Author: Eric Peters

t’s hard to imagine a 7.4 liter V8 that only made 200 hp. It did. Back in ’76, the year my Pontiac Trans-Am left the Norwood, Ohio line. And my car was pretty much top-of-the-pile. The typical V8 of that era offered up perhaps 170 hp. Some less. Seems sad, right? Sure. Modern fours a fourth the displacement make that much hp today. Some of them a lot more than that. And the Trans-Am’s 0-60 run – just under eight seconds, if you were good with the Super T-10 –  is only about twice as long as it takes a new Mustang … Continue reading →

The post Cool Old Stuff appeared first on LewRockwell.

Once upon a time, there was a simple mechanical device that fed fuel to your car’s engine. It had no electrical hook-ups, was not dependent on sensors nor controlled by a computer. It was held in place by four bolts and could be physically removed from the engine in less than five minutes with basic hand tools. Its workings were visible – and so, comprehensible. This miracle device is the carburetor. You can still find them, too –  just not under the hood of any car built since the late 1980s. Lawnmower engines, weed whackers and other outdoor power equipment still … Continue reading →

The post Ode To the Carburetor appeared first on LewRockwell.

When most people can’t afford to buy things outright, the cost of money – interest – becomes even more important than the cost of the things themselves. For the past eight years, interest rates have been held down to 3 or 4 percent (or even less, in some cases) such that it costs almost nothing to borrow money. The private banking cartel that controls interest rates – the (ahem) “Federal” Reserve – did this to “stimulate” the economy – which is built on debt and people’s ability and willingness to assume it – after the cratering of Wall Street (and with … Continue reading →

The post The Car Industry Crash appeared first on LewRockwell.

I always read the owner’s manuals that come with the new cars I test-drive and review. They’ve morphed from pamphlets to Moby Dick-esque semi-novels over the past 20 years or so. And like Moby Dick, getting through them can be a challenge. So I thought I’d give you the Cliffs Notes version. Plus some stuff you probably  won’t find within the pages… * All-wheel-drive (and 4WD) may not keep you out of the ditch – All-wheel-drive and 4WD (both of which send power to all four wheels, with the difference being that – usually – AWD systems haven’t got a transfer case and … Continue reading →

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Obeying the law can sometimes get you killed. Humans – those not asleep at the proverbial wheel – know this. Self-driving cars don’t. They are programmed to be obey every law, all the time – regardless of circumstances. This is creating problems. Potentially, fatalities. Example: Up ahead, there’s a red light. Your autonomous Google car is coming to a stop because its sensors can tell the light’s red. But your Google car hasn’t got a brain, so it can’t override its Prime Directive to deal with the big rig coming up behind you that’s locked up its brakes and is clearly going … Continue reading →

The post See a Self-Driving Car? appeared first on LewRockwell.

It may be that Atlas is beginning to shrug. You remember Atlas. The mythical giant who struggles to support the world on his mighty shoulders. One day, his strength gives out. Or his will. His desire to bear the burden. So, he shrugs. Volkswagen just did exactly that. The automaker says it cheated on federal emissions tests because company engineers considered it “impossible” to pass them. Italics added. Read that again. A major-league automaker, with an entire engineering staff at its disposal, found itimpossible to comply with the federal government’s emissions fatwas. It would have required unacceptable (to VW’s customers) functional compromises … Continue reading →

The post Why Did VW Fudge Its Emission Testing? appeared first on LewRockwell.

A weird thing happened to me recently during a traffic stop. The cop demanded the usual stuff – license, registration. But then he demanded one more thing – my Social Security number. Under duress,  I gave it to him.    Maybe you remember when Social Security numbers were “not to be used for purposes of identification.” It actually said so, right there on the card. Well, it used to. So much for that. As usual, per the frog in the ever-warming pot of water, we do not notice the change until it is too late to change anything. Our SS … Continue reading →

The post National ID appeared first on LewRockwell.

Here’s a CNN news story about a Prince George’s County (MD) Hero who pointed a loaded gun, gangster-style, at the head of a man stopped over a traffic violation: The man was threatened with summary execution for the high crime of exiting his vehicle and what amounts to “contempt of cop.” The Hero initially lost his taxpayer-subsidized employment, but until the video got loose, was not charged criminally with anything. It is only because a third party managed to video the incident and because of subsequent embarrassment that the Hero ended up facing charges. Which is exactly why these incidents continue to occur. We … Continue reading →

The post Bullies With Loaded Guns appeared first on LewRockwell.

