Lots of supposed popular love songs are fucking creepy. I was trying to find one the other week to learn for serenading (à la James May’s Thomas Campion (1567-1620)’s “Fair if you expect admiring”) except I gave up because none of them work for an intelligent person who’s actually listening.

I’m questioning your parents’ maintenance habits. A friend of mine’s father was a crop insurance inspector, which meant he drove one hell of a lot on gravel roads. His 4.0 ZJ went to almost 900,000 miles, with the only engine work being regular maintenance (like plugs and wires, oil changes) except for a set of…

This completely ignores the fact that caffein doesn’t wake you up, it merely blocks the chemical receptors that lead to drowsiness. It’ll only prevent getting more tired, so if you’re too tired to drive it won’t help at all.

Jalopnik really needs to up their proofing game.

My MJ wears its 4.0 HIGH OUTPUT badge with pride, dammit.

Everywhere else in the world tow limits are artificially increased by reduced speed limits when towing. In the US (and Canada) where you can legally tow a trailer at 70+mph, you need much more tongue weight to keep the trailer stable than you do at 55mph, and so the towing limit is set at the most tongue weight the…

Some of the earlier news reports referred to it as an “uncharted” bay. I can’t confirm it at all, but I like to think they very recently named the bay after the ship.

As suspicious as it seems, trauma like that, whether mental or physical can block memories from happening. She could very easily have knocked her head into the window and knocked herself out very briefly. I’ve experienced it myself a couple times... my parents’ attic had a small door at the bottom of the stairs and…

Driving and owning a car is a privilege, not a right. Every privilege comes with responsibilities, a violation of which can and should affect your ownership privileges. Be responsible with your car. If you do something irresponsible, accept the consequences like an adult.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s different for private corporations, but at the federal agency location where I work, our fleet gets fuel from an unregulated pump (behind a locked gate and under video surveillance). You need a vehicle number to turn the pump on, but the system is old and hasn’t been kept up to date, so anyone…

My Russian prof explained it as “there was stability”. Life sucked as a general rule, but it was organized and predictable. In contrast, once the Union collapsed, the organizations existing before the fall that had the power and connections took over just about everything, but unfortunately they were for the most part…

Ah yes, the legacy of what was once Dave’s Farm.

I don’t have facilities for washing my cars, and if they do need a wash, it’s with the coin-op’s pressure washer every couple weeks to knock the salt off. They don’t see much washing in the summer, not really much point when half the miles you put on them are on gravel. It’s just going to get filthy again the next…

It’s called a recovery strap for a reason. It’s intended to be jerked on like that. They’re stretchy and designed to take the hit. Then as they try to return to their original length, they pull the vehicles together.

Back in November I mistakenly drove down here:

Or maybe the Quattro didn’t nose dive cause the driver didn’t peg the brakes like all the other idiot drivers did. Weight transfer is a thing.

Buick once made a minivan. But no ones remembers it... For pretty well the exact same reason no one makes luxury minivans.

Is Canadian. Has Jeep. Has never abandoned it due to snow on road unless it was safely out of the way, i.e. in a ditch. Which frankly has more to do with abandoning it than the fact there was snow on the road. And even then, it was just to go get my buddy and another 4x4 to come pull it out.

Except that lb-ft has a pretty good comparison. 1lb-ft is 1lb pushing on a 1ft lever. Simple. Effective. Perfect.

You’re a journalist, not a scientist or engineer, so I suppose it’s forgivable this once, but you can’t convert 946,000 kg to pounds with three decimals of precision. There are those who would tolerate 2,086,000 lbs, but most would agree that you must round it to 2,090,000. Significant figures matter. You can’t have a…