Dillon Kovar

Nitrous Refills and Never Enough Grip: The Pursuit of the Drag Racing Dream

It was a familiar scene. The stench of secondhand smoke hung heavy in the unseasonably warm March air trackside as late model Mopars ran passes well short of their advertised capabilities. I was alone, watching the early birds make passes that can only be described as “high school fast.” Finally, my first associate would arriveContinue reading “Nitrous Refills and Never Enough Grip: The Pursuit of the Drag Racing Dream”

Honda GB500: The Perfect Motorcycle at the Most Inopportune Time

Feast your eyes on what is, in my opinion, the most beautiful mass-market motorcycle ever sold in America: the 1989-90 Honda GB500 Tourist Trophy. The GB500, introduced to the Japanese market in 1985, didn’t arrive on U.S. shores until 1989, and represented an idea in motorcycling that was sort of ahead of its time, despiteContinue reading “Honda GB500: The Perfect Motorcycle at the Most Inopportune Time”

A Mid-American Saturday Night: Dirt Track Racing and the Last Bastion of Grassroots Motorsport

It’s no secret that racing is an expensive endeavor–to the point of cliche. But there are a few remaining pockets of truly accessible racing that exist in the United States today, of which (in the author’s humble opinion), the best is the simple, down-and-dirty local dirt oval track. Screaming V-8 motors, wheel to wheel (andContinue reading “A Mid-American Saturday Night: Dirt Track Racing and the Last Bastion of Grassroots Motorsport”

Early EFI Chronicles: Bendix Gets a Second Chance

Chrysler in the late 1950s was giving the future a “Forward Look”–in more ways than one. After the failure of Rambler to bring an electronic fuel injection system to market in 1957 in our last entry of Early EFI Chronicles, you may have expected Bendix to throw in the towel in the automotive EFI arenaContinue reading “Early EFI Chronicles: Bendix Gets a Second Chance”

Air, Water, and the Re-Imagined Legacy of Honda Motorcycles

Honda revolutionized motorcycling as we know it with the introduction of the the Universal Japanese Motorcycle, or “UJM” for short. The premise is simple–consumers should be able to buy one motorcycle that can do everything, and it should do everything well. A UJM needs to be nimble enough to navigate city centers in traffic, butContinue reading “Air, Water, and the Re-Imagined Legacy of Honda Motorcycles”