Few people with working brains respect the obviously stupid. Which explains why almost everyone disrespects posted speed limits … by ignoring them. Any law or edict  that is almost universally ignored can be safely presumed stupid. Or – as here – cynically dismissed as a tool for separating people’s money from their persons. Most speed limits (and thus, speeding tickets) fall into this latter category. None of this is news. But because speed limits exist as an artificial barometer of reasonable maximum velocities, there is the problem of a generally distorted perception of what constitutes reasonable average velocities. The Clover who mopes along at … Continue reading →

The post Few Respect Stupidity appeared first on LewRockwell.

The following is an example of the Augean Stables that will have to be mucked out before there is any hope for a rebirth of liberty in this country. It was submitted by what I fear is the typical American nowadays – the reflexive authoritarian, moral illiterate and market economics ignoramus. EPautos readers refer to such people as Clovers (more here). The subject matter is mandatory insurance. In this case, car insurance. But the principle applies generally (its acceptance is the reason why we now have mandatory health insurance and probably soon mandatory life insurance, with much more to come, if the … Continue reading →

The post Reflexively Authoritarian, Morally Illiterate, Economically Ignorant appeared first on LewRockwell.

When things get ridiculous they tend to become hilarious. Or, pathetic – and aggravating. Example: The government wants to require that hybrid and electric cars be fitted with devices that make them noisy, so that the blind will be aware of their presence. See here. Apparently, there is an epidemic of blind – whoops, visually impaired – people being run over by hybrid and electric vehicles. Well, no. Hard data is hard to come by, but I did find a 2009 NHTSA Technical Report (here) on the subject. According to this document, over a seven year period (2000-2007) 72 pedestrians were “involved” in … Continue reading →

The post How To Stop Running Over Blind People appeared first on LewRockwell.

Better hide your diesel VW. Turns out that some of the “affected” models will require more than just a quick, easy (and free) software adjustment to placate Uncle. Actually, it is most of them. Of the 482,000 diesel-engined VWs identified (so far) for the High Crime of end-running Uncle, 325,000 of them may require physical alterations; that is re-engineering of their hardware. Specifically, they will probably have to be retrofitted with urea injection – a “feature” VW diesels up through the 2014 model year uniquely lacked – and which was probably among the reasons why people chose to buy a VW diesel. … Continue reading →

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It’s almost impossible to find a new car that doesn’t come standard with amenities that used to be expensive options such as air conditioning (usually, automatic climate controlled air conditioning), power windows and locks, cruise and (usually) at least a four-speaker stereo system. But there are also items that used to be givens in cars that are becoming harder to find and – within a few years – will probably be nearly impossible to find. For instance: * CD slots – Music is delivered over the ether nowadays, via Bluetooth and Pandora and SiriusXm. Compact discs are so 1990s. They are the … Continue reading →

The post Goodbye, Dipstick appeared first on LewRockwell.

We hear that cloying bleat from the advocates of “safety” (at gunpoint) befehls all the time. If it saves even one life, it’s worth it! They use it to justify helmet laws for motorcyclists and seatbelt laws for drivers. Air bags, etc. But how come their logic is never applied to the source of all Safety itself? I mean, of course, the government. Defective Takata air bags have injured and killed at least 130 people so far that we know about – and the potential mayhem could involve literally millions of people. Because millions of “defective” air bags (34 million, to be … Continue reading →

The post The Government Safety Device That Kills You appeared first on LewRockwell.

Bubbles are always obvious … in retrospect. Here’s one you might not see coming. The Car Bubble. People are taking out eight-year car loans. This is – or ought to be – alarming. The automotive equivalent of the zero-down, no-doc, adjustable rate mortgage on a $500,000 McMansion circa 2004. You know – just before the housing bubble popped. New car loans used to be 36 months (three years) and then 48 months (four years). Back when the economy was sane. Today, the typical new car loan is 72 months (six years). This is almost double the formerly typical length of a … Continue reading →

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