It’s been a short week but I bet you’re already itching for an excuse to stop working and read some great car blogs, right? Lucky for you I’ve got a rundown here of six fun stories we ran over on Car Bibles I think you’ll dig. We’ve got some tips on junkyard diving, found a new angle on the Maserati MC20, identified a good luxury-car buy nearing the bottom of its depreciation curve, retrospected one of the great driving games of all time, and more.
As Editor-In-Chief of the new-for-2021 Car Bibles, I’m doing my very best to spread the word about it and get car fans like yourself to check it out. The Drive‘s editors have graciously allowed me to start this new weekly column on their site calling out the week’s Car Bibles highlights, so please enjoy my favorite stories from this first June week!
Car Bibles is generally focused on DIY-related content, practical advice, cultural commentary, and automotive entertainment celebrating low-to-medium budget motoring… though I admit we’re straying from that a bit this week with a post about the Maserati MC20 and another featuring a Lotus Evora GT. I’m hoping the photos above, from Kevin Williams’ “ode to a rusty CRX” and Chris Rosales’ recent junkyard run to find an air conditioning compressor, balance that out a little bit.
We generally publish five posts a day, including a feature photo, so if you like what you see below I would love to see you over on our site to check out the rest of it! Anyway, on to my roundup:
The Maserati MC20 Has a Surprising Similarity to 1970s Hondas
Maserati included a great selection of detailed schematics and technical data about the MC20 in its press release, and Chris Rosales had some fun going through them. He decided that the car’s dual combustion process was conceptually similar to something used by Honda in the ’70s, which I thought was pretty neat. I made the illustration above using colors that, I’m just now realizing, remind me of Wildberry Pop-Tarts.
It Feels Like the F13 BMW 640i Is a Near-Future Luxury Bargain
Everybody’s always wondering what the next great heavily depreciated luxury car to buy is, right? Peter Nelson thinks the six-cylinder second-generation BMW 6 Series fits that description. The 640i doesn’t have the presence of an M6, but it also has a much more easily maintained powerplant and some attractive-looking used market prices. We’re starting to seeing these in the $25,000-neighborhood, which could be a great deal if you can find one that’s had a relatively comfortable life.
How To Have a Productive and Safe Visit to the Junkyard
Speaking of keeping cars on the road cheaply, every DIY enthusiast should familiarize themselves with the rules, written and unwritten, of the junkyard. There’s no better embodiment of “one person’s trash is another’s treasure,” and no better place to score super cheap auto parts.
How I Made $2,500 Snapping Up a Saturn Vue
I love Kevin Williams’ strategy for flipping cars. He doesn’t go for flashy wrecked exotics, he just buys cheap cars that need some love, cleans them up and sorts them out, then sells them to somebody in need of wheels for reasonable money. You can check out a whole bunch of his modest car flip projects in our series Flippin’ Out, or just check out his latest installment by clicking the Saturn above.
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed Is Still Fun To Play 21 Years After Its Release
Video game retrospectives are some of my favorite things to read, and Chris Rosales didn’t even know that when he filed this story. I helped with the art again, nice, right? I actually missed this game when it was new because I didn’t have any of the platforms it was available on, but now I really wish I did because this story explains it was more than just a driving sim – it was a deep digital celebration of a very cool car company complete with historical cinematics and press material.
The Lotus Evora GT Is the Last Classic Supercar
Now that I’m charged with editing and administrating, I don’t get to write stories as often as I used to as a road test editor. But I recently had the chance to take a few laps of Los Angeles in an Evora GT and of course I was not about to turn that down. I had a fantastic time driving this thing, naturally, and came up with a decision tree for those who are considering buying one.
If you liked any of those stories, I hope you’ll join us on the regular over at Car Bibles. Our comment section’s always open and we’ll be doing a lot of experimenting throughout the year as we look for new and fun ways to bring automotive entertainment to you. Now, have a great early summer weekend.