How To

Ice Driving: You’re Doing It Wrong

January 19, 2011 By Kurt Ernst 1 Comment

How's that steering angle working for you?

I may live in the Sunshine State now, but I spent better than 25 years driving in the worst weather imaginable. I’ve lived in Colorado (where chains used to be required to drive over mountain passes in snow), Minnesota (where black ice is a daily fact from November through April) and New Jersey (where people drive exactly the same, regardless of weather), so I’ve racked up a few miles driving on slick surfaces. The three videos below show you exactly how NOT to drive on ice; take a look, then I’ll give you some pointers on how to stay safe when the weather turns from bad to worse. [Read more...]

Filed Under: How To, Street & Track Skills Tagged With: Cars, Ice Driving, Safety, Trucks, Winter Driving

Drifting 101

January 3, 2011 By Gary Boix 1 Comment

Keiichi 'Drift King' Tsuchiya and a Honda NSX

Drifting was born in the land of the Samurai, as part of the All Japan Touring Car Championship races over 30 years ago. Kunimitsu Takahashi, was the father of drifting techniques way back in the 1970s when cars had lots of power and no traction control systems to worry about. His signature move was hitting the apex (the point where the car is closest to the inside of a turn) at high speed and pulling a monster drift through the corner, preserving a high exit speed; some might call it a power slide, but who am I to judge. Anyway, this earned him several championships and a horde of fans that loved to watch him ‘cook’ the tires. The bias ply racing tires of the day were really suited to driving styles with high slip angles, so why not take advantage, right? As professional racers in Japan drove this way, the street racers were keen on imitating, and it quickly became kind of a ‘thing’ in Japan.
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Filed Under: How To, Street & Track Skills Tagged With: Cars, Drift King, Drifting, Formula D, Keiichi Tsuchiya, Nissan, Skills, Track

10 Gift Ideas for the Performance Freak Under $100

December 14, 2010 By Gary Boix Leave a Comment

Some folks find it really difficult to find gifts for car enthusiasts. It could be because not all family members really get the obsession, or maybe it’s because they think we won’t be happy with anything less than a supercharger. Either way, ‘hooking’ up a solid gift doesn’t need to be that hard for you. That’s what we’re here for after all.

All you need to realize is, that being a ‘Car Nut’ involves a lot more than just bolt on performance parts; although those are really nice when you can get them. If this was the over $100 list, it would be a hell of a lot easier on me, but I like a challenge.

Here’s ten ideas that might make a car-lover smile on Christmas morning, I’ve included some links to most of these products to save you some time and pain. After all, who needs the insanity of the local mall, when we have the Internet anyway? Nobody, the holidays are supposed to be happy, not a hassle. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Articles, How To Tagged With: Cars, Christmas, Gifts, Guide, Mechanic, Motorcycles, Shop Truck, Trucks

Chopped, Channeled and Sectioned. What Does It All Mean?

December 7, 2010 By Gary Boix Leave a Comment

A Tiny Bit of Car Culture Perspective

In the old days, also known, as “yesterday” by today’s standards, cars were bigger, a lot bigger. They were also a hell of a lot sexier back then too, as computers and ‘Squints’ in white lab coats hadn’t smoothed them all out yet.

While cars back in the ’50’s and ’60’s had a lot more visual appeal in most cases, they weren’t necessarily more aerodynamic. Hell, to this day my ’09 Jeep Rubicon has the aerodynamic profile of Mt. Everest, and weighs just as much, which is a testament to how the Willey’s Jeep really hasn’t changed that much. Other cars of the era, however, had pretty fins, lots of chrome, and all the ‘Coke Bottle’ styled curvy lines you could possibly want, but we needed more. We were all starting to compete in a car culture that rewarded speed and aggressive looks, and this is where folks like Sam Barris, who pushed the art to its highest form, come in to the picture.
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Filed Under: Customizing Knowledge and Skills, How To Tagged With: Channel, Channeled, Chop, Chopped, Custom, Hot Rodding, Hot Rods, Knowledge, Kustom, Section, Sectioned

10 Tips for Buying a New Car from a Dealer

November 9, 2010 By Gary Boix Leave a Comment

Let’s keep it simple. As soon as you realize the single most important tenant of selling cars, it all starts to make sense.

Make as much money as fast as possible while minimizing risk as much as possible.

