There’s something horribly wrong with the U.S. education system. In our community college automotive repair programs, kids are learning how to repair the brakes on Toyota appliances. In Sweden, the students at Thorildsplans Gymnasium technical school are building batshit-crazy Yamaha R1-powered go carts. 145 horsepower in something that weights as much as a Radio Flyer. This video shows the fruits of their labor. Pardon the crap-rock soundtrack.

Falcon Motorcycles is a company with one goal in mind. Take old vintage Triumph motorcycles and refit, refurbish and rebuild them. The final goal is to create a wholly new motorcycle that is timeless, inimitable and understated.

2. 1994 Ducati 916

The release of the Ducati 916 in 1994 set the motorcycle world on its ear. Designed by Massimo Tamburini, the 916 had a style and elegance to it, that to this day, has not been equaled and is considered by many to be the most beautiful motorcycle ever created.

3. 2010 Confederate Wraith

I saw this motorcycle in person last year in Monterrey, CA during the Concours d’Elegance. It literally stopped me in my tracks as it was unlike anything I’d ever seen. Visually it is as tough and brutish as they come and looks to be more of a design exercise than an actual running road bike. It also comes with a hefty price tag of around $55,000.

4. 1992 Britten

The Britten motorcycle was built in 1992 be New Zealander John Britten. It’s carbon fiber forks and swing-arm set it apart from anything built in that time period. The pink, black and blue color scheme was another design element that led to the bikes appeal amongst fans.

5. 1978 Harley Davidson XLCR 1000 Café Racer

Some of you may disagree with this particular entry, but there are a few things to consider before making any comments. This bike was built at a very low time for Harley Davidson. From 1969-1981 Harley was owned by American Machinery and Foundry (AMF) and built some of the worst motorcycles in the companies 107 year history. The XLCR 1000 Café Racer was not only a styling achievement, but a bike that helped breath some new life into the struggling bike manufacturer.

6. 1992 Honda NR

When the Honda NR was released in 1992 it came with a whopping price tag of $55,000 due to its V4 engine and oval piston design. The oval piston design enabled Honda to use 4-valves per cylinder to create more power. This power increase was due to an increase in air/fuel mixture throughput and compression. Only 300 were ever produced for public sale.

7. 1950 Vincent Black Shadow

Think of the Vincent Black Shadow as the Grandfather to the modern sport bike. It was sleek, fast and had all the right go-fast goodies to give it a top speed of 125 mph. Also considered to be one of the most beautiful motorcycles of all time, the Black Shadow is highly sought after by collectors.

8. 2010 Bimota Tesi 3d Carbon Black

If there is one motorcycle out there that has a truly radical design it’s the Bimota Tesi. Tesi’s in one form or another have been around since the early 1990’s. Their latest creation has taken it to a whole new level. All Tesi models have been known for their controversial front end: the hub-center steered swing arm front suspension. The design actually works quite well, but it never really caught on with moto-journalists or the industry as a whole. Dressed up in carbon fiber body panels with beautiful billet aluminum, the Tesi 3d is really something to look at from any angle.

9. 1947 Indian Chief

From the swooping front and rear fenders to the leather tasseled seat, the Indian Chief is a motorcycle that conjures up images of a less complicated time. This is a machine that just looks like it was built for the open road. It exemplifies that feeling of freedom and appeals to the adventurer in all of us.

10. 2009 BMW R1200 GS Adventurer

Whether you’re going on a 3000 mile road trip through the Alaskan wilderness, fighting off brain eating zombie’s in LA, or simply grabbing a quart of milk from the local bodega, the BMW R1200 GS is the Swiss army knife of motorcycles. It’s beautiful because it is built to do a job and do it right. It makes no excuses for its looks because it knows it doesn’t have to, and you know from first glance that it’s one serious piece of hardware. Those reasons and those reasons alone, make this one beautiful machine.

I love the lines of the early 1970s GM pickups, probably because my dad had a 1972 GMC for a shop truck. I learned to drive a column shifter on that beast, and mastered the art of retrieving customer’s broken down cars with a push bumper mounted on the front.

Sam Rankin sent in pics of his ride, a 1970 Chevy C10 pickup with a blown 355 small block between the front wheels. The motor features Brodix aluminum heads, an MSD ignition with a Boots Timing Master, roller rockers, J&E pistons and Oliver rods. Sam is running the blower to make 10 pounds of boost at 3000 RPM. There’s no dyno sheet included with the pics, but my guess is somewhere north of 500 horsepower. That should get the crops to market on time.

Low mileage Diablo. Original owner, needs some paint and body work. $5k OBO.

Source: That Will Buff Out

The Voisin C20 I told you about on Saturday? The 2009 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance “Best In Show” winner sold for a world record $2.75 million dollars. More after the jump.

