"The Relay" Online Newsletter
April 2024 Issue

This is the monthly online newsletter for the car club council. All car hobbyist events are listed on this site under "Calendar." Just click on the link above to view the list of car shows and other activities.

President's Message

The dash plaque for our car show is pictured on your right. The show committee picked this plaque for the 5th annual show. The trophies have also been purchased and we will be ready on May 11th. This year we have a rain date of May 12 - which we hope will not have to be used. The last 4 shows have had rain on 3 of them (!) so we are due for some better luck. The first couple of shows were very important for Pamplin Park because the Covid lockdown kept students and others from visiting the park and it hit the budget hard enough that a lot of employees were let go. After the end of the lockdown things got back to normal and then this January the budget for the park was cut to less than half. The park needs to make some money to continue the good things it does such as preserving history. Hopefully we will have nice weather and hopefully a lot of attendees. Complete info on the show including registration forms, vendor forms and food vendor forms are at carclubcouncil.com/carshow.

The good news from the General Assembly is nothing really changed for car hobbyists. The exhaust bills - only for Northern Virginia - either failed or were kicked down the road to the 2025 session. The collector car bill was also kicked to 2025. The Transportation Museum bill was once again killed. The governor still has a couple of bills that he has until April to decide to sign or veto. He has vetoed a lot of bills but that is what happens when stuff gets passed that the people don't want. Somehow the democrats in the Assembly with a one person margin in both houses decided they had some kind of "mandate" and even passed bills their own lawyers told them were unconstitutional. But it looks like the gov is going to fix all that with vetoes.

The calendar is full of events and I'm adding events often. You have many opportunities to attend car events this year including some different events as more people want a display of antique vehicles at various venues. Old cars and trucks are getting more popular. Something I can't say about EVs. They are getting less popular with automakers having trouble selling them. As I said before failure can be a good thing. It can teach people that they are going in the wrong direction. Our government leadership is still pushing for an end to fossil fueled everything while also trying to brow beat us into buying EVs and other green products that we don't want. Check the articles below for info on low EV sales, how a California woman had to deal with a Hertz EV rental - took an hour's worth of instruction on how to use it. The Hertz CEO is out because of EVs. Ford and GM continue to lose money on every EV they build and both have paused some EV production. Fisker has been kicked off the NYSE because its stock was down to 9 cents. Lucid Motors is raising another $1 billion from Saudi Arabia which now owns 60% of the company - this is because Fisker and Lucid just aren't selling vehicles. Mexico - not China - is now our biggest trading partner. China's EV maker BYD wants to build plants there. BYD sold more cars the fourth quarter of 2023 than did Tesla. China wants the cheap labor found in Mexico and access to the American market - because of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement taxes can be avoided. And the new federal EV tax credit is only for North America built vehicles. But there still is that pesky sales problem which could put some automakers out of business - even the big ones.

Don't forget to register for the 5th Annual Breakthrough Car Show and I'll see you at some of the many events.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be Monday, April 22nd at 6:30 PM at Candela's Pizzeria & Ristorante Italiano, 14235 Midlothian Turnpike, Midlothian, VA 23113, 804-446-6342. It is in the Ivymont Square Shopping Center anchored by Kroger - it is to the right of Kroger as you look at the grocery store from Midlothian Turnpike. They have a meeting room that we will use. Link to menu: www.candelasmidlothian.com/#menu. Link to driving directions: Directions.

Yeah, it has arrived

Car Hobbyist News

National Report

The media has tried to spin the news about the EPA ruling on EVs to make it look like the Biden administration is pushing harder for more electric vehicles. The truth is this was done for politics - the United Auto Workers endorsed Joe Biden and he cut a deal with them to get the endorsement - slow down the push for electrics. From Hagerty: The EPA’s new rule slow-walks last April’s stricter pollution standards from 2026 to 2029 while increasing them up through 2032, ending up very nearly where last April’s initiatives would have landed, assuming this strategy works. It is lost on few that the election of Donald Trump in November might well cause a major re-write of Wednesday’s proposals.

It's real easy to say we're going to make big changes from 2029 to 2032. What has been done is to kick the can down the road from 2026 to 2029 to get a union endorsement for the Biden campaign. The UAW members know that EVs use fewer parts than gas/diesel vehicles, just more expensive parts. Fewer parts mean fewer people needed to build vehicles and of course no one wants to lose a good paying job with benefits. More from Hagerty: The new EPA proposals decidedly aren’t a 180-degree turn from the Biden Administration’s aggressive stance from last April that called for battery-electric vehicles to make up more than half of new-vehicle sales just six years from now, and two-thirds by 2032.

But Wednesday’s revision in those standards may indeed be a 90-degree shift from what Biden and the EPA wanted.

This new proposal now estimates that battery-electric cars, light trucks, and SUVs will make up 30 to 56 percent of new vehicle sales between 2030 and 2032, but even that may be ambitious unless cooling trends in electric vehicle demand warm up quickly.

The big problem is EVs just aren't selling. The automakers - especially GM and Ford - are having production problems. It's tough to build gas cars for over 100 years and then re-tool factories to build electrics. And then there is the battery problem.

From The Verge: Ford hits the brakes on $12 billion in EV spending because EVs are too expensive. Ford is postponing $12 billion in EV factory building, including a planned battery factory in Kentucky. The reasons given were an unwillingness by customers to pay extra for its electric vehicles. You see, they’re too expensive, and now Ford’s massive transformation into an EV company is now going to take a lot longer than before.

Ford’s EV business continues to lose money, around $1.3 billion this past quarter in adjusted earnings. So far this year, Ford has lost $3.1 billion on its EV spending and has said it’s going to lose a total of $4 billion for the year.

The Detroit Free Press: This is a "year of execution" for General Motors as the automaker hits reset on production of its newest electric vehicles, relaunches its troubled self-driving subsidiary Cruise and fixes new-vehicle software glitches, CEO Mary Barra told investors Thursday.

Barra, who spoke at the Wolfe Research Global Auto and Auto Tech Conference, said she has some regrets from last year, but the automaker is rectifying those issues, including fixing glitches with new in-vehicle software that in one case resulted in the stop-sale of GM's long-anticipated Chevrolet Blazer EV. That stop-sale is approaching the two-month mark. The glitch is also connected to large numbers of GM's Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon midsize pickups parked on a quality hold near GM's Wentzville Assembly plant in Missouri, the Detroit Free Press has learned.

Yes - production problems and at Stellantis (Chrysler/Dodge/Ram) the company is laying off roughly 400 U.S. salaried employees in its engineering, technology and software organizations to cut costs. (they should just say the EV department). This is from 2021: Stellantis Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said external pressure on automakers to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles potentially threatens jobs and vehicle quality as producers struggle to manage the higher costs of building EVs. Governments and investors want car manufacturers to speed up the transition to electric vehicles, but the costs are "beyond the limits" of what the auto industry can sustain, Tavares said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference released Wednesday. "What has been decided is to impose on the automotive industry electrification that brings 50% additional costs against a conventional vehicle," he said. "There is no way we can transfer 50% of additional costs to the final consumer because most parts of the middle class will not be able to pay." Automakers could charge higher prices and sell fewer cars, or accept lower profit margins, Tavares said. Those paths both lead to cutbacks. Union leaders in Europe, and North America (the UAW), have warned tens of thousands of jobs could be lost.

The independents are not doing well either - Fisker talks with a large automaker for a potential deal have collapsed and the New York Stock Exchange plans to delist the electric-vehicle startup's shares due to "abnormally low" price levels. The NYSE has also suspended trading in the stock hours after it was halted pending an announcement. Fisker's shares were trading at $0.09 before the halt. Lucid Motors is raising another $1 billion from its biggest financial backer, Saudi Arabia, as it looks to blunt the high costs associated with building and selling its luxury electric sedan. The company announced in a Monday morning regulatory filing that Ayar Third Investment, an affiliate of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has agreed to purchase $1 billion worth of Lucid’s stock, which will add to the Kingdom’s current stake of around 60% ownership.

Let's go to the bloodbath comment (Trump March 16): "But if you look at the United Auto Workers, what they've done to their people is horrible. They want to do this all-electric nonsense where the cars don't go far. They cost too much. And they’re all made in China. And the head of the United Auto Workers never probably shook hands with a Republican before they're destroying — you know, Mexico has taken, over a period of 30 years, 34% of the automobile manufacturing business in our country, think of it, went to Mexico.

China now is building a couple of massive plants, where they're going to build the cars in Mexico and … they think that they're going to sell those cars into the United States with no tax at the border. Let me tell you something to China. If you're listening, President Xi, and you and I are friends, but he understands the way I deal, those big, monster car manufacturing plants that you're building in Mexico right now, and you think you're going to get that, you're going to not hire Americans, and you're going to sell the cars to us, no. We're going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you're not going to be able to sell those cars.

If I get elected. Now, if I don't get elected, it's gonna be a bloodbath for the whole, that's going to be the least of it. It's going to be a bloodbath for the country. That'll be the least of it. But they're not gonna sell those cars."

It's apparent that electric vehicles are going to be part of the presidential campaigns and that is good for the country as everyone needs to realize that this whole green energy/climate change movement is taking the country in the wrong direction - a direction that will hurt the economy.

