Come in. Eat our sweet fruits. Drink our fine coffee. Please.

There is fruit on our front counter now. Please take a piece of fruit. Perhaps it's morning and you've skimped on breakfast because you needed to bring your car into the shop. Perhaps you just like apples.

For any old reason, please take a piece of fruit. We selected the container carefully. Not too girly. Not too mechanicy. A good, clean container that has never held anything but fruit.




If not the fruit, then try the coffee. On some days it's as good as any. On others, its still better than most. No flavoured water here.

There are four mugs just waiting to be used. We've got to-go cups too, but don't use those. Think of our earth and stay here and drink coffee and listen to the rain on our awning and watch people go by on 4th and Pine.

We don't have milk though, sorry. We like coffee better black, but we don't have milk because milk goes bad and nobody drinks our coffee but us.

So far.

It may be a case of the chicken before the egg, so if you would have drank coffee but haven't because we don't have milk, please tell us. Then we'll buy milk.

Why the plea you ask? Well, for whatever reason we got pretty excited about having fresh fruit and good coffee, so we restored a nice old tool cart to put the coffee carafe on, and we bought the appropriate fruit container, and nearly nobody has partaken, and thats a bit of a let down.

Also, I want one of these:

And if you good people don't drink our coffee, it's hard to justify it.

They can't all be German

We specialize in Volkswagen and Audi, but we work on all sorts around here. Asian cars. German cars. The occasional British car even sneaks in.

Ahem...yeah, we screen the Brits pretty carefully.

This week, we've got a Maserati, and not just any Maserati. No roachy 80's Bi-turbo. No sketchy Ghibli with strange electrics and finicky carbs. No, this one is actually quite sweet.

A 2006 Gransport.

We can't agree if it's fully pretty. It's nice. It turns heads, and it sure looks good out front, but it's a bit portly in the haunches, it's got a body kit (factory mind you), and it's silver...not really a sports car colour. So maybe not pretty, but its still really hot. Or hawt, if you're modern.

In any case, it is very, very cool. It's cool to look at. It's cool to sit in. It's fun to work on.

And there's one more thing:

What an engine. Gorgeous. Makes us blush. And she's not just a looker. Ferrari built it. Maserati popped their badge on it. Yep, at least to us, the prettiest part of this car is under the hood.

I can't even tell you what 400 Italian horsepower sounds like echoing around our shop.

Here's what Top Gear thinks:

Announcement!

Team Continental Repairs is Cody Campbell and Mark MacDonald!

A great match. Cody Campbell is from right here in the lower mainland, and won the first race I ever did...when he was 14. Mark is from Alberta, but we won't hold it against him, because he's a big fast boy, and probably a good case for eating Alberta Beef.



Grit. Spirit. Our boys are made of all that good stuff. Its a good thing too.

Tuft. Farrar. Holloway. Meier. Pearce. Big names. Big talents. A handful for Team Continental to contend with.

Here is Cody Campbell ripping it up on the Burnaby Boards, looking like he was born to do it.

There goes Mark, testing the torque limit of that rear carbon disc.

Come to the Burnaby Velodrome for two more nights of racing. It starts at 6:30pm. My wife will be racing (Jennifer), so that's especially exciting.

We are really, really proud to support such a great event.

Continental Proudly Presents

We've got a track racing team of our very own. We'll feel like big shots, if only for a week.

I should probably explain.

This December 27-30th will be an exciting time for Vancouver cycling fans. Our very own Burnaby Velodrome ( http://www.burnabyvelodrome.ca/index.php ) will be hosting an international level track race. It's a pretty big deal, because all sorts of famous riders will be there: http://www.burnaby4.com/

Two of those lucky riders will be riding for the Continental Repairs team. We don't know which two, but we'll keep you posted.

This really is very, very cool.

Double Trouble

Always have a backup plan.

Rather than run one engine at full race nick, these fella's ran two moderatly tuned Porsche motors in their race car. The front engine drove the front wheels, the rear engine the rear wheels.

Boy oh boy, that must have been a brute to drive.

Racing cars used to be built over the winter by guys with big ideas in poorly lit barns.

Awesome.

Welder

Grab life by the horns. Seize the day. Anything is possible. The world is your oyster.

Especially if you have a MIG welder.

Lets be clear: a modern automotive repair shop has no real use for a MIG welder. Sure, we'd probably weld the occasional exhaust, but we've been doing just fine all these years without a welder, so we really don't need one.

Or rather, really didn't need one.

But here we are, you at your computer and us with a welder. It's the way things are now. We can join metal pieces together. It's almost like magic, and it's fantastic.

So far, we've made a bottle opener from broken tools. It's a beauty, and very strong. We celebrated by using it.

We're going try to not let this go to our heads.

Snow tires!

As previously noted, we have snow tires in stock. We've got lots of sizes, lots of brands. We've also got steel wheels and aluminum wheels to fit Audi's, VW's, BMW's, Mercedes, Subaru's, Toyota's, Lexus', Volvo's, Honda's, and more. And if we don't stock it, we can get it.

Prices range from $365 for a 14" set of tires for an older VW to $1750 for a set of 17" inch set of tires mounted on nice aluminum rims for a new Audi.

Aluminum rims: $130 each. Cheap enough for winter!