Driverless Cars Scaring Great Britain's Children

Later, Kip and Sally would use a mechanically correct doll of the driverless car to show policemen exactly where it touched them. [Photo Credit: CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images] ...

Dec 22, 2024

Stuck In Desert, Crazy Frenchman Builds Motorcycle Out Of Busted Citroën 2CV

When you're stranded in the Moroccan desert with ten days of rations and a basket-case 2CV, do you give up? Hell no! You do what Emile Leray did! Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure exactly what he did, since all the info I can find on this car is in French...

Dec 22, 2024

Points Ignition Lovers: Are They Misinformed... or Minions Of Satan?

There's a sequence in the 1991 movie Slacker in which . At the time, HEI distributors were pretty rare in the self-service yards; inventory in high-turnover wrecking yards tends to be comprised mostly of cars in the 15- to 20-year-old age range, so the mid-70s machines with electronic ignitions were...

Dec 22, 2024

A Little Plexiglas, A Power Drill, And Voila! Vented Side Window For The Tercel!

You see a lot of budget-challenged repairs and modifications on Crusher-bound vehicles; along with adding , a car's final owner often performs some last-ditch fixes in order to stay mobile. I was visiting the self-service wrecking yard that brought us such gems as , the , and the when I...

Dec 22, 2024

$20 Bumper-Mounted Still Camera Works Great On The Race Track... Until It Gets Smashed

You like to shoot race photos, but those uptight track officials won't let you get out on the track in your '89 Olds and get some up-close shots of the action? No problem! The nice folks at allowed me to suit up and strap into the passenger seat of the...

Dec 22, 2024

Honda Brings Carbon Nanotubes Closer To Production

Honda claims these new are 100,000 times thinner than human hair, stronger than steel, conduct electricity better than copper, conduct heat better than a diamond and are "as light as cotton." All that could have a huge impact on the future of transportation, allowing for more powerful, yet smaller computers,...

Dec 22, 2024

Engine Of The Day Overload!

We've been doing the series for a couple of years, so it's time we put all 74 EOTD honorees together! Click on the photo of any engine below to jump to the original post honoring that engine. Toyota R Ford Flathead V8 BMW M30 Nissan L Small-Block Chevrolet V8 Volkswagen...

Dec 22, 2024

How Well Organized Is Your Junkyard Fastener Collection?

You're at the junkyard pulling some parts, and you toss all the fasteners into your toolbox. Next time you clean out the ol' , you'll move all those nuts and bolts and washers to… where? There's the "dump 'em in a big bucket, let God sort 'em out" method, which...

Dec 22, 2024

Music For Swingin' Transmission Swappers!

After hearing the yesterday, I remembered that my old industro-noise band, , recorded a song entitled "Chrysler New Yorker." Unfortunately, "Chrysler New Yorker" only exists on four-track cassette tape, and my ol' Tascam Porta 01 died years ago. That means you don't get to hear that fine song, which thrilled...

Dec 22, 2024

Cracked Brake Hoses, Baaaad. New Brake Hoses, Gooooood.

Much as I like to get my parts at the junkyard, I tend to feel a little uncomfortable using junkyard brake hoses. Anyway, there's been a real Spridget drought at my local self-service yards. So, I got on the horn with and ordered me up some new front and rear...

Dec 22, 2024

Crown Victoria Power Window Regulator Replacement #8, or: How Detroit Cuts Production Costs

A couple weeks ago, when I debuted the at the , I decided I needed to roll my Crown Vic's balky driver's window down all the way… and heard a terrible CLUNK! The Ghost Ride The Whip 24 Hours Of LeMons penalty doesn't need much explaining: screw up on the…...

Dec 22, 2024

LeMons & ChumpCar 2010 Tech Rules: By The Numbers

Your crappy 1977 Ford Pinto with the serious-looking six-point roll cage wants to race in the and ChumpCar. Jalopnik is here to help you pass tech in each series. With the 2010 crap car racing season almost upon us, racers have more choices than ever when deciding what do to...

Dec 22, 2024

Adventures In Speedometer Replacement, or: How Honda Builds Good Stuff For Cheap

Since I'd already , I figured I might as well fix an equally annoying problem in my : when the temperature dropped below about 50°, the speedometer stopped working. A couple weeks ago, when I debuted the Ghost Ride The Whip Box at the '09 Arse Freeze-a-Palooza… Here in the...

Dec 22, 2024

Inside The Angry Hamster V65 Magna-Powered Honda Z600

Never mind that the finished in 140th place at the , because the team took home the coveted Dangerous Homemade Technology trophy and generally knocked us on our asses with their car's awesomeness. - whose LeMons resume, as a member of the Eyesore Racing Miata team, includes and two Organizer's...

Dec 22, 2024

Junkyard Build Quality Challenge, Door Panel Edition: USA vs Germany vs Japan!

Those of you who read my posts about and know my oft-repeated rants about German over-complexity, Detroit quality corner-cutting, and Japanese cheap-but-well-thought-out engineering. Where do I get my facts? The junkyard! To be honest with y'all, I was disappointed by the lack of venom in the comments and emails about...

Dec 22, 2024