Win a Griot's Garage $250.00 shopping spree by helping Motortopia grow. It's so easy!

Join for Free or Invite others to Join for Free. That's it.

Invite your buddies, club friends, and other car, bike, plane, or boat enthusiasts to join Motortopia! Just use our awesome, invitation system. (or click on "Invite" in the Motortopia top navigatoin bar)

For each person who joins Motortopia from your invitation - you increase your chance to win the $250 Griot's Garage shopping spree! An early Christmas for you.

We'll announce the winner at noon on December 5. 19. So, get started inviting folks to join the best place on the internet for motor enthusiasts.

And, by doing so, you will help Motortopia.com -- entirely created and provided by car enthusiasts.

Thank you.

The Motortopia Team

P.S. and a very Happy Thanksgiving to you!

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Trick our Treat is over. . . but it seemed like a holiday to us.

We promise, we'll get your some car stories and pics soon (tonight) but thought you should have these right away.

And, remember to leave those trophy votes on the photo slideshow to show your appreciation.

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Ladies bring us into this world...and now, more and more, they are takin' us out.

There are plenty of great cars on Motortopia, and a few hearses. We were interested to learn here at Motortopia that women are gaining on men -- as morticians and hearse drivers.

Yep, more and more, women are turning to this profession. Getting you all ready and taking you out for your last ride.

Why is this happening now? Economy? Women bring us into the world, maybe it is best they take us out? One friend I talked with about this said "Hey, maybe this is just a woman's place -- preparing the body, like in the bible."

Well, we don't know -- and frankly don't care too much why -- but thought you would enjoy knowing that our gals are interested our coming and going.

Take a look at some of the great hearses here on Motortopia.


And, read more about women and hearses and becoming a mortician.

1984 Caddy Hearse Limo by harleylifeman (nice flame treatment too!)
1933 Pontiac Henney Hearse by Soapboxman. Hey, the "dirty thirties" may have been bad, but you could go out in style.
A great funeral flower car by Duste. Wow, if you only had that many flowers when you were alive?

. . . and more...do your own search.

Or, read more

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Motortopia will be offline for several hours today for a data center upgrade (from about noon till 6 p.m. ). This is necessary so all of the techies, propeller-heads, geeks, and IT-Network folks (we love 'em all) who make Motortopia happen will be upgrading our data center today. It's a big job and will take us several hours today.

See you soon.

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Now, you would have thought the Germans, with their precision machining and engineering would have done this; but it was a Frenchman, Leon-Marie-Joseph-Clement Levavasseur, (let's call him "V" for short), patented the first V8 engine in 1902 on this day, December 2, 1902.

The V-formation, of course, allows a crankshaft to be turned by eight pistons with only four throws.

And, I remember the first time I stepped on a V-8, how about you!

Leave your V-8 memory in the comments here.

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Most of us have the image of the Hindenburg exploding in flames in 1937 etched in our minds.

Well, now you can have a new image. A full-sized, rigid frame American air ship with passengers flying around San Francisco.

This air ship adventure has been provided to us by a group of investors in California (they think of such Wacky things out there!), and it sounds like a lot of fun.

Imagine, taking your friends and family up for a air ship ride. Maybe we should send up member of Congress so they could get a real look at the country. No lobbyists allowed. Heck, how many air ship rides can 700 Billion buy?

Source: Silicon Valley Mercury News

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Well, you knew this was bound to happen. Used fryer grease is now a huge target for thieves. Restaurants couldn't pay to give the stuff away a year ago, but now they are installing surveillance cameras to keep a watch on the "liquid gold."

And get this: apparently processed fryer oil, called "yellow grease," is actually traded on the commodities market. In 2000, it traded for 7.6 cents a pound; now it trades for 33 cents a pound, which is about $2.50 a gallon. It is so valuable and such a target now, one of the nation's largest grease collection and rendering companies has hired detectives to investigate these thefts.

Since most restaurants put their used grease in big vats with their trash, the lawyer representing some of the thieves that have been arrested is claiming that it isn't actually theft, because once you put something in the trash, it is abandoned property. The restaurants, however, don't see it this way.

And neither to the people who have legitimate contracts with restaurants to collect the used oil. Ben Healy, the owner of Healy Biodiesel in Sedgwick, KS, said that on one particular night not too long ago, the oil was stolen from 9 of the 15 restaurants he has a contract with.

So, all you restaurant owners: time to watch not only the cash registers, but the grease barrels.

Source: NY Times

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Hold on to your wallet! A storm that rolled through Kansas City yesterday sat a vat with 1.2 million gallons of unleaded fuel in it ablaze. Lightning was determined to be the cause, and firefighters are letting the fire burn itself out, which should happen sometime on Thursday.

Just what we needed!

Source: Fox4News

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Some might say that Motortopia is not the place for poetry. I think some of the passion about cars, bikes, boats, and planes here on Motortopia sometimes borders on a poetic understanding.

In any event, I have been to enough shows in the past year to know that a big part of that experience is some good, ole', American fried food. Enjoy this piece, and get ready for some good eatin'

Fried Beauty

Glory be to God for breaded things--
Catfish, steak finger, pork chop, chicken thigh,
Sliced green tomatoes, pots full to the brim
With french fries, fritters, life-float onion rings,
Hushpuppies, okra golden to the eye,
That in all oils, corn or canola, swim

Toward mastication's maw (O molared mouth!);
Whatever browns, is dumped to drain and dry
On paper towels' sleek translucent scrim,
These greasy, battered bounties of the South:
Eat them.

Here are the credits:

American Life in Poetry: Column 166

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

Texas poet R. S. Gwynn is a master of the light touch. Here he picks up on Gerard Manley Hopkins' sonnet "Pied Beauty," which many of you will remember from school, and offers us a picnic instead of a sermon. I hope you enjoy the feast!

P.S. For those of you interested in receiving updates on American Life and Poetry, head on over to AmericanLifeInPoetry.org.

Have a good one.

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June 1st marks the start of hurricane season. And experts are saying that gas prices could surge up to $6 per gallon if a hurricane hits in July. That's because a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, like Katrina or Rita, would disrupt refineries and pipelines in the southern U.S.

In fact, because of Katrina, gas prices today already have about 5 to 10 cents built into the price of gas by speculative traders. The NOAA are saying there is a 65% chance of a stronger-than-normal hurricane season, and only a 10% chance that it will be weaker.

On the other hand, they are saying that if we make it through hurricane season with no hits, gas prices could ease a bit. But, hurricane season isn't over until Nov. 30, so we have a long ways to go.

Wonderful.

Source: CNN

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