You may have noticed I’ve been silent about my recent BMW E30 purchase. The fanfare of buying an elderly autobahn cruiser has been met with months devoid of updates. I can tell you it’s not because I’m having the time of my life driving it. It’s because I found something catastrophic within.
Don’t be persuaded by David Tracy’s trickster ways. As he attempts to distract from his constantly precarious collection of vehicles, confront him and let the truth be known.
The final FD generation Mazda RX-7 was an ambitious car for its day, with high tech like sequential turbos on its twin rotary engine. As such, it was packed to the gills with sensors and hoses and lines, lines that you will discover when you finally tear into your once top-of-the-line sports car that you got for seven…
Matthew Cox’s 1993 Nissan 240SX convertible looked fine enough in the eBay photos. It was his chance to own a rare version of a car he loved, and it was fine on the outside! Then he got a good look under the car’s shiny pearl white paint, and discovered that he may have bought one of the biggest rip-offs of all time.
If “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” crescendos in your head and your pulse picks up a little while you read this Craigslist ad, offering a Toyota MR2 in trade for labor on a Porsche 914, welcome to Jalopnik, you have found your people.
Tired: Porsche 911 Safari rally cars. Wired: Porsche 356 rally cars lovingly restored by stylish French guys. Holy moly, this rakish ’59 P-car is a thing of beauty and the story behind it is even better.
Right now, I’m trying to get my 1979 Jeep Cherokee Golden Eagle on the road, and I’m struggling to answer a question: How much preventative maintenance should I do? (Because this is getting expensive).
Last week David Tracy and I drove 3,500 miles from Michigan to Moab and back, including two passes over the Rocky Mountains and a little off-roading. It’d have been a fun road trip in a normal truck. But we didn’t do it in a normal truck. We did it in an $800 1986 Jeep Grand Wagoneer that we resuscitated after 12…
I knew my $100 1984 Nissan 300ZX was going to cost a lot more than $100 to actually restore and run on a regular basis. But after three months with this thing I’m starting to learn the special frustration that comes with caring for a car that’s worth so much less than the sum of its parts.
Putting a project car together or keeping an old car running can get overwhelming. In the quest to restore my 1975 International Scout, it seems like every time I start something I end up half-starting 10 things and finishing nothing. So I’ve devised a simple system to stay focused and organized.
Last month I sort-of inherited this 1984 Nissan 300ZX with more than 200,000 miles on the odometer. It’s in remarkably good condition for an almost-free car, but the issues it does have are not things I’ve ever encountered in other old cars before.
I got pretty much the same reaction every time I told someone about my newly-acquired Nissan Z. “With the Diablo headlights? Those are looking good.” No. “The sleek ’70s one? Poor man’s E-Type?” Nope. I got the one that looks like an 8-bit alligator. And I still can’t believe how it happened.
Do-it-yourself’ing isn’t for everybody. Even a job as basic as changing a car’s oil is sometimes better left to a pro if you don’t, I don’t know, ever want to be dirty. There are some “repair jobs” that really are as easy as snapping to Legos together. Somehow, I have been vexed by one of those jobs for half a year.
Brandon would like to spend his spare time bonding with friends under the hood of a project car. The problem with this plan is that Brandon doesn’t have a lot of experience, but what he and his friends lack in skill they will make up for in determination. What car should he buy?
It’s been twelve months since I finally got the vehicle I’ve wanted forever: a 1975 International Scout. It’s taught me a lot. Well, mostly it’s taught me that the cool old truck you’ve had your eye on can cost as much to run as a supercar.
Matt and Sophie’s YouTube series, “Engines And Unfinished Business,” about their casual Toyota restoration is better than any gassy, monstrous “car build” show I’ve ever seen. It’s cute, simple, and must be credible because British accents!
Sometimes those sleep deprived, middle-of-the-night Craigslist spelunking sessions end in the discovery of a true unicorn—something that appears to be perfect and pristine on the outside, an ideal fit for your garage and your dreams. But even if you hit on such a vehicle, it can hide dark secrets within. This was one…
Exotic car ownership is a bit of an experiential mixed bag. Sure, it’s interesting to be the person that gets the most attention at the gas station, but you’re nevertheless plagued by problems of the common driver, with the added sting of prices for repair procedures being every bit as comical as they are terrifying.…
It’s already November and my Detroit-based fleet of cars is in disrepair, meaning I’m going to have to engage in a practice only the toughest of souls ever dare to undertake: Michigan outdoor winter wrenching, also known as “frostbite.” That is, unless I can get these things done first.
