We just recieved our Johnny Lightning replica in the mail and, having driven one of these before, we're impressed with the accuracy. Well, mostly just the tiny magnetic Papa John's car topper. And because John Schnatter is such a generous fellow, he's donating 5,000 of the mini Z28s and $80,000 in proceeds from the small cars to the Marine Toys For Tots Foundation.

And because he loves giving stuff away, there's even a sticker for a free medium pizza on the back of the package.

For integrity's sake, we're going to leave it on there.

PAPA JOHN'S TO DONATE $80,000 IN PROCEEDS OF MINI CAMARO SALES TO TOYS FOR TOTS
 
Pizza chain's contribution to annual holiday campaign also will include free pizza offer on back of mini-car packaging, all available at www.papajohns.com
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (November 16, 2009) – Earlier this year, "Papa" John Schnatter set out on a cross-country Road Trip to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Papa John's Pizza…and to search for the car that started it all: a 1971 Z28 Camaro that Schnatter sold to keep his dad's tavern in business and ultimately open his first Papa John's restaurant.  He even offered a $250,000 reward for the car's safe return.  To everyone's surprise (especially Schnatter's), the beloved Camaro was found in Flatwoods, Ky. in August. 
 
Beginning today, pizza and car lovers alike may purchase a mini replica of Schnatter's Camaro for just $4.99 at www.papajohns.com.  For every mini Camaro sold, $1 will be donated to the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, just in time for the holidays.  In addition, every toy's packaging includes a coupon for a free medium cheese pizza – making it the gift that keeps on giving, long after the holiday leftovers are gone!
 
Papa John's is also donating 5,000 mini Camaros directly to Toys for Tots – a retail value of $25,000, and $50,000 in redeemable free pizzas.  In total, Papa John's will contribute more than $155,000 to the 2009 Toys for Tots campaign.
 
"You could say that Christmas came early this year for John, which is why we're especially pleased to share his joy with kids around the country who love Papa John's pizza," said Jude Thompson, Papa John's president and chief operating officer.  "Papa John's is proud to partner and be associated with Toys for Tots, renowned for touching millions of young lives year after year."
 
"Papa John has a great story that's not only fun, but also provides hope and inspiration to less fortunate children," said Maj. Bill Grein, USMC (Ret), vice president of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation.  "Toys for Tots is honored to have the support of Papa John's and their 2,600 restaurants across the country this season as we make the holidays brighter for families everywhere."
 
For more information and to purchase a mini Camaro, benefiting Toys for Tots, visit www.papajohns.com.
 
About Marine Toys for Tots
The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation is a not for profit organization authorized by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve to provide fundraising and other necessary support for their annual Toys for Tots Program.  Now in its 62nd year, Toys for Tots provides hope and happiness to economically disadvantaged children through the gift of a shiny new toy during the Christmas holiday season.  Our gifts offer these children recognition, confidence and a positive memory they will cherish for a lifetime.  Many of the gifts we provide, such as books, games and sports equipment, make a significant contribution to the educational, social and recreational interests of these children.   In 2008, Marines distributed gifts to 7.6 million children in over 650 communities nationwide.  The Marine Toys for Tots Foundation relies on individual donations from the American public and is supported by corporate sponsorships. For more information, visit www.toysfortots.org. 
About Papa John's
Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Papa John's International, Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) is the world's third largest pizza company. For nine of the last 10 years, consumers have rated Papa John's No. 1 in customer satisfaction among all national pizza chains in the highly regarded American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI).  Papa John's also ranks first among pizza companies in the 2008 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, was honored by Restaurants & Institutions Magazine (R&I) with the 2008 Silver Award for Consumers' Choice in Chains in the pizza segment, and was named 2007 Pizza Today Chain of the Year.  For more information about the company or to order pizza online, visit Papa John's at www.papajohns.com.

Not so for this dude, who has captured some nice sequences of 1:64 toy cars getting blowed up and added the Ode To Joy as a soundtrack. In my opinion, this would have been more fun with cars that shatter into a billion fragments, but it's still pretty cool. Thanks to SLRSpeedShop, who also wishes he'd had a slo-mo camera as a kid, for the tip.

Caterham R500 immortalised – in LEGO
The Caterham Superlight R500 won accolades across the board in 2008, including the prestigious Top Gear Car of the Year.

But you know you've really made it when you're built in LEGO.

LEGOLAND designers were so impressed by the R500's achievement in winning the BBC's top motoring decoration last year that it decided to capture the moment in its famous coloured plastic bricks.
Taking their place within the 40 million-brick MINILAND, one of a number of attractions at LEGOLAND, Top Gear presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, plus the elusive Stig, can be seen huddled around the famous Caterham Seven in a motorsport-themed area.