State Report

You can check the status of all auto-related legislation at http://vaacc.org/legis1.html. Check the website for updates by clicking on the bill you wish to check. It looks like Governor Youngkin is going to set a record - many think he could easily veto 100 bills.

HB 883 Vehicle exhaust systems; operation in certain locations - Failed

HB 884 Vehicle exhaust systems; inspection and administrative fee - Continued to 2025 in Finance and Appropriations

SB 714 Vehicle exhaust systems; inspection and administrative fee - Senate: Continued to 2025 in Finance and Appropriations

HB 20 Photo speed monitoring devices; location - House: Continued to 2025 in Transportation by voice vote

HB 1032 Photo speed monitoring device; establishes a default process for collection of civil penalties - Failed

SB 336 Photo speed monitoring devices; high-risk intersection segments - Passed Senate, substitute added in House - Governor has until April 8th to sign or veto

SB 256 Motor vehicle insurance; bad faith for refusal of claims - Passed Senate and House with substitute - Conference report agreed to by Senate (30-Y 9-N 1-A)

HB 107 Electric Vehicle Rural Infrastructure Program and Fund; established and created - grants for installing EV chargers - Failed

HB 282 Highway work zones; creates a traffic infraction for any moving violation in a work zone - $300 fine - Governor has until April 8th to sign or veto

HB 1071 Speed limits; expands authority of any locality to reduce limit to less than 25 miles per hour - Failed

SB 198 License plates; creates plates for collector motor vehicles, penalty - Senate: Continued to 2025 in Finance and Appropriations (11-Y 4-N) - this was the collector car bill

A federal lawsuit has been filed to halt the construction of Dominion’s offshore wind project because of its impact on endangered whales (Federal lawsuit seeks to halt construction of Virginia Beach offshore wind farm). The Thomas Jefferson Institute’s Steve Haner explained the predicament for Virginia -- if construction is halted, ratepayers (you and me) are on the hook to pay for the incomplete project, and if construction continues, ratepayers are on the hook (Wind Lawsuit Poses a Whale of a Problem). Sadly, dead whales continue to pile up...

As stated in the national report "everyone needs to realize that this whole green energy/climate change movement is taking the country in the wrong direction - a direction that will hurt the economy."

Cheeseburgers & Classic Car Cruise-In at Farmer’s Table of Smithfield March 3
See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window Photo by Ron Clark

AMC Convention at the Keystone Museum Needs Help

Hello Fred,

We are down to 3 months away from the AMC convention at the Keystone Museum! I am working on getting volunteer teams together, and the most difficult time is when my volunteer base is busy with their own cars!

I'd like to reach out to area clubs and ask for some help with setting up the showfield on Friday evening and guiding show cars into the showfield on Saturday morning. We have 2-hour blocks on our signup page. Volunteers will receive training and support.

I don't have much to offer except the opportunity to see some interesting and unusual AMC cars you won't see anywhere else, and meeting likeminded old car folks from across the country and abroad! Our membership is spread from PA to Hampton Roads, WV to DE, but there is a desire among some of our members to reciprocate the help and assist at other clubs' events if they are kind enough to help at ours.

I hope you can help spread the word to people who would be interested. Please see the attached flyer in pdf and jpg formats (below), and the link to our signup page here: signup.com/client/invitation2/secure/2531116013/false#/invitation Anyone with questions is invited to contact me by email or phone anytime!

Thanks Much!
Chad Quella
Event Chair, AMO2024
amo.club facebook.com/amo2024 804-244-0114
I plan to be there as a volunteer, hopefully others will also volunteer - Fred

The Hertz Meltdown Reveals the Scale of the EV Debacle

From The Epoch Times by Jeffrey A. Tucker is the founder and president of the Brownstone Institute, and the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press, as well as 10 books in five languages.

The Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has revealed its ambition: to phase out gas-powered cars in favor of electric vehicles (EVs). Incredibly, this announcement comes as we are flooded with overwhelming evidence that EVs are a market loser.

Indeed, the artificial boom and then meltdown of the EV market is a modern industrial calamity. It was created by government, social media, wild disease frenzy, far-flung thinking, and the irrational chasing of utopia, followed by a rude awakening by facts and reality.

CEO of Hertz Stephen Scherr has been booted out due to a vast purchase of an EV fleet that consumers didn’t even want to rent. The company has now been forced to sell them at a deep discount and in a market where consumers are not particularly interested.

Looking back, however, Scherr’s decision to bet everything on an EV boom was a disaster that was highly praised at the time. Only last year, the company bragged: “This morning, [Hertz] was recognized by The White House for our efforts to expand access to electric vehicles across the country. Demand for EV rentals is growing and we’re here to help our customers electrify their travels.”

Pleasing the Biden administration is not the same as pleasing consumers.

The demand turned south fast in a real-world test of drivers. But that’s not all. Hertz could not make their investment pay no matter what they did.

The key issues with EVs are as follows.

The cost upfront is much higher.

Financing charges are higher.

They depreciate at a higher rate than internal combustion cars.

The insurance is more expensive, by at least 25 percent.

Repairs are much more expensive, if you can get them done at all, and take longer.

Tires are more expensive and don’t last as long because the car is so heavy.

Refueling is not easy and missteps here can have nightmarish consequences.

They are more likely to catch fire.

Any motor vehicle accident that impacts the battery can lead to repairs higher than the value of the car, that is totaled with so much as a scratch.

To top it all over, there is no longer any financial advantage to the driver. It now costs slightly more to charge under many conditions than to refuel with gasoline.

The novelty of driving one for a day wears off after the first day. At first they seem like the greatest thing that ever happened, like an iPhone with wheels. That’s great but then the problems crop up and people start to realize that they are fine for urban commutes with home chargers and not much else.

They make truly terrible rentals. Obviously, under rental conditions, people have to use charging stations rather than a charger in the garage. That means spending part of your vacation figuring out where to find one.

Not all are superchargers, and if it is a regular charger, you are looking at an overnight wait. If you do find a station with fast chargers, you might have to wait in line. They might not work. You waste hours doing this. And you likely have to reroute your trip even to find a station without any certainty that you will get a spot with a functioning charger.

No one wants to do this. When you rent a car, all you want is a car that goes the distance. And typically car rentals are for going some distance else you would just take a taxi or a Lyft from the airport. You might need to drive several hours. And god forbid that this takes place in cold weather because that can reduce your mileage by half. Your whole trip will be ruined.

Why in the world would anyone want to rent one of these things rather than a gas-powered car? You might be better off with a horse and carriage.

Did Hertz think of any of this before they spent $250M on a fleet? Nope. They were just doing the fashionable thing.

Again, I’m not knocking some uses for EVs. If you think of them as enclosed and souped up golf carts, you get the idea. They can be wonderful for certain urban environments so long as you don’t overuse them and have to get them repaired. You also have to be in a financial position to afford the higher costs all around, from financing to insurance to repairs and tires. And you have to be prepared to take a big loss on resale, if you can even manage to find a buyer.

There is money to be made in this market, as there is with any niche good or service. But that is covered with normal market conditions, not massive subsidies, mandates, and frenzies. The Hertz case proves it. It is a perfect clinical trial of these machines. We now know the answer. They cannot work.

And thank goodness because if the United States truly switched over in a big way from gas to electric, we would face other disasters. The wear and tear on roads is much worse due to the sheer weight of the cars, which is 25 percent higher than gas cars on average. Many parking garages would have to be rebuilt with new reinforcements.

Then there is the strain on the grid. There is no way the industry could handle the demand. Brownouts and travel restrictions would be essential. All this would pave the way toward 15-minute cities.

Please remember how this craze began. It was lockdown time and automakers suspended orders for parts and chips. They stopped cranking out cars. When demand intensified, the chip makers had moved on to other things, so delays escalated. By the summer of 2021, there was a general panic about a growing car shortage.

At that point, consumers were willing to buy anything on the lot, among which EVs. The sales records were completely misinterpreted. The manufacturers made huge investments, and the car rental companies did too. But the product had not really been tested. That test is taking place now, and the EVs are completely failing.

We keep hearing that this is still too early, that development has a long way to go, that more charging stations are coming, that manufacturers are going to overcome all these problems in time. All of this sounds very similar to what the producers of mRNA shots say: this was just a trial run and they will get better the next time.

Maybe but doubtful. There is a huge problem in the investment market right now. EVs are massive losers. Consumers, manufacturers, car rental companies, and every other market in which these lemons are made available are running away from them as fast as possible. They had their day in the sun and got fried.

There is another problem: surveillance. The car can be tracked anywhere and shut off at a moment’s notice. This is obviously a great thing if the government desires a social-credit system of citizens control.

At this point, it is doubtful that the industry can recover. And yet, even now, the Biden administration is planning more subsidies, more mandates, more restrictions on gas cars, and digging themselves even deeper into this hole.

“The Biden administration on Wednesday issued one of the most significant climate regulations in the nation’s history, a rule designed to ensure that the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States are all-electric or hybrids by 2032,” reports the New York Times.

You simply cannot make up nuttier stuff. At some point, we could see manufacturers making the cars just to satisfy the central planners but otherwise preparing to chop them up and throw them out. They would likely be happy to dump them in the ocean but that isn’t allowed either.

