Some time ago, I created the Carnival of Wheels at The Garage. The idea being that sharing some love with other auto blogs was a great way to bump some traffic at both sites by exposing readers to other sites they may not have found before. As Driven Wheels is new, it made sense to create something similar to showcase some of the great Canadian auto blogs out there.
I haven’t even thought about a logo for B2B yet, so I thought I’d share a photo from the 2010 North American International Auto Show. This glowing ball of sex up above is the Lexus LF-CH hybrid concept. Regular readers over at The Garage know that I don’t have much love for hybrids, but this 4 door hatch is just too hot looking. I want mine in exactly that colour.
All of these creative minds are friends in the real world, so there is no particular order to this, just working across my browser tabs!
First up we have my neighbour (ok, so next town) Jil McIntosh who has been writing about cars since before online media was even thought about. Like many of us, Jil was at NAIAS earlier this week and picked up what may be the coolest press kit ever!
Without embarrassing him, I think it would be fair to say Philip Powell is the Grand Pappy of Canadian auto writers. The older folks among our readers might remember him as Phil Murray at Canadian Track and Traffic. Philip has just launched a new blog about classic cars and remembers that before there was a Cobra, there was an Ace.
Staying on the west coast, we have Neil Johnston from One Wheel Drive. If the windy roads out west are good for cars, then they must be great for bikes. Neil and the crew at OWD take their adventure riding pretty seriously and recently they rode to the Arctic Circle and have some great video to show for it.
Not only is Warwick Patterson a top notch motorsports videographer, he’s also a huge vintage motorsports fan. Classic Car Adventures was born out of a classic car driving event Warwick hosts each spring and has grown to include all sorts of great automotive historic stuff. Recently, Warwick was fortunate to receive this incredible tale of racing in the early days from west coast sports car racer Bill Molle.
Car Envy is a relative newcomer to the online world but the group effort is anchored by the talent of Mark Atkinson. This young guy has been writing about cars for the past decade or so. Mark began the new year by reviewing the 2010 Audi S4. If 333 horsepower and awd won’t cure your New Year’s hangover, nothing will.
Peter Johnson has been quietly slaving away at Auto North for longer than most online publishers. Why quietly? Well, when you work in the auto industry, sometimes it is better to keep your involvement with these projects subtle. Being subtle means that the content must be great to bring in the numbers and Auto North has the goods. Not everyone in every family loves cars, so Peter has a few notes about the non automotive fun on hand at NAIAS.
How could I put a Canadian tour together without mentioning our friend Crash Corrigan? Crash is a writer, fixer of British autos and lover of pigs. Oh yeah, apparently I’m his crew chief for Targa Newfoundland 2010 when he drags his pumpkin to The Rock. While many have been in Detroit this week, the Montreal auto show is also on at the moment. Crash has reported on Volkswagen showing the new R concept at Montreal. I’ve got news for ya folks, at the Golf launch in the Fall, VW reps said the R will not be coming to Canada.
Auto media comes in many forms these days and young Michael Banovsky has carved a niche for himself through Twitter. Every Wednesday, Michael brings all manner of car fans together at CarChat or follow him on Twitter.
Finally we’re going to go all the way to the east coast and visit artist Paul Chenard. Paul has been a big influence as we’ve grown The Garage. In fact, Paul designed our flame logo! Paul’s latest piece is of Jean-Pierre Wimille in a Bugatti as he wins the first European race after WWII.
That wraps up our first ever Border 2 Border tour of Canadian auto bloggers. Be sure to come back next week when we’ll take another road trip!
About Gary Grant
