Car Throttle

Bimmerfest is, quite literally, one of the largest BMW shows outside of Germany.  It's a yearly event held on the West coast, but this year the event added an East coast show for those of us that don't want to drive all the way to California.  Nice of them. The event was held in Ripken Stadium, in Aberdeen Md.  That's about 340 miles from Raleigh taking the most direct route, but the most direct route (I-85 to I-95) is about as much fun as popping Valium and watching C-SPAN, so we planned a longer, more scenic route.  This road trip and show was the first official event for a car club I've been helping a friend coordinate - CRAVE (Carolina Regional Alliance of Vehicle

It is, to be kind, a rough time to be a Saab dealer.  And I suppose any time is a rough time to be a Spyker dealer.  But with Saab still not actually making any vehicles in Tröllhattan, and people not buying a whole lot of Saabs in the first place (Saab sold 323 cars in the US in June, which admittedly is almost 50% more than they sold in June of last year, but still less than Suzuki, Porsche, Land Rover, Lincoln, Mitsubishi...), Saab dealers everywhere have to do something to make sure people realize they're still alive, and they're still selling cars.  And in fact, they're still selling very good cars - like the new 9-5 Aero XWD, which I test drove, and will

  Proof, if you needed it, that amateur drag racers are a determined bunch:  They'll race even if the timing equipment is off.  It's the mentality of "I drove all the way here, I wrenched on this car all night, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let an electronic malfunction keep me from banging off redline shifts down the quarter mile."  Even though drag racing without a timeslip is a lot like TV without the remote, coffee without the caffeine, or a Rick Astley music video on mute. Which is what happened for the first four hours and change of this month's Street Wars at Rockingham Dragway, sponsored by Phantasm Motorsports.  Phantasm is a local import performance shop that's been tuning cars since the

Last month, I started up a night-time car show with the help of some local friends. The first few meetings were in an outdoor parking lot, but another location became available, so we jumped on it: a well-lit underground parking deck.  This has some benefits, and some downsides.  On the upside, you can hold a carshow underground whether it's raining or snowing or whatever.  The downside: it gets hot in there. For a fledgling car show, a turnout of 50+ cars on short notice is (especially in Raleigh!) is nothing short of astounding.  Without any specific brand associations, the variety of stuff that turns up for a show is pretty satisfying as well. This Lexus IS350 is well known in the NC area; it was

A car show or drifting meet of any sort is a good excuse to pack a camera and hit the road. Drifting, a car show, and proceeds benefiting disaster relief for Japan?  Even better.  I found myself in Charlotte (again) last weekend for another drifting competition/car show - the season opener for ISO (Insane Stance & Offset) in collaboration with SWD (Street Wise Drift) at the ZMax Dragway adjacent to the Charlotte Motor Speedway.  As you'd expect from a show/competition with those two names attached to it, the show was amazing - and the drifting was as well. This might be the first modified 1-series I've seen in person - proof that the odd-looking 1 Coupe can become a mean looking car with the right

I always make it out to Raleigh's Cars & Coffee event the first Saturday of every month. It's always worth it, even though I abhor waking up early, because there's always awesome stuff to see.  A lot of the same cars show up, so I won't show pictures of stuff you've already seen - for those you can check previous Cars & Coffee coverage here, here, and here. For starters, here is one of 337 Porsche 959's ever built, which was Porsche's rolling technical showcase that blew everything else out of the water in the 1980's, and set the standard for supercar performance.  None were ever imported to the US; it's likely this one has been fitted with the Canepa Design engine

XDC - Xtreme Drift Circuit - is a nationwide drifting competition with stops at some of the most well-known race tracks in the US - Irwindale, VIR, Summit Point, Texas Motor Speedway, etc.  It's a high-level exhibitionist drifting competition, mixed with a car show, mixed with some racing.  If it comes near you, you oughtta go - the closest XDC event to me was held on July 3rd at the Charlotte Motor Speedway - which is primarily a NAPCAR track - and the 2.5hr drive down there was totally worth it.  Some of the most insane cars I've ever seen showed up, both competitive drifters and perfect show cars. The car in the intro image is Sikky Manufacturing's 350Z drift car.  How do you

The longer I hang around Raleigh, the more I realize we've got a vibrant car culture. There are groups and enthusiasts everywhere; it's just a matter of knowing where to look.  A friend of mine (with one of the most sleeper Civics ever) let me know about a car meet that occurs every Friday night at the Sonic Drive-In in Cary, near NC State.  I'd never even heard there was a meet there, but figured I'd give it a shot.  According to regulars, it was a pretty small turn-out.  I wasn't disappointed; the meet filled up the entire Sonic parking lot and overflowed into the grocery store lot next to it; and this was at 10:30 at night!  Check out some of the stuff that

No car clubs, no sponsors, no vendor tents - just car people standing in a parking lot. A few years ago, that's how it used to be in Raleigh.  Of course, the downside to that was it was the prelude to a whole bunch of illegal street racing, a meetup spot where people popped hoods and talked cars, oogled girls, then rolled out to the highway in a big group, doing 3rd gear rolls to absurd speeds until the cops showed up. Then came the crackdown; RPD got sick of it, and the street racing - the bad stuff - along with the impromptu, unorganized night time car shows - were basically eradicated.  You used to be able to roll up to a number of different

Dank: it's a noun, an urban-ism, with a lot of meanings. It can refer to food ("that burrito was dank!"), music ("this house DJ is dank!") or a number of other things.  In the car world, Dank is usually used to describe stanced/hellaflush cars.  So Dank-Fest seems like a proper title for a show devoted to the Stance & Offset crowd.  The show - which was the first - was organized and put together by StancedLyfe, Wilkseboro Crew, and Hoodstatus, and was supported or sponsored by ISO, TeamRPM, NOS Energy, Firestone (locally), GoGirl Entertainment, and SOHO Motorsports. So... what the hell is Stance & Offset?  In mechanical terms, it's a car that's slammed to the ground, cambered out, stretched tires and rolled fenders with the wheels