Streetfire.net

In case you have not taken my hints and not gone to StreetFire.net yet then here is your chance to sample some of the best. I spend at least a couple minutes each day on this site looking and the videos dedicated to cars. Here is what I have found to be the creme' de la creme'.

Will Roegge produces some awesome drift and car videos and they look fantastic. Check out his Red Bull World Finals video.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Red-Bull-World-Drifting_559178.htm

The guys from IMV Films are fun and produce videos that are real and entertaining. They make you feel like you're actually there and on the streets with them. The videos also make you want to go street race.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/TEXAS-STREETS-IMV-Films_646562.htm

Roll Racing is like IMV films without the characters. There's about 20 videos and they are all the same and all rock hard. Get your street race on with the Roll Racing fellas.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Roll-Racing20-Vortech-oh_207361.htm

Leo is now world famous because he sounds just like a Supra. He also sounds just like a lot of other cars. Check him out as he goes for a couple test drives.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/ride-in-a-supra-FUNNY-AS_61066.htm

If you enjoy supercars being driven very fast and loudly then you'll enjoy VRAlexander. He drives his Porsche Carrera GT the way it was mean to be and it sounds B-E-A-utiful.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/VRAlexanders-CGT_149649.htm

Enjoy those vids you filthy animals.

Ford B.A. = 1.000

All one needs to do is look at Ford's upcoming lineup for the 2010 model year and the cutting of Detroit's headstone pauses. If school ending wasn't a good enough reason to be excited about this summer then the release of the first encarneation of Ford's F-150 SVT Raptor should get you revved up a little. The new Fusion, Taurus, Transit Van, Focus and Fiesta are all either coming or coming back. They are all looking Euro and great. Not to mention the ever-awesome F-150.

SVT Raptor:

It's a freakin' Baja 1,000 truck for the street. Oops, for the desert. Special body panels, special grill, bigger tires, new suspension and a newly tuned four wheel drive system add up to a really exciting truck. When recently discussing tow vehicles with my friend I mentioned that I wanted an FX 45, by Infiniti. To which he replied, "Why don't you just get an SVT Raptor." This truck had escaped my consciousness momentarily. I remembered it but hadn't heard much about it. It's release this summer has snuck up on me. The first generation of the Raptor will have the standard 5.4L for engine and later in the winter Ford will release the 6.2L version. Very Cool, huh?

Focus RS:

Whoot! Look out SRT-4s, SE-Rs and Civics here comes the Focus RS. No one knows the exact arrival date, but one thing is sure, this BEAST is coming to the United States. 300hp from a turbocharged Volvo engine that runs boost in the single digits. Now, by the time my friends and I get one we'll have turned the volume up to 11 and drop 6 second 0-60 mph times to 4 second jumps.

Taurus SHO:

Does anyone remember Ford's little sleeper from the late 80s and early 90s? Not the V8 version; the V6 version. Anyway, Ford is bringing it back. In Ford's European model, the Mondeo, skin is the way that Ford is introducing this favorite back to America. The horsepower from the deep breathing Duratec V6 will blow 250+.

I've mentioned these cars before, but with all this bailout mess of Detroit it seems appropriate to remind ourselves that although most of Detroit has been castrated, Ford has not. Ford is bringing the heat in a big way and will, more than likely, come out on top with the projected reasonable prices of these models. Thank God for guys that don't want bailouts, listen to buyers and don't lean on the Mustang to save them.

Summer Time

It's almost summer time and I'm about to get all hot and bothered. We're talking whore in church kinda hot here. Now I'm in college and I do have a lot more free time to not be in school and drive than I would if I was in high-screwel. What I don't have is enough time to work and make money so that I can fuel my addiction.


Formula D has kicked off, summer movies are coming out and it's travel time. Where? I don't know. How? I don't know that either. I do know one thing; this summer is going to be awesome.

Cars were made for summer fun and as long as the Bamster (President Obama) doesn't jack taxes up too far on, well, everything, but namely gas this summer should be fun. If we are all crippled by funding the involuntary volunteer programs for Obama Youth then that might taint all the fun.


For the folks up North, it's time to take the covers off the good cars that have been sitting in the garage all winter and put the Geo Metro, with the snow tires, up for a little while. Of course global warming may get a little too serious and there could be some late spring snow storms.

It's time to break out the sunscreen. Be careful when applying at the nude beach though. you have to approach the situation delicatley.


Happy summertime. Be sure to put all your stupidity on YouTube.com.

