THE HARDEST PART OF MAKING A WEBSITE: NAMING IT

If you have been waiting with baited breath for my next post, you can stop suffocating yourself now.

I contacted Matt Farah of the Drive Network on YouTube and his own TheSmokingTire.com what he thinks about this blog -- its concept, its direction and where I should go next.

At first he said, simply, "that's funny." I didn't know to take it as an insult or for good. Evidently he meant the good kind of funny. He then recommended I "do a counter-point to every post jalop makes." That took me back.

Yes, that was the point of this site at the beginning, but I'm realizing more and more how much of a challenge that'd be for a (!) lad like myself. How could one person possibly counter every. Single. One of Jalopnik's seemingly unlimited supply of posts?! There are too many in existence to be counted by man, let alone machine. 

This site garnered an unexpected amount of attention (1500 views within 12 days), sure. For me, that's a boatload and a half, which for scientific purposes, is kind of a lot. However, I don't know how sustainable the site is.

So then, the vision of this site was impossible to achieve. What then? How am I supposed to needlessly push my opinions on the internet masses and break out as a wannabe/student (same thing, right?) journalist. 

In a series of incomplete sentences via Twitter, Farah told me to make a .com site. "No one ever goes to a ".blogspot" site, so ditch that ASAP. Get a real .com site. Most semi-pro's/pros use the Wordpress platform. We use Wordpress."

Whatever I end up pursuing, it's evident at least that I should make it a .com site and use Wordpress. Now the hardest part of it all is what do I name the damn thing? 

There are a billion-odd other car sites out there and how on the planet am I to stand out? They usually incorporate the following buzzwords in some funky conglomeration: "Auto," "Sport," "Line," "Week," "Driving," "Speed," "Tech," "Gear," "Track," "Road," "Car," "Driver," "Automobile," "Trend," "Piston," "Motor," "Torque," "Authority," "Motoring" or "News."

So what does that leave me with? SpeedTechGearTrack.com? No, too cumbersome. 

AutoSpeed.com? I'm betting without even checking that that's already taken. 

PistonTrend.com? That's a helluva lot better.

DrivingAuthority.com? Probably already taken, but sounds corporate, boring and all-too-familiar. Also, I'd need a lot of facts that I don't have to back up my opinions with a name as vanilla as that. 

AutoMotor.com? Sounds like a Chinese instruction manual gone wrong. 

RoadNews.com? That'd be a good government-sanctioned website for highway conditions, I guess... 

I think no matter how I jumble up this can of automotive alphabet soup, it's still going to sound horribly bland and uninteresting. I need something short, sweet, catchy (of course!) and memorable. 

So I hate to beg. But if you've got a name you're 1) so unbelievably selfless so as to recommend to me and 2) dumb or lazy enough not to use it yourself send it to me at MFL11592@aol.com. 

Thanks in advance, that is, if I get any ideas. 

OVERWROUGHT OR ÜBERCOOL?: CUSTOM 458 ITALIA

Are these cars actually appealing to real people? I find the trend of wrapping cars in these god-awful styles and colors ruins any aesthetic beauty the car once had. Actually, this brings back memories of the hideous chrome Bugatti Veyron and "gold" Lamborghini Gallardo of Gumball 3000 fame.

Gross, if you ask me. 

Over-done, overwrought, played out, I reckon.

D3 CTS-V AT CHUCKWALLA VALLEY RACEWAY

If you saw Matt Farah's recent episode of Tuned featuring a D3 Cadillac CTS-V (above if you haven't),  he made reference to the Cadillac Challenge Series.

If you're curious about what that action looks like, watch the video below. Because at first hearing about this series, I couldn't imagine some 20-plus CTS-Vs duking it out on the track. But I guess they do just that.

Those V8s sound just glorious, don't they? 

SEAT OF YOUR PANTS FEELING: R8 E-TRON

Watch as the nigh-on silent R8 e-tron barrels down the Nürburgring in a record time (for electric/hybrid vehicles) of 8 minutes and 9 seconds!

