I am far from being one who abstains from a nice cold beer but I never had the desire to drink while working on a car. After finishing, time for a nice cold one , or two. ... View more

Very interesting indeed. A definite amalgamation of styling cues and parts from several different late 80's Porsche's. The turbo tail needs to go away, as we all are just to familiar with it on the 930, but I like the G-body front bumper treatment and lo and behold, never thought of putting Fuchs on a 928! ... View more

Amendam…. I say that the cars silhouette is the same as the Thunderbird but in actuality I have noticed that that rear sculpted belt line of the rear quarter is actually a softer upswept curve on the Thunderbird rather than a full radial bend like it is on the Lincoln. Look at photos of the both and you’ll see I’m right. I think despite the bean counters, the designers of the Lincoln were really trying to set it off as much as they could within budget from it’s Thunderbird cousin. ... View more

I sold TR7's , Alfa's and Honda's back in the day in Clearwater Florida, the TR-7's came off the truck needing repairs, we had a brown TR-7 parked in the back lot of the dealership that was deemed unsalable so the mechanics robbed parts off it to get the TR-7's that were running salable ! I owned a 124 spider and Spitfire's so I was well versed in British Leyland cars. I remember the TR-7's being very tender with questionable build quality, many came back for repairs just after a few months of ownership, some customers wanted their money back. The Alfa spider's were great cars compared to Triumph's offerings, the dealership dropped Triumph soon after, they were making a killing off of Accord's and Civic's. ... View more

   In my opinion, the world was a better place because we could listen to Sinatra and the Beatles!  One of my favorite things in life is to know I can get Big Band, Swing, Jazz, R&B, Country and Western, Scat, Dance Band, Rock and Roll, and a few other marginal types of music at the touch of a dial to listen to.  I was not into Disco, Pop, Hip Hop, or Rap- but I'm glad that those who like them can get them as easily as I can get all the others.    I'm glad your grandfather loved Sinatra and his ilk, I did too - but I think he might have missed out on some pretty good stuff on the "modern music" scene.  May he R.I.P., and I'm glad you got to know him for so many years! ... View more

Thumbs up! to those who 'Do & have' Served ... View more

I just ran across this post . I worked in the Auto / Commercial / Industrial cooling industry 34 years before retiring 12 years ago . This brings back a lot of memories . I miss the work sometimes but I don't miss the lead and chemicals 😉 Great article ! ... View more

Well for that money - I think that engine should come with a car. I can arrange that for this coin. ... View more

Hideous. Don't care what's underneath. ... View more

I would purchase the Packard car company if I could find the funding, and I certainly wouldn't screw it up like this guy did. If you want to revive a distressed brand You Build on The One Year That was the most successful, The most Perfect Body Design, The Most Perfect Engine, What did Packard Finally get right ? New Cars Today are pieces of Plastic Junk, and Fail after fail. There is no reason in the world why Packard cannot be sold to every car buyer in the world, all you need is a Team of Honest People, Loyalty, and Imagination. Different Doesnt Work, and This Prototype is pathetic. ... View more

You mean more than just a paper towel and duct/electrical/Scotch tape? ... View more

Man, you hit on some good ones, @CamaroMike!  As I read through your list, each image popped into my head immediately (except the Judge "emblem" - not sure I remember there was a specific emblem for those).  And when I got to the '65-'66 Impalas, I also remembered the "leaping Impala within a circle" emblem on the flanks (and steering wheel center cap) of my mother's '66.  It wasn't an SS, but the "just plain" Impala logo was pretty neat as it was. ... View more

Good article. I had many friends with C2 and C3 Corvettes that made their own. ... View more

Life would be so simple if we all wanted to be boring. Race on! ... View more

My older brother finishing trade school in the early 60s took his stock 4 door and made a new intake with a 4-barrel AFB on top with a little chrome air scoop coming out of the hood, and 2" plumbing pipe dump tubes that he could just unscrew at will. fit on the curve of the exhaust pipes. He raised the front with reversed chrome wheels and in the rear, he cut and finished the wheel wells to match the fronts with stock rims painted black with one yellow triangle coming off the center. Storys go that it was faster than the 64 Mustangs that were just coming out. Wish I had pics. ... View more

