The Autopian’s Writers Would Love To Chat With You. Right Now.

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David and I realized it’s been a big, wet minute since we all just took a moment to check in and, you know, chat, see how you’re feeling, what you’re liking, what you’re frustrated by, all that. So let’s take care of that right now, why not, with a little Autopian Reader Chat! We have a little window of time here before we have to record our podcast – did I mention we’re starting one of those? Well, we are. But we’ll announce it more formally soon, but you know I can’t keep secrets from you, baby.

Just to let you know we are listening to some stuff, I can say that we are working with our tech team to try and improve the experience here; we’re looking into speeding up loading times, getting a way to edit comments, add pictures, and more. I don’t have a clear timeline just yet for those, but things are happening, and I want to thank everyone for being patient with our tech issues as we try to win an auction for that 16K RAM expansion module that should really speed everything up, finally.

More importantly, we just want to know how you’re feeling about the stories, the pace of content, what you’d like to see more of, future dreams and aspirations, keto-friendly microwave recipes, hot stock tips, erotic dreams, your current project car achievements, tools you can’t find, and whatever else you want to tell us.

So, have at it! We’ll all try and chime in!

About the Author

Mercedes Streeter

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279 thoughts on “The Autopian’s Writers Would Love To Chat With You. Right Now.”

  1. Maybe this is coming once you guys staff up, but are you considering a general talk forum at some point? The “disautopian”?

    I sometimes have one-off repair questions that I’d love to pose to the assembled here (given what I’ve seen of the expertise…wow), or rants about crossovers or ethanol that I feel need airing to validate my automotive existence.

      1. I was going to suggest something like this, but with an Autopian irreverence. Something like a blog version of “Car Talk”. Users submit questions at least remotely related to vehicles and you pick two staff writers to debate answers.

  2. David, question one: why the fuck were we both in Germany for the hottest week on record?! No, seriously, it broke 103F in Heidenheim an der Brenz. On a day I was inside buildings where it was even hotter than that. I think I literally lost 10lbs in sweat. Gained it back when I got caught in the severe thunderstorms though.

    Question two: do you guys need a hand? I know you have a team, but honestly, it’s kinda clear your RDS needs some love. Been there. Can’t promise miracles, or a lot of time, but can promise gratis.

    Now, Jason, question for you. If I send you pictures of taillights on a car even I am struggling to identify, can you? I won’t be able to send till Monday or Tuesday. I thought Volvo at first, but no. And it’s not an NSU or BMW. I’m stumped.

    Oh, and send me Doug’s information. I have a better plan.

    1. I’m still here. Hot as hell, but I kinda like it!

      My diesel Chrysler Voyager’s Serbian refrigerant is slowly leaking from my AC system, so I’ve been rolling the windows down, which I’m used to. It’s great!

      The van has to go through inspection again. I’m struggling with wiring issues.

      1. You… wh-Jason, we need to mount a rescue. Like, right now. The heat has clearly melted what was left of his brain. I’d put him on my flight, but, uh… I got work to pay out for business class because “it’s the only seat that gets me home before mid-August.” Kid you not. MUC-IAD’s bad, IAD-CLE’s worse. I think I can get a RoRo slot out of Bremerhaven if we can lock him in the Voyager though. He’ll have to ride with some Opel parts and give the customs guys a straight face though.

        On the other hand… David needs to road trip to Heidenheim an der Brenz, go to Stattgarten on Brenzstrauß, and order the Maultaschen and the Apfelkuchle. (Somehow I got enough rust knocked off my Deutsch to order properly. Mostly.) Or Schlosswacht and literally anything. (Also, David probably can guess where I work now. They’re kind of a big deal.)

        … actually, David? Come pick me up in Munchen. There’s at least one hotel in the area with air conditioning. I’ll fix your wiring if you drag me out for food. Just… no more schnitzel und spaetzle. Okay. Maybe a little more.

    3. I thought you said Hildesheim for about 200 milliseconds there.

      I was their twice in the mid 90s doing a project for HP Germany.

