Author Archives: Damon Lowney

Asking price for Paul Walker’s GT-R from Fast & Furious nearly triples [w/video]

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A Skyline GT-R driven by Paul Walker in Fast and Furious is up for sale in Germany.

The German owner of the only Nissan Skyline GT-R to survive filming Fast & Furious (a.k.a., The Fast and the Furious 4) has put his car up for sale following the death of Paul Walker, Yahoo Autos reports. The original sale price was reportedly an already hefty 300,000 euros ($412,110), but it has since been raised to 1,000,000 euros ($1.37 million).

Despite many well-intentioned efforts, the Skyline GT-R was (and still is) illegal to import for street use in the US, so this R34-generation GT-R and seven others were shipped here without engines and classified as kit cars to sidestep federal law. Once here, the engines were installed, and seven street-legal GT-Rs proceeded to be destroyed during the filming of F&F. But one car, the "hero" car for sale here, was driven by Walker in non-violent scenes and thus is the only GT-R that survived filming.

Then, in July 2009, the federal government cracked down on importers of these cars, seizing almost 50 GT-Rs, including this one, telling owners to export them or risk having them destroyed. The hero GT-R was therefore exported, and its whereabouts have been unknown until recently, when the current German owner allowed it to be featured in a review (watch the German-language video below). You can see the online ad (also German) of the heavily modified GT-R here, where it sits proudly with its sky-high price tag.

Continue reading Asking price for Paul Walker's GT-R from Fast & Furious nearly triples [w/video]

Asking price for Paul Walker's GT-R from Fast & Furious nearly triples [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 17 Dec 2013 13:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This Auto Aerobics car art ties our brains in knots like pretzels

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Artist Chris Labrooy has made some twisted art with some 1968 Pontiac Bonnevilles.

We like cars, and we like art. Naturally, Chris Labrooy's Auto Aerobics series - computer-generated images of some seriously contorted 1968 Pontiac Bonnevilles floating in mid-air - instantly clicked with us. If the Pontiacs weren't floating or hollow, we could be fooled into believing the image is real. But where's the fun in that?

Check out the gallery we included of Labrooy's Bonneville art, and feel free too head over to his website for some Formula One humor.

This Auto Aerobics car art ties our brains in knots like pretzels originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 14 Dec 2013 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jay Leno bangs up his own Toronado in GT6

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Jay Leno's Garage Gran Turismo 6

Ever since Gran Turismo 4, Jay Leno has had at least one of his cars included in the popular racing simulator (starting with the Tank Car), and more of his machines appears in Gran Turismo 6. They include this nose-heavy, front-wheel-drive V8-powered muscle car. Yes, that aptly describes a 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado - except Leno's is rear-wheel drive. And it has a Cadillac CTS-V race engine modified to pump out 1,070 horsepower.

For the latest Jay Leno's Garage episode, he takes his real Toronado out for a cruise and then drives the virtual one like he stole it, accruing some body damage along the way. Leno also drives the virtual supercar Mercedes-Benz designed for GT6, the AMG Vision Gran Turismo Concept that debuted at the LA Auto Show, along with the real one, which is a 1:1-scale model. The model is radio-controlled and equipped with a small electric motor, sufficient to move it on and off of auto show floors.

Head below to watch the episode, which includes a few words from GT6 creator Kazunori Yamauchi.

Continue reading Jay Leno bangs up his own Toronado in GT6

Jay Leno bangs up his own Toronado in GT6 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 11 Dec 2013 12:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This Jaguar E-Type is an even longer-legged feline

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Classic Motor Cars restores and lengthens a customer's 1968 Jaguar E-Type.

Paul Branstad loves the shape and purity of the Series 1 Jaguar E-Type, produced from 1961 to 1968, but appreciates the longer length of the Series 3 V12 model, which affords occupants a more comfortable space in which to enjoy long trips. So when Branstad brought his damaged left-hand-drive 1968 roadster from its home in the US to Classic Motor Cars in the UK for a restoration, he had a special request: restore his car, but make it a bit longer.

"This is something that we have never done before. Our client wanted the interior leg room of a Series 3 V12 E-Type but the aesthetics of a Series 1 car," says Nick Goldthorp, managing director of CMC.

