Skanky
Singer Christina Aguilera shot a music video to promote the NBA Playoffs and we snagged this photo from the resulting PR fusillade. This gave us a chance to use the word "skanky" as a headline.
Lincoln of the Sky
The words "limited edition" have been used so often lately that it's impossible to tell when they actually indicate anything. Here, for instance, is the Lincoln Aviator Kitty Hawk Edition; a version of Lincoln's smaller SUV designed to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers' first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903. Prices start at $45,210.
What makes the Kitty Hawk Edition a Kitty Hawk Edition is a monochromatic black exterior, a rear spoiler, an "argent grille with chrome surround," chrome-tipped exhaust, special badging, special floor mats, black leather seats with black stitching, and mink zebrano wood trim on the interior.
Available in two- or all-wheel drive, the Kitty Hawk also comes with standard Lincoln stuff like 17-inch wheels, heated and cooled front seats, power adjustable foot pedals, and HID headlights. Power comes from a all-aluminum 302hp 4.6L DOHC 32-valve V-? feeding a five-speed automatic transmission.
Coincidentally, Ford is also celebrating its 100th anniversary during 2003, and it's making a big deal about the company's aviation history-including the classic Ford Tri-Motor airliner and the B-24 produced in great quantities by Ford during World War II. Ford and The Discovery Channel will present documentaries about the Wright brothers and Henry Ford's involvement with airplanes. Ford will also sponsor the "Countdown to Kitty Hawk" (www.countdowntokittyhawk.org), a program that will reenact the Wright Flyer's historic flight with the launch of an accurate reproduction at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17. That's exactly 100 years after the first flight. The reenactment will be telecast live and should be fascinating if for no other reason than that the Wright Flyer was notoriously unstable.
We Have Winners
Castrol North America's Top Techs program recognizes the best of America's automotive students every year as chosen by a "blue-ribbon" panel of judges including CC's own Matt King. Matt's parents are really proud of his blue ribbon too. Automotive students submitted 150-word essays through GTXTopTechs.com explaining why they should be considered as finalists, and judges pared those hundreds down to just eight. Each of the eight will serve as an honorary crew member on John Force's Funny Car crew during an NHRA event, and one will win a $7,500 scholarship to continue his (or her) automotive service education.
The eight finalists are Randi Reel of Bellville High School in Belleville, Texas; Daniel Gilbert of Flower Mound, Texas, a freshman at Universal Technical Institute's Houston campus; Chris Bohland of Half Hollow Hills East High School in Melville, New York; Dan Dorset, a senior at Bright High School in Brighton, Michigan; Michael Bretl of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, a freshman at Madison Area Technical College; Carl Jones, a junior at Edwards County High School in Ellery, Illinois; Brian Millington of Belleville, Kansas, a freshman at Wyoming Technical Institute; and Pete Johnson of Mooresville, Indiana, a sophomore at Lincoln Technical Institute's Indianapolis Campus. They'll each get two tickets to the NHRA event they're attending plus a Castrol GTX hat and T-shirt, a Mac Tools toolbox filled with $1,000 of new tools, and a donation of both Castrol GTX motor oil and Castrol GTX High Mileage motor oil for use in his or her vocational education/automotive program.
Castrol will start accepting nominations for its 2004 GTX Top Techs program in September.