For the less adventurous Ford Focus buyers, the Focus can be had in Europe with an 85 HP 1.6 liter inline-four. On the other side of the lineup rainbow, the 350 HP Focus RS, uniquely equipped with all-wheel drive and a magic-like drift mode, will soon be available to reek wreak havoc at track days, rallycrosses,…

Plus, I’m sure the occupants of the building don’t hear or feel a thing from all the cars zipping by on their walls.

Actually, there is a way for your idea to work. You make an emergency brake that is automatically applied by a spring. The car has to apply power to an electromagnet to get the brake to release. When the car loses power, the spring clamps the brake. The same idea is used in machine tools to keep bad things from…

CSS Virginia (nee Merrimack) was completed on March 7, 1862 and scuttled to prevent capture on May 11, 1862. So a grand total of 2 months of active service.

The unconnected wire was supposed to be attached to the engine block which would of course be the chassis ground. Outside of the that, the fuel distributor sat on top of the plastic air box. The braided metal fuel lines were the only other thing that touched it. And they should have all been supported in little…

I once had an ‘85 Golf racecar. I pulled the engine to do a rebuild on it. I very carefully labeled every part and every wire that got disconnected or removed. I took pictures at every step along the way. I followed all of my breadcrumbs and carefully put the engine back in. I double checked every connection and then…

I thought Liebergot was the EECOM for Apollo 13 (an equally heroic story in its own right) and John Aaron was the EECOM for Apollo 12.

And don’t forget that the Gurney Flap is named after him.

My wife’s car has 20% more power than my car, yet you have to push the pedal twice as far in her car to achieve the same acceleration.

It would really help if the automakers would stop with all the fast-opening-throttle nonsense. It’s all in the quest to make their cars feel more sporty. “Feel how much it kicks you in the pants when you blip the throttle.” Of course it kicks that much. It just hit me with WOT even though I only moved the pedal 1/4”.

I missed that one in my search. I’ve lost count of how many NSX concepts there were that have all been quietly dropped over the last decade plus. Do you remember if they ever said what engine was intended to go in the 2003 version of the car?

Yes, but what they are producing has nothing what-so-ever to do with the V-10 powered prototype we first saw in late-06/early-07.

Ferrari.

The transmission bearings on my daily driver bit the dust. I couldn’t afford to take it to a shop, so I bought a used transmission from a junkyard. I carefully pored over the Haynes AND Chiltons manuals for my car. I made sure I had every gasket, clip, seal and pin that I would need to remove and replace along the…

I live down in the hot zone, and I use my sunroof almost every day of the week during the summer (which lasts 10 months). I open it about 1” when I get in to go home from work. I’ve found that when I get to 35-40 MPH all the hot air gets sucked right out. It drops the temperature of the car to ambient in less than 1…

Finally found a good picture. This is the color of fiberglass after the polymer matrix holding it together has had too much UV exposure. It’s a far cry from the lemon yellow in the OP.

Not that shade of yellow, though. I tried to find a good picture, but failed.

No, your heap of metal is not worth $3000, no matter what shade of yellow it once was. Or maybe that’s just oxidation.

Dodge Viper. It already sounds like an angry vacuum cleaner as it is. And it’s impossible to drive one in a straight line. Wait, maybe it’s ALREADY a hover car and Dodge put the wheels on it as camouflage. Where’s my tin-foil hat?

Honorable Mention, how to disassemble and reassemble a jeep.