Those cars were slow but tough, my cousins were on a road trip in the early 80s and got caught in a high speed crash in a 76 240D, they walked away with no injuries despite totaling the car. I also just saw one yesterday done up a a Gambler 500 car in prototype style dazzle camo with a roof rack and a light mount made out of a snowboard deck. ... View more

A custom tool is always slick but I could probably do just as well with a pin spanner. The Park Tool one at the bicycle shop are cheap enough and I already have one ground down into a Bontrager hub lock ring tool. ... View more

Being able to share that is awesome. Time and money permitting I want to connect with one of the regional groups. Train Mountain in Chiloquin Oregon is one of the larger miniature railways in the US but the majority of members use gas or electric instead of steam. On the plus side you don't have to lay your own tracks. ... View more

The funny thing is that those 20R and 22R engines that are unkillable in daily drivers and African technicals are total grenades in Lemons racers. Murilee Martin's web site used to a have a gallery full of Lemons engines with thrown rods. ... View more

The only first generation Civic I've ever driven was a school mate's 77 or so with Hondamatic in the early 80s. I remember it was tiny, sounded almost exactly like a VW Beetle and was nowhere near as much fun to drive as our 77 Accord 5 speed. I suppose this explains why the Accord sold like hot cakes. There's actually a first gen Civic in my neighborhood because in Oregon they don't rust. It's modified with a vinyl top and round taillights and is a daily. ... View more

Paul Newman's ride is just called a CZ. Skoda is a totally separate entity that made tanks, artillery and cars while CZ, short for Česká Zbrojovka was founded shortly after Czechoslovakian independence and made small arms, followed by cars and motorcycles. The current divisions of CZ include CZ-UB which is still a gun maker, CZ Strakonice which makes forklifts and auto parts and was the motorcycle division, CZ Brno which also makes car parts and CZ-USA, which is the US manufacturing and distribution arm of CZ-UB. ... View more

I saw a Berkeley at a car show with a Honda 550 four in place of the original two stroke. That must have been scary fast. ... View more

I'm inspired to hit eBay and the garage. I have motorcycles to resurrect and a pickup in need of attention. Fortunately for my back and unfortunately for my wallet priority one is tires since the set on the truck is dated 2009 and the second set is dated 2006 and one of those failed in the driveway. ... View more

I see a lot of Local Motors' Rally Fighter in the combination of the tire carrier and greenhouse. I'm sure it gives the BMWCCA the vapors but I'm a BMW motorcycle guy and this is closer in spirit to an R100GS than that that X6 monstrosity ... View more

GM has a lot of intramural duplication. Chevrolet and Oldsmobile both had a 307 and 350 V8s. If you go metric Chevy actually had 3 different 5.0 liter small block variations, the 302/307 twins made by mixing and matching 283 and 327 parts. and the 305 made by reducing the bore on a 350. (302 is the Z28 engine, 283 crank in a 327 block, 307 was the base engine for the period with a 327 crank in a 283 block). Ford also duplicated displacement in different engine families since the 330 ci FE truck engine and the 5.4 Triton have the same displacement. ... View more

Taxing cars isn't very popular and Washington had a ruckus over people keeping Oregon plates on their cars when they moved to Vancouver to avoid income tax. For that matter I take perverse pride in stiffing Missouri for personal property tax when we left the state. I actually like Oregon's approach where income tax is the primary revenue source and there's no sales tax on anything. Even my property taxes are modest by East coast standards. Car registration is currently based on EPA combined mileage, in an attempt to compensate for reduced gasoline tax revenues so an F150 is cheaper to register than a Prius, but it's only $75-100 difference. I think they are pushing per mile for electric vehicles. There's a more equitable burden since income tax is progressive while sales tax is regressive and there's no weird value based taxes like Massachusetts excise or Michigan plates ... View more

I think a bit of extra investment to make a 6' bed extended cab would be worth it for people who want to carry bikes with the tailgate closed and commercial users who want an open top Transit Connect. Personally I get a lot more use out of a longer bed than a full back seat. Then again my truck is almost 20 years old so gas mileage and age are offset by no payments and cheap insurance. On the plus side a reasonably priced 4 door 4x4 pickup with enough ground clearance might entice my 20 something son to go single vehicle in place of his beater Suburban and project car Corolla. ... View more

Kudos to Hagerty and Lane for being willing to take this risk. Like others I'm curious about the effect of a camber compensator and whether that was incorporated in the 603 and 613. Wat's next on the list? I think the Lane museum has Dymaxion replica. ... View more

My flare nut wrenches don't see a lot of use but better to have them on hand than to rush out in haste. One tool that is really useful if you work on older motorcycles is a hand impact driver for those stubborn but easily stripped Phillips head screws. I have also been getting a lot of use out my work platform since my current project is a truck and you need a step up to reach stuff ... View more

This raises the question of why haven't some of these chips been moved to 300mm wafers? The technology is mature enough that there are some obsolete 65nm fabs out there and the cost of moving to a bigger wafer is offset by having far more parts per wafer since 300mm wafer has over twice the surface of a 200mm wafer ... View more

