We've had a Project Car Hell song and T-shirts for Project Car Hell Tipsters, and that's been fun. However, in order to expand the reach of the Project Car Hell Lifestyle Brand™, we're going to need Project Car Hell poetry, contributed by our highly literate readers. Originally, we were going to solicit PCH sestinas, but then we figured that you'd all be fired due to neglecting your jobs for the required six hours to accomplish the feat... and then where would the money for your alky-burning SR20DET-powered '58 Hillman Minx projects come from? Exactly.
That's why we're going with the good ol' Haiku form here, since the time demands are lower (plus we're pretty sure Masaoka Shiki himself would have written haikus about the tribulations of building a twin-engine/AWD Cressida on a shoestring budget if he'd lived long enough). Of course, if any of you more ambitious writers who don't worry about The Man catching you doing, uh, non-work-related tasks on the clock (yeah, we're talking to you, Polar) want to take on the sestina or villanelle or crypto-inverse tri-limerick, go right ahead! Here's the deal: You write a haiku using the "standard" 5-7-5 syllable arrangement, put it in a comment, we all look at it and generally waste a lot of The Man's time being all inspired and stuff, and then later on we'll come up with some kind of poll so we can all choose our favorite(s).
To prime the pump, here's one I arm-twisted the Loverman into writing:
Metric wrench no use
Clutch return spring is bloodied
Natty Ice grows cold