Articles

  • Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Cars With Both Inline Six & V6 Engines

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    I was discussing with a friend what modern engine would be a good swap candidate for a 1958-1960 Ramber American. When I mentioned the Buick 3800 V6, he recoiled in disgust. “You can’t replace a straight six with a V6; that’s blasphemy.” Well, it turns out that by his yardstick, there are a lot of…

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  • Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Inset Rear Windows

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    Last week, C-pillar buttresses got a whole lotta’ love from our commenters, therefore, I thought it prudent to let you explore that topic in depth today. Since what constitutes a buttress is up to debate, I thought I would open it up to anything with inset backlight glass. An amazing number of vehicles have back…

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  • Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Arthropod Vehicle Names

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    Humans generally do not look kindly on invertebrates. Creepy-crawlers with a surplus of appendages are, for the most part, unattractive and undesirable to have around. But there are exceptions. Insects and spiders bite, sting, can carry disease, carry venom. And, as we all know, any creature that is badass enough to inflict pain and potentially…

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  • Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Under Multiple Flags

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    [EDIT: Either I didn’t explain this very well, or my text is TL;DR. This question is about vehicles in which both the brand ownership and production packed up and moved from “Country A” to “Country B”. Hope this helps.] This past week, I had the opportunity to explain the convoluted — some may say tortured…

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  • Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Cars Named for Nobility and Royalty

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    I’ve noticed that people who believe in reincarnation and claim to have knowledge of past lives invariably identify themselves as having been Cleopatra or William the Conqueror. Nobody ever insists they were Oarman #12 on a Phoenician warship or an underage Whitechapel prostitute who died of syphilis. Despite the fact that the impoverished and ordinary…

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  • Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Circular Door Handles

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    Over the past few weeks, I’ve asked for suggested topics for Encyclopedia Hoonatica, and our own Kaptain Kamil responded by suggesting today’s topic: circular door handles. He included a photo of a Fiat Ritmo (known as the Strada in the U.S.), which was the first one to come to my mind. Okay, it was the…

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  • Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Cars That Are Things

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    Cars overwhelmingly look like…cars. But sometimes intrepid individuals (or marketing firms) desire to gain attention by making cars that look like other things. What sort of things? Anything you can name, from scaled-up telephones to tiny dirigibles. And that’s what we’re looking for today: any vehicle intentionally shaped like something other than a car. [Thanks…

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  • Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Switchable Speedometers

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    Several of my recent Hoonatica quests have focused on older automotive technologies, because Kennedy baby. Today, I am going with a more modern focus in order to make it up to those of you who have pre-school memories of Sega Dreamcast. For many years now, most speedometers installed in North American cars have indicated speed…

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  • Encyclopedia Hoonatica: OE Front Drums & Radials OR Discs & Bias Ply Tires

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    Vehicles are defined by the era of their manufacture, and those eras are, in turn, defined by the technology available. The configuration of the Model T would have been intolerable twenty or thirty years after its demise, and the concept of an automatic transmission or fuel injection would have been unthinkable at its inception. With…

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  • Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Meteorological Car Names

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    Last week, the encyclopedia entry for Seafaring Car Names sailed into uncharted territory, with regular commenters Jeepster and Manic_King expounding on the many cars named after winds. Well, the chest of automotive trivia booty they blew our way may not have been strictly applicable to the category at hand, but the list was impressive. Furthermore,…

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