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1970 Dodge Charger destroyed by man sick of lowballers — he showed them!

There are open and shut cases, and there's this one, the purchase and crush case. This is so wild it's hard to believe it's real. Apparently a man named Daniel Gagliardi bought a rusted-out 1970 Dodge Charger project car with the intent to flip it. Contacted by The Drive, Gagliardi said he bought the car for $4,200 and listed it for $8,500. "It was a complete car," he said, "not missing a single thing inside, out, underneath, under the hood, wasn't missing a damn thing. Had fender tag, VIN tag, clean title." Instead of negotiating with serious buyers, Gagliardi told the outlet a stream of jokers jerked him around for six months. The time-wasting took a toll, and after 180 days of "no-showers, thousands of no-showers, and a whole bunch of flakers" who didn't have the decency to bring a decent offer and cash, he decided to teach them all a lesson. So he destroyed the car, filmed the destruction, and cheered it on. The humorous and ironic part of the video is when Gagliardi tells another man off-camera, "But we got it first! We already robbed it, you can only rob it once!" After that levity, there's only chagrin for anyone sad to see a Charger meet its end so spitefully. Admittedly, however, and in spite of all the vitriol aimed at him, Gagliardi is free to destroy his own property. He's not the first person to crush a car capriciously. Any divorce attorney could tell you a book of tales about precious goods meeting ugly ends for vindictive reasons. Or there's the guy who, commenting on Gagliardi's video on another site, relates how he crushed the Yamaha quad he wanted $800 for after he "got tired of people offering me $200." Ah well. This won't be the last time. Warning for language, and exceptionally shaky video. If you're hungry for more Charger carnage after this, check out the cinematic obliterations in "7 Ways to Destroy a Charger."

2023 Grand National Roadster Show Mega Photo Gallery | Hot rod heaven

POMONA, Calif. — From an outsider's perspective, it would be easy to assume that the Grand National Roadster Show has always been a Southern California institution. After all, it celebrates the diverse postwar car culture of the region — hot rods, lead sleds, lowriders, and more. However, the show had its roots in NorCal in 1950 when Al Slonaker and his hot rod club showed their custom cars at the Oakland Expo. The GNRS moved to Pomona, California, in 2004. By then it had grown exponentially and seen about a dozen more car customization trends come and go. However, the show and its centerpiece award, the America's Most Beautiful Roadster prize, celebrate what is perhaps the first of those trends: the American hot rod in its purest form. Today, in its 73rd year, the GNRS is the oldest indoor car show in America. Annually it welcomes 500-800 cars, gathered into special themes like Tri-Five Chevys or Volkswagen Bugs. At this year's show, which was last weekend, a special hall was dedicated to pickup trucks built between 1948-98, including mini-trucks, groovy camper bed conversions, and resto-mods.  However, of all the vehicles presented, only nine are eligible for the America's Most Beautiful Roadster award. Winners get their names engraved on a 9-foot-tall perpetual trophy that was, according to The Ultimate Hot Rod Dictionary, the largest in the world when it debuted in 1950. Slonaker chose the word "roadster" initially because "hot rod" bore slightly negative outlaw connotations in 1950. Only American cars built before 1937 of certain body styles — roadsters, roadster pickups, phaetons, touring cars — are eligible, and they cannot have roll-down side windows.  Cars in the running for the cup cannot have been shown anywhere else before their debut at the GNRS.  Contestants for this accolade essentially build their cars to the a platonic ideal of a hot rod. This year the honors went to Jack Chisenhall of San Antonio, Texas, for his "Champ Deuce," a 1932 Ford Roadster. It's exactly what you picture when you think of a hot rod, but distilled to its absolute essence.  Other standouts included "Green Eyes," a two-tone green 1959 Chevy El Camino  with a heavily metal-flaked bed, "Blue Monday," a 1964 Buick Riviera lowrider, and a personal favorite, "Purple Reign," a purple and black 1951 Mercury. Cars may have started out as tools, but there aren't shows like this filled with custom refrigerators.

Ford Police Interceptors dominate Michigan State Police testing

Once again, Ford Motor Company builds the fastest police vehicles. The Blue Oval touted the news in an official release following Michigan State Police and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department testing. Ford did very well. Except for one acceleration metric – zero to 10 miles per hour – the Blue Oval's Taurus and Explorer-based cop cars were the quickest, with particular praise coming for the EcoBoost-powered models, which bested Chevrolet and Dodge's V8-powered variants. Dearborn's products also posted the fastest average times around MSP's vehicle dynamics course. But it wasn't all positive for Ford. The only four-cylinder in the contest, the 2.0-liter, EcoBoost Ford SSP Sedan, had both the lowest top speed, 120 mph, and the slowest acceleration figures. It was also the slowest in track testing. Ford's products also failed to match the braking and top speeds of its rivals from Detroit and Auburn Hills – the rear-drive Charger Pursuit posted the best braking stats of the entire test, while the V8-powered Chevrolet Caprice hit the highest top speed, at 155 mph. Ford did score a top speed award, among SUVs, but at 132 mph, the naturally aspirated Police Interceptor Utility had to share its award with the equally fast, rear-drive Chevrolet Tahoe. The LA County Sheriff's timing isn't publicly available, but according to Ford, the EcoBoost-powered police cars put on a similarly impressive show for cops on the West Coast. We've assembled a spreadsheet on Google Docs that offers an easy to browse comparison of the different stats assembled by the Michigan State Police, and divided the vehicles between standard V6-powered sedans, high-performance sedans (EcoBoost and V8 models), and SUVs. You can check it out here. Related Video: