May 16th, 2008 · Comments Off on A Fast 4-Door is the Car of the Day
Here is today’s “Car of the Day” — if I was to go out and purchase a car today with a $35,000 budget, it would be a Mitsubishi Evolution X GSR.
The Evolution or Evo as it is fondly referred to among enthusiasts is a civilized rally car. It has a super trick AWD system complete with Active Yaw Control, but the heart of this Evo is its 2.0 liter 290hp engine. This little car has enough grunt to cover the 1/4mile 13.6 seconds. If the 60 mph benchmark is how you measure speed, then you would be done measuring speed before your stopwatch hit 5 seconds.
The styling isn’t for everyone; actually the car isn’t for everyone. If performance is on the top of your priority list and you prefer 4 doors, this offering from Mitsubishi is a very attractive one. The Evo X has actually received a little negative press for being a little softer than the previous Evos. However, the previous Evos could stand to be a little softer, they were a little too closely tied to their rally race car brethren. This made an Evo a challenging car for a daily driver.
The newer Evo has resolved some of the pains that plagued the Evo IX.
There are other ways to get near 300hp in the $30,000 price range, the primary option that comes to my mind is the Infiniti G35. The G35 is a fine car, but is not quite the purpose built performance machine that the Evo is.
To some the Mitsubishi Evolution is just a tarted up econobox, but those that get the Evo, those have driven one, those that appreciate the Evo know otherwise and understand that an Evo is a like a Japanese Audi RS4 for half the price.
$35,000 may not sound like a deal for a car that started life as a Mitsubishi Lancer, but it is a deal for a car that has all of the high performance bits of a street legal rally car.
Tags: Evolution · Mitsubishi
Okay. I will admit it. I’m not a believer in “global warming” and I frankly see most of the “going green” campaigns as a marketing gimmick. However, that being said, there is something being a responsible global citizen and if “going green” can help save some of my hard-earned green, I’m little more inclined to be interested.
So what is the ultimate green car? A Honda Insight? A Toyota Prius? A Tesla Roadster? A golf cart? Your bicycle? Or is it this?
It’s the Grassy Beetle! There is a strange faction of people out there pimping their cars, not with bling but with blades of grass. Remember the old Chia Pets? Well there say hello to the Chia Car!
You can see more Chia Cars here and if you want to read about all things automotive and green check out the fine work being done by the folks at AutoBlogGreen.
Tags: Chia Cars · Green
The great thing about modern turbo charged engines is that they are a simple reprogramming away from a serious horsepower “boost”. It isn’t uncommon for a proper tune on a turbo charged engine to result in an extra 100hp!
Is a Mitsubishi Evolution, Subaru STI, Legacy GT, Forester XT, WRX or a BMW 335i on your list of potential next cars? Do you wish that your future car had a little more power? Each of these can get an easy 40-100hp from just a new ECU.
A 300hp BMW 335i can become a 400hp BMW 335i with just the Vishnu ECU tune. Vishnu turns the 335i into a car that hit 60 in 4.4 seconds and cross the 1440 ft mark in 12.7 seconds.
If you have a Mitsubishi Evo IX then Vishnu has a deal for you. For $750 you can add about 100hp to your Evo and turn it into a 380hp beast that can do 60mph in 3.9 seconds and trip the ¼ mile lights in 12.3 seconds. That is a great deal and only takes about 20 minutes to install.
If any of the cars Vishnu tunes ended up in my garage, I guarantee that the Vishnu tune would end up under the hood and seriously boost the output of my ride.
Learn more about Vishnu at http://www.vishnutuning.com/.
Tags: BMW · Horsepower · Mitsubishi · Subaru · Turbo · Vishnu
May 13th, 2008 · Comments Off on The $73 Tank of Gas
How would like to be able to hit a website and have it easily figure out your annual fuel costs? www.fueleconomy.gov allows its visitors to pick from any car made since 1985.
Another excellent feature is the ability to customize your mileage and fuel costs. If you live in a locale where gas prices are little higher or lower than the national average, just customize the settings. If you drive a lot more city miles or highway miles you can personalize that setting also.
Once you’ve customized your settings you can select your current car and then your top 3 cars you are looking at buying and see how much money you would save in gas.
Let’s say you broke down a few years ago and finally bought that Lamborghini Gallardo, but now the gas prices killing you and you are thinking about picking up a Honda Civic Hybrid.
With the help of www.fueleconomy.gov you would learn that the Gallardo would cost you $5760 in annual fuel costs and that the Civic Hybrid would only cost $1289 in annual fuel costs and that would net you a savings of $4471 per year, run that out to 5 years and that would total over $22,000!
