It has now been 13 months since The Autopian launched on March 32, 2022, and my how this place has grown. Our small staff has been working flat-out to bring you all fresh, entertaining, and educational content, and you have all been reading and supporting us day in and day out. Thank you! To celebrate 13 months of growth, let’s take a look at the best stories Autopian writers have penned since this mighty vehicle launched at the proverbial Christmas Tree.
A normal website would probably have written this after exactly 12 months, and to be clear: That was our plan. But for the same reason we launched our website on March 32nd and why our Mercury Monday features are often…not published on Mondays…we’re doing this after 13.73 months. What exactly that reason is, I’ll leave to you to determine, but in any case, we’re here to thank you and to show you the best Autopian Stories of the past 1.14 years. (Click the subheadings to reach each story):
How I Got My Navy Callsign By Shitting Myself In An F/A-18 Fighter Jet. Twice.
My friend Bobby stepped up to the plate to help me start The Autopian, penning what may be my favorite story on the site. It’s an absolute riot about how he, a young pilot, desecrated his Calvin Klein underwear and ended up with a hilarious callsign as a result. Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the piece:
This is the point where I’d like to extend a firm thank you to Mr. Calvin Klein. Shockingly, as I peeled off my flight gear (g-suit, vest, flight suit) I noticed that there wasn’t anything there. The high thread count and durable construction of your Cotton-Stretch underwear is incomparable. I will wear your underwear for the rest of my life. It kept pounds of brownie batter completely contained through high-g maneuvers and an aircraft carrier arrestment. Your underwear is tested, sir. Thank you.
I get that the story is a bit crude, but Bobby’s ability to make light of a rather serious situation involving a $1 billion+ machine is what really makes this piece special.
The 2022 Ford Lightning Is Just A Standard F-150 With An Electric Powertrain And That’s Why It’s Going To Change The World
A few months back, someone who works as an automotive media data analyst told me that my Ford F-150 Lightning review — a deep-dive into an electric version of America’s best selling vehicle, and a huge step for the U.S.’s transition towards electromobility — may be the longest automotive review ever written. I believe it; the thing comes to a total of 6,300 words, and features lots of photos and videos.
I wrote the whole thing in about a day, maybe a day and a half, and I just remember being exhausted afterwards. At the same time I was excited, because this new website Jason and I had created alongside our partner Beau was now seeing over 150 comments on a single article! That was a big deal, and as this Lightning review gained more traction among folks in the automotive industry, and as more and more folks became aware of our fledgeling operation, Jason and I became more and more motivated to keep building this site into a site that car enthusiasts love.
‘The Worst Set Of Brakes I Have Seen In My Career’ — A Mobile Mechanic Shares Why He Intentionally Disabled A Customer’s Car
Some of my favorite stories are what I call “medium length stories.” They usually involve talking to an individual via telephone, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, and just telling their tale. It’s a great way to get someone else’s perspective, and bring a new character onto this website — aside from just the regular writers you’re all used to hearing from.
Thomas did a great job reaching out to the mobile mechanic who found himself in a conundrum: Do I repair part of this dude’s car if he’s unwilling to have the brakes serviced properly given that there are no brake discs left? It was a moral dilemma that actually led the mechanic to debate immobilizing the car to keep the driver from jeopardizing the safety of himself and of other road-users.
Luckily, this story ended positively, as the car’s owner eventually came around to having his brakes properly fixed.
Man Buys Most Reliable Minivan Ever, Takes Annual Photos Of His Children Growing Older In It As It Accrues 330,000 Miles
Hey look, another “Medium Length Story,” this time about a Michigan man named Jamie. He’s been handling maintenance of his Mazda MPV for over 200,000 miles, and clearly he’s doing a great job, because the 3.0-liter V6 under the hood refuses to die.
Our young weekend writer Rob’s article features a giant spreadsheet of all the work Jamie has done, as well as photos of the extensive bodywork he’s had to do to keep this thing looking good after being sideswiped and after dealing with Michigan’s salt — salt that eats up even the best automotive-grade steel, and trust me, Mazda’s has a reputation for being far from the best.
How An Australian Town Came Together To Help An American Fix The Most Hopeless Car On Earth
Here’s the saga of my miraculous five-week adventure to Australia. And I do mean miraculous.
