Filed under: Aftermarket, Performance, Japan, Lamborghini, Luxury

Anywhere you find rabid car culture you’ll find rabid tuners. Japan’s no different, where the make-it-hotter ethos applies to everything. When it comes to Lamborghini, Chrysler, and yes, even the Suzuki Every kei car, Wataru Kato’s 18-year-old Liberty Walk shop wants to be the last word in entertainment – not only for owners, but also for visitors.

Liberty Walk designs its own parts and applies them to a range of vehicles that go from the understated to the unbelievable. Kato says he wants his shop to be an amusement park for kids who just want to be around supercars. (We assume he means kids of all ages.)

Follow the jump for a video showcasing his work. If we make it there, we might start by asking to play with Kato’s white Ferrari F40…

Continue reading Liberty Walk shows us how Japan does Lamborghini customs

Liberty Walk shows us how Japan does Lamborghini customs originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Concept Cars, Etc., Humor

The Zastava Yugo 45 was intended to be a serious car. Instead, it became a punchline. Milos Paripovic’s Zugo concept, on the other hand, is a bit of a joke that instead was taken seriously enough to win fifth place in a European design competition. After updating the lines of the Yugo for the Zugo, Paripovic endowed it with features that probably would have been useful on the original.

The electric concept has a heated rear hatch so your relatives, when pushing it, have a warm place to put their hands. But the hatch also contains a pressure sensor so you can tell if any of those relatives aren’t pulling pushing their weight.

Paripovic said such features, and others, “are put in contrast to everyday reality of Yugo owner.” That’s why the Zugo is open source and provides diagrams of all of its parts so owners can fabricate their own. It’s also why the safest recommended place for the Zugo is “in the garage.” Check it out in the attached image gallery. It might be the finest offspring of a Yugo 45, ever.

The ZUGO reimagines the Yugo for the 21st-century cheapskate originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 18:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Classics, Celebrities

As the Poison frontman is wont to sing, every rose has its thorn. Indeed, if the 1969 Chevrolet Camaro Bret Michaels sold at the 2011 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction was that flower, his latest consignments are as painful as pricked fingers.

Michaels will be offering three vehicles at the sale, to be held January 15-22, 2012. The first (and the only marginally interesting one) is a 2004 Bentley Continental GT. The other two are Blue Oval SUVs that might more appropriately be found on a used car lot: A 2004 Lincoln Navigator and a 2011 Ford Explorer.

Clearly, it was nothin’ but a good time for Michaels at last year’s Barrett-Jackson, where his non-original Camaro fetched a remarkable $200,000. That’s about five times what it might have sold for without playing the celebrity card. But hey, at least it was a ’69 Camaro and Bret even threw in an autographed guitar.

This year, however, Michaels’ consignments look like what the cat dragged in. While Barrett-Jackson is known for its unabashed embrace of celebrity cars of dubious quality and provenance, these offerings just hit a wrong note.

Continue reading Bret Michaels selling family truckster and more at Barrett-Jackson

Bret Michaels selling family truckster and more at Barrett-Jackson originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: UAW/Unions

Proving that he is nothing if not predictable, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich blamed the United Auto Workers for the loss of American manufacturing jobs at a recent campaign appearance. Automotive News reports that Gingrich lauded the BMW factory in Spartanburg, SC, for being “vibrant” and mentioned Honda, Mercedes-Benz and Nissan in a positive light, while blaming the UAW for impeding continuous improvement at domestic automakers. The UAW did not respond to a request for comment, according to the report.

While we wouldn’t expect Gingrich to behave any differently towards his political enemies in the union, we will say that the loss of manufacturing jobs is a far more complicated subject than this or any other soundbite can explain. And for all the attention that the auto industry continues to receive from politicians hoping to score points with voters, we remain appalled at how little those on both sides of the aisle actually know about the business.

Gingrich says UAW to blame for hobbling U.S. industry originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sedan, Performance, SUV, Government/Legal, Videos, Porsche, Police/Emergency, Middle East, Luxury

Qatar’s police force has a sizable fleet of Porsche Panamera and Cayenne patrol vehicles at its disposal. How is this? Well, Qatar has lots of oil, for starters, so there’s that income. The emirate also holds a 17 percent stake of preferential shares in the Volkswagen Group. So, it’s not particularly hard to see how the stable of luxo-cop cars came to be. The force took them for a spin on December 18, Qatar National Day, and you can get a look at the coolest fleet in the video after the jump.

