Just moments ago, as a light rain began to fall, Rhys Millen flew across the finish line atop Pikes Peak. His time, seen in the headline, was just under a minute more than the 'Monster' Nobuhiro Tajima's time of 10:11... The real story though, at least to this fan, is Paul Dallenbachs time that split the two. Why is that amazing? Well, Paul was driving a two wheel drive, open wheeled, Chevy powered dune buggy looking machine and NOT a multi million doller, corporate backed, high tech all wheel drive super car! They all rock but Pauls ride just seems so much more dangerous when watching it fly around the dirt corners up in the clouds, with no barriers between him and 14,000 feet of empty air! Mr. Tajima is the 'Monster' and yes he owns that hill, but Pauls balls should be bronzed and hung from the peak! I'm just sayin.... ;) All in all it was a great day of high performance driving up a beautiful mountain! Now I have to pull up the live feed and watch Argentina wipe the pitch with the Mexico team! :)

Once again my friend Woody has smoked all those semi-pro bloggers with his amazing abilities to get the best stuff out there first! I include myself in the list of small timers standing in awe of his greatness! As a full time Kia Sales Manager I do my best to keep up with whats new and whats news in the world of Kia and I will admit right here and now, to everyone that I just dont KNOW this stuff! Yup, I spend a good part of the day surfin the net hard to try and find the latest info that I can share here with my lil circle of fans and Woody's site is one of my 'trade secrets'! Now that doesnt mean you can just go straight to Woodys and forget the ole Fleet Guy, but his site is awesome so I do hope you at least give it a short looksie! Then its right back here mister! To go along with the spec we have been sharing about the upcoming 2011 Sportage, Woody has posted some beautiful new pics of it in an absolutely gorgeous blue, well worth a click thru HERE.

More of the tech stuff is being made available for the new in vehicle info/entertainment system from MicroSoft and Kia. UVO is a world class infotainment system jointly developed with Microsoft. ‘UVO’ stands for ‘Your Voice’ and development of this system began in 2008 under the project name ‘Bristol’. Much like the Sync system those 'Detriot' boys are touting, the UVO uses voice commands and allows hands free operation making the drive in your new Kia Sportage even more amazing! Stay tuned here for details on when the 2011 Sportage will be here and for all the dirty on the UVO read HERE.

To make up for being a day late last week I am staying up and posting this weeks Friday CarPorn a lil early! As you know my CarPorn posts are simply pics I come across that make me, a life long car nut, go whoa... So I share them with my fellow car fans such as your self. This shot took me back to my early childhood from like 7-12, my uncle was the fabricator for Doug Thorley Headers back then when his shop was in Garden Grove. As the main builder for the headers used by many a drag racer of the day he had all access at the weekend drags and every week I would tag along with him out to OCIR and hang out in the pits and at the line as they blasted off. Back then there was only a lil rope around guys like Garlits, Prudomme and Kalitas pits and I used to run thru them all like the lil pit rat I was. If I only knew then how much things would change.....
See more pics like this at my fav car tumbler site HERE.

Ten years ago the name Hyundai and the words 775 horsepower in the same sentence would have brought many a giggle... These days however, with the Korean car makers incredible efforts and awesome displays of "look at how we've caught up', its not so much funny any more as it is simply hot rodtastic! Yes 'hot rodtastic' is a word... now! This coming weekend Rhys Millen will be taking this gorgeous beast up the Pike's Peak Hill-Climb in an effort to recapture the record his father Rod held for 13 years in outright climb AND he hopes to be the first to do it in under 10 minutes! You can bet I'll be keep ya posted as to the fate of the 775hp, 4.1l Turbo'd V6 powered Hyundai PM580 so stay tuined friends! Read more HERE, see more HERE and hear some HERE!

No its probably NOT the worst ever mid-model freshen up but its fugly none the less! As my long time fans know I have sold Honda's for many years and even currently still drive an '09 Accord! This mess though is tough to understand, first the incredibly misplaced Cross Tour gets nothing but flack not only for lack of real use but also it hideous looks and then Honda takes the same fugly approach with the next Accord!?! As if the thousand of negative facebook responses to the Cross Tour meant nothing at to the Honda folks, they decided to make the Cross Tour fugly look standard issue... wtf?
Read and see more HERE, be careful, its not for the faint of heart...

A very Happy Fathers Day to all you great Dads!
My favorite Fathers Day quote; "The father of a daughter is nothing but a high-class hostage. A father turns a stony face to his sons, berates them, shakes his antlers, paws the ground, snorts, runs them off into the underbrush, but when his daughter puts her arm over his shoulder and says, 'Daddy, I need to ask you something,' he is a pat of butter in a hot frying pan." -- Garrison Keillor
Happy Fathers Day from the Fleet Guy :)

Remember last year when I asked for the scale Fairlady Z made from pure Platinum for Christmas? Well, since I didnt get it I am raising my sights this year and I figured I would give everyone more notice so there is no excuse about runnin out of time! What you’re seeing here a solid goal, diamond-encrusted 1:18 scale model of the Bugatti Veyron. The scale model of the Veyron is made of 24-carat gold, platinum and is decorated with 7.2 carat single cut diamonds. The doors, steering and the hood are all functional. Known as the Bugatti Veyron Diamond Limited Edition model, this little palm sized beauty is the work of Munich-based Robert Gulpen and Liverpool-based Stuart Hughes. Only 3 units will be made with prices starting at $2.94 million (USD) – more than the real Veyron itself however, since I dont really like the actual Veyron the toy version will do just fine. I will be expecting it in my stocking...
Read more HERE!

The amazing folks over at TrueCar.com are always researching just about ever aspect of this business I've made my career in it seems. Just a few days ago they posted the results of a survey on vehicle registrations by gender, you know boys and girls and what they drive kinda stuff. Well friends, I cant say exactly what it means for me, but Kia is at the top of the list! Yup, with female registrations at 45.8 being female they top the list of female preferred brands. Like I said I am still working out what that means for me being the Fleet Sales Director at a Kia dealership and all......
Read the rest of the stats HERE.

Todays Friday CarPorn, yes I know its Saturday but I do have a day job and yesterday was frekin busy, comes to you courtesy of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This awesome shot of a vintage 250 GTO from my brethren in Maranello simply makes my heart jump! Every year I swear I am gonna find some way to get 'cross the pond an attend whats most folks agree is the most amazing auto related event on the planet and each year I end up just writing about how bitchen it was! Well, theres always nest year...
BTW, only 13 days until this years festival begins and you know I will have some thoughts so stay tuned, in the meantime find out more about the event HERE.