volkswagen

The weather was exceptionally great last weekend and my car was freshly ready for summer (thanks to Simply Tire and Automatrix) so I swung by Tiremag on Sunday for a BBQ they had organized along the people behind Ertefa. I must admit I was pretty surprised at the turnout since it's still somewhat early in the season and I know a few cars that are still in several pieces.

Not long ago I waded my way into a thread about "Surf Wagons" on the H.A.M.B in an attempt to find more information on the Suburban included in today's post. After clicking through a few pages I noticed that there's a bit of a debate in regards to what makes a real surf wagon but, loosely defined it's a vehicle that could potentially be used to shuttle surfers to and fro.

About three quarters of the way through writing last weeks Theme Tuesday I realized that there was no way to fit all of the companies I wanted into a post of reasonable length. What I didn't realize is how well received that post would be! I was honestly a little worried it would flop, now I might have to look into doing parts 3 and maybe for further down the road.

Sometime last year I got into a conversation about "real" wheel companies with a local enthusiast. Normally I try and avoid conversations like this all together but, this time I took the bait and asked the person to list off a few companies he considered real. The standard prerequisites (BBS, Volk, Work, and so forth) were fired off but I was a little shocked that he failed to mention any of the numerous new (or perhaps maturing) wheel companies that have been putting out original designs within the past 5 years or so.

Today's portion of coverage from Mega Speed 2013 focuses almost exclusively on the tuner hall which this year was fairly self contained from the rest of the show.  Apparently this was done based on feedback from last year but personally I would have liked to have been a little bit closer to the rest of the action.

I like to believe there are at least two universal truths among car enthusiasts. The first is that everyone loves the e30 m3, and the second is that everybody likes a good burnout. Personally I love a good burnout and while I agree they have their time and place (leaving a meet is neither the time nor the place), I wouldn't be opposed to seeing more tires evaporate into clouds of smoke this year.

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The recipe for a pro touring build, according to Pro-Touring.com, is simple;" Start with a classic muscle car and apply modifications that will make the car handle as good, or better than modern day sports cars." Of course, realistically, there are no hard and fast rules as to what exactly qualifies for a pro touring build.  Generally speaking they are older cars --many of which people thought could never handle-- that have been upgraded to the point where they handle far better than most are willing to give them credit for.

Posting the AW11 MR2 yesterday, along with a car I saw Sunday night, made me realize that there has never been a Theme Tuesday devoted to riveted on overfenders. A smooth wide body will always have it's place, but there is something to be said for the lasting industrial appeal of over fenders. Done right they can often be the modification that really sets a car apart while enabling the use of generously proportioned wheels and tires.

I thought about doing another women of SEMA Theme Tuesday for 2012 but as it turns out I only took about six photos of models this year four of which sucked. That means it's time to fall back to an old favourite, 'Classy Car Models'.

Heading back outside of the Las Vegas Convention Center for this extra long SEMA coverage post today. I'm not sure the exact criteria for parking outside of the Convention Center but if I were to guess I'd imagine it's similar to one of the larger "invite-only" car shows in the states.