It’s amazing how far school buses have come in over a century. In the late 1800s, a school bus was barely more than a covered wagon. Today, it’s a big, yellow beast that dutifully serves school districts for decades while safely carrying millions of students every single day. So much of it is thanks to those standards set in the 1930s, including those seemingly random black rails.

In 2021, the State of Delaware, DelDOT, and the City of Newark penned an agreement to install so-called “clankers” at the Casho Mill Road bridge.

Delaware’s interpretation was a bit different than what engineers found at the NYC Port Authority and elsewhere. Engineers had found that the metal cans of those over height vehicle vehicle warning systems weren’t very loud. They also didn’t look particularly appealing. The solution? They grabbed a bunch of Taylor Made Tuff End vinyl boat fenders.

Technology like four-wheel steering and variable valve timing debuted in the Prelude.

Hurling cars through the air with replicas of medieval siege engines has actually become a bit of a popular hobby, with early throws dating back to at least the early 1990s.

So what does the law truly say across all 50 U.S. states? We've dug through every state's department or bureau of transportation resources and compiled a breakdown of what we found to help shed some light on the matter. All told, we found 23 states with laws that required the use of both wipers and headlights in bad weather, although many more have rules related to the use of headlights in low visibility conditions.

These levers control the Lenco transmission, which is stout enough to harness the power of a spinning neutron star and convert its energy into quarter-mile domination and tire smoke.

Lencos' design is unique. It's as if Lenco racing transmissions snuck up behind some automatic and manual gearboxes in the dark and pilfered the finest attributes of each. From the automatic, it pickpocketed the planetary gears and clutch packs, but left behind the fluid valve-actuated gear selection. From the manual, it nabbed the clutch and flywheel, but ditched the slow H-pattern and dogleg shifters in favor of a series of levers the driver can simply slam into place. Also, the Lenco decided that the clutch directly connected to the engine would only be necessary when starting out in first or reverse. Otherwise, it acts like a dog box transmission, letting you run through the gears sans clutch pedal.

Giving each gear its own lever is kind of an odd decision, though. The setup deserves a place among the weirdest car shifters, looking kind of like the Hurst Lightning Rod from the 1980s Hurst/Olds. Why not a single lever like a sequential gearbox? 

Well, the reason many Lenco applications use individual levers is that multi-speed Lencos aren't just one transmission in a single case, but rather separate two-speed transmissions centipeded together. So as the driver pulls a lever, one of the transmissions goes from "low" to "high," which then stacks with the ratio in the next transmission, and the next, and so on. It's separate levers for separate segments, which keeps things simpler, mechanically.

Racers looking for ultimate power handling and direct control over shifting turn to Lenco's magnesium-cased CS1 Standard Design racing transmission, which can handle in excess of 3,500 horses. Lenco also offers more compact CS2, CS3, and CS4 gearboxes, as well the ST1200 Street Strip model and the Lencodrive Automatic.

I called Lenco to see what the fluid change intervals are, and here's what the company told me: For street use, you need to change it after 500 miles following the install, then every time you change the engine oil. For drag racing, high-horsepower applications necessitate new fluids after each event. Lower-horsepower drag racing can extend that to every two or three events. Always inspect the fluid, though, because if it's still clean, you're good. If there's clutch material floating in there, change it. The recommended fluid is a light-grade petroleum-based motor oil.

AllUsedParts distributes genuine quality OEM components through the largest national network of used auto parts. Our extensive coverage and inventory of 40+ million items updated daily ensures we can get you what you need. We've been an active player in the automotive industry for decades and have perfected the challenges of e-commerce and complicated logistics of managing and delivering inventories of our size.

The Federal Highway Administration has given interim approval under the national Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) for the optional use of green colored pavement in marked bike lanes to boost visibility and alert drivers to where bicycles are expected to operate.

