Painted Planes with Character

Mickey and Minnie Mouse Jet

These painted airplanes have what you might say a lot of  "character", that is cartoon characters all over them.  Some airline companies have decided to brighten the sky with airplanes completely covered with animated cartoon characters like Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Pokemon, Woody Woodpecker, Homer and Marge Simpson, I know I would love to fly in one of these. via Dark Roasted Blend

Mickey and Minnie Mouse Jet (image credit: Simon Brooke)

Pokemon Jet All Nippon Airways, photo by Michael F. McLaughlin

Pokemon Jet Another All Nippon Airways, photo by Kota Murahashi

Pokemon Jet (image credit: Shotaro Shimizu)

Woody Woodpecker Jet (image credit: Xu Zheng)

Simpsons Jet Simpsons livery, photo by AirNikon

Mule With Crazy Car Stereo System

This Mule has found its self strapped down with an entirely new type of load. A brand new crazy car stereo system.

Porsche 356 Art Car painted with M.C Escher Reptiles

This Porsche 356 was painted by Author and Graphic Designer Jasper Fforde with M.C Escher's famous reptiles. This art car was based on a car driven by a character in one of his books.

Western Digital Caviar Green (WD10EADS) Failure

On my desktop PC I have a 1 TB secondary drive which I use for storing photos, videos, music, and etc.  I was using a WD Caviar Green model WD10EADS, and it developed a strange behavior.  File access slowed to a crawl, with wait times of between 3 and 5 seconds to read from or write to a file.  Disk utilization (resource monitor) showd 100%, but the drive wasn't making much noise.  According to the SMART check, everything was still within spec.  Then I tried to do a sector test on it, using WD's Data Lifeguard tool, and it failed about 2/3 the way through, "Error 8: too many bad sectors".  

My theory about what is going on is that the drive controller, for some reason, is not able to "wake up" anymore, and so sometimes when you ask for a file it takes a long time to actually read it or write it, but my data did not appear to be damaged--I was able to copy everything off of the drive, it just took multiple tries for some files.

Thanks to a 3 year warranty, I am able to send the drive back for replacement to Western Digital.   I'm a little spooked by the failure though, and I am going to replace the drive with a non-Green model for now.  I liked how quiet the Caviar Green was, but it wasn't the fastest drive even when it was working.

3 Amazing Art Car Drawings by Eric Carlos Bertrand

Wow Bus
These Art Car drawings were created by artist Eric Carlos Bertrand who was inspired by real Art Cars. He currently resides in Montreal and has taken the art car as a source of inspiration for researching the possibilities for viable version of the "ship of fools", a old imagery related to the tradition of the carnavalesque. Read his web site detailed info. Three of the art cars I found were posted on Art Car Central a while back so I wanted to show the world how good his art work is. Eric has some really impressive drawing skills and a hole lot of patience, personally I would rather glue stuff on my art car.
Duke Art Car
Mobile DJ Art Car

Octapus Saab Art Car Reaching Out in Rhode Island

This Octapus 1987 Saab 900turbo art car has been seen reaching out in Rhode Island recently created by Aly of Killer Car Kustoms.

Coda's Electric Car Will Cost $44,000...

...and be serviced at a "a major retail department store chain" (e.g. Sears, or perhaps WalMart) for the electrical propulsion system, or one of several Firestone locations for non-powertrain issues.

Yeah, good luck with that.  

They expect people to pay top dollar (more than a Leaf or Volt) for a car that looks like a 2003 Protege.  Then, if something breaks, the customer has to decide if needs to be taken to the mall or to Firestone to get fixed?

And if you get in an accident and need body and mechanical work, where do you take it?  

My prediction: Leaf, Volt, and later Ford's Focus EV will kill off the Coda.  People will have no compelling reason to have a complicated life when the faithful full service dealer is still right down the road.

Edmunds article is here.

Wild Dodge Magnum

I saw this, uh, pimp-wagon on the road Friday.

X-Prize Realities

Now that the Progressive Automotive X-Prize competition is over, I expect that green car boosters (and Tesla, who didn't bother entering) will begin pointing at the winners as evidence that the mainstream auto industry can't compete.

But.

As impressive feats of small-team engineering, the X-Prize finalists are amazing.  But they are nothing like consumer products, just as NASCAR "stock cars" are nothing like consumer products.  The X-Prize competitors were given a set of design constraints, which to Progressive's credit did include basic performance and safety criteria, and optimized their designs to meet those criteria.  In other words, they built cars that were going to have very high efficiency and a bare minimum of performance.