They also have an area on the site where you can find the lowest priced gas in your area.
Check it out and save some money!
Tags: Gas prices · Lamborghini
What if you could join a country club but instead of playing on a golf course your got to play on a 3.1 mile road course? I don’t play much golf, but I guarantee a day at the track racing, is more fun than being on the green putting.
Well this isn’t a car enthusiast’s fantasy it is a reality. Texas Motorsport Ranch is a real place. They bill themselves as a “Sports Car Country Club”.
Texas Motorsport Ranch has member days where you can race your own car out on their track. Local car clubs also can come out and rent the facilities for the day.
I’ve had the good fortune of spending a few days out at the track and I highly recommend it for anyone that get out there and race. I especially recommend it if you find yourself driving a car that was really designed to excel in a track environment.
There is a driving school located at the track to help you fine tune your track driving skills. If you live anywhere near the Dallas/Ft. Worth area look into the Texas Motorsport Ranch, it is worth the visit.
Tags: Racing · Texas Motorsport Ranch
May 12th, 2008 · Comments Off on I will take a Lotus Elise, but Supercharge it, please.
Have you been waiting to buy your Lotus Elise until it got more power? Perhaps you were waiting for the supercharger installed from the factory?
Well get your checkbook ready and start writing a check that begins with a 5 as in a $55,000 base price. For your $55k you will get the usual Lotus Elise underpinnings. You get a car that tips the scales right at 1 ton. It is still powered by the 1.8 liter Toyota sourced engine. The difference is now there is a supercharger bolted to it. That extra bit of forced induction is good enough to send the little Toyota engine to peak output of 218hp.
This car should be on the short list for people who spend time at a road course track on a regular basis and if you have $55k to spend on your track car. Think of it as a very expensive, very fast Miata.
The guys at InsideLine.com have a full review of the Lotus Elise SC for your reading enjoyment.
Tags: Cars · Lotus
For those of you that don’t know the “35” designation on the back end of BMW series number refers to the BMW’s 3.0 liter twin-turbocharged inline six cylinder motor. The folks from Munich don’t want us to forget that the “M” in BMW stands for “motor”.
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When the 335i first hit the streets a lot of automotive testers couldn’t believe the performance numbers that they were getting from the car. They couldn’t believe it so much that the 335i’s were being sent to dynos to get a real rear-wheel horsepower number. The 335i’s that ended up on the dyno were regularly showing 276hp and 300lb-ft of torque at the wheels.
To understand why the 335i was underrated by BMW it helps to think about the showroom at BMW dealers across the country. When the 335i was first introduced it shared the floor with the outgoing 333hp BMW M3. BMW couldn’t have its much vaunted M3 outgunned by an average 3 Series.
This is an award winning engine. If you are fortunate to drive a “35” powered auto, count your lucky stars because it is a great motor with great potential.
Tags: BMW · Cars · Horsepower
There was a time that 400hp was reserved for the Ferraris and Lamborghini’s of the world. However, today there a number of 400hp cars on the market today. It wasn’t that long ago that the almighty Dodge Viper and Corvette Z06 were just tripping the 400hp barrier.
Now you can by a Pontiac GTO, C6 base Corvette, Nissan GT-R, Chrsysler 300 SRT8, Dodge Charger SRT8, Dodge Magnum SRT8, Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, Frog Mustang GT500, Cadillac CTS-V, BMW M cars, Mercedes AMG cars, the Audi RS’s and there’s even a Chevy Trailblazer SS that you can get with a Corvette sourced LS2 pumping out 400hp.
If you want some horsepower there is plenty out there to be had. The V6 Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys are more powerful than the BMW M3 from a decade ago.
If you know your muscle car history, then you know that our last golden age of muscle cars was killed off by high gas prices. I’m sure you’ve noticed the recent pain at the pumps. Could the second golden age be coming to an end? I sure hope not.
The hope that is out there is in cars like the VW GTI, Honda Civic Si, Mazdaspeed3, Cobalt SS, the STI and the Evolutions that are out there. There are people getting more and more power out of smaller engines. They say there is no replacement for displacement and that is true for the drag strip. However, there may be a pretty good compromise in a time of peaking gas prices.
There is one other promise out there and believe it or not it lies in the Toyota Prius and cars of a similar design. How do you make an engine more powerful? Turbo? Supercharger? NOS? Some kind of power adder, right? What if a hybrid vehicle used its electric motor for a performance boost instead of just for economy. Imagine what a rush you would feel with a 100hp electric motor ready to kick in when you wanted it. There is hope for speed freaks out there.
