I am starting to wonder how many times I have spelled Wednesday wrong in the past. I should go check that out.
This cop is pretty brave…
Nascar Drift
I have to try this one day
Anyone translate?
Best finger bike ever? (It’s actually a custom 1/3 scale)
How to paint your bike properly – Ride bmx
I gotta gooooo
Taking it all in
Aha!
Being an all around robot fan, I am also a Terminator fan. I have seen all of the movies, and I am one of the few people who watch the Sarah Connor Chronicles, so when this new Terminator Salvation Trailer dropped this morning I was pretty excited.
This movie is going to be so much better than that last cash grab T3, and going to make the strange robot love story/ teen angst vessel that is SCC look pretty silly (but Summer Glau will still look great).
Christian Bale is an incredible actor so you know the action is going to be top notch. The trailer also alludes to the fact that this movie is going to be exploring areas previous ones have not (and based entirely in a post sky net fucking up world phase) and again since Mr Bale doesn’t sign on for garbage it should be a well rounded joy ride down explosion valley.
I can’t wait.
Oh and The Watchmen opens Friday, and I will have my seat reserved with the rest of the nerds.
and this is coming too…
I better start saving my movie ducets now.
This one is an adult want, actually probably the first adult want I have written about thus far.
Yes, on rare occasions, I want things that people over the age of 13 don’t also want. Most of them should come as no surprise, as they are just big kid toys. They ones that parents won’t or can’t really buy you and you need a license to operate.
This particular one want was is a pretty simple; bad ass mini truck.
Back in the good ol days of no responsibility, before I had my license, I saw my first lowered Blazer and fell in love. It was early to mid 90s at this point so the truck probably looked something similar to this:
A mild drop probably about 3 inches in the front 2 in the rear, no real body mods outside of a roll pan, reasonable sized billet rims with a decent amount of rubber on them, and a phantom grill. These were all pretty much staples of the mini truck scene around that time.
Blazers/Jimmys, were never particularly expensive, especially ones that were not Typhoons so that meant the likely hood of me getting one one day was way more realestic than me getting say oh I dunno this:
So I decided to do some research on them. Thanks to my 56k internet connection I was able to find an enthusiast site called “Blazin Low” that basically taught me everything I needed to know.
I learned 2 great, great things.
The first was that you could put relatively inexpensive small block 350 motors in them which turned them from a decent run about to a powerful hot rod. Heck, with enough money thrown at them stand on end and scream down the track when you stomped on the loud pedal.
The second thing I learned was that the suspension on these trucks was fairly simple and easy to work with. And with a few “light” modifications they could be made to go up and down via air ride. Then came something beautiful (to me) dragging!
I always had a thing for low riders, 64 impalas mainly, but for whatever reason the idea of a super slammed truck that could throw sparks at anytime was overwhelmingly appealing.
I think the main reason I liked it so much was that it was wrong, it was the complete opposite of what any sane person would want to do with a truck.
I had to have one.
I looked at them for awhile for my first vehicle until my uncle gave me my e30 instead.
Lucky for me I could keep myself busy modding that car for some time to keep the want for a mini truck at bay. Everything was going well until a friend of a friend took me for a ride in this sweet little number he picked up in Florida.
Now someone I knew, my age, had a sweet truck. Suddenly it was all achievable, and within reach. So I set forth to make it happen.
Little did I know it would be one of the worst, most expensive, and ill fated projects I have ever embarked on in my life.
At some point I will go into complete detail about the horror story that was my blazer. But until then just let me assure you pretty much anything short of it catching fire or getting washed away in a river happened.
Here are just a few of the shitty things I had to deal with:
Running after it while it was being towed? Check.
Rad explode on the way to work? Check.
Alternator Die on the way to work? Check.
Stolen? Check
Brakes fail? Check
Broken into? Check
I dumped a decent amount of coin into this project, not wanting to give up until it was taken away from me (some would say for the best).
I learned a few things, and when (not if!) I start my second mini truck project I am going to start with something a little newer, and a lot cleaner (probably from the south) until then a sick mini truck is just something I have always wanted.
Blah!
Good riddance?
When I wrote my blog on the bumper sticker that said “Lost your job yet? Keep buying foreign“ it was intended as a knee jerk reaction to a bumper sticker I saw and didn’t like. I never really thought it would grow to be the most commented post (thus far) on my blog.
I suppose though I should have figured with the potential fall of the big 3 domestic automakers looming in these turbulent economic times.
Economics are tough, I should know I barley passed my O.A.C. class on it. However when one commenter posted: “as a consumer why would I care about all these politics? I just want a reliable car that is fun to ride.” I was inclined to not only agree but write another blog on this issue of Domestics Vs Imports.
I was at the 2009 Canadian International Auto Show yesterday and had a chance to see what all of the major automakers are going to bring to the table in the upcoming year.
