1990 Mazda Miata Race Car Paint Job

Almost Everything's Car of the Day is a 1990 Mazda Miata Race Car. This car is owned and rented out by a local racing instructor to his students. Crashes are a part of racing. This particular Miata had scrapes on both sides. We repainted the body a deep, non-metallic red and the hardtop separately in bright yellow! This Miata was returned to its owner ready to crash, but looking great while doing so!

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Formula 1 Pitstop 1950 vs. 2013

Thanks to CpatainCanuck for sharing.

Motor Trend Stages "World's Greatest Drag Race IV"

Enough of collision repairs and car paint nuances--let's spend a few minutes with some really cool, really fast cars, some of which we can afford and some priced in the stratosphere.



Thanks to our buddies at Motor Trend for sending us an e-mail announcing this year's results.

1999 Mazda Miata Race Car Paintjob!

Almost Everything's Car of the Day is a 1999 Mazda Miata.  This agressive little track monster came to our shop shiny, yet weathered and tattered from lots of fun track days.  Not wanting his race car to look like such a...race car the owner and driver of this machine came to us with Two requests; Make the car shiny again, and keep the price low.  We met both of those requests with our Enamel Single stage paint, using the car's original color!

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Lloyd Read at Long Beach Grand Prix

Almost Everything's very own Lloyd Read takes on the Long Beach Grand Prix in the #28 Bryan Herta Autosport Indy Lights car.



Read won the 2011 Goodyear Formula Car Challenge Series for Almost Everything. He led the series again in 2012 until crashes caused by other drivers put him out of contention. In 2013 Read piloted the #16 Almost Everything-JDC Motorsports formula car in the Star Mazda Championship.

For more information on Lloyd Read, Indy Lights and the Road to Indy, visit:

LloydReadRacing.com
Facebook.com/Lloyd-Read-Racing
indylights2014.com

Almost Everything Sponsors Gunn High School LeMons Racer

Almost Everything Auto Body is extraordinarily. . . no. . . stupendifically proud to sponsor Palo Alto's Gunn High School Auto Tech in the infamous 24 Hours of LeMons! This year's super enduro for sub-$500 vehicles takes place (at least in California) at Sonoma Raceway, Sears Point.

Join Us!

Date:    March 22-23, 2014

Time:    . . . it's a 24 hour race. . .

Place:

           Sonoma Raceway

           "Sears Point"

           29355 Arnold Dr.

           Sonoma, California 95476

Spectator Admission:   $30

That's right, unlike the $140 NASCAR race a few weeks later, this one is nearly free!

Gunn Auto Tech students created as their LeMons entry a replica of the Pizza Planet delivery truck made famous by Pixar's Toy Story. 24 Hours of LeMons is a humorous take on the oldest, most grueling and prestigious auto race, the 24 Heures du Mans. The real LeMans race is held annually in LeMans, France with top auto manufacturers competing with the fastest cars in the world. The 24 Hours of LeMons is NOT like that. It was established in 2006 by Car & Driver editor Jay Lamm as “Endurance Racing for $500 Cars” (i.e. lemons.)

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Almost Everything provides support for youth programs in the San Francisco Bay Area through regular sponsorship of the Washington High School Car Show, California School for the Deaf internships, Gunn High School and many other local events.

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Mike Camicia is the Gunn High School Auto Tech Instructor, an SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) champion and local racing legend. Mike quips that his wife has actually won more SCCA championships that he has. Our kind of family!

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Frank Barnard, Almost Everything's General Manager, says, “Kids that learn to build and race cars for the 24 Hours of LeMons better understand the need for safety, the potential and limitations of cars in general, and the potential consequences of an accident. It's a great education."

Pizza Planet Rocket under development:

Pixar/Pizza Planet Trivia: amazingly, the Pizza Planet truck has appeared in nearly every Pixar movie to date including: Toy Story (where it first appears), A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Brave (apparently, pizza and Toyota pick-ups have been popular since the dark ages.) See Wikipedia for the complete list and descriptions of how/where the truck appears.

More info. on Gunn High School Auto Tech, 24 Hours of LeMons & Sonoma Raceway:

http://www.gunnautotech.com/ (Gunn High School Auto Tech Website)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hIkpOIwSV4 (Gunn High School Auto Tech Video)
http://www.24hoursoflemons.com/
http://www.racesonoma.com/

Nissan GT-R End-Over

Here's something you don't see everyday. Almost Everything's Wreck of the Day is a Nissan GT-R Racer. In the video several GT-Rs pass by during the 2014 Long Tom Hill Climb race in the town of Sabie, Mpumalanga, South Africa. The last car takes the turn a little too fast, flips several times before disappearing down a ravine. This was the fourth run of the day for 47 year old driver Wilhelm Baard. Fortunately he was not seriously injured and attended the awards ceremony at the end of the event. Baard won South Africa's Knysna Hill Climb in 2011 in a GT-R.

The 2014 Long Tom Hill Climb took place on January 25th and 26th. It was sponsored by Renault (Nissan's parent) and the Sports Car Club of South Africa. The race covers 6.3 km (3.9 miles) along the banks of the Sabie River in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The next video shows cars leaving the starting line and beginning their assault on the hill. The sounds are great.

Many thanks to the spectators who recorded these videos, our friends at WreckedExotics.com who reliably find an astonishing amount of this type stuff on a daily basis, and to AutoEvolution who provided us with the background story and more images of the event.