I actually found my way to this post via a Google search of "inane stupid Bring-a-Trailer comments", so you can guess where this comment is going. Out of frustration, I was looking to see if others out here on the interwebs are finding that the level of inanity (we'll just leave it at that) in BaT comments has gotten to nearly the melting point.   I agree with all that Rob is saying in his article about the poor quality and low information content of BaT's own seller descriptions. I've about had it with descriptions that describe things like "mudflaps" and "manual windows" as "amenities" on 240-series Volvos (sure, let's list "round wheels" there while we're at it...). But sellers are always able to augment and support their listings as Rob suggests...and increasingly, I see responsible sellers doing just that. Those who do not, well, they're less responsible; and therein lies the problem.   I would hope that the fall-back mechanism against poor seller and BaT-provided information would be knowledgeable commenters. In the past, this seemed to be the case on BaT, but what I'm actually finding is a pretty stead and rapid decline in the quality of BaT comments. Lately - at least in the auctions I've followed (admittedly a tiny number relative to the hundreds available at any time) the comments have so-often just been total nonsense. People reiterating stereotypes about cars (that often have absolutely nothing to do with the merits of the actual car or brand being auctioned) or general pablum such as "Well Bought!" when the buyer has clearly spent about 3 times what a similar car could have sold for outside of BaT. Overall, these comments are about as intelligent as people congratulating baseball pitchers at "batting a good touchdown". I mean, are these even real humans? (I only ask that somewhat fatuously)   Oh, and what's with the faux-Brit-speak that so many commenters adopt? "Good show!" is simply not a helpful comment; and unless you're handing me a jar of Grey Poupon from your Rolls, just give it a break, ok?    Anyhow, just wondering whether others have noticed an overall and relatively rapid decline in the value of BaT in terms of gathering useful info about cars and their values. It seems that the whole thing has become a sort of theater. ... View more

Well if one was to really dig into the history of what went on you would learn very easily the Dodge deal was not lazy engineers.  Stories like this on the web are what damage the history of cars and spreads false info.    #1 the Dodge RWD Platform is based on a Benz as it was brought to Dodge while they were owned by Daimler. This was cost savings. Daimler also refused to invest in small cars.    #2 Chrysler went broke and needed a new partner. Fiat came and invested in the trucks and jeep but refused to invest in much else. Sergio the man in the sweater took the profits to plow into his Italian models like Maserati and Alfa. He wanted to stretch out the RWD cars so he went back and let the engineers do what they drew up back in 2012 and add more power. This would let them still make some money on limited models but also sell a bunch of cheaper models under the Mustang and Camaro prices. Yes it was over weight and not as agile but it was cheaper.    #3 Sergio spun off Ferrari and was looking for a dance partner for FCA. He was nor going to spend more money on small cars as he hoped a partner would fill these needs. He tried to shot gun marry GM but they wanted nothing to do with FCA as only Jeep was of interest to them.  #4 Sergio had new RWD cars planned but he died. The Alfa it was based on never did well. Then Sergio Died.    #5  Then FCA was sold to Stellantis. They dumped everything ICE and are now focused on full BEV models and the Dodge will be a EV soon and the hemi no more.    If you take the true history into full context and the fact that the FCA Dodge engineers really had much more on the drawing boards than they were ever permitted to due in most part of the lack of money.    Some of the unfulfilled plans were just never achieved and it is amazing what their engineers did on such a limited budget. These car never added much to the bottom line but they kept the brand going.    Right now we are in the last days of the ICE pony cars. Camaro is leaving 23 Same For Dodge. Ford will hang a little longer but all will move to some kind of BEV and a couple may grow more doors.  I just pray they change the names and these will not be the same cars as what they replace and leave the names for a later time and for at least an affordable  coupe.    Please note I am not even a Dodge fan boy but I am sad to see what all they have been through. The plans were there just no real money. At least they did a lot with what they had and made a mark in history.  ... View more

Gary, Thanks for a fantastic trip down memory lane! I’m proud to have been part of the GM team that made history and started the country down the road to electric vehicles. Just amazing how much has changed over the years with all the new EV technologies. It has been a longer road than we anticipated 30 years ago, but the destination is now in site! -- Jim Tarchinski (formerly EV1 Propulsion Testing Supervisor) ... View more

