Category: Editorial

The Lexamino? Lexus LS400 Pickup Truck

Alright, I’ve seen a lot of odd conversions and such, but this one is just out there.

Midfield motors went out of the way for advertisement and crafted up a Lexus LS400 with a pickup bed on it. Not too sure where the rear end came from, but in all honesty, it’s a clean conversion…despite how pointless it is. One of the only disappointing things (other than being a Lexus Pickup) about this vehicle is the fact that the rear “bed” can’t really be utilized since it’s a totally fiberglass piece.

I give this guy props for originality, but Dear God, why an LS400? Well, technically it’s not even an LS400 anymore… Now it’s an LS400, minus two seats with a pointless bed that can’t be used. I suppose that he got what he wanted — something that would garner a lot of attention for his business, regardless of whether or it’s good or bad attention. However, I wonder how much fun it can be with the 1UZFE now that it’s been lightened up in the rear.

Any way you slice it, this is pretty out there.

January 21, 2009
Casey's Dream Garage

Pay no attention to Greg’s Dream Garage list, this is the real deal. However, I drive a Ford Focus station wagon, so take my opinion for what it’s worth…

1961 Triumph TR6 Trophy Bird. I’ve always wanted a motorcycle, and if I can ever afford it, this is the one I’d get. You can keep your Harley’s and rice-powered-crotch-rockets. I’ll take this sucker any day of the week. Ridden by Steve McQueen in The Great Escape (albeit modified to look like a German BMW motorcycle), this mean motor scooter symbolizes a bygone era — one where escaped P.O.W.’s were free to roam the hills of a war torn Germany in search of one last ride. If it’s good enough for Steve McQueen, it’s good enough for me.

Willys MA US Army Jeep. During World War II, this was the iconic jeep. Manufactured by Willys-Overland Motors (until Ford stepped in because Willys couldn’t meet the increased manufacturing needs that a world at war brings), the Willys army jeep kept our soldiers safe and riding in style. Only 1,100 of the MA were created, making them a rare but highly sought after item for automotive afficianados.

1969 Pontiac GTO Judge. All rise, court is in session. Powered by a V-8 with 370 ponies and inspiring countless bad puns — “Here comes the judge!” — the Pontiac GTO is a muscle car that deserves your respect. Never achieving quite the same popularity as its Mustang brethren, the Pontiac GTO is still a badass ride that I would kill to have in my garage someday.

1959 Pontiac Bonneville. Handsome and glamorous. This is the perfect car for joyriding around town and making a statement. While not exactly an automotive powerhourse, the Bonneville still has a little bit under the hood with an enlarged 389 V-8 pulling down 268 hp stock. And its a convertible! Everybody likes a convertible…except for Sean Connery’s hairpiece.

1968 Mustang GT 390 Fastback. This car needs no introductions, especially from me. Anybody that reads the blog knows that I’m obsessed with Steve McQueen. He was the king of cool and as far as cars go, they don’t get much cooler than this. Driven by McQueen in Bullitt, this ’68 Mustang more than proves its got it where it counts. Unfortunately, the actual car that McQueen drove is currently kept in non-running condition by a nameless dipstick that doesn’t know the true treasure he has. If I had that car I’d wipe it with a diaper and sacrifice goats to it everyday. But like I said, I’m slightly obsessed.

January 16, 2009
Greg's Dream Garage

You know, I figured it’d be a lot easier to narrow it down to 5 cars I wish I had, but alas it seems almost impossible. I could probably narrow it down to a top 20, but that’d still be tough. Either way, I’ve tried to narrow it down to a top 5. For some reason when formulating this list, I came to the conclusion that perhaps I like European cars a bit too much. These are in no particular order, and all of them will crush Casey’s pansy list.

[Click on all pictures to see extra sexiness.]

First up: The Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Roadster.

[Sure sure, hate if you will, but if you don’t like my first choosing, something makes me think you won’t like the rest of them either.]

Hell, it’s an outrageous exotic supercar. What more can I say? I find the vehicle absolutely stunning in every way. It’s as wide as a hummer, the interior looks like a fighter plane, and it sounds like a hurricane. It’s Aesthetically pleasing, Aurally pleasing, and women find it sexually pleasing as well. Screw your hybrids, they bore me. This thing gets friggen’ 8 miles per gallon. If you can pony up the $336,000 for one, I doubt you really care about gas mileage or stereotypes. It’s powered by a 6.5 liter V12 and it has AWD and 100 miles per hour can be achieved in 2nd gear. Practical? It’s impossible to park, gets horrible gas mileage and weighs too much. I don’t care. I love this car.

Next up is: The Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione.

