Ford Unveils Two Future Automated Driving Technologies

Posted on Jun 22, 2019 in Technology | 2 comments

The Blue Oval brand has been a cornerstone of success over the past several years. Recovering immensely from financial ruins in 2006, Ford Motor Company has effectively nailed the attitudes of the current automobile buyer. A main component of Ford’s recovery is identifying the advantages in high-tech features such as SYNC and the EcoBoost engine. Ford Motor...

The last Tucker assembled from original parts could sell for $1 million

Posted on Jun 11, 2019 in Featured | 2 comments

When Preston Tucker’s automobile factory closed, it left behind the makings of more than a dozen additional vehicles, some of them rather easy to assemble, some a little more difficult. Now, more than 65 years later, one of the latter will soon make has made its public debut and become quite possibly the last Tucker to ever be built. UPDATE (19.January 2016):...

BMW Art Cars

Posted on Jun 6, 2019 in Antique | Comments Off on BMW Art Cars

I dislike BMW’s. They are cars driven mostly by yuppies and people without the burden of a soul. Most BMW drivers are horrible people, who vote Republican, like to kick puppies, and require a car that is completely devoid of a personality. In fact, the only thing I find interesting about BMW is it’s art car program. They are a great bunch of cars, from some...

You Like Supercars? Here’s the Bloodhound SSC

Posted on Jun 5, 2019 in Racing | Comments Off on You Like Supercars? Here’s the Bloodhound SSC

Bloodhound driver gets parking ticket in London The Brits have always been a little bit crazy, especially about such challenges as land speed records, climbing Mt. Everest, and so forth. Now, after three years in development, they arestarting construction of the Bloodhound SuperSonic Car, to reach 1,000 mph on a dry lake bed in South Africa in 2012-2013. Power...

1982 AMC Eagle Station Wagon

Posted on May 25, 2019 in Editorials | 2 comments

I live in Colorado, where the AMC Eagle sold as well in the 1980s as the Subaru Outback does now, and so I see the all-wheel-drive versions of the American Motors Concord and Spirit everywhere here. This means they show up in Denver-area self-service wrecking yards like clockwork, and I photograph them when they do (and I walk right by most air-cooled Beetles,...

All Tires Should Self-Inflate

Posted on May 25, 2019 in Safety | 5 comments

Ever since the advent of tire pressure monitoring systems, I’ve thought tires should have the capability of self-inflating. If the car can know when the pressure is low and then alert the driver, it should be able to activate a system to re-inflate while driving, too. That bothers me every time the TPMS light illuminates on my dash, because it means I have to...

Strange Brew – The Cars of Buch-t

Posted on May 19, 2019 in Antique | Comments Off on Strange Brew – The Cars of Buch-t

Of course life is bizzare, the more bizzare it gets, the more interesting it is – David Gerrold This week, while perusing through the usual car sites, I came across a Wikipedia Commons page that astounded me. The page was created by a user named Buch-t, and includes hundreds of photographs of cars from museums and events in Germany. The amazing part is that I...

Prewar Motoring – Driving a 1935 La Salle through D.C. traffic

Posted on May 4, 2019 in Featured | 2 comments

Randy Denchfield’s 1935 La Salle Convertible Coupe. This past May, while driving up to New York City to visit my family, I made a detour to the Washington D.C. area to photograph this lovely 1935 La Salle Convertible Coupe for my forthcoming Cadillac book. Owned by Cadillac collector Randy Denchfield, it’s one of two ’35 La Salles in his collection, and without...

An Autobahn in America?

Posted on Apr 16, 2019 in Safety | 4 comments

A number of years ago some discussion took place about going back to a nationwide 55-mph speed limit on American highways. The idea, of course, was to increase the number of miles travelled per gallon of gasoline while decreasing the amount of emissions from the country’s fleet of motorcars. Obviously nothing ever came of that. In contrast, speed limits keep...

A Craigslist Escort (Replacement)?

Posted on Apr 12, 2019 in Editorials | 1 comment

Jon writes: Hello Bark, It will soon be time to replace my wife’s car: a ’94 Ford Escort wagon. We’re considering spending somewhere between $4,000 and $10,000 on its replacement. We have no kids and, thanks to a little snip-snip, we will continue to have no kids. Fuel economy isn’t a big issue as we both work from home. However, we live in rural Iowa, so...

Cadillac Back on the Track with the CTS-V Coupe

Posted on Apr 10, 2019 in Racing | 4 comments

When I was younger, the very idea of a Cadillac on the track would make people laugh. Lately, the grins have been fading. The company is now preparing the CTS-V Coupe to race in the Sports Car Club of America’s World Challenge, where it formerly competed successfully with the CTS-V Sedan in 2005 and 2007. The car will be on the Cadillac stand at the Detroit...

Battery Maker A123 Systems Electrifies EV Hopes

Posted on Apr 6, 2019 in Technology | Comments Off on Battery Maker A123 Systems Electrifies EV Hopes

The next generation of lithium-ion battery technology seeks lofty performance gains. Increase range, longevity as well as improve performance characteristics are all being sought by researchers and engineers to spark the potential of electric vehicles (a type of automobile proving to be a tough sell at this early stage in the game). In a evolutionary...

Unsalted: Bonneville Speed Week canceled for second year straight

Posted on Apr 2, 2019 in Featured | 2 comments

The day when we will no longer see sanctioned racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats may soon be at hand after the Southern California Timing Association decided on Monday to cancel the Bonneville Speed Week for the second year in a row. The announcement came after weeks of speculation and multiple visits to the salt flats by SCTA and Bureau of Land Management...