Tags: Horsepower
May 11th, 2008 · Comments Off on Rotten Tomatoes Rates Cars?
Well not actually all cars, although that would be an interesting site. They rate the 50
Most Memorable Movie Cars. Although the list starts with mini-van it finishes very strong. Obviously, the car movies found their place including the original Gone in 60 Seconds and the remake, Fast and the Furious, and Cannonball Run. But they also recognize neat cars that may have had a smaller roll in films. Do you remember the car that helped save Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone? It is on the list too.
The top 10 cars are very strong and a quick primer in the world where cars and entertainment meet.
Iron Man’s Audi R8 even makes the Honorable Mention List.
And speaking of the Honorable Mention List, if you don’t see your favorite movie car, it is probably noted there.
Tags: Lists · Movie cars
May 11th, 2008 · Comments Off on Stop Changing Your Oil (so often)
Here’s an interesting little something I learned from Carspace.com.
There is a new California state campaign that is trying to get people to stop changing their oil every 3000 miles.
The campaign is centered around the “3000 mile oil change is a myth” tagline. Today’s vehicles and today’s manufacturers actually recommend oil changes at less frequent intervals.
They even have a website http://www.3000milemyth.org to help get more information out there to the public.
Check out when your manufacturer recommends oil changes for your group follow that schedule. It will help keep more money in your pocket and more on supply for everyone. (oh yeah, and it’s good for the environment)
Tags: Oil
The new “Iron Man” movie has cool cars in it. The mini car collection that Ironman has in his garage is a sweet little grouping of cars. In addition to the Audi R8 that I’ve mentioned in “Ironman has Cool Cars” and “Ironman’s cars vs Batman’s cars”, there is a Shelby Cobra, a Saleen S7 and a Tesla Roadster. (plus a couple of unidentified custom motorcycles)
The Shelby Cobra is the holy grail of 1960s muscle cars, unfortunately it ends up accidently crushed when Iron Man falls through his house and ruins his piano and his Cobra. (but does create a nice skylight for Iron Man to use in the future)
This isn’t the only time for the Saleen S7 to be in a major motion picture. When Jim Carrey was imbued with power from on high in Bruce Almighty, the car he chose for himself was the Saleen S7.
The Tesla Roadster promises to be the first 100% electric sports car. The Tesla Motors home page states a 0-60 time of 3.9 seconds. They are just now beginning production on this $100,00+ electric super car.
We also see Tony Stark/Ironman being chauffeured about in the back of very nice Bentley.
If you like cars, I mean really like cars, you should look into to being a fictional hero, they get the best stuff. Just ask James Bond, Batman and Iron Man, they would agree.
Tags: Audi · Batman · Cars · Ironman · Tesla
May 9th, 2008 · Comments Off on The Chevy Cobalt SS
So what is a Chevy Cobalt SS? Well to answer that question you have to start with what is a Cobalt? A Cobalt is the successor to the much aligned, but high volume sales Cavalier. The next question is what does SS mean? Well unfortunately, the SS on the Cobalt has meant several things. At one time SS meant 200hp Supercharged engine. A year or so later there was a model that was labled SS, it had all the makings of a the previous SS sans the supercharger. That same year the SS with supercharger was called SS Supercharged.
A few years ago GM was doing a road show called “Auto Show in Motion.” Everyone that signed up got the chance to drive all the new cars from GM, including the Corvette, CTS-V, GTO and Saabs, plus all the other GM vehicles. It was at the Auto Show in Motion that drove one of the early versions Cobalt SS. It was a surprisingly fun car to drive. The supercharged engine had some good grunt and a blast to drive on the little road course that was set up.
Then in a fairly unpublicized move the SS got some extra grunt. The current Cobalt SS is now motivated by a turbocharged power plant that pumps out 260hp. That’s the same number as the vaunted SRT-4. The Cobalt SS model line will be joined by a sedan version next year. 
The Cobalt SS is the legitimate little brother to Corvette. This Cobalt SS is currently the front wheel drive record holder at the Nurinburgring track in Germany. The engineers that tuned the Cobalt SS actually kept a Mitsubishi Evolution around to continually compare the handling to. Their goal was have a car that handled very close to the Evolution without being quite so hard core.
Chevy has actually created a very competent car that can realistically compete with cars like the Mazdaspeed3. The question is will enthusiasts give the descendant of the Cavalier a chance? If you are in the market for a fun car check out the Cobalt SS, at less than $25k it is a 260hp turbocharged bargain.
