Her name was Jennifer, like I think every girl in the 1980s was named, and she was an adorable blonde girl with big brown eyes, and I was delighted and a bit amazed she was interested in me. This was around, oh, probably 1987 or so? Something like that. We went to high school together and while I can’t recall exactly how we first met, it turned into A Thing fairly quickly, and, to Jennifer’s credit, she mentioned quite early on that her mom had a strict no-Jews rule for her daughter socially....

Yes, I said sliding doors. Did you think I was talking about an Airstream? No, I’m referring to something equally iconic and soon to be extinct: the Grumman LLV. Yes, I know it’s a US mail truck and not a camper, but I will fix that. Much has been written about the Grumman LLV (Long Life Vehicle) mail trucks; our own Autopian staff has gone into great deal about its history, details, and even a strange alternate reality; I highly encourage you to click on the links and waste precious work time learning more....

This article is inspired by a question sent to me by a reader named Kevin. He asked about a comment I made a while ago where I stated that having a steering rack located in front of the front axle had some advantages (like steering feel). He asked why this was and whether a double pivot front suspension also benefits from the rack being in the front. The answer is a very definite “Yes....

In particular, there are two events that happen every year in the south of England: the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the Goodwood Revival. They take place on the property of the Earl of March, a gentleman named Lord William Rupert Charles Gordon-Lennox. If there were a Y and a Z in his name I think it would use every letter of the alphabet, but I digress. The Earl of March is as close to a patron saint of the old car hobby as might be possible....

I have a full story on this event coming soon, because it was just that memorable of an experience. I’ve written about the Gambler 500 a lot, but this one was different. Nobody set cars on fire and drunken debauchery didn’t result in anyone having to get airlifted to a hospital. I would even say that it was kid-friendly. It was a different take on a familiar formula, and it was amazing....

At the Open House I spoke with Airstream representatives and asked a few questions about the new Rangeline. This is a camper van that’s based on a Ram ProMaster and starts at $131,882. Airstream is a company that normally sells luxury camper vans based on Mercedes-Benz Sprinters for $200,681 and well above. So, my first question is why is Airstream moving downmarket? Airstream’s representative said the Rangeline is meant to be the more family-friendly option....

For those who bumped into this website looking for the history of automatons or whatever and have NO idea what Lane Motor Museum is, let me give you a quick history. The museum is the vision of director and founder Jeff Lane, the most famous person from Romeo, Michigan who is NOT Kid Rock. His dad Gene was very into MGs, and passed on his passion for rusty European things to a young Jeff....

This has been brewing in me for a while, but I was hanging out at a coffee shop in Monterey a couple of weeks ago during car week and a dude in the full McQueen walked in. He had the Steve McQueen Gulf Oil leather jacket. He had the Steve McQueen sunglasses. I’m pretty sure he had one of the watches. Then this dude takes off his jacket and he has a Steve McQueen shirt on underneath....

I guess we may as well address the controversial part first, because I got sort of unwillingly yanked into it, thanks to the electronic global-annoyance system known as Twitter: I guess that’s how CNET would explain it here – the first guy hates yokes, the 2nd guy loves them.. — A Few Others????????????????(ConnectingTheDots⚡????????????????) (@ConnectingODots) May 8, 2022 So, the issue seems to be that a lot of Tesla fans are quite cross, quite cross indeed with CNET, who previously had an article calling Tesla’s yoke dangerous, and just recently had one that referred to Lexus’ similar-looking yoke as “kinda wonderful....

Murray knows exactly what he wants, so when he decided it was time to pick up a Ford Escort, it’s not surprising to hear that Retropower was responsible for the build. The shop has produced some absolutely astonishing restomods from an LS-powered W111 Mercedes-Benz coupe to an RB25DET-powered Opel Manta 400. Powering this Mk I Escort is a Mazda-derived heart, a 2.3-liter Duratec engine fettled by Cosworth to produce 240 bhp....

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. Hyundai To Continue ICE Development Albert Biermann may have retired from his post at Hyundai, but he still advises the Korean company in a technical role. In an interview with Australian motoring outlet CarExpert, Biermann said that Hyundai remains committed to internal combustion....

I know our own David Tracy tends to get most of the guff and ridicule about having a fleet of cars where running ones are rarer than fish cardigans, but he is by no means alone here; I, too, am such a fool, possibly worse. Probably worse. At this moment, only one of my cars in my fleet of five personal cars (I’m not counting the Tiguan, because it’s primarily my wife’s car, and its continued operation is only the result of a demonic deal I’ve made where it just gets to consume entire paychecks at will when it wants, with obvious relish and cruelty) is currently running, and that one I fixed over the weekend with a bit of garden hose....

Now, I’m not talking about genuine racing cars with transmissions that will only shift with paddles – I mean the sort of paddle shifters that actuate semi-manual gear selection on otherwise automatic transmissions in mainstream, mass-market passenger cars. It’s quite likely you, the devastatingly sexy person reading this right now on the deck of your pleasure-helicopter, have a car with such paddles. My theory is that people with cars that have optional-use paddle shifters use them for about, oh, 12 minutes per month in the first few months they own the car, and then after the initial novelty has worn off, they forget about them....

Chaos. Pure chaos. That is all I can assume here. And while I appreciate their industrious effort, I fear greatly that this design will give Nissan some ideas that we aren’t prepared to deal with. Meet the Nissan Fairlady X. Don’t freak out, it’s not a production car—yet. As spotted by CarScoops, it’s a one-off development from the students at Nissan Automobile Technical College (aka Nissan Gakuen) that will be shown at next month’s 2023 Tokyo Auto Salon....

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. Tesla Revives Enhanced Autopilot In a classic move of reviving old options, Tesla is bringing back its Enhanced Autopilot driver assist system to bridge the gap between its Autopilot and Full Self Driving Beta assist systems....

Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday. How Much Money Did Bill Gates (Allegedly) Make Shorting Tesla? Unsurprisingly, Tesla’s bad news morning turned into a bad news afternoon yesterday, with the stock dropping below $110 after Reuters reported that the company was going to extend its production slowdown in China longer than originally expected....

The VA Lightweight Military Vehicle was designed during WWII and commissioned by the British Ministry of Supply. What the Ministry wanted was a car that could be just dropped right out of a plane, with a parachute, alongside paratroopers, who would just get into the cars upon landing and take right off, with no further assembly or preparation needed. This concept of a light, air-droppable vehicle is certainly not new in warfare, and comes up again and again....

As far as unique performance tweaks go, the big show-stopper is adjustable suspension height. Not only is the standard ride height 50 mm greater than on a 911 Carrera with sport suspension, an off-road height with an additional 30 mm of lift can stay active all the way up to 105 mph. Top speed is limited to 150 mph due to the all-terrain tires, but the launch control system gains a Rallye mode for minimizing wheelspin on loose terrain....

Honda has been teasing its revival of the Hornet for a while. First there were the concept images, which showed a rather sharp machine. Then, Honda teased its engine, a 755cc parallel twin with 90.5 HP on tap. Yesterday, Honda pulled the covers off of its new motorcycle in Germany. The world finally gets to see the complete package, and its engine is the centerpiece. The Honda Hornet originally launched in 1998....

Before we get to. the Vagabond, I just wanted you to consider some of the cars I mentioned and am showing you above as continuations of the Vagabond’s legacy; cars that are shapeshifters, transformers that can adapt, physically, to a variety of different jobs. Hell, we even saw Audi introduce a concept car with this sort of idea just this week! Also, since I mentioned the Toyota bB Open Deck, I’m going to make you watch this bonkers commercial for that car, which is full of mermen:...