This going to throw a lot of people off here.  First because we haven’t updated content in 3 months (our bad) second, it’s about a hybrid from a company in Japan and third, it’s about how I’m actually excited about it.  If you’ve been following us for a while, I’m sure you’ve noticed how pro-european we seem to be in terms of vehicles we favor.  I drive a VW, Dan drives a Porsche, and we both lust after anything that comes out of bavaria, the land of spaghetti, or the nation under rule of a queen.  Thus far, I could see how you might assume that we don’t care much for Asian vehicles, but I’m about to prove you wrong

As a self-proclaimed petrol head and hybrid hater, I’ve told countless people to buy a diesel instead of a battery, and for the most part I like to stick to that mantra.  Until that is, something performance oriented comes about.  Last year, I had the privilege of  riding in a Tesla roadster and the relentless rush of acceleration just blew my mind.  This electric car thing just might take off I thought…until I drove a Prius.  Commuting appliances aside, the ride in the Tesla made me realize that electricity is inherently awesome for us performance enthusiasts.  Lately, electricity’s been getting a bad wrap from us performance minded individuals due to being chained to gutless gas engines, lifeless CVT’s, snail-paced acceleration, and handling so numb you might as well be steering with a joystick.  The Tesla proved to me that through all this depressing, lifeless mediocrity there’s potential in powering vehicles with electricity, and I can’t wait for someone to tap into it.

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Today was my birthday and my girlfriend promised me a surprise event.  I don’t really care for surprises.  I’d rather just know what I have in store for me so I can get excited or depressed before hand…surprises just tend to make me anxious.  Around 2 o’clock, we got in the car and started heading west…the same direction I drive to the ‘ol 8 to 5.  Nervous she was playing some sick joke taking me to work on a Sunday, we passed my office and exited a few miles after.  As we drove through a huge industrial park, it hit me.  We were headed to the new MB2 indoor electric go-kart facility in Thousand Oaks, CA…and man was I excited.

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So over the last few months, Chris and I have had some pretty excited conversations about many things MotorFanatics….one of the things that we frequently talk about is if money was no object…what cars would we buy.  This conversation always includes the Carrera GT for both of us.  As well as an ever revolving stable of exotics, classics and everything in between.  One of the side topics that has been heavily discussed is paint colors, we typically agree on what would look good, but frequently disagree on the colors we would paint our own personal cars.  Red, Black, Silver, Orange, Green….you name it, we’ve talked about it.  Lately we’ve been talking matte, and we both agree that if done correctly, it is an amazingly aggressive look.  The problem is, would we really want to commit to that look?  One option is vinyl, covering a car in matte vinyl would give you that same look, and would also preserve the original paint, when we get tired of the matte look, we would just peel the vinyl off and go back to the gloss original.  Well, we haven’t pulled the trigger on this yet, but we have seen a few true matte paint jobs recently on an E93 M3 that had a complete matte paint job, and also an R8 that had matte side blades.  We may differ on opinions of many things…but we both agreed that these cars both look pretty awesome. Have a look for yourself here, and let us know what you think.

You know those bucket lists…the ones where you write down all the things you need to do before you die…well Chris and I decided to take the initiative this summer, and check one off together.  Later this year, we are heading up to the Monterey Peninsula…and more specifically the Pebble Beach area for one of the most exclusive motorfanatic gatherings in the world.  If you’ve never been to Pebble Beach, put it at the top of your list.  It is amazing.  (Past event photos here) But more importantly, every year, the area hosts one of the largest gatherings of collector cars in the universe.  The hand full of shows, draw visitors and participants from all over the world, and this creates the opportunity to see in person, some of the most rare collector cars on the planet.    We’ve seen the pictures, and I’ve even walked the grounds of the Concours d’Elegance….just not during the show.   So this year, we decided that we are going to do what true Motorfanatics do…ROADTRIP!  Read the rest of this entry »

Dan started talking about the new Toyota F1 car last week, and I wrote it off as another R8, 911, or Space Shuttle obsession (yea, these come and go by the minute).  Then he started talking specs, and it got me thinking.  Seriously, half the weight of a 911 and double the power?  Wow.  While most of us may never have the opportunity to drive one of those machines, it’s still awesome to think that this technology is possible.  As Dan put together a video for the Toyota F1 car program, we started brainstorming what other motor-powered things have that kind of power-to-weight ratio.  Using my primitive math and Microsoft Excel skills, I built a table in which we calculated the power-to-weight ratios for things from a Sidewinder missile to a 4-door Honda Accord LX.  Check it out below, and check out the F1 video here.  The results are a bit silly.

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Sunday was a gorgeous Easter afternoon here in southern California, and while most people want to get outside and lay in the sun, walk along the beach, go surfing (cough Dan), or just enjoy spring in the air with family, my fanatical instinct kicked in to give the GTI a bath and a wax.  Living in an apartment has many downfalls.  Idiot neighbors making obscene amounts of noise at 4am, being confined to a little box, paying tons of money for something you don’t own, but worse of all, no space to work on, clean, or enjoy your ride.  Naturally, I had to look for a DIY car wash (quarter wash to many) and having stumbled across one on Saturday after venturing to a new area of town, I knew just where to go.

