Autoblog

Time for total honesty: if we were to pick up a MINI tomorrow, this is the one we'd have. The combination of dark silver and a black roof is understated enough to be overlooked, but menacing in a way that makes us itch for the twisties. It tells anyone in The Know that you've got taste, and the blacked-out rims with a polished lip don't hurt either.

Today's RR comes courtesy of Flickr member tenfifteen, whose chosen chariot proves that he's every bit the car guy, and has impeccable taste in color combos. The blown four on his S gets a slight boost in intake pressure via a 15-percent reduction Helix supercharger pulley, an Alta cold air intake and an ECU tune by MTH. Sending the extra ponies to the ground is a custom-machined M7 flywheel that mates to a SPEC 2.5+ clutch and on down to a Quaife TB LSD.

Tasteful mods mated to a perfect balanced color scheme make this our Reader Ride for the day, and the great shots that tenfifteen provided don't hurt either. Follow the jump for more, including a full list of mods and directions on how to submit your own ride to our Flickr pool.

Although modded WRXs are a dime a dozen throughout the States, surprisingly few have made it into our Flickr pool – that's just not right. It's one of the most competent platforms going for enthusiasts, and after last year's Subie v. Evo posts, we though it was high time to highlight another well-done Rex as our Reader Ride.

This 2004 model has had the kitchen sink and all the plumbing thrown at it, including an 18G turbo, Turbo XS up-pipe, downpipe and HKS exhaust. High-flow injectors ensure that the heavy breathing is accompanied with the right amount of sacrificial fuel, while a UTEC engine management system orchestrates it all to the tune of 301 AWHP.

According to Autoblog reader and Subie owner Jerome, there's some sort of gravitational pull between a WRX and thieves in Jersey, so he's decided to dispatch the aero bits in favor of a more subdued sleeper look. He seems a bit disappointed by it, but we'd like to assure him that Q-ships are the way to go.

You can follow the jump to read Jerome's own description, along with a couple more photos and instructions on how to submit your own ride for selection.

Our weeklong hiatus of Reader Rides has ended, giving our Flickr pool a bit more time to amass cars and, more importantly, descriptions. Today's RR comes courtesy of Autoblog reader Neil and his 1999 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport.

Although driven daily, Neil hits up his local autocross course on a regular basis, so a series of modifications were performed making it a more competent corner carver, while keeping a modicum of civility. On the sticky side of things, Neil ditched the stock suspension in favor of Megan Racing coilovers, a rear strut tower bar, a Whiteline adjustable rear sway bar, an IPD front sway bar, and new Kartboy endlinks in the rear, along with custom heim joint endlinks up front.

An ACT Street Lite flywheel mates to an Exedy organic clutch, while a Phanton Grip LSD takes care of power delivery out back (no pun intended). Inside, he's replaced the stock seats and steering wheel with STI v5 pieces, along with a new stereo and a G-Tech Pro/SS performance computer.

You can read all of Neil's mods after the jump, along with two more pics and directions on how to submit your own ride for selection.

It was the early 1990s when Subaru went into the Porsche business. It wasn't nearly the pseudo-Porsche the Nissan NX 2000 was, but it could have been the result of a tryst between a 944 and an erstwhile 911. The SVX looked like a space capsule, and it teamed the brand's famed (even then) AWD prowess with a newly-developed flat-six. The price was high, squaring the SVX off against such awesome rivals as Supras and 300ZX Turbos, not to mention ponycars, which promptly blew the doors off Fuji's left-turn from the XT.

flatsix92, also known as Rob, dropped a few pix of his '92 SVX into the Flickr pool, and we took the bait. Of course, the car's not stock. It's hard to have a Subie coupe and not mess with it. The transmissions in these cars are apparently a weak link, but Rob's car had it's cog-swapper replaced before he got the car. He did fit a shift kit to the autobox, though, and while he was under there, he tossed on a Stebro stainless exhaust and custom wound springs. There's other tweaks, and that's one of the beautiful things about these cars, the enthusiast base is large and very supportive. The SVX was absurdly expensive for a Subaru in those pre-Impreza STi days, and in light of their short-lived transmissions, you can likely find these cars cheap. What we want to know is where does a college student (studying industrial design – good, minoring in video editing – run – that's what my degree's in, and look where it got me) pull together the scratch for books, tuition, a formerly 30-large coupe full of stuff to fix, upgrades for said coupe, and oh yeah, food?

Two more pix after the jump, along with instructions on how to get your car featured as a reader ride.

