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Automotive taste may vary wildly from person to person, but the grand beauty of Caminoization is something that unites us all—well, most of us anyway.

Case in point, this charmingly absurd “Metruck 1L” that we found for sale on eBay Motors. The concept of a pickup capable of 60 miles per gallon may be faintly attractive, but in this instance the actual workmanship is rather shabby—making even the standard Metro look well screwed together by comparison.

Little more than a 1994 Geo Metro with part of its hindquarters removed, the Metruck lacks a little in the way of fit and finish. We’d hesitate to go out in any kind of inclement weather with the snap-down tonneau responsible for keeping us warm and dry, and the pull-string interior door handle strikes us a more innovative than is strictly needed. On the plus side, the winning bidder does get a free canoe!

Have a closer look at the tiny truck in our gallery above.

+ eBay Motors:  1994 Other Makes METRUCK Pickup Truck based on GEO Metro Pickup Truck

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Days have been dark of late for the American auto industry, so it’s good to know that we’ve got patriots like the individual responsible for this “Starz” Chevy truck on the job. There are really no words that can capture the majesty of this Corvette-powered, kustom-bodied, $85,000(!), ‘Merica-spangled wonder, so we’ll direct you instead to the red, white, and blue gallery above. Enjoy.

+ eBay Motors: 1989 Replica/Kit Makes  CUSTOM

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Most readers will probably have no trouble recalling the bonkers Maybach Exelero coupe from 2005—700 horsepower, three ton, $8 million Darth Vadermobiles aren’t quickly forgotten as a rule—so you’ll understand our initial excitement at seeing an apparent listing for the car on eBay Motors. Of course, as is so often the case with these types of too-good-to-be-true listings, getting your shot at the Exelero for a starting bid of just over $300K is, well, too good to be true.

What seller Mark Sanford is really offering is a promise to build you your very own Maybach one-off, albeit one with no actual Maybach parts of any kind. Sanford’s company, Ikit Exotic Cars and Luxury Yachts, is predicated on the notion of building replicas of elite vehicles like the Exelero, using tube chassis, fiberglass, and carbon fiber. Sanford boasts that his company is able to produce these exotic knock-offs for a third, or sometimes a fourth the cost of the original items, while offering a 3 year/30,000 mile warranty for peace of mind.

Sanford’s warranty (and NBA basketball pedigree, zero games played) aside, we’d probably feel more comfortable if he saw fit to include at least one actual photograph of one of his cars in the listing, as opposed to throwing up stock shots of the Maybach. Cribbing the VIN from his personal Mercedes-Benz G500 for the auction isn’t exactly confidence inspiring either.

+ eBay Motors: 2009 Maybach Exelero Coupe

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Motorcyclist, inventor, and green-thinker Dave Akhurst has built an LPG powered motorcycle that should be the envy of any DIY garage. Called the Greenfly, Akhurst started with a 1970s-era Yamaha XT500 and modified the bike to run on compressed natural gas. The high octane rating, cheap running costs, and clean-burning nature of LPG are all plusses in the inventor’s book—enough so that the prospect of a potential bomb-like detonation if the tank is ruptured doesn’t really make him sweat. We should all be so brave.

The 500cc single-cylinder engine is tuned to deliver approximately 30 horsepower while returning about 70 miles per gallon—about a 20 mpg improvement over the standard, gasoline-burning motor. Additionally, Akhurst has  done a raft of custom metalwork on the bike, including a hanger for a full-size spare behind the front fork, quick-change hubs on the custom five-spoke alloys, and a massive touring pannier that can be swapped out for the removable pillion seat.

The Greenfly is an exceptionally well-done piece of work from what we can see, and a standard bearer for green, DIY projects everywhere. Have a closer look at the bike in our gallery of images above.

+ The Biker Gene: Dave Akhurst’s Greenfly: the LPG-powered custom motorcycle.

http://telstarlogistics.typepad.com/telstarlogistics/2008/10/the-2008-illega.htm...

