Month: May 2014

   

Old Parked Cars: Unique Unusual But Great

Gargling Gas adores the battered and bruised, the old dogs that compare and brag about their scars, cars that have served a purpose and clocked up the miles rather than sat gleaming in garages.

Take Christine’s ugly sister above, for example, a car that has attended the ‘University Of Life’, a mechanical Stephen King that could bend your ears for hours about their road trips, owners, bumps and scrapes they’d been through.

Whilst I try and feature all the aspects I love about cars, this post may not resonate with every petrolhead, gearhead or car guy out there. To Gargling Gas, some cars possess character, charm and personality, no matter what their condition. I recently wrote a post on murdered-out cars that partly conveys why I am so passionate about the automobile.

Not many sites are purely dedicated to such a specific aspect about the car, but I stumbled across an amazing place called, Old Parked Cars, and this is exactly what it presents. It reminded me of a guy who published a book solely on atmospheric photos of parked cars, a book I posted about – check it out, Patrick Joust is very talented at capturing just what I’m whittling on about.

I’ve also previously mentioned the horror author, Stephen King on here. If you are aware of his work you’ll have probably detected his love of machines, trucks and cars. Whilst Joust manages to capture a cars’s presence on film, King does it wonderfully through words – I wrote a post on Evil and Cars and King crops up the most.

Actually, now that I’m coming to this post’s conclusion and can see all the highlighted links I’ve added, I’ve just realised I have no conclusion – what I’ve done is unconsciously pieced together a jigsaw of EXACTLY why I love cars – a bit of a long-winded way of doing doing it, I admit, so I apologise if you’ve stuck with it and questioned just what the hell I’ve been banging on about.

Do remember this though, “Because cars have feelings too…”

 

 

 

 

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ZZZ ZZZ Sleeper

What you see above isn’t quite what you’d expect. Okay, so it’s obviously a sleeper build (the title and reg plate also give it away), and you’d be right in thinking this ordinary 80s Ford possesses a little extra grunt. Now take a closer look at the Granada’s wheels – you’re probably now expecting the build to have taken on more than the usual sleeper modifications.

I first saw this car featured in a forum a few years ago when it featured a 600-hp Ford Cosworth YB engine. Even that was a monstrous transplant, leaving a demon sleeper capable of embarrassing pretty much anything on the roads. 

I have so much respect for the owner and builder for what he did next I think I’d swoon if I met him. I know he is from Norway, and judging from his history with his beloved Ford Granada, he’s missing a few nuts and bolts upstairs. As if 600-hp wasn’t enough, he ripped the Cosworth engine out and installed (wait for it) a twin-turbocharged 4.7-L V8 built by Ford and re-engineered by Koenigsegg. Multiply its previous power output by nearly 3 and you are left with 1700-hp… Jesus H Christ.

Isn’t she a thing to behold, a wonderful experiment taken too far? Of course, all this ludicrous power is harnessed by a lot of other modifications – follow this thread for a detailed diary and pictures of the build.

What I admire most about this creation is the fact the owner knew exactly what his sleeper should be. The Granada isn’t the obvious choice as there’s the classic Escort and Sierra that are the usual Fords to take on the mods. It’s 80s, boxy and cool, and although it suggests a few extra hps, you’d never suspect a whopping 1700 of them.

I take my hat off to you, you mad Norwegian Doc Emmett Brown – you’ve created the world’s most terrifying sleeper.

If you agree and want to see more of this chap, check out his Facebook page and watch the monster come to life in the video below.

 

 

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Fall From Grace: Mercedes 280ce

The car above is everything I love about cars. Affectionally known as Grace, the beautiful Mercedes has a few tricks under her dress. From the image above you see a wonderfully cared for 1972 Mercedes 280ce, a car anyone would be proud to be seen driving around town. However, approach her and dare to get a little personal and you’ll see there’s a lot more than meets the eye.

As you can see, someone has gifted her some rather nice black shoes and Pirelli rubber. Her stance has been altered to lift her gorgeous rear end, and just look at the results. Like I said, this is what I personally like about cars, and whilst I respect 100% originality in restorations, I also love tasteful customisations – if you were to purchase Grace, all the original parts come with her, like it or not.

Grace has personality and charm. She’s from a time when cars were beautiful and expected to last longer than 10 years. Her drivetrain has been fully rebuilt and virtually all of her working parts have either been reconditioned or replaced. I guess you could call her a resto-mod as some of the parts are new and the overall finish clearly shows off some modern touches.

Grace is pretty yet menacing, beautiful yet dangerous, and I have fallen head over heals for her. I think if I owned her, I’d like to shoehorn the 6.3-L AMG lump and make her a true Sleeper. If you want Grace in your garage, check out the link below. Oh, and just like all beautiful women, she’s not cheap.

Gorgeous Grace

   

Little Red Corvette

The Corvette is to America what the Aston Martin is to England. It doesn’t need any introduction, and since the majority of my readers are from the States, I don’t need to waffle on about heritage or what it means to the U.S. However, I will say that the word ‘Corvette’ – in my mind – evokes images of those signature rear lights, Face from the A-Team, and the crossed flags badge. The Corvette is light and slender and designed to cut the air like a bullet. The horsepower is always massive and models of past were loud widow-making maniacs… which is why I’ve always fancied one.

Over here in the UK you can pick up a 2008 car with low miles for under £30,000. The C6 is a great-looking car, and I found an eBay example for £28,000 that possesses a massive 6.2-L V8. Because the Corvette is light compared to the European cars, and the fact it pumps out 440-bhp, it is fast… very fast. You get the looks, a wonderful sound track that can crumble buildings, and enough power to lay thick elevens every time you even glance at the accelerator.

