Auto Buch: I love 'em

"Auto Buch" – A Rat Fink is catching flies with his tongue while he is doing a wheelie

Concept cars

"Renn Autos" – Plymouth Superbird aka King (Cars)

Three Window Coupé Hot Rod

Wheelstander Burnout with flames

Yesterday my eldest son (7) presented me his second "Auto Buch". I guess this is what your offspring is sketching when they have to grow up with a car nerd among a ton of car literature and hot rod movies.

Of course. I am hefty proud. And I think I've done everything right.

Techno Classica Essen 2011

1972 General Tire International Harvester Scout II

Needs some tlc. Opel Rekord Limousine

1955 Flajole Forerunner

"I cruised the Reeperbahn" - Peter "Monsti" Theobold (Fusseltuning)

1928 Opel Raketen-Motorrad

Mercedes: Bertha's Benz (Motorwagen)

Bitter SC

Quote: "If the raver's dream is the Loveparade, the petrol head's dream is the Techno Classica."

Word. We just have brought our 1972 General Tire International Harveseter Scout II to the booth of our colleagues from Street Magazine and took some pictures. Hit one of the images above to see them all. 

General Tire Ad

Wow. It still works. We just found out we are still able to work for dead tree media. Although we hang on the interwebs 24/7.

This is our latest ad we did for General Tire Germany. The ad—photo taken by Dirk "Pixeleye" Behlau during our trip to the General Tire Mint 400 2010—will be published in the german Street Magazine. It promotes our 1972 General Tire International Harvester Scout II as well, which we will bring to the Baja 300 Powerdays. Meet us there!

New York Times: Chromjuwelen Interview

It's happening. We are getting famous. Tamara Warren just published an article for the New York Times about American Muscles in Germany: "In Germany, a Growing Flirtation With Classic American Muscle". 

Tamara, it has been a pleasure working with you! And we are glad we could bring you together with some members of our Chromjuwelen family: Helge Thomsen, Oliver Kaps and Dirk Behlau.

Oh, here is an easteregg: Hit the image to watch some wacky Chromjuwelen Mopar Muscle videos from 2006 ...

Chromjuwelen Road Movie: 44 minutes and 44 seconds

Ever since we are doing Chromjuwelen.com, we are dreaming of "Chromjuwelen Road Movies". To capture outtakes, "behind the scene" material and shaky cell phone videos. Here it is—our first movie. Enjoy!

Please check out Chromjuwelen.com for more details.

Chromjuwelen En Route: Continental Tire Challenge, Rolex 24 at Daytona

"Fascinting Daytona Beach"

"Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge: Lyonel Kent"

"Rolex 24 at Daytona: (Patrick) Dempsey Racing"

Finally—our Grand-Am/Daytona Beach videos which we shot in the course of our Brand Ambassadorship for Continental are ready. Sorry fellas—German only. Props to Dean Malay (Producer), Jan Wigger (Camera) and Christian Tomes (Editing).

Appearance in alphabetical order:

• Greg Cates (Team Manager), Dempsey Racing

• Patrick Dempsey (Team Principal, Driver Rolex 24 at Daytona), Dempsey Racing

• Charles Espenlaub (Driver Rolex 24 at Daytona), Dempsey Racing

• Joe Foster (Team Principal, Driver Rolex 24 at Daytona), Dempsey Racing

• Andy Green (Andy Green is the current holder of the World Land speed record, and the first person to break the sound barrier on land)

• Lyonel and Danielle Kent (Driver Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge)

• Buz McKim, NASCAR Hall of Fame

• Tom Long (Driver Rolex 24 at Daytona), Dempsey Racing

• Matthias Schönberg, Continental Tire The Americas

• C. J. Wilson, Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Texas Rangers

Make sure you visit Chromjuwelen.com for the full article and photo galleries!

Sneak Preview: NASCAR Hall of Fame

On our way to the Continental Tire Challenge and Rolex 24 at Daytona (GRAND-AM) we stopped at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte to meet Buz McKim. Buz gives us a brief overview on the NASCAR history. For a "NASCAR Hall of Fame"-gallery hit on of the images above. Or just use this link. 

