If you do any international traveling, you might consider enrolling in Global Entry, which includes PreCheck. It does take more time to process and requires an in person interview (which can be done at some airports), but it has saved my wife and I enough time to be worth it.

The first thing I ever drove was a Ford Ferguson (9N?) in 1957 in the yard of my family’s International Harvester dealership. It was a good way to learn the fundamentals of driving.

In the last few years, I have made many soccer, etc., runs. My informal research indicates that soccer moms do not often drive minivans, they usually drive SUVs.

“Do they not teach this shit at Wharton?”

IIRC, there was a book titled Ghost Tracks by Pete Hylton which covered some of these abandoned tracks. My favorite was Marlboro Motor Raceway (I think that was the name of the track) in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, where I saw Roger Penske race as a driver and what was billed as the first battle between a Cobra and a…

My first car, in 1964, was a 1960 VW Beetle. I was too young and ignorant to appreciate how much fun it was to drive, so I upgraded, in 1965, to a 1960 Austin Healey MkI (Bugeye) Sprite so that I could enjoy an additional seven (?) horsepower. That Sprite was the first car that I drove that made me realize how much…

Interesting graph, where did it come from? This is one of the many things that most folks probably don’t consider when financing a car.

“There are no options available for the Si, just white or gray paint for $455 — red and black are standard.”

My favorite was a 1968 Ford Cortina GT. It was fun to drive, had a terrific manual transmission and a fairly large trunk. With 1600cc and over 90 raging horsepower, it was well suited to spirited driving on the streets. It also worked well with the rudimentary child safety seats of the time.

Didn’t Jalopnik address the issue of optimal horsepower level a few years back? IIRC, the consensus was that 300 horsepower was ideal.

Jumping into my Wayback Machine, I nominate the AH Bugeye Sprite. I know that it is impractical and might sell in the high dozens, but you did say “wish.”

Good point. In recent years, I have done some soccer practice runs. My observation is that soccer moms drive many more SUVs (including CUVs) than minivans.

You have a point. When I graduated from the University of Oklahoma, the President of the University was George Lynn Cross, who was widely quoted as starting off his 25 year service in that position with a promise to “build a university that the football team can be proud of.”

Which CD would you leave in the player as your default choice?

Back in the day, (1969-1971)I was able to attend two TransAm and two CanAm races at Laguna Seca and it is hard to pick a favorite. I will go with the TransAm race where I sat close enough to the track to clearly see the drivers (1970?). IIRC, I was able to get a good look at Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, and Mark…

Well put.

You may be overestimating the necessity that most people have for pickups. Most of the pickups I observe here in the DC suburbs are carrying only people, usually only the driver. A hatchback would work very well for the vast majority of our nation’s trips.

The cars that my Dad drove that stand out in my memory are:

“You know what might fix all this? Increased development of multi-family housing and investment in public transit.”

Over 60 years ago, I was in a small town whose only two stoplights had a somewhat similar situation. Drivers on the “busiest” street saw a normal light pattern, while drivers on the cross streets saw an inverted pattern with green on the top. I was told that this was because the lights were all in one housing, instead…