Continue reading When your country floats on oil, your police drive only Porsches

When your country floats on oil, your police drive only Porsches originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 31 Dec 2011 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Car Buying, Europe, Government/Legal, Earnings/Financials

Figuring out post-doomsday scenarios can make for hours of fun, but short of a cinematic “Kill them all!” they’re rarely that accurate. That’s because we never know which entrance doomsday is going to use, and the big doomsday is often followed by little doomsdays (as this year’s Japanese earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown should have taught us yet again). Still, that hasn’t stopped Automotive News from taking a look at what might happen to European carmakers in case Italy, Spain and Greece leave the euro zone.

One scenario sees the German automakers suffering but Italy’s Fiat faring slightly better. A strong euro, or if the zone completely implodes, an even stronger German Deutsche Mark would cripple the export earnings of Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz by double digits. Conversely, a weak Italian lira that could be further devalued and printed at will might make Fiat more competitive against its northern rivals. Or maybe Fiat wouldn’t do so well, since consumers would be practically allergic to major purchases, and the already soft demand in Southern Europe might crater such that “There might not be an Italian-made Panda.”

In Europe, the prediction is that there would be no winners, not even Spain’s Seat, which, like Italy’s Fiat, might benefit from currency devaluation. The brands with a chance of reaping some benefit: Hyundai, Kia, and Toyota, whose industrial economies are safely distant from the economic fallout. From a purely industrial standpoint, that’s reasonable – but if Europeans are scared to buy Fiats and no one knows what currencies are really worth from week to week, we suspect there will be plenty of pain to go around for everyone.

What will happen to automakers if the Euro zone implodes? originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 18:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: SUV, Etc., Infiniti

Over the summer, we posted on a project being undertaken by students at the Tennessee Technical Center-Nashville and Nashville State Community College: prepare a 400-horsepower, 5.6-liter V8 from an Infiniti QX56 for seafaring duty in a 20-foot Chris-Craft.

The engine’s transformation is nearly complete, but it seems the boat needs a great deal more work. The pleasure craft, which dates from 1962, has already has three other marinized engines from car manufacturers, a Lincoln and two Chrysler Hemi powerplants. The gents at Freeport Boat Outlet in Freeport, Maine are overseeing the wooden hull restoration and have said that 85 percent of the mahogany will need replacing.

When it’s finally finished, the QX lump with water-cooled manifolds and a closed cooling system will be mated with a ZF/Hurth marine transmission and tested back at Infiniti HQ. Assuming all goes well, the hull will get an SUV’s worth of Infiniti luxuries and be married to its engine. In the meantime, the name of the boat is being put to the public, so have a read of the press release after the jump for all the details. Then, come summer, keep an eye out for a very slick watercraft plying Tennessee’s lakes.

Continue reading Infiniti QX-powered boat continues construction

Infiniti QX-powered boat continues construction originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 17:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Government/Legal, Safety, Videos

“Are you that drunk,” the officer asks, “that you did not realize that your car was on fire and you were sitting in a burning car?”

With smoke pouring from under the hood of the Pontiac Bonneville, Officer Eric Hornbacher of the Grand Rapids, MI, police force had just helped the driver from his vehicle, incredulous that he was unaware of the potentially life-threatening situation.

According to Mlive.com, the police were summoned to the fiery sedan shortly after four in the morning, when neighbors raised the alarm about a vehicle that had been revving its engine for an hour. Apparently the driver, who was later arrested, had fallen asleep with his foot on the gas pedal, according to the report. The car was already on fire when the officer pulled him out, but it wasn’t a minute or two after he had removed the driver that the entire vehicle was engulfed in flames.

“It is a good feeling knowing that he’s okay,” Hornbacher told Mlive, “Granted he went to jail that night, but at least he went somewhere.”

Watch the crazy police dash-cam video and an interview with the officer after the jump.

Continue reading Alleged drunk driver so intoxicated he didn’t realize his car was on fire

Alleged drunk driver so intoxicated he didn’t realize his car was on fire originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Dec 2011 16:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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