David Pitlyuk

The summer is coming to an end, and now I must sell my Dodge Viper. The money I used to purchase the car is money that I’m saving for a house downpayment, but I knew I would not be ready to buy anytime this summer. I decided to buy a 1st generation Dodge Viper because it was a dream car of mine to have, and because the car is so rare they really do not depreciate anymore. It’s one of the best investments in car you can buy! Many people don’t realize, but they are fairly affordable as well. Now is your chance to get the the Viper that took me months to find exactly what I was looking for.

So on to some specs so you know what you could be getting:

• 1994 Dodge Viper RT/10 Convertible with 400hp
• Just over 16,000 original miles. I purchased it with a little under 15,000 miles, so I have only put on less than 2,000 miles since I got it…and most of that is from two trips to Ocean City, MD
• The tires have about 40-50% tread left on the rears, and the fronts have a good amount left. They are not the original tires, so they are ok to use (You don’t want to drive around on 13 year old tires!)
• The wheels are all pristine, no curb rash or anything
• Brake pads look good
• The car has the A/C option, but I think it just needs to be recharged (should be real cheap)
• Original paint with no accidents, clean title, etc
• The paint looks absolutely awesome considering it’s from 1994! There is only one tiny chip in the hood. There are some scrapes under the front bumper, but as you can tell in the above pic, they are mostly under the car, and very common on Vipers due to it being so low. You have to be extremely careful going over speed bumps
• The car has always been garage kept under a car cover, freshly waxed
• The interior looks good, the glove box has the common wear due to the soft dash that Dodge put in the 1st generation Vipers. There are also two scratches above the center gauges, again due to the soft dash material
• The seats look great and really aren’t worn at all
• A short shifter is installed as well as a Simpson 5-point harness on the drivers side. Everything else on the car is factory
• I just installed a brand new battery just a few weeks ago
• I have an aftermarket Autoform dubble bubble hard top with glass windows. This costs almost $4,000 new! I’m offering it for $1,750 over the asking price of the car, otherwise it will not be included
• A door popper was installed in the inner drivers side fender in order to open the door when the windows/hardtop is on the car
• Included are all the factory removable windows, soft top, rear glass window, and bra

I’m asking $34,500 OBO for the car, and $36,250 OBO with the hard top/glass windows. I had it listed at the beginning of the summer for close to $40,000, so I’m drastically coming down on the price in order to sell it quickly.

If you or anybody you know is interested, please have them get in touch with me. I can provide full pictures upon request and answer any questions. Here’s a couple other pictures. You can find more pictures in a higher resolution here.

Drive a truck? Trick it out with the hottest truck accessories like nerf bars and tonneau covers. Make it into the best truck you can and read some truck information.

Last week I told you guys that I got new 19″ Volk SF Challenge wheels for my daily driver, a 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe. The wheels were supposed to arrive on Friday, which would have been perfect as I would have the weekend to put them on and also make sure I had time to learn how to change front brake pads since I had never done that before. DHL dropped the ball, and weren’t able to get them in on Friday. After speaking with them on the phone they were going try and do a Saturday delivery…unfortunately that did not happen either.

Today I tracked the packages, and saw they were delivered to the house. I decided to work remotely from home for my day job because I didn’t want $3,500 worth of wheels and tires just sitting outside of my house.

I got home and during whatever free time I had from working I worked on swapping the wheels. I also took on changing the front brake pads. A quick call to my good friend Alex for a fast explanation of what to do, and him assuring that it was pretty easy, and I was ready to go. It turned out to be really easy (a lot better than the 50 hours it took 3 of us to install a twin turbo on my old 350Z!) , and once the wheels were off the car the new pads were in within 10-15 minutes.

Now my car will pass state inspection, which I’ll do tomorrow so I can get rid of the rejection sticker on my windshield! The new wheels look great (would be even better if I lowered the car slightly), what do you think?

If you like truck mods, look at the newest truck accessories to hit the market. Nerf bars are the latest craze in truck accessories and chrome accessories always look great on Dodge trucks!

