Articles
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Track Tuesday- Name That Track
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Welcome to Track Tuesday where you are asked to identify a (maybe) famous race course from just one closely-cropped aerial image. This week, it’s sweepers. Good luck! Image: ©2015 Hooniverse/Robert Emslie, All Rights Reserved
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Other Eastern Bloc Cars Living and Dying in Poland
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Welcome to another edition of some-weird-cars-that-are-living-and-dying-in-Poland. As always big thanks go out to zlomnik.pl and all the readers of that very weird interesting website. Today we look at cars that we have have not covered before, such as Romanian cars, cars of what was once Yugoslavia, and some random ones that we have covered before…
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24 Hours of LeMons Races to be Live-Streamed on RaceCast!
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Starting with Sears Pointless on March 21-22nd, you’ll be able to follow race timing and a number of live feeds for 24 Hours of LeMons races, courtesy of RaceCast from RacerConnect. There’s no on-site production video crew (this is LeMons, after all); the feeds are going to come courtesy of a few volunteers’ smartphones. Keeping up…
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Hooniverse Asks- Acknowledging Edsel, What Tainted Car Name Will Never Again be Used?
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Does your family have a member so disreputable that no one even dares speak their name? That’s usually the case and it took me a while to figure out that the reason I didn’t know that individual’s ID in my family was because it was me. We’ve all since come to terms with the situation.…
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Last Call- Beat Up Beetles Edition
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I know that the smooshed Volkswagens are the focus of your attention in this old-school image. Or perhaps, it’s the Michelin Man on the Transporter’s grille. For me what’s the most interesting aspect of this photo is the Plymouth Valiant police (or more accurately, Polis) car attending the accident. The Swedish Polis loved their Plymouths,…
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1959 BMW 600: "The Limousine"
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So awhiles back this olelongrooffan was up in the City of Palms and spotted something previously heard of and only seen in pictures. Yeah, my fellow Hoons this was the first time I had spotted a BMW 600, “The Limousine” if you will. And it dates from 1959, the same age as the Daytona International…
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Hooniverse Concept Clinic: Proposal #5
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Welcome to the series which aims to give our poor old international automotive industry the helping hand it so desperately needs. Witness companies like BMW and Mercedes pumping out ever more broad product portfolios, extending their tentacles into every possible market niche that ever existed, and then inventing extra niches just in case. To them…
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Remember To Drive
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Deep in the heart of central Texas, it’s twenty nine degrees. I’m hungover, waking with a half-eaten McDonald’s burger laying next to me. What a waste, I tell myself. Eventually, I collect my head, walk out into the cold and crank over my two-week old 1986 BMW 325. These little cars have a funny high-pitch…
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Hoonivercinema- Monday Movie Trailer
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Everybody loves an anti-hero, the character that plays by their own rules and doesn’t take you-can’t-do-that for an answer. You don’t get much more anti-heroic than a car salesman (sorry car salesmen) and no one is better at playing an anti-hero A-hole than Jeremy Piven. Did you know he was in Black Hawk Down? In…
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Forgotten Racetracks: The Eloy Grand Prix
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Hooniverse has written about several old temporary racetracks used by club racers when prepared racetracks were somewhat scarce: Brynfan Tyddyn, Las Ochas Millas, Callender Field, and Lake Garnett. Nearly all of those had gone away by the early 1970s, when liability concerns crept up and willingness among chambers of commerce dropped down. Street circuits became…
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Encyclopedia Hoonatica: Factory Side Pipes
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Side pipes were, at their genesis, an imperfect solution to a vexing problem. In many compact, low-slung vehicles with big engines (in other words, racing cars) there is often nowhere for those big, hot exhaust pipes to go under the floorboards, and thus they must be routed around the side the vehicle by necessity. Thus…
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Hooniverse Asks- Have All-Electric Cars Reached a Critical Mass of Acceptance?
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Electric cars have been around since the dawn of the automotive age. Back in the early days, electric cars – owing to their relative ease of use and demeanor – were marketed as cars for the ladies. That’s perhaps still the case in some instances, as I was once told by Jay Leno that out…
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Last Call: The Final Frontier
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“Loss of life is to be mourned, but only if the life was wasted.” – Spock …his certainly wasn’t.
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Vanity Plates Are Cool, Right?
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Vanity tags are an interesting facet of car culture and individualism. I’ve seen a bunch of really lame ones, but here’s a collection of the few that have been worth taking a picture. After years of snapping license plates on various cars, I thought it would be worth sharing a masterpost of some of my favorites.…
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1981 AMC Spirit: A Real IMSA Race Car for Two Grand
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A piece of SCCA and IMSA racing history is ready for new ownership. Casual AMC fans know about the Javelins that Penske Racing raced in IMSA with that iconic red, white and blue livery, but 10 years later, AMC supported teams with AMC Spirits to compete in the series. This one can be yours, but be warned:…
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Fantasy Finds Friday: Land Rover Defender 110
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It’s been awhile since I’ve taken a dive on the Fantasy Finds train. I’ve got my HoonTruck, and there is a boat load of parts for it on the way to my house (more on that very soon). Here we are though on this Friday February 27th, and I’ve decided to once again head back…