What Santa Rides During Off Season - Video

Santa Car Mark III. Actually the full name is Lincoln Santa Is Coming To Towne Car and was created by Brian Taylor who also created the Metro Santa Car and Machete Betties Roller Derby Art Car. I just came across this video of him riding his latest Santa Car that gives you a glimpse into what its like riding an art car around town. I know its Summer time but I needed cheering up today so Brian's Santa Art Car is just what the doctor ordered.

Mercedes Truck Painted with Russel Crow - Finland Truck Show 2010

These art trucks were seen at the Finald Truck show recently which sorta reminds of the Japanese Decotora Trucks I wrote about some time ago. I love this first one, a Mercedes tanker truck covered with the face of Russel Crow actor of my favorite movie Gladiator. These truck drivers go all out with leather seat, LED lights, lots of chrome and of course all out airbrushed works of art that completely cover their trucks.

Russel Crow Truck

Lincoln MKE (.com)?

This is interesting.

http://www.lincolnmke.com points to the Lincoln web site.

So does http://www.lincolnmkl.com

So what is an MKE and MKL?

Worm Harvesting Using a Car

In my opinion there are much better ways to harvest worms and growing them on a car is not one of them. This is what happens when you leave your car unattended under a tree for some time. Worms, Worms and MORE Worms, maybe he is harvesting worms for fish baitvia

Should Ford Kill Mercury?

Bloomberg reports via unnamed sources that Ford's leadership is planning on killing Mercury in about four years.

Reasons they should: It's a small brand which probably doesn't make much money; it's a damaged brand which doesn't seem to stand for much.  Many of the major automakers only have a couple of U.S. brands, such as Toyota/Lexus, Nissan/Infiniti, Honda/Acura, VW/Audi, BMW/Mini, Mercedes/Smart.  

Reasons they shouldn't: Mercury sold 92,000+ cars last year.  That's more than Saab, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Smart, Infiniti, Porsche, Mini, Volvo, Audi, and Lincoln brands.  Many Lincoln dealers need the product to stay afloat, unless Lincoln is going to break out somehow into a larger volume brand. Oh, and Mercury has Jill Wagner.

What's In HR5381, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010

The House committee on energy and commerce has voted to release HR 5381, the Motor Vehicle Safey Act of 2010, to the full house for a vote.

So what is in it?  Here is a quick synopsis.  You can read it for yourself here.  My comments in italics.

Section 101: The NHTSA will create a Center for Vehicle Electronics and Emerging Technologies to focus attention on electronics.  The Secretary Of Transportation will set up an honors recruitment program which will make an effort to recruit from the top 10% of engineering students, particularly among minority institutions, and to provide a stipend for students who participate.  (What is this doing in an auto safety bill?  No wonder people are angry at congress!)

Section 102: The NHTSA has one year to design a safety standard for a bake-throttle over-ride system.  The system may be user defeatible, and may allow two-pedal driving under some conditions. (I think this is reasonable, as long as NHTSA has flexibility in how they do this)

Section 103: The NHTSA will update FMVSS 124 within two years with a rule that requires at least one redundant control to be present in an accelerator control system.  (This is not necessary.  All electronic throttle control systems that I am aware of have multiple redundant sensors and controls.)

Section 104: The NHTSA will consider a rule, within 18 months, to regulate the design of pedal spacing and clearance.  If NHTSA decides that the rule is appropriate, it will be in force within 4 years.  

Section 105: The NHTSA will consider a rule, within 2 years, to require minimum performance standards for electronic control systems.  If NHTSA decides that the rule is appropriate, it will be in force within 4 years.  (This is a difficult task.  Will NHTSA require certain levels of EMC testing, for example?  Lots of work for engineers going forward...)

Section 106: The NHTSA will, within 2 years, issue a rule to standardize the operation of push-button start systems.  (I have no problem with this, as long as there is flexibility in the rules to allow for future technologies)

Section 107: The NHTSA will, 1 year, issue a revision to FMVSS 102 to make automatic transmission gear selectors easier to use, and to make neutral obvious.  (This will be an intrusive regulation, but I don't really object, if it makes cars easier to use.  It may however force everyone to have similar shifter styling.)

