Petrolicious bags a Lancia Stratos and we weep with jealousy

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Lancia Stratos Petrolicious video

"Lancia Stratos." Say the words, and anyone with an enthusiast bone in their body will proceed to go googly-eyed and giddy at the hearing. The cars were built during the golden age of the World Rally Championship to do precisely one thing: win. In order to do that, Lancia had to build a handful of "street" cars to meet homologation rules at the time. Automotive history would never quite be the same.

Petrolicious recently spent some time with Phillip Toledano and his beautiful blue Stratos to find out what it's like to own a car expressly designed to kill you. Toledano uses phrases like "weapons grade," "invasive surgery," and "barking mad." We wouldn't expect anything less. As usual, the video is drop dead gorgeous, and watching the car bolt through the New York countryside is the stuff of day dreams. Duck below, press play and take a deep breath.

Continue reading Petrolicious bags a Lancia Stratos and we weep with jealousy

Petrolicious bags a Lancia Stratos and we weep with jealousy originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 03 Jul 2013 19:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seinfeld tours with Citroën 2CV and French standup in latest CiCGC

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Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee with Citroen 2CV - video screencap

Jerry Seinfeld has released his latest Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, and the new episode is dedicated to all things French. Or at least as French as one can get in New York City. The show follows a 1950 Citroën 2CV and French comedian Gad Elmaleh as both try to endure Seinfeld's attempts to navigate the metropolis. Of course, Seinfeld and Elmaleh spend plenty of time stalled in the ancient piece of budget French engineering between stops at various French establishments around the city. There are French Fries, which turn out to be from Belgium, baguettes and, as you might expect, coffee.

You can watch the duo ham it up in the clip below. Our favorite moment? Watching the Citroën drop to one cylinder in downtown traffic. Hilarity ensues.

Continue reading Seinfeld tours with Citroën 2CV and French standup in latest CiCGC

Seinfeld tours with Citroën 2CV and French standup in latest CiCGC originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 28 Jun 2013 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BMW V8-powered Ford Model A is the definition of Hot Rod

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BMW V8-powered Ford Model A - video screencap

Today, hotrodding has a pretty staid definition. Take one classic American car, add one classic American V8, sprinkle with tire smoke and you pretty much have every hot rod to roll out of a shop in the last 40 years. Mike Borroughs knows it wasn't always this way. Once upon a time, getting your bucket to go faster meant grabbing whatever parts were lazing about the yard, bolting them together with a bit of ingenuity and laughing your way down the quarter mile. It's in that spirit that Burroughs built his 1928 Ford Model A.

Rather than turn to the tired flathead or the common Chevrolet small block, Burroughs plucked a 4.0-liter V8 from a 1995 BMW 7 Series. With 300 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque, the engine has no trouble shuffling the old A around town. He had to build a custom chassis to get everything to cooperate, but the result is a 1,500-pound heathen that looks built to harass dry lake beds. You can check it out in the video below. Be warned, the soundtrack by Hanni el Khatib may not be safe for work - awesomeness of this caliber rarely is.

Continue reading BMW V8-powered Ford Model A is the definition of Hot Rod

BMW V8-powered Ford Model A is the definition of Hot Rod originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 20 Jun 2013 12:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is your brain predisposed to make you love Rolls-Royce?

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1973 Rolls-Royce Corniche

XCAR has taken a look at what could very well be one of the most quintessential British cars ever built: the 1973 Rolls-Royce Corniche. The question at hand is whether or not expensive luxury items like artisan foods, designer clothing and yes, high-end automobiles are worth their monetary cost. Do they bring some undefined additional value to the table over their low-buck counterparts, or are they simply an excellent way to part a fool from his dollar bills? While the video below can't comment on four-course meals or $400 jeans, our valiant host does have a word or two on the joy a Rolls-Royce can bring to your life.

That's even true of a model like the '73 Corniche. Built during one of the darker days of the company's history, the convertible was designed and manufactured by an automaker on the verge of collapse. Still, it manages to hold on to that essential spirit of luxury so crucial to the Rolls-Royce brand. Check out the video below to see what we mean.

Continue reading Is your brain predisposed to make you love Rolls-Royce?

Is your brain predisposed to make you love Rolls-Royce? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Is your brain predisposed to make you love Rolls-Royce?

Filed under: , , , ,

1973 Rolls-Royce Corniche

XCAR has taken a look at what could very well be one of the most quintessential British cars ever built: the 1973 Rolls-Royce Corniche. The question at hand is whether or not expensive luxury items like artisan foods, designer clothing and yes, high-end automobiles are worth their monetary cost. Do they bring some undefined additional value to the table over their low-buck counterparts, or are they simply an excellent way to part a fool from his dollar bills? While the video below can't comment on four-course meals or $400 jeans, our valiant host does have a word or two on the joy a Rolls-Royce can bring to your life.

That's even true of a model like the '73 Corniche. Built during one of the darker days of the company's history, the convertible was designed and manufactured by an automaker on the verge of collapse. Still, it manages to hold on to that essential spirit of luxury so crucial to the Rolls-Royce brand. Check out the video below to see what we mean.

Continue reading Is your brain predisposed to make you love Rolls-Royce?

