Stephen writes:   Sajeev, Several years ago I wrote you about my ’65 Falcon convertible, asking for options to re-do my suspension. I took your advice and put only upgraded factory stuff on, basically Opentracker A-arms and lower control arms with Bilstein shocks. It’s a very comfortable ride, but now I have a new problem.   When I am driving down the road at 65–70 mph in fifth gear (T-5 swap), the engine loses power and I hear a spitting type sound (fft, fft). If I downshift to fourth, the power seems to come back. This only occurs after the car has been running for 5–10 minutes at 65–70. The car has a 289, Autolite four-barrel carburetor, Mallory distributor, new generic NAPA coil, fresh plugs/wires, and I am using a ballast resistor.   Sajeev answers: It’s wonderful to hear you chose/enjoy my suggested suspension modifications, as it’s usually in the owner’s best interest to stick with a factory-style suspension, but with upgraded shocks ...   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/piston-slap-highway-resistance-from-a-misfiring-falcon/   ... View more

Today’s featured vehicle is a 1986 Monte Carlo SS. While these cars originally came with a 305-cubic-inch, 180-hp four-barrel powerplant, this particular beast packs a 383 stroker topped with a Demon carb. That motor is paired with a Patriot 700R Stage 3 high-performance transmission. The story of this car, however, is less about its statistics and more about the determination of its owner, Steven Leeds ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-community/rides-from-the-readers-1986-monte-carlo-ss/   ... View more

Last week, I wrote about the two biggest enabling factors in buying and owning more cars than I should—inexpensive insurance and ample storage space. I left out the most obvious one—money. But there’s a reason ... Read the full column on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/the-trade-selling-one-car-to-buy-another-with-no-regrets-ok-some/   ... View more

Seventy years ago, in the turbulent autumn of 1950, America had his hands full, both at home and abroad. U.S. soldiers were entrenched in the initial months of the Korean War, and McCarthyism—a campaign to root out alleged communists in the U.S. government—raged stateside. In the midst of those rising tensions, a meeting between two visionaries from opposite sides of the Atlantic formed an automotive partnership between former combatant countries, one that proved historic and long-lasting ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/porsche-celebrates-70-years-in-america/   ... View more

Stefano Domenicali has quit his role as Lamborghini’s boss to become CEO of Formula 1. The 55-year-old Italian took control of the Raging Bull in 2016, where he watched over a doubling of sales, thanks largely to the introduction of the mighty Urus SUV. Read the full news on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/lamborghinis-stefano-domenicali-to-take-charge-of-formula-1/     ... View more

Swedish EV upstart Polestar has announced that its striking Precept “vision” vehicle will go into production.   Hot on the heels of the highly-acclaimed, if not imaginatively-named, Polestar 1 coupe and Polestar 2 SUV, the Precept is a high-performance, luxury electric sedan to take on the likes of the Tesla Model S, Porsche   Taycan   and Lucid   Air. Read the full news on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/polestar-precept-is-a-dream-come-true/   ... View more

Was 1976 peak Brougham? I think so. I think it’s the year. Sure, the phenomenon of fully full-sized, V-8-powered, rear-wheel-drive luxury sleds with crushed velour and landau tops went on for decades after, but in ’76 it was everywhere, and in screw-the-fuel-economy, fully full-sized form. Also, it was the last year for the gigantic Eldorado convertible ...   Read the full column on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/1976-cadillac-eldorado-convertible-green-is-good/     ... View more

Ferrari has revealed the new Omologata, its latest bespoke supercar created as a one-off for a favored Ferrari fan.   The company describes the Omologata as a car that captures “Ferrari’s great GT tradition spanning seven decades of history.” It is the tenth front-engine V-12 one-off to have emerged from Maranello since the P540 Superfast Aperta, of 2009 ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-new-ferrari-omologata-supercar-is-the-dream-of-one-lucky-gentleman-driver/   ... View more

Paul was crouched in the back seat, face coated in grinding dust, aiming a $9 Harbor Freight heat gun at a fat sheet of floor insulation. Acrid smoke wafted up from the gun as the tar in the sheets burned off, tendrils wisping around his glasses. He sighed.   “Why did you buy this piece of crap, again?”   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/smithology-ive-seen-tired-and-ive-seen-pain/   ... View more

Riding a slow bike fast is much more fun than riding a fast bike slow, and 50ccs is right around where most every riders started their two-wheeled lives. Nowadays, the Monkey Bike seems forgotten, the engines have only gotten bigger, and some of that simple joy has been lost. That might be reversing, though. Buyers are increasingly enchanted by minibike nostalgia, as evidenced by the meteoric rise in Honda Trail 70 values. The upcoming  Bonhams’ Zoute auction  in Belgium, kicking off October 11, has five JDM minibikes that we never got in the U.S. Is this the moment to add a tiny, but powerful splash personality to your vehicle fleet?   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/5-limited-edition-jdm-minibikes-up-for-grabs-now/   ... View more

