“Scion is excited to help promote such world-renowned and gifted artists through these new releases and collaborations,” said Jeri Yoshizu, Scion sales promotions manager. “By giving them a unique platform for exposure and an opportunity to team up with producers from varied musical backgrounds, Scion continues its mission to support the arts.”

Recently, Scion released some tracks featuring the infamous man behind Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah and because of its success, Scion A/V, the automaker’s private record label, is now releasing ones with BIG GIPP and 90's hip hop pioneers, EPMD.

These promotional copies will be released in various sponsored events and on online retailers. Proceeds from the Onoine sales will go directly to Big Gipp and EPMD and their record labels.

Remixes are done by my favorite Atlanta DJ, KLEVER and others include, SINDEN, Duke Dumont, Yo Majesty and Boy 8 Bit.

For more information on these releases and other Scion A/V projects please visit: www.scion.com/#scionAV

- THAI SPYCE _

---

August 28 - September 1

So this years Moscow Auto show seems to be really weak.
I mean I understand that when you think automobiles you don't exactly think Moscow, but come on, its a major world city deserving of an amazing car show.

But automobile manufacturers seemed to show their presence at the show, but failed to reveal anything new.

I guess Moscow isn't exactly the place to debut the latest and greatest.

The only car debut that seemed to make any sense for Moscow was the BMW X5 Security edition.

Pretty much a tanked up X5, equipped with armor plating all around, including the floor board and roof, and bullet proof windows.

Coming with a Ballastic rating V4 and can stop .44 Magnums... Seems pretty serious...



And you could never tell by looking at the outside.

To move this monstrously heavy machine requires the 4.8L V8, packing a 350hp punch.

Maybe the US government should hook up troops in Iraq with a car this well protected so we would stop losing troops to IEDs.

---

I love how the German language sounds, especially when you say in context to the demise of something. Today we talk about the official demise of Lead Wheel Weights.

You've probably seen these things before either clipped on the outer rim of your wheels or double stick taped on the inside of your wheels. These littles pieces of metal are lead. There is no wonder why they used lead to make these weights, because they are the second heaviest natually occuring element behind gold, and its very cheap to mine. I doubt people want to spend the money for real blinging wheel weights.

The abstract of why we need to eradicate lead wheel weights is becuase they usually fling off of cars on the streets/highways, and once off they grind down into lead powder through natural wear and can contaminate our drinking water. 500,000 pounds of lead is flung onto the roads, which makes this a substantial amount. Sounds like a logical thing. Sounds like a very envormental thing, some of you might be asking why we need weights anyway? WEll its actually more enviromentally sound to have even wearing tires, rather than to be burning through tires faster.

So by 2009 California will ban all lead wheel weights in favor of zinc or copper metals. The bottom line is that these weights will be definitely be larger than the traditional wheel weights that we use. So don't be surprised if you see those unsightly wheel weights beign more pronounced on those nice wheels of yours.


TheJohnster.

---

Well for those of you who love the G35/37 and wish it came in a hard top convertible, your wish has been granted.



Slated for a 2009 appearance is the G37 Convertible!

Featuring a three piece automatic hard top option, the coupe will retain all its top up beauty and add a seductive top down touch.



An upgraded audio system and heating/air conditioning will come standard with the convertible.

With 328hp and a slick 6 speed option, will the G37 be the car to deliver where the Lexus Sc300 never could tread?

---

Joe Gibbs Racing has been dominating the Nationwide Series all season, and now we know why!

Because they CHEAT!!!



Following Saturdays race, NASCAR officials conducted a chassis dyno, which basically is intended to make sure all cars are running at the same capacity as others in order to make a fair playing field, found MAGNETS under the gas pedal on TWO of Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas.

Now what are the magnets for and why do they make such a big deal?

Well basically its to fool the dyno tester into thinking the car was at WOT (wide open throttle) when it really wasn't. Two quarter inch thick magnets were strategically placed to prevent the accelerator from going 100% WOT.

Why wouldn't they want it at 100% WOT? Because they probably exceeded the horsepower requirements for the race.




If you guys didn't know, in racing, if one team dominates, no one wants to race. Why would you spend good solid money if you're going to lose? Well in order to cut that shit out, NASCAR and other race sanctioning bodies will impose restrictions or weight penalties in order to allow everyone a chance to win!