Jewels Found On Ebay

Here are a couple of hot finds from Ebay Motors.

eBay item number: 186342861990
$5000
eBay description: Unknown
I WILL LOOK FOR TITLE IF INTERESTED SOLD AS IS
SOLD AS IS
MUST BE TOWED
1965 PLYMOUTH BARRACUDA

The description doesn't say much and with only 4 photos they don't say much either. Car looks like it wants to become one with the earth and may be it should be left there.

Next up is another "project".

eBay item number: 134972665202
$14,000 to bid and $20,000 buy it now
eBay description: 1970 Mach 1 project car. All original body in great shape. No serious rust, only a few spots of minimal surface rust. Original 351C with C-4 auto original to car. Not in car and not sure the last time it ran but it’s all there. Needs front and rear windshield but everything else in there. Power steering and A/C car. Folding rear seat. Great original rust free car to complete.

Seller included 33 photos - mostly of parts. I recall looking at a car many years ago that was completely disassembled like this one - the seller told me the "hard work" of the resto was done because he had taken all the car apart and put most of the pieces in 5-gallon buckets. When you see a car completely taken apart remember - there will be missing pieces and plenty of them - you didn't take it apart and you may not be able to figure out how to put it back together especially if the person taking it apart just ripped the parts off without any thought of how to get it all back together.

eBay item number: 285765599903
Buy it now $69,000
eBay description: 1954 Kaiser Darrin. Number 80 of 435 produced in the single year of 1954. This vehicle has been in the same family since 1974. Originally purchased by my father as a low mileage collector vehicle, this Darrin was maintained as an original unrestored example until approximately 1999 when a full ground up restoration was started. The frame has been blasted, painted and reassembled. The body has been stripped, the major body work has been completed and the under hood, trunk and door edges have been painted. The chrome has been professionally restored and there has been a number of new old stock parts acquired for the reassembly as well as a new wiring harness. Unfortunately my father passed away before he could finish the restoration. The Darrin has been in my possession since his passing with the intention of completing the restoration. I have too many projects ahead of this one and it is time to let it go. This car is a true 25,000 mile survivor. All parts are there plus many spares to complete the restoration. The car is yellow with yellow interior. It was originally equipped with full wheel covers and a set of wire wheel caps are also included. The body is currently sitting on the frame. The suspension has been re-installed and the car rolls. All parts are clearly tagged. There is a clear and proper Pennsylvania title. The Darrin is located close to York, Pennsylvania which is convenient to Harrisburg, Hershey, Carlisle, Lancaster and Baltimore, Maryland. Nearby airports are Baltimore/ Washington International and Harrisburg International.

Another car with most of the photos of the pieces and parts. Asking 69K for this vehicle. I looked up 1954 Kaiser Darrin for sale and found restored ones for sale from $84,980 to $124,900. A shop might charge 100K to restore this car and all its parts. Drivetrain and interior definitely will need attention.

Tennessee Republicans Reverse Woke Police Reforms

From Morning Report News
The state legislature is reversing an ordinance by a city which outlawed traffic stops for minor violations - Virginia has a state law that outlaws minor violation traffic stops.

The Tennessee Senate passed a bill to reverse reforms put in place after a black man was killed during an altercation with five officers.

The ordinance being reversed was passed by the Memphis City Council, but the bill to overturn it will apply statewide.

The ordinance outlawed traffic stops for minor violations, such as a broken taillight or failing to use a turn signal. The bill overrides local laws on traffic stops if an officer identifies or has suspicion that the person driving has broken a local ordinance, state or federal law.

State Senator London Lamar, a Democrat from the district where 29-year-old Tyre Nichols was killed, called the legislation a “slap in the face”.

“I pleaded with the sponsor to not run this,” he said. “This is extreme government overreach.”

Republicans in the state said the legislation would reduce crime, citing multiple examples where law enforcement officers stopped violent crimes during traffic stops.

“It’s time to take handcuffs off police and put them on criminals where they belong,” state Senator Brent Taylor said, according to The New York Times.

Nichols’ death occurred in January 2023. After being stopped for a traffic violation, bodycam footage captured five black officers striking him with their feet, fists, and batons for nearly three minutes.

The officers were charged with second-degree murder in state court as well as federal civil rights violations.

The Department of Justice also stepped in to investigate the Memphis Police Department’s practices as a whole.

The city is majority black and suffers from high crime rates and ineffective leadership.

“If we don’t do this, we will further endanger our community,” said Senator Brent Taylor, the Republican bill sponsor from Memphis.

The bill had already passed the state House and now heads to Republican Governor Bill Lee’s desk, where it is expected to be signed into law.

CARbs & Coffee Winterpock March 24
See all the photos at Album - opens to a new window

Leno: Climb a Mountain or Buy a Dodge?

From Hagerty By Jay Leno
I was watching television the other day, and an ad came on in which this guy is climbing Machu Picchu, the famous ancient mountain city down in Peru. It looks beautiful and he’s clearly having a moment, and the voiceover comes on and says something like, “At the end of your life, what are you going to think about: What you could have bought or where you could have gone?” And I started thinking about what I could have bought—like this Hispano-Suiza I once stupidly passed on—while the ad smugly answered itself: “It’s where you could have gone.”

“What? No!” I yelled at the TV. “I’ve completely forgotten where I’ve gone!” That’s when I realized that the ad was definitely not aimed at me. Maybe I’m completely missing out on the point of life, but I’d rather have a nice watch than go somewhere. I don’t particularly like to travel, so I need to have a reason for it. Such as work. Or, better yet, to look at a car. Then I have a reason, a mission. Obviously, I’ve saved a lot of money on vacations over the years, and there are probably a few extra cars around here because of it.

One example might be the Dodge Demon 170 I just bought. I couldn’t resist it. This is the last car of its kind that will ever be made. It’s got 1025 horsepower, and it’s kind of like your sister’s big, dumb boyfriend. It’s a big linebacker that will kick anybody’s ass, do 0–60 in about 2 seconds, and rip an 8-second quarter-mile. It does wheelstands from the factory and comes with an optional parachute kit, and it makes me laugh.

More important, I love the egalitarianism of it, the idea that everything in America should be attainable if you work hard enough. To get this kind of horsepower somewhere else, you have to go to Ferrari or McLaren and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, whereas this car was built in a union shop (I spent my whole career at NBC working in a union shop and I’m a union guy) and it stickers for less than $100,000. OK, the Demons are not so easy to get, and good luck finding one at sticker. But if you can live with only 717 horsepower, or even just a mere 375, there are Hellcats and R/Ts aplenty. And they’ve been building the car since 2008, making it better every year, with modern electronics, tighter door seals, and improved handling. (You can read all about the Challenger’s replacement, the new Charger coupe, here.)

As far as I’m concerned, Tim Kuniskis, who ran Dodge until he was promoted last year to the truck division, is a genius. He figured out exactly what the buyers of these cars wanted—a lot of horsepower and noise and comfort at an affordable price—and packaged it up in that great Brotherhood of Muscle campaign. The sales have just gone up and up.

I’ve got a 1970 Challenger with the 426 Hemi, and though I love the looks and the nostalgia of it, the car is awful. It squeaks, it rattles, it doesn’t do anything well. It has two sheetmetal screws holding the transmission tunnel in; you can shake it and the whole thing might come off in your hands. I remember my dad’s ’66 Ford Galaxie; by 1968, there were already rust bubbles on the fenders. But hey, that’s the way cars were made back then: a lot of style and noise but not much substance. We still have fun with them and accept their quirks as part of their charm. But the Hellcat looks great, has proper brakes and a proper suspension, and for anything you do on the street, it makes driving at seven-tenths pretty much perfect. Does that make it boring? I don’t think so.

Ed Welburn, the former head of GM design, told me a few years ago that because SUVs are so popular, the seat height, or the height of the seat above the ground, of the average new vehicle today is the same as GM cars from 1938. So I wouldn’t say that everything about today’s cars is better. To me, the Challenger is really the last great American road car. I’ve already got a Hellcat here in the garage with a six-speed. The seats are big, the car is comfortable, and it’s got a lot of what Detroit marketers used to call “road-hugging weight.” Which sounds ridiculous, but the car plants itself and you aim it at Vegas and it goes there, getting over 20 miles per gallon with 707 horsepower. I love driving it because there isn’t one time when I’ve taken it out and done a downshift and it didn’t make me laugh.

Which is a lot more than I can say about the thought of climbing Machu Picchu.

The Intrepid Road-tripper’s First-time Guide to EVs

From Tripadvisor - This is a story by a woman in California that planned to rent a car and all that was left were EVs. The article was written in 2023 at the height of the EV popularity.


One of my favorite activities growing up in California was always a good ol’ Golden State road trip. So I was thrilled to pick up my car at the Hertz location inside JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa in Palm Desert, CA, and hit the road. But when I got to the counter, I learned that despite booking a traditional gas car, I was getting an electric vehicle (EV). I was thrilled at the prospect, but as soon as the agent handed me a sheet of instructions on how to charge the Polestar 2 I was about to drive, I realized just how little I knew about the realities of operating an EV.

Fortunately, he kindly spent nearly an hour with me, making sure I was completely comfortable before driving off the lot. While there was an initial thrill to cruising in a smooth high-tech car, over the course of the next week zipping around the Greater Palm Springs and Los Angeles areas, I went through a steep—and at times stressful—learning curve. (A whole hour to learn how to drive an EV? Steep and stressful learning curve?!)

