Car Throttle

Pictured: ZF's 8-speed Automatic for BMW's, about to be "old hat."

Luddite.  The term originated from England during the industrial revolution in the early 1800's.  Luddites went out at night, destroying wide-frame fabric looms that were taking away the jobs of skilled textile workers.  It was a man-against-machine revolution that got to the point of military intervention.  Technology was minimizing their usefulness in society, so the solution was to destroy the technology.  A noble fight, but today the term Luddite has been boiled down to mean someone not fond of technological advances. I am not a Luddite.  There's plenty of technology I'm fond of.  I like fuel injection.  I even like direct injection in some forms, particularly Toyota's D4S direct and port system.  Twin-clutch automated

eBay "Other Makes" is like the deep end of the pool when you're 6.  You're free to go there, but you might sink in. There's so much cool stuff in this dark corner of eBay it's hard to pick just a few favorites.  Want some more?  You've come to the right place! You know what's really boring?  Driving just on land.  What you need is a car that can drive directly from the boat dock into the lake.  Might wanna get in on the auction for this 1965 Amphicar if that fits the bill for you.  The seller says it's in working condition, but the pile of junk on it would indicate it's more of a Ran When Parked. Not trying to be a

Man, I love the internet.  It never gets old. While browsing around today working on another article, I stumbled across the eBay "other makes" section, which I probably haven't visited in more than a year.  To say there are some strange cars for sale under "other makes" would be a massive understatement.  You want a Rossion Q1?  How about a Rat Rod Metropolitan?  Bricklin SV-1?   Autozam AZ-1? Done!  eBay "other makes" is the go-to spot for weird, interesting cars.  Well, that and Bring a Trailer.  Take a look at some of the whacky stuff on eBay Other Makes with us! Oh yeah, y'know, it's just a TVR in the US.  No biggie.  This was back in the TVR wedge era, before they started making

Yes, you read that right: A 1969 McLaren M6 GT For Sale. A REAL 1969 McLaren M6 GT. Not a copy. Not a kit car. But a real, honest to Jehovah, McLaren M6 GT as designed by Bruce McLaren himself, and build and driven (on occasion) by Bruce and Denny (yeah, that would be Denny Hulme). As I recall, McLaren only built about 5 or 6 of these things, and they very, very rarely come up for sale. As a matter of fact, I can't tell you the last time I saw one change hands, and when I saw this one pop up on the Hemmings sight, I couldn't believe it at first. But yes, this is the real thing. The seller, Fantasy Junction in the

Ah, Group B rally cars. They're full on crazy, yet they had to produce enough of the little guys that on occasion they pop up for sale. And indeed, here we have not one, but two, MG Metro Group B cars for sale. Sure, MG Metros were probably the worst (i.e. slowest) of the Group Bs cars, but at least they are Group Bs. A place called The Auto Collections from Las Vegas is selling both of these little brutes, a 1985 and a 1988. And, sadly, and a bit worryingly, they offer scant specifics on either of these particular cars. They also don't mention a price, simply saying it is " Inquire". That probably means they know what they got, and they're going to charge

Wicked! Sure, you see Groupe C porches for sale now and again, and yeah, they were more successful cars then the Lancia LC2 Group C Racer, but these Lancias are one bad ass ride. And not only that, but they didn't make very many of them, so seeing one for sale, on Craig's List of all places, is just too much. Sure, let's just get the facts out of the way first: The Porches, the 956s and later 962s, were more reliable and won more. But in flat out qualifying trim, the Lancias were usually quicker. Sure, the fuel economy was down, and the reliability wasn't what the Germans had on offer, but still, how often do you see one of these guys up for sale?

So what happens to concept cars? All the major manufacturers crank out about three or four concept cars a year. About half of them are non-running prototypes, rollers, if you will. I've seen concepts where bits of the dash were clearly made out of wood (I could tell because they hadn't done a very good job of sanding or painting said wood). But then there are the concept cars that are runners. They have engines and can start and be driven. Those are rare, and car companies generally hold onto them, but not always. I know a guy in Sacramento who has a car collection that is 80% Chrysler concept cars from the 40s and 50s. Yes, they all run, and yes, it is a very,

What?! No! This can't be happening, this can't be happening ... OK, wait, they said suspended, not 'canceled". I feel better now. If you ask me, there's far too few lightweight sportscars in this world. There's the X-Bow, the Ariel Atom the Caterham (am I missing any?), I guess you could throw in the Beck Spyder, so that makes only 4. We can't stand to have 25% of the current crop of these little guys go missing, if you ask me. Yes, I will agree with those of you out there that the X-bow is the ugliest of the lot. It would seem that no one told the Austrians (who I always thought were good at De Stijl) that the folded paper school of body design went

While we're on the whole Monterey weekend thing, here's another car that popped up onto my radar: A V16–powered Miller from the 1931 Indianapolis 500. Sure, any old race car is something I'm going to notice, but a Miller? Yeah baby. And not just any Miller, but a V16, the only one Harry Miller ever built. Harry Arminius Miller is a bit of an obscure figure today, but in pre-war American racing, he was like a cross between Colin Chapman and Merlin the Magician. He was known primarily as an engine man (and as a side note, just what the hell is it about Armenians and engines? I swear, every Armenia I have ever met is a hot-rodder and engine builder of the first order, and I've

OK, what is collectively known as The Monterey Weekend is over and things have started to cool down a bit. Now that the trophies have been handed out, the races won, the concours entrants thoroughly ogled, a fair assessment can be done. As far as the big buck sellers at the big time glitzy auctions are concerned, the winners are Shelby, Ferrari and Jaguar Let's go through these in order, shall we? First up, the Shelby Daytona. The folks at Mecum Auction scored big in their first showing at Monterey by getting $7.25 million (gulp!) for the championship-winning 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe chassis number CSX2601. Turns out that this was the highest ever bid for an American car, and it's not like Daytona Coupes don't deserve it.