This is NOT How to Get Out of a Speeding Ticket!

Photo courtesy of Ford

Unless you are one of the lucky few, you know the dread of being pulled over by the police. Oftentimes it's for speeding, an infraction many are guilty of and few think about until it's too late. If you do happen to get pulled over by the police, there are of course things you should and should not do. For example, don't make any sudden moves, because the police never know if you are going for a weapon or not. You should be courteous to the officer, even if you felt you did nothing wrong, but that doesn't mean you have to be a complete doormat.

Motorists, Pedestrians, Cyclists, etc.

Image courtesy of Volvo Cars

For some weird reason, the people who taught me to drive a car reinforced one truism over and over: I was handling a large, heavy machine capable of dolling out great destruction and even death. Driving wasn't treated as a right but rather as the privilege that it is. I was also taught to be respectful of others' space on the roads.

Hagwalah: How People Tempt Death on the Arabian Peninsula

If you've never heard of hagwalah, you're definitely not alone. Most people in the Western Hemisphere know nothing of the insane "sport" that not only youth, but even grown men who live on the Arabian Peninsula engage in.

Give Me More Horsepower, Damnit!

Photo courtesy of Scion. 

A horsepower war has been raging in the automotive industry for some time now. Unlike the big war in the late 1960s, this one hasn't been choked out by CAFE government fuel economy standards, despite GM's trying to claim such standards would kill the Corvette and any other cool car it makes. Nope, thanks to some pretty creative technologies like variable valve timing, direct fuel injection, turbocharging, hybrid powertrains and other such engineering trickery, we have been able to squeeze out more power from smaller engines.

Blogging From A to Z Day 15: O is for Overseas Delivery

Image courtesy of Volvo Cars

For the month of April I will be participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge. Learn more about the challenge by clicking here. Each day (except Sundays) I will be posting a theme based on each letter of the alphabet. This blog is covering automotive topics for the month. To read my other blog posts for the challenge, click here. 

One of my automotive fantasies is to take part in an overseas delivery program. Of course, I love cars, but I also love traveling. Combining the two into a single experience would be nothing short of incredible. Perhaps I will put such a thing on my bucket list, but there are a few factors working against the fantasy. 

Blogging From A to Z Day 14: N is for Nurburgring

Images courtesy of General Motors

For the month of April I will be participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge. Learn more about the challenge by clicking here. Each day (except Sundays) I will be posting a theme based on each letter of the alphabet. This blog is covering automotive topics for the month. To read my other blog posts for the challenge, click here.

Few racetracks rise to the level of celebrity the Nurburgring has enjoyed. Despite all of the talk about the track, and its use as a benchmark tool for automakers trying to show off the performance capabilities of new models, most people understand little about the track.

Blogging From A to Z Day 13: M is for Manual Transmission

As you can see, my manual transmission indoctrination started early.

For the month of April I will be participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge. Learn more about the challenge by clicking here. Each day (except Sundays) I will be posting a theme based on each letter of the alphabet. This blog is covering automotive topics for the month. To read my other blog posts for the challenge, click here. 

In case you haven't noticed, manual transmissions are dying in the U.S. automotive market. Apparently automakers feel that Americans don't want to manually shift gears in their car, favoring that the car's ECU decides when gear changes are made. There are even a number of performance vehicles that are offered with an automatic transmission as an option, when no such option was available before, like the upcoming 2015 Chevrolet Corvette ZO6. Other performance cars can only be had with an automatic transmission, like the Dodge Challenger or Porsche 911 GT3.