Yes, I came back to my own car feeling like I had been to the future—the Polestar 2 revved up in a way that my 2010 Honda CRV can’t even imagine—but I also wished I had known so much more before driving off with my first EV rental. With many rental car companies leading the way with the conversion to EVs, it’s a reality more travelers will be facing on the go, too. In fact, 10 percent of Hertz's fleet is already electric, with the company set to scale up to a quarter by the end of next year. (This was written before Hertz sold off many EVs)

To help fellow first-timers, I asked experts some of my burning questions to find out all the must-know facts before renting an EV.

Do EVs drive differently than regular cars?
While I had driven my dad’s Tesla a few times before, I never liked how it jerked around. It wasn’t as extreme on the Polestar 2, but I had to adjust to how quickly the car stopped when I eased off the accelerator pedal (remember: it’s not called the gas pedal since there’s no gas!). This regenerative braking is the most notable difference versus a conventional car—but it turns out you have full control.

“When you release the accelerator, it slows down the car and converts some of the energy back into the battery,” said Matt Lum, AAA’s senior automotive engineer. “Most vehicles allow you to adjust the amount of regenerative braking, so consider starting off with a low setting as you get used to [it].”

He said EVs’ “instant torque” can also be an adjustment since the accelerator pedal is “very responsive and quick off the line.” (This contributed to that jerking feeling I experienced while driving a Tesla.)

The more miles I drove, the more comfortable I got. Lum said new EV drivers should be mindful about the accelerator pedal, stepping on it more “moderately” than a gas pedal until they get used to the sensation of how it speeds up and slows down the car.

Another noticeable difference: the silence. “The lack of engine noise may lead you to believe you are moving slower than you are,” Lum said of EVs’ quiet, battery-powered motors. “Pay additional attention to your speed until you adjust.”

What kind of plugs and charging stations do I need?
One of the biggest challenges I faced was finding charging stations. Initially, I was told if I valet parked my car at my hotel, they would return it to me fully charged—a lovely perk. But when I pulled up, the valet told me there were three EVs ahead of me. Each needed an eight-hour charge and with only two on-site stations, they wouldn’t get to me.

That sent me into a panic, waking up before dawn to drive to the closest available station on EVGo, a network of fast-charging stations Hertz recommended. Despite the app showing two plugs available, cars were in both spots when I arrived. There were plenty of other plugs in the parking lot, so I started to use another—but as I still felt clueless, I tapped the stranger in the next EV parking spot for advice. And that’s when I learned that not all chargers are created equal.

It’s important to know what kind of plug (there are four kinds) and charging wattage is needed for that exact car model you’re renting so you can find the right stations, especially since using the wrong ones can cause damage, said Albert Mangaha, chief data officer at Turo, the car-sharing service. Be sure to ask the rental counter what kind of chargers the car needs to charge up at a reasonable speed—and also the best apps used locally to help find the best stations.

There are three kinds of charging stations, starting with a Level 1, which is essentially a 120-volt household outlet. “Every EV can use this, but it's very slow,” Mangaha said. (I tried a Level 1 charger with my Polestar 2 for 15 minutes and literally had 0.00 kW added.) The Level 2 is a commercial charging station at 240 volts in public, which most EVs can use. The highest end, as of now, is Level 3, also known as DC Fast Chargers or “super fast” chargers, which provide rapid charging. Turns out a need for speed is even more essential for charging than on the road.

Tip: As someone who’s obsessed with keeping her phone as close to 100 percent charged as possible, it took a few days to learn not to focus on the car’s battery percentage and focus on the estimated miles remaining. With up to a 270-mile range on a single charge on my Polestar 2, I still had plenty of driving time left even when it dipped below 50 percent.

How do I find charging stations along my route?
Charging stations can be located anywhere—during my search, I visited spacious ones in city park and university parking lots, a cramped one behind a 76 Gas Station, and one hidden in the top floor of a casino parking lot (so charging cost me an extra $20 at the slots and an hour of thrills). But I also went out of my way to avoid one in a dark parking structure in Hollywood late at night since you do have to be comfortable hanging around (or coming back).

While I mainly depended on EVGo to locate chargers, I also tried ChargePoint since there were so many along the way, and consulted, but didn’t depend on Google Maps. Other resources include PlugShare, Volta, Electrify America, and Chargehub. While most provide real-time information, some stations that were broken still showed up as available—and I also found the case where someone who wasn’t charging had just parked in the spot.

My biggest takeaway is that the best-laid plans never quite come to fruition since timing and luck play a major factor when it comes to plugging into a working station. (Often, I would plan potential stops in the a.m., only to find broken chargers or taken stations by the time I got there.) It’s essential to build in extra time—and have back-up plans to your back-up plans. And since there is a gamble, it’s worth the extra drive to stations with more plugs.

Tip: Don’t be afraid to ask for help. At one charging station, a stranger hopped out of his car to help me when I thought the plug was broken since he was familiar with Trudie—yes, every EVGo station has a name, like Amazon lockers—and it had to be done a certain way. Another woman summed it up best: “Charging EVs is a group sport.”

What does it cost to rent an EV?
“Rental rates for EVs may vary, but they are generally comparable to or slightly higher than traditional cars,” Lum said. “However, the cost of electricity for charging is typically much lower than gasoline.”

Gas prices were more than $6 a gallon in California during my trip, and I was able to charge twice, once for $23.83 and another time for $26.88, which offered major savings. As with most car rentals—EV or otherwise—be sure to ask about other fees, like returning the vehicle without a full charge. I opted into Hertz's prepaid option so I didn’t have to spend my final moments before my flight worried about charging again, adding an additional $35 to my charging fees.

The other cost is time. Charging times can vary significantly but in general, Lum said fast chargers can “replenish a significant amount” in 30 minutes to an hour, while Level 2 stations can take several hours, so it’s better to plan meals or activities during visits to the slower charging points.

Chatting with others at the station, I learned many locals schedule their work calls around charging time and take them from their cars, while others squeeze in workouts at stations located near parks and open areas. While the casino was an indulgent way for me to pass time during my first hour-long charge, I spent my second charge being more productive, finding a bakery nearby to pick up treats to take to dinner at my friend’s place.

Getting the keys to my first EV rental was almost like being given a ticket into an entire subculture I didn’t even know existed. As a newbie, I quickly learned just how welcoming and helpful the community is, and that with the right planning, an EV road trip wasn’t so far fetched.

Study: EVs Are Dirtier Than Gasoline Vehicles

From New Conservative Post.
Joe Biden has a desperate obsession with electric vehicles. Under his version of Green New Deal, the White House has spent billions trying to do away with gasoline vehicles in the name of saving the planet from climate change.

In January 2023, for example, John Podesta, the handpicked “czar” to dole out all the “green energy” cash announced that the Post Office would be adding 66,000 fully-electric vehicles to its aging fleet and has agreed to spend nearly $10 billion on “next generation” vehicles.

Last fall, as EV inventories piled up as sales lagged, the Big Three automakers began begging Biden to slow his roll in forcing them to build electric vehicles.

Business Insider reported last fall that “several C-Suite leaders at some of the biggest carmakers voiced fresh unease about the electric car market’s growth as concerns over the viability of these vehicles put their multi-billion-dollar electrification strategies at risk.

Among those hand-wringing is GM’s Mary Barra, historically one of the automotive industry’s most bullish CEOs on the future of electric vehicles. GM has been an early-mover in the electric car market, selling the Chevrolet Bolt for seven years and making bold claims about a fully electric future for the company long before its competitors got on board.”

Now, a recent study has proven that the liberal push for EVs is a fool’s errand all around. They’re actually worse for the environment than their gasoline counterparts.

Where do most particulate emissions attributed to cars come from? California speaks as if their primary source is the tailpipe. That was true in the past. But today most vehicle-related particulate matter comes from tire wear. Cars are heavy, and as their tires rub against the road, they degrade and release tiny, often toxic particles. According to measurements by an emission-analytics firm, in gasoline cars equipped with a particle filter, airborne tire-wear emissions are more than 400 times as great as direct exhaust particulate emissions, writes The Wall Street Journal.

California calls electric cars “zero emissions vehicles” because they don’t have tailpipes. That is deceptive. Generating the electricity that powers those cars creates particulate pollution, and of course electric cars still use tires, which are made from petroleum. Electric cars weigh far more than gasoline-powered ones, so their tires degrade faster, as electric car buyers are learning. The same analytics firm cited earlier compared two cars—a plug-in electric and a hybrid. The electric car weighed about one-third more than the hybrid and emitted roughly one-quarter more particulate matter because of tire wear. Total direct emissions went up, not down, when the electric car was driven.

But when California’s air agency analyzed the effects of its ban, it used a model that assumes both kinds of cars have the same tire wear. When the public pointed out the error, the agency doubled down, claiming it would be “speculative” to assume that electric cars will continue to be heavier than gasoline cars. The agency mused that in the future automakers could probably “offset” the weight of heavy batteries with unspecified “weight reduction in other components or the vehicle body.”

