One of my favorite Jaguars of all time is the 1967 Jaguar XKSS. Jag purists might scoff at me but I think the XJSS is way better looking than the E-type. The E-type is a beautiful car but the XJSS has better lines to me. You know it’s cool when Steve McQueen owned one! There is an interesting story behind the XJSS production. Jaguar had 29 unsold D-types and decided to transform them into road going sports cars. This was already a small production number but after a fire broke out in the factory in 1957, only 16 cars made it out. They could be purchased for a mere $5,000 dollars back in 1957 but as you could imagine they are worth a pretty penny these days. The one Steve McQueen owned for instance is valued at roughly 30 million dollars! Speaking of Jaguars, another rare cat is the XJ220. I had a poster and very detailed model of this silver bullet when I was young. I thought it was one of the coolest cars I had ever seen. When engineers at Jaguar got together in their spare time they developed the XJ220 originally as a 4 wheel drive, V-12 powered super car. The public was very excited putting deposits down left and right. When it hit production as a rear-wheel drive, V6 powered supercar many backed out! There were 271 cars built with only 32 U.S. spec cars and only a handful still remain stateside. The XJ220 was special in that it held the world’s fastest supercar record for years until the McLaren F1 came along. It reached 217 mph but would have done more if they had more road. It had a 542 hp twin turbo V6 and is still in the top 10 fastest road going cars ever.

Another rare car from that era is the Vector W8 Twin Turbo. This was another car that found its way on the wall in poster form for many little boys in the 90’s. They had a crazy design and were built right here in the good ol US of A. Only 19 of them were built, 17 of which were available to the public. The Vector had a very cool ultra 90s styling and more buttons on the interior than anything i’ve ever seen. It looked like an airplane cockpit. It makes sense as the owner and designer of Vector automobiles was not only a car enthusiast but also loved fighter jets. The Vector was powered by a 6.0L fuel injected twin turbo V8 good for over 600 hp. The dash featured all aircraft grade circuit breakers, and all of the buttons I mentioned were the same ones found in the F 117 stealth fighter jet. The W8 was the successor to the W2 which had similar aircraft derived design elements but with cooler horizontal scale bar graphs for performance gauges!

The 1928 Mercedes Benz S-type is one of my favorites from that era. It’s also one of the rarest of the time period as well. These were expensive cars and distributed only to the wealthy through an importer in New York City here in the states. The S type was actually designed by Ferdinand Porsche, another famous car designer you may have heard of. Only 150 of these beautiful sports tourers were built and very few have survived to the 21st century. Because of this they are valued somewhere between 5 and 6 million dollars. Another really cool car of this same time period is the Bugatti Type 41 Royale Kellner Coupe. Luxury cars of this era had a style that in my opinion have never been matched. With their long hoods and sweeping fenders, they were beautiful. The Type 41 was a huge car, weighing almost 7,000 lbs and its physical size makes it one of the largest cars in the world. The big car was powered by a massive 12.7L straight-eight engine. Bugatti planned to build 25 of these for sale to Royalty around the world but timing wasn’t great due to the Great depression. The chassis alone cost $30,000 back then to build, I could only imagine what the whole car cost. Today its said that only 6 of these cars remain in existence and have fetched close to 10 million at auction almost 30 years ago!

There were some pretty limited production runs of cars back in the heyday of muscle as well. As you can imagine they were usually the top performance models with big block engines. One of these limited runs was the 1967 and 1968 Corvette L88. GM advertised this as a racing-only package but did little to push it at dealers. Of the 216 models produced with the package only 20 were 1967 models (may favorite year for the Corvette). The L88 had a slightly more powerful 427ci V8 rated at 435 hp but many believe its output was closer to around 550 hp! The 1971 Plymouth Barracuda convertible is another rare one with only 11 ever built with the coveted 426 ci Hemi V8. Even more rare was the Hemi ‘Cuda with the four-speed manual transmission as only 3 of them were ever produced. These classic Plymouths bring well over a million dollars at auction but a must have for any complete Mopar collection. Another rare Mopar is also one of my favorites and that’s the 1968 Hurst Dodge Dart L023. These are considered by many to be the fastest factory muscle cars of all time. Dodge would ship these cars void of anything unnecessary for speed. Items such as horns, radios, carpeting, even engines and transmissions were left at Dodge when these cars were sent to the Hurst performance facility. Rumor has it that Hurst literally sledge hammered the right shock towers in the cars for valve cover clearance for the specially built iron block 426 Hemi engines that were shoehorned into the small cars. Further weight reduction was done by acid dipping the doors, thin gauge front bumpers, fiberglass fenders, and Chemcor side windows. Like the L88 Corvette the engine was rated at 435 hp but produced closer to 535 hp. These were 10 second cars out of the box and ran in the 9’s in no time. Only 80 were built for racing enthusiasts making them very valuable today.

There are too many one off rarities to list here. Many were manufactured by large automotive companies to show off what the future of automobiles would look like in their opinion. Others were limited runs for homologation racing purposes, and others like the Icona Vulcano Titanium and the W Motors Lykan Hypersport show off what boutique car manufacturers can produce. Depending on how rare the car is they can fetch a fortune these days. I wish one could know today what cars to buy as they may make someone very rich someday. It’s a little sad as some of these most rare and expensive cars surely don’t see road use, what they were built for. It’s understandable as it would be a shame for someone to rear end your 35 Million dollar Ferrari in rush hour traffic. I can’t say that I wouldn’t have some of these rare vehicles in my collection if I had unlimited funds to work with! As always, have fun, be safe, and keep the shiny side up!

I am no mechanic by any means but I can do basic car maintenance and I have amassed a decent amount of tools over the years. If I ever had to do something that required specific tools that I didn’t have I bought them so that I could tackle similar tasks in the future. My dad has also given me tools for just about every gift for holidays since I could be trusted to use them properly. The fact that I have owned numerous older vehicles has helped because there is no warranty and getting your car worked on nowadays is pretty damn expensive. If there is anything that I’ve had to have done is usually because I couldn’t diagnose it myself. The age of the interwebs has helped change that for many and now you can youtube how to pretty much do anything. I’ve fixed multiple issues and installed aftermarket parts with the help of Youtube. A lot of times it comes down to whether you have the right tools for the job. There are so many specialized tools out there for specific jobs it’s hard to acquire them all unless you are working on cars everyday. Most professional mechanics spend lots of money on their own tools to help them get their job done better and more efficiently. There are some staple tools though that any garage mechanic should have.

If you are going to do any kind of brake or suspension work where you need to remove a wheel or two a hydraulic floor jack is pretty handy. I Have a set of ramps for doing things like fluid changes but you can’t get wheels off when they are being used to support the weight of the car, obviously. I have two floor jacks, one I purchased and one i received as a gift. I have used them a lot over the years from working on cars here and there, levelling pool tables, and most recently moving a hot tub. They lift anything heavy. The hydraulic portable jack was invented by a Scottish immigrant Richard Dudgeon in 1858. The principal of hydraulic power had been around for sometime but nobody had devised a way to make it portable yet. Dudgeon refined his product for almost 15 years before having a model that got rid of most shortcomings. Shipyards and railroads brought them in abundance bringing him a great fortune. The Jacks used water or “other fluids” These other fluids were usually whale oil or whiskey. Whiskey was used in colder climates as the other fluid had a tendency to freeze or congeal. I consider this nowadays a form of alcohol abuse!

