June 27,2010: The 28th Annual Dana Point Concours d’Elegance

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Vernon

Dana Point Councour's d'Elegance

Dana Point Councour's d'Elegance takes place Sunday June 27, 2010.

The 28th Annual Dana Point Concours d’Elegance will be held Sunday, June 27, 2010 on the Monarch Beach Golf Links at the St. Regis Resort in Dana Point, California. Proceeds from this year’s concours d’elegance will benefit the Ocean Institute, a new beneficiary in 2010, as well as the Mary & Dick Allen Diabetes Center at Hoag Hospital as well as other Southern California youth charities.

The event which has also been known as the ATSC Concours d’Elegance and the Newport Beach Concours d’Elegance, will be celebrating 100 years of Alfa Romeo, and 80 years of design from Pininfarina. Both have been named featured marques for the event.

In addition to world class Alfas and Pininfarina designed vehicles, the event will also be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Ferrari F-40 in the United Sates. In addition to these tow celebrated Italian marques, spectators can also expect to find flawless examples of all types of vehicles from the dawn of the automotive age to present as well as pre-1967 pony and muscle cars, Corvettes, Kustoms, hot rods and supercars. Judged entries will be limited to 215 vehicles across 38 classes. The number and type of classes may change based on the actual entries received, but there will be a wide assortment of vehicles to appreciate as well as lust after regardless of the actual classes.

Drag racing fans are also in for a treat as Don “The Snake” Prudhomme is the Honorary Chairman of this year’s event and will be exhibiting four vintage funny cars as well as the original transporter used during his racing days. Included in the display will be the only remaining Hot Wheels funny car used in the infamous “Snake vs. Mongoose” drags where Prudhomme faced off against Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen.

No matter what your automotive interests are: automotive preservationist, connoisseur of rare vintage marques, or an ordinary average gear head, the 28th Annual Dana Point Concours d’Elegance has what you are looking for. I for one cannot wait to once again covet another man’s 1959 Alpha Romeo Giulietta Spider Veloce. Hey, at least it’s not his wife! See you there.

–vh

Photo Courtesy of Dana Point Concours d’Elegance

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40th Annual Murrieta Father’s Day Car Show

Posted on June 19, 2010 by Vernon

The 40th Annual Murrieta Father's Day Car Show is happening this Sunday, June 21, 2010.

There’s a lot of car happenings on Father’s Day, but one of our favorites is the Murrieta Father’s Day Car Show which is celebrating its 40th anniversary on June 21st. The show is held at the California Oaks Sports Park in Murrieta, CA and vehicles will be registering from 6:30-8:30am with the show running until 2pm.

There will be food vendors, a DJ and over 350 cars are expected to participate as the event pays tribute to the founders of the show, the Temecula Valley Car Club.

California Oaks Sport Park is located at 40600 California Oaks Rd. and spectator admission is free. For more information, see the flyer, or call 951-304-7275.

Here are some of our favorite vehicles from last years event:

[nggallery id=32]

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Braking for Apps: Tales2Go Makes Road Trips With Kids Easier

Posted on June 18, 2010 by Vernon

A new app called Tales2Go keeps kids entertained on the road.

A new app called Tales2Go keeps kids entertained while you enjoy your summer road trips, and on June 18th it’s free with a 30 day trial that can be extended through Labor Day.

“Are we there yet? Are we there yet? I’m bored. Are we there yet?”

Sound familiar? Let’s face it, as beautiful as certain parts of the country are, we can only ask our kids to ooh and ah at the miles and miles of amber waves of grain for so long. They’re going to need to be entertained, and when all you can spy with your little eye is wheat kernels or sage brush for the next 150 miles, it’s time to enlist some help.

When we are on a family road trip, my wife and I like to keep the family together. That means we enjoy the scenery together, and when the scenery repeatedly scrolls by like the background in a Flintstones cartoon we find ways to be entertained together. So I was pretty excited late last night when a little birdie tweeted us about this app posted by MomsWithApps.com, thanks @SundayDriveNet.