California’s bureaucrats have it backward. What’s “speculative” is assuming that electric cars will soon weigh the same as the gasoline cars they replace. Electric cars are 15% to 30% heavier because batteries store far less energy per pound than liquid fuels. While weight differences between electric and gasoline cars have remained roughly constant over the past decade, the only reasonable prediction of trends is for electric cars to get heavier as manufacturers increase battery size to boost range.

The people paying the price the most for Biden’s mandates are the workers who build cars.

Steve Milloy, Senior Policy Fellow for the Energy And Environment Legal Institute, said that Biden’s obsession with EVs has been a “disaster” for the automotive industry.

“Joe Biden’s policies have been a disaster for the car industry, especially its workers,” Milloy noted. “Carmakers are losing tens of thousands of dollars on each EV sold. EV production is reducing the number of autoworker jobs. Pointless fuel economy standards are making cars so expensive that drivers are holding on to their cars for twice as long as they used to. None of that is good for jobs or wages. But Biden doesn’t care. His anti-car climate agenda is more important.”

Last week, liberals on Bill Maher’s show, including Maher, were made uncomfortable when Newsweek’s Batya Ungar-Sargon pointed out that the EV obsession Biden has may be costing them union votes throughout the Midwest.

Despite evidence, don’t expect any changes in liberal orthodoxy on automobiles any time soon.

Expect the White House to adopt California’s stance on the study’s showing how dirty EVs actually are. It’s true, so long as you believe in magical innovation yet to be invented and only count pollution coming from the tailpipe.

The Daily Mail noted, “California claims that banning gas vehicles would protect public health from airborne pollutants like dust, dirt and soot, calling EVs ‘zero-emission vehicles,’ but the heavier weight drastically impacts how quickly tire tread wears out.

Yet, the state’s proposal, submitted by the Air Resources Board, suggested that tire treads on EVs and gas vehicles wear out at the same rate, which was criticized by the public, but the state said ‘it would be speculative to project’ that EVs would not weigh less in the future.

It added that future EV models’ weight could be ‘offset’ with ‘weight reduction in other components or the vehicle body,’ – although the agency did not provide examples about how the weight would be reduced.”

The newspaper did a quick comparison of weight between gas and electric vehicles: “The average Hyundai electric vehicle weighs more than 3,700 pounds compared to the gas-powered alternative which weighs 3,000 pounds.

Meanwhile, Volvo’s EV weighs 4,662 pounds while its gas-powered vehicle weighs 3,726, but the Ford F150 EV truck comes in at a whopping 6,000 pounds, 2,000 pounds more than the gas option.”

The Briefs

Chrysler is recalling more than 338,000 recent-model Jeep Grand Cherokees because they may have faulty steering wheels. In a letter posted Tuesday on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's website, Chrysler said the affected wheels' upper control arm ball joints and steering knuckles may separate, causing the wheel to fall outward and resulting in a loss of vehicle control. The affected models are 2021-2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee L and 2022-2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Chrysler said it is not aware of any accidents or injuries potentially related to the issue.

In Kennesaw, Georgia, police responded to the Heritage Park Town Homes on Feb. 21 after a Toyota Corolla "rammed through the pool fence ... and (she's) in the middle of the pool," said the 911 caller. Fox5-TV reported that the driver suffered some sort of medical emergency and was unconscious when officers arrived; they were able to break a car window and get her out of the car. She was taken to a hospital and was expected to make a full recovery, according to Cobb County Police. The pool cover was so strong that the car didn't sink; a tow truck removed it from the cover later in the day.

For Connor James Litka, 21, of Bloomington, Indiana, it was "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Litka arrived at a Porsche dealership in Louisville, Kentucky, on Feb. 21 and tried to buy a car with a fake $78 million check, WAVE-TV reported. When he was rebuffed, he searched around the back entrance to the showroom, looking for car keys. Salespeople summoned police, who charged him with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. Turns out Litka tried the same stunt the day before at a Land Rover dealership, where he presented a $12 million check.

Loreen Bea Feralo, 55, and Karen Casbohm, 63, were charged with theft and gross abuse of a corpse after allegedly carrying out a "Weekend at Bernie's" stunt in Ashtabula, Ohio, The Smoking Gun reported. On March 4, police said, Feralo and Casbohm -- who were not related to Douglas Layman, 80, but lived in his home -- loaded his corpse into the front seat of a car "in such a manner that he would be visible to bank staff" and drove through his bank, where they used his card to withdraw $900. The bank had allowed the women to withdraw from his account before, as long as he was with him. Having secured the funds, the women then dropped Layman's body at the Ashtabula County Medical Center emergency room "without providing any information about the man or themselves," police said. They were able to identify the women and question them. The women, both of whom have significant priors, said Layman died at home.

Brandie Gotch, 30, of Peoria, Arizona, told police that her children were being bullied by other kids, and she had reported it to the school and law enforcement, but nothing happened. So on Feb. 27, she took matters into her own hands, CBS5-TV reported. With her four children in her Silverado, Gotch drove to a local park, where she allegedly approached a group of kids and started yelling at them. Police said Gotch grabbed a 14-year-old boy by the hair and yanked his head back and forth as she yelled at him, then grabbed a stick from her truck and chased him, yelling, "I am going to kill you and run you over!" She then jumped back into her truck and drove it toward the group of kids, running over a girl's ankle in the process, although she told police she didn't think she hit the girl. "I hope I didn’t," she said. Her own children told police they were bouncing all over the truck during her jaunt through the park. Gotch was charged with six counts of endangerment, four counts of aggravated assault, two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of attempted first-degree murder.

Anyone see "climate change" or "green energy" on the chart?

A 42-year-old resident of Ajax, Ontario, was arrested and charged with impaired driving on Feb. 20 at the Durham Regional police station, where he had driven to complain ... about his arrest for public intoxication from earlier that morning. The man asked to speak with a supervisor when he arrived at the station, but officers noticed he seemed to be intoxicated, and, after confirming he had driven himself, issued a breathalyzer test, which the man failed. His license was suspended and his vehicle was impounded.

The Hockenheimring racetrack in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany, was the setting for a Guinness World Record-setting run recently. The speed reached -- 92.24 mph -- might not sound so impressive, but Fulda University engineering student Marcel Paul attained that velocity in a toy car. Paul spent 10 months modifying the miniature Porsche with the goal of beating the 88 mph made famous by the time-traveling DeLorean DMC-12 in the "Back to the Future" movies, and in the process created the world's fasted ride-on toy car. Said one user in the comments on Paul's Instagram video of the milestone event: "Hell no that looks dangerous."

In the immortal words of Shaggy, "It wasn't me." The Lavonia (Georgia) Police Department wants residents to know that a chaotic scene in a local graveyard Feb. 20 had nothing to do with them. "In case you saw or heard the law enforcement commotion," reads a post on the department's Facebook page, "well, it wasn't us." The commotion in question? Deputies from the Oconee County Sheriff's Office in neighboring South Carolina had chased a reckless driver across state lines and into the Lavonia City Burgess Cemetery, reports FOX 5 Atlanta. The driver -- who was apparently "late for an appointment" -- damaged several graves before attempting to flee on foot. Unsuccessfully.

In Florida bears ransacked a woman's car -- on Valentine's Day, no less. Cassidy Simoes' boyfriend left chocolates in the front seat of her car the night before, intending to give them to her the next day. But NBC2 reported that at about 3:30 on Valentine's morning, the couple woke to find the car in bad shape: "Basically, the whole door panel, I can't even open the door at all or roll the windows down, nothing," Simoes said. No word on if the chocolates were replaced.

President Biden began his remarks during a Thursday visit to the southern border in Texas by addressing a devastating wildfire in the state’s panhandle and Oklahoma before calling climate change deniers “neanderthals.” Speaking in the border city of Brownsville, Biden first addressed the ongoing wildfire that has ravaged a portion of Texas and destroyed more than one million acres. “I’ve flown over a lot of these wildfires since I’ve been president,” Biden said. “Flown over more land burned to the ground. All the vegetation gone more than the entire state of Maryland in square footage.” “The idea there’s no such thing as climate change. I love that, man,” he added. “I love some of my Neanderthal friends who still think there’s no climate change.” - Okay even a caveman could do a better job than Joe

Police officers in Las Vegas are being credited with saving the life of a woman who was kidnapped and allegedly taken hostage by her boyfriend, and may not be alive today if not for their help. According to the local Fox News affiliate, KVVU-TV, and local NBC News affiliate, KSNV, the officers were conducting a routine traffic stop on Feb. 20 at around 9:10 p.m. when they noticed an adult woman mouth “HELP ME” from the window of a car she was the passenger in. The officers reportedly stopped what they were doing and embarked on a high-speed chase in pursuit of Foutch-Pratt. The chase ended when Foutch-Pratt crashed the vehicle into another car. According to the police report, he shouted “she has to die tonight” and then attempted to choke the woman, who was described as his girlfriend, using the strap of a seatbelt. Currently, Foutch-Pratt is detained in Clark County jail and his bond set at $50,000.

Lucid Motors is raising another $1 billion from its biggest financial backer, Saudi Arabia, as it looks to blunt the high costs associated with building and selling its luxury electric sedan. The company announced in a Monday morning regulatory filing that Ayar Third Investment, an affiliate of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has agreed to purchase $1 billion worth of Lucid’s stock, which will add to the Kingdom’s current stake of around 60% ownership. The fresh funding comes just a few weeks after Lucid told investors that it only plans to build around 9,000 of its Air electric vehicles this year, a slight bump over last year’s output. It lost $2.8 billion in 2023 and finished the year with just shy of $1.4 billion in cash and equivalents. The company has struggled to find willing buyers for its expensive Air sedan, and has cut prices multiple times in recent months in an effort to boost sales. Lucid also plans to start building its electric Gravity SUV at the end of this year.

