Articles
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The News for February 1st, 2013
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Welcome to the Hooniverse News! This is a weekly automotive news recap featuring the biggest stories in the automotive industry without the fluff or the bull. I just throw in a little opinion of mine, just because I can. This week: The MB C63 AMG Edition 507 wants to be an SLS The Dodge Dart…
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Mystery Car
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Here we are at the outset of February. That is the calendar’s shortest month, meaning you better get jumping on solving today’s Mystery Car contest. You know the rules – you need to come u with the make, model, year-range and likely engine to win. You all are pretty good at these so I’m sure…
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Rolex24 Weekend: Diesels In Grand Am? They Are Here To Stay.
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So the week before the 51st running of the Rolex24 at Daytona International Speedway, this olelongrooffan received a rare personal email from our Chief Blooger. Seems he was up at the Detroit Auto Show (or some other hoyty-toyty event he always seems to finagle his way into) and ran into the Head Communications Officer for…
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Hooniverse Asks- Historically, What Cross-Brand Component – or Car – Sharing Have You Found the Most Appalling?
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One of the things that we are all taught – usually as early as pre-school – is that sharing is a good thing. I mean, it is when it’s tasty cookies or perhaps a scrap of wreckage floating in the icy North Atlantic – THERE WAS ROOM FOR TWO, ROSE! – and not necessarily when…
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Last Call- Nutsicles Edition
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Looking like images of comets in a greek fresco, the lug nuts on this truck have – through the magic of winter – turned this wheel into a freaky objet d’art. Either that or they are the creepiest antitheft lugs ever designed. Image source: [Imgur]
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Happy Birthday 100 MPH
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This olelongrooffan sometimes gets some grief from my fellow Hoons about my writing style and my references to things in the third person. One of the things I refer to is the town in which I live, Ormond Beach, Florida. I refer to it as the Birthplace of Speed. Today is a special event…
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R.A-S.H: The Lancia HPE
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Hi there, and welcome to part thirteen of the series that gets more hits than a drunken cheerleader at a frat party. Today we’re trading Germanic Efficiency for a little bit of Latin Brio, and heading to rather more temperate European climes. We’re going to see a car that caused me instances of delirium whenever…
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Truck Thursday – Subaru Army Brat
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Alright, who here doesn’t love the Subaru BRAT coupe utility? The Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter is such a neat-looking concoction of original Subaru 1800 front end and a pickup bed, that it still retains a strong fan base. Unlike in the States, the European versions did without the tax-circumventing bed-mounted jumpseats, which were discontinued in…
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V.I.S.I.T. – Renault Alliance GTA
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Now here’s a car you just don’t see anymore (unless you live in southern Wisconsin) as it comes from an oft forgotten chapter of our nation’s automotive history. Specifically, it’s the chapter where AMC needed a bailout from a French automaker, and as part of that alliance got to build an American version of the…
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Rolex24 at Daytona Weekend: Into The Garages, Lap One
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So as this olelongrooffan has mentioned a couple times previously, this past weekend was the 51st running of the Rolex24 at Daytona. As always, it was a blast to attend and I am grateful to a bunch of generous friends who provided me a comp ticket to it as well as a coworker who let…
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Hooniverse Asks Bonus: Are Steel Wheels Dead?
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Few years ago I came upon the above G500 for sale on an Internet forum. It was love at first sight – someone had the balls, the knowledge, the audacity, and the respect to put a proper set of steel wheels and all-terrain tires on the mighty, but often dub+ wearing, USDM Geländewagen. The selling…
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Hooniverse Asks- What Modern Car Feature Makes You Ask "Where Have You Been All My Life?"
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The 1916 Cadillac Type 53 was the first car to maintain almost all the control placements – shifter and hand brake between the seats, key start, clutch, brake and accelerator pedals in front of the driver – that we all today consider to be fairly standard. Eventually – discounting some freaks – cars all started…
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Last Call- Pagani Baby Gone Edition
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On last Sunday’s debut episode of Top Gear Season 19, one of the highlights was Richard Hammond’s track flogging of Pagani’s new Huayra (pronounced Hoooooo-wire-haired terrier) which was later anointed as their track’s new top dog. The car as a whole is amazing, to be sure, but the part that I found the most interesting is…
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R.A-S.H: The Honda Civic Shuttle.
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Welcome to Part Eleven of The Series That Refuses To Go Away. Over the last few days I’ve been rather indulgently wallowing in nostalgia, and you American guys are probably utterly fed up with it. Today I thought I’d throw it back open to a car that was familiar on both sides of that big…
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Showdown: Awesome Oddball Wagons
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Generally speaking, dog show people are pretty crazy. That said, I’m intrigued by their ability to to pick winners from disparate breeds. Does a really awesome Boxer beat out a really awesome Schnauzer? (yes). As far as I know there’s no pan-fruit competition where they have to pick between apples and kiwi. Anyway, today we’re doing just…
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VIDEO: Decent Proposals- The I-10-Stopping Will You Marry Me?
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Los Angeles’ San Bernardino Freeway – the 10 to us locals – is one of the busiest stretches of road in the Nation. That was especially the case this past Sunday when a section in West Covina was shut down for a time so that Hector “Tank” Martinez – the dude getting photobombed above –…