Photos courtesy Mecum Auctions. The midget motorsports craze of the 1930s and 1940s not only served as a launchpad for many drivers who’d go on to successful racing careers, it also ended up keeping ...
MIT prank. Photo courtesy rich701. Be forewarned! Trickery is or may be afoot today. Mischief and tomfoolery may encroach on your well-deserved slumber and quietude, so in order to prepare you for th...
BMW roundel. Photo by Dushan Hanuska. BMW and Mini owners around the country got some bad news on March 8, when Bavarian Autosport, the Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based parts supplier unexpectedly ann...
Photos courtesy Historic Vehicle Association. Students of automotive history will soon be gathering in Allentown, Pennsylvania, April 11-13, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Society of Automo...
If you’re a gearhead with an internet connection, there’s a good chance you’ve seen this video before. But don’t let that stop you from reveling in its wavy analog goodness once more. And if you have...
Michael: Is it still all right if I call you Mike? Or do you prefer Michael? Michael: Mike’s fine if you let me call you that, too. M: Okay, then, let’s get to it. Here’s the question: Do you think w...
Whether you call it a suicide ball, or a necker, granny, or Brodie knob, it’s all the same thing: a free-spinning knob affixed to a steering wheel designed to help drivers more quickly and easily mus...
Whether you call it a suicide ball, or a necker, granny, or Brodie knob, it’s all the same thing: a free-spinning knob affixed to a steering wheel designed to help drivers more quickly and easily mus...
Photography courtesy of the Rocky Rotella collection. Considering the emphasis placed on eliminating impaired driving today, be it due to alcohol, drugs, or other distractions such as texting, it’s i...
We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this bulletin! The origin of the alien device that was discovered last December and has since been variously referred to as “Arc 2 D 2” ...
Dad always filled his car trunk to capacity. Photo by Richard Lentinello. Dad’s car trunk was loaded with so many tools and emergency equipment it would have made a service station mechanic envious. ...
We received these photos in an email this week, along with a request for us to help identify the palletized engine featured in them. It looks to be a surplus engine that was possibly purchased at a g...
What looks like an R2-D2 pulled up from a saltwater sea, weighs as much as the Death Star, and has enough firepower to — literally — fuse together two Tie-Fighter’s? No, it’s not something from the S...
Amid the big announcements from GM this past week came the news that the company was canceling a number of models, including the Impala, which this year turned 60. Eric Lawrence at the Detroit Free P...
New $34.99 ignition coil from NAPA. Photos by the author. With Lucas electrics being the butt of jokes for decades, it’s time we give credit where credit is due. A few weeks ago, while heading out fo...
So, three buddies, who each happen to have YouTube channels, like going to junkyards, finding old cars and getting them started, running and moving. “Thunderhead289,” “Junkyard Digs” and “Dylan McCoo...
Images are by RBW Classic Electric Cars, except where noted While the sounds, smells, and feeling of an internal-combustion engine and three-pedal manual transmission have always been an integral par...
The generations that have gone before give us the tools we need to survive in the world. Sometimes those tools are very literal tools, and handed to us in an oil-stained box. Like these my dad just g...
Photos courtesy Steve Linne. Racer Jack Conely might have been best known for the “maxi-mouse” small-block Chevrolet engines punched out to big-block proportions, but squirreled away among his stash ...
Photo by author. I have a confession to make: I am a tool hoarder. Were I loyal to one brand of automobile or motorcycle, or even a single nationality, this would pose less of a problem, but over the...
No restoration project is truly complete without a set of the factory-issued tools that originally came with the car. Through the years the tools are usually the first item that gets misplaced and lo...
One off-camera flash bracket + one quarter = instant screwdriver. A pair of Vise-Grips would have worked to hold the quarter too, but we didn’t have those either. Photos by author. While on the road ...
Photo by Chris McFarland. In a deal announced Thursday, January 5, Stanley Black & Decker has agreed to purchase the Craftsman brand from Sears Holdings for an initial payment of $525 million, an add...
Photos by Jake Schreiber. It’s been a while since we’ve run an installment in the “From the Toolbox” series, but we recently received a pair of photos from reader Jake Schreiber that, quite frankly, ...
Photography by author. In “A Dog’s Life,” an episode of the classic TV show The Honeymooners, Alice adopts a dog from the pound without Ralph’s knowledge. Foraging for a snack in the icebox, neighbor...