Cash-strapped Fisker's talks with a large automaker for a potential deal have collapsed and the New York Stock Exchange plans to delist the electric-vehicle startup's shares due to "abnormally low" price levels. The NYSE has also suspended trading in the stock, it said on Monday, hours after it was halted pending an announcement. Fisker's shares were trading at $0.09 before the halt and closed at $0.13 on Friday. The termination of talks with the unnamed automaker has led Fisker to search for strategic options including in- or out-of-court restructurings and capital markets transactions, the startup said on Monday. In the case of a stock delisting, the company will be required to offer to repurchase its unsecured 2.50% convertible notes due 2026 and it will trigger an event of default under its senior secured convertible notes due 2025. "We do not currently have sufficient cash reserves or financing sources sufficient to satisfy all amounts due under the 2026 Notes or the 2025 Notes, and as a result, such events could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition," it said. The news comes a week after the company paused electric-vehicle production, fanning growing uncertainty around its future.

Electric vehicle startup Fisker cuts base price of Ocean SUV to $24K as part of efforts to avoid bankruptcy; move comes after its stock was delisted this week from the New York Stock Exchange.

New York is on track to become the first U.S. city with congestion tolls on drivers entering its central business district after transit officials approved a $15 fee for most motorists headed to the busiest part of Manhattan. Members of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Wednesday voted to greenlight the congestion pricing plan, expected to go into effect in June. The board approved only minor changes to a plan presented to the public months ago, and brushed off requests for exceptions by dozens of groups of commuters. The vote authorizes a $15 toll on most commuter passenger vehicles that drive into Manhattan south of 60th Street, a zone that's south of Central Park, during daytime hours. Tolls are higher for larger vehicles, and lower for late-night entries into the city, as well as for motorcycles. Supporters of the new tolls say it will push more people to use public transport, reduce congestion to speed up public buses and emergency vehicles, reduce pollution, and raise money needed to improve the subway system. Opponents say the fees are a burden on workers and will increase the prices of staple goods that are driven to the city by truck. To enter Manhattan, commuters from other states and boroughs already pay around $15 in bridge and tunnel tolls — and the congestion fee will come on top of that. Daily parking costs already run $25 to $50 in the congestion zone, which includes a dozen neighborhoods in Manhattan that are south of 60th street.

Repair Mistakes & Blunders

From Rock Auto
It was the early 1970s and my older brother had acquired his first car, a baby blue four door Plymouth Fury, with a push button automatic transmission paired with Mopar's mighty (mighty reliable, that is!) 225 Slant Six engine. I was probably more excited about that car than my older brother was, and eager to dive in and help him maintain it.

My brother decided it was time to replace the spark plugs one morning. So while he was retrieving the new plugs, I decided to get a head start by removing the spark plug wires. My brother came back, closely followed by our father, who no doubt imagined where the morning's adventure was headed. Our father had been an aircraft mechanic in the Navy, a mechanical engineer and at least in my eyes the king of DIY, including auto maintenance. As the two approached I enthusiastically volunteered that I had already pulled the plug wires. My brother looked a bit bewildered, and my father, who usually managed to keep his cool no matter what boneheaded stunt my brother or I pulled, calmly asked "So did you label them?", "Umm, No." I replied. "Then how will you know which wires go to which plugs?" At that moment I sensed that his question was probably an important point.

My father proceeded to explain how an engine functions and the magical (to me at least) concept called "firing order." Fortunately, the spark plug wires on that inline six cylinder engine were just the right lengths to reach the plugs they belonged to, so sorting out which went where was not a problem. However, I'll never forget the valuable lessons that I learned from that one boneheaded blunder. I hope this helps others avoid a silly mistake.

Mike in Missouri

Ford Patents Potential ICE-Saving Technology

Website Hagerty
Engineers at Ford have filed a patent for a pre-combustion system that could dramatically reduce emissions and, as a result, earn a reprieve for gas-powered cars in an era of on-going electrification.

You might want to grab a coffee at this point as it’s going to get pretty technical. The idea is to take the gases captured by a positive crankcase ventilation system, or other evaporative emissions system, and cycle them into a pre-combustion chamber, instead of storing them in a carbon-filled canister, and periodically purging back into the intake, as is convention.

In traditional PCV systems the rate at which emissions are generated can sometimes exceed the purge rate and, when this happens, the gases are vented to the atmosphere, which rather defeats the object of the exercise. The Ford system makes much better use of any unburnt fuel coming through by channeling the vapors into a pre-chamber with an igniter.

“In particular, the approach may reduce an amount of time it takes to purge a carbon filled canister of fuel vapors,” reads the filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, first reported on by CarBuzz. “Additionally, the approach may improve combustion stability during purging of fuel vapors. Further, the approach may reduce evaporative emissions by increasing fuel vapor flow during conditions of hydrocarbon breakthrough of the car­bon filled canister.”

Overall the system could lead to a more efficient fuel burn, potentially increasing power as well as reducing emissions. As an added benefit the buildup of carbon deposits on valves from unburnt fuel would also be reduced, improving engine longevity.

Obviously it’s early days and the system could prove too complex and expensive to manufacture, especially when the Blue Oval is investing heavily in electrification. However, it’s still good to see that Ford hasn’t given up on the power of combustion just yet.

Scientists Expose Major Problems With Climate Change Data

From The Epoch Times
‘Climate activism has become the new religion of the 21st century—heretics are not welcome and not allowed to ask questions,’ said astrophysicist Willie Soon.

Temperature records used by climate scientists and governments to build models that then forecast dangerous manmade global warming repercussions have serious problems and even corruption in the data, multiple scientists who have published recent studies on the issue told The Epoch Times.

The Biden administration leans on its latest National Climate Assessment report as evidence that global warming is accelerating because of human activities. The document states that human emissions of “greenhouse gases” such as carbon dioxide are dangerously warming the Earth. The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) holds the same view, and its leaders are pushing major global policy changes in response.

But scientific experts from around the world in a variety of fields are pushing back. In peer-reviewed studies, they cite a wide range of flaws with the global temperature data used to reach the dire conclusions; they say it’s time to reexamine the whole narrative.

Problems with temperature data include a lack of geographically and historically representative data, contamination of the records by heat from urban areas, and corruption of the data introduced by a process known as “homogenization.”

The flaws are so significant that they make the temperature data—and the models based on it—essentially useless or worse, three independent scientists with the Center for Environmental Research and Earth Sciences (CERES) explained.

The experts said that when data corruption is considered, the alleged “climate crisis” supposedly caused by human activities disappears.

Instead, natural climate variability offers a much better explanation for what is being observed, they said.

Some experts told The Epoch Times that deliberate fraud appeared to be at work, while others suggested more innocent explanations.

But regardless of why the problems exist, the implications of the findings are hard to overstate.

With no climate crisis, the justification for trillions of dollars in government spending and costly changes in public policy to restrict carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions collapses, the scientists explained in a series of interviews about their research.

“For the last 35 years, the words of the IPCC have been taken to be gospel,” according to astrophysicist and CERES founder Willie Soon. Until recently, he was a researcher working with the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian.

“And indeed, climate activism has become the new religion of the 21st century—heretics are not welcome and not allowed to ask questions,” Mr. Soon told The Epoch Times.

“But good science demands that scientists are encouraged to question the IPCC’s dogma. The supposed purity of the global temperature record is one of the most sacred dogmas of the IPCC.”

The latest U.S. government National Climate Assessment report states: “Human activities are changing the climate.

“The evidence for warming across multiple aspects of the Earth system is incontrovertible, and the science is unequivocal that increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases are driving many observed trends and changes.”

In particular, according to the report, this is because of human activities such as burning fossil fuels for transportation, energy, and agriculture.

Looking at timescales highlights major problems with this narrative, Mr. Soon said.

“When people ask about global warming or climate change, it is essential to ask, ‘Since when?’ The data shows that it has warmed since the 1970s, but that this followed a period of cooling from the 1940s,” he said.

While it is “definitely warmer” now than in the 19th century, Mr. Soon said that temperature proxy data show the 19th century “was exceptionally cold.”

“It was the end of a period that’s known as the Little Ice Age,” he said.

Data taken from rural temperature stations, ocean measurements, weather balloons, satellite measurements, and temperature proxies such as tree rings, glaciers, and lake sediments, “show that the climate has always changed,” Mr. Soon said. “They show that the current climate outside of cities is not unusual,” he said, adding that heat from urban areas is improperly affecting the data.

“If we exclude the urban temperature data that only represents 3 percent of the planet, then we get a very different picture of the climate.”

Homogenization
One issue that scientists say is corrupting the data stems from an obscure process known as “homogenization.” According to climate scientists working with governments and the U.N., the algorithms used for homogenization are designed to correct, as much as possible, various biases that might exist in the raw temperature data.

These biases include, among others, the relocation of temperature monitoring stations, changes in technology used to gather the data, or changes in the environment surrounding a thermometer that might impact its readings.

