Tag: Blog

Turn Your Car Into Furniture

Ever thought about placing a Motor in the middle of your living room? How about putting YOUR rear end in the rear end of a car?...in your kitchen. In order to get as much automotive paraphernalia as you can in your life, you need to bring some of these unorthodox contraptions into your home.

First up is an awesome way to give new life to an old clapped out motor. Forget putting it into scrap, use it as a ‘friggen coffee table! If you intend on doing this yourself, do yourself a favor and use a V arranged motor, as opposed to an inline…that probably wouldn’t do very well, stability-wise.

Price for something like this? Well, grab an old busted block, clean it up real nice and get a glass slab. There you go. Grab an old Jag V12 and go for broke.

Alright, so you got the table…now what? Take a seat and kick back your feet on your Aston Martin Couch. This replica Aston Martin DB6 is offered in multiple color combinations and is brought to you by the Master Craftsmen over at Aston Martin Heritage Designs. Price for this ultimate living-room accompaniment? Only $7,300.

Last is something really Special. Eccentric, perhaps, but still very cool. Designer Dale Mathis crafted a glass tabletop showcase intertwined with interlocking kinetic gears that all work. While they don’t necessarily do anything but spin, I can’t think of many furniture that function (or rather, don’t function) like this one. This desk art piece conglomeration Thingamajigger can be yours for the low price of $21,000. You can take out your spleen a loan and be the talk of the town!

February 10, 2009
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
World's Largest Diesel – The Wartsila-Sulzer RTA9-….Nevermind.

When the Cadillac 472ci came out in 1968, they were a giant in the world of displacement. While still a large motor, it has now been overshadowed.

The Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C Turbo 2 stroke diesel engine is the most powerful and most efficient Diesel motor in the world today. These engines were designed primarily for very large container ships that need ridiculous amounts of torque to move.

(Note the stairs leading into the crankcase!)

Let’s talk numbers here: How does 1,556,002 Cubic Inches sound? That’s equivalent to 25,480 liters. Take that Honda! The 14 cylinder version of the inline diesel motor produces 108,920 horsepower. Sure that sounds pretty astronomical, but not when compared to its astounding 5,608,312 ft/lbs of torque. Holy cow! You can forget about taking this baby to a 9k redline though — this motor tops out at a blistering 102rpm. You can also get rid of your hopes of a 50/50 weight distribution too because this motor weighs 2300 tons.

(Worlds Largest Piston)

I wouldn’t expect to hear about some crazy motor swap considering I’m sure it’s hard to find something else suitably sized. It’s interesting to see how far you can push the mechanical limits sometimes, and I hope that the (deep breath) Aioi Works of Japan’s Diesel United, Ltd. (whew..) keeps pushing the limits.

December 1, 2008