Kyle Smith, Author at Hagerty Media https://www.hagerty.com/media/author/kyle-smith/ Get the automotive stories and videos you love from Hagerty Media. Find up-to-the-minute car news, reviews, and market trends when you need it most. Thu, 13 Jun 2024 16:32:31 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.2 5 Ways to Hide New Parts in an Old Engine Bay https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-ways-to-hide-new-parts-in-an-old-engine-bay/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-ways-to-hide-new-parts-in-an-old-engine-bay/#comments Thu, 13 Jun 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=406276

New parts can stick out like a sore thumb in an. . . aging. . . engine compartment. Those shiny new parts might restore the function but sometimes ruin the look. Want the best of both worlds? Here are a couple tips to make new parts blend in without losing the function.

Of course, these tips are highly dependent on the goals of your project. Not everything deserves or needs restoration. In fact, the desire to keep things looking well-worn or authentic to the rest of the car can keep the whole operation from looking half-finished and more like a survivor. No one needs to know that survivor has had a heart transplant.

Don’t use new parts at all

Known good used parts can sometimes be found cheaper through a junkyard, eBay, or other resellers than new parts. If the right look matters it could be worth going through the effort of gutting a new alternator and putting all the important bits in the “seasoned” housing, yielding restored function without the look of restored parts. Win/win.

Flat clear or paint match

For items like suspension and steering, there isn’t the option to only use the good bits to make the part right again. Since almost everything new comes slathered in gloss black paint it is easy to make them blend in a bit by simply knocking the gloss off by spraying a flat clear coat over the new shiny parts. This will instantly put a bit of age on without removing any of the corrosion protection of the factory paint.

If you want to get even fancier, lay down a coat of matching paint. Most automotive paint stores can mix a custom color into an aerosol can. Take in the old part, have them mix up some paint, and before you know it that new piece will disappear—but in a good way.

Careful cleaning

One of the things that gives away where I have been and haven’t been is the clearly defined line of where I stopped cleaning. A spotless section of the car right next to 50 years of built-up road grime sticks out like a sore thumb. By cleaning only the absolutely necessary bits and areas to ensure safe and proper function it will create a less obvious fingerprint as to where repairs happened.

“Curated wear”

Call it fake patina if you want. A few carefully placed scratches, dents, or smears of oil can go a long way in transforming something brand new off the shelf and camouflaging it into the larger picture. Some Scotchbrite, steel wool, or sandpaper can take the paint off an area to match an old piece that has lost its paint after years of wear. Alternatively, a little bit of polish to brighten one spot on a dull part can accomplish a similar result. Is it slightly disingenuous? Sure. This technique can also look quite tacky if done poorly, but when done well, this is a real option for keeping the right feel to your vintage ride while also keeping it in top running condition.

Reuse hardware

Even if the part is new, the bolts and nuts don’t have to be. Shiny new hardware is a dead giveaway of where a mechanic has been to those who know where to look. Shiny new grade-5 bolt heads from the local hardware store will stick out immediately. If your old hardware can be cleaned up and reused it will hide most repairs far better. Focus on the thread with a wire wheel or thread chaser to ensure the hardware works like it should but leave the head alone for maximum sneaky factor.

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A Turbine for Your Hot Rod? Latham Says Yes https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/a-turbine-for-your-hot-rod-latham-says-yes/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/a-turbine-for-your-hot-rod-latham-says-yes/#comments Mon, 10 Jun 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=405852

Supercharging has interesting roots (pun intended) in the automotive world. The idea of pressure-feeding air into an engine for a car is only a few years younger than the automobile itself. The first production examples were available on Mercedes models in 1922, and it has only become more popular since. As with many examples of technology, there were some interesting attempts at supercharging that didn’t last and ended up on the side of the long road that is automotive history. One such example is the Latham axial flow supercharger.

Supercharging an engine relies on the crankshaft to drive on a compressor that forces air into the intake, effectively increasing the volumetric efficiency of the engine by cramming more air into the cylinders than it would pull in on its own during the vacuum created by the intake stroke. The most common forms of superchargers are centrifugal, roots, screw, and scroll. Before the market settled on the common types we’re familiar with today, there were several efforts to create the next best thing. Norman Latham of West Palm Beach, Florida, hoped his new product would be a must-have performance bolt-on.

Latham’s idea was to create an axial supercharger. This is essentially a turbine, where the supercharger housing contains “fans” that can create positive manifold pressure. Latham’s design went into production in 1956 and was sold until 1965. It was radically different than a roots or centrifugal supercharger, yet also combined a few of the better parts of each. A centrifugal supercharger was a bear to tune 70 years ago because carburetors were still the most popular way of mixing the air and fuel entering an engine.

Carburetors rely on the incoming air to pull in the fuel into the airstream from the float bowl. If the throat of the carburetor is under pressure rather than vacuum, that fuel draw doesn’t work very well. This made centrifugal superchargers finicky. Roots-style blowers could more effectively be set up to draw air through carburetors, but the size and location made packaging tough. Latham used the long and low design of the axial supercharger to put the blower low and further forward with the carbs off to the side, keeping a lower profile. The air and fuel are drawn in through two or four carbs, depending on the model, before being compressed through the turbine and then fed into the intake manifold.

The problem is that axial compressors tend to be less efficient than the more popular styles of supercharging. Their peak efficiency orrurs during a very narrow window and prefer steady-state running at that speed rather than changing RPM quickly like most automotive engines tend to do. It was a solution, but we know now that it was not the best solution.

One of these vintage units was recently acquired by YouTube channel Hot Rod Hoarder and he does a great deep dive into the history and technology of these superchargers.

The design still caught people’s attention though. After an eight-page spread in the June 1956 issue of Hot Rod things seemed to take off. Over 600 Latham superchargers were built and are now highly sought after. The company was sold in 1982 and transitioned to producing a modern interpretation of the axial design. The vintage units stand as an interesting reminder of the times when its innovation was almost as rapid as the cars it was going into.

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Yes, It’s Possible to Change Laws That Keep You from Driving Your Classic https://www.hagerty.com/media/driving/yes-its-possible-to-change-laws-that-keep-you-from-driving-your-classic/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/driving/yes-its-possible-to-change-laws-that-keep-you-from-driving-your-classic/#comments Fri, 07 Jun 2024 20:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=402187

We love driving our vintage cars, but sometimes local law says we can’t, shouldn’t, or are not welcome to do so. It’s frustrating, and the complexity of traffic law makes the situation confusing, even if those layers of legalese were accumulated over a century of incremental change targeted at keeping our roads orderly and our drivers safe.

The laws that govern driving are something that we agree to follow when we apply for and are granted our driving license. So what do we do when we want those laws changed?

The process is not simple or quick, but it is possible. Just a few weeks ago, a committed group of car enthusiasts won a long-awaited victory: The state of Michigan announced that it would alter the driving code as it pertained to the usage of vehicles with authentic or historic registrations (to qualify, a vehicle has to be 26 years or older).

The vehicle code of Michigan was written to restrict the driving of vehicles with these types of registrations to “club activities, exhibitions, tours, parades, and similar uses, including mechanical testing.” The law barred their use for regular transportation but granted a lower annual registration fee. A handful of drivers were issued tickets while at Detroit’s beloved Woodward Dream Cruise because the event did not fall under any of the approved scenarios yet drivers took their vintage rides out regardless of registration. John Russell, along with other members of the Twin Bay British Car Club, thought the situation was absurd, so they began the process of removing the restrictions.

Most states help people like you or I by giving us a roadmap to enact the change we wish to see. For example, Michigan.gov has a four-page explainer of the exact steps needed—in order, no less.

If only it were that simple. I reached out to a few of the people who were behind the recent change in Michigan, and they provided some valuable perspective. “I guess the word I would look for is perseverance,” said Dr. Fred Stoye, who worked closely with John Russell and other members of the Twin Bay British Car Club to march the path laid by the state. “We saw the need for positive change, followed all the legal steps, forged alliances in the legislature, and presented a plan that worked and was voted into law.”

The process was not quick. There were multiple dead ends along the way that put pauses on any progress and sometimes kicked them back to square one. In the end, the group persevered for ten years before they achieved the big victory. One of the tougher steps in the process was getting a lawmaker to pick up their cause. They struggled to find a sponsor who was willing to introduce the bill and to continue advocating for it as the bill stepped through committee review, which can take months to years, depending on a multitude of factors.

Even with a sponsor, and after the bill passed the Michigan House of Representatives, Russell and his compatriots had no time to relax. All the work up to that point could be done from afar, but when the bill entered the Michigan Senate, they were asked to testify at a hearing to explain why the relaxation of driving restrictions was worthwhile. Stoye, Russell, and other team members went to Lansing with a measured approach: “We expressed the need to drive our classic cars to keep them healthy and how there would be no adverse damage to our roads.” Their argument boiled down to the fact the current law was not particularly helping anything—so why did it exist?

Their argument might not apply to every change you or I would like to see regarding restrictions to the use of vintage cars, but the members of the Twin Bay British Car Club set a great example for automotive enthusiasts. What it really takes to change a law is the right group of people, motivated in the right way, who are willing to stick out the process.

If there is a restriction or driving law you think is outdated, superfluous, or otherwise unhelpful to the vintage car hobby: The power is in your hands. People just like you have succeeded in making change. Now it’s your turn.

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7 Tools I Will Always Have Duplicates Of https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/7-tools-i-will-always-have-duplicates-of/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/7-tools-i-will-always-have-duplicates-of/#comments Thu, 06 Jun 2024 19:03:45 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=404976

Buying tools is an addiction to some. The seemingly endless utility of these objects designed to enhance our lives and abilities can be intoxicating. Hence why even when we don’t need them, new (and new to us) tools find their way into passenger seats, truck beds, and backpacks as the artfully organized cache in my workspace grows and grows. I could probably just name my toolbox Audrey II, though my garage is only occasionally full of horrors, and the ‘box feeds on tool steel and carbide rather than human flesh.

My toolbox is not overflowing, but that only speaks to my self-restraint and judicious control over how often the solution to a problem is using the credit card versus my brain. We all want to own one of every tool. They are just fascinating. But even with one of everything, we would likely still want more. Some jobs simply require duplicates. Or at least I have convinced myself that occasionally having two of the exact same tool is the solution to my problems. Whether the logic makes sense or not, here are seven tools that I must have two of inside my shop:

Vice grips/clamps

Despite years of trying and a few consultations with my doctor, I have yet to grow a third hand. Something about evolution taking millions of generations just really puts a damper on me getting the extra holding power I could use most days.

Luckily, not only does a solution exist, but it’s affordable and easy to store. Years ago I resigned that anything that is locking or clamping should be purchased in pairs. This realization followed a discussion with a fabricator friend who hammered into me that it is impossible to have too many clamps. He was right.

Screwdrivers

To be clear, I’m dialing in the discussion of duplicates to exact duplicates. Two of the same tool. My drawer full of screwdrivers is surprisingly full when you consider there are relatively few popular styles and a minimal number of usable lengths.

Maybe it’s my use, but I always fear damaging a screwdriver tip just as much as damaging the hardware. A damaged screwdriver stalls a project as once the head is stripped the options for removal get destructive quickly. A spare screwdriver is a security blanket I shouldn’t need, but won’t wrench without.

10mm

You thought I wouldn’t include a 10mm joke? Impossible. A lot of my projects these days were built in countries that believe in base 10 measurement systems. If you have a more American bent to your tooling needs this might be the 1/2″. Regardless, not having a 10mm socket or wrench could easily stop a few of my projects in their tracks, thus duplicates make sense.

Extensions

The easiest to justify on this list might be the extensions for a socket set. Stack them on each other to reach the depths of the engine bay that was previously reserved for engine-out services. It’s also convenient to have multiple to so I’m not constantly disassembling my tooling mid-job.

Wire brushes and cleaning supplies

Cleaning parts is one of the tasks that I do not seek out and only after some time have I figure out that any tiny roadblock in the process will flip the switch in my brain that says “not worth it. Just reinstall the part as is. It’ll be fine.”

But I want to do higher quality work than that, so having a surplus of cleaning supplies and materials has helped eliminate the feeling that cleaning things has a barrier that must be met. I keep these brushes and supplies around to not only remove the perceived barrier but ensure that it does not return unexpectedly.

Flashlights

Having worked on cars in situations ranging from ideal to downright dangerous, I’ll say one thing I have never heard is, “Wow, it’s too bright. I can see everything I need and it’s frustrating.” No, more light is often a cure for frustrations while working on cars. Small LED flashlights have gotten downright cheap, so a few in various sizes, shapes, brightness, and magnetism are just downright handy. It’s a struggle to work on something you can’t see, so light up your project.

Drill bits

They break and dull, and when you need one there is pretty much nothing else that will do the job. Drill bits are wildly affordable for the function they serve and having a duplicate set, or even just a few of the most commonly used sizes in your shop, allows a certain peace of mind that your projects will move forward even if an unfortunate happenstance breaks a bit. Good setups and usage will make drill bits last a very long time, but it’s not if things go sideways, it’s when. Preparation for that takes a lot of frustration out of your projects.

This is just the list for my shop and, of course, every shop is unique. I typically only have one major project apart or being worked on at a time and the tools go back into the box after each working session. In a larger shop or for someone with many projects running it might make sense to duplicate common tools just so things don’t get lost in the shuffle. What tools do you have to have duplicates of in your toolbox?

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Eight Fresh Seats and Nowhere to Sit https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/eight-fresh-seats-and-nowhere-to-sit/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/eight-fresh-seats-and-nowhere-to-sit/#comments Wed, 05 Jun 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=403764

I’ve been measuring the progress of the rebuilds for the pair of Honda XR250R engines on my home workbench in fractions of an inch. It may sound like the whole situation is going nowhere fast, but the project is going quite quickly: After fitting and sizing new valve guides into the cleaned and prepared cylinder heads, it’s time to take a seat—or eight.

For me, the cylinder head of the Honda XR250R is the gift that keeps on giving. Back in 2020 I brought home an absolute piece of junk that immediately dropped a valve and made a paperweight of the piston. Back then my goal was simply to have a running motorcycle, so the engine got a new piston, along with a a new valve and some fresh gaskets. I didn’t know what I didn’t know, so I shoved that new valve into place and crossed my fingers that the engine would work properly. Somehow, it did.

The further I get from that project, the clearer it becomes that the engine ran again because of pure luck.

The two engines on my bench now are a far cry from that project. Four years on, I understand the importance of the smallest aspects of an engine and know the risks that come with throwing an engine together with half used parts, half new parts, and zero real preparation. This pair of cylinder heads has taught me to do things the right way, to understand not only what I am doing but the proper way to do it, and which tools to use along the way. With a fresh set of valves sitting on the workbench, my most recent job was to mate each set of four valves to their seats: four ring-shaped surfaces in the hardened metal of each cylinder head.

The second stroke in the four-stroke cycle is often underappreciated. So much of the power potential in an engine comes from compressing the fuel and air mixture before burning it. Leaky valves bleed off that compression, and leaks are often due to bad valve seats. When functioning properly, seats help limit wear and tear on the valves, which open and close thousands of times per minute.

The tools for cutting valve seats can be relatively affordable all the way to wallet-draining. I elected to go on the more affordable end of the price spectrum and picked up a kit from Neway Manufacturing. After trying it out by refreshing a very poorly running engine, I was impressed with how simple the three cutters made the process of cutting the perfect valve seat: Install the pilot into the valve guide with a light twist, dab a bit of oil onto the pilot to reduce friction, slide on the first cutter, use the T-handle to rotate the cutter clockwise just a few turns, slide the cutter off and check the work.

I quickly developed a feel for how much material was removed by each clockwise rotation of the adjustable carbide cutters. Setup took seconds, then it was two quick passes with the 60-degree and 30-degree angle cutters to establish the rough geometry before sliding the 45-degree tool in place and dialing in the surface against which the face of the valve would actually sit.

A three-angle valve job is more or less the bare minimum for valve seats these days. A machinist would have happily lightened my wallet and added two more angles, and the additional cuts would help airflow, but a five-angle valve job is overkill for the agricultural nature of the Honda XR engines. I was able to do a three-angle job at home, and the performance of these engines will likely be very close.

After marking the seats with Prussian blue and checking the width of the 45-degree seat after the final cut, everything got cleaned before I re-blued and lightly lapped the valves against the fresh seats to check the contact on the valve faces. Once everything fit perfectly, the only thing left was the final cleaning and preparation for installing the assembled cylinder heads on the engines.

This marks the end of an adventure that was at times a nightmare but in the end was so rewarding. Every step of the top end of these engines was done right, by my own hands, in my own shop: Disassembly, parts selection and replacement, fitment, assembly, and soon break-in. Just four years after stumbling through a rebuild hoping the engine would run at the end of it, I am now staring at the possibility of two rebuilt engines that are stronger than they were before I worked on them and that, because of that work, will last longer than I can probably imagine. The contrast makes me laugh at who I was then, and that person would likely laugh at me now, panicking over a fraction of a millimeter of additional valve seat width. Neither is more correct than the other: We were both just having fun making broken engines work again. Neither completely right nor completely wrong, just happy to be fixing things.

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The Secrets of a Transaxle Built for 550 MPH https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/the-secrets-of-a-transaxle-built-for-550-mph/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/the-secrets-of-a-transaxle-built-for-550-mph/#comments Tue, 04 Jun 2024 17:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=404047

There are seemingly endless secrets in land-speed racing, which makes sense considering we have been running cars as fast as possible in a straight line for over a century. Beyond the obvious wisdom about adjusting for the environment (temperature, air pressure, race surface) and minimizing aerodynamic drag, there seems to be a very deep well of knowledge filled with solutions to other problems unique to land-speed racing. Case in point is the video below, which dropped into my feed a few days ago.

Sometimes the YouTube algorithm is terrifying. It knows me better than I know myself, and I see the proof when it serves up a video with just a few thousand views from a channel that has only posted that single video. I won’t pretend I haven’t wasted a lot of time-consuming piles of content on the internet, but low-view videos aren’t typically what draw me. But the thumbnail image of a massive chunk of billet aluminum with the text “555mph” sang a siren song. I clicked, expecting the video to be clickbait.

It wasn’t.

The video was posted by Traction Products, a business started in 1963 by Peter and Albert Weismann to engineer and produce solutions for high-performance drivetrains. One such problem is the transaxle for a car that is about to attempt a land-speed record. That component is exactly what is discussed here, from the mechanical sequential shifter to the extremely narrow axles to the fascinating reason Traction Products chose not to use a ring-and-pinion setup to turn the power 90 degrees.

The common solutions for multiplying torque and transferring power work really well up to a point, and that point is well under the sort of output and top speeds that this team is working with: 500 mph and thousands, not hundreds, of horsepower. No, that wasn’t a typo: It takes big power to get a vehicle most of the way to Mach 1 on the ground. Multiplying that power through a dozen gears that can be power-shifted is an interesting solution in itself, but even more interesting is that the gearbox serves as the mount for the steering rack, which does not transfer power ring-and-pinion style to the axles.

A ring and pinion setup creates a lot of force and, as I learned from this video, that force is transferred to the chassis of the land-speed race car. That means the car would be fighting itself just as much as the conditions of the race course. So the Weismann transaxle uses a bevel drive to turn the thousands of horsepower, a decision that keeps the twisting force inside the billet case of the transaxle. Voilà: the chassis works like it should rather than fighting itself.

There are all kinds of problems in racing, yet few people get to chase solutions with the mad scientist minds that Traction Products does. It’s fascinating to see a company share its ideas and experiences so freely and we can only hope for more videos and stories from this shop in the future.

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7 Tools You Basically Can’t DIY Without https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/7-tools-you-basically-cant-diy-without/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/7-tools-you-basically-cant-diy-without/#comments Thu, 30 May 2024 19:30:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=402758

I often think about the bare minimum number of tools required to do a job. Not the ideal tools. Maybe it comes from watching Saturday morning TV shows, where everything took 10 minutes and fit together flawlessly. Watching those projects take shape encouraged me to pick up tools and try my own. But what do you need to just get started? 

If we waited until we had a full toolbox to dive in, none of us would ever get anything done. We’d just be sitting around staring at tools. Instead, let’s take a look at the tools that compose the minimum kit required to safely and successfully tackle a project on a daily driver—or at least allow you to do most of a job and then rent or borrow any specialty tools needed for to complete specific tasks. These don’t need to be fancy tools; in fact, this might be a list of items that are best purchased at garage sales, flea markets, or secondhand stores.

Jack and Stands

Sure, there are a lot of projects that do not require lifting a vehicle, but sooner or later you’ll need to do it. I’ve done oil changes by putting the front wheels on a curb to get enough clearance to roll under and access the drain plug and oil filter, but that practice doesn’t work in all situations. A jack and stands do. These are the right tools for every job that requires lifting a vehicle. That’s why they are something to get early in your wrenching journey.

Screwdrivers

Applied properly, screwdrivers have thousands of uses. We would never tell you to use them improperly, of course, but in a pinch a screwdriver can be used for all sorts of stuff that might very well render them one-time-only tools that, for better or for worse, will get the job done. Screwdrivers also can last a very long time if well taken care of, so adding these to your toolkit early will make for a solid base that rarely needs replacing, which leaves you with funds to buy more specialty tools to grow your kit—or you might just get through a handful of jobs without buying anymore tools at all. That’s a great feeling.

Socket Set

There is a reason every “mechanics toolset” sold in parts stores or home centers has sockets and ratchets as its main component. Ratchets and sockets are a highly efficient method of removing hardware without damaging it. A basic kit is enough to get started, and you can easily add bigger or longer pieces as needed.

Hammer

You thought I wouldn’t include the hammer? It’s an inarguable necessity. Judicious use will make for a better wrenching experience, but when force is required, a mass at the end of a stick is just the right tool for the job.

Multimeter

“If you can’t fix it with a hammer it’s an electrical problem” is a good joke, because occasionally it’s based in fact. Electrical issues are more common than ever as cars feature more and more sensors and connections. To be a mechanic and not a parts replacer requires diagnostic tools, and diagnosing electrical issues is difficult to do consistently with only your eyes and hands. A good multimeter—and understanding how to read it—is vital.

Drain Pan

Want to do an oil change? You’ll need to catch the used oil somehow. Even a makeshift catch pan is good idea, but many of the drain pans designed for automotive projects are affordable and have features that seem trivial, until you are without them: A pour spout makes emptying the pan easier, and the ability to seal the fluids inside for transport is helpful, too. An open container of used oil is just waiting to be knocked over. Or it’s a magnet for tools or parts or worse, a spark. A good drain pan makes jobs cleaner and safer.

Penetrating Oil

Cars are built from a couple dozen different materials and the vast majority of them are susceptible to corrosion. Penetrating oil helps limit the need for big tools like impact drivers. Is an aerosol can technically a tool? Maybe not, but a good can of penetrating oil should be something you reach for before grabbing tools, so we are going to say it’s a critical part of the toolkit. Besides, if you’re limited on tools, you want to be able to stack the deck in your favor, and that means trying to break fasteners loose using science rather than force.

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Rattletrap: The Coolest Hot Rod Meet You’ve Never Heard Of https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/the-coolest-hot-rod-meet-youve-never-heard-of/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/the-coolest-hot-rod-meet-youve-never-heard-of/#comments Wed, 29 May 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=401804

The lust for days past is something that no generation seems to be immune from, especially when viewed through the lens of recreating a certain scene. Hot rods racing on the beach will always be cool, and the Race of Gentlemen has captured the hearts of Americans, but some Australian enthusiasts are giving us a run for our money with a vintage racing event called Rattletrap.

Fortyone30 customs, a hot rod shop in Toowoomba, Australia, posted this video of Rattletrap VII, which took place earlier this month. Hundreds of vintage cars and motorcycles gathered, along with a healthy crowd that turned out just to see the show. It’s all put on by the Drag-ens hot rod club. The group started in 1962 with just five members and has not only grown but stood the test of time, much like the cars the group loves. In fact, the group loves hot rods and building them so much that if you have a project car that doesn’t make progress at an appropriate rate, your membership could be in jeopardy. Harsh, but fair.

Especially when you consider the group is putting on such cool events as Rattletrap. What use is a large membership of cars sitting on jack stands when you have a whole weekend on the beach to drive fast?

Rattletrap was started in 2015 on the excitement brought from watching videos of other similar events. The idea to create a period-correct event for Australian hot rodders was born. A location in Crowdy Head, Australia (partway between Brisbane and Melbourne on the country’s east coast) was selected, and during a scouting mission the club was met by a group of surfers who kindly told them they were in the wrong place. Happily, though, they took the gear heads down to the right spot, and the event has flourished since.

As someone who lives in a very sandy environment and has to deal with cleaning and repairing the damage caused by the infinite amount of tiny rocks that blast paint and break down into a grinding paste on any moving part, the thought of building an era-correct hot rod and then taking it out to do burn-outs on the beach is a little tough, but then a video like this makes me think the clean up and wear would probably worth it for the experience. After all, who can put a price on time travel?

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Ducati Reveals a Pair of Bold Scrambler Concepts https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/ducati-reveals-a-pair-of-bold-scrambler-concepts/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/ducati-reveals-a-pair-of-bold-scrambler-concepts/#respond Tue, 28 May 2024 22:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=401827

Some styles never seem to fully fade away, do they? With that in mind, Ducati brought two fresh spins on its retro-inspired, second-generation Scrambler model to the Bike Shed MotoShow in London last week. The 1960s desert-sled look of the Scrambler certainly served as the inspiration for these two in-house customs, but they have their own personalities. We like the direction this pair is pointing towards.

The two concepts, named CR24I and RR24I, put a fresh spin on the Scrambler, which has been a surprising staple of Ducati’s lineup since its introduction in 2015. The notes from Ducati don’t specify the powerplants on these concepts, but our eyes tell us it’s the same 1079cc V-twin engine that has powered the Scrambler since 2018. Both bikes were designed and built by Centro Stile Ducati, which means these two reflect the style and direction of the company, not some independent builder.

Let’s look at the CR24I first. Inspired by the cafe racers of 1960s Britain, this bike leans heavily on the street performance side with 17-inch wheels like the factory Scrambler Cafe model has, but the tank-mounted fairing and absence of the detachable rear seat give the bike significantly more of a business-only vibe. The shape is borrowed from the Pantah and the 750 SS models of the past, but with an eye on the future.

The RR24I draws inspiration from modern and even post-modern sources. A bare-bones, function-first look is simple to achieve, but it makes having a finished appearance challenging. To tie up loose ends and add flair with fewer parts, the aluminum pieces of the chassis are left raw to give a slight pop of silver without using fully chromed parts. This bike gives up that passenger seat for a small luggage rack that, combined with a tank bag rack, makes for a travel-light-and-fast feel.

With Scrambler sales significant enough that the brand has to take the model seriously, these concepts might be serve as a gauge of customer interest or a direction of what’s to come. If some of the features and feel of these bikes make it to production, Ducati might have a couple of winners on its hands.

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5 Drill Press Tips and Tricks https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-drill-press-tips-and-tricks/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-drill-press-tips-and-tricks/#comments Thu, 23 May 2024 21:09:02 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=400782

Adding tools to a home shop is a never ending affair. There are staples though and a drill press is one of them. It’s handy for a whole host of reasons other than just being more convenient to use for drilling compared to a hand drill, and if you follow these five tips you will find that you might use your drill press even more.

Not just for making holes

Jacobs chucks and the spindle bearings in a drill press are not designed for the kinds of side loads encountered when attempting to mill with a drill press. Even with the limitations, chucking a wire brush into your drill press can be very helpful in cleaning up small parts and hardware. This has gotten me by without owning a bench grinder with a wire wheel for years, though a wire wheel in a drill press is slower and less efficient.

Check your table for square

Drill presses are great in the way they eliminate the human error that creates wonky holes when drilling with cordless or corded drills. Well, it should. If you haven’t taken the time to adjust the table and ensure all the parts of your drill press are correct it’s likely not much of a step up from hand drilling.

It’s easy to check that the chuck is square to the work table is with a short section of round stock. Bend the stock into a pointer and hold it in the chunk then rotate it by hand to check where it does and does not contact the table. Adjust until even. It might be tempting to use a bubble level or similar, but the key here is that the chuck and table are positioned properly to each other, which a bubble level cannot tell you.

Get used to changing speeds

We know most people put the belts on the spindle to set the speed in the middle of it’s range and use that speed for everything from 1/8″ holes in aluminum to using large Forstner bits in wood. Does it work? Kind of, but proper speeds and feeds make for better and safer results. Maybe you shelled out big bucks for a variable speed machine, but most of us are getting by with a well-maintained vintage piece that has a belt and pulley system for changing the spindle speed.

It can be slightly cumbersome to swap out the belts and shuffle everything just to drill one or two holes and switch the belts again. That’s why it’s best to practice a few times on how to do the switch and make sure you keep the space avaliable to make the swap easier.

Get a decent vise and use it

As tempting as it is to leverage the “constantly set up” nature of a drill press by just putting a bit in the chuck and making a hole in your project, that comes with a surprising amount of risk. Bits can and will grab workpieces which can whip them out of hand and cause damage to the drill press, the stuff around it, and you. A simple vise will make drilling precision holes easier and safer. Even cheap import vises like this one are better than nothing if you are still searching for the right vintage one.

Consider upgrading chucks

The Jacobs chuck is all but ubiquitous for drilling, especially on vintage equipement. The design makes grabbing tooling quite easy but the need for a special key can be annoying while also opening up safety risk when users leave the key inserted in the chuck. Accidentally power up the machine with that key hanging on the chuck and it’s going to be a bad day.

Think about upgrading to a keyless chuck. Most drill presses use a Morse taper to hold the chuck in place, meaning swapping the chuck out for a keyless one that is easily tightened and loosened by hand take no more effort than knocking the keyed one out and matching the machine’s taper to a new chuck. No key to lose or forget, plus ease of use.

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This 8-Year-Old Is the Youngest Old Farmer You’ll Ever See https://www.hagerty.com/media/people/this-8-year-old-is-the-youngest-old-farmer-youll-ever-see/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/people/this-8-year-old-is-the-youngest-old-farmer-youll-ever-see/#comments Thu, 23 May 2024 16:35:35 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=400197

Tractors feed a lot of people’s stomachs. Those same machines also feed the imagination and curiosity of countless young people. One such tractor-obsessed eight-year-old will be the first to tell you that farming runs in his blood, and just hearing him say it will remove all doubt. Now he’s sharing that passion with the world and catching the attention of millions.

At first glance, it’s easy to assume the popularity comes because Jackson dresses the part. His plaid short-sleeved shirt’s tucked neatly into his Levis, leaving easy access to the small leather tool pouch on his matching leather belt. A pair of well-worn boots completes his outfit. He’s not an actor though, and he talks the talk to back up the look. It’s that talk which has drummed up millions of views across social media recently. His passion and seemingly endless knowledge of the machines used to get the work in the fields done. That knowledge is the centerpiece of the videos posted to TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube under the username Just a Jackson Thing.

@justajacksonthing

Jackson sure loves his mower/tractors he can’t wait to drive them and use them. Got the 430 mower deck on and he was up early the next day driving the old 112 #justajacksonthing #jacksonfarmer #minifarm #mower #thatsallshewrote

♬ original sound – justAjacksonthing

In an interview with Ft. Wayne, Indiana’s WANE.com, Jackson summed it up pretty well. “It’s fun to tear something apart, fix it, and then put it back together. You get to figure out new stuff, you get to learn new stuff, you get to figure out new tractors…and then you keep that knowledge and when you go buy other stuff, bigger equipment, maybe it has the same motor or something.”

Such a strong grasp of how one builds expertise and understanding of the mechanical world by an eight-year-old is really fun to see. The bonus is that the enthusiasm is infectious. Maybe Jackson just reminds me of the dusty gentleman who sat at the counter of the local diner when I was growing up in Kansas. The equipment talk was seemingly never-ending, just like the coffee in the diner’s tan porcelain mugs. How an eight-year-old on social media made me nostalgic about Sunday morning breakfast two decades ago might be a hint as to why this young farmer has gotten so popular. Keep on doin’ what you’re doin’, Jackson.

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Diamonds Are an Amateur Machinist’s Best Friend https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/diamonds-are-an-amateur-machinists-best-friend/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/diamonds-are-an-amateur-machinists-best-friend/#comments Wed, 22 May 2024 17:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=399603

After recovering from my failed attempt to ream the new valve guides in my Honda XR250R cylinder heads with a few strong pours and a few days away from the garage, I found myself plopping said chunks of aluminum onto the counter of Thirlby Machine Shop. The man behind the counter told me not only that he didn’t have the tooling for the job, but also that the shop was not interested in buying it. But then we struck a deal. 

The valve guides in question are made of C63000 bronze and the manufacturer says the best tool for machining them is an adjustable diamond hone. If you ignore the incredible precision required to make the final product, the setup is relatively simple: a diamond abrasive fits into an attachment that can be driven by hand drill. The system is set up in two main parts: the drive head and the mandrel, the latter sized to the valve guides in question. My friendly local machine shop had the $450 drive head from a job a few years ago, but its assortment of mandrels did not include anything small enough for the 5.5mm required by the valve guides in the cylinder head of my Honda. The shop offered to loan me the driver head if I would purchase the $400 mandrel.

I know a good deal when I hear one. The proper mandrel arrived quickly, and I dove headlong into learning how to use an adjustable hone. The process became a bit intimidating after I read on machining forums that small-diameter mandrels can be delicate and, for a new user, tough starting points. Plus, I would be following the recommendations from the producer of the tooling only loosely: I would not have a pump to circulate the cutting oil, and my workpieces would not be solidly mounted. Knowing I could be lighting $400 on fire on a Saturday morning, I picked up the driver head from the machine shop and prepared my workbench. 

The tooling itself is a really sweet piece from Goodson. It has only one simple adjustment: a knob with four marks. Turning the adjuster clockwise a quarter turn from one reference mark to the next pushes the diamond stone out to contact the valve guide. Not so scary after all, then. The process was as follows: Retract the diamond stone to its lowest setting, insert stone and mandrel into valve guide, then adjust the stone to put light pressure on the guide. Attach a hand drill, flood the hone with cutting oil, run the drill through the guide in a handful of long, smooth strokes, retract the stone, remove the mandrel, measure the diameter of the valve guide. Simple, right?

Sure sounded like it, but it was also an oddly scary proposition since I was using two tools that were new to me, one of which was also borrowed. The diamond stone needed to be broken in at least a little—the manufacturer of the mandrel says the stone won’t really hit its stride till it has machined several hundred guides—so I put an old guide into my bench vise and used that to get a feel for how the day was going to go.

Holding a small squeeze bottle of oil in my left hand, I held a cordless drill in my right, plunging in and out of the guide at a nice steady pace while squeezing a steady steam of oil into the valve guide and keeping a keen feel for how much drag the hone had. Using the cordless drill made the process almost too easy; the hardest part was mentally adjusting to the fact that very glittery oil was, in this case, a positive thing.

Even in the slower speed setting, I didn’t have to run the drill wide-open to get a smooth feed, so no oil was slinging about the bench. To get the full stroke of the diamond stone, I had to make a small spacer for the cylinder head to sit on, which had the added benefit of keeping things cleaner, too.

It was a slightly hypnotizing process. The concentration required mixed with repetitive movements would have lulled me into honing away an entire guide if it weren’t for my fear of blowing past the perfect diameter for the valves.

When it came to measuring the progress of cutting, I felt as though I was getting crafty, but I was just being resourceful. A proper bore gauge for valve guides would be a one-trick pony in a stable of tools already overrun with horses for countless courses, so instead of buying a new tool to measure the inside diameter of the guide, I used one of the pilots from my valve seat cutting kit. The pilot has a very mellow taper that is meant to center and lightly wedge it in the valve guide, and by fitting the pilot into the valve guide, and noting how far it extended into the guide, I could figure out where I was at in the machining process and how much material I had left to remove. Once I reached a point where the valve stem would insert through the guide, I made a final pass to machine a nice slip fit that will keep these valves running smoothly for what I hope to be hundreds, if not thousands, of hours.

After the first four valve guides, I had the process just about locked in. The second cylinder head took a fraction of the time and the results were likely slightly better. Now that these heads have smooth valve action, the next step in prepping them is mating the valves to their seats. A proper three-angle valve job is the only acceptable way to do that, so the next installment of this series will be getting the seats cut and some final prep items before I make the final preparations for installing the valves and closing up two engines that have been haunting my workbench for over a year. The sound of them popping to life is so close, yet so far away.

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This EMC-Restored G-Wagen Requires No Compromise https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/this-emc-restored-g-wagen-requires-no-compromise/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/this-emc-restored-g-wagen-requires-no-compromise/#comments Tue, 21 May 2024 21:21:25 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=399890

Simplicity, at least in vehicles, is becoming something of a luxury. As new cars and trucks get seemingly more complex by the moment, it’s no surprise that enthusiasts are turning toward more basic designs to get their kicks. Enter the Expedition Motor Company (EMC) and its latest project, the 1993 Sahara Wolf.

EMC restores early Mercedes-Benz Geländewagens, specifically (though not exclusively) 250GD models. Company founder Alex Levin has a particular passion for this soft-topped, diesel-powered iteration of the G-Wagen, and formed the company in 2017 to give new life to the old rigs.

Born to be a military vehicle but quickly winning favor with users from all walks of life, early G-Wagens were released to the public as incredibly capable but bare-bones utility vehicles. Luxuries like air conditioning and automatic transmissions could be added for those willing to fork out for the extra coin. The U.S. market was still delicate territory for Mercedes-Benz in the ’80s, and since they wanted to burnish their budding reputation for luxury, the durable but spartan Benz truck didn’t make it to American shores. Time, however, and the 25-year import rule, heal all wounds, and the first-generation G-Wagens are now available for import and enjoyment.

EMC’s work on these 30+ year-old vehicles lands somewhere between restoration to original specification and full-beans restomod. You won’t find any LS swaps or exorbitant horsepower under the hood. Instead, there’s attention to detail that highlights the G-Wagen bits that give the truck its personality, and modern amenities that enable some of the most durable and go-anywhere vehicles of the past to be comfortable enough to use as daily driver.

The character of the “Wolf,” the nickname the 250GD received from its time in military service, remains fully present. EMC opted to leave the factory OM602 2.5-liter five-cylinder diesel engine and five-speed manual transmission intact, and while the exterior sports minor modifications, the truck’s essential look is unchanged.

Updates subtly increase the Wolf’s capability and more noticeably up its livability. The main differences are the EMC-designed suspension, a custom front bumper, three-inch LED Pod Lights for better vision when wheeling at night, a Warn Winch, and a snorkel. There is also the addition of a Harman Kardon Infinity sound system, sound proofing, WirelessApple CarPlay and a full array of creature comforts including a refinished interior, air conditioning, heat, and also heated seats front and rear.

The Sahara Wolf presents as a balance of utility and comfort that is tough to create—more than 2100 hours went into this build, and it shows. Such a blend of preservation and modification isn’t cheap: The price tag for this 1993 250GD $180,450. Then again, simplicity is in short supply these days.

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New Yenko/SC Corvette to Pack 1000 Horsepower https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/new-yenko-sc-corvette-to-pack-1000-horsepower/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/new-yenko-sc-corvette-to-pack-1000-horsepower/#comments Mon, 20 May 2024 20:03:58 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=398726

Yenko is one of those storied names by that never fails to evoke strong images and stories from days gone by, at least among the bow tie and muscle car faithful. The dealership, the man, and the cars—along with the story behind them—are truly larger than life.

Though Yenko Chevrolet closed its doors in 1982, the name lives on with machines from Specialty Vehicle Engineering, itself a company with deep roots in the world of automotive performance. (Known prior to 2014 as Street Legal Performance, or SLP, they were the company behind the third- and fourth-generation Camaro SS and Firebird Firehawk, among others.) SVE’s latest Yenko-branded project, the Yenko/SC Corvette, combines looks and horsepower in that classic Yenko way but on a very modern platform.

The eighth-generation Corvette has been nothing if not polarizing to fans of America’s sportscar, but it’s nonetheless been wildly popular and has succeeded in bringing a younger audience to the model. From a performance perspective, it’s an obvious choice to get the Yenko treatment, even if the younger folks among those lusting after C8s might not be as familiar with the name. In a form consistent with older Yenko products as well as the existing lineup of Yenko/SC vehicles that SVE produces, this Corvette packs some serious performance.

2024_c8_corvette_yenko yellow side profile
Specialty Vehicle Engineering

The cosmetic treatment includes forged wheels and contrasting graphics that highlight the C8’s edgy styling. Like the stripes on Chevelles and Camaros of yore, these decals merely hint at the heavy work that’s been done under the hood. SVE turned the LT2 engine into a 1000 horsepower monster with a pair of turbochargers that pressure-feed the V-8 all the fresh air it can handle. To handle the boost, SVE upgraded the internals of the engine with a forged steel crankshaft, forged H-beam rods, forged 2618 aluminum pistons, ARP high strength head and main studs, CNC-ported high-flow cylinder heads with upgraded valvetrain, proprietary ground camshaft, custom intercooled intake manifold, custom valve covers with integrated oil separators, and an upgraded fuel system to support it all. According to SVE, the Tremec DCT transmission also receives upgrades, though the exact details are not in the promotional materials for the package.

It’s hard not to embrace the cool factor of a 1000-horsepower mid-engine Chevrolet—the eighth-generation Corvette already posted supercar performance metrics, so a 100% boost in power effectively makes the car a land-based rocket ship. Whether the exotic-looking C8 benefits from the nostalgic Yenko stripes is up for debate, but there’s no question that this build certainly lives up to the Yenko mythology. Pricing starts at $99,995, plus the cost of a new Corvette, of course. SVE will only build 10 Yenko/SC Corvettes in 2024 and another 50 in 2025. If you’re interested, you’ll need to head down to your Chevy dealer. This time around, a COPO form won’t be necessary.

2024_c8_corvette_yenko gray rear 3/4
Specialty Vehicle Engineering

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Ducati Announces Limited-Edition Monster Senna https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/ducati-announces-limited-edition-monster-senna/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/ducati-announces-limited-edition-monster-senna/#respond Fri, 17 May 2024 19:05:01 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=399089

Best known for his masterful driving behind the wheel of Formula 1 race cars—and that one video where he drives the wheels off an NSX in loafers—the late Ayrton Senna is a legend. People with stories like his get special editions named after them, and sometimes those special editions seem to make little sense. The limited-edition Ducati Monster Senna is one such example, but if you are questioning why anyone would name a motorcycle after a Formula 1 driver, I’m here to explain.

Ducati_Monster_Senna
Ducati

Ayrton Senna might not be a household name, but in the car community he is dang close. Between the his personality and his tendency to end up on the top step of the podium, he quickly attracted a fanbase. This was an era before social media and breathless press coverage, which meant Senna could still unwind a bit on the weekends and between race seasons. What does a guy who drivers really fast for a living do for a thrill? He rides motorcycles, of course.

