The Road Warrior Didn’t Have OnStar
It is probably a very good idea to learn how to adjust - and rebuild - a carburetor. To set point gap, even. Neither of which is a bad thing -...
A Trans-Am Retrospective
People often think of the Pontiac Trans-Am as a commonplace car. But in 1969, the very first year, only 697 were built - just eight of them convertibles. All were white...
A Case of the Heavies
This is a tale of two trucks, kinda-sorta. Both not really being trucks in that while they have beds, like trucks do, neither were built on truck-type (rear-drive) layouts or have...
Pontiac is Racist
The Washington Redskins no longer play football; instead a "football team" from "Washington" does.
That, at least, is what the ex-Redskins were called until someone came up with "Commanders" - a name...
Doomed: Chevy Cosworth Vega (1975-1976)
It worked better for Pontiac.
The now-iconic black and gold paint scheme made famous by the ’77 Trans-Am that Burt Reynolds drove into automotive history in Smokey and the Bandit failed to...
Muscle Memory
It was forty years ago that America turned 200 - and Pontiac, 50.
1976 was a special year for both.
And for the Trans-Am, which by 1976 had become Pontiac's signature muscle car.
The...
Numbers vs. Names
New cars lack a certain something. But what is that something? What's changed that's made them less emotionally involving - and more appliance-like?
Herewith some thoughts along those lines:
* Liters vs. cubic inches...
Doomed: Jaguar X-Type 2002-2011
American car companies - GM and Ford especially - get heckled a lot and justly for repackaging their economy cars and trying to sell the lipstick-on-a-pig’d result as luxury cars. Examples...
Gas Guzzling . . . Then and Now
I took my '76 Trans Am out yesterday; I needed a reboot - and it needed exercise. Drove the orange-painted, screaming chickened "gas guzzler" around for about an hour, taking my...
Doomed: Subaru BRAT: 1977-1987
Imagine, if you can, a truck with factory-mounted seats in the bed - and spotlights the size of a 747’s landing lights mounted on its T-topped roof.
If you know this truck,...