Volkswagen TDI Cup: Rookies to Racers

Watch Volkswagen TDI Cup on Discovery Channel. It's an ad for VW masquerading as a reality TV series. . . and it's brilliant! Volkswagen offered an opportunity for young drivers between the ages of 16 and 26 to race in a 10 event series. Qualifiers had to pony up $45K USD (cheap for car, track, crew & training.) Only the top 25 applicants were chosen for the series based on performance in go-kart, physical and technical trials.

The show gives a great sense of how demanding racing is physically and mentally and how difficult it is to rise above the rest to become a champion. Congratulations to all of the young aspirants on the show for making it this far. We can't wait to see the rest of the season.

The racing is also a plug for diesel and Volkswagen's turbo direct injection diesel technology in particular. These cars are quick, thrifty and they never rattle or spew smoke.

Thanks to the following for background and images:

http://froma2j.blogspot.com/2010/08/volkswagen-jetta-tdi-cup.html

http://blog.cochesalaventa.com/uno-abajo-seis-para-ir-por-el-vw-jetta-tdi-cup.html

http://foro.tuning-on.com/stock-cars/eeuu-vw-jetta-tdi-cup-street-edition-racing-t58532.0.html

2012 Fisker Karma First Drive

The Fisker Karma is a plug-in electric, sexy as all get out, high performance, 4 door exotic hybrid that may actually be capable of 100 mpg AND 0-60 mph (approx. 0-100 kph) in under 6 seconds. Initial test drives report that it handles brilliantly--better than any other car this size (a bit hard to believe but we at Maaco-Fremont are intrigued enough to think that this might be an alternative to our Maserati Quattroporte fetish.)

For more pictures and a full article on the initial test drives, visit AutoBlog.

GM's Going to Put Maaco--And Every Other Bodyshop--Out of Business

Good friend James May shows off GM's Hy-Wire car of the future on Top Gear. Standard Features:

• Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powerplant
• 11" Thick Integrated Chassis & Driveline
• Interchangeable Bodies
• Zero Emissions (except for water)
• 0-60 in 2 seconds (we just made that up but why not)

2006 Maserati Quattroporte with Auto Paint Service, Wet Sand & Polish

Today's Car of the Day is a 2006 Maserati Quattroporte that came in with scrapes & scratches plus some minor original paint imperfections. Maaco-Fremont repaired the scrapes and painted the rocker panel using the same type of high quality waterborne finish used at factory. We then "cut and buffed" various panels to eliminate surface scratches and to provide a more premium gloss finish.

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Another Home Run for Hyundai? 2012 Veloster

Jalopnik is quickly becoming my favorite on-line car fix site. Here's their take on the world premier of the 2012 Hyundai Veloster (click link) at the Detroit International Auto Show.

Maaco-Fremont's take is this is another dramatic score for Hyundai, the surprisingly hot, cheap, green AND RELIABLE car company. The Veloster manages to look quick and mean but almost cute at the same time. It's really light which means 1) it should be quick 2) handle well and 3) get up to 40 mpg. It's got 2 front doors & 1 rear passenger door plus a big hatchback. You can get it with a 6-speed manual transmission. I'll take one now.

Strange Vehicles - Russian Ekranopan

Okay, so this isn't a car at all but very cool none-the-less.


Part airplane, part ship, part hovercraft. These things were/are able to go very fast, very low to the surface and because of a boundary layer effect (kind of an air cushion provided at the surface of the water) they can fly with smaller wings and/or less power (less energy required) than a normal plane. Pretty cool stuff.

Cool Site for Concept Car Designs

We stumbled on this very cool site for concept car designs the past week and thought we'd share it with you:
http://www.stingraysstudios.com/Concept_Cars.html
This is a design concept for an all electric Corvette Stingray of the future.

Jaguar C-X75 Hybrid Supercar Prototype

Check this out from our dear friends at Top Gear, the Jaguar C-X75. It's a jet-engined hybrid supercar with 780 hp, 1180 lbs-ft of torque, electric motors at all 4 wheels, 0-100 kph (0-62 mph) in 3.4 seconds and a range of 560 miles!! We want. We NEED!

Car of the Day - 2006 Scion Tc with Accident Damage

Today's Scion coupe was involved in a fender bender that left the driver's side quarter panel buckled and the rear bumper scraped up. Maaco-Fremont fixed all the dents in the quarter panel and repainted it and the bumper to match the original factory color and finish. We used the latest technology, environmentally friendly waterborne paint that comes with Maaco's nationwide lifetime warranty.

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Maaco-Fremont Stays Green to Help the Environment

Maaco-Fremont has always done its part to help the environment. Our latest innovation in 2009 was to dramatically reduce the VOC (volatile organic compound) content in our paints. Reducing VOCs reduces smog and makes the atmosphere better to breath.

Our top of the line is now a "waterborne" paint. Instead of petroleum-based chemicals, this technology uses pure water to carry the paint through the spray system and onto the car. Maaco-Fremont uses the same waterborne paint that has been in use by Mercedes Benz and other manufacturers in Europe for over 10 years. Special equipment is required to apply this paint. We use heated & specially ventilated booths for painting & curing plus air jets to cause the water to evaporate quickly, leaving only a durable shell of paint on the vehicle. The process creates a very high quality, high-solids finish and we give it the longest guarantee available in the business.

In January 2010, Maaco-Fremont will be going a step further, eliminating more VOCs from our processes & chemicals.

And just so no one thinks this is some sort of new "green" fad we recently embarked on, we want folks to know that in 2007 we ordered all new equipment including state-of-the-art, fully enclosed, atmosphere regulated paint booth, fully enclosed curing oven and a fully enclosed, ventilated paint mixing room. These "clean room" type booths keep all of the chemicals contained to just the area where they are being used so they don't harm our employees or neighbors. Filters on the exhaust clean the air exiting the paint booth before it goes back into the atmosphere.