And Senna’s motorcycle of choice was Ducati, though his hand was helped in selection when Claudio Castiglioni, then owner of Ducati and a fan of Senna, gave the three-time world champion a Ducati 851 SP. Senna also bopped around Monte Carlo on a Monster 900 in the early 1990s, even using the bike to arrive at the 1993 Monaco Grand Prix. The Monster likely appealed to Senna for its connection and feel. A sharp chassis, a punchy powerplant, and simple styling are hallmarks of the Monster lineup, and the new Senna edition captures all of that but blends in a heavy dose of the Brazilian driver’s color pallette.

The base for this special edition is the 2024 Monster, which features the 937cc Testastretta V-twin engine that makes 111 hp and 69 lb-ft and sounds great doing it, thanks to a set of Termignoni mufflers. The front forks, rear shock, and steering damper are all courtesy of Öhlins and keep things under control. The forged aluminum wheels help trim weight, and the Senna edition is nearly 10 pounds less than the standard model.

The Monster Senna’s performance might be close to the standard model, but the aesthetics are a pretty radical departure. The colors are pulled directly from the Brazilian flag, which was the heart of Senna’s signature yellow, green, and blue helmet. The black rims are specially made for this model, as are the yellow Brembo brake calipers. Other distinctive elements are the special seat, the matching engine guard, and the dedicated dashboard animation, which starts when the ignition is turned on.

This isn’t the first time Ducati has put the Senna name on a Ducati. Just weeks before a special-edition 916 was set to debut in 1994, however, Senna lost his life at the San Marino Grand Prix at Iola. Ducati leadership consulted Senna’s family and collectively decided to go ahead with the release. Ducati revived the special edition in 1997 and ’98, and then again in 2014, on the 1199 Panigale model. Like all of the previous models bearing the Senna name, this new Monster is limited and likely to go fast. Only 341 of the 2024 Monster Sennas will be produced, and they are set to debut this weekend at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.

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Ducati_Monster_Senna _6__UC638470_High
Ducati

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5 Tips When Replacing Steering Components on Your Project Car https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-tips-when-replacing-steering-components-on-your-project-car/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-tips-when-replacing-steering-components-on-your-project-car/#comments Thu, 16 May 2024 17:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=398316

The three critical systems of a car, in order of importance, are: Steering, brakes, and the drivetrain. If you question this ordering think no further than how many times you have heard someone tell stories of driving a vehicle with no brakes. I’ve never heard a story of someone intentionally driving a vehicle that had no steering.

Now that we agree that steering is critical, we therefore also all agree that maintaining your steering components is important. For those of the DIY proclivity it is a relatively simple system to understand and work on. To get you started, here are five tips for tackling the system of tie-rods, drag links, and idler arms, steering boxes, and pitman arms.

Check your threads

Castle nut on tie rod
Kyle Smith

There aren’t many areas on a car where left- and right-hand threads are mixed together in an assembly. Steering is one of them. With modern impact tools capable of twisting the threads right off a nut or bolt, going the proper direction is important because you might not get a second chance. Trace the threads with your finger or a pick to confirm if “righty tighty, lefty loosey” still applies.

Careful with your castles

damage castle nut on tie rod
Hitting a castle nut with a hammer will deform them in a hurry.Kyle Smith

While it sounds like advice pulled from a Dungeons and Dragons rulebook, it’s also true for cars. Castle nuts get their name from the crenellations cut into the top which allow the use of cotter keys to keep the nuts from turning. They work well too, but unfortunately, they are often relatively delicate. Failing to get a socket fully seated can easily strip a castle nut, and a misplaced hammer blow can deform it enough that it will be difficult to remove. If you need to use a hammer for persuasion on one of these, remove it completely, flip it over, and thread it back on. This gives you a flat surface to hit with a hammer that will also not damage the threads.

Get the special puller

nate montero pitman arm puller
Pulling a pitman arm without a puller is a nightmare.Kyle Smith

There are a couple of tight-fitting joints on the steering components. This means getting things apart can be frustrating—but it doesn’t have to be. Buying a proper ball joint press or pitman arm puller can be a steep investment considering this work is not done weekly or even monthly for most at-home DIY’ers.

Luckily most chain auto parts stores are happy to rent the special tools to people like you and me. This often requires putting down the full price and getting a refund upon returning the tools, but compared to the frustration of using the wrong tools the hold on some of my cash is very much worth it. Be sure to find proper instructions on use online as the rental tools rarely include them.

Match the new tie rods to the old ones

Nearly everything in your steering system has some form of adjustment, and the most critical and obvious are the tie rods. While it is possible to just assemble them and ignore the horrible toe in or out just long enough to get to the alignment shop, your alignment guy is going to like you a lot more if you take the minute to thread the new tie rods together to roughly the same length as the one being removed. This puts the adjustment in the ballpark and also makes the drive to the alignment shop much more pleasant.

Assemble with anti-seize

Anti sieze and tools on workbench
Anti-seize is important for things you will want to be able to adjust in the future.Kyle Smith

The hardworking components of your steering system are sitting on the underside of your car under constant assault from every size and type of road debris. Water, road salt, dirt, rocks, and radical temperature changes can supercharge the hold of corrosion on threaded parts. A dab of anti-seize goes a long way in keeping this at bay. It will also help the parts last longer as there is the option of doing a second alignment later. Ask anyone who has argued with stubborn, crusty tie rods and you’ll learn that anti-seize can be the small difference between a routine job and testing your patience while mangling tie rod sleeves.

Don’t forget the cotter pins

Torquing hardware to spec determines both clamping pressure and helps keep things from loosening up. Because many of the parts in a steering system see a rotational movement that could potentially loosen the threaded fasteners, many steering components have the additional positive retention of a cotter key going through the bolt and castle nuts to keep them from turning. Aligning the castle nut to the hole through the bolt can be annoying, but it’s an important step to keep your steering from unintentionally coming apart. No one wants that.

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Silence Is Golden, but This Ferrari 355 Is a Musical Masterpiece https://www.hagerty.com/media/driving/silence-is-golden-but-this-ferrari-355-is-a-musical-masterpiece/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/driving/silence-is-golden-but-this-ferrari-355-is-a-musical-masterpiece/#comments Tue, 14 May 2024 20:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=398003

Life requires equilibrium. In a perfect world, we all would have an even trade-off of time spent working for someone else and time spent indulging our own personal interests and passions. The scale is rarely so neatly balanced though. So maybe shoot for quality over quantity and indulge yourself with five minutes of peaceful forest noise punctuated by the howl of a Ferrari V-8.

While the Modena Yellow Berlinetta stands out in a big way against the lush green backdrop, it’s the exhaust note that cuts through the serenity more than the bright exterior. The mid-mounted V-8 displaces just 3.5 liters, hence the 35 leading the model name. The final 5 is a reference to the number of valves per cylinder (cinquevalvole), which is uncommon for Ferrari but a perfect way to delineate the key difference between the previous 348 model and the evolved 355 that replaced it.

Looking at the car and hearing it are one thing, but the pièce de résistance is the gated six-speed manual transmission. The rise and and fall of the engine rpm, punctuated with the soft tink-tink of the shifter as the driver goes between second and third gear on a winding forest road, is the dream for many of us. Although we might be stuck at the desk for another couple of hours yet today, this is a perfect five-minute escape to the place we would rather be—even if we might likely never be there.

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How 4 Teens Won GRM’s $2000 Challenge in a Low-Buck “Truck” https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/how-4-teens-won-grms-2000-challenge-in-a-low-buck-truck/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/how-4-teens-won-grms-2000-challenge-in-a-low-buck-truck/#comments Mon, 13 May 2024 22:15:15 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=397733

It’s one thing to win a competition with an unlimited budget. It’s quite another to bring home top honors when you’ve got a strict cap on what you can spend. In this circumstance, it’s usually the most innovative and creative competitor that prevails, and Material Girls Racing proved that in this year’s Grassroots Motorsports $2000 Challenge. The team, made up of four high school seniors, evolved their vehicle over years of competition and came up with a winning formula that just happens to wear a Ford Ranger body.

This pink pickup actually sits on a 2013 Ford Taurus Police Intercepter chassis and is powered by a twin-turbo V-6 that sends power to all four wheels. The team says in a forum post that the police interceptor’s Ecoboost factory turbos and fuel pump are maxed out, which means there’s somewhere in the range of 400 hp on tap. It’s no slouch.

The project came together for the Grassroots Motorsports $2000 challenge, which pits builders against each other with a budget cap of $2024 (it goes up $1 each year to match the calendar). The event scores participants by quarter mile and autocross times, along with a concours presentation that allows judges to discuss how the cars are built with the people who turned the wrenches.

Material Girls Racing are repeat participants in the $2000 Challenge. Their ongoing pursuit of speed was the impetus for the body swap—they maxed out the heavy stock Taurus in last year’s competition. Budget constraints made finding more power in the Ecoboost difficult, and suspension tuning would have been another heavy spend. Tight purse strings meant the team had to get creative, so they took a page from Colin Chapman’s book and focused on adding lightness. Even after last year’s competition where the car ran almost fully stripped and only sporting the driver’s door, there was still a lot of weight that could be trimmed and still fit inside the rules for the competition.

After figuring out what models could match the Taurus’ wheelbase, the team found a $300 Ford Ranger on Facebook Marketplace. They got to work with sawzalls and other cutting implements, trimming away the Taurus’ unibody until a tractor could help drop the shell of the truck on top of what was left of the chassis. A roll bar tied to the Taurus chassis adds stiffness back into the structure. After lengthening a few panels and relocating the radiator to the bed of the truck, the team sprayed the Ranger in a coat of pink paint. According to the team, their efforts ended up shaving an impressive 900 pounds from the vehicle’s weight.

The team says they were inspired by Shirley Muldowney and other female legends of motorsport, and we think these Material Girls would have made Shirley and others proud by building a truck that not only looks pretty sweet but also performs incredibly well. The truck ran a 12.1-second quarter mile (enough for sixth overall out of 53 competitors) and completed the autocross with a 44.3-second time (good for ninth overall). It also posted with a solid “concours” score, and their performance across all disciplines was enough to put these high school seniors atop the leaderboard, narrowly edging out a 1990 Nissan 300ZX and 1985 Chevrolet Corvette.

As all four members of the team are about to graduate high school, squeezing in a first-place build in among schoolwork, college applications, and the rest of their busy schedules had to have been quite a feat. With the creativity, speed, and skill they showed with this project, we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see one or all of these young women on a Formula SAE team in the near future—it’s probably a safe bet that this isn’t the last time we’ll see them in motorsports.

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Is All Exhaust Backpressure Bad? https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/is-all-exhaust-backpressure-bad/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/is-all-exhaust-backpressure-bad/#comments Fri, 10 May 2024 18:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=396908

The most basic understanding of an engine centers around how air flows through it. Air gets drawn in, compressed with fuel, then pushed out. The idea is simple enough, but the physics behind it are incredibly complex. Decades of debates have turned half-truths into facts, and Banks Power has swooped in to correct the record and clarify a few of the myths, specifically about exhaust, that have been parroted for a long time.

I know these myths exist and can catch anyone, because I have been guilty of saying things like “an engine needs some exhaust backpressure” with a straight face myself. I’ve since learned better but the books that taught me aren’t as illustrative and clear as this Banks video breaking down the ins-and-out of exhaust backpressure.

Backpressure is created by any restrictions or impediments to the flow of exhaust gases on their journey from the combustion chamber to the tip of the tailpipe. Some are necessary, like bends in the exhaust to route around suspension or running gear, while others are not required but sure are nice, like mufflers or turbochargers. Backpressure is nearly unavoidable but can also be leveraged for our benefit. The force to push exhaust gas out from the combustion chamber comes from the power stored in the crankshaft, and short of somehow creating a vacuum that pulls the exhaust out (we’ll get to scavenging in a minute), there will always be a little power loss from expelling exhaust gases.

Which means the attempt might be to eliminate backpressure but the reality is trying to minimize it. Maybe that is where the myth of needing a little resistance comes from. Banks theorizes that the myth started with exhaust salesmen in the 1950s who were tasked with selling mufflers that were more restrictive than stock and said anything to make the sale. Could this have worked and worked well enough that people are still repeating it 70 years later? Maybe. We may never know.

Corvair exhaust design
Headers and free-flowing piping can be a nice upgrade, but performance increase is not guaranteed.Kyle Smith

What we do know for certain is that backpressure is not needed and cleaning up the path of exhaust flow is a relatively easy way to free up some horsepower. A well designed exhaust will actually use the pulses of hot gases to help evacuate other cylinders which allows even more efficient running. This is called scavenging and is actually negative backpressure. It can be great, but takes a lot of engineering to achieve. Log style manifolds will never have this, and most affordable header designs don’t do it either. Banks has a great bench-top demonstration of how a header can scavenge.

Redline Rebuild Buick Nailhead assembled
Log manifolds might be the worst for performance, but are certainly easy to cast and fit in an engine compartment.Ben Woodworth

So, is backpressure needed? Short answer, no. It’s not always the lowest hanging fruit to freeing up power, but if you get into tuning your engine on a long enough timeline you will probably end up thinking long and hard about your exhaust. I know I did and am currently enjoying an increase in performance along with the great sound.

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When Ignorance Costs You Both Money and Time https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/when-ignorance-costs-you-both-money-and-time/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/when-ignorance-costs-you-both-money-and-time/#comments Thu, 09 May 2024 18:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=396547

Valve guides are a very hardworking part of internal combustion engines. These small bearings keep the poppet valves moving freely and center them in their seats. Valve guides play a large part in the impressive longevity of valves and cylinder heads in modern, high-rpm engines. Perhaps due to their relatively low rate of failure, valve guides are not brought up much in discussions between mechanics. This might have been why I decided to replace the valve guides on my Honda XR250R motorcycle engines at home. It did not go smoothly.

How Hard Can It Be?

xr250r cylinder heads on workbench
Kyle Smith

In the simplest terms, a valve guide is not much more than the precisely sized sleeve that holds the intake or exhaust valve in the cylinder head. To make manufacturing easier, guides are often made from a material different than that of the cylinder head and pressed into place within it. That press-fit often means that the final inside diameter of the guide needs to be machined to a proper slip fit of the valve after the guide is pressed into the head. Valves, guides, and cylinder heads are each manufactured to a range of tolerances, and those tiny variations can add up to be problematic; machining the guides with those pieces assembled essentially allows you to correct for those flaws when they would potentially be at their worst.

In the aluminum cylinder heads on my Honda XR250Rs, the valve guides are machined from bronze. For the last two engines built on my bench, I had the cylinder heads done by in outside shop but selected C63000 bronze valve guides for their durability. The C63000 formula includes bronze, nickel, and aluminum, a combination that makes the material very stable at higher temperatures, such as those that the cylinder head of an air-cooled dirt bike sees during slow-speed, low-airflow trail slogs.

All that is fine and dandy, but this alloy is also really difficult to machine. The same traits that make this metal hold up well in an engine make it difficult to make the small cuts that bring the inside diameter of the valve guide to that perfect fit with the valve stem. We are getting ahead of ourselves, though; before we make things the right size, we have to get things assembled.

Installing the Guides

This is actually the easiest step in the process on these heads; it only requires a little patience. The first step with anything related to building an engine is cleanliness, so I kicked things off with a deep scrub after putting the valve guides into the freezer on Friday night. After breakfast on Saturday I popped the bare cylinder head in the toaster oven for a little pre-heating. The temperature differential made the guides shrink ever so slightly in outside diameter while the bores in the cylinder head expanded ever so slightly to make the job of driving the guides into place just a little easier. For all the precision work that happens as part of this process, this step requires nothing but brute force, a big hammer, and a special driver to prevent damaging the guides.

First Attempt at Reaming

One of the things that is virtually always free and saves so much stress in doing projects like this is simply finding, reading, understanding, and following the instructions that come with the products you are using. There is something addictive about the feeling of successfully reverse-engineering the thing without needing the instructions, but as fun as that is, reading the instructions also keeps you from making ignorant moves. I’ll let you guess which route I took when it came to my high-speed reamer.

A high-speed steel reamer is the cheapest way to size valve guides, because reamers are single-size, but a fluted reamer is not the correct tool to size the C63000 guides I purchased: The manufacturer tells you as much if you take the time to find the information on their website. I didn’t, and on my first attempt, the guide dulled the reamer, got hot, and grabbed the reamer in a hug like your grandma used to give you—tight, and potentially inseparable.

Separating the two was not even worth the effort. The reamer was a total loss and so was the guide. They will live on as an artistic reminder to do the damn research. After consulting the valve guide manufacturer with an inquiry regarding the method or process they recommend, I learned that my plan to save any money on this project was gone. Learning costs money sometimes, but the $2200 in tooling that the manufacturer suggested was a tough pill to swallow. Two grand would have been about the total cost to have a pro handle these heads completely—not just the guides, but everything—and the project would have been done four weeks ago.

With my tail between my legs, I set these two cylinder heads on the oily front desk of the local machine shop. Joey, the man behind the counter, took one look at them and said, “Nope.” He denied the work not because he didn’t want to do it, or because I wouldn’t pay his price, but because his shop didn’t have the tooling for the teeny, tiny valve guides used in the XR250R. Most of the engines this machine shop sees are traditional V-8s which have valve stems significantly larger than the 5.5-mm toothpicks in these Hondas.

I was in a bind. Luckily, Joey’s advice was free, and the machine shop did have a solution, or at least part of one., It wasn’t going to come easily or cheaply, though. Joey and I put a replacement valve guide on order, along with a new tool. When the mail truck drops it all off, it’ll be time to try again… this time, significantly more prepared. You know, like I should have been the first time. Even the tasks that appear the simplest—remember, all of this was to make eight 0.216-inch holes for valves to slide into—are rarely what they seem, and occasionally we need to be reminded of that.

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5 Things That Make Living with a Carburetor Easier https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-things-that-make-living-with-a-carburetor-easier/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-things-that-make-living-with-a-carburetor-easier/#comments Thu, 02 May 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=394586

A properly running car is a finely tuned system of parts working in harmony. Any component, then, can make the difference between a running and driving machine and a coughing, spitting garage ornament. If one critical component is a bit persnickety, it often earns a bad reputation it may not deserve. If you know (or are) someone who’s into old cars, you probably know the love/hate affair with carburetors.

We all know the holy trinity of engine worship: Fuel, air, and spark. These three elements must exist in the right proportions for an engine to run. Because “holy quaternary” just doesn’t have the same ring to it, compression gets shoved off into the corner, to be discussed only by those who have ascended to a higher tier of diagnostics beliefs, like that guy with the long beard who is still remarkably adept at spark plug reading. He diagnosed a distributor gasket leak from across the parking lot once. I was there.

Maybe I’m misremembering, but it’s precisely that kind of guru mechanic people picture when want someone to work on their carburetor. It doesn’t take a wizard to have a great-running carbureted car, however. Just about anyone can have it. To get there and stay there takes a little bit of care, but the basics boil down to five things.

Use Clean, Non-Ethanol Fuel

Carolina Motorsports Park fuel pump
Carolina Motorsports Park

Although ethanol-blended fuel does have big power potential, it is also the root of more than a few headaches for those of us with a vintage bent. Gasoline will evaporate at the temperatures most of us like to cruise in, and that means the gasoline disappears and leaves the residue of the ethanol behind. It clogs the multitude of precision passages that make a carburetor function. Most carb tuning and advice is rooted in pre-ethanol times, so even using jetting and setup advice can be tough, as ethanol fuel behaves differently compared to “pure” gasoline.

A Well-Tuned Choke

Holley 4150 with electric choke kit
Holley

Listen to the arguments against carbs, and cold starts are oft cited as being a runaway victory for fuel injection. It’s a fair point; fuel injection has won the smooth-running game handily, but a well-tuned choke on a carb works really well considering how simple it is. After all, it carried us through when our hobby cars were simply daily drivers.

Thermostatic chokes often use a bimetallic coil, which is just two different metals bonded together that expand differently when heated or cooled. Pump the throttle once before starting the engine to set the choke, and the engine should start and set at a high idle. Consult your shop manual to get exact settings. Tuning a choke can be finicky, but when it’s all sorted, there is nothing quite like a smooth start-up on a crisp fall morning.

Happy Distributor

Brandan Gillogly

A professor of mine from college once told me “90 percent of your fuel problems are ignition.” People will be chasing “carb problems” for hours before realizing the damp spark plug that seems to be running too rich is actually just a plug getting weak spark or not firing at all. Keeping the ignition in top shape helps to keep many other components running smoothly—and it also assists with diagnostics for rough running.

Smooth Linkages

Brandan Gillogly

Binding linkages can make chokes stick and accelerator pumps function inconsistently. It’s wild to think that the carb’s exterior cleanliness is just as critical as its cleanliness inside. Road grime is attracted to oily or damp surfaces, and it only takes a small amount of oil mist from an open breather or leaky gasket to attract a surprising amount of junk, which will damage small seals or gum up finicky linkages.

Clean Air

Mustang Cobra Jet 428 decal and shaker hood scoop
Brandan Gillogly

It seems there are actually three sides to a carburetor: the fuel side, the air side, and the outside. Does that make sense? Maybe. Regardless, the air coming into an engine is the easiest pathway for all the stuff that should stay outside of an engine to get inside of it. Dirty throttle blades and intake manifolds can cause interesting problems in both carbureted and fuel-injected engines. All the delicate and small air passages that help keep carbs balanced and flowing can get clogged quickly. Keep an air filter on the intake, and your carb will be happy for a long time.

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C6 Corvette ZR1s Pack a Punch—and Tempting Value https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/hagerty-insider/market-spotlight/c6-corvette-zr1s-pack-a-punch-and-tempting-value/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/hagerty-insider/market-spotlight/c6-corvette-zr1s-pack-a-punch-and-tempting-value/#comments Wed, 01 May 2024 21:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=392474

Back in 2007, rumors swirled about the “Blue Devil,” an even hairier and more capable Corvette than the C6 Z06 introduced a year earlier. With a name like that had and an already potent 505-hp Z06 to beat, expectations were high. But when Chevrolet turned the first C6 ZR1s loose, those expectations were met. The ZR1 badge was familiar from uber-Corvettes of old, but this was a new, massive leap forward for America’s sports car, and it wasn’t just the supercharged LS9 popping through the window in the hood that made it. The draw of the 2009-13 ZR1 has pulled in a surprising subset of enthusiasts. And while it’s never been cheap, it’s still one of the lowest-priced ways to buy into extreme performance.

By 2009, the sixth generation (C6) Corvette was in its fifth model year and selling well like the C5 before it. The taillights were still rounded—like a proper Corvette—but the chassis and powertrain had reached true world-class levels and was going to have trouble topping itself. The Z06 trim that arrived in 2006 was the lightest of all the sixth-gen cars and brought supercar performance on a budget, but despite the monumental improvements to the Corvette over the previous decade and a half, the C6 platform still had room for more power, and better handling thanks to downforce.

2013 Corvette ZR1 Hagerty Garage front three quarter
Kayla Keenan

Internally named “Blue Devil” (an homage to GM CEO Rick Wagoner’s alma mater, Duke) the ZR1’s new engine was a supercharged 6.2-liter V8. The target was 100 horsepower-per-liter, but it left the factory with 638 hp and 595 lb-ft. The car could hit 60 in just over 3 seconds and top 200 mph. A front splitter helped keep the ZR1 stuck to the ground, while carbon fiber was utilized for the roof, hood, fenders and rocker moldings to keep weight down.

The power flows through a six-speed Tremec TR6060 manual transmission, which features the familiar and mildly annoying skip-shift solenoid, drivers to skip second and third gear when at light throttle and low RPM so the car could dance around the gas guzzler tax. This is easily fixed by either revving out a few hundred more RPM or installing an aftermarket skip shift eliminator that gives the driver the control over the transmission they paid for.

C6 ZR1s were incrementally improved over their production run, which wrapped with the 2013 model year. The 2012-13 cars, like this 2013 example, available on Hagerty Marketplace, sport improved seats, a new steering wheel design, other interior amenities, and slightly different gearing. Performance Traction Management, GM’s excellent stability control system, arrived in 2010.

With a base car as good as the C6, it’s not at all surprising that the ZR1 was a favorite of many drivers even if it was a slightly scary, even intimidating experience. The massive horsepower and torque numbers also lent to making the car sound far scarier than the driving experience tended to be in reality. The clutch take up is only fractionally heavier than a Z06, which combines with a long throttle pedal travel to make sure if you are only unleashing all 638 horsepower when you really want to.

2013 Corvette ZR1 Hagerty Garage rear three quarter
Kayla Keenan

The rest of the interior has a more premium feel and has aged a lot more gracefully than it’s predecessors, but that’s a low bar to beat. Overall, the ZR1 has a very similar cockpit to the lower C6 trims, with the exception of a manifold pressure gauge residing where the voltage meter sits in lower trims. It’s mainly the driving experience that will tell the driver they are behind the wheel of the top dog C6 rather than bits of flair on the dash.

And that experience, along with the raw numbers, has kept the car relevant and desirable even after a decade and a half. It’s arguably even more relevant now, at least to car enthusiasts. In just the last three years Hagerty’s insurance quote activity for the C6 ZR1 has risen 44%. Gen X and Millennials are the top buyers by generation, which goes against the stereotype of Corvettes being the bread and butter of Baby Boomers.

Our data also shows that overall values for the C6—the penultimate front-mid engine, rear-drive, true manual Corvette—have stayed relatively flat for several years, which suggests they are done depreciating. As for ZR1s, of which Chevrolet sold 4695 examples over five years, high-quality cars have seen notable appreciation while more used driver-condition examples have been fairly steady. Some perfect cars have sold for over $100K, and the original MSRP was in the low-$100K range, but currently the model’s condition #2 (“excellent”) value in the Hagerty Price Guide is $86,800. Not cheap, then, but its supercar speed combined with the ability to take to a Chevrolet dealer for service is hard to ignore. Performance per dollar has always been a big Corvette selling point. The C6 ZR1 simply pushed the performance envelope further than any Corvette before it. That, its relative rarity, and its status as the halo model for an entire generation of America’s sports car mean it never really left the Corvette conversation, and it likely never will.

2013 Corvette ZR1 Hagerty Garage driver front three quarter
Kayla Keenan

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How to Give Those Old Windshield Wipers a Fighting Chance https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/how-to-give-those-old-windshield-wipers-a-fighting-chance/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/how-to-give-those-old-windshield-wipers-a-fighting-chance/#comments Tue, 30 Apr 2024 14:01:11 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=394190

There are few things as frustrating and dangerous as not being able to see the road you are driving on. Our beloved vintage rides do occasionally get caught in the rain, and especially if you are typically a fair weather cruiser in a vehicle that lacks modern wipers, that water can really put a damper on your vision. Luckily there are plenty of modern chemicals designed to help keep water off your windscreen, but do they all work the same, and is there one that works better than the rest?

Glass alone might be plenty smooth, but that does not mean it’s also hydrophobic. Water can still sheet up and cause all kinds of optical problems. Inclement weather often comes with dark skies, bright headlights, and the stress of just trying to survive the thunderdome of the roadways to get your beloved vintage ride home. Windshield wipers have advanced significantly over the years, but retrofitting modern wipers onto vintage cars has yet to catch on, so we are left figuring out other solutions to keep up.

Many years ago I was told that slicing a potato in half and rubbing it on the windshield would help water bead up and slide off. That tricked worked when I got caught in a storm and my motorcycle helmet visor was not shedding water fast enough to keep my vision clear. After that day I came to believe in hydrophobic coatings, the same ones that YouTube channel Project Farm just put to the test to see which is best.

The name recognition of Rain-X is hard to beat, but apparently the function of Rain-X is not nearly as unassailable. Of the nine different coatings tested, several had far better water shedding properties, but also came with finicky multi-step application process. That amount of prep work did seem to correlate with effectiveness when tested with a hose, though two wipes with some windshield washer fluid to simulate cleaning a windshield between storms and suddenly a few proved to be fairly delicate. Even more cleaning with car wash soap of bug and tar remover left all but four still shedding water like new.

Is this perfect real world testing? Not really, but it does give us some insight into a few products that can help us enjoy driving our vintage cars with more visibility. Personally, applying some type of hydrophobic coating to the windshield is part of my pre road trip checklist. Several of the brands across all price points in this test performed admirably, and buyers can make their call based on budget and how much rain their classic is likely to see.

Will these coatings making driving in the rain fun? Maybe not, but it can at least give us a chance at making it home safe and not missing our exit because that sign was just a green blob on the other side of the windshield right up until it wasn’t. Between keeping a windshield clean and using a water repellent like those mentioned in the video above, driving in the rain doesn’t have to be a horrible experience—but cleaning the car afterwards might still be.

And if you were trying to figure out what the car in the feature image is, it’s a 1957 Zundapp Janus. Kudos if you got it right.

1957 Zundapp Janus at Orphan car Show Ypsi 2019
1957 Zundapp Janus shown in the rain at a car show in 2019.Kyle Smith

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This Display Red Ram Hemi Is a Cut Above https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/this-display-red-ram-hemi-is-a-cut-above/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/this-display-red-ram-hemi-is-a-cut-above/#comments Fri, 26 Apr 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=393536

Preserving and collecting automobiles has a fascinating side effect: Preserving and collecting all the of the other ephemera that surround our cars. The original sales brochures, shop manuals, and other promotional materials are often a fascinating window into another time. Then there are the promotional items that literally had windows cut into them so we could see the future. One such example was this Red Ram Hemi V-8 cutaway spotted on Facebook Marketplace by Barnfinds.com recently.

The engine is said to be part of promotional material that introduced the public to the idea of the Hemi engine and the combustion chamber shape that gave it that name. The 1950s saw pretty rapid innovation, and lots of manufacturers began to roll out overhead-valve V-8 models into production cars. The Hemi had not yet become the legend we know today, but it seems like someone knew what was on the horizon and kept this piece of memorabilia for the future.

The engine is sliced and diced to show various internal features that are nigh impossible to put eyes on when assembled any other way. Liberal use of a bandsaw aside, this model also has a motor tucked inside, and when the cord hanging out the back is plugged into a 110v wall outlet, a number of lights illuminate the inside and set the crankshaft in motion. The valvetrain cycle through is cool to see from the valve cover side, but to see the actual timing vs piston location is really something.

The seller claims this model is one of three and, per Don Garlits, the only one that is kinetic—the others were just stationary models with other chunks of the engine relieved for sight. That would be something worth researching more before putting in a bid or signing the check for the $22,000 asking price. The seller believes this to be one-of-one but there is evidence of at least one other moving cutaway that was used in a promotional film starring Groucho Marx.

The difficulty of making a clean and functional operating cutaway makes this a really cool bit of kit. That this one has survived over half a century only furthers the wow factor, and the idea that it should be enjoyed well into the future. If your garage or showroom needs something but you just couldn’t find the right thing, this could be it. Also be sure to ask about that cutaway transmission sitting just behind this engine. The seller says he has decided to include it with the sale price—in case you needed any more reason to check your bank account.

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10 Factors That Influence an Engine’s Character https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/10-factors-that-influence-an-engines-character/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/10-factors-that-influence-an-engines-character/#comments Thu, 25 Apr 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=392951

The engine is considered the heart of a car, and while the analogy does work, it starts to fall apart once you get beyond the superficial. The human heart is a relatively boring necessity that is at its best operating with no interesting quirks, flutters, or rhythms. I don’t want my heart to have much personality. My engines on the other hand, well, those had better be interesting. That desire got me thinking about what defines the character so many of us seek from our power plants.

Engines are just a bunch of parts interacting in a way that produces motion. Over the years engineers have discovered ways to make engines more efficient, more powerful, and more reliable by fiddling with a number of factors. Consider each of the items below as a slider on a sound mixing board, able to be turned up or down, or on and off, and how every engine is unique in how these 10 factors are set on every engine out there.

Aspiration

How an engine breathes is critical to how it makes power. Naturally aspirated engine rely on the vacuum created as the engine rotates to draw the air and fuel into the cylinder. Forced induction pressurizes the intake and crams more air and fuel into the cylinders. Forced induction also affects throttle response—looking at you turbo lag—and sets other parameters that the engine must adhere to. In addition to initial responsiveness and power delivery, induction noise plays a huge role in an engine’s character—some can’t get enough of the whoosh a carb or individual runner throttle body setup provides, while the boost and purge of a tuned turbo setup is hard to ignore.

Camshaft profile

Web Cam reground camshaft XR600R
The size and shape of the cam lobes can radically change an engine.Kyle Smith

The camshaft determines the opening and closing of the valves that flow air and fuel through the combustion chamber. When and how much the valve opens can radically change the behavior of an engine. Opening the valve more can allow more flow through, and thus a higher power potential, but it takes time to open and close the valve. Modern engines are tight enough tolerance that if a vlave is open when it should not be the piston will hit it and that is a bad day. Even making adjustments within that window can radically change the power delivery of an engine. Big camshafts have distinct sounds and often move the peak horsepower high in the engine RPM range, while smaller cams enable smoother power at low rpm but lack the lope that turns heads when you arrive at a cruise night.

Cylinder count

How many cylinders do you need? How many do you want? The answer is often different to those two questions, and that’s okay. A V-8 just has something unique about it that a V-6 just can’t live up to, and an inline-6 charms in a way that an inline-4 can’t. More cylinders often means smoother running since the power pulses on the crankshaft are closer together throughout a rotation. Cylinder count also impacts how the intake and exhaust are routed, creating the signature sounds that accompany many popular platforms but also limiting or boosting performance based on flow characteristics. While more cylinders often run smoother and have more linear power delivery compared to fewer cylinders, 48 might be too many.

Displacement

How big of an engine do you want? More accurately, how big do you want the inside of your engine to be? The cumulative swept volume of the cylinders is how we determine the displacement of an engine, and that also aids in determining a lot of the character. Larger engines often have a higher power potential because they can pull in, burn, and exhaust more air and fuel on their own. Larger displacement also means larger and therefore heavier pistons, which can make for a slower-revving engine.

Crankshaft

The crankshaft converts the reciprocating motion of the pistons into continuous rotary motion we can use, but not all of them are built the same. Many V-8 Ferraris, along with the most recent Mustang GT350 and Corvette Z06 feature flat-plane crankshafts, which facilitate higher and quicker revving compared to a cross-plane crankshaft, which is heavier due to the counterweights required to keep everything in balance. A crossplane design tends to help low-end torque though, something far more usable in a street-focused car.

Cylinder arrangment

Jaguar XK6 engine-block
Jaguar

With the parameters above picked, it’s now time to decide how you want the engine to be packaged. Anything from boring or pretty wild is available here. From horizontally opposed to a W arrangement that sets up multiple banks on tight angles, there is no end to the options. That said, there are reasons V and inline arrangements dominate production these days. Ease of production and durability win out, but these also tend to be fairly efficient designs.

Compression

Air and fuel will create a small amount of power if burned uncompressed, but that power is fractional compared to compressing the mixture before applying spark. When the fuel burns, it expands and acts on the piston to create power. Achieving maximum squeeze means maximum power, but be careful: Compressing air and fuel too much can cause detonation if it lights off before the spark plug arcs. Low compression engines tend to be slower revving, while high compression lends itself to being snappy but often requires an adjustment to the…

Fuel type

Gas-Pump-Detail
Michael Godek

There are four popular octane levels available at most self-service stations: 91, 89, 87, and diesel. Fortunate states get 93, too. The octane rating roughly correlates to the fuel’s resistance to detonation. Diesel fuel is compression ignition rather than spark ignition, so that doesn’t really have an octane rating, but instead uses a cetane rating to describe the fuel’s qualities.

Fuel delivery

PT1 Holley Sniper Throttle body
Craig Fitzgerald

How the fuel gets into the engine is also something that has a lot of effects. The smooth pickup and running of fuel injection can be quite nice, but carburetors still get the job done and when properly tuned can be smooth and powerful. So long as the fuel is atomized well, it’ll burn right, but it’s the adjustable choke point for the air that can really affect feel. That’s why the last item is…

Throttle activation

1947 Delahaye 135 MS Figoni et Falaschi Narval Cabriolet carburetors
Josh Sweeney Shoot For Details

The earliest cars didn’t even have a throttle as we know it today. Engines ran wide open and a clutch and transmission allowed that to be turned into useful power. As engine design improved it became necessary for driver-controlled throttles. Mechanical linkages like rods, levers, and cables were popular until electronics took over engine controls and drive-by-wire became the norm. A physical connection to an engine can be felt be someone with a well-calibrated foot, but drive-by-wire has its strong points, as there will basically never be slop in the linkage and a few clicks on a laptop can tune throttle response.

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Attempting a Bare-Minimum Repair https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/attempting-a-bare-minimum-repair/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/attempting-a-bare-minimum-repair/#comments Wed, 24 Apr 2024 21:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=392878

There are a lot of projects in my garage at any point in time. Often my celebration upon walking into my shop on a Friday evening is sullied when I am forced to pick from the options—and especially when I realize that there is a project sitting in the back corner, covered in dust, a sad hulk of what it once was. For the last year, the saddest machine in my garage has been the 1989 Honda XR250R. It’s the machine that somehow survived a lot of racing before losing compression and becoming hard to start. Now is the time to deal with it. 

Any project like this starts with diagnostics—or, if you’re lazy, parts replacement. I threw a head gasket at this engine last fall thinking that would address the problem, but I did no checks prior to tearing off the cylinder head, scraping the surfaces clean, and reassembling everything. In a tale of true karmic beauty, this evening of work fixed nothing. I knew better but apparently needed the reminder to walk through the steps rather than skipping straight to the fun part. 

Lack of compression and hard starts can be due to a number of problems. To rule out a few, I checked the adjustment of the valves, along with the camshaft timing, before going out and buying new tools. Somehow, up until this spring I’ve managed to get by without owning a compression or leak-down tester. A few weeks ago, I took the plunge.  

The gauges on the leak-down tester told a bad story. Over 30 percent of the air that should have been trapped inside the cylinder with the piston at top dead center of the compression stroke was whistling right out into the exhaust pipe. The leak drained my little pancake air compressor faster than I could understand what was happening. When I hooked the tester to my friend’s heavier-duty compressor, I realized I was asking a doctor to diagnose a stab wound that was spurting blood across the exam room. 

One or both of the exhaust valves were no longer valves but restrictions. Disassembling the top end of the engine—a simple enough process—hurt a bit: The engine had only run for a few minutes since I assembled it last fall, before the snow flew. The snow is barely gone and the cylinder head is again on the bench. Once I had compressed the valve springs, pulled the keepers, and removed the valves, I became impressed that the engine ran at all: The valves were the picture of burned, and carbon build-up on both the seats and valves was preventing them from sealing properly. Thanks to some parts-ordering for a future project, I had two brand-new exhaust valves on hand, along with the tooling to refresh the valve seats: A perfect trial run for the future project. 

I used a Neway Manufacturing valve seat-cutting kit that allowed me to put a fresh, three-angle valve job on both exhaust seats in the time between leaving the office and eating dinner. I’m going to dive into the nitty-gritty of this tool and of the process in a few weeks; for now, I will say this challenge was both slightly intimidating and exciting, a perfect trial run for the two cylinder heads waiting for full rebuilds and installation onto two freshly rebuilt engines.

I could have left the XR250R sitting in the corner, finished up the two engines, then put one in the bike (as I had initially planned). Doing so would both fix the hard-start problem and allow me the chance to dig deeper into a damaged engine that was out of the bike. However, when the weather got nice this spring, and a friend called me to go riding, the idea of leaving the bike out of commission much longer just felt icky. I knew if I shuffled off the project one more time, the Honda would be buried forever. 

The decision to do the bare minimum—for once—and just get the engine running again felt forced, and the thought of not indulging a single “while I’m in there” inclination patently absurd. But who was I to turn down a challenge? 

Since I’ve had the top end off an XR250R about six times in the last four years, the whole process took about five hours over Friday evening and Saturday afternoon. By dinner time on Saturday, I was puttering around the yard on an XR250R that ran as well as the day it went together the first time back in 2021. The bike didn’t need a new engine; it didn’t need anything more than the bare minimum. (Well, proper diagnostics and the bare minimum.) Leaving well enough alone is not always a bad decision, and realizing just how little is required to fix something is helpful from time to time. This XR250R project only got six new parts: two valves, two valve seals, two gaskets. Not too shabby.

I’m still excited to get a fresh engine into this bike, but between here and there are some real interesting experiences: The last step of the engine-rebuild process is machine work on the cylinder heads. Machining new valve guides, installing new valves, and fitting up the whole works are tasks I intend to do 100% at home in the next couple weeks. Part two comes next week with a dive into the process of installing and preparing valve guides. Let’s just say, I’ve learned a lot in the process.

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The Camaro ZL1 Was a Rule Breaker from Day 1 https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/the-camaro-zl1-was-a-rule-breaker-from-day-1/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/the-camaro-zl1-was-a-rule-breaker-from-day-1/#comments Tue, 23 Apr 2024 21:19:09 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=392771

There are lots of rules that automakers have to play by, and they’re imposed from a lot of different places. A few even come from inside the house, and those who know their automotive history are well aware that the people and projects that broke those internal rules are often fodder for some of the most interesting tales. John Delorean and the team behind the Pontiac GTO was an experiment in loopholes that led to an industry-defining success, but there’s another side of that coin. Other cars pushed the envelope a little too much, and amazing though they were, rules and hierarchy meant they were destined for a short run. Case in point: The Camaro ZL1.

The Corvette has long been General Motors’ darling, and there’s a long-known unspoken edict that America’s sports car is the top dog in GM’s portfolio. This has kept other models from reaching their full potential, and we consumers are worse for it. Luckily, some people believe rules are meant to be broken. After some clever selections on a GM order form in the late 1960s, a Camaro was able to eclipse the Corvette, if briefly. Unfortunately, it was difficult to hide something that shone so bright, and consequences soon followed.

The Camaro ZL1 model gets its name from the aluminum 427-cubic inch engine Chevrolet developed for use in Can-Am racing in the 1960s. To say that series’ rulebook was loose would be an understatement, and that meant big horsepower from big cubic inch engines. The street ZL-1 pulled a lot from the Can-Am spec engine, but opted for wet sump oiling, a mechanical fuel pump, and a few other items that gave a collective nod to longevity. It wasn’t a road racer who managed to get this hard hitting big-block into a production car though. In fact, it wasn’t even someone who worked for GM.

Instead, it was Chevrolet dealer Fred Gibb. The businessman and drag racer saw the quarter-mile potential in this aluminum power plant, but he was hamstrung by the Stock Eliminator rulebook requiring 50 production cars to qualify his parts-bin racer. He was also up against GM’s rule against engines larger than 400 cubic inches going into anything other than Corvette, trucks, or big sedans. Gibb wasn’t going to give up that easy though, especially when there was a loophole waiting to be exploited.