The goal was to fix a completely-dilapidated 1969 Chrysler Valiant ute, but when I arrived in Australia I realized that the vehicle was far, far too far gone, having clearly been used as a beater (“paddock basher”). Luckily, my friend Laurence had purchased a parts car for us to use to get my cheap sub-$1000 ute back on the road, and as luck would have it, that parts car’s body was in significantly better shape than the paddock basher’s.
So I set out to fix the completely stripped-down parts car, and get it not only through Australia’s strict roadworthiness inspection, but over 400 miles to the biggest ute show on earth, the wild Deni Ute Muster. Read the story and watch the video above to see the incredible journey.
It’s A Crime That Modern In-Car Hot Dog Sizzling Solutions Are Not More Common
Autopian cofounder Jason Torchinsky is an American hero, not just because he’s one of the only true comedian-auto journalists on earth who can actually consistently make people laugh while writing about cars, but also because he finds the most amazing things in brochures and online. He reintroduced the world to the in-car hotdog sizzler, and we’re all better for it.
There Was Once A Company That Literally Dragged Cars From The Junkyard And Turned Them Into New Trucks
One of our most popular recent stories was about Powell, a California-based company that built some truly fascinating automobiles, including a truck with fishing rod holders built into the bedsides. More fascinating than that, though, was the fact that the truck — and other Powells — were built on recycled chassis scoured from junkyards. The idea of a new car being built of recycled material is not that novel these days, but that recycled material is almost always only plastic panels or fabric for the interior, never structural parts. So this is just wild; combine that with the super-rare photos Jason managed to find for this piece, and you’ve got a really captivating article.
I always love letting people write about their passions, and Thomas Hundal is a total modern-car geek, especially when it comes to in-car electronics and audio systems (and also ECU coding; he, more than anyone, has been advising me to buy Bimmercode. As a result, I’ve already coded my new BMW i3 so that it can run on the gasoline engine on the highway even before the battery has depleted). So when he said he wanted to write about how many of the car world’s premium audio systems come from the same supplier, there really was nobody who could stop him.
RV Quality Has Gotten So Bad That $62,800 Buys You A Camper With Broken Safety Equipment
Mercedes Streeter is a woman of many talents; she owns an awesome collection of cars, she rides motorcycles when it’s cold, she drives old junkers off-road, and she’s the most knowledgeable person I know when it comes to RVs/campers. Her coverage of that segment of the vehicle world has been awesome for our site, and among the big hits that I enjoyed was the above article about the current state of RV quality. It’s bad.
Mercedes walks us through her parents’ RV, which isn’t that old, but is plagued with all sorts of issues. She expertly wraps that specific example into the context of a wider problem that has gotten worse as RV demand spiked post-COVID. It’s such a well-written and interesting article, and a showcase of Mercedes’ immense talent.
Mercedes always has an eye out on the camper/RV space, and always manages to teach people about some cool piece of kit they didn’t know existed. I’m especially intrigued by modular/LEGO-ish things that camper and overlanding companies build in order to maximize the limited space a vehicle offers. When it comes to living out of a vehicle, clever packaging is everything, and Mercedes always finds some of the coolest contraptions out there that minimize packaging space but maximize utility.
This is a story Jason has been telling me for years. It’s a sad one, but one Jason laughs about; he has an amazing way of finding joy in everything, and the way he communicates that joy through his writing is what makes him in my opinion one of the greatest automotive journalists in history.
This story is about how he used to shut off his VW Beetle and coast down a hill so he could pick up and drop off his girlfriend, whose mother was apparently antisemitic — someone who would be displeased to know that her daughter was dating Jason. Jason talks about how he had to shut off his car because it had such a unique sound that his girlfriend’s mother would recognize as coming from a Beetle.
Jason delves into why the Beetle sounds the way it does, beautifully blending humor, human sociology, engineering, and history all into one. It’s beautifully done.
I Made a Huge Engineering Mistake on the 2005 Ford GT
Huibert Mees was a key player in the design of the 2005 Ford GT’s rear suspension, and he was responsible for the vehicle’s most significant recall — one that required all owners to stop driving their cars immediately. Huibert walks us through how this happened, discusses how Ford rallied to find a repair, and ultimately shows how this type of thing isn’t uncommon in the industry. His lede is captivating:
At the beginning of the 2005 Ford GT program, I made a decision that turned out to be the biggest mistake of my career. It led to a recall of all cars produced up to that time, a stop-build order, a stop-sales order, and a stop-drive order. In fact, a man who bought one of the first production cars for a very large sum of money was at a track day, and we had to call him to tell him to stop driving the car immediately. Talk about embarrassing!
