Way to go, Kyle! I think most "civilians" just need a kick of creativity and bravery to be transformed into heroes. Turn off the TV and go write your own adventure! ... View more

Fair points. Take a look at the punch list shown in the photos above. I really did try to service every part that could possibly fail. I didn't anticipate the fuel problems that eventually confronted me, but I did have a fuel filter with me, along with everything up to and including a spare distributor. ... View more

A quick update on this trip: When I bought this car it came with a stack of receipts that detailed a lot of work on the fuel system, including cleaning the tank. It turns out that there was still plenty of junk floating around in the fuel system, and some of the repairs were incorrect. Wrong fuel like specs, wrong size tubing, just a lot of work that wasn't right. This "work" haunted me all the way to Amelia. I was honestly weighing whether to send the car home on a transporter, but I decided to give it a shot. I left Amelia before dawn and headed up 95, only stopping to refuel every 175 miles/7 gallons. I never let the tank get down to the point where it would start giving me trouble. It took 11 hours to cover 740 miles, with 18 minutes spent stationary at gas stations, but the car got me home with no further issues. Next step is to pull the tank for cleaning and get all of the fuel lines back to spec. Great adventure and a test of my ability to keep the car going through whatever challenges appear! ... View more

In 2017 my family set off for a 10,000 mile, 30 day trip from Baltimore to Glacier National Park in Montana with many, many destinations along the way. The van was a 2003 Ody with nearly 300k on the clock. I bought it for $1500 and had the whole thing gone over for another $2k. I then parked it in the alley and sprayed a Martini Racing Hippie Car psychedelic paint job on it, in homage to the Porsche 917 that finished second in the 1970 24 Hours of LeMans. This included all of the sponsorship decals and a huge number "3" on the doors. The van hauled us, two kids, four bicycles, camping/climbing/hiking gear, and the dog for a month with no complaints. That van is gone now, but has been replaced with a silver '12 that just got a full set of Martini Racing stripes, and yes, a big "3" on each door. It's almost road trip season... ... View more

I have been tinkering with motorcycles for decades, and I only learned about this a few years ago. This is information that should be far better known! ... View more

There is so much here that I agree with, and my general philosophy is "if you're into, then good on ya." I mostly don't care. Donk it, drop it, safari it, whatever. There are two points here, however, that I have problems with. The first is the idea that "rolling coal" is just another youth auto trend. It's not. It's a political statement. It says "I hate the values that drove your decision to buy your e-car, and I'm going to negate your value." That's not car culture. That's hate. The other point I find troubling is the idea that the pandemic response amounts to "a whim." The families of 448,000 dead Americans might take issue with such disrespect. ... View more

My Z4 3.0 6-speed Coupe (non-M) is a rarity with fewer than 900 made. The roadsters can be had cheap, but the hard top variant commands a premium--and lots of second looks and questions.  ... View more

I put a few moving blankets on the car UNDER the cover. This gives me, literally, an extra layer of idiot insurance for when something is dropped on the car or I need to stack something on it in a pinch. Remember, a good justification for having more cars is that each one provides 60-plus square feet of storage space on its horizontal surfaces! ... View more

An alternative to the CB750 is the CB400F "Super Sport" of 1975-77. These are adorable, nimble, classic, and have the amazing 4-into-1 factory side-swept exhaust headers. IMHO, far better looking and more fun than the 750. Yellow, Red, or Blue--you can't go wrong. (Yes, I had one back in the day, and have one now.) ... View more

If the question is why didn't T.E. Lawrence die on a Vincent, the answer is that the Vincent did not into production until well after Lawrence was dead. He, as we all (maybe not quite all) know, died on a Brough Superior.  ... View more