The Central Office Production Order (COPO) system was designed for dealers to be able to order special fleet vehicles. This was intended to fill orders like municipalities in need of police cars, or other fleets that had specific requirements for their vehicles. Gibb leveraged it to order the 50 cars needed to meet the American Hot Rod Association’s rulebook requirement, and suddenly Chevrolet rolled out a fleet of Camaros that broke its own rules. In drag racing trim it was a solid 10-second car thanks to the underrated 430-horsepower aluminum big block and additional weight savings from leaving off anything not necessary to go fast.

2017 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 front three quarter high angle action
The ZL1 name has been reborn multiple times, including this 2017 model.GM

The story would have been awesome enough if it ended there, but of course there was more. The COPO ZL1 Camaros were expensive, and Gibb was forced to negotiate with GM to return over three dozen, some of which were stolen and stripped while in shipping. The idea was solid, though, even if the first attempt struggled. Before GM could wise up and close the loophole, another dealer stepped up and started sending in orders for a slightly revised COPO order. This time it was Don Yenko, and his approach was milder, if only slightly. Instead of the expensive all-aluminum ZL1 engine, his order sheet specced an L72 iron-block 427. It still broke GM’s rules, and it was similarly short-lived, but the side-door sleight of hand has become the stuff of legend in Chevy circles.

2012 Camaro ZL1
GM

As a result, history would not forget the Camaro that could have been. The ZL1 name has been revived multiple times over the years in a fascinating nod back to a car that Chevrolet itself tried to keep from ever seeing daylight. Turns out that sometimes it takes someone outside the corporate office to see what could be, and if they can manage to make it happen, corporate sometimes doesn’t have a choice but to take note.

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Piaggio Celebrates 140 Years With a Special Edition Vespa https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/piaggio-celebrates-140-years-with-a-special-edition-vespa/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/piaggio-celebrates-140-years-with-a-special-edition-vespa/#comments Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:59:44 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=392550

Any business that successfully navigates 140 years without completely disappearing has every right to celebrate. Only a handful of companies that can boast that kind of record, and considering the first patented automobile debuted 138 years ago, it’s impressive that any car or motorcycle manufacturer has been churning out products since the very beginning. Piaggio, an Italian maker of scooters and motorcycles, has stood that test of time and released a special edition from one of its most popular brands, Vespa, to commemorate it.

Though Piaggio owns other storied marques like Moto Guzzi and Aprilia, we think Vespa was the right choice for the celebratory scooter, dubbed the 140th of Piaggio. The brand’s timeless air is rooted in a core design that has survived decades with only subtle updates. The iconic step-through scooter is how movie directors tell audiences the setting is suddenly in Europe without having to say it—just put a few buzzing two-stroke Vespas running down a cobbled street and poof, scene set.

The styling might have stayed, but the buzzy two-stroke power plant is a thing of the past. The 140th of Piaggio special edition packs a 23-hp punch from a 278-cc single-cylinder four-stroke engine under the rear cowling. A CVT transmission multiplies the engine’s torque and sends it to the rear wheel, which is suspended by a single-sided swing arm.

The special parts of this special edition appear to be limited to the cosmetic items, but even if you do decide you’ve gotta have one, it’s too late. The 140th of Piaggio edition production is limited to 140 units, and was only available for sale to certain regions online during the Vespa World Days 2024 rally that took place April 18-21 in Pontedera, Italy. We think it looks like a slick little scoot for running about town, but it appears we will have to stick to the regular GTV 300 model which luckily is available in the U.S. as of last year. Congrats on the anniversary, Piaggio.

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6 Cutting-Edge Innovations We Now Take for Granted https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/6-cutting-edge-innovations-we-now-take-for-granted/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/6-cutting-edge-innovations-we-now-take-for-granted/#comments Thu, 18 Apr 2024 20:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=391172

While it may seem like the car has been unchanged for decades at this point, with only bold new shades of gray and larger screens creating selling points and “value” for would-be buyers, the fact of the matter is there has been so much innovation over the years. However, much of it is taken for granted because just about every driver on the road today has little understanding of just how far the automobile has come. To provide a little perspective, here are six parts of a car that were revolutionary when they first debuted, but are now so common that they go entirely unnoticed.

Hydraulic lifters

Hydraulic lifter exploded view
Summit Racing

The way a lifter works by interacting with a camshaft to transform rotary movement into reciprocating movement is an under-appreciated aspect of an engine in my opinion. The forces, tolerances, and speeds involved are often difficult to grasp. Tolerances between the pushrod, rocker arm, and valve stem are tight enough that there needs to be a part that can take up the expansion and contraction that comes with the difference between cold and running temperatures.

Hydraulic lifters take that space up to help keep wear down and also make for a smoother and quieter-running engine. They are powered by the oil pump and hold oil pressure in them. Some lifters can leak down while in storage and make quite the clatter on startup until oil pressure builds fully. It is a price worth paying for not having to get the feeler gauges out every few oil changes.

Insert bearings

Rob Siegel - Spun bearing - IMG_1349
A pair of unused bearing shells. Note the little tabs in one corner of each.Rob Siegel

The many rotating parts inside an engine all need some type of bearing surface to maintain proper friction or lack thereof. When cars were overbuilt, it was common to pour the bearings into the block and connecting rods, making large and relatively soft bearings once machined to final dimension. It’s a time-consuming process though, and requires a lot more material than a comparable insert bearing.

The insert bearing is a much thinner shell of similar material that snaps into the engine block to create the perfect surface for the crankshaft to spin in. They’re also much easier to assemble than poured bearings, which is always appreciated.

Tubeless tires

Modern tires are amazing; More durable with more traction than sometimes seems physically possible. The durability of a tire with no inner tube is a given these days, but certainly wasn’t always. Tubeless tires have been the standard since the mid-1950s, though the idea had been attempted earlier than that. The materials and design did not really work until the mid-1940s. The fact that tubeless tires only took a decade to become standard should say a lot.

Platinum spark plugs

Platinum and other rare earth materials changed the ignition world with their durability. Previously, the metal of choice was copper, which would erode from the arc and would often wear out in just a few years of regular driving. Platinum or iridium plugs, on the other hand, can last up to 100,000 miles.

Longer service intervals, and to a point separating the driver and mechanic into two people, were a side effect of better materials and processes being used during production. Modern cars can go tens of thousands of miles without even opening the hood, and that is mainly thanks to modern ignition systems and oils.

Cruise control

Ford BlueCruise interior action
Ford

The concept of a self-driving car has likely been around since the second drive of the first car, although even a century later, that has proved to be a difficult problem to solve. However, engineers were able to at least remove one part of the equation and make long drives easier by having the vehicle hold speed on its own.

Early automobiles like the Model T Ford have cruise control baked in by how the machine operates; the throttle is a lever on the steering column that does not return to idle unless the driver moves it. Now systems incorporate a rife of sensors that not only hold the throttle input steady but also match that to vehicle speed and engine load which can make for a much more relaxing road trip.

With how interconnected the systems of modern cars are, cruise control is a matter of software today, not hardware. That usually makes it cheaper to incorporate on cars, which is why it’s now standard pretty much across the board. Once a luxury, now commonplace.

Disc brakes

Volvo V60 Polestar disc brakes
Volvo

Brakes are all about the relationship between friction and heat. More friction makes for quicker stopping but also creates more heat that needs to be dissipated. The wooden block pressed against a steel-rimmed wheel didn’t create a ton of friction, but it was better than nothing. Drum brakes were a massive step up, but disc brakes are the clear winner when it comes to balancing the two forces noted above. With modern materials, we have continued to evolve the design to the point that disc brakes are the standard on everything from economy cars to race cars at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

There are certainly more, so tell us what you think is an amazing piece of technology that often gets overshadowed in modern cars. Leave your favorite in the comments below.

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The First Ride: An Early Ford Mustang Spotter’s Guide https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/the-first-ride-an-early-ford-mustang-spotters-guide/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/the-first-ride-an-early-ford-mustang-spotters-guide/#comments Wed, 17 Apr 2024 17:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=382063

April 17 marks 60 years since the Ford Mustang’s public debut at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The original pony car immediately became a pop-culture and automotive phenom, and it remains one of the most impactful cars in history. We’re celebrating with stories of the events surrounding the Mustang’s launch, the history of the early cars, and tales from owners. Click here to follow along with our multi-week 60 Years of Mustang coverage. -Ed.

When Ford opened the gate to the Mustang’s corral, few people knew just how much interest it would garner, or how quickly. As with any cultural phenomenon, there’s value in finding the early artifacts that shaped the future as we now know it. That combination has led to an interesting subset of Mustang enthusiasts who seek out early production Mustangs, or 1964.5 models. (Even the earliest Mustangs are technically 1965 model-year cars, but they are commonly referenced as ‘64.5s to distinguish their early build date.) Even if it’s not your muse, it is always interesting to look at how rapid production increases affected how the cars were built and the parts that were used. Here’s what to look for when spotting an early Ford Mustang.

Production for the Mustang began in March of 1964, and like anything that makes the leap from idea to physical object, there were some adjustments to the parts and process along the way. Some were likely due to nothing more than ease of assembly, or a change in supplier for the parts, or just subtle changes from the same supplier. The exact dates on a few changes will likely be debated forever, but even if the timing of the shift is imprecise, we know these are typical features of what is commonly called a 1964.5 Mustang.

The VIN

The first digit in the vehicle identification number on Fords of this era is indicative of the model year for the vehicle. That alone is not particularly helpful as all early Mustangs are 1965 models. The second digit in the VIN calls out the production location: “F” for Dearborn, Michigan and “R” for San Jose, California is common for early cars.

Under the Hood

1965 Ford Mustang 260 V8 engine
Kyle Smith

There are a few key components in and around the engine bay that point to an early build. First, we head to the passenger side of the compartment.

Generator

The charging system of a car is critical to long-term functionality, and historically there have been three systems for powering the electrical needs of an automobile: Total loss, generator, and alternator. Total loss is uncommon, and the difference between a generator and alternator is simply which part of the operation spins.

Ford Mustang generator
Kyle Smith

Early Mustangs were equipped with generators, which are slightly less efficient than alternators but still functionally fine for the car. Typically, the generator is visually different from an alternator, making this an easy spot with the hood open. Also different, and related to the generator, is the radiator core support that has pressed vents to allow airflow to cool the battery and generator, along with a longer dipstick to make it accessible through the generator bracket. Later cars moved the dipstick to the driver’s side of the engine block.

Horns behind radiator

1965 Ford Mustang horn mounted to frame
The horns are mounted low and behind the radiator in an early Mustang.Kyle Smith

Horns might not have been legally required, but just like today, buyers have expectations of being able to convey a one-tone message to those around them in traffic. For the early Mustang this came by way of a pair of horns mounted behind the radiator on the frame rails. Later cars had the horns mounted to the radiator core support.

Hood hinges

1965 Ford Mustang hood hinge
Kyle Smith

The hood hinges would be painted gloss black on an early production car.

Hood stiffener and headlight

1965 Ford Mustang grille detail
The small flat of steel that blends the hood into the grille is unique to early production.Kyle Smith

This is also known as the “improved” hood, as it comes down to a change in manufacturing after the first run of hoods was produced. The early production featured a hanging “skirt” of sorts from the leading corners of the hood. Later cars had this edge rolled in and flattened. This additional material on the early hoods also required a tapered edge on the headlight nacelle. This means there is the possibility to have one or the other, or both, as cars can get parts swapped on and off for any number of reasons.

Brake light switch mounted to the master cylinder

Dual circuit brake systems were not yet widespread until 1967, so the single-pot master cylinder is not a tell in and of itself of manufacture date. Instead, it is the brake light switch location that can denote an early parts arrangement versus that of the later car which mounts the switch separate from the master cylinder.

In the interior

1965 Ford Mustang interior drivers side
Kyle Smith

The steering wheel is unique to early production cars and is a great place to start in dating the car. Also on the steering column is the turn signal stalk which changed as production ramped up in later 1964. The fresh air knob on some early cars was stamped with an “A” while many had a black knob with no markings. Some very early production cars had a passenger seat that did not adjust.

The lock knobs on the doors also changed between early and standard production, going from being color-matched to the interior to being generic chrome for all models.

One of the borderline obvious bits in the interior is the change of “GEN” warning light to a “ALT.” This of course matches with the generator or alternator under the hood, but if a car has been engine-swapped or missing its engine, this light might remain unchanged for the sake of convenience.

The trunk is technically the interior, so be sure to take a glance under the truck lid to see if the taillight wiring is the correct pigtail-style for early production or has no connections like a later first-generation car.

Exterior

Is it a fastback? If yes, then it’s not a 1964.5. Fastback production did not begin until August of 1964. Also of note is the change in the gas cap. The early cars had a three-spoke style cap that had no retention to the vehicle, while later cars had a round cap that also had a security cable that prevented it from being accidentally left atop a gas pump or falling off while driving.

The above is not an entirely exhaustive list, as it is difficult to nail down the timing of many changes for early production Mustangs. That said, these easily spotted items are good indicators. It’s always possible that with time and age, prior owners may have tweaked a feature or two to their liking on a car that has been restored, so if you really want to be sure, follow the old adage of trust but verify. Consult a Mustang specialist to discuss these and other items that can be signifiers of an early production car.

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How Bilstein Makes Its Iconic Dampers https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/how-bilstein-makes-its-iconic-dampers/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/how-bilstein-makes-its-iconic-dampers/#comments Tue, 16 Apr 2024 20:21:21 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=390822

Plenty of car parts have an effect on the handling and ride characteristics, but the damper is critical in a properly functioning suspension. We all know the basic premise: A piston moves in a pressurized cylinder to help control compression and rebound, but do you really know what’s inside or how it’s built? Let’s take a look inside the Bilstein factory in Germany and find out.

The plant employs 180 workers and manufactures a whole range of products that start as raw materials before they are sorted and distributed within the building to various stations for processing. The facility is large enough to handle the entire process of turning raw materials into finished pieces, but too small to store many finished parts. That means delivery and pickup operations happen five times a day to keep everything running smoothly.

The assembly line is broken into three parts: pre-assembly, main assembly, and final, before finished parts head out the door to the warehouse. The pre-assembly area is where a lot of the dirty work gets done, including welding and machining to build sub-assemblies that will be fit together as they move through the process. Before that can happen, some testing is required, though: a special machine tests the freshly-welded damper tubes by filling them with helium. A green light tells the technician that the part can move forward, but if the part fails the test by leaking, the testing machine itself removes the piece to eliminate the chance that a bad part would end up in assembly.

Assembling shim stack on bilstien dampers
FCP Euro

There is no shortage of high-tech equipment to handle a lot of the plant’s operations, but there’s plenty of human presence, too. Bilstein staff visually inspect pieces between steps and ensure the product is as expected. It’s also human hands that tackle the delicate work of assembling the shim stack, or the small, precision, washer-like pieces that set the characteristics of the damper and how it flows fluid during use. Each type of damper has its own “recipe” for the shim stack and that means it is easier for a person to assemble as they can adapt to changes more quickly than a machine.

bilstien dampers painted on assembly line
FCP Euro

The final step is applying the recognizable yellow paint. The paint line is comprised of seven different steps that vary from washing off any oil residue from the filling just one step prior, to drying and ensuring the paint is fully cured before the final touches.

This detailed process highlights just how complex many of the pieces of our cars can be. Getting the massive assembly of parts we call vehicles to operate properly is very intricate business, and nothing shows that as much as looking at the effort that goes into making just one part of the thousands required.

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Start Your Week with Some Highlights from Goodwood https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/start-your-week-with-some-highlights-from-goodwood/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/start-your-week-with-some-highlights-from-goodwood/#respond Mon, 15 Apr 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=390405

While many enthusiasts would love to spend a weekend at a racetrack exploring a vehicle’s limits, the reality is most of us get more track time on YouTube than in real life. I know I do at least, so that’s why it was so exciting to start my Monday with 12 minutes of Goodwood Members’ Meeting highlights.

After all, what better way to get into the groove of the week than with a smorgasbord of vintage iron dicing it up on the 2.36-mile Goodwood Circuit located in West Sussex, England? The 2024 Members’ Meeting is also a celebration of ten years since the event was revived in 2014. Just about anything that goes fast is allowed to join in, and this year there were some real heavy hitters on the starting line. The best part is that Goodwood is really, well, good about sharing coverage for those who aren’t able to make it to the track in person, and we think the highlights from the weekend are better than coffee.

Most of the clip offers no commentary, no music, no BS: Just the sounds engines and tires trying to put power to the ground. The right-heavy Goodwood circuit often hosts close racing and the camera spots are perfect for catching the slip that the drivers put into the cars as they turn laps. The first section of highlights is full of that, with Jake Hill hard charging, often with a healthy dose of opposite lock, in a Ford Capri. Then the video steps up to the on-track debut of the Gordan Murry Automotive T.50 supercar. It might not have been running wheel to wheel with anything, but the scream of its 3.9-liter Cosworth V-12 is worth playing back more than once.

Of course, for those who prefer two (or three) wheels, there was plenty of vintage racing to see, too. The wild sidecars who put up scalding pace during the open practice and qualifying for the first sidecar shootout. The 600-cc inline four engines were really howling as the passengers leveraged their mass to keep the motorcycles within the edge of control. It’s impressive how smooth those passengers can move about on a motorcycle running every bit of 100mph.

The highlights from Saturday close out with some gutsy moves from the Goodwood-video famous Darracq land speed racer, a bare-bones vehicle made up of a massive V-8 sitting on two spindly frame rails and just enough stuff to make the whole thing operate. Seeing cars like this from over 110 years ago driven at speed is so incredibly rare, let alone in a group like the one the Darracq dices through.

If this video is up your alley, be sure to scroll the rest of Goodwood Road & Racing YouTube page to see what other feats of speed have been posted lately. This recap was the perfect way to start our week, but we’ll gladly watch vintage and rare racers anytime.

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The ’63 Ford Mustang II Concept Is Headed to the Carlisle Ford Nationals https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/the-63-ford-mustang-ii-concept-is-headed-to-the-carlisle-ford-nationals/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/the-63-ford-mustang-ii-concept-is-headed-to-the-carlisle-ford-nationals/#comments Fri, 12 Apr 2024 20:08:17 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=389953

The world changed when the cover came off the Ford Mustang on April 17th, 1964. The lasting impact of that car looms large, and a lot of that hinges on its now-iconic look. Anyone fascinated by the Mustang’s distinctive shape is likely curious about the concepts that influenced it, and luckily, a few Mustang prototypes have been documented and still survive. They rarely come out to shows or events to be appreciated by the public, however, so it’s a big deal when one goes on display, no matter how briefly, and the 1963 Mustang II Concept you see here is about to have another day in the sun.

Lee Iacocca had a hunch about how the Mustang would be received, and fostered the creation of the Mustang II Concept in the hopes it would energize the public about the direction Ford expected to go with future projects. Its elongated proportions hinted at the Mustang’s design trajectory into the late ’60s and early ’70s, and added some visual excitement to create some buzz about Ford’s new pony.

access-1963_ford_mustang_ii_concept_car_neg_cn2400_454
Ford Heritage Vault

It was used for a few events in 1964 before fading into the background. The car even served some time as a test mule, where engineers tried various design changes before implementing them into production cars. That was an interesting choice, considering the Mustang II Concept has a steel body that is five inches longer than the production first-generation Mustang and is also three inches shorter between the roofline and the rocker panels. Surprisingly, the hand-finished upholstery somehow survived the entire time the car was a utility item.

The car has stood the test of time and remains a unique and relatively hidden part of the early Mustang story. It’s currently housed by the Detroit Historical Society, which means it is more or less hidden away except for special visits. This year, it is making a rare appearance at the Carlisle Ford Nationals, held at Carlisle Fairgrounds in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from May 31 through June 2. Plan your trip to see this piece of Mustang history soon. After all, who knows when this artifact will come out of hiding next?

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5 Things Heat Can Do for You and Your Projects https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-things-heat-can-do-for-you-and-your-projects/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-things-heat-can-do-for-you-and-your-projects/#comments Thu, 11 Apr 2024 18:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=389399

There are a lot of ways to get things done when working on project cars, but few methods are as handy as leveraging heat to do work for you. Whether disassembling crusty things or creating new pieces by joining metal with the heat of an electric arc, the judicious use of heat can unlock new avenues and techniques of solving common problems faced by DIY enthusiasts everywhere.

First off, let’s make something clear: We aren’t really talking about heat itself in most of these, we are talking about the powers of temperature differential. It’s that one part heated or cooled to a temperature different than the other parts creates advantages for the task at hand. For instance, it’s not the mere fact that the bolt is hot that helps you, it’s that the material of that bolt expands when heated. But we are getting ahead of ourselves: Here are five ways heat can help unlock your superpowers in the garage.

To Diagnose

temp gun for diagnostics
Kyle Smith

There are a lot of moving parts in an automobile. Friction is the universal enemy of almost all of them. When friction starts winning the battle, it often shows in the form of heat buildup. This is also true for electrical connections and relays too. When something doesn’t feel right even though it all passes visual inspection, it is easy to start poking around and seeing what is warm. A prime example is diagnosing wheel bearings on trailers.

Small infrared heat guns are a really handy tool now that the prices are nearing novelty purchase territory. Even just feeling things by hand can be telling sometimes, but using non-touch methods allows much more capability, as you would burn the heck out of your hand if you wanted to confirm if a particular cylinder was running right by checking header temp. There’s a tool for every job.

To Break Corrosion

Hack Mechanic catalytic converter pipe connection weld
Using the MAPP gas torch on the DPF nuts.Rob Siegel

Cars are built from a mulitude of different materials. In modern manufacturing, the usage of appropriate fasteners and hardware is figured out during the design process to ensure that they will not react adversely with others in the assembly. We often aren’t working on vehicles straight off the line though, and the facts of life tell us that everything corrodes, it’s just that some things resist it better.

For rusted hardware, heat helps break the bonds between that surface corrosion and the base metal, allowing things to move freely again. To prove the point made earlier about temperature differential, those who have the ability to freeze hardware rapidly know that can be just as powerful as an oxy-acetylene torch. The key to making it work is that the subject metals expand or contract with big swings in temperature. It works for breaking the bonds of corrosion but we can also leverage that fact…

To Aid in Assembly

The other day I needed to press eight bronze valve guides into two aluminum cylinder heads. The setup instructions for the parts called for .0015″ to .0025″ press fit, and with everything prepared and reamed to size, the guides were put in the freezer overnight and the heads were put in the toaster over at 200 degrees for 20 minutes. I used a special punch to align the guide and took light taps with a hammer to set them home. When the metals normalized to the 60-degree garage temps, everything was pressed and secured solidly.

The exact physics of it are a bit murky to me yet, but luckily you or I don’t need to understand that to know exactly what to expect from heating things. Thermal expansion coefficients can be looked up in resource materials like Machinery’s Handbook, or the internet—whichever is more handy.

To Add or Remove Hardness

Prewar Prodigy Metal shop panel shaping
Mercedes Lilienthal

The materials we work with are fascinating when you get down to it. Even as at-home mechanics, we have the power to alter the properties and behaviors of steel or aluminum. This can be great for making tools, fabricating, or even reusing parts. Annealing a sheet of aluminum makes it much easier to form, and also works for copper gaskets or washers to help make them a little more malleable and thus seal small imperfections better. The process involves heating to high temperatures then cooling either rapidly or slowly and controlled in a heat sink material like sand.

To Weld

welding muffler
Kyle Smith

Add enough heat to a part or material and it will likely liquify. Doing so in a very controlled method with the addition of a filler material gives the ability to create a strong bond between what was formerly two different parts. Welding is a garage superpower that comes with great responsibility—mainly that we be realistic about how good we are at it. A great weld is extremely solid and strong, but a mediocre or bad weld is downright dangerous in the wrong spot or place. Know the limits of your skills, machine, and materials in order to utilize welding in the most effective way possible.

Heat is a superpower in the garage that we can use for all these things, and quite a few more. There are a multitude of methods to add or subtract heat which range from totally normal to unconventional, but they’re all effective. Regardless of what method you use, know that heat can be your best friend if you know how to use it.

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In an Incremental Evolution, Morgan Updates its Plus Four https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/in-an-incremental-evolution-morgan-updates-its-plus-four/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/in-an-incremental-evolution-morgan-updates-its-plus-four/#comments Wed, 10 Apr 2024 21:01:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=389308

In the history of cars, few models have stuck to evolution and eschewed revolution quite like the Morgan Plus Four. First introduced in 1950, the original Plus Four is hauntingly similar to the one you find in dealer showrooms today. Time does march on, however, and Morgan just announced another small step toward the future with new updates to the tried-and-true model.

The most obvious changes are found on the exterior: new lighting, fenders, front splitter, rear diffuser, and mirrors. Interestingly, reading deeper into Morgan’s announcement, the evolution of the fenders is more an outcome of a change in how they’re manufactured more than any desire to visually update the car itself. The new lighting implements larger eight-inch round headlights that feature integrated turn indicators, further simplifying the car’s straightforward design. The splitters have a similar clean impact, taking visual weight off the lower part of the car, instead letting your eye focus on those flowing fenders.

The body’s changes might be subtle, but the chassis updates ought to be readily apparent out on the road. The standard suspension gets updated spring rates and dampers, while a new “Dynamic Handling Pack” will also be available for those seeking a sportier setting. Consisting of special springs combined with single way adjustable damping, adjustable spring platforms, as well as the addition of a rear anti-roll bar, this package will likely sharpen the car’s sporting pretenses significantly. That’s an interesting addition for a brand that’s traditionally prioritized driving experience over speed or performance.

The last update impacts the Sennheiser audio system that was first introduced in 2022. It gains handy functionality to improve the user experience with minimal visual change. In addition to the visible speakers in both doors, there are now additional speakers hidden beneath the seats. The LCD readout between the gauges will now scroll the volume and music information.

New_Morgan_Plus_Four_Studio_Blue_08-scaled
Morgan

The Morgan Plus Four might be slowly evolving, but from where we sit it seems to be pleasant progress. The updates are included in the new £62,500 ($78,378 plus taxes) price tag and the +4 is available for order now via morgan-motor.com.

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The Blessing and Curse of Precision https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/the-blessing-and-curse-of-precision/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/the-blessing-and-curse-of-precision/#comments Wed, 10 Apr 2024 20:04:27 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=389207

During a recent garage chat with a friend about tools, I finally talked myself into purchasing a Milwaukee M12 right-angle die grinder. It’s a great upgrade to my current shop: I really enjoy the handiness of a die grinder with Roloc discs for cleaning and the small amount of fabrication that pops up in my projects, but I am too cheap to make space or budget for the air compressor it would take to run hungry tools like a die grinder. While air tools absolutely have their place—I’ll still make trips over to a friend’s shop to do the next porting job—this little battery-powered tool has been a wonderful stopgap. Compromise when understood and expected rarely feels like such.

Adding this die grinder to my tool set forced me to rearrange a few drawers in my toolbox. In them I found the evolution of my capability to cut, sand, and grind: a set of mismatched files from an estate sale, bent and scraggly wire brushes, wire-wheel attachments for a drill, a corded angle grinder, a cordless angle grinder, and now a tidy little die grinder—all added in that order.

Milwaukee M12 die grinder on workbench
It’s not a total equal to a pneumatic die grinder, but the ease of use and price point make this a great stopgap solution.Kyle Smith

At some point, as you develop the skills to use the tools you have, a set of cascading switches trip in your brain. You want to do the job a little cleaner next time, or for the components to fit up better—in short, you want less evidence that a repair was done at all. When rebuilding my 1989 Honda XR250R during the year that I raced it, I took an odd amount of care to make it appear as though I hadn’t taken the thing apart seven times in as many months. Keeping hardware from rounding off doesn’t really require some crazy amount of care, but we have likely all been under a hood where the last person there certainly didn’t take the time.

The evolution of my toolbox’s contents happened incrementally rather than in big steps. Over 15 years passed between my first project car and when I bought a set of digital calipers. For a good number of years I worked with a single hammer, basic socket set, and some screw drivers; I did full motorcycle rebuilds with not much more. The most noticeable changes were not those in tool count but in quality: Tools that allowed me to perform more delicate work.

Each addition improved my ability to remove or address flaws or problems with increasing power and speed—and most importantly, with increasing precision. I could focus more and more on the process of creating a higher-quality finished product. I used my time more efficiently because the tool was helping me, not holding me back. Rather than putting a ceiling on my capability, the right tools enabled the more advanced ideas and plans in my brain to come to reality.

pair of Honda xr250r cylinder heads on workbench
As frustrating as it’s been, I never thought I would have the capability to try to do my own cylinder head work.Kyle Smith

If you can measure something, you can usually perfect it. Years ago a tape measure was appropriate for the work I did; now, the projects on my bench require the ability to read a Vernier scale on a micrometer. While it is possible to work on vintage machines without being slowly strung out to a line of atoms entering the black hole that is true precision, there will always be a ceiling to what you can do with basic tools. It is possible to assembling an engine that lasts a long time using only rusty tools you found on the side of the highway; but that rebuild will involve a lot of luck.

Anything worth doing requires some level of effort and carries at least a little risk. The strange thing is that measuring is the most likely place for human error to enter and wreak havoc on your project. Transposing a few numbers in my head led to throwing out a couple chunks of aluminum and about an hour of work last time I was standing in front of a lathe.

Working on projects can be frustrating for any number of reasons, but occasionally that frustration reflects a standard of quality we happily imposed upon ourselves. Working on project cars is like running on a treadmill. It is possible to quantify how far you have come by the hours spent, the distance traveled, or the average pace per mile, and measuring and quantifying that progress made can be rewarding at the right times; but so often we forget to look back at how we have improved—and how much smarter we’ve become along the way. After all, now I can measure my project progress down to the thousandth of an inch.

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Passengers Now Welcome at Goodwood—Sort Of https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/passengers-now-welcome-at-goodwood-sort-of/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/passengers-now-welcome-at-goodwood-sort-of/#comments Tue, 09 Apr 2024 20:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=388704

The thrill of lapping the infamous Goodwood Circuit during a Members’ Meeting is reserved for a relative few, and up till now, no one’s been allowed to ride shotgun. That’s about to change, and passengers will be getting in on the hot laps. Well, very specific and very engaged passengers only. That’s right, sidecars have joined the Goodwood race schedule for the upcoming 81st Members’ Meeting.

Motorcycle racing has been a part of racing at the Goodwood Circuit for some years as part of the Barry Sheene Memorial Trophy, but until recently, sidecars had been left in the paddock. Goodwood organizers announced that a race between eight world-championship-spec machines will be on the April 13th event schedule.

These are top-level sidecar rigs that feature aluminum monocoque chassis and 600cc four-cylinder engines. With a slim rulebook, these mills often produce 130-140 horsepower while only having to push a roughly 460 pound chassis.

And two humans of course. While that power-to-weight ratio might not sound shocking, it’s not the outright acceleration that makes sidecar racing so thrilling, but instead the relationship between the rider and the passenger, known as the monkey. The monkey plays an active role in the motorcycle’s handling dynamics by moving their weight about to aid in turning, braking, and acceleration. It’s not an easy dance to learn.

The eight pairs of racers will take part in qualifying and head-to-head races over the weekend before the racing culminates with the top four teams racing for top spot in a Sidecar Shootout on Sunday.

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Michigan Relaxes Driving Restrictions for Vintage Cars https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/michigan-relaxes-driving-restrictions-for-vintage-cars/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/michigan-relaxes-driving-restrictions-for-vintage-cars/#comments Tue, 09 Apr 2024 13:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=388392

Hopping into the driver’s seat of a car is a freeing feeling at any age. A loose grip on the wheel and light touch on the pedals give us the capability to go just about anywhere when properly equipped—well, assuming your classic vehicle doesn’t have restrictions on usage based on your registration. Luckily, vintage car owners in Michigan are primed to enjoy this driving season and many more with a little more freedom thanks to the passing of House Bill 4183. Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed the bill, which vastly expands the ability to use classic cars, into law on April 2nd with immediate effect.

According to the way the law was previously written, a vehicle with historic or authentic license plates could only be used for “participation in club activities, exhibitions, tours, parades, and similar uses, including mechanical testing, but is not used for general transportation.” The new legislation expands the definition of “exhibition” considerably. The full language reads:

Sec. 20a. “Historic vehicle” means a vehicle that is over 25 years old and that is owned solely as a collector’s item and for participation in club activities, exhibitions, tours, parades, and similar uses, including mechanical testing, but is not used for general transportation. For purposes of this section, use of the vehicle during the period from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day each year is considered an exhibition.

Plenty of drivers ignored the prior law, but there was always the chance that law enforcement would issue a citation for usage outside of the guidelines. That’s a worry no more, all thanks to an enthusiast just like you and me.

Corvair on roadside
Kyle Smith

This law stands as a testament to what can be done by grassroots classic car owners, as it was not a lobbying group or organization that made this happen, but rather one person who thought the way the law was written was too much and decided to do something about it. That person was John Russell of Traverse City, Michigan.

“It’s been a long road, but totally worth it,” said Russell. It all started with a group being ticketed for participating in the Woodward Dream Cruise, as the informal driving event did not technically fulfill the letter of the law. The group protested and gained enough traction to amend the ruling in June of 2012 to allow unlimited use for the month of August.

Russell saw this as an opportunity. “That 2012 ruling made me call up my senator and ask why we had restrictions at all.” From there it turned into a letter writing campaign and spooled up into a full-scale lobbying effort before long. Despite some lulls and gaps in progress for the bill, John didn’t give up and before he knew it he was testifying in front of the Michigan state legislature, to which he said, “We aren’t asking for special favors, we are just asking to drive our cars. This is the automotive capital of the world. Why are we restricting people from driving to get ice cream in cool cars?”

1972 VW Beetle beach day
Andy Wakeman

Russell’s patience paid off. He got word on April 1st that the bill had passed, and had to reach out to his government contacts to confirm they weren’t pulling his leg. They weren’t, and that meant it was cause for celebration. It took years to get the ear of the right representative who would put together and introduce a bill, and then a full decade after that to complete the process to see said bill signed into law. Despite the wait, the timing is perfect, as owners are just starting to bring out their seasonally-stored vehicles and prepare to enjoy the driving season—now with a little extra driving.

Corvette interior driving action
Sabrina Hyde

With this win under his belt, Russell’s first question to State Representative John Roth and the bill’s other sponsors was “we can come back in a few years and ask for no restrictions, right?” Russell thinks he has the the right combination of evidence to make that happen, but in the meantime, those of us in Michigan are preparing for a celebratory drive this Memorial Day weekend.

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How to Re-Form Damaged Threads https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/how-to-re-form-damaged-threads/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/how-to-re-form-damaged-threads/#comments Fri, 05 Apr 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=387413

“I think I cross-threaded it.”

The voice on the other end of the phone was sullen. It belonged to a friend who had just emerged from under the hood of his 1999 Chevrolet pickup. As he was putting the #4 spark plug back into the aluminum cylinder head after performing some maintenance, the plug had bit and started threading at a slightly wrong angle.

Nobody wants to deal with damaged threads, but with a little prep and know-how you can save the thread, the part, and your sanity.

Threads are a critical part of the assembly of pieces we call automobiles. The spiral-incline plane that creates a bolt, nut, or threaded hole allows for easy disassembly and generates a strong, durable clamping force. The effectiveness of threads relies on a smooth and well-fitting assembly which means any bit of corrosion or damage can be a big problem.

When—not if—some damaged threads appear on your project, there is a lot going through your head: Everything from horror stories of drills and threaded inserts to tales in which the hero was a wire brush. In the middle of the chart of options is chasing the threads to clean them and remove damage. You might be tempted to reach for your tap and die kit … but that might not be the best idea.

When I dropped by my friend’s driveway for moral support, we pulled the inner fender and got a decent look at the reality of the problem. Luckily, my friend has a good feel for how spark plugs start, and the thread was only barely miffed. However, the idea of getting the plug started correctly and powering through to make it fit again was just not on the table. We needed to chase the threads.

Method #1: Use a Tap

I had an appropriate M14-1.25 tap that would theoretically match the aluminum heads on his engine—a 5.3 LM7—but there is always the chance that whatever tap you have is slightly different than the one that originally cut those threads. Any differences between the two would be settled by force, and in our case the hardened tap would easily bite a chunk out of the aluminum cylinder head to declare victory. We were not interested in that.

Method #2: Buy a Thread Chaser

If you’re looking at that thread chaser and thinking, “Kyle, that looks an awful lot like a tap,” you’re correct. It does, but a couple key features are hiding in plain view that make a chaser different than a tap—and better for this situation. The first is right on the nose: A pilot section, which helps align the tool into the thread bore. Taps lead with a cutting edge in most cases, which means if the tap starts slightly crooked, you’ll have a harder time feeling the misalignment. If you try multiple times, you will start to remove material. Remove enough, and the chance of stripping the thread increases significantly.

Notice that, behind the pilot, the threads do not have the same lead-in as a cutting tap. Again, since a chaser is only meant to restore damaged threads, the design is just less aggressive overall. Using a chaser means less chance of swarf falling into your project, too, and we certainly didn’t want any aluminum in the combustion chamber of my friend’s 5.3. Just to be cautious, we coated the chaser with grease to catch any debris it might loosen.

We got real lucky: The threads got reshaped perfectly and the plug threaded in and tightened up nicely, a reminder that using the right tool always makes a job easier. A good quality set of thread chasers is under $100 and covers a variety of pitches.

This is actually the first thread chaser I’ve purchased. It’s a tool that has always been on the shortlist, but it was never in the cart come checkout time. Any time I need a thread chaser, I usually just make one.

Method #3: Make Your Own

Making a thread chaser is not difficult, and the skill is a nice trick to have up your sleeve. Just take a grade 8 bolt and file down the first few threads to create that pilot and lead-in threads. If you are really motivated, use a hacksaw or small cutoff wheel to create a few reliefs that can collect any debris that will be forced out of the threads as it re-shapes and cleans them.

Next time you are in the middle of that project and miff a set of threads, you are prepared to handle the problem the right way … or at least understand the risks of doing it the other way. Like I said, there is a place and time for each, and having more skills and understanding of what you are doing is always a good thing.

***

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43 Chips off Ken’s Block Are Selling to Benefit Charity https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/43-chips-off-kens-block-are-selling-to-benefit-charity/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/43-chips-off-kens-block-are-selling-to-benefit-charity/#comments Wed, 03 Apr 2024 21:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=387406

The loss of Ken Block and his larger-than-life personality has been a void in car culture for more than a year now. If you’re looking for a little extra to bring some of his signature style to your garage or office, without requiring a television playing his videos on perpetual loop, eBay just listed 43 pieces of Ken Block memorabilia, and all proceeds are slated for the 43 Institute, a nonprofit established in the wake of Block’s death.

The items available include some real heavy-hitters from Block’s career. There are some signed prints, posters, and books, but the real interesting stuff are the wheels and other parts-turned-scrap-metal that were once affixed to one of his cars. For example, the front splitter from the Hoonicorn Mustang is one we expect to be popular. This small piece of the Hoonicorn was damaged during the filming of Gymkhana 7 and has the scars to prove it.

Other highlights include a race suit from Block’s 2016 season, the burned-up clutch from the Climbkhana: Pikes Peak video, and even the rear gearset from the Hoonicorn, along with what seems like a wheel from just about any interesting car Block drove over the years. He knew how to put on a show, but man, from the looks of it, he was hard on parts.

The parts for sale, like the turbocharger housings from the rally cars Block raced over his career, all trace to a car with the number 43 on the side. And it is now firmly a part of the foundation created in his honor. The mission of the 43 Institute is to further the ambitions of those seeking careers in action sports, motorsports, and the creative arts. Block’s dream of igniting and fueling a passion in people to continue the automotive hobby will be felt for years, but these auctions are only around for nine more days.

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Indian Debuts an All-New Scout for 2025 https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/indian-debuts-an-all-new-scout-for-2025/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/indian-debuts-an-all-new-scout-for-2025/#respond Wed, 03 Apr 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=387261

The Scout, Indian’s top-selling model, has been a staple of the motorcycle brand’s revival since parent company Polaris reintroduced the name in 2015. For 2025, the entire Scout lineup will receive a complete refresh—that means five models with three trim levels, all getting some attention. Here are the highlights.

The main talking point is the new SpeedPlus engine. Displacing 1250cc, it’s a V-twin that packs the most power of any Indian powerplant thus far, with 105 horses for all models (except the 101 Scout, which packs a healthy 111 horsepower). The engine’s electronic fuel injection will allow for a flat torque curve, and should pair well with the bike’s six-speed gearbox. ABS is standard on all models, and select trims get multiple rider-selectable traction control along with ride modes that alter the tuning to suit individual tastes.

That new powerplant fits into a tried-and-true steel frame, as the design team was focused on integrating the history of the century-old model into the future. “Our top priority was to uphold the iconic namesake of Scout and ensure the new lineup is as timeless as all its predecessors,” said Ola Stenegärd, Director of Product Design for Indian Motorcycle.  “For us, it was imperative to keep it clean, follow the iconic lines of Scout, and create a package that offered seamless customization. To achieve this, it all started with the steel tube frame and all-new, V-twin engine.”

The three trim levels that can be applied to each model include: Standard, Limited, and Limited+Tech. The Standard includes new LED lighting and an analog gauge with newly introduced fuel level and fuel economy readouts. Stepping up to the limited adds the selectable rider modes, a USB power socket, traction control, and premium badging. The Limited+Tech changes out the standard gauge display for a touchscreen powered by Ride Command software that enables navigation at the rider’s fingertips and keyless push-button ignition.

The various models—Scout Bobber, Sport Scout, Scout Classic, Super Scout, and 101 Scout—each have their own technology suites and parts swap to tailor the bike to a different niche of the V-twin motorcycle market and will be rolling out to dealerships soon.

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The 427 Corvette Is Back, Thanks to Lingenfelter https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-427-corvette-is-back-thanks-to-lingenfelter/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/the-427-corvette-is-back-thanks-to-lingenfelter/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2024 21:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=386544

The Corvette has been “America’s sports car” for decades but like anything, some versions are more coveted than others. Preferences are part of nature but certain expectations come with a title like America’s Sports Car; mainly, that the car will indeed be sporty. Lingenfelter has long been one to help ensure that, and its latest set of upgrades for the C8 has finally made the midengine Corvette acceptable in my eyes.

Every good Corvette needs an engine displacing 427 cubic inches. The 427 has been an off-and-on again option since 1966, when the first 427 big-blocks were dropped between the fiberglass fenders on the assembly line in St. Louis, Missouri. The on-again, off-again relationship with the sacred seven-liter was worth celebrating multiple times, but the direction in which Chevrolet has indicated it is headed with the eighth-generation Vette means that any hopes of listening to a 427 lope through the quad exhaust of a C8 is a pipe dream.