If there’s one state that’s leaned into this trend, it’s Florida. Transportation agencies there have adopted MUTCD-aligned design and installation requirements for green-colored pavement markings on bike lanes and multi-use paths.

Under the MUTCD rules, green is not just decorative. It’s a legitimate traffic control device meant to communicate a reserved space (usually for cyclists) and to increase conspicuity.

A couple of years ago, we learned that the Euro New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) organization, which crash tests cars for European consumers, decided that from 2026, it would start deducting points for basic controls that weren’t separate, physical controls that the driver can easily operate without taking their eyes off the road. And now ANCAP, which provides similar crash testing for Australia and New Zealand, has done the same. //

“From 2026, we’re asking car makers to either offer physical buttons for important driver controls like the horn, indicators, hazard lights, windscreen wipers and headlights, or dedicate a fixed portion of the cabin display screen to these primary driving functions,” it wrote in its guidance of what’s changed for 2026. Similarly, Europe is requiring turn signals, hazard lights, windshield wipers, the horn, and any SOS features like the EU’s eCall function.

When Chevrolet introduced the Suburban in 1935, it didn’t just release a new vehicle. It invented an entire segment. The original Suburban wasn’t a pickup or a station wagon – it was both. Built on a light truck chassis and fitted with a wagon-style body, it carried passengers and payload with equal ease. No other vehicle on the market did that quite as well or looked quite like it.

Humans are an imperfect species, people make mistakes. Unfortunately, other people sometimes have to drive those mistakes. These are Jalopnik readers' picks for the 10 worst car-design glitches.

This list isn't about complex designs that work well but are maintenance-intensive, like the multilink front ends on some Audis and VWs. This isn't about awkward packaging compromises, like we see with a lot of miserably tight and poorly laid-out engine bays. This is about stuff that's just either silly or hopelessly wrong.

These days cars are smarter and more feature-packed than ever, but sometimes it's the simple, little things that can make all the difference. There's one now-ubiquitous detail that benefits millions of drivers every single day, saving them time and reducing stress, and you may not even realize it was something that needed to be invented — or how recently it was thought up. I'm talking about the little arrow in your gauge cluster that tells you which side of the car the fuel filler is on, which was thought up in 1986 by former Ford employee James Moylan, who died on December 11 at age 80. Automotive News' obituary tells his story, which is further proof that the best ideas really can come from anywhere. //

He sent it off to his boss and promptly forgot all about it, until getting a reply seven months later from R. F. Zokas, a director of interior design, who said the arrow would be added to 1989 model year cars that were under development. The 1989 Ford Escort and Mercury Tracer were the first to use it, followed by the Ford Thunderbird and Mercury Cougar. //

There isn't a lot of information or a consensus out there about which brands were next to adopt the Moylan arrow or when it started happening, but it doesn't seem to have started getting widespread until later in the 1990s.

But vanity plates can get you in trouble. One security researcher found this out when he ordered a plate that read, "NULL" — also the word the computer system entered for a ticket whenever a cop left the license plate field blank. Similar results have happened to drivers who opted for "NO PLATE," "NOTAG," or "VOID." They ended up receiving thousands of dollars in tickets for things they didn't do.

Easy decision. I restored a 1972 VW Beetle convertible. It was a full body and drive train restoration back to what approximated factory new condition. BUT It had drum brakes all around (until I installed a disc brake package on the front end) which were strictly press and pray.

The story goes that, when E.L. Cord purchased a controlling stake in the Duesenberg motor company in 1926, he instructed the Duesenberg brothers to create the finest automobile they knew how to. As a result, the brothers developed the Duesenberg Model J, and while it was impressive in many ways, it was the straight-eight under the hood that stole column inches in the day.

From the 'eight' came 265 horsepower at 4,200 rpm, effectively doubling the grunt on offer from contemporary Cadillac or Packard models, and therefore more than delivering on the brief set by Cord just two years prior. It checked in at 1,150 pounds, and at the time, the Model J's crankshaft retailed for $605 in the parts catalog — more than what a brand-new Model A would set you back. This was anything but a car for the people, and more a statement of sheer excess, with the 419.7ci straight-eight taking center stage. 

