Autoblog

Click above for high-res gallery of reader-submitted Cars photoshops

The animators at Pixar have set their schedules through 2012, and while the slate includes new films like Up and Newt, it's also brimming with sequels. Following the third installment of the studio's Toy Story franchise in 2010, Pixar will release the sequel to our favorite animated homage to automobiles, Cars 2. While we don't know for sure if Lightning McQueen and Sally Carrera will return, the press release indicates that the film will be filled with old and new characters for kids and kid-like adults to enjoy. Like most of Pixar's upcoming schedule, Cars 2 will also be presented in 3D, and let me tell you, after watching Beowulf skewer Grendel in the third dimension, we can't wait for an animated fender to fly out of the screen at us. The date is set for 2012, so there's a long way to go, and this installment will be directed by Brad Lewis, who produced Ratatouille, rather than the first film's director, John Lasseter. Lasseter proved himself to be a man steeped in car culture, so Lewis has some mighty big brake shoes to fill.

For old time's sake, check out our gallery of reader-contributed Cars photoshops below.


[Source: Cinematical]

Lightning McQueen came home 13th in his first race in the Japanese Super GT-300 Championship, one place ahead of new rival, Speed Racer Mach Go Go Go.

The rookie, who looks suspiciously like last year's Team Toy Story APR Toyota MR-S, has apparently been lured away from The Piston Cup by a company that makes products under license of Pixar and Disney. No matter, my three-year-old was beside himself with joy when he saw number 95 hit the track, and I suspect he was not alone.

14th pace finisher, the Mach Go VEMAC 320R (below), is far from new to Super GT's 300hp class, but may get a little more attention internationally once Speed Racer is released Stateside.

We're shooting from the hip this week for Podcast #71. Rather than prepare, we're going with gut reactions. Starting it off, we mull over the loss of the USGP from Indianapolis, and postulate on where else F1 may pop up in the US. An F1 race on the Vegas strip would be the bomb. Staying with motorsports, we marvel at how Team SARD spanked everyone extremely hard at Tokachi with a hybridized Supra GT. We're sure that racing will improve the hybrid breed at a much steeper pace than conventional powerplants. In other racing news, Dale Junior has split from Budweiser, so he'll have new livery to plaster all over his left-turn machine.

Moving on from racing, we ponder the leakage and eventual announcement of the Porsche 911 GT2. It's as unassuming as a Porsche can get, but it packs 530 horsepower and uses the rear wheels to push top speed to the 200 MPH realm, while being a docile everyday car. While Porsches always make us giddy little schoolboys, Subaru's recent model line revisions have us alternating between cheers and jeers. The good: the Legacy SUS, or whatever the heck they call their Outback sedan is kaput. The bad: so is the straight Legacy wagon. We devolve into a styling review of Subaru's new corporate language for a while before surfacing again to discuss the inanity surrounding presidential candidates and hybrid vehicles. Idiocy, 'nuff said.

On a lighter note, we discuss the rumored sequel to Disney/Pixar's "Cars." Not surprising when you consider how lucrative the tie-ins usually are. Off entertainment and on to entertaining cars, we ogle the leaked pictures of the FPV Falcon, and discuss the future plans of that platform here in the US. It does look mean, so thanks to that janitor who picked these renderings out of the trash. Our pithy cavalcade keeps rolling along, and we chew over Bob Lutz's latest comments about the future of diesel powerplants in the US. It's odd that Bob is cool on diesel just as GM is poised to roll out new oil-burners. Wrapping up, we put out the call to action again for the Reader Ride - add your pix to the Flickr pool and include details! The hour duration of Podcast #71 will give you enjoyment to and from work, enjoy!

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Our sister site Cinematical reports that a sequel to Disney/Pixar's Cars is apparently in the works, and could arrive as early as Summer 2009. If that's the case, we should expect to see a trailer for Cars 2 attached to next summer's Pixar entry, Wall-E. The rumor really built up steam when Paul Newman made comments to reporters about a possible sequel at the Indy 500. Our friends at Cinematical seem to be disappointed that Lightning McQueen and friends appear to be getting a sequel, as it's not one of their fave Pixar flicks. They also wonder why Cars could get another go-round when its box-office grosses were low compared to the great Pixar successes. We think it's merchandising, where Cars appears to be quite the juggernaut, what with the toys, video games, bed sheets, etc. that continue to appear in stores everywhere. Anyway, you won't hear a peep of complaining from us. Cars was one of our favorites last summer, as the talking rides were very cool, and there were plenty of subtle and not-so-subtle references in there to make any pistonhead a happy camper. Seriously, any movie where Richard Petty voices an animated Plymouth Superbird sporting the #43 that's named "The King" is A-OK in our book. Sequel? Bring it on.

[Source: Cinematical]

click on image above to view the high-resolution gallery with 61 pics

What started off as a suggestion turned into something much bigger when we politely prodded our readers to submit their own Pixar creations to us using the CARS Photochop guide we posted on January 2nd. In less than 10 days we've received 61 submissions, which is incredible. We were doing well at updating the gallery with your submissions in real time, though that exercise took a back seat this week to our Detroit Auto Show coverage. Today, however, we finally got around to uploading the last batch of pics to complete the gallery.

