Something like a Bentley is not for the faint of heart, and I would never have done it before I got old and rich enough to be able to afford the problems. When I was in my early twenties I bought a ‘72 Mercedes Sedan and a ‘67 Alfa Spider. Both are high enough volume cars to make after market parts a possibility and…

Since I am older and far more insane than you, I have not finagled myself a gig where I get to sit in $400,000 cars for free. I wish that I had that kind of smarts, but I don’t so I have just closed a deal on a 2006 Bentley Arnage. If it is not everything you have described, less the backward moving doors, I am…

Well I am a rotary nerd, who owned an RX8 and loved it, and I couldn’t agree more. I think that Mazda will still tinker with rotary for fun, but under the current regulatory drive, it is not a viable engine choice, and if you have to replace a really smooth high revving engine with something, a turbo straight 6 pushes…

My guess is that in Australia your oil came then and probably still does from Indonesia. The OPEC embargo would have raised prices for you but not be part of the trade war we were after Iran fell. 

I forgot about the war on convertibles until you reminded me. Such a joyless time to be alive. 

My parents bought a Tercel in ‘82, and dad got a Diesel Mercedes since the taxes were much lower on the fuel. 

Correct. I got caught thinking about gas rationing and interpolated my Presidents. I still hate the 70s.

Oh Carter and his top down rule making. I spent a Summer in camp with Senator Moynahan’s youngest son. His dad was working on lowering it to 45 at the time. Why? He didn’t know. He figured if 55 saved fuel, which it didn’t, then 45 would save even more! Ridiculous.

Well I remember this report when it was on the first time. I was a kid of about ten then, and my parents and I didn’t take trips on the weekends, or evenings. We stayed home a lot. My mom and dad said that it was like the war, meaning WW II when they were kids. My dad took the train to work, but there are some points…

Marfa is at the top of my list to see. If I can get the wife to cover the kids for a week or so, I would road trip out there. I have a soft spot for Donald Judd, and Dan Flavin is one of my all time favorites. Thanks for the photos. 

I have long been a huge fan of Chamberlain. If you ever want a solid fix of his work my favorites are reliably on display at DIA Bekin outside of New York City.

I used to love poking around salvage yards, but they are all closed near me. All the cars that could went to restorations, and there wasn’t much left.

I do a fair amount of this stuff too, and I have two cars over 200K, and the rest right around 100K miles. The only thing that I would say is this. The power steering pump, there is another rule for that. Yes, don’t pull it all the way over if you can help it, but also try to avoid standing turns. A turn with the tire…

In every gear heads heart is a little place for people haulers. The truly efficient designs that gave the most practical mobility to the masses. The early minivans were a revelation, and the five speed the perfect statement of practicality. There was nothing silly or frivolous in these cars. They rank right up there…

Because drinking alcohol goes back in human history tens of thousands of years at least, home made alcohol has historical roots in America through much of its history, because prohibition was roundly despised by American Elites who made drinking cool in films and such while it was going on. Otherwise you have a point.…

Neutral: The problems at Boeing go beyond a single aircraft model. It isn’t like the 787 roll out was problem free. Nothing will get fixed at Boeing until the Board of Boeing flushes out the McDonnell culture that they absorbed. They no longer build robust boeing aircraft. They now build problem laden DC 10s and MD…

Ugh, you missed the point of my objection. What you consider “pretty good” is the brightness and collimation of the light. What I am objecting to is the spread of the field of light. Sealed beams send light in decreasing amounts sort of everywhere. HIDs it is like a line being cut off, and I need to see far enough off…

I own 5cars ranging in age from 1967 to 2011. I find all of them to have acceptable headlights from sealed beams through the HID lights on my Cadillac that turn with the steering wheel, a neat feature. What I don’t like about HID is that the light is so collimated that it lights extremely well those things it shines…

I know exactly where my 10mm is. I just bought the new one last week, and I got it in a black finish to stand out in my box to prevent losing yet another of them, but I go from having none to having 7. That’s because I clean and find them all.

I started reading Jalopnik around the time I started riding a motorbike looking for advice on what to buy and how to stay safe. I was an old guy then at 39, but I didn’t want to turn 40 without having gotten on a bike. One of the first people who talked to me on the site was Davey Johnson and when he died I started to…