Although Jeremy Clarkson contradicts himself a lot when it comes to the Corvette (most cars come to think of it) – he loves it, he hates it, it’s too flimsy, it’s the most uncomfortable ride in the world, you can’t have one in Britain etc – I don’t think it’s too out of place in the UK. We are a nation of people who need big 4X4s just to pop to the Post Office. Certain parts of the UK you’ll only find Range Rover Sports and Mercedes G Wagons, all driven by mums who need to fit in two children and a handbag. Why would the Corvette be out of place? It’s not massive compared to these 4X4s, it’ probably more economic than the supercharged Range Rover, and it’s no bigger than an Aston Martin or Ferrari 599.

If you want that car with savage acceleration and a gut-rumbling sound track, the Corvette is the one for the job. It may be a little flimsy, but it is light and will keep you on your toes when the road turns bendy. If I suffer a midlife crisis, I’ll take a red Corvette over the 911 any day.

 

 

 

 

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BMW E30 Drift Animals

BMW E30

I don’t really need to write much about or justify my reason for publishing this post as the title has “BMW E30″ in it. Car guys the world over have a lot of respect for this chassis, especially the E30 M3, a car now quickly becoming a sought after classic, whether it’s a minter or a converted track car.

The title also features the word “Drift”, so combine the two and you have great reason to view the clip below. What the guys have done to these E30s may offend the majority of purists looking to restore a car back to something resembling its assembly line days, however, whilst I respect car restoration Gargling Gas is all about car culture and the trends bringing communities together. Drifting is one such trend that has grown so much over the last decade, many varying car communities come together as one.

I’m not sure I’d go as far and or extreme as these mental E30s, but I’d love to turbocharge one and stick a roll-cage inside.

   

H.R. Giger Inspired Car Art

 

Yesterday I sadly learned the passing of the incredible and incomparable surrealist painter, sculptor and set designer, H.R. Giger. If you’ve seen the Alien movies you’ll have witnessed the mind of this Swiss genius. I’m not usually a Sci-Fi fan, but the horrors Giger introduced into the Alien movies pushed them heavily into the horror sub-genre – I’m a big fan of violence, blood and gore.

I was lucky enough to watch the first film at a friend’s house, aged 11. If I’m to be totally honest, I did scare me a little as the film set and Aliens were so startlingly real – this movie makes the CGI of today look silly and amateur.

A few years later at secondary school I was friends with a kid whose father earned a good living supplying the U.S. with his massive modern art canvases during the late 80s. This friend had a few H.R. Giger books in his room, and thumbing through them because of my love of horror, I realised this chap had a lot more going on in his head (pic above). Obviously, been a teenage male, this horror erotica stuck with me.

I was very sad to hear the great man had passed and it reminded me of the inspired car art pictured below. Further investigation led me to a whole load of Giger inspired automotive art, so seeing as this is a car site and I’m a big Giger fan, it’s totally fitting that I say R.I.P. and present some of the art inspired by the man now casting light somewhere dark, dank and brimmed with horror.

 

 

 

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Bad Ass Road Kill Charger

Muscle car enthusiasts will have definitely heard of Hot Rod Magazine and their brilliant YouTube channel. If you know this channel you’ll most likely know the Road Kill channel formed by Hot Rod Magazine’s Mike Finnegan and  David Freiburger. These two guys literally know every nut and bolt of any muscle car ever built – the episode featured in this article is a testament to their knowledge.

The Dodge Charger is an iconic muscle car, not only featuring in classic TV and cinema but also making it into modern film too. The car pictured above is a ’68 Charger painted with the ‘serial child murderer’ brush. It is dripping with ‘bad ass’; it emanates a sense of dread, fear and disgust.

Finnegan and Freiburger take this beaten up Charger, throw spanners and wrenches its way and take a road trip any true man would kill for. It’s the kind of adventure that would take you to the level of excitement an 8-year-old kid would experience the night before Christmas. The best bit is its heart… yes, it’s a 440 big block, but it is ripped from the bowels of a camper van.

This a bastard of a car, a Frankenstein machine botched together for the purpose of eating tarmac and terrifying the general public (the latter, I’m all for :D). It looks extremely sinister and irrationally evil; it is loud and probably handles like the devil with an icicle shoved up his arse, but it is beautiful and I want it.

   

What Car Made You A Car Guy?

As you can see, the car above is the car that first made my infantile senses tune into something and take the time out to think, “Cool, that’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

In the early to mid-eighties, The Dukes Of Hazzard aired every Sunday afternoon here in the UK. My Grandad, snoozing from the Sunday roast, would be awoken to the sounds of a four-year-old me running around the house, up and down the stairs, holding an invisible steering wheel and pretending I was driving The General Lee. I had all of the toys and the show remains the most vivid memories of I have during that era.

Films like Cannonball Run and Smokey And The Bandit also made an impression, as when it came to owning a real car I wanted something different to all the generic modern 1.0-L cars nearly all teens end up driving. After my MGB-GT I ended up with a 1983 2.3-L Turbo Ford Mustang, a car most definitely chosen thanks to the influences of my childhood TV viewing.

Three decades on and I’m still tuning in to all of the car shows, even writing a blog and contributing to car magazines, and it’s all thanks to The General Lee. Although shows like Street Outlaws is partly set up, I still get pumped up for the drag races featuring the Murder Nova. I love watching YouTube channels such as DRIVE, The Smoking Tire and Mighty Car Mods – there’s literally nothing that slips the net when it comes to automotive viewing.

So what’s the car that had a significant enough effect on you to call yourself a car guy?