My girlfriend is currently looking for a hatchback, similar in size to Mazda 3’s or a compact SUV/cross over similar in size to the Nissan Rouge . Shes the perfect example of someone looking for a car that looks good, is fun to drive, reliable and affordable.
She spent most of her time comparing vehicles the matched the aformentioned criteria while I jumped in and out of factory pocket rockets (STIs, GTI’s, Speeds) and drooled over classic vettes, 32 fords, chargers and lambos.
My girlfriend currently drives a Civic, its her second, and she has had it the whole time we have been dating. It’s never broken down and other than needing tires, gas, and oil changes never seems to need maintenance.
With this in mind she is leaning toward purchasing another import, however one domestic has caught and held her eye, the Pontiac Vibe.
Her mom drives a Sunfire, and her sister drives a Grand Prix, neither of which have had overly lemon like qualities.
The Vibe is rated as being fairly reliable and the new ones do not look so bad to boot. On the surface it would appear as though Pontiac has stepped up it’s game and listened to consumers by coming out with a reliable affordable appealing car.
It’s no real secret that the Pontiac Vibe and the Toyota Matrix roll off the Cambridge Ontario assembly line as essentially the same car with different aesthetics.
While researching for this post (automotive posts don’t pour from my brain as easy as cartoon/toy ones) I noticed that, generally, the Matrix sells for slightly higher than a similarly optioned Vibe, and holds its resale value much better than the Pontiac.
Even though both cars are essentially the same, and powered by the same Toyota power plant people will pay for the the Toyota badges due to faith in the reliability the Toyota name holds.
I think this is a pretty strong case towards the fact that Domestics are struggling at convincing their market to buy the vehicles they put out, even the ones that are on par with or share the same components as their import competitors.
We also looked at a few Dodge/Jeep compact suvs and compared them to their import equivalents and no matter how nice a Dodge looks and how competitive the pricing is Lyndey’s family history with unreliable Dodge vehicles will prevent her from ever purchasing one.
Which is a shame since some of they are actually fairly nice looking and comfortable. I actually find the Jeep SRT8s quite appealing.
I love how Domestic manufacturers make power vehicles (new term I made up pronounced VROOOOOM), they sure now how to make them loud fast and bold. However like everything else I want its bloody expensive, moving on…
My girlfriends car hunt is a great example of a consumer who doesn’t care about the politics, and just wants a good reliable vehicle. And while Domestic cars present a nice package the reputation of poor reliability haunts them like a bad credit rating.
When everyone is hurting, or going to be hurting financially no one can afford to take the risk in buying a vehicle that could be a maintenance nightmare. The damage to the big 3s reputation could be irreversible and for the sake of the millions that work for those companies I sincerely hope it is not. But even when the political dust settles, will you run out and buy Domestic?
Someone buy both these cars? Thanks.
Fat Kid on Roller coaster… hilarity ensues
Real Life Spiderman – Bam Kapow!
2010 Mazdaspeed 3 trailer
Quick Silver Bike Dancing
Bicycle Boogie
Christian Bale Freak out Remix
All my gas money goes to white gold SLRS
Skateboard inspired furniture designs – Toxel
Rise of the Fallen Trailer Secrets Revealed – io9
20 Creative mp3 players – Toxel
Harmonica Beat Box
FUTU Props Commercial
Fresh Prince of Bel Air Gangster version
Hip Hop Timeline
Are you serious?
No Pooping!
NES Varsity Jacket Is a Limited Edition for a Reason – Gizmodo
Slammed Delorean
I hooked up the hose, ran water through the engine, started it up and was waiting for the water to come out clean (The engine never went above idle so I was told this would be ok).
Cocaine, Meth, and Crack all the sudden become legal. Do you do it?
fuck! I’d probably stop doing it. What fun would a meth binge be if that shit was legal?
The car should not be driven. Aside from the things necessary to move the vehicle under its own power, very little is functional. The engine block was originally machined in January of 1967, making it clearly not the original. No other engine diagnostics were done in light of the obvious determination that this car will not be restored.
The maid came around on the weekend and tidied up things around here a little bit so this blog functions a bit better as it gets more popular here are some things that were done.
Share Widget Added
HR from smashing magazine added to separate posts
Categories page cleaned up
Titles fixed
I also took a peek at the stats and here is what I have found out:
Average Visitors per day is 20
Top Referring site is bmxboard
Top searched keyword is: bosokou cars
Most Viewed Post: BMX In Action – 1987
Their are 53 comments in total and the story about my first day with ps3 has the most comments.
I would like to say thanks to everyone for reading and expect more great posts to come. I have lots of ideas and the wild wild internet keeps me fueled when I am running low.
Help me, help you, make this blog why you get fired at work.
50 visitors a day for March?
The Empire got a raise.