      Loved Germany.

  3. This may seem minor but it would be REALLY GREAT if when I logged in, it sent me back to the page I was just on instead of my profile.

    I always click back to the front page then have to find the article I was on, and it always says I’m not logged in. I just logged in! It’s a hassle.

    2. I found that after you login, if you click back to the page that says you need to login, you can hit F5 (reload) and it will let you comment.

    3. I’ve learned to login via the black bar above Autopian logo: doing so at the reply box sometimes creates a loop where I have to try 2-3 times. Safari.

      Even with slow load & that bug, this is worlds better than the buggy autoplay crap at the orange site.

      Note: I WILL support on patreon. This site adds value to my life.

  5. Hey All,
    Two website issues I noted.
    1) Once you sign in, it does not take you back to the story you were looking at so you have to reload the home page. Then when you click on the story, the first time the page loads, you’re not logged in. You have to reload the page and then it remembers the sign in…. And then I can comment! I’m mostly reading from a mobile device if it helps.

    2) it doesn’t always happens but sometimes the page refreshes and brings me back to a random part of the article or top of the page. To motivate I have to hold my finger on the screen to stop the refresh

    Otherwise, I like what you guys are doing with the site and appreciate the authenticity of your articles. I think I would like to see more indepth looks at automotive tech and am really enjoying the bishops designs. I think some more historic profiles, on races or automotive marques could be interesting as a new topic. Besides that, keep up the great work

  6. I freaking love the new website! Especially the project cars stories, as I’m knee deep into restoring a 76 Datsun Z.

    If you guys ever wanna check out a cool garage in France I spent the last two days helping out friends running a classic British car shop and got to see a gosh darn Stratos!

  7. I cannot tell you how happy I am with the quirky, off-beat, weird (read: delightful) content that exists here. This is everything I love about cars and the writing staff is spot-on for the the task. We don’t need spy reports here or bland reviews about the latest BMW-whatever-who-cares series, we just want the straight dope on cars we’ve forgotten about.

    Now go poach Steve D from the other site and life is perfect.

  8. Not terribly important, but I’d prefer it if the RSS feed just had the tease for each story. There are stories where I get engrossed and forget to actually, you know, visit the site. That might hurt your metrics a little.

    Also, maybe, remind us Michiganders. when DT is doing another meet-up that it might be his last one in the Great Lakes State and that we better get a move on.

  9. The one thing I miss here — and it’s the only thing, really — is motorsports stuff. Not race reports, but commentary and insidey-type tidbits from people who a) know their stuff, b) aren’t fixated on the genital/racial/political/sexual aspects of the drivers and teams and c) just plain ol’ LOVE racin’.

    Oh. And an “edit” feature for us commenters. If I hadn’t taken my time vetting these two ‘grafs, I would have sounded like a total loon. An illiterate loon.

  10. Ok, picture it, a game show sort of like The Dating Game with a potential car buyer on one side of the divider who gets to ask questions of different car salespersons on the other side. Potential can’t see the cars they brought and doesn’t get to know what brands or models they represent but she gets to ask them questions about the cars. She gets to say what she’s looking for in a car, 2door, 4 door, budget, suv, sedan, etc.

    Finally potential buyer picks one of the candidates based on their questions, the dividing wall falls down, and they walk over to sit in the driver seat and fall in love with their new (to them) automobile completely paid for by The Autopian!!! (This is in the budget, right?)

    Step 3, profit

  11. Been loving the content. The design features from both artists are great. I love those. Glad to see that you were able to bring Mercedes over.

    I’d like to see some more automotive history articles every now and then. Maybe a deep dive into the development of a particular brand or car model or maybe even an engine. Why David thinks that whatever current Jeep he’s looking at is a Holy Grail. Things like that.

    Most importantly, don’t ever stop with the weird. You can never provide us with enough of that.