As well as gaining the Top Gear award, the £38,000 Caterham Superlight R500 proved its giant-killing potential by outpacing supercars like the £1 million Bugatti Veyron.

LEGOLAND'S chief model maker, Guy Bagley, said: "My colleague remembered that the Stig had put the R500 through its paces and how incredible it was on the track. It's such a timeless and iconic car that it was a ‘no-brainer' as our choice for the motorsport area, having already decided to feature Top Gear. Its design lends itself particularly well to our bricks, too."

Note the key on what would be the "driver's" side (if it were a two-seater) with the driver easily recognizable behind the steering wheel.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this image is the spring whose loose coil can be seen directly to the right of the driver. The spring is connected to the drive mechanism.

So here's a weekend racing guide — let us know if we're missing anything All Times ET:

Friday, May 22, 2009
Indianapolis 500 Miller Lite Carb Day — 11:00am-4:00pm
World of Outlaws -Sprints — 8:00pm-10:30pm

Saturday, May 23, 2009
Formula 1 Qualifying — Monaco Grand Prix — 8:00am-9:30am
NASCAR Nationwide Series — 7:30pm-10:30pm
AMA Pro Motocross 450 — 9:00pm-10:00pm
24 Hours Of LeMons Reno — Race Session I — 11:00am - 7:30pm

Sunday, May 24, 2009
Formula 1 — Monaco Grand Prix — 7:30am-10:00am
IndyCar — Indy 500 — 1:00pm-4:30pm
NASCAR Sprint Cup — Coca-Cola 600 — 5:45pm-10:30pm
24 Hours Of LeMons Reno — Race Session II — 10:00am - 3:00pm

[via radiologyart]

The video is itself a Turkish production and is accompanied by a set of prints.

Photo Credit: Elma+Alt+Shift, hat tip to Misi of Stipistop.

We’re sitting at a vast dining table, my friend Máté and I, idly racing a toy Ferrari in the shadow of salmon sandwiches, and he says, hey, let’s turn that Ferrari into a Mad Max Interceptor Pursuit Special.

The Ferrari is an F430 Challenge, sans Stradale, the racing version of the basic F430, and you can get one at Shell gas stations with your purchase of gasoline (and candy bars), at least here in Europe you can. It’s palm-sized and comes with a pullback motor which is synched with a speaker emitting a rather faithful engine noise. I know because I have a 250 GTO and the sound is vastly different, modern flat-plane V8 versus vintage racing 3.0-liter V12.

We’ll skip the hood-mounted supercharger as there’s nothing to supercharge up front, same with the sidepipes and the ghetto black paintjob, but we can’t skip the tanks. On the original Pursuit Special, the tanks stored scarce gasoline, a substance which is indeed getting scarce but which unfortunately does not come in tiny canisters.

What does come in tiny canisters is nitrous oxide, the mother of all dual-use technology, used in dentistry for anaesthesia, in car tuning for, well, you know what, and in the kitchen to make whipped cream. Nitrous oxide is extremely soluble in fat, as in the fat of whipping cream, enabling the user to create whipped cream twice the volume than with air.

Nitrous oxide in cars is usually labelled NOS after Holley Performance Products’ Nitrous Oxide Systems but my mother is a chemical engineer and she would disapprove of that, so we’ll go with the chemical formula N₂0. With a dab of overhead marker and a strip of Scotch tape, the car is ready to rock and roll.

Ready, I lied, but not quite. The heavy N₂0 canisters are overloading the pullback motor, making the car extremely sluggish. And you can’t have an F430 Challenge Interceptor Pursuit Special associated in any way with that dreadful adjective. What we’ll need is an ultra-precise double-barreled nailgun which fires two pins in high sync to rupture both nitrous canisters at the same time, creating in the process a nitrous-powered jet car.

If you have such a nail-gun handy, Jalopnik Nitrous Initiative would like to hear from you.

Photo Credit: Máté Petrány and the author

The Grand National is quite the bargain at under $10K for a low-mileage, good condition model, but at $0.97 it's a steal.

The detail on this model is high, including the signature logo on the side, two-tone paint and hood scope. Fit and finish is also quite good, though we're not huge fans of the gold wheels. Taking this from awesome to rad is the engine cover, which comes off to reveal a black plastic turbo-ed engine block. Although we're not complaining, we are interested in what is fueling funding of a little four-wheeled bit o' awesome. We're assuming it's got something to do with the Fast And Furious appearance.

Equally as cool, it turns out there's a Datsun 510 Hot Wheels Car out there as well. It makes us want to have kids just so it isn't so awkward buying and talking about toy cars.