Toyota Tacoma Time Roundup

Who has love for the Toyota Tacoma? According to this months challenge called Toyota Tacoma Time, in spite of my best intentions, it turns out not many of us do. You see, it was one of them weird challenges where everyone builds the same damn thing, but for the love of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph on a pogo stick, they had all better be different. We could have built any year Tacoma,even its precursor, the indestructible Hilux, and thus this offered opportunities for lots of customization. There were not a lot of entries, but as for Jesus, Mary, and Joseph hopping merrily along, they can all take solace in knowing that at least they were all different. Lets show ya what I mean, shall we?

Even if a lot of people dont come to the party, you can always count on Peter Blackert to bring the chips, dip, guacamole, beer, entertainment, music...and strippers. First the chips as represented by this 2013 Toyota Tacoma TRD T|X Baja Edition. Its red and comes with a neat diorama. If Ive said this once, Ill say it a thousand times...its all about the tan bushes. Wait, what?



Next on the Peter slab, he brings the dip...or in this case the yellow and white Disney/Pixar - Toy Story - Pizza Planet Delivery Hilux. The details are awesome, including the Pizza Planet rocket on the roof and the "YO" on the tailgate.



Did someone say kumquats? No? Never say kumquats in Peters presence. But he did bring the guacamole...and also a Toyota Tacoma Double Cab 4x4 Custom with matching yacht and trailer. Our strict automotive rules makes it so you cant build boats...unless said boat is a 72 Buick Riviera or being towed by some sort of car, truck or bike. Then its welcome aboard, sailor! I like boats. Yall should build more. Just sayin.



A friend indeed is the friend that brings the beer. Or also the Toyota Tacoma Single Cab Pickup in dark tan complete with diorama and dark tan bush. Thats cool too. But definitely the beer is essential to any party.



Next Peter brings the entertainment...and nothing is more entertaining than an Aussie building a Captain America inspired Toyota Tacoma monster truck. Guess what. This was precisely what I would have built had I not built a snowplow. No seriously, a monster truck called Captain America was my second choice, but that would have involved opening a rare Technic set for the monster tires and acquiring the stupid Cap America Hero Factory fig for the shield. Almost!



But, as the Highlander says, there can only be one...so thankfully there was only one Toyota FJ cruiser...really a Tacoma in weirder clothing. This would satisfy the music portion of the party analogy, but does it satisfy the need to get everyone on the dance floor? Its like expecting throbbing dance beats and instead somebody brings Slim Whitman.



But strippers make any party so much better...even if said stripper is in the form of a single cab version of the Toyota Tacoma at 1:28 scale. Never in my entire life would I predict Id type the above sentence, but writing the monthly roundups is all about surprises. That and kumquats. And occasionally telling the Lansing Lugnuts to go get bent. Thanks, Peter. Thanks for bringing up that old can of worms.



See, he builds a blue Tacoma and suddenly Im picking a beef with an entire minor league softball team...again. Lino Martins (hey, thats me!)builds a Tacoma snowplow and suddenly I want to skin an Ewok alive. Why? Well, duh! That should be obvious. The color scheme and function of this industrious plow was inspired by the Star Wars Snowspeeder, which makes me realize an Ewok would make a nice handbag.



Pretty obvious now, right? This is why Raphy presents two very obvious choices for his entries. You see, when you have a Toyota Tacoma, youre faced with two very obvious choices. Either make yours into a Baja Racer...or a bunny. I can assure you, many a night of sleep was lost waffling between these two choices. The dilemma can bring a grown-ass man to tears, lemme tell ya.



This quick cartoonish build as rendered by LegoNoitAllMOCs makes me want to punch Howie Mandel in the balls, but that correlation should be so obvious that it doesnt require further explanation. But what confuses me still is; is this builder a "know it all" or a "no it all"? Was that like a misspelling or was it on purpose? Will I ever dislodge my fist from this Pringles can? I think not.



Lastly, Rolic is a man of very few words with his entry. He just tells us its black and lime with a dark red interior. Thats it. So its up to me to come up with the rest. Um...so...heres a question. If you were a hot dog and you were starving, would you eat yourself? I think we all know the answer to that.



So that brings us to the logical conclusion of this roundup. It was short and sweet and thus will give me more time to paint, build, read, walk the dog, or do whatever. Cool. But tune in next month when we go Behind The Iron Curtain in a roundup all about vehicles manufactured or associated with Communist countries. Between current and former Communist regimes, about 30 nations fit the bill so it should be interesting to see how it all turns out. I dont know about you, but Ill be waiting patiently with baited breath.Under the cover of night. And a bear trap. And a pile of leaves. Cuz Howie Mandel would be hard to capture otherwise. Cripes, do I need to explain the obvious to you people?! Anyway, well see ya next time. Take your beer and close the fridge on the way out and tell the stripper I love her.

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Top 10 Super Cars Of All Time

While most of the people reading this will most likely not ever own, let alone drive a super-car (we can dream) it is always fun to see what is new to the world of the best of the best. In this day, and age, car technology is moving faster than ever, and super cars are using all of this knowledge and technology, to make to kick @#!*% cars.

10. Ferrari 458

 Ah, one of the greatest super cars that has ever been made. The all too famous 458, with a 4.5 L engine that pumps out an impressing 562 hp. That is not the only thing that makes this car impressive, as a successor to the F430, Ferrari had to make this one of their fastest cars to date, so they did the only reasonable thing an auto-maker would do, stuff nearly 60 years of F1 racing technology in a car that you could buy off the show room floor. After stepping behind the wheel, you can tell that all of those years have paid off, with an F1 inspired engine, and GT1 handling, it’s one of the most impressive Ferraris ever made.

