Michael Vick: Fire Sale the Bentleys

A federal judge on Friday ruled that cars owned by bankrupt dog fighter and sometimes quarterback Michael Vick will be sold to cover his debts. Much media attention has gone to the kind folks who adopted Vick's Pitts. We're wondering who will get the lot of exclusive car that were once parked at Vick's Atlanta home including a Bentley Flying Spur, a Bentley Coupe, and Benz 500. Read More

Daschle's Car Trouble: Was it the Porsche?

The New York Times is reporting that Tom Daschle, Obama's pick for health and human services secretary, failed to pay more than $128,000 in taxes, partly for the free use of a car owned by businessman Leo Hindery Jr.
Question to Daschle: did you borrow Hidery's Porsche 911 GT3 RS? The Times failed to report what brand of car Daschle took, but Hindery is an uber rich guy gearhead who regularly tracks his GT3 at LeMans. Here at Rumblenote, we'd be apt to forgive Daschle if it was in fact the Porsche (the GT3 would make a fine addition to DC streets) except the Nancy is also reported to have borrowed Hindery's driver. Read More

Man Offers Home for Porsche

If I didn't have this damn house payment, imagine what I'd be driving.
What gearhead hasn't thought it? Tent in the trunk. A Coleman stove. Works for me.
One guy seems willing to give it a try -- in an early Porsche 911, a fine camping machine. This visionary posted a listing in the classifieds at Pelican Parts, a well-known Porsche site, offering up his Cape Cod in Ann Arbor, Mich. In exchange, he's asking for a concourse quality pre '74 911, cream or white, if possible.With prices of early 911s exploding far beyond the cost of college town starter homes, our friend might be running a good bargain. The 911, at least, will keep its value. We're all for it mister, if that helps you explain it to your wife.
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First Cars Friday: 1960 Chevy Apache

The seller called it a Texas truck, but the rusted floors of the '60 Chevy Apache said it had braved a few Michigan winters. It was 1988. The original six had been yanked and traded for a tired Buick 350 topped by a Quadrajet. Electrical gremlins lived under the hood and below the dash, setting several minor fires.
A few months after I bought it, my dad and I painted it red, a better color to hide the Bondo waves than black, he taught me. Eventually I replaced it with a 440-powered '66 Plymouth, then a '63 Nova, then German and Swede clunkers, then subways. Read More

Lost Your Job? Lose the Hyundai

Afraid to buy a new car when you're the last guy on the block who hasn't been laid off? Hyundai has deal for you. As part of the Korean carmakers' recsssion marketing plan, it will take back your new car if you lose you job or file for bankruptcy. The "Assurance" plan sound original, but it likely originated long ago with GMAC Financing, where it went by the less assuring term "repossession."
Considering your chances for keeping your job through 2009, we think it wise to take up Hyundai on the deal. Get the Genesis (reviewers are comparing it to the best Euro sports sedans) and drive it like you stole it. If the Genesis isn't part of the deal, skip it and take the bus. Read More

What Happened to Cheap Diesel?

Back in 1980s, VW Rabbit diesel owners were thrift king, cranking more than 50mpg on the highway (eat it Prius!) on fuel that was cheaper than a bottle of Faygo red pop. So what if it was slow and wouldn’t start in winter without a block warmer? You could brag about running on vapors back when the only people who cared were protesting nuclear power with David Crosby. Not so today. If you’re still rocking a Rabbit, you’re sipping high-end fuel. Today’s national average for diesel is $2.40 compared to $1.80 for regular.
So how is it that the “green fuel” became so much more expensive than regular? Supply and demand, says Clayton Boyce at the American Trucking Associations, a group that knows a little about the price of diesel. Diesel fans are a minority at US pumps, but Boyce says demand in China has skyrocketed beyond refinery capacity (once again, the Chinese are to blame.) To take back your cheap crown, better covert that bunny to grease. Read More

A Better LeMons: Add Motorcycles

Like everyone else who digs grassroots motorsports (more like grass seed racing in this case) we love the idea of the 24 hours of LeMons, the "endurance race” for cars valued at less than $500. If you haven’t seen the New York Times video about the quirky event, watch it now and start trolling Craigslist for your entry. Our suggestion: an '88 Volvo 740. Indestructible. But we can’t help thinking LeMons would be much more fun with motorcycles. If I did, what would you track? Read More

