I have a confession to make; lately I’ve been suffering from a severe case of writer’s block, much to the dismay of the Editor of this magazine. I’ve been stuck in what a good friend of mine would call “a funk” for the past two weeks or so, and I can’t seem to pull myself out of it.

So in an effort to put things in motion again, I did everything I could to get back into the groove, as I’ve lacked two key ingredients; motivation and inspiration. So to cure this, I read car magazines, I read all of the articles my colleagues were posting, and I even read some of my old stories. I broke out the classic car movies, watched a bit of Top Gear, vegetated in front of Speed Channel, and attempted to further progress in my game of Gran Turismo 5. But nothing helped.

It’s frustrating when this happens. I realize of course, that most people aren’t writers, and probably can’t relate to this situation as the extent their writing requirements doesn’t exceed beyond making out this week’s grocery list or filling out a blank check to pay the mortgage every month. But to an automotive journalist, it’s a nightmare.

I even went as far as posting about it on my Facebook status. Aside from a female friend offering me a “way to take my mind off of things,” and another suggesting I should get drunk and take an Ambien, I didn’t receive much in the form of advice on the matter. Eventually, an aunt responded by saying I should take a step back and return to it later with a fresh outlook and a different mindset. So I went ahead and selected the ‘minimize’ box on my Microsoft Word window, and I opened up my Car Town game.

Car Town is one of those annoyingly addictive games on Facebook for people who have no life, and/or for people like me who are just trying to kill time during Sunday night football, the wee hours of a weeknight or until something much more important comes along. I’m assuming it’s somewhat similar to Farmville (whatever that is), but with cars. You start out with a tiny garage, a very small budget, a couple of employees (of which you “hire” from your friends list) and a $4,000 car.

So it’s much like real life at first, until you realize it’s actually worse when the only three cars you can purchase initially is a ’73 Ford Pinto, a ’67 VW Beetle, and an ’08 Toyota Yaris. Frankly, I’d prefer public transportation, a pogo stick or a Space Hopper for daily transportation before I’d succumb to relying on either of those three for my day-to-day commute. But that’s just me.

I started in with this game last summer shortly after I had finally jumped on the Facebook bandwagon, and have progressed significantly through it since. The game itself is easy, you just have to know how to balance your budget, and keep your workers busy. At first, the most difficult part of the game is deciding on which crap-box turd of a car to start with.

So after I immediately eliminated the Yaris for being a Toyota and for looking too much like a scrotum, I then chose to eliminate the Pinto for being the poor excuse of American engineering that it was. So I was then forced to pick the Bug, with one arm twisted behind my back and my teeth grinding together. At least it’s arguably an automotive icon, unlike the other two.

As you progress through the levels and make more cash, you can unlock performance and appearance modifications, and naturally, more cars. In the last six months or so, they’ve added more cars to the roster. They’ve also discontinued cars that were supposedly not popular enough. There’s a wide array of exotic, classic, tuner, and of course, muscle cars to choose from. So obviously, I have the ’57 Chevy, the ’70 Chevelle and El Camino Super Sports, the ’64 Impala SS, all three of the Camaros, and all five Corvettes, for starters. I also had to grab a blue ’68 Nova SS 396 before it was discontinued.

I also have every other GM muscle car in the game, including the ’87 GNX, both classic Trans Ams, the ’69 GTO Judge, the ’09 G8 GT, and the ’66 Bonneville. I even strayed into the Darkside of Ford and Mopar Land with a couple of Mustangs, a Ford GT, a Viper, two Challengers (one old and one new), and in staying in tune with our sister publication Street Legal TV’s latest project car, I picked up a ’69 HEMI Charger R/T before it too was discontinued like the aforementioned Nova.

The sad thing about this game, other than the fact that I play it, is that it’s only fractionally satisfying than buying, building, tuning, and racing the actual cars that these mega-pixel cartoons are based off of.  Just as quickly as it becomes addicting, it turns boring. I’ve already bought everything in this game that I’d be interested in buying in real life, and to make matters worse, it’s apparent that it’s somehow now sponsored by Toyota as of late.

There’s a “money tree” that only grows when you buy a new Prius, and in the “Prius Showroom,” it shows how in the coming weeks you’ll be able to buy different versions of the hybrid econo-box, including an upcoming concept version, thus making your “money tree” grow faster and generating more cash. I still have yet to bother with it.

As much as I love money, I hate the Prius that much more.

Apparently, Car Town discontinues the cars that people actually want to buy, and replaces them with cars only eco-geeks that hate the idea of the internal combustion engine could love. The last time I’ve checked, anybody in the market for a high-performance car that they can tune, modify, and race, avoided the ugly Toyota Prius like it was two week-old pizza. But what do I know; I’m just a struggling automotive journalist.

As a result of becoming bored and further frustrated by Prius Town, I ultimately grabbed the keys to the “Vee” and went for a nice drive on some twisty country roads. Be it old school or new school, there’s no denying the thrill of a small block Chevy engine, and that was all of the inspiration that I needed as it turns out. When I finally returned home, I had an idea for not one, but three editorial stories. What is it about cars that inspires or motivates you?

– Rick