The socket wrench or is a life saver when trying to tighten or loosen a fastener in a confined space, Which is never the case when working on cars right? Sockets have been around for centuries although the hex socket did not become the standard until the 20th century. Before this most sockets and fasteners were square and some of the earliest sockets on record where those used to wind clocks back in the middle ages. The socket wrench with indexable sockets as we know it today, although a different design but functionally the same, was patented in 1863 and invented by J.J. Richardson from Vermont. Before the socket wrench spanner wrenches were the standard tool for work with fasteners. The square head fasteners were much easier to produce until the industrial revolution came along in the late 19th century with better milling, shaping, and manufacturing techniques which made the hex head just as easy to make.

Some other tools that I find hard to work on cars without are ratchet wrenches, a rubber mallet and Air tools if its an involved project. I never had pneumatic tools up until a few years ago and they are fantastic! A creeper is also very handy if you are going to be in and out from under the car a lot. I would also recommend keeping a can or two of PB Blaster to spray those rusty bolts that you are going to bust a knuckle or two trying to get to break loose. WD-40 can have the same effect but I find PB Blaster to do the trick a little better. Tools for me are an investment, not that I’m going to be a professional mechanic or anything but I like to have them around when I need them and tools are the kind of thing that you buy once and have them forever unless you lend them out and never get them back again! You can pass them down to your children and grandchildren for generations if you take care of them and buy quality products. I find the extreme variety of tools pretty fascinating as well. I remember my dad getting Sears tool catalogs when I was younger and I would look through those page by page like they were car magazines haha. There are so many cool tools out there to do various jobs, many of which I don’t even know about.

More handy tools for the weekend warrior garage mechanic are locking extension bars to hold sockets in place, a nut splitter to cut off a stubborn nut that won’t break loose, Flexible sockets can be a life saver, and a multimeter is a necessity if you are trying to chase down electrical issues. The list is nearly endless, it just depends on how deep down the garage tools hole you want to go and how serious you are about your garage mechanic capabilities. As I said earlier I am no mechanic but I can fix most things If I know what needs to be done. Half the battle for me is just diagnosing what needs to be fixed. I for one try to fix as much as I can on my own vehicles but If I have to take my car somewhere I would prefer it to be a garage mechanic with a good reputation. They are out there and I feel like since they don’t have a large company backing them up their word is their bond. Most are honest people just trying to make a living or some extra money on the side. They aren’t hard to find, especially in today’s age with social media. Join a local facebook group for the make of your car and ten to one you will be able to find the “guru” on your car in your area in no time.

When working on your own car or somebody else’s there are lots of things to think about. Some cars are inherently easier than others to work on mostly due to their age and “packaging” of the car. I would say that older cars are a little easier to work on because of less electronics involved. The flip side is almost everytime I work on something older, especially in the part of the country I live in rust is an issue. I always strip or snap a bolt off. A good easy out set is also worth its weight in gold for these situations. The newer the car the less time its been been exposed to the environment making things like brake jobs and other routine maintenance cleaner and easier to do. New cars have a gazillion sensors on them now which can wreak havoc on the entire car for something small that doesn’t really effect the drivability. This is just my experience anyways.

Packaging is a whole other deal. Depending on how the car is designed and built some cars are just easier to work on than others. In my limited experience the hardest car I’ve ever worked on was a 1991 or 1992, I think it was, Dodge Stealth Twin Turbo that a buddy of mine had. We weren’t even doing anything major and I honestly can’t even remember what we had to fix but that transverse mounted 3.0 twin turbo V6 took up nearly every inch of that engine bay. I always thought it and the 3000GT VR4 were really cool cars but I’d never want to have to work on one a lot. The easiest was an early 90’s Dodge W250 I had. With the Straight Six Cummins engine you could almost climb in and stand on the frame rail to work on anything under the hood. Mine was lifted so I needed a ladder to get in there but still it was a very easy place to work, not that it ever needed fixing but tinkering was easy. Before you go and spend all your beer money on a shop or dealership fixing your car do some research and see if you can find a good garage mechanic that is trustworthy and reliable if you can’t do the work yourself. You will need them if you want to keep your baby on the road for years to come! From all of us here at Gearbox have fun, be safe, and keep the shiny side up!

​There have been trucks around since the very late 1890’s but they took a few years to really become popular. Chevrolet offered models that were essentially cars with an open frame and that’s pretty much it. This allowed for the buyer to install their own cab and bed on the vehicle to meet their needs. There were companies who installed truck beds on modified Ford model T’s but it wasn’t until 1925 that Ford started mass production of a pickup truck based on the model T called the model T Runabout. Dodge introduced their version of the truck just one year earlier in 1924. The Runabout was replaced in 1928 with the model A which offered an enclosed cab. These trucks were still just pick up bodies from the factory and it wasn’t until 1931 that Chevrolet introduced the first factory assembled pickup truck. The United states government halted the production of the pickup trucks for civilians during World War Two so that they could be used for wartime duties.

The 1950s were a stylish era for cars and trucks alike.  While not my favorite era of trucks, they are close. No other time were trucks more original ,styling wise, in my opinion. World War Two was still fresh in the minds of many and the general public was ready to settle down, buy a home and a new pickup truck for work. One of my favorites was the 1955 to 1957 Chevy pickups, particularly the Napco trucks. The Dodge Power Wagon made a name for itself during the war with it’s 4×4 capability and Chevrolet noticed. Napco had been makin specialized mechanical parts for four-wheel-drive systems for over a century for multiple brands but most notably the mid 50’s Chevrolet and GMC trucks. I’m a big fan of four wheel drive capability in a pickup because why not? While not necessary in all climates the more capability the better in my book. The Napco kit could be installed in as little as 3 hrs and with only four extra holes drilled into the frame. The kit could be ordered directly from Chevrolet for the 56-59 model years and it really transformed the old Chevy into a much more capable truck. Go check out Legacy Classic Trucks, known for their awesome power wagon builds, who also offer pretty much brand new Napco Chevy pickups and they are gorgeous!

​Pickup trucks of the 1960’s became more squared off and less stylish in my opinion. That’s not to say they were ugly, unless you count the Studebaker Champ. Yes Studebaker had a full size pickup to compete with the likes of Chevrolet, Ford, and Dodge and so did International Harvester, best known for the Scout and their heavy equipment. Trucks of this era were still pretty utilitarian compared to todays but that really goes for all prior generations , we will get to that later. Although Trucks were built for work manufacturers were still innovating with new technologies and ways of doing things. Ford had their twin I-beam independent front suspension, Jeep touted their Gladiator pickup with its four-wheel-drive, and Dodge offered a crew cab with enough room for 6 passengers. Factory four-wheel-drive was still around as options but most trucks of the decade were still rear-wheel-drive and mostly offered with inline 6 cylinder engines. I think the late 60’s Fords and Chevys were the best looking of the decade and the V-8 engine started to become more and more popular.

​The 1970’s was a glorious decade for pickup trucks and had some of the best looking in my opinion. I’m a huge fan of the big four-wheel-drive square body trucks. It’s hard to beat old steel, manual transfer cases, and solid axles. One of my all time favorite “old trucks” is the Ford F-250 Highboy. It was introduced in 1967 and was produced until 1977. The ¾ tons were revamped the year after and sat almost 2 inches lower giving the older trucks the nickname Highboy. Most were powered by Fords 360 V-8 and were offered with the C6 automatic or 4-speed manual transmission. The Highboy F250 is the best looking Ford pickup ever in my opinion. Toyota pretty much dominated the Japanese truck market in the 1970s and after although Datsun had been around in the states since the 1950’s. 1979 saw the introduction of my favorite older Japanese truck the Hilux. The Hilux was the first compact truck to offer four-wheel-drive and Toyota did it right fitting it with a pretty indestructible drivetrain, good ground clearance and very good reliability making them sought after for trail rig builds. We have a very clean 1987 Toyota pickup as a shop truck and they are pretty cool little trucks. Toyota’s reputation in the small truck market is unsurpassed in my eyes and if I were in the market for one it would probably be a Toyota.

