Sem Color Coat Bluemist Flexible Vinyl Spray Auto Paint on 2040-parts.com

July 8: Drained it!

Don't get cocky, kid! I drained the battery more than it's ever been drained today. All the bars were gone and the little gas tank icon was flashing at me, with miles to go before I got to VSP Parking at Burbank Airport to plug in.

SEMA ups scholarship money for car-crazed college kids

The Specialty Equipment Market Association, better known to most of us as SEMA, has announced a hefty boost to its SEMA Memorial Scholarship Fund for 2013: The top student selected now gets $1,000 more for a total of $5,000 toward an automotive-related college education. Other eligible participants in four-year programs get $3,000—last year, they only received $2,000—and two-year students get their funds doubled to $2,000. In the Buckeye State, one lucky student at the Ohio Technical College will get complete tuition coverage, which is a cool $29,400.

McLaren: The dealer network takes shape

The McLaren dealer network is starting to take shape Most of what we’ve written about McLaren in the last month or two hasn’t been about the new McLaren – the McLaren MP4 12C – but about McLaren’s venerable hypercar the McLaren F1. Firts we had Ron Dennis telling anyone who’d listen – quite rightly – that the showdown Top Gear staged between the Mac and the Bug had to be re-run repeatedly until the Bug actually won, but Ron being Ron had to go a step further and proclaim the Veyron a ‘Piece of Junk’. But it made his point.