It’s an exciting day here at BangShift.com, as Brian and the nerds and I bring you a new and improved 2012 version of the site! We’ve been working feverishly, along with Scott and Michael from Route2Media, to bring some killer new updates to the hot rodding world. Don’t fret, the same stuff you have come to love on BangShift.com is still here, and mostly in the same places, but we’ve also added some new stuff that will make your experience here even better. Plus, we added some more power under the hood that will help us bring even more content to you faster and easier. In car guy terms, we’ve installed a twin-turbo LS engine, an overdrive, some new suspension, a big stereo, and a killer set of wheels. Now it’s time to put it all to the test and start hanging the wheels! If you haven’t drank the Kool-Aid yet, you sure will now!

Let me tell you what this means for you guys and gals.

The first thing you’ll notice on the site is our new “Spotlight” section that replaces our old Top Stories section at the top of the home page. This is where the latest and greatest are highlighted each week. We’ll still have a ton of new blog items going up each day, further down the page, but when we really want to get your attention with something it’s going to be right up top and in your face.

New and improved Photo Galleries mean that you’ll be able to see photos even bigger than before as you now get to see them in thumbnail, medium, and large sized. How much larger? 20% larger to be exact. While flipping through photos, you’ll now be able to click on them and see them even larger. Keep in mind, this will be on new galleries, and those will start this weekend when we are in West Palm Beach Florida for the PRO Winter Warmup at Palm Beach International Raceway. We’ve also streamlined our photo gallery categories, and new search functions will allow you to find photos even easier as we work to tag all of our photos over the next few weeks.

A new BangShift Videos section is also included, and can be found on the right hand side of the home page. This player allows you to see all of BangShift.com’s YouTube videos! Click on the link and you’ll go straight to a page that has them all organized like a photo gallery, and doesn’t require you to leave the site and search YouTube.

The newly added Sponsor News section is one that we are excited about as well. It currently houses any blog items we have written about our Sponsors, but very soon will include even more content. Stay tuned as we tweak on this, and many other new features, over the next few months. We’ll let you know when something is going on that you need to pay attention to.

Along with these new features and updates, we’ve got more ways to shop in the BangShift Store, easier Content Submission, easy sign ups for our Email Newsletters, more ways to share our stuff on Facebook and Twitter, as well as a cool new interactive Sponsor Page.

Some of the coolest things we’ve upgraded aren’t even things you folks will see. Posting content will be easier, faster, and cooler, which means that you can expect more and more from us as we get used to how this new setup shifts. As you well know, we’ll be no-lift shifting within the first few miles, don’t worry.

Hang out, click buttons, and see what you think. We’ve got even more coming over the next few months, plus all the content you have come to expect and love here at BangShift.com. We will be bringing you more LIVE racing action, news stories, sneak peeks, products, projects, tech, and installs than ever before, so hang on because 2012 is going to be big here at BangShift.com. Thanks to all of you who support us by checking in each and every day, and for you new guys, WELCOME!. We couldn’t do this without you guys, or the amazing sponsors we have on board, so thanks to them as well.