Is your brain predisposed to make you love Rolls-Royce? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 19 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BMW M3 gets the video retrospective treatment

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BMW E30 M3 parked in garage - front view - video screencap

With BMW on the cusp of pulling back the sheets on its next-generation M3 (or should we say, M4?), the crew from Electric Federal has taken it upon themselves to give us a generation-by-generation look at the evolution of the most renowned of BMW's sports coupes. The video below features plenty of beautiful shots of each generation of M3, starting with the ever lust-worthy E30 before finishing up with the current iteration. BWS Motorsport's Mark Norris provides the narration, complete with a brief synopsis of what makes each generation so special.

As usual, the clip is fit for big-screen viewing. You can watch the action below for yourself. Meanwhile, we'll be busy figuring out which vital organs we can sell to get our hands on our own E30 M3.

Continue reading BMW M3 gets the video retrospective treatment

BMW M3 gets the video retrospective treatment originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 10 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Watch this story of an unassuming 400,000-mile E28 M5

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Petrolicious BMW M5

The band of misfits from Petrolicious have set their lenses on something truly delectable: Randy Balingit-Hartmann's 1989 BMW M5. The car is spotlessly clean, but it hasn't been sealed away in a garage somewhere for posterity. Balingit-Hartmann bought his M5 brand new, and it was one of the first models in Southern California.

Since then, he's piled over 400,000 miles on the machine bombing through the canyons and hills around San Diego. It's still running the original transmission and rear differential, though the engine has been given a substantial freshening. There's also been a bit of suspension and exhaust work to keep the car quick over all these years.

Originally, Balingit-Hartmann purchased the car in his early 20s, and had to have his father come to the dealership with him to get the salesman to take him seriously. Since then, he's kept the car through life's highs and lows and a full passel of jobs, but the M5 remained a constant. Cheers to that. You can check out the beautifully told story below, and you can check out all the videos we've covered from Petrolicious here.

Continue reading Watch this story of an unassuming 400,000-mile E28 M5

Watch this story of an unassuming 400,000-mile E28 M5 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 10 Jun 2013 11:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Can you really supercharge a 1978 Chevy Monza with leaf blowers?

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Leaf Blower 1978 Chevrolet Monza

There's a reason I don't own a dyno. Well, technically there are around five thousand reasons I don't own a dyno, but the most prominent of those is the fact that I'd spend all my days tracking down horsepower in the most hairbrained of ways. You know, like bolting five leaf blowers to a 1978 Chevrolet Monza in an attempt to cobble together a make-believe supercharger. Fortunately for my lingering curiosity, the guys at Hot Rod have done just that. After picking up a '78 Monza for $3,000, Road Kill hosts Freiburger and Finnegan proceed to try to add a little forced induction to aged hatch.

Believe it or not, a little time on the dyno proves the leaf blowers to actually be beneficial when it comes to making power. Not as beneficial as yanking the stock 305 V8 and replacing it with a 350, mind you, but beneficial nonetheless. To find out whether that extra grunt meant any additional speed, the team headed to the East Coast Timing Association's Ohio Mile event to run a few passes. The first run sees the car clip past 135 miles per hour. How's that for insanity?

Check out the clip below for yourself.

Continue reading Can you really supercharge a 1978 Chevy Monza with leaf blowers?

Can you really supercharge a 1978 Chevy Monza with leaf blowers? originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 03 Jun 2013 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Revisiting Dick Guldstrand’s forgotten Corvette ZR-1

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1994 Guldstrand Chevrolet Corvette GS90

The crew from Electric Federal recently sat down with Dick Guldstrand to discuss the builder's favorite creation. Guldstrand grew up during the glory days of the California hot rod scene and made a name for himself racing and building Chevrolet Corvette bruisers. In the early '90s, he became dismayed at rumors that General Motors was considering cancelling the sports car. In order to stoke a little excitement, Guldstrand picked up a 475-horsepower Corvette ZR-1 and let designer Steve Winter loose on the car. The result became the short-lived 1994 Guldstrand Corvette GS90 Coupe.

While the car retained its factory side glass, windshield and rearview mirrors, nearly every other exterior body panel received significant tweaking. Guldstrand also fitted the car with beefier anti-roll bars and coil-over suspension at all four corners. Combined with larger wheels and tires, the GS90 is said to have handled substantially better than the ZR-1 on which it was based. Of course, the cars were also pricey at $206,208 apiece. Guldstrand only sold six, but that clearly hasn't dampened his enthusiasm for his creation. Check out the Electric Federal video essay on the builder and his GS90 below.

Continue reading Revisiting Dick Guldstrand's forgotten Corvette ZR-1

Revisiting Dick Guldstrand's forgotten Corvette ZR-1 originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 29 May 2013 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lewis Hamilton jet ski prank causes camera damage

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Lewis Hamilton

That zany Lewis Hamilton is up to some hijinks once again, recently hamming it up on a pair of jet skis for a television film crew in Monaco with fellow Formula One driver Nico Rosberg. The F1 drivers were supposed to stay far enough away from the camera operators on a stationary boat, but Hamilton came in close, executed a sharp turn and sprayed the whole crowd with water. Early reports said the stunt did $150,000 in damage to cameras and mobile phones, but Mercedes said that wasn't the case.

A source with the company said one freelancer didn't adequately protect his gear. The race team is helping to repair or replace the damaged equipment as a gesture of good faith.

Lewis Hamilton jet ski prank causes camera damage originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 28 May 2013 08:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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