I’ve never bought a car online, but I did buy one at a CarMax. I knew going in I would be paying a bit of a premium vs. spending time scouring AutoTrader looking for what I want locally, but it was worth it. CarMax had the specific vehicle I wanted close enough to get it shipped for free to my local location. When it…

5th Gear: These stories are not bad, necessarily, even though they celebrate capitalism.

As the owner of a Yamaha Big Wheel 350 in the late 80's and early 90's, let me tell you this. There is a very specific reason they didn’t last long. That big fat front tire sucks in anything but sand, snow, or hard pack. It floats and wanders in mud and is very unstable. It’s a niche design and if you ride where it…

It’s funny you say that. When I had a streetbike I always wore good boots, gloves, and a full face helmet even if I wore shorts and a t-shirt. I joked that you can’t regrow fingers, toes, or your nose, the rest you can skin graft. Now I ride exclusively in the dirt and I armor up pretty solidly including a helmet with…

Since we’re talking octane, which is gasoline specific, doesn’t that eliminate auto ignition as part of the discussion with regards to this article? I know some manufacturers have experimented with auto ignition gasoline engines, have those come to market yet?

Motortrend is doing ELI5 there. And you need to stop using the word detonation. In proper combustion, there is no detonation/explosion, merely conflagration with a flame speed of 60-100 feet per second. Any detonation of any type is knock. What they’re taking a shortcut with is explaining how a faster burning fuel…

There are cars rated to use 87 octane, but if you start digging around in the manual there will be a note about optimal performance is achieved with 89 or 91.  With modern sensors, the ECU can adjust the fuel and timing curves to compensate for lower grade gasoline at the expense of some lost power and fuel economy.

There is no explosion with proper combustion. It’s a controlled burn. Any explosion=detonation/knock. Octane is the resistance to knock. Simple as that. The more resistance, the higher compression you can use. Compression is what allows you to convert to potential energy (BTUs) into kinetic energy (torque and HP). …

I’ve read it in motorcycling magazines, whether it was Cycle World or elsewhere I don’t recall. I got out of the streetbike scene in the early 2000's, so maybe the modern versions are better.

Hub center steering is a neat concept, but it’s sloppy when new and only get’s worse as you get some miles on it due to all the linkages and rod ends. There’s a reason you only see it on high end specialty bikes and it hasn’t gone mainstream.

This isn’t that new. I ordered a Ford Transit on Feb 6th. In June, every outstanding customer ordered Transit required the dealer to get a copy of the customers driver’s license. Starting in July, Ford started cancelling dealer stock orders and only building customer ordered Transits. Mine got built this Monday. Yes…

If it wasn’t for the decent multi-use trails (MUT) near me, I probably would never have bought a road bicycle and just stuck with mountain biking. I’ve done rides up to 60 miles w/o having to ride on a road. I do ride the road a bit now, but it’s just to get the MUT about a mile from my house instead of driving and…

I may be a tad ignorant because I haven’t spent any time behind the wheel of the S550, but man oh man was the S197 an improvement over the SN95. But let’s get real, the biggest leap generation to generation for the Mustang was the Pinto Stang to Fox body.

Not vents in general. I know there are plenty of vents to help with things like shutting the doors, etc.. but I still get buffeting in both my vehicles (F150 Super Crew and Audi A6), so they don’t vent that much. I’ve never seen a vent on a rear 1/4 panel like this except for heat extraction on a mid or rear engine…

Huh, never seen anything like that before. What’s the purpose? Help minimize cabin buffeting if you have a window down?

4th gear: I like leather for the durability and ease of cleaning compared to traditional cloth seating surfaces. I could care less if it comes from a cow or if it’s a synthetic alternative. Just don’t bring back the vinyl of the malaise era cars I grew up with (I will say the green paint over green vinyl interior ‘78…

I don’t think there are too many people buying F-150 Hybrids with the generator for the job site. They’re weekend warriors that don’t want to drag around a separate generator that can easily be stolen out of the back of the truck when they’re not around. And if you’re using a generator that way, you want it quiet. Is…

Sure. It’s called fraud. As an independent appraiser, you are legally obligated to give an honest appraisal of the value of the object. If you undervalue it for the purpose of buying it cheap so you can sell it for a profit, that can get you in big trouble.

Well played kind sir, well played.

It’s called apathy.  Ask me how I know lol