It’s a truly enlightening article that provides a look into how automotive engineering happens at a major OEM, and also a look into material science, manufacturing, and so many more elements of the car world. It was one of The Autopian’s most popular stories in the early days, and a key part of putting this publication on the map.
David Tracy Promised Us A Nice Car For Our 5,000 Mile Honeymoon Road Trip. He Gave Us An Old Jeep Farm-Truck Instead. Here’s How That Went
Earlier this year my two German friends Andreas and Josi (the ones who bought a rare diesel manual Chrysler minivan on my behalf back in 2020), flew to the U.S. for the very first time for their honeymoon. I’d promised them a press car. When that didn’t pan out, I promised them my nice Jeep Grand Cherokee. When I sold that, all I had left was a dilapidated 1985 Jeep J10 farm truck to offer.
You have to realize how far this machine is from what Andreas and Josi — citizens of a country with a strict vehicle inspection program, and one that just likes order— were used to driving. The fact that the two were arriving in frigid February added risk to the whole Detroit-to-Los Angeles roadtrip, so it’s no surprise that the couple was worried. And yet, somehow the two made it work, driving through this vast country and learning so much about it along the way.
I’m A Former Tesla Suspension Engineer And I Need To Tell You Why The ‘Double Ball Joint’ Suspension Is So Incredible
Huibert Mees was the lead designer for the Tesla Model S’s rear suspension, and between that, his work on the Ford GT, and just his decades working on vehicle dynamics, he’s amassed a wealth of knowledge that amazes me. He’ll sometimes talk about why certain suspensions offer certain advantages, and I don’t think he fully realizes just how amazing his mind is. Take the article above, for example; it’s about a Double-Balljoint suspension setup historically found mostly on European cars, but also on Chryslers, Teslas, and more.
It seems like a nerdy, niche topic, but the way Huibert breaks it down — along with my photos and video from my local junkyard — just brings it all together into something palatable and cohesive and, to the weird among us, fun.
I Bought A High-Mileage Electric Car With A Bad Battery. Here’s Why That Was Actually A Stroke of Genius
Jason Torchinsky, The Autopian’s Chief Creative Officer, is probably a bit peeved by how much I half-assed the topshot above. I’m not even using the right font! And yet, that article about the BMW i3 was absurdly popular. Why?
Well, first, the i3 is a fascinating car. It consists of a carbon fiber body bolted to an aluminum skateboard chassis. There’s an electric motor in the back that’s bolted t0 a small two-cylinder scooter motor that acts as a generator to charge the high-voltage battery after it goes flat.
Speaking of going flat, that’s what happened to the battery of the i3 you see above. I knew I wanted an i3 as a daily commuter now that I have an office to go to, but I had a tight budget, so I ended up buying the one you see above, which had 134,000 miles on the clock and a battery that promised of range of a paltry 48 miles (the cost was just $10,500). The BMW dealership told me I was out of luck because BMW’s eight year, 100,000 mile warranty was up.
But little did that dealership realize: The state of California requires automakers to warranty their Partial Zero Emissions Vehicles for 10 years, 150,000 miles. And thus, through this “loophole,” I ended up with the cheapest BMW i3 in America with a brand new high-voltage battery which probably would have cost me $20,000 to replace on my own.
I’d like to shoutout our amazing video team for filming the hypermiling test above (that video was technically part of a different article, titled “Watch Me Drive My High-Mileage BMW i3 For The First Time To See If The Dealer Actually Replaced Its Dead Battery). They did an amazing job, as always.
The U.S. Military Once Rode 100 MPG Jet Fuel-Powered ‘Combat Motorcycles’ And You Can Buy One Today
Finding the coolest stuff on the internet and then introducing that stuff to you, dear readers, is Mercedes Streeter’s expertise. This article about a jet fuel-or-diesel-powered motorcycle expected to yield 100 MPG for the U.S. Marines is just awesome. Great find, great story, and of course, great bike.