I predict a cottage industry of FPGA based replacements for cars that are sufficiently valuable and possibly some generic control modules along the lines of a more sophisticated Megasquirt. ... View more

If you want obscure, how about From a Vauxhall Velox by Billy Bragg, or MGB GT by Richard Thompson, complementing his famous ballad 1952 Vincent Black Lightning. ... View more

Ambassador was actually a triple since a development of the Austin Princess was called the Ambassador https://www.aronline.co.uk/cars/austin/ambassador/ BL also shared another car name, Austin Montego and Mercury Montego Motorcycles also shared names Triumph Thunderdird and Ford Thunderbird and Ford had to license it because Triumph got there first, on the other hand Triumph had to license Bonneville from Pontiac. There's also the Triumph Daytona, which shares its name with several Dodges and the Spitfire which was a Triumph car and a BSA motorcycle. ... View more

The Japanese home market still gets it because Toyota Centuries still have very luxurious cloth. Personally I'd be happy to see Bedford Cord or West of England Cloth interiors instead of leather. For that matter Alcantara and similar microfiber upholstery does a better job than junky leather. I'd gladly reupholster my truck in MB-Tex if I could do it because leather in a slightly banged up working truck seems incongruous. ... View more

I can relate, it's been years since I could actually fit a car in my 2 car garage since the bicycles,. motorcycles and kayaks eat so much space. Fortunately we are looking in semi-rural areas where workshops are common so I as long as Californians are desperate to work remote I can sell for a profit and buy my dream garage. I can relate to all garage and no house, a few years ago I stumbled on a listing for a property west of Portland Oregon that was a large shop with loading dock and utilities and a small shed containing a bathroom, kitchen and laundry that was a placeholder for a house, or support for a parked RV. I'm also familiar with a garage you can land a plane in since air park developments are common in the west. My personal is the house with the 8" gauge railway in the back yard ... View more

Dead on target, when I saw an article about this I concluded that most of the dealers taking the buyout were seizing an opportunity to bail out of a declining franchise or they didn't believe they would be profitable. These guys are for more concerned with GAAP than ICE vs EV. ... View more

I can see the value in these cars. A friend traded an increasingly troublesome W140 S Class for a newish 300 a few years ago. The Mopar offered an equivalent driving experience at substantially lower running cost even with loan payments ... View more

Track Nose Roadster: A Ford T or A with front sheet metal similar to a sprint car. ... View more

My potential parts hauler is the 2002 F150 I bought in March, unfortunately it hasn't been able to haul stuff for projects because this summer it was the project while I replaced the heads. On the positive side both the 8' box and the trailer hitch got some exercise between moving and camping.  My son's GM T400 Suburban has also proven its worth since with seats folded it has almost the same space as a pickup.  ... View more

The ironic  thing is  back in the late 80s Car magazine called the Quantum Syncro wagon the ultimate getaway car because in the UK it was totally invisible  ... View more

From a previous life I have a very large punch made from a jackhammer side rod with the broken threads ground flat. Fortunately I seldom need to use this, unlike my brass drift set which is great for bashing things without damaging them. Broken bicycle spokes are also a classic tool found in every bike shop. ... View more

I agree that a truck is useful, I still question the utility of some these modern gussied trucks that are all cab and no bed. Then again I beat the whole fancy expensive truck thing by driving an old used truck with an extended cab, an 8' bed and some astonished looks at how low an older two wheel drive half ton rides. I do enjoy confounding stereotype by driving around playing hardbass on the stereo as I haul stuff and occasionally tow stuff and don't worry about depreciation or insurance costs on a $3000 truck that mostly gets driven on weekends. I also don't care about scratching or denting a truck bed that already looks like 40 miles of bad road. My experience goes a long way towards explaining the popularity of older pickups. As an aside, there are better hitch racks for mountain bikes. A tray style like a Kuat is easier to load and handles gravity bikes and fat bikes with aplomb, as well as trail bikes like my old Trek Fuel EX8. I've even put the hitch rack on my truck once for laughs. ... View more

When I saw the title  my hope was something  referencing "Warm Leatherette" by The Normal.   I also lament the beigeification of modern cars, even though my everyday belt is nylon webbing.   ... View more

As a sign of how far we have come the Lightning's SVT modded 260 HP 351W is matched by the subsequent generation's bone stock 5.4 Triton. That said a 351W in a square body is a lot easier to work on. The again a 2014 Camry V6 has a quicker 1/4 mile than an 87 Mustang GT. Personally my favorite of the 3 is the BMW shark nose. I know it's a money pit but they are iconic cars and in the PNW they are rust free. F-150 lightnings are cool trucks but I already have a bright red 260HP pickup 🙂 ... View more

The blue and white color scheme on Ferraris is also a reference to Luigi Chinetti and NART (North American Racing Team). His showroom in Greenwich Ct. used to have a lot of cool stuff on the floor, unlike Malcolm Pray who kept the good stuff in his garage. As background blue and white were the US nation racing colors back when that was a thing. The Mercedes pickup is a bit of a disappointment. The crew cab looks awkward and it pales in comparison to the W114/W115 pickups made in Argentina in the 70s ... View more