R8 Transformer from the Rise of the Fallen
Superhero Motivational Posters
Questionable Battlestar Galactica Cover
Obama Inauguration Remix
My President is black – Jay-z Remix
Quiet Library
This weeks object of perpetual desire is more a class of device than something brand specific. It was the child size vehicle. Sure bicycles were cool, and much faster, but everyone had one. Not everyone had a child size vehicle.
The hierarchy of child sized vehicle went like so:
Home made deathtrap, know known as a Box Cart
Pedal car
Power Wheels
Go Cart (not bloody likely and will be omitted for this blog)
I made a few skateboard or wagon based Box carts as a youngster and every time they were used someone got hurt. Picking rocks out of your knees sucked but none of us had anything better at the time so we kept making them.
That was until some kid’s (I think his name was Corey) dad bought him this:
Corey was instantly pedaling driving around in the damn holy grail. Every kid on the block, including myself, was super jealous at this point. However when anyone asked to try the pedal car, Corey responded with he child equivalent of fuck off and get your own.
I forget exactly what he said in response but the long and short of it was unless you killed him, pried his cold dead fingers from the wheel, and drove this thing off some sweet jumps before getting hauled off to jail you were not getting a turn.
As karma goes, Corey swiftly got his popularity jacked when Brandon from round the way rolled up with his girlfriend on one of these bad boys:
You see, Brandon had his cooties shot, room for a passenger, and didn’t need to pedal. This meant he got all the women little girls and the pedal car General seemed silly in comparison. I mean, scroll back up and look at the wing on the back of it the real general didn’t have that, stupid in accurate human powered pedal car.
No matter how slow and loud power wheels were as they were rumbling down the sidewalk I wanted one. Actually I would have taken the Barbie Countach and called it “salmon” and rocked that.
Sadly though I never got one and once I got my license I never really thought about it again. I figured, sure, I missed out on a little bit but all and all I didn’t miss that much.
Until….
Wait a minute here… you can modify power wheels?
Nobody told me!
Now I defiantly feel like I missed out. I am sure if I had one my dad would have modified it for me.
Actually he most defiantly would not have.
But a guy can dream right?
Anyone reading this, if you have a kid and they have power wheels I would like to borrow them for an afternoon. I promise the power wheels will return in better shape then when you gave it to me.
The child is your problem.
Ride BMX did this feature asking a bunch of BMX pros questions about their cars. Since I love cars and BMX I really enjoyed it (bmxboard did not). I am vain enough to assume that if I answered the same questions the pros were asked someone, somewhere would like to read it.
Since I am sort of a big deal.
First off, what sort of car(s) do you have?
Currently a 2004 Mazda 3 GT. Previous to that I had two: a 1985 BMW 325e and a 1992 Chevy S10 Blazer.
What made that car appealing to you?
Price, modifications, and storage space. After my blazer/mini truck project got wrecked I didn’t want to make my BMW a daily again so I was looking for a hatch or wagon.
I was originally looking at Protege5’s and Subaru’s but p5’s have rust issues and the Subaru’s I wanted were out of my price range. After being denied from test driving a few Protege 5s I found this mazda3 at p5 price and scooped it up.
I had a no white car, no previously modded car rule but once I saw how clean this car was I decided it would work. So far so great. (Other than their own rust problems sigh)
The typical situation is: kid rides bikes, kid gets car, kid quits riding bikes…Why didn’t this happen to you?
I love BMX way to much for something like a car to take me away from it.
Everything fun to do in a car is illegal or expensive anyway.
What sort of stuff are you into with the car? Drag racing, road racing, wrapping it around a pole, etc.?
I’ve always just loved modifying cars and then cruising around and meeting other people who are into them, I think I got the interest in cars from my dad, but he hates cars now since his mechanics son stole his turbo Volvo and wrote it off. Thieves are really good at taking passion away.
I want to get into auto crossing this year though hopefully it will happen, but I have issues scheduling in all my interests as it is.
What all have you done to the car?
I don’t want to get into specifics because I don’t trust people anymore but it’s got suspension, intake, and exhaust mods all done the right way just how I like it.
No stereo though, which is a first for me and a little depressing, oh well.
Who has the best car in BMX?
Dave Mirra has a really nice collection. A nice e46 m3 and a dope scoobie. So I will say him.
Who has the fastest?
Rumor has it Scotty Cranmer has some Mitsu evos so probably him. Locally Steve Moxley’s brother Kirk has a surprisingly quick turbo focus hatch.
Any future plans or goals?
Keep it running, keep it from rusting and keep it clean. I want to keep thieves out of it also. My next car will hopefully have a snail.
Any shout-outs/thanks/call outs for people?
I will just drop some board url’s cause I am not big time:
maxbimmer.com
torontomazda3.ca
mazda3forums.com
jdmrides.ca
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