The team at Lingenfelter decided that couldn’t be and created the “Eliminator Spec” 427, which is drop-in ready for the C8. The engine is based on the LT2 that can already be found in the C8, and displacement is bumped from 376 cubic inches to the magic number by re-sleeving the block, swapping the crank, and tapping in a set of 4.125-inch Mahle pistons. Thanks to some cylinder head porting and a custom camshaft from COMP Cams, the naturally aspirated package makes a smooth 700 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque while still playing nice with the stock, eight-speed DCT.

The package requires you to stroke a check for just under $30,000, but the price does include installation, so you aren’t left with a cheap engine hoist and your friend’s set of box wrenches. Is it the cheapest way to make 700 hp in a C8? Probably not. Lingenfelter’s reimagined LT2 also puts out just 30 more horsepower than the LT6 in the Z06, and you don’t get the extensive chassis and brake upgrades of that flat-plane monster. Sometimes numbers matter, though, and for some Corvette faithful those numbers are 427.

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5 Electrical Tools Every Toolbox Should Have https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-electrical-tools-every-toolbox-should-have/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-electrical-tools-every-toolbox-should-have/#comments Thu, 28 Mar 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=385554

For some, it’s the work that they might make any excuse to avoid. Even if that’s how you feel about repair or fine-tuning of your car’s electrical systems, a case can be made for having at least some preparations to handle problems that may pop up. A personal instance was when a project motorcycle appeared in the garage with the wiring harness completely stripped off.

The electrical system is often one of the more easily explained systems of a project. It’s not any more difficult to understand than the oil path from the oil pump back to the pan. If you can understand where that oil goes and how it gets there you are most of the way to understanding a wiring harness. Electrons want to flow in one direction, so the absolute basics of a toolkit for the tasks you’ll address center around seeing where electricity is, where it’s not, and how to bridge the two properly, along with a few extras that just cannot be replaced and are great to have on hand.

Multimeter

Multimeter
Brandan Gillogly

Look, you might resist reaching for it, but multimeters have gotten downright cheap and are easier to use than ever. Getting familiar with even the basic functions can unlock diagnostic powers that will save time, money, and frustration compared to guess-and-check parts replacement. This allows testing most sensors also, which is how I found that the coil and main wiring harness were in serviceable condition on my project bike.

Xr600r wiring harness on table
Kyle Smith

Test Light

The more durable but less educated brother to the multimeter is the test light. It’s basically a light bulb in a screwdriver, so it just can’t give the same amount of information as a multimeter. However, the ease of use is undeniable. I still reach for mine to quickly and easily test grounds on misbehaving vehicles. Vintage test lights are nice as they often feature an incandescent bulb rather than an LED. The filament in a traditional bulb is nothing but a resistor that gives a visual indication of power flowing through it, which means if you get tuned into your test light you can quickly spot a connection with more resistance than it should have, but that often requires a little luck and is really a job for a multimeter.

Wire strippers

So you found a frayed wire or damaged connection. Cutting most automotive wire is a trivial task, but stripping the end in preparation for a connection is best done by special tools. A properly stripped wire will still have all the strands of the core and a tidy square cut end to the insulation. It can be done with a pocket knife, so many of us have been there, but having a set of strippers makes the job easier and more enjoyable.

Soldering iron

Soldering iron
Slightly more versatile than an electric iron, this propane soldering iron is one option of many.Kyle Smith

Crimp connectors have their place in the electrical world, but aren’t practical in every application. The need to solder a joint or connection is relatively rare for most project cars once the bulk of electrical work is done so a soldering iron might spend more time in the back of a drawer, yet they are nice to have and occasionally can be used to solve other problems like adding heat to a delicate fastener or area to break corrosion.

Timing light

Your ignition system is an electrical system on your car, and while there are ways to dial in the distributor, a timing light is one of the easiest ways to get the job done. I’d put a dwell meter on this list except so many modern timing lights include that function and a handful of others. Vintage gauges are sweet, but calibration should be considered at some point.

Have something you would add because you find yourself reaching for it regularly? Add it in a comment down below. Tools kits are like fingerprints, except we get to change them based on our needs and wants and it’s always interesting to hear what other people are doing and why.

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Does My Project Need More Time or More Money? If Only It Were Simple https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/does-my-project-need-more-time-or-more-money-if-only-it-were-simple/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/does-my-project-need-more-time-or-more-money-if-only-it-were-simple/#comments Wed, 27 Mar 2024 18:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=384798

Two weeks ago, sitting on the couch enjoying the tremendous warmth of a late-season fire in the wood stove, I found myself annoyed. On my knees was a laptop, the browser open to eBay, cursor poised over the “complete purchase” button. Its delightful blue color just invited the light tap of an index finger. That finger was making a quick scroll of my bank’s app, which displayed payment due dates in bold and account balances with a discouraging lack of commas. “Complete purchase” would have to wait. I closed the laptop, locked the phone, and left both on the couch while I walked into the garage to stare at something that might bring some joy rather than frustration. It didn’t really work.

So often a project only moves forward with investment: In the world of old cars, either time or money. Many projects require both, though the slider can be moved to and fro between them to balance the requirements of calendar, budget, or skill. 

While working overtime in the Hagerty call center a few years ago, I asked a friend why he was picking up extra shifts; it wasn’t regular behavior for him. He outlined that he wanted new flooring in his bathroom, and when he had priced it out, he realized he could make about the same amount of money in eight hours of OT, taking insurance renewal payments, as it would cost him to pay a pro to install the floor. Why should he learn to do a job he’s never done, and get a result to match, when he could do something he is good at and buy a professional-grade result? The interaction shook a little something in me about the perception of value. 

Sitting on my workbench are two bare Honda XR250R cylinder heads. Both represent the last steps in a pair of engine builds that have been stretching on for about a year now. A few months ago, the people at my local machine shop let me know they were starting to wind down their work on smaller engines. The setup time wasn’t paying enough anymore, and, rather than charge customers crazy amounts to make the work worthwhile, the shop had decided to focus on more profitable projects, many of which were already keeping its staff busy. I don’t blame them. 

Into the receipt pile I went on an archeological dig to find the paperwork for the last cylinder head I had done. It was for the Six Ways to Sunday project, and that engine has been rock-solid. I could mail off this pair of heads to the same shop that rebuilt the one for Six Ways, but that one had also needed a fair amount of TIG welding and CNC work to re-shape a combustion chamber that had been battered by a broken valve: a four-digit bill when all was said and done. Worth it, but these two cylinder heads don’t need such major work. I could get away with pressing out and replacing the guides, reaming them to size, installing valves, cutting seats, and putting in new springs. A couple of those tasks are advanced DIY, but the entire process is outlined step by step in the factory service manual. After finding an affordable option for seat cutting (more on that later), all I had to do was ream the valve guides to size. It couldn’t be that hard to make round holes that were the proper diameter, could it? 

High-speed steel and even carbide reamers can be purchased easily. There are even versions specific to valve-guide reaming that have nice, long cutting flutes and a generous pilot area ground on the lead-in to ensure the reamer is started straight down the bore. A flurry of packages arrived at my house, adding a dozen lines to my to-do list. Each step required me to use a new tool, from driving out the valve guides to reaming the guides to fit the valve stems. I know those two steps are next to each other and not the entire process, but that’s as far as I got.

In the attempt to ream the valve guides, I learned my first lesson: Material matters. This high-speed steel cutter made it about halfway through the first guide and then bound up. The bath of cutting oil couldn’t keep the abrasive relationship from heating up and the C630 bronze reached out and took hold of the steel by the collar. I had prepared to machine bronze guides. I had failed to prepare to machine nickel-aluminum bronze guides. 

We don’t know what we don’t know—and it’s impossible to know everything—but when choosing to slide the knob towards DIY rather than pay-a-pro, we have to somehow get ourselves to roughly the same skill level as the pro, at least in a few specific aspects. That takes time investment. I thought I could be cheap on both fronts by not investing the time to do proper research, which would have led me to purchase a diamond hone or different guides, and also by not investing the money to pay the pros. I thought I could get by with a little luck.  

The slider between investing time vs. money doesn’t always move in a straight line. It instead slides on a rollercoaster manipulated by a multitude of factors from weather to workspace to tooling. Each job is its own rollercoaster; some are relatively gentle wood coasters, and others require tolerance for very rapid changes in direction. Reading the measurements of a roller coaster cannot tell you what the experience will be from the seat.

I haven’t even got to the exciting part of my cylinder head work, and I’m a little nervous. That’s probably a good thing, though. Learning often requires bumping up against our own ignorance in some way, shape, or form. I got cocky with my skills and the job checked me. Now my to-do list includes a a trip to the machine shop.

combustion chamber of Honda xr250r cylinder head
Kyle Smith

While I love the idea of purchasing a rigid hone and adding some seriously cool capability to my garage, the four-digit price tag would take a long time to pay me back. Instead I’ll be swallowing my pride and dropping by the machine shop with the hope of bribing them to ream the valve guides to size for me. I still plan to do the valve seats at home, so this rollercoaster ride isn’t over yet. The first drop might have spooked me, but the allure of the upcoming twists, turns, and potential loops are why we get in and lock down the proverbial lap bar. There is a certain fun in experiencing a familiar thrill, but there is also the intoxicating feeling of doing something new and figuring out that it really isn’t that big of a deal—or, maybe, that it is.

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Big-Block, Little Bricks: Check Out This Full-Scale Lego 454 https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/big-block-little-bricks-check-out-this-full-scale-lego-454/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/big-block-little-bricks-check-out-this-full-scale-lego-454/#comments Fri, 22 Mar 2024 18:13:49 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=384291

The act of building an engine is a rite of passage for many enthusiasts. The first startup, when something you created from parts comes alive and produces power on its own, is often an emotional moment. Of course, there are people who revel in the process rather than the result, and I have never seen a better example than this nearly full-scale replica of a Chevrolet 454 engine made exclusively from Lego bricks.

According to the builder, Evan Koblentz, this was a project he undertook in 2020 and 2021 just to see what was possible. The result is a relatively functional representation of an engine that captures many of its more complex parts, and well, at that.

It’s not a perfect 1:1 scale, but that likely would not be possible, given that Koblentz limited himself to the use of 1970s and 1980s-era “Expert Builder” bricks to achieve his vision. This meant that rounded shapes were all but out: The “pistons,” for example, are flat, square plates. The limited choice of bricks doesn’t stop the pistons from reciprocating: The crankshaft rotates, driven by small electric motors mounted to the front of the engine model.

Above the crankshaft is a brick-built camshaft that lifts a set of sixteen pushrods that actuate 16 valves. Interestingly, the distributor is one of the items that is closest to the real thing, as it holds switches that control eight small LED lights that light up as if they were spark plugs firing. The model even has electronic ignition: The sensors and LEDs that replicate the ignition system are switched on and off by a Lego control panel that uses code running on a 8-bit computer.

Lego Chevrolet 454 engine model with transmission
Evan Koblentz

As if building the engine model were not enough, Koblentz also assembled a working flywheel and clutch setup, along with a four-speed transmission with reverse. The transmission shifts pretty easily through all the gears thanks to the hand-operated clutch, and the ratios even look pretty accurate.

If this whole project has you wondering when it will go into a car made of the same dimpled bricks, don’t hold your breath. In the frequently asked questions portion of his website, which is dedicated to Lego projects, Koblentz has a clear “no” next to the idea of building more parts or pieces to add to this model. Should he decide to, we suggest an 8-71 blower on top. After all, that’s the same thing we’d love to see on a real big-block.

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Ranked: 5 Ways to Break a Stuck Fastener https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/ranked-5-ways-to-break-a-stuck-fastener/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/ranked-5-ways-to-break-a-stuck-fastener/#comments Thu, 21 Mar 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=383993

Any car is an assembly of parts. Since bolted joints are both strong and easy to assemble, just about any service or maintenance on a car or truck requires you to remove some type of bolt. Anyone who has worked on a car for more than three minutes knows that even a larger project is not so bad if the hardware is not difficult to deal with. Those with many years of experience know how difficult corroded and stuck fasteners often give up, but convincing them to surrender requires force. How you generate that force is defined by the severity of the situation. Let’s look at the levels of bolt persuasion, from least to most aggressive, and some of the reasons why they fall in this order.

Level #5: Open-End Wrench

pile of wrench on workbench top
Kyle Smith

An open end wrench is nothing more than two parallel surfaces that meet two sides of a fastener. This often means only truly gripping near the corners due to tolerance in production of both the hardware and the tool. Sometimes, the fit is plenty tight and less than one foot of leverage is plenty. There is a reason wrenches are standard in every automotive toolkit since people started working on cars; wrenches pack light, are simple to produce, and are durable for many years if not abused. Sure, long-handle versions exist, but most of those are box-end, which means they are basically a worse version of a …

Level #4: Socket and Ratchet

socket and ratchet on workbench
Kyle Smith

The combination of a socket and a ratchet steps things up in a couple different ways: First, by providing additional contact points with the stuck fastener. Whether 12-point or 6-point, a socket provides more even contact with the fastener, and a ratchet allows us to shift the angle of the lever to maximize the force applied by our muscles. That handle can easily be exchanged for a …

Level #3: Longer Ratchet

ratchet, socket, and wrenches, big ratchet on workbench
Kyle Smith

The socket is giving us good positive engagement on the hardware, so if it hasn’t moved yet, we must add force. Long-handle ratchets are handy, because it can be difficult to reposition a long wrench multiple times just to rotate a fastener one turn. Sadly, the most helpful part of a ratchet—the rotating head—is also the weak point, and if you treasure your tool you will likely grab one with a longer handle before adding a cheater bar or hitting the handle of your ratchet with a hammer. Sure, you can buy rebuild kits for some ratchets … or you could avoid stripping out the catch pawls inside the head in the first place.

Level #2: Impact Wrench

Leaning your weight on a long lever is one way to impart force. The other is to apply it suddenly with a spinning hammer. That is the basic function of an impact wrench, which generates high amounts of force in short bursts to help break loose the corrosion that forms inside threaded joints. Better yet, impact wrenches are powered by compressed air or by batteries, not by elbow grease, making them the hot ticket when dealing with stuck stuff. The only problem is that the torque capabilities of an impact wrench are limited by design, as the motor, hammer, and anvil can go get so large before the tool becomes unwieldy. You might have to switch back to brute force and grab the …

Level #1: Breaker Bar

breaker bar on top of other tools
Kyle Smith

At the end of the day, physics always wins. While inconvenient compared to the luxury of an impact wrench, using a long bar to apply torque to a proper-fitting socket is by far the best way to put absurd amounts of torque onto a stuck fastener.

A long enough lever will snap the hardened head off every breaker bar you can find. And that is what you are often hoping for, at this point—the sweet release of tension by any means necessary. Just break already. The drill and tap set are already on the workbench.

wrenches, sockets, impact and breaker bar on workbench
Kyle Smith

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Ducati Reports Third-Best Sales Year, Led by Multistrada Model https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/ducati-reports-third-best-sales-year-led-by-multistrada-model/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/ducati-reports-third-best-sales-year-led-by-multistrada-model/#respond Wed, 20 Mar 2024 20:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=383630

Ducati has never been a volume brand, instead using emotional allure and competition prowess to appeal to a specific niche of motorcycle consumers. That said, it still needs to move a healthy number of bikes to be successful, and for the third year in a row it’s posted some sales numbers worth bragging about.

At the close of 2023, the Bologna, Italy-based motorcycle manufacturer had rolled 58,228 motorcycles off the assembly line, out to dealer, and into owners’ hands. That’s down slightly from 2022’s high water mark of 61,562 bikes, but it’s still a veritable flood of two-wheeled machinery, and ultimately the third-best year ever for Ducati.

The success was driven from three predictable geographic markets—Italy, the U.S., and Germany—and, whether we want to admit it or not, one specific model. The Multistrada leads the lineup again with 10,480 of the adventure model being delivered worldwide.

The Multistrada is riding a wave of interest in adventure bikes, which are among the sales leaders for many manufacturers. The utility of an adventure bike is hard to deny, and when combined with the travel dream sold by the adventurers actually out riding ’round the world, it’s easy to see why there have never been more buyers interested in this type of bike.

The second- and third-best sellers are the Scrambler and Monster models, respectively. This follows a trend of buyers consistently choosing more approachable models—ones that suit their uses or capabilities—as compared to the superbikes that had previously defined the Ducati brand. There’s a clear parallel to the car market—this behavior is no different than European brands that sell crossovers and SUVs by the literal truckload to bankroll the limited production of the kind of stripped down, stick-shift sports cars that originally grew the brand’s faithful following.

These figures speak to evolving buyer decisions in an ever-more-multifaceted motorcycle market, but they also show a company that’s paying attention. Ducati, like Porsche, can keep building track terrors that apply to a more limited audience if they have some models that appeal to the meat of the market. (Besides, it’s not as if these “approachable” bikes are without the trademark Ducati emotion.) If that’s the price to keep the brand’s most exciting asphalt bikes coursing the toughest circuits in the world, we’re all for it.

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Goodwood’s Soapbox Challenge Should Make a Return https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/goodwoods-soapbox-challenge-should-make-a-return/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/goodwoods-soapbox-challenge-should-make-a-return/#comments Thu, 14 Mar 2024 20:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=382137

One of the interesting bits of the annual Goodwood Festival of Speed is that the event is brand-, style-, and powertrain-agnostic. If a vehicle goes fast, it probably belongs on the grounds of Lord March’s estate come July in Chichester, England. Of course, fast is a relative term, and it opens the door for some interesting side attractions. From 2000 to 2004, “fast” included soapbox derby cars … but, of course, they were not just any soapbox derby cars.

The best-known event at Festival of Speed is the Hillclimb, in which race and street cars attempt to set the fastest time from the bottom to the top of Lord March’s driveway. That record is currently held by the downright absurd McMurtry Spéirling, which blistered the tires on its way up to a 39-second run in 2022. The hillclimb is uni-directional, though, and throughout the day, race cars will parade from the top back down to the bottom. We can only imagine their descent sparked the imaginations of a few racers, because in 2000, gravity racing entered the event schedule.

The idea was simple, and a low budget was mandated: £1000, or about $1275 as of this writing. Teams from legendary racing outfits like Prodrive, Bentley, Cosworth, and even Rolls-Royce entered, but as carbon-fiber wheels and high-performance bearings started showing up in builds, it became pretty clear that budgets were not staying meager. Crashes were relatively common also, even after the course was shortened a good bit. The Soapbox Challenge ran for just five years and now the cars only occasionally appear at the Festival of Speed.

Two of the racers that could make a return to the hill in the future are these two custom-built Rolls-Royces. Prior to the re-launch of the Rolls-Royce brand, these two gravity racers, known as RR-0.01 and RR-0.02, were the first vehicles produced at the Rolls-Royce headquarters in Goodwood. After being decommissioned in 2003, the pair sat on display for two decades before a team of apprentices completely restored them. These aren’t nearly as wild as other Soapbox Challenge racers, but instead mix retro and futuristic in a way that scales perfectly to the diminutive size. Even with less-than-ideal aerodynamics, RR-0.02 hit a massive 72 mph as it crossed the finish line at Goodwood in 2002.

Rolls-Royce apprentices and soap box derby cars
Rolls-Royce

We would love to see some gravity racing return to Goodwood. Maybe a rule could be devised to bring speeds into check, or to ensure appropriate safety equipment? If it’s possible to let that McMurtry Spéirling climb the hill at over 130 mph, surely there is a way to let some gravity racing happen. Until then, these two racers will be waiting at the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club in Northamptonshire.

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5 Tips to Spot a Classic Car Scam Online https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/5-tips-to-spot-a-classic-car-scam-online/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/5-tips-to-spot-a-classic-car-scam-online/#comments Thu, 14 Mar 2024 17:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=381585

After years of poking around the corners of the internet, it finally appears: The perfect car. It has the right color, a flawless interior, the powertrain you want, and the price is just right. You contact the dealer, and they ask for a deposit to get the process started.

Whoa there. Before you drop by the Western Union to wire the cash, be wary: For every honest seller looking to pair a driver with their favorite car, there seem to be two looking to split a driver and their wallet. Luckily with a small amount of due diligence, you can find out if that dream car you found is actually just a dream.

We love finding good deals online, and YouTube channel Pleasant Green enjoys finding scammers. Host Ben Taylor recently posted a video tracking down a couple scammers who were trying to sell vintage cars. Included in the video are a few great tips for keeping your money safe. We break them down here.

reverse image search example
Kyle Smith

Pictures on the internet are incredibly easy to steal. That is what makes these scams so easy to set up—and easy to spot. By right-clicking on an image, you can trigger your browser’s “reverse image search” function, which scours the internet for similar pictures, often catching duplicate images or lightly edited photos in the process.

Scammers have been getting wise to this method, however, and are starting to do light photo editing in attempts to fool such search functions. The video above highlights an example where the license plates and backgrounds have been scrubbed of the original dealer’s information and logos and the scam business logos edited in. If you are still unsure …

Tip #2: Request a Current Photo

A dealer with a car sitting in inventory should have no issue with taking a current photo including some artifact proving they have the car on site. Ask for the local paper to be in the photo, or simply a note with the day’s date and the seller’s name written on it. Taking digital photos and sending them via email are basically free, so you should face limited pushback to such a simple request.

Tip #3: Look up the Location

Screenshot of maps for listing
Google Maps

Any reputable dealer or seller will give you the address of their business. Type that into your favorite maps software and let the ever-present cameras of the world tell you what you can’t physically see from afar. Does the street view show something that looks like a car dealer? Do the backgrounds of the photos listed on the dealer’s website match the environment of that street address?

Discrepancies between the photos in a car listing and third-party images of the address are typically not the most telling flaws in an ad, but they can raise a red flag and give you cause to look at everything else more critically.

Tip #4: Pick Up the Phone

Brandan Gillogly

Call whatever phone number is listed on the website and have a chat. A good salesperson will not come off as pushy, and they be happy to answer any questions you have about the car. There was a time when accents or out-of-state phone numbers would be a red flag, but as a person with a Kansas phone number who lives in Michigan, I’ll tell you that rule just doesn’t hold up anymore. A good conversation will reveal information that may be hidden if you make assumptions based on an area code.

Tip #5: Put Eyes on the Car

Brandan Gillogly

I’ve bought a handful of cars or motorcycles from sellers who were states away. Whether I trusted them or not, one stipulation of the deal was that someone other than the seller would need to see the machine before I sent any funds. Project vehicles, of which I’ve bought many, are an exception: Since I expect them to be broken, I tend to skip an inspection that will simply tell me what I already know. If you aren’t looking for a project vehicle, you’d be wise to go for an inspection if you value your time at anything above zero.

While traveling to see the car prior to purchase can seem inconvenient, it is the easiest way to prevent basic scams. If you are shopping outside of your own driving range or otherwise cannot venture to look at a car, put in a little effort to find someone who can and will. Reach out within a national club or group, and you often will find someone within range who is more than happy to have an excuse to go look at an example of a model they already like. I’ve performed such a service for people buying a car and it was actually really fun to be a part of the process, even though I didn’t get paid for my time.

In short, buying vintage cars is risky in the even the best scenario. If a potential purchase seems too good to be true, treat it as such until all the information you gather points to the opposite. Being respectful while being skeptical will serve you well: Even if you think the person on the other end might be a scammer, there is no reason to be a jerk until you have the proof. Even then, it’s best to report the ad or website and move on with your life, happy they didn’t catch you.

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5 Steps to Bring Your Car out of Storage https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-steps-to-bring-your-car-out-of-storage/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-steps-to-bring-your-car-out-of-storage/#comments Thu, 14 Mar 2024 15:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media2020/03/26/5-steps-to-bring-your-car-out-of-storage

It’s that time of year again! This article was originally published in 2020, and we’re bringing it back this year to encourage ourselves—and you—to get our treasured cars back on the road with love and care. —Ed. 

The snow mounds are receding and the mercury is beginning to rise for much of the U.S., which means that many gearheads are eyeballing their currently tucked-away vintage rides. If you are giddy with anticipation about driving that long-stored vehicle, here are five steps to follow to get your next driving season started off smoothly.

Step #1: Inspect

removing a car cover
Brandan Gillogly

Even if you put the car away properly, and kept an eye on it over winter, the first thing you should do is go over it with a keen eye. Grab your favorite flashlight (everyone has one, right?) and examine each nook and cranny of your car—bumper to bumper and roofline to contact patch.

Keep an eye out for cracks, evidence of leaks, worn-out bushings, or wiring that needs attention. Despite your best efforts, you might have to evict a rodent. Now is the time, however, before you tear off on the first, triumphant drive and a nest dislodges, causing even more damage. Meticulously taking stock of the car each year is a great way to ensure that deteriorating parts do not cause additional damage.

The most important system to inspect right now is the brakes. I start with a hard/harder test at the pedal. Sit in the driver’s seat and press the brake pedal as if you were coming to a normal stop, and hold the pedal down for 10 seconds or so after the pedal stops moving. Now press even harder on the pedal—more akin to a panic stop—and hold pressure again. The pedal should stay rock solid, not slowly move towards the floor. After this test, inspect the brake system once more, looking for leaks or signs of fluid escaping the system. This is a pass-or-fail exam; now is the time to find any issues, not on the open street.

Step #2: Clean

Wiping down a car
Jay Leno’s Garage

Even in storage, dirt and grime accumulate on your beloved ride. Take the time to remove all this damaging debris from both painted and soft surfaces. We have talked about good detailing technique before, and we will always recommend keeping both the interior and exterior of your ride clean.

You can perform this step at the same time as the inspection, but I prefer to keep the tasks separate so I don’t lose my mechanically oriented concentration amid a mist of quick detailer. Treat rubber weather stripping to keep the sealing intact, therefore allowing less dust inside the interior (unless you prefer to go topless). Interior fabrics should get a protectant to start the season off right and make for easier cleaning later on, when you would rather be driving or showing than detailing.

Step #3: Prepare to Start

dirty engine bay
Brandan Gillogly
test your belt tension
Brandan Gillogly

radiator cap
Brandan Gillogly
before taking your car out of storage make sure to check your battery
Brandan Gillogly

That’s right, we’re slicing this process pretty thin. However, even when properly stored, a dormant engine can benefit from a slow awakening. Ensuring components are ready to move again will go a long way to ensuring your engine has not only a good driving season but a long, healthy life.

Engines drain oil from top to bottom, and after sitting all season there is likely very little—if any—oil at the top end of the engine. If you have the ability and confidence to spin the oil pump before cranking the engine with the start, do that. If not, grab an oil can, remove the valve covers, and oil the top end. This won’t get the main bearings, but it is better than nothing.

Hopefully, your inspection told you that the fuel lines were in good shape (if they weren’t, replace them and come back to this step) so it’s time to get fuel pressure in the system. Be prepared for anything at this point, especially if you stored the car filled with fuel that has ethanol blended into it. An electric fuel pump is great for these situations, since you can pressurize the system rather than cranking the engine for a bit.

If you don’t have an electric pump, disconnect the ignition by pulling the coil wire to the distributor and crank the engine till you see oil and fuel pressures. You’ll know that fuel pressure is adequate on a carbureted engine if the accelerator pump squirts fuel into the intake when the throttle is opened by hand. Replace the coil wire once this process is complete.

Step #4: Start

turning the key in a classic
Will Mederski

Now the fun part. While it pales in comparison to starting a rebuilt engine for the first time, starting your vintage car for the first time of the season is the pick-me-up most of us could use right now.

A few pumps of the accelerator on a carbureted engine will get some raw fuel in the intake manifold to make starting a bit easier. Fuel-injected engines will only need a turn of the key. Once running, let the engine idle for a few minutes as you look around the engine compartment for any leaks and listen for strange noises. Diagnose anything you find right away.

Step #5: Go for a Short Drive

Hagerty ride and drive 2018
Brandan Gillogly

You finally made it to the part you have been waiting for this whole time. Put the car in gear and start slowly—a trip around the block or down the street, for example. Pay attention to any noises or vibrations that seem out of the ordinary. Investigate accordingly.

Just like that, you are on the path to another great season of driving. Keep up on the maintenance on your classic and you will be rewarded with miles of enjoyment. Is there an extra step you like to take with your car? Post it in the comments below; you might help another gearhead. For now, though, get out in the garage and get your car ready to cruise at a moment’s notice.

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Maintaining One’s Bearings https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/maintaining-ones-bearings/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/maintaining-ones-bearings/#comments Wed, 13 Mar 2024 18:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=381202

There are multiple ways to interpret the word “bearings.” In the midst of a recent garage work session, it became clear I was maintaining not one set of bearings, but two.

The task at hand was a mock-up of the rear wheel assembly on my Honda XR600R project. The bike I purchased is a 1988 model year, which was factory-equipped with a drum rear brake. There was nothing wrong with the drum setup. It functioned and was certainly restorable. The wheel and hub were fine as well. I just wanted to “upgrade” to a disc brake.

Honda XR600R no rear suspension
Kyle Smith

For the type of riding I do, a restored and well-adjusted drum brake is perfectly suitable. It’s relatively sealed, low-maintenance, and extremely durable. By comparison, a disc brake setup is quite a pain. The caliper needs a guard, the rotor requires protection on the underside, and the whole operation is exposed to the weather, allowing it to be coated in a constantly refreshed, abrasive slurry of dirt and water.

But the heat management is worth the trouble. That large rotor happily hands off heat to the atmosphere in a manner so true it’s a law that long predates brakes of any kind. A disc setup produces consistent stops, and the increase in effectiveness far outweighs any decrease in durability. So, of course, I decided it was high time I had a trail bike with this newfangled technology. I’d also been wanting to do a project that involved a little more fabrication, and the conversion from drum to disc brake seemed perfectly designed to teach me a few new things.

So after checking a few fitment details between the first-generation, drum-brake XR600R and the second-generation, disc-brake bikes, I began pillaging the halls of eBay, slashing at the buy-it-now button with a plastic sword 16 numbers long. The spoils arrived at my doorstep in a handful of boxes. The largest of the treasures was a swingarm from a 1994 XR600R, followed by a rear caliper and mount from a 1992 XR600R and a rear brake master cylinder from a Honda CRF450X.

Honda XR600R swingarm and brake caliper fitted
Kyle Smith

The hardest part of the process would be hanging the master cylinder, so I started with the easy bit. The swingarm bolted right into place and even included the linkage that connects the shock to the swingarm. This was a nice bonus, because the linkage is comprised of the same parts as the ones coming off with the drum brake swingarm. Having a second linkage allows me to rebuild one while the other is still bolted to the bike, allowing me to test the fitment of other parts. Plus, spares. Everyone loves spares.

Two Honda XR600r Swingarms
The two swingarms laid out on the workbench.Kyle Smith

The needle roller bearings in a linkage pivot are some of the humblest parts of a motorcycle. They take a tremendous amount of force while being subjected to the brutal environment that is the bottom of an off-road motorcycle. The linkage gets bounced off rocks and roots while being pelted with everything flung off the front tire.

These bearings always put up a fight coming out. Always. The hardened steel shells, which reluctantly joined the links on their high-pressure first date, become nearly inseparable from the cast aluminum with time. The union is so strong that I had to use my bench vise as a press to break the two free, adding heat and tension until the aluminum expanded and allowed the bonds, formed over decades, to break. Only then could a new relationship begin, with new bearings.

Items like bearings are not meant to last forever. They are consumable things, meant to be changed when the time is right. Just like our personal, figurative bearings. Desires and directions shift and evolve. It is best to take a step back, reassess, and reorient ourselves with where we are going—and if that is indeed what we want.

The idea of doing a fair amount of extra work just to fit a disc brake to an aging motorcycle is slightly absurd, and as I mock up the assembly and measure for the spacers I’ll be making, I reminded myself that the whole disc-brake project is irrational. However, while none of it makes any real sense, we are granted the freedom to be absurd. That freedom includes making the decision to solve problems that don’t exist. I didn’t lose my way and wander off into the weeds. No, my bearings are well-maintained, even if one type is leading me down the more difficult path.

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How Fast Could a Toyota Pickup Go, if a Toyota Pickup Could Go Fast? https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/how-fast-can-a-toyota-pick-go-if-a-toyota-pickup-could-go-fast/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/how-fast-can-a-toyota-pick-go-if-a-toyota-pickup-could-go-fast/#respond Mon, 11 Mar 2024 18:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=381020

Whether it’s the Top Gear bit trying to kill a Hilux or the owners who proudly cross off 100,000-mile increments with apparent ease, the 1990s were an era that put Toyota on the map for its reputation for durability. Now, thanks to a partnership with Banks Powersports, one Toyota pickup can also say it’s crazy fast in a standing half-mile. Like, 173 miles per hour fast.

The truck was built by Chuckles Garage, better known as the outfit that built “Old Smoky,” the diesel-powered 1949 Ford F-1 that raced up Pikes Peak. After a crash put that truck back into project status, this Toyota entered and became a slightly smaller but just as beastly project.

According to the video it is built to run at the Bonneville salt flats in the stock body division, which is why it retains enough features to be instantly recognizable despite having a 2JZ inline-six stuffed under the hood. According to Scott Birdsall, the man who built the truck, it is making roughly 1200 horsepower with the wick turned all the way up. Since this test and tune was the truck’s first outing its output was never supposed to be that close to the edge. However, the electronics of the truck had other plans.

After a first pass to shake out any potential issues, the onboard data collection shows that the engine was making a righteous 42psi of boost. That is hardly a mild tune, and it explains why the 225-section tires on the rear were never really able to hook up and convert all that power into forward motion. Modern tuning can be incredibly complicated, but the data collection capabilities of modern sensors and ECU modules are amazing and enable us to learn more with less damage since we are no longer testing to failure to find the limit.

This truck didn’t get the luxury of a measured approach, though, and on its second trip down the track, Birdsall went for it and planted his right foot all the way through the timing stripe. With some tuning and sorting, we expect this truck to do something interesting should it make a few clean runs on the salt flats this year as it takes on the 189.460mph record set in 2020.

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Honda Reopened Its Museum in Japan, and It Looks Stunning https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/honda-reopened-its-museum-in-japan-and-it-looks-stunning/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/honda-reopened-its-museum-in-japan-and-it-looks-stunning/#comments Fri, 08 Mar 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=380372

Spending time in a collection of just one brand’s cars can be an interesting experience. Whether they’re from a specific period or they cover a greater storyline, there is much to learn from seeing and thinking about the progression from one model to another and how such development contributes to a carmaker’s arc. Honda is a brand that leans into things like that, which helps to explain why it chose to renovate and refocus its museum, the Honda Collection Hall, in Tochigi, Japan.

HONDA COLLECTION HALL REOPENS AFTER RENOVATION
Honda

The whole museum received a makeover, which included reorganizing the exhibits to better tell the story of Honda in a linear manner. The first exhibit that welcomes visitors is likely the last one you’d expect: A full-scale mockup of a HondaJet Elite II, which allows anyone who steps through the door to experience what flying private business is like, if only for a minute. Of course, that is not the main attraction, and the rest of the exhibits are a little more our speed.

The museum is divided into four wings, each spanning roughly a decade and a half, beginning with the company’s 1948 founding and early bicycle-engine kits. Of course, things progressed into racing and mass production relatively quickly, leading to the Super Cub and Isle of Man TT efforts. From there it’s over to another wing for the early automobiles and Honda’s 1964 entry into Formula 1. Progress further still and you’ll enter the wing dedicated to the period between 1985 and 2000, an era defined by behind-the-scenes challenges and the development of the NSX sports car. The area covering 2000–present is focused on how Honda has widened its focus to so many things outside of the transportation sector.

Like any good museum, there are rotating exhibits, the first of which is a highlight of the early CB motorcycle lineup. That will be replaced in June by an exhibit focused on the NSR250R and other race replica models from the 1980s.

By itself, is the Honda Collection Hall enough to justify the plane ticket to the other side of the world? For brand diehards, sure. For the rest of us, if you find yourself in Japan for other reasons, add it to your itinerary. There is much to gain by strolling through the rich history of one of the automotive world’s most storied marques.

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5 Affordable Luxuries for a Hard-Working Garage https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-affordable-luxuries-for-a-hard-working-garage/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-affordable-luxuries-for-a-hard-working-garage/#comments Thu, 07 Mar 2024 17:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=380119

Just having some time alone in the garage is a luxury for most of us, so building our dream shop with all the bells and whistles often stays a dream as we focus on simply enjoying what we have. Just because we can’t have 2000 square feet, a mill, a lathe, and a lift does not mean we should ignore little touches of luxury that make our projects more enjoyable—or, at least, more tolerable.

A luxury does not have to be a big-ticket item, merely something that makes you look forward to your time in the garage or that makes your projects run a little smoother. With that goal in mind, here are five affordable upgrades for just about any space.

Affordable Luxury #1: Good Lights

various garage project lighting
A small assortment of lights that make the world a little brighter—literally.Kyle Smith

Lighting technology has come a long way in recent history. Compact and efficient LED work lights are easy to hang, run tens of thousands of hours with little maintenance, and sometimes can even be put on a dimmer. That last feature may seem a little absurd, but I don’t particularly enjoy how surgical my garage can feel when I want to just hang out with friends.

Hardwired, battery-operated, or plug-in, lights are great options that can fit anyone’s needs at almost every price range. Consider lighting an investment. It might feel like a decent chunk of change now, but most lights will last years, and they will make working on just about anything more enjoyable.

Affordable Luxury #2: A Decent Stereo

Sajeev Garage Hi Fi Audio Stereo Radio
Sajeev Mehta

The jury has been split 50/50 here whenever I bring up having a television in the garage, but it’s pretty much universally agreed that a good stereo is a must-have. While the Panasonic boombox purchased with Pepsi points in 1996 might still be cranking out the tunes, if you care about sound quality at all, a good set of speakers and a decent amplifier are very affordable, and they allow you to advantage of any music format you might prefer.

Obviously, no one would want to keep records where they use an angle grinder, but not every garage is focused on fabrication. After I splurged for in-ceiling speakers and a tidy wall-mounted amplifier, it became so much easier to listen to music, and the sound doesn’t change much no matter where I am in the space—and my setup cost about $200. Do what works for you, and make it sound good.

Affordable Luxury #3: Sturdy Shelves

Kyle's garage shelves
Kyle Smith

Even the most minimal workspace must include storage. The prices of sturdy, strong, and decent-looking shelving are budget-level when you consider that it takes a lot to wear out shelves. Similar to the lighting above, good shelving is a buy once, cry once decision. Adjustable shelving can be had for just a couple hundred dollars, perfectly suited for the projects and parts you store currently. It can even leave you room to grow or change the space in the future. For the same price, you can also buy materials and build custom shelves for your space.

Affordable Luxury #4: Reels

ceiling mounted cord reel for garage
Kyle Smith

If your garage is bigger than a closet, the addition of extension cords or air hoses is less about convenience and more about necessity: Overhead or wall-mounted, retractable reels make it easy to keep tripping hazards to a minimum. These have gotten budget-friendly as of late—just be sure the wire gauge is appropriate for your use.

Some of the low-end, cheap electrical reels can be 14-gauge or smaller, while most heavy-duty plug-in power tools are best served by 12-gauge. Roll out the length of hose or cord semi-regularly to inspect for imperfections or damage. Cables and hoses that live on the floor pick up debris and, if those bits are rolled into a reel, they become grinding compounds that can damage cords over time.

Affordable Luxury #5: Rugs

rug for standing at workbench Kyle's Garage
Kyle Smith

Okay, maybe not a rug. We couldn’t imagine a garage with wall-to-wall carpet, but something that people can wipe their feet on, or a standing mat at your workbench are little things that go a long way to make a workspace feel less industrial and more like a place you enjoy being in. Use them to inject a little personality into your space, if you want: Novelty door mats can say just about anything, so we won’t give you any ideas.

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What Has 48 Cylinders, 2 Wheels, and 1 World Record? This Motorcycle. https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/48-cylinders-2-wheels-1-world-record-motorcycle/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/market-trends/48-cylinders-2-wheels-1-world-record-motorcycle/#comments Wed, 06 Mar 2024 18:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=378998

World records can be wild feats of courage, exhibitions of mental fortitude, or the outcome of years of patient practice. They can also be a person concussing themselves by breaking open 49 watermelons with their head. Or marvels of engineering that carefully coordinate the movement of 48 pistons into a functional machine. Both the melon mashing and the multitudinous-piston motivation are real world records, and one of them can be yours if you play your cards right—no head slamming required.

This 48-cylinder creation—the official record for vehicle engine with the most cylinders—is the manifestation of Briton Simon Whitelock and is an exercise in solving problems to build the absurd. The project started in 1999 and seems to have been constructed in a typical UK workshop, which is to say a small shed packed full of stuff. Whitelock has posted videos of the build on a YouTube channel, and they are fascinating to watch.

Whitelock 48 cylinder engine left side
Bonhams

Sixteen Kawasaki KH250 bikes, which were three-cylinder affairs, contributed their engines to this build. The original cases were cut to remove the transmissions and then welded together, forming inline-eight engines that were then stacked and lined up using large aluminum plates at either end. With three inline-eight two-stroke engines on each side, the rear mounting plate aligns the engines so they could be linked with a gear drive that feeds into a BMW K1000 transmission, and subsequently a shaft drive to power the rear wheel.

The front end is sourced from a Honda Goldwing, and the frame is more or less built around the engine. What looks like the fuel tank on top is actually a cover for the ignition and throttle cables, while a cylindrical aluminum gas tank is tucked down the center of the engine. A small fuel pump pushes fuel up to six carburetors that are mounted on manifolds at the front of the engine. Alongside the carbs sit the ignition systems, which are a mix of car and motorcycle parts.

The whole thing is a bit absurd, but we couldn’t help but be amazed when the massive engine—by our math it displaces 4200cc, or 256 cubic inches—fires to life. There is no way a human is going to kick start such a beast, and an electric starter might not have the oomph to keep the engine turning while the cylinders begin to fire.

That’s why Whitlock employed a donkey engine—a smaller second engine solely assigned to getting the six crankshafts spinning. A two-stroke mill pulled from a scooter, it’s linked to the output shaft by a one-way clutch and uses a slight gear reduction to get everything up to speed before it is shut off. The factory throttle tube’s choke lever has been repurposed to be a throttle for the donkey engine so the handlebars are still fairly tidy considering the complications happening behind it.

And yes, it does ride under its own power. In reality, though, running it for longer periods of time is likely a fool’s errand, as cooling all the cylinders appropriately would take even more engineering prowess than this build has already exhibited. Regardless, if you find this 48-cylinder wonder as intriguing as I do, you can raise a paddle and bid (its estimate is $51k-$76k) to make it yours late next month at the Bonhams Spring Stafford Sale in the U.K.

48-cylinder-whitelock-motorcycle-bonhams
Bonhams

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One of McLaren’s Early Race Cars Was Also a Film Star https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/mclarens-very-first-race-car-was-also-a-film-star/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/mclarens-very-first-race-car-was-also-a-film-star/#comments Mon, 04 Mar 2024 22:15:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=379177

The first of anything often carries a certain cachet. Good, bad, or otherwise, first impressions are something that people only get one shot at. Bruce McLaren seemed to understand that truth, because this M1A race car made sure it was going to be remembered … only to have its connection to a rock and roll star be the thing for which most people outside the racing community remember it.