This is a sneak preview—we will publish a full coverage of our latest trip soon. 

MotoClub Hamburg: Finest Motorkultur since 2006, every Sunday.

Good to see the MotoClub Hamburg, which we brought into being 2006 with our soulmates from Motoraver, is still the place to be. Too bad I don't find the time to pay the Hafenbahnhof a visit more often. It is probably not the biggest weekly gahthering in Northern Germany. But it is the one with the best cars. To get an idea of it—here are some more photos.

If you'll ever be in Hamburg for a weekend, make sure you pop in.

Tumblr Cars: Ranking Position #1 and #9

How weird. I just apologized for my inabilty and stated I still have to learn how to use Tumblr. But something must have went right: Tumblr just ranked two of my blogs in their "#cars" top ten (link only works for logged in users). The Dodge Charger III Concept—source: Amcar Guide—went on first place, the 1970 Pininfarina Modulo, which I found at Flavien Dachet's always inspiring "Karznshit", ended up on position nine.

This is funny. I started using Tumblr as my personal scrapbook and moodboard, used it later as a workaround to collect inspiring sources for our Chromjuwelen Grid, but never checked whether my articles are liked by the Tumblr community. All the more I am surprised to find my articles in Tumblr's "Popular Top Ten".

But to make it clear: It was the Amcar Guide, who wrote the article about the Dodge Charger III Concept. And it was Flavien Dachet, who presented the Pininifarina Modulo. This means: The kudos belong to them!  

I failed at tumblr

I just received an e-mail from one of my best-loved blogs, Just A Car Guy, that I reblog articles without quoting the sources right. I am a loser.

One of the biggest and outrageous blogging mistakes is not naming the sources—blogs, flickr, profiles—where you dig your stuff. I hate it when people are doing this with my stuff. But this is exactly what I did, so it seems.

I use my tumblr to dig articles which inspire me. We import those articles to Chromjuwelen.com as well. I relied on my workaround that everything would be fine. But it is not.

With this post I would like to apologize for my failure.

Guy Kawasaki: Enchantment

Tenshun—this is offtopic. Sorry for the interruption. It hasn't to do either with cars, nor with Motorkultur. But it has do with media. And this is at least our other passion.

A few weeks ago Guy Kawasaki sent me his latest book: Enchantment. If you are into (internet) media, you'll probably know Guy Kawasaki. Guy is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and best known for his marketing campaigns in the early days of Apple. We got in contact over Guy's Alltop.com, where we contribute our Chromjuwelen articles.

I am just reading Enchantment, and I think it's a must read for everyone who tries to set up so called "Social Media" campaigns. Btw, I think in the meantime everyone is sick of hearing the expression "Social Media", but unfortunately it describes this Twitter-Facebook-Tumblr community clutter best (for the moment). Especially in Germany. Where still a lot people try to sell "Social Media" concepts to agencies and companies.

Guy is noted for "having brought the concept of evangelism" (Wikipedia). And this is exactly, where are lot of modern campaigns lack. In an automotive industry, where not uncommonly ideas are driven by the (private) interests of marketing decision makers and don't reflect customer needs or product visions.

To keep it short, here's a movie.

Michael Furman: Chromjuwelen

Finally. Our first "Chromjuwelen" entitled book. Michael Furman: "Chromjuwelen - Die schönsten Autos 1946-1960".

264 pages, 180 photos, Delius Klasing Verlag, EUR 49,90. Get it!

Deluxe Restomod: 1973 Dodge Challenger

Yeop. I have done everything right. Absolutely. Check out this restomodded Mopar and you will understand why I am thrilled Style Deluxe/Kustom City is overhauling my Pontiac LeSupra. Why you haven't heard from the LeSupra for a while? Because I simply had to park it to get other things done first. "Other things" like rolling out our agency. But now it is time to bring that project back.

