Recently watched a Jay Leno's garage episode where he mentioned in passing how in the 60's, you would need to literally light a flame to keep your engine alive in winter. I...have never really thought about anything other than AC just...always being there. The idea of going outside to light a fire in my engine and burn energy all night blows my mind. There are places here in leafland where some communities keep their engines running all night long due to how cold it can get, but that's no where near common.

Another interesting thing that I learned recently is that apparently seat belts were not always there either? And that they even had to be mandated in recent history(I think it was the 80s/90s in leafland).

Lastly, I also learned that Goodyear apparently came up with glow in the dark tires? They look so cool! Shame about the practicality though.

What's some interesting bits of automotive history you guys have?

Hoovie has fixed the broken Veyron and brought it back to Kansas.

I'd say the spirit of his channel and his love for Hoopties is alive and well (even though he has sorted most of the issues on his way back to Kansas and before the trip).

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/mdJsW7mF_Hg?si=u5BqXtInyIq9Z0Yg

Driving one McLaren GTR would make for an amazing day. Getting to drive all three is nigh-on unbelievable. Only the F1, the P1 and the Senna have ever had the GTR treatment in McLaren’s history. Even fewer have been converted to drive on the road as well as the racetrack, but all three in this film have been through Lanzante’s workshop, meaning they can mingle with regular traffic. With matching liveries and a couple of Long Tails, it makes for quite the sight.

In this latest episode of The Driver’s Seat, Henry Catchpole tells the GTR story with the help of Ray Bellm, the man who started it all. We delve into how the McLaren F1 road car became a race car that won Le Mans at the first attempt in 1995. What bargain did Ron Dennis make? How did J.J. Lehto get the best from the GTR? How did Bellm end up with two F1s in La Sarthe in 1997? It’s a fascinating tale.

Jump forward 20 years and you have the modern McLaren GTRs, here painted in tribute to the F1’s Gulf Davidoff livery. There are other nods to the older car inside each one as well, but the P1 and Senna both bring their own characters to the party too. With 1080bhp the P1 is insanely fast (even after the fury of the short-geared, sequential shift F1) and arguably the most fluidly beautiful of the trio. Meanwhile, the Senna GTR has a modern race car feel to it and for the reason behind that you need to look at the car which was unveiled at the Geneva Motorshow in 2018…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Oqk5CBXfW4

Throttlehouse pits the 3 big german V8's on the market against eachother, the M5, the RS7, and the E63s in a drag and rolling race.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrAbtDOXkfk

Please direct all choosing/purchase questions to the weekly car-buying sticky. All rules of r/cars apply here.

Off the top of my head, I would argue the Volvo XC90. The second generation debuted in 2014 and I think it’s aged remarkably well. Volvo recently announced the 2025 XC90 which is a significant refresh, but it’s still basically the same SUV underneath. They have continued to make tweaks to the powertrains over 10 years and the engines are now more refined. IIRC they removed the supercharger from the T8 in 2021 or 2022 and improved the tuning for a smoother experience. The XC90 is still within the top 5 on C&Ds list of mid-sized luxury SUVs which is impressive for such an old vehicle.

What’s your thoughts? This could be any time period not specifically the present (ex. A 1970s car that was still competitive in 1980s).

Record breaker. Smashing the previous lap time by 10 seconds, the Aston Martin Valkyrie has set a new fastest road car time of 01:56:42 around ‪Silverstone‬.

https://youtu.be/snaZW4_SRf8?si=_o8tLNqgDKmEMikz