Autoblog

Click the T-Bucket for a gallery of some of the custom machines on Woodward

You can't have a cruising scene without plenty of hot-rods and other customs and the Woodward Dream Cruise is no exception. Spread among the Tauruses, Focuses and Dodge Miradas (that's the Chrysler Cordoba clone behind the rod above) were all kinds of heavily modified machines often very loosely based on all manner of old cars. When old Henry and his team created the Model T, they surely never envisaged anything quite like this.

ZAZ, or Zaporozhsky Avtomobilny Zavod, was the people's car for the USSR, built in the Ukraine, sturdy enough and just ugly enough to tackle anything the Soviet climate could throw at it. It's still got a bit of a following, conjuring for some the same nostalgia over there as the Beetle does over here. It is also, in the workshops of few folks with itchy hands and lurid paint schemes, a veritable artist's palette when it comes to transformation. The folks at English Russia have a gallery of ZAZ vehicles that have been transformed into the kind of cars used by the creatures in Where the Wild Things Are. There's one that's been turned into the wackiest Mk 1 M3 clone you've ever seen. When the inevitable Transformer's sequel comes, we'd like to recommend the producers consider creating a class of Autobots that all start out at ZAZ automobiles. They could be Eastern European mercenaries with thick accents. It'd be like having Dolph Lundgren back again...

[Source: English Russia]

First Sgt. William von Zeal did a little shopping while stationed in Iraq with the 411th Civil Affairs Battalion-- he picked up what is believed to be Saddam Hussein's 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEL for around $5,000 from a private owner in Baghdad.

The white Benz in question was fitted with armor plating, loudspeakers, hidden microphones, and... wait for it... flame throwing side pipes. Likely one of three such white Benzes, Von Zeal has yet to definitively prove that his car was Hussein's, but he does have some clues, including a sales receipt listing "the Iraqi government" as previous owners.

But the reservist may not get the chance to prove its provenance once and for all, because he no longer has the car in his possession-- Federal customs agents seized it in New Haven, Connecticut, and are treating it as a "possible war trophy." The car is being held by the government because of potential infringement upon federal smuggling law violations, along with possible breach of an executive order banning the importation of items owned of the former Iraqi government.

Federal agents were holding the car while investigating possible violations of federal smuggling laws, as well as an executive order barring the importation of property from the former Iraqi regime.

Von Zeal has not been charged with any crimes, but the future of the car and the case is uncertain. At least one Autoblogger hopes he gets his ride back... or better yet, CNN officially declares it will never to use the word 'Pimped' in another headline ever again. Ever.

[Source: The Associated Press via CNN; LyricsFreak]

*(With sincerest apologies to Janis Joplin and Keith Barry, our tipster who came up with the reinterpreted ditty that we can't get out of our heads. Because our friends all drive Porsches, we must make amends)