25/2/09 : SUV Slams Into Big Rig.- Video.

How to dig a Car out of Snow…- Video.

Fast and Easy Way to Repair Tire!!!- Video.

At What point is it really even still a truck? Here is a 1,000 HP “Tacoma” ripping up the Goodwood Festival of Speed….oh and getting held up by a real truck at the end

1000 hp!! Tacoma at Goodwood of speed/HD- Video.

Fastest Truck On Earth!- Video.

Red Bull New Year No Limits – Truck Backflip- Video.

Suicide Desert Turbos Dubai U.A.E. car-movies.de- Video.

How Not To Use The Drive Through ATM – Video.

Worst Semi Truck Parking Ever! – Video.

Semi-Truck Demolishes Car On Freeway- Video.

BADA$$ 4X4- Video.

This podcast started in my basement (no lie, very embarassing footage actually, kudos if you can digg it up).  Over time we evolved the podcast to be more proffesional content, but I personally have always wanted to go back to having the users be the feature.  Every week they uplaod tons of great stuff.

We’re still going to do the proffesional stuff, but it will likely run under a different name.

Best of Streetfire-Week of Oct 6, 2008- Video.

Ouch and ouch….simply awful.

BUS vs BIKER vs POLE (crash)- Video.

Who do you think will win?

06 SRT-8 Jeep vs 05 VF22 WRX- Video.

Things one never expects to see while shopping for a new car……uhm…..flying wheel heading straight for you for no particular reason.

WTF ! Flying Loose Wheel !!!?- Video.

ROTFLMAO  this is just classic.

How Not To Right A Tipped Semi- Video.

Unimog, made by Mercedes.  Quote of the video “Think tree huggers hate this car? you bet, people have used the Unimog to run saw mills!”

101 Cars You Must Drive: UNIMOG- Video.

Deborah Meyer Vice President and CMO Chrysler

One of this year’s most anticipated speakers at The Mixx Conference in New York was Deborah Meyer, the newly appointed Vice President and first ever Chief Marketing Officer of Chrysler….well most anticipated by myself and the small StreetFire team that was attending.

2008 has been a horrible year for auto, and I wanted to hear how Chrysler was going to react to it given the Cerebus buy out. I’m beating a dead horse to talk about the themes in America’s auto industry…… High gas prices leading customers away from domestic products combined with a financial crisis creating the perfect storm of the worst year in auto in a long time. Deborah opened with how Chrysler is addressing it, by walking away from typical brand building and going where the users are. Bravo.

As a 14 year web geek and founder of an automotive web site it’s music to my weary ears to hear an Automotive executive climbing out of the primordial ooze and finally “getting it.”

First, 80% of all car buying, regardless of vehicle segment or niche, begins online according to Meyer. I’m happy to hear an automotive executive realize that not only are their products being chosen online, but that online buyers need a different format of marketing based on engagement and influencing opinion. Authenticity, deep information and taking a message to a pre-existing community. Agree on all points, and something echoed not just by me, but others as well.

What worries me is the execution of the vision. For example the upcoming RamChallenge.com minisite designed to create authenticity with the real America that will buy it….okay, sounds good.

“We need to be authentic here, no actors, real America and what they think of the 2009 Dodge Ram,” Meyer stated and I nodded in agreement, but the execution looked like a Jerry Bruckheimer Blockbuster with helicopters, explosions and a Rock and Roll Sound track.

Dodge to debut the RamChallenge.com

Is this going to work? I don’t think so, I thought this was supposed to be Joe Average?…..unless Joe Average is hauling lumber through an obstacle course of trunk conkers while being chased by a helicopter through explosions… I think they missed something when they sent it off to creative. What I do think is going to work is their other initiative at Jeep.

Sorry I should have grabbed a snap of the new site, but Jeep is going to celebrate the photos and communities that have cropped up around Jeep with Yahoo Groups and Flickr communities….now we’re almost talking…. I say almost because I really don’t know any serious enthusiast that spends a lot of time on Yahoo groups. The real enthusiasts go to destination sites, like JeepForum.com with over a 160,000 Jeep Enthusiasts.

Okay, so the reality is that Chrysler spends a ton of money with Yahoo, and the tie into Flickr (owned by Yahoo) and Yahoo groups, is probably part of some larger Yahoo buy, but still I think Deborah could have built a massive amount of community credibility by giving a mothership endorsement to one of their largest fan sites. But credit where credit is due this is a step in the right direction and I’m sure Deborah had a board room full of people to please on both the Jeep site and RamChallenge.com, I hope a few more iterations will lead us closer to what really makes sense. Something they’re actually already doing…..

Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR Sets Nurburgring Record

You see, there are already groups inside of Chrysler, GM, BMW and others that get it, and that are moving in this direction. I believe the piece missing for Deborah Meyer, and other CMO executives is how do you makes enthusiast communities accountable to actual leads, which is why she has to try out things that directly lead to lead-gen like RamChallenge.com, rather than just directly tap the large Dodge truck communities already around. To her credit, given the economics of the day, Deborah is acting as a good steward of the marketing budget and making sure that every dollar is accountable. This is the lead gen flow chart for a typical initiative. I dare say it’s more complicated than the entire StreetFire video sharing service!

This is how a CMO thinks

In summary I am optimistic that Chrysler is getting smart about how to create online marketing. They’ll need to iterate a few times to take out some obvious big-budget Hollywood agency pieces and create an authentic message. The fact that they sent a team to the Nurburgring to take the record in a Viper ACR shows they get online marketing and are trying to put it into practice. Deborah Meyer’s focus on accountable spending and funnel analytic analysis is right for this space, making her the right executive for the job. I just hope that Chrysler and the other manufacturers finally have the needed epiphany that enthusiast communities are their biggest untapped asset and that is the secret puzzle that needs to be figured out.

YouTube – Ferry Fail.

Forget the dragster, show me that bus flying around!!!

V12 Powered Chevy- Video.

I’ve watching this video, and I still cannot decide if the Camaro did this intentionally or not.

A Camaro Driver watches too much F&F movies!- Video.

I’m sure there is a story behind this, but for lack of one I’ll just assume they paved a road over old faithful.

Bizarre accident- Video.

Seriously, I want to know, this one totaly leaves us hanging.

Guy in pickup hits car- Video.

It never occured to em that people would crash test a bus,and it looks liek the driver *is* the crumple zone…ouch.

1:45 in you see the view from the inside….back of the bus for me!!!

Bus Crash Test- Video.

First, oh my lord this is crazy.  Second, wow, Third, did you know the kid was going to wheelie the buggy before strapping him in?  Fourth, a roll cage is not a helmet, and I know my kid would be wearing one if he was going to drive like that.

The kid has balls…….- Video.

Ferrari is stepping up to support the new A1GP Racing series with engines and chassis development.  This is a nice introductory video to the testing that is being done at Imola in preperation for the next season.

A1GP Ferrari- Video.

The Thais has their way of unloading excavator

Slow-Mo Moment #14: IDC Drifting Truck