For the restoration, CMC added 4.5 inches of length to the floor pan of Branstad's E-Type to create the extra legroom. Goldthorp relates, "The V12 was actually nine inches longer than a Series 1 but a lot of the additional room was behind the seats as storage and was not required on our project." That's because CMC also built a trailer out of two E-Type rear ends that attaches to a custom-made removable tow hitch.

The convertible top also was raised 1.25 inches in the up position for better head room, and the trunk floor was lowered to make room for a custom 20-gallon fuel tank and a wider spare wheel. The Jaguar was restored with equipment that never made it onto Series 1 cars, such as power steering, air-conditioning, and a five-speed manual gearbox, while the suspension and brakes also were upgraded to improve performance.

Branstad named his E-Type "Kaizen," after the Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement that has been a guiding principle at Toyota since its founding days, and which has been imitated by Western auto manufacturers such as Porsche to great effect. Branstad says the name is appropriate because he believes Jaguar E-Type designer Malcolm Sayer would have approved of his car's improvements, which do maintain the car's essence, judging from the pictures.

We're happy to learn that Branstad commissioned the restoration because he intends to use the E-Type to travel in the US - we'll be keeping an eye out for the Kaizen E-Type and its unique trailer!

Be sure to check out the press release below and the photo gallery for more details on the build.

Continue reading This Jaguar E-Type is an even longer-legged feline

This Jaguar E-Type is an even longer-legged feline originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 12 Nov 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ringbrothers shows 1965-66 Mustang fastback carbon fiber body

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Ring Brothers 1965 Mustang carbon fiber body

We covered one of Ringbrothers' more extreme SEMA builds yesterday, the De Tomaso Pantera-based ADRNLN, but if that well-executed but over-the-top Italian-American exotic is too much for you, then perhaps this Ring Brothers 1965 Ford Mustang fastback with a carbon-fiber body suits your tastes better.

What the performance-parts manufacturer is showcasing with the Mustang is the carbon-fiber body itself, which is fashioned around the 1965-66 fastback. It can be bought from the company and bonded to the skin and unibody as a do-it-yourself project, or you can take your Mustang to Ringbrothers and have the body installed there. The fenders, doors and quarter panels are two-inches wider than stock, and Ringbrothers offers a custom widebody chassis to those who want the complete package.

The show car looks sharp in person lowered on HRE wheels, and we appreciate the bare front end so we can see the supercharged V8 and front coilover suspension, though the details on those performance upgrades are slim. Also note the custom independent rear suspension setup at the rear.

Check out Ringbrothers' description of the carbon-fiber body below, and check out the high-res photo gallery above.

Continue reading Ringbrothers shows 1965-66 Mustang fastback carbon fiber body

Ringbrothers shows 1965-66 Mustang fastback carbon fiber body originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Nov 2013 18:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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1951 Studebaker fastback is the woody that never was

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Studebaker Woody Fastback

A 1951 Studebaker fastback might not be the first vehicle to come to mind when we think "Woody," but here one sits on the SEMA show floor. There's a reason for that: Studebaker didn't make a woody or a fastback in 1951, according to Hot Rod. Hill's Rod & Custom came up with the creation, hired a professional to design it and took on the challenge to build it.

The project had its ups and downs, and at one point it went up for auction before the shop could finish it. But one of its customers made the winning bid and took the car back to have it finished. It features and eyebrow-raising, 390-cubic-inch Ford Edsel V8 with an intriguing induction system, and Hill's had Art Morrison build a custom chassis for it.

We're just glad the machine was finished because it stands out as one of those rare, ultra-customized creations that somehow manages to look like it just rolled off the factory assembly line. Be sure to head over to the photo gallery to check it out and below for the press release.

Continue reading 1951 Studebaker fastback is the woody that never was

1951 Studebaker fastback is the woody that never was originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 07 Nov 2013 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Porsche 911 and Citroën DS lovechild would look like this

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Brandpowder explores what a Porsche 911 and Citroën DS would look like if they were grafted together.

The early Porsche 911 and the Citroën DS were two cars produced in the same era (though the DS launched in 1955, nearly 10 years before the 911), but they were vastly different from each other. The 911 was a uniquely German, pure-bred sports car, while the French-built DS had four doors and focused more on ride quality than sporting intentions. That made it all the more surprising when we came across the 911DS, a creation that binds the rear half of the Citroën to the front of an early, longhood 911.