For instance, if a temperature station was originally placed in an empty field but that field has since been paved over to become a parking lot, the record would appear to show much hotter temperatures. As such, it would make sense to try to correct the data collected. Virtually nobody argues against the need for some homogenization to control for various factors that may contaminate temperature data.

But a closer examination of the process as it now occurs reveals major concerns, Ronan Connolly, an independent scientist at CERES, said. “While the scientific community has become addicted to blindly using these computer programs to fix the data biases, until recently nobody has bothered to look under the hood to see if the programs work when applied to real temperature data,” he told The Epoch Times.

Since the early 2000s, various governmental and intergovernmental organizations creating global temperature records have relied on computer programs to automatically adjust the data.

Mr. Soon, Mr. Connolly, and a team of scientists around the world spent years looking at the programs to determine how they worked and whether they were reliable.

One of the scientists involved in the analysis, Peter O’Neill, has been tracking and downloading the data daily from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and its Global Historical Climatology Network since 2011.

He found that each day, NOAA applies different adjustments to the data.

“They use the same homogenization computer program and re-run it roughly every 24 hours,” Mr. Connolly said. “But each day, the homogenization adjustments that they calculate for each temperature record are different.”

This is “very bizarre,” he said.

“If the adjustments for a given weather station have any basis in reality, then we would expect the computer program to calculate the same adjustments every time. What we found is this is not what’s happening,” Mr. Connolly said.

These concerns are what first sparked the international investigation into the issue by Mr. Soon and his colleagues.

Because NOAA doesn’t maintain historical information on its weather stations, the CERES scientists reached out to European scientists who had been compiling the data for the stations that they oversee.

They found that just 17 percent of NOAA’s adjustments were consistently applied. And less than 20 percent of NOAA’s adjustments were clearly associated with a documented change to the station observations.

“When we looked under the hood, we found that there was a hamster running in a wheel instead of an engine,” Mr. Connolly said. “It seems that with these homogenization programs, it is a case where the cure is worse than the disease.”

A spokesman for NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information downplayed the significance, but said the agency was working to address the issues raised in the papers.

“NOAA uses the well-documented Pairwise Homogenization Algorithm every day on GHCNm (monthly)—version 4, and the results of specific adjustments to individual station series can differ from run to run,” the spokesman said, adding that the papers in question didn’t support the view that the concerns about the homogenization of the data made it useless or worse.

“NOAA is addressing the issues raised in both these papers in a future release of the GHCNm temperature dataset and its accompanying documentation.”

Urban Heat Islands
One of the major flaws in the temperature data that creates a need for homogenization in the first place is the so-called urban heat island effect. In essence, the temperature stations that were once located in rural areas are now in many cases surrounded by roads, buildings, airports, and cities. This produces additional localized warming around the thermometer, which gives the appearance of drastic “global warming” when many similar stations are examined together.

The IPCC has acknowledged the urban heat island effect and the contamination of the data; however, according to the scientists who spoke with The Epoch Times, the U.N. agency has mistakenly assumed it’s a minor issue.

In a new peer-reviewed study, the coalition of scientists estimate that as much as 40 percent of the observed warming since the 19th century used by the IPCC is actually the result of this urban heat bias—not CO2-driven global warming.

“When we look at non-urban temperature data for the land, oceans, and other temperature records, the warming is much less dramatic and seems similar to other warm periods prior to the Industrial Revolution,” Mr. Connolly said.

The IPCC doesn’t control for the urban heat island effect, he said.

When Mr. Connolly and other scientists created a temperature record using only rural temperature stations, almost half of the global warming alleged by the U.N. body disappeared.

Indeed, the rural-only datasets match the weather balloon and satellite data much more closely.

Taken together, the rural-only record shows that the moderate warming is likely just a recovery from the Little Ice Age from about A.D. 1300 to A.D. 1900, which itself followed the Medieval Warm Period from about A.D. 800 to A.D. 1200 that saw Vikings farming in Greenland. “The Medieval Warm Period seems to have been about as warm as the modern warm period, but only when we use the rural-only record,” Mr. Connolly said.

While there has been global warming since the end of the Little Ice Age, if the urban datasets are excluded, all of the primary global temperature estimates show “that the planet alternates between phases of warming and cooling,” he said.

The current warming period began in the 1970s as scientists were still warning about alleged man-made global cooling, which had begun in the 1940s.

Michael Connolly, another independent scientist at CERES and Ronan Connolly’s father, noted that urban warming in cities, which cover about 3 percent of the Earth’s land surface, is in fact becoming a “major problem” that ought to be addressed.

“But, it cannot be cured by greenhouse gas policies,” he said. “Instead, we should be investing more into urban greening and other measures to try and reduce urban heat waves.”

Blending Rural and Urban Data
A separate issue with homogenization algorithms was examined in another paper published last year in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology. The problem, which Ronan Connolly and his colleagues refer to as “urban blending,” involves the comparisons made between temperature records from one station and others in the surrounding area.

If one seems way out of sync with the others, the program assumes it was a non-climactic bias that should be corrected.

Perhaps the biggest problem with this is that it allows urban warming to contaminate the entire temperature record by blending it with rural data.

The result is that urban and rural data are blended together, allowing some of the urban warming to be mixed in with the rural data that doesn’t have the problem.

“A useful analogy is if you mix strawberries and bananas in a blender, afterward you have a blended homogenous mix that is neither strawberries nor bananas,” Ronan Connolly said.

“Looking at the temperature data, this means that the homogenized rural records contain the urban warming, too.”

The supposed “unusual” global warming cited by the IPCC and other sources is only found in the urban data contaminated by heat associated with cities, he said. But by using the homogenized data, all of it becomes artificially biased by the urban heat effect.

“If we look at the temperature data that has not been contaminated by urban warming, it seems that the temperature changes since before the Industrial Revolution have been almost cyclical—cooling periods followed by warming periods,” Ronan Connolly said.

“This cannot be explained in terms of increasing greenhouse gases, since those have been only going upward. Instead, it suggests that the scientists who have been mistakenly mixing together urban warming with non-urban temperature changes have been chasing a red herring with their belief that CO2 is the main climate driver.”

However, not everyone is convinced that these issues are as significant as CERES scientists have suggested.

Professor Robert Lund, a recognized expert in this field and chair of the statistics department at the University of California–Santa Cruz, told The Epoch Times that the arguments put forth by Mr. Soon and his colleagues made him “cringe.”

“It is true that many climate scientists generally don’t use the best methods to clean up the data,” Mr. Lund said.

But the CERES scientists’ “contention that the warming inferences we are making are bunk because of the gauge changes and station relocation issues, and their suboptimal handling in homogenization procedures, are just not true,” he said.

“In fact, no matter how you deal with the changepoint issues, all globally averaged series (like the IPCC series) contain strong upward trends. It’s just that simple.”

The homogenization issue “might account for maybe 0.1 or 0.2 degrees Celsius per century of the 1.3 [degrees Celsius] that we are globally warming, but not more,” Mr. Lund said.

He accused the CERES scientists of “trying to take any amount of uncertainty, exponentiate it, and discredit everything.”

Asked if he was planning to refute their studies in a paper of his own, Mr. Lund said he and others in the field have grown weary of battling scientists who, he suggested, were mostly interested in discrediting the climate narrative.

A number of other scientists on both sides of the debate didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Several critics of the manmade global warming narrative asked to speak off the record for fear of retaliation by their institutions, colleagues, journals, or funding sources.

Other Problems
Historical temperature data don’t really exist prior to the 1970s, which hampers any type of long-term study. And outside of Europe and North America, there’s very little coverage.

Until recently, data from the oceans—making up more than two-thirds of the planet’s surface—were also sparse, confined primarily to occasional readings from major shipping lanes in the Northern Hemisphere.

NOAA has been criticized for allowing more than 90 percent of its climate stations to be affected by the urban heat bias, The Epoch Times reported in January, citing scientists and a separate study examining NOAA’s temperature records. By 2022, about 96 percent of the stations failed to meet the agency’s own standards for reliability, a study by meteorologist Anthony Watts revealed.

Michael Connolly pointed out that when the weather stations were originally set up, they were meant to monitor day-to-day weather, not long-term climate changes.

“While most of the scientists that I talk to on a personal level admit that they have reservations about aspects of the current climate change narrative, they say that their institutions would suffer if they speak out,” he said.

Mr. Soon acknowledged that measuring climate change was a “very difficult scientific problem,” especially because the data are imperfect. But scientists have an obligation to be honest about that.

“Many research groups—in a rush to get grants and to get their work published—seem to have overlooked the serious problems of the data they are using,” he said, adding that many scientists are concerned about job security and are unwilling to speak out.

But some analysts who have seen the issues say it’s deliberate fraud.

Scientist and engineer Tony Heller of the website Real Climate Science said that the temperature data—both historical and geographical—are “grossly inadequate.” Echoing the concerns about homogenization and blending, he told The Epoch Times that “the operating theory seems to be that mixing in a lot of very bad ingredients will create a good soup.”

Mr. Heller accuses NOAA of tampering with its data to create the “appearance of warming” and calls the global and U.S. temperature records “propaganda, not science.”

The misleading adjustments made to the data and the broader deception are “absolutely intentional,” he said.

