Cars of Technology

Your C4 Corvette has, or maybe once had, a great suspension. It could very well be worn out by now though.  C4 Corvettes are old cars and the parts have started to wear out. It's not that any one item is really bad. The problem is that all of the wear has added up. A little bit of wear in a lot of places means you have a lot of total wear. It's a cumulative thing. You may not even notice how worn out things are since you've probably never driven a perfect C4. Your Corvette seems perfectly normal to you even if it isn't. You just assume that all C4 Corvettes drive the way your car does. One of the reasons aftermarket parts seem to make such a huge difference with older Corvettes is that aftermarket parts are generally used to replace worn out factory parts. People put some new aftermarket part on their car and extol the virtues of that part. They would have felt the same difference if they had used a stock GM part.  New parts make a huge difference whether they are OEM o...

The gas tank in your collector car is a gasoline storage area. It’s also a really bad storage area. If you would drive your car more often storage wouldn't be an issue. That's not going to change so we now have to figure how bad the gasoline in your car actually is. G asoline is a highly refined substance with complex molecular bonds. Over time these bonds break and the fuel reverts back to an earlier unusable state. As the molecular bonds break the octane rating falls to the point where the gasoline is no longer able to produce the energy required for effective internal combustion. It’s not unusual for highly refined premium gasoline to lose significant amounts of volatility within 90 days. This is especially true if you use the ethanol-enhanced gasoline from your neighborhood gas station.             The variety of chemicals used to create gasoline do not all react to air in the same way. The lighter chemicals evaporate first with...

Nobody gets their old solid-axle Corve tte aligned. Hey, we don't even drive them that often. If we align them once a decade, it's a big deal. I decided to get four wheels on my '58 pointed in the proper direction for the first time in 20 years. There was no sense in ripping up all that BFG radial rubber I just installed.  Now came the task of finding  someone who knew how to align these early Corvettes. When my '58 left the St. Louis plant the average alignment mechanic was about 30 years old. Those guys retires about 25 years ago. No one has taken their place. At least no one with their knowledge of 1950s Chevrolets. This is no problem. I still have my contacts at one of the largest technical training schools in the United States, Lincoln Technical Institute. I know these people. I've worked with the people. The result? No one had a clue about how to set the camber and caster on my car. Six different highly skilled people looked at my old Corvette and arrived at s...