What not to do with your new Kicker sub

So, we're giving away a Kicker TCVR10, but please make sure it's to a good home.

This Kicker sub did NOT go to a good home, instead it went to a mad scientist that decided to juice the sub with a straight 120 volt feed....ouch! At least it died swiftly and in an entertaining manner :-)

[Watch Video, kicker comp plugged into a wall socket]

GT3 the party Porsche

Hey Josh, here is your birthday present, a new Porsche GT3. It's even set to a groov'n sound track, enjoy!

[Watch Video, Porsche GT3]

Proof we make better commercials than they do?

Maybe I'm getting old, but I remember when this car came out and it was the most advanced piece of engineering to ever hit the streets...but it didn't last. Some say Mitsubishi spent all their money developing this car and didn't have anything left over for marketing.

I say our members are making better commercials now than they did back then. This video submitted by 875544...(need to update that user name buddy) is better than anything I saw from Mitsubishi when it was released. Great job!

[Watch Video: 3000 GT VR-4 promo video]

How to save Videos to Favorites

As I said in my previous post, adding a video to favorites is the #2 most requested new feature......and we've had it up since last summer. Which tells me we did a bad job of exposing that functionality and need to make it a little more obvious. In the meantime though here is a quick video tutorial to show how to use this feature.

[Watch Video tutorial: how to save videos to favorites]

Your suggestions for improved Video Searching?

Hey folks, Jeremy and I are working up ideas for a design update on a couple of key pages, like the search result list page, video player page, upload page, member profile page, comments page, etc. When we asked for your input on this last time the #1 feature request was better search results. #2 was the ability to save videos to favorites. The embarrassing thing is that favorites already exist, but apparently wasn't obvious enough. (if you thumb up a video, it's automatically added to your "videos I like" on your profile page...example). So what that tells me is we need to do a better job making the site easier to use with more obvious functionality.

So, right now I'm focusing on a new video search result page. (example) And I think we need to add features like "sort by views, rating, date, etc", or "show me videos I haven't watched" or "show me videos my friends like",... what other features would you like to see on search results? How can I design search results to look better? Bigger thumb nails? One thumb per row?

Let us know!
[Tell Us Your Suggestion]

Can a car handle the blast from a Jet Engine?

Sort of reminded me of one of those Toyota Tundra commercials...only this time the car skitters across the road like a leaf from a tree.

[Watch Video: Jet vs car]

StreetFire.net and Kicker team up for a contest

We are proud to announce our first official contest! Kicker has been generous enough to work with us and bring you some great prizes. The catch? Well you've got until December 8th to answer all the questions correctly and submit them to us. We will announce the first winner December 11th. Hey, it's Christmas time and we're all feeling a little jolly around here ;)

SEMA Videos Part IV

Okay so maybe I should have waiting 15 minutes before making that post about Part III being up. No sooner than I hit "update blog", but I got an email from Chris that he put the finishing touches on Part IV. So here are the featured booths from Part IV of our Visit to SEMA Las Vegas

Pirelli Part II (Part I Here)
Continental Tire
Edelbrock Part II (Part I Here)
Diablo Sport
Eagle
Factory 5 Racing
Hankook
Kicker

[SEMA Coverage Part IV]

SEMA Videos Part III

New week, new collection of videos from SEMA. We're about to put Part IV up as well, so I'll make another announcement when that one is available. Featured SEMA booths from Part III:

Componus
HP Performance
Kyowa Designs
Radco
Element 114
Pacific Coast Customs
K&N
Pirelli

[SEMA Coverage Part III]
[SEMA Coverage Part II]
[SEMA Coverage Part I]

Technical: Video tear down of Synpase waste gate

I'm not a turbo guy, but Jeremy is and he got very excited about this new Waste Gate design that won "Best New Performance-Racing Product" at the SEMA 2006 show. We interviewed them at the show, but they have since uploaded this very technical review of their design featuring a full tear down and comparison to a standard waste gate design. So, if you like to know how stuff works, here is a good one for you.