If you are thinking of a german engineered custom project, you should pay Style Deluxe a visit. I know a lot of brilliant engineers, but I don't know too much which are so stylistically confident as those fellas are. My assumption? They won't be an insiders' tip any longer as more people will see their stunning work. 

All photos: Jo Fischer.

Take-Off: Rolex 24 at Daytona 2011

Our plane leaves in a couple of hours. We will pop in at our partners from Continental in Charlotte, whip round the NASCAR Hall of Fame and finally visit the legendary Rolex 24 at Daytona. Here are some more details ...

A.DCF: Muscle Cars 1960-1974

Just in case you have not ordered your Muscle Cars Poster from Amilcar de Carvalho Fernandes yet — do it now! Here are some bigger images.

Btw, I love that sketch of my LeSupra Amilcar just posted on Facebook!

Going Snowboarding with MINI and Burton

MINI — who teamed up with Burton to find the most creative slopestyle- and superpipe rider — invited us to visit their "Creative Use of Space" snowboard event in Laax, Switzerland. MINI . Just hit one of the images to head over to our photo gallery. More details here.

Note to self: Learn snowboarding and DJ-ing ...

formfreu.de: Autostolz

Our friends from formfreu.de just joined our Chromjuwelen-Network with a wonderful new project: autostolz.formfreu.de. "Autostolz" presents old flea market and clear-out photo finds. We knew about their neat little idea for some time now, and we are delighted that they finally brought their idea online. Here you find a little more about Autostolz. 

Oh, btw, you think we forgot an importend blog in our "Chromjuwelen Contributing Blogs" network? Just shoot us an e-mail!

OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational

Brent Jarvis, 1965 Chevrolet Corvette

1972 Chevy Nova

Tom Ciancitto, 1937 Ford Pick-Up

1961 Mercedes-Benz 190 SL Twin Turbo V12 ("Mercedes-Bent")

Chevrolet Camaro

During our trip to SEMA 2010 with Continental we had the honour to visit Cam Douglass' "OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational" (OUSCI) in Pahramp, NV. Impressive, seeing all that "Über-Autos" in real life.

Head over to Chromjuwelen.com for our photo essay (115 photos). 

I am a loser

First runner up is the first loser. No, I am just kidding. I am totally thrilled Cision picked me and my neurotic ralfbecker.com-blog as No. 2 in their "Top 10 Automobil Blogs Deutschland". It seems like we did a couple of things right throughout the last five years. And it seems like our work has enriched automotive media and marketing as well. Which is awesome!

For those who don't know Cision: 

"Your Story. Covered. You have a story to tell. That much never changes, but the way you get it out does. Every day brings new technologies, outlets and contacts. And every media response can change your public image, for better or worse. Whether you're a communications professional or a member of the media, Cision brings together all the elements you need to find the right leads and sources, target the right editors and publications, get coverage and achieve measurable results. Cision - where the media and PR connect."

If you want to know more about Cision's blog ranking methodology — here is a short overview.

Oh ... did I mention I am thrilled?

SEMA Show 2010: Photos, Articles and More

OK, SEMA is over. And we are already back in Germany. But it is never too late for ultra slammed mini trucks, imposing restomods and awesome hot rods. Just hit this link to see what we brought back. 

Some may have already seen our article ("SEMA Show Las Vegas 2010: Vorbildliche Kulturpflege") on Chromjuwelen.com. Our colleagues from autobild.de posted our coverage as well: "Tuning-Meisterstücke in Las Vegas". We also just received a call that GRIP, a German TV Motor Magazine, covered us working. Check out Min. 6:20 in their "SEMA Show 2010 report". What a coincidence!

At this moment we are working on our reportages about the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational, our test drive at the Lucas Oil Off Road Series and our interview with Alex Anderson (West Coast Customs (LA)). Stay tuned.

What a mindblowing trip. A huge "thank you" to our partners from Continental for letting us go out into the world. Wow. We love our job. Did we mentioned that already?