Beautiful car. When I was young the neighbors next door were into dog showing. They owned a gold 1961 Newport Town and Country. That was swapped for a 63 in metallic blue, the same color as my Dad's 63 New Yorker. Been in love with the looks of 63 Chrysler's ever since, especially the trim piece on the trunk lid of the NYrs. 🙂 ... View more

After enjoying my Christmas vacation, I’ve decided to expand a little more on my earlier posting. If I were as skilled as Jack, I could probably romanticize this and make it an enjoyable read. Brevity being the soul of wit, I’ll instead use bullet points. Maybe the underlying theme here is “you don’t know what you don’t know.”   Unions: For those of you who bemoan the United Auto Workers “running manufacturing out of the US” and I thus assume look to Germany, Korea and Japan as models of labor efficiency, please do a little research into their home-market operations. Germany’s IG Metall is the union which represents German autoworkers and with 2.3 million members, it represents 15% of the entire German workforce. On a good day, the UAW has about 390,000 members, mostly in Michigan, representing whatever ever-tinier percentage of the American workforce it thus equates to. That matters (as you’ll see) because each casts an accordant influence on a nation’s industrial policy. To quote the readily available article “How Germany Builds Twice As Many Cars As The U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice As Much”, the average auto worker in Germany made “$67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour.” (Both of those numbers include fringe benefit costs… Keeping in mind that Germany has a national healthcare system!) Moving on to Korea, perhaps I could recommend “unions-are-driving-hyundai-and-general-motors-out-of-south-korea” as a search, or just think of the last time you recall the UAW battling with police commandos sent in to remove them from occupying a factory? About 1937 if you know your history. In Korea, it was 2009. It’s safe to say that South Korea has a vibrant labor movement that makes the modern UAW look like a Sunday-School picnic. The Japanese also have unions, (unimaginatively known as the JAW) who make wage and benefit demands, but the Japanese approach is more nuanced, given what is termed shūshin koyō, roughly translated to “lifetime job contract”.   Politics, Trade and Societal Norms: As you might imagine, generous pay and benefits don’t lend themselves to competition in a cut-throat world market. The simple answer was “Do Not”; at least for much of the 20th Century. The Anglo model of free-markets and competition simply isn’t looked upon the same way in Asia or continental Europe. Competition between companies is viewed as OK, but as you might imagine with such strong labor unions, there was little appetite for labor-price wars between nations. Before the European Union, tariffs upon German cars largely kept them out of France. French cars weren’t often seen in Italy. As recently as 2019, Japanese auto imports to Korea were 23,400 units, less than 1.4% of a 1.77-million-unit market. Two similar markets separated by 200 miles of water. Culturally, it’s more socially acceptable to drive an American car in Korea (a novelty) than a Japanese car (a competitor) and consequently, US imports to Korea were almost double the number of Japanese cars for 2019. In years gone by, the barriers to trade were fairly obvious. Outright bans on imports and steep tariffs gave way to costly “certification” procedures that would return an entire shipment on the basis of a defect found in one vehicle. Banks simply didn’t lend money for their own citizens to build foreign dealerships. To this day, European Value Added taxation (VAT) is computed on top of an American Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP), a price that takes into account any type of tax incurred while building a product (such as property taxes for a factory, etc.) For that reason, the same Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xe that retails for $56,230 in the US will cost you 71.000 €; or $80,259. Ohio gets some tax money, and so does Das Vaterland. Of course that doesn’t totally prohibit American imports to foreign lands, but it damn sure marginalizes them enough that labor cost advantages are neutralized. In the meantime, American politicians concern themselves with opening bathrooms to the opposite sex, rather than foreign markets to American imports. Well there was that one guy who tried to do something about this, but he was “GoInG tO eNd dEmOcrAcy” as we knew it. It’s almost like the rest of the world and a lot of heavily-lobbied American politicians didn’t want these kinds of trade disparities to become yet another talking point among the unwashed deplorables.   