.html

car design blog

For much more see http://flaviendachet.blogspot.com/

GM in San Paulo, early 1920's perhaps

http://carrosantigos.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/feliz-aniversario-chico/ gotta love Nik, he finds the coolest stuff!

Unusual engines... just one reason to buy Hot Rod Deluxe (best of it's kind in print)

engines from Hot Rod Deluxe, May 2010

Chevrolet to showcase 2011 Cruze RS

Chevrolet has announced that it will be showcasing its 2011 RS appearance package for the Cruze at the upcoming New York International Auto Show. The RS appearance package will be offered as an exterior option on the Cruze LS, LT and LTZ variants to potential buyers. With the RS package, the Cruze gets a more sporty and butch look in comparison to the plain model. The Cruze RS gets fog lamps, rocker panel extensions and a spoiler on the exterior. It will also feature an upgraded interior package including backlit instrument cluster and chrome accent rings.


As of now Chevrolet has not announced any plans of offering the RS appearance package as an option to potential buyers of the Cruze in India. Though we seriously hope that Chevrolet does offer the RS package as an option in India. This RS package seriously enhances the sporty appeal of the Cruze as evident from the pictures. The Cruze is already notching up numbers on the sales chart owing to its refreshing good looks and powerful diesel mill. This appearance package will further enhances the exterior appeal of the car, giving customers a reason to cheer about and bring one home.
 

Ford sells its Volvo brand to Geely of China

Ford has finally decided to get rid of its Volvo brand. The American company got into an agreement to sell Volvo and related assets to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group of China for Rs 815 crore. The sale is officially expected to be closed by the third quarter of 2010. Much of this time will be consumed in getting permissions from governments in countries where the Swedish brand has presence.

Ford is completely selling off the Volvo brand, and will not keep any of the shares with it. Ford, that bought Volvo in 1999 hasn�t been able to make much of the deal, as the Swedish brand has not made any money since 2005.

As a part of the deal, Ford will keep supplying Volvo critical components. Ford will also reportedly provide support in terms of engineering, IT and other areas before the Chinese company could manage these things all by itself. The deal also includes the use of some of Ford�s intellectual property rights by Volvo and Geely.

Commending on the development, Alan Mulally, Ford�s president and CEO said �Volvo is a great brand with an excellent product line-up. This agreement provides a solid foundation for Volvo to continue to build its business under Geely�s ownership. At the same time, the sale of Volvo will allow us to further sharpen our focus on building the Ford brand around the world.�

 

Geely Chairman Li Shufu, on the occasion, said, Shufu said: "We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Ford, enabling us to safeguard and strengthen Volvo's renowned brand heritage. This transaction will ensure Volvo's continued leadership in the premium segment, where it enjoys a global reputation for safety and environmental-friendly technologies. As part of the proposed transaction, Zhejiang Geely Holdings will maintain the strong collaborative relationships that Volvo has built with employees, unions, suppliers, dealers and above all, customers. On completion, Volvo Cars will be a separate company with its own management team based in Gothenburg, Sweden, and a new board of directors."

Geely has raised the loan for this deal from banks in China, USA and Europe, and loans guaranteed by the governments of Sweden and Belgium. First impressions suggest that production of Volvos will continue in Sweden and Belgium to stay closer to the supplier chain and the main market.

Playmate pink

Via: http://farbror-sid.se/home/ for more playmate pink cars given by Playboy to the annual Playmate of the year: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/parade-mustang-with-rumble-seat-1-of-4.html

For a dozen more pink playmate cars http://motoriginal.tumblr.com/page/107

Black and white and cool all over

Sophia Loren on the hood of a 300sl

Nixon in Paris 1957

Bumper cars at a British carnival

The concept car Ford Seattle

Dizzy Dean trying to start a 2nd career

Daytona Beach racing 1953

Train wreck Palatine Illinois 1950

Cincinatti 1950

Looks like James Dean's Porsche

Brooklyn 1955, maybe a Packard taxi

From "If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats" a blog about all pre-1970 American culture via photography http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/