I came across this story on MSN at lunch. It's really good, and points out the things that Washington needs to avoid int he automotive bailout being sought by the Big Three...

Check the story out for yourself and see wha you think:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Extra/7-worst-ways-to-rescue-detroit.aspx

I do love how they mention forcing Detroit to build "Green Vehicles" isn't the way to go.

When it comes to vintage Chevys, we like ’em big. Buy ’em by the pound, we say. Joe Giaimo, owner of pro50.com, which makes shifters for late-model Mustangs, Camaros and Firebirds, is expanding his company to into the vintage 5- and 6-speed market. This is his latest development mule, a '65 Impala convertible.

Currently, it's got a 283 4-barrel and an automatic, but he'll be converting it to a 5-speed manual shortly, which he'll top with one of his great Power Tower shifters.

Joe reports the "Jet Ride" suspension is as comfortable as advertised in '65. The interior's got a big, comfy bench seat and there are drum brakes all around.

The small-block purrs like a kitten and the power top works like a charm.

It's a thing of beauty.

So I call my insurance company yesterday and make a trip to the poilce station again and find the house where the guy who hit me lives.........

A week or two ago I called my insurance company and gave them the only info I had on the guy that hit me...his license plate number. They told me they would call me once they ran the plate and got some info. They never called. So, I call them yesterday and they had all information since the 22nd and never gave it to me! That figures. They sent Mr X a letter to which he has not responded. So I asked for Mr. X’s address and they gave it to me.

I GO TO Mr. X’s house to get his policy name and number, but he doesn’t actually live there. I ask the adult kids who were home and they said he stops by once and a while, but don't know anymore. So I ask for his phone number, they have no idea how to get a hold of him, so they say. Then I ask for their mom, well she’s not here and we don’t know how to call here and she won’t be home till 11pm. Now it is starting to stink like fish.

Next I go to the police station, again, to try  and find the officer who took the report and tell them about the bad info. They told me the officer wont be in till 7am and here is the number to call. I call in the morning and am told that the officer works the graveyard shift and his not in.

All I want to know is what the hell is going on!?!? I’m getting bad info and blank stares from everybody and that “I’ve just been screwed” feeling is starting to set in. Now what do I do if the guy gave false info? I doubt the police would care and it looks like I might be hosed!

Stay tuned for more….

Those who have gotten the January issue will have no doubt read the story on the 1st Annual Super Chevy Suspension & Handling Challenge, presented by Nitto Tire. We invited everyone who makes aftermarket suspension parts for Chevys and rented El Toro Marine Base in Irvine, California. Nine manufacturers showed up and we flogged their cars on the street, in an autocross, slalom and on the  skidpad. The results started appearing in the January issue and will continue on for the new few months.        

So what do you think? Did you like the format? Would you like us to do it again next year? Should we change anything? Do it exactly the same?

We had a great time doing it—it is something no other magazine had to sack or resources to do. We are proud of the finished story. We just want to know if you liked it or not.

There's nothing like testing nine vintage Chevys and comparing them to a late-model Corvette. We think it made for compelling reading.

When the accident occured, the police showed up pretty quick. Actually there was an accident 50 yards away that's why the guy hit me he was to busy being a lookie loo. But my story get more frustrating.

 didn't bother taking the name and info of the other party, cause the police showed up quickly and took the info from both of us. My mistake I realize now. At the time when the officers took the info, I figured I could just get the other parties info from them. Not so. They would not give it to me. They told me they don’t give that type of info out and that I would have to wait for the police report 10 days later. Today is the 11th day so now I get the privilege of filling out a form requesting the police report and giving them a self addressed stamp and envelope and then they will mail it to me. Wow! Talk about efficiency.  I called the officer who was at the scene several times leaving messages, literally begging for the other guys policy number etc. But they never returned my call. I went down to the station hoping to catch the officer there. They told me they won’t give that info to me. Madness! Madness! Let’s wait and see how long they take to mail it to me. Another 10 days a month? In the meantime my friend adjusted my suspension so it can sort of go down the road, but it is still wobbly and has bump steer issues now.

Tis the season to be Jolly!