This gold over white livery car was built by Elva as the first production M1A, and the mid-engine design was still quite experimental in 1963 and keeping the side profile ultra-low required some interesting design choices: The fuel cell is split into four separate tanks held outboard of the driver’s compartment, and the spare tire is stored on the dashboard. (Is that considered an airbag?)

Jay Leno's Garage

The small-block behind the driver’s compartment of the car you see here does not appear to be the original Oldsmobile V-8 that powered the car from new. Later iterations of the M1A featured even more power from big-block engines, but we can’t help but think that kind of power would be overkill in a car that weighs less than 1800 pounds. Don’t take our word, though; watch Jay Leno take one for a spin down the airport service road next to his collection:

The drive is at the end of the video, but the story that precedes it is pretty fascinating. The striking gold-and-white color combination was not Bruce’s original vision for this M1A. The car was originally white with a green stripe down the center, but when it was cast in a movie alongside Elvis, the gold hue was sprayed on and the look seems to have stuck. The movie, Spinout, debuted in 1966 and featured a whole host of awesome iron alongside the superstar lead actor.

McLaren M1A Jay Leno's Garage engine
Jay Leno's Garage

“This car is a great example of how sought after early cars are by collectors and enthusiasts,” says Greg Ingold, Hagerty Price Guide editor. “While the luster of the Elvis connection is undoubtedly a plus, it is likely more of an interesting footnote compared to the racing and development history of the M1A.”

Regardless of what makes this McLaren cool to you, we can all agree it is cool. How could a race car designed by Bruce and powered by a small-block inhaling through quad Weber carbs not be cool?

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5 Things Every Great Workbench Has https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-things-every-great-workbench-has/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-things-every-great-workbench-has/#comments Thu, 29 Feb 2024 19:02:36 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=377253

There are many staples of a DIY shop or garage, but the workbench stands above the rest. Having a work surface that is not the floor can make working on projects safer, more efficient, and more enjoyable. Sadly, just because benches are ubiquitous does not mean each one is good.

Like so many other things in life, a workbench must balance budget, function, appearance, and specialization. While we can’t help you with the last one on that list, we can get you to a great starting point by calling out some of the attributes that every good workbench will have. Whether you are building a new one or checking up on one that you’ve been using for years, here are five characteristics every great workbench needs.

A Flat (ish) Surface

Goldwing carbs on workbench
Kyle Smith

You don’t need to rebuild a carburetor on a certified granite slab, but you do want a surface that can be clean and smooth while not allowing parts to roll away. You’ll often need to level your bench using shims or some other method, because garage floors are not typically very even—occasionally, on purpose.

Dozens of materials can be appropriate for bench tops, so be sure to take a deep look at what kinds of projects you think you’ll tackle and choose a material that can take the amount of weight you need it to and that won’t deform during use. Butcher’s block surfaces have been great to me, though there are a few sections of my bench that have some serious dents from hammer blows or heavy parts.

Height

It might be tempting to plan your workbench around the height of a kitchen countertop (36 inches is standard), but be careful: Most kitchen tasks are less precise than most DIY projects, and food prep and cooking don’t require leverage or a large range of movement, like garage work often does. A lower work surface height is more tolerable in a kitchen, the arrangement of which needs to be somewhat standardized. Your workspace has no such constraints. Set your bench at a comfortable height for you and the work you do. That might even mean two benches at two different heights: parts cleaning is best done at a lower bench, while carburetor rebuilding is best done at a higher one, so that it’s easier to see.

Heft

workbench to organize parts
Kyle Smith

A flimsy bench makes work difficult in a number of ways. If you’ve got a component plopped on top of your workbench and every time you move it or shift something for access, the whole bench moves, you won’t feel confident in the work you’re doing.

Again, be careful: You can have too much of a good thing. Nice and sturdy does not require using 6×6-inch steel tubing for legs and 1/2-inch plate for the top. There’s a place for a bench like that in a welding shop, but in most home shops, it would be more annoying than helpful.

A Solid Vise

vise on workbench
A sturdy vise is mandatory for any workbench.Kyle Smith

The third hand we always seem to need, a vise is a necessity for any shop for many reasons. It can be a anvil, a press, or an anchor that can help projects big and small in a multitude of ways. Don’t believe me? Try and work without one for a while.

Like the other characteristics listed here, consider your specific needs and choose accordingly. Do we all need Wilton Bullets? No, but most people would be better served with one than with an import vise whose jaws don’t line up evenly and have a ton of slop. If you’re on a budget, consider buying an old vise to restore. It’s a fun project, and we can honestly say that cast metals aren’t what they once used to be.

Sturdiness

Austin Healey 1275 on workbench
Kyle Smith

When wrenching on something, it’s nice to have a workbench that doesn’t move an inch to the left when trying to loosen something and an inch to the right when tightening something. Especially if you are not planning to bolt the bench to a wall or other structure in your garage, consider using an under-bench shelf for storage: It will add a nice, low weight and improve stability.

Bonus: Wheels

workbench on castors
These are stem-type castors that make for easy installation.Kyle Smith

I’ve said it before and will say it again: The ability to bring your tools and workspace to your project is a superpower. Buy a good set of double-locking casters, put them on your bench, and suddendly it is a tool that goes places with you. The other side of the shop? Easy. The driveway? No problem. Putting multiple benches together to create super bench? Also an option! Use this power wisely.

No matter what, having a workbench is better than not having one. If you are looking to maximize your workspace and haven’t assessed whether your workbench is working for or against you, now is the time.

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A To-Do List Saved My Corvair Love Affair https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/a-to-do-list-saved-my-corvair-love-affair/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/a-to-do-list-saved-my-corvair-love-affair/#comments Wed, 28 Feb 2024 19:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=376651

In the middle of one of those “just stand and stare at things” garage sessions that happen sometimes, the realization set in that my Corvair has been in my garage for nearly seven years. To much of the readership here that may seem like “just getting acquainted” time, but due to several factors, in the past I tended to buy, enjoy, and then send down the road after a year or two most of my vehicles. Not for profit (HA!), but rather just to try or experience something different. Surprisingly, that approach has had interesting consequences.

This comes up because I am still slightly emotionally scarred from allowing that Corvair to sit in the garage for over two years in an un-drivable state. Only after a friend harassed me about how long it had been parked did it come into focus that I had mentally moved on from Corvair projects. It wasn’t something I was even thinking about, let alone prioritizing during my time in the garage. Once prodded, however, the job was done in a couple days’ time, but there was something about the experience that made me make a mental note as to how I could keep it from happening again. This last week, proof arrived that I had succeeded; the planned winter project for the Corvair is almost done just as the snow is melting off. [Annnnd, the snow is back.—Ed.]

Chevrolet Corvair engine installation
Kyle Smith

So what changed? Mainly the process used to track projects. Previously, I’d severely underestimated the power of writing things down. It’s great not only for the literal keeping track of things, but for the ability to see and document progress at times when none is visible. Using the latest Corvair project as an example:

Day 1: Pulled the engine and transmission. Big change, easily seen.

Days 2–71: Parts scattered across the floor and workbench, occasionally the dining room table. A plethora of small changes and fits-and-starts progress that are all nearly invisible. Notes kept throughout remind me that while they may feel invisible, they are not.

Day 72: Engine and transmission were reinstalled in the car. Big change easily seen.

The flywheel replacement, the handful of gaskets and seals, along with a lot of cleaning and refinishing in between required a stick-to-it attitude that some might naturally have within themselves. The more times I tread this path the more I find it is lacking in me. My desire to work on large projects like this burns hot and fast. Sometimes that’s great as it means I can get a lot done in a fairly short amount of time. Other times it means things grind to a halt long before the project is done. So this time I put a focus on that. Not on the project itself, but on the part of my brain that easily tunes out. I had become that guy at the party who won’t let a song play all the way through before picking something else. Man, is he annoying.

Chevrolet Corvair transmission and differential being washed
A good deep scrubbing for the transmission and differential.Kyle Smith

So this time there was more documentation. More photos, more notes, and less discussion of the project. The idea was to actually do the tasks rather than talk about them. I’ve noticed that sometimes in the past talking about what I planned to do enough times would trip my brain into thinking I had already done the job. Then, when actually getting down to work, it felt as if I was walking well-trod ground instead of breaking the trail I should have expected. It’s always easier to talk about cleaning hardware and getting things assembled perfectly than it is to do those things.

Without a physical checklist in front of me tracking progress in poorly scrawled permanent ink on greasy cardboard, my brain was practicing creative accounting and crossing things off before I did them. Do this long enough and the brain declares the project complete, followed by short-circuiting after the eyes transmit the message that the car we are driving in our mind’s eye is actually a pile of parts in need of more time, money, and frustration. Everything is easy in your head; otherwise, I wouldn’t have already restored the 1964 Corvair Spyder that I saw on Marketplace this morning.

Keeping a list always seemed like a harsh reality check, like it was adding to life’s stress by sitting atop the thing that is supposed to bring joy—a reminder of all the things you haven’t done yet. That’s the wrong perspective. It is instead a way to remove the stress, not add to it. I can choose to only think about my project when I want to, without fear that I’ll forget where I was. Should the desire to chase something else arise, the list will be there, waiting for my return with a clear “You are here” on the adventure map that is a project car. You just have to make sure you return. Over the past few months, I have been. And it’s been better than ever.

To-do lists are things that nearly everyone tells rookies to utilize. Myself included. But before this winter, they just never seemed to work for me. Projects never progressed slowly enough to need them. Now, what started as a curious fling with a Corvair coupe has blossomed, seven years on, into a lasting relationship. If a car is going to be around for a while, it’s worth keeping better track of things. It’s sad it took me this long to figure that out. Luckily, now the fun begins.

1965 Chevrolet Corvair engine reinstalled
Kyle Smith

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3 Ways Engines Can Make Big Power https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/3-ways-engines-can-make-big-power/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/3-ways-engines-can-make-big-power/#comments Tue, 27 Feb 2024 20:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=376257

At one point in history, thermal efficiency was just a kernel of thought brewing in a would-be engineer’s brain. This led to seeking power in the easiest possible way: Making engines with massive displacement. It made sense then, but times have changed and now there are other ways to make engines that produce usable and reliable power, without requiring 800 pounds of cast iron and pistons the size of coffee cans.

2019 5.3L V-8 DFM VVT DI (L84) for Chevrolet Silverado
GM

The hardest part of this conversation is that there will always be dyed-in-the-wool people who declare there is “no replacement for displacement.” We’ll get to why that may or may not be true, but first let’s talk about why this sentiment exists: The displacement of an engine is essentially the measurement of how much air volume the engine can pump through itself. The easiest way to calculate this is to plug into a formula the engine’s measurements: Bore squared x .7854 x stroke x number of cylinders = cubic inch displacement. Example: A Chevrolet small-block that measures 4″ bore by 3.48″ stroke by 8 cylinders equals 349.8 cubic inches. Most every manufacturer does a little rounding for the sake of cleanliness.

As compression and combustion of the air/fuel mixture is what makes power, the volume of air determines the power potential. More air in means more fuel, which is what holds the potential energy that is converted to kinetic energy when the fuel is burned under compression. There are other factors in the formula though, including rpm and boost, as pointed out by Engineering Explained on YouTube:

While driving, Jason Fenske does the math to calculate the air volume pumped through a hypothetical naturally aspirated engine. This becomes the baseline, and by doubling the rpm ceiling he is able to downsize the engine by half and have the same potential power. Same goes for boost, as adding one additional atmosphere of pressure—14.7 pounds per square inch—allowed the engine size to shrink without needing massive rpm.

This proves there are, in fact, replacements for displacement, but before you leap to the comments section to drag those knuckles across the keyboard in defensive of stone-age technology, let me just agree with you. You’re right. A big, unstressed, slow-churning engine is likely the most durable and easiest-to-produce option. All of these other methods for making power come with trade-offs that are worth discussing. High-rpm and low-displacement often requires a significant amount of additional precision to make the engine live. Same goes for boosted applications.

1965-Chevrolet-Corvair-Corsa air
A 164-cubic-inch, four-carb, 140-hp naturally aspirated Chevrolet Corvair flat-six.Kyle Smith

Is any option always better than another? If only life were that easy. The reality is that there are better engine formulas for different applications. Otherwise, we would all be driving around 28.5-liter four-cylinders. Sounds fun for a bit, but that’s overkill for the average person’s commute.

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Tired of Speed Parades and Gimmicky Races? Check out Supercross https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/tired-of-speed-parades-and-gimmicky-races-check-out-supercross/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/tired-of-speed-parades-and-gimmicky-races-check-out-supercross/#comments Tue, 27 Feb 2024 17:00:00 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=372338

Downtown Detroit in February is a crisp cold. The parking deck across from Ford Field is empty and quiet. A small line of people has formed outside the main entrance to the stadium. I sneak past the lines and use my press credentials to pass through a chain link fence, then a metal detector, operated by a surprisingly chipper security guard.

The silence is broken by the powerful thump of a 450cc four-stroke engine as it zips down the alley inside the stadium. The rider wears a puffy coat over his riding gear and a mechanic is hanging on the back, his feet dangling off to the sides. As they turn down the ramp that leads to the floor of the field, the rider thumbs the kill switch in observance of the “dead engines only” sign. It’s silent again, though the smell of race gas lingers. 

Supercross has arrived in Detroit.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

A string of mild winters in Michigan has produced a relative drought of motorsports events. Since it isn’t cold or wet enough for ice racing or snowmobiling, those seeking a horsepower high are left either to travel or to enjoy their favorite sports through a screen. Which is why I’ve come four hours south from Traverse City to appreciate the Detroit round of AMA Supercross.

Supercross has been a highlight of the motorcycle race season for decades, with a big rise in popularity in the 1990s and again in recent history. With a schedule of 28 events for the 2024 season, this race series functions unlike any other. Tons of local dirt is trucked in and these tracks pop up nearly overnight in sports stadiums and concert venues, often the biggest in town: When Taylor Swift came through Detroit in 2023, she played at Ford Field. Motorcycles from nine manufacturers—many fielded by teams with factory support— are at the starting gate every event, and the commentator booth is occupied by James Stewart and Ricky Carmichael, some of the greatest to ever compete in the sport. (Imagine if Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart announced the Coke 400.) All the races are streamed live on NBC’s Peacock app with race recaps and highlights arriving on the NBC Sports YouTube channel for free in the days that follow.

This marks my second year making the journey south to join and if there was one thing I learned last year, it was that I showed up far too late in the day and felt as though I missed part of the action despite being there for the heat races and main events. This year I showed up early—at 8 a.m., before the doors opened to the public—and poked around to see just how relaxed it might be without the laser show, fireballs, and big-screen replays.

Kyle Smith

At the end of the tunnel stands a cadre of mechanics with spotless Hondas and Kawasakis leaning on their hips. They look downright bored. T-handle wrenches clink softly as they hang on the backpacks and tool pouches, and the dull chatter of the riders is the only noise, until a rider walks by, each step a squeak—new boots. The riders jump and dance, attempting to stay warm and break the 32-degree air. They begin to look around. None has a watch, but their sense of timing is impeccable. Practice was supposed to begin at 8:00 a.m.; it’s now 8:06.

In the eyes of several racers, Detroit is “the first real main event” of 2024. It was round 10 last year, and by then, multiple parts of the championship were starting to settle down. This year, the traveling octane festival made the Motor City its fifth stop. The races thus far have been tales of survival due to open-roof stadiums and inclement weather, muddy, sloppy situations that produced four different winners. In a 28-race championship, there’s plenty of time for a clear winner to emerge, but, five races in, that fact is not stopping anyone from enjoying the way it is all up for grabs right now.

Kyle Smith Feld Motor Sports, Inc.

The practice rounds click off like clockwork, despite starting a little late. The stands are near-empty as the riders from the two classes, 250cc and 450cc, cycle through 15-minute time slots designed to allow them some time to learn the track. A bit of extra high-viz gear stands out on the sidelines. While a normal team might have a single mechanic per rider standing beside the track during practice, one bike is surrounded by a huddle of people. A few hold clipboards. All have looks of focus on their faces. Emblazoned in yellow on the back of their black jackets is one word that represents who they were and what they want to do tonight: Triumph.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

The focus on the team’s faces makes sense. Today is the debut of Triumph’s all-new TF 250-X motocross bike and the first time it has turned laps on anything other than a practice course. Riders Evan Ferry and Jalek Swoll are attempting to overcome the highly competitive field and also the teething problems that come with any new machine—all at once. As the practice rounds wear down, team Triumph appears to have potential … but potential is not what wins races.

The 65,000 fold-down seats that rise from the track level are starting to fill up: The heat races are set to begin at 2:30 p.m. The dull roar of tens of thousands of enthusiasts chatting amongst themselves in the seats, plus the growl of heavy machinery re-shaping and repairing the track surface, define a new normal for the noise level, one that is quickly eclipsed as the PA system fires up and the commentary begins.

Triumph TF 250-X roost at Detroit supercross
Feld Motor Sports, Inc.

The crescendo builds as the lights go down and a deep voice announces the feature class 450 riders just before the big show of heat races and of the main events. The lights, flamethrowers, and big screens all dance as the riders make quick circles of the floor while waving to the 52,000 fans that now fill the stadium. The week prior, the stadium had broadcast the Lions’ game that ended Detroit’s Superbowl bid; today, a crowd goes wild as Haiden Deegan, one of the 250 class favorites, circles the floor with a Jared Goff jersey over his riding gear. Every rider on the starting gate has on a riding jersey, and a good portion of those in the stands do, too. Everyone stands for the national anthem before watching as the first waves of riders line up behind the tubular gate that holds riders on the start line. The revs rise on all the bikes, ready to launch into turn one, and the night reaches its peak.

Feld Motor Sports, Inc. Feld Motor Sports, Inc.

Thousands of hours of testing and computer simulations cannot guarantee a race win. The surface of the track changes lap by lap, and racers must place in the top nine of a heat race—or in the top four of the last chance race—to make it to the big show at the end of the night. Both Triumph riders find themselves in the same heat race. Luck doesn’t go in the direction of rookie Evan Ferry; he takes the long way into the main event by competing in the drama-filled last-chance qualifier.

Supercross Detroit from field level
Feld Motor Sports, Inc.

As the main events get underway, the whole venue fills with energy. Standing at track level, you feel the tension that underscores the Herculean nature of the feats these riders are about to perform. The largest jumps can send riders flying nearly 70 feet, a height that puts them even with spectators halfway up the stadium seating. The racing is tight and at times chaotic: Lap times under one minute mean the leading riders deal with lapped traffic early in the race, along with the changing track conditions.

Two riders lock handlebars going into turn one of the 250 class’s main event, sending bikes and riders tumbling to the dirt. One of those is Evan Ferry and his Triumph TF 250-X. Fellow Triumph rider Jalek Swoll fought his way to sixth place overall; not the high note Triumph wanted to sound. But other, more established brands fail to get a bike and rider into the top ten, too. With the sixth-place finish, Triumph has proven it can be a contender. Hopefully, with the data provided from this first race, the team will arrive at the round in Arlington, Texas, even more capable and better sorted.

Only after the last bike rides up the tunnel, the commentators sign off, and the crowds herd out onto Brush Street does the stadium feel still and quiet again. Well, almost quiet. The team building the whole show is already using heavy machinery to move signs and equipment, preparing to load the tractor trailers that will roll the whole spectacle off to the next venue.

Supercross Detroit triumph TF 250-X in pits team
Feld Motor Sports, Inc.

Supercross has been very carefully walking the fine line between entertainment and sport. After starting to watch a little more seriously in the last few years, I can see how a casual observer may easily define it as one or the other. Those who take the time to pay attention during the quiet parts of the show can easily pick up on more, though. In a world where many motorsports are turning into speed parades or races full of gimmicks, Supercross is something special.

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11 Rites of Passage for Every DIY Mechanic https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/11-rites-of-passage-every-diy-mechanic-must-experience/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/11-rites-of-passage-every-diy-mechanic-must-experience/#comments Thu, 22 Feb 2024 22:00:34 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=375231

Read all the books you want. Watch all the TV shows and YouTube mechanic videos that have ever been filmed. Sit and have a conversation with everyone who has turned a wrench. You still won’t be a mechanic, because practice and experience cannot be taught.

When younger enthusiasts recount certain adventures (or misadventures) to those with a few more years in the hobby, the seasoned folks will nod along. A mechanic’s rites of passage often need no explaining; by definition, these experiences have become universally accepted as ones that you must encounter and conquer to become proficient.

Which of these 11 rites of passage have you experienced, and which do you think changed you the most?

Rite of Passage #1: Roadside repair with makeshift parts

Tiger on roadside
Kyle Smith

Whether on the road or in the shop, there comes a time when what you have is all you’ve got, and what you have just needs to work. Gaskets cut out of beer packaging, throttle cables made of shoestrings, or bailing wire on a part or piece that should be properly connected, but isn’t … If you understand a system well enough to engineer a functional fix on the fly, you truly understand how that system works.

Rite of Passage #2: Busted knuckles

You know the bolt is about to break free, so you give it a little extra oomph—and slam your hand into something. Usually, that something is heavy, rusty, or sharp … possibly, all three. Keep a record of your last tetanus shot handy, and know that we’ve all been there. Pulling towards yourself is often safer, except when it comes to cutting tools or other sharp implements.

Rite of Passage #3: Trapped tools

Wrench on Corvair transmission bolt
Tight spaces require creative thinking. Kyle Smith

The order of operations during disassembly and assembly is important—but you’ve got to pay attention to your tools, too. We’ve all been in situations when the excitement of a bolt coming loose makes us forget the limited space we’re working with, and suddenly our wrench is trapped between a bolt and a hard place.

Rite of Passage #4: Broken hardware

broken 1/8" endmill in honda case
… vibration worked its way in. Kyle Smith

When a bolt chooses to Marie Antoinette itself, or threads stretch past the plasticity point and become unusable, progress can get tough. The fact of the matter is that rookies are more likely to break hardware, but there is a bit of a bell curve: As you tackle more and more projects, the quality of your work often rises; and then, as you gain confidence to handle the problems you now expect to encounter, the quality of your work tends to dip. Learning new methods for dealing with broken and stuck hardware is a never-ending quest for any wrench, green or seasoned.

Rite of Passage #5: Buying the shop manual

shop manuals on shelf
Kyle Smith

Just about everyone went through a phase when they felt as though they knew everything. Most advance out of such a state to understand that, even with everything they know, the shop manual knows more. Learning just how important and helpful a shop manual can be is often a freeing experience: Buying one is the first step to being self-sufficient because it allows you to solve problems without calling in experts or endlessly searching the web.

Rite of Passage #6: Disappearing parts

Goldwing carbs on workbench
Kyle Smith

How else are you going to learn to organize your shop if you never experience the mildly panicked search for something you sat down right there? Everyone who ever gave you advice about doing DIY work probably told you to bag and tag parts and hardware, but most of us had to learn the benefits of organization the hard way to truly understand them.

Rite of Passage #7: Endless parts search

Workbench desk
A computer has its place in the shop, but using it properly is key to success. Kyle Smith

You saw that cool hunk of metal on the side of the road and just had to have it. Now you got it home and are excited to get to work and … Wait, there are no parts available for this? Sometimes the coolest models are the ones with the most problems and buying one that needs everything without realizing none of the parts exists is the gearhead’s version of falling in love with a crazy person: You often can’t give them what they need, and if you try, you’re going to be doing a lot of work (and probably spending a lot of money).

Rite of Passage #8: First rebuilt engine start-up

The thrum of a well-tuned engine is magnificent, but the stutter and cough of one chugging to life for the first time is even more enthralling. Was everything assembled correctly? Was anything forgotten? How is the combination of parts you chose going to work together? It all becomes clear with the first touch of the key. Weathering that storm of nerves is an experience unlike any other.

Rite of Passage #9: Ruined clothes

It was supposed to be a quick, clean job. Now that pair of jeans that used to be nice is stained with oil. (The situation is even worse if you’ve just ruined a pair of pants that your significant other specifically told you not to wear in the garage.) Typically when doing DIY work you dress to protect, not to impress. Hubris may protest, calling that an obvious truth, but the drawer of “work clothes” indicates we occasionally need a reminder.

Rite of Passage #10: Inclement weather moving in

Corvair Greenbrier in snow
Kyle Smith

Having a garage is a luxury that some of us take for granted. Most of us started by working on whatever we had wherever we could: Laying on our backs in gravel driveways, sitting cross-legged on the dirt of the back yard, or even leaning over core supports on the side of the street. If the sun was shining when you started work, your lack of protection from the elements becomes obvious as the clouds gather and the wind picks up. Being soaking wet, cold, and/or dirty while trying to assemble or diagnose your car is not fun, but we all must experience this misery to truly appreciate mild weather and good shelter.

Rite of Passage #11: Fixing what is not broken

intake off small block chevrolet
Kyle Smith

The excitement to work on a project is sometimes so great that it must be satiated—even when there is work that needs to be done. I personally recall my father giving me the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” speech while in my early teens; I had just made a mess of the garage floor taking apart something that had worked when I started and, more than likely, would never work correctly again. Poor thing.

Do you have to go through all of these to be a decent mechanic? Of course not, but many of us have experienced most, if not all, of these and more. Think we missed a rite of passage that changed you? Let us know about it in the comments below.

 

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Embrace This Ex-Steve Perry Harley with Open Arms https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/faithfully-embrace-this-ex-steve-perry-harley-with-open-arms/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/faithfully-embrace-this-ex-steve-perry-harley-with-open-arms/#comments Mon, 19 Feb 2024 21:00:03 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=374686

Ask anyone who has spent time on two wheels and they will tell you that riding a motorcycle is something special. Just sitting and staring at a bike can get most riders oh, about halfway there. This 1987 Harley Davidson FXSTC might have never cruised south Detroit, but we bet those folks would’ve embraced it with open arms.

Okay, maybe that’s enough references to give away that this mild custom comes from storied ownership. The original owner was Steve Perry, who bought the bike in 1987 following his departure from Journey after fronting the band through a decade of hits and success. The band might have made the singer famous, but the motorcycle is what kept him sane, according to an interview with 60 Minutes.

The mileage on this bike—it shows just 557 miles currently—might mean that the wind-in-the-hair experience was not as appealing as Perry initially thought it might be. Some of those were added by the second owner as well, who is the current seller. With that kind of mileage, we think the real draw of this Harley is the low mileage and fantastic condition rather than its ties to a celebrity.

Wob/Bring a Trailer Wob/Bring a Trailer

The FXSTC is also known as a Softail Custom thanks to the tidy swingarm and shock that hide under the gearbox. It allows a bad-to-the-bone hardtail look without needing a kidney belt to enjoy riding. Shifting of the five gears is controlled by a set of forward-mounted foot controls that make for a stretched-out riding experience that appears to combine nicely with the raked forks and taller handlebars. The laid-back stance of the bike looks primed to eat up miles. This was right at the end of Harley Davidson’s rise to the motorcycle juggernaut of the 1980s, with dealers struggling to keep inventory and long wait lists for new models.

Wob/Bring a Trailer Wob/Bring a Trailer

The powerplant is an 82 cubic-inch V-twin from Harley’s Evolution line that features popular accessories like the slash-cut exhaust pipes and a Screamin’ Eagle air cleaner. Cycle World mentioned in its first ride of the bike that the air cleaner wants to occupy the same space as the rider’s right leg, which is only one of the reasons it might not have racked up a lot of miles to date. While having suspension on both ends may make this chopper sound luxurious, the engine is solid-mounted to the frame, meaning the overall riding experience can still be quite brash.

It was never meant to be a performance machine, but this is one wheel that we think should keep on turning. As of this writing, the leading bid on Bring a Trailer is currently $5900, which is $100 shy of our #3 (Good) condition value for this bike. Perhaps after all these years, it’s time that you be good to yourself and acquire a new chariot.

1987_harley-davidson_softail-custom_rear 3/4
Wob/Bring a Trailer

 

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5 Under-the-Radar Motorsports Events You Should Attend https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/5-under-the-radar-motorsports-events-you-should-attend/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/5-under-the-radar-motorsports-events-you-should-attend/#comments Fri, 16 Feb 2024 21:00:35 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=373928

As fool’s spring winds down and second winter descends on some of us, we keenly anticipate driving season, which, we just have to trust, is right around the corner. When the roads finally do clear up and the weather is right, do you know where you are headed this year? Nothing wrong with a humble road trip but this is the time to think ahead and make plans to do or see something cool in 2024.

It’s also the time of year when many motorsports venues announce their schedules, so now is the perfect time to pick something and start making a plan for how to make it happen. That’s why we rounded up five under-the-radar motorsports events that are worth your consideration. As a bonus, most of these events do not require the top-tier budget of more popular events, like F1 Grands Prix or Goodwood or Le Mans.

SCCA Runoffs

College Budget SCCA Runoffs-JLO14292
Courtesy Austin Bradshaw/SCCA/Jeff Loewe

SCCA Runoffs comprise a full week of racing that includes competitors of all various skills and budgets. Want to cheer for an underdog? Easy to find one. Want to see the bleeding edge of engineering a car to fit within the rulebook? You’ll find that too, along with just about any other racing trope or technique you can think of. SCCA Runoffs is the peak for many hobby racers and a jumping-off point for aspiring pros. It makes for great racing with a great atmosphere, and this year’s event will be held at Road America in Wisconsin. What more could you want?

Vintage weekend at Road America

There are multiple big vintage events in America throughout the year, but there is something about the charm of Road America in July that just can’t be beat. The track has remained relatively unchanged since 1955 so sitting on the hill above turn five and watching the drivers brake deep into downhill braking zone into the tight left could be the closest thing to time-travel you can easily experience. Add in the ability to walk the paddock and enjoy the sights, sounds, and smells of vintage iron as it warms up and cools down between track sessions, and you have a great weekend. Plus, there are great cheese curds.

25 at Thunderhill

Endurance races have a certain mystique to them. The heavy hitters of Le Mans or Daytona are obvious bucket-list events, but if you want to get closer to the action and are also on the wrong coast for the Florida races, the 25 Hours of Thunderhill at Thunderhill Raceway Park just outside Willows, California, might be the perfect adventure. You have a little bit of extra time to plan as the organizers have elected to suspend the 2024 event and instead put more effort into the 2025 race. Mark your calendars for November 2025 and dress for any weather. It can get cold, and that makes the racing that much more interesting.

Barber Vintage Festival

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

If you like motorcycles, block off the first weekend in October. Held at the manicured facility of Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama, the Barber Vintage Festival has multiple racing disciplines running at once, along with a large swap meet and plenty of other wonderful attractions. The vintage motorcycle racing is run by the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association and from a spot in the shade overlooking turn two you can watch everything from hand-shift Harley Davidsons of the 1940s all the way to brand-new Euro supermotos dice it up. A pavement oval race takes place up on the test track portion of the grounds, and off-road trials and cross-country races take place in the woods just off of one of the camping lots. A little bit of everything—and that’s before you go through the facility’s world-class museum or join one of the seminars.

24 Hours of Lemons

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

When racers and teams are encouraged to lean into the absurdity of racing, a weekend at the track gets wild. Sure, there are teams working to go as fast as possible for as long as possible, but the vocal majority of Lemons racers are there to conquer the challenge of making some less-than-ideal race car finish the race.

The attitude of a Lemons race is unlike that of so many other motorsports events. People are working to solve automotive problems that should basically never exist. There was no reason to put a diesel turbocharger on a Mopar slant-six, for example, but there is no shortage of people excited to not only see such a thing exist but to make it work and work well. Lemons racing is a different kind of fun. Before you pass judgement, check it out for yourself.

 

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Can You Diagnose this Struggling Pro-Stock Chevy Small-Block? https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/can-you-diagnose-this-struggling-pro-stock-chevy-small-block/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/can-you-diagnose-this-struggling-pro-stock-chevy-small-block/#comments Thu, 15 Feb 2024 15:00:12 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=373685

Whodunits are fun. About a quarter of the top-ranking global podcasts are true-crime-themed. Working to understand every twist and turn to solve the mystery gives people a rush. That’s the feeling gearheads chase when something isn’t working and they want to track down the cause. The engines under our hoods are comprised of myriad parts and systems that, when all operating as designed, create a harmonious symphony of power, heat, and exhaust. When something is wrong, it can be a frustrating experience learning just how much more intricate an engine can be than simple “does it have fuel, air, and spark?”

The latest diagnostics tale I’ve been following is that of high-performance engine builder Steve Morris and the small-block Chevrolet V-8 that got bolted up to his dynamometer. The engine is in its second life now; it first served as an NHRA Pro Stock Truck powerplant when the NHRA had such a class nearly 30 years ago. It wears heavily modified Chevrolet casting, which is unique compared with many high-horsepower applications these days that utilize aftermarket and improved castings or, simply, blank-slate billet engine blocks and cylinder heads.

Steve Morris Engines Steve Morris Engines

That NHRA class, full of Chevrolet S10- and Ford Ranger-bodied vehicles, is long faded from it’s short-lived popularity. But that didn’t mean this engine was relegated to a shelf or scrap metal pile. Instead, it now lives inside a mini-mod pulling tractor that is designed to move a weighted sled as far and as fast as possible on dirt. It’s a very different use case for the engine, and that created problems. As we learn in Morris’ YouTube video, the first issue was recently solved, but another popped up and it’s a stumper. On the bright side, it’s an interesting reason to learn something.

The initial problem: The engine would destroy the thrust bearing on the crankshaft after only a few runs down the dirt track. Turns out, the amount of clutch usage and pressure plate force over the duration of a tractor pull run is significantly different compared with the rapid-fire hits of shifting down a drag strip. The solution was a roller-style thrust bearing, and to be sure the fix was going to work, Morris hung the engine on the dyno to give it final checks.

After the first loaded pull, the engine exhibited a slightly higher idle than before. After the second pull, the idle reset again to another couple hundred rpm higher. Even after the team dialed in the idle air screws and reset the idle on the carbs, the engine continued to high-idle after a dyno pull. It even coughed a bit of smoke on startup after sitting between pulls. No vacuum leaks could be found.

Later in the video, Morris seems to have some ideas as to the cause of the high idle, but he doesn’t let on much. Can we at-home players suss out the problem?

My personal theory is that the problem is related to ignition timing. The short clip of a dyno pull at the start of the video shows that this engine is using the front-mounted distributor for arcing the plugs. While it’s extremely unlikely to be running a points plate, there could be some form of mechanical advance inside that is hanging up as the engine slows down after a dyno pull. Or the pick-up and sensor are moving due to vibration thus causing a slight timing change.

I am also totally aware that my theories could be 100 percent wrong. Is the fact that Morris has the valve cover off in the video a tell or a well-placed red herring?

Morris closes the video with a promise that he will post a video within a couple of days, revealing the answer. These kinds of diagnostic discussions are just plain fun for some gearheads. If you have a solid guess, leave a comment below. I promise not to edit the story when you prove how wrong I am!

 

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Purging My Spare Parts Made Me Love My Garage Again https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/purging-my-spare-parts-made-me-love-my-garage-again/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/purging-my-spare-parts-made-me-love-my-garage-again/#comments Wed, 14 Feb 2024 18:00:45 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=372913

At 32 by 24 feet, my garage is not huge, but it is certainly big enough to work on fun toys and stash away projects. The line between workshop and storage facility can be a tough one to walk, and lately the hoarding portion of my brain has been winning the battle between making progress on projects and accumulating stuff.

After successfully balancing storage and workspace for three years, I found myself at a breaking point. I went out to the garage on a Saturday morning, hot coffee in hand, ready to work on something. I was greeted by the reality that, no matter what project I wanted to work on, I needed to rearrange some pile of stuff in order to get started on it. All three work surfaces—48 square feet of space—were covered.

Honda XR600R engine parts pile
This is supposed to be a no-parking zone! Kyle Smith

Having to shuffle junk to get work done was such a buzzkill that I did little more than pick up something, fiddle with it for a minute, and go back inside the house. The proverbial parking lot was full, the fire lane was occupied, and somehow there was even stuff parked on top. There was no more space to store things, which meant there was no more space to work on things.

This situation demanded that I purge all of my spare motorcycle parts. The stacks of metal and plastic had no real organization. Each bin was labeled “parts.” Just about every Honda XR that has crossed the threshold into this space has been partially, if not fully, disassembled. Some got put back together. For a long time any XR bit that I deemed “usable” I put on a shelf. After three years in this shop, it was time to re-evaluate my definition of what should be saved.

Everything that I had so carefully stacked on a shelf I pulled out and laid on the floor, where each part was inspected, wiped down, and finally sorted before going back onto the shelf—or into the discard pile. The sad reality of the task was learning just how much straight-up junk I was keeping. Why did I need three sets of bent-up foot pegs? Or two frayed clutch cables? Multiple sets of bent handlebars?

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

My system of storing parts was all wrong. A parts stash should not be a repository of anything that can be useful; it needs to be full of things that are worth storing. With great care I had assembled the perfect place to work on projects and then used it to store scrap metal.

It was a game of keeping the best and culling the rest. I have a few rare pieces and a few valuable ones, and even a couple that are both. I am oddly chuffed about my collection of cylinder heads, so I stored those carefully under the workbench. While most of the bent-up footpeg pile went into the scrap bin for recycling, I kept the best pair because I expect to do a restoration one day and I’m gambling that OEM pegs might be hard to find by then. (Only need one pair, though.) Anything I knew to be OEM-correct and of restoration quality I retained. Dozens of cables became a few good spares that could be used for test fitment or to allow a project to limp along until a new cable arrived in the mail—they are only $8 and still in mass production. The used countershaft sprockets felt so good to expunge that I can’t believe I ever held onto them at all.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

Now that I’ve confronted my excess junk, all my projects will progress. The feeling is sublime: A clean workspace primed and ready to take advantage of any spare time I can find. Without the need to clean a spot before being productive, 30 minutes of work is actually 30 minutes of work, not 15 minutes of shuffling and 15 minutes of work. All that time adds up, but if you had told me I could find more time to work on projects by taking out the trash, I’d have called you crazy. Now I know it was me that was crazy. What was my plan for those worn-out rear sprockets, anyway?

 

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Polaris Slingshot vs. Morgan Super 3: Fewer Wheels, More Fun https://www.hagerty.com/media/great-reads/polaris-slingshot-vs-morgan-super-3-fewer-wheels-more-fun/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/great-reads/polaris-slingshot-vs-morgan-super-3-fewer-wheels-more-fun/#comments Wed, 14 Feb 2024 17:00:48 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=364875

As I mingled with the crowd at a Wednesday night bike gathering in Venice, California, my helmet hung uncomfortably in my right hand. At any moment, one of the interesting people I was talking to would ask what I rode in on, at which point I would have to explain the vehicle I had parked a block away, which was probably earning a ticket for an expired meter. Inevitably, someone asked, and I answered: Polaris Slingshot.

“Wait, what is that? The vintage-looking things?”

Someone else: “No, that’s the Morgan 3 Wheeler or the Vanderhall.”

A bystander, from a few feet away: “It’s those three-wheeled things all the tourists rent and drive annoyingly in traffic.”

The original question-asker: “Oh yeah! Those things are weird.”

I couldn’t argue. I was a tourist, renting a Slingshot, and it was kind of weird.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

Nature tends to favor even numbers. We humans are no exception, from the television volume to the wheels on our vehicles. Four wheels? That’s a car or truck—we love those. Two wheels? Motorcycle, cool. Eighteen wheels? Roll on, Snowman.

But three wheels? That’s literally an odd one. Since five- and seven-wheeled vehicles just haven’t taken off, trikes take up the flag for automotive oddities. Is the peculiar wheel count a detriment to those vehicles? Rather than sit and philosophize, Aaron Robinson and I took to the streets in and around Los Angeles to spend three days with two of the most polarizing vehicles on the road today: The Morgan Super 3 and the Polaris Slingshot.

Morgan Polaris Sandstone Peak group fronts three quarter
Brandan Gillogly

The Morgan Super 3 has a longer history and more charm. This 2023 model traces its lineage back over a century to 1909 when Henry Fredrick Stanley Morgan first put a vehicle of his own design into production. The design was born from thrift. After learning that cyclecars were not taxed the same as motorcycles, his plan to construct a bike utilizing the 7-hp Peugeot twin-cylinder morphed into a plan to build a trike, with two wheels up front and a backbone frame to support the single rear wheel.

It was weird. The V-twin was mounted up front with a slim, lightweight body behind it. Decorated English fighter pilot Albert Ball once remarked that driving his Morgan was the closest he could get to flying without leaving the ground. Morgan’s 3 Wheeler has gone through a handful of iterations, including one built from 2012 to 2020 that featured an S&S air-cooled V-twin out front to fit the tradition.

The latest version of the Morgan is the Super 3, and it changes the form a bit by tucking a Ford-sourced, 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine behind a small, semi-circle grille and under the low and sleek hood that establishes the very aeronautical shape of the body. A Mazda-sourced five-speed manual transmits the engine power to the rear wheel using a bevel gear and belt drive. The whole shape would be even more fuselage-like if it weren’t for the sideboards attached to each side behind the front wheels that are designed to hold luggage. Even your spare socks get the open-air experience.

Brandan Gillogly Brandan Gillogly

That aircraft theme is carried to the interior where two simple gauges sit front and center with a few weatherproof switches for the accessories underneath. A small digital gauge pod sits atop the steering column. It can be used for GPS navigation with the help of Beeline, an aftermarket motorcycle-oriented navigation system. The diamond-stitch interior panels are thinly padded, which makes getting into the driver’s seat a little easier by offering steadier footing climbing in. Sliding down into the driving position requires limber joints, especially because the steering wheel will bend if used as a grabbing point. Once you are in place, it becomes clear there is not much to do besides drive. You don’t get to a 1400-pound curb weight by filling a car with trinkets and farkles. Instead, flip the switch cover between the gauge pods and press the start button twice to wake the 118-horsepower three-cylinder. Shift to first, and away you go.

Brandan Gillogly Brandan Gillogly

It shakes a little at idle. The steering wheel is small and inputs all feel quick no matter how many times I tell myself “slow hands” while diving through corners in the Malibu canyons. Within the narrow body shape, the pedal box is cramped. There is no room for a dead pedal, leaving me to try and brace myself against the floor and the sideboard, which drives my left knee into the metal eyelets that create a kitschy bungee-cord storage system. Maybe I just need a pair of driving gloves to wedge in there. It would fit the aesthetic, but a seemingly better solution is for the car to gain an inch at nearly every measurable point. Interior, exterior, and suspension travel all would benefit from a little more space or travel.