9. Ford GT

Fellow BBC Top Gear watchers know that Jeremy Clarkson hates American cars, A lot. But the Ford GT must have been an exception. Clarkson loved the Ford GT so much when he drove it in America, which he had to have one of the 20 that were going to the UK. So what made this American car so good, that even the Europeans admitted that it was a great car. After all, the engine was the same as the one in the Ford lightning (although it was hand-made and included a supercharger) One of them, was probably the epic styling that was nearly identical to the GT40 predecessor Aside the impressive looks, in 2004, this was actually the fastest car in the world, faster 0-60 times than all of the Ferraris and Lamborghini at the Time. Impressive, for a ford.

8. Bugatti Veyron

If cars where a lot like humans, this car would demand a lot of respect. With title under its belt like "Car of the Decade" you know that this car is anything but the ordinary, and that starts with the price, the starting price for a 2010 Bugatti Veyron will set you back about 1.5 million dollars. If you decide to drain your bank account and buy one of the 302 Bugatti’s that have been built, you now have four turbo chargers, feeding into a 64 valve, 12 cylinder engine that produces 1001 horsepower, in other terms, this car wants to kill you.

7. Ariel Atom

First thing first, this car only has around 300 hp that comes from a Honda V-tech engine, And it costs around $55,000, which might seem pricey, considering that you will only drive it on the weekends, but it’s the only car under 100k, (GTR exempt  that will reach 60mph in under 2.8 seconds! For the fans of Top Gear, you know that this car has been holding the top spot on the leader board for over two years, there is simply nothing faster you can buy, not to mention you could buy 30 of these things for the price of a Bugatti Veyron.

6. Lamborghini Diablo

Diablo, meaning "devil" is pretty much just that. With it being the first Lamborghini to reach 200 mph, it lived up to that name pretty well. While most people think that if the car is Italian it was designed by only Italians right? Well, in this case, most of the Diablo was designed by our boys in Detroit, surprising considering all of the downright ugly American cars of the 80s and 90s. Aside the design, the Diablo is powered by a 48-valve V-8 that produces 493 horsepower, extremely impressive for a car in the 90s. Over all, this iconic design, and an engine head of its time, made this an instant classic among super car lovers and 12-year olds across the globe.

 5. SRT Viper

If did not already make this clear, this is not a list for the faint of heart, and this car is here to prove it, with 400 horsepower and 450 lb, this car is pretty extreme for a car without anti-lock brakes or traction control, I admit, this car is about as impractical as it gets, no air bags, traction control? Nope, Anti-Lock brakes? Nope, power steering? Well, yes! But even after all of that, this is still a great car, and if all of those things do not matter to you, (and getting about 10mpg) this might be the car for you, fast, fun, and crazy!

4. Ferrari F40

After Porsche created the once, fastest car in the world 959, Ferrari simply could not have the smaller, less powerful brand steal the title, so Ferrari did the only thing they could of, build a more powerful, quicker, lighter, and more bad @#!*% car than Porsche very could imagine. With a 478 hp engine that launched the car from 0-60 in less than four seconds, but, this car was about the corner and with an super aero-dynamic body, it really blew the world out of the water, because at the time, its 201 mph top speed (that 201 mph was really just a way to say "take that Porsche") was the first production car to ever reach that speed. A super-car to remember indeed. 

3. Porsche Carrera GT

This was one of those cars, that really never should have existed, the 5.7 Lt engine that Porsche used was actually suppose to be in the 1998 GT1 Lemons race car, but Porsche needed to shelve the engine for the design on a up-coming Porsche SUV (later to be named the Cayenne) in 2000, for the Paris Auto Show, Porsche decided to make a concept to attract attention to their display, although they never intended on making the car, the response from the press was so large that they decided to make the car anyway. A total of 1,270 Carrera GTs were made. Although this cars life was short lived, it showed what Porsche was capable of doing when given the right tools.

2. Nissan GTR

This car re-wrote the rules for the super-car league; the black edition GTR does 0-60 in less than 2.7 seconds! That makes it the fastest accelerating car on this list, and, it is also the most inexpensive car on the list. How did Nissan make such an awesome car at such a realistic price? well it all lies in the advanced all-wheel drive system that makes the most of the cars power, which comes from a twin turbo charged V6 that produces around 560 horsepower, how the managed to get that much power out of a V6, we might never know. While the GTR is a rather heavy car, it beats the Ferrari 458 around most tracks easily when the CEO Ferrari asked why the GTR was so fast around the track, he was given a simple answer, and the GTR is an easy car to drive, plain and simple as that. So if you find yourself with a spare $95,000 in your pocket, you should probably go check out your local Nissan dealer.

1. Lamborghini Aventador 

Revealed in Paris, in early 2011, the Aventador has been a success in super-car terms, with one of the most impressive 0-60 time of 2.9 seconds, and a top speed of 217mph. But thats not the most impressive part about the Lamborghini; it’s the amazing style that catches most people eyes. But there are a few problems with this super-car, first off, the ride is terrible but one of the biggest problems is that is does not inspire confidence in the driver. So what did Lamborghini do? The head director of engineering bought a Ferrari 458, and he told them to make a car that drives better, and faster than the Ferrari.

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