You Could Get A 1984 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS With A 350 And A Manual Transmission, But There’s A Catch: Holy Grails
Speaking of cool stuff, Mercedes has done an amazing job with the Holy Grails series — far surpassing what I expected from it. She falls into deep rabbit holes, and every now and then we editors have to ask “Hey Mercedes, uh, what’s going on? Bueller? Bueller?” Mercedes eventually surfaces from these rabbit holes with pure gold. She teaches us about some of the world’s most obscure, coolest vehicles — many of which I never knew existed.
Here’s What A Professional Car Designer Thinks About The Stunning New 2023 Toyota Prius
Having Adrian Clarke among us has been an absolute joy. He’s a real car designer who worked on Land Rovers back in the day, and though his ability to break down vehicle design is second-to-none, it’s the way he blends those breakdowns with hilarious humor and sharp writing that makes him such an ace. If a new car debuts, he’ll disappear off the face of the earth for a few hours, write up a design breakdown, and teach us all a thing or two about why designers made certain choices; it’s this type of expertise — also shared by Huibert and some of our other contributors — that we champion here at The Autopian. People who know their stuff are the best car journalists.
Why Did The Wheel Come Off That Chevy Pickup That Launched A Kia Into The Air? Let’s Look At The Tech
You may have seen that video of a Kia Soul running into a rogue wheel that fell off a pickup truck driving in the adjacent lane on the highway. The video, shown below, went viral largely because the Kia didn’t just bang into the wheel, it launched itself overtop of it, flying high into the air and eventually flipping over.
Witnessed and recorded the most INSANE car crash yesterday, you can see Autopilot also swerve and avoid the rouge tire for me $TSLA pic.twitter.com/csMh2nbRNX
— Anoop (@Anoop_Khatra) March 25, 2023
Many folks wondered how that wheel even fell off that truck, so in the article above I dig into it and get nerdy.
Tycho’s Coverage Of Chinese Car Culture
The Autopian is lucky to be able to share the talents of one of the world’s foremost experts on car culture in China. Tycho de Feijter is currently based in Europe, but spent many years living in China covering the country’s incredibly varied and unique car culture. He’s written about the Chinese EV sports cars you’ve never heard of, he’s written about how China builds special “parade cars” for dignitaries and military leaders, about how China’s EV battery-swap program works, why China still believes in hydrogen-powered cars, and my personal favorite: “A Deep-Dive Into The History Of China’s Bizarre Jeep Cherokee XJ Clones.”
Meet The Adults Who Build Miniature Worlds So Their Meticulously-Crafted Toy Cars Will Look Real. I’m One Of Them.
Mark Tucker is a diehard remote control car fan, and also our daily Shitbox Showdown writer. He does a great job with that, though my favorite piece from him was this enrapturing look into a community of people who create miniature, life-like worlds so that their miniature, lifelike vehicles appear real. The truck above is a tiny toy; pretty wild!
The Bishop’s Wild Ideas
‘Who is The Bishop?’ you might wonder. Well, he’s a trained industrial designer who loves cars so much he’s volunteered to use his skills to draw up custom, extremely wild car ideas. Many of those ideas are vehicles from an alternate universe, like the 1980s Saab Sonett above (the Sonett went away in 1974) or the 1985 Jeep Forward Control (the Forward Control died in the mid-1960s), and then there was: “A Look At An Alternate Universe Where The Cadillac Allanté Got The Respect It Deserved.”
The Bishop is a genius, and possibly also a little bit mad. I hope he changes nothing, because his work is gold.
Why Everyone’s Favorite Electric Car Keeps Stranding Owners
Here’s a bit of research I did into the string of ICCU failures that have been plaguing one of the world’s most beloved EVs, the Hyundai Ioniq 5. I discuss what the ICCU is, I talk about how it’s failing (with input from Hyundai), and I dig into customer complaints lodged onto the U.S. government’s DOT site.
Here’s Why That Rivian R1T Repair Cost $42,000 After Just A Minor Fender-Bender
At The Autopian we love to go One Layer Deeper, so when a news story broke about how a Rivian owner allegedly paid over $40,000 to repair minor damage incurred during a fender bender and numerous media outlets covered it, Jason waited.
Jason wanted to get the full story, so he spoke with the owner, a Rivian-certified body shop, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Munro and Associates and more to figure out how any of this story makes sense. Great work!