My daily driver car is an Infiniti G35 coupe.  It’s a great car, it offers a nice mix of sport and luxury.  Earlier this year, the new Infiniti G35 sedan was released, and it was a monstrous improvement over the previous version.  With much sleeker lines, a more refined look, and a ton of new features, Infiniti had a winner on their hands.

Then the G37 coupe was announced, named the G37 now because of the new 3.7 liter V6 rather than the older 3.5.  Pictures were in my opinion ok, but I thought that I would still prefer my older version over it.  In pictures the car looked bulky and had some weird lines…something wasn’t right.  Boy was I wrong!  I received an invitation from my local Infiniti dealership to come check out a pre-general public preview of the G37 yesterday, and I thought I’d give it a chance to see it in person.

I have to say, in person the car absolutely blew me away!  I was ready to put a deposit down for one I liked it so much.  Check out the pics:

One of the options features 19″ wheels all around with some nice brakes.

Push start with smart key technology is included on all of the G37’s and optional paddle shifters can be had.

Another cool option is the rear-view camera, built into the spoiler of the car.   I also love the LED brake light strip in the spoiler.

It’s pretty neat how the button to open the trunk is located in the taillight.

The navigation package includes a 9GB built in hard drive that you can store your MP3’s on and listen to music.

After looking at the new G37, I feel like my G35 just looks outdated and boxy :(  Good job Infiniti!

Do you like it just as much as me?  It definitely looks much better in person.

I took my Infiniti G35 Coupe to get inspected this week just to find out I need new tires and brakes!  I wasn’t even planning on keeping the car for more than another few thousand miles or so.  Oh well, what can ya do when those unexpected costs come around!  Anytime I’ve ever needed new tires, I usually just get new wheels and tires instead…and this time is no different.

My last fun car was a Nissan 350Z that I put about $35,000 worth of work into.  One of the best looking mods I did to that car was wheels.  I started off with gunmetal 19″ Volk SF Challenges:

I’m a huge fan of Volk wheels, especially the SF Challenges.  They look great, have a nice polished lip, and are forged metal…so they are fairly light and strong for the size wheel they are.  They are also imported from Japan, and all that comes at a hefty pricetag.  Wheels and tires will run you about $3,500.  Luckily I had a sponsorship from Bridgestone for tires, so I just had to shell out for the wheels.

As my Z came along, I decided to go a little more “show” and bought the same wheels, but in gold:

I liked the look of both the gold and gunmetal, especially on the Lemans Sunset color that my car was, but the gold let the car stand out just a bit more when it was in a show.

I sold my Z a while ago, and I realy missed the look of the wheels…so I decided to go with the same thing again!  I went with the gunmetal, but this time I bought them used.  I found a great deal…enough that I will be able to resell them when I sell the car for the same price or more.  Great looks for free works for me!  Here’s the wheels, they just shipped yesterday, and I’ll post pics when I get them on the car:

Back in April a car manufacturer by the name of Noble released their 3rd car, the M15. This car is by far one of the best looking supercars out there in my opinion, and its specs and price aren’t too shabby either. Noble’s purpose is to provide a class of car that can compete with other cars that are much more expensive.

The Noble M15 features a mid-mounted 3.0L, 455-bhp twin-turbo motor that can do 0-60 in less than 3.3 seconds. Top speed is 185mph. It will run you about $150,000 to pick one up, but there are only 50-60 being made, good luck! On top of that, there are rumors of an upgraded version with about 45 more horses being developed. How about some more eye candy:

The only thing I would want to change is removal of the antenna on the roof. That should be built into the window or something, it definitely ruins the sleek lines of the car. Aside from that, the car is gorgeous. It reminds me of a mixture between a Lamborghini, Koenigsegg CCX, and a Tesla Roadster.

What are your opinions of the Noble M15? You can find more pictures here.

There is going to be a whole new class of budget luxury cars coming over the next few years. Starting in 2008, BMW will be releasing their 1 series to the US, and in 2011 Mercedes will be answering back with their new BLK class (which is based on a modified C class). I’m assuming both cars will be around the high $20’s to low $30’s in terms of price range.

The BLK top of the line model will have a 3.5 liter V6 motor which is front-mounted and rear wheel drive. It will come in a coupe and hatchback version, and then a convertible version coming a little later.

