Crowned

In my many adventures across the interwebs I have stumbled upon many great things and many not-so-great things.  I have seen things that will make the strongest of men weak in the knees and the sissiest of men sell their Priuses for a Sherman Tank.  It’s seems that for every awesome thing on the interwebs there are thirty disturbing things following right behind it.  It’s just a never ending cycle of , “oh man” and “really?”

That is why I am pleased to bring you this super sexy, super awesome, ’72 Toyota Crown Custom Wagon.

Believe or not this Crown is actually in the US.  All I know is that it resides in California and seems to have an owner that truly loves it.

This gal is just so gorgeous.  It must be awesome to drive around in one of these.

Quickie: Estima

Just a quickie for right now.

A 2nd-gen Estima with a pretty sweet wheel choice.

Electric Boogaloo

School is driving me insane and engulfing my life.  It’s so stressful right now.  I am trying to figure out what I want to do with my future and where they hell  am going in life.  So when my buddy asked me if I wanted to go back to my old campus this weekend, I heartily said yes.  

It’s a two hour drive down there from my current campus and the box handled it like a champ.  Considering that I hadn’t started or moved her in two weeks, my bad.  When we got there we drove around a little to check out anything that may be new.  My buddy Bill and I are just tooting around looking at the campus and then we saw it!  

I stopped in the middle of the road and reversed in just to see this.  I have never seen one of these three-wheeled terrors before.  It’s called a “Xebra Electric Sedan” and it’s made by a company called “Zap!”  This particular Xebra is Kiwi Green, shnazzy.

If you haven’t already noticed, this is an electric vehicle and has zero emissions.  It belongs to one of the professors at my old campus.  This Xebra has motorcycle tags so I doubt that this thing is a supercar, but it’s still really cool.

It’s is obviously battery powered, 110v to be exact, but it also has solar panels.  That’s right solar panels on a “car.”  ZAP!’s website says that this thing can go up to 25 miles on a charge and seat four people.  So you won’t use this for a road trip, but it’s great for a small to medium sized commute.  

I could not get a good shot of the interior, but it kind of looks like an airplane.  It has a few big red buttons and switches.  The seats and dash are very unappealing and lackluster, but I doubt people buy these to be rolling in leather and ostrich and drinking martinis while saving the environment.  The interior looked like the cockpit to a Cessna.  Makes me think this thing might be a secret spy vehicle or something, hmm.

I know this isn’t Japanese, but I thought it was really interesting and that you guys would enjoy it.  I think my campus has a few of the other Zap! vehicles, I will try and get pics of those if there is any interest. 

Check out Zap!‘s website, they have a few other vehicles to choose from including scooters and ATVs.  These little things are pretty fascinating.

Clean Atenza

Whelp, because I am sorting out the logo situation, dealing with school, and hiding from rogue polar bears I am just going to do a quickie today.  That’s right I said quickie.  

Enjoy.

Here we have a very sexy and very clean Mazda Atenza Wagon (Mazda 6 in the states).  I don’t know much about the Mazdas or their tuning style, but I know this Atenza is drop dead sexy.  Aside from it’s ground pounding stance and pretty good wheel fitment, it’s sporting a Mazdaspeed front end.  For those that don’t know, the Mazdaspeed vehicles are like regular cars, just better, a lot better.  Mainly they are faster and handle better and usually look sexier.

As for the Atenza/6 wagons, I have loved them since they were introduced.  I wanted one for a little bit, but I could never part with the Toaster.  They are functional and sexy, can’t go wrong with that!

What are your thoughts on this Atenza?

New Logo?

So I am trying to come up with some sort of logo for OMG Pancakes.  I want the blog to have something of it’s own.  So I was playing around with MS paint and using my mad skills to toss around a few ideas.  I finally came up with one and I wanted to see what you all thought.

Enjoy.

What do you guys think?  Likey?  Awesome, no? 

Clearly my mad skills came in quite handy here.  It’s a good thing I have a mouse because if I had to use the trackpad, I doubt it would have come out this awesome.  Did you notice the severe amount of camber I threw in there.  It’s pretty stellar, I know.  It looks like a 4 year old, hopped up on pxie sticks, drew this with a deformed crayon, while being chased by a polar bear.  Did you get that mental picture?  Crazy…

On a serious note, lol, if anyone would like to help me make a logo for the site I would greatly appreciate it.  Shoot me an email if you would like to help this poor soul and his lack of photoshopping skills.

*Edit*

Ok, I tried again.  How about now?

Well…?

I Are Excited

I am excited because my wheels are back on.  Actually, I put them on last week, but I hadn’t found a pic I wanted to use until yesterday and I haven’t done a proper shoot since last fall.  It’s probably because I’m lazy and wasn’t actually looking all that hard.  I was too busy with school and watching my back for rogue polar bears.  You can never be too careful with those sneaky bastards.  So I looked a little and decided to use this pic that I never really knew I had.