Kias And Hyundais All Over The Country Are Getting Stolen By People With USB Cables
Mercedes did a great job covering the Hyundai/Kia USB-theft saga, which involved thieves using a USB cable and a few basic tools to drive away in Kias that lack immobilizers. It’s been a big story in the U.S., and Mercedes has done a great job digging into it and breaking down what’s going on.
How This Hydrogen-Powered Toyota Ended Up Stranded In Ohio Where Only One Man Can Save It
What a great story by contributor Kevin Williams. It discusses the plight of a Toyota Mirai — a hydrogen-powered car — and how it ended up stranded in Ohio, far away from the nearest hydrogen filling station. It’s a hilarious but odd tale of a car that somehow ended up in the wrong place.
The Wrenching Tales Of Stephen Walter Gossin
The Autopian is lucky to have Stephen Walter Gossin. I’m currently unable to wrench as much as I could when I wasn’t a manager, but luckily, in Stephen we have another car hoarder who loves nothing more than Saturdays at junkyards. He buys cheap cars, fixes them, sells some, keeps some, but always stays covered in grease and always keeps us all apprised of his shenanigans.
The Autopian’s Debut Coverage
While The Autopian’s speed when it comes to breaking news may not yet be industry-leading given the diminutive size of our team, we’ve had some big wins including Thomas’s Ram Revolution debut story, my Ford Ranger story, and Matt Hardigree’s Toyota Prius debut story. Recently, Mercedes flew to Hawaii and gave us a first-look at the new Toyota Tacoma, and her writeup of the new truck is incredibly thorough.
The Autopian’s Daily News Coverage
Jason and I are honored to get to work with Matt Hardigree and Patrick George — two of the best car journalists in the business, and former Jalopnik EICs who have seen some things. Their editorial talents are innumerable, their wisdom deep, and their leadership is strong. To have them help us steer this small vessel, and to help build it into a larger ship, is a godsend. You know what’s also a godsend? Them writing The Morning Dump each morning; that’s the name of our morning news roundup, though Matt and Patrick are not fans of the name Jason and I came up with. Torch and I don’t want to give it up until PG and Matt come up with something equally as funny, but in any case, Matt and PG are true professionals who are aces in their craft.
Their news coverage is beautifully written and insightful, and though we’re a bit tight-staffed to be the first on a lot of automotive news, PG and Matt tend to have a strong eye for what our readers care about, and they have an ability to contextualize that news and write it in a way that makes you want to keep reading. Like I said, they’re aces. And Matt does so much more behind the scenes, as well.
The Autopian’s Reviews
The Autopian is cranking up its review game; I just wrote up my thoughts on the new Porsche Cayenne, Matt just wrote about a Subaru Forester Wilderness, and Thomas wrote the above excellent review of a vehicle I was hesitant to even have us review: a Chevy Trax. It turns out, according to Thomas: The thing is actually a great deal! And there are few more Autopian things than great deals.
Our Marvelous Other Contributors
Right now on our front page we have a great story by Tim Stevens about what it was like driving his childhood dream car, a Lamborghini Countach. The concept for the story may not exactly be the most novel one, but Tim rules, and I knew he’d produce something great, just as he did when he wrote about restoring a vintage pinball machine. In my inbox I’ve got a draft from Manuel, a French aerodynamicist who wants nothing more than to teach you about how vehicle aerodynamics works. You should read his first story titled “I’m A French Aerospace Engineer And I’m Going To Teach You About Car Aerodynamics: Drag Coefficients.” We’ve had stories by MIT engineer Charles Guan, by talented technical writer Emily Velasco, by an experienced service writer named Andrea Petersen, by a young engineer named Robert Petersen, by electric-scooter-tinkerer Doug Kingham, by AMC expert Joe Ligo, by Kansan-who-likes-to-write-about-rural-car-culture David Wilson, by our secret car designer from a major OEM, and by history buff/Petersen Automotive Museum employee Jonee Eisen.
Above All, Thank You!
It’s been a challenging 13.73 months, and we still have lots more work to do on the business side and still on the editorial side. But we cannot communicate how much we appreciate you, dear readers. Your support, whether you’re a member or not, means everything, and as our partner Beau Boeckmann has made clear: Our focus will remain on serving our readership.