As a side note I am very happy to see a manufacturer use our video service to give a highly technical review of their design. Thats the one thing that sucks about car shows on TV is they can't dig too deep into tech without loosing the audience.

[Watch video tear down of Synapse waste gate]

Dude builds 500+ hp "Volvette"

Wow, what's up with all these mega horsepower Volvos?! Earlier we got this video of a 1962 PV cranking out a whopping 1000 horsepower. Now we have a video from Dug Strickler who has put together a 500+ horsepower Twin-Turbo LS1 and crammed it in a 740 wagon! Dude, I would seriously think twice before piping a Volvo on the freeway for a race.

Twin Turbo Ford GT - amazing video

Click to see Video

This has to be one of the best videos I've seen yet. Not only is this car unbelievable fast (over 1000rwhp) the video is very professionally done. We had a chance to interview HP Performance about this car at SEMA. Go into our SEMA folder and check it out, but not until you watch this video 5 or 10 times in a row.

I'm predicting this video breaks 1 million views within the next 2 months.

Verona, by Adrenaline Motorsport: 5 Stars!!!!!

I've featured them before but these videos from Warsaw keep getting better and better. They released a great motorcycle stunt video while we are at the SEMA show, so it slipped by me, and I'll feature that now as well. But this video released tonight, "Verona" is just brilliant. Fantastic editing, great job. It has a good mix of bikes and cars, and the cinematography is fantastic. One of the best StreetFire Videos yet.

Great Job Guys! Thanks for the upload!

[Watch Video: Verona]
[Watch Video Warsaw Streetfighters]
[More Videos by Adrenline Motorsport]

We don't need no stink'n roads

Hot off the encoder, smoka just uploaded this great hill climb vid... oh, just to clarify this is "hill climb" in the steak and potatoes sense of the word as apposed to the Goodwood Festival of Speed which is more the "tea and crumpets" of Hill climbing.

[Watch Video: Tardif Hill Climb Quebec]
[More Videos by Smoka]

Future performance plans for 2009 Camaro?

While watching some of our SEMA videos I noticed a little nugget mentioned during this interview with Ed Hamburger, Father of the Firebird Firehawk and 4th Gen Camaro SS. It looks like Ed implies that they will be gearing up for the 5th generation Camaro soon, I wish we could see a return of the glory days of SLP Engineering where you could buy an SLP tuned car from a dealership with a full warranty, but going by posts on various boards it looks like GM doesn't make that an easy thing for suppliers to do. We'll just have to wait and see.

[StreetFire.net talks to the founder of SLP]

Diesel hot Hatch Euro-style

Last summer I took a trip to Spain and had my first positive experience with a diesel. Up until then, I always considered them smoky truck motors. But after driving around in Europe, I became really impressed by the whole hot hatch culture.... and even diesel performance in general.

Anyhow, here is a cool little diesel hot hatch, a Seat Leon showing its stuff in Poland. Enjoy!

[Watch Video Leon TDi by srmmz]
[More videos from this user]

Mitsubishi prepares for 2007 WRC Season

Love WRC racing? I think I would if I could actually get coverage here in the States. Heck SPEED channel is using StreetFire to promote their stuff, why not the WRC too? ...yea okay I'm dreaming, but still very impressive to watch and every time I see a rally video cross our encoding server I think to myself "now this is real racing".

Special thanks to StreetFire user "Only Rally Videos" for this upload.

[Watch Video: Mitsubishi practicing for th 2007 season]

Fire! Fire! Putting a Tire on using Hair Spray

Fire + anything is always cool, but putting a tire on a rim? Hmm, now the description says putting a 215 on a 10" rim...I'm having a hard time seeing how that works, since a 215 is no where near 10" in width... am I missing something or was this a typo and they meant 315? (which is an 11" tread).

[Watch Video, putting a tire on using hairspray and a lighter]

First GT500 into the 9's

Looks like Evolution Performance has gone and done it again. As a Quick recap. We've covered their ongoing efforts quite a bit. Honors to date include...

• First GT500 Dyno Video
• First GT500 into the 10's

...and now, the First GT500 into the 9's. Next week, I challenge Fred to have the first GT500 to win a figuring skating medal because I can't think of much else left to be first on. ;-)

[Evolution Performance]
[Watch Video Run: GT500 hits the 9's!]