Section 108: Event Data Recorders will be required starting in 2015 model year.  EDRs will store at least 10s of data, and will have a standard interface.  EDR information will be readable with commercial equipment.  EDR data is the property of the vehicle owner or lessee, and cannot be retrieved without his consent other than by a court order.  Government agencies can get the data if personal information has been scrubbed, for study purposes.  EDRs will be tamper resistant.  

Section 201: NHTSA early warning data from defect investigations will be made publicly availible.

Section 202: NHTSA's vehicle safety database will be made more accessible to the public.

Section 203: NHTSA will require automakers to put a sticker in each vehicle which informs the owner how to submit a vehicle safety defect complaint to NHTSA.  (This is lame.  Why put it on each car? Don't we have enough nanny stickers everywhere?  Why not put it in the owner's manual, where the warranty coverages and other related information go?)

Section 204: NHTSA will set up a hotline for dealership personnel to report potential defects.  (Can't mechanics use the existing system?)

Section 205: Automaker executives will be required to sign submissions to NHTSA, certifying that they have reviewed the reported information.  Anyone found to make a false report will be fined up to $5,000 per day. (Ouch)

Section 206: Allows people who have been rejected in claiming a defect to appeal the rejection to their court of appeals.

Section 207: If NHTSA can't make a deadline, they must explain why and also submit a new deadline.

Section 208: Sets up some reports NHTSA must make to congress regarding defect and crash investigations.

Section 301: There will be a $9 per car tax to help fund the NHTSA.  It will be indexed to inflation.  (In a 12 million car market, that will be a nice sum of $108,000,000.  Our cars will all get $9 more expensive)

Section 401: The maximum fine per vehicle that NHTSA will be able to levy for rule violations increases from $5,000 to $25,000.  The total cap increases from $15,000,000 to $200,000,000.

Section 402: If NHTSA determines that a defect is an "imminent hazard", an imminent hazard order will be issued within 10 days.  (This isn't a recall, just a quick notification to the public, if I understand it correctly.)

Art Car Book by Harrod Blank - A must have for your coffee table

What got me started in the journey with my own art car the Mercedes Pens and now with Art Car Central was a book called "Art Cars: the cars, the artists, the obsession, the craft" by Harrod Blank.I walked into the library one day and was browsing the car section when I came upon the most amazing book I had seen in a long time. In it was filled with images of people who had decorated their cars with paint, glued objects, car modifications and everything in between. Many of those cars have since been featured on Art Car Central like the Fruit Mobile, Hoop Car, Camera Van, The Phone Car, The Button King, Glass Quilt, and many more from Harrods Blanks Art Car Agency.

If you have ever seen an art car around town and wondered why would someone do that to their car. Or where curious about the type of person who would drive an art car, then this book is definitely for you. I now have my own copy and it never gets old. You never now, you might end up making your own art car and one day it could end featured here on Art Car Central, I look forward to your art car submission.

CarPuchino - Car Powered by Coffee Grinds

For those of us who plan their trips from coffee shop to coffee shop finally a better solution. A car that is powered entirely by roasted coffee grinds is now a reality, I can feel my hear raising as I write this.

The car is called the Car-Puchino and was created using a 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco that sorta looks like a time traveling DeLorean from back to the future. It was created by a team from BBC1 science program Bang Goes The Theory and driven 210 miles between Manchester and London.

It does about 60mph and uses about 2.2 lbs of coffee for every three miles or 56 espressos per mile (56epm). Its going to take 154 lbs so price depends on the type of coffee you use:

1. Premium = Kona Coffee = $30/lb = $4,620
2. Plus = Starbucks Breakfast Blend = $10/lb = $1,154
3. Regular = Folgers = $5/lb = $770

A trip like this is a bit of grind since you have to stop every 40 miles to add coffee grinds, every 60 to clean out the coffee filters. Even with a top speed of maybe 60 mph a relatively short trip could take all day to complete. On the plus side, there will be plenty of coffee and bathroom breaks.

via

Ride the Anti Anti Smoking Ban Liberty Van

Lynda Farley is the creator of the Liberty van, and doing her part to creatively express her First Amendment Rights. Lynda believes in the rights of smokers to be able to smoke anywhere at anytime. She also believes that smoking dangers are a total myth perpetuated by "those" who are lying to us about the whole thing. She has taken pictures of her car in front every statehouse in the lower 48. She hopes to repeal smoking bans across the nation, restore our constitution, and get the word out on the smoking "hoax". Lynda is all "fired up" and has taken plenty of pictures of her journey, be sure to check out her Fall and Christmas tour pictures.

