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Race, Daily, Restore: Three Turismos
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One need not be a native of Italy to figure out that Tourismo is Italian for tourism or touring. Evidently, you don’t have to be an Italian car maker to use the word to name your vehicles, either, since only one of our three candidates this week hails from that Mediterranean peninsula. The other two…
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False Neutral #49: Moto Surfin' Part 2
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In the second part of our discussion of online motorcycle resources, we detour from where to get parts and riding gear into talking about what riding gear we have and why we like it. We go on to examine our favorite Facebook pages and groups, along with a couple of pages we’re involved with personally.…
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Race, Daily, Restore: Economy Spec Oddballs
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The progression from base model to top-of-the-line is usually quite logical and linear, wherein every model adds desirable content in an additive progression. But every once in a while manufacturers (or customers) take crazy pills and concoct specialized models that are, um, not so special. Oddball, low-power, decontented editions rarely sell in large numbers, or…
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False Neutral #48: Moto Surfin' Part 1
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After a quick catch-up on Eric’s Mustang and Garrett’s new son, we take a moment to mark the one-year anniversary of our first episode. Eric would like to add a new daily rider this season, so we discuss the two likely candidates before delving into our topic for this week: motorcycling on the Internet. How…
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Race, Daily, Restore: Sprinty Freshness
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Sprinters are fast. Maybe they’re not the fastest over the long haul, but for the short time they run, they run faster than anybody. In motorsport, sprint races are short, but intense. Today, we have three very different cars, all of which wore the word Sprint as part of their name, either as a trim…
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Race, Daily, Restore: Modern Pentathletes
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Five cylinder engines were once an oddity. Over the last quarter of the Twentieth century, they became fairly common, especially in European cars. Today we ponder the merits of this middle ground between fours and sixes. Your trio of candidates, in no particular order, are: 1993 Volvo 850 Turbo – 2.4L Turbo I-5, 168 hp…
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Race, Daily, Restore: Tenth Anniversary Editions
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Today, our theoretical conundrum features a trio of 10th anniversary specials: the 1988 Mazda RX-7, 1980 Datsun 280ZX, and 1979 Pontiac Trans Am. A decade in production is not all that remarkable for a model line, so the somewhat lame nature of these limited editions is probably par for the course. All of these aspired…
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Race, Daily, Restore: What's Your Type?
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Sometimes, a car’s type is just that: the general category into which it falls. But sometimes, “Type” is part of its actual identity, so named to differentiate it from other models or trim lines. Here we have three very different cars that wore their Type proudly: The 1982-86 Toyota Supra P-Type (differentiating it from the…
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False Neutral #44: Nighthawks & Small Treasures
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Since our last episode, Garrett has a new son in the nursery and a new Nighthawk 650 beater in the garage. The latter prompts us to enthuse for Honda’s 1980s Nighthawk range. Turning to new bikes, we discuss the proposed U.S. tariff on European small displacement bikes. I recall my encounter with a tiny, very…
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Race, Daily, Restore: Pioneering AWD Passenger Cars
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Our second weekly edition of Race, Daily, Restore features three early all-wheel drive passenger cars. There was a time when rear-wheel drive was standard for cars, front-wheel drive was remarkable, and 4WD on trucks meant getting out and locking the front hubs before venturing into the snow and muck. But that changed, thanks to the…