Podcast #004: StreetFire.net Booth at NOPI Nationals 2006

Summer is gone and we're full into the tail end of Fall, here in Atlanta. Thinking back to the warmer days of summer, I'm sitting on 18 hours of NOPI 2006 footage, so why not do another "Drive By" podcast music video? So, the subject, our booth at the Atlanta NOPI Nationals. The music? a Little drum and bass number from creative commons artist JT25 called "Electra Mission". Enjoy!

[Our NOPI Gallery]
[iTunes Link]
[Direct Link to RSS]
[Streaming Version]
[More Info on our Podcast]
[Comment on Episode #004]

StreetFire.net releases Part 2 of its 6 Part SEMA Interview Series

Those of you who frequent the site have no doubt seen the trickle of SEMA content scroll across our pages as we encode video after video. You may have even seen Part I where we interviewed Crane Cams, Forgiato, Michelin, Caparo and brought you some of our raw drift footage.

Well it's time for Part II. And now we are getting serious. We hit you with the likes of NOS, Edelbrock, Kicker, Synapse Engineering, HRE Wheels and many others. Our thanks go out to all the manufacturers who took the time to allow us to bring these interviews to you.

Need Your Help! Classified Software?

Hey Folks, We broke 5.4 Million visitors to StreetFire.net last month... that's a lot of enthusiasts, and one thing I know from experience is that we all buy and sell parts from each other and that the StreetFire Video service is a great way to do a Video classified ad. So in mulling this over, the guys are talking about spinning up a classified service to help our users. We did a Classified section a long time ago which was pretty much a classified search engine, but this time around I think we want to do a more integrated service so that you can shoot a video of your car for sale and then upload it here and link it to your classified ad.

thus I need your help, Does anyone know of any good classified software that has an open well documented architecture so we can integrate it with videos, but still enterprise grade so it can handle the used parts of 5.4 Million visitors? If you have any suggestions please let us know.

[Give us suggestions on a classifieds service]

1320Video.com and the Worst Sound Ever

Lots of good racing from the KCIR shoot-out. (Part 1, Part 2), but about a minute into the first video a Mustang Cobra Bites it, and as they're towing it off the race line you hear the most painful metal on metal sounds.....ouch..... Anyhow the Shootout looks like it was a lot of fun, Wish I could have seen it but thanks for the upload!

[1320Video Profile Page]
[1320Video.com Website]
[KCIR Shootout Part 1]
[KCIR Shootout Part 2]

PhotoChop Section Update!

Some of you may have already noticed, but one of the fastest growing sections of our web site has been the PhotoChop forum. In an effort to help it grow we've re-organized the forums slightly, and have separated the video section from the photos section. So now PhotoChops has three sub forums.

• PhotoChops & Pictures: Post you photography, touch ups, and outright photochops here.
• PhotoChop Competitions: A dedicated forum for all the contests we have been running lately.
• Member PhotoChop Portfolios: A place for you to place all your works and show off your garage `o chops.

Thanks to all the members that are making this section of the site such a great new thing for us. Keep up the good work and Keep on Chop'n!!

CNN + Overhaulin' = ?

StreetFire gets a firsthand look with Simon Evans, one of the airbrush artists who worked on this legendary Hummer. For a sneak peek, check out the StreetFire interview. If you want to learn more, catch Episode 13 on TLC tonight @ 9:00 PM (et/pt) to see the transformation of CNN 'Warrior One.'

[Watch Video: CNN Warrior One]

Lambolicious!

Again, thanks to SLICK for submitting another fantastic Lambo video. I just got back from a trip to LA and I saw more than a few Murcielagos but sadly the only LP640's I saw were at the SEMA show the previous week in Vegas...(ah sweet memories).

