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12 Bonehead Basics of Car Maintenance
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You know, That Guy who thinks that the best way to keep a car from overheating is to roll down the window. That Guy who hires the neighborhood kid to wash his car 'cause he’s allergic to “going outside and doing things.” There are lots of ways to be That Guy, but only one way not

to be: by regaining your self-sufficiency and learning the basics about car care. Using STP® is a good first step. And while we can’t do the rest for you, we'll give you a few pointers. Check out the tutorials. Take a look at the videos. And get under your hood. Good luck, and Don't Be That Guy.

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  • Jul
    06
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    FLYING CARS & THE ROBOT UPRISING

    Posted in: This Guy Wisdom, Car Culture, News, Car Knowledge
    Shaq Diesel
    The Future of Driving?

    Hola, chief. Ever since I was a little hombre, I’ve had an intense fear of flying. Sure, we had to get on a plane to visit places like Dollywood, Twitty City (home of Conway Twitty) and Lansing, Michigan (birthplace of Burt Reynolds), but I never much enjoyed the airborne experience. The doctor at the nervous hospital said it’s because I have “control” issues. Personally, I think it’s because I don’t like hurtling through the air in a cylindrical death tube at 500 MPH. But that’s just me. And that’s why last week’s announcement that the first FAA-approved flying car would begin commercial production made me do a spit-take with my herbal laxative tea. That’s right chief, real men drink tea — just ask Chuck Norris. He’ll steep some chamomile right before he pulls out your lungs. And constipation, well, that’s just an unfortunate fact of life, like property taxes and “new country” music.

    So last week, Terrafugia, an aviation company founded by MIT graduates, announced that it would begin taking orders for its flying car called the Transition. Described as a “roadable plane,” the Transition is both a functioning automobile that gets 30 MPG and a Light Sport Aircraft that can fly 460 miles on a single tank of regular, high octane gasoline.  With the push of a cockpit button, its automated electromechanical folding wings take about a minute to deploy. The Transition has a maximum air speed of 115 MPH and is designed to fly under 10,000 feet. It retails for a cool $194,000 and the first models will roll off the line in 2011.

    While this sounds great on paper, I do have a major concern: Because of its FAA classification as a Light Sport Aircraft, it only takes 20 hours of instruction to get your required sport pilot license. Twenty hours. Heck, you have to spend nine months at beauty college just to get a hair-cutting license. It’s no secret that I have certain fears about new technologies (the robot uprising is coming), but this flying car scares the crud out of me. Most people can barely drive their automobiles without crashing into something. If these same people are flying through the air at 115 MPH — well I think I’ll just take the bus.

    In honor of this horrific new technological achievement, I thought I’d show you some other famous flying cars (click on links to view):

    * The mother of all flying cars, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

    * The flying DeLorean at the end of Back to the Future

    * Bruce Willis air taxi chase in The 5th Element

    * The Jetsons family truckster

    * Harry Potter’s flying car from The Chamber of Secrets

    * Crazy new Russian movie from the director of Wanted called Black Lightning

    That’s it for today, chief. Until next time: Travel safe, live smart, and get your hands dirty. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna put the kettle on and start making preparations for the robot invasion. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

    —RC, STP® blogger

     

     

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