Whoa. Monday came and went entirely too fast, and in our haste to get all the news that's fit to post up for your adoring eyes, we spaced on our Reader Ride feature. That's okay though, since this Alfa was worth the wait.

Paul Blathwayt was kind enough to share a few shots of his brand-spankin' new 2007 Alfa Romeo Spider with us, and although the details are scarce, we think it definitely deserves its fifteen-minutes of fame. Equipped with the 2.2-liter petrol engine, this Misano Blue model was the first Spider the dealer had ever seen in this particular hue. Paul was smart enough to snatch it up less than two months ago, and decided to take a few pics so he can feel our envy abroad. When the 8C comes this direction next year, we'd be more than pleased to see a few of these stashed on the boat ride over.

Two more photos are posted after the jump, and if you haven't done so already, be sure to submit your own ride to our Flickr pool by following the directions after the jump.

Our obsession of all things automotive extends far beyond the latest and greatest that comprises the majority of what you read. That's one of the reasons we've brought back the Reader Ride, so we can showcase what the majority of us roll on a daily basis. Today's ride is exactly the kind of thing we're into; a rather staid means of transport that is well loved by its owner. Flickr member thefultonhow through up three shots of his '92 Infiniti G20, along with a detailed description of life with his 'G,' and after reading his story, we couldn't help but feature it.

Purchased new by his mother back in 1992, the G20 survived the rigors of daily driving at the hands his mom, and also provided of means of learning for both his brother and Mr. Fultonhow. After 169,000 miles of dutiful service, the stock mill decided to liberate a rod while his brother was behind the wheel, and after a series of attempts at selling the G20, he decided to perform a heart transplant in his grandfather's garage. The only catch: he'd never done anything like it before.

Armed with a factory shop manual, endless patience and nearly a month of his life, he replaced the spent motor with a JDM SR20DE, mated to the stock five-speed manual. After a series of fits and starts, the SR finally came to life and after 4,000 miles everything seems to be going strong.

He's kept the upgrades to a minimum in an effort to stay within the bounds of the H-stock autocross class, with plans to install an aftermarket stereo, some new wheels and some R-compound tires mounted on the stock rollers for competition.

We're love this kind of stuff, so make the jump to see a few more pics and learn how to submit your own ride to our Flickr pool.

It's with the greatest pleasure and sincerest honor that we're able to kick-off the return of the Reader Ride with this 1972 Datsun 240Z. Aside from being one of the most handsome vehicles to ever leave Tokyo and its game-changing affect on the perception of Japanese vehicles, this 240Z has a history that was too compelling to pass up.

With only 40,000 miles on the odometer, it was purchased by Victor Vazquez of South Orange County from its previous owner located in San Diego. Originally intended to be a daily driver and perpetual project, Victor found it to be too much of a mechanical handful for daily duty, so it was sent off to a paint shop to restore it to its former glory. Regrettably, the reunion has never taken place, as Mr. Vazquez passed away on November 13th, last year.

The current owner, Victor's brother, has yet to receive the Z back from the shop, but when he does, it's expected to live out its life in the garage as a weekend-cruiser and rolling memorial to his brother.

Our love and regards are being sent out to the Vazquez family, and although this post could never do Victor's memory justice, we're honored that we were able to salute him in one of the only ways we know how.

Follow the jump to see more shots of Victor's Z and to get directions on how to submit your own vehicle for selection in our Reader Ride contest.

We're a mere five days away from relaunching our Reader Ride feature, and by the looks of it so far, we're off to a cracking start. We've amassed over 30 new members in our Flickr pool, with many accompanying their pics with a detailed explanation of where the car is from, its history and what mods have been performed -- others, not so much. There are several rides floating around the pool that are begging to be chosen (we're talking to the owners of the Audi S2, 911 Targa, and VW Corrado, specifically), but will remain unloved until we get at least one descriptive sentence.

As for the the RR format, we've decided to highlight three vehicles per week, posting one on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with a vote at the end of the month that allows you to pick your favorite from the group. We think it will work, and we've got faith that the submissions will continue to flow in.

That said, if you haven't done so already, follow the directions after the jump to throw your own ride into our Flickr pool. All we need are three photos and a brief description of the car, and you're whip is almost guaranteed its 15-minutes of fame -- or infamy.

