2011 Motor Trend SUV Of The Year Getting A Facebook Unveil

Motor Trendwill unveil its 2011 SUV of the year award on Facebook. Wethinks perhaps someone's feeling a little bit ofFacebook fan page envy.

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Toyota Tacoma X-Runner RTR Is Really Ready To Race

To make certain Toyota's new SEMA project truck— the Tacoma X-Runner RTR— lives up to its"Ready to Race"name, ToMoCo engineers slipped the full-size Tundra's 5.7-liter V8 under the hood. Beige sure ain't bitin' this pickup. {PickupTrucks}

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For $7,999, This 2002tii Goes Topless So you Can Too

In the U.S., as Johnson gave way to Nixon, so did the last of BMW's microcars give way to cars like today'sNice Price or Crack Pipe2002tii. But would you give away nearly eight large for it?

Bayerische Motoren Werke is a company that has established, over the decades, a reputation for building some of the most competent sporting sedans in the world. They also have the reputation of those very same cars being bought by what we lovingly refer to as douchebags. Now, not everybody who drives a Bimmer is a douche, but the ratio of douche/non-douche for the company is way above average, rivaling rival Porsche for top douche honors. If you're a BMW owner, and you're not sure whether you're a douche or not, well. . . you are. Not knowing that you are a douche is a primary sign of douchebaggery. On the bright side, you probably smell summer fresh, or possible of Axe.

Today's1973/74 BMW 2002tiicomes from an era when douchebags were something women discussed with their mothers, or were confined to politics. Driving this exceptionally rare 2002tii convertible won't make you a douchebag, and its classic credentials may even overcome your inhierent douchiness, should you already lean that way, making you more of anelder douche,oril douche,if you're also a fascist.

The‘New Class' BMW sedans first debuted with the 1500 in 1962. The 2002 arrived in America in 1968, becoming highly coveted after owners experienced its nimble handling and classic proportions, plus it finally gave then someplace to put their sisal mats. The 02's 1990-cc iron block/alloy head four cylinder produced 100-hp, and breathed though a single 2-BBL Solex. The tii, as found under this Cabrio's hood, raised the ante to 130-hp, through the application of a higher compression ratio and Kugelfischer fuel injection. Bigger front discs (the rears remain drums), a standard 4-speed stick, and afew other changes make the tii the STD-free hooker of the 2002 line up.

European importer extraordinaire Max Hoffman is credited with the idea of dropping the 2-litre engine in the 1602 coupe body, creating the 2002 (2000-cc- 2-door), but even Max didn't have the blaupunkt over his head to import a full drop top version. Baur, the oompa loompas of BMW roof hackers, built a 2002 cabriolet that had full framing, a targa section above the front seats, and a soft top rear. This is a full-on drop top with none of that. The top appears to be a professional job, with swing-up side glass and the works dropping into a well behind the seats when folded. As to its origin, Google's not being much help, and I've got that AC/DC song stuck in my head now wonderingwho made who? who made you?Whatever, there are a number of fully topless tiis (and 1602s) out there, so it's not that anomalous.

Under the hood sits the fuel-injected four, and this one has the latter, alloy intakes of the E12 head. The seller claims the engine was rebuilt less than 4K ago, and in fact claims over $33,000 in repair receipts. That seems kind of sketchy considering that the rest of the car looks a little rode hard and put away wet. In fact, water may had been this Bimmer's Achilles heel as, while it may not have come from Nantucket, it most certainly appears to be a rust bucket. There's road rot on the wheel arches, the rockers, the door sills, the spare well, the floor pan, the. . . hell, you might as well call this an Fe2O3tii. The convertible conversion also shows its age in the sag of the door openings, but then again, that could just be the chassis rusting through as well. Inside, it looks like the car has weathered many years of inattention, a fact to which the seller admits, although the dash is remarkable mark-free.

Along with the rust, there's a good deal of freakiness going on outside on this car. The ad poster claims that the car was started in '73 but competed in '74, and hence the explanation for the earlier bumpers with the later taillamps. He doesn't explain why it has a 1500 four-door's four-headlamp grille, or the reasons behind painting the rear brake drums red. Maybe that's the douche coming out in the car, and the wheels bolted over those slatternly-hued drums are Jedi master-level douchy. One last thing to point out is that the claimed VIN number doesn't jive with tiis for either '73 or '74; it starts with 273, and factory fuelies supposedly were 276 for '72-'73, and 278 for '74.

So many questions, so many enigmatic elements all rolled into one very interesting ride. A stock 2002tii is a joy to drive, although it doesn't drive like a modern car - it's no where near as fast as your neighbor's Camry - but it still proves that BMW figured out the secret sauce way back when, and has just been making bigger burgers ever since.