I picked this car for no more reason than appearance. Some find it hideous, I find it beautiful. A combination of Maserati chassis with a Ferrari derived 4.7 liter, the Alfa sounds only like a Ferrari could. Rather than exhaust, pure sex emits from the tailpipes, causing many problems driving around highly populated areas. It’s no limit pusher as far as performance goes, but it was never intended to be. The 4.7 pushes out 450hp and 354lbs/ft torque and it has an LSD and a sequential gearbox, but in all honesty that’s not what’s important. Just look and listen to it. You can see that this Alfa produces pure emotion. That’s worth the price of the $200,000 admission itself. Only 84 of these will be brought stateside.

Next is: The Brabus Rocket.

Everyone needs something a little more practical for daily driving, right? I suppose this car depends on your view of the word “practical”. With 730 horsepower and a ridiculous 970lbs/ft torque, it has more horsepower and torque than anything you’d ever need, but at least it has 4 doors. Based on the Mercedes CLS series, they took the already powerful standard CLS 600 Bi-turbo and stroked it to 6.3 liters, added cams, larger turbos, bigger intercooler, and exhaust. Brabus wanted to maintain stock manners while having a ridiculous amount of power. Walk softly and carry a big stick they say. All of this power is routed through a 5 speed automatic and maintains comfortable air suspension or coilovers, depending on what you want. Oh yeah..perhaps I forgot to mention that this thing broke the 4 door sedan speed record at a ridiculous 227 Miles Per Hour. Price to pay for super baller status for you and the family? $490,000. Ouch.

Next up is: The Ferrari F40.

Not much is needed to be said about this one. It’s a Ferrari F40. Mid-engine, Twin Turbo, Legendary. It’s the last car that Enzo Ferrari ever commissioned himself. With a 2.9L Twin turbo V8 producing 471 horsepower, it was king of it’s time. With a plastic windshield and windows, no carpet, sound system or doorhandles, the Pininfarina designed kevlar, carbon fiber and aluminum chassis was truly a racecar for the street. Many stories have been told about the F40’s almost random turbo lag. 80’s turbo technology was not quite as advanced as it is today and boost was said to hit like a hammer all at once. The F40 was the first road legal production car to break the 200MPH barrier with a speed of 201. This is truly a legendary car and a timeless classic. Current price is to be debated, but the original MSRP when the car debuted was $400,000. The F40 is simply a legend.

Last up is: The ’03-’04 Mustang Cobra.

Do whaaaaaat? Out of all of these other cars, this one is mild. I’ve always loved the Terminators, and it’s the only one of these cars on my list that is attainable in any realistic mindset. With a factory blown forged 4.6L making 390HP (Underrated from the factory!) and routed through a Tremec T56 6 speed, the Cobra was nothing to mess around with. Ditching the archaic live axle, Ford threw in Independent Rear Suspension and Bilstien struts. In stock form with a good driver, they are good for mid 12’s and the Eaton blower sounds nasty. With minor bolt-ons you can easily have a reliable 500 horsepower car that not only looks good, but performs just as well (or you could just whipple it and be done with it). People definitely recognize one when they see it and I think a Cobra would make a really good daily driver (as opposed to everything else on my list.). This is the only car that you can modify on my list without paying out the ass or getting killed by a fanboy. They only made around 19,000 of these between ’03-’04 so good luck finding one. Price for a Termie Cobra? It depends, but expect a little under 30k for a nice example.

January 15, 2009
Running on Fumes: Automated Parallel Parking

We’re now through the looking glass. The world has changed and there’s no turning back. The machines have won. At this point it’s only a matter of time before Judgment Day arrives and a metallic endoskeleton that looks strangely like the Governor of California comes marching down the street to urge you to vote Republican and punch your spinal fluid. Now I know what you’re thinking, “Why the sudden hatred for all things mechanical?” Simple answer: Ford’s Active Park Assist System.

According to a recent press release, Ford’s new automated parallel parking system will allow owners of the Lincoln MKS and Lincoln MKT to parallel park their cars with the simple push of a button. I’d like to repeat that as I find it scary and want to make sure you understand how ridiculous this is: Ford has manufactured a car that will park itself!

“With the touch of a button, Lincoln MKS and MKT drivers can parallel park quickly, easily and safely without ever touching the steering wheel,” said Derrick Kuzak, Ford’s group vice president of Global Product Development.

I don’t know about you, but taking control away from drivers and putting it in the hands (wires?) of an artificially intelligent device scares the absolute crap out of me. Drivers today are complacent and absent-minded enough, the last thing they need is one more chance to talk on their cell phones while the computer parking their car backs over a miniature Schnauzer.