We're shooting from the hip this week for Podcast #71. Rather than prepare, we're going with gut reactions. Starting it off, we mull over the loss of the USGP from Indianapolis, and postulate on where else F1 may pop up in the US. An F1 race on the Vegas strip would be the bomb. Staying with motorsports, we marvel at how Team SARD spanked everyone extremely hard at Tokachi with a hybridized Supra GT. We're sure that racing will improve the hybrid breed at a much steeper pace than conventional powerplants. In other racing news, Dale Junior has split from Budweiser, so he'll have new livery to plaster all over his left-turn machine.

Moving on from racing, we ponder the leakage and eventual announcement of the Porsche 911 GT2. It's as unassuming as a Porsche can get, but it packs 530 horsepower and uses the rear wheels to push top speed to the 200 MPH realm, while being a docile everyday car. While Porsches always make us giddy little schoolboys, Subaru's recent model line revisions have us alternating between cheers and jeers. The good: the Legacy SUS, or whatever the heck they call their Outback sedan is kaput. The bad: so is the straight Legacy wagon. We devolve into a styling review of Subaru's new corporate language for a while before surfacing again to discuss the inanity surrounding presidential candidates and hybrid vehicles. Idiocy, 'nuff said.

On a lighter note, we discuss the rumored sequel to Disney/Pixar's "Cars." Not surprising when you consider how lucrative the tie-ins usually are. Off entertainment and on to entertaining cars, we ogle the leaked pictures of the FPV Falcon, and discuss the future plans of that platform here in the US. It does look mean, so thanks to that janitor who picked these renderings out of the trash. Our pithy cavalcade keeps rolling along, and we chew over Bob Lutz's latest comments about the future of diesel powerplants in the US. It's odd that Bob is cool on diesel just as GM is poised to roll out new oil-burners. Wrapping up, we put out the call to action again for the Reader Ride - add your pix to the Flickr pool and include details! The hour duration of Podcast #71 will give you enjoyment to and from work, enjoy!

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It's a rare week that goes by that we don't get at least one comment asking where the Reader Ride of the Day has gone. Well, we're pleased to announce that the RR hiatus has ended and in the next two weeks we'll be accumulating more reader-owned vehicles to showcase on a regular basis. We're still mulling over whether or not we want to keep the same format as before, featuring one vehicle per day and then allowing you to vote for your favorite at the end of the week, or making it a weekly feature, with a vote at the end of the month. Sound off in comments about what you'd prefer and we'll take your thoughts into consideration.

We've got a new Flickr pool set up, ingeniously titled "Autoblog Reader Rides," and we'd ask you to begin submitting your rides as soon as you've got three photos and a brief (or detailed) description of your vehicle. Directions are posted after the jump that outline how to submit, what we need and what our new Flickr address is. Bring your best and brightest, or your downtrodden and rusted -- we don't care -- we just want to see what you're rollin'.

At 1:30 AM EST this morning, we closed voting on the closest Reader Ride of the Week poll we've ever seen. During the battle over the weekend, the margin between Adam's 1972 Austin Mini and Oli's Audi S4 was as little as one vote. As the polling continued, jockeying for the top slot became even more heated, until mid-Sunday, when the S4 gained a bit more momentum, finally propelling the autocross attack machine to victory with a scant 38 addtional votes.



We like to end things on a high note, so we'll be taking a brief hiatus from our RR of the Day feature as we regroup, mull over some proposed formatting changes and increase our cache of potential entrants. In the meantime, we'd encourage you to submit your own ride to our Flickr pool by following the directions after the jump, making sure to provide us with enough details to make an interesting post out of your whip.

But fear not, the RR of the Day will return! Show your support by submitting your ride and if you'd like to propose an idea or two, click on through to submit a comment.

How could we best describe this week's selection of Reader's Rides? Diverse? Too vague. Erratic? Too negative. How about a motley hodgepodge of four-wheeled absurdity? Sure. We'll run with that.

Absurd doesn't even begin to describe the idea of piling several of your soon-to-be closest friends into a short bus, destined to travel from one end of the earth to the other, all in the name of charity. But that's exactly what the Penitent Yanks did and that's why they made it onto our page Tuesday. The school bus was the high water mark of insane conveyances, but Oli's autocrossing S4 wasn't far behind, followed by a much more sedate Passat Syncro, '69 Bug and the oh-so-delectable classic Mini.

We can't pick our favorite, so we'll leave it up to you. Vote below and be sure to submit your own ride to our Flickr pool by following the directions after the jump.

