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No Wheel Thursday: Standup Jet Skis Going Extinct In 18 Months
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Okay, so personal watercraft aren’t cars, and they don’t go on roads. But they’re still hoontastic, internal combustion fun. Unfortunately, “standups,” the smallest, purest and most demanding type of personal watercraft are hearing voices telling them to walk toward the light. There are a number of riflemen standing before them in their firing squad: “Couches”…
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A Trio of Cylinder Hacking Heroes
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There are lots of people who can hot-rod bikes engines. Big carbs, loud exhaust, big pistons…if they’re good, stroker cranks, flowed heads. Hot-rodders change up lots of stuff in an engine. But only a few would seriously consider altering the number of cylinders the motor has. And do it successfully…multiple times. Three guys in particular…
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Molly Sanders: The guy who programmed your brain
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We all know that, just as the sky is blue and cardinals are red, Kawasakis are supposed to be green, and (no matter how Yamaha tries to force blue bikes on us), Yamahas are supposed to be yellow, with a fat black hash-line across their flanks. Buick Grand Nationals are supposed to be blacker than…
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SLAP CHOP! Quickie photochops worth a thousand cuss words.
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In the comments for last week’s Thunderbird question, I posted a couple of quick thumbnail paste-ups of how a new T-bird derivative might look. It’s something I’ve done a number of times; I sometimes use an image-editing software package called Adobe® Photoshop® (perhaps you’ve heard of it; it’s rather popular with the young people, I’ve…
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V.I.S.I.T: Ford Fairmont 2-Door Sedan
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Sleepers are cool, and Fox-body sleepers are especially cool, because they’re also cheap, easy to build and surprisingly competent.
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I was supermotard before Supermotard was supermotard
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As any 2-wheel hoon will tell you, motards, or streetified dirt bikes, are an unholy blast. Here’s mine, circa 1984. You might be tempted to call it a Supermotard, but at the time this bike was built, the term didn’t exist, or at least hadn’t migrated outside of France.
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V.I.S.I.T.: VW Street Buggy
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[singlepic id=1751 w=720 h=480 float=center] I have a special affection for minimalist vehicles, and as a former VW buggy owner, street buggies hover somewhere near the top of my list. I snapped this rail-framed, amusement-park-on-wheels outside a local pizzeria. I thought this particular “shortback” design was just about perfectly proportioned.
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Last Call: Automotive Eclecticism Makes Me Smile
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Driveway Team Roll Call! Caravan! …Cavernous Interior: GO! Prelude! …16 Valves: MAYBE! Stealth! …Twin Turbos: NOT BLOODY LIKELY! Yugo! …Still Reasonably Functional: YES! I drive past this house on my evening commute each day, and the interesting mix of cars in this guy’s driveway always lifts my spirits. None of them are all that remarkable…
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V.I.S.I.T.: VW Street Buggy
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[singlepic id=1751 w=720 h=480 float=center] I have a special affection for minimalist vehicles, and as a former VW buggy owner, street buggies hover somewhere near the top of my list. I snapped this rail-framed, amusement-park-on-wheels outside a local pizzeria. I thought this particular “shortback” design was just about perfectly proportioned.
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Diwheels Rock. Literally.
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Diwheels are just about the rarest and strangest vehicles around (or usually, not around). Amazingly enough, a friend of mine owns a real, functional, motorized diwheel. No…really! “Ezekiel’s Wheel,” which appears above, was built by some backwoods Ozark engineer a few years back, and uses a small industrial engine for power.