I think i’ll save the 1980s trucks through todays for a future write up and talk a little bit about why I love pickup trucks so much and what my experience with them has been. As I mentioned earlier my first vehicle when I was 16 was a 1994 Dodge Ram and it was great. I had a lot of fun in that thing and it held up to my abuse pretty well. It started my love affair with trucks. It had the smaller 318 V8 in it but it was a solid engine with plenty of power. I had a car for a few years after that and then splurged on my first brand new vehicle, a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500. Growing up around my dad and grandfather who were truck buyers and always had been it was a proud day for me. I worked hard to afford that brand new pickup and I don’t think i have been more excited about a vehicle purchase since. It was a club cab (four door) ¾ ton with the Cummins diesel engine and it was great. I had been into diesel performance for years prior reading about it but I had never owned one. The “computer controlled” diesels were still kinda new in 2006 so programming was very dirty but amazing how much power was available with just a $500 box plugged into the OBD2 port. I put a silly 5” turbo back exhaust on it and it was a bit loud but I loved it at the time.

​I’ve owned two other trucks since then including my favorite so far but i’ll save those for later. I think today’s trucks suffer from what the military refers to as “mission creep”. They are still trucks as far as classification goes but many consumers don’t buy them for what they’re original purpose was, to work. A large population of truck buyers shuttle more people than wood or dirt. I prefer older trucks for their “down to business” styling and simple, beefy drivetrains but I totally see the allure of the new pickup trucks. They have all of the cool new technology that cars have, in some cases better, and they can still tow trailers and haul heavy loads. Trucks today are more capable than ever but are used by many as daily transportation, not a means of making a living but that’s ok. All the cool tech and creature comforts make them desirable to many who need room for the whole family but also need room for hauls from the hardware store or somewhere for their wet dog to ride. The downside to all of this is that ,in my opinion​, they have gotten way out of hand pricewise. New trucks, with all of the fancy stuff they have now are pretty expensive. You can option out full size one-ton diesel trucks from any of the three major manufactures here to well over 70k, some over 80k.  That’s nuts!  Maybe i’m just jealous because I can’t afford one, i don’t know haha. I love the old trucks but if someone gave me a new one I wouldnt turn it down. From all of us here at Gearbox have fun, be safe, and keep the shiny side up!

In the first installment of Muscle cars we talked about the golden age of muscle cars, the 1960’s and 1970’s. This was the golden era before the oil crisis set in and ruined everyone’s fun. Muscle cars were fairly non existent for a while as OPEC reduced petroleum production and proclaimed and embargo on oil shipments to the United States in 1973. This stemmed from the Yom Kippur war in Israel. Oil that was at $3 a barrel jumped to $12 dollars a barrel and supply was very limited. This led to gas stations being closed on Sundays and long lines on other days. The government was even telling people to not put lights on their homes during the holidays to conserve energy.  This had a large impact on domestic car manufacturers as their sales were surpassed by Japanese cars that were smaller and more fuel efficient. These same Embargos weren’t enforced in Europe but they still felt the effects of the limited production by OAPEC and many countries limited driving and flying to certain days of the week. The embargo was lifted in 1974 but the effects were felt through the rest of the decade until prices collapsed in the mid 1980’s.

As you could imagine, American auto manufacturers were not pumping out 400+ cubic inch tire killing machines during this time because nobody would buy them. As a result you have cars such as the Chevrolet Vega and exploding Ford Pinto. The American cars of the mid to late 70s were known for poor quality as many were sent to showrooms quickly and poorly tested. For instance, the Vega was built in a new plant and there was a problem with frustrated workers sabotaging cars on the assembly line and that exploding Pinto I mentioned? Well its gas tank was placed too far back and tended to catch fire in a rear end collision. It also had rear doors that would jam in a rear end collision creating a mess for Ford. Many cars offered smaller engines and the ones that still offered V-8s were very underpowered. I mean, underpowered like there are many N/A 4 cylinder economy cars these days that have more power. Now the big three still produced there versions of performance vehicles through the late 1970’s and 1980’s but the days of hot rodded versions of every vehicle in their lineup were long gone. Chevrolet still had the Corvette and Camaro, Ford still had the Mustang and Dodge still produced the Omni……Yea sadly the great Mopars went by the wayside as Dodge didn’t really have a flagship sports car line until the Viper came decades later.

The 1980’s Were not great for muscle cars but the manufacturers tried… kind of. The trans am line continued from Pontiac, think Kitt from knight rider, and the Camaro was still around. Everybody has a cousin or Uncle who had an IROC Z and thought they were hot shit haha. The Camaro in the eighties focused on agility with new suspension setups but failed hard in the power department with a 5.0L V8 making 190 hp in top form for 1983. 1987 saw the return of the 350cid V8, now with port fuel injection. It wasn’t until 1993 the Camaro started to come back with the new F-body and LT1 / LS1 V8 engines. I’ve always considered the Corvette as more of a sports car than a muscle car so we will leave that one out here. After the oil crisis there were really just a few players in the “muscle car” realm. The Camaros biggest competitor was and has been the Ford Mustang.

The Mustang was also neutered after the oil crisis like many but it made it through and is still in production to this day. The Mustangs built between 1979 and 1993 are known by many as the Fox body Mustang. They are called this because, well, they were built on Ford’s Fox unibody chassis that was designed to downsize the cars on the 70’s. The Fox body mustang is one of my favorites though I prefer the late 80s, early 90’s single headlight bodystyle, especially the notchback. The Mustangs suffered from the same underpowered engines as the Camaro but the Fox body was smaller, lighter, and more nimble. The Mustang almost ended up a front wheel drive “sports car” but enthusiasts swayed Ford to keep the rear wheel drive, front engine platform. Engines offered through the eighties ranged from 88 hp four cylinders to 205 hp turbo four cylinders to the famous , Vanilla Ice approved, five oh. The 5.0 was unanimously the most popular choice among enthusiasts although the turbo 2.3L was more powerful for certain model years but was never very reliable. Many have come to describe this era of Mustang just by the engine size.

This isn’t a Camaro vs Mustang thing I simply wanted to illustrate how far we had fallen from the glory days of essentially unregulated power outputs of big block powered family sedans and muscle cars. How the mighty had fallen. There is one iconic muscle car from the eighties though that needs mentioning. I don’t necessarily consider it a “muscle car” myself but I think many people lump it in with them. It wasn’t the quintessential big V8 powered car, the Buick Grand National. The 1983 Grand National featured a single turbocharged 3.8L V6 engine that belted out 600 hp and……just kidding. It made 200 hp and 300 ft lbs of torque respectively. That may not sound like much but with the epa and fuel costs putting a stranglehold on performance it was pretty potent. For example the Corvette of the same year only produced 205 hp, the Buick had 10 more ft lbs of twist though. This was a surprise as GM usually didn’t want anything of their own to compete with their flagship sports car. 1986 saw an air to air intercooler and more boost bumping power to 235 hp and 330 ft lbs of torque. The last year for the Grand National was 1987 and the Buick went out in style with a limited GNX model. The standard Grand National made 245 hp and 355 ft lbs of torque but the GNX turned it up to eleven with 276 hp and 360 ft lbs of torque. This was good for a claimed sub five second 0-60 time and mid 13’s in the quarter. It was one of the best performance cars of the eighties and earned it’s rank among the best muscle cars produced.

