Autoblog

Truck drivers in the great phallic state of Florida can kiss their Truck Nutz good-bye after getting the shaft from their state government. The state senate decided that adorning a hitch with a set of bull clock-weights should be punishable by a $60 fine, though the vote was far from unanimous. Sen. Jim King, (R-Jacksonville) actually owned a set before his wife insisted the truck be emasculated, and the adept politician was on record calling the genital display "an expression of truckliness." If I lived in Florida, that guy would have my vote.

It kills us that people can talk on the phone while putting on makeup or eating a cheeseburger, but Truck Nutz are considered a distraction worthy of a substantial fine. And how in the hell are the cops going to keep a straight face when they have to approach a car and say "Excuse me sir, but do you realize there are testicles hanging from your bumper?" Get that little conversation on tape and you've got an instant YouTube classic. Thanks for the tip, Stephen!

[Source: Tallahassee Democrat]

Red light cameras are nothing more than a surreptitious tax. Oh sure, they're sold to municipalities as a safety benefit, but what else would you say if you wanted to be paid to install, administrate, and monitor your little ticket-writing bots? The cities and towns that put the cameras greedily snap up the extra revenue generated by dangerously short yellow lights and overzealous cameras. Patrick Bedard has been poking holes in the theory that traffic cameras are the salve for behind the wheel idiocy, and a recent study by the University of South Florida Public Health agrees that the cameras actually cause accidents. Other studies also back up the findings that drivers are quicker to slam on their brakes at yellow lights when they spot the cameras. While it should not play out with a rear ending, nobody maintains a safe following distance, or even pays attention. In some cases, the rate of red light running is low enough that the cameras cause a spike in incidents, proving that the cure can sometimes be worse than the sickness.

[Source: Kicking Tires, Photo: Morning Chu Hi]

If you live in South Florida, or can manage to get there, you may want to mark off the last weekend in January on your calendar. West Palm Beach is hosting what's being billed as the largest supercar show in the world, taking place along the waterfront from January 24-27, 2008.

The fouth annual Supercar Weekend invites collectors to showcase their own modern sportscars and classics along with a very Floridian array of mega-yachts docked along Flagler Drive in West Palm.

In previous years, the show included Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches and Aston Martins by the dozen. Organizers expect this year's to be highlighted by a Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe, a 1971 Lamborghini Miura and a 1967 Ford GT40 J6 racer, along with such personalities as well-known collector Jim Glickenhaus (father of the Pininfarina P4/5) and designer Henrik Fisker. Given the exotic wheels you can see running down South Florida's boulevards and highways on any ordinary day, the Palm Beach Supercar Weekend ought to be a real Woodstock for gearheads.

Follow the jump for the press release and a promotional video of the event.

[Source: Supercar Weekend]

TMZ, and every other celeb-obsessive site on the web, is reporting that Nick Hogan, son of former WWE superstar Hulk Hogan, is in serious condition after crashing his yellow Toyota Supra in Clearwater, Florida.

The crash occurred a little after 7:30 PM tonight, local time, where witnesses say that Nick and his friend were bombing down Court Street when he lost control and slammed into a Jersey barrier. The car spun around, hit a palm tree and was summarily ripped apart.

Both of the occupants were flown in a helicopter to a hospital in St. Petersburg where Nick and his friend are listed in serious and critical condition, respectively.

[Source: TMZ]

As the nation's fourth-largest state, Florida is about to take a big step forward in the war against car emissions, which might be a tipping point for the whole nation. It looks like Gov. Charlie Crist is about to join the CARB crowd and add his state to the list of those with limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. Although we are waiting for the official announcement to confirm this news, a few moves by the governor's office seem to indicate that this is indeed the direction he will be taking his state. Florida would be the twelfth state on the list to adopt the CO2 limits set by the California Air Resources Board.

The CARB limits call for a 30 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions by 2016. Automakers have fought these California limits as being illegal. They claim only the federal government can regulate fuel economy and think this is essentially the same thing. Considering its size and struggle with pollution in the past, the federal government allowed California to set its own emissions standards, and other states have been given the choice to adopt federal emissions standards or adopt the stricter ones set by CARB. It makes it tough for manufacturers to keep up when there isn't one set of federal rules, but California, for one, thinks moving on their own is the only way to get things to change.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req.]