Very few revisions would be employed over the years, although an 'SJ' variation of the engine did arrive some years later, sporting a supercharger. This addition saw output swell from 265 to 320 horses, and this particular rendition of the Duesenberg would remain America's most powerful road car until the 1950s. It demonstrated just how far ahead of the game the now-defunct Duesenberg automaker was in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

General Motors has been around for a long time — 117 years, in fact, as of the date of this writing in 2025. It was founded as a holding company by William C. Durant in September of 1908, and the first thing it did was purchase the Buick Motor Company. Over the intervening century and change, 43 different auto companies have operated under The General's banner, running the gamut from famous marques like Cadillac, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile to companies like Oakland, LaSalle, Sheridan, and McLaughlin that only big car nerds like me remember.

The uniform application of traffic rules may seem fair, but in reality, it can create a false sense of equality.

On the one hand, the risks associated with different modes of transport are incommensurate. A car that runs a red light can cause serious or even fatal injuries. A cyclist, on the other hand, is unlikely to cause the same degree of damage. //

Furthermore, the efficiency of cycling depends on maintaining speed. Having to stop completely over and over discourages people from cycling, despite its many benefits for health, the environment and traffic flow.

Treating two such different modes of transport the same way, therefore, amounts to implicitly favouring cars, something akin to imposing the same speed limit on pedestrians and trucks. //

Rather than treating bicycles and cars as equals, some jurisdictions have opted for a different approach. The state of Idaho is one good example.

Since 1982, cyclists in Idaho have been able to treat a stop sign as a yield sign and a red light as a stop sign. Several American states (such as Arkansas, Colorado, and Oregon) and countries, such as France and Belgium, have adopted similar regulations. //

In short, adopting the Idaho stop rule would not create chaos, but would regulate an already common practice without compromising public safety, contrary to some concerns. Cyclists who rarely come to a complete stop when there is no traffic generally slow down before crossing because they are aware of their vulnerability.

Today, let's look at who's to blame for all the cars that insist on shifting for themselves. Arguably, the earliest blame-havers could be Louis-Rene Panhard and Emile Levassor, who were about to show off their new automatic transmission in 1894 when the thing just broke, forcing them to turn the demonstration into a Ted Talk with a chalkboard. 

Then, in 1904, when concepts such as radio, television, and TikTok were still yet to be realized, two brothers with the last name of Sturtevant were plugging away at the Sturtevant Mill Company in Boston, patenting all sorts of industrial machines, including an automatic transmission  and the awesome-sounding "Double Carburetor for Explosive Engines." Their primitive automatic only had two speeds, sort of like a GM Powerglide, but its operation was much different than later automatic transmissions and their weird interiors laden with forbidden mysteries.

The Sturtevant automatic used a pair of clutches attached to spring-loaded weights.

Read More: https://www.jalopnik.com/1902889/automatic-transmission-history-first-car/

For a more concise overview, check out Sabin Civil Engineering's video, "Automatic Transmission, How it works?" on YouTube.

Read More: https://www.jalopnik.com/1962277/how-automatic-transmission-knows-when-to-shift/

The ingenious American engineering behind early sequential signals in Ford Mustangs and Mercury Cougars

By rotating a cam assembly, three lobes completed circuits for individual bulbs: inner, middle, and outer.
The electric Ford Mustang Mach E SUV is the latest FoMoCo product to feature sequential turn signals, blinking taillights that show, by flashing individual LED bulbs, the direction you’re turning. But what if I told you this is old technology, nothing new, and first saw use in the mid-1960s?

First introduced on the 1965 Ford Thunderbird and popularized on the more powerful Ford Mustang and Mercury Cougar, sequential turn signals were a novel way to differentiate Ford products from the rest of the muscle cars.