   
     The Chevrolet Volt concept has been everywhere for the last few years, and rightly so. With every automobile manufacturer working on environmentally friendly vehicles, General Motor's main ammunition is the Volt, among the hybrid SUV's, FlexFuel line of vehicles, and concept electric vehicles. I, for one, am a huge fan of the Volt. Someone who drives less with 40 miles to work, will never pay for a gallon of gas, and thats something to raise an eyebrow about. Above is the concept Volt an below is the production Volt.

My one concern with the Volt is the recent changes made for the production version. The General said the changes were made due to safety constraints and aerodynamic concerns but I am worried it has lost its edge visibly. What do you guys think?

Bound in the February issue, the 2008 Nitto Tire Suspension & Handling Shootout was a complete blast and gave us all a change to sit back, relax, and watch the tire smoke. All that were present were treated to a beautiful day complete with an awesome lunch thanks to In & Out Burger. Here are some shots of the action including the BMR Chevelle, Morrison 3G Corvette, and pair of Detroit Speed Camaros.

Detroit Speed and Engineering Camaros

       Representatives from GM, TREMEC and Mr. Gasket joined Roger Gustin on Wednesday, November 5th at the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, NV, to announce the 2008 Super Chevy Show Complete Drive Train Contest Winner. 4,172 entries were received on paper and on-line. The winning entry was submitted at the GM Performance Division Display at Maple Grove Raceway. (Drum Roll)... And the winner is... Dave Gilbert from Bristol, CT! Dave was contacted by phone and said that he has plans to possibly drop the system into a 1987 Monte Carlo SS project. Congratulations, Dave!

* compliments of the Super Chevy Show

      A couple of months back, I blogged about my trip to Dover International Speedway to follow around Kevin Harvick's Shell/Pennzoil crew. The awesome group of people from Coyne Public Relations set this up as well as many other trips throughout the year to give us editors a chance to see some of the great products hitting the market.

Here are a few shots from the day.

Ken "The Kid" Walsh came in to the 2008 Super Chevy Show expecting just to make a good showing in the Aeromotive Nitro Coupe category but did much than that, dominating from Febraury to June and walking away with the championship in his first full season.

His split-window Corvette is powered by a 409 cubic-inch supercharged engine running on a high-dose of nitro-methane, and making well over 2,500 horsepower. Ken thanked his parents and crew cheif Donnie for all of his success. He expects to run the full schedule again next year and given the rules change allowing twin-screw style blowers, wants to see even faster times in the high 3's on a consistent basis.

     Located in the heart of Pennsylvania, Korek Design has been designing and painting for over 30 years. Their clientel consists of a long list of high-priority VIP's including Scott Shafiroff, Gary Richard  (CEO of P.C. Richard % Sons), and NHRA champion Frank Maiola, just to name a few.

www.korekdesigns.com

     I will soon to be painting a 1972 Nova and am having a difficult time deciding on a paint scheme. It almost seems that once I pick a color and am set in my ways, I find something that catches my eye, starting the painful cycle all over again. I am quickly finding that what works on a Camaro may not work on the Nova....and vice versa. So I am asking you guys...what color should I paint it? If you have a Nova, what color is it?

      Call it shameless advertisement, but a buddy of mine opened up a sandwish shop in Whippany, New Jersey called "Paulie G's" approximately six years ago and makes some rediculously good sandwiches, salads, Mozzarella sticks, and more.

Check out their website or just drop by if you are ever in the area.

http://www.pauliegsdeli.com/

      Rod Saboury once again brought out the infamous 6-second Corvette at the Shakedown @ E-town recently and like any high performance project, ran through his fair share of obstacles.

Rod and Tina Saboury we looking to make some more history in New Jersey by qualifying their street car in Pro-Mod at the Shakedown @ E-town event. Mike Moran was tuning the vehicle and while making their preliminary passes, ended up running faster than they ever have to the 1/8 mile only to have the car fall on its face in the second half running a pair of 6.90's in the low-200, high 190 mph range. Unfortunately, they found the issue a few minutes too late (faulty 0s sensors) and were unable to make the field. Although, they had run faster than ever before and the calcuations put the car in the 6.80's/6.70's range with plenty more to come. Look for a full feature of the split-window in our February issue of Super Chevy Magazine.

      Last month, we had one of our test days at Englishtown Raceway for a few last minute runs down the strip before the fridgid cold weather. We had some product from Nitto Tires, a few Pontirat G8's, an LS-powered Trailblazer, and a few visitors we weren't expecting.