This plan, as you well know by now, does not lend itself to great customer service. How many times have you sat In a dealership for something like 3 to 5 hrs filling out endless piles of confusing paperwork, which only serves to create ‘brain overload’ allowing the ‘Finance’ manager to pitch more services and expenses to you in the fury of the deal?

‘This a great value and will only cost you 2 more dollars a month!’, or ‘I wouldn’t buy a new car without GAP insurance! It’s only 5 more dollars a month!’ is this sounding familiar yet?

So here’s 10 tips to help you buy a new car or even a used car, and maybe help carve out a little bit of a win yourself, because the brutal truth is that you will really never be able hurt the dealership, as they will simply take it out of someone else’s ass; hence the old phrase ‘Let the buyer beware’.
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Filed Under: Cars, How To, On Road Tagged With: buying, Cars, dealer, negotiating, new cars, Trucks

Project Car Planning

October 25, 2010 By Gary Boix Leave a Comment

So many people start so many projects only to get somewhere around 40%, hit a wall, either financially or skill wise– inevitably leading to the words ‘I Give Up’.

After which, some spouse somewhere gets really cranky, about how much money was wasted on some ‘Clunker-Bump’ that no one is working on and other arguments about it eating space in the garage or driveway. Blah, blah, blah. It’s tragic.

This leads to an otherwise awesome vehicle of some kind in someone’s driveway somewhere doing it’s best impression of a tetanus factory while it awaits it fate on eBay or Craig’s List hoping someone with more money, skill or time will buy it.
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Filed Under: How To

Dave Mirra Learns From The Master, Tommi Mäkinen

September 13, 2010 By Kurt Ernst Leave a Comment

Dave Mirra is a relative newcomer to the sport of rally driving, so why not learn from the best if your sponsors are willing to foot the bill? In this case it’s Subaru, who flew Mirra to Finland for some one on one instruction from four time World Rally Champion Tommi Mäkinen. Mäkinen is a master at driving balls-to-the-wall in less than ideal conditions, and he has an almost supernatural ability to control a race car. He’s also got a photographic memory, and was able to learn the intricacies of the Nürburgring circuit after just five laps.

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Filed Under: How To, Off Road Skills Tagged With: AWD, Cars, new cars, Off Road, Race, Suburu

Drag Racing: You’re Doing It Wrong

July 30, 2010 By Kurt Ernst Leave a Comment

I’m not sure what’s more humiliating: launching your $80,000 Nissan GTR from the water box like a complete noob, or losing to a Toyota Starlet. Actually, I take that back: the most humiliating thing is having it caught on camera, then posted to YouTube for millions of people to laugh at.

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Filed Under: How To, Soap Box, Street & Track Skills Tagged With: Cars, Drag Racing, Fail, Nissan GTR, Race, Track

Off Road Basics Part 1: Getting Your Head Right

July 15, 2010 By Gary Boix Leave a Comment

People have been using four wheel drive to get around the rugged backyard of America in one form or another since 1903. There’s been an untold number of books and videos on the subject, and now they even make awesome high dollar documentaries about off road racing–does the film ‘Dust to Glory’ ring a bell? If it doesn’t, I can tell you that it’s a documentary about one of the most grueling and crazy off road races the world has ever seen, the Baja 1000.

Despite all the available media, and training out there for folks that want to hit the trails with success, I can’t help but be annoyed by the perpetual insanity that I see on a daily basis via YouTube and other venues. People just don’t understand what it takes.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: How To, Off Road Skills Tagged With: 4 Wheel Drive, AWD, Basic, Off Road, Skills, Trucks

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton Learn The Silverstone Circuit

July 8, 2010 By Kurt Ernst Leave a Comment

Racing slot cars is a lost art, now that video games like Forza Racing, Gran Turismo and Need For Speed allow you to drive almost any car, with stunning realism, on almost any track in the world. Jenson Button appears to have a bit more talent with the controller than Lewis Hamilton does, but both drivers soon learn the dangers of overcooking a hairpin corner. In 1/32 scale, a rollover accident doesn’t require a trip to the hospital or a lot of explaining on how you turned a multimillion dollar car into scrap carbon fiber and aluminum.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: How To, Street & Track Skills Tagged With: Cars, Formula One, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Race, Slot Cars, Track

A Tiny Bit of Car Culture Perspective

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