This week The Autopian leadership is involved in The Autopian Summit: A 2.5-day meeting in which we make strategic decisions on how we want to move forward as a website. We’ll be asking for your thoughts in a post tomorrow. It’s been a great start, but we know there is so much we can improve upon; we’re already bigger than The Truth About Cars and Autoweek, but we’re still not quite at Road & Track-level — so we’re excited to take on that challenge. I have no doubt we’ll manage, as we have the greatest writers, business partner, and readership in the world. Thank you!
I forgot the Truth About Cars existed, that site went weird
I found it ages ago when I was shopping around for my first car. The writing was crisp, and I still remember their RX-8 review and (more importantly) a hilarious article referencing Monty Python to mock overfed autojournos at a press junket.
In the years since, it got weirder and weirder. Between the infamous Bertel Schmidt article using a slur for Subaru-driving women (and octupling down afterwards) and the lax moderation towards far-right conspiratorial / hate speech during the Trump years it’s become a shell of its former self. Occasionally I’ll visit to see how it’s going and a lot of the comments there could very well have come from 4chan. You’ll get a few diehards holding the line but it’s definitely not a site I visit more than a couple times a year, and even then only out of morbid curiosity.
I think it’s a lesson Autopian would do well (and importantly, is doing well!) to learn. Autopian writers don’t shy away from difficult topics but have always maintained passion and compassion alike. Mercedes is one of my favorite writers here because of that.
It’s a difficult balancing act, but I commend the staff and the community alike for what they do. Stay awesome, y’all.
Thank you all for hard work. We are fortunate to be able to access such a wide variety of nonsense.
I’m disappointed. This should have been a slideshow. /s
And no Changli post? You guys have gone soft…
The first slideshow I see, I’m sending my buffalo sauce stained autopian shirts back
A Utopian vision realized!
Y’all have saved me from countless hours of having to get actual work done over this past 1.14 years.
My bosses hate you.
I thank you.
I love that I never know what the next post is going to be about.
I love the irreverence displayed any and all topics.
I love the open, welcoming environment that celebrates all facets of car love.
Thank you Autopian, for being a place I can both laugh and learn.
Congratulations on your achievement. This site truly is unique in terms of content and enthusiasm for the wonderful weirdness of cars (and trucks and motorcycles and RVs and planes, etc., etc). All of you rock. Glad to be a part of this amazing community!
Followed DT and Torch over from the Lighting Site , pleasantly surprised that Mercedes came over as well and all the other new (to me) contributors have been great. Love the nerdy deep dives on topics that I otherwise wouldn’t have been exposed to. I’m really looking forward to what comes next. I also really hope eventually there is an Autopian Tech center so you lovable weirdos can do some truly absurd projects/ builds.
Rock On!
Congrats on surviving past your first anniversary; a lot of small businesses don’t make that milestone. This site has the best auto content and certainly the most varied in terms of topics. Glad to be a member and hope I get the chance to be for years to come.
I just want to say thank you to David and Jason for making me a part of this wacky endeavor. This is, bar none, the most fun part-time job I have ever had, or could imagine. Everybody here works their asses off, has a lot of fun doing it, and really cares about what they do, and I think it shows. This has been a tough year for me for a lot of reasons, but it would have been so much worse without this place to look forward to every day.
And to all our readers and members: THANK YOU! Nerding out about cars is great, but hearing other car nerds chime in and recognizing that you’ve made a connection with them is nothing short of magical. I hope you’re all having as much fun with this as I am.
Congratulations! Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of weirdos.
I’d like to academy, my agent and my editors but most of all I’d like to thank you, the little people, for hanging on my every word. You are right to do so.
What, sorry, I didn’t catch that?
I think we hung on a couple of his words a little too hard
You too.
Butthead: Huh-huh huh. You said “hung”. And “hard”.
Beavis: Yeah! Yeah! Boi-oi-oi-oi-oi-oi-oing! Heh-heh heh.
Ooooh that’s it you’re going on the The List.
Go ahead and do your worst. Of my own free will I already own two ’80s Austins…
Exchanges like this brighten even the crappiest day
It’s a rollercoaster ride for sure. When you proclaimed my favorite car, the LC500, to be one of your favorite current designs I felt incredible and was like “why yes, I am a man of exquisite taste because our in house car designer agrees with me!”. But then when I brought up The Cure, who would probably be my favorite band if I was forced to pick one, and you told me you didn’t care for them I was like “my cool goth uncle thinks I’m a poser” and had a mild to moderate existential crisis.