Ferrari Pit Stop - Incredible

1990 Mazda Miata Re-Re-Painted

Almost Everything's Car of the Day is a 1990 Mazda Miata. This Japanese roadster came to our shop before, hence the shiny red paint on the majority of its body. Unfortunately it had a "Run In" with a wall, requiring body work and repainting. The car's owner repaired all of the areas that he deemed neccecary, and dropped the Miata off for us to refinish with our basic Enamel paint, in a Ford factory color red!

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Look at the beautiful body of this Ferrari!

Almost-Everything attended the 2013 San Fransisco Auto Show. Many beautiful cars, trucks, and SUVs filled the Moscone Center's halls.  We like to document our outings such as this one, strangely this year there was a new type of challenge presented before us when our Customer Service Manager, Joel, and our Detailer Jason were attempting to snap a picture of this Ferarri, an obstacle appeared, obscuring the beautiful body lines of the Italian beast...Joel and his wise mouth left the scene swiftly to avoid potentially being murdered by the model, while Jason stood frozen, motionless, trying with all his might to not laugh at the slightly annoyed model's stone-cold glare aimed towards the fleeing Joel. Both employees made it safely into work today.     

Houston Grand Prix Video

In-car video of Lloyd Read in the Almost Everything-JDC Motorsports formula car during his last lap of the season at the Grand Prix of Houston. This was the final race of the 2013 Star Mazda Championship. The video shows a great race with several changes in position as the finish line approaches. Just 2 laps from the checkered flag Read is bumped from behind by another car. He hits the wall and the car is done for the day.

Read won the 2011 Goodyear Formula Car Challenge Series for Almost Everything and last year led the championship until crashes (caused by other drivers) put him out of contention.

2013 was Read's rookie season of the Star Mazda Championship. He finished top 10 in all but 2 races. This put him 8th overall in points standing. Congratulations Lloyd. We look forward to an exciting 2014 season of racing.

For more information on Lloyd Read, the Star Mazda Championship and the Road to Indy, visit:

LloydReadRacing.com
Facebook.com/Lloyd-Read-Racing
indycar.com/Series/Pro-Mazda-Championship/Lloyd-Read
wikipedia.org/Star_Mazda_Championship
StarMazda.com/

Lamborghini hits 250 MPH. . . then Bursts Into Flames (of course)

Almost Everything's Wreck of the Day is yet another Lamborghini. If you know us at all, you know we can't pass up an exotic supercar flambé-ing itself. This time there's a somewhat reasonable excuse. This particular Lamborghini, called the "LP570-4 Underground Racing R2/Altechno," has 2005 HP and set an all time speed record at the Moscow Unlimited 500+ drag races. It is traveling 402 kph (250 mph) at the finish line. . . then it blows up. Great video.

Video of Crash at Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières

Video below shows Lloyd Read in the Almost Everthing/JDC Motorsport Pro Formula Mazda advancing a couple positions right at the start of the race at the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières (GP3R) in Quebec, Canada. Then another driver causes a multi-car pile up. Our car gets damaged and Read is injured but manages to get back to the pits. JDC Motorsports miraculously replaces both front and rear suspensions in just 15 minutes and we're back racing. Be sure to watch the end of the video for the crash view from the rear mounted camera. It shows all the other cars piling up behind us!

Read went on to finish the race with a broken thumb. The time for repairs, while amazingly quick, ensure that Read and Almost Everything will not be on the podium this race. But Read gains valuable championship points by managing to finish in spite of the crash and injury.

Read was the Champion of the 2011 Goodyear Formula Car Challenge Series for Almost Everything. In 2012 he once again led the championship until crashes (caused by other drivers) put him out of contention. In 2013 Read pilots the #16 Almost Everything-JDC Motorsports formula car in the "Road to Indy" Star Mazda Championship.

The Star Mazda Championship is part of the "Road to Indy" that trains drivers and showcases talent to F1 and Indianapolis 500 teams. Read joins a very elite alumni that includes NASCAR and Formula One star Scott Speed, Indy drivers Marco Andretti and Graham Rahal and NASCAR/Champ Car/GTP driver Michael McDowell.

For more information on Lloyd Read, the Star Mazda Championship and the Road to Indy, visit:

LloydReadRacing.com
Facebook.com/Lloyd-Read-Racing
wikipedia.org/Star_Mazda_Championship
StarMazda.com/

Another Ho-Hum Day in Pebble Beach, California

We like to putter around Carmel and Pebble Beach, California (pun intended) in August every year. It is when and where the world's richest car fanatics congregate for the annual Pebble Beach Concours d' Elegance. Decades ago it was a one day event. Now it's a week that encompasses the Monterey Historic Races, auto auctions, Concorso Italiano, and auto manufacturers showing off their best stuff. Our favorite part is trolling the streets and parking lots around the event. . .

Carmel traffic jamb. How many exotics can you spot in this picture?

$30M Ferrari 250 GTO Testarossa--driving down Ocean Ave. in Carmel

No clue what this is. Please tell us.

Lamborghini Miura parked on side of street

Ferrari 275 driving through Carmel, California

Just more Ferraris and a Bugatti

Of course, this year we spent the weekend painting the outside of the Almost Everything building instead of participating in automotive nirvana. Thank goodness for our great friends at ExoticSpotter across the Bay who agregate photos of stuff like this.