Free Republic

Talk about truck nuts. A Texas-based urologist performed a vasectomy using the battery in his Rivian R1T pickup to power his surgical equipment. And unlike some of the weird Tesla stunts we’ve seen lately, this Rivian-powered procedure was done out of necessity. Dr. Christopher Yang was set to perform a vasectomy at his clinic in Austin when a power outage struck the area. His patient didn’t want to reschedule the appointment because he’d already scheduled time off from work to recover. They needed to come up with a solution. That’s when genius struck.

Brandonbilt Motorsports (BMS) announces today the return of Larry’s Hard Lemonade as the primary sponsor for Brandon Brown’s No. 68 Chevrolet Camaro during this Friday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) race at the Daytona International Speedway. After an eight month hiatus, Brandon Brown and Larry’s Hard Lemonade are set to make their 16th NXS start as a driver and primary sponsor duo. What first began as a single-race primary sponsorship during the 2020 NXS season opener at Daytona, quickly developed into a successful multi-race program which earned a total of two Top-5 