Craigslisted: BMW 2002 Wealthy Check-Writing Yahoos Need Not Apply

Like litters of kittens, or maybe their daughters, car nuts get attached to their projects. When it’s time to pass them on to the next guy, they get weird about who shows up at the door. Take Paul Wegweiser and the ’73 BMW 2002 he has listed on Baltimore Craigslist. When Paul bought “Emily” a few years back after seeing her parked in DC, she was a plain-Jane Bimmer. After a total resto, she's sporting a 180 hp engine with duel webers, some vintage Alpina bits and a long list of power and handling upgrades. Paul says he's looking for “a good home, with a caring owner – not just some wealthy check-writing yahoo.” At $30,000, we're thinking Paul might want to give the rich yahoos a chance. He's using the money to build a full-on 2002 race car. We think he'll get over Emily soon enough. Some more pics of this beauty. Read More

MGB: A Proper Winter Beater?

Sleet is fallling in Baltimore. Winter beater time comes late to Charm City, but '62 Impala man in the rowhouse up the street seems unprepared as his car gets covered with layer of ice.

So what makes a proper winter beater? I applaud the owner of this MGB GT, but the blue bomb wouldn't survive the inevitable snow bank impact. I guarantee the heater motor is shot. No Brit car will do. To my mind, January demands late '70s American steel with a working emergency brake for parking lot slides (the pedal kind where you're dedicated to riding out the spin). A fuzzy warm steering wheel wrap too. And holes rusted through the floors for the melted snow to drain.

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Memo to Prince: Check Out Bo Diddley

Jalopnik recently put together a nice collection of bike and hot rod album art. I'm bias toward the 440 six-pack on Ministry's "Jesus Built My Hotrod."

But the ugly award surely goes to the purple Honda the midget rode on "Purple Rain." Sources say it's an '81 400 automatic with a custom fairing to keep the bugs off the bare-headed rider. If Prince has an embarrassment gene (doubtful) he's got turn red about ruining a great album with a dork bike. Let's chalk the bad choice up to 1984 (like you never drooled over a Fiero).

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Fast, Furious, Fail: In Which Racer Boy Explores the Physics of the High Side

It's only funny when nobody gets hurt and the bike's not yours. Read More

Jeff's Pic of the Day: A Munstered-out Fiat Topolino

My brother Jeff -- car-porn surfer extraordinaire-- likes to send along rides that "look like fun." This week it's a tube frame with a 1937 Fiat Topolino (little mouse?) body plopped on top. We're a little tired of the rat rod, but this ebay find goes way beyond kitch with some cool choices. It's powered by a hopped-up Chevy four with duel Webers instead of the obvious choice small block Chevy (though the seller assures us that a big block will bolt right up to the Borg-Warner four speed). We also dig the vintage Firestones. Bidding topped out at $11,000, under the reserve. A great car for city driving. Read More

Black Your Plate, Save Your Soul

A security guard interrupted me as I took a shot of this Smart parked near a Hopkins dorm on Saturday.
"Is that your car?" he said.
"Unfortunately, no, it's not," I said, thinking he wanted to car dork out on the Smartness.
Nope. He told me not to take pictures of the car's license plate. "People don't like it."
Remembering what my photog colleagues say, (and trying not to tell him that people don't like fat guys with braces in polyester) I told him about the law as it relates to shooting pics on public property.
"I just wanted to tell you in case someone comes out here to whoop your tail," he says.
Smart owners don't seem like tail-whoopers. Nonetheless, what's the concern out there with license plate information? Why the Camaros with their plates blacked out on Ebay like the cover of AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds?" And criminals, why is it that you troll the Internet for numbers instead of parking lots? And what do you do with the info? Read More

GM: Blood From a Stone?

GM, and its stock, are in the toilet. But in Michigan at least, some are betting that it, like Jesus, will rise again, doubters be damned -- and poor. Remember how Lee used the K-Car, the mini-van and Corinthian leather to save Chrysler, the guy next to you says, as you sit under the Wings banner at the bar sucking down a can of Stroh's. Remember those old-timers who made a fortune? It's time to buy!
With a deep faith in my people and get rich schemes, it got me thinking: what's $10,000? Could work.
Well. If a guy with serious GM faith had the stones to drop the cash on Dec. 23 2008, a few days after the bailout, where would he be today?
After enduring the whiplash GM has taken in the last month, he'd probably be after an Alka-Seltzer Plus. He'd also be $1,600 richer. And perhaps kicking himself for not having sold on Jan. 10 and walked away with $3,600. I have neither the GM faith nor the stones, but our true believer, he's letting it ride. Read More

What's in Your Dad's Garage?