Why Canada and Mexico aren’t as bad: Prior to 1965, traveling between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit Michigan not only took less time, but was looked upon more favorably then going to Ohio… No one from Michigan had ever shed blood over Canadian land. (Look up the Toledo War.) However, Canada did impose tariffs on vehicles built outside of the country. This meant the Detroit Three (and the independents) were wasting huge sums of money duplicating tooling to build identical vehicles literally minutes apart from each other. Sanity arrived in 1965 with what was known as “Auto Pact”, aka the Maple Leaf found on the driver’s door in any Chrysler Cordoba. The D3 agreed to keep Canadian employment at its current level in exchange for the removal of tariffs on American-built vehicles. Immediately, Canada became the sole-source for particular American-badged models, like the aforementioned Cordoba or any L-platform Mopar in the modern era. This was not only a financial benefit to the manufacturers, it resulted in the quality improvements gained by reducing model complexity at any given plant. Because Canadian and American workers earned similar pay (then represented by the same union) and had similar buying-power, this agreement was benign, or even ultimately beneficial to workers in both nations. A similar situation existed in Mexico, along with the idea of Mexican plant’s duplicating Detroit efforts. Thus 1992’s NAFTA was marketed using the Canadian Auto Pact’s success as an example. Of course, the Mexican government isn’t Canada. Organizing a meaningful union in Mexico is a good way to take a permanent vacation in the Sonoran-desert. Before long Mexico’s upper-caste saw an opportunity to exploit pennies-on-the-dollar labor into entirely new industries… That giant sucking sound which a marginalized, third-party Presidential candidate predicted. All of that said, the Detroit Three have not fled the US for Mexico. All of them have a similar number of Mexican employees and investment as they did before NAFTA. Of course they has become more efficient, sole-sourced and much more frequently mentioned, but each had manufacturing operations in Mexico dating back to the 1920s (and earlier in the case of the Model T). The real American job loss has come from new supplier investments and entirely new industries that didn’t exist in Mexico prior to NAFTA. By including a “minimum wage” provision in the USMCA, the Trump administration essentially did what the UAW failed to do 35 years earlier.    Why is a Mexican Hellcat better than an Alabama Hyundai: Quite simply because a platform of American origin will generate more employment in higher-paid fields of design/engineering, testing, procurement, marketing and service parts. While it’s far from an ideal situation, until someone changes what you’ve read above, some amount of low-cost/high-profit manufacturing sustains the motherships in Detroit. And by the way, try being a “superpower” without significant employment in STEM disciplines. The same resumes that land on desks in Warren, Dearborn and Auburn Hills, Michigan also land on desks throughout the country in environments like General Dynamics, Raytheon, Boeing, etc. Without a civilian industry, the knowledge becomes like a lost language because the demand for manufacturing engineers, logistics, and the supporting machine tooling dries up. I came from a mechanical background and was later trained how to write testing programs, using German-language software. I've never seen a computer-coder taught how to rebuild an engine. With the loss of its domestic industry, Australia within a generation will become either a tourist destination that doesn’t allow anyone inside, or perhaps a Chinese call center for semi-English speaking markets. Remember that Toyota once operated an Australian plant on the basis of “See mate? We employ people too!” That plant closed in 2017 and if the Aussies don’t like it, they can ride a Kangaroo.  If you don’t want to believe me that those jobs will never come to the US in the form of foreign-headquartered companies, then believe their own words from this 10-year old piece in Automotive News. I admit that I need to make a legitimate scan, but it says that despite cost advantages for American R&D, those disciplines are staying in their home markets. Try being an American purchasing a controlling interest in a German industrial company… their constitution forbids it! “foreign direct investments that are likely to affect public order or security in Germany or another EU member state, or relate to projects or programs of EU interest as set out in article 8 of the FDI Screening Regulation may be restricted, meaning the investment can be made subject to certain requirements or be prohibited.” Unlike the U.S. Government which was too busy prosecuting/defending the Monica Lewinsky scandal to notice the SEC filing that predicted Chrysler being hollowed-out by Daimler, I believe the Germans would take action.    Whew, that was a lot of typing.   ... View more

My first ride was a 1962 dodge lancer....170ci slant 6....3 on the tree couldn't kill the thing...gramps had bought it with no options what so ever...still have the original owners manual...some of the options still amuse me ie...glove box light,prismatic rear view mirror,passenger side mirror ... View more