      Not to divulge too many details, we were able to track down one of the first ZR-1's off the assembly line: number 17 to be exact. We made a few passes in the new ZR-1 and even went over to the road course for a few laps with yet another unwanted visitor in the rear-view mirror. Check out the teaser picture we snapped on the high bank.

So, a bailout of the auto industry looks dubious. Everyone's debating about whether the government should offer the bail out, so we'll skip that for now. Let's look at the road traveled to this point...

I really want to hear the honest opinions of those who actually look at these blogs, why aren't you interested in buying a GM product? Beyond the credit crisis, the Big Three have seen slumping sales for years.

What is it thart makes people look at foreign cars before American ones? From your point of view, what does GM/Chevrolet need to do to get people to buy their cars over the likes of Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc.?

Is it styling? Quality? Price? Options?

SOUND OFF EVERYONE!!!

Talk about a good time!

Detroit Speed, Inc. hosted the 2008 TGIF
Open House in Mooresville, NC Friday,  
October 24th 2008. The weather was
good with the rain holding off the entire
night. The turnout was fabulous with  
hundreds of awesome hot rods and
muscle cars from all over the country.
Detroit Speed hosts this annual party
the Friday night after the Goodguys show
at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. The shop is
opened to everyone who wants to see
exactly what Detroit Speed is up to. With
good food, music, and fun, everybody
seemed to have a great time.

According to Auto Week, Tom Wallace, the fourth chief engineer in the history of the Corvette, has retired as of November 1 after a 42-year career at General Motors. Gene Stefanyshyn, GM's global rear-wheel-drive chief, will take on the added duties of Corvette chief engineer.

The tough times at GM have spread to the Corvette. Despite reasonably strong sales this year, develpment of the C7 Corvette is said to be on hold. This could be because of GM's financial bind or the fact that GM has too many unanswered questions about where the market is headed. There's the unstable price of fuel, which would affect engine size, whether the new car is naturally aspirated or turbo or supercharged, whether it even gets a V8 or not. How big will it be? What will it need to weigh?

Hard times, indeed. At this point it seems uncertain if GM can even survive, let alone will the Corvette.

This just in from the National Motorists Association Foundation:
The National Motorists Association Foundation is organizing a  national grassroots effort to publicize and discourage the practice of using traffic signals with short yellow durations as revenue generators at red light ticket camera intersections.  The Stop Short Yellow Lights Project (www.shortyellowlights.com ) will prove how widespread and pervasive this practice is.

Seems governments will stop at nothing to empty the wallets of hard-working taxpayers. This practice, however, is more dangerous than most.

From the most recent press release:

What is the Stop Short Yellow Lights Project?

The NMA Foundation has long known that the exploitation of short yellow light times is a common practice in communities using red light ticket cameras. The Stop Short Yellow Lights Project is designed to identify and publicize the locations where the use of short yellow light timing is being used to bolster ticket camera revenue.

How Will Short Yellow Lights Be Identified?

Everyday citizens will be the engine that drives this grassroots effort.

To get involved, people near red-light camera installations will simply use a stopwatch to time the length of the yellow lights. If the yellow light duration appears to be dangerously short, the NMA Foundation will dispatch a trained, objective traffic engineer to confirm the traffic light timing.

Once confirmed, the NMA Foundation will publicize its findings and encourage local officials to take appropriate corrective action. If necessary, legal action may be taken.

What Does The Duration Of A Yellow Light Have To Do With Accident Prevention?

The positive effect of increasing the yellow light time at a troublesome intersection (an increase of one second can reduce violations by 50%) is undisputed by even the most zealous supporters of red-light cameras. Nevertheless, despite clear evidence that is unsafe to do so, several cities have been caught shortening yellow light times to increase red-light camera profits.

How Do Short Yellow Lights Increase Red-Light Camera Profits?

Properly timed yellow lights accommodate the normal perception and reaction times of drivers, as well  as the time it takes to safely stop or proceed through the intersection. Deliberately shortening the yellow light duration significantly increases the number of red light violations (and intersection collisions) and thereby the number of citations and revenue are also increased, often dramatically.

Because short yellow lights lead to increased revenue, the incentive to shorten yellow light times is strong for both the red-light camera vendors and the cities that authorize the use of these devices.

What Are The Objectives Of The Stop Short Yellow Lights Project?

