Can You Get Your Car to 200,000 Miles?

Posted on Jul 10, 2022 in Safety | 1 comment

On the road to 200,000! I want to drive to the moon. Not literally, of course. The moon is about 240,000 miles away from Earth, and last I heard, the highway there hasn’t been completed yet. I do want my car to last at least that long, though. We’ve shared stories over the last few weeks of readers who have managed to coax their cars past 200,000 miles and even...

Will Chevy Follow Ford and Introduce Aluminum Trucks?

Posted on Jun 28, 2022 in Safety | 1 comment

Ford’s gamble with the aluminum 2015 F-150 could have ended two ways: As an embarrassing failure As a trendsetting new way to build trucks Ram, with its little comment about aluminum’s best use being for beer cans, pretty much secured its future of steel bodies. Chevrolet stayed pretty quiet on the issue, presumably to take a wait-and-see approach. Watching the...

Nine You’re Fine, Ten You’re Mine

Posted on Jun 26, 2022 in Safety | Comments Off on Nine You’re Fine, Ten You’re Mine

How fast is fast enough? Last week I mentioned a spur-of-the-moment trip my wife and I took from Washington to Colorado. We embarked on the trip because we found a boat for sale that we had to have. Yes, there were other boats closer to us, but this one was the correct year, with the correct engine, in great condition, and at a price we couldn’t pass up. With a...

Nostalgia is a seductive liar

Posted on Jun 17, 2022 in Antique | Comments Off on Nostalgia is a seductive liar

This week I wanted to showcase some vehicles that are both nostalgic and unusual. I have never posted about trucks before, but they reminded me of a time when style and function met in a very beautiful way. Many of the vehicles featured have modern counterparts, but none have the panache and ingenuity of these classics. From a simple bus that carried passengers...

El Diablo: Miata Style

Posted on Jun 12, 2022 in Racing | Comments Off on El Diablo: Miata Style

An average car will run a quarter-mile drag race in 15–16 seconds. That’s not a blistering pace, but it’s just enough to give a slight rush while accelerating up an on-ramp before settling into a steady stream of 65-mile-an-hour commuters. The Mazda Miata, while relatively sporty and fun to drive, typically falls somewhere within that average time in stock,...

This Duesenberg is Even More Hideous in Person

Posted on Jun 5, 2022 in Editorials | 2 comments

The high-dollar-custom Ridler Award at the Detroit Autorama gets a lot of worthy attention, but real salt of the earth Detroit car culture can be found in Cobo Hall’s basement, The promoters bill the area as Autorama Extreme, and I always make it a point to check out the cars and people downstairs. There’s usually something worthwhile down there like “the first...

Gasoline Direct Injection: Fad or Future?

Posted on Jun 4, 2022 in Technology | 2 comments

The internal combustion engine is 150 years old and its thermal efficiency – the amount of energy converted from combustion into mechanical work – is unlikely to achieve parity with emerging alternatives. For the performance enthusiasts among us, harboring anxiety over the future, you are not alone. Although the internal combustion engine’s monopoly on...

Two-owner, “last-of-its-kind” 1939 Oldsmobile takes Ridler Award

Posted on Jun 2, 2022 in Featured | 2 comments

The catalogs and reference books all say it shouldn’t exist, but according to both its owner and the shop that built it, the 1939 Oldsmobile Series 60 that won the Ridler Award at this past weekend’s Detroit Autorama not only came from the factory as a convertible but is also the last of its kind. The short-lived Series 60 represented the most basic Oldsmobile...

Sunset Boulevard

Posted on May 30, 2022 in Antique | Comments Off on Sunset Boulevard

“I am big, it’s the pictures that got small.” – Norma Desmond, Sunset Boulevard Recently, while spending a rainy day watching old movies, I was reminded of a great automotive icon that is rarely spoken of today. The movie was “Sunset Boulevard” starring Gloria Swanson and William Holden. The icon was an Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A Landaulet, complete with cane...

Should Modifying Your Car Be Illegal?

Posted on May 25, 2022 in Safety | 3 comments

Driveway tinkerers and shop-bound weekend racers could be a dying breed. There are two main reasons for this: People who work on their own cars are stymied by the sheer amount of technology and custom tools needed to do the job. A new law could make it illegal to work on your own car. The first reason is a natural consequence of technology. Open the hood of a...

The Biggest Factor in Automotive Safety

Posted on May 23, 2022 in Safety | 1 comment

Can you remember a time when there has been more bad press for car companies? The unintended acceleration debacles with Audi in 1986 and Toyota in 2009 were precursors to the multitude of problems that have reared their ugly heads this year. The General Motors ignition switch recall, Chrysler’s defiance of the NHTSA, and now, Volkswagen’s diesel issue all call...

Shockingly, Londoners declare Great Britain world’s greatest automobile producing country

Posted on May 18, 2022 in Featured | 2 comments

Day continues to follow night, grass remains green, and the inhabitants of one car-producing country maintain that their car industry has produced the best cars in the world. The most recent such declaration came toward the end of the recent London Classic Car Show, where visitors voted Great Britain to the top of the show’s Classic Six Nations Cup. The...

Costco Fulfills F1 Racing Dreams… For a Price

Posted on May 11, 2022 in Racing | 2 comments

Costco: the land where dreams come true. Assuming, of course, your dreams include 50-pound bags of sugar, gallons of mayonnaise and full access to all the toilet paper you’ll ever need. Bulk discounts on household staples are enough to keep some people coming back every Saturday. Every once in a while, though, Costco surprises by offering something so...