After enjoying my Christmas vacation, I’ve decided to expand a little more on my earlier posting. If I were as skilled as Jack, I could probably romanticize this and make it an enjoyable read. Brevity being the soul of wit, I’ll instead use bullet points. Maybe the underlying theme here is “you don’t know what you don’t know.”   Unions: For those of you who bemoan the United Auto Workers “running manufacturing out of the US” and I thus assume look to Germany, Korea and Japan as models of labor efficiency, please do a little research into their home-market operations. Germany’s IG Metall is the union which represents German autoworkers and with 2.3 million members, it represents 15% of the entire German workforce. On a good day, the UAW has about 390,000 members, mostly in Michigan, representing whatever ever-tinier percentage of the American workforce it thus equates to. That matters (as you’ll see) because each casts an accordant influence on a nation’s industrial policy. To quote the readily available article “How Germany Builds Twice As Many Cars As The U.S. While Paying Its Workers Twice As Much”, the average auto worker in Germany made “$67.14 per hour in salary in benefits; the average one in the U.S. made $33.77 per hour.” (Both of those numbers include fringe benefit costs… Keeping in mind that Germany has a national healthcare system!) Moving on to Korea, perhaps I could recommend “unions-are-driving-hyundai-and-general-motors-out-of-south-korea” as a search, or just think of the last time you recall the UAW battling with police commandos sent in to remove them from occupying a factory? About 1937 if you know your history. In Korea, it was 2009. It’s safe to say that South Korea has a vibrant labor movement that makes the modern UAW look like a Sunday-School picnic. The Japanese also have unions, (unimaginatively known as the JAW) who make wage and benefit demands, but the Japanese approach is more nuanced, given what is termed shūshin koyō, roughly translated to “lifetime job contract”.   Politics, Trade and Societal Norms: As you might imagine, generous pay and benefits don’t lend themselves to competition in a cut-throat world market. The simple answer was “Do Not”; at least for much of the 20th Century. The Anglo model of free-markets and competition simply isn’t looked upon the same way in Asia or continental Europe. Competition between companies is viewed as OK, but as you might imagine with such strong labor unions, there was little appetite for labor-price wars between nations. Before the European Union, tariffs upon German cars largely kept them out of France. French cars weren’t often seen in Italy. As recently as 2019, Japanese auto imports to Korea were 23,400 units, less than 1.4% of a 1.77-million-unit market. Two similar markets separated by 200 miles of water. Culturally, it’s more socially acceptable to drive an American car in Korea (a novelty) than a Japanese car (a competitor) and consequently, US imports to Korea were almost double the number of Japanese cars for 2019. In years gone by, the barriers to trade were fairly obvious. Outright bans on imports and steep tariffs gave way to costly “certification” procedures that would return an entire shipment on the basis of a defect found in one vehicle. Banks simply didn’t lend money for their own citizens to build foreign dealerships. To this day, European Value Added taxation (VAT) is computed on top of an American Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP), a price that takes into account any type of tax incurred while building a product (such as property taxes for a factory, etc.) For that reason, the same Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4xe that retails for $56,230 in the US will cost you 71.000 €; or $80,259. Ohio gets some tax money, and so does Das Vaterland. Of course that doesn’t totally prohibit American imports to foreign lands, but it damn sure marginalizes them enough that labor cost advantages are neutralized. In the meantime, American politicians concern themselves with opening bathrooms to the opposite sex, rather than foreign markets to American imports. Well there was that one guy who tried to do something about this, but he was “GoInG tO eNd dEmOcrAcy” as we knew it. It’s almost like the rest of the world and a lot of heavily-lobbied American politicians didn’t want these kinds of trade disparities to become yet another talking point among the unwashed deplorables.   