Backwards compatibility is a well-known concept in tech circles, but you need not be a software engineer or Playstation 3 loyalist to appreciate it. The Ford C6 automatic transmission is a great example of this in the automotive world because it’s also the foundation of newer automatics in Ford trucks. And thanks to this shared foundation, Ford’s C6 is backwards compatible when it comes to refinements implemented in its successors ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/modern-ish-transmissions-from-a-ford-c6/   ... View more

Today’s featured car is a 1994 Mazda RX-7 . The 1993–2002 FD generation of Mazda’s beloved rotary-powered sports car was the last, but the RX-7 was a worthy finish to the lineage. These RX-7s packed fascinating technology into a very attractive package. A twin-turbocharged 1308-cc rotary powerplant sat under the hood, channeling its 255 hp to the rear wheels via a limited-slip diff. In an effort to smooth the torque curve of the 13B engine, Mazda’s engineers designated one turbo to provide boost from 1800 to 4000 rpm, with the second kicking in after that mark. In addition to making these cars a handful on track, the twin-turbo control system hasn’t particular reliable, and many FD cars today use only a single unit ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-community/rides-from-the-readers-1994-mazda-rx-7/   ... View more

The GM Design Instagram account is definitely worth a follow. The account posts historic photos of the GM Design team at work, vintage concepts and sketches, and visionary takes on future products.  Two recent sketches show wild renderings of Cadillac and GMC trucks ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/are-these-wild-truck-sketches-the-future-of-gm-design/   ... View more

People of a certain age are all too familiar with the 1963 Lincoln Continental. Not because they once dreamed of riding in or owning one, but because of what happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963.   President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy were riding in a black ’63 Continental limousine, along with Texas governor John Connally and Connally’s wife, Nellie, when shots rang out in Dealey Plaza, killing JFK and seriously wounding the governor. What many people may not know is that the Kennedys were chauffeured in two different Lincolns on that fateful day—the black one, of course, and a white Lincoln that transported the couple and John Connally to Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth earlier that morning ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/auctions/jfks-other-lincoln-is-a-continental-of-a-different-color/   ... View more

Engine swaps are nothing new. In fact, power transplants have been part of automotive experimentation since the very beginning. Hagerty’s Brad Phillips teamed up with our own rebuild expert, Davin Reckow, to hash through a few history’s greatest swaps. Along the way, the duo touched on lessons learned from doing a few greasy surgeries of their own ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/talkin-swaps-coolest-engine-transplants-over-the-years-2/   ... View more

Early this month, the four-ringed firm announced a limited edition of 25 2021 Audi RS6 Avant “RS Tribute Editions” as an homage to the 1994 RS2.   Sure, for $109,000 the new car has 591 horsepower and can launch itself from zero to sixty in 3.5 seconds with its four-liter, twin-turbo V-8. But it, and every other high-performance Audi Avant, will forever be in the shadow of the O.G. RS2 ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/the-rs2-avant-is-still-audis-uberwagon/   ... View more

We’ve introduced you to Rocky Mountain Race Week 2.0 already, but for those just joining us, we participated in a five-day, 1300-mile torture test across multiple state lines, with a drag race at the end of each day of road tripping.   This kind of drag race enduro format tests the limits of street cars by pitting traditionally high-strung machines against both the toughest conditions at the track and on the street. The mission: To settle the score on defining the ultimate street car.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/rocky-mountain-race-week-2-0-hell-week-by-the-numbers/   ... View more

The colossal driver with a graying Santa beard eased up to the start line, beach sand falling from grooved tires in tiny hard-packed zigzags. His rig resembled a 1932 Chevy poached from the assembly line before General Motors could body the sucker. The whole clap shook like a nervous dog. Any other Saturday on this stretch of the Jersey Shore, you’d hear seagulls squawking, Atlantic swells breaking, children whooping and hollering. Not today ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/magazine-features/sand-blasting-the-race-of-gentlemen-honors-classic-hot-rods-at-the-jersey-shore/   ... View more

Mercedes-AMG has boosted the power of the twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 in both the coupe and roadster variants of the AMG GT for 2021. The hot-vee turbocharged engine now produces an impressive peak of 523 hp, up from 469 in the 2020 models. Mercedes says the extra sauce is enough to drop two tenths off the GT’s 0–60-mph run; both coupe and roadster do the sprint in 3.7 seconds. Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/mercedes-adds-power-and-stealth-to-2021-amg-gt-coupe-and-roadster/   ... View more

Few industries have endured a ride as bumpy as the car industry. It could be on the verge of another setback, after reports claimed the UK government intends to bring forward the date that new gas and diesel cars will be banned from showrooms to 2030 ... Read the full news on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/will-the-uk-government-ban-new-gas-and-diesel-cars-in-2030/   ... View more

Ron Cobb, one of the creative minds behind the   Back to the Future   DeLorean and many other Hollywood props and sets, died September 21—his 83rd birthday—in Sydney, Australia. Robin Love, Cobb’s wife of 48 years, told multiple sources that her husband suffered from Lewy body dementia.   Cobb, a cartoonist by trade who eventually became a production designer, worked on everything from Walt Disney’s   Sleeping Beauty   to sci-fi films like   Star Wars   and   Aliens.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/ron-cobb-creator-of-the-back-to-the-future-delorean-dies-at-83/   ... View more

