Finally Mazda is tapping into the success of their Nagare themed concept cars. The new Mazda 6 is a great looking car but the new 3 begins to show signs of the future. The Mazda brand has done a great job defining their future one car at a time. Each new model is taking the language one step farther. The Zoom Zoom slogan is beginning to come to the surface.

The current Mazda 3 has always been a nice car, but it certainly didn’t have any emotion. Seeing these two versions side by side shows how much character has been injected into the new design. Overall the new 3 is a great looking car, but it does have some issues…. Read more

After not getting my fix of Aston Martin’s from the new James Bond film, I stumbled across this video of the One-77 and decided to check it out.  This is one beautiful car that very few will ever get to experience.  The One-77 is extravagant in every way, such as the hand formed aluminum body panels or custom tuned “everything” to the buyer.

Aston Martin has started a video series on the development of this hot piece of ass.  Part 1 and 2 have been released with part 3 coming in January.  Check it out and hear what it is like to design a car without limitations ( except for only making 77 of them).

Videos

Ever wonder how the Auto world’s logos changed over the years?  We do, and so does Funzu.com as they’ve posted a great article showcasing the evolution of some of our favorite OEM logos.

Visit the link here and tell us about your favorites.

My personal fave is the VW gear logo… almost steampunk in a Web 2.0 world.

Just a few years ago the sedan had become a part of the lineup where SUV’s took center stage.  Well the tables have turned quite dramatically and cars are the flavor of the month.  Consumers are remembering the days of the eighties when sedans made up most of the family haulers.  Yes families did make do on family vacations with just a sedan.

Now that the sedan market is taking attention there has been a lot of development going on.  Sedans are becoming, dare I say Sexy, Exciting, Emotional…..  I have been watching this group for a few months now and am glad to see quite a bit of differentiation in a segment where they all have the same shape and size (within an inch or two).  Here is a list of cars worth taking a look at.  Either to see where the brand is going or how great it is now.

Check out the list below and see if you agree. Read more

Man oh Man!  Mazda has had some seriously consistent form language in their vehicles and their new Mazda 6 is no exception.  A severe departure from their previous model, Mazda has upped the anti and has progressed to a fresh, aggressively elegant design but stays true to their own brand image.

(courtesy of Autoblog.com)

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Ah, Ren and Stimpy, good times. Whatever they did became a fun endeavor. If Ren and Stimpy were to be car designers, I think this would be their style. Getting the point across in a fun and playful way while creating a style all their own. This is exactly what Kimberly Wu has done. Her style is probably the freshest take on automotive technique we have seen in quite a while. The blending of automotive rendering and graphic illustration is a “Joy” to look at.

I stumbled on her work while visiting the website NOTCOT who also stumbled on her work and later interviewed her. Here is a excerpt of her comments posted at NOTCOT:

In her own words, here’s what Kimberly had to say when i asked her about her background and the JOY Project: “To answer your questions, I was very interested in illustration, mainly doing a lot of figure and landscape painting, before deciding to go to Art Center for car design. It was a completely different route than I thought I would be taking, but I ended up using my illustration skills towards my style in designing cars. I think my goal was to try to separate myself from the typical way car designers sketch and design-I’m kind of obsessed with color and style in my work. What’s next is to start working! I was lucky to land a position at the Honda Advanced Design studio in old town, Pasadena.

Check more sketches and some design crit after the jump…. Read more

Here it is, Team First Blood going down with glory as the People’s Curse does it’s thing.  This years curse was supposed to allow all of the different teams access to the oil fill hole which they could put whatever they wanted to in it while it was running.  Nuts, bolts, bananas, anything until it blew.  But the engine died moments before the team was notified of the looming curse.  How else could Rambo go down with all the glory?

So Team First Blood requested they get their own time to destroy their creation.  A few minutes were granted and aided with sledge hammers.  Damage was adequate but not enough to have reason to leave the truck at the track.  The intent was that the curse would finish off the truck.  So the big can openers came out and finished the job.   The truck would become a convertible in a matter of minutes.   What a bitter sweet ending.

Check out the footage of how Rambo and his race truck were put to the grave.

I have watched a lot of automotive interviews and this has to be one of the funni=iest.  Grand Master (GM) Lutz is always owning the show when he speaks to the press but he is finaaly outdone by Mr. Colbert.  It is great seeing Lutz humbled and speachless.

Some info on the upcoming Volt, this was not said verbatim by Lutz but he made it pretty clear.  The Volt will not lay a sweet patch, or get you laid, but it may win you a lady with a big patch.  And if you can’t afford to drive your Hummer, then you can use it to charge your Volt.

Check out this video, it is worth it.  Thanks to Autoblog for posting it.

(Source: Colbert Nation)

The gallery is up of Team First Blood.  Check out the pics of the truck and the carnage that it endured.  I will post the video from the People’s Curse award tomorrow.

First Blood Gallery

Another great 24 hours from this years Lemons race.  Team First Blood definitely blew away the competition with our Rambo Chariot.  The theme was well appreciated and received a lot of props from the other teams.  Sadly though no other teams really created a theme for their vehicle.  This really made First Blood stand out, that and the 3 foot long gun pointing out the rear of the truck.

With the arrival of Hurricane Ike in the mid west, rain was predicted 100% for the weekend.  When we got to Toledo Speedway the entire pit area was under water.  Almost everything was flooded.  This was going to be a long weekend.  Within seconds we were soaked to the bone.  Luckily around 3pm at the start of the race the rain stopped.  We had assumed this would just be a temporary thing, but the rain held off for 24 hours.  How perfect is that.  Not until the awards were be given did the rain start again.  I actually got a little sun burned on Sunday.  Every where around us had non stop rain with high winds and even tornadoes.

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