Since the Morgan is registered as a motorcycle, helmet laws do apply depending on your jurisdiction, and while behind the wheel we often prefer the additional insulation a helmet provides. The small windshield bumps the current of air up (but not completely overtop) the occupants, and the wind buffeting we experience is just like what we feel in a motorcycle. The H-pattern five-speed hails from the NC-generation (2005–2015) Mazda Miata and makes freeway entry or just motoring about engaging and fun. Expect attention everywhere you go, but understand that attention meets you from a thinly padded, narrow, and non-adjustable seat that gives a perfect angle to inspect the inner fenders of a stock full-sized truck.

The Morgan has a certain simplistic charm that is hard to find in a modern car. There is nothing going on inside the Super 3 that keeps a driver or passenger from paying more attention to what is going on outside the sheetmetal bathtub; this is a vehicle that allows you to focus more on the experience of the drive rather than the destination. That said, handling is best described as quirky: I spent many of my weekends last year racing motorcycles and have enough track time in a car to know the Morgan was encouraging me to back off, rather than to push quicker and drive it more aggressively. Most drivers will be wise to slow down and take in the scenery.

Brandan Gillogly Brandan Gillogly

If both the Morgan and the Polaris are attempting to prove that 4 < 3 > 2, Morgan is a gray-haired math professor who still scrawls his proof on chalkboards and, after a century of trying, uses roughly the same method. The Polaris Slingshot is the newcomer, the rough guy from Southie who wrote on the chalkboard one night when he was supposed to be cleaning.

Polaris and Morgan driving front three quarter oceanside
The Polaris Slingshot is not beholden to history or legacy. Brandan Gillogly

While Morgan is a small British company with aeronautical roots dedicated to keeping old-world craft alive, Polaris is a relatively young U.S. company that got its start with snowmobiles in the 1950s. It later expanded into the side-by-side market, and also the boat and motorcycle market, by acquiring and reviving brands on the brink of collapse. The Slingshot has been sold since 2015 and has experienced plenty of changes over those years. The largest is the switch from a Chevrolet-sourced Ecotec inline-four to an in-house, Polaris-sourced Prostar 2.0-liter inline-four. This engine is part of what makes the Slingshot charming. It pulls strong from low rpm and continues to sweep smoothly up the tachometer to a 10,000-rpm redline. Said engine is mated to the same Miata transmission as you’d find in the Morgan.

Brandan Gillogly Brandan Gillogly

The Slingshot looks at things differently and adds new variables. The angular front end is busy, but that is the nature of the beast when hanging double-wishbone front suspension out in the air. The 205-series 17-inch front tires look massive when parked next to the Morgan’s 195/65R-15 all-seasons. In all but one of the five color schemes available from Polaris, the tubular chassis becomes a visual highlight along with the door bars and roll hoops, which are painted in contrasting colors: red, orange, purple, and lime green. The accent color extends to the single-sided swingarm that hangs proudly off the back and houses the belt that transfers power to the meaty, 18-inch rear wheel.

Polaris Slingshop panning solo canyon corner
Brandan Gillogly

Though the Polaris has far more grip than the Morgan, that larger rear tire still struggles to plant the 203 horsepower. Leaving one tire track after a burnout was the subject of many a joke during our test, but the Slingshot is no laughing matter. Compared with the Morgan, it is relatively luxurious: There is power steering hidden under the clamshell, which was welcome when swapping from one to the other. The “interior” has simple vinyl bucket seats with good bolstering that feature both heating and cooling for the back and bottom. It’s clear that Polaris has powersports experience because the fit and finish is nice despite everything needing to be some form of plastic to handle the exposure that comes when you ditch a roof. Close your eyes while sitting in the driver’s seat of the Slingshot, and it all feels like a car. Open your eyes, though, and the sounds and smells of the world come through stronger than ever. Even with a helmet on the eau de perfum of the 405 cannot be ignored. The lack of insulation is a trade-off: Once out of traffic, the sounds and smells of the wild canyons permeate your senses and create an escape. The front wheels are out in the wind and so are you.

While similar in concept, the Slingshot and the Super 3 produce very different responses for me. I drove the borderline-gaudy Polaris for hundreds of miles during the week I was out West, but always with a slight tinge of happiness that I was wearing a helmet. I didn’t really want to be seen in it, despite enjoying the driving experience. The Morgan was the polar opposite. An extra trip around the parking lot to look for a “better” spot? No big deal—the Morgan turns heads without the stigma. The Super 3 is a novelty designed to be interesting and succeeds at doing so. The Slingshot is a novelty that also functions well and suffers for its relative practicality: It’s seen on the road far more often, and passersby have opinions hardened by factors that have less to do with the Slingshot and more to do with the people who typically drive it.

Brandan Gillogly Brandan Gillogly

 

The history of three-wheel vehicles has pretty much always been centered around either functionality or experience. The first self-propelled vehicle had three wheels, in fact, not four: Around 1770, Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot grafted a steam boiler powering a single wheel onto a simple cart that would be defined in modern terms as a powered trailer. Even with those low expectations, it failed to perform tasks better than un-powered four-wheel or two-wheel carts.

Morgan Polaris rears three quarter overlook
The Polaris does a good job bringing functionality into the picture while the Morgan leans into the absurdity of the three-wheel format. Brandan Gillogly

Over 250 years later, trikes are not solutions to transportation problems; they are lifestyle choices. As extensions of their owner’s personalities, they are no different from antique iron. Could you live every day with the Morgan or the Polaris as your sole vehicle? Sure, if you’re okay with carrying a helmet with you everywhere, but let’s not pretend daily use was ever part of the design brief for these machines. They are novelties, and the only problem they solve is forcing a driver to be more aware of what’s on the road.

Only after driving these trikes can I say that not everything strange is bad. As a person who buys vehicles for the experience they can provide, I would consider either of these if a spot in my garage opened up. You might have experienced everything on two or four wheels, but the Morgan and the Polaris are different. They are like motorcycles, but somehow not consolation prizes compared with riding two wheels. They provide the openness of a motorcycle but are so much less busy to drive. Each is unique; it flies in the face of convention and is coveted or shunned for doing so.

Proving whether two, three, or four is the correct number of wheels for a vehicle will only drive you mad. Why be mad when you could drive either of these three-wheelers with a grin on your face? The only axiom that matters is driving = fun.

Specs: 2023 Polaris Slingshot R

Price: $33,999 ($34,299 in California)/$33,999 (Base/as tested)
Powertrain: 2-liter inline four-cylinder, five-speed manual transmission
Horsepower:203 hp @ 8250 rpm
Torque: 144 lb-ft @ 6500 rpm
Layout: rear-wheel-drive, no-door, two-passenger roadster
0–60 mph: 5.3 seconds

Specs: Morgan Super 3

Price: $53,937.98/$79,028 (Base/as tested)
Powertrain: 1.5-liter three-cylinder, five-speed manual transmission
Horsepower: 118 hp @ 6500 rpm
Torque: 110 lb-ft @ 4500 rpm
Layout: rear-wheel-drive, no-door, two-passenger roadster
0–60 mph: 7 seconds

 

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6 Tools We Hate to Reach For https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/6-tools-we-hate-to-reach-for/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/6-tools-we-hate-to-reach-for/#comments Thu, 08 Feb 2024 17:00:50 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=372032

Most of us treasure the time we spend working on projects. The mental flow state that comes with forcing our minds to mellow out and focus on solely the task at hand can be therapeutic—in the right situation. Every bright light casts a shadow, and every garage holds some tools we hope never to use.

These are the devices that mean our time in the garage is not going well. The steel canaries in the horsepower mine. Projects go sideways just as many times as they go flawlessly, and many of us have various gadgets that serve no purpose until all else has failed.

Here are a few tools that we love to have but hate to reach for.

Tool #1: Tap set

tap set
Kyle Smith

More often than not, forming—or re-forming—threads in a part or piece follows the destruction of those spiraling channels. You’ve probably broken a piece of hardware—or, worst of all, an easy-out. Toss in the fact that taps are very hard, and thus brittle, and you have a very volatile evening of work ahead of you.

When used properly and carefully, a tap set can be a reset button on the life of a part. Even drilling up one size and tapping so that a fastener can have appropriate holding power may be better than replacing the fastener. Sometimes it’s all about perspective.

Tool #2: Spring compressors

OMT spring compressor
Orion Motor Tech

The sudden release of potential energy describes a lot of scenarios: The explosion of a firecracker, the expansion of an airbag, and the release of a compressed spring. Each of those can have serious long-term health effects if it happens too close to your person. There are two groups of people who work on automotive suspension: those who are uncomfortable, and those who ignore the forces at play.

Springs and suspension still need to be serviced, though. Carefully inspect and service spring compressors before using them to ensure there is no damage or problems that might pop up. Sometimes just that bit of added confidence is enough to soften the fear factor.

Tool #3: Camshaft locker

DP Tool camshaft locking tool
DP Tool

It’s not that this tool is so bad; it’s that the consequences of human error when using it are high enough to make us uneasy. Variable camshaft timing has unlocked horsepower that comes with minimal compromises in fuel economy and also drivability. Unfortunately, the technology also makes for more complicated service; replacing a timing chain or belt often requires careful alignment of multiple points while also holding tensioners and gears in proper orientation. The job can be fairly painless, but that doesn’t mean it’s fun.

Tool #4: Air hammer

117K_Air Hammer Ingersol Rand
Ingersoll Rand

Percussive force breaks the bonds of rust, and it hammers eardrums just as thoroughly. The compromise can often be easily overcome with a good set of earplugs or over-the-ear muffs, but using an air hammer still isn’t a pleasurable experience. Compared to using the torch, and the chance of lighting everything on fire, it is the lesser of two evils. We don’t love you, air hammer, but, after all these years, we haven’t let you leave the toolbox.

Tool #5: Impact driver

Impact driver out of case
Kyle Smith

Stripped hardware is the bane of any DIYer’s existence. Even with the proper tools and experience to handle stripped screws and bolts, we don’t want to spend the limited time we have in the garage dealing with them. The combination of driving and turning force delivered by an impact screwdriver can take quickly solve the problem of a partially stripped screw. It can also result in hitting your wrist with a hammer, or create an even bigger problem by snapping a bolt off where you can’t grab it. Often, our opinion of an impact screwdriver is based on how well it worked the last time we used it.

Tool #6: The Big Hammer

Hammers on garage floor
Kyle Smith

You know the one. The handle is slightly stained, and the face features a few chips from that one time you got a little carried away on that ball joint. You probably started addressing the problem at hand with a couple of smaller hammers and, when you realized that things were not going your way, and that you were tired of talking nice, opened the drawer to grab The Big Hammer.

This list is all a matter of opinion and personal experience, so we may have missed one or two here. If you’ve got a tool you avoid reaching for but might not be able to put a finger on why, leave a comment. Consider it an unofficial survey.

 

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This Rolls-Royce Phantom Has Been in Show Biz for 90 Years https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/this-rolls-royce-phantom-has-been-in-show-biz-for-90-years/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/this-rolls-royce-phantom-has-been-in-show-biz-for-90-years/#comments Tue, 06 Feb 2024 16:00:54 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=371575

Some cars just possess a certain form that has presence. It’s a tough quality to explain with words, so we were quite happy that, of all the cars Jay Leno gets to take for a spin this week, he chooses a Rolls-Royce Phantom. The model embodies automotive presence, and this vintage has all the right touches that make it timeless. Like the masked character with which it shares a name, this Phantom has played a part in pop-culture history and has remained popular for decades.

The early 1930s were not a great time to be peddling ultra-high-end cars. Multiple manufacturers charted a course upmarket when the stock market sank. This meant that the top of the market was crowded with cars aimed at the relatively few buyers who had pockets deep enough to consider purchasing a car that cost as much as a dozen average-priced homes. One brand that had no trouble finding customers was Rolls-Royce. This Phantom is a prime example of the cars that the old Hollywood elite were buying in the Depression years and even paying to rent and use in films—to the tune of $250 per day. In the 1930s.

Nethercutt 1930 Rolls Royce Phantom II rear3/4
Jay Leno's Garage

The body of this particular Phantom was built by Brewster in a town-car configuration. In this arrangement, the driver sits up front behind a windshield and side glass more befitting of a speedboat than a car, while the passengers enjoy the luxury of a fully enclosed cabin. Compared to modern luxury cars, the small vanity mirrors and clock are comical, but this car was majestic enough to attract the attention of the highest-paid actress of the 1930s, Constance Bennett. She bought the car in 1936 and was regularly driven around town in it until, as the rumor goes, her husband lost the car in a poker game in 1949.

Nethercutt 1930 Rolls Royce Phantom II door caning detail
A close-up of the detail on the doors. This is all hand-laid paint. It took months to complete. Jay Leno's Garage

And what a thing to lose. The Phantom might only have 120 horsepower from its 468-cubic-inch inline-six, but the power is delivered smoothly and linearly—exactly what you’d want for a car that weighs in at over 7000 pounds. That’s more than three current-generation Mazda Miatas. Did we mention it doesn’t even have room for luggage? Out on the road, Leno points out that the weight of the Rolls is apparent as soon as you begin to turn a corner.

We can’t decide if it’s the camera angle or if the car really is at 5/4ths scale: Both Jay and the vice president from the Nethercutt Collection, who owns the car, look as though they are attempting to drive a living room. A really nice living room.

The car was restored in the 1980s by J.B. Nethercutt and debuted at the 1992 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance where it was awarded best in show. It’s a car with a level of history that exempts it from typical road usage and spends most of its time in hiding. The fact that Jay takes it for a spin out on the highway, therefore, is something truly special and cool. We wish could have seen it in person, but we’ll settle for the video this time.

 

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5 Fantastic First Project Cars https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-fantastic-first-project-cars/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-fantastic-first-project-cars/#comments Thu, 01 Feb 2024 21:00:19 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=369724

When it comes to a project car, it’s best to dive into one that truly lights a flame inside you. A project car is almost always mentally, physically, and financially draining at some point in your relationship with it. If you don’t care to stick it out through such hurdles, frustration might block you from ever returning to the project again.

So, where to begin? The list of needy cars for sale from the world’s garages, carports, driveways, and open fields can seem overwhelming. It can be easy to dream big. Of course, hell-on-wheels traps exist; certain cars are difficult to source parts for, offer minimal community and owner support, or are just plain prone to breaking.

Some cars, on the flip side, offer a stronger foundation for novices. Today we’ll be donning the role of Car Matchmaker. Whether you’re new to the hobby or a veteran, smoother-sailing and joy-to-own DIY classics are out there— here are five vehicles we think might be right for you:

Little British Cars

Healey on dirt road
Kyle Smith

A cheap British sports car can offer plenty of, uh, opportunities to bond with the mechanically inclined owner. The nice thing is that there were tens of millions of Austin-Healeys, Triumphs, and MGs produced during the 1960s and ’70s that share much in terms of maintenance parts and techniques. The cars are relatively affordable, and thus, so are the parts. The biggest boon: support and knowledge provided by other enthusiasts. British car clubs are often large and helpful—perfect for a newbie to the genre.

Volkswagen Beetle

1972 VW Beetle
Andy Wakeman

The Beetle dethroned the Model T for the outright model sales record, eventually going on to account for over 21 million sales. There is safety in numbers, which often correlates with good parts support and pricing. The aftermarket support for Bugs is downright impressive, even compared with other mainstream vintage cars like Mustangs or Chevelles. Beetle owners will get familiar with regular maintenance like oil changes and valve adjustments, but the fundamental build and design are sturdy; if you do the job right the first time, you likely won’t have to do it again unexpectedly.

Ford Model A or T

Model A on jackstands
Kyle Smith

You want to learn the basics? Then buy one of the most basic cars you can drive. Just stare at a Model T for more than a few minutes, and you’ll notice that none of the critical parts are hiding. Everything is pretty out in the open. Best of all, components were overbuilt by a factor or two in most areas. Model Ts—and As, for that matter—don’t require many power tools, which means they’re accessible and enjoyable to work on whether you’re a tool rookie or an experienced wrench. Fun to learn on and fun to drive? That’s a good project car.

Trucks of the 1970s and ’80

Ford F250 project truck
Kyle Smith

As simple as the aforementioned Fords are, their age comes with real-world usage limitations. If a utility is an aspect you value in a finished project car, vintage pickups from the 1970s and ’80s are a great place to look. These are rugged, tough hunks of metal that enjoy fairly high tolerance for deferred maintenance. If you are willing to buck up and take on the challenge of catching up on all the stuff the last owner neglected, the juice can be worth the squeeze. Fruits of your labor will include functional overdrive transmissions, disc brakes, and decent power, all baked into solid packages with relatively simple powertrains and chassis. Being trucks, they also have beds for work—or pleasure hauling. For those without a utility-focused daily driver, that’s a nice bonus when trying to justify how a collector car fits into your lifestyle.

Anything you don’t expect to daily drive

Chevrolet Corvair on jackstands
Kyle Smith

In reality, just about anything that makes you look forward to dirty hands and busted knuckles is the right project car. Expectations, however, are important; old, semi-working cars tend to behave like old, semi-working cars—they can break down and sit out of commission for extended periods. Take it from me: Spending Sunday evening underneath your car is a lot more relaxing when you don’t need the thing to get to work the next morning.

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The whole project car process, even if it requires a long timeline, can be as rewarding as the end result. The thrill of parts finding is sometimes more thrilling than installing or even using said parts; whether buying something that requires lots of networking and parts hunting might be perfect for you, as long as you go down that road with both eyes open. Tougher endeavors in that vein hone project-car skills, but the learning curve is often steep and time-consuming. Patience is essential, so if you want more immediate gratification, relative oddball stuff like Wankel-powered NSUs or Nash Metropolitans may not be the ideal place to get your feet wet.

Find a car you think you’ll love, and the learning, fixing, and driving it all become part of the adventure. Get some experiencce under your belt and before you know it, you’ll have more than one project in the pipeline—don’t say we didn’t warn you!

 

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How To Make Self-Tightening Bolts https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/how-to-make-self-tightening-bolts/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/how-to-make-self-tightening-bolts/#comments Wed, 31 Jan 2024 20:30:27 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=370041

MS-Self-Tightening-Bolts-Top DIY Advice
Kyle Smith

The Corvair has been precariously perched atop jack stands in my garage for a month or two—I’ve lost track, to be honest. The engine and transaxle sit divorced on the floor, angled away from one another, conveying a slight contempt for each other that shouldn’t be possible for inanimate objects.

After weeks of trying to “find the time” to make the next big step in getting the car back together, I finally carved out just enough time to make some progress. Luckily for me and my tight schedule, I knew how to make some self-tightening bolts.

Chevrolet Corvair on jackstands
It’s nearly 60 years old, so a slightly invasive procedure from the rear is unfortunately expected. Kyle Smith

The rift in the relationship between engine and transmission was my doing, of course. My investigation of an oil leak revealed that the crankshaft seal, which I expected to have failed, was innocent; the real culprit was a damaged gasket between the bell housing and engine block, which was found guilty for its part in leaving oil stains all over town for five years. This unplanned crankcase vent was allowing oil mist to blow out and coat the underside of the car with enough anti-rust I could probably have driven it last winter. The leak became an un-ignorable problem last fall, and this winter was the perfect time to deal with it.

Over the past few months, however, other combustion-based projects entering and leaving my garage have made progress slow—slow enough that suddenly a planned spring road trip was starting to look shaky. It took a good hour to for me get back in the “working on a car” groove. It sounds dumb to say, but there is a radical difference in touch and technique between working on the motorcycles and the cars. The literal weight of everything. More systems. More finicky bits. More patience.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

About the time I was hitting my stride, I turned my attention to the powerpack that was resting on the bright red steel cradle that bolts to my aluminum floor jack. To split the differential and engine requires removing seven bolts, two of which hold on the starter motor. Those starter bolts are the only ones you can easily access, though. The five other 9/16”–headed bolts go in from the bellhousing side, tucked in nicely cast aluminum ribs for strength. The arrangement totally makes sense, just like the countless other times assembly time won out over service time. The insufferably slow process of threading a bolt in 10-degree rotations is something that just gnaws at me—I needed some self-tightening bolts.

The process is simple, really. I’ve been working at learning machining on the lathe and wanted to test my single-point thread cutting technique, so I started with a super secret alloy sourced from an old tool and die guy in North Carolina …

Yeah, not really. Self-tightening bolts don’t exist. You knew that. But we don’t have to settle through these infuriating little catch-22 situations created by someone else. Back when this engine was last out, I cut slots in the tips of the bolts. The holes that receive them are drilled and threaded clear through the cast-iron housing of the differential. With a nice narrow screwdriver, I can reach down the center bore of each hole and turn the screwdriver counterclockwise to thread the bolt in snugly. A couple touches with a wrench, and it’s time to move on. Even describing the process on video took less than a minute. Cut those slots once, and a job like this is easier, should you ever come back.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

screwdriver to tighten bolt on Corvair transmission wide
Kyle Smith

Rarely is anything about project cars or motorcycles easy. There are no self-tightening bolts, just like there is no shortage of time-saving tips that create scenic trips rather than shortcuts. We have to do the work in some way, shape, or form. The result of doing the work is what gives us the otherwise-mythical powers to make things easier for ourselves. We learn these tips and tricks over months, years, and decades spent thinking about the materials and processes that we use and abuse during our love affair with an inanimate object. Because I learned and implemented that little trick of slotting the end of five bolts, this sizable job is not so bad—enjoyable, even. At the very least, it’s more fun than watching the car assemble itself.

 

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Tour the Unassuming Shop that Keeps the Cars of Goodwood Fast https://www.hagerty.com/media/video/tour-the-unassuming-shop-that-keeps-the-cars-of-goodwood-fast/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/video/tour-the-unassuming-shop-that-keeps-the-cars-of-goodwood-fast/#comments Mon, 29 Jan 2024 18:00:52 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=368644

So far as I know, time machines do not exist. The closest humans come is when they race vintage cars: specifically, at the Goodwood Motor Circuit in Chichester, UK. The track facilities have been unchanged for decades, and, at its famous Revival event in the fall or its exclusive Members’ Meeting in the spring, the cars look plucked out of black-and-white photos. As their drivers hustle them around the nine turns of the 2.4-mile track, you can see a century’s worth of vehicles pass by the grandstands in a single weekend.

It’s a lot to take in when the cars are passing by at speed, and it is somehow even more fascinating to see the cars all parked. Well, at least when almost all of them seem to be parked under one roof—one very cool roof owned by a very cool person: Gary Pearson. He’s the second-generation owner of Pearson Engineering LTD in Newcastle upon Tyne, better known as the shop that keeps Goodwood going fast.

The story of how it all started is pretty humble. John Pearson, the founder of Pearson Engineering, was a quick driver and a good wrench, which meant other drivers naturally started asking for his help preparing their race cars. That was the early 1960s. John specialized in Jaguars but would take on other makes too and, after 20 years in business, the second Pearson stepped in. Gary was just 21 years old and fresh out of school with an engineering degree and has been at the shop ever since.

The grouping of unassuming buildings sitting in the countryside holds a workshop worthy of the stars. Well, the star cars at least. From a Group C Jaguar to Shelby Cobras, there is just about anything you can imagine. That array of machines requires a team of mechanics unlike any other. Gary points out that a lot of his employees are technicians who retired from Formula 1, so there is certainly no lack of experience or understanding. If a person can make sense of a modern F1 car, a D-Type Jaguar certainly won’t be so bad.

Gary Pearson standing in open shop
Goodwood Road and Racing

Since the 2024 vintage-racing season is about to kick off, the cars sitting in the Pearson shop are especially drool-worthy, but what really caught our attention were the storage shelves. Gary strolls through some of the storage area and grabs parts off a shelf, casually recalling when, where, and why the team at Pearson Engineering undertook a mission to reproduce it. Under a few vintage wood steering wheels hung neatly from another shelf sits a box containing all the gears of a Porsche 917. The machines that could be assembled from the spares in storage would be humbling.

Gary Pearson in shop parts stash
Goodwood Road and Racing

There are so many amazing shops tucked around the world that keep vintage racers going fast, and most are staffed by humble gearheads like Gary, who just care about the history that these vintage cars carry and the fun that they bring with them everywhere. It’s still a few months until the Goodwood Members’ Meeting in April, but when the green flag drops, we will be cheering and looking for the cars we saw in the background of this shop tour. It ought to be a fun game of “I Spy” that everyone will win.

 

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6 Tips to Take Your “For Sale” Ad from Good to Great https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/6-tips-to-take-your-for-sale-ad-from-good-to-great/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/6-tips-to-take-your-for-sale-ad-from-good-to-great/#comments Fri, 26 Jan 2024 14:00:08 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=366771

If there is one universal experience in the car world, it is the process of buying or selling a car. Buyers and sellers can get burned regardless of income bracket, so we thought we’d share some quick guidelines that would set sellers up for success, whether the machine they’re selling is something they don’t need or something that would simply be best used by someone else.

If you write an informative, well-presented ad, you’ll usually be rewarded with knowledgeable buyers. A great ad is not so much a sales pitch as a launchpad for the buyer’s daydreams. It allows a buyer to picture themselves owning the thing you are selling, to feel confident that what they are picturing is what they are buying, and to plan the process of getting it.

Tip #1: Decent photos

1965 Corvair Corsa 140
Kyle Smith

This one goes without saying for most of us, but it really is important to give current, accurate photos of the car you want to sell. The character count in most listings limits what we can describe, so lean on the old saying about one picture and a thousand words.

Taking the time to capture well-lit, descriptive, and clear photos proves that you care about what you are selling, and buyers will approach you as such. Artsy photos can be fun in an ad, but they aren’t really needed. Heavily retouched photos can even make a buyer suspect that problems are hiding somewhere behind the filter. Present the photos that you would want to see if you were shopping for what you are selling. Otherwise, you may provoke suspicion: This photographer should open a lemonade stand, if they’re this good at dressing up a lemon! 

Tip #2: Location

google maps screenshot of location
Google Maps

The internet allows both buyer and seller to cast a wider net than ever before. Buyers are increasingly willing to drive and pick things up, and an area code or region is not enough to satisfy them. Of course, your street address is not something to post on the internet, either, so stick to a well-defined and easily findable city or town as a point of reference. This gives people the ability to accurately estimate the distance to you and also allows the algorithm of the marketplace app—whichever one you’re using—to show your listing to people who are looking for vehicles in that area.

Tip #3: Asking price

Screenshot of fake Craigslist listing
Kyle Smith

In my experience, there are few things more fragile than the ego of a seller who doesn’t list an asking price. Maybe I am just overly sensitive and don’t want to insult sellers, but striking up a conversation with a seller only to realize we aren’t even close on price is annoying—usually, for both parties.

My favorite line is “I’m sorry, but I think we are too far apart for me to make an offer without insulting you. Best of luck with the sale and appreciate your time.” No seller wants to read that. So list a price. Yes, it hurts to get a lot of interest at your listing price just to realize you could have gotten more money had you asked, but sorting through lowball offers in the hopes that one person throws out one that’s crazy high can get infuriating.

Tip #4: What it needs to leave

Austin Healey on trailer
Kyle Smith

This sounds strange at first, but as a person who has been casually shopping for a lathe or mill over the last year or so, it always surprises me that many sellers do not mention whether they can help a potential buyer load or move large tools. I’m a lot more inclined to pay your asking price if you also will help get something on my trailer—or, at the very least, if you will give me a heads up of what I should expect when doing so myself. Some project cars sometimes need a set of roller wheels and tires to even get on a trailer.

I can already read the counterarguments—”It’s not my job to do your research”—but, if you’re the seller, sharing this information is free. It also makes you seem more approachable—even if you say you are not helping at all—and limits the number of times someone will show up unprepared or, worse, reach out with questions and then disappear from the conversation.

Tip #5: Contact information

GMC Pickup For Sale rear
Flickr/Thomas Hawk

A friend of mine recently found a motorcycle for sale: good condition, decent price, located nearby. He gathered his cash and sent the seller a message. Then he waited. And waited. He resorted to internet sleuthing to find the person’s other social media profiles and sent them more messages about the bike on different channels. Still no reply. Who goes through the effort of listing something for sale just to ignore buyers? (Cue the jokes: “Yes dear, I listed it, but I guess no one is buying.”)

But really, include in the listing how you prefer to be contacted. As annoying as some potential buyers may find it to eschew the cold comfort of a text message and actually pick up the phone, there is something to be said, if you’re the seller, for weeding out those serious enough to make the time to call.

Tip #6: What you’ve done to it

Screenshot of CRF50 for sale listing
Kyle Smith

Even if you don’t have receipts, be honest about what you’ve done—or haven’t done—to the vehicle in terms of work or maintenance. Such information really does help make sure that the seller knows what they are buying. Again, providing this information is free—and it can often be a factor that sells someone on buying a car or motorcycle they might not have otherwise considered. I personally have driven further and paid more for a vehicle that came from a seller who was honest about the flaws of their project. The reality is always worse than the seller says, but at least they gave me a good picture and helped me mentally set the bar. That’s worth something.

 

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Leno Drives Replica of the XJ13, Jaguar’s Le Mans Could-Have-Been https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/leno-drives-replica-of-the-xj13-jaguars-le-mans-could-have-been/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/leno-drives-replica-of-the-xj13-jaguars-le-mans-could-have-been/#comments Tue, 23 Jan 2024 18:00:01 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=367561

Jaguar XJ13 Jay Lenos Garage
Jay Leno's Garage

Endurance racing has brought us some of the prettiest and most storied cars ever. Building a car that can not only drive for 24 hours but drive fast for 24 hours is a huge feat, and that means some racers destined for the 24 Hours of Le Mans might never even make it to the starting line. Of all those cars that could have been, we think the prettiest is the 1966 Jaguar XJ13 and we’ll point to this week’s episode of Jay Leno’s Garage as exhibit number two.

If the XJ13 sounds familiar, but just you just can’t quite picture it, don’t be embarrassed. There was only one built and it never got past the track-testing phase. Jaguar got cold feet about racing, which may have been fortunate in hindsight, since, in the mid-1960s, the first Ford GT40s were hitting the starting line of the Nürburgring 1000, and you probably know what happened at Le Mans in 1966. The XJ13 was propelled by a specially developed double-overhead-camshaft V-12 engine that looks an awful lot like two XK inline-sixes mated at the hip. The driver sat in front of this powerplant and used a left-hand shifter to row the gears in a five-speed ZF transaxle.

 

Jaguar Heritage XJ13
The original, and only, XJ13 belongs to the Jaguar Heritage Trust Jaguar Heritage

Sadly, the one and only XJ13 got mothballed in a corner of the factory until 1971. It was trotted back out when the E-Type was getting a V12 powerplant and a V-12 race car suddenly made sense. During the filming of a promotional video, the XJ13 was crashed. It sat for years until it was discovered and rebuilt. It remains the only one built by Jaguar, though one dedicated enthusiast, Neville Swales, built a painstakingly accurate “tool room copy.”

Then, there is the polished XJ13 replica Leno takes for a spin this week. We won’t get all philosophical about authenticity (well, not a second time), because what is clear is the amount of work put into creating a car like this. The owner, Tyler Schilling, even brings a smaller version of the buck that was used to shape the car: a lattice of wood that allows the layout of the hand-formed, riveted panels and sets the final dimensions of the car.

The engine is a single-overhead-cam design rather than the quad bumpstick units found in Jaguar’s and in  Swales’ cars. The look on Leno’s face while shifting through the gears, however, shows that any horsepower difference is not missed. Schilling’s car is just 2300 pounds and you can tell just how svelte it is when you see both him and Leno wedged inside it. The sonorous note of the V-12 coming from something that a police scanner might call out as an extremely low-flying UFO makes for one heck of a car, with one heck of a story—all because of a car that never took the starting line at Le Mans.

 

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4 Vehicles That Highlight the Insanity of the Dakar Classic https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/4-vehicles-that-highlight-the-insanity-of-the-dakar-classic/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/4-vehicles-that-highlight-the-insanity-of-the-dakar-classic/#comments Mon, 22 Jan 2024 19:00:40 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=366908

The world of motorsport is vast. For almost any vehicle with an engine or a motor, there is someone who spends their time tweaking and tuning it to go faster, further, or higher. Of course, there will always be people who are motivated less by an overall win and more by proving they have the heart to tackle a challenge in an unconventional or otherwise less-than-ideal vehicle. Their goal could be to show that the vehicle is more capable than most think, or that they have the skills to make anything work. Regardless of their motivation, we salute those who keep the weird and wonderful driving and racing.

The latest examples we have found of people doing the right thing in a questionable way were competitors in the 2024 Dakar Rally—specifically, in the Dakar Classic, a time-speed-distance rally run parallel to the main event (won by Carlos Sainz, Sr. in an electric Audi) and open only to vehicles built before 2000 (or built new to pre-2000 specs). The two-week event wrapped its final stage last Friday, and, as we followed along the recaps and highlights, this video from Red Bull Rally caught our eye.

Matt Jones walks the pits each day and talks to various racers about their experience and their machines, some of which we didn’t recognize or expect to see at a grueling off-road race such as Dakar. Here are four vehicles that you’d never expect to see in the desert of Saudi Arabia—but that took on its challenges all the same.

Unexpected Dakar hero #1: Citroën 2CV

Citroen 2cv on Dakar 2024 rally
Red Bull Rally

With only 35 horsepower on tap from an air-cooled flat-twin, the 2CV is an odd choice for a race that involves miles of extremely soft sand, a surface that requires high wheel speeds and typically favors vehicles with high horsepower. Luckily, the car’s lightweight construction and the simple design of its air-cooled, two-cylinder engine worked in favor of Barbora Holická and Lucie Engová, the pair of Czech ladies who comprise the driver and navigator team.

Holická, the driver, points out that the suspension’s unconventional—and very French—design makes for a floaty car that looks like a duck as it bounds over the terrain—thus, the theme for the “Duckar” livery. However, in a field of dedicated race cars, this vintage oddity would have been easy to spot even without the plastic ducks or the bright pink paint.

Unexpected Dakar hero #2: Unimog Snow Plow

Unimog snow plow dakar rally 2024
Red Bull Rally

Of all the vehicles you’ll find in the desert, one designed to move frozen water sounds pretty absurd. Dakar has a lot of classes for competition, though, and Class T5.1 and T5.2 are designed to accommodate this sort of unconventional monster. Watching in-car in-truck video of the three-person crew in this ex-snow plow shows how wild Dakar can get. This Unimog is likely a T5.1 class entry, as that is skewed toward models based on production vehicles; T5.2 is for modified ones. Regardless of how much power you pack under the hood of your truck, the bed must be empty, and your speed is limited to 86 mph. That still seems quick for a vehicle the size of a New York City apartment.

Unexpected Dakar hero #3: Porsche 911

Porsche 911 Dakar rally 2024
Red Bull Rally

An air-cooled sports car out jumping the dunes? Really? Well, yeah. The safari trend of lifting a car, adding some chunky tires, and playing in the dirt is hardly new, especially for Porsche, which has been racing off-road for longer than you might realize. A father-daughter team brought a rowdy G-series 911 back to Dakar this year. Even with a veteran Dakar race car, it was no small feat for this team to navigate 9000+ miles while keeping the Porsche on top of the sand rather than in it.

Unexpected Dakar hero #4: Mercedes-Benz NG 2636

Mercedes-Benz 2636 6x6 NG at the Dakar Classic Rally 2024
Mercedes-Benz 2636 6×6 NG at the Dakar Classic Rally Daimler Truck

Six-wheel drive just sounds absurd—and then you see this monstrous blue beast, and the number of axles makes sense. A pair of six-wheel-drive trucks ran the Dakar Classic this year, which is an interesting story on its own. It gets even more impressive when you learn these trucks were originally race vehicles delivered to the Mitsubishi Dakar Team in 1986 and 1987 and were used by that team until 2009. Each truck is powered by 18.5-liter V-10 engine making 360 horsepower. They aren’t even capable of reaching the speed cap for the big trucks, but the Völkel team proved that doesn’t really matter by finishing anyway.

Racing is about more than just going fast, and these four cars and teams prove it. The experience of a unique vehicle in ordinary circumstances is fun. Add in a once-in-a-lifetime rally in that same car and, well, that’s gonna be a story told for a lot of years.

Mercedes-Benz 2636 6x6 NG at the Rally Dakar Classic 2024 Mercedes-Benz 2636 6x6 NG at the Dakar Classic Rally
Daimler Truck

 

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My Honda XR600R Project Is Going to Hell in a Handbasket https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/my-honda-xr600r-project-is-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/my-honda-xr600r-project-is-going-to-hell-in-a-handbasket/#comments Wed, 17 Jan 2024 22:00:45 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=366102

Progress on long-term projects is very nebulous. A written-out list of to-dos or a pile of parts carefully organized on the bench both indicate that a project is underway, but it is often weeks, months, or even years before progress is visible. The indicators are often so minute that, even after we do all the work to clean and carefully prepare a part, it will look nearly the same as it did before we started … and that’s before friends and loved ones stop by week after week and begin to question if we are insane. In an effort to see measurable progress toward my dream of reviving a dead Honda XR600R, I took a big step—one that, at first blush, seems like it was in the wrong direction.

I bought a basketcase engine from a thousand miles away.

Of all the absurd ways to move forward on a project, buying yet another one is an interesting decision to justify. The reason boils down to discovering exactly what it is about this hobby that is most enjoyable and exciting.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

Shopping for a core crankshaft–one that is undamaged but needs rebuilt–led me to an ad for this 3D puzzle. I did a mental tally of the parts included and weighed the ease of starting right in on cleaning and assembly versus the time required to tear down my question mark of an engine, which was likely hiding even more bad news. Suddenly, it made sense to buy a complete engine and demote my broken one to spares or a potential future hot rod project.

honda XR600r in Kyle's garage
It’s in a sad state now, but this bike is a great start to a project. Kyle Smith

It would be possible to tear down the already broken XR600R sitting on the lift, take inventory, and then source and repair the needed parts and pieces before putting it all back together. I had even done some light disassembly and inspection, estimated a rough list of parts it would need, and totaled up the cost. I had then spent a few moments daydreaming about spending modern KTM money on a 36-year-old Honda and taken a walk around the neighborhood—in the blizzard that was then hammering the Midwest—to shock myself back to reality.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

I chose the known over the unknown, and bought this basketcase full of goodies. The list of parts was very close to what I was originally planning to buy for a rebuild, anyway. The crankshaft was rebuilt how I would have had it done, and the cylinder head had received the same treatment, and a welded and reground camshaft with a conservative lift and duration increase was included as well. The previous owner had even sourced a few new transmission gears—a common swap on these bikes to get wider ratios across each of the five speeds in the gearbox. The only change I’ll likely make is swapping the 9:1 compression piston with a 10.5:1 unit: I really like how these Honda XR engines respond to the bump in compression, and the new piston will pair nicely with the camshaft to make great power off pump gas.

This exercise in project planning and budgeting is rare for me and forced me to realize what I actually enjoy most about these projects: The puzzle aspect. Buying carefully cut cardboard from Amazon or basketcases from motorcycle forums is essentially the same thing at some point: Acknowledging that you have a little too much time and want a challenge to fill it. That said, you rarely need to spend more money on a cardboard cat picture to make sure the whole thing goes together correctly.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

Rebuilt xr600r cylinder head
The cylinder head is ready to install after inspection and that makes everything move a lot faster. Kyle Smith

Buying this engine is also a vote of confidence that I can and will finish this puzzle. I’m essentially betting $1500 against myself that I will create something worth that much from the parts I unwrapped. Of course, there are multiple ways to pull that value out: Selling it all piece by piece; assembling it quick and dirty, and selling it to the first person who makes an offer; or carefully building it into the powerplant it deserves to be.

The cleaning and processing has already started, and I’m taking inventory of everything, including condition, to ensure that this will be an engine to be proud of. Basketcase engines can be nightmares, but sometimes nightmares are just dreams with a twisted perspective. A pile of parts on the bench is what makes me happy, so this basketcase carried me to cloud nine and I expect the process of finishing the job to keep me there.

 

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A Bell Service Van Called to be Rescued. Did You Answer? https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/auctions/a-bell-service-van-called-to-be-rescued-did-you-answer/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/auctions/a-bell-service-van-called-to-be-rescued-did-you-answer/#comments Wed, 17 Jan 2024 17:00:32 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=366361

Any and every vehicle has a story; some are just more interesting than others. The most fascinating car at a cars and coffee, a formal show, or even a auction preview is not guaranteed to bring the highest sale price, though. Example number one is this 1974 Ford Econoline Bell service van that sold on Bring a Trailer last week. If the sheetmetal of this van could talk, it would probably have more than 50 years’ worth of stories to tell, but the only one we know for sure is how it ended up for sale.

The listing caught my eye for two reasons: The price was still under $1000, so I figured the van had to have something interesting going on, good or bad. Second, I have always thought vans were cool. I’ve owned a couple over the years, including a 1961 Corvair Greenbrier. When reading up on the history of my flat-six-powered surf wagon, I learned of the Bell service vans that Chevrolet built. These models could often be found hiding in the wild by those who knew to look for the panel on one side and windows on the other. The two Corvair 95 van models were either Greenbrier sport vans, which had full windows, or panel vans with no windows. The combination of a panel down the driver’s side and windows on the passenger side were unique to the vans ordered by the Bell telephone company for its fleet.

1974_ford_ex-bell-system-1974-ford-econoline-e-200-display-van-project_15-14-78489-scaled
Shervin Nakhjavani/Bring a Trailer

There are a bunch of other features unique to Bell service vans, but I didn’t learn most of it until I watched the video in the listing. The paint colors are a giveaway, but those colors are often hidden under a repaint given to a van in its second life, after it had retired from the service industry. Just hints of the paint were showing when Shervin Nakhjavani saw this crusty van listed on Craigslist and decided he had to have it. He dedicated the following year and a half to carefully removing the layers of junk covering both the outside and inside.

Carefully, he scraped, sanded, and polished away all that had been layered atop the original Pacific Northwest Bell paint scheme. Like anyone who takes on such an ambitious project, Shervin was enabled by his friends and family: They let the van occupy space in their driveways and storage spaces, and in the process, the van was recorded on Google Maps.

While the process of reviving the original appearance of the van is interesting, it is actually the research and documentation of the history of these vans and how they came to look the way they did that is most compelling to me. A lot of car enthusiasts document the specific history and production story of their specific car with items like Marti reports or build sheets, but rarely do we dive further back like Shervin did.

He dug into the history of the designer who created the rebrand of the vans for Bell. Saul Bass was the designer with a golden pen brought in by Bell to revive the image of the company. Bass decided what colors would be used, how the stripes would be laid out, and more. He was behind a total revamp of the company image, a monumental task that would change Bell from drab to stylish. How many of us know the name of the person who created the color code for our favorite vintage car?

Shervin Nakhjavani/Bring a Trailer Shervin Nakhjavani/Bring a Trailer

This van still needs heaps of love and work, a need that is reflected in the final sale price of just $4000. I may not have chosen to return this van to its former glory, but I sure respect the work done to not only save an interesting piece of history but also to document that history in an interesting and well-presented manner. Shervin’s story is a prime example of never knowing where the history thread could lead when you start pulling.

