Dat’s Italian, youse jabronis!

With all that green power in evidence – not the biodiesel powering the transit buses, either – your eyes can lock on to a lot of oddballs at Monterey that’s over the top, to say the least. I grabbed this image in the Ferrari club compound at the relocated, but still delightful, Concorso Italiano.

Best guess is that this is started out as either a 365 GT/4 2+2 or a 400i from the Seventies before it got the but wait, there’s more treatment a la a Mighty MendIt spot starring Billy Mays even though he’s, uh, dead. What can I say? This is California.

Related posts:

• 2010 European Car of the Year Candidates Announced
• Video: Chevrolet Volt Concept
• 2009 Dodge Challenger SE Rallye available starting at $26,490
• Bolt On S2000
• How Hot is Your Car?

Related posts:

• Camaro Smokes Mustang in June Sales
• Chrysler's $2.99 gas card promo pretty worthless, for now
• Video: Jay Leno drives his new 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT8
• Video: Dodge Challenger SRT8 road test, 0-60 in 5.1 secs
• 2007 Chrysler Sebring: My Take

Electric Ape? How about a TriHybrid Lambro?

The Internet was a-twitter recently about the reports of Piaggio building an electric Ape for the European market. For more than $30,000. We say, pshah: We’ve seen Microfurthur.

We spotted Microfurthur at the 14th annual Microcar and Minicar Classic Event last month, giving countless rides to spectators via the van-sourced bench seat in the homemade plywood bed. Technically a 1965 Lambro 550, owner Max Hall got it in 2003 sans engine, windshield and seats, then decided to make a plug-in EV out of it.

But he didn’t stop there. Max next decided to mount a trailer hitch to the Lambro so he could tow around an Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) trailer, rigged with a Lombardini single-cylinder diesel engine (the kind that powers road signs) converted to run on veggie oil and hooked to a generator. the generator then charges the batteries. Then Max went and built another couple of trailers, one with a Honda 5hp engine converted to run on propane running a generator, and another with a Briggs & Stratton 8hp gasoline engine running a generator.

And we’re guessing he didn’t come close to spending 30 large putting it all together. Even with the fancy plywood carpentry.

Related posts:

• Four-Links – The Spirit of Tomorrow, missing art car, Tony Thacker on T.V. Tom, launching a Plymouth
• The auto industry is identified by the US president-elect to be the spine ...
• While many frown on ridiculous custom compact cars, automakers are making ...
• Bomex Aero DSO Eyewear Conrad Grunewald Trent’s Trick Upholstery ...
• Lamborghini Reventon Photos

Related posts:

• BMW X6 Crossover Unveiled in Frankfurt...Will Design Over Function Work?
• New Corvette Z06-Based Anteros Heading To LA Auto Show [La Auto Show]
• Looking Back: July 2006
• BMW 1-Series Will Start Under $30,000 in the US
• BMW is Now the Best-Selling Luxury Automaker in the World

Four-Links – Crawford museum selling off cars, how to sell a Rebel Machine, old Daytona 500 footage, build threads galore

* We start off this week with news that the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum has announced that they’ll be selling off about 20 cars from its collection, including a 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300SL gullwing coupe and the above 1919 Locomobile Type 48 Sportif. The museum’s website says it’s normal to sell off items that are determined to be non-essential to the collection if they are either duplicates or not mission-related, but the Cleveland Plain-Dealer notes that the sale is to keep the museum financially solvent and to erase some debt. (via)

* I can’t imagine what it must’ve been like to be an AMC salesman back around 1970. You’re trying to sell exciting performance cars like the Rebel Machine to younger buyers, and you’re instructed to sell it by one of the most droll sales training slideshows I’ve ever seen. Then again, what sales training slideshow was ever not droll? (via)

* Though it’s not the entire video, reader Marc Tyler uncovered some snippets of a Florida film archive video on the Daytona 500. The snippets, though, are still pretty neat. Gotta love the full dashboards and shirtsleeve driving exhibited in the in-car camera.

* If you’ve spent enough time on Internet car forums, you’re probably well acquainted with the build thread, in which somebody posts photos of every step of his car’s restoration or build-up. For some forums, these are about the only reason worth visiting, and one guy has started pulling good build threads out of the car forums and posting them to his blog, saving us the hassle of slogging through all those forums.

* Finally, another new-to-us blog, this one – AirMighty -all about the air-cooled Volkswagen in its many forms. Lots of show coverage, and thus, plenty of photos. Looks like he has a thing for the oddball variants and the slammed and modified ones. (via)

Related posts:

• Oh, baby. Art Gerrick lakes modified headed to auction
• Michael Moore mixed on Big 3 bailout
• E85 Dodge Viper Sets a 220mph Standing Mile Record
• Searching For A Grim Minnesota Murder Movie Car? Simple Plan Volvo Amazon For Sale! [Found On Craigslist]
• Momentum Race Group to run Camaros in KONI Challenge

Related posts:

• GMC Acadia Car Profile
• AutoblogGreen for 11.21.08
• Scanning the Auto Blogosphere
• Porsche Doesn’t Want to Take Over VW After All!!!
• Currently, gas costs an average of $3.48 per gallon.