[Watch Video: Lamborghini Murcielago LP640]

User submits Dodge Challenger commercial

I'd like to thank Redstallion for taking the time time to upload the Challenger video he put together for his class project. I tell you what, I would be worried if I were Chevy. With them dragging their feet until 2009 for the sale of their new Camaro, Dodge has the perfect opportunity to slide right under them and steal some of their sales. I am not a huge Dodge fan, but the Challenger is such a sexy car, I would be hard pressed not to own one if it came out before the Camaro.

cool "motorcycle" but 640 kph?

Click to see Video

Can you spell (or smell) BS? This bike is kind of old news but this is a new video clip I haven't seen before. They put in there 640 kph, that's around 380 mph. There's far to much drag for that bike, even with 500hp, to go that fast. Plus it would rip the drivers head off.

Who knows, maybe in German they were making fun of the 640kph claims.

Podcast: Clear Wheels, and BOS Episode #003

Okay, so technically speaking I added the clear wheels video we shot to the podcast feed 5 days ago when I was in the airport in Las Vegas. I didn't have time to make a blog post then, but I do now, and I've added a new Blog post from tonight, Best Of StreetFire.net Episode #003.
Contents:

• Corvette Z06 gets it's top ripped off
• A Truck Catches fire while burning out
• A M5 Burns Out
• An M5 commercial
• A Lambo commercial
• A quick tutorial on how to change your user name and avatar in the video system.

[iTunes Link]
[Direct Link to RSS]
[More Info on our Podcast]
[Comment on Episode #003]

SEMA Video: noisy rear end? Snapping rear ends?

This is one of the interviews we did at SEMA 2006 with Crane Cams. They were bought my Mikronite a week or two ago.

Long story short they've done tests on differential ring and pinion sets on very high horsepower cars that typically sheer the teeth off and after 40 passes at the drag strip it still looked like new. Very impressive, I wish this was available when I had my 525hp+ Trans Am as I trashed the rear end in it.

Someone should take these guys up on their claims. They mentioned they've seen 15rwhp gains on a late model F-body which is really impressive.


Click to see Video

SEMA Video: Mustang crashes in drifting exhibition

From Member: 066899
SEMA drift exhibition in Vegas (Smash)...Felt bad for the guy...The exhibition had just started.I wish we had caught more of the drifting while we were at the show this week, we were there the first day and we got some great High Definition footage I'll post later (we did publish a video off one of the smaller cameras).

It looks like this is something we missed. I'm glad someone caught it on tape and uploaded it to StreetFire. If you have any more videos please upload them and we'll include them in our post-show SEMA coverage that we will be rolling out over the next few weeks!

[Watch SEMA Video of Drifter Mustang Crash]
[Upload your SEMA Video]

Video: Transparent Wheels at SEMA

Clear wheels, yes, transparent wheels with no spokes to block your view of the brake assembly. We've shot hours of video here at the SEMA show over the last couple of days, and it's going to take us some time to put everything together, but this simply could not wait. Forgiato is launching a new line of wheels that use up to a 2" thick piece of lexan in order to achieve this affect. Looks like they're rolling it out for both cars and motorcycles.

[Watch video: Transparent wheels by Forgiato]
[Forgiato]

SEMA Updates!

Wow, what a busy day at SEMA today. We're all toast and vegging in our hotel room ordering room service.

We did some great interviews and asked a lot of tough questions with Caparo (T1), Michelin, Vic Edlebrock from Edlebrock, Synapse Engineering (best new Performance Product), K&N, Crane Cams, Ed Hamburger of SLP and lots of others. We also got some video of clear wheels (not to be confused with clear heals, we are in Vegas after all!).

We've probably done close to 50 interviews so far and have found some really innovative new products and learned new things about the companies we are already familiar with. Hopefully you guys don't find my interviewing style too annoying, I'm brand new to this!

Raw drift footage from SEMA

Check out this raw footage we captured when we caught the Pontiac Solstice GXP, Dodge Viper and Ford Mustang drifting in an exhibition we attended noon Tuesday. Due to bandwidth limitations we are encountering while at the show, we will be releasing our actual production footage later next week. We have talked with an amazing amount of vendors and have a lot of information and video to share with you in the coming weeks. In the meantime, relax and watch the Big Three destroy some expensive rubber.