  12. The other thing that may be nice to add in the future is something like Oppo. A lot of us also have shitty hoopties with weird quirks and features that other people may find interesting. Or maybe instead of a fully open blog you can have us send you reader-crafted articles for you to review and upload.

    1. A “Reader’s Car Of The Week” would be a cool feature for sure.

      Or, I don’t know about the technical feasibility, but something like the “Garage” section on Drivetribe, where you could upload a photo and a blurb about your car?

      1. I suggested something similar a few times a while back. Readers Rides would be great, each week people can post theirs in the comments and one of those gets picked for the next one, it’s a self-propelling feature!

  13. I love the site. Especially the engineering deep dives. I am a designer at an auto supplier and find them very informative. Meanwhile, I am trying to stop my saabaru from constantly overheating. This has been a source of frustration and converted a weekend wrenching episode to over a year of pain

      1. … you KNEW I would be on from Munchen this evening, didn’t you?! DIDN’T YOU!?
        Oh wait. I think I mentioned it on Twitter. Nevermind.

        Anyway… we both know what step one on any Subaru boxer engine of that era is.
        Head gaskets as a consumable due every 30k or less.

    2. Been there. Still there. I DD a 92x Aero (named Velma). Anything over 85 degrees outside and anything resembling a hill, heat climbs. Doesn’t spiral out of control, but a canyon I commute up to go home can be taken at 85mph in the spring just fine, can only be done at 65 with the AC off during summer. Now on summer #2 of that issue. Can’t find coolant leaks, no indications of headgasket leak. I’m thinking it never gets up to the correct pressure but I haven’t tested that yet.

    3. I’m looking to HIRE ENGINEERS for this site. Ideally one can either come on full time or a retiree who has time to be a regular freelancer.

      I’d love to write more deep-dives, but I’m running the place. And the reality is, you cannot have a good car website without engineer writers, given how inherently technical cars are.

      So if you know someone: tips@autopian.com

      2. What about someone who’s currently taking a break from his mechanical engineering major, but also currently works in the automotive industry, and has experience as an aircraft mechanic?

      3. How about someone who writes well, has an engineering degree (technically) but doesn’t know dick about the mechanics of anything let alone vehicles?

    4. I’ve read / heard that the coolant crossover pipe can potentially be the source of some air trapping on the Subaru boxer-4’s and that people have actually installed a Schrader valve on it to mitigate this. Is this something you have already investigated?

      1. Also the thermostat, especially if it’s non-OEM. The thermostats on many versions of the EJ engine are mounted vertically rather than horizontally, which can cause air bubbles to get trapped around the spring. This prevents the spring from heating up properly and opening the valve. You can see why this would be a problem.

        OEM thermostats (I believe Aisin is the actual supplier, or anyway their ‘stats are visually identical) are considerably taller than most aftermarket replacements, which mitigates this issue.

        You want to elevate the nose of the car while filling it with coolant, and you want to make sure you have a known-good, OEM-style thermostat in there. You also want to top off the car’s coolant over the next couple of days—again, with the nose elevated—before each cold start.

        Of course, it’s probably the head gaskets.

    5. I am a subaru expert. Jack up the front end of the car and bleed it that way. It will take a while to bleed it and make sure to squeeze the top rad hose to force air out of there. Also get a new rad cap and thermostat. Any other symptoms?

    6. That’s got an EJ engine, right? I’ve been dealing with the same constant-overheating issue in my Outback, which uses a variant of that same engine, and it turned out to be *drumroll* a blown head gasket *sad trombone*. It took me a long time to diagnose, here’s a synopsis:

      First time it happened (on a 95°F day, on the highway, in traffic, with the dog in the car) I immediately suspected the head gasket because Old Subaru. No bubbles in the reservoir though and no milkshake in the oil (also, the cooling fans were running fine) so I ran a compression test at home and got a solid 180 psi across the board. “Sweet, it’s not a head gasket leak!” I thought.

      I then decided that the most likely culprit was either a failing water pump, or a bad thermostat. Went ahead and replaced both, as well as the timing belt because I was in there anyway, and did a coolant flush. Drove the car for a week, no problems.