IBM Patent: Traffic Signal Engine Shutdown

IBM has filed a patent application for a smart traffic signal communication system, where a traffic signal would communicate with the queued cars, telling them to shut down their engines, and scheduling when to restart their engines, based on where in the queue each car is.    From Slashdot.

This is not a bad idea, but it may be overly complicated and expensive.  Automakers and suppliers, including my own employer, are actively working on engine start-stop systems which will prevent long engine idling by shutting down the engine if the vehicle comes to a standstill for more than a few seconds.  The engine is then restarted when the driver lifts off of the brake pedal.   It sounds like the IBM proposed system would save a few seconds of idle time per car, and perhaps schedule a smoother restart, but at the cost of additional electronics at each intersection, and in each vehicle.  

There is also a question about consumer acceptance of the traffic signal system being able to shut down your car.  

The Art of Amazing Car Sound Effects

Icine Motor Kacmis @ Yahoo! Video

In this a video a talented kid shows off his skills in replicating the sounds of a hot rod import, a two stroke mopped, dirt bike a VW bug that keeps stalling and ends it with the sound of a hand held weed wacker. Great video, Rated R for some language.

inCARnation - Apocalypse Mobile/Time Machine

inCARnation - Apocalypse Mobile/Time Machine

inCARnation, the Apocalypse Mobile/Time Machine was sent in by Meg (Hint, the one with the pink hair). It was built over the course of a few years at her apartment in Minneapolis and is under constant construction. The frame is an early 1990s Honda Accord that belonged to Adam. Adam Lutterman (Atom), Andy Rennert (MN Phatts) and Meg (Dee Zaster) all contributed to its creation. They take it to Burning Man every year and it made its debut this year at the Houston Art Car Parade and promise to be back, I guess that's the time machine aspect of the inCARnation. They also participate in Art Car events in the Twin Cities on a regular basis. They are beginning work on radically altering the appearance, but the plans are under wraps. It will be bigger and badder the next time around, so keep a look out!

IIHS: NEVs Aren't Safe (On Public Roads)

Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) are not safe enough for public roads.  That's because they don't have to meet Federal automobile crash standards, and are very light.  In any meeting between an NEV and a real car, the occupants of the NEV have a good chance of being squashed.

IIHS demonstrates this quite graphically, here.

Anyone driving an NEV on public roads is only a little better off than riding a scooter.

Scrapertown - Inspirational Scraper Bike Video

Scrapertown from California is a place. on Vimeo.
I wrote about Tyrone Stevenson Scraper Bike Kind who was at Maker Faire last year. Today I found another inspirational video about scraper bikes, which talks about the philosophy behind the movement and the positive affect it has on kids in the Oakland area. Below are the requirements for becoming a member of the Original Scraper Bike Team.

"In order to become a member of the Original Scraper Bike Team, you must: Be a resident of Oakland, CA. Be at least 7y/o or older. Retain A 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA), Create your own Scraper Bike…(It Has To Be Amazing, Or Else You Can’t Ride.) A single-file line when riding. After 10 rides The Scraper Bike King and his Captains will decide if your bike is up to standards and if you can follow simple guidelines. After your evaluation we will consider you a member and honor you with an Original Scraper Bike Team Shirt. Only worn when Mobbin’ Stay posted to our website for all upcoming Scraper Bike Rides..." -- The Scraper Bike King

