RideLust

Ever been standing around a car show and heard one guy ask another… “Hey, what gears you got in that thing?” Ever wonder the reason for the question? Well, gearing has as much to do with how a car performs as the engine. The gears you’re running determine everything from your acceleration and top speed, to fuel economy. Here is a quick online visual calculator that is pretty basic, but incorporates everything you need to know. Simply input your rear axle ratio (you can add a custom ratio if you choose), your tire size, transmission gear ratio and then hit the gas… it’s actually quite a bit of fun to experiment. It may also answer some questions you may have about how to set-up your ride.

Buried deep in the wilds of Collier County, FL, is a test track that backs up against the Everglades. To call it “remote” and “inhospitable” is like calling the Mojave Desert “sandy”; you’re guaranteed to have alligators, snakes and mosquitos, but you’re also guaranteed that you won’t have too many pesky neighbors to worry about. The location made the track ideal for hot-weather testing, which is why Ford originally built the facility. Ford sold it to Harley-Davidson, and Harley is now looking to divest itself of unneeded real estate. If you’ve got the $7.5 million asking price, the test track can be yours. Read More…

*Photo Credit: Motortopia.com

As most of you know, I’m a huge fan of old school muscle cars. Their looks are timeless, their sound is legendary and their attitudes simply can’t be matched. In short, they’re a way of life if you happen to own one. However living the muscle car lifestyle does not come without its headaches. For example, old school engines, while easy to work on, are simply not as reliable or efficient as anything that’s being produced today. Sure having big cubic inches under the hood sounds great, but in the end it gets tiresome paying $4.50 per gallon whilst only getting about 8-10 mpg on a daily basis. Recently at a car show I saw a gentleman with a 1973 Plymouth Road Runner with a modern day 400 hp Chevrolet LS2 under the hood. Now for some, sticking a brand X engine in a brand Y car is a huge no no, but after talking to the owner for a bit, the swap made perfect sense.
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This is why I said, 'be careful with a heat gun.' Image: Ward Kadel

After years of washing, waxing and turning wrenches on cars and bikes, I’ve got a good feel for what works and what doesn’t. The latest “miracle glaze” polish usually doesn’t look as good or last as long as a good-old-fashioned hand waxing, and I’ve given up trying new cleaners for wheels or preservatives for tires. I know the brands I trust, so I stick with them: ironically, sometimes the best products aren’t even designed for use on cars. Below are five things you probably have around the house today that can serve double-duty when cleaning, polishing or wrenching on cars. Read More…

Some art transcends the human experience, elevates its viewers to a higher state of consciousness—the glory of the Sistine Chapel, the gaze of the Mona Lisa. This astounding tracked VW bus has launched my mind into the stratosphere, has changed my worldview. It’s a life-altering experience. And it’s for sale.

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There are two trains of thought when it comes to working on your car. You can either throw down some cardboard and wriggle around on your back, or you can go out and purchase a work sled and glide freely around the bottom of your ride. Personally, I’m more of a cardboard guy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate things like the new Dexter Work Sled. Created by designer Stephan Angoulvant, the Dexter Work Sled was designed to aid enthusiasts as they work on their rides. The sled features an ergonomically designed wooden frame with lockable casters to prevent rolling, magnets for holding your tools and integrated LED lamps to light up the underside of your car. For some this little creeper may be a little over the top, but for others it will fit the bill perfectly. Click through for the video.
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Image: Aaron Logan

Let’s be honest here: most of us are guilty of not following a manufacturer’s maintenance schedule to the letter. Sure, we change the oil and (probably) check the air in the tires, but how many of us rotate tires at the exact recommended intervals or change automatic transmission fluid on the maintenance book schedule? Despite this, today’s cars are more reliable that at any other time in history. I haven’t been stranded by the roadside since my Ford Taurus’ fuel pump died in 1990, and I drive a lot of cars from a lot of different manufacturers each year. Most cars today are smart enough to tell you when something is wrong, via idiot lights or flashing trouble codes, All warning lights denote a problem, but some are more serious than others. Below are five that get my immediate attention. Read More…

The deer on the shoulder isn't impressed with your HID lighting.

Here’s the thing about driving: very few of us learned to drive from a professional instructor. If we did, chances are it was an “instructor” who taught driving as a sideline to his real career as a janitor, music teacher, or cop. I’d argue the point that most of these instructors, while proficient in operating a motor vehicle, never really learned to drive. My first lessons came in a dual-control equipped AMC Hornet, and I can say with absolute certainty that we never covered topics like threshold braking, understeer, oversteer or even accident avoidance. Until I started taking lessons on a track, most of what I learned was from either my mistakes or the mistakes of others around me, and that rarely ends well. Read More…

Image: Jay Leno's Garage

One of the biggest challenges faced by backyard car restorers is paint. Good paint jobs cost serious money, which is fine if you’re restoring a high dollar ride, but what about those of us with more modest tastes, like a 1972 Ford Pinto? The car is easy enough to wrench on, but even the though of a same-color respray gives me a cold sweat since I don’t have access to a spray booth or sterile environment. There’s not much of a market for restored Pintos, so farming out for a pro-quality paint job is a money-losing proposition. If I were building a race car that would soon be trading paint anyway, I could probably do a passable job in the garage with an airbrush and a compressor. If I actually wanted to sell the car, the only cost effective option would be to do the prep work myself, then trust Maaco or Earl Schieb (“Any car, any color, just $99.95!”) for the paint. Yikes. As this episode of Jay Leno’s Garage shows you, 3M has a few solutions of interest to backyard car restorers everywhere. Read More…

In the vast uncharted wilderness of Austria lives an automotive Dr. Moreau, a mad genius who splices cars together to create breathtaking beasts like this unholy union of a ’73 VW Bug and 2000 Porsche Boxster S: The Bugster. The man behind this beauty is Siegfried Rudolf. His shop, CarMaxx, specializes in tuning and restoring VWs and Porsches. Apparently he got the idea for the Bugster after he parked his tuned ’73 Bug next to his wife’s Boxster and noticed the two cars shared a remarkably similar wheelbase.
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