MYSTERIOUS DODGE MINIVAN ROAMING SOCAL
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA is finally catching up to northern California and the New York City area. Yesterday in a local mini mall parking lot, a dark hued Dodge minivan mingled with … Continue reading
E2F2 AND OTHER COMPUTERIZED FUN
A READER with an evidently good memory asks about E2F2, the Engineering Editor’s Fun Factor. This assessment of enthusiast car goodness originally appeared in Road & Track, August 1984. Its … Continue reading
CHANGING TIMES
HOW TIMES have changed. Sometimes for the better, sometimes…. Here’s a collection of trends that I certainly wouldn’t have expected at the beginning of my (40!) years of monitoring the … Continue reading
THE PHILOSOPHY OF AUTO SAFETY
MARK ROSEKIND is the new administrator at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, sworn in December 22, 2014. And, as Keith Crain of Automotive News observed in his column on … Continue reading
CAR STYLING: KATSURA OR NIKKO?
THE FASHION of automotive styling is an evolving thing, and I sense we were in the midst of a swing from Nikko to Katsura and are now heading back to … Continue reading
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS SUMS THEM UP
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS (www.autonews.com) has been around since 1925. Originally Automotive Daily News based in New York City, it moved to Detroit in 1933 and by 1938 took the name we … Continue reading
THE NAME GAME
A RECENT brouhaha in the name game got me thinking about questionable automotive monikers. Infiniti has been on again/off again about its 560-hp Q50 Eau Rouge, this sports sedan named … Continue reading
A LUDDITE’S VIEW?
PRESERVATION OF hair on the top of my head was one reason for my choosing a Honda Crosstour . See “2012 Honda Crosstour,” http://wp.me/p2ETap-9S. Another reason that continues to satisfy … Continue reading
DOING THE CHAPMAN STRUT, AND OTHER MOVES
THE FIRST automotive front suspensions were beam axles with steering spindles at each end, only one step past a kid wagon’s pivoted assembly. Sturdy, simple and inexpensive, it communicated bumps … Continue reading
ENHANCING THE PRIUS ON THE TRACK
TOYOTA’S TS040 World Endurance Championship race cars, like other cars in the LMP1-H category, are hybrids. So, of course, is the ubiquitous Toyota Prius. What’s more, the company reports that … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 