      Took it on the highway again, it overheated. Looking in the coolant reservoir this time I *did* see bubbles. “Fuck, it’s been hiding a head gasket leak all along,” I thought. Limped home again.

      This car is too old and worthless to be worth actually replacing the head gaskets (an expensive, engine-out procedure that I’d already had done preemptively about 50,000 miles ago) so I put a bottle of head gasket sealer in the radiator to buy time while I prepared myself to get a new car in this historically awful market, ran it through the recommended thermal cycling procedure, and crossed my fingers that it would work at least for a while.

      Well, it didn’t. The car overheated again the very next time I took it on the highway. I brought it home, parked it for a week or two to let my frustration calm down, and then ran a chemical test that looks for exhaust gases in the coolant. (The product is called Block Tester, and involves an aspirator into which you pour a test fluid and then suck gas from the top of your radiator or coolant reservoir through said fluid, which will turn from blue to yellow if said gas is full of combustion products.) The car passed the test, repeatedly, no problem.

      “OK,” I thought, “maybe those bubbles were just the coolant boiling because it was so dang hot in there. I’ve replaced the water pump and thermostat and ruled out a blown head gasket, so… maybe a partial radiator blockage? Maybe the coolant flush didn’t work?” I pulled the radiator and ran a garden hose through both it and the engine, observing that everything seemed to be flowing just fine. Swapped the radiator anyway because I didn’t know what else to do here. I also replaced the thermostat *again* with an OEM model (the Subaru community insists this is the only way to go) and the radiator cap too, with one of those “safety valve” types that lets you depressurize the radiator into the reservoir so that you can open a hot radiator without getting a faceful of superheated steam.

      With most of the cooling system now having been replaced, and a head gasket leak having been ruled out by not one but *two* gold-standard tests, I figured that surely it must now be fixed. First time I took it on the highway, it was fine! But the second time… overheated again.

      This time, I decided to risk trying the exhaust gas test while the engine was actively trying to overheat, rather than while it was just peacefully idling from a cold state. I got a little bit of color change (blue to greenish-blue) in the reservoir, but that could have just been the tester sucking in a bit of coolant accidentally. Then, I released the safety valve on the new radiator cap.

      Holy fucking bubbles, Batman! That radiator had to have been at least half full of compressed gas. I put the tester up to the reservoir opening, sucked in some of that mystery gas, and the blue test fluid turned yellow like I’d flipped some kind of switch. Fuck. No misinterpreting this one, that’s a confirmed head gasket leak. It must be an intermittent problem where the leak only opens up after the car has been stressed a little, but not if it just gently idles its way up to 170°F from cold.

      So, my car is basically toast. I’m not equipped to replace the head gaskets myself (and even a DIY replacement isn’t all *that* cheap, unless you are a machinist and can lap your own heads) and I just don’t see dumping thousands of dollars into a beat-up, boring, ugly, 20-year-old Subie that I’ve never exactly been in love with anyway. I’ve had the car for 12 years, it’s served me well all that time, but now its days are numbered.

      The last thing I did was try another, different kind of head gasket sealer (Blue Devil, this time) just to see if I could get a little more time out of it. It seems to have taken—coolant levels have been steady all week and the car hasn’t overheated on me, even in this hot-ass weather we’ve been having. I’d be overjoyed if I can just keep driving this car until the market returns to normal, and meanwhile I’m aggressively saving for a down payment on a new automobile because even though the Outback remains alive, I have no illusions that it’s actually fixed. It’s living on borrowed time, and I don’t know how much it has.

      I’m going to run a final exhaust gas test this weekend (after taking it on the highway) and hopefully it’ll pass. If it does, I can keep the car as I put money aside for its replacement. The more I can save, the better position I’ll be in when the day comes that the poor patched-up think finally croaks for good.

      Anyway, that’s been my EJ journey. I hope yours goes better, but if I were you I’d get a Block Tester kit and check to see if your car’s exhaust is leaking into your coolant. Good luck.

