The shag van

Forget beach houses and plasma TVs, a real player needs this. Check out a few pics. I think the airburshed Star Wars mural is good, but the interior covered entirely in shag carpet is FUCKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(If the Craiglist link goes dead, this was an actual custom van for sale on the Dallas CL.)

Sunday Sunday Sunday

Check out this tilt-shift video of a monster truck rally. Kind of a matchbox cars meets claymation vibe goin' on.

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

A hybrid that isn't so, uh, girly

I've heard hybrids described as "girly" and weak way too many times, but the facts don't necessarily back that up. The Toyota Prius, for instance, is no less sporty than the cars that most of us drive! Despite the image of big trucks rumbling through the mountains, most Americans drive small sedans that are no more macho than the Prius, which is actually quite sporty looking itself.

Now check out the Toyota FT-HS hybrid sportscar. It was unveiled at the 2007 North American International Auto Show and is expected to be priced in the very reasonable mid-$30,000 range:

For a while there I was scared hybrids and "green" cars would be weak, girly little cars with slow engines. But what I'm seeing from Toyota has made me a happy man. Imagine having a car that is much faster than a Porsche, Mercedes AMG and any M series car from BMW and still cost 1/4 the price! Well Toyota plans to sell the FT-HS somewhere in the mid 30k range which, if correct, has me sold as I type this down. The goal of the rear wheel drive(thank god!) hybrid powertrain is to produce 400 horsepower and achieve 0-60 mph in around 4 seconds. This is accomplished with by combining a 3.5-liter V6 and an electric motor in a similar manner to the Lexus GS450h.

Like the Rascal Junior on Steroids

Check out the pics of a new electric concept vehicle from Peugeot, called the Dauphin. Apparently it can go 90 mph and recharges by parking it over a docking station.

If Humans Were Better Drivers We Wouldn't Need Robots

The European Union is investing all sorts of money and effort into developing driver-less cars, taxis and trams. Hopefully this will pick up steam in the U.S., too. We're already using pilot-less drones for military and intelligence purposes, so why shouldn't we turn this technology toward civilian uses? The fact remains that humans just don't make very good drivers. We're too dependent on our reflexes and motor skills. Computer logic would actually be far more efficient at piloting small vehicles from point A to point B. Computers don't get drunk. They don't talk on cell phones. They don't feel the need to slow down and look at the fender bender on the other side of the highway. I think these driver-less systems will start popping up within the next 20 years in urban areas. The real leap forward will be when we're able to move from automated public-transit type systems to private automobiles that are integrated into larger transportation networks.