I guess knowing German is my leg up on the real Jalopnik, isn't it? 

WHICH WOULD YOU TAKE FOR A SPIN?: PORSCHE GT3 RS, MERCEDES C63 AMG BLACK SERIES OR BMW M3 GTS?

It seems a once-in-a-lifetime experience to drive any one of the three handsome German brawlers from BMW, Mercedes and Porsche. But to have all three?! I can't think of a metaphor grandiose enough to compare what that'd be like -- yet even so, it'd be nothing short of glorious. 

In the video above, Chris Harris from the Drive Channel drives the BMW M3 GTS, the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series and Harris' own Porsche GT3 RS.


His complaints on the BMW go as follows: too expensive, too limited (in number of GTSes to be built), not enough doo-dads to justify the $50,000 premium and relative to the two other competitors, 50hp-less horsepower. However, he's a fan of the deep, bellowing V8. And that sounds about it. Until he drives the thing.


He likes the C63's automatic transmission mode, wider track and body kit that distinguishes it from the "normal" C63 AMG.
"The GT3 RS is so good that it doesn't have a direct rival," said Harris. The GT3 RS 4.0 is powered by a 4.0-liter flat-six, that according to Harris, is the most comfortable choice of the three on the street, what with its adjustable dampers, iPod connectivity and satellite navigation.

For Harris' second day of once-in-a-lifetime experiences, he takes the three track-day specials to Anglesey Circuit in... you guessed it, the Welsh island-county of Anglesey.

During his track time, he remarks about the GTS' lack of grip. Knowing BMW, and their insistence to use run-flats (even on M cars), the GTS is probably no different. But that isn't so much a problem when he decides to take the GTS for a "hoon." He talks about the car's tendency to overseer and its enormous balance. I just wonder, why didn't he feel its 50/50 balance when he was driving it right... as in, not drifting?

The GTS came in at a time of 1 minute, 39 seconds, the AMG, 1 minute, 39.10 seconds and the GT3 RS, 1 minute 36.10 seconds. As slight as it may seem, three seconds is massive. It could be any number of factors that kept "Monkey"from setting even faster lap times, but assuming all things are equal, three seconds is a large chunk of time on a racetrack. Perhaps that's why an average track day costs $400...

Ultimately, I wasn't completely satisfied with Harris' less-than-scientific road- and track-testing. After all, the goal of any Drive video is to get a huge amount of hits, so that at least in part explains the drifting. So I took the liberty of compiling the cars' data on my own...

Sources include: Motor Trend, Road & Track, Edmunds Inside Line and Fastest Laps.com.

My conclusion is if you have the money, means and access, go for the BMW despite its minor cosmetic tweaks (splitter, wing and black 19" competition wheels) and major price gap ($80,000). It is a limited-production car of only 150 in total, so they are all the rarer and more collectible.

All told, I'd take the C63 AMG Black Series on looks alone. I know it weighs the most and I know it likes to slide the most, but really if I wanted a track car, I'd strip it to the bare metal, and these lot are simply too expensive to do that to! The Mercedes looks the best, sounds the best and er... is the most comfortable... um, the best.

Much like Jeremy Clarkson has gone on the record saying, the Porsche 911 continues to resemble a Volkswagen Beetle. And that's not entirely for good. Yes the GT3 RS is the lightest, handles the best and has a proper manual, but I'd still take the Merc. And with all the money I'd save not buying the Porsche, I'd have enough to buy a set of sticky tires...

FERRARI F12 BERLINETTA INSIDE LOOK: EVO

Here's a look of the new 2013 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta courtesy of Evo Magazine over in the UK.  

Jethro Bovington runs the F12 through its paces on the Ferrari's Fiorano test track, and while I would have preferred a more extensive assessment of the car, he takes a look at the impressive 599 GTO. 

[ANTI-] JALOPNIK ON DRIVE

As much as this site is predicated to bash all things Jalopnik, I actually quite like what they do here. Give it a look if you have the time or attention span.