I only check bags if I absolutely have to. That tends to happen when traveling with small kids, but my kids are *almost* old enough to just have their own carry-ons. This, even though check bags for free with my frequent flyer status. You get out of the airport so much more efficiently when you don’t have to wait…

Alfa Romeos from the 60s and 70s were notorious for getting rear-ended. They all had 4-wheel disc brakes back when most domestic were still all drums. Plus, they weighed under a ton and had much less suspension dive than most cars of their era. 

The I.D. Buzz has specs that were somewhat mediocre but acceptable 4 years ago when they first started talking about it. It feels like it should have had a refresh already and it’s not even out yet (in the U.S.).

I’m assuming this guy is not white given that he calls his daughter “boo.” What are the odds that an Alabama judge would have ordered a white defendant to write an apology note?

I like the Ferrari 360 quite a bit and think they are underrated. It’s the first Ferrari that doesn’t require regular engine-out service, but the last that is relatively widely available with a gated 6-speed (yes, the 430 has some manuals, but they were ~10% of production and the factory-delivered manuals are too…

The first Mad Max and Max Max 2 were very different from Beyond the Thunderdome and what I would call the “cult classics”. The first Mad Max was before Hollywood got to it (it was a low budget Australian production). Mel Gibson was a completely unknown actor when the first Mad Max was made. The original was actually…

Put an exhaust on my Mazda Protege5 (my first car that I actually chose). I really did have plans to turbocharge it (I went so far as to buy a whole kit from a Mazdaspeed Protege) and thought should have a less restrictive exhaust for that. Problem was, I never actually got around to turbocharging the car and sold the…

Yes, but airships were basically the equivalent of the Concorde in the 1930s. It was the glitterati of the era who flew on them - people for whom speed was extremely important. Plus, while we take crossing the Atlantic in 8 hours for granted, there was a huge “wow” factor being able to cross in only 2 days. Remember,…

I don’t think they were that stupid in the context of 1910s-early 1930s technology. Rigid airships had capabilities that were far beyond those of airplanes when they first started to come into vogue. When large airships first came into service, there was no airplane that could carry 100+ passengers in comfort over…

Re Lucid: I think this is a case where the halo car actually backfired. The Sapphire generated a lot of buzz, but when I’ve suggested Lucid to people shopping for cars in the $60-80k they will say things like “aren’t those things $200k?” I don’t think the general public realizes you can get a Pure for $70k. It’s a…

Maybe a licensed vehicle tech with specific training in EVs, but licensed electricians are really the wrong tradespeople to work on cars.

I’m surprised they didn’t just break out the Bondo. 

I don’t think there’s any particular reason you need to be a licensed electrician. Most of their training will be around alternating current and building codes rather than high voltage direct current found in electric cars. But you do need a tech with specific training in electric vehicles.

Other than a few early muscle cars and some non-production cars, there really isn’t much that Oldsmobile ever offered the enthusiasts. After the early 1970s they were nothing but bland blobs for the grey-haired set that couldn’t swing a Cadillac. I can’t say I was particularly sad to see it go.

The new Artura is the first one that is totally new (uses a hybrid drivetrain). It still looks similar, but it’s got a lot new under the hood. 

The changes a modern car requires to switch to E85 are pretty trivial. Basically, you need bigger injectors, a flex fuel sensor, and an ECU set up to adjust the fuel/timing maps for the ethanol content of the fuel. Pure alcohol has problems with durability in storage and fire safety that make it unsuitable for…

Hydrogen may make some sense for ships and industrial use in places where there is excess electricity that can’t easily be stored in batteries, but even for airplanes it has some big challenges.

The Mazdaspeed 6 back in the day was a pretty good enthusiast car (though reliability was questionable at best). 

Elon Musk may be wrong about most things, but on one thing he was dead right: hydrogen is dumb. It’s either wastefully inefficient or it’s just natural gas with an extra (unnecessary step). If you are going to make a crazy v12, just run it on gas. If you want to greenwash it, maybe just run it on E85 and call it…

They are peddling pedal cars though...