So I guess after dominating the races and pretty much kicking everyone's ass, NASCAR required Toyota to limit the engine horsepower production by 15.

Well Joe Gibbs Racing found a way around that!

Good job and a nice toast to the cheaters!
And good job on tarnishing the wholesome reputation of Toyota!

-Mister Philthy isn't as filthy as those cheaters...

---

VS.



With these new scares of gas prices people are wondering what they should trade in their gas guzzler for. With all the hooplah with Hybrids many people consider this as a viable option. Other pracitcal options are to get the completely wonderful Toyota Yaris. So you're wondering what I'm going to recommend. My answer, it all depends.

First off before I go and do my analysis on each car, I love Toyota. No other car company is as progressive as and successful as Toyota. Many people might consider them to be very conservative, and I completely agree. They make great products and they do it at affordable prices. Hopefully one of these days they will resurrect the king, the Toyota Supra. I will be waiting. People buy Toyota for life, because their cars are so reliable.

What's not to love about the Prius, it gets up to 60 MPG, and sometimes with a $10K conversion can get 100 MPG. The interior is wonderful, its quiet, and has a great navigation system. Pretty much its a great car, and its expensive. My brother paid $40K for this car new, a lot to me. With the market demanding this car, prices have been driven up. According to supply and demand, an equilibrium will be set when the suppliers will reach the breaking point of the demanders. Thus the resale costs for these cars has been astounding, but at the expense of a capital cost of $40K, which is defintely a huge part of the US median income of $61,500(2008 Statistics). This represents 65 percent of a persons wages towards a car. Benefits of using carpools in California have been revoked. Interesting.

The Toyota Yaris can be had for approximately $12K out the door. This represents 19.5 percent of a person's wages. It gets 35/40 MPG, and in 2009 will be released in a 4-door version. I've been in the Yaris and it pales in comparison in finish to the Prius. Its bare bones and very straight forward. Its not quiet, no navigation, but very reliable. Its still made in Japan until Toyota decides to bring over tooling to the states to make it here, which will mean it will completely undercut all the automakers in a inexpensive and reliable car. The Yaris upside is that is completely affordable and that families everywhere can buy it new.

Its evident that I love the Yaris, its great and practical. A car that is reliable and that can be enjoyed for a very long time. On my current budget the Yaris makes the most sense. But if you're part of the successful few that can afford the luxurious Prius its great. From quick math, I've calculated that to have the same percentage of money dedicated to a car per year, one must make $205K.(Top 20 percent of the US make $100K a year)This is obviously a gross representation of wealth and peoples abilities to buy car, because people finance cars. ALso this does not account for peoples quantifiable preference curves of nice cars vs. income. Something to think about for disposable income though.


Yaris forever.

Johnster

---

Ok so your boy here, Thai Spyce is officially an AFLAC agent. and we are more than just a "duck" We are a supplemental insurance company. You're probably wondering, WTF does this have to do with cars. Well, AFLAC also sponsors Carl Edwards number 99 NASCAR vehicle. AFLAC spent $78 million dollars for the 2009 season. (Uh that's where all my commissions went)





Of course you can too can be a sponsor on one of these NASCAR cars, but you pay for what you get. If you're a small company and thinking about eh maybe I can get a piece of the fender think again. Some company can bump million upon millions on one sole vehicle and the whole car will carry their advertisement. Old Spice and Office Depot are aggressively getting on the same track as AFLAC as they are sponsoring Tony Stewart's NASCAR.

_ Thai Spyce _

---

Remember this monstrosity?



The car that started everything for Hyundai America.

Let us not mince words. It was a piece of rat filth. They sold a lot of them, until people found out that it falls apart.

And many years later many people still remember that and distances themselves from Korean automobiles.

Well, its not hard to see that Hyundai has been working their Korean asses off in order to do some brand imaging. Though in my opinion, their marketing director sucks, and they took far too much time to do so, with their trade mark TEN year, 100,000 mile warranty, Hyundai is slowly winning folks over.

And now Hyundai has dropped a bomb. With sensible styling ques, this car is part BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, and Cadillac. It is definitely not wild, it is a simple elegant, understated, luxury mover.






