Oh. It's me.

Tobi Faust and Arthur Heisler (Faust & Heisler) just released a video portrait of me. And my work. And Chromjuwelen.com. Which makes me self-conscious. To be honest.

The video was shot during the "Street Mag Show Hamburg" and presents some people of our Chromjuwelen Family. Including Helge Thomsen (Motoraver, 1973 "Mad Max" Ford Falcon XB GT), Kris "Kick 'n' Rush" Karathomas (1958 Chevy), Niels-Peter Jensen (Cheezy Rider), Oliver Kaps (Style Deluxe). And — of course — our 1972 "General Tire" International Harvester Scout II.

Enjoy.

Social media is not "cool." MAKING MONEY IS COOL.

If you are making your money in the publishing-/marketing- or agency business, you've got to have an idea regarding "Social Media". There's no getting round it, Social Media is the big hype these days. And as there are no instruction manuals how to use Social Media, it is just a big trial and error. So do we, by the way. I post regularly about our defeats and successes.

Today I came across an article from Peter Shankman (Business Insider), which is perfect for all of those, who are just thinking about hiring a so called "Social Media Expert". Read it. And think again.

My favorite quotes (except the borrowed statement which I used as headline):

[...] Being an expert in social media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. [...]

[...] Social media is just another facet of marketing and customer service. Say it with me. Repeat it until you know it by heart. Bind it as a sign upon your hands and upon thy gates. Social media, by itself, will not help you. [...]

[...] "It’s not about building a website anymore! It’s so much cooler! It’s about Facebook, and fans, and followers, and engagement, and influence, and…" Will you please shut up before you make me vomit on your shoes? [...]

Sure, some statements in Peter Shankman's article may sound radical. But there's some truth in it.

Beautiful Beast

During our Chromjuwelen En Route video shoot last weekend — see sneak previews above — I had the opportunity to race my Nippon Pontiac for a few meters. Damn, that Poncho kicks *ss. Maybe this is due to the fact the "Kustom City family" worked a little on the setup of my 7M-GTE? 

At the moment the LeSupra waits to get customized at Style Deluxe Hamburg, but I must admit I start loving the Millenium Falcon "Piece of Junk" style ... 

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!