I thought about entering the writing contest, too, only to realize that I'm SWAMPED with work and they'd only be able to get a handful of posts out of me before I die of "why on earth did I take this many classes?!" exhaustion.
At the very least, it'd be more interesting than Ms. Motor's posts. Which isn't saying much. I miss the kookier Jalopnik with posts about rustbuckets and obscure machinery.
Gawker overlords : Jalopnik : : Malaysian overlords : Lotus. As in, something's getting made, but it's becoming all too generic and missing the point.
ETA: The more and more I think about it, the more irritated I get with the idea of them replacing their most interesting writer with a damn contest that (now that I look at it a little more) is going to turn into a massive popularity contest. I guess whoever posts an easily-shareable photo of a lolmazda will win by default? This is what's killing the automotive blogs, for Bunny's sake. Clicks over content.