Russian Flower Power - BWM Ar Car Riddled With Bullets

Russian Bullet Flower Power BMW Art Car


BWM Art Car Bullet Flower

via Jalponik

Russian Flower Power took on new meaning when a Russian artist commissioned some gun enthusiasts to take aim at a BMW 3-Series with riffles and draw pretty flowers with the bullet holes. As you can see by the closeup on the car they missed a bunch of the marks, but it looks like they had a blast. More pictures on English Russia

Mondo Spider - Electric Powered 8 legged walking machine

Mondo Spider

The Mondo Spider is a 1600 lb, 8 legged walking machine originally built by a Vancouver-based team of artists and engineers in 2006. Initially gas-powered, the spider has been converted to run entirely on battery power, making it the world's first 100% electric, zero-emissions walking vehicle. This vehicle will be at this weeks Maker Fair


Mondo Spider from flimflamfilms on Vimeo.

Buick Regal Impressions

I was at the Birmingham art fair this weekend, where Buick had set up a small display with two 2011 Regals.

The Regal is a sharp looking car, with taught lines and a hint of curve. I thought they looked like a mix if Mazda and BMW.

Thankfully, no stupid faux portholes.

Inside the car I sat in was decidedly un-Buick with nice materials, tight seams, and no fake wood in sight.

My only complaints: my right leg was rubbing up against the center console (but I wasn't in a real driving position) and the center stack seemed to have about 50% more butons than it ought to. Buick should hide more of that stuff behind a touch screen. Maybe there is one and I was just sitting in the cheaper variant.

If the Regal drives as sharp as it looks and feels, then I think Buick will do all right.

No More Traffic Tickets - The World's Slowest Porsche - Ferdinand GT3 R-S

The World's Slowest Porsche - Ferdinand GT3 R-S


Do you drive fast and are Tired of Red Light Camera Tickets? Austrian artist Ferdinand Johannes has solved this problem by creating the most advanced Porsche ever, called the Ferdinand GT3 R-S, The World's Slowest Porsche. He has come up with a way to avoid all traffic tickets by installing a revolutionary new power source under the hood called the "bike" with a whopping 1MP (Man Power). Not only will it NOT go 0-60mph in 10 seconds, but probably wont go past 10mph, EVER.

Let me tell you what it DOESN'T have:

• No turbocharge,
  
• No 450hp
• No 3.8 flat-six engine
• No Disk Brakes
• No Manual gearbox
• No Sound System
• No Club sport package
• No Leather Seats
  
• No Airbags
• No Roll cage
• No 6-point drivers racing harness

Rest assured that there will be no more traffic tickets once you unleash the pure bike power of the Ferdinand Porsche GT3 R-S.

Hacking Cars? Not So Fast

In a widely publicized paper, here, a pair of research teams were able to "hack" cars, to demonstrate that modern cars are not sufficiently secure.

Don't worry, you're not in danger, yet.

The key to hacking a car is that the vehicle communications bus, typically a mix of high and low speed CAN bus, is not encrypted.  By connecting to the OBD-II port with the right tools (such as a laptop with a CAN communications interface device), a determined hacker could monkey with key signals.  To do so, he would have to either reverse engineer or obtain from other sources the CAN messaging protocol.  Then, by reading in, modifying, and rebroadcasting key messages, he could indeed do bad things, like shut down the car.  For example, a hacker could broadcast an erroneous vehicle speed on the bus, causing the speedometer to display the wrong speed, and other systems to think the car is moving (or not) at a different speed than it actually is.  

However, the only practical way to do this is to attach a foreign device to the cars CAN bus.  So your car would have to be physically compromised, either by having the wiring modified, or by having some sort of dongle installed on the OBD-II port.  The ECUs that form the vehicle CAN network are not typically easy to reflash with unauthorized firmware, so "hijacking" an ECU or installing a car virus is not really feasible.  The ECUs I have worked with all have memory checksum functions, and VIN compare software, to verify that the ECU has valid software and is in the correct vehicle.  According to the research paper, the team was able to compromise a telematics module and run malicious code on it.

The paper does point out some holes in vehicle bus security, and there are some things which can be done in the shorter term to mitigate such a threat.  ECUs should have robust challenge/response sequences before accepting diagnostic and test commands, for example.  They should also have robust checks against invalid software, so that it is difficult or impossible for a hacker to flash a module with homegrown software.  