The quality of submissions is incredible and it looks like everyone had fun anthropomorphizing their daily drivers. What amazed us, however, were the submissions that actually seemed to express the personality of the subject car. The little white Honda S2000 on the track with a giddy grin, the HUMMER H1 with a snorting sneer, and the Gemballa Mirage GT that looks frighteningly overconfident and cocky. In truth, they were all really good, and a special shoutout goes to Mike Warren who submitted four quality designs – the Hugger, C. Exef, General HUMMER and Mater II.

click on image above for gallery of high-res images

Every car has a personality, and most of us take that next step and christen our cars with names like Roger, the Powder Blue Thunder Wagon, the Scalded Chicken, and the Jetta Knight (all names of past cars I've owned). After watching Pixar's computer animated opus to the automobile, CARS, we know have demonstrable proof that cars can smile, wink and express all the emotions on their front fascias that their owners do. But until now, coaxing the personality out of your car in a visible way hasn't really been an option. Thanks to psychochild on the North American Subaru Imrpeza Owners Club forum, we now can all infuse our daily drivers with the personality of Lightning McQueen and Sally Carrera. The only tools you'll need are Photoshop and the courage to use it. psychochild's instructions are straightforward and can be followed by even the newest of noobs. Even we could do it, as is evident by Ernie Intercepter and Ned Nassau (check the gallery).

If you take the challenge to Pixar your own car, send the results to abresearch at gmail dot com and we'll publish them in our gallery.

[Source: NASIOC.com]

Sure, "Bullitt" had a few nice cars in it. So did "Gone in 60 Seconds". But in Pixar's, "Cars", nothing but sweet, sweet animated automobilia. November 7 is the day you can park a copy right in the middle of all your other DVD tributes to transportation. Unless they're alphabetized, of course. Then "Cars" would be more toward one side or the other. But we digress.

One Amazon reviewer says the "Cars" DVD is somewhat slim on the extras we've come to expect from Pixar releases, but buyers at least get a new short, a behind-the-scenes, some deleted footage, and at least one Easter egg bonus. Australians got their copies on Oct. 25, and if you don't mind spoilers, here's a complete review of the disc and all its extras.

"Cars" on DVD should be in U.S. stores Nov. 7, several online retailers are taking pre-orders now.

Though I and my generation weren't raised during Hudson's heyday, we can thank Pixar and Disney for picking up and dusting off the automaker's most famous model – the Hornet. The Hudson Hornet is experiencing a revival right now thanks to the animated film CARS that featured a Hornet named Doc who has all the answers.

A man who wears his affection for Hornets on his sleeve owns this gorgeous 1951 model; he goes by the Flickr handle Proud Hornet Owner. The car has been in his family since 1968, ever since his father bought the green machine from the original owner for $500. As a matter of fact, Proud Hornet Owner's first car ride ever was a trip home from the hospital on a cold winter's day in his father's Hornet. Nowadays, the Hornet only sees sunny weather. Proud Hornet Owner also tells us that the car is quite a celebrity now thanks to CARS, as little kids want to get their picture taken with the one and only Doc.

If you'd like to see your own ride featured here, simply upload photos of your ride into our Flickr group. We select one image to highlight each week day, and on the weekend let you vote for the RR of the Week. Detailed instructions can be found after the jump.

Think you've seen a lot of tie-ins involving Disney/Pixar's Cars this summer? Well, here's one more, in which the stars of the Opel lineup get a Pixar-style rfacelift.

Click here and you'll be brought to an Opel/Cars minisite that shows the characters from Pixar's latest tour de force interacting with the Opel Astra (above), Opel Meriva, and Opel Zafira. In addition to the intro movie that plays automatically when you enter the site, you can click on a link to watch a Euro-market TV commercial that shows the three GM cars auditioning for the part of Mater.

The spot is well done, and it's pretty neat seeing how the Pixar folks gave life to the Opels. Each car has it's own personality: Astra is very sporty and aggressive, Zafira is slick and stylish, and Meriva ... well Meriva's a little more shy. If you saw Cars and liked it, you'll get a kick out of it.

Desktop wallpapers, a screensaver, behind-the-scenes podcasts, and a PDF coloring book are also available for download.

Addendum: Thanks to reader/commenter Scott K for finding the direct link to the minisite!

(Additional images after the jump)

[Source: Opel]

We here at Autoblog have been unabashedly eager to see the upcoming animated feature from Pixar Studios called CARS in which hot rod racer Lightning McQueen rolls into a sleepy hollow and make friends with the colorful characters of Carburetor County. So it is with much chagrin that we report to you this first review of Director John Lasseter's magnum opus. CARS has received an unflattering grade of 2 out of 5 stars from Sarah Lindner of the Austin American-Statesman.

On the film's plot Ms. Lindner comments, "For a huge stretch of the film, there's not what you would call a story going on. There are just cars hanging out." Uh, is that a bad thing? That's how we plan to spend our retirement – hanging out with cars. It seems the great effort on Mr. Lasseter's part to infuse CARS with enough auto-related minutia to please even the most diehard enthusiast has been lost on this reviewer. For instance, how cool is it that the numbers on the license plate of Luigi, a Fiat 500 in the film, represent the latitude and longitude of the Ferrari factory in Maranello. That's worth at least one star alone in our book.

Look for an official Autoblog review of CARS when we finally get a chance to see it after today's nationwide release.

[Source: Austin360]