The Cobalt SS has all the elements to be my “Car of the Day”. It is a special car. It is a fast car. And it is a blast to drive.
Tags: Chevy · Cobalt SS
I’ve already talked a little bit about the cars of Ironman or actually the cars of Tony Stark. Once he dons the Ironman suit the concept of driving a car is irrelevant. The premier auto of Tony Stark that was featured was the fantastic Audi R8.
Enter the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, that Bruce Wayne will drive in the upcoming Batman movie “The Dark Knight Returns”. Of course Bruce Wayne actually has one of the coolest cars ever in the Batmobile, but if you leave the world of fiction, the Murcielago LP640 is the nearest thing to a real world Batmobile.
If Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne were to roll up next each other at a stop light Tony Stark would get smoked by Bruce Wayne’s Lambo.
Tony Stark probably didn’t think his 420hp V8 powered Audi that can hit 60 in 4.2 seconds would ever put him in a position to get smoked by the guy in the next car over. Most of the time Mr. Stark would be right about his R8 doing the smoking. But when the next guy pulls up in the LP640 with a 640hp V12 that can eclipse the 60mph mark in 3.3 seconds there’s not many options with 4 wheels that can compete with those numbers.
There is a great line in the new Batman movie previews where Alfred asks Bruce Wayne if he is going to take the Batmobile. At which point Bruce responds with simple “no.” This causes Alfred to quip “The Lamborghini then, much more subtle.” It’s nice to see Alfred still has his sense of humor.
Now if Tony Stark’s and Bruce Wayne’s alter egos were to meet at a stop light. Ironman would blow away the Batmobile. So each Super hero comes away from this comparo with a win.
Tags: Audi · Batman · Ironman · Lamborghini
May 7th, 2008 · Comments Off on The 1991 BMW 318is
1998 I was a computer consultant driving all over DFW delivering computer equipment was part of the daily routine. My car was a gorgeous 1991 BMW 318is.
For some reason I convinced myself that I needed a car suited better to my job of delivering hardware and spending hours and hours a week in traffic. When I traded in my 318is I didn’t realize it would mean a decade of SUV driving. 10 years later I’m still driving a SUV. There are benefits of an SUV. I enjoy being able to tow my boat. I enjoy not being limited to the pavement and I like the utility that the extra cargo capacity that a SUV affords.
Today’s blog isn’t about the laments of my still driving a SUV, it is about a great little car that BMW sold in the early ‘90s.
In 1991 the “is” in 318is meant something. If you were lucky enough to have an “is” BMW it meant that you were driving the sport edition of that model. For the 318 it meant you got the BBS wheels, Recaro seats, body spoiler kit, decklid spoiler and a more aggressively tuned suspension. In later years BMW would stick an “is” on the back of any 2 door without really any other consideration to improve the base car. Sometimes it simply meant that a car had 2 doors.
The 318is wasn’t a particularly powerful car. It did wear the badge of the most powerful naturally aspirated 4 cylinder on the market with a whopping 138hp. Now the most powerful 4 cylinders on the market have 100 more hp than the 318 did and that is without a supercharger or a turbo.
The 318is was a special car. It was one the best looking examples of the E30 3 series. The car always looked sharp. The interior looked sporty. And most importantly, the car was fun to drive.
Today the 3 series has ballooned into a larger car. I think the spiritual essence of my old 318is is actually alive and well in the new BMW 1 series, but the BMW 1 series is a whole ‘nother blog, that will be written sometime in the near future.
Tags: BMW · Cars
BMW is credited with creating the sports sedan. The 2008 BMW M3 is the latest in a long line of fantastic M cars. The M3 has become the benchmark for the uber-enthusiast’s sports sedan.
If you don’t think the 300hp twin turbo 335i that can hit 60 in 5 seconds flat and cover the quarter mile in 13.6 seconds is fast enough, then BMW has a car for you. The M3 is your car and is available in sedan flavor again.
This M3 is powered by a 414hp V8. It can hit 60 in 4.8 seconds and hits the quarter mile mark at 12.8 seconds. The number of cars that are quicker than this 4 door is short. And the number of cars that are quicker and actually have 4 doors is even shorter.
This car is the benchmark that all others are measured against. It is one of the cars that continues to prove that BMW has earned their marketing moniker of “The Ultimate Driving Machine.” If you driven a BMW then you understand that the little blue and white propeller logo marks a car that is fun to drive.
There was a great ad in the 80’s that featured the original M3, M5 and M6, it read “of the zealots, for the zealots, by the zealots.”
Zealots rejoice!
Tags: BMW · Cars · M3