Andrew Beaujon, my former Washington City Paper coworker, wrote that I look less like a gearhead than a guy likely to swoon over a Belle & Sebastian release. Not sure what a B and S fan looks like (not sure what the band sounds like either). But as far as the gearhead part, it's Watson and Crick. Here's my Dad's most recent project, a back in the day looking '55 hardtop with a modern fuel-injected small block.
It gets cold back in Michigan. Got to crank a burnout time and again, even if the chrome isn't on yet. Car is finished now, but I like this pic best. Anyone else envying their Dad's garage? Read More

No Hot Car Collapse, says New York Times

Prices for vintage cars are falling, but unlike the value of your suburban home, they haven't crashed, according to the NYT, which puts out a good Sunday auto page, crammed on the back of the sports section. For evidence, the reporter talks to the big money boys at auction houses like Barrett-Jackson. Nope, a 1960 Ferrari 250 GT California Spider brought down close to $5 million. The market's fine. OK, so we'd all cut off our, uh, feet, for a Cali Spider. And the guy with that kind of bread will still hand it over. Logic remains. But what about the Budweiser-level hot rod. Are guys fire-saleing their Novas to pay their mortgages? Is the end of the B-Jackson bubble effect at hand? Let's hope so. Read More

Patrick Dempsey = Paul Newman or Steve McQueen?

David Donohue won the closest 24 of Daytona ever, but Grey's Anatomy doc Patrick Dempsey took most of the ink. USA Today is calling Dempsey a racer-throb for the post Paul Newman generation. Hyperbolic perhaps, but Dempsey and his three day shadow clearly have reminded non-car dorks that there's more to Daytona than beer bongs and sorority girls. Haven't seen any McQueen comparisons, yet.

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Obama to California: Cut the Smoke

Obama this morning is expected to reverse Bush doctrine and allow states to set strict auto emissions and gas suck standards. The move allows California, with its mass of buyers and strict standards, to set the bar. A big fail for car companies, which lobbied hard to against it.

No word on what this means for your big block Chevelle. No problem for your fixie.

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Patrick Dempsey: Big in Daytona

Seven-and-a-half hour in, and Jan Magnussen is leading the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway. But by all accounts, Patrick Dempsey already stole the show with fans. Wish Dr. McDreamy's Mazda into the wall if you must, but you've got to admit the man is living right. Read More

Craigslisted: Ford from Planet Kickass?

If a pickup could sprout chest hair, this beater's owner says it would be Magnum PI. With the 33-inch mudders, I'm thinking owner probably sprouts a mullet. Still, he''ll sweeten the deal with booze and Jonny Cash back at planet kickass which certainly is not in Fairfax.Worth $3,500? Read More

Screw Fiat. We want an Abarth!

Chrysler LLC says it may release a Fiat-based car in the U.S. within two years, if the Italian car company follows through with plans to take a 35 percent stake in the sinking Pentastar. We suggest the company that brought us retro rods like the Prowler and the, uh, PT Crusier, check out the vintage Abarths, from Fiat's racing label. Read More

Yard Cars in Washington

DC is a wasteland for hot rides (shit boxes, old man sedans, black SUVs with blacked-out windows, the occassional donk). Not so the backyards. Locals claim Washington is the South. I never bought it, until Darrow Montgomery and I began looking for backyard steel for this 2007 Washington City Paper story. Check Darrow's slideshow. Read More

Weak Dollar Equals: Another One Lost to the Germans

This Porsche should have been mine. Bill Breaux, son of the former senator from Louisiana, had the 911 for sale out at his place on Maryland's Eastern Shore. $12,000. A great deal for an original '74 with a rebuilt engine, squeaky brakes and funky '70s color, despite a hot start issue. After a drive I called him back to offer $9,000. A German had already wired the money, car sight unseen. He paid full price. Plus shipping. Car is on its way. Read More