I laughed out loud when I read this…
Not a poser, so much as a “baby bat”.
Tbf the cure do suck
Your every word, except the one you left out in the first line. Tsk tsk tsk.
You are a treasure Adrian. As a fellow this-side-of-the-pond-er, it feels good to read some good ol’ cynicism instead of the joyful crap our ever optimistic American friends put out there every day!
(This is a joke dear overlords, please don’t fire me)
Well done! It’s been fun to see the site grow and develop over the past year. It’s become more or less the only car site I read on a daily basis. All we need now are a few events on this side of the pond. I’m proud to be a member and (very) occasional contributor. Keep it up!
Great work, everybody! I celebrated by finally mounting my Autopian grille badge.
It’s an awesome year being here with the kind, wicked-talented staff and also with such a fun, knowledgeable, positive readership. Gossin Motors Auto Rescue is very grateful for it.
A huge thanks to DT for bringing me here from a Wilmington, NC junkyard and to everyone who has clicked on this site. The best is yet to come – let’s gooo!
And by that you mean you’ve located some extremely rare factory hardtop Sebring for $500 that’s down to primer on the outside and may have a small animal living in it who’s chewing on the wiring in real time?!
You’re actually not too far off, Jack. Thanks for being there from the start with some great commentary, my man!
Not to be a brown noser, but to me you’ve been the greatest revelation and my new-to-me favorite auto writer. (DT, JT, Mercedes don’t count as new-to-me, as a former Lighting site reader). Your long-form pieces are literate, uplifting, absurd at times, and gut-bustingly hilarious in a deadpan sort of way.
MOAR please! Surely there’s a beat-up leech-infested Mopar out there for you to write about.
Congrats on the milestone! I became a little nostalgic reading through the article and also very proud of the work everyone at the Autopian is doing. Looking forward to all the amazing years and memories to come!
Congratulations to the whole Autopian crew for making this the best car website out there! I look forward to coming to this site every day and am proud to be a member. The combination of humor, unapologetic ridiculousness, in depth analysis from experts, and spirited dialogue in the comments makes this site a must for any enthusiast.
I’m excited to see where our fearless leaders take things from here! And I’ll be right here, ignoring work, writing long form comments, and having a grand old time.
I often think of automotive tribes in sort of a societal/developmental hierarchy.
At the bottom, there are the appliance owners – much of the buying public is here. Next level up are the “I like X type of cars” people, those similar to how little kids view them. Then there’s the fanboys/girls, usually of a particular make, type, or price level. But the pinnacle are the vehicle enthusiasts, the rare people who like them as things in themselves, valued for how close they get to what they mean to be. Ferraris and Fiestas can be equally appreciated and visceral connections by getting to intimately know them is the order of the day.
This venture and everyone involved showcases that enthusiasm and points the way for the rest of us!
I am proud to be associated with this esteemed, soon-to-be Pulitzer Prize winning journalism! And all the bafoons or baboons that run this place! The commentary is 5th rate, and that makes me smile.
Here’s to many more 13.73 month periods of great automotive content!
Congratulations on the anniversary(ish). Will we will get to read David’s write up of his move before the next one?
50/50
March 32nd, 2042. Today David Tracy moved into Rusty Acres Retirement Community. Once accused of going Hollywood, DT never truly lost his love an affection for rusty, crusty Jeeps; even those with square headlights. Torch help Jason with his move in The Marshal, still running Farm Use plates.
I laughed so hard at this
…and when do we finally get the recipe for shower spaghetti?
13.7358 now that I’ve finished reading that piece. 🙂
It does seem like the site just started. It’s a good and positive community, which is nice and – if we’re honest – fairly rare on the intertubes.
On the previous site, I realized I was among my people when we had a discussion about multimeter brands and preferences; I think most of those folks are here now.
Oddly enough I enjoy the Crapcan Conundrums as much as anything else.
Kind regards,
A happy Velour member
As someone who is scared shitless by electricity and winces in anticipation of killing myself when using a multimeter…are there any resources you could recommend on learning how to use one and that intimidating dial of mystery settings.
