Follow the Bullrun on Twitter and RSS
The 2009 Bullrun rally runs from New York City to Austin Texas. The participants left NYC this morning early and arrive in Austin next Friday.
Follow their progress – and arrests – here:
Follow Winding Road on Twitter
Winding Road is now tweeting on Twitter: Twitter: Winding Road Magazine
Follow the link and sign into your Twitter account to follow this site. Winding Road is a new type of online magazine (much more than a simple print magazine or a blog). It’s unique in the industry and we follow it regularly. In fact, it’s one of the core 12-15 sites that we follow on a daily basis.
We’re finding more and more Twitter accounts of interest, and of course the Driving Enthusiast network is here too as “DrivEnthusiast” (Twitter has a limit on the length of a name).
If you follow the link to the “Automotive Twitter Sites” category in our blog, you’ll find lists of other Twitter accounts of interest to driving enthusiasts.
We’re also finding Twitter accounts for online stores, automotive dealers, and parts houses. We’ll consider adding those to our lists too – and would invite those folks to reciprocate by adding ours to theirs.
USA Today starts Open Road online community
USA Today has started a new online community named Open Road: http://openroad.usatoday.com
News, online forums, discussion. Registration required.
Links <right click> and <open in new tab>
- RSS feed: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/openroad/rss
- Twitter feed: unfortunately none available
Automotive sites on Twitter
Twitter is a relatively new social networking service on the internet that allows users to get connected in near real time. Users type in messages known as Tweets and those are posted to their “profile”. Profiles can be public or private: public being ones that anybody can follow and private being ones that the owner has to grant permission to view. The Tweets can then be followed by a variety of means including a web page or even a cell phone SMS service. You’ll note that some private individuals use their cell phone to create sometimes minute-by-minute entries detailing their lives.
If you are browsing a site and see a “bird tweeting” icon similar to the right, that site or author also has a Twitter profile. Click the button to go to their site and signup to follow them.
Corporations are starting to use Twitter as a marketing tool. Tweets are created to announce news items, events, articles of interest, and more – very similar to blogging except that Tweets are purposefully far shorter (limited in length) and are intended to alert readers to a site for reading a full article instead of presenting the full article in the Tweet.
Here are a few of the automotive corporations and websites that are using Twitter:
- Chrysler: http://twitter.com/Chrysler
- Ford: http://twitter.com/ford
- Ford Racing: http://twitter.com/FordRacing
- Mitsubishi: http://twitter.com/MitsubishiNA
- Fisker Auto: http://twitter.com/fiskerauto
Since this is a new technology, Twitter names are likely to change going forward. For example, a private individual signed up for the profile “GM” and clearly that won’t last.
Nobody knows exactly where the Twitter phenomena is going. And you may or may not like this particular method of following the news. But if you want to stay fully connected with the corporations or individuals who are Tweeting, you need to sign up for a Twitter account (free) and get involved.
About Twitter:
- Twitter website: http://www.twitter.com/
- Wikipedia entry on Twitter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
The DrivingEnthusiast network first joined Twitter in March 2009. Every blog posting made on our sites also goes to Twitter for your convenience.
- You can follow us here: http://twitter.com/DrivEnthusiast (we’ve had to shorten our name on Twitter since there is a limit on the length of the name).
- As we find new Twitter sites of interest, we’ll add them to our index here: http://www.drivingenthusiast.net/sec-blog/categories/automotiveTwitterSites/ (blog with RSS feed)
Are you aware of additional automotive Twitter sites? Send them to us via comments and we’ll consider adding them to our index.
Follow Chrysler on Twitter
Interested in following Chrysler using Twitter? http://twitter.com/Chrysler
Chrysler is very active on Twitter, and will certainly be keeping us closely informed over the next few critical weeks.
New blog: Honda S2000 Electric Vehicle Conversion
Here’s an interesting and detailed new blog covering the conversion of a 2003 S2000 to full electric power. The builder/owner has the car fully up and running. 130-140 HP and 220 ft-lbs torque. No final data yet on range or performance.
Overall the conversion is entirely professional and the nicely done blog makes a very interesting read.
Links: suggest <right click> and <open in new tab>
Video: Walk-around
Video: Drive
Sensitivity Training – with Brandon and The Frog
This site is relatively new – and very creative. An original video series sponsored by Valvoline.
Under the Hood with Brandon and The Frog (suggest <right click> and <open in new tab>):
- Site: http://www.brandonandthefrog.com/
- RSS feed: http://www.brandonandthefrog.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
Car Nut website
Here’s a website even more intense than mine: http://www.carnut.com (suggest <right click> and <open in new tab>). His site focuses on classic cars and other vehicles. reserve a couple of hours for browsing thru his site, which fortunately is also indexed by Google. He is truly a nut about cars.
I linked the following picture from his site: it’s a Duesenberg V-16 engine. You can see that it’s technology is not unlike that of aircraft engines from the same era. Imagine what this monster sounded like when it started!
Jay Leno’s Garage – blog and RSS feed
Great news – Jay has joined the blogging community atlast. You can now follow his adventures on his blog (with RSS feed).
Garage419: web video magazine with RSS feeds
Here’s a great site that is new to me. New videos come out every Tuesday and Thursdays. The videos are a combination of news, comparison tests, and build-ups. There are topics for everyone, ranging from muscle to Japanese cars.
- Site: http://www.garage419.com
- RSS Feed: http://feeds.garage419.com/garage419/rss