TTAC Commentator PG writes:
Sajeev, my 2008 Subaru WRX is like a hot girl with a coke problem – lots of fun, but I can’t keep up. Now a few months back, Piston Slap gave me some great advice on my parents’ BMW X5. They haven’t unloaded it yet, but I think they will soon. Thanks again! Now, I was wondering if you and the Best and Brightest could help me out.
Remember window louvers? They were sort of terrible, yet it’s still interesting to see them on a quasi-sporty Malaise Era car. This Celica ST’s louvers will soon be ground up and digested by The Crusher. Read More >
You have heard the whole year about the exploding Chinese car market. Surprise: Production growth in the U.S. appears to be stronger than China. In a few days or weeks, we will have the 2010 sales numbers. In this economy, what’s more important than spending money is making money, and that means jobs. For that, we have to look at the motor vehicle production numbers by country. For those, we will have to wait many months until OICA gets around to tabulating them. Let’s make a best guess estimate for who’s on top and by how much. Read More >
“I have something to tell you, but you cannot, I repeat, must not do anything about it.”
“Is it something I want to hear?”
“Yes, it is. But you have to swear.”
“Okay. I swear. Now tell me.”
“Maro is getting a divorce.” Oh. Maro. I remember you, swinging your legs, your perfect profile and staggeringly voluptuous figure backlit by the sun, and I remember you seated next to me, so long ago, in that little gold Nissan truck. Do you remember me?
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When Raoul Duke, protagonist of Hunter S. Thompson’s best-known work, goes to cover the story of the ’71 Mint 400 race, he attempts to observe the race from a Ford-owned truck. When I saw this ’72 at a Denver wrecking yard a few days ago, I figured I might be looking at that very same truck! Read More >
One thing that really sucked about the pre-MP3 era was that it was a huge hassle to get your car a cheap source of music that didn’t sound terrible. As I gather components to set up my Dodge A100 Hell Project with an ironic 8-track setup, I’m forced to recall the hot cassette deck that was more or less forced into my not-so-willing hands back in 1982. Read More >
So who will be the world’s largest automaker this year? Like it or not, this is decided by numbers of units produced, size doesn’t matter. Some time in summer 2011, OICA will publish the official worldwide manufacturer ranking. Let’s try to figure out the top three. Number 3 is easy: Read More >
Janet writes:
Please be patient. I know nothing about the internal workings of cars. Is there a difference between a head gasket and valve cover gasket or valve gasket cover? My mechanic tells me my head gasket is leaking slightly and needs to be watched: I was down 1/2 gallon of coolant since August. Back in 2008 a different mechanic replaced the valve cover gasket (or valve gasket cover?) because the car was hesitating and running rough: I had tried Dry Gas thinking it was a bad tank of gas but that did not alleviate the problem.
Are we talking about 2 different parts? Would you please explain the function(s)? Is it/are they visible when I open the hood of my car? Thank you.
It’s a few million square feet. More than sixty football fields. And even on this holiday weekend, it’s not silent. In one corner, a group of men congregate around a folded-up seating assembly. Elsewhere, a tractor-trailer backs up to a dock and a green light flashes on as sensors click and an unattended door rolls up. Electric carts and small tractors whiz by me during my long walk through the darkened, cavernous interior spaces. A persistent, high-pitched whine emits from a timeclock. A poster details the instrument panel changes in a 2011 model.
In a society which has largely forgotten the divine and chosen to worship commerce, production, and marketing, this is a cathedral; still, I’m walking quickly without a genuflection to the rows of engine-transmission assemblies suspended above me, because I need to rush home and observe the same rituals. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thine closet.
The Denver self-service wrecking yard a few miles from my house had a section packed with a few dozen examples of vintage Detroit iron, plus a few MGs. I say had because they just crushed everything. Fortunately, they did so to make room for a new crop of American machinery from the 1950s and 1960s, including this Mopar wagon. Read More >
Yes, owners of classic cars still drive them on the street during the winter in Denver (though we haven’t seen any real snow yet); I spotted this rare Bavarian at the park yesterday. Read More >
In this third installment covering my long-sought West Virginia road trip (part one, part two) we meet some of the local talent.
After six hours on the road I cross the Ohio River into West Virginia. New Martinsville is large enough to be ugly. And full of cars. Leaving town on WV 7/20, I’m stuck behind a half-dozen of them. Hopefully most will continue on 7 instead of 20—a glance at the nav shows the split ahead. After a few miles a passing zone finally opens up, and I take it, giving the Infiniti G37 coupe’s 330-horsepower V6 free reign, grabbing third at the redline…only to see the right turn for WV 20 flash by mid-pass. D’oh! Hit the brakes, turn around, this time successfully turn onto 20, and pass some of the same cars for a second time. A fair amount of embarrassment notwithstanding, with so much power on tap passing is effortless fun—as long as there’s a zone to do it in.
While ice cream trucks can be quite menacing, an ex-ice cream truck crudely repurposed for a home health-care business should make you want to flee in terror. Read More >
No, this isn’t a LeMons car. Nor is it some hillbilly answer to the age-old question, “What good is an old German luxury sedan?” Rather, it’s a Kamerawagen, designed for filming of some sort. Presumably it was converted back when the six-cylinder, five-speed E32 “Siebener” on which it is based was new.
More pictures and a link after the jump; thanks to Mirko for the heads-up.
I’ve been seeing quite a few junked Datsun pickups in recent years, and most of them have featured the King Cab option. To those of you accustomed to 21st-century pickups with four doors and luxurious back seats, the few additional cubic centimeters of the Datsun 720’s King Cab must seem a cruel joke. Read More >
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