I’ve been seeing alot of resto mods lately. I don’t think they are getting any more popular than they have been the last 10 years, maybe I’m just noticing them more but they are so cool. If you don’t know, restomods are classic cars, many of them muscle cars, that are restored to look original from the outside but have all the advancements of modern automotive technology. Original on the outside as in the body is original. Most of them have larger wheels and tires with upgraded suspension parts usually taken from modern variants of similar Brand cars, I.E. new Corvette suspension under a 1968 Camaro. I like the restomods for multiple reasons. They look cool as hell when done right. You get some of today’s features like electric windows, air conditioning, good audio, suspension that makes the car feel like it’s not a boat, and other modern day items. On the flip side I feel like they also take some of the nostalgia and experience away. The wallowy suspension, bench seats, and heavy feel of the car are all part of the muscle car, to me anyways. If you have ever been in a big block 4 speed car you know what I mean. I can see both sides though. The restomod would be a much better driver and you could carve up some back roads with it too. If I had my choice I think I’d have to go with a 1967 Corvette with a new LT-5 GM small block lifted from the 2019 ZR1 that’s good for 755 hp and 715 ft lbs of torque, that should do it. Or a 1955 Chevy 210 with a supercharged 540 cubic inch Steve Morris big block making ,1,200+ hp on pump gas, or maybe a Mopar…. There are a lot of very cool options with restomods but make sure you have deep pockets!

I know most people revert back to the 60’s and 70’s when they think about muscle cars and for good reason, they were in their hayday. Manufacturers tried to still make them live on after the oil crisis and stricter EPA laws through the following decade and a half but they just weren’t the same. That’s not to say that there were some cars in the 80’s that make great platforms for “muscle car” build today. The Grand National has a cult following but there are others used as platforms today. These include the mid 80’s Monte Carlo, and G body Malibu. Not focusing on GM but Ford didn’t have much that looked good outside of the Mustang and Chrysler, as much as I love mopars, had a bad decade. You can make a muscle car out of anything really just keep it rear wheel drive and put an overly powerful engine in it and you’ll be good to go! From all of us here at Gearbox have fun, be safe, and keep the shiny side up!

The first company i would like to talk about is a little one out of Italy you may have heard of, Aprilia. For me, this company is synonymous with road racing. When I think of MotoGP bikes this company is the first that comes to mind for me. Maybe its because im used to seeing them all decked out in racing colors and the name Aprilia across the tank and fairings. They just look like GP bikes. The company also offers other styles of bikes as well like the really cool “sport naked” style and enduros. Aprilia was founded soon after World War Two in a small province of Venice. The company started out as a small bicycle manufacturer but started producing small internal combustion engine powered “motorcycles” in 1968. The company produced their first motocross bike in 1970 and added Enduro, trials, and road bikes into their lineup in the 1980s. Aprilia launched their flagship superbike, the RSV Mille, in 1998 and soon was racing in the World Superbike Championship the year after. Since then Aprilia has enjoyed considerable success in road racing. Aprilia is a fairly small motorcycle company compared to other Global manufacturers but they have always done well in motorsport. Shortly after they were acquired by the Piaggio group Aprilia became the most successful motorcycle racing racing brand in history in 2010 surpassing another italian motorcycle manufacturer,  MV Agusta. Aprilia is still a force to be reckoned with in road racing to this day.

Triumph motorcycles Ltd is the largest British motorcycle manufacturer and is located in Hinckley, Leicestershire, UK. It was actually founded by a couple of German guys and produced their first  motorcycle in 1902, although they had been importing German made bicycles into England since 1885. The first All-Triumph motorcycle was released in 1905 and by 1907 Triumph had established itself in the road racing circuit. The First World War broke out 1914 and Triumph benefited with producing 30,000 bikes for the allied forces. These model H roadsters became known as the “trusty Triumph”. In 1936 the company split its car and motorcycle production up into two separate companies while also producing one of the most famous Triumph motorcycles in their history, the 500cc Speed Twin. Once again the government called on Triumph when the second World War broke out to build bikes for the allied forces. The factory was producing nearly 300 bikes a week at full tilt. Although the manufacturer changed hands numerous times over the years they were able to keep going. Through two World Wars,  multiple bankruptcies, and even a fire in 2002 that destroyed huge parts of their factory, they were able to stay on their feet. Today they produce a range of bikes including modern classic bobbers, adventure enduro, cruisers, and my favorite, the Speed Triple.

Italians know how to make beautiful things and one of the most popular and recognizable motorcycle companies in the world, Ducati, is no exception. You might have noticed many of today’s motorcycle companies started off making bicycles but Ducati is a little different. The company, founded by three brothers, actually got their start making radio equipment in the northern italian town of Bologna. The company’s holdings were ruined during the Second World War but they emerged from it building motorized bicycles in the early 50’s. It didn’t take long before the company was making a name for themselves in motorsport. A lot of the brand’s racing success was due to the trick desmodromic valve system developed in house for their bikes. Ducati’s racing success continued through the 60’s and 70’s. The company was purchased in 1983 and merged with the Cagiva group, another motorcycle manufacturer. More new models were offered during this ownership, most notably the Monster line. They were purchased by an american group in the mid 90s and saw even more racing success in the World Superbike Series. Today the company produces multiple genres of bikes with the Monster line still leading sales for the most part. Ducati builds some of my personal favorites like the Monster, Diavel, and the Panigale.  Ducatis superbikes have always been at the top of my motorcycle wish list and some of the best sounding V-twin engines out there!

Founded in 1945, MV Agusta was a branch of Agusta Aviation Company founded in 1923. The company’s founder, Count Giovanni Agusta passed away just four years after founding the aviation company leaving it to his four sons. One of them produced their first prototype in 1945 which was a small scooter. The family saw a need for cheap efficient modes of transportation by the end of the Second World War so they, like many, developed motorcycles for the public. Two of the four brothers were very interested in motorsport and built a bike in 1948 for the Italian Grand prix. Their bike won the race putting them on the map over night and the company won their first world championship in 1952! The brothers wanted to now build bikes to fund their racing habits.  MV Agusta produced smaller cc “cafe racer” style motorcycles through the 1950’s and 1960’s. They eventually started building larger displacement bikes as demand for them went up in the late 60’s. Domenico Agusta passed away in 1971 and he was really the heart and soul of the company. They won their last grand prix in 1976 and were out of racing by the end of the season. MV sold their last bike in 1980 but the company was revived when the Cagiva group, same company who purchased Ducati years before, purchased the rights to the name in the early 90s. The company bounced around from owner to owner over the next 25 years including Harley Davidson and Mercedes AMG minority stock holding. They build some of the coolest looking bikes in my opinion like the F4 superbike and the naked Brutale.

I’m not saying that if you are going to buy a superbike it has to be European but you’d be a lot cooler if you did. Just kidding, I’m not knocking other countries manufacturers either but there is just something special about the Euro bikes. There is an aura around them that the Japanese bikes just don’t have. Whatever it is, I can see it. Someday I’ll own something with only two wheels. It will probably come after my kids are grown but that’s ok. Just like cars, I don’t Judge whatever it is you like to ride. Everyone has their own opinion on what is best and many have strong brand loyalty. As long as you enjoy what you ride, that’s all that matters. From all of us here at Gearbox, have fun, ride safe, and keep the shiny side up!

Well here we are again, it’s that time of year to get your whip all cleaned up for the summer. After a long winter your ride needs a thorough cleaning, especially if you live in a place where the water freezes into snow and the air hurts your face. If you don’t live somewhere like this im jealous and don’t like you. Im kidding, im just jealous….and only slightly dislike you. Here in the midwest the winter months can be very harsh on your car inside and out. The salt put down on the roads can trash your paint and is corrosive to the metals on your car. It will also ruin the carpets in your car in a hurry too if your not careful. I am a little bit of a clean freak, especially when it comes to my cars. I drive a 22 year old station wagon but its clean. I don’t see how people can drive around in a car with food wrappers and soda bottles rolling around in it but i wont judge. That stuff can accumulate quickly, especially during the winter months. I swear my car runs better when it’s clean and nobody can convince me otherwise!