New Carnival Of Cars

A new auto blog on the block, Automedia, is hosting a Carnival Of Cars. Check it out here.

8,000 Ping Pong Ball VW Art Car by Katherine Smith

via

Katherine Smith, of Jarrettsville, glued 8,000 colored ping pong balls on an old 1971 Volkswagen Beetle named "The Last Cup". Her art car features different scenes each section of smiley face hood peace sign on a even the hub caps and bumpers are covered with ping pong balls.

Bikes with Shoes

Bikes with shoes instead of tires is definitely a better alternative to using bike tires which need air and tend to go flat. All you need is a bunch of shoes and you are good to go, oh and a helmet would be good as well.

Todd Kundla rides his Shoe Bike via


Walking Bike by Max Knight via



Travis Pastrana Shoe Motorbike


Be sure to check it this cool video with Travis Pastrana doing flips with his shoe motorcycle.

The Many Faces of the Solar Chariot

I have seen this solar chariot in many outfits during the past three years at Maker Fair first as George Bush the "American Gladiator", then Arnold Schwarzenegger as the "Solinator" and last year as Barack Obama as the "Obama Bot". I am sure I will be seeing the solar chariot again this year as who knows what.

Bob Schneeveis has a science and engineering associate at Stanford’s department of neurobiology, and is responsible for building this robot charioteer to test out the efficiency of legs versus wheels. The experiment was successful, as the charioteer moves alarmingly fast, with emanating metallic chunking noises that you’d expect from a robotic biped. Bob charges his charioteer using solar panels along with his other vehicle a sparrow that he uses to go about his daily business.

Arnold as the Solinator by skuarua

Barack Obama as the Obama Bot by Stephen Bowline

George Bush the American Gladiator by dtweney

The Fruit Mobile by Jackie Harris

The Fruit Mobile, originally uploaded by Boptimist.

The Fruit Mobile a 1967 Ford station wagon has been around for many years and was created by artist Jackie Harris. The Fruit Mobile is also available for gigs through the Art Car Agency. Full Story

Riot Wheel - Burly Motorized Big Wheel

Riot Wheel is a 1000lb monster motorized big wheel with the driver up front that took about 18 months to build. It was built for a trip to Burning Man and was an instant hit, and since then has been featured on Discovery Channel’s Monster Nation. The Riot Wheel video at Burning Man is a must see!!!

Grass Fed Kosher Beef!

I'm throwing this out there in case someone else is interested in the information.

The company that is supplying some Costco stores with kosher beef, Colorado Kosher, uses cattle that are grass-fed for the first part of their lives, then finished on a feed lot (e.g. grain) for the last 4 months or so. So they aren't 100% grass fed, but they are a combination. I got this information from the company, when I called to ask.

So, if you wanted to try the taste of grass-fed beef, and keep kosher, find out if you local Costco store stocks this brand.

Lots of (K)nots! - Electric Scooter Gets Cozy

Lots of (K)nots! - Knited Electric Scooter by Cory Nelson is the warmest, coziest most snugly electric scooter I have ever seen. It will in this years Houston Art Car parade and it will be entry #258, so be sure to wave.

Buy A Paper Poppy

Today, I went to a local market to buy some lunch supplies.  Out front was an old fellow in VFW gear, Chris, selling the wire and paper poppies.

I dropped a dollar in his milk jug, and thanked him for his service.  

On the way out, I stopped to ask him where he served.  "North Africa and Italy" he said, which made me pause--this guy was a WWII vet, probably about 90 years old.  I asked him what his job was in the army.  "Infantry--I carried a tommy gun, do you know what that is?".  Chris is short, about 5'6", with sharp blue eyes and a straight posture.  He has a firm handshake and a clear voice.  

"You must have seen so much, I can't even imagine what you went through", I said.  "I am reading Audy Murphy's memoir, and it is amazing what you guys survived".  