Up for sale at the inaugural Gooding & Company auction on Amelia Island is this 1931 Voisin C20. Considered a hallmark of Gabriel Voisin’s design and engineering talents, the car is powered by one of five 12 cylinder Voisin sleeve-vale engines built. Voisin’s early career was spent designing aircraft; after World War 1, Voisin was convinced that both military and civilian demand for aircraft would wane. He focused his attention on the luxury automobile market, applying lessons learned from building aircraft. His automobiles were among the first to utilize aluminum and other lightweight alloys in their construction, and his vehicles typically included far more instrumentation than other high end automobiles.

Photo: Gooding & Company

A 2009 Best of Show winner at the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, the Voisin is one of a kind and immaculate in every sense of the word. Pre-auction estimates are that the car will sell “in excess of $2 million”, and there seemed to be quite a bit of interest in the Voisin while I was in the Gooding tent. The downturn in the economy has not impacted the level of buyers seen at the Amelia Island auctions.

Hey ladies! Do you like cars? Turn your own wrenches? Care more about camber adjustability than the number of cup holders? Do you enjoy writing and have visions of becoming an automotive journalist or are you simply sick and tired of reading about the auto industry from a man’s perspective.

If you answered, “yes” to any of the above then here’s your chance to be heard. Ridelust.com is currently seeking female contributors to come on board and share their deepest automotive thoughts. We’re looking for a serious sense of humor, a fair amount of wit and those who are not afraid to share their unbridled opinions about the automotive world around them.

Since we’re poor this position is unpaid, however the benefits of writing for Ridelust.com greatly outweigh any sort of monetary compensation you may have received. These include, but are not limited to, possible press credentials (if your any good), an outlet to vent your automotive frustrations, a place to hone your skills and gain some automotive credibility, as well as that all important pat on the back from the Ridelust staff. Everyone in this industry started somewhere and made their bones before they were taken seriously. If you have a fierce passion for automobiles, think outside the box and know how to form complete sentences than this position may be for you.

If you’re interested then shoot an email to, mike@ridelust.com, along with some examples of your previous work and why you’d like to write for us. We’ll give it a quick review and see if we have a fit… and who knows, it may just lead you onto bigger and better things.

Why, yes; that is an entire row of Porsche 917s you're seeing.

Sunday, March 14, was the 15th annual Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, which yours truly attended for the third year. The event has grown from a regional show to one of international merit, and the cars seem to get better every single year. No matter what era or type of car you’re into, you’ll find the best examples at Amelia Island; it’s become the Eastern U.S. equivalent to Pebble Beach.

I’ll be putting up articles about some of the cars featured over the next few weeks, but here are a few teaser shots. Ever wondered what a party with 18,000 of your closest gear head friends would look like? How about if they brought 275 of the finest classic, street and race cars ever produced. Well, it would look something like these pics, after the jump:

1955 D Type Jaguar, from the Cars of the Cuban Races class

A Mercedes 300SL and its great grandson, the SLS

1919 propeller driven Leyat Helica. Not everything French is sexy.

1938 Talbot Lago T150. Now THAT'S sexy.

There’s so much creamy automotive goodness that I don’t know where to start. The immaculate 1967 427 Corvette? The cleanest 300 SL I’ve ever seen, finished in a stunning slate gray? Richard Petty’s Superbird? A DeSoto Powered Kurtis roadster? All of these and more in the coming weeks, just as soon as I sort through an entire memory card full of images.

I think we all have a soft spot in our hearts for home built contraptions. Regardless of what they do it’s just cool to see what people can come up with in the dregs of their workshops. Take this ridiculous VW Passat for example. This thing must easily be 5-feet off the ground sporting what looks to be tractor tires and a fully home built suspension system. From the exhaust note the engine seems to be completely stock as well. As you can see the driver is having no problem flogging this thing through the snow, but all that height combined with a very narrow width would have me nervous to even set foot in that thing. Maybe it’s just me, but I have a feeling that we’re going to see a video of this thing flipping over very soon on Streetfire.net.

Remember Jim Sikes? He’s the guy who claimed his runaway Toyota Prius almost killed him while driving on Interstate 8 in San Diego. Well, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been going over that car with a fine tooth comb trying to replicate claims that Sikes made about the car speeding out of control and almost killing him. The car went through a rigorous two-day inspection and even though NHTSA submitted their findings that the claim was most likely BS, Sikes’s lawyer simply dismissed it.

If I were you Mr. Sikes I’d be getting very nervous right now because if for some reason you are lying then they’re going to tack you to the wall. Of course that’s just my two-cents.

Source: Today.com

Photo: Penske Racing

It was a bizarre weekend for the IRL in Brazil. Saturday’s qualifying session had to be rescheduled when a concrete section of the street course proved too slick for safety. Series champion Dario Frachitti took the pole in Sunday’s rescheduled qualifying session, but could not produce a victory as rain produced multiple delays and accidents.

Will Power, driving for Penske Racing, started from the fifth position but used tire strategy to his advantage by gambling on slicks before the track was fully dry. Ryan Hunter Reay, driving for Andretti Autosport also opted for slicks at the last pit stop and was able to hang on for second. Vitor Meira, driving for A.J. Foyt Enterprises, took third.