Car Guy TV

I use the words "Car Guy" a whole lot. I've made it clear what that means and I think that even if you don't agree with me on the specific definition then you do have some idea of what I mean.

I love cars and I love TV. Putting cars on a screen, any screen, and presenting them in a cool way just gets my motor revving. Pun intended. The problem is that Car Guys on TV suck. The programming is marginal and the only ray of light is Stacy David's show Gearz. The thing with shows on Spike TV or ESPN is that they don't promote them and mostly they suck.

To network managers apparently they don't think that there is a big enough group of guys who care about cars out there that watch TV. Wrong. The entertainment factor of the shows is sleep inducing because they choose lame/overplayed cars do the same mods on all of them that we have either done or seen before. Speed TV used to have a show called Chop, Cut, Rebuild (CCR) and it was the most boring tripe I have ever seen. Shows like Rides and Overhaulin' on The Learning Channel build a car in one hour. CCR took what seemed like 40 years to do a fender.

There is no input from people who care about cars on car shows, except Stacy David's show Gearz. Always put anything Stacy touches in the exception to the rule category. Anyone who has tried to watch these shows that are not promoted and barely scheduled on TV knows what I mean. For every good show that has, and is, on TV about cars there are two that negate the descent shows.

The only solution that I can offer to this problem is get a bunch of fruits like myself that care about nothing more than cars and let us argue for a couple of days, preferably in a really nice hotel in South Florida. I recommend the Ritz Carlton. Then we shall emerge with brilliant ideas for seasons and seasons of brilliant automotive programming.

I'm serious rich guys, call me.

Car Guys

Everyone's a critic. All you have to do to realize this is peruse the car websites and the youtube accounts of devoted car fans. This may come as a shock but even I am critical of some cars, owners, trends, etc. I try not to be as belligerent as some of the D-Bags on the web, or television, for that matter, but sometimes the moment calls for a little, "call it like I see it."

There's five kinds of car guys. There are subtle nuances to this list that may appear that smoe guys don't fall into each of these categories, but I assure you, if you look close enough the car guy you know will fall into one of these. Hopefully these attributes of the most common dudes, and gals, will help you to deal a little less harshly with the idiotic, stupid and occasionaly rational/learned.

Allow me to aim the crosshairs at those who entered the car culture back in 2001 with the release of the first Fast & Furious movie. Since then they have gained knowledge beyond that of NOS exploding and 10 second quarter-miles taking two minutes and feel the need to regale everyone with their superior intelect. These are the "Lemme Tell Ya" people. They hate Fast & Furious, even though it is the reason they first liked cars, and want everyone to know that they are a real car guy. They are so knowledgeable about what is what because they spent a couple minutes last night on HowItWorks.com, or Wikipedia.com, and want you to know what they know and that it was them that told you. They don't necessarilly have the money to have a sweet car but the way they talk you would think they did.

The second type of car guy is the "Ricer." Now I've written about this scourge of car world because people must know about these rats and obliterate them. Since you can find a deeper description in one of my earlier blogs I'll keep this short. They don't know jack about cars but they think they do. Their cars look like crap. They are loud, annoying and inspire hatful feelings in people. Avoid these people by all means necessary or you may end up in jail for murder.

Next up we have the "Professionals." These guys can go either way. They can be very good or they can be extremely bad. The good are the guys that will lean on their car at a show and talk to fans as long as the fans want to talk with them. Take a turn to a similar looking guy leaning on a race car in a fire suit and they will just tell you how great they are and you will not be talking to them for very long becasue, a.) Their agent will wisk them away to another photoshoot, or, b.) you will get sick and take off to find some schwag bags at the other parts of the show. Pros are not only race car drivers; they are the shop owners. The shop owners and mechanics know their stuff and can act pretty cool and talk with you for awhile or be too busy working on their cars to even feign understanding of mortals.

The "Rich Guys." They drive Ferraris, Lamborghinis and even Corvettes. These people have more money than taste and are extremely sad. Car guys often dream of having more money than the good Lord and it pains them to see those who come cloe wasting it on all too common supercars. These are usually older guys with wives that are either in their 20's or are made of parts from 20 year olds. They aren't that into cars but they like looking like they have money. They make everyone green with envy and red with anger.

The last, he best car guy is the "Regular Guy." They don't have all that much money but they do have enough. There cars may not be that extreme, but they work well. The regular guys are the happy ones. They are satisfied with who they are and where they are in life. Regular guys are the best to talk to at shows and the best to race on Friday night because in the end they don't want enemies and would rather build good will than start fights.