The best way to describe Tales2Go is “books on iPhone.” They are narrated stories that play on your iPhone like an audio book and they range from a few minutes to several hours. A quick run through the app showed it’s easy to navigate and the stories are organized by: highest rated, most popular, age, story type, books, storytellers, characters and series, new and different, grade level, and narrators; making it easy to quickly find something to keep you and your backseat destination checker entertained for the duration of your trip. We were delighted to find stories from two of our child’s favorite series available on the app: Encyclopedia Brown and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

They may not be an adults first choice for audio entertainment, but they are entertaining enough for you to get involved in your child’s reading interests and in the case of Diary of a Wimpy kid, prepare you for what you’ll be seeing in the movies when junior drags you to see it.

Of course, road trips aren’t the only use. Stuck in traffic? Waiting for an appointment? Pulling over for an hour and a half to talk to a complete stranger about his 1956 Powell pickup? All great situations to employ Tales2Go and help your child endure the tortuous anti-kinetic tasks we inflict upon them.

Tales2Go is currently only available on iPhone, but the website, Tales2Go.com promises versions for other phones are coming soon. The download is free with a 30 day trial period and then an annual subscription of $24.99 a month afterward.

Try it this summer. We think you’ll find your sanity is well worth $24.99 a year.

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When is a Chevy not a Chevy?

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Vernon

GM says no more Chevy

When it’s a Chevrolet apparently.

The Twitterverse was abuzz this morning over an internal GM memo that had surfaced asking employees to refrain from using the term Chevy when speaking about the Chevrolet brand. As you can imagine this had Chevy… excuse us… Chevrolet enthusiasts up in arms, and journalists chiming in with their own two cents on the matter. Some wickedly funny tweets were flying, and here are a few of our favorites:

@Edmunds_Test: Singing: Bon voyage, Miss American fruit-filled pastry. Drove my Chevrolet to the levrolet, but the levrolet was devoid of moisture.

@Edmunds_Test: Some say the best SNL actor is Bill Murray. I disagree. It’s Chevrolet Chase all the way.

@Edmunds_Test: New Chevrolet tag line, as sung by Bob Seger: like a monolithic fragment of igneous geologic material. Oooooh…

@PickupTrucks: I’ve got one last thing to say about Chevy/Chevrolet: http://www.cmaawards.com/ (see lower right corner). That’s knowing your market.

@CarGuyDad: <- Waits for @jalopnik to write a #chevy eulogy, followed by “10 cars that killed Chevy” & “10 best Chevys ever made”. #carpocalypse

And our own…

@vheywood: Chevy to be called proper name from now on: Chevrolet. Thankfully Hummer is no longer around. That proper name is a duzy!

The chatter raised such a clatter that it prompted GM to issue an official statement citing that they aren’t banning the beloved Chevy name, but trying to create conformity in brand name recognition as Chevrolet continues to grow globally.

We’re cool with that. I like my friends to call me Vern, but when it’s time to get all official, I’m Harry Vernon Heywood, Jr.—just in case you missed the internal memo.

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June 5-6, 2010: 25th Huntington Beach Concours d’Elegance

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Vernon
25th Annual Huntington Beach Concours d'Elegance

25th Annual Huntington Beach Concours d'Elegance

If you’re in So Cal and love cars, and if you’re here, you must love cars, you should check out the 25th Annual Huntington Beach Concours this weekend. The event is broken down into two days of fun starting on Saturday from 9am-2pm with “Hot Rods in the Park” featuring pre-1975 Hot Rods, and Custom cars and motorcycles. Saturday’s Grand Marshall is Fireball Tim Lawrence who can be seen on Discovery Channel’s “World’s Most Expensive Rides.”

Sunday, the event will run from 9am-4pm and will feature a salute to Ford and Ferrari as well as Ducati motorcycles, Gullwing and Trikes. Sunday’s Grand Marshall will be Western Regional Manager for Ford Public Affairs, John Clinard and Master of Ceremony duties will be handled by Dave Kunz of ABC television.

Activities are planned for the whole family including live music, Hot Wheel racing, a Make-and-Take model building area and free ice cream for kids under 12, as well as free gifts for the first people in the gate in Hawaiian attire as long as supplies last.

The event will be held at Huntington Beach Central Park, 7111 Talbert Ave., Huntington Beach, CA. For more information visit the HB Concours website, or call 714-375-8414.