In a surprising announcement, basketball legend Michael Jordan has agreed to partner with Denny Hamlin to purchase a NASCAR Cup Series charter. Bubba Wallace will be the driver when the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season begins ... Read the full news on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/michael-jordan-to-establish-nascar-cup-series-team-with-denny-hamlin-bubba-wallace-will-be-the-driver/   ... View more

For three decades, I ran an auto repair shop in Hellertown, Pennsylvania. At some point—long enough ago now that I can’t remember—I joined the Dewey Fire Company of Hellertown as a volunteer. The company dates back to 1898, and they named it after Admiral George Dewey for his victory at Manila Bay during the Spanish–American War. As far as I know, he had no connections to Hellertown and probably never even heard of the place, but he was a hero back then, so it stuck.   I own a pretty eclectic collection of vehicles, but I’m particularly connected to four trucks I bought from the fire company: a 1959 American LaFrance 900 Series pumper, a 1976 International 1700 rescue truck, a 1977 American LaFrance Century Series pumper, and a 1989 Hahn pumper ... Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-community/this-fleet-of-fully-functional-vintage-firetrucks-is-ready-for-adventure/   ... View more

When you think of great automotive nations, the Czech Republic is likely not top of the list. Dig deep and you might remember that VW-owned Skoda is Czech and that Tatra once made some extraordinary machines in the distant past, but chances are that Praga doesn’t ring a bell.   Praga makes planes, karts, some of the most-winning race cars in their class, and even dabbled in a wild road-going LMP-style machine.   The story begins in 1907 when the engineering firm was established in the Czech capital Prague ...   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/praga-the-oldest-fastest-car-company-youve-never-heard-of/   ... View more

After some speculation, Toyota confirmed that it will indeed introduce a road-going version of its TS050 Hybrid race car, which, with its 2020 Le Mans win, has now won Le Mans three times in a row. The car, named the GR Super Sport, made its public debut at the 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans. This streetable version allows Toyota to homologate the car so that it can race in the upcoming Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) class, the new premier class for endurance racing.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/toyota-gr-super-sport-hypercar-revealed-at-le-mans-2020/   ... View more

The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), also known as the Detroit auto show, has been an industry staple for more than 100 years. Held in the heart of Detroit, the show is in GM, Ford, and Chrysler’s backyard, guaranteeing a big turnout from the local automakers as well as their biggest competitors.   The show has been a perennial powerhouse as far as American auto shows go, always bringing big vehicle debuts. However, it has traditionally run from mid-to-late January each year. That winter schedule has made it more difficult to attend for out-of-town visitors and media due to the snowy weather. The 2020 show was planned to be the first to move to its new dates in June, but COVID-19 put an end to that. Now NAIAS executives have decided that the next Detroit show will be delayed until fall of 2021, and going forward it will remain a fall event.   Read the full news on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/detroit-auto-show-moves-to-september-and-october-starting-in-2021/   ... View more

During the livestream recap of the 24 Hours of Le Mans—The 25th Hour with John Hindhaugh and Nick Daman, presented by Hagerty—Brendon Hartley was interviewed fresh from the race in his apartment in Monaco. Not only did Hartley relive his experiences during the race, he also revealed—accidentally, it would appear—some news about his future racing for the Toyota Gazoo team.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/brendon-hartley-appears-to-let-slip-the-news-of-his-new-contract-for-2021-with-toyota-gazoo-racing/   ... View more

There were no fans there to witness it in person, but thousands of spectators from around the world tuned in to watch the 88th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans over the weekend. In the end, there wasn’t a lot of drama, as the No. 8 car from Toyota Gazoo TSO50 Hybrid LMP1 team took the checkered flag five laps ahead of the second-place Rebellion Racing’s No. 1 car.   It was the third straight win for Toyota Gazoo Racing; the winning car was co-piloted by Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley. The No. 7 Toyota placed third, six laps behind.   Read the full news on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/toyota-gazoo-racing-wins-its-third-straight-24-hours-of-le-mans/   ... View more

When it was first announced, the 2021 Ford Bronco could not be optioned with both the Sasquatch off-road package and a manual transmission. In response to customer feedback, Ford announced today that it will now offer the seven-speed manual transmission as an option with the rough-and-tough Sasquatch package. The  2021 Bronco  officially hits showrooms in spring 2021.   Read the full news on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/ford-adds-manual-transmission-for-sasquatch-equipped-bronco/   ... View more

I’m not trying to start a book club or anything, but I stumbled on a summer read that I just couldn’t put down. Before I say what it is, I should mention that one of my heroes is Henry M. Leland, the founder of Cadillac and Lincoln. Before Leland got into the car business, he ran a machining business that made components for sewing machines and guns. He was one of the first pioneers of standardized, interchangeable parts, which requires the ability to measure and machine things down to fractions of an inch and to do it repeatedly and reliably.   The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World is the story of how people developed that ability. Because if you’ve ever wondered how we went from chiseling rocks to making microchip transistors that are 13.5-billionths of a meter wide, then author Simon Winchester has a tale for you.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/magazine-features/leno-precision-machining-built-the-world-as-we-know-it/   ... View more