First I would like to assure you that it is nearly impossible to be killed, injured, or hurt in any way while using a multimeter. When you are operating the meter, you are holding on to insulated probe handles which protect you from being shocked by what you’re measuring.
Next I would ask you to consider how/where you plan to use the meter: household stuff? Automotive only? Both? In either case, the meter will probably have a lot of settings you won’t need, like measurements of several hundred or thousand volts.
As a recommendation for learning, may I suggest you pick up an inexpensive meter – like one from Harbor Freight – and use it to measure things that you already know. For example, see how the manufacturer tells you to set the meter to measure a household outlet; once you set the readout to the appropriate range (e.g. 100-150V AC), you can put one probe in each side of the outlet to see what the reading is. Reset the meter to read in the neighborhood of 12V DC and test your car battery – red probe to positive and black probe to negative/earth/ground.
You can also check for continuity. This doesn’t measure voltage on the line; it indicates whether electricity can flow from point A to point B. For example if you have a headlight that won’t work, you would want to check continuity [on the positive side] from the switch and/or relay to the headlight. You would want to check that there is a good ground connection as well.
Household AC, automotive DC, and continuity will cover most of what you’ll do with a meter. There may be use cases where you would need to check resistance as well. It’s possible you won’t need that, but if you do the meter will be set to a range with an omega symbol. (Resistance is measured in ohms, represented by omega.)
tl;dr – buy an inexpensive meter and start testing. 🙂 Familiarity will increase your confidence. Good luck!
As someone who daily works on HVAC stuff up to 480v, I have only a couple considerations to add to what A. Barth said. Electricity needs a path to flow. I can pull the positive lead off a battery safely if I’m not touching the car/standing in water. I got shocked early on because I had a wet pants knee leaning against a metal bumper when I pulled the positive lead. Pay attention to where your body is and don’t provide a path. Look at where your hand might land if that probe you’re pressing firmly on something small/smooth slips.
Our lead electrician habitually stands while working on stuff with one foot hooked behind his other ankle and the not-in-use hand behind his back. Take your time and be aware. If you think it’s sketchy, consult someone experienced. Start small/small consequences: clean bulb sockets & re-ground taillights.
Honestly, to me, it’s all about finding the balance between, “A human built this-what’s the worst I can do??” and knowing when to walk away before I cause a runaway thermal event. I’m an idiot: if I can do it, so can you!
Good stuff, TOSSABL – thank you!
You make several excellent points, especially the one about being aware of what’s in the environment.
Don’t wet your pants. 😛
I’d say get an auto-ranging digital multimeter to simplify things, but that’s basically all of them these days. Voltage, amperage, and resistance/continuity modes are the base feature set and probably all you need to get started and you can ignore the rest.
If you don’t already have a good understanding of the basic relationship between volts, amps, and Ohms that’s a good place to start. Stuff like diodes, capacitors, inductors, and power factor can come later.
In voltage mode, there’s very little you can get wrong, especially on household 120V/240V. Anything above that you absolutely should be scared of, but you’re unlikely to encounter that in a house unless you disassemble a microwave. Just don’t bridge multiple conductive spots with the same probe end, but the insulation covering all but the tip makes that fairly easy to manage.
In amperage mode, it’s much easier to screw up. Still not a danger to you, but it can fry the meter or at least pop a fuse. The clamp style ones are better there if you do need to measure current.
As someone who has been fortunate to see ‘how the sausage is made’ so to speak, you wouldn’t believe the hours put in behind the scenes here, nor the effort in chasing down stories and verifying leads.
The Autopian staff and writers are an incredibly dedicated group of people who genuinely love cars/transport.
Cheers for all the great reads and entertainment for the last 1.14 years!
And cheers to you and your community for taking care of DT while he was in Australia. He might still be down there otherwise. 🙂
Hope you don’t mind, but…
AUSSIE! AUSSIE! AUSSIE!
DT went to a land down under, where spiders roam and men blunder. Can you see, can you see the blunders. You better drive to the Deni Ute Muster.
Congrats on an impressive 1.14 year anniversary!
I love you guys. I don’t regret my membership at all. I love the quirk, the weird and David and Mercedes never cease to put a smile on my face (as they did at the old place). Here’s to many many more months and years to come!