Should I do a color change on my vintage car?

Posted on Oct 24, 2016 in Featured | 2 comments

My 1967 Buick Gran Sport in Verdi Green. I recently wrote a blog on a Pink Mist 1968 chrome-bumper GTO (The Rarest GTO you may have never wanted ) that asked whether its rarity, color and chrome bumper would persuade or dissuade you from buying it. Some responders said that they liked the pink and would retain the color. Others said they didn’t and would just...

Frontier E-brakes Getting Shafted?

Posted on Oct 17, 2016 in Editorials | 2 comments

Greetings, Another longtime listener, firsttime caller … I have a two-parter. First: My 2007 Nissan Frontier will soon be due for a rear brake job. I’ve never worked on rear disks. Should I replace the emergency-brake shoes as well as the service brake pads, or will a simple inspection of them do for now? Also, I’ve had varying advice here: should I have the...

Popular Automotive-Related Mobile Apps

Posted on Oct 15, 2016 in Technology | 2 comments

Supplying 21st century with once-unobtainable access to a vehicle, a dizzying assortment of smartphone and tablet apps provides the driver with an out-of-car experience. Over the course of the past two years, virtually every automaker is now engaged with a brand-specific mobile application making their automotive products more accessible than ever before....

Building Your Own Bugatti: The Kellogg Type 57/59 Roadster Special

Posted on Oct 14, 2016 in Racing | 2 comments

I know a fellow named Budd Blume here in Oaxaca, and we had lunch a few days ago. Budd is an old-fashioned car nut who has built, owned, raced, and been otherwise involved with some of the world’s most interesting cars. I mentioned that I had just done a post on the new Bugatti Galibier sedan, and so he started talking Bugatti lore. Turns out a guy named Bob...

Why All Mobile Phone Use Should Be Banned While Driving

Posted on Oct 7, 2016 in Safety | 3 comments

If there’s any lingering question as to why cell phones and driving should never be used in combination, the picture above should clear it up pretty quick. Between the bus and the big rig is what’s left of a pickup, which was being driven by a 19-year-old kid. Just prior to slamming into the semi, the young driver had sent or received 11 text messages in as...

Green Vehicle News, Some of It Important

Posted on Sep 26, 2016 in Safety | 1 comment

GM Permits Dealers to Sell Demo Volts This will free up 2,300 cars, increasing sales inventory to about 4,100 (up from 1,800). Since GM has increased production capacity over the summer, you folks struggling to find an available Volt (yes, all five of you) can now find one. In fact, there has been some pent-up demand, but don’t hold your breath that GM will...

Lamborghini Miura, The First Supercar

Posted on Sep 20, 2016 in Antique | Comments Off on Lamborghini Miura, The First Supercar

Supercar. That one word describes the ultimate in a motor vehicle, a car that combines the absolute epitome of style, technology, and power into one beautiful piece of rolling sculpture. It all started with an argument between a simple farmer turned tractor manufacturer named Ferruccio Lamborghini, and the high priest of performance cars, Enzo Ferrari....

BFGoodrich KO2 in the Snowy Hills of Maine

Posted on Sep 19, 2016 in Editorials | 1 comment

BFGoodrich’s All-Terrain T/A tires can be found everywhere, from your local construction site to the most grueling of off-road races. I’ve fitted some of my trucks with the original KO and used them on and off-road, so I was curious what improvements BFGoodrich could bring to its latest iteration: the new KO2. BFGoodrich brought me up to Bethel, Maine to test...

Are the days of pole-mounted old cars numbered?

Posted on Sep 15, 2016 in Featured | 2 comments

Used to be – back in the days when distinctive vehicles could be had for cheap or free – if you wanted to really attract the eye of passersby to your place of business, you slathered some house paint on some old car, stuck it up on a pole, and became an instant local landmark. But those landmarks are slowly disappearing and it seems we may in our lifetimes see...

Laser Beams into Automotive Lighting Future

Posted on Sep 11, 2016 in Technology | 1 comment

Since Thomas Edison perfected the electronic light bulb over 130 years ago, our ability of creating artificial illumination has brightened up the coldness of night. An evolution especially important as the automobile progressed, vehicle lighting has taken strides in becoming brighter and more efficient. At first existing as clumsy lanterns, electric lighting...

Kyle Busch Hits His Own Wall

Posted on Aug 23, 2016 in Safety | 1 comment

If we needed more proof of the travesty NASCAR racing has become, we got it last Friday when Kyle Busch (above, center) drove a competitor into the wall—while the caution light was on. The scene was one of NASCAR’s ridiculous truck races at the Texas Motor Speedway. Here’s the nutshell of the story, as Autoweek had it: Busch was suspended for intentionally...

McLaren: New Company, New Car

Posted on Aug 17, 2016 in Racing | 1 comment

Where do they get all the money? I don’t know, but they do have the talent. McLaren has an enviable record in F1 racing, and they have developed truly great cars in the past. But their newest, announced today, aims to be better than the German and Italian competition, including the Ferrari 458 Italia. The MP4-12C claims to have advanced the state of the art in...

Who remembers aftermarket add-on automotive computers like the Zemco CompuCruise?

Posted on Aug 3, 2016 in Featured | 2 comments

Zemco CompuCruise ad. As a young teenager in the early 1980s, I was already a car guy, despite the fact that I was still too young to drive one. I read car magazines and worked on (more like ruined) the family cars to learn more about repairing and mildly modifying them, adding things like gauges and open-element air cleaners. Simple upgrades I could get away...