The folks at Brandpowder are behind the creation, which we surmise was an exercise in design rather than an actual, completed project (some of the images look Photoshopped), but it's compelling nonetheless, with a turbocharged flat-six providing 260 horsepower. We hope someone builds it - though we're sure if that happened the early 911 crowd would cry afoul at one of its increasingly rare and valuable Porsches being grafted onto an old French car.

But as Brandpowder points out lightheartedly, perhaps the creation could transcend popular car culture: "The 911DS represents the effort of two countries, a genuine attempt to join their energy and talent into one thing. We hope Germany and France will be inspired by Brandpowder's story, as a metaphor for a better and greater Europe."

Check out the photo gallery of the Porsche-Citroën creation, and tell us what you think of it in Comments.

Porsche 911 and Citroën DS lovechild would look like this originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 06 Nov 2013 16:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The crazy backstory on the man that sold 15 cars on Craigslist for $25k

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A man who sold 15 cars for $25,000 on Craigslist writes a mini-autobiography.

A man who lives in Miami recently posted a Craigslist ad containing 15 cars for $25,000, and he somehow managed to sell the whole collection to a Los Angeles-based buyer, according to Hooniverse. The sale list included vehicles by Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Lotus, Alfa Romeo and BMW, spanning 14 model years.

Apparently, the ad spurred enough hype for the seller, identified as Bruce, to write a mini-autobiography documenting his former jobs as a stockbroker and a car dealer, the expensive cars he used to own, a mob connection and more. Somehow all of it leads to why he had a collection of 19+year-old cars that he ended up selling for $1,666 each.

If you have a spare ten minutes or so, head over to Hooniverse to read Bruce's story.

The crazy backstory on the man that sold 15 cars on Craigslist for $25k originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 03 Nov 2013 09:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Magnus Walker turbocharges his love for the Porsche 911

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Magnus Walker, a Porsche 911 fanatic, has set his sights on the early 911 Turbo.

He's had his fill of early, long-hood Porsche 911s - he owns at least one from each model year, from 1964 to 1973 - so Magnus Walker, a fanatic of the Stuttgart, Germany-based automaker, recently set his sights on the early Porsche 930, as documented by this XCAR video called 'Turbo Fever.' Let us translate: pretty soon Walker will own all of the earliest, non-intercooled 911 Turbos - at least one from each model year, starting at 1975 and ending at 1977 (though the 1975 911 Turbo Carrera never officially was imported to the US by Porsche, so it'll be tougher to find one Stateside).

Any Porsche enthusiast can tell you why they love their car, and it often comes down to the small details that differentiate one model year from another. One of many examples is the mid-'80s 928. They look similar, but the basic difference between a 1984 Porsche 928 S and a 1985 928 S (US-spec) is two camshafts and 54 horsepower, though each car's V8 has its own pros and cons. We'll let Magnus Walker tell you all about the 930 and what makes the first three years special, as he's becoming quite the expert on early, air-cooled 911s. When the nearly 15-minute mini-documentary was filmed, which you can view below, he already had added four early 930s to his collection!

Continue reading Magnus Walker turbocharges his love for the Porsche 911

Magnus Walker turbocharges his love for the Porsche 911 originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 31 Oct 2013 19:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Petrolicious finds the only Mercedes 300SL to give us salt fever

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One man has turned his Mercedes-Benz 300SL into a Salt Flats racer.

"Enjoy your toys. Don't worry about breaking them, don't worry about scratching them. Just have fun with them," says the owner of the salt-covered Mercedes-Benz Gullwing. No, it's not a new SLS AMG, but an original 300SL that Bob Sirna bought a year out of college in the early 1980s. Since 2001, it has been repurposed as a Bonneville Salt Flats racecar.

Some people call him crazy for bringing a rare classic worth over a million dollars to the Salt Flats, but, in the Petrolicious video, we don't see a collector in Sirna as he prepares to make a run in a car he has owned for 29 years. Instead we see the college graduate who just landed his first nice car and intends to use it for what it was made for, albeit with a salty twist: high-speed driving.

Watch the video below to see a Mercedes 300SL Gullwing as you've never seen one before.

Continue reading Petrolicious finds the only Mercedes 300SL to give us salt fever

Petrolicious finds the only Mercedes 300SL to give us salt fever originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 30 Oct 2013 19:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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