      1. Commiseration from an ‘02 EJ owner. 2 cheap-enough-to-throw-at-it suggestions: the way-tall coolant funnel kit from Amazon, and Bars Leaks Golden Seal ‘pills’. The funnel did my bleeding after fancy Al radiator (tig welds add 5hp, right?) replacement in 1 session, period. The Golden Seal I have used in multiple cars—and it sealed an EA82 head gasket for another 3 years and almost 22k. For ~$30 (beforetimes prices), they’re worth a try.

        Was going to ask about lower radiator hose because I ran into an old Mazda truck which could run all day 50-60 below 85° ambient, but sustaining 65 above 85°ish for 15 min and temp would climb due to missing internal support spring in lower hose: hose would collapse enough to impede flow above 2200 or so rpm. But you said you replaced radiator & thermostat. Still, worth a try: heat it up, then watch that lower hose while reving to 3000 for signs of milkshake-straw syndrome. That’s free & easy. Maybe pull over in the offending canyon to look?

        I’m no longer a Magic Elixer guy, but those pills have actually worked in several cases: gave owner time to save up & replace ride at (more) leisure. Crush 3 with mortar&pestle really well, mix with 1&1/2 pints of HOT water, and dribble resulting porridge slowly into radiator @ ~1500rpm. GM used them in later Saturns from the factory. This is anecdotal, but plenty more on Saturnfans forum and on wayback machine on precursor to Nasioc. Never had noticeable heater-core blockage (unscientific laser-thermometer readings), either. Oh; also at Bob is the Oil Guy forums.

        I feel (and personally dread) your pain, man. Keep the faith

        2. I’m pretty confident I’ve got any bubbles out of the system (I’d been topping it off with the nose elevated every morning for the first several days after applying Blue Devil, but all it seemed to do was make the reservoir coolant level go higher, so hopefully it’s stopped burning coolant) and the head gasket repair stuff has hopefully worked this time.

          The first time I actually used a Bar’s Leaks product, although not the one you suggested, and it didn’t do shit. Bar’s Leaks Head Gasket Fix, I think. The Blue Devil Head Gasket Repair seems to be holding so far… gonna do a test in a couple of hours.

          People On The Internet seem to agree that these sealers are good for a couple years’ worth of driving, which is all I need. I’ve seen how they’re supposed to do their thing, and it makes sense—when coolant starts getting into the engine, the sealer basically hardens into a mineral-like substance on contact with the hot exhaust gases, thus plugging the hole. If I can get two more years out of this car, hopefully both me and the market will be in much better shape.

          Eventually, I’ll try to sell the car to someone who knows their Subarus and is equipped to deal with the problem correctly. Other than the head gasket this car is in exceptional shape for its age and the area it lives in, so it’s got a lot more life in it if it can find the right hands. Those hands aren’t mine, but people in New England love their Subies and there’s always someone with a wrench who’s looking for a cheap winter beater.

            1. WHAT??
              45mins in writing then condensing a comment reduced to jumble above. Bars Leak liquids stop up heater cores more than stopping actual leaks in my experience. The Radiator Stop Leak Professional Formula on a card provide fiber reinforcement for the OAT coolant Subaru uses. It may patch any remaining small leaks from the much better stuff you used. Cheap&easy Hail Mary that’s worthwhile to carry from my experience

              Let’s see if this gets thru

      2. Update: car passed the exhaust gas test, after some 80 mph highway runs and 50 mph stoplight-to-stoplight driving, on a 95°F day. Seems like the head gasket is sealed up… for now.

  14. Tips for recovering a stolen car w/o a big website? Tips for emotionally recovering from having a car stolen? My 1992 Typhoon disappeared from my property this week, and aside from calling the cops and posting on Facebook groups, I just feel constantly dreadful and guilty about not being able to prevent this.

    2. I feel your pain. I had a car stolen out of my drive way once. The offiers were more concerned about which one of my friends did it.

