Mike McNessor

1 week ago | hemmings.com | Mike McNessor

The two most dangerous words any car, truck, motorcycle, tractor, etc., enthusiast can hear are not: “high triglycerides,” “kitchen remodel,” or “make offer”. They are “spare engine.” A spare engine is like a sinkhole filled with quicksand inside a black hole, sucking away your time and your retirement savings. Or what might’ve been retirement savings except… spare engine. The thing about a spare engine is that it seems so practical and rational to have around.

1 month ago | hemmings.com | Mike McNessor

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1 month ago | hemmings.com | Mike McNessor

I switched on the lights and shuddered a little. The inside of my garage looked like an improvised explosive device made of used tools and parts had detonated in the center of it. Full stop. Every other stupid project went on hold until I could get reorganized. Or at least slightly less disorganized. Soon, faithful old tools were being returned to their drawers. Benches and tool carts, groaning beneath the weight of spray oils and greasy parts, were unloaded.

1 month ago | hemmings.com | Mike McNessor

Kawasaki’s Z-1 rocked the motorcycling world when it was first unveiled in late 1972. The bike’s burly, 903-cc four-cylinder bested the wildly popular Honda CB750 by 150-plus ccs, and helped point the way to the modern superbike era. Z-1s were hot when new and they’re hot with collectors today. Finding one-owner examples is getting tougher all the time, but there’s one currently listed on Hemmings Auctions: this Z1, located in West Bloomfield, Michigan.

1 month ago | hemmings.com | Mike McNessor

Did anyone need a street-legal replica of a SCORE Trophy Truck? Well, no. But in 2010, Ford’s in-house tuner division, SVT, built one anyway: the Raptor. A new performance icon and a modern collectible 4×4 was born. The SVT Raptor wasn’t the first F-150 to emphasize play over work. Back in the sport-truck-crazy 1990s, the two-wheel-drive, 351-powered F-150 Lightning made its debut. Then, in 1999, for the truck’s second act, SVT upped the ante with a supercharged 5.4-liter overhead cam Triton V-8.