Why Canada and Mexico aren’t as bad: Prior to 1965, traveling between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit Michigan not only took less time, but was looked upon more favorably then going to Ohio… No one from Michigan had ever shed blood over Canadian land. (Look up the Toledo War.) However, Canada did impose tariffs on vehicles built outside of the country. This meant the Detroit Three (and the independents) were wasting huge sums of money duplicating tooling to build identical vehicles literally minutes apart from each other. Sanity arrived in 1965 with what was known as “Auto Pact”, aka the Maple Leaf found on the driver’s door in any Chrysler Cordoba. The D3 agreed to keep Canadian employment at its current level in exchange for the removal of tariffs on American-built vehicles. Immediately, Canada became the sole-source for particular American-badged models, like the aforementioned Cordoba or any L-platform Mopar in the modern era. This was not only a financial benefit to the manufacturers, it resulted in the quality improvements gained by reducing model complexity at any given plant. Because Canadian and American workers earned similar pay (then represented by the same union) and had similar buying-power, this agreement was benign, or even ultimately beneficial to workers in both nations. A similar situation existed in Mexico, along with the idea of Mexican plant’s duplicating Detroit efforts. Thus 1992’s NAFTA was marketed using the Canadian Auto Pact’s success as an example. Of course, the Mexican government isn’t Canada. Organizing a meaningful union in Mexico is a good way to take a permanent vacation in the Sonoran-desert. Before long Mexico’s upper-caste saw an opportunity to exploit pennies-on-the-dollar labor into entirely new industries… That giant sucking sound which a marginalized, third-party Presidential candidate predicted. All of that said, the Detroit Three have not fled the US for Mexico. All of them have a similar number of Mexican employees and investment as they did before NAFTA. Of course they has become more efficient, sole-sourced and much more frequently mentioned, but each had manufacturing operations in Mexico dating back to the 1920s (and earlier in the case of the Model T). The real American job loss has come from new supplier investments and entirely new industries that didn’t exist in Mexico prior to NAFTA. By including a “minimum wage” provision in the USMCA, the Trump administration essentially did what the UAW failed to do 35 years earlier.    Why is a Mexican Hellcat better than an Alabama Hyundai: Quite simply because a platform of American origin will generate more employment in higher-paid fields of design/engineering, testing, procurement, marketing and service parts. While it’s far from an ideal situation, until someone changes what you’ve read above, some amount of low-cost/high-profit manufacturing sustains the motherships in Detroit. And by the way, try being a “superpower” without significant employment in STEM disciplines. The same resumes that land on desks in Warren, Dearborn and Auburn Hills, Michigan also land on desks throughout the country in environments like General Dynamics, Raytheon, Boeing, etc. Without a civilian industry, the knowledge becomes like a lost language because the demand for manufacturing engineers, logistics, and the supporting machine tooling dries up. I came from a mechanical background and was later trained how to write testing programs, using German-language software. I've never seen a computer-coder taught how to rebuild an engine. With the loss of its domestic industry, Australia within a generation will become either a tourist destination that doesn’t allow anyone inside, or perhaps a Chinese call center for semi-English speaking markets. Remember that Toyota once operated an Australian plant on the basis of “See mate? We employ people too!” That plant closed in 2017 and if the Aussies don’t like it, they can ride a Kangaroo.  If you don’t want to believe me that those jobs will never come to the US in the form of foreign-headquartered companies, then believe their own words from this 10-year old piece in Automotive News. I admit that I need to make a legitimate scan, but it says that despite cost advantages for American R&D, those disciplines are staying in their home markets. Try being an American purchasing a controlling interest in a German industrial company… their constitution forbids it! “foreign direct investments that are likely to affect public order or security in Germany or another EU member state, or relate to projects or programs of EU interest as set out in article 8 of the FDI Screening Regulation may be restricted, meaning the investment can be made subject to certain requirements or be prohibited.” Unlike the U.S. Government which was too busy prosecuting/defending the Monica Lewinsky scandal to notice the SEC filing that predicted Chrysler being hollowed-out by Daimler, I believe the Germans would take action.    Whew, that was a lot of typing.   ... View more

