Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
11th Annual Seattle Art Car- Blowout
This awesome pictures were taken by the who also took the time to write down the names of the cars and the wonderful artist who made them at this years 11th Annual Seattle Art Car- Blowout. If any you have more info on these cars please email me and I can post a detailed entry about your car. Some of the other cars that where there and have been featured on Art Car Central were The Vain Van, Eartha Karr, Aero Car, Leopard Bernstein and Rot N'Hell
SPACE JUNK Art Car by Rot N' Hell
Godspeed 818 Art Car by Phil Teller - Seattle, WA
The Mock 7 Art Car by Daniel Johnston - Bellingham, WA.
Bruce Art Car by Joanne Quinn Owens - Bay Area CA
The Octopod Art Car by Emily Hall - Portland, OR
Flutterbug Art Car by Konnie Mae - Ashland, OR
Flivver Art Car by Joy Johnston - Oregon
Drala the Dragon Art Car By Bruman of Berkeley, CA
Attila the Fun Art Car by Tish Smith - CANADA
All photos were taken by The KronoNaut
Friday, June 26, 2009
Japanese Car Tree - Christmas will never be the same again
via boing boing
That's right folks, Christmas will never be the same again because of this one image of a Japanese Car Tree. This comes to us via a Japanese Junkyard were a Japanese hackberry tree sprouted from a seed 25 years ago and managed to lift a car in the air. The workers there built a small fence around the tree protecting it as it grows. I think this is the birth of a whole new line of Christmas ornaments that will enabling consumer recycle all the old cars from going to waste. The only problem see is finding a base strong enough to support the tree from falling down on top of the kids Christmas morning. Would this be covered under your car insurance, who knows.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Ford and Hyundai Jump on CARS Program, Others Dawdle
Ford has really jumped on the "cash-for-clunkers" news. Before Obama's ink was dry, Ford put up a web site (the impossible to type www.letfordrecycleyourride.com) which lets you input you car to check if it is eligible. Then the page shows you a list of Ford vehicles which would qualify for the voucher. Ford puts a happy green spin on the whole thing by offering to "recycle" your old car, which is much nicer than "scrap". It's very slick.
It surprises me that none of the other major car makers did the same thing. I checked the home pages of Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Chrysler, GM, Kia, BMW, VW, Mercedes, and Subaru. None of them had any CARS information.
The only other major automaker which has a CARS information site is Hyundai, here. Hyundai's site is not as slick as Ford's but it does give a list of Hyundai vehicles which are eligible for the government voucher.
Michael Jackson dies at age 50 - His collection of mini-art cars
Michael Jackson died today at age 50 died after being rushed to a Los Angeles-area hospital late Thursday afternoon. This is his collection of mini-art cars that look like they might have once been part of a Disneyland ride, a bit on the boring side but I just wanted to make sure he got his due here on Art Car Central. May he rest in peace and our best wishes go to all his family and fans.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tesla?!
Tesla?!
Why would the Department of Energy give half a billion dollars to Tesla?
I understand Ford. Ford has many projects, such as GTDI and electrification, that can be filed under CAFE compliance.
Nissan was moneyed to show that there is no favoritism to domestic brands, and to spread some joy down south, to soften the stance of the anti-union and anti-Detroit politicans.
But Tesla is puny, until recently a financial disaster. And what it is building now is a toy for the very rich. The Model S is projected to sell for a price around $57,000, which is certainly cheaper than the Tesla Roadster, but hardly affordable for the average person. Call it a toy for the slightly rich.
What Tesla has accomplished with the Roadster is impressive, but it is not revolutionary. Battery packaging, charging control, DC motors, these have been understood for a long time. What Tesla accomplished was to do a nice job integrating an electric powertrain into an already mature vehicle platform, the Lotus Elise. Chrysler can come along and replicate the achievement fairly quickly with their Dodge Circuit, using A123 battery systems. Magna can do the same with the hoary old NA Ford Focus.
With the Model S, Tesla is trying to step into the world of the big boys, developing a new mid-size vehicle platform. They will be responsible for tooling and assembly process, crash worthiness, NVH, durability, and the thousands of other requirements that go into building a car. It's a huge learning curve. The DOE would be better off giving the money to someone who already knows how to do it.
I suspect the real reason Tesla was given a loan was to throw some Obama love to California, with its rabidly green congress members.
I predict the taxpayers are going to get cleaned out on this particular deal.
2009 Ford Mustang Convertible Pictures
2009 Ford Mustang Convertible picture
2009 Ford Mustang Convertible Gallery
2009 Ford Mustang Convertible Photo
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