1974_ford_ex-bell-system-1974-ford-econoline-e-200-display-van-project_13-16-78471-scaled
Shervin Nakhjavani/Bring a Trailer

 

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Auction Pick of the Week: 1998 Corvette Pace Car https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/hagerty-marketplace/1998-corvette-pace-car/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/hagerty-marketplace/1998-corvette-pace-car/#comments Fri, 12 Jan 2024 15:00:42 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=365646

In the world of motorsports, it’s the leaders who set the pace. Well, except when the pace car is on track. Keeping a whole field of racers from running wild and free is an important job, especially at prestigious events like the Indianapolis 500. That particular race is so prestigious that when Indy’s race stewards bequeath the honor upon a car manufacturer, it often makes a special edition of the model that paces the race that year. This 1998 Chevrolet Corvette is one such example. It also seems to have lived in a time capsule for 26 years.

The 1998 Indianapolis 500 took the green flag on April 24, and the unapologetically bold pace car stole the show. The new, fifth-generation Corvette had just been introduced for the 1997 model year, and the 1998 model performed pace-car duties, making ’98 the 11th time a Chevrolet had paced the race and the fourth time the Corvette got the call-up. Behind the wheel for the start of the race was racing legend Parnelli Jones.

Hagerty Marketplace/Charles_Miele Hagerty Marketplace/Charles_Miele

John Middlebrook, who is now retired but who served for decades as GM’s vice president for global sales, service, and marketing, says: “We told the designers we wanted something that would grab people immediately, and they didn’t disappoint us.”

The color paint is “Pace Car Purple Metallic” on the window sticker, though the shade also goes by the name Radar Blue. Combined with bright yellow wheels and a yellow-and-black two-tone interior, it is a bold color scheme. The appearance of the special edition available to the public was identical to that of the real pace car and, unlike some other models that have paced the Indy 500, the Corvette’s 345-hp LS1 V-8 required no modifications to reach the speeds required. This meant that the cars found in dealer showrooms were not only visually but also mechanically identical to the real deal.

Hagerty Marketplace/Charles_Miele Hagerty Marketplace/Charles_Miele

Pace-car editions of the C5 could be ordered with an automatic or a manual transmission. A total of 1163 pace-car-edition Corvettes were produced in 1998, and 547 of those (just under half) received the six-speed manual. One of those manual-transmission cars is currently up for auction on Hagerty Marketplace, and the more engaging gearbox is only part of the appeal.

This particular car is also sporting double-digit mileage from new, with just 70 showing on the odometer. None of the dealer prep has been done, which means that, despite those 7o miles, this car looks like it has just rolled off the delivery truck. With just two owners from new, this Corvette is now ready to find a new home. The auction is set to close on January 22 at 3 p.m.

Will the third owner want to preserve the low mileage, or give this car some exercise? We won’t judge either way: The performance-per-dollar value of the C5 Corvette is difficult to match, and the cool factor of doing your best Parnelli-Jones-at-Indy impersonation behind the wheel of this Vette is pretty high.

Hagerty Marketplace/Charles_Miele Hagerty Marketplace/Charles_Miele Hagerty Marketplace/Charles_Miele

 

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6 Toolbox Tune-up Tips https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/6-toolbox-tune-up-tips/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/6-toolbox-tune-up-tips/#comments Thu, 11 Jan 2024 21:00:40 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=364975

A great number of words have been spilt over the years regarding tools and their use. The utility of objects can be amazing at times. Yet even the greatest tool known to man is borderline useless if you can’t find it, it’s broken, or you have to spend more time digging it out from under other things than actually using it. Enter the toolbox. It’s a humble box of drawers and slides that keeps our beloved tools safe from harm or kidnapping.

It’s also typically the last thing any of us think about. The tools inside are critically important but the thing holding them is merely a cabinet to most casual viewers. It is more than that though, and out of respect for one of the hardest-working non-tool objects in the garage here are some toolbox tune-up tips.

Toolbox Tip #1: Empty out and clean every few years

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

Sometimes it makes sense to have a bunch of seemingly random stuff in your toolbox. Most of the time it doesn’t. Depending on who you are, how you work, and what you work on, it might be smart to go ahead and make the rule that the only thing that lives in your toolbox is. . . tools.

I say this because I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to finding homes for things I don’t need to be keeping. That includes stuffing any number of trinkets and doo-dads into my toolbox. All of those things inevitably get in the way when I am trying to actually work. As a hobbyist and not a professional mechanic this small amount of time doesn’t amount to much time lost, but dealing with minor inconveniences can stack up and sap some of the joy out of working on your projects.

Toolbox Tip #2: Lube the drawer slides

silicone lube for drawer slides
Kyle Smith

This only takes a minute with a can of aerosol lubricant to make sure your drawers continue to work like new for years to come. We ask drawers to carry a lot of weight and older slides can use the help to make sure they are not sticking or grinding chunks of dirt or debris into the delicate parts. Extend the slides out fully, blow them off with canned air or an air nozzle, then give them a light spray with a silicone or dry-film lubricant. Grease or oil-based lubes will likely just attract dust so be careful what you grab out of the chemical cabinet.

Toolbox Tip #3: Label the drawers

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

Most of us have kept everything in the same place for decades but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be nice to have reminders from time to time of where that thing you are looking for is. I’ve personally also found that sometimes the brain gets to thinking about something and that one-track mind forgets other tool options I might have that could do a job better. That whole out-of-sight, out-of-mind thing can cost you sometimes.

Labels also allow helpers to assist more easily—both in getting and returning tools. Who doesn’t like the thought of their helper actually assisting with cleanup? If they know where things go, it won’t be just a pile on top of the box.

Toolbox Tip #4: Add power for a charging drawer

We are getting a little luxurious here but stay with us. Battery tools are more popular than ever, and that means chargers are cluttering up our workspace. With a little planning, it is often possible to snake a short extension cord into a drawer via the side or back, which allows the charger to hide inside. Kits featuring motion-rated cables and outlets exist and can be had for reasonable money considering the space they can free up in and around your toolbox. Of course, always monitor charging batteries to lower fire risk.

Toolbox Tip #5: Keep (or make) it mobile

toolbox corned in cluttered shop
A trapped toolbox means a lot of walking. Kyle Smith

Nothing is more annoying than working on a project that only fits on the other side of your workspace from where your tools are. A rolling cart is a good option, but the ability to roll your entire toolset right to where you need it can be extremely nice. Adding wheels to a toolbox you already own might get clunky, but it is often worth it. Just be sure to use casters appropriate for the weight of a toolbox. Most toolboxes come with wheels but it is always tempting to build or stash them into a corner. Keeping the ability to move your toolbox allows for easily creating ideal working conditions or at least allowing easy reorganization and cleaning of your space.

Toolbox Tip #6: Let it evolve

organized toolbox using widget
Brandan Gillogly

It’s cool to still have the same box after decades in the garage, but don’t let nostalgia cloud your sanity. What lives where inside or even the toolbox itself is not sacred and replacing or reorganizing can greatly benefit your functionality and productivity. Switching to a larger box that allows better access to the tools you use most elevates your working experience more than most other tool investments. After all, regardless of which tool you are reaching for it is likely inside your toolbox. Before you can use any tools, you have to use your toolbox.

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A Rare Race: Pre-production Dodge Viper vs. Vector W8 https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/a-rare-race-pre-production-dodge-viper-vs-vector-w8/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/a-rare-race-pre-production-dodge-viper-vs-vector-w8/#comments Mon, 08 Jan 2024 21:00:08 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=364632

viper vs vector drag race
Petersen Automotive Museum

Quarter-mile drag racing is a universally accepted form of comparing performance cars. Even when the design brief for a car does not prioritize straight-line acceleration and speed, many gearheads look for trap speed (how fast the car is moving at the end of the quarter-mile) and elapsed time, called “ET,” when comparing two cars. After all, 60 seconds was a minute in 1993 and is still a minute today. But is one of the most famous American performance cars from that year, the Dodge Viper, still king of the hill—or does one of its contemporaries, the Vector W8, have a claim to the throne?

Of course, we could look at the published quarter-mile for these two cars, but racing on paper is lame. That may be why L.A.’s Petersen Museum brought a pre-production Dodge Viper and a Vector W8 to a nice long stretch of tarmac to see which car stands the test of time and distance.

The Viper is serial number 5, making it one of the first ever built. The heart of the car lies under the giant clamshell hood: an 8.0-liter V-10 punching out 400 horsepower. The car was not equipped with any driver assists, which means getting a decent start off the line requires a driver to have some real skill in their left leg and right arm to get the clutch slip and the gearchanges just right.

Petersen Automotive Museum Petersen Automotive Museum

Opposing the bright red Viper is a very sinister-looking ’90s wedge you may never have heard of: The Vector V8. The story of the Vector is long—raising money to build a prototype took 10 years—and also short, since the car was only produced for four years. The man behind the Vector, Jerry Wiegert, created a supercar before the term was common. A pair of turbochargers pressurize the intake of a 6.0-liter aluminum V-8. Power, according to the video, is 625 horses. While the interior is a little tight, the exterior is commanding and fighter-jet-inspired. Maybe that’s why the interior is so snug?

Driver viper race Vector W8
Petersen Automotive Museum

A race that should be close is anything but: The Viper trounces the Vector in both reaction time and acceleration. Our untrained eye thinks that maybe the Vector hasn’t been tuned up or run hard in a bit; it woke up a little during the roll race and properly held its own when the race distance was extended to a half-mile. The Viper put out a little smoke when launched, so both cars might not be the best racing-prepped examples of their respective breeds; but each is out doing what it was designed to do, and we have a hard time telling anyone not to do that. Especially if we get to watch the results.

 

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7 more old tools almost no one uses anymore https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/7-tools-almost-no-one-uses-anymore/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/7-tools-almost-no-one-uses-anymore/#comments Thu, 04 Jan 2024 14:00:50 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=362707

The evolution of the automobile has been non-stop from the moment Karl Benz first threw the flywheel ’round on his Patent Motorwagen. The technology, process, and tools needed to keep cars running have evolved from the adjustable spanners and flat head screwdrivers to complex, hyper-specific specialized tools that spend more time laying in toolbox drawers than being used. Some old tools have stood the test of time while others have faded from common use.

We are tool hoarders ourselves, and objects designed for utility that are still functional will always have a place in our box but it is interesting to look into the corners of the toolbox and see what tools are getting less and less use over the years. Whether due to an improved design usurping the use of an older tool, or the task a specialty tool was design for becoming less popular due to car construction and use changing, tools evolve as quickly—if not more—than the car itself. Here are seven examples of tools that are no longer the toolbox staples they once were—for better or worse.

Bumper jacks

Ebay bumper jack photo
eBay/littlemsj

In a world of bumper covers, the thought of attaching a lifting mechanism to the exterior of your car and using it to lift the vehicle is some type of strange fever dream. It wasn’t always that way though. Flat tires have been around longer than the automobile and the need to pick up the car followed right along. Bumper jacks are good in concept but the lack of any safety catch or stabilization to keep from tipping over makes them treacherous to use. They still have utility in off-road situations but that can also make use even more dangerous.

Verdict: Keep as a reminder of how far we’ve come.

 

Brake pliers

brake pliers image
Haumec

Somehow in the history of cars, there have been just two types of brakes commonly found behind the wheels: Drum or disc. Drum brakes can provide all the stopping power needed while also wearing like iron thanks to the enclosed and thus relatively debris-free nature of the design. That same design also has a handful of tension springs stretched carefully over small studs that can be serviced with groove-joint pliers and a screwdriver, but there are also brake pliers that rose and slipped from popularity right alongside drum brakes.

With modern materials and the relatively limited use of drum-brake cars, servicing drums has gotten less common to the point that while special tools can make the job easier it is only marginal and certainly not required.

Verdict: Keep them if you’ve got them but can likely pass if building your toolkit.

 

Growler

Growler electrical tester
eBay/ Diesel fuel test equipment

We aren’t talking about that curmudgeon of a mechanic who seems to only communicate in grunts and growls as the ratchet clicks to remove parts. No, the growler here is used to test the windings of a motor or generator. The armature is placed on a bed that flows alternating current into the windings. Using a ferrous rod to locate the magnetic field that will be created by a short makes for easy diagnostics. The price drop that came with the mass production and parts sharing between various models relegated these to hobby benches or the back room of specialist shops. Since rebuilding motors or alternators has become rare, these are practically a novelty.

Verdict: Keep if you’ve got the space, but often these find problems that are difficult to source parts to fix.

 

Vernier caliper

Vernier Caliper_detail_view
Simon A. Eugster

The increase in affordable precision has been quiet but amazing for at-home DIY projects. Good precision measuring devices used to be limited to the hands of skilled technicians and specialists in machine and fabrication shops. It took skill and training to properly use and read items like the vernier scale on calipers used in fabrication and precision machine work. Then digital calipers entered the market and the prices dropped year after year to the point that now a set of calipers accurate enough for most home use can be had for under $50.

Verdict: Use what you like and what works best for you. Regardless of what that is, be sure to keep any and all precision tools stored carefully to prevent damage.

 

Timing light

mechanic tuning a car engine timing light
Getty Images

When we first wrote about tools that were fading from popularity last year, the comments section lit up with the suggestion that timing lights were left out. It’s been decades since a car rolling off the assembly line featured a tunable distributor, as the ignition is often now controlled by a computer working off data provided by a crankshaft or camshaft position sensor (or both) to control the firing of individual coils for each spark plug and cylinder. Adjusting the timing of the spark in the cylinder is changed with a laptop rather than a wrench and strobe light. Timing lights have been relegated to specialist shops and DIY garages.

Verdict: Keep it if it works, but consider a modern digital light if building a vintage-focused toolset as the features and capability have come a long way since the strobes of old.

 

Point file

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

Another from the ignition side of things. Even before computerized ignition was the advent of electronic or non-points-based discharge. Long gone are the days of having to swap a set of points on the side of the road or scratch off the char of the small faces to allow the coil to charge. A points file was handy for if or when a condenser would fail or the points would otherwise get crummy enough to not allow enough current through.

Verdict: If one is already in your glovebox, keep it for nostalgia’s sake and just in case. You never know who it might help.

 

Brake lathe or shoe arcing machine

ebay brake lathe
eBay/Herzog Products

Drum brakes often have more swept area compared to disc brakes, but that additional friction material is useless if it is not in contact with the brake surface. The heat retention characteristics of drums can sometimes lead to warping that would previously be cleaned up by “turning” the drums to create a nice concentric surface around the shoes. While drums can still be found on modern cars the drums are often cast so thin that turning them is no longer an option and instead we must skip straight to replacement.

Shoe arcing machines do the same thing as brake lathes but set the radius of the friction material to match that of the drum. It’s critical for good brake performance on some vintage cars but has faded from popularity significantly due to the health concerns of grinding friction materials—especially asbestos.

Verdict: Save if you’ve got the space, or sell to a vintage shop if you don’t. We likely won’t see new versions of these tools made and they so help keep our cars safely going down the road. 

 

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A New Year’s resolution worth breaking https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/new-years-resolution-worth-breaking/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/new-years-resolution-worth-breaking/#comments Wed, 03 Jan 2024 22:00:13 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=363284

Just like I did twelve months ago, and virtually every week in between, I spent last Sunday night piddling about, cleaning up my home shop. It was the perfect time to both reflect and look forward. Thinking like that in late December leads neatly to a polarizing word: Resolutions.

I’m not great with resolutions. That doesn’t keep me from continuing to make them, even if the activity feels increasingly absurd. Somehow my lack of seriousness about resolutions allowed me to discover their core purpose: To force a small bit of evolution into a better version of Kyle Smith. Resolutions to “stop this” or “start that” have fallen flat year after year, and it’s finally become all too clear that subtle changes go a hell of a lot further than attempting to revolutionize or reinvent myself.

So this year will continue the trend of measurable but attainable goals that are also soft pitches. I thought last year’s were beer-league-softball stuff, quite honestly, yet when the season ended, I was batting below .200, stone sober. I swung and missed at making all my cars run. Saved myself from striking out by buying a couple of investment-grade tools. Watched a lazy one come right across the plate, then whiffed and bought a non-running project bike—which I swore I wouldn’t—at the last second.

I’m only making two resolutions for 2024. First, stop using sports metaphors. Second, break something.

Let me explain with a brief trip down memory lane. The 1965 Corvair I love so dearly has always had a few problems that I simply tolerate. One is an oil leak from the rear crankshaft seal, a leak that has been there since day one of my ownership. After a year of driving, the oil soaked the clutch so thoroughly that it flung off all its friction material and clogged the starter bendix. I took the whole powerpack out and put it back together with new seals, flywheel, clutch, and pressure plate. Three days after reinstall, I drove the Corvair 1000 miles to a car show.

The crankshaft still leaked. But it wasn’t bad enough to worry about yet, so I embraced the trope that “they always leak” and decided to enjoy the car in spite of its territorial behavior.

Corvair wrecked clutch
It doesn’t get much worse than this, as far as clutches are concerned. Kyle Smith

corvair clutch material
Scooping oil-soaked friction material out of the bellhousing. Kyle Smith

I’m currently staring at the tail end of the crankshaft of the Corvair. The leak got worse this fall, and this winter seemed as good a time as any to buy $50 in gaskets and seals and knock the job out before the leak ruined another clutch disc. Three hours into disassembly, I arrived at the last step, the bellhousing bolts. They’re loose. Did these 9/16″ coarse-thread bolts back themselves out or did I fail to tighten them in my thrash to get the car back on the road?

At some point, the reason doesn’t matter. I only sit here with greasy fingers dancing over a keyboard because I realized this might be the first time I can recall that something I did (or didn’t do) caused a machine to need repair.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

I have sought out all of the broken stuff I own, often paying to bring it home. We chronic mechanics all agree such behavior is normal, though, so I’ll set that aside. That crankshaft seal sticks in my brain because points to a lack of use.

In my garage, the restored and rebuilt seem to sit on stands more than anything, engines and machines doted over a kid picking dandelions in the outfield of the T-ball field, their helicopter mom holding triple antibiotic and bandaid on the sidelines. I’m so ready to fix things that I am doing preventative maintenance on preventative maintenance.

This year’s resolution is to put down the tools and use one of the motorcycles, cars, or other motorized objects until something breaks. My true goal is to wear something out. Could be the 520 non O-ring chain on the trailbike, or the tires on the Corvair—something that demands service due to use, not decay.

I choose vehicles for their durable nature, so the ones in my garage are not the ideal group to choose from, but if I fail to break anything while taking Corvair on a good road trip and hit the single track multiple times on the Honda XR250R, was the time really wasted?

The tools are clean and in their boxes now, the top of the workbench wiped down as if I’m closing a bar. Really, I’m cleaning enough space to lay out a map and do some thinking about where I’d like to drive this year. Suggestions welcome, especially if you offer to help out when I break something on the road. Might be my arm …

Corvair dim taillights

 

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Watch an acid bath free this Pantera from a slow, rusty death https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/watch-an-acid-bath-free-this-pantera-from-a-slow-rusty-death/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/watch-an-acid-bath-free-this-pantera-from-a-slow-rusty-death/#comments Tue, 02 Jan 2024 16:00:31 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=361083

There are few laws of project cars, but one that is undeniable and rules over every single one of us who enjoys turning wrenches is that there is always more rust than it looks like.

Always.

Rust takes away the ability to enjoy working on a car. It makes routine tasks a battle fought with penetrating oil, heat, and large-caliber impact wrenches. It’s a brutal task to cut out the cancer that is iron oxide once it gets a hold of the steel panels. Leave any rust, and it will only come back faster, spreading like that puddle of oil from the time you forget to put the drain plug back in—slowly, but maliciously.  If you are going to remove rust, you have to remove all of the rust. If you can’t cut it all out, you have to resort to a more involved process: submerging the whole chassis in an acid dip to remove every last oxidized spec.

The idea of dipping cars in large vats of solutions is nearly as old as the car itself. Assembly lines have been using this method to paint unibody chassis structures for decades. In those cases, the end goal of the process is typically additive; there’s more car coming out the other side of the dip than there was going in. Conversely, When you acid dip a car, you’re looking to remove the paints and finishes that were applied to the body during the production paint dip. These chemical baths remove everything, taking the chassis back down to bare metal.

Car bodies being dipped in car factory
Getty Images

When doing a very detailed restoration you need to get back to the point of totally clean metal. There are multitudes of ways to strip layers of paint, sealers, primers, body filler, or undercoatings that involve abrasives. Pushing abrasives via air or water comes with the side effects of introducing heat and local pressure, which can warp and damage delicate panels, leaving more work than just hand sanding using a random orbital and sandpaper. Instead, all that labor can be put to better use if you let two large containers of chemicals do the work.

The first tank in the acid dip process is an alkaline bath that works to remove the layers of paint and other surface treatments that may be found on an aging car shell. That soak typically lasts a couple of days, and it’s followed by a rinse with a pressure washer to blast off the paint and undercoating. The bath softens and lifts all the paint but takes a couple of soaks to get it ready for the main feature: the acid dip.

If the thought of a large vat of acid is slightly off-putting, know that you are not alone. The tank is filled with phosphoric acid which is not incredibly strong as far as acids are concerned. In concentrations, it can cause burns to the skin, but this is not some vat of liquid where things go to disappear. Instead, the acid is chemically altering the FeO2 of rust to neutralize it. Effectively, it suffocates and kills rust, leaving behind a neutralized surface.

before and after Detamaso Pantera acid dip
YouTube/Minute_of_Dangle

One final quick dip in the alkaline bath is required to make sure that none of the acid continues munching away at the metal from the inside out. Then a soaking with an electrophoretic paint, known as E-coating, seals all that fresh clean metal and sets a surface that can either be prepped for paint or removed with abrasives to make more extensive repairs.

By the end of the process, you know exactly what you have to work with and can be confident that no rust is hiding in the shadows, waiting to come back stronger. Instead, you have a car that can be protected with modern materials and finishes that could last decades with regular use. We like the idea of that.

 

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4 times automakers built winter vehicles that weren’t cars https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/4-times-automakers-built-winter-vehicles-that-werent-cars/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/4-times-automakers-built-winter-vehicles-that-werent-cars/#comments Thu, 28 Dec 2023 20:00:39 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=361697

Car people dream of winter wonderland conditions for a couple of reasons. Some look forward to holing up in the garage and working on their project car, drinking a warm cup of coffee while reading a great book about road trips, or maybe even planning their next drive when the salt finally washes away. If you are faithful to a brand and not the car itself though, the winter season holds plenty of interesting options that encourage you to make the most of the fluffy power while we have it. Here are four examples of car makers embracing the winter season.

BMW Bobsled

BMW BMW

Audi might have climbed the ski jump, but BMW took sliding back down the hill to a new extreme when it partnered with the U.S.A. bobsled team to crate its racing sled. While there might not be an engine, the heavy use of lightweight materials and complex aerodynamics is where the automaker’s knowledge came into play. The Bavarian-designed sleds first went dashing through the snow during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and replaced a 20-year-old platform that Team U.S.A. had previously been using. The top speed was just shy of 80mph at the bottom of the run.

Chrysler Sno-Runner

Sno Runner in front of garage door
Kyle Smith

For those who prefer a more adventurous route down the mountainside rather than a perfectly smooth one, Chrysler has you covered. Well, not technically covered, but at least an option for getting around out in the fluffy snow. The Sno-Runner was born in the late 1970s out of Chrysler’s desperation to make a profit. In 1979, this wild cross-breed between a snowmobile and a minibike was unleashed into the wild.

The narrow rear track is powered by a West Bend two-stroke engine originally produced for chainsaw use. The frame is sealed and holds fuel that is pumped into the cylinder by a type of carburetor rarely found on motor vehicles. A single ski up front makes for interesting handling and the whole operation does not do great with loose, fluffy snow but it stands as an interesting attempt at something different.

Ford’s snowblower

Ford snow removal cover
eBay/eaglestead

The Sno-Runner was Chrysler trying new things, but Ford has typically been more risk-averse and keen on partnerships. That’s why you could be forgiven if you forgot about the Ford Snowblowers. Some people love to work, or at least love to get out of their driveway in the winter months, and that can often mean clearing your own escape route. Ford was still in the tractor and implement market in the 1970s, but rather than produce everything itself, it decided to re-brand machines built by outfits known for various products. These two-stage snowblowers were produced by Gilson or Jacobson and then painted Ford Blue and branded. They can still be found in the secondhand market today if you are looking for just the right snowblower to match your vintage pickup.

Porsche snow bike

eBay/peter.kw eBay/peter.kw

Porsche was a brand born on the Austrian ski slopes as Ferry motored up and down the mountainsides in what would become the 356. The brand evolved over the years and has put the Porsche name on a good number of non-Porsche-built items, but the Avora-Porsche 212 Skibob is one we learned about recently and still has us a little perplexed. The first bicycle with skis instead of wheels was patented before 1900 but it took until the mid-1950s to have an international race of skibobs or snowbikes.

From there it only got weirder. This Porsche-branded skibob is from the 1970s. It’s constructed of molded polyfoam and folds up neatly for transport to and from the slopes. With no brakes, limited suspension, and small skis that attach to your feet to help aid in balance, it sure seems like skibob riding is only for the brave. The handling characteristics of the rear-engined 911 might be interesting, but this is another level entirely.

 

 

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Reasons, excuses, and the big, dumb bike of my dreams https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/reasons-excuses-and-the-big-dumb-bike-of-my-dreams/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/reasons-excuses-and-the-big-dumb-bike-of-my-dreams/#comments Thu, 21 Dec 2023 21:00:33 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=361391

Within the grease-under-the-nails populace is a subculture of very interesting humans: The people who can justify anything. While my New Year’s resolution to not purchase another motorcycle failed before the snow melted, it is kind of implied in the self-negotiations of such resolutions that you will try to stick to the resolution even after you slip up and load a Honda CRF50 into your van.

Things were going well. My meager parts fund was less stretched, and projects had progressed in the absence of another new (old), shiny (rusty) thing (distraction).

So when a friend sent me a Marketplace ad on Saturday afternoon of a 1988 Honda XR600R for sale—locally, and under $1000—he knew exactly what he was doing. The Baja 1000 champ? The model that competed for over a decade in both desert and hare-scramble racing, with the likes of five-time Grand National Cross Country champion Scott Summers and 11-time Baja 1000 champion Johnny Campbell holding onto its handlebars? Maybe you’ve seen that iconic photo of Summers holding his 290-pound XR600R as if it were his baby—he feels as though the bike picked him. There is just something about these machines.

scott summers honda xr600r holding motorcycle
Youtube/American Motorcycle Association

An XR600R is powered by a large, 591cc air-oil-cooled single-cylinder that is about as big, dumb, and simple as they come. Think of it as the Chevrolet 427 big-block of motorcycle engines. It has a shorter stroke than the XR650L, but some subtle changes give it more punch than its bigger siblings. There are some cool details, but in the end, the XR600R is an example of the “no replacement for displacement” solution. And it kinda works.

Honda XR600R project bike

Though I have owned and ridden a fair number of Honda singles over the years, the 600R has always eluded me. The bike into which the XR600 evolved for 2000, the XR650R, was one I was lucky enough to enjoy when they were cheap 15 years ago. The XR650L is the slightly younger and sleepier brother, and you can still find it in Honda powersports dealers today. The 600R has long been on my wish list, but opportunities just haven’t come up to buy the right bike. Or, at least, I never had a good reason.

I am a big believer in the separation of excuses and reasons. The distinction might have come from Mr. Lebo, my high school homeroom teacher, who would make us sit and wait every Friday at the final bell for him to give a small speech that always ended with: “And remember, bad things happen to good kids when they make bad decisions.” I would often show up late to class “because of” my temperamental 1964 Corvair: car troubles were low-hanging fruit, and a pretty believable excuse. One day, Mr. Lebo called me out: I had better have a reason I was late, he said, not an excuse. It hit me hard then and has stayed with me since.

Even on the drive to go pick it up, I knew this XR600R was probably a bad purchase and that I was making excuses to even go look at it. The fact was underscored when I returned home and spotted a crack on the clutch side cover. Opening the right side of the engine, I found that a gorilla with a breaker bar had assembled the timing pointer onto the crankshaft. The splines critical for timing the ignition were mangled, along with the threads meant to hold the drive gear for the oil pump in place. The first step of building an XR engine is the crankshaft. The last step of disassembly is removing the crank. To fix this problem properly, there are no shortcuts.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

The mutilated crankshaft has put a big wet blanket over the excitement of having an XR600R join my garage. Now comes the time to sit at the workbench and stare at the project, trying to find a reason to own it. Should I cut my losses and chase a better starting point, or throw good money after bad to rescue this bike? Working on any XR600R could satiate my desires. Why put myself through the annoyance of cleaning up someone else’s mess? It sure feels like god doesn’t know and the devil isn’t talking. Instead, I sit there and daydream of the artful process of kick-starting a big-bore and riding the sands of Baja.

There are concrete, justifiable reasons to not have this thing. Yet each pass through the garage requires me to pause, stand, and picture the 600R I could build. Where it could take me. What it could show me. I don’t really need a reason to keep it, but I can’t turn these dreams into goals yet, and all these excuses feel flimsier and more nebulous than ever. For now, I walk back into the house and shut the door to the garage, leaving the bike on the lift.

 

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Could Loosen Up Lager be the perfect garage beer? https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/could-loosen-up-lager-be-the-perfect-garage-beer/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/could-loosen-up-lager-be-the-perfect-garage-beer/#comments Tue, 19 Dec 2023 20:00:29 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=360818

Deep in the rustbelt, there exists a place with so much iron oxide that fighting it has become as regular an occurrence as oil changes or tire rotation. This battle has become so routine that the products and creations made to combat the flecks of red and brown began to be exported. PB Blaster is headquartered northwest of the birthplace of American steel in Cleveland and has been helping the everyman wage war on rusty hardware for years. Now one brewery is helping us celebrate victory against rust, or at least have a cold consolation prize as we put our tools away.

Collision Bend Brewing Company might sound like they are more likely to create a “paint-match pilsner” or “insurance estimate ale,” but instead it was head brewer Ben Northeim who created the Loosen Up Lager, which is now all we want in our garage fridge. “B’laster actually reached out to us back in the summer and wanted to make a beer,” said Northiem via email. “How could we say no to doing a collaboration with another Cleveland company?”

PB Blaster Collision Bend Brewing Loosen up Lager 4
Collision Bend Brewing Company

If there are characteristics of a garage beer, Loosen up Lager seems to have all of them: Easy drinking, available in a can, and reasonable alcohol by volume (5.2%). Northiem let us know that drinkers can expect tasting notes of toasted bread, caramel, toffee, and a very slight nuttiness. We can now all rejoice that the decision to make it taste like the real PB B’laster was immediately nixed. Of course, PB Blaster is not fit for human consumption, but ask anyone who has been rolling around under a car trying to get exhaust hardware off and they will tell you that they unintentionally discovered exactly what B’laster tastes like.

So we can say with confidence what this doesn’t taste like, but if you want to taste it for yourself, you better act fast. This first batch of Loosen Up Lager is only available for a limited time—very limited according to Northeim. Use Collision Bend Brewery’s website to find your six pack. If you miss out like we likely will, just know that Northiem tipped us off that another round is on the way, but the exact release is under wraps a bit longer.

 

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5 bits of race-car flair to elevate any engine bay https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-bits-of-race-car-flair-that-fit-any-engine-bay/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-bits-of-race-car-flair-that-fit-any-engine-bay/#comments Thu, 14 Dec 2023 20:00:21 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=359876

There is something about the prioritization of function over form in the engine compartments of most race cars that turns the spaces into art. Any detail-loving person can appreciate them, but especially DIY and at-home mechanics: These engine bays are often the antithesis of what we usually get to work on. Race machines are built with service in mind, and that focus removes a lot of frustration for the mechanic. (If you’ve ever broken a dozen plastic clips opening the access panel to do an oil change, you know what I mean.)

In the engine bays of race cars, function becomes attractive. With that in mind, I took a look at a few projects around my garage and found some cool bits of flair that give off just the right motorsports-inspired look.

Tidy organization

Engine compartments can be busy, with hoses and cables going this way and that for various pumps and control modules. In race cars, engine bays are laid out system-by-system, and this arrangement lends itself to a more thoughtful installation that maximizes function while minimizing space. In short, the engine bay is all tidied up.

Clean Corvair engine compartment
Kyle Smith

Organizing your car’s engine bay, whether or not it’s a race car, can be as simple as bundling wires into a proper loom or shortening unnecessarily long hoses. For my Corvair, tidying up meant removing the mechanical fuel pump and re-routing the fuel lines to remove clutter on top of the engine. This required very minimal fabrication: Though the four carbs might appear complex, they are mirrored side to side, allowing me to flip the stock fuel lines. Everything fits like it would from the Chevrolet factory, and I only had to put two 90-degree bends in a $10 generic steel pre-flared fuel line.

Safety wire

Since safety wire is the last step in any project—and one I am excited to do these days—just the presence of wire in the right place means a checkmark on my checklist. No need to rack my memory: If there’s no wire, the component is not ready —and I need to figure out why I left the job unfinished.

Safety wire example
Here’s an example of a nice, tidy safety wire. Notice that the direction of tension keeps either bolt from loosening: Should one move, the other pulls tighter. Kyle Smith

Science says a properly tensioned bolt will rarely loosen, but some positive retention of critical fasteners provides a warm security blanket to the mind of a detail-oriented gearhead: You know that piece of hardware is not going anywhere unless you let it. Safety wires entered my life when I first decided to try road racing and I’ve been breaking 1/16-inch drill bits putting them all kinds of places ever since.

With some attention to detail, the final product will be jewelry for your engine. Be sure to properly dress the cut ends, or your engine bay will hide a bunch of razor-sharp needles waiting to rip your hands open.

safety wire on Honda XR250r engine
Kyle Smith

Labels or the lack thereof

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

For sponsored racers, brand names and logos matter. For the rest of us, they usually don’t, unless we are just bragging at the cruise-in. Between brand names and small labels identifying parts or need-to-know specifications, a race-engine bay can look either very cluttered or totally bare, devoid of any marketing whatsoever. Pick one look and try it out. Writing valve-lash specs on the valve covers or labeling fuel and oil lines all but guarantees correct assembly in any situation. They can be fun touches, too, especially if you enjoy silly easter eggs, like writing the solid-lifter valve adjustment specs on the valve covers that hide your hydraulic roller valvetrain. Posing? Yes, but also a harmless joke.

Breathers

Engines are all about airflow, and not just through the intake and exhaust. As the linear motion of the pistons is transferred into rotational motion by the crankshaft, pressure often builds inside the crankcase—pressure that is best relieved. Setting up appropriate breathers and ventilation can be easy and, if well thought-out, can still include modern crankcase-ventilation one-way valves.

Add some color

Honda XR250R engine on bench
Kyle Smith

A little color contrast never hurt anything, and nothing makes a black-and-silver engine bay pop quite like a little gold—or whatever color you like. So many little details can be color-coded to make them disappear or become a feature. Valve covers and air cleaners are easy, but even hose ends, bits of wiring organization, and linkages can be snazzed up with subtle pops of color to really “bring the room together.” Be careful here though, as the look can get real gaudy real quick.

And just like that, you have an engine bay that is uniquely yours with a little race-car style mixed in—whether you need it or not.

 

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6 tips for finding your next project https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/6-tips-for-finding-your-next-project/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/6-tips-for-finding-your-next-project/#comments Thu, 07 Dec 2023 17:00:39 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=357862

For some parts of the country, it’s time to pickle our fun automotive toys and switch to either dreaming about or preparing for the driving season that is oh-so-far away. There is also a third option: buying a project and seeing how close you can get it to ready to drive before the snow clears and rain rinses the salt off the roads. Trapped inside the confines of the house or garage—if you’re lucky enough to not be frozen in there—the mind starts to wander and think that maybe one more project wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

The key to picking a project is being really honest with yourself and setting a goal. Buying a pile of iron oxide and stripped bolts can be a little retail therapy but it will be short-lived if you jump in and buy the first not-shiny thing you see. You have the desire, the funds, and the approval from your better half; so here are six tips for helping find your perfect project.

Let it find you

crowd of friends with Model A
Having a cold one with friends might lead you to the perfect project. Kyle Smith

Passive searching can be incredibly powerful at finding things, it’s also the easiest. Simply tell anyone you know or talk to that you are looking for a project. You might be impressed at the amount of stuff that quickly comes out of the woodwork once there is a ready buyer. Also, you never know which of your gearhead friends has a network or connection you don’t. The number of times I’ve heard, “if you know someone looking for a. . . ”

Work on what you have

Kyle's cluttered garage
Kyle Smith

If you are anything like me, the true reason you are looking for a project is that some project you already own needs something you don’t want to do and you’re simply attempting to distract yourself by just starting on something else and hoping your current problem fixes itself. No? Just me? I don’t believe you.

Set a realistic budget and stick to it

Kyle Smith

Project cars are nearly always some form of a money pit. We all accept this at some level. That means you know you are going to sink way too much into whatever you buy, so therefore it’s at least a little prudent to not blow your entire budget just buying the thing. I’ll always advocate for buying the best version of whatever you like that you can afford, but if you set a budget be sure to stick to it. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for frustration if you have a project and no funds to actually do any work on it.

Go exploring (look in weird places)

Ford Fairlane Barn Find Tom Cotter wide
Jordan Lewis

Drive one or two cities over for a day trip to drive by the local mechanic just to see what’s parked around the shop. Just driving around to places you don’t normally go can turn up some interesting finds. Tom Cotter—Hagerty’s Barn Find Hunter—has written fantastic books about the luck of discovering cars that weren’t hiding but merely just off the beaten path.

Know what you want and are willing to do

Pair working on vintage kawasaki H2
Kyle Smith

Not all project cars are the same. It might be more accurate to say no two are alike. Each and every vehicle will have different needs and wants over time, it’s just how an assembly of thousands of parts works. So set yourself up for success and do a little soul-searching before starting to sift through the classifieds. Decide what kind of tasks you are interested in doing and what you are not equipped for or generally just don’t want to deal with. If you don’t have a welder or grinder, buying a project car that needs a lot of rust repair would be foolish. Same with buying something with hacked-up wiring if you don’t have the patience to sit with a multimeter for hours. Think past the joy of purchasing and deep into how you will be spending your time: working on it.

Call up the club

Kyle Smith

Not sure if the project you want is actually what you think it is? Or maybe just feel like you have a blind spot about what you are considering getting into? Reach out to a car club dedicated to that niche. From Facebook to forums and in-person gatherings, it is often the members of a club who love specific models and brands who are best suited to find, inspect, and conclude if a project is worth saving. The joke for a lot of enthusiasts of niche vehicles is that once someone hears you have one, the cars start multiplying on their own. Most club members have leads on cars they wish they could buy and want to see go to a good home. Club members often know where good project cars are resting and are happy to share since it keeps one of their favorites on the road.

Now go forth and find those winter projects. When rains come and wash the roads we shall all emerge from the garage caves with pride for hopefully we will have taken something bad and made it…less bad. Good luck out there.

 

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The other side of the starting line https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/the-other-side-of-the-starting-line/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/the-other-side-of-the-starting-line/#comments Wed, 06 Dec 2023 18:00:55 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=357596

A few years ago, when I first started writing on this site, a commenter and I got in a bit of a debate about the value of volunteering at track events. I’m man enough to admit when I am wrong, and I now realize my position was completely absurd. So here we go:

It is totally worth going to a track event just to volunteer.

I, like most motorsports enthusiasts, have spent years watching racing from here wishing I was there. When I could not be the one doing the thing, I refused to be tangentially part of the action: How could being a flagger or track worker for a weekend get me any closer to being on track? Staffing an event seemed like a consolation prize, and one I was paying for at that. I saw no point in going to the race track, spending not only money but a precious weekend away from home, and not even trying to be a part of the action.

Thing is, I misunderstood a big part of flagging: You are a part of the action. You are not a spectator with a radio and some vague responsibility. Flagging is a quick and intense relationship with the racers on track. Only after being a racer did I understand the amount of trust placed in the flaggers, often volunteers, who alert racers to what is happening on the track ahead. Flaggers enable racers to truly focus on the art of driving or riding. A flag stands is more than a reference point for triangulating turn-in or braking; it is a pop-up information stand telling you what is around the next corner—literally.

flagger race corner worker track volunteer
Corner workers might have it a little easier than the starter, but even the humble corner worker is someone whom the riders are required to trust without question. Flags UK

The experience that brought this into focus was this year’s trip to Barber Vintage Festival, in early October. After six straight years, the trip is starting to feel like a pilgrimage. I know six years is only the start, due to how many people I meet each year that have stories from attending the race 15 years in a row, or more.

I tried to take up racing and only made it about a year before I raced myself out of money and sold my bike. It was the right decision, but having to scale back left me wanting. When I reached out to a friend—who happens to be the dirt-track director for the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA), the sanctioning body for Vintage Fest—and told him about my plans to travel to Barber without my race bikes, he understood, and suggested that I help him out. What about volunteering as the starter for the dirt-track event?

I was both excited and nervous. For starters, and I mean every part of that pun, I have relatively little time at a racetrack compared to most of the people with whom I have surrounded myself. I am humble about my skills and experience. In addition, section 3.7 of the AHRMA handbook makes it clear that the starter holds a mountain of power: “Flag signals shall be obeyed without question,” emphasis theirs.

From the riders’ perspective, a starter is just a person standing out front, the final thing holding you back from a wide-open blast to turn one. This person also brings the sad news of the last lap and makes calls regarding what is happening on the track and how best to handle the situation. I thought I had understood the power of a starter while I was on track, but once I was standing on the asphalt, green flag in hand, while a dozen riders and bikes sat with the revs up and clutches slipping, I realized that I had severely underestimated how hard this job would be.

Before I reported for duty at the flat-track event, I watched Ed Bargy, the starter for the road-course events at Vintage Fest, who could turn out fast, safe starts like clockwork. I began to realize how much racers value consistency. Then, while Ed was clicking off starts like the machine he is, I walked to the upper parking lot.

Of all the facilities Barber Motorsports Park has, a dirt track is not one of them. Therefore, after the riders meeting for the flat-track events, we set up some hay bales on the test track and they began to lap a short-track oval on pavement.

These practice sessions were the easy part. I held the green flag out for a few minutes, followed by a checker, to send each group around the oval and off. Each got a handful of laps, entering and exiting in a self-policed manner. Then came the race heats. Even with small grids, the tasks quickly piled up: Make sure that everyone was lined up properly, that timing and scoring was ready, that the track was clear, and finally that the fire and medical teams were alert, just in case. Look down the line, walk to my starter’s box, lift the green flag, and hold. That three-second hold, before I dropped the green to release the riders, might as well have been three days. My heart rate doubled. I tried not to twitch or jump.

Honestly, standing in the starting box was far more intense than sitting atop a machine in my leathers. It was not just my start, but everyone’s, and the race would be botched if I miffed my job. Mishandle the start as a racer, and you’ll get a penalty or a talking-to by the referee. As the starter? You will get an earful from just about everyone within earshot. I very much did, because I did screw up. Multiple times.

