V12 Miata Affirms Man's Sexuality [Custom Cars]

We first showed you images of this 1987 Jaguar V12 swapped Miata back in July and now we have video of the beast in action.

Build Diary:

First Drive:

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UAW: Senate GOP Voted Against Bailout To Strike "Blow Against Organized Labor" [Carpocalypse Now]

At a press conference today, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger read an e-mail indicating Senate GOP members played political games, voting against the auto bailout bill as an attack against organized labor.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger read an e-mail he claimed was from Senate GOP staffers indicating the Senate GOP was trying to deliver a blow to organized labor and the UAW. The alleged e-mail states:

"Republicans should stand firm and take their first blow against organized labor rather than from it...again, the hardest thing for the Democrats to do is get 60 votes. If we can hold the Republicans, we can beat this."

Later in the press conference, Gettelfinger claimed the Republican minority in the Senate voted against cloture on the Senate bill as an attack on the UAW due to their political effectiveness against their membership.

Alex Taylor on CNBC put this whole debate over UAW wages, whatever they may be, into perspective as he said labor cost per car are really only about $800 per car, so even if the UAW were to work for free, it wouldn't save GM from failing in the month of December.

Thank you Senate Republicans, for putting politics in front of staving off Carpocalypse Now. [via CNBC]

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Manic Beattie Hill Climb Car With Turbine-Powered Turbocharger, 1.8-Second 0-to-60 Ford Puma [Gurston Down Hill Climb]

Every once in a while, when looking at no holds barred race cars there comes the engineering equivalent of a facepalm moment. It's that second where we wonder 'Why didn't I think of that?' Like when we discovered how Nic Mann's record-breaking hill climb racer uses a turbine engine from a helicopter auxiliary power unit to drive a turbocharger feeding the 1.7-liter Cosworth four-cylinder a constant stream of boost. To eliminate turbo lag, Nic hooked the turbine to the impeller side of the remote turbo, which can feed the engine at up to 43 PSI. Bonkers is one way to describe it.

This of course completely eliminates turbo lag from the compressed intake air routed to the main drive engine. The hybrid engine is hooked up to an even stranger contraption behind it — a Ford Sierra powertrain. The car uses the all wheel drive and transmission from a lowly Sierra, albeit beefed up quite a bit. Unfortunately this has been the weak point in the car and Nic is considering swapping out the internals on the MT75 for Borg Warner T5 bits to avoid the breaking. Currently the car makes around 400 HP at 23 PSI of pressure, but plans are to ramp that up to 43 PSI and up the insanity.

The video above shows the car in action during hill climb racing at Gurston Down in old Blighty. Also featured in this video is a positively bonkers Ford Puma with a tube chassis and carbon fiber body with a twin turbo Cosworth engine. It'll do 0-to-60 MPH in 1.8 seconds and the quarter mile in 9.45 seconds. Pick your jaw up and watch the video, make sure your speakers are turned up during the race footage.

For more details on Nic Mann's Manic Beattie Hillclimb Car head over to Race Engine Design and read up. (Hat tip goes out to Rust-MyEnemy) [youtube]

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Barack Obama Will Not Meet Rick Wagoner Without Preconditions [Financiapocalypse]

Barack Obama took time away from talking about his mother-in-law and a college football playoff system to talk about the automaker bailout in an interview on CBS' 60 Minutes. While admitting Detroit needs help, he said it's important to make sure it's conditioned on the stakeholders (labor, suppliers, execs) coming up with a plan for a sustainable domestic auto industry as opposed to just giving out "a bridge loan to nowhere." Oh, yes, he went there. This was taped before the scary GM video, which at the very least we're hoping, convinced him to buy a Save GM t-shirt.

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CNBC's Jim Cramer: "Save GM...Or Risk A Great Depression!" [Financiapocalypse]

In between ads for CNBC's "Business of High End Prostitution" documentary airing tonight, we noticed the network's mega-mouthed Wall Street money mad-man says it's time for policy makers to "save GM" or else risk "10% unemployment" and the "Great Depression." We happen to think Jim Cramer's right. Is that Socialism? Who cares — we just read bankruptcy won't even be able to help GM because of their inability to secure financing after a declaration of Chapter 11. Yup, it'd be straight to Chapter 7 for the big automaker from Detroit. But, word on the street is that Pelosi's going to call for legislative help during the current lame duck session of Congress. Glad to hear it, because remember, the Financiapocalypse waits for no man, automaker or money maven!

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