Forza 2 : 2004 Tom & Jerry Ferrari F430

Tom and Jerry was one of my favorite childhood cartoons. Growing up in western Massachusetts in the 70s, classic Tom and Jerry was on local TV in the afternoons after schools. I have warm memories of the days when we couldn't play outside. We would sit in front of the TV and watching Jerry beat the crap out of Tom with sledge hammers, grenades, anvils, and my personal favorite TNT. Somehow Jerry always managed to get Tom to pick up or eat a stick of TNT. He would take ghoulish pleasure in pushing down the plunger and watching Tom blow himself in a pile of chard fur.

You just had to admire Tom though. We never learned of Tom's back story. He was always drawn like a cat that lived with a nice family. Instead of laying around and sleeping all day, he took his job of getting rodents out of the house serious. He acted as if Jerry was his last best hope at a meal.

Tom was relentless, but all too predictable. His usual move was to lie in wait outside of Jerry's mouse hole -- you know that stereotypical 180% Gothic arch that looked like it was built by Frank Loyd Wright? Tom would always play to Jerry's weakness -- cheese. Now I like cheese, some may even say I love cheese. Heck, if I ever get another Border Collie, I'm going to name him "Cheese". But there's no easy way to put it, Jerry had an addiction. Jerry would lose himself momentarily, and stumble into what ever trap Tom had laid out for him. But luckily for Jerry, Tom had the mechanical aptitude of, umm, well, of a cat and his contraptions predictably backfired every time.

Without exception, I like my Ferrari's painted in classic red. When I saw this car in the Forza 2 auction house it brought back too many good memories. The artwork on this car is spot on. I can't imagine how much time someone spent drawing this. It must have been days. I present to you, "The Tom and Jerry Ferrari F430".

Forza 2 : 2001 Starbucks Aston Martin V12 Vanquish

Thanks to the BBC America show "Top Gear", I now pay attention to British Cars. Pictured is the Aston Martin V12 Vanquish in full racing trim. The Starbuck's logo is spot on, and the scattered coffee beans along the side gives the car a unique look.

Forza 2 : 1953 Superman Mercedes 300SL

When I saw this car up for sale in the auction house, I had to have it. I love the way the cape flows over the roof and trunk. To see a full screen version of either photo, click on the picture. These photos were taken at two fantasy tracks created by the Forza 2 Game designers. The top photo is at Maple Valley. The bottom photo is on a mythical track through the streets of New York City.

Forza 2 : 2002 Dunkin' Doughnuts Toyota Soarer

My favorite Xbox360 game is Forza Motorsports 2. I have played a lot of racing games, and this one is as good as it gets. You can chose from driving hundreds of cars, make thousands of performance modifications, and drive on a couple dozen tracks. You can race against computer drivers or real people on Xbox live.

The game has a very original feature that is populated exclusively with user content. It has a build-in "paint shop" where people can create custom artwork for their cars. All car paint schemes can only be created with the tools within the Forza 2 paint shop. Uploading of pictures or clipart into the game is not allowed. Inside the Forza 2 online auction house, users can buy and sell each others cars. None of the sales are with "real" money. The transactions are all in the fantasy "Forza 2" in-game credit currency.

I have almost 200 cars in my Forza 2 career garage. I have bought many cars in the auction house. I was browsing through my garage the other day, and I realized that I have a lot of really cool looking cars that I have completely forgotten about. So I had the idea to occasionally showcase some of my cooler cars to help refresh my memory.

Above is the 2002 "Dunkin Doughnut's" Toyota Soarer. I think my sister-in-law Kim should consider repainting her Honda CRV to match this car! I remember when I saw this car for sale how funny it would be to see Kim in this car, at the crack of dawn, zipping around town, making a doughnut run!

I took these pictures in the game, on a real-life race track. If you think you know the track, tell me in the comments. Special bonus points to the first person who can give my nickname for the area behind the car in the top picture.