Backyard Paint Job

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Hot Rod Magazine’s Associate Editor, Jesse Kiser, purchased the magazine’s failed 1967 Chevrolet Impala convertible project car. It was about to get sold off after a bold gamble with the paint color backfired. The video documents the process of using a paint kit from Summit Racing to put a decent coat of paint on the car over the span of one day in a home garage. The end up spraying a coat of sealer, a red color coat and a satin clear coat. It turns out decent and more importantly it gives the car a new lease on life and the owner some DIY pride in the work he did on it.


Source: Motor Trend on YouTube

2013 Chevrolet Camaro SS 1LE vs. 2013 Ford Mustang GT Track Package

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Motor Trend puts together the latest comparison from the ongoing muscle car war with Chevrolet’s awesome new 1LE handling package for the Camaro SS and Ford’s Track Package for the Mustang GT. The $3500 1LE Package uses huge 10 and 11 inch wide wheels, custom tuned mono-tube shocks, bigger anti-roll bars, a 3.91:1 final drive and some minor driveline enforcement to fix the stock Camaro’s handling problems for track use. Ford’s $1500 GT Track Package includes the anti-sway bars from the GT500, retuned shocks and springs, 19″ wheels with Pirelli summer tires, Performance Friction brake pads, recalibrated ABS and traction control and a shorter (numerically larger) 3.73:1 final drive with carbon fiber clutch plates. The guys put the two cars against each other at the drag strip and then around the Horse Thief Mile at Willow Springs with Randy Pobst behind the wheel.


Source: Motor Trend on YouTube

A New Direction

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Hey Everybody,

I apologize for the lack of updates recently. I have decided to take Flux Auto in a new direction for 2013. My hope is to go beyond consolidating automotive news to creating a community that will change tuning and engineering in a big way. The relaunch of the site will occupy most of my focus for now but I fully believe it will be worth it in the end. Thank you for coming to my blog thus far and stay tuned for some exciting changes.

-Will

One Car To Do It All – Petrolicious

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Meet Black Beauty, Jack Olsen’s 1972 Porsche 911 RSR. I love Jack’s philosophy towards building things. He refused to believe that he had to make sacrifices on the street in order to go fast on track. To that end he built Black Beauty to be his one and only recreational car. He packs all of his aero parts, tools and safety gear into the 911 and then drives it to the track. Motivation is provided by a 1995 Porsche 911 engine that makes a little less than 300 horsepower. Jack says, “All of the genius of my particular car is in the suspension and I want to continue tweaking that suspension almost indefinitely. Horsepower is something that looks great in a magazine article, but suspension is what actually gets you around the track fast and this car does a fantastic job because of its suspension.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.


One Car to Do It All from Petrolicious on Vimeo.

Perfecting the BMW R1200 GS

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2013 marks the 30th anniversary of the BMW GS series of adventure bikes. BMW invented and continue to set the bar for this genre of motorcycle with their GS line. The do-it-all motorcycle has picked up in popularity in recent years partly due to the slow economy making people demand that their toys be more flexible on and off road which is what the GS is named after. The new 2013 model 2013-bmw-r1200gs-engine-cooling-system via WebBikeWorld.comincorporates water cooling for the first time. Air still cools the cylinders through fins, but water is responsible for the valve seats in the heads. The big 2-cylinder boxer engine also incorporates an innovative Dual Overhead Cam (DOHC) system that debuted in the current generation of the bike in 2010. The cams are turned perpendicular to the usual layout for intake and exhaust manifold clearance. Each cam drives one intake and exhaust valve. Slightly conical cam lobes allows the straight cam to drive valves that sit at V-angle from each other. BMW released this video showing how the passions of the engineers and designers shaped the new 2013 R1200 GS.


Source: BMW Motorrad on YouTube