BMW X1  Luxury cars are only for the rich and famous, right? Maybe once upon a time. But, like the rest of the automotive industry, the upper end of the market is changing rapidly. Even as they pump out bespoke supercars with seven-figure price tags for the global elite, the…

In the late 1970s, NASCAR was becoming a major automotive institution. With large audiences following the weekend races, the car industry noticed something interesting; when a particular car won a race, people went to their local car dealer the next week and bought that car. Essentially, a win at NASCAR…

Chrysler’s Plymouth Division has been known to make some outrageous cars but there is one that takes the cake: the Plymouth Prowler. The Prowler was unlike any other car ever made by a major automobile company. It was basically a modern version of the California roadster hotrods of the 1940s.…

If you like performance cars, you’ve undoubtedly heard about Nitrous Oxide. Nitrous Oxide systems are a way to dramatically boost the horsepower of engines without internal hardware modifications. They really aren’t a good idea to install on standard street cars, however, because they can be dangerous. That being said, enthusiasts…

Have you seen the 1985 movie Back to the Future? If so, you know what 1.21 Gigawatts is needed for. As Michael J. Fox finds out in the movie, it’s the amount of energy that a Delorean time travel machine needs to work. Back to the Future was a great…

The roads in Cuba are just packed with classic cars. Most of them are American cars from 1950s and 60s Why is this? It’s simple, since Cuba has effectively been isolated from the west for over 50 years, certain features of its society are effectively locked in time. When it…

There was a time when a turbocharged vehicle was considered exotic. Turbochargers, which can increase a car’s horsepower up to 60%, were installed only sports cars and race cars. Today, turbochargers are still used on performance cars but they have become popular in standard passenger cars too. The reasoning in…

You have probably seen the black and white pictures of the old hotrods with aluminum, torpedo-shaped bodies. These vehicles were built to break speed records in the 1940s-50s. The reason they are called Belly Tank Racers is because the body of these hotrods came from the aluminum drop tanks of…

“Hey, does that thing have a Hemi?” Do you may remember this line? It’s from a notable Dodge TV commercial of a decade ago. If you haven’t seen the original commercial, head on over to YouTube and take a look -it’s pretty funny. The original commercial, along with several follow-up…

Hood scoops are those bumps you see on performance cars that let air feed into the engine compartment. They are frequently on the hoods of cars, especially on the muscle cars of the 1960 but you may see them on other locations too. Have you ever wondered if these things…

In the old days, car engines used devices called carburetors to vaporize engine fuel. Carburetors did a great job and were simple to troubleshoot and repair. Carburetors were the only game in town until the 1950s when automotive engineers started experimenting with other methods to deliver fuel to combustion cylinders.…

Ralph Nader A book was released in 1965 that changed the automobile industry forever. Written by Ralph Nader, a little known lawyer from Hartford, CT, Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile was the title. The subject material was a critical look at the auto industry…