I mentioned the exterior metals on a car can take a serious beating in the winter with the salts and chemicals put down to get rid of the snow and ice. It also takes a toll on the paint of your car as well. If left unattended for too long the salt will eat through the paint and cause some nasty damage. If you park in a heated garage and the salt is on your car it only worsens the effects. Newer cars with modern paint are less susceptible to this happening because painting compounds and techniques have changed considerably over the years. Pre 1924 cars were painted with the same techniques used for painting carriages. These techniques required numerous coats and painfully long drying times, some as long as 52 days! Can you imagine? Almost 2 months to fully paint a carriage or automobile. They would use large fairly sanitary buildings to dry the carriages out. In the early 1920s a worker at DuPont left out a drum of cotton fibers treated with a nitrate solution used in movie film manufacturing in the heat for too long and it turned into a liquid that became the basis for nitrocellulose lacquer. This lacquer became the leading automotive finish for the next 50 years.

The first car was spray painted in 1923, just a few short years after the accidental discovery. Nitrocellulose lacquer, alkyd, and derivations of the two were used to paint and refinish cars well into the 1970’s by OEMs. The Europeans focused more on enamel systems to paint their cars after WW2, mostly due to restrictions on items such as nitrocellulose lacquer and other materials that could be used to construct explosives. These enamel systems were far superior to the air dry processes used in the United States. The Europeans invaded the market here in the U.S. during the 1980s with their superior paint systems and it has taken decades to catch up. This was also a time of stricter standards set forth by the EPA. Paint companies, as well as paint equipment companies, pointed the finger at everyone but themselves as to who was responsible for helping meet these stricter regulations. Both groups scrambled through trial and error, eventually finding solutions in the mid to late 80’s.

Today’s cars are completely dipped in baths of chemicals by machines and painted with robotic painting arms. The paints and sealants of yesterday are a far cry from what is used
today. Today’s paints are very durable and impervious to UV degradation. White still reigns supreme as the most popular new car color followed by black, then gray, then silver. Speaking of new cars, maybe you don’t want to get out there and clean your old car up. Maybe you want to trade it in, old McDonalds bags and all, for something new. This is a perfect time of year for car shows around the country as manufacturers are out showing off their newest variants to the consumer. I attended the Kansas City International auto show a few weeks ago and while my focus was on mid size SUVs, #dadlife, there are some pretty interesting cars new for this year!

Being as i was looking at SUVs and wagons, the new Subaru Ascent was at the top of my list to check out although I’m pretty set on a turbo Forester for the next family car, or atleast i was. I found out just last week that Subaru has axed the turbo model for the 2019 forester ruining my plans. That’s a rant i’ll save for another time. The ascent is a 3 row SUV and is the largest vehicle in their lineup. It will actually tow a decent amount of weight for a Subaru, 5,000 lbs, and is powered by a 260 hp turbocharged flat 4. For anyone looking for a new mid size SUV to haul the whole family this new Subaru is probably a pretty safe bet. The other new midsize SUV i am interested in is the new Volkswagen Atlas. At roughly the same size as the Ascent they are almost direct competitors. After owning a VW for a couple years it’s hard to beat that German quality feel. The atlas is also a 3 row capable family hauler that is available with VW’s 4motion all-wheel-drive. It’s available with either a 235hp turbo four cylinder or a 3.6L 276 hp V6 and is also capable of towing up to 5,000 lbs. I was able to get in the atlas at the car show and like my gti, the doors close like a bank vault.

I think one of the coolest cars new for this year is a Kia. That’s right, say what you want about Kia but they build some nice cars these days and have for years now. This year Kia has come out swinging with the Stinger. The base stinger is offered with a 2.0L 255 hp engine but the GT model is what’s getting all of the attention. It offers a 365 hp twin turbo 3.3L V6 that help the car hit 60 mph in 4.7 seconds. This is serious performance from a Kia of all cars but It’s not cheap though at just over 38K msrp but i think it’s just the beginning for the company. From what I hear they are taking this car very seriously which will open up future models with even higher performance levels. I’m sure the GT will be a hit with the aftermarket in no time and as long as there is a little bit left in the turbos im sure they will be making well in excess of 400 hp with minimal tuning. Sadly they are only offered with automatic transmission but they can be had in either rear-wheel-drive or all-wheel-drive and with available features like electronically controlled suspension, Michelin pilot sport tires, and Brembo brakes they are sure to be crowd pleasers. Kia has definitely come a long way in the last ten years!

Another car, make that a truck, is making its comeback this year as well. The all new Ford Ranger. It seems like we all know someone who has owned one, my little Brother had one for his first car. The small truck segment has pretty much been left to Chevrolet and Toyota with thier Colorado and Tacoma since Dodge axed the Dakota and Ford stopped selling the Ranger here. The new “small” trucks are larger and more capable now so Ford has to come out swinging. I don’t think the new Ranger is particularly good looking but i’ve seen worse. It will be powered by a 2.3L ecoboost engine mated to a 10 speed automatic transmission. The variant i’m most excited about is the Raptor version that Ford has introduced for the Asian market. Right now there are no plans to bring it here yet. But it’s only a matter of time. I don’t think Ford would deny the largest population of truck buyers in the world a raptor version of the mini truck. The version they have now sports a twin turbo diesel engine in Asia but i would expect them to put the 2.7L ecoboost unit in it here. I think the raptor version would be a sweet option for someone who doesn’t need a full size pickup but could use some utility without sacrificing cool looks and good performance.

If you’ve got deep pockets and don’t feel like cleaning that old Ferrari up maybe you would be interested in a new car from Britain. If I had to buy a new supercar, the Huracan would be pretty hard to beat but any McLaren would give it a run for its money. I really like the styling and racing pedigree behind all of McLaren’s cars. The new 720S is no exception. Its several hundred pounds lighter than its competitors, the Ferrari 488 and the Lamborghini Huracan. In fact, when you option the 720S with all of its available carbon parts from the factory it comes in at just under 2900 lbs. The two italians are just a shade over 3400 lbs. Thats a 500 lb difference for those of you who didn’t major in math. McLaren didn’t skimp on the power either. Its 4.0L twin turbo V8 is good for 711 hp and and 568 ft lbs of torque. This kind of power to weight ratio is what makes the 720S so damn fast. 0-60 times in the 2.5 second range, 0-100 in the low 5’s and a 10.4 quarter mile time out of the box! That is crazy fast for a rear wheel drive car with 700hp. Whether you are going to clean up your dirty ass car for spring or pick up a new ride we support you either way!

From all of us here at Gearbox have fun, be safe, and keep the shiny side up!

– Ryan

Of all the professional racing disciplines, Formula One has arguably the coolest looking cars. Open wheel race cars have always been my favorite as they look low, wide, and minimalist. Formula One, also known as F1, is the highest class of single seat racing sanctioned by the FIA. A season in F1 consists of a series of races known as Grand Prix, French for grand prizes. These Grand Prix races are held all over the world and feature some of the more challenging race tracks. There have been many advances in racing technology since the start of Formula One in 1950. It is truly a global sport although for the 2018 season, 10 of the 21 races will take place in Europe. 2017 ushered in some fairly major changes for the cars as they are now allowed wider front and rear wings as well as wider tires allowing for the fastest road course cars in the world to be even faster. Before we delve into the new stuff let’s take a look back into F1’s colorful history.