Now I realize that I have written about this car before and how amazing it seems, but this weekend I had a chance to drive in one and had to give you my "First Test" opinion.

Right away I knew something was different. As soon as I hopped in the car and closed the door I knew something changed. The solid thunk that only BMW and Mercedes-Benz have. Lexus is close and try often to imitate that solid thud of security, but haven't yet done it. Well in short Hyundai has. The door made the same solid, secure, thud that my Mercedes of many moons also exudes.

Okay, asides from the door, this car is amazing. First off, its fast. Seriously, its quick for a huge car. 0-60mph in 5.5 seconds and 14 seconds flat quarter miles is not bad for an oafish sedan.

Well that was no surprise to me, with a reported $260 MILLION in development, this new V8, marked as the "Tau" is amazing. Plenty of power, ultra green, and some pretty advanced features. One word, incredible.

Now I can write forever about the power aspects and the motor but then this article will be 20 pages long so I got to short things up and keep moving.

Suspension, not bad, with a weight distribution of 53/47, its pretty close to the coveted 50/50. And it slaloms! I didn't have a chance to get exact times, but it felt nice, sure footed, and safe. Not quite the handling monster that is the BMW 5 Series, but definitely it can hold its own.

Hot stops? No problems! With Four Piston 13" vented rotors, it comes to a stop, just as well as any luxury manufacturer!

And the interior, awesome! Comfortable, with some great leather. Quality leather that seems beyond Lexus quality, but not quite the German counterparts. But with piping and stitching with some flare and quality, a fine interior nonetheless.



And let us not forget the Hyundai DIS (Hyundai Driver Information System). Much like the iDrive found in the BMW, but much better. By adding some buttons near the unit itself, it makes the experience much more pleasant and quick.

Want to throw on a CD and hear some tunes? Go ahead, with a 17 speaker 528-watt Lexicon system, it makes bad music, sound great! I popped in some Wham! and next thing I knew, I thought Club Tropicana was a place I could really go to!

In short, with great details and some serious research, this car is amazing! On any standard it is a great car! But here's another bomb shell! The V8 starts at $37,250! Expensive for a Korean car, YES! But you are pretty much getting a Lexus GS460 for the price of a ES350! Not a bad deal considering the V8 GS starts at $53,020!

Well there you go, my first drive of the Hyundai Genesis 4.6 made me a true believer! My people can finally make a decent car! And I think that I might just have to get one. For those of you who don't know me well, I am (was) a very anti-Korean kind of guy, but I guess things change, people change.

-Proud to be Korean
The Not-So-Philthy today, Mister Philthy

---

I love movies. There is nothing like watching people on screen beat other people's brains out, and seeing a cool car on camera. Years ago, I unassumingly picked up the movie Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I never heard of Guy Richie before, but many people raved about how awesome the movie was so I took a shot at it.

It was fantastic, and was fun filled with action, adventure and really cool British cars that are under-appreciated. Sure any Brit can put a Jaguar, Aston Martin, or Rover in the movie and be done with the ad placements, but Guy Richie did it a bit differently. I'm assuming that he longed for these cars as a a youth, and probably owns them all.

So here I present to you the interesting cars of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrel's


Mini



Ford Granada


Rover P6



AC Cobra



Ford Cosworth RS2000


Awesome cars.

TheJ0hnster

---

TRD (Toyota Racing Development) has just released a street-legal supercharger system for the 5.7 Liter v8's such as the Toyota Tundra and Toyota Sequoia. Thus, giving these bad boys power up to 504 horsepower at 5,500 RPM.

The system is emmissions legal if installed by a Toyota dealer, and comes with a 12 month warranty regardless of mileage. WOW!

This support system also supports the the popular Scion vehicles such as the tC anc the xB.

With this development, TRD will be a force to be reckoned with, with the other 3 big detroit players.


Frank Bonnet, the chief administrator of TRD's accessory department, notes, "The close connection with Toyota in the U.S. got us early access to new cars so we can engineer to Toyota's standards and do things like test for durability and corrosion resistance in our anti-sway bars." He also adds, "Our strengths are really Toyota's strengths — parts availability from Toyota dealers, street-legal air emissions and a full warranty."





- THAI SPYCE -

---