      It was found the next day on a random street unlocked. They did a good job trashing it just to be vindictive. Ended up getting it repaired but I hated the fact they smoked in it and put the cigs out on the shifter.

      Remember if they want your car, they will take it. All you can do is prevent the opportunity theft. In my case they wanted it and had a plan to get it out as quick as possible.

    3. This is a bummer, sorry to hear.
      Typhoons are pretty unusual, right?
      When you’ve been posting on the socials, have you been identifying the VIN and all that to make it hard for the thieves to interact with the Typhoon communities?

    4. It was me… Im sorry. I own a Towing and Recovery Operation involving a bunch of FlatBeds, 1Ts, a few 30 – 50T Wreckers and a Dual Steer Triple Axle for doing the usual Wreck off of a Curve on the Highway.

      I also signed a lucrative contract with Pimp My Ride and OVERHAULIN.

      (SHHHHHHHH, we agreed that Id load up your Typhoon in the middle of the night and transport it under the cover of darkness. Bout a week from now, it would be back with you. But Chip Foose isnt able to go on with a new contract, so we added Sol Fenklestein and his affinity with Bondo. Dont hate me if your car comes back coated in pink doilies that have been etched into your paintjob, or the 30″ wheels or the Hamster Powered motor.)

      COMPLETELY AND ABSOLUTELY JUST KIDDING. I dont fuck with other peoples shit. I just thought I could make something up to not have ya feel like a warm bag of my wifes farts.

      Hope ya had a nice laugh.

  15. When are you guys coming across the pond? Goodwood maybe? I need David’s help to quickly and cheaply convert my XJ to an EV. That’s a weekend job, right?

      1. I still owe you a write up on my Vespa PX125 EV conversion. And something about the bind I’m in due to the eventual expansion of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone next year. Seriously, when are you coming over?

    2. Don’t threaten me with an opportunity to trawl the U.K. in search of an SR Nova. Seriously, Goodwood FOS next year sounds mega, I’d love to make a trip across the pond happen at some point.

      1. There are some very cool cars over here. I spend far too much time browsing the Car and Classic site. Especially for the 40+ year old cars that are exempt from tax and ULEZ charges.

        1. Car and Classic is brilliant, although I’ll fully admit that Gumtree’s more my budget. Still, XR4x4s, Cavalier Turbos, XR3s, ST220s, Saxos, Metro Turbos, the list of neat cars in the U.K. just keeps going and going.

        1. Imortalised in song by The Streets, man. Who wouldn’t want one?
          “‘Cause Tony’s got a new motor
          Sr nova driving like a joyrider
          Speeding to the corner “

            1. A GTE would be brilliant but also more money. A redtop-powered Chevette or HC Viva would be neat, but I quite fancy a Nova. Piper cams and dual 45s in an 850 KG car would absolutely fly.

        2. Because David’s not the European car hunting expert.

          I’ve been the expert in tracking down the most obscure cars made of pure unobtanium in the old countries for two decades now. I just don’t take much business because I’m not interested in old BMWs and Benzes and VWs and million dollar cars. I only do weird.
          You want an Opel Insignia OPC? Sure. Fiat 147 3.2? Give me two weeks. Peugeot 207 convertible? How many do you need and will you be Federalizing?

          Corsa A SR? Yeah. I can find those.

  16. The path you are on is perfect, from my perspective. I love it, and am entertained and educated along the way.

    I will say, I have been daydreaming all day today about being a driver in the Autopian Rally. I’m going to Malaysia for basically all of August. I can wrench, have a high pain threshold for this stuff. If you are doing it in September or October, please consider.

    Load times and comment system could use help, but yes, I understand your growing pains. No complaints yet.

  17. Great job thus far with the site. I know it’s auto journo site, but personally I’d enjoy a little extra MC journo. Seems like that’s getting sparser these days. Even dedicated sites are slow so it’s no fault of The Autopian.

    2. I will do what I can! 🙂 I have an update coming for my little Yamaha project on Monday. I also have a major update about the BikeBandit bankruptcy story that I wrote as a going away present for the ol’ lighting site.

