Grew up in the Mid West, I don’t remember seeing many drive ins still operating when I was a kid.

This kid has had a somewhat tragic start to his career. Jules Bianchi was his godfather... he raced against and was friends with Hubert. His father also passed away when he was young.

I saw the video from one of the photog fence holes before the news came out that he had passed away. Makes it harder to watch now knowing he didn’t survive. I had seen the TV footage first, but it didn’t show exactly what happened from that angle or just how violent it was, but I did see the safety cell of Hubert’s…

Now we have to make up a name for the combination of the two cars.

Volkskoda? Volkoda? Volksoda? Skodwagen?

I have a tool for priming cooling systems using compressed air that works on the same principle. There’s an adapter with a vacuum gauge that goes on top the radiator or coolant expansion tank depending on how the car you’re working on is laid out, then a hose adapter with a compressed air fitting and a venturi…

Whoo! F1 silly season happenings! Always a good time.

Damn, I didn’t even know she did half of that. What a bad ass. She definitely got a lot out of life.

Thanks for the heads up. I didn’t even know this was a movie coming out, but I do clearly recall hearing many great things said about Drs. Olvey and Trammel from watching CART in the late 90s and early 2000s. The TV analysts did heap praise on those two not infrequently. And of course saving Alex Zanardi’s life was…

True, he was not head of VW at the time. Late 80s, VW was definitely trying to find ways to increase displacement but keep external dimensions compact, especially when measuring from the belt end to the transmission end. They came up with a couple different concepts, the VR6 being one of them, the other was 2.3L oval…

*Pokes head in*

*sees no Touareg content*

Kind of funny how diesels have been getting lower and lower compression ratios and have gotten quieter thanks to being able to better control injection events (and multiple injections per combustion event) while at the same time, gas engines have gained a little clatter because they’ve greatly been able to increase…

There were some teething issues with the 2004 BEW engine early on. Though a clutch blowing up at only 50k miles sounds more like user error than an actual failure. On average, those dual mass flywheels and clutches are good for 150k before the flywheel starts to give you signs it’s not working right... and even then…

Let’s see... the 1.4 is rated at 37 highway with the 6 speed manual (best mileage of the two transmissions). The last 2.0 TDIs we got here were rated at 45 highway with the 6 speed manual. And if history is any lesson, the diesel will have a much better chance of actually hitting its EPA target in real world use, the…

For sure, everyone has caught up and made nicer cars. The higher trim levels are still just about tops in their class.

Well said, Ash. I’ve gone back and read a few articles in the last year from that era and noticed the same thing. Guess I didn’t notice it much back then! Probably glossed over it to read sports car stuff instead... and the motorsports section.

I didn’t say I’d rely on them as my only vehicles. Just that they’d be part of a collection ;)

That’s about as fitting an article for the man as it gets.

Man, familiar with some of those feels. Though since I moved out of Michigan, it seems the road quality has somehow gotten a lot worse I noted the last time I visited (last summer).

“Distinct”

They are indeed a compelling case. Good handling cars, the two transmission options are 6 speed manual or the excellent 6 speed dual clutch automatic. They have easy passing power and torque right where you need it for every day driving. Going up grades it doesn’t need to gear down like many gas engines do, so it’s…