If you were to take an X-Prize winner, and try to make a mass market product out of it, that would meet FMVSS standards for a passenger car, 150,000 mile reliabilty, NHTSA's crash standards, would be comfortable and convenient, easy to drive, and affordable to a middle class family, you would not wind up any where close to 100 MPGe.  

You would probably wind up with something like a Nissan Leaf or Chevrolet Volt.  But without the economies of scale in purchasing, design, and development that a major OEM has, your X-Prize car would cost thousands of dollars more.

The OEMs could have easily competed in the X-Prize competition, if they wanted to.  They were too busy making vehicles people would actually consider buying.

Ken Block: "obama can't gymkhana"

Check out the bumper sticker on the Segway wheel at 2:30.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TshFWSsrn8&feature=player_embedded#!

Milking it at Burning Man on Milktropolis Mutant Vehicle

The Milktropolis mutant vehicle was built by Jon Zensius, Bob Dow, Natalie Zensius and Stephanie Rose for this years burning man event. This project took 9 months of hard work and was a test of their skills, friendships and marriages. It's wood and fiberglass and a wee bit of steel in the corners on a Ford Explorer body. The Cereal Bowl seats 8 and the carton accommodates 4. There are 100 hand sewn cereal shaped pillows in the bowl for comfort. It's driven from up in the carton area and the drive train is done with bike chains from steering wheel to a home brew rotor and back to steering wheel. Gas and brakes are controlled via one of the former power window motors. It also has over 5000 LED lights for night time driving, that runs on a 1000w portable generator. Passengers have the pleasure of entering Milktropolis via a "spoon" ladder and exit via a pool slide. It was a huge hit and we will returning in 2011 with a few modifications in case you missed it but my only question is 1% or 2%???

Dumpster Driving - Keep your trash and drive it too.

Here is what happens when a dumpster diver takes his trash collections to the next level by making a "Dumpster Driver". A car for people who stock pile trash in the back seat, so they can keep the trash and drive it too. via

Travis Pastrana Does Mt. Washington, Quickly

This is a really neat video of a world class rally driver flying up a mountain road. Link to video

Convertible Mercedes Art Car in Under Two Hours

Do you have an art car event or parade this weekend and have nothing to drive? The experts over at Mercedes Source have boiled the entire art car making process down to a science in just under two hours. They managed to convert this 123 Mercedes into a convertible complete with flame job, custom rims, skull and cross bones and the all important message on the side. In his case it reads "Born 2 Drive" and all you need is a crew of about 5 people with skills in: Chopping, ripping, spray painting and a little design. So no more excuses, go out there and "git r done".

Hot Turbo VW Radio Flyer Art Car Built by Toby Hall

Hot Turbo VW Radio Flyer Art Car Built by Toby Hall
Toby Hall is one of those people who will forever remain a kid at heart, just by looking at his latest creation. He recently built a full size Radio Flyer on a VW bug chassis, with a 1641cc flat-four and a Renault 5 turbo that will turn heads and burn rubber. Toby got the idea by watching Tool Time on TV during an episode when Tim the Toolman brought home a motorized Radio Flyer as a Christmas gift. He knew instantly that he had to build one and then went out and got busy. Toby spent a lot of time building his new toy with a tubed frame, bomber style seats, exposed engine and a great paint job. One the coolest features is the tow that can be pulled both by car and by hand when the handle is tilted down. Toby's Radio Flyer was just featured in this months volksworld magazine out of the UK and its my prediction that his art car will go viral. So glad we could have another hot Radio Flyer along with the one Bob Castaneda built in the US back in 1996.

Benefits Of Using An Auto Transporter For Moving Your Vehicle

Transporting your vehicle from one place to another using an auto transporter is becoming the number one choice for many people. There are many benefits to why transporting your vehicle this way is the smart way to go.

Knowing the reasons why this is the smart way to move your vehicle from one destination to another will allow you to see why so many people choose this method and why it may be your best solution for transporting your automobile.

Below are the most important benefits to know about:

1. Convenience - Having a professional company transport your vehicle for you will provide a big convenience for you. This will allow you to get other important things done so you can be at the final destination on time to pick up your vehicle from the transport company.