We used to think L.A. had the most incidents of road rage per mile in the country, but when visiting the city of Angels last November for the L.A. Auto Show were surprised that it wasn't as bad as we were expecting. That's probably because Miami, FL was rated as the city with the worst road rage in the country last year. Well, Florida's hottest destination for nightlife has again been named the city with the most road rage for the second year in a row. The road rage-rating survey that tracks these things was commissioned AutoVantage, a Connecticut-based auto club, and conducted by Prince Market Research.

The full list of worst road rage cities can be found after the jump, but the usual suspects are present and accounted for, including New York City, Boston, L.A. and Washington D.C. Only 25 major metropolitan cities were included in the survey, so while there was no check box for "Most Courteous", those at the bottom of the list should be considered the most stress free driving environments. Bringing up the back of the pack, and therefore the city with the least road rage, is Portland, Ore. Not surprising, since Portland has taken very progressive measures to reduce the amount of auto traffic in its city center.

Thanks for the tip, emulous1974!

[Source: Yahoo! News]

During last week's ride and drive of Nissan's new Sentra SE-R, we were assigned instructors to ensure we didn't pull a Griffin and understeer one of their new rigs into a wall. There were several instructors from the local school on hand to give us a familiarization lap around Homestead, but there was one driver in particular that we wanted to catch a ride with.

Tommy Constantine campaigns a Nissan 350Z GT in the Grand Am Cup and in addition to being sponsored by the automaker, gets financial backing and, ummm, encouragement from Playboy. So much so that according to one of the PR people, it's a rare occasion that he doesn't come with two or three Bunnies in tow. Unfortunately, our time at the track was one of those rare occasions.

Regardless, we were able to grab a helmet when the rest of the journos were stuffing their faces with free grub and ride shotgun as Constantine flogged the SE-R within inches of its life. Just like many of the automotive epiphanies we've had over the years, this was yet another example why we'll stick to writing about cars and guys like Tommy gets to race them. Humbling? Yes. But we know where we fit in.

Check the video after the jump.

Thanks to Florida State Senator Steve Oelrich, the Sunshine State could become the second state in the union to ban the use of radar detectors by motorists. Oelrich proposed the bill to the state legistature on Wednesday, which would make the use of radar detectors in the state a secondary traffic infaction punishable by a ticket if the offending motorist were pulled over for another offense.

The arguments against radar detectors are well documented, the most obvious being that users believe they can speed at will and not get caught. Those who actually use radar detectors know that they are anything but a free pass to speed on public roads. In my own great state of Ohio, radar detectors are used to navigate the mine field of speed traps that plague our roadways.

Currently, Virginia and Washington D.C. are the only areas of the U.S. where the use of a radar detector in any vehicle is illegal. New York and Illinois have laws against radar detectors being used in commercial vehicles, while Minnesota and California have laws against hanging anything from a vehicle's windshield, which includes radar detectors.

[Source: PR Newswire]

How did you find your last gig? Craig's List? Help Wanted ad? Nepotism? Supercar builder Mosler took an interesting tact to find mechanically inclined talent in the land of oranges and botched ballots, by placing a full-page, color advert in Grassroots Motorsports.

The company is in search of all manner of mechanics that can help produce the automaker's 200 MPH supercar at their new plant in south Florida. Winding Road has all the deets if you aren't currently a subscriber to one of the few great mags available, so follow the "read" link if you think you have what it takes.

[Source: Winding Road]

Writer Lee Hawkins, Jr. at the Wall Street Journal has written an in-depth examination on a common General Motors complaint: its apparent lack of attention to the East and West Coasts markets.

Using the South Florida market as an example, Hawkins writes how a series of misses and mismanagement has led to the automaker’s current marketshare of 13.8-percent in the area. Example: Cadillac ads depicting cars cavorting in snow while the weather in Florida climbed past seventy degrees. Using Led Zepplin music. Or apparently not realizing that the word “Breakthrough” has no direct translation in Spanish, with regard to marketing to the burgeoning Cuban-Hispanic market. Or the difference between Cubans and Mexicans (the latter make up only 4-percent of the Hispanic population), with a Saturn ad featuring the Alamo.

(Continued after the jump)