Enjoy.

Ever been trifling through photos that you have looked through probably fifty times before and find a gem that you had overlooked many times before?  Well that’s how I found this gorgeous shot of my box.  I had looked through the set this pic came from at least twenty times and had never even noticed this one.  It’s so weird how that works.  I love it, I don’t know how I missed it so many times.

Yes, this is just shameless whoring of my box.  What can I say, I’m like the dude that always wants to show baby pictures to everyone even though everyone thinks I have the ugliest baby ever.  But no one says anything because they are trying to be nice.  Well, no one ever wants to admit their kid is ugly, especially the delusional people like me.

Lima Bean

Today was absolutely brutal.  I was running around all day for class and seeing advisers to try and figure out what is going on with my life.  My life is like a browner, not so funny, version of Lost right now.  Just the way things are going, you’re watching and saying, “wtf mate” because it’s just so hard to follow and you never know if a polar bear is going to pop out and maul your ass.  Scarey situation, I know.  I was lucky enough to get a few minutes to check up on a few blogs and forums I like to frequent.  It was a time for me to regain my sanity and quell my fear of the polar bear.  For I was in the library and everyone knows polar bears can’t get into libraries.  Their paws make so much noise that librarians don’t let them in.  Since I wasn’t looking over my shoulder for polar bears I was carelessly surfing the interwebs.  I landed on 7tune and decided to rifle through some of their older posts.  I stumbled across this lime green Honda Life.  It looks like a sexy lima bean to me.

It looks to have had a lot of work done, but retains a very stock looking appearance.  I truly dig it.

That ist next door isn’t too bad looking either.  I could do with the tails on it though.  

I love the flares and the deep dish wheels.  You could fit a baby in there, a very awkward baby.  

It looks like the owner nrrowly missed having the exhaust eat the curb, ouch.  I always leave a super buffer with the curb.  I had my oh-so-kind edler sister nail my exhaust on a nice curb once.  That is a moment I want to forget.

Sexy Transporter

It may not be a van or anything the like, but I definitely thought you guys would enjoy this transporter.  I have always had a facination with the transporters the Japanese use to carry their cars.  I constantly try to find pics and info on them, but usually come up empty handed.  The guys over at HellaFlush posted up a pretty sick transporter and I knew I had to share it.

I love these things.  They are so much more awesome than the flatbeds and tow trucks we have in the States.  

It’s so gangster.

What do you guys think about the Japanese transporters compared their US counterparts?

It Pains Me!

When I see work vehicles and commercial vehicles I always shake my head.  Why?  Because of how abused those poor cars get.  They get ridden hard and put away cold and wet in a dark corner.  It pains my soul to think of the things these poor cars have to go through.

Take for instance a rental car; being whored out to anyone with a driver’s license.  Having to put up with fat, smelly weirdos, wiping their orange Cheetos fingers on the seats or the ninety year old woman that smoks fifteen packs a day and lets her annoying little lap dog run all over the back and spread doo-doo everywhere.  Poor thing never had a chance.  It was shipped straight from the manufacturer to the rental lot.  It never had a chance to spread its wings and be loved by the right owner.  This is the sad reality for many vehicles, but more so for the commercial vehicles and work horses.  They will never get to feel the touch of an owner that cares. 

When I saw this photo I immediately thought of their mistreatment.

All I can think of is the pain these poor xB’s have and will endure.  All the awkward a weird people they will have to cart around.  The fender benders they will get into.  The stop-and-go thrash that will inevitably be inflicted upon them.  I can imagine the smell of smoke being embedded into the cloth interior, never to leave.  The mistreatment just disturbs me.  But on the flipside, imagine some of the stories these boxes will be able to tell.  Imagine what these little guys will see in their time as taxis.  They will experience more than any other commuter car ever will.  I guess it is a two-way street with this.  Yes these xB’s will undoubtly be thrashed on and mistreated, but they will have a fullfilling life that normal cars can’t even dream of (if cars an even dream).  It’s quite a cross road…

What are your thought on the plight of the work horse?

US Bound iQ to be Scion Branded?

Looks like the rumors might be true.  The rumors that Toyota will be bringing over the iQ to the States and selling it under the Scion brand.  Scion sent out a press release talking about their plans to unveil a “micro-subcompact concept car” at the 2009 New York International Auto Show.  I am thinking that that is probably the iQ.

Here is an excerpt from that press release:

Scion will unveil a micro-subcompact concept car at the 2009 New York International Auto Show. The concept reflects Scion’s youthful image and represents a new segment for the brand aimed toward the growing urbanization trend.

I am excited to see what Scion and Toyota are brewing up here.  But we will all have to wait until April to find out.  Don’t worry though, I will be at the 2009 NYIAS,  so expect a very detailed review of this and many other vehicles.

Want to learn more about the iQ?  Check out my post about the iQ.

Source: World Car Fans