Rob, great post. I live in Zimbabwe Africa. Last year I purchased a 1973 3.0S...167000 km on the clock...standard Zenith 35/45 twin carbs M30 4 speed manual...have done a fair amount of work on it and just enjoying the retro driving experience. Between Kariba, Makuti and Chirundu the Zambezi escarpment provides great opportunity to put it to work - it’s natural environment. The rear end is very soft, and I see you sorted yours out with a new set of Bilstien HD shocks...etc...if you could give me any advice on what I could do or details of any factory any mods that were done...I would be grateful. ... View more

Coming from a company that once had edgy and groundbreaking advertisements for its vehicles such as the Respect movie for the K1200R and the Driver series with some truly epic depictions of what BMW's were supposed to be about, this is a marketing turn as shocking as their design direction. As someone who once owned a BMW for the "driving machine" aspect, I can say I don't miss the brand. ... View more

Gentlemen: Moments ago (that's a unit of time measured in seconds or minutes (seconds is a time measured in mississippi's), and used as a descriptor of a period not less than a few seconds and not more than 5 minutes (that's 300 mississippi's); I pulled myself up off the floor after recovering from a bad case of hilariitis (that's a syndrome where you have great difficulty breathing because you are laughing so hard, you can't get oxygen into your lungs). This piece is not just a Home Run, but a Grand Slam! Love it. 🙂 Bravo to the Alternate Universe and your Way-back machine! (I'd attempt to explain the meaning of Alternate Universe and Way Back machine, (for those lacking a Classical Education, I would translate these words, but your lack of $ 5 or even one dollar word vocabulary would make the attempt moot anyway, so I chose to look down my aquiline features instead). I would expound on my current discourse, but it has taken me nearly ten minutes to write this and I'm still having trouble keeping my eyes clear, from the ear to ear grin on my face, after reading some of the screeds (for those of you from Rio Linda, or possibly Cleveland, that is a diatribe or castigation... Oh what's the use), written in the comments section. You've done it again. I really look forward to reading more comments. The only thing that would make this better is if I was reading the comments to my own article writing about my mythical town; Grundy Park, MN. A lovely little town filled with characters and goof balls and some wonderful mythical companies like Underground engineering "Where the best ideas NEVER see the light of day". Thank you for a wonderful trip down Mythical Memory lane. 🙂 ... View more

I’ve missed reviews like this. R&T used to do this but seem to have lost their way. Great write up. ... View more

This is awesome!!!  ... View more

What's your definition of reasonably easy?  Aside from a Chrysler 2.2 turbo powertrain swap, everything else will likely require some fabrication both under the hood and inside the car to manage the electronics and maybe even to work with your gearbox.  ... View more

Really enjoyed this article, and it seems to me that the author understands all too well what has happened to BMW and its M Division over the past 15 years or so.  More's the pity... ... View more

Jack, out of curiosity, was this some organized "track day", or you were just hoping that  sheriff was not in town?   Asking for a friend, of course :).   I remember an article by your boss, a long time ago, who was driving with some local guys. In a V8 Ferrari against RX7, and it didn't end well for Ferrari :). Locals "went to high school with deputies", so they've had a word when they can perform (responsible and reasonable) shenanigans. ... View more

I bought a 2013 Challenger R/T back in May. It had 24,000 miles on it and it was in nice shape. It has the 375 hp Hemi, with an 6 speed manual transmission and a 3.92 rear gear. It’s only options were the moonroof and 20”inch wheels. I really enjoy driving it.  ... View more

I owned a 1995 C4 and always enjoyed the car. Great car for road trips and even got decent gas mileage as well - averaging in the low-to-mid 20s! Our only complaint was the large center hump in the floor for the transmission, Made for a passenger side with little foot room.    ... View more

I'll second what SteveNL had to say about eBay.  I've purchased lots of items over the years there (no cars or high priced stuff, except from sellers who maintained another online selling venue).  Most transactions go fairly smoothly.  But eBay has become decidedly difficult to do business on as a seller, due to the "protections" they have built in for the buyer.  This has raised the cost of doing business there and made selling difficult, and prices definitely higher to the buyer as a result. I recently attempted to sell a car and got a number of bids, two of which exceeded the reserve.  The car description was quite detailed, and included links to 4 youtube videos of the car, as well as a substantial number of photos posted on a photo-sharing site.  I emailed the "winner" of the auction, who finally responded more than a week later, that "sorry, don't want it anymore".  EBay states that "a bid is a contract; if you bid, you are obligated to buy".  There are two exceptions; vehicles and one other category.  In those cases, a bid is "an expression of interest to buy".  What?!  The second chance offer I sent to the next highest bidder - also above, and the only other bid above, the reserve price - was ignored.  So no sale.  A waste of time, and a waste of money.  The only time I use eBay now is if I'm desperate enough because I can't find it on Amazon or Rockauto, or at a junkyard within 50 miles. ... View more

My first car was a 68 Dodge Charger.  The headlamp doors didn't work when I bought it used in 1974, but I would manually open and close them by hand because I thought the car looked so much better with the covers down.  Wasn't smart enough of a mechanic at 16 years old to actually know how to fix them to work properly.  I do remember a few nights driving home from work with people flashing their lights at me because I forgot to flip the doors open.  Still one of my favorite looking cars.  Wish people would have read the beginning of this article so they would not be commenting about vehicles with pop up headlamps instead of fixed covered headlamps.  Save the pop ups for a future article.   ... View more

You're right, all of the looking for 1973 parts (4 spd manual V6 2600 GT) in the junkyards taught me a lesson in the differences between different years of the Capri.  It does look like '72 or older Tail lights.  The bumpers are not original plastic bumper of the '74 either.    The overall best Capri in my opinion was the '73 V6 with 4 speed manual.  The only thing it needed was to upgrade to '74 rear passenger popout windows.  The '73' were glued onto the hardware and would fly off if glue was too old.  The 74's had a hole in the glass for securely mounting hardware. ... View more

The more time I spend on the roads out here around Denver, the more I feel the need for something like this from a defensive point of view.  A lot of guys out here into the "mine's bigger than yours" vibe.  Guess this fits that bill! ... View more

A friend of a friend in high school had one back in the early 80's. It was a 455 car and I believe it was a Stage I as well, Blue with gold lettering/side stripe. For some reason, he had it repainted by Earl Scheib, who painted over all the decals and stripes. It was just terrible.  ... View more

My son caught the car bug from me at an early age.  We started out with muscle cars, mainly Mustangs.  In fact, an '83 GT with a 5 speed was the enticement to make better grades.  He brought home straight A's in high school to have that car.     Anyway, now that he's grown with his own family, we share a love of Miata's.  I've had 4 now and sold a 2004 MSM to him that he's tastefully modified.  We work on it together, when he lets me, and we go on drives often together.  His mechanical abilities have far surpassed mine.  But the father/son thing is strong built on cars and trust.   ... View more