Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we have reports from Hooniverse, Curbside Classic, and Culture Map.
Zooming Around With The RX Club Of Wisconsin — Hooniverse
Rotary lovers: Pay attention.
I’ve been behind the wheel of all sorts of vehicles in my lifetime, including an array of sports cars. Mazda’s RX-8 still provides one of the best driving experiences I have ever had, thanks in part to it’s precise 50/50 weight distribution, quick and snappy six-speed manual, razor-sharp handling and exciting 232 horsepower rotary engine. It’s perfect. If you haven’t driven one, put that on your list. Having grown up with RX-7s and now an RX-8 in my father’s garage, there’s no way I’d turn down an invitation to join a friend on the RX Club of Wisconsin‘s Fall Cruise.
Racing around the Astrodome: Indy car winner thrilled by Houston Grand Prix's unusual course — Culture Map
Mid-Ohio IndyCar winner Charlie Kimball is stoked to run in Houston, our esteemed Editor's home town.
As a kid growing up in a California sports-crazy family, Charlie Kimball heard tales of the Astrodome, home of the famed "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, and other iconic sports events in the world's first indoor stadium.
1973-1979 Honda Civic – The Second Little Revolutionary — Curbside Classic
What a little ride.
How often does a truly revolutionary car appear? Let’s disqualify uranium powered flying cars on the cover of Popular Science and other quirky eccentrics from consideration, but focus on mass production cars that profoundly and permanently changed the autosphere. Narrow the field further to the small-size end of the US market post WWII, and the number of candidates is all of…two. The VW Beetle completely turned the US car market (and careless drivers) on its head, both in its technical specifications and in creating a mass small-car market. The Beetle had a brilliant twenty-year run, and just as it was running out of compression, it handed the baton to that other revolutionary, the Honda Civic.