The “Formula” in Formula One stands for a set of rules that participants must meet in order to compete. This was true back in it’s inception in the 1920’s and 1930’s as much as it is today. Formula One was a new set of rules that was put in place after World War Two. The first championship race was held at Silverstone raceway in the United Kingdom in 1950 and was won by an Italian Giuseppe Farina. Farina one 5 championships in the 1950s and his record stood for 45 years until Michael Schumacher won his sixth championship in 2003. Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Mercedes Benz, and Maserati Dominated the sport in its early years as they all competed before the war already. The first races in the 50’s were run with pre WW2 cars that all looked similar to the Alpha 158. These cars wore skinny tires and were powered by supercharged 1.5L engines or naturally aspirated 4.5L units. The British dominated the sport from 1958 to 1974 winning nine driver’s championships and 14 constructor’s championships.

The 1970’s saw a transformation within the sport allowing teams to negotiate with circuit owners, who once controlled the income of the teams one on one, as teams or groups. There were multiple political controversies towards the late 70’s with two associations for the Formula One sport. Ground effect aerodynamics were used in the 1970’s but were banned in 1983. The 1980’s saw a rise in turbocharger technology which wasn’t anything new but cars were making considerably more power. Renault pioneered the use of turbochargers in the sport in the late 1970s. By 1987 the typical power output of the cars was in the neighborhood of 1,100 bhp with 4.0 bar of boost restrictions. These engines were estimated to make over 1,400 hp without boost restrictions. Formula One cars had never been more powerful and made roughly double the hp of the old 1937 Mercedes Benz W-125, more on that later.  Boost was again regulated to 1.5 bar in 1988. About that same time, driver aid technology started to rare its head and things like traction control and semi-automatic gearboxes started showing up in the sport. The late 80’s also ushered in the crash testing of fuel tanks and safety cells for the F1 cars. Helicopters on standby at events were made mandatory as well as medical facilities at the circuit. Safety walls were also regulated to be one meter tall and the pit wall 1.35 meters. Doping tests similar to the ones used by the International Olympic Committee were also implemented, remember it was the 80’s.

Turbos were banned in 1989 as lighter, naturally aspirated engines limited to 3.5L were only slightly down in power and used less fuel. Most of these engines were co-developed between McLaren and Honda and dominated the early 90’s. The drivers aids i mentioned earlier are now becoming more prevalent although they were expensive to implement. They allowed for drivers to push the cars harder and faster than ever before. Things that are now standard in most new cars were developed for motorsport almost 30 years ago. Many thought these aids were overcoming talent form drivers and were too much a part of determining the outcome of races. Most systems were banned in 1994. That year was a bad one for the sport as multiple serious injury crashes as well as a few deaths forced the FIA to regulate the cars for safety reasons. The Air box had to be perforated (the “ram-air” intake above the drivers head) to reduce intake air limiting power output. Special racing fuels used previously were banned and regular octane fuels had to be used and other aerodynamic inhibitors were also made mandatory to regulate speeds.

Engine restrictions made their way to the displacement of the engines being limited to 3 liters in 1995 but teams were quick to adapt and these restrictions had little effect on the competition between cars and drivers. Since the ban of the turbocharges in 1989 the V-10 engine reigned supreme although V12s made more power, they used more fuel. The V-10 era came to an end in 2005 when 2.4L V-8s were introduced to the sport. Throughout the 2000s, F1 cars became much more efficient and very complex making the sport more of a car vs car than driver vs driver. New regulations emerged in 2009 limiting rev limits of the engines and if you don’t know much about Formula One engines be ready to have your mind blown. Prior to these rules F1 engines revved to 20,000 rpm, that’s not a typo! They were restricted to 18,000 rpm from 2010 to 2013 and 15,000 rpm after that. The most significant system to be added to F1 cars of this time period was the KERS systems. It stands for Kinetic Energy Recovery System and it would store energy during breaking through a flywheel saving energy then funneling it into the drivetrain helping to increase the car’s acceleration, pretty crazy stuff. The 2014 to present cars are now again turbocharged but have been limited to a single turbo, 1.6L V6 engine with a 15,000 rpm rev limit. It is a tiny engine but minimum car weight restrictions make the cars weigh just over 1500 lbs. I cant imagine many cars weight much more than the minimum to compete. The little 1.6 engines are good for a minimum of 600 hp and the new energy recovery system is good for another 160 hp.

Remember that Mercedes-Benz W125 i mentioned earlier? It’s crazy how far automotive technology has come in 80 years and that has really shown in motorsport. The W125 was developed in the mid 1930’s to race in the 1937 Grand Prix season. I think the early Formula one cars looked awesome. They are like a pill with wheels but there is something minimalist and sleek about them. The W125 was regarded the fastest car in Formula One for 3 plus decades until the monster turbocharged engines started being developed for cars in the 70’s and 80’s. The Mercedes was powered by a supercharged 5.7L straight eight engine that was good for 595 hp in race trim. The engine produced upwards of almost 640 hp on test beds. The big straight eight relied heavily on the blower for power as it made a measly 240 hp at 2,000 rpm. Only one year later the engine size was regulated to 3000 cc and the W125 was replaced with the W124 powered by a 3000 cc supercharged V12 that was good for an average of 475 hp.

Nowadays modern F1 cars are powered by “power units”, which are hybrid systems. They are engines at their core but there are three additional power producing components to the system today. The KERS system has been renamed the Motor Generator Unit-Kinetic and has seen a few iterations now adding an additional 30-50 hp or roughly 160 hp on top of what the engine produces. The Mercedes engine being once again the most powerful with about 870 hp…..in a 1500 lb car, haha. The Mercedes Formula One engine of today is one of the most advanced units on the planet and has been very successful in the sport. The “power unit” is a hybrid system and the latest Mercedes units are good for over 50% brake thermal efficiency. Without getting too nerdy, most engines only covert 30-35% of the fuel they use into power. This engine converts over 50% of the fuel into power. Racing teams have been chasing this for a while because these engines have to be efficient as they are not allowed to refuel during the race. They have definitely come a long way. I hope you learned something about the sport of Formula One in this article and with the 2018 season about to kick off with the Australian Grand Prix March 25th, you can tune in and catch the first race.

From all of us here at Gearbox have fun, be safe, and keep the shiny side up!

-Ryan

Do you ever wonder what it would be like to have your own race team? Not a race team that is sponsored by a big name or anything. Just something where you can have a crew around to help with pit stops so you can focus on lap times. Ive day dreamt about this more than once and If it were me id have a team of good friends and we would swap roles throughout a track day so everyone would get time behind the wheel. We would have a couple Porsche GT3 RS track cars and our own bay and workshop at a local track. Or Maybe we have our own rally team. A couple of Subarus prepped for rally stages and we travel the world in a quest for the best stage times. Hopefully we have someone in our crew with big enough balls to drive and codrive the rally car because those guys are nuts. Hauling ass through the woods on loose dirt and snow past trees that probably won’t move if you hit them takes a special kind of mentality. Come to think of it we might want a sponsor to replace the wrecked cars because it would be inevitable. Maybe Twin Peaks would sponsor us and throw in a cheerleading team, that’s a thing in motorsport right?

In all seriousness the driver of a race team seems to get all the glory when they win or place well but it takes a whole team for that to happen. The pits are a place many overlook. The car is not going to run at its best without a knowledgeable and capable crew behind it. In past volumes we have talked about cars notoriously hard to work on and cars that most people regard as very reliable. What about race cars though. What goes on in the pits that keep these high performance machines in the winning circle? From what i have seen in the past the pit area in a NASCAR or Formula 1 race looks much different than the pit area of a professional rally team. In the same respect the pit area of a LeMans team looks much different than that of a NASCAR. Im comparing these areas to NASCAR because i feel like the word “pitstop” is unanimously thought of as a NASCAR thing. We have all seen it more than once in our lives, atleast on tv. The car comes screeching to a halt and a group of guys come flying over the barricade to service the car before it goes back out in a crazy short amount of time.