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Quick Brake: 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Vernon

[singlepic id=2107 w=320 h=240 float=right]Jeep released photos of the completely reworked 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee yesterday, the first new Jeep since the merger of Fiat and Chrysler. We have to believe the redesign was already underway before the merger took place because we can’t help but notice design cues from a concept vehicle that debuted at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show. (More…)

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Quick Brake for the 2011 Ford Flex Titanium

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Vernon

[singlepic id=2093 w=320 h=240 float=right]Ford gussies up the Ford Flex by introducing the Ford Flex Titanium to help keep it looking fresh now that it’s been on sale for nearly two years. The Flex Titanium is based on the Flex Limited, but is adorned with special interior and exterior styling cues to distinguish it as a separate trim. (more…)

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Did the Toyota Sienna Get Lost in the Swagger?

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Vernon

[singlepic id=2087 w=320 h=240 float=right]We have not been impressed by the “Mommy/Daddy Like” ad campaign Toyota has embarked upon to pitch the new 2011 Toyota Sienna, and have actually found it to be somewhere between forgetful and slightly annoying.

However, recently a viral music video of Mr. and Ms. Whitebread Middle-America rapping the coolness of the Toyota “Swagger Wagon” has been making the rounds, and we have to say we find it quite entertaining. After all, what’s not funny about white people rapping and posing like they’re from the hood?

What we also find humorous, though, is several people we’ve shown the video to, didn’t catch which vehicle the ad was pimping. So it got us to thinking: Is it helping get the word out about the Toyota Sienna? We’re not so sure. We think the humor of the mackin’ family overshadows the product message, and when we searched for “Swagger Wagon” on YouTube, we were even given the “Honda Swagger Wagon” as a related search choice. Apparently, people know it’s a minivan, and it appears they even know it’s a Japanese minivan, but it seems quite a few of them don’t know it’s a Toyota minivan, and we’re willing to bet, they don’t know it’s called Sienna.

Here’s the video, so you can judge for yourself—is the message lost in the humor? Take the poll after the video and let us know what you think.

[polldaddy poll=”3229523″]

–by Vernon Heywood

Gallery: 2011 Toyota Sienna

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AAA Triptik Mobile iPhone App

Posted on May 18, 2010 by Vernon

AAA Triptik Mobile iPhone App

Saving money when it's time to refuel was never easier.

If you plan on making like Clark Griswold and packing up the family truckster and hitting the open road this summer, AAA has a new iPhone app that will help keep you from blowing all your nickels before you reach your own personal Wally World, keep you from making that wrong turn at the Grand Canyon, help you find reputable accommodations with pools you would actually want to swim in, and locate repair shops where the proprietor doesn’t double as the corrupt town sheriff.

AAA members are used to going to their phone when they need assistance for a roadside emergency, but now anyone can count on AAA for roadside assistance in non-emergency situations. AAA has released a free app for iPhone, AAA Triptik Mobile, that gives travelers an edge when driving through unknown territory, as well as all your familiar haunts. Triptik Mobile finds services you may need on the road and provides turn by turn navigation to get to them.

Never mind how useful this app would be on a road trip, even while running errands users will find the new app helpful on a daily basis as it pinpoints nearby gas stations as well as listing their current fuel prices and provides you with directions to get there. Simply check the gas prices in the direction you’re heading and route the one with the best price into your daily routine. Saving money was never so easy. Combined with the AAA Discounts app, members can save at every turn. (more)

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Infiniti Recalling 134,215 G35 Coupes and Sedans

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Vernon

Recall Alert: Infiniti Recalling 134,215 G35 Coupes and Sedans.[singlepic id=423 w=320 h=240 float=right]

Nissan has issued a recall for 2005-2006 Infiniti G35 Sedans manufactured from March 29, 2004 through August 25, 2006, and 2005-2007 G35 Coupes manufactured from APRIL 1, 2004 through May 30, 2007 for a wiring harness problem under the front passenger seat. The harness which connects the seat belt tension sensor and the sensor in the seat that detects if the seat is occupied could experience movement which could cause an interruption of the signal that would prevent the airbag from deploying.

Read More About the Infiniti G35 Recall

2007 Infiniti G35 Coupe Image Gallery

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