Bomb Black Bimmer

Like twin-turbos? Like six-speed sequential gearboxes? Like BMWs? Got half a mil to blow? This can be yours. BMW Z4 GT3. Pics from cardomain blog via Edmunds.

Auction favorite: Centennial Chevy

From early April's Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach car auction comes my favorite, another black corvette, but this one a bit more contemporary. This amazing car is basically a 'placeholder', meaning it's a prototype from Chevy of the 2012 corvette marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of Chevrolet. Done in a special 'appearance package' (my default one of course), the winner of this car will get number 100 of the 2012 Z06 vettes done up like this off the assembly line, plus VIP passes to some ALMS races and an actual build session of the motor at the plant (this was what I understood about this particular auction item). They will not get this actual car. Proceeds from this corvette auction went to Austin Hatcher foundation. The winner, not surprisingly, was Rick Hendrick of NASCAR fame (and fortune apparently). I liked the red-trimmed wheels and interior accents along with the engine cover. Another example of a blacked-out car done supremely well imo. $175,000 took her home.

Movie Cars: The end of Fast and Furious

As of this posting, the fifth installment of The Fast and Furious movie franchise, named Fast Five, is in theaters. For those needing a quick catch-up I present this short movie (no sound) of the end of the fourth movie, Fast and Furious, showing our merry band of car-loving rogues attempting to free Dom from his prison bus ride. I guess we can safely assume this impossible task was successful. And I'll take the NSX over the T/A and Charger, whether Jordana Brewster is included or not.

Future Car: Toyota FT-86

Starting production from Toyota (supposedly in early 2012, but due to the crisis in Japan, who knows?) is this nicely shaped 2+2 coupe, the FT-86. These pics are from the concept from last months Geneva auto show. High-strength steel monocoque with a 2.0 flat four from Subaru is supposed to crank out 200 hp. Nice-looking car, but the consensus on a few forums I've read about the car seems to be that it needs to be turbo-charged. No argument here.

Movie tie-in commercial cars: Chargers past and present

A neat commercial featuring old and new-school Dodge Chargers tied-in to the upcoming movie Fast Five, the latest installment in the Fast and Furious movies.

The warriors that should have won

From Speed's Car Warriors, a show where two teams compete to customize the same given car in 72 hours, are some caps of the losing (boo) car. One team consisted of 'all-star' builders and another of 'challengers'. Both teams were given '79 Cadillac Coupe de Villes. The challenger team from Utah won the engine challenge, which gave them a big block Chevy 454 to pull it around. They had some trouble achieving a great finish on the paint, but I still think, given my obvious bias, that the black Caddy should have won. The winning car had a two-tone (yawn) blue and white paint scheme and a targa top (pretty cool idea). And when you give your customized Caddy a name like 'booty-clap' (I kid you not) you're bound to win right? Among the three judges was the great customizer George Barris.

Movie Car: Rubber Car

Why the caps of the 1980's Chevy (Caprice? Caprice Classic?) from the movie Rubber? No reason. No reason at all. ;)