Thanks Chris. My mistake. ... View more

Never had any love for this tool. I generally have had other options that were more successful I use as a go to. The real issues is most impact drivers are not generally well built tools. People just don’t invest much in tools that generally don’t work well. Most are from some u. Named company from China at a low price hence broken bits. Like stated often the fastener is already damaged and often these just create more damage. My small electric impact driver has been a greater help along with heat or lubrication. ... View more

I've owned my 1992 white NSX since 1995, 140.000 miles, runs like new, no desire to sell although this is the time. I know many car guys who were into only European makes, bought an NSX cheap to flip. Almost everyone of them decided to keep it and sell the European car instead. The car really grows on you, getting in and out biggest complaint, nothing drives like it, extremely well balanced. Other pitfall uses rear tires up but they are cheap. ... View more

I worked for Malibu Grand Prix for 16 years and knew Randy well. I really miss working on the karts (which were more like 1/2 part 1/2 race car) I helped open the speedzone locations and almost moved to LA to be the shop manager, but timing just didn't work out. I am still looking for the rare barn find to put a vintage in my garage. With all the time I spent tearing them down to bare frame and putting the back together (what we use to call the 2000hr check) I am pretty sure I could do it again. I also still have a complete set of manuals in my garage in their original binders. ... View more

GUNPOWDER??????? OMG!!! ... View more

I totally agree about early 60's American dashboards with their great swoopy chrome forms. ... View more

Nothing puts an edge on better than a File.  This is a two way tool.  ... View more

Amen to that! 80's Toyotas would dissolve while you watched them. I'm lucky my 85 Supra came from the high desert in Southern California. The body is fabulous, but the interior is dried out and the plastic parts are stating to disintegrate, something else to watch out for in 80's Japanese cars. - Jim ... View more

These cars were something special. They created a new class of car with the mis size luxury class of cars that everyone copied. Before the Riviera, GP, and Eldorado brought personal luxury to a limited group but the 69 GP brought it and special styling to the masses. ... View more

Yeah it's funny how pictures like that really put it all into such a great context. Thanks for sharing your Oldsmobile story!  ... View more

Larrry. I didn’t focus so much on a particular brand just English. 5 original Minis, Sunbeam Tiger, 4 lotuses, a few MG’s. Then when my kids were young didn’t have time for any toys. Cars will always be around, but the kids will be gone before you know it. When my boys we’re teenagers they bought their own toys and I taught them how to fix, restore a BMW E30 for one and a E28 M5 for the other. They both still own them. Once I did my fatherly duty I was looking for another Lotus and stumbled across an NSX with 240k miles (a car I will never sell) that needed a bunch of mechanical work. What a pleasure not to have to do any rust repair (all aluminum). After that was running I started my bucket list. I want to visit Italy and while I’m there tour the Ferrari factory. I found out to get in you have to own a Ferrari. So I purchased a 1985 Mondial that was sitting for 10+ years. I’m going through the same process you are. FerrariChat is a great resource. ... View more

Tesla has been uncontested in the EV market.  Heck the Brown could have won a number of Super Bowls by now if they had the same odds. And I am Browns fan!  Plain and simple Tesla is a big fish in a very small pond. That is going to change soon as other automakers will intro more cars at one division into the EV segment that Tesla has offered in it entire existence.  I am sure they will remain competitive but they will have to fight for sales for the first time. They will need to get more product out and in time not promise it, then pre sell it then not deliver for 4 years or more.  Tesla also will need to refresh the cars they have the S is long in the tooth. Sure 2 seconds yo 60 make headlines but in the real world it matters little. Everyone will be quick to 60 but the winner will be a full charge in the same time to fill a tank of gas,    I am not a Tesla hater just a realist. Every mfg has challenges ahead and most are big enough and financially strong enough really impact the market in ways a Tesla will struggle.    ... View more

Oh well, I missed it. I also forgot to celebrate 2/89 at the end of April this yr. ... View more

Even NHRA took note of this. Top Fuel Dragsters are the very top of the latter as far as NHRA is concerned. (Especially in the US). Except Top Fuel Dragster's are slower than Speed Demon and many other Bonneville Streamlines. Bonneville accentuates the difference between top speed vesus quickness. NHRA is all about quickness, yet many think Top Fuel Dragsters are "the fastest" .They are NOT. They are the quickest, not the fastest. There is a similar analogous situation with production EV's versus production ICE cars. The Tesla Roadster will never be the fastest production car. It will lukely be the quickest, NOT the fastest. ... View more