In order to sink your teeth into this burger, you'll need to come up with $7,999, hold the mayo. What do you think about that price considering this one comes with all that drop top-tastic and rust-induced air conditioning? Is that what you'd be willing to drop down to put this tii's top down? Or, is that too much cheddar for so much swiss cheese?

You decide!

Nice Price or Crack Pipe: 1973/74 BMW 2002tii Convertible for $7,999.online survey

meg whitman'seBayor gohereif the ad disappears.H/T to Scubak1w1 for the hookup!

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Porsche 911 GT3 R Hybrid Finishes 18th In ALMS Debut

The experimentalPorsche 911 GT3 R Hybridsurvived Petit Le Mans this weekend, finishing 18th and suffering more from bad tire choice than hybrid system complications. From this always-well-produced Porsche video, you'd almost think they won.

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An Ode To The Beaded Seat Cover

Oh, beaded seat cover, how my back yearns for your nubbly embrace. You are the de-crapifier of seats, the ghetto body cooler and the sweet taxi driver fashion accessory all rolled into one.

As a displaced New Yorker, I had often seen you throughout my youth in those ubiquitous yellow barges. However, it took me until adulthood to understand the reason for you being everywhere, aside from being used in a pinch as a muslim prayer mat (a friend of mine has referred to you as"godly"but somehow I don't think that's what he was talking about).

Our story begins when my decently comfortable Mazda Tribute was written off a few months ago. Who knew hail damage could elimiate an entire vehicle's value? Anyway. I knew I would buy another car, but I also knew I'd need temporary transportation.

My fiancee's father has two 5.0 Mercury Grand Marquises. He got them from his father, who was a Canadian Auto Workers union member and some sort of foreman at the Oakville Assembly before he retired. One of the cars is a 2-door gray-coloured 1985 factory special, with a 4bbl carburetor and more power than they were supposed to have in 1985. Legendary body strength too - a tree fell on it a couple years ago, and all it did was ruin the landau roof and leave a small dent in the sheetmetal, which was easily pushed back out from the inside. The other is a much more standard white 4dr model from 1991. He's lately taken to thinking that the 1985, with its 2 doors, angular front clip and burbly exhaust note, is a muscle car. Fine with me. I'll drive the 1991 for a little while.

But wait! Last time I drove this car for more than a few hours, I was wracked with back spasms and had trouble sleeping normally that night! What the hell? Oh, right, it's a cheapish American luxury car from the early 90s. The seats are a sofa. Support is for weenies. Real men - real *old* men, if we're to be honest about this car's target audience - should be wrapped in a pillowy embrace, as a reward for their long lives of hard work. Rest now, the car seems to say. Leave the effort to the younger generation. Relax and enjoy our effortless power steering, quiet but insistent V8, shift free driving experience and waterbed-like suspension. Take a nap if you want. But for a young whippersnapper like me, it was all wrong. The only thing keeping me awake were the twinges in my back.

And my thoughts turned to you, wooden bead seat cover. Surely you must be comfortable, I thought. After all, you're used 24/7 by nearly every cabbie I've ever met. And in essentially the same car, no less! I must find you, I thought. So I went to the ricer store in the chinese mall a few minutes from my house and- nothing. Well, ok, you're not really a ricer accessory. Probably wouldn't even attach to a Momo seat. I'll try the auto parts stores.

4 blocks south of the street I live on is a main drag through the city. Actually, it's a main drag through the country - head east and you'll eventually hit the Atlantic Ocean, west and you'll get mugged in Vancouver. On the part of this street that passes through my neighborhood there are no fewer than 5 separate auto parts stores. At each one, I asked for you, got a shrug, and a suggestion to go to the next store on the strip. The last one said, well, what about Wal-Mart?

Not a bad idea. Wal-mart sells all sorts of cheap crap and they do have a sizable automotive section. Off to Wal-Mart I go. Back's already starting to hurt a bit. I feel I should note that I don't actually have any back problems- no injury, no odd curvature or anything. I'm solely bothered by the slightly folded squishy bed that makes up the seats in a 1991 Mercury Grand Marquis.

I arrive at Wal-Mart, my hopes up, and walk quickly past all of the shopping weirdos to the automotive section, where I find you! Wait, no I don't! A box says"beaded seat cover"on it, sure, but it also says"Ed Hardy."

As I'm pulling out of the parking lot, my gas light comes on. There's a fueling station across the street so I go. While I'm standing there, filling the beast's sizable tank, my eyes wander over to the big red sign adorning an adjacent building. Canadian Tire, it says.