RR of the Week
	Austin-Mini
	GMC Short Bus
	VW Beetle
	VW Passat Syncro
	Audi S4

It's hard not to get all hot and bothered when we see an S4 doing the three-wheeled tango around an autocross course. However, this particular S4 is putting down 387 HP and 445 lb-ft of torque through all four wheels. In addition to such prodigious power figures, the 2.7L twin-turbo'd Audi has been piloted to a number of first place wins under the deft touch of Oliver Licul, an SCCA participant, instructor and Autoblog reader.

The extensive catalog of mods is listed after the jump, along with another photo of Oliver's ride doing its thing, but a few items deserve note. First, the suspension is made up of custom Koni double adjustable coilovers, sporting 800 lb. springs in the front, while 950 lb. springs hold up the rear. All those cushy stock bushings have been swapped out in favor of solid, spherical bearings, along with hollow sway bars fore and aft. Mr. Licul admits that it's still a porker, coming in 600 pounds overweight for its class, but judging from his accomplishments around the cones, he's made up for it with some serious skill behind the wheel (that, and gobs of power).

Check the rest after the jump, plus find out how to submit your own ride to our Flickr pool.

Flickr user mtl_raoul's G60-powered '92 Passat GL Syncro is one of those things that grabbed our attention when we saw it floating around in the pool. For one, the grille-free B3 Passats are still cool-looking today. Add the fact that the all-wheel drive Syncro variant was not offered in the United States and things get even more interesting. A few did find their way to Canada, however, and that's where today's ride resides.

Once a daily driver, the Syncro has been relegated to "winter beater" duty -- a task it's up to considering the full winter package the loaded sedan is equipped with. That means that the requisite heated seats are joined by niceties like heated headlamp washers and a double-capacity washer fluid reservoir. The car's 1.8L supercharged four is not what it once was, sadly. The G-Lader crapped out on Raoul about a year ago and he removed the blower instead of taking the financial hit associated with the unit's repair or replacement. Other than that modification, the car's original.

Sizeable 'Syncro" decals on the rear quarter panels announce that the car is equipped with awd, and the metallic-finish wheels look pretty spiffy. The red G60 badge on the trunklid remains as a reminder of what once lurked underhood. Raoul says that while the removal of the supercharger really impacted performance (the Passat's a bit hefty for the now-unassisted 1.8), he still gets around 23 mpg and notes that it's still a blast to toss around snow-covered parking lots in the wintertime. The odo shows over 297,000 km (185,000 miles) -- a distance covered under four different owners, the most recent of whom now has himself today's Autoblog Reader Ride of the Day. Congrats, and thanks for sharing it with us!

Check out Raoul's summer machine, too, if you have a chance. When the white stuff melts, he climbs behind the wheel of a Subaru-powered VW Vanagon Westfalia.

How to submit to RR of the Day:
Create a Flickr account if you don't already have one. Join the group called 'Autoblog RR of the Day'. Upload up to three photos of your ride to your own account at a size no larger than 450 pixels wide if possible and include as much information about it and yourself as you can. Click on each photo and just above the picture it will say "Send to group". Click that and select the Autoblog group. You're done!

This is a tale of a man and his first love, which for a young man named Matt, and many of the rest of us, happens to be a car. Matt came to own his 1969 VW Beetle as a hand-me-down that had been bought and sold through a few family members before winding up with him. He's been driving it since he received his license in 2003, and as many of the pictures attest, the little Bug has weathered more than a few Colorado winters and come out the other side.

We applaud Matt for getting his hands dirty in the back of the bug where he and a buddy installed a new motor after the original one began giving him trouble, but have to question the decision to install sub woofers and an enclosed speaker box on such a classic car (love the luggage rack, though!).

Nevertheless, we've chosen Matt's '69 Beetle as today's RR of the Day not just on account of the close relationship he has with ride, but also to pay our respects, for you see recently one of the Bug's control arms failed, sending Matt and his steed into the guard rail on a snowy evening. It's fixable, but chances are this college student won't be able to sacrifice his beer and pizza fund to take on the job. All we can say to ease your pain Matt is that this too shall past. We all remember our first car love, and how hard it was to give her up when that unrepairable problem finally came around to roost.

How to submit to RR of the Day:
Create a Flickr account if you don't already have one. Join the group called 'Autoblog RR of the Day'. Upload up to three photos of your ride to your own account at a size no larger than 450 pixels wide if possible and include as much information about it and yourself as you can. Click on each photo and just above the picture it will say "Send to group". Click that and select the Autoblog group. You're done!