WasabiCars – Car Spotting in Japan

If you are reading this, then you are interested in cars in one way or another.  The same goes for the man Daniel O’Grady, the Australian living in Japan.  Daniel always had an interest in classic cars when he lived in Australia, but after he moved to Japan, his love for cars translated into classic Japanese cars.  This led to his YouTube Channel: WasabiCars.

Daniel explains the name and goal of WasabiCars perfectly on his WasabiCars website: “WasabiCars is all about car-spotting, and these are the cars I spot.  It's Wa (和 - Japan) often sprinkled with sabi (錆 - rust), and of course they're cars!”

While we all love seeing the classics restored, Daniel has a special place in his heart for those left to rot; the ones that have not been moved in years; the ones that are a pile of rust; the ones that have stories to tell, but will never have anyone to tell them to.  However, he does more often than not upload videos of resorted cars at car shows.

To date, Daniel has over 1,200,000 views on his 379 videos.  He only joined YouTube in February of 2012!  There is more to Daniel then just uploading videos; Daniel O’Grady is all about fan interaction.  He knows that he would not be where he is today without his fans.  He is constantly responding to comments on YouTube, FaceBook, and Twitter, and he even makes shout-out videos thanking his biggest fans.  Sometimes he will get away from the cars, and just talk to the camera about life (even though that usually has to do with cars as well).

One of his most popular videos is actually of an American car graveyardlocated in Japan.  It features a Z28 Camaro, some Mustangs, a Corvette, and more.  To this day it remains his most popular video with over 320,000 views to date!

I personally love his videos, and his style.  There are so many review videos and what not on the web.  Daniel’s videos and short, entertaining, funny, and just a pleasure to watch.  Most of his videos around, or under two minutes.  One of the best things is the narration.  Daniel is not an expert.  He learns as he goes, and teaches his findings to his viewers.  THAT is what I can appreciate. 

If you are looking to learn a bit about the classic cars found in Japan (Japanese, British, American, and more), then you need to check out WasabiCars!

WasabiCars Website

WasabiCars YouTube

WasabiCars FaceBook

WasabiCars Twitter

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MindDrive – A Car Driven by Social Media

There is nothing like a great American road trip.  Ever since Ford made the automobile mainstream with the Model T, people have been driving to and from wherever his or her heart pleases.  Sometimes these excursions are for fun, and some have a purpose.  They all have one thing in common though: lots of fuel is used.  Now what if your runs off of Tweets, FaceBook posts, and Instagram follows?  This is MindDrive’s Project Ghia.

MindDrive is based in Kansas City.  It is an “auto-shop-type” based program designed to help the at-risk youth of the urban environment learn a trade, and to more or less keep them out of trouble.  Their stated mission is “to inspire students to learn, expand their vision of the future, and to have a positive impact on urban workforce development.”

What MindDrive is doing is very beneficial for the youth of today’s society, but they are not learning how to do oil changes in a 1993 Ford Escort.  Project Ghia involves taking an old 1967 beat up Volkswagen Kharmann Ghia, and not only restoring it, but converting it to an electric car that is powered by social media.

Basically, the plan is for the students to drive the car from Kansas City to Washington, DC to promote the program MindDrive.  The car is only given wattage to move if people “like” them on Facebook, comment on FaceBook, Tweet them, tag them, follow them, and so on.

To have a bunch of at-risk teens build a car after school is one thing, but to have them convert an old chunk of steel into an electric car that runs off of “social fuel” is another.  Help fuel them on their journey by following them, Tweeting them, and so on!  Their information is below!

MindDrive

Website

FaceBook

Twitter (#MindDrive)

Instagram

YouTube

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Chrome Wrap: The Average Joe’s Alternative to an Oil Sheikh’s Daily Driver

It’s simple: girls like diamonds, and guys like chrome.  Any guy who loves his car, bike or truck, will usually try to get a tasteful amount of chrome accents on it when the budget allows.  What one would commonly see is wheels, exhaust, interior trim, engine dress-up pieces, and the like.  But what about having a chrome car?  Well unless you own an oil empire in Saudi Arabia, you may have to settle for chrome wrap.

Some of you may be asking, “What is a wrap?”  For those who are new to this, I’ll explain.  It’s pretty much what it sounds.  A large sheet (or precut pieces of vinyl) is placed over a car.  It’s as simple as that.  Doing this will give the car a completely new look such as changing the car’s color, adding graphics, or both.  Take a look at this black Mustang being turned blue!

Courtesy of Auto Blog

So now what about chrome wrapping?  Well, it’s the same concept as above, but now the “color” is chrome.  This will certainly be a head turner.  For an example, take a look at this video from a company that seems to have three names (click here for their website to see what I mean):

Any car modification in my mind comes down to “what’s the price?”  A shop in the Orlando, Florida area wrapped a 2013 Infinity G37 Coupe for about $8000.  That’s a lot of money to someone like me, and probably to most of the people reading this.  Most typical vinyl wraps can cost anywhere from $2000 to $4000 or more.  Is an extra $4000 really worth getting your car to look like a mirror?  That depends on the person with the car and wallet. 

All I have to say, is you better have a garage to keep that thing in, because that would be a (insert chosen word) to clean.

Courtesy of AUSmotive

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