I pay for the fill-up and go inside, and there, among the all-season one-size-fits-most floormats, next to the tough looking looney tunes steering wheel covers, are you, wooden bead seat cover. At last, we can be together in back-supporting harmony. And you are only 15 dollars! Clearly a match made in automotive heaven. I buy you, install you, and we drive off into the sunset, hurtin' no more.

This piece was written and submitted by a Jalopnik reader and may not express views held by Jalopnik or its staff. But maybe they will become our views. It all depends on whether or not this person wins by whit of your eyeballs in our reality show,"Who Wants to be America's Next Top Car Blogger?"

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Subaru Rally Team At Rally-Cross Round One

Rally America, I meanRallyCar, is holding its second rally-cross session this weekend at New Jersey Motorsports Park. If you make it over there, tell the guys atSubaruthat next time we'd like less melodramatic music.

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For $10,500, This Ford F100 Ain’t Your Father’s Oldsmobile

Back in the day, Oldsmobile was America's best selling car. More recently, Ford's full-sized pickup has held that top spot. Today'sNice Price or Crack PipeF100 is a melange of those brands, but is its price America's best?

The 411 on yesterday'sAlfa 164was that 75% of you thought its price was 10-4. Hey, did you know that 5318008 upside down spells boobies? Heh, boobies. Today's little number is a truck, or maybe it's more of an engine with a fashionably retro carrying case to get it home in.

Replacing previous car-based trucks, Ford introduced the institutionally-aimed F-Series pick up in 1948. It provided gardeners, pipe-smoking geologists, and sheep-devirgining farm boys with rugged, utilitarian transportation from a company on the cusp of a post-war renaissance. The F-Series was restyled in '53, and again in '58, transitioning that year from the Rubenesque curves that defined the fifties to a more spare and angular shape that would carry the truck into the decade's end.

Today'sF100hails from the last year of that 3rd generation - 1960 - a year when the top motor that could be found under the truck's hood was a 292-CID Y-Block 8 pumping out a healthy 186 old-man horsepower. Options on the '60 F100 were not as extensive as are those of pick ups today, and while a number of color choices were offered, matte black primer wasn't one of them. And that's but the first of your clues that this F100 should more realistically be annointed an F1000.

Along with the paint, your visual clues are the fact that the truck has been dropped, and that the rear tires are epically wide. The bed has been tubbed to accommodate that, and the rims are Weld alloys rather than‘60s steelies. Those at the front are bolted to a Mustang II front end - the go-to front end for hot rod and Cobra builder alike. in 1960 the F-100 could have been had with chrome, and this one sports a good acre or so up front, with both cannibal bone headlight connector and the grille making thecase for brightwork. Below that, the also-chromed front bumper announces the fact that odds are way in its favor for it coming out ahead in a bump fight.

Inside, there's a roomy bench which means you can seat three, or just have your own personal Betty Page slide over close to you so every shift into second or fourth of the Muncie transmission puts both knob and your hand squarely in her lap. Tell her that wearing a mini skirt is advisable.

That Muncie is claimed to have had its cogs renewed, and is attached to what's probably this truck'spièce de résistancewhich is a monster Olds 455 with a tunnel ram manifold. Now, that's something you usually see on boat motors or dragsters where low-rpm drivability is about as important as cup holder count. A quick review of the rest of the not-as-it-left-the-factory mods and that big-ass Olds engine starts to make sense. Sense could also be made in the fact that this Ford Hot Rod pick up, while not sporting one of the fine performance engines from the House of Henry, does at least eschew the lazy man's way to horsepower which is the SBC, and that's got to count for something. Also to be placed in something's countable column is the freshness of the engine build, which at fewer than 200 miles could possibly be considered farm-fresh, although there's probably untold hours of having its throttle blipped in the garage to the amusement of friends that's going undisclosed here.

The seller is unwilling to entertain trades for his FoMoColdsmobile pick up, and if your looking for a joy ride, you will find no joy here either. However, if you happen to have a jones for this very pick up, and also happen to have a wad of greenbacks burning a hole in your pocket, then maybe you and he should talk. It'll take 10,500 Washingtons - which, if placed end to end, would stretch for over ten miles - to drive this truck those ten miles, a quarter mile at a time.

What do you think, is that $10,500 a lot of bank to put down on this pick up? Or, would that price make this truck a best-seller?

You decide!

Nice Price or Crack Pipe: 1960 Ford F100 with a 455 Olds for $10,500.survey software

Nut Sacramento Craigslistor gohereif the ad disappears.H/T to Mathos101 for the hookup!

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