Auto Clerks

If you haven’t had enough of the art cars yet, take a gander at Costas Schuler’s Mercedes-Pens. The Santa Rosa, California, resident has a knack for pens—so much so it became his shtick by gluing thousands upon thousands of pens to his 1981 300SD turbodiesel Mercedes-Benz. Schuler uses the the art-car as a promotional tool for himself, who serves as an inspirational speaker and comedian. Schuler accepts pen donations, which can be mailed to him.

galleryPost(’mercedespens’, 3, ‘Mercedes Pens’);

On his Web site Schuler answers some of the obvious questions. He began gluing pens in June of 2005 and none of the pens work due to weather. When it rains it causes the felt tips pens to leak and he washes the car with using soap and water and gently scrubbing the pens. He recently appeared at the Maker Faire in California and has many other events coming up. [Pen Guy via Make]

Found over yonder in Russia-land is this variant of the Fiat 124, presumably the Lada Zhiguli. What makes this Lada stand out among the millions of them is the matte black rims—not really, it’s the amazingly accurate and detailed Mario paint job. The mural contains Goombas, pipes, coins, blocks, red-shelled Koopas and of course, Mario-himself.

galleryPost(’mariofiat124′, 3, ‘Lada Zhiguli Mario Bros Paint Job’);
[Consolenewz.ru]

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Tony Swan of Car and Driver, who ran the Nissan GT-R in this year’s One Lap of America, has apparently gotten a lot of static about finishing “only” 11th in the overall standings and feels understandably prevailed upon to justify the much-hyped supercar’s performance. But oddly, the article that appears for this purpose on the Car and Driver website mostly just comes across as a load of whiny diapers. Though he blames everything from tires to computer technology, much of the apologia centers on the “fateful” autocross challenge at BeaveRun, where Tony got confused and went off course, resulting in a DNF and a minor tantrum by the driver, who reportedly stormed off in a huff, gunning the GT-R through a paddock populated by spectators. Probably not his proudest moment, but in the ensuing drama, it nonetheless became the spearhead for a movement to award a bunch of “bonus points” to those who failed to negotiate the autocross course successfully. Fortunately, common sense eventually prevailed, with the organizers confirming that a DNF is a DNF and that it wasn’t in the spirit of the event to compensate teams for poor performance. Seems perfectly reasonable, though Tony apparently has a different sense of how it all went down. It’s clear that he’s endeavoring to be candid and honest about what happened, but having a GT-R fall on its face in multiple events turns out to be not the easiest thing to explain away. Read Tony’s article here to decide for yourself if he gives a satisfactory defense of the GT-R’s finish.

We sure haven’t. McLaren seems as nebulous as the Associated Press; sort of a cabal of nameless, faceless cretins with nothing but world domination in mind. They do however, have a world corporate and production headquarters a couple kliks outside of Surry in the UK. The 613,500 square foot facility was designed by architects Foster and Partners to reflect the high technology present at McLaren. But seriously, talk about cool working environment, not only does it host some serious hardware like the Mercedes McLaren SLR 722 GTR we saw get busted in New York, but it’s got its own series of lakes.

galleryPost(’mclarencenter’, 9, ‘You Can Eat Off The Floor Of The McLaren Technology Centre’);

Aside from lakes to providing a commanding backdrop, it has a wind tunnel, development garages, floating, evil-lair style walkways, and meeting rooms and office space for all of the bean counters and engineers. We’d love to say Jalopnik HQ looks like this, but it’s more like a Victorian era sweat shop complete with pep-tonic and sadistic, whip-wielding task masters. [Cars-Show and McLaren Tech Centre]

Turns out when we posted a photo of the 2009 Ford Mustang badge it rung a bell with Jaloper James Kenney, who has a quick eye and an even quicker shutter. This 45th Anniversary Edition 2009 Ford Mustang was sitting in the driveway in a neighborhood (should have put it in the garage). Clearly, Ford is answering our question about the Mustang’s relevance with this fine vehicle. Notice those deluxe cloth seats and, if we’re not mistaken, this vehicle is equipped with a whole six mighty cylinders (45 years of progress!). There is one detail that sort of jumps out at us, though.

galleryPost(’2009annmustang’, 5, ‘Try Not To Get All Glassy Eyed’);

This particular model is one of the glass roof Mustangs, which let in all that natural light. If you look at the interior pic you’ll also notice “Mustang” printed on the previously mentioned deluxe cloth seats. Say it with us — Deeeeeeluxe! (Hat tip to James!)

You know how you have to wait around for hours for a Comcast technician to show up? We’ve finally found why that is. Two Comcast employees were street-racing their vans around Huntsville, AL. The racing turned less fast-and-furious and more tragic as one van lost control and hit a vehicle that had three-year-old Kayleen Smith inside. The accident left Smith in a coma. Eyewitness reports say the vans were traveling at 75 mph in a 50 mph zone. One van tried to make a right turn and that’s when it slammed into a vehicle containing Smith, her older sister and grandmother. The sister and grandmother escaped injury-free.

A Comcast manager gave the default “thoughts and prayers” comment to the media and the Comcast employee refused to comment on the situation. No criminal charges have been filed thus far with an investigation ongoing. [WAFF via CG]

newVideoPlayer(”mindstorm-V8.flv”, 494, 371,”");
Lego Mindstorms is a brilliantly simple combination of sensors, actuators, and logic control that can be made to do the most devious and delightful things. Like this lego maniac who built an air-powered V8 engine with a rev counter on one of the cams. That counter tells us this baby can crank up to 1440 RPM, and that’s without any kind of lubrication system. The cool part is, even though it’s all plastic and powered by air, it still has that comforting V8 sound. (Hat tip to Phillip!)

galleryPost(’legov8′, 3, ‘Lego Mindstorms V8′);
[nicjasno]