I just had a high school buddy who had a 58 Chevy reunite with his car.    He sold the car nearly 30 years ago and it was lost. His son only recalled seeing photos so he went on a search. He gave up but the searches on the web he set were still working. 8 years later the car popped up.    He has the car back today. It needs some work but it is all there and drivable. It even has the continental kit on it and the original pin striping he had put on in 1982.    My Chevelle SS from the same era has just shown up a mile from where I live today.    If you look around and had a cool car in the past odds are it will show up again if you just look around.  ... View more

I'd throw in the 8th Gen Si (07-11) in the suggestion box as well. Last of the high RPM Si's and temptingly cheap still. ... View more

before you do anything, get an oil pressure gauge and make sure the pump isn’t worn out/low oil pressure.  If so, replace the cover and pump.   after that… Block the exhaust gas cross over, rebuild and tune the Q-jet, recurve the distributor and set the initial with way more timing. How much depends on your location, elevation, temps, and fuel.   Duals, 2.5” mufflers, tails can be 2.25 with little loss.   The old school b1b intake is good, unless you want to keep the intake stock.  72 ditch the points.   beyond that…in a heavy B-body, you need some 3.42s for the 9-3/8.   ... View more

Fab-luss! 1970's excess at it's most gorgeous best! I, too, have both of the "little cars", as I called them in my elementary school years, pictured above. I also adored my red with white top Lincoln Mark V, light green Mercury Villager wagon, silvery taupe 1980 Cadillac Seville (one my Granny shuttled me to a dozen stores to find), and too many more to name. At one point, I had 200+ of the Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars. Ahhhh, those were the good ole days. If only I could go back! ... View more

What about the 427/425 hp Corvettes? ... View more

That Corsa looks exactly like my 65 that I owned as a late teenager. Same color paint and top. I would not be surprised if it has a tannish color interior. I loved that car but in Detroit ( as with most northern cities) the salt just ate them up. We are talking 1968 or so and it was already bubbling in the rocker panels and under the front bumper. But that was how it was in those days and that’s why people turned in their cars every few years ( or spent all their free time mixing up bondo lol). Always wanted to find one. I ended up selling it back to the original owner around 1970 -he was a designer at GM and told me he hated what GM would be selling in a few years and was buying back all the favorite cars he had owned. Drove it around the block and handed me a check for asking price and drove it away. Ended up leaving GM to open a hot air balloon business. Still remember his name after 50 years. Linden Harding. If you’re out there Linden what did you end up doing to our Corvair? ... View more

Sorry; but the Volt is WAY better than a Prius, especially if you drive less than 45 miles per day.. It blows the Prius away in driving dynamics. And if you drive less than 45 miles a day, you will never use a drop of gas. If you do use lots of gas in a Volt, the Prius will beat the Volt in ICE fuel efficiency. But why buy a Volt if you are regularly using lots of gas? It's a shame GM didn't market the Volt well enough; it is a GREAT car and a tech marvel. ... View more

Wife and I were given the same silver / red microfiber feel cloth interior with the 350 V8 . We were young and needed a second car, family was growing, big and safe. It was a dream to drive, wish we still had. ... View more

I grew up in Vallejo and 73 'Old'-now, I don'r remember this Hod Rod there, but being a huge carguy all my life I really enjoyed readin about it's history. I went to the Oakland Roadster Show many times before it moved, so I could have seen it there and didn't realize how Cool then from where it came and to read about it now is Cool. Thanks ... View more

No mention of Acura NSX? ... View more

Repairing "Bee'mers and Bronco's, Both were the worst for rust. Ford owners accepted the fact. _hi end BMW owners, thought you were ripping them off. ... View more

When Craigslist fails, I'm in the junkyard. Like others, I bring tools WD-40, a make shift creeper and never ever say, "this will only take a minute" . ... View more

Sorry that was coupes, convertibles were 609 with manual transmission. ... View more

Actually, Queen Mary was never a cruise ship. She was an ocean liner. While visibly similar, the two types of ships are constructed using different priorities, liners for speed and endurance, cruise ships sacrifice speed for comfort. Liners are able to function as cruise ships although economically they are not optimized for that function. Pure cruise ships are unable to engage in trans oceanic liner service due to their limited speed and sea keeping. ... View more