Gathered here are the Oppositelock posts that people have put a good deal of effort into writing from the last 24 hours. Today it includes a Baja Bug on a shipping container, a racist Mustang, a Panoz that time forgot and more.
So I was out with the family, went fishing at a river nearby my house and my daughter says "CAR!". My daughter is two, so my first instinct is to just agree with her and be on my way. "Caaaarrrr!" she says again. So I look. There it is. An old, rusty shipping container turned into an office with none other than the car my daughter spotted (from about 100 yards away might I add) sitting on top of it.
Here's a tale of conspiring circumstances and a confederacy of dunces. Buying a car is one of those things in life that you can do the easy way or the hard way, and although the easy way may be an unrestricted autobahn to delight, the Jalop will more often than not find themself picking a path through the potholes and roadworks of the hard way. Trolling ebay for months at a time, waiting for the right car, bidding, missing out, coming back for more. Picking something up, tuning it up, practically packing it all in, finally fixing it. Driving.
I was at the local O'Reilly's getting some cutting compound to buff out some of the oxidation on the Mustang's paint, and when I got back in the car I cranked it over a few times. It ended with a pop, a bang, and about 5 liters of magic smoke. I hopped out, flipped the battery kill switch on the back and opened up the hood to see what was afire, and chuckled. It had violently rejected the Chinese starter I got from O'Reilly about 6 months prior.
The first time I drove a stick shift was in Morocco, over a winter break from school. I was with my mom and dad in our rental car, a Toyota so forgettable I’ve forgotten the model. It was in the evening, as the sun was setting, and we were in the mountains surrounding Fez. It was incredibly beautiful, but I was probably busy ruining the moment by saying something disgusting.
When I first heard about John’s 330 series Nissan Cedric I had no idea what to expect. I was told of air bags and a V8 engine in a 33 year old Japanese classic. I couldn't quite get my head around it. Then I saw some photos – and my jaw dropped. I had to see it. I had to shoot it.
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I'm Edmund Mandell, but my friends call me Mandy, kind of like Mandel Patinkin, the actor, goes by “Mandy”. I look something like your average millennial, just without the stupid hipster glasses, and maybe a vest, or necessary tie. I'm a 24 years old, who recently graduated from “The U”. Some of my hobbies include obsessing over my car, stuffing my face with sushi, and melting my face on my computer screen playing games… But let me paint a picture of myself right out of college. Some of my first thoughts after walking across the stage and shaking President Shalala's hand was something along the lines of “fuck, fuck, fuck, why did you decide to get a degree in psychology?”
Many of us gear heads are familiar with Panoz as one of those "little automakers that could" with their Esperante road car and ridiculous Esperante GTR "Batmobile" prototype for le-mans and other series in the GT1 category. But there was a particular car they made in the 90s that was, surprisingly, one of the more advanced cars of its day. Ladies and gents, the AIV Roadster.
As you may have read last week, I'm car shopping. So far, my quest to buy a cheap, yet awesome car has come up fruitless. I don't understand why people would list a car on Craigslist, then immediately throw all their electronics into some sort of time-and-communication-sucking wormhole. Yes, I'm talking to you, Golf GTI seller.
After seeing New Zealand pop up over on Jalopnik in Travis' article about a man seeing a UFO I realized that you don't often see New Zealand mentioned on international sites. And when you do it's about odd things. Like UFO sightings, remote airports, expensive air fares, Lord of the Rings and driving dogs. Yes, dogs that drive cars.
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GM teased the press yesterday with a sneak peek at the upcoming Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon small trucks. GM stopped building small trucks back in 2012 leaving Toyota to dominate that market. Ford left the small truck market with the demise of its Ranger pickup, though globally both GM and Ford offer small trucks. GM only gave out this small snapshot to give a whiff of the upcoming baby trucks to hit the US market in 2014.
Car Spotting, Picture Threads
Battery Tender Unnecessary polished the headlights on his e39. ColoradoQuattro replaced the bad RS4 replica front bumper on his car with a proper stock s4 piece. Magman007 shared pictures of his friends Koray's S52 turbo powered e30 m3. Sparf put together an AE86 photodump. MonkeyPuzzle installed a rear lip on his Civic. Jus1029 took a look at a VW Corrado for sale near him.
As always, If I've missed something and you would like me to include it, let me know.
Fun Discussions
There were several posts that asked questions and sparked some good discussion over the last day. Take a peek and chime in on some of them listed below:
Just the #tips
Honourable Mentions
These posts have already been shared with Jalopnik directly but deserve to be mentioned again because they were first posted in Oppositelock:
Best of Oppositelock: August 9, 2013