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It seems as if the already rather geeky (and we mean that in the nicest possible way) cadre of Segway owners is taking a step towards the bizarre, by embracing the blooming trend of customization in the personal mobility market. Adorning their rides with acres of diamond plate and colored Lucite, these bold individuals aren’t afraid of standing out from the crowd—not as much as they fear walking a few blocks, at any rate.

Is a fully chromed and chopped Segway with matching tow-along trailer a true bid for individuality, or just another sign of the impending apocalypse? You can judge for yourself by sifting through our gallery above.

+ GeekAlerts

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British interior designer and motorcycle enthusiast Barend Hemmes hadn’t any experience at designing vehicles, but the 36-year-old South London resident knew he had struck a winning shape when he penned Jaguar’s famed “Leaper” logo onto a bike frame.

Hemmes says that he had been doodling at, “combining corporate logos with motorbikes” when he realized that Jag’s Jaguar would make for a perfect fit with a motorcycle. Having no construction experience, Hemmes sought out the bike builders of South Yorkshire’s Polar Cycles, who helped to craft the cat on top of running gear from a 1997 Buell S3 Thunderbolt.

The re-bodied Buell doesn’t exactly have performance to match its sleek appearance – only reaching speeds of around 50 miles per hour for unspecified reasons – but according to Hemmes the bike is quite the head turner wherever he rides it. It could be argued that a motorcycle shaped like a giant duck could boast the same,but we digress.

Have a better look at the Leaper bike in our gallery above.

+ Mail Online: Pictured: The ultimate PURRING machine - a motorbike in the form of the pouncing Jaguar logo

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We’re hanging around the amiable and hip Austin, Texas following an invite for a new product launch (more on that coming shortly) and took part of the afternoon to pay a visit to entrepreneur (more on his good work here ), part-time motoring gypsy, and NextAutos comrade, Ehren Foss.

In addition to being a fun guy to go run errands around Austin with, Ehren is the proud owner of a heavily modified 1984 Bluebird school bus, with which he has spent the past four years touring North America, altering the contour of his concrete driveway, and showing off to nosey and easily excited friends. Ehren’s first tour in his creation lasted nine months and spanned the better part of the borders of the U.S., costing he and his traveling companion only around $1000 per month ($500 in fuel) total in those halcyon days of sub-$2 diesel – even burning roughly one gallon of fuel every eight miles or so the Cummings B engine was remarkably reasonable to run.

From the exterior the most obvious modification to the Bluebird is the roughly two feet of additional head room that has been added to the space, enough to facilitate a raised sleeping compartment in the rear (that’s the queen size mattress between the two filing cabinets in the photos), as well as the distinctly more exciting skybox over the driver and passenger seat. The best seat in the house, the skybox affords a view of the road that can be matched by little traveling the highways today even from a seated position, but the daring quick-duckers among us can also remove a panel in the roof for a standing view of the changing landscape. It’s an experience that we wouldn’t soon forget, even if we hadn’t been meanly flicked by a largish maple branch while observing.

We took the Bluebird for a spin around the neighborhood, picked up the dry cleaning, and got several dozen thumbs up for our trouble. Fun times though nothing in comparison to the adventures Ehren has had and documented on his bus blog. Click through the link below for a wealth of adventures and images or check out the gallery of our day with Ehren above.

+ Vicaribus

What? A car flick that doesn't involve chases, explosions, and scantily clad women as its selling premise? Opening October 3, the movie Flash of Genius stars Greg Kinnear as Dr. Robert Kearns, a professor at the University of Detroit who invented intermittent windshield wipers and received his first patent on the design back in 1967. After his invention, he spent much of his life fighting Ford, Chrysler, and other automakers to recognize and honor his patent.  

Co-starring is Lauren Graham from the television series Gilmore Girls, with support coming from Dermot Mulroney and Alan Alda. The film is directed by Marc Abraham working from a script written by Philip Railsback.

Though it can still probably be considered a "car" movie, Flash of Genius isn't exactly action packed, and it requires a deeper emotional commitment than say, the Fast and the Furious. Oddly enough however, the studio that produced the Fast and the Furious series, NBC Universal, is also producing Flash of Genius.