The BMW 1 series on the other hand will come in two flavors, the 128i and 135i. The 128i will be a 3.0L I6 with 230hp and 200lb-ft. The 135i will have a 3.0 twin-turbo I6 with 300hp and 300lb-ft. The 135i will be able to do 0-60 in 5.3 seconds. That should be a very fun car to drive.

In terms of looks, I think the the front and side of the Mercedes BLK look amazing. The hard lines make the car look very aggressive in mean. With the big grille and awesome looking headlights, this car would look insane in black.

Unfortunately I don’t feel the same way about the back, it just looks like Mercedes dropped the ball on it. The taillights look too small and too low, it just doesn’t feel like it matches the rest of the car:

The BMW is “almost there” in my opinion. The lower front bumper looks great, but the headlights just don’t match the sporty bumper. There is something about the top of the car which makes it feel too bubbly. The rear of the car looks good though, the taillights look a lot better than the regular 3-series. I also like how there is a small “spoiler” molded into the rear:

What do you think about the two cars? Would you buy one for $30,000? Which do you prefer between the two?

Lauren Porter, an art student, knitted a life-size Ferrari 355 for her honors degree. She spent 10 months, 12 miles of yarn, and 250 squares on top of a steel frame in order to make the car…and it turned out pretty good too! It would be a nice addition with your Lamborghini Countach hanging on the wall. Here’s a few pictures of the results:

You can find a video of the setup on Lauren’s site. You can also find a good video that Reuters did here. Here are a couple of videos I found on YouTube:

Since I own a Dodge Viper, this news immediately caught my attention. A red and white Dodge Viper GTS lost control and hit a fire hydrant during rush hour traffic in Addison, Ill. The car flipped over, and leveled off the fire hydrant, causing water to gush everywhere. Luckily the driver managed to get out of the car uninjured. Sounds like a scene from an action movie, huh?

The Viper forums had a couple of notable quotes in response to the accident that made me chuckle:

I guess this is not the best way to get a “free car wash”.

I wonder if that hydrant was loaded with Mr. Clean Auto Dry…

Ebay Listing: Clean Title, Florida car, never seen rain!

Well, thats one way to wash the underbody

There are two videos that I found, the first one is a news report by a CBS affiliate. This video is the best, but can only be played on their site.

The other you can watch here:

Although the Viper is a great car, they also make great Dodge trucks. They look best when coupled with the newest truck accessories and truck bed covers. People also seem to like chrome accessories to make their truck shine! Read all about trucks today.

Autocar Magazine did a supercar comparison between these insane rides:

• Audi R8
• Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
• Porche 997 GT3 RS
• Aston Martin DB9 Sport Package
• Bugatti Veyron

These are all some amazing cars, and this video takes a look at each one. You can find out what’s so good about them, but also what their quirks are. My favorite parts are the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera flying around the corner (the car just sounds ridiculous), as well as the comparison race between the Audi R8 and Bugatti Veyron. That Veyron just blows the competition away…but with a $1.4M sticker price, it better.

I’ve always known the Yamaha R1 motorcycle to be one of the big daddies of sports bikes. That is until a company in Oakland, CA that goes by Electric Motorsport converted the 99′ R1 into a LiIon (lithium ion) battery powered bike that can do 100mph and 0-60 in 3 seconds.

To get the bike this way, they had to yank the engine, tailpipes, radiator, gas cap, transmission, and clutch. They then replaced all that with 28 lithium ion batteries, an AC regenerative motor, and an electric throttle…all weighing less than what was removed in the first place.

One of the coolest parts is that when the bike is idle, it is completely silent…when it’s going, it sounds like a remote control car on steroids. The conversion costs about $15,000, but is just a prototype at this time. The company hopes to have a production version around this price range with a custom chassis, as well as a cheaper, smaller $6,000-$8,000 version.

Here’s a video report that was done by LATimes.com:

[Source: LA Times]

Ready to upgrade your bike? Consider donating your motorcycle to a charity of your choice! You can donate your boat, car, or RV! Car donation is a great way to get a tax deduction for a good cause. Learn about deducting vehicle donations and read some important car donation FAQ for more information.