You’ll have to forgive my tired old bones as I climb onto my soapbox but, I remember the days when driving was an honest to God skill and the ability to parallel park was a badge of honor. My Grandfather could parallel park a school bus in New York City traffic if he had to and was damn proud of it. Nowadays you don’t even have to parallel park on your drivers test. What’s the world coming to?

If this automated trend continues pretty soon we won’t even have to drive our cars or clean up after ourselves. We’ll sit idly by as unemployment rates climb, average IQ’s drop, and the machines slowly take over our day to day lives. National Speed won’t even need bloggers anymore. Posts will be written by an automated machine (and probably contain less typos and grammatical errors — so at least that’s a plus).

Perhaps the alarmist in me is getting a little worked up, but I damn sure want to be able to brag to my children that I once parallel parked a Hummer without them asking me, “what’s a parallel park?”

Warmest Regards,

Blogging Automaton #117789-2

January 5, 2009
The Last Blog of 2008
As if the title didn’t make it clear enough…this is it, the last blog of 2008.

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been cranking out these blogs since…whenever we started cranking these things out, but its been a lot of fun and we hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. That being said, we hope to take the quality, content, and value of the blog to new heights in 2009. Bigger, Louder, and Uncut.

Things you can look forward to:
- A redesigned, sexier looking blog that’s easier on the eyes but still contains the same typos and bad humor that you’ve come to love.
- Focus on building a community. We want to know what you think. We want your comments and we thrive on open-communication with our readers. As much as we enjoy reading our own stuff we’re not doing this for ourselves…It gets lonely out here and we need a hug sometimes.
- Fresh content daily. We’re talking several articles a day unless it kills us (and if it does we’ll replace the dead bloggers with new ones as quickly as possible).
- More editorial/personal opinion content where you can get a glimpse into the twisted minds of our bloggers (that sounds like we have a dedicated team of bloggers — sorry folks, it’s just me and Greg so you’ll have to be happy with that).
At least that’s the plan…If you have any bright ideas on what you think we could be doing better or what you’d like to see more of (or less of) let us know. Hope ya’ll have a Happy New Year and we’ll see you in 2009!
December 31, 2008
Happy Holidays From National Speed!

On behalf of National Speed we’d like to wish all of our readers Happy Holidays. Stay warm, try to enjoy the annoying presence of scary relatives, talk loud for the older folks, and remember to turn the fire off when Santa tries to squeeze his wide apple-bottom down the chimney.

Good luck to the last minute shoppers out there. I’ll be making my last stand at Wal-Mart this afternoon, so if I don’t make it back in one piece tell my Mom I love her and that I died trying to get her a super expensive DVD player (instead of the crummy pair of socks that I actually bought her).

Keep your head on a swivel, look alive, and die hard.

Best Wishes,

Casey
Senior Blogging Guy

December 24, 2008
Buying a Premodded Car: Not always the smart choice

Most of the time, buying a car with some minor mods isn’t a problem. It’s only later down the road when you wish you would’ve spent the extra money doing something yourself.

It’s not so bad buying a vehicle Pre-modded, but of course that goes into how deep the car has been tampered with before you got it. It’s different if you had a hand in building it or knew the people that built it, and sure you’ll save money by buying Pre-modded…but in the long-run it’s almost ALWAYS better to do it yourself.

Trying to fix something when you have no idea who or how someone else installed something is pretty agitating. At first it’s not too bad, but after a while you start to notice that whoever installed certain things might not have been exactly up to par with what you originally thought.

If anything, the satisfaction of doing something yourself should be worth it. Being able to take a step back, look at your car and realize that everything that’s been done to your car was of your own doing is an awesome sensation. My advice to you is even though you can save money by buying something already built, you’ll have a lot more appreciation for your vehicle in the long run by doing it all yourself.

December 23, 2008
Running on Fumes: Grassroots.

This is to you true grassroots guys (and gals). This is to those of you who scrounge up every last dollar and cent just to go visit the racetrack every month. This is to the autocrossers, roadcoursers, drifters, dragracers and rallycrossers. To those who value ducttape and zipties more than anything. To those of you who take a car worth a tenth of the cars you destroy at the track.

Sure, there are enthusiasts of all types. There are Multi-million dollar factory backed raceteams, but I don’t personally think of them as “Enthusiasts”. Grassroots motorsports is all about having fun with what you got. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your backyard built driftcar or daily driver, it’s all about just going out. It’s understanding what makes a car not just an appliance. It’s about appreciation. Throwing your hoosiers in the backseat, filling the trunk with tools, driving across state lines for an event, kicking ass and driving back.

In my opinion, Grassroots drivers are the REAL enthusiasts.

This is to you.

To our readers, What’s YOUR grassroots discipline?