Between managing lap count, keeping track of which flag was in my hand, and which rider was on the lead lap, the job was mentally exhausting like nothing else. Each visor or pair of goggles that met my eyes as a rider throttled out of turn four reminded me that the riders were trusting me, some guy in a goofy hat holding 75 cents worth of fabric on a stick, to ensure that they were getting what they signed up for. Nothing more, nothing less.

I likely miscalled a jump start and set back one racer’s day. I’m not proud of that, but only hindsight is 20/20. In the heat of the moment, I was confident, and there is nothing I can say except thank you to that rider who talked with me about the mistake after the fact. He was unhappy, and rightfully so, but we talked as adults rather than yelling like children. We both recognized that while it sucks that I mishandled the start, this race was not going to make or break his racing career. If that were the case, I certainly would not be volunteering as starter.

So many jobs at a racetrack are thankless, but the insight I received after working on the other side of the starting line for just a single race will ensure that there is one less, at least when I am around. If and when I return to the track, I will happily recognize the hard work of all the seemingly silent corner workers and grid marshals who work so hard to allow us racers to have our fun in a fair and safe manner. Even if it is slightly embarrassing that I didn’t see the full value of track-day volunteers until now.

 

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5 reasons to adopt orphan project cars https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-reasons-to-adopt-orphan-project-cars/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-reasons-to-adopt-orphan-project-cars/#comments Fri, 01 Dec 2023 18:00:01 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=356699

Walk the aisles of your local pick-a-part, or scroll the seemingly endless pages of projects listed for sale on the internet, and you’ll find plenty of cars just waiting for a new home. Decades of market forces have shaped the roster of cars that have survived this long. There’s a certain safety in going with the grain—relatively generous parts supply, aftermarket options, a knowledgable and engaged community—but going the other direction with a particularly rare or unloved model has its own rewards. Here are five reasons to adopt a car from an orphan brand:

Forces you to better understand your car

Kyle Smith

Parts availability often trends with popularity and production numbers. That means that while those who love Chevrolet Chevelles are spoiled by the ability to procure just about any part or piece they might need to keep their car on the road. Someone with an AMC Javelin is often left to sort out how new and old parts might play nice together.

This doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Mainstream bolt-on kits often make meaningful compromises, and the simplicity of a one-stop shop means the installer doesn’t need to be terribly scrutinizing. In absence of such easy solutions, we might more clearly think through what we are trying to build and not get distracted by low-hanging fruit.

You’ll become a member of the community by necessity

1917 Peerless arriving to Great Race stop
Kayla Keenan

Lived experience is a powerful thing. Usually, the most valuable resource for someone working on a given car is to talk with the people who have been doing it for much longer. Our knowledge and understanding of how our cars work changes over time, as well as changing with the technologies at hand, so not everything should be taken as gospel (look no further than a lot of performance modification books from decades ago) but there is incredible experience to mine from those who have tread the path before us. It’s probably possible to restore a first-generation Mustang without engaging with anyone else, but doing the same with a basket-case Nash? A lot tougher, and a few savvy Nash friends will make your journey a lot richer.

It’s impossible to hide

Daimler SP250 on Amelia or bust
A Daimler SP250 almost never blends in. Kyle Smith

It’s fun to be known for something, especially if you can pick what it is. “Steve? The guy really into rotary NSUs?” Or “Alex? The Studebaker nut?” Just about any old car will stand out in modern traffic, but an orphan of years gone by is likely to draw even more attention. People just don’t know what they are. The rarer it is on the road, the more likely it is to draw comments and conversation at every fuel-up or parking lot. Not everyone wants to become the center of attention wherever they go, but it can be to have your work in keeping history on the road foster human connections.

Event eligibility

2021 Motorcycle Cannonball - TC stop 1
Jeff Peek

If you like driving your car and attending tours and events, an off-beat or otherwise unusual car can be your ticket into exclusive gatherings that run-of-the-mill cars will not be allowed access. Driving tours and large shows typically have to cap entry, often favoring interesting or unique cars so as to avoid a parade of too-similar vehicles. One example: The Colorado Grand “is open to racing cars and sports cars of distinction built in 1960 or before.” That means Peerless GTs are as welcome as Mercedes-Benz  SL Gullwings or Shelby Cobras. One of those is available on a blue-collar budget, while the other two are, well, not.

The barrier to entry is typically lower

For Sale sign on patina vintage classic car windshield
Unsplash/Hilbert Hill

Speaking of prices, take a scroll through your favorite classifieds site. It doesn’t take long to suss out that defunct brands generally trade at lower value than those from, say, the Big Three. Your dollar often goes further if your are agnostic as to the grille badge. For the price of an entry-level but popular car, you can sometimes nab the top trim of a more obscure car. While others may spend time and money up-badging or even up-restoring (think of all the Chevrolet 150s that became Bel Airs over the years) it can be satisfying to have piece of history that requires no asterisk. Not to mention the fatter parts budget.

Are there downside that come with choosing the path less traveled? Of course. It’s harder, for one, but the upsides should not be ignored. An oddball car might send you on an adventure that benefits not only you but helps preserve a small part of car culture that would have otherwise faded away.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have motorcycles to haul and a space in my driveway for a Studebaker pickup to do the grunt work. It’s out there somewhere.

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Here’s your private tour of the Koenigsegg powertrain factory https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/heres-your-private-tour-of-the-koenigsegg-powertrain-factory/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/heres-your-private-tour-of-the-koenigsegg-powertrain-factory/#comments Tue, 28 Nov 2023 21:13:16 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=356326

The factories that create the cars we see on the road are slight mysteries to most enthusiasts. Sure, we know there is a building somewhere with a bunch of parts that are assembled into a functional object, but what does that actually look like? Ford’s River Rouge factory is open for tours so you can see new F-150s come together, but if you are more interested in the cutting edge of performance and engineering you are left a little high and dry. Until now.

In a video released on the Koenigsegg YouTube channel, the founder himself—Christian von Koenigsegg—takes us on a quick walk through the assembly area where the Jesko’s nine-speed, seven-clutch transmission is assembled. The parts look downright absurd to anyone who has spent more time under the hood of a car than staring at a computer screen running a CAD program. Looks aside, however, all of these parts have cousins in the “regular” car world—on the high-performance Jesko they’re just dialed up to 11.

The starter gear for the Jesko is a prime example. Rotating mass is the enemy of quick-revving engines, and the flywheel is typically one of the heavier parts of an engine’s rotating assembly, right up there with the crankshaft. Christian points out that the Swiss-cheese–looking starter gear is actually the largest diameter metal part in the drivetrain. Considering how easily he flips it around with one hand it becomes clear why the Jesko’s 5-liter V-8 revs so quickly.

Koenigsegg Koenigsegg

Next step on the tour is the engine assembly, just steps away. Here one technician builds one engine per week. Seeing the pistons and crankshaft on the table is one thing, but seeing a completed engine and just how compact the whole package is—that’s something else entirely. The crankshaft is extremely svelte, while the connecting rods provide a beefy counterpoint. Pistons are coated both on the crown and the skirt to reduce friction and help with thermal management.

Then it’s off to the dynamometer, because of course Koenigsegg has an in-house engine dyno. Christian talks with the dyno operators to give a brief look into what kind of measurements they are looking for as new engines are developed and run before going into production. Some tuners might only look at spark plugs and air-fuel ratio, but naturally there’s more to take into account when extracting more than 1200 horsepower from just five liters of displacement.

It’s a stunning place for sure, but it is also easy to see why few cars can be built this way. “It’s really like Swiss watch manufacturing, in a way,” Christian tells us, “but on a larger scale.” That sort of astronomical precision comes with a price tag, of course. So much of modern automotive production is based in compromises for efficiency, time, and serviceability. This sort of behind-the-scenes tour allows us to see what can be built when those restrictions are thrown out the window.

 

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Can this Ford 427 “Cammer” make 2000 hp? https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/can-this-ford-427-cammer-make-2000-hp/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/can-this-ford-427-cammer-make-2000-hp/#comments Mon, 27 Nov 2023 17:00:09 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=353675

It’s been said a thousand times before, but we will say it again: Engines are just air pumps. The more air and fuel you put in, the more power you get out. Of course, anyone who has played with engines long enough knows there is a point of diminishing returns on the vast majority of engine designs. Rarely, however, do we get a first-hand look at the exact constraints.

Luckily Steve Morris, a noted race-engine builder, isn’t afraid to identify the problems that keep a Ford SOHC 427—one of the hero engines of the 1960s—from making the kind of horsepower we see in today’s high-output powerplants.

The single overhead-cam 427 is one of Ford’s most famous engines, for good reason. Known as the “cammer,” this V-8 was born as a rival to the venerable Chrysler 426 Hemi, which was dominating NASCAR ovals. However, NASCAR didn’t like that manufacturers were building engines that diverged further and further from the ones in street cars, and for 1965, organizers added a provision to the rulebook regarding “special racing engines.” Chrysler sat out the season in protest. Ford, whose SOHC 427 was no longer eligible, pivoted and used the 427 Wedge, which it had been running for a couple years.

The legend of the cammer lived on, thanks to racers in other disciplines who saw its potential. Drag racers embraced the SOHC 427 despite its nearly six-foot-long timing chain, a feature that gives the engine much of its unique character. Another contributing factor: The camshafts, which rotate in the same direction. Their profiles are mirrored side to side, based on how the valves are situated relative to the cam. That orientation is something that causes Steve Morris a lot of headaches as he chases four-figure horsepower.

The geometry of the valvetrain is stuck in the 1960s for sure. Each of the rocker arms has a roller on one side that rides on the camshaft and a pivoting adjustor cap that engages the valve stem. Each arm also contains an oil passage, which will not allow oil to flow if the adjustor is at too much of an angle. Keeping components from over-extending themselves is critical to keep everything slippery. As Steve points out, the oil passages could be reengineered, but that would require a lot of time. Few people are willing to pay for that kind of intricate development in a one-off engine.

Ford 427 Cammer rocker arm Steve Morris
Steve Morris

The solution is to dial in the length of the valve stem, even after modifying the rocker arms with larger follower wheels. The amount of lift planned for the camshaft has set this whole problem in motion, but that airflow is critical to making the horsepower Steve’s customer desires. He is just lucky that the short-block is more or less the same as other FE engine blocks, without the provisions for lifters. New castings are available, but that doesn’t mean it’s as simple as bolting things together. Steve estimates he must spend over 100 hours mocking up this particular engine before he can begin final assembly. Even at time-lapse speed, the intricacy of the project is obvious.

Overall, this video provides a fascinating look into exactly what it takes to make unique high-performance engines. This engine even got mounted on the dynamometer—before the customer decided they wanted to take the engine home and either take a break or finish the project themselves. Will this SOHC 427 make the big power numbers everyone hopes? We may never know, but we have a new appreciation for just how tough it is to even try.

 

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7 tips when buying gifts for car people https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/7-tips-when-buying-gifts-for-car-people/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/7-tips-when-buying-gifts-for-car-people/#comments Thu, 23 Nov 2023 19:00:48 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=355104

We could drop a list of items we have bought or would like to buy for ourselves this holiday season, but rather than give you a fish, we are giving you a few tips so you can reel in awesome gifts—at any price point—for the gearhead in your life.

Regardless of what projects they might be working on, there are a couple of easy ways to look for gifts that car-crazy people will really appreciate. Follow these seven tips and you will likely find the perfect thing.

What vehicle is in their workshop?

Corvair in garage
Even an affordable welder is a great asset. Kyle Smith

There are two sides to this one: What projects they are working on and what is taking up space inside their workspace? The vehicles we work on are typically dear to us for various reasons, and fun trinkets or doodads (ex. keychains) with images of that vehicle are low-hanging fruit. Cool banners or large prints of their ride (just ask the year, make, and model—they’ll be happy to tell you) make any shop feel more homey, assuming they have the wall space.

Look around at vehicles are in their garage, and what space exists for potential decoration, and you have two solid avenues to cool, memorable gifts—even if you choose a neon clock so they know when to come inside for dinner …

Help solve a problem (even if it’s not really a problem)

Honda CB750 shift cover off
These aluminum baking trays seem funny, but they keep my tools and work surfaces cleaner than ever and are easy to wash. Kyle Smith

Speaking of solving problems, what does your favorite car person complain about at the end of the evening, when they come in from their shop? Lack of space, dirty benches, or gloves that just don’t get the job done? All those pain points are gift-giving opportunities in disguise. Complaints about lack of space or dirty areas and tools might mean that an organizational gift would be appreciated. It could be as simple as a set of plastic trays in various sizes (yes, really!).

It’s rare that a DIY-er wants to pay a premium for personal protective equipment. Snag a premium pair of safety glasses or buy a custom earplug kit or a nice set of noise-reducing over-ear muffs.

Don’t get too charged up

Battery tools on Kyle's workbench
Kyle Smith

Battery-powered tools are getting downright inexpensive, compared to how much luxury they can provide for a DIY-er. However, giving tools can be really tough if you aren’t well informed about your favorite wrencher’s habits and techniques. Do yourself a favor and look real closely at what brand names are on their cordless tools—or ask them what their preferred brand of battery-operated tool is.

When in doubt, grab a gift card: Most brands use different chargers and battery packs, and they aren’t interchangeable, which means a new tool from a different brand is more of an annoyance than a help, especially in an already crowded garage.

DIY for your DIY’er

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

Who doesn’t love a gift that is built or created just for them? Old factory service manuals typically have really fun line drawings and cut-away diagrams throughout that are easy to scan and put in a nice frame. (Maybe a frame you make?) Make sure to find a manual that applies to the year, make, and model of vehicle that your favorite car-person owns. Pull the right page, and the diagram will become an art piece that fits into most homes.

Buy them a project

round 2 model kit
When it comes to model car kits, Round 2 does it all, from new vehicles that use an OEM’s design files, to retro kits like this Chevy stocker. Cameron Neveu

Yeah, you’d think the last thing a car person would want is another project, but trust us on this one. If you want to go full-scale, we won’t stop you, but a desktop model or tabletop trinket that requires assembly is more what we had in mind. Take the gift an extra step further, and ask to be a part of the building process. Scale models, remote-controlled cars, or miniature engines—we never really grow up, and car people are no exception.

The old “coupon book”

Just write down a few “help bleed brakes” or “take 15 more minutes in the garage when needed*” notes on index cards, and hand them over. You are giving your gearhead the freedom to do the activities they love, perhaps with an extra set of helping hands, and recognizing how much those activities mean to them. Sure, these “coupons” are not as flashy as other ideas, or as concrete, but it’s the thought that counts. If done right, this gift can be the most thoughtful one of all.

(*some exclusions may apply)

Keep it simple

Crustang Ford Mustang Patina car action driving pan driver
Cameron Neveu

You came here looking for ideas, so it’s likely your loved one is into the type of stuff you find on this website. Why not give them more of that? A Hagerty Drivers Club membership puts them in the loop on exclusive events and includes a subscription to our magazine (six issues yearly). Oh, and roadside assistance, plus discounts on dozens of products they probably want to buy anyway. You spent $70 and potentially save them way more. Who doesn’t love that?

Gift-giving is always tough, and it’s only tougher when you’re buying for someone who has a very niche hobby, one they’ve probably invested in for a long time. Even so, there are thoughtful and fun gifts to give your favorite car-obsessed person. Hopefully this list gave you a good jump on a few ideas. If there is a particularly cool idea you have given or received in the past leave it as a comment below. You might just make someone else’s holiday.

 

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How to succeed in your next project without trying https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/how-to-succeed-in-your-next-project-without-trying/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/mechanical-sympathy/how-to-succeed-in-your-next-project-without-trying/#comments Wed, 22 Nov 2023 22:00:56 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=353807

Earlier this year, I declared I would not buy any more motorcycles. Now I’m stuck in a deep debate over how many parts can be purchased for a project before they qualify as the purchase of a project. It’s not going well.

New Year’s resolutions are hard. I bet my failure rate is right around the national average of 91 percent. (And yes, I actually looked that up.)

My lust to store one more motorcycle in an already hardworking shop grew so strong that I began to creatively interpret my own rulebook. My desire to build a flat-track racer trumped my resolution to focus on the projects I already have. The compromise is going to be how the project gets done and where I source the pieces. Two simple rules: It’s gotta be cheap and it’s gotta be available.

Kyle's XR collection
Too many? Hardly. More like not enough. Kyle Smith

Each fall I try to go through my storage shelf and mentally catalog exactly what junk is holding my floor to the ground. I don’t have enough storage space to keep everything, and sorting through keeps me from stashing things that truly have zero value.

Several Honda XR250Rs of the late 1980s have come through my garage in the last few years. Three were parts bikes that got broken down and boxed to serve as spares during my first year of racing. Somewhere in there, I accumulated enough spares to build a second race bike. Another dredge through the shelf brought forth a bounty that persuaded me to build a flat-track race bike rather than to sell some of the parts. This type of logic never fails to entertain, does it?

XR250R parts pile
Kyle Smith

After talking to a few dirt-track racers and looking through spec sheets for aftermarket frames, I realized that the 1986 model year XR250R frame sitting outside next to my scrap pile actually had good enough geometry to be fun to ride and to be competitive in the right venues and classes. The swingarm was under one workbench, along with the triple trees. Forks were leaning in the corner under the coat rack. Rear shock, in a bin on the shelf. That was the bones. Now I just needed … everything else.

The deck could be stacked, though, and for me that meant doing a lot of the mental work up front. Much of it I had already done, because the idea of building a flat-track bike, disc-brake conversion and all, has been rattling around in my head for years. I have drawings and scribbled lists dating back a decade.

Building what I wanted started with defining what I wanted: A racer that fit into a vintage class, had decent parts support, and also allowed me to get creative when building it. A CRF250 or 450 is what I should own, on paper. All the parts I need are a credit-card swipe away. However, my credit card has had a water-cooled kinda last three months, and if building parts and doing things creatively is my goal, then why start with a bolt-together project? No fun in that.

Of course, I started with one of my XR250R frames. Sadly, I only have two on hand and they are both chassis with drum rear brakes. While the drum-brake path is familiar, it’s not ideal for this project. So I am planning a disc-brake conversion, and will use a modern rear wheel for cheaper gearing and rotor options. I can also use take-off calipers and master cylinders, as the pure-bred race stuff is overkill for my skills. I’m not about to say I’m building this bike on a budget, because things will get out of hand at some point, but I’m taking budget into heavy consideration.

The first big sticking point was wheels. For the race tires that I should be running, 19-inch rims are all but necessary. Buying hoops and spokes and lacing my own wheels is not out of the question, but a fellow racer mentioned that building spacers for a modern motocross bike wheel is almost easier than building up a stock hub. Even better, that option would give me a strong wheel with non-custom spokes, as a fair number of modern bikes ship from the factory with 19-inch rear wheels.

I nabbed a CRF450 wheel from eBay for $125. It needs a few spokes and a good cleaning, but it was still hundreds cheaper than the alternative. The front was even cheaper: Adventures with the 1983 Goldwing that haunted my driveway for a few years reminded me that the cast front wheels—known as Comstars—are fairly light and use a 17mm axle diameter, the same as a stock XR250 front axle. I don’t even need to source special bearings, just spend some time on the lathe.

project XR250R chassis
The bones of a project. Kyle Smith

The prospects are exciting, mainly because there are so many parts of this project and plan that I have never tackled before. It is a path that will require me to learn new things. For instance, more complex lathe projects. I know enough to be dangerous, but only enough, so when I realized a lathe project was the first step to getting an idea of how much I would need to lower the suspension, I was a little intimidated. The swing arm pivot is two needle roller bearings pressed in on each side. This put me in the middle of a catch-22. It really makes no sense to install a set of new bearings just to have to pull them out to blast and finish the swing arm, but blasting and finishing the swing arm now is a fool’s errand as fabrication needs to be done on and around the swing arm that would likely ruin the finish anyway. What to do?

Chuck up some aluminum in the lathe, that’s what. Getting the newer rear wheel and older front wheel to fit requires new spacers to properly center the wheels and also adapt the larger 22mm rear wheel bearings to fit the 17mm axle. To learn the process I would need for the wheel spacers, I chose to turn down some spacers that will take the place of the needle bearings in the swing arm. I don’t need smoothly pivoting suspension right now, I just need a bike in roughly one piece. That compromise allowed me to do my first solo project on the lathe, which taught me the basic process and primed me for the next step: building the precision wheel spacers.

Each step of this coming build is a problem I am excited to solve, and that alone all but guarantees my success, because my goal is not to have a fast race bike but to know how to build things. Experience is far more valuable to me than another motorcycle in the garage. That’s how I know this project will get done. Didn’t even need a resolution to know that.

 

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Least prepared man in history finishes Baja 1000 in just under 49 hours https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/least-prepared-man-in-history-finishes-baja-1000-in-just-under-49-hours/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/least-prepared-man-in-history-finishes-baja-1000-in-just-under-49-hours/#comments Wed, 22 Nov 2023 18:00:28 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=354981

Riding a motorcycle in the Baja 1000 is a big task. Riding the Baja 1000 after flying from Australia to Southern California, buying a used bike, crossing the Mexican border, and riding it all the way down to the starting point in La Paz, only to then race back north with no support crew, no pre-running, and no adequate gear is another thing. Entirely. Oh, and doing all of this in the Ironman class, which means one rider and one bike—no support riders or teammates.

Wouter-jan Van Dijk did just that very thing this year at the SCORE Baja 1000, racing almost 1300 miles of desert from La Paz to Ensenada in just under 50 hours.

This is abjectly foolish, if we’re being honest. Baja is a race that is extremely dangerous under good conditions and is known to be booby trapped by spectators looking to “spice up” the area they are viewing. It is rare to have a year with zero injuries from those who are all-in prepared to run the thing. The terrain and the remoteness of the 1000 are are not to be trifled with, and great riders and drivers have been seriously injured and killed on the course since this race came to life in 1967.

But Van Dijk didn’t injure himself, and he didn’t die. Instead, he discovered the kindness that lives within the off-road racing community, which collectively banded around him and supplied him with the things he needed: fuel, food, and mechanical assistance. He didn’t even make it through tech inspection without others stepping up to solve problems created by his plan: The KTM he purchased in California and rode to the starting line was on bald tires when the stewards were giving the bike their customary once-over to ensure competitors are prepared for the route they are undertaking. They also noted a cracked subframe.

Between getting that welded and accepting a donation of fresh tires, it was a feat for Van Dijk to even take the starting line—which he did at 1:30 in the morning on Thursday, November 16. From there he negotiated a patchwork of assistance as the tale of his wild attempt traveled only slightly faster than he did on the KTM. Updates from random teams and people in the pits popped up on social media, where a fanbase cheered from afar while watching his transponder blink on the tracking screens that are available for each participant.

The stories that trickled out of the desert included a crash that severely bent Van Dijk’s front wheel. Fellow racers fabricated a repair that put him back on course, and not a second too soon. While Van Dijk was initially running toward the front of the 27 riders in the Ironman class, he was also racing against SCORE’s 50-hour cutoff clock. He squeaked in just in time and crossed the finish line at 2:05 a.m. on Saturday, November 18. It appears just 12 riders from the Ironman class reached the finish line, a number which only serves to highlight the insanity of Van Dijk’s feat even more.

Motorsports attracts a certain kind of person—someone seeking a challenge that requires them to go above and beyond the things they think they are capable of. Van Dijk stands as the latest example of just what we are capable of when the perfect mix of luck, skill, and support from strangers comes together. Kudos to you Wouter-jan Van Dijk. We think everyone needed a little reminder of exactly how far out there we can go.

Wouter crossing finish line from livestream
SCORE International

 

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New Hulu miniseries on Brawn GP drops this month https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/new-hulu-miniseries-on-brawn-gp-drops-this-month/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/new-hulu-miniseries-on-brawn-gp-drops-this-month/#respond Fri, 03 Nov 2023 19:00:26 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=350573

Over the last few years, the Netflix series Drive to Survive has shined a fascinating spotlight on all of the on- and off-track drama in Formula 1, helping to attract new fans to the sport in the process. Now Hulu is getting in on the action and hoping to snag its own share of the sport’s enormous fanbase. The streaming service has just announced its new series, Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story, which digs into the wild account of the team’s 2009 campaign and how it became one of—if not the only—team in F1 history to have a 100 percent world championship success rate.

Die-hard F1 fans will know of Brawn GP, but newer fans might not be familiar with the Cinderella story that took place during the 2008–09 season. The tale is now getting the attention and airtime it deserves from what seems like an unlikely source: Keanu Reeves. Best known for his action movie antics and his passion for motorcycles, Reeves is also a big racing fan, and he has assembled a four-part series that documents the extremely fast rise and fall of the one-season-wonder Brawn GP.

The team’s curious origin story involves a big stack of cash and a small stack of cash. Honda had the big stack and was spending like mad in the seasons leading up to 2009, but the global economic downturn made the accountants at Honda pull the plug on its Formula 1 effort, which was when motorsports engineer Ross Brawn stepped up and convinced Honda to sell him the team for a single British pound.

Beyond a lack of sponsorship, the team’s struggles ranged from making a Mercedes engine work in a chassis designed for a Honda powerplant to the suffering from success that came with dominating the early season, only to have the teams around them catch up. The end result, however, was a Herculean effort that earned Jenson Button the drivers’ championship and the team the constructors’ championship, after winning 8 of the 17 races on the 2009 schedule.

The Brawn GP story is prime for a miniseries like this, and while we love Drive to Survive, we are also excited to have a show with some great footage featuring V-8–era cars and racing. We’ll be tuning in to Hulu for the first episode on November 15. Will you?
 

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5 car parts that look the same despite changing dramatically https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/5-car-parts-that-look-the-same-as-they-always-did-but-have-changed-dramatically/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/lists/5-car-parts-that-look-the-same-as-they-always-did-but-have-changed-dramatically/#comments Thu, 02 Nov 2023 19:00:32 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=350140

Look at the car in your garage. Now look at a Ford Model T. You’re likely seeing two cars that look nothing alike. Well, at least on the macro level. Get down to eyeballing individual pieces and parts, however, and it won’t take long to spot a few bits that actually look pretty close to the same. Are there really car parts that haven’t changed in over a century of production? No, not really, but there are at some that look like they haven’t. Let’s take a peek at five such pieces.

Tires

New Tires in garage on racks
shank_ali/Getty Images

Treaded, rubber, and round. Simple right? Not so fast. Tires have advanced in so many ways, but just the highlights are compound and construction. The chemical makeup of the tires we buy today is a complex and artfully crafted mix designed to balance wear, grip, noise, and comfort. Tires 100 years ago were still tube-type and were good—if they stayed round and rolling for an extended period of time. Tire construction went from bias ply, where the bands of reinforcing material under the tread are laid at 45 degrees to each other—on a bias—rather than the modern method of radial construction, which puts the reinforcement into the tire both around the circumference and also from bead to bead. This modern design allows for additional tire flex, which can be tuned to fit various situations.

Windshields

Lotus Europa new windshield install
Rob Siegel

It’s clear and keeps the junk flying up from the road from hitting you and your passengers in the face. Well, at least that is what it did back then. Now, windshields are stronger than ever, clearer than ever, and more advanced than ever. Safety glass of today is something many take for granted, and it is likely because many drivers have never seen what happens to plate glass windows in the event of a crash. Early safety glass was even worse.

Now windshields are embedded with sensors and antennae, along with defroster coils and tint. Yes, it’s still a curved piece of glass, but the similarities end there.

Body panels

Corvette Cutaway at NCM
Kyle Smith

The idea of body panels took a while to evolve, as the automobile was a novelty for years prior becoming a near necessity. As cars became more reliable, their styling and larger function gained importance and thus body panels became critical. The flat steel panels were structured with wood beneath them, but now the panels themselves are bent and folded in such ways that they often brace themselves. They are also designed to behave with certain manners in the event of a crash, rather than being built as if they were going to be statically installed on a house.

The skin of a car is still the skin of a car, but now exotic materials are more popular than ever. Early cars had all kinds of crazy stuff for body panels, and to be honest, we are happy that carbon fiber, aluminum, and plastics won out over patent leather and wood.

Drum brakes

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is something many people have learned through experience. The same can be said for OEM carmakers. Drum brakes are not sexy and have their drawbacks but in the grand scheme of things are simple, dependable, cheap to produce, and easy to maintain. Look at vintage cars and you’ll likely see some version of a drum brake. Model A Fords only have three springs per brake backing plate, and the shoes are actuated by a wedge pushing the shoes out in unison.

Modern drum brakes have varying designs that require differing solutions for the one brake shoe over the other, and they are hydraulically actuated with a whole host of springs and levers to incorporate various functions. Are they still drum brakes that function the same? Yes, but once you pull the drum you’d be hard pressed to say they are the same as they have always been.

Shocks

New rear suspension Chevrolet Silverado
Fresh parts always look good laid out on the workbench. Kyle Smith

The automobile was born from wagons, and even back when the horsepower came from real horses we knew that solid suspension was a bad idea. Roads were even worse than they are today, and undamped springs can make for a wild ride. The idea of shocks was not something new for cars, but cars really advanced the technology. From lever shocks to the modern tubular design, their function centers around the idea of pushing a fluid through a metered orifice in an effort to slow the motion of the spring or sprung part. What used to be a simple hole has advanced to highly-tunable shim stacks and even electronically adjustable designs that adapt automatically on the fly without the driver even realizing it.

 

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Ridden: Honda’s Motocompacto delivers function and fun https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/honda-motocompacto-delivers-function-with-a-dose-of-fun/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/honda-motocompacto-delivers-function-with-a-dose-of-fun/#comments Wed, 01 Nov 2023 13:00:21 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=345716

Walking up to a white suitcase sitting on the ground, it’s hard to imagine how it could possibly open up to become a rideable scooter. The concept makes sense, as the idea of a compact, easily carried means of last-mile transport is not new. In fact, Honda is best known for this particular type of vehicle, and as its vintage Motocompo models gain value thanks to their novelty and fun factor, the Japanese firm has revived the idea for the 21 century. The result is better than ever but comes with a few hard caveats.

The notion of a packable scooter is slightly comical in America, a country so focused on cars and communities that prioritize parking over other uses of space, but the idea is common in other parts of the world. This is the lens required to see the suitcase-sized, 41-pound Motocompacto as a useful thing you might actually need. It is so purely utilitarian, which is rare today, and it is also weird. Before we can really talk about that, lets address what the heck this thing is.

Kyle Smith

It’s not a scooter, a moped, or a motorcycle. It has no pedals, so the class system of E-bikes does not really apply. The Motocompacto has a throttle and brake both mounted on the handlebars, each controlling one of the small wheels hidden behind slick fenders. The throttle is a thumb switch moved vertically with your right hand that adjusts the power output from the wheel motor mounted up front. The brake is a simple lever-actuated drum brake tucked inside the rear wheel; said wheel slides out for riding and slips in for more compact storage. Honda calls the Motocompacto a first- or last-mile mobility solution. That makes it tough to put into context, so let’s instead look at the three ways nearly everyone thinks of cars: for their fun, for their usefulness, and for their value.

Fun

Edgar Reyes Edgar Reyes

Plain and simple, the Motocompacto is quite fun to ride. The position of the controls and seat make it fit well, despite the narrow handlebars and super-short wheelbase (38″ long, ready to ride) that make the first few turns an adjustment period for most people.

Pressing the single button on the handlebars makes the bike “live” and ready to ride. It boots in the first of two rider modes, which needs a “kick start” that has nothing to do with the common use of the term. Instead it requires the rider to essentially push-start the bike with just one easy shove off until the speed sensor sees the scooter is moving. Then the throttle becomes functional, with a capped top speed of 12 mph. This prevents someone from accidentally taking off with a slip of their thumb on the throttle button. A double click of that single dash button switches to the second riding mode, which does not require the kick start and moves the top speed to 15 mph. Throttle take-up is quick, but acceleration is hardly mind bending, and it tapers off a bit as it pulls to the 4-minute-mile pace that is its top speed.

Usefulness

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

Riding the Motocompacto is fun, but it is a feeling that wears off quickly. In a small cone course setup by Honda I got the same feeling as when I would play around in a parking lot during the years I was a bicycle commuter. I rode about three miles per day, every day I wanted to go anywhere. Riding a bicycle was still fun, but it was also a task and one that made for at least semi-boring equipment. Utility drives decisions for long-wearing tires, durable grips, and heavy wheels. It all trades a little bit of playfulness for function. The Motocompacto is no different.

The design is sharply focused around mobility and that concept of first- and last-mile transportation. This means that the 250-watt motor is in the front wheel, and the only brake is on the rear wheel. The compact and lightweight nature necessitates a small battery that gives just 12 miles of range, but the bike’s overall design was massaged enough so that the cavity that holds the seat and handlebars when the Motocompacto is folded up also works as a convenient carrying space for a small bag, a laptop, or a slim water bottle.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

The Motocompacto is designed to be part of your commute, not the whole thing. This is absurd for most of us to comprehend as evidenced by the number of comments that popped up right after they read the range was just 12 miles. That doesn’t sound like a lot, and it’s not, but the Motocompacto is meant to solve the lack of parking near your office, or to replace the clunky bicycle you ride to your bus stop every morning. It’s not meant to replace a car, but to supplement it in the right situation. It works great at that.

Value

Kyle Smith

The hard one. First, the price tag for the Motocompacto is $995, and you can order online or through your local Honda or Acura dealer. You cannot, however, get them through a Honda Powersports dealer. At under a thousand dollars and easily stored, it is hot hard to find uses for a scooter like this. A sports game where parking far is away; a campground runabout; a college campus crosser. As a person who drives sizable trucks with and without trailers on a regular basis, I immediately was overjoyed at the idea of having an easily packable option that allowed me to park the truck and trailer, sign off on my logbook, and then roll down the street a mile or two for dinner. Does that instance happen often enough to justify spending a grand? Over a few years, probably.

I can also see cruising a race paddock in the cool evening hours after the track goes cold, with a few drinks in the center cavity, which has drains and functions as a small cooler. That said, practically speaking, the real function of a paddock scooter is lost due to the nature of the Motocompacto’s throttle and brake; it can’t be ridden with one hand only, which makes it near impossible to use it as a hand transport for a freshly mounted tire and wheel or full fuel jug. Yeah, I’ve seen all kinds of rigged-up carriers and stuff, but the single rear drum brake on this thing has me nervous that the 265-pound weight limit isn’t so much about power or lack of suspension, but more about stopping effectively.

Kyle Smith Kyle Smith

Of course, everyone has to decide value on thier own, and I am a man who has honed to a razor-sharp edge the ability to talk myself into buying something. I certainly don’t need a Motocompacto—few people do–but I also see how this is a goofy little idea that actually works for some specific scenarios. Embrace that usage and the value will come.

Pros: Easy to carry when folded; literal blank slate for a race livery or stickerbomb; simple to use and ride

Cons: Folding/unfolding can be clunky; no security; over-designed parts limit simple customization (grips, seat, pegs)

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Triumph creates trio of Tiger 900 models https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/triumph-creates-trio-of-tiger-900-models/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/triumph-creates-trio-of-tiger-900-models/#comments Tue, 31 Oct 2023 18:00:41 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=349601

The middleweight adventure-bike market is huge currently, with at least one option for whatever flavor of adventure you want. Some bikes are more street-focused, while others lean hard into the off-road side of things. Triumph wants to be everywhere all at once with the 2024 Tiger. Rather than one do-it-all machine, the Tiger 900 is actually three models: GT, GT Pro, and Rally Pro.

The three variants are an evolution of the Tiger 900 that was introduced in 2020 as an upgrade from the Tiger 800, a much older bike. The staple engine—Triumph’s three-cylinder—is still present and for 2024 receives a meaningful power bump to 106 horsepower, plus tuning that puts more torque behind the rider’s wrist at lower rpm.

Tiger 900_GT Pro_MY24_07428_JP
Tiger 900 GT Pro JORDAN PAY

The 900 GT, GT Pro, and Rally Pro share a powerplant and a chassis, but each is tailored ever so slightly to a different type of adventure-bike customer. The 900 GT is aimed at a newer rider who may not be sure what direction they want to go, while the 900 GT Pro is focused on road touring, and the 900 GT Rally brings an off-road focus. All are supported by a robust catalog of OEM accessories that allows riders to outfit the bikes exactly as they see fit right from the dealer parts counter.

Tiger 900_Rally Pro_MY24_20968_JP
Tiger 900 Rally Pro JORDAN PAY

Not all buyers will need to option out their bikes to enjoy them: The entire Tiger 900 lineup has a seven-inch TFT dash, a USB-C charger right on the dashboard for an auxiliary GPS or a phone, Bluetooth connectivity, and new marker lights that aid in nighttime visibility. Tire-pressure monitoring, shift-assist quick shifter, and heated grips and seat are standard on the GT Pro and Rally Pro.

Riders flock to the middleweight adventure bike market for bikes that have approachable power levels and seat heights but can do just about anything. Triumph’s decision to split the Tiger 900 from one bike into three puts the nameplate on the radar of more riders and makes the adventure-bike segment more attractive than ever.

Pricing for the Tiger 900 GT starts at $14,995, $16,895 for the GT Pro, and $17,395 for the Rally Pro. Those interested can expect to see the new 2024 models on dealer floors early next year.

JORDAN PAY 2022 JORDAN PAY 2022 JORDAN PAY JORDAN PAY

 

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Would you pay $15K for a toolkit you would never use? https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/would-you-pay-15k-for-a-toolkit-you-would-never-use/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/would-you-pay-15k-for-a-toolkit-you-would-never-use/#comments Fri, 27 Oct 2023 15:00:37 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=346689

There are multitudes of odd and interesting things in the automotive-enthusiast universe. One of the more interesting objects belongs to the world of the concours d’elegance: factory-fit toolkits. The cars least likely to need on-the-go maintenance are often the examples most likely to have these desirable kits: for example, concours-bound Ferraris. Marque expert Tom Yang recently posted a video talking through all the finer points of the vintage tools that were meant to keep Maranello’s finest on the road, tools that now are the final touch for examples that rarely see the road.

A factory-fit toolkit recalls a different era of the automobile. Toolkits allowed drivers to solve a problem roadside and limp their vehicle to a safe location. Ironically, the tools in factory kits are often the last ones you would want to use to actually work on your car: The wrenches and pliers were typically built by the car company or sourced as affordably as possible. They rarely display the attention to detail or finish that good tools require. Can’t criticize the automakers too much, though; these tools were meant to be a last resort.

Over the years, these antique toolkits became critical in the Ferrari-judging world. With the rise of concours and exacting restorations, suddenly the tools you thought you’d never need became all you could ever want.

See, top-tier concours judging is based on a points system, with a maximum score of 100. Flaws or incorrect parts earn point deductions. A properly spec’d toolkit accounts for four points of the 100-point total accord to Yang, a man who would know. That means, if you want to reach the top tier of concours competition, your car must have a toolkit.

Of course, having a bunch of tools in a canvas bag or plastic bin is not what judges are looking for. Originality is paramount, from the materials of the roll to the tools themselves. I’ve personally been a part of the hunt for specific bits and bobs to complete a Ferrari toolkit while walking the rows of the Hershey AACA fall swap meet. We got lucky, but it truly wasn’t til now that I understood just how fortunate we were.

It just goes to show that the restoration-rabbit hole is as deep as one wants to go. Hearing Yang talk through the exacting details that separate the best from the rest feels like a seminar, and we love that he is willing to share this information. For most of us, it’s fun car trivia, but there is likely someone out there who now knows the exact spark-plug wrench they should be looking for to capture those last critical points.

 

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5 scary scenarios DIYers face https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-scary-scenarios-diyers-face/ https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/5-scary-scenarios-diyers-face/#comments Thu, 26 Oct 2023 19:00:46 GMT https://www.hagerty.com/media/?p=348365

Halloween is right around the corner, and any number of scary ghouls and goblins will soon be at your door asking for sweet treats. The holiday got us thinking about DIY experiences that don’t leave our minds so easily. A few projects still keep us up at night, and the thought of repeating certain procedures can provoke a cold sweat. We aren’t saying cars are cursed or possessed—we’ll leave that to the movies—but we all know at least a few vehicles for which it was hard to prove otherwise.

From losing tools to stripping threads, here are the scariest scenarios we’ve encountered in the garage.

Using a spring compressor

Rob Siegel Spring compressor
Rob Siegel

The McPherson-strut front suspension design has a lot going for it, like easy installation and cost-effectiveness. Sadly, changing springs or dampers in McPherson struts can be a terror. A spring this powerful is essentially a pipe bomb, and cheap or home-fabricated spring compressors that underestimate the spring’s stored tension are legitimately dangerous. Just the thought of hearing a creak from the spring compressor and seeing a spring shoot off at full force gives us nightmares that would make most horror flicks look tame.

Discovering rust under a paint bubble

GMT400 rusty fender
Kyle Smith

You would never pick at a scab, but sometimes you can’t help but give a light poke at that discolored spot on the quarter panel of your classic. Next thing you know, your finger has promoted inner fender to the prestigious status of outer fender. The damage only gets worse from that moment: Iron oxide takes over, a pestilence that no spooky campfire story could ever conjure. Rust is a threat that hangs over everything in your garage. You’ll start seeing the brown-ish red everywhere, until even your mixed drink seems to include red rum. It can drive a man insane, that rust.

Losing a bolt

Honda XR250R engine disassembled
Kyle Smith

We all know what it’s like when the bolt or tool that you just had in your hand is—poof—gone. A portal to the fifth dimension opened, swallowing that one small but critical piece of your project. The thought of where that piece of hardware went will haunt you. I’m not scared of Casper, but I am terrified of where that piston pin circlip might have gone.

Stripping a bolt

stretched bolt
Kyle Smith

At last, final assembly. Your workbench is covered in perfectly clean, ready-to-assemble parts. You painstakingly kept all the threads of all your fasteners clean, but somehow a hard-to-reach bolt that only requires 35 foot-pounds of torque just … won’t … tighten. All of a sudden, “righty-tighty, left-loosey” becomes “righty loosey, lefty also loosey.” The split second your wrench meets no resistance, the horrors of dealing with the consequences come into sharp focus.

Burning through paint

polishing Corvair Gif
Strong arms are good for the lack of power steering, and they are built from the hand-buffing of just one mid-century hood or decklid. Kyle Smith

The paint on a vehicle can get really shiny if you remove enough of it to eliminate scratches, scrapes, and other imperfections. However, the mere thought of burning through the paint of their beloved classics has kept thousands of owners from so much as looking at an electric polisher. Thanks to modern compounds, this automotive horror story no longer needs to strike fear in your heart. Random-orbit polishers and diminishing-grit compounds allow you to be gentler with paint than ever before, even if the process requires a certain touch and understanding, and the fear of burn-through lingers in the room like a ghost.

What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.

 

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