One of the best parts about going to the quarter wash is that I can meticulously clean the car to my beyond fanatical standards.  Sure I could pay someone to wash my car for me (and it seems most Californian’s do seeing as how there’s only one quarter wash in my area) but that’s like paying someone else to drink all your beer and punch you in the face at the end of the night so you wake up the next morning with the same effect.  Nope, I want to wash my own car and no stupid cramped apartment or lack of quarter washes will stop me. Read the rest of this entry »

As an “enthusiast” it’s become apparent that among other enthusiasts, a front engine rear wheel drive layout is optimal if you consider yourself a driver.  It seems as though everyone sights balance with potential for oversteer (too much Tokyo Drift) as their reasoning for preference towards a rear wheel drive layout.  While I tend to agree, I’m not going to be as simple and rule out the good ‘ol front wheel drive.  Sure it gives a frontward weight bias and yes it limits the amount of power you can put to the ground (curse you torque steer!), but the fact is with a well tuned chassis and suspension, appropriate engine power, and nice precise steering, a front driver can be as much fun as any rear tire burner.

Cars like the MINI Cooper, GTI, Mazda3, and Cobalt (SS turbo only please) give FWD a lot of street cred, yet I continuously see enthusiasts write these machines off for lack of rear wheel drive.  I’ve had the pleasure of driving all of these machines (owning one in fact) and I must say that the front wheel drive layout of all of them give a nice well balanced drive with minimal understeer and only gentle 4 wheel drifts when things start to get fun.  It’s just the way I like it…balanced, fun, and controllable.  Now, the reason for this post is that for the past week a video on youtube of Jason Plato making a remarkable save during a British Touring Car Championship race has been making the rounds (check it out below). Read the rest of this entry »

A few weeks ago I posed the question of whether or not technology was a fanatic friend or foe.  Citing things like automatic rain sensing wipers, I presented a fairly one sided argument against technology and it’s hindrance in a true fanatics motoring experience.  Today, I am humbled to say that I was wrong…kind of.  You see, I’m against useless weight adding gizmos and gadgets that are supposed to make life easier but instead pose to me the concern of increased chances of failure, but I change my tune when technology turns to power.

As I’m sure you are aware by now, I’ve got a 2009 VW GTI that I absolutely love to death.  No options, bare bones, switch gears with a stick and foot-clutch two door eye-burn red GTI.  Less to get in the way and less to go wrong.  Just the way I like it.  Before I chose the GTI, I read of these magical computer retunes that promised incredible performance increases, by nothing more than plugging a laptop into your car.  Skeptical, I wrote all that techno wizardry off until a Porsche, Audi, VW tuning company out of Alabama called APR caught my eye.

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Well, its official.  Ford has decided  that the FiestaMovement/MotorFanatics relationship isn’t going any further.  We knew this was coming, no phone calls, no emails…we were in denial, but the thing is,  Ford didn’t really break up with us, because we weren’t ever really together.  We can sit here and evaluate the quality of our application video, (see it again here)…did they think we were too aggressive? maybe too sensitive?  Maybe we just came on too strong…..I guess we’ll never know.  But this won’t be the last time we lock eyes the little Ford, oh no, we’ll surely see the Fiesta again, and it’ll be awkward at first, but we’ll be ok.  Who knows, we may first see her again from the drivers seat of a Karma….or that orange GT3RS that Chris seems to think has been giving him the eye..we’ll see.  We wish the FiestaMovement well, and hope they have a safe trip, and totally enjoy this summer……..without us.  Now where are the keys to that ZR1 out front?

FiestaAgent33 is one of the faithful followers of our Twitter account, and today he posted an intriguing question to those on Twitter, “Fiesta Movement peeps, Does anybody think automatic rain sensing windshield wipers are a worthwhile option?”.  There are some people that would respond with a resounding “Hell yea!!”, some that may say “it might be nice”, and then there’s those like myself that might proclaim “I don’t need that crap weighing me down!”.  It really got me thinking about the whole situation and where cars are going.  I spent a good month looking for my new GTI.  Why?  Because I wanted one with no options…no sunroof, no leather, no naviagiton, traditional three-pedal foot-clutch manual and not a thing extra.  All of the GTI’s I could find were loaded to gills.  Leather, or sunroof, or power seats, or that blasted DSG tranny (I admire the technology, but it takes away from driving IMO) Yea, I’m that guy and true, I’m a rare breed.  Or am I?  Are there other people out there like me?  Are there other people that want to be completely uninhibited in their drive by technological widgets and knick-knacks?  I want to feel the road through the car with no translation, and there’s got to be other people out there like me…right? Of course rain-sensing wipers have nothing to do with the drive but to me, it’s just one more thing to break or more importantly weigh me down.  I want a car for a car…to drive and really exercise my thirst for engineering, speed, and fun.  Uninhibeted, raw, mechanical FUN.  So what’s the story, am I alone on this?