Autoblog

There's a new blog in cyberspace, and it's hosted by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Mary E. Peters. According to Secretary Peters, she's pushing twenty-first century proposals, so she decided that she'd better communicate in a twenty-first century way. The all-new site is called Fast Lane, and at first glance, it is an interesting approach (for a government job, that is).

As the site is in its infancy, a tour only takes about five minutes. There are a dozen or so links to other DOT agencies, a who's-who list of notable contributors, and an e-mail link directly to the Secretary's inbox (yeah, right). It appears that much of their content will be from "guest" bloggers (aka other politicians). Today's guest was the the Mayor of Chicago announcing a new Bus Rapid Transit system.

While we don't see the new site competing with our own (we looked everywhere, and didn't find any reference to the Nissan GT-R or Dodge Challenger SRT8), the innovation of the site appears to be the speed at which information will make it to the public, and the interaction (via comments) that the public is welcome to partake. Don't expect to use the site to vent your frustrations towards the agency - as a dot.gov site, you can expect that all submitted comments on Fast Lane will be moderator approved.

[Source: Detroit News]

Now here's a Fiero bodykit that's worthwhile. TransFX, a California-based custom car maker responsible for several GM concepts as well as lots and lots of Batman's cars, boats, and planes, built four of these bodies for a Universal Studios project. Designed to be mounted on a stretched Fiero chassis, only a single roadgoing version exists, and the Volo Auto Museum will sell that to you for $65,000. You could spend less than one third that price and pick up this body shell, allowing you to then dream up your own undercarriage. We think it'd be good with a Porsche Boxster plugged in underneath.

What you get for $14,000 is a very cool futuristic bodyshell on casters. The outside might look an awful lot like a car, but climbing underneath tells the whole story. There's nothing to this car, yet. Its just waiting for you to marry your chassis to its bodywork. Then you'll have the task of creating the entire wiring harness, installing all the lights, the interior, and about a quintillion little issues that always crop up with kit cars, which this essentially is. What we want to know is what ever became of the project these props were commissioned for. We also hope that whoever wins the auction at least uses a Fiero GT as a donor. It just wouldn't do to put this car on a 2M4. The Iron Duke is definitely not an engine befitting Batman. Then again, the GT's 2.8 is merely suited to Boy Wonder. Now, a Northstar starts to show promise. Hmm.

Thanks for the tip, Jordan!

We don't get it. Saturn has done an amazing job transmogrifying itself into a productive division for The General, and people are wistful for the Saturn of yore? In internet parlance, WTF? Three years ago, it would have been apt to predict that Saturn would be nearly done circling the drain by now and well on its way to the same fate as Oldsmobile. What has in fact happened has been an impressive brand renaissance, invigorated by GM's smart utilization of its global operations. Jerry Garrett opined in the September 5th Wheels section of the New York Times that GM's realignment of Saturn amounts to quietly smothering the brand with a pillow and then swiping its identity. Saturn's communications director Kyle Johnson shot back a reply on the GM FastLane blog, and it all makes for fascinating reading.

We'd like to point out that global asset and platform sharing has been going on for decades at GM. It's really no big thing that Saturn is selling Opels. Heck, the Chevette was an Isuzu Gemini, and who can forget the final Pontiac LeMans? Platform sharing has been going on for a very long time at all of the big three, we're not sure why Saturn's excercise of the practice is such news to Jerry Garrett. Kyle Johnson delivers a pretty good dope-slap of a reply, too. It's always entertaining when the fur flies on the interweb.

[Source: GM Fastlane]

Click image for high-res gallery of Volo cars on display

The Chicago Auto Show might not have the weight and import of a show like Detroit, but it is officially one of my favorites from now on. The reason is that the Volo Auto Museum is within range of the show and they brought out a small selection of the hardware they typically have on display and/or for sale at their Volo, Illinois museum and dealership complex up north.

Tucked into the back of the North Hall, way behind the BMWs, Acuras, and Porsches, beyond even the DUBS, Superformances and U.S. Army wheels, you'll stumble across a tiny gathering of some of the most memorable vehicles at the show. Cars like the Herbie, Fully Loaded "personality" car. The one that winks and wiggles and sticks its tongue out. Or the part car, part plane, part boat, Super Luxurious Omnidirectional Whatchamajigger from 2003's The Cat in the Hat remake starring Mike Meyers. It's 23-feet long and cost a reported $1.2 million to build. Volo also has the "Miami Vice" Daytona Spyder. Sure it's a replica, but DON JOHNSON DROVE IT! And then there's the Fastlane concept vehicle. Not to be confused with the upcoming Redline movie, Fastlane featured this "extraordinarily futuristic blue blur" that features a very Mazda Ryuga-like concentric swirl rear deck. And it only cost $2.8 million to build.

For those who can't make it to the show next week, the Volo Auto Museum has a website that will give you details of how to get out there to see these and other famous and historic vehicles.

[Source: Volo Auto Museum]

Demir Barlas wrote a breakdown on the FastLane Blog, General Motors' online journal. Barlas gave positive marks to the blog itself, finding it easy to navigate and brimming with plenty of articulate writers with diverse views.

However, Barlas asserts, if GM is using the blog as a marketing tool, Fastlane Blog fails miserably. Barlas displays some of the comments by its readership, raw and unfiltered, much of it critical of the General. He then moves on to speculate if the blog is a 'failure of a success': that is, its relative merit depends on what the automaker intended to get out of it. If FastLane is meant to gather customer opinion and change business practice, then 'it is a failure.' But if it's a vehicle to hear from customers, then the blog is successful.

What's your opinion about Fastlane Blog and Barlas' article?

[Source: Line56]