December 19, 2008
No Pistons, All Rotor: Brandon Wiggins FC RX7

Poise and Balance is something we forget about every now and again. When building a car, a lot of people overlook balance and attack everything with brute power. Brandon’s FC RX7 is the underpowered underdog nipping at the heels of cars with over twice the horsepower.

After having a mildly built ’67 Camaro, Brandon already had his fun in a straight line…but something was lacking, you can’t exactly attack corners in a steel bodied beast like the Camaro. While a performance minded RX7 without a TII motor sounds pretty crazy, this surely isn’t the fact with his FC. Trying to avoid the whole turbo rotary stigma of “Working 100% of the time, 60% of the time“, this rotard purchased the N/A FC with reliability in mind. (Haha…reliability..)

While not gleaming with parts in the engine compartment, it has the necessary mods such as a custom intake setup, and Borla exhaust. ALL the power that this twin rotor produced almost broke our dyno from sheer energy. It put down a whopping 136hp and 116ft/lbs. All of that earth shattering power is sent through a Stage 2 Competition Clutch paired up with a Fidanza aluminum flywheel and Short Shifter. This car was always meant for Autocross and Roadcourse, so the FC didn’t need a lot of power to do what it was intended to.

The motor wasn’t focused on as much as the most important aspect of this car, The Suspension. Lots of time and thought were put into the suspension setup and stance of the car before purchasing, naturally, Stance coilovers. Rota D2’s mounted on 235/17 Falken Ziex’s. All of this was put on the car at the same time and WOW did it make a difference. Many a highway onramp and offramp have been assaulted while tweaking the 32 way adjustable coilovers to Brandon’s exacting standards. Further suspension components include a Racing Beat front sway bar, Rear steer eliminator, and front and rear strut tower bars.

Another modification important to a low horsepower car is weight. While not weighing much to begin with, in order to extract every bit of available power, there was some things scrapped to reduce unnecessary load. First off all of the carpet was ripped up and all of the sound deadening tar was painstakingly removed (Believe me, it wasn’t fun) and all of the “undercarpet” as well. After all the now lightened carpet was thrown back in, the Spare tire, Jack and AC compressor were removed. While it doesn’t sound like much, you can tell a weight difference when you only have 136 Wheel Horsepower.

I can tell you first hand that this will warp your understanding of physics in a corner of any kind. The first time you go into a corner and Brandon smoothly heel-toes and throws you into a bend, it will surely send a shock to your system. Believe me when I say, This thing handles. My car only has ~230whp, but I can pull away from the FC hard. In the same familiar corner however, when following the FC in my car, I have to half throttle it while Brandon can absolutely keep it to the floor. It really is all about balance. This car is truly an enthusiasts vehicle and goes to show you don’t have to have massive power to keep up with the big boys. It’s far from done, and at the going rate will be a full time attack car before too long. Not only that, but rotaries always have a habit of blowing huge flames at the top of every gear. Below is Brandon’s ’67 Camaro.

That’s just badass…Silly Rotard.

December 18, 2008
Ecoboost: The Next Aftermarket Wave

So by now I’m sure most of you know about this new Ecoboost motor that Ford is going to be throwing in half a million of their vehicles in the next 5 years.

Basically, the forever ingrained V8 motor that ford uses in everything is slowly going to be phased out. Know what this means: A V6 mustang. Holy shart, no V8? Blasphemy, you might say. I think otherwise. This isn’t to say that the V8 will go away completely, because of course you know that will never happen, but there is sure to be WAY less than there is now. The ecoboost family of 4 bangers and 6 cylinders features turbocharging and direct injection. Turbocharging? Oh yes.

The Premium motor (3.5 Liter TT V6) will produce somewhere in the neighborhood of 340 horsepower and 340ft/lbs of torque. Did I get your attention yet? Another added benefit of this new ecoboost shenanigans is that it will deliver up to 20 percent better fuel economy. Of course, this is depending on the way you drive. If you are a stranger to boost, it is very very addicting…

The 2.0 liter four banger is no slouch either, producing an impressive 275 Horsepower and 280ft/lbs. These numbers, while impressive, aren’t what I’m excited about. What I am excited about is POTENTIAL. Factory turbocharged cars have always been instant hits with tuners and any sort of aftermarket.

Hold on a second while I put on my flamesuit…Okay.

This may be a bold statement to some, but I think the new twin turbo V6 Mustangs are going to be the birth of the American Supra. Think about it: RWD, twin turbo V6. As long as Ford isn’t cutting corners in the motor/tranny compartment, I think that this thing will take off. Throw in some larger injectors, larger turbos (pr convert to single) and crank up the boost and see what happens.

My question however is: Is America ready for a V6 Mustang?

December 16, 2008