Keep your eyes sharp and look for the Regular Guys. Surround yourself with positive people in the car community and maybe some Rich Guys...for the money and free upgrades.

How to break into the car world.

So you want to be a drifter, NASCAR driver, rally driver, car builder or car designer? Well, good. Me to.

You'd think that a blog with a title like, "How to break in to the car world," would be very lengthy with a bunch of details of how to do things. Wrong. You might also think that it would come from an authority on the subject, like someone who actually has a job in the car world, not just another armchair quarterback. Wrong.

I'm like a lot of folks out there that read magazines and watch TV and think, "Man, I could do that better than these guys?" Maybe not so much "better," but...well, yes better.

I was perusing the Rally America website and like other websites it had a frequently asked questions section. So I clicked on the tab hoping they would tell me how to get into rally racing; and they did. Kinda.

They start off by telling you about the commitment and time and money and blah, blah, blah. All of this is not anything that someone has heard from a condescending racer or car owner.

There is no secret to break into the car world, at least not one that I have found. It is like anything that people do in life they have to eat, sleep, drink, feel, breathe and mate with their dreams. You have to go after it as hard as possible. Guys like Chip Foose have a leg up because they were raised in the culture and have known it from birth. Travis Pastrana is another guy like Foose. Pastrana wasn't raised in the car culture, but he was raised on a motorcycle and now he's driving a rally car.

Don't take no for an answer. Find what part of the car culture you like, be it drag racing, show cars or drifting, whatever. Pursue it. hang out with people who love it to. Go to school to learn what to do with your passion. Don't go to regular crap school that gives you a piece of paper at the end. Go to a school like Universal Technical Institute or Wyotec that will give you the skills you need. Just don't count on their job placement programs. Count on yourself to get things done. Go to every car show, race and event you can and get your name out there. If it is meant to be then it will happen.

Just take this blog at its face value. Be encouraged by it to not only chase your car dreams but any dreams that you may have.

Review: Fast & Furious (2009)

I saw the latest chapter in the Fast & Furious franchise this past Friday. I would have seen it earlier, but my local theatre was not doing midnight showings on Thursday night (Grrr). In my humble opinion this flick was probably more anticipated, albeit silently more so, than Watchmen. Banners for the movie were all over YouTube.com and Streetfire.net. Even though I would have liked to see this movie everywhere being advertised, I did not.

Let's get down to business. Did I like it, or not? In a word yes. Maybe that's the wrong word. How about, HELL YES! The movie was spectacular. It wasn't cartooney like 2 Fast 2 Furious; it was more on par with the first and third movies. Now, some have only included the first and second movies in the 4-part series as the "good ones." I must disagree.

Before I get too far into where the movies rank I have to tell you a little about this one and this may include SPOILERS. The film begins with the scene that anyone who has looked at the preview for the film has seen, with Dominic (Vin Diesel), Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) and their team hijacking a gas tanker truck, the land train. Craziness ensues and spectacular car stuff happens. The movie puts you on the edge of your seat from the start.

If you've been a fan from the start then there's an added tear jerk factor to the film, because it is like a reunion of old friends that you haven't seen since 2001. There are nods throughout the film to the original. One of these moments was when Brian (Paul Walker) and Dominic were exiting the police impound. Brian remarks to Dominic that he owes him a 10-second car, because Dominic blew up multiple cars earlier and Brian's happened to be one of them. This is a nod to the first film because in the first one it was Brian that owed Dominic a 10 second car. This is just one of many inside jokes, a.k.a. smile moments, to those fans who have been with the franchise since its inception in 2001.

There is no need to see the first three films in order to understand this one. If you see this one without the others, you might not get the inside jokes, but you will want to. This movie makes you a lifetime fan from the start of the movie and deepens your love for the characters if you already are a fan.

The rank of the films in the series go like this:

(There is no room for debate of these rankings)

No. 4, 1, 3, 2

The latest was just the most rounded and well thought out movie. All the movies were enjoyable and great rides. The only slide room that I will give is that the first and second movies are interchangeable in their rank. The two are too close. Number one is saved by the coolness of the film and number three is saved by the originality.

I don't review movies from a point of view of a cinematic standard. If you go to a movie and get what you want, or even more, then that's a perfect movie. I got what I wanted from Fast & Furious. I got more than I wanted, because I did not expect the ending to be as good as it was. If you enjoy cars,if you enjoy explosions, if you enjoy rediculousness, then go see Fast & Furious. The movie has enough coolness for anyone and even a little heart, if you look close.