New Car Flash site is social network for petrolheads

Newcastle-based entrepreneur Kasim Malik has launched a new social network called Car Flash, targeted specifically at car enthusiasts.

Car Flash aims to take advantage of the current trend towards niche social networking, and connect petrolheads across the globe through their shared enthusiasm.

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The site, Carflash.com, allows you to create a personal profile, find and add friends, browse a news feed and make use of a real-time messaging function.

But its main focus is the ‘garage’, where you can upload pictures and videos of your cars, both past and present. Browsing and ‘flashing’ other users’ cars will also be a big part of the appeal.

The garage will also allow the user to “document projects and create a profile for every car you’ve ever owned, building a unique driving history,” says Mailk. In this respect, it’s similar to myriad car-related internet forums already in existence, but undefined by an appeal to a single make or model.

The site, which is already up and running after an initial £200,000 investment, is set to be launched internationally by the end of the year. The idea stemmed from Malik’s own passion for cars and supercars.

We’ve logged on and taken a look, and although we feel the user interface has a little way to go before it convinces people this is a viable alternative to forums – let alone Facebook or Twitter – we can appreciate the attempt to be different, and it will be interesting to see how it evolves over the coming months.

The reservations we do have concern security – it doesn’t take much imagination to see how such a website could become a shopping channel for ambitious car thieves, so encouraging people to be protective of their pride and joy’s real-world location must surely be of paramount importance.

That aside, we’re all for anything that brings car enthusiasts together. Why not take a look at Carflash.com for yourself.

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By motoringresearch.com