+ Edmunds Inside Line: Flash of Genius: The Windshield Wiper Drama You've Been Waiting For

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Factory Five Racing, a company that gave the world yet another option for a Shelby Mk3 Roaster replica, has recently launched their newly developed '33 Ford replica kits and began shipping them to customers last weekend. The original launch date was set for January 2009 but because testing and prototype evaluations were much better than expected, the release was pushed nearly three months ahead of schedule.

The hot rod replica was designed from the ground up, discarding the old Ford frame and replacing it with a modern tubular frame designed by computers and other fancy gizmo wizardry. The finished product weighs in at around 2,000 lbs, so when powered by any of the small block Ford engines (282,302, 351W) or even the 4.6-liter, coupled with modernized brakes and suspension, it's undeniably going to be much, much faster than the original counterpart.

Though the kits are shipping out, a number of parts are on order due to the early production time. These include the spindles, the same ones used on the Mk3 Roadster replica, as well as Roadster windshields, engine side covers, hard top, removable fenders, and a few other miscellaneous parts.

All in all, this bit of modernized and tweaked history will set a dreamer back $19,990. And although Factory Five won't build a turnkey, they will supply a list of custom shops that could.

+ Factory Five Racing Inc.

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To call this Italian-inspired Chinese project car a Ferrari replica would do it a kindness that it probably doesn’t deserve, but we’re nonetheless fascinated with this creation which would seem to ape some of the classic lines from the exotic’s racing heritage.

Looking mildly like the unholy spawn of a Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa and a Fiat Panda 4x4, this far eastern amalgam of fibreglass and donor parts is actually used by a Chinese wedding photographer. It seems that many freshly wed couple are tickled to have their nuptial poses captured in the preening mock-up, and with the lovely coastal mountain scene in the background, who can blame them?

The pseudo sports car doesn’t run at all, and is in fact rooted to the ground on a sort of swivelling pole. We don’t begrudge the builders this lack of mechanical completeness in their prop car, but do wonder if they could’ve studied the source photographs just a little closer. Have a look for yourself in our gallery above.

+ China Car Times: Ferrari spotted in China - Not really, its fake.

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Most of the time our crack team of spy shooters is crisscrossing the globe in search of undiscovered automotive treasures, but it seems that hunt doesn’t occupy all of their time.

Our loyal man over at CarPix sent over these images of his friend’s well-modified garden tractor, one that has a distinct Porsche theme. This 911-inspired mower has got small but thoughtful touches like a tachometer housed in an old Porsche oil filter, a free-breathing exhaust, and a fire-extinguisher in case things get a little out of hand in the backyard.

There’s no word about whether the small tractor is any faster than a normally equipped one, but it definitely will grab the neighbour’s attention. Schneller!

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Now touring the art house screens across the country, Made In Queens is a stylish documentary about a group of Trinidadians living in New York. The startlingly imaginative group creates massive movable sound systems on the frames of BMX bikes, cruising around the neighborhood to the gawking wonder of the populace.

These kids use their improbable conveyances to set the streets roiling with music and energy, stirring impromptu small parties where ever they ride.

The bikes themselves are clearly quite impressive; managing to disperse massive speaker loads and battery power while remaining streetable (mostly). Have a look at some examples in our gallery above, or take a minute to watch the official Made In Queens trailer below.

+ Made In Queens

The Volkswagen Santana is a ubiquitous sight on the streets of most Chinese cities. The car that the rest of the world would know as a VW Quantum or Passat has been on sale in China since the mid-eighties, and is widely used in taxi services there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCDiQ9JRgwk

A Dodge minivan, two homemade skateboarding ramps, and a few daring skateboarders. I suppose this is Yankee ingenuity in the post-Jackass era.

Online store Woot! Is dedicated to the idea that cool stuff can be sold for cheap, and practices just that by offering one item per day at a discount rate.

Many of us tend to think that the allure of the pickup truck occurs only in Americans, not so. Take as evidence this resourceful German man, who has created a sort of “Porschamino

Star Trek fans are a hard-core group, and one that don’t seem to mind taking evidence of its mania out into the world.