Car Guy Speaks

The last two land speed record holders for production cars were the Bugatti Veyron and the SSC Ultimate Aero TT.  Both provide the wealthy owner with over 1000hp and both can exceed 250 mph. Very impressive machines. Would they really be that fun to drive every single Sunday? I guess that depends on where you live and how honest you are about how you drive.  Are either of these the kind of car you want for your last sports car? I know, I shouted “hell yes” initially too, but I hear they are both a bitch to parallel park. No Bugatti pictured here.  Sorry.  Jerod Shelby is an acquaintance of mine.  The Ultimate Aero is clearly an American icon that will come to be worshiped. It takes an “old school” approach to electronic intervention. Without ABS or traction control, I’m told this car can spin the tires at 200mph if you're not careful. That translates into a raw experience of power and responsibility that could certainl...

I think it was some time in 2004 or 5, I don’t really recall. Some relatives of mine came into some money.  Afraid of  the housing market, they came to me with a partially serious question. Should they invest in a Ford GT? I say partially serious because they really were looking for me to convince them. They liked the idea, but wanted a passionate push. I certainly was a fan of the Ford GT. It was Fords hi-tech tribute to the 60’s era GT40. I’m too young to remember, but history tells us it was used to decimate Ferrari at Lemans . This avenged Ford after the disgrace of Enzo Ferrari’s decision not sell his company to them. Sorry, I digress. You can look it up on Wikipedia. I’d long hoped that I could achieve financial independence swapping cars over time. So, have spent a good number of hours working on the probability of success in auto investing. Sadly, have never really come up with a plan that paid off for the modest investor like myself. The conclusion was once yo...

My M3's backup sensor is really cool. Or, at least it was, until last month when a droning beep showed up where the back-up sensing once was. Also cool were the tire pressure sensors. Pretty cool, until the constant flashing began, which is their way of telling me that they need service too. I'm too cheap to fix these optional features, but I cannot turn them off to ignore them either. Beep, beep, beep!  These inconvenient conveniences quickly loose there luster after that manufacturer's warranty expires. I personally think that these "nannies" will be the death of restoring vehicles, since not unlike your cell phone, they are upgraded and redesigned way too frequently. This recent frenzy of techno goodies leaves no time or interest to perfect or even repair them. We've all got a target timeframe for when cars were truly ideal, before they got too complicated. Your father might say fuel injection marked the end of automotive simplicity. It's true, you...