What do the Yugo, Fiero and Renault Fuego all have in common? They are all Crap Cars. The book, Crap Cars is written by Richard Porter, who is a screenwriter for BBC's Top Gear (one of my favorite shows) so you know it's good. The book features fugly cars made from 1960 to 2002... a great book to have on your coffee table.

Amazon book description:
Crap Cars is a window into the vanity and silliness of almost any decade as expressed through that ultimate of status symbols: your car. Traveling from the

Livio De Marchi is an Italian (Venetian), that has worked on ornamental sculptures since he was a small boy, so it's not that shocking to see him making life sized wooden carboats -- heck, one can make only so many wooden trinkets before they get bored to death. His larger works date back to 1985, but it's in 2000 when he showed off the fullsize, extremely detailed, Ferrari F50, with working motor. If you have a few extra minutes today, be sure to check out Livio De Marchi Virtual Museum. He has objects that we never meant to be made out of wood... a bag, shirts, bras... his work makes all of us look like talentless ass-clowns.

First, let me start off by saying that I'm a big fan of Land Rover, yes, before the stupid SUV craze and please don't knock Land Rover for that, since that is all they have made for over 50 years. If you are going to be a SUV hater, hate Volvo, BMW, Porsche, Saab (the list go's on and on) because they never had a SUV in their line -- ever. Ok, with that non-sense aside, you however can knock Land Rover for letting Ralph Lauren use a Sport in their "luxurious sporting lifestyle" window of the Ralph Lauren Sport store at 888 Madison Avenue in New York City. I understand that the brands might fit together nicely, but, come on, it's very pretentious -- over the top. I think Land Rover should go back to its roots, instead of doing these cheesy marketing deals they should go after the folks that understand what the brand is really about... but that's just me... maybe they need the sales and this is the only way to get women dressed in clothing from the Ralph Lauren Alpine Collection, that love hanging out at the stable on a country estate, to buy a Land Rover.

Most, if not all high-end automobiles are now coming standard with in-dash navigation systems. Due to legal issues in the states, must be that we are too eager to sue, auto manufacturers disable any video capabilities on the dash displays. There are usually hacks you can make to enable the video input on the display, but it requires soldering and getting into the service menus to enable the inputs. NAV-TV has been around for about 5 years and they have been leading the way with the most easy to install interface that enables television and video inputs on your navigation system. So if you have a BMW, Range Rover (pictured), Mini Cooper, Mercedes, or a Porsche (they also support a few Japanese and American models as well), you might want to check out their NAV-TV solution. I don't have any pricing, but the folks over there are very responsive to emails and seem very nice. I was interested in the kit for my vehicle (or soon to be) and found them to be the only one offering a complete seamless product. They are also working on a iPod interface for these systems, so you can control the iPod directly from your audio interface. Pretty cool stuff. For more information check out the NAV-TV site.

Not a lot of details about this, but at a press conference today at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) in Germany, Porsche announced its decision to build a hybrid version of the Cayenne. Which makes me ask they question again... Porsche, why the heck did you get in the luxury SUV market? Leave that market to Land Rover -- you don't see them getting into the sports car market, do you? The hybrid Cayenne will cut fuel consumption by approximately 15 percent while still claiming it will retain its "legendary Porsche driving dynamics". Don't expect this vehicle out for 2006 or 2007, they are expecting to launch it by the end of the decade. The drive system will be based on a Full Hybrid Drive Concept which is being codeveloped with the Volkswagen Group -- which means the lesser expensive VW Touareg will probably come in a hybrid model too.

Personally, I'd rather wait for a flatbed tow-truck to take my car in style than put on those cheesy little spare tires most cars come with. However, I just found out that Ameritre apparently accomplished a "major technology breakthrough" with their attempt at the spare tire game.

How you ask? Well, they are using this new-fangled proprietary polyurethane elastomer compound. Since the spare has no air, you'll never be stuck with a flat one (most air based tires lose one or two pounds of air per month in cool weather, and even more in warmer weather -- this is a good time to check yours!). The Amerityre temporary/spare tire can carry a load up to 1,250 lbs. Now, this is a spare I wouldn't mind showing off!

- Amerityre