Yep, I can see my pack boots snapping that key off while I'm 10 miles from nowhere.

@DMCVegas: Mike sucks. Bring back Joel.

@maximum_sarge: Back in the 'old days' we'd make runs across the border for Molson Brador. We'd also grab a bunch on rolls of Can. quarters. It saved us about 25% on vending machines 'til our next beer run.

@maximum-sienna: I thought the joke was "what sound does a 747 make on a bad landing?"

@Novaload:

@hawkeye18 has a huge gun: It's not the fire or the debris that gets my attention, it's the 25% loss of power on take-off with a full load of fuel and passengers...y'know, when you *really* need all that power? You never hear a pilot complain about having "too much" power!

@Elhigh: Late '70's with a Chrysler 318 and one big honkin' gas tank!

@Elhigh: It used to be around 40-50 degrees difference, but the new ULSD sucks. There's one company, in northern Europe I think, that came up with a biodiesel additive that got the gel point down to about -10F...but it added 30-40 cents to a gallon in low quanitities. And then there's shipping....

@Flint Ironstag: Aero suckholes are fun! Once in NYC I saw a plastic bag caught in one about 4 stories up right at the corner of a building. I sat across the street and watched it looping for over half and hour before I finally had to get going!

@hawkeye18 has a huge gun: My Ranger's an '88 with the ground effects kit and I doubt they did any aero on it. It has some funky traits. As far as trucks in general go I saw a study once on tonneau covers and it found that a cover over only the back half was an incredible aero advantage compared to anything else. …

@BigHarv: Would've it be funny if it turns out to be horribly efficient due to the 'lack' of laminar flow? We'll all end up driving "tadpoles"!

@hawkeye18 has a huge gun: It'd be nice to see the wind tunnel results over a range of speeds. Why? You mentioned the drop-off and it reminded me of my Ranger GT. Saboth hit on it a bit, but what happens with my truck is when you hit about 80mph (professional driver on a closed course, do not attempt **cough**) the…

@Spasticteapot: Ha-ha! I think not much with the mind-numbing stock 140HP, but I did see a guy using a Dynaflash as a drag engine. I wonder how much you can tweak it until front-to-back timing becomes a major issue. The top fuel guys use a progressively-timed cam shaft, but I imagine if you could afford that you…

I don't know about all Fords, but in the 2004 Explorer all the keys are already "programmed" with an RFID code. There is a sequence of key-turns, exchanges, etc. that you do to tell your car that that particular key is OK. The practical upshot being you don't need to take your key to the dealer to have it…

@theholymac: With no curtain on that window it coulda been anybody nosing around. There really isn't that much stuff volume-wise except for the tires. A full-size van would probably work and a couple of motivated individuals could do this in about 5 minutes. Neatness is not important. I've seen a whole house get…

@Slave2anMG: That's funny...I hadn't heard of a Deltic until just a couple of days ago when I was looking at some model engineering stuff. Here's a pic of a functional scale Deltic model.

The straight-8. My dad had a 1939 Buick Roadmaster project car while I was in high school. That boat kept calling my name, but we never did finish it. Just to rub salt in my straight-8 wound, a guy up the road from me has a straight-8 crankshaft for a mailbox post. Do want.

@Jackie: Diesels in R/C is one of those love/hate things. Switch the cylinder head on your ethanol engine to a diesel head and you've just doubled your output. The problems are diesel makes a horrible black sooty, oily exhaust (but since backpressure is not an issue you can run a rubber exhaust hose all the way out…

No thanks, I prefer my Willie Nelson ponytail hat.

@clockradio: Judging by your comments on the matter it is readily apparent that you are completely ignorant in matters concerning radios. Why do you resist learning? I don't care if your disagree with what I say, but please stop wasting everybody's time blathering nonsense. At least try to make an intelligent…