“Trillions of dollars are being poured in to push global warming and climate change.”

So far, the studies by Mr. Soon and others haven’t been countered in any peer-reviewed literature.

However, some prominent scientists working for the federal government and other bodies tied to the climate movement have ridiculed and insulted the authors, as The Epoch Times reported in October 2023. Neither the IPCC nor NASA’s top climate scientist Gavin Schmidt responded to a request for comment.

The 'Atlanta Magnet Man' Is Saving Our Car Tires, One Bike Ride At A Time

From TWABE
One Atlanta resident has taken it upon himself to clean the streets of nails, screws and other metal bits that have been left to accumulate in large amounts.

Known as the “Atlanta Magnet Man,” Alex Benigno bikes around Atlanta with a hitched trailer that uses magnets to attract metal debris that poses a risk to people’s car tires. The idea is completely his own, and he does it for free.

“I can’t really find anybody that says what I’m doing is a terrible thing unless, you know, they own a tire shop,” he said.

Benigno, a native Atlantan, first identified the problem early in the COVID-19 pandemic when roads were empty.

During work commutes, his car and motorcycle tires were damaged by nails. After he realized how many more drivers would be affected when traffic conditions returned to normal, he worked to find a solution.

“I like to randomly do things to help when nobody’s looking,” Benigno said. “I’ll do just random stuff to help improve things that will benefit random people that I’ve never met before … it’s just so that I can do a little thing to fix something so somebody doesn’t suffer down the road.”

In June 2023, Benigno first equipped his bike trailer with magnets. After several months of trial and error, he found the perfect configuration for the trailer and has been riding consistently since last December.

Nearly every day, Benigno bikes about 10 miles and picks up around six pounds of debris — about the max the magnets can carry. Over the course of eight weeks, he collected over 410 pounds of metal, recently donating it to a local scrap artist.

Benigno started documenting his journeys on Instagram and has amassed over 22,000 followers since January. His most popular video, with nearly 2 million views on Instagram, shows footage of the magnets as he bikes along I-285 and S. Atlanta Road.

So far, he said the roads he’s biked with the most debris are South Cobb Drive in Smyrna and Grassdale Road in Cartersville.

Thanks to a successful GoFundMe campaign, he was able to cover the cost of a bike lane sweeper prototype. And although he’s not motivated to make a fortune, he said it’d be cool just to earn a living wage cleaning streets full-time.

“If I never got any recognition for this, I’d still be doing it anyway because it’s so effective,” he said.

Although magnetic sweepers are used for things like airport runways and at Air Force bases, it would be impossible to use them on streets riddled with metal plates, grates and manhole covers. Benigno is able to dodge those obstacles on a bike — usually. And while Atlanta does quarterly street sweeping, metal debris still falls through the cracks.

Rebecca Serna, the executive director of PropelATL (formerly the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition), said Benigno is highlighting a real need in Atlanta’s public services.

“What Alex is doing is incredible, and we’re really inspired by it,” Serna said. “But also we want to see the city invest in the systems and the people in the equipment so that they can maintain our public infrastructure.”

The Atlanta Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works both play a part in the safety of the streets. Atlanta’s transportation department budget was cut by 12% last year. She said that about $50 million is three times less than peer cities.

PropelATL is particularly focused on keeping bike lanes clean and safe. She says the city doesn’t have street sweepers that can reach separated bike lanes, so all sorts of debris don’t get cleaned and pose a risk to people in motion.

“People using scooters and bikes, Onewheels, skateboards, wheelchairs are all affected by debris in the street, and especially in the separated bike [lane],” she said.

For now, it’s up to individuals to keep the streets clean.

“A lot of folks … they’re kind of DIY-ing it until we can get the level of public service that we really need.”

More NYC Fires Caused By Lithium-ion Batteries From e-bikes In 2 months Than In All Of 2019: FDNY Chief

From New York Post
Lithium-ion batteries used in E-bikes and other electronic mobility devices are now a leading cause of fires in New York City following their popularity surged during the pandemic’s delivery boom, FDNY officials say.

FDNY Chief Fire Marshal Daniel Flynn told The Post that fires related to lithium-ion batteries have gone up nearly nine-fold since the pandemic, with more blazes related to the batteries happening in the last two months than in all of 2019.

“It’s the prevalence of these e-devices on our streets, there’s way more of them now than ever before,” Flynn said.

The fire chief attributed the popularity of the e-bikes and scooters to the “gig economy” boom in 2020, which saw people purchase the devices on the cheap-side in droves to do delivery jobs.

He added that the vehicles have also become popular among commuters.

“People bought these devices some three years ago, and now they’re aging,” he said, noting that many don’t know the dangers caused by the wear-and-tear on the batteries’ energy cells.

“We’ve seen people try to fix it or modify it themselves, go to shops from unauthorized vendors or take it on themselves to replace the old batteries,” he added. “We tell people not to go with the cheapest option and seek out the manufacturer directly.”

It’s this improper maintenance and defects from older models that have caused a number of blazes related to lithium-ion batteries to soar, according to the FDNY.

While there were only 30 fires related to the batteries in 2019, the number more than tripled by 2021, with 104 fires reported. That year also saw four fatalities, while no one was reported to have died from the blazes in 2019 or 2020.

The amount of battery-related fires more than doubled the following year, with 220 fires reported, as well as six deaths confirmed. Last year, the FDNY reported 268 fires involving lithium-ion batteries, 150 injuries and 18 deaths.

The fires caused by these batteries are intense, with each energy cell capable of reigniting even days after the initial blaze. FDNY

As of Feb. 26, officials said there have been 31 fires related to the batteries, along with 26 injuries and one death.

The latest death was that of Indian journalist Fazil Khan, who died in a Harlem fire on Feb. 23 after a lithium-ion battery caught fire in a six-story apartment building.

To combat the presence of the faulty batteries in the city, the FDNY’s Lithium-Ion Task Force carries out inspections throughout the five boroughs.

FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanagh vowed in February to continue cracking down on businesses that offer to replace individual battery cells from old ones, a fire code violation that creates what she called “Frankenstein batteries.”

“They kill people, they have killed people and they will kill more people if businesses continue to operate in this manner,” Kavanagh said.

But while New York has pushed businesses and consumers to follow new UL standards for the batteries, Flynn noted that there was little the city could do about older units coming in from other states that do not require such regulations.

US Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), however, is pushing for a nationwide standard to help put an end to the “unprecedented crisis in fire safety.”

“Poorly manufactured and poorly handled lithium-ion batteries are ticking time bombs in American homes and businesses,” Torres said during a congressional hearing mid-February urging passage of the Setting Consumer Standards For Lithium-ion Batteries Act.

State Legislators Fail to Advance Anti-Slavery Bill

By Barbara Hollingsworth (The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy newsletter)
Legislators in Richmond are intent on removing all vestiges of slavery in Virginia – including state senators recently voting to end tax breaks for the Daughters of the Confederacy heritage group that sponsored most of the statues that have already been removed from the public square.

But they are surprisingly complacent about the slavery that is still ongoing today.

For example, a bill (HB 1155) submitted by Del. A.C. Cardoza (R-Hampton), would require suppliers of all electric vehicle batteries sold in the commonwealth to annually certify that they were not “manufactured in or sourced from African cobalt mines and that the manufacture or sourcing of such electric vehicle batteries involves no child or slave labor.”

Under the bill, the Commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services would obtain a certificate of compliance, and any supplier who sold, leased, or licensed such batteries or submitted false claims would be in violation of the law.

Pretty simple and basic, given that the New York Times reported signs of forced labor in China’s EV battery supply chain as its “work transfer” program moved hundreds of ethnic Uyghurs from their homes to work in mines in the Xinjiang region.

And given that Forbes reported, in “The Dirty Secrets Of ‘Clean’ Electric Vehicles,” that in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which supplies two-thirds of the world’s supply of cobalt needed for EV batteries, children are being used to hand dig the toxic carcinogen mineral to meet the increasing global demand.

In response to these allegations, Congress passed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which authorizes U.S. customs officials to seize any goods, including EV batteries, unless importers can show they were not made by slave labor.

The idea that the U.S., which abolished slavery 161 years ago, should not import products made by slaves in other countries, should not be controversial. Nor should the idea that after banning child labor in the U.S. 86 years ago, we should not endanger children in other countries who are forced to work in mines to provide heavy metals for batteries in electric cars that Virginians drive.

Yet Cordoza’s bill, which was sent to the House Committee on Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources on January 10, was left there to die on the legislature’s Crossover Day, February 13.

As The Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy has previously reported, the increasing demand for EVs will require an immense increase in mining activity. That means that sourcing the minerals found in just one typical 1,000 lb. electric car battery means digging up and processing about 250 tons of rock and dirt.

And the bulk of this increased mining activity is being done overseas in countries with far less protection for workers.

So to the many problems with the still-standing state mandate that only electric vehicles can be sold in the commonwealth by 2035, we can add the General Assembly’s failure to exclude EV batteries made with slave and child labor to the list.

And the same lawmakers who tout their opposition to past slavery by tearing down Confederate statues, but continue to drive electric vehicles with batteries currently being mined by the forced labor of others, and instead of condemning such exploitation insist that all Virginians do the same, expose themselves as virtue-signaling hypocrites.

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