More New Channels!

WheelsTV is growing at a fast and furious pace these days! Its amazing how many people worldwide are tuning into WheelsTV.net and enjoying our top quality automotive programming! I'm convinced that the reason is that we program and organize for easy viewing, only the best automotive video from the wide world of automotive TV. You won't have to wade through thousands of lame videos to find something interesting and fun to watch. At WheelsTV.net, we do all of that work for you and bring you only the programming that this bunch of car nuts thinks is worth your time and energy. With that in mind, we've added some great new channels: HINs, Hot Import Nights is just that...very HOT! Check out the cars, the ladies and the music! And if you are anywhere near where one of these awesome events happens...go! You will enjoy!
Another new channel is built around a living legend, George Barris. Some of you may know who George is. Most of the younger crowd will need a little help. George Barris has been building custom cars for movies and TV shows since the 50's. He designed and built the original Bat Mobiles, the Monkees Mobile, the Munsters' Coach, the General Lee for the Dukes of Hazzard and many, many more. On the Barris Built Productions Channel, the "King of the Kustomizers" takes us to various collections, events and to meet various automotive personalities. One tidbit of automotive trivia: My production company hired George's Hollywood facility as a location to shoot the pilot for Wild About Wheels, the first general interest automotive TV series to air in prime-time. It became a big hit on the Discovery Network, helped to launch Speedvision and you can now find a lot of the stories from Wild About Wheels right here on many of the channels at WheelsTV.net. Thanks George for your help way back when!

Our third new channel is Short Track Network. This channel is all about the world of home-grown auto racing. Lots of action, lots of bumping and bashing and lots of FUN! There are great short tracks scattered across America. Racing at these tracks is open to anyone who meets the rules and pays the entry fee. For some fun viewing, check out Short Track Network! More networks coming soon but make it a habit to check out our What's Hot Today channel every day. It shows what the most people are watching each day.

Another new addition is our Top Ten Hot Spots chart. This lists cities and towns around the world that are tuning into WheelsTV.net for their automotive entertainment. We want to thank the guys and gals at the University of Nebraska in Kearney for watching WheelsTV and thank them for their support! You're number one! Go LOPERS!
That's all for now. Thanks for watching and please drive safely,
Jim

Detroit Auto Show Turns 100!

Here we are at the start of 2007 and with the new year comes what I consider to be "the greatest car show on earth", the North American International Auto Show or, as most of us call it, The Detroit Car Show.

Now where the LA show can also claim to be 100 years old, in the early years of the automobile, Detroit quickly became the life center for auto manufacturing. Sure, there were car makers based all over the world. In fact, Stanley Steamers were built in my home town of Newton, Massachusetts! But, when it comes to cars, since those early years when Ford, GM and Chrysler set up shop here there has been no equal for The Motor City! Whether you are cruising down Woodward Avenue in your fancy custom or walking the floor of the Cobo Center, Detroit is all about having fun with wheels and motors. So it was that I spent a few days at the press preview of the Detroit show along with about 8,000 of my fellow media guys and gals. That included Kimatni Rawlins, president of Automotive Rhythms, shown here with yours truly at the show. Kimatni's magazine and website celebrate the urban automotive experience like nothing else on the planet and Kimatni was here conducting interviews and meeting and greeting. You can find some of their great videos on the Automotive Rhythms channel here at WheelsTV or by going to AutomotiveRhythms.com.

But, back to the show...lots of excitement around alternative fuels this year! Along with Toyota, Honda, Ford and a few others, GM is finally getting involved in the quest for using something other than oil to move our machines. Their exciting plans call for a new electric vehicle, still in its concept stage, called the Volt. The Volt will run on nothing but batteries and will recharge those batteries either by being plugged into your house current or with a small on-board gasoline engine. While range is still a challenge at only about 40-60 miles, Rick Wagoner of GM sites statistics that most persons commute less than 20 miles each way to work.

On a more familiar note, virtually every automaker had new products or prototypes to unveil and show-off. One of my show favorites is the Camaro Concept convertible, unveiled to much acclaim. GM says that it will see production by late 2009, probably with the same, 400 hp V8 under the hood that the Camaro Coupe will sport!
Now this is really what the new Pontiac GTO SHOULD HAVE been when it was introduced a few years ago!

It seems that many of the OEMs are moving to the hardtop convertible with the BMW 325i convertible joining the march along with Volvo's C70, Pontiac's G6, the Miata MX-5 and a host of others. It took just about 50 years for the hardtop convertible craze started by the Ford Skyliner back in the late 50's to come around again!

That's all I say for now but watch for our show coverage over the next few days on the What's Hot channel on our home page. Meanwhile, thanks for your interest and please, drive safely.
Jim