We have seen the paradise: Contidrom

The German "Youngtimer" Rallye Creme21 brought us today to the test track Contidrom (Continental). We have to come back. Under all circumstances.

Hit one of the images to see more pictures.

Hamburger Stadtpark-Revival: Pictures

After our first coming out in Winsen, the traditional "Stadtpark-Rennen" was the next date on our "GT Scout"-tour. If you ever wanted to know what Maserati, Porsche, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz or Volkswagen paint our town red, you should visit the Hamburg Stadtpark-Revival. For more classic car beauties visit our gallery. 

Roadrunner's Paradise & Race 61: Photo Sneak Preview

Do I really need to say I want that Mercedes Benz Adenauer 300 Hot Rod? What a bad*ss built — it'll be gorgeous once it's finished!

Just click on one of the images above to start a Flickr slideshow. A full "Roadrunner's Paradise & Race 61" article will follow asap.

General Tire Mint 400: Motor Maniacs Hardcopy

Yep. Sometimes we still write and work on dead trees. Thanks for uploading the images to Flickr, Mr. Pixeleye! Just in case you missed it: Here are some more "General Tire Mint 400"-articles/galleries. And some videos. Enjoy.

Get yourself a copy of Motor Maniacs!

Jo Fischer: Ford GT

Jo Fischer just passed me some beautiful shots he did last week. Damn, Jo, you should shoot more cars! Btw, I love your snpahot of Mrs. Fuel ...

SEO, SMO and Motorkultur. Err ... what?

As I mentioned before, I've just fallen in love with Tumblr. I know—under SEO (Search Engine Optimization) aspects it isn't really clever to share your stuff on several platforms. But as we all just learned: SEO isn't everything, in lieu thereof SMO (Social Media Optimization) becomes more and more important. Especially if you deal with a special interest topic like car passion.

Imho SMO is CRUCIAL if you want to reach the right people. To speak from my own experience: I follow a lot of "trust agents". Which means: I read their blogs and follow their Twitter. In short: Really awesome and inspiring stuff isn't brought to me by search engines. And as my partner Chris philosophizes: "It can't be the interest of search engines that everyone out there is writing/producing search engine "correct". It must be more in everyone's interest that search engines digg really inspiring stuff—which is seldom SEO correctly produced. Or—btw—don't you ever have had that creeping feeling that you only find stuff via search engines which is produced by companies with big SEO budgets? Well, I do. Every day.

Any way. Buzzword bingo switched off. I just changed the template on my Tumblr, and with that new (free!) layout comes a tiny archive button. This function was new to me, but what I found behind that link really blew my mind. It's a thumbnail mosaic of my tumblered articles. Ok, the pages takes a moment to get loaded, but it's a nice little feature which I would love to have on my other—really content heavy—site(s) as well. It just gives you an intutive approach to content, which I actually miss on several sites. Especially when I am en tour with my iPad, where a "nornal" hypertext navigation hits the wall.

Maybe this doesn't impress you, but it exactly matches with some thoughts about an all-embracing Chromjuwelen.com weight-loss program. Also it solves another problem: Thumbnails are language independent, so you don't have to read my German School English any longer ...

Bottrop Kustom Kulture Show 2010: Pictures

Just in case somebody is interested in pictures. I just uploaded a Bottrop Kustom Kulture 2010 set to Flickr. An article will follow. This year the legendary Kustom Kulture Show in Bottrop, which is Europe's biggest Hot Rod and Custom Car meeting, teamed up with with DicE magazine and presented—for the first time—a separated bike area.

Just move over to Flickr to see more than these shabby cell phone pictures!

KLE's Passat Pirat

One of the reasons, why I started Chromjuwelen.com five years ago, was to show unusual cars and the people behind them. One of them, who doesn't give a rip about what others say, is KLE. KLE has a preference for oddball German cars, especially the stuffy Volkswagen Passat. Today I had the pleasue to meet up with KLE—who paid Hamburg a visit—and his latest creation, the "Pirat". Though I don't like every detail on KLE's cars, I think his jalopies are some kind of lowbrow art cars.

Please make sure you visit KLE's blog, he keeps a very painstakingly record about every modification. Btw, the other car—a badly modified Ford Granada—belongs to Helge Thomsen.

Meilenwerk Berlin

Actually I wanted to be in NYC this week. But thanks to the latest vulcano activities my flight had been canceled. Damn. But every cloud has a silver lining—and I finally managed it to visit the Meilenwerk in Berlin. Just click on one of the cell phone pictures to start a Flickr slideshow. Btw, I really like that 1993 Toyota Crown ...

1955 "Gauloises" Citroën 2CV

The presentation of this tasty luxury Snail is long overdue. When Björn Gerdes (Imagency Hamburg) got in touch with me early summer 2009, he was searching for a Citroën 2CV to carry on the legendary tradition in building special Gauloises 2CV. The car should combine both: French nonchalance and latest entertainment electronics.

Fortunately we could help Björn. Or to be precise: Oliver Kaps, Style Deluxe Hamburg, was able to help him. Oliver not only found this beautiful 1955 Citroën 2CV, but also did the customizing. The upholstery has been done by Peter Theobold. Well, with it's new dress this simple daily transport car—which was a revolution in the segment of small cars—isn't any longer able to enter a Concours d'Elegance, but it is much more laid-back instead.

For more photos just hit one of the images.