It’s easy to miss it while watching the race on TV. You take for granted how much is actually going on in the pit during a routine NASCAR pitstop. All four tires are changed, the car is gassed up and adjustments are made in a very short amount of time. Nowadays to be competitive you have to do all this in under 12 seconds. Up until 2018 there have been 6 guys allowed over the wall to help with the speedy service, now only 5 will be allowed. A rear tire carrier, rear tire changer, front tire carrier, front tire changer, jackman, and gas man has been the norm. These crews practice this stuff all the time and have perfected the service into an art form. Teams time these guys down to tenths of seconds to get there specific jobs done. The tire changers can run five lug nuts off, carrier swaps the new tire on, and run five lug nuts on in under 4 seconds typically. The jack man has to jack one side of the car up, the outside is done first, with a 20 lb hydraulic jack and run around to the other side and jack it up in time for the changers and carriers to do their job. Typically the changers have the lugs off before the car is in the air. The gas man empties two 12 gallon, 81 lb tanks into the car within the 12 second timeframe as well. Most crew chiefs refer to the pit stop as controlled chaos. Many teams take it as far as hiring collegiate athletes who are not quiet draft material or from sports that do not offer professional options to have the edge in athleticism for their crew. These teams have their own large training facilities with tracks, field turf, outdoor training facilities, and even special forces type training sand pits. That’s pretty crazy!

If you think NASCAR pit stops are fast, have you seen Formula One pit stops? Granted F1 teams can have three times the guys over the barrier and they are already out and ready to go but still, some of the fastest pit stops in motorsport are in Formula One. Refueling as been illegal since 2010 but it was off and on in years prior so really the main goal of the F1 pit stop is to change out tires. Seconds count in these races and one missed step by any mechanic on the team could mean the difference between first and second place. Some of the fastest pit stops in F1 are sub 2 seconds. That’s right, the car whips in and guys are ready with air guns and tires. The Front jack is already in place as the car pulls up to it, and up it goes, old tires off, new tires on, and it’s down. They almost sound like they are running a type of launch control system when the car is still up on jacks, as soon as it hits the ground and the jack is out of the way the car slingshots out of the pit area. There are guys who take the old tire off and another guy puts the new one on and the gunner runs the lug down. It helps having twice the guys to manipulate the wheel and running only one single wheel nut. This is why its so fast, as well there is no fuel to go in. Besides the jackmen and the tire guys there are a couple guys out there to make adjustments or fix the front wing incase of collisions during the race. No matter how many guys are out there, 1.92 second for a tire change and wing adjustment is still crazy fast!

Pit stops in rally racing, or services as many call them, are very different. They usually last between 10 and 90 minutes to get things fixed and ready for the next stage. In many cases these fixes are done overnight so there is plenty of time. Not all service stops take that long though as i’ve seen some teams change out a gearbox in like 20 minutes or something silly fast. Baja racing is another motorsport in which lightning fast fixes and replacements are not required but they do try and get done quickly changing out drivers and navigators as well as refueling. I think the “fix something” is more appropriate for these types of racing. Bombing down a dirt road in the middle of nowhere is going to have a greater chance of beating the crap out of body parts or damaging running gear. You hear countless stories of rally cars being fixed with duct tape to prep for the next stage. Have someone clean the windshield, pull out any brush stuck in places it shouldn’t be and tape the bumper back on it and your ready to go! I imagine working on a rally car is considerably more dirty than say NASCAR or F1 cars as well. This is on a professional scale too, I can only imagine what some of the fixes look like on the ametuer series of rally racing.

I think you see more of these types of fixes in a rally as it is a true grassroots motorsport. Whatever it takes to get the car back on the road is done. As cool as it would be to have a small team to hit the track with a new GT3-RS I think rally racing would be the most fun as far as participating with friends. We would probably all take turns driving and navigation although i think i’d be more scared navigating than driving. Enough dreaming about being a race car driver. If you are the kind of person who doesn’t think they are handy or can fix their own car and maybe take it to the local mechanic i would encourage you to try and treat your garage or driveway like a pit stop. You don’t have to fix it as fast as possible, I would say do the exact opposite. I’m not saying you need to tear down your engine or transmission yourself either but i think many people would be surprised at how easy some of the basic maintenance items on vehicles are to do. Change your oil, do a brake job, replace some old worn out suspension parts. All of these things can be done with minimal amount of hand tools and if it requires a specialty tool and you don’t have the money to purchase it most auto stores will rent the tool to you. Nowadays there are Youtube videos for doing just about anything you want to learn how to do as well. For me, even just doing these basic maintenance items on my vehicles myself makes me feel good, although i’m really good at breaking things while trying to fix something else. Get out there and get dirty, have fun, be safe, and keep the shiny side up!

Before getting into today’s advanced automotive safety features we should look back on some of the more significant ones through history starting with the most basic of them all, the seatbelt. Originally designed in the late 1800s to help keep pilots in their gliders it took decades before they were mandated in cars. Soon, they were put in Taxis is New York to help keep tourists in place but it wasn’t until the 1930s that physicians started testing with seat belts and immediately saw the benefits. They then began urging car manufacturers to make them standard in all cars. It took until the mid 50’s for the Automotive Society of Engineers to appoint a motor vehicle seatbelt committee. It was 1958 when a real breakthrough in seat belts came about. A Swedish engineer Nils Bohlin invented the three point seat belt which is what we know the seatbelt as today, leave it to the Swedes! Can you guess what car company scooped him up right away? High five if you guessed Volvo. The design was so popular it didn’t take long for all the other manufacturers to implement similar safety belts. They became standard equipment in 1966 and the first seat belt laws were introduced in 1970. When Bohlin passed away in 2002 Volvo estimated his design saved more than one million lives in the four decades it was used.

In my opinion the next largest invention for occupant safety in the event of a crash is the airbag. Rudimentary designs for the automotive airbag started in the 1950’s but it wasn’t until the 1960’s that systems were being tested.The first used compressed air but tests showed that compressed air would not inflate the airbag fast enough in a collision. Ford and GM were the first to start playing with the technology with Ford building an experimental fleet and GM testing them in government vehicles. The first car offered to the public with an airbag was the 1973 Oldsmobile Toronado. They were offered in 1975 and 1976 Buicks and Oldsmobiles although on account of design flaws there were fatalities caused solely by the airbags in accidents. Chrysler was the first manufacturer to offer airbags as standard equipment in 1988 and all manufacturers made them mandatory equipment just ten years later. A chemical reaction that decomposes into nitrogen gas is what’s behind and airbag being deployed so rapidly in the occurrence of a collision. This happens in about 25 to 50 milliseconds sending the bag towards your face at around 200 mph! It really is amazing how fast sensors in the car can tell the computer to inflate the airbags. Modern cars now use more sensors to determine how much to inflate the bags depending on driver position, seat position, and severity of the collision. Its pretty mind boggling how all this can be taken into account so quickly with modern automotive computers!

After that brief history on what are arguably the most effective safety features designed for automobiles in the last five or six decades let’s look at some the the new features automotive manufacturers are implementing today. The advancements that car manufacturers have made with vehicle safety features is pretty incredible when you consider that it was thirty years ago this year airbags were first offered as standard equipment. All major manufacturers are developing great technology but I think Mercedes Benz is one of the leaders in new interesting safety tech. I think It’s really cool stuff. They are touting that the new E-class is the safest car in the world. Cars that stop themselves if they see a collision about to occur are becoming more and more mainstream now. The new E class does the same thing but it has one cool little feature I haven’t heard of yet. As the car is braking hard to avoid an accident the speakers emit a static sound that actually triggers a response in the ear to help avoid hearing damage in an accident with the sounds of the airbags deploying and the crunching metal. It’s a small thing but pretty ingenious. Not a safety feature but you can actually exit the car and park it remotely with an app on your phone, what a world we live in today!