I hit a nerve.  Chris stuttered, and turned away from me, wiping his eyes. "Excuse me, I don't want you to see..." he said.  I was caught off guard, and felt ashamed for making an old man cry.  "There was a job we needed you guys to do... " I stammered "... and you did it."  He composed himself after a moment and turned back to me.  "We did it, what we had to".  I asked him about some of his experiences, based on Audy Murphy's book.

"I hear you guys were always hungry, sometimes really hungry" I offered, "that's not something we worry about much these days".  We were standing next to a vegetable display, piled high with tomatoes and cucumbers.

"There was this time once," he said, "when we were diggin in in Italy outside of..." (I missed the placename, rats) "...and one of the guys yells, 'Scallions!'.  Well, there was this pile of manure with scallions growing out of it.  We all dropped our shovels and ran over.  We plucked them out of the manure pile, brushed them off on our coats, and ate them."

"In this one town, we went through, and someone told us that we had to meet a local girl.  It turned out that she was from Brooklyn.  She had come back to Italy to visit her family, and they [the fascists] took her passport.  It was 1939, and after that, she was stuck there.  So she meets us, and she goes to the wall of her house, and takes a stone out.  Behind there is bunch of cheese, and sausages, she had hidden from the Germans.  She puts it down in front of us, we had a nice meal."

I asked him about the Germans, was it true that sometimes prisoners were not taken?  (In Murphy's book, there is a scene where the Germans tied a pair of captured American officers to the front of a tank, hoping to avoid fire.  The GIs hit the tank with an anti-tank gun anyway, killing their own men).  

"Not my company, but one that was to the right of us on the line, one of their patrols was captured by Germans.  The German officer killed 7 prisoners.  After that, well, there weren't any prisoners for the next several months."

"Later, in May, the Germans in Italy surrendered.  I was on guard by the side of the road outside of the village where my company had stopped.  A German jeep came up the road, with a couple of officers in it, holding a white flag.  If those guys had made a sudden move, I would have let them have it.  I told them to keep that white flag high, and showed them the road to the general, where they could surrender"

"I never kept that tommy gun on safe.  You had to be ready all the time. The whole time I was on the front."

I shook his hand, and held it for a moment.   "You should write this all down," I told him, "You should save your memories for your great grandchildren.  It's a treasure.  And it will keep your mind young."

"If I could get the money together,", he said, "I would go back to Italy.  The people are so wonderful, and the food is so fresh."

If you see an old guy selling poppies for the VFW, stop and say hello.  Thank him for his sacrifices, because chances are that he may have gone through hell to protect our way of life.  He may have lived in mud.  He may have been wounded, and watched his friends be blown to pieces.  He probably buried some of his friends in far away fields, the names of which we are forgetting.   Maybe buy a poppy, to help the old soldiers keep their memories fresh, and keep our history from fading.

Worlds Fastest Couch Video - So Awesome!!!

This has got to be the fastest couch I have ever seen at 90mph down the race track on a rainy day.

Parents Magazine FAIL

Parents magazine has published its list of top family friendly vehicles for 2010.  But their screening criteria are full of fail.

"We've only included models equipped with antilock brakes and front, side, and side-curtain air bags. "

ABS?!?  

I can't recommend any vehicle which does not have ESC, particularly any vehicle with a tall profile such as most CUVs and SUVs.  

Snow Art Car from Russia

via
I know its totally random, but that's what you get surfing the Internet late at night, snow art car from Russia.

Extremo the Clown Rides the Extremobile

Extremobile is brought to you but none other than Extremo the Clown creator of the world famous Mirabilis Statuarius Vehiculum. This is the van he drives around Portland for his window painting business, nice van Extremo, what is that sign say anyways???

Electric Surfer Camper Pod and more by Jay Nelson

Artist Jay Nelson is the creator of this small electric camper pod encased in a fiberglass shell, complete with a water tank, stove, cabinets, fold-down table and convertible bed. His love for surfing goes further with this modified Honda Spree that serves as a tiny expedition vehicle. Outfitted with surfboard rack, roll-out canopy, and plenty of storage, Jay imagines filling it with gourmet provisions and heading to a remote beach for some exploration and relaxation.



Triple Base Gallery images