      We’re still finding our way and I think we’ll be able to write more about different kinds of vehicles. I’m trying to get personally involved with trains, too.

      3. Your content is great! Motojourno is really broad when covering all the included genres.

        If you’re ever looking for some personal opinions on a Chinese Vespa clone, a z900, or 390 Duke I’d be glad to share for you to publish. I’ve wrenched on all of them myself. The only one I chose to warranty was the KTM because I bought it new with bad seals. That was a fun story…

        Oh and I take my wheels off to get tyres mounted at a shop because I’d rather pay someone 30 bucks to mount and balance in 15 minutes than spend a couple hours doing the same.

      4. Hey! I am a retired Train Conductor. I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have about stuff 🙂 Feel free to e-mail me!

  18. I should be working but here I am, when is Mercedes visiting Metro Detroit? And of course she needs to bring her fleet. Cars & Pizza sponsored by Walmart parking lot lol

  19. Oh, and it goes without saying, except it really doesn’t, that we all deeply appreciate the time, effort, blood, sweat, tears and other bodily fluids (we don’t want to know any more details) that you all are putting into this fantastic website. It’s already the BEST automotive website anywhere and that’s only attributable to all the hard work you and your staff of fantastic contributors put into it.

    2. Hi.
      CD-RAMs were too small. We went straight to DVD-RAMs circa late POWER4, early POWER5 generation systems. Very efficient solution for backing up both individual partitions as well as WPARs when they were introduced.

  22. It’d be cool if you could get some heaps running and take them on more adventures. The articles about ‘how many broken cars I have now!’ every month or so are nice but would be good to see progress and maybe some Lemons runs with something, or like when David got his postal Jeep to Moab and such.

    1. it seems that DT is going to go Down Unda and attempt to get a heap running. While it may be more efficient for him to focus on one (1) continent at a time, the thought of counterclockwise wrenching combined with killer animals should be fun

  23. I have nothing but good things to say about The Autopian, Torch!

    Thanks to all of you for sticking around and deliver great car content instead of going to work somewhere we would never hear from you again.

    The comments section needs a bit of work, like editing, posting images, etc. but I’m sure you already know this.

    But my biggest gripe is why you haven’t addressed why rear reflectors went from being in the taillights to the bottom of bumpers.

      1. It would be nice to do a bit of “history of the reflector” and how at first it was a separate entity probably due to costs and simplicity until at some point around the 60s(?) 70s(?) it became an integral part of the taillight assembly where it stayed up until the late 90’s/early 00’s. Earliest *modern* car I can remember having independent bumper reflectors is the 2 door BMW E46, around 1998 or so.

  24. Love the new site. The stories are excellent for the most part. I like seeing the list change every day. The site however is very slow. Last week it was taking almost 11 seconds to get to a new story. I’m on Xfinity 1.2g service, I usually land around 900+. The delay is not THAT bad but most other websites take a second or 2 to redirect you to the next page.

          1. Excuse you?
            I set that supercharger up.
            It’s 3-5 seconds of high pitched screaming because I also took off the governor. And Buicks of this era, as a point of fact, have a V1 speed.

              1. I suspect there is, but I couldn’t find a steep enough downhill to test and confirm. Since, you know, the front wheels don’t make it go faster when they’re no longer touching the ground.

                For the curious, V1 on a W-body Regal is 112-113MPH.

  25. Thanks Jason – the site is looking great so far and I eagerly look forward to the enhancements.
    One thing I would like is a general delivery address or something so I can send in my copy of Robot Take the Wheel for an autograph!

      1. Can I send you guys NIB car parts I don’t need anymore? I also have a set of NOS vintage AC Delco spark plugs in their original box for some reason.

      2. If I had an email address for you, I would! I did email you at tips@autopian.com but never heard back. I’m happy to send you my LinkedIn profile address if you want to make sure I’m (probably) not a mass-murderer or anything.

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