• Identify locations where short yellow lights are being used at intersections employing red light ticket cameras.
• Publicize these locations and point out dangers of using short yellow lights to boost the revenue from red light ticket cameras.
• Promote state legislation requiring proper minimum standards for yellow light durations.
• Eliminate the use of short yellow lights for any purpose, including revenue generation for corporate or governmental interests.

For more information on the project, please visit www.shortyellowlights.com .

So on my way to drop my kids off at my moms house this morning, I get run into by a distracted driver.

My '88 Iroc Camaro is crunched like a bag of cheap potato chips on the front passangers side 1/4 panel and the front end. I have to wrestle the steering wheel to keep the vehicle going down the road straight. What a mess. At least it gives me the excuse to tear the vehicle down like I need too. Good thing I had a camera on my cell phone.

Stay tuned.

Joel “Mr. Motion” Rosen will be with 10 of his top vintage Baldwin-Motion and Motion Supercars at the Chevy Vettefest on November 22-23 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont (Greater Chicago).

Rosen, who built Baldwin-Motion big-bock Super Chevys from 1967 to 1974, dominated A & B/Modified Production with his Gen I & Gen II Camaro racecars and re-launched the brands in 2005, will kick off the show’s Inflammatory Breast Cancer Foundation Charity Auction with an autographed pair of the latest Motion/Ansen valve covers. He will also be signing two "MOTION" limited edition David Snyder prints donated by the artist.

The featured Baldwin-Motion & Motion Display will include two Phase III GT Corvettes (12 built between 1969 and 1971), a 1968 Phase III L-88 Camaro, 500-horsepower Phase III ’70 Camaro and rare custom Corvettes. Plus a selection of Motion/Ansen valve covers just introduced at SEMA.

For old timers it looks normal, but for younger enthusiasts the sight of a cylinder head with no combustion chamber in it looks positively peculiar. This is the new  aluminum W-motor head from Edelbrock and we shot this photo at SEMA.

We'll be bringing you a complete technical story about how the heads are built and how they flow in the February issue, but we couldn't wait to show you these photos from the 2008 SEMA show in Las Vegas. Actually, Edelbrock has more than just the heads coming out; there will also be a new single 4-barrel intake manifold, valve covers and more.

Airflow Research (AFR) was showing off this wild, lightweight dual-plane intake at the 2008 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. The Pro Flow Lite Manifold is said to weigh only 9 lbs and it's made from fiberglass plastic composite (supposedly it's 7 lbs lighter than the "leading aluminum competitor."   

According to AFR, the manifold is fully ported out of the box and requires no port matching. After 14 seconds of wide-open throttle on the dyno, the AFR intake was only 88°F, while the aluminum manifold temperature was said to be 118°.

On a low-compression (9.2:1) 383 with AFR 195cc Eliminator Street heads, a Comp XR274 cam and Holley 950HP carb, the Pro Flow Lite manifold made 10 more horsepower peak-to-peak at 6100 rpm over its unnamed competitor, 5 more lb-ft (peak to peak) and was up by 12 horsepower from 6300-6500.

For more info, call AFR at 661-257-8124 or go to airflowresearch.com

Shown at SEMA: Bill Mitchell poses proudly with his new Motown II LS block. This allows people to bolt those high-flowing, power-producing LS heads to a traditional small-block.

Check out the next issue of Super Chevy for a full, in-depth story on this wild hybrid.

Ok so it is finally "mostly" finished. This one time 118 octane fuel drum has been turned into a backyard cooker.

The barrel was painted black, a redwood table was added and an exhaust pipe was added for the chimnea. I still need to add some wheels, but Im in huge hurry.

Whaddya think?

American Racing is proud to announce the AR500 to its Authentic Hot Rod Wheel® line up. Styled after the classic muscle car wheels of the 60’s, the AR500 is the perfect addition to American Racings wheel line.

“We’re excited about bringing this classic design from the sixties in a lighter aluminum version.” Says Chris Coddington; Brand Manager for American Racing. “This wheel will also be a part of our custom shop and give our customers flexibility of fitment”
The AR500 is available in 15” and 17” diameters in widths up to 12”. Available for both Ford and Chevy bolt patterns. The AR500 is a 2pc wheel that features a polish aluminum outer rim mated with a polished and painted cast aluminum center. For more information call 800-959-1969