Even things as basic as electronic stability control, tire pressure monitoring, and traction control are systems that can keep people out of trouble in less than ideal driving conditions. Today these systems are taken for granted by many as they have become pretty standard affair in most new cars. Along with the collision warning systems that are becoming more and more prevalent comes things like adaptive cruise control which can monitor the speed of the cars in front of you and automatically adjust speed accordingly, even coming to a complete stop if necessary. It also brings with it lane-keep assist which will actually steer the vehicle back into your lane if you become distracted. I think it’s only a matter of time before these systems become standard equipment especially as our society becomes more and more engrossed in social media and using up their phone data. It really is scary the amount of people i see everyday sitting at green lights or wavering in their lane on the highway with there phone in their hand and i think it’s only going to get worse as younger generations start driving. More and more cars are coming equipped with 360 degree cameras and active park assist systems to help with tight parking and parallel parking for low speed collision prevention. Drowsiness alert systems that can start to tell when the driver might need a break from driving based on lane keeping and other factors are also becoming commonplace.

Another safety feature that’s being implemented more and more is blind spot monitoring which is a system that typically gives and audible or visual (light on the side mirror) when there is a vehicle in your blind spot. Adaptive headlights are becoming more common as well. These headlights actually turn with the steering wheel to help see better around corners as well as things that may be hard to see on the inside of the turn. My VW has them and they really do work better than they sound. Some cars are now also coming with automatic high beams which will automatically turn on the high beams when they sense they are necessary and turn them off as soon as they see oncoming lights. Some of these things may seem like small features, and they are, but when you put them all together they increase the safety of the vehicle a substantial amount.

If you can’t tell by now it almost seems as though they are making cars more autonomous, and they are. The new advancements on pre collision warning / stopping, adaptive cruise control, and other similar features are a direct result of manufacturers developing Autonomous cars. I don’t know how I feel about the technology just yet but i can see the positives manufacturers are developing this stuff for. As mentioned earlier, people are paying less and less attention to their driving everyday. Someday the tech will have to help drive the cars and let’s face it, machines don’t make nearly as many mistakes as people. Over 90% of all car accidents are caused by human error. Fifty percent of them are on the highway. I could see fully automatic cruise control in a wide range of vehicles in the near future. Most of the large car manufacturers have had autonomous test vehicles on the roads for years now already, it’s only a matter of time. The 2018 CES show is going on as im writing this and all the manufacturers are showing off their latest car tech and i’m sure future safety features are a huge part of it. We are living in a very exciting time for new vehicle safety technology. We will just have to wait and  see how far they go before cars start driving themselves! All of us here at gearbox are excited for the new year and encourage you to have fun, be safe, and keep the shiny side up!

I’ll start off first with the new WRX because my time behind the wheel was limited to the dealer showroom.  You see, Subaru dealers around me don’t let anyone who comes in with a hard on for a WRX drive one.  They told me if I’m serious about buying it they would let me drive it. How do I know if I’m serious if I haven’t driven it?  Maybe they didn’t want to hassle with pulling it off the showroom floor as they only get a limited amount per year and did not have another on the lot. I think a lot of Subaru dealers have gotten this way after countless teens have come into dealers just wanting to beat on the new turbocharged flagships. I can’t blame them for being that way I guess. They don’t like to work on their price much either so a limited is already over 30k with no other options. I did test drive a lightly used 2015 model about a year ago and I did like it but it felt like every other WRX aside from the power delivery. That’s not a bad thing at all as I really do like Subaru’s but I think after owning 2 WRX’s in the past I wanted to try something new. I still do love the WRX and I get a boner every time I hear one.

Next up was the Ford Focus ST.  I drove a couple different ones from different dealers, both fully loaded ST-3 models. I really liked the interior and amenities the ST-3 offers.  It is a lot of car for the money with heated leather Recaros, heated steering wheel, navigation, and more.  The car is quick too once you get through the wheel spin, and it handles really well.  I didn’t push it hard in the turns much but from the reviews the car is very hoonible. The ride was compliant but a bit stiff which is expected in a performance based car. The back seat size was a concern for me as it is pretty small and my daughter is still in a rear facing car seat, they are huge! I figured I could make due though and just push the passenger seat forward when I had the seat in there. I was very close to pulling the trigger on a magnetic grey ST-3 at a local dealer but was going to wait and drive a friend’s 2015 WRX when I was back in my home town. The Focus really is a great buy for a sub 30K performance hatchback with good versatility.

It was a Friday afternoon, I had gotten out of work early and went to drive the second Focus ST I had my eye on.  Afterwards I was on my way home and swung through the VW dealer I pass every day. After checking out the lot I thought I would look at the new GTI.  Now in the past I never really considered the GTI as a formidable opponent to the WRX or as of late, the Focus ST.  I had not seen an MK7 (2015+) in person yet even though they have been out for over a year because I didn’t pay them any attention. After looking at a few on my local dealer’s lot I really liked the exterior.  It has a more angular, chiseled look than its predecessors. A salesman approached me and asked if I’d like to drive one and I figured sure, why not. For some reason in the back of my head I was thinking I wouldn’t like the car, that it would be underpowered or too soft. Well I was wrong, one lap around the dealer and surrounding area I fell in love with the car.

The thing feels like a tank when it comes to build quality. It rides nice but still feels very tight, and the interior seems laid out better than the other two. VW was having some pretty stellar incentives at the end of 2015, I surmise because of the great diesel scandal of 2015, so I went back the next day and bought one. They had a white SE 4 door with lighting package on the showroom floor and that’s the one I picked up. As much as I liked the plaid interior of the S you can’t get the upgraded sound without the SE package which I wanted. It has nice interior features such as heated leather seats, Fender premium audio, Bluetooth, and apple car play which is great! It has little things too like rain sensing wipers, proximity locking, keyless start, and even an air conditioned glovebox to keep your drink cool. The lighting package is great too, it adds adaptive bi-xenon headlights that move with the steering wheel at speeds over 6 mph. The back seat room is very good for a small car too which was important to me with the family. The car easily feels and drives like something that costs 10k more.

Remember when I said I thought it will feel down on power? I felt it would be as on paper the car is rated at only 210 hp and 258 Ft lbs of torque. After my first test drive it was apparent that the car is underrated from the factory.  It had to be, I had just driven a 250 hp Focus ST and the GTI felt every bit as quick.  After further research, it turns out the MK7 is severely underrated from the factory with many dyno results showing the car makes north of 250 hp and 300 ft lbs at the crank. I also opted for the DSG and it is an amazing transmission. I can appreciate a good manual just as much as the next guy and I had intended to buy another manual car until I drove the DSG.  It shifts so damn quick and it keeps you in the peak torque all the time! Let’s talk about that torque for a second too. That “258” ft lbs peaks at just 1500 rpm. I love how diesels put the torque down so low in the RPM range and this car feels like driving a modified small diesel car. You can easily make over 300hp and 370 ft lbs with just a stage 1 software tune as well!

I do miss hooning in the snow with a WRX from time to time, but I’ve moved further south this past year where snow is not much of an issue anymore.  Before I had to have an AWD for my daily driver but now I don’t. Not to mention I still have a 4 wheel drive truck available and my wife’s Outback if we get the occasional snow storm. I think the addition of AWD is the only thing I would like in the GTI, mostly just for slick condition fun.  All in all I’m very happy with my purchase so far and if the car bucks the trend of older VW’s small reliability issues I think an AWD Golf R will be in my future!

-Ryan Buffinton