2. Saves money - Transporting your vehicle through a company can help you save money on gas or other important upkeep on your automobile to get it safely to your new destination.

Once the vehicle is given to the company they will transport it using their vehicle which saves you from paying for gas and maintenance. It also helps avoid extra wear and tear on your vehicle.

3. Vehicle safely moved - The transport company has many different ways that they can move your vehicle. It will be your choice which method is used but if you choose carefully then you can be sure that your vehicle will arrive safely.

While accidents can happen along the way majority of the time with careful consideration the right transport option can be chosen to ensure your automobile is as safe as it can be on the way to your new destination.

4. Saves time - Not being responsible for getting your automobile from one place to another will save you a lot of time that can be used for getting other important things done.

5. Eliminates stress - Moving a vehicle from one destination to another can be very stressful for anyone. By hiring a professional transporter to do it for you a lot of that stress will be reduced. The less stress you have to deal with the easier you can get things done on time so you can be at the final destination to retrieve your vehicle.

Now that you know these reasons it will be much easier for you to decide if this is your best choice. Take your time to make up your mind but don't take too long to decide because you will need time to hire the right auto transporter for moving your vehicle safely from one destination to another.

Understanding How GPS Tracking For Cars Works

Have you heard about some of the new technology that makes GPS tracking for cars accessible to normal people like you and me? GPS technology is becoming increasingly available to consumers, and one side effect of this is that GPS has become available for many different applications. Today, parents can have large amounts of information about the location and driving activity of their teens with ease.

The Basics of GPS Tracking :

Right now, as you sit and read this article, there are at least 24 satellites orbiting the earth 11 nautical miles above its surface. They are continuously broadcasting signals that specialized receivers are able to pick up. The data that is transmitted by the satellites is processed by the GPS unit to give the user some type of fix on their own location. The specific items that the receiver is going to need is the place in the sky that the satellite transmitted the data from and when exactly it sent it.

A GPS receiver then processes this data and calculates its distance away from the satellite in question. The device will begin by taking the speed of the signal and multiplying it by the amount of time it took the signal to reach the GPS device. The equation for this looks something like that:

Speed x Time = Distance Traveled

This will tell you just how far away you are from one satellite. However, since the tracker only knows how far away it is from one satellite it cannot tell where it is in the world. One satellite just isn't enough. You really need at least two, but more like three, satellites to be able to get a true picture of where you are on the earth's surface. You might know this principle by the name of trilateration and it is very much like triangulation, except that trilateration is about finding an objects position in three dimensional space while triangulation is about finding an objects location in two dimensional space.

Having calculated its own position, the tracker stores that information on its hard drive and then it does one of two things with that information - keeps it or sends it out. A data logger is what a GPS tracking device for cars is called when it commits the position information to its own internal memory system. This type of device is unable to provide real time GPS tracking. For real time updates you need a data pusher. This device will transmit the information that it processed from the satellites to a central location. Here the data will become available to anyone with access to it - it could be a boss seeking to find the location of a company car or a city employee monitoring worker productivity.

The justifications that some will come up with to use GPS tracking for cars are many and valid. Being a technical whiz is not a requirement if you are trying to use one of these devices. All you need is the money to buy the device and the service. The company that you go with will be able to do the rest. Getting a handle on the company you are going to use is crucial, check them out at the Better Business Bureau or talk to customers of the service. If this type of service is up your alley then you should certainly try GPS tracking for cars.

Ford Kuga Art Car Painting by Ian Cook - Painted with RC Cars and Tires

On Saturday 4th September - Artist Ian Cook aka Popbang Colour painted the Ford Kuga live on the Internet using radio controlled cars. The Ford Kuga team was there to capture all the action. Check out the video of how he did and for more photos go to flickr.

Magic Art Car From Osijek Croatia

Magic Art Car from Croatia
The Magic Art car project was submitted by Dinko Bukvic from Osijek Croatia as part of a kids event called "land without borders". They had 17 kids from 4 to 14 years of age participate in painting this art car that took 5 days to complete. It was an educational project meant to engage the kids imagination and creativity by designing, and painting it from start to finish. The parents did a great job and got involved as well and were very helpful in getting everyone cleaned up after. I think this is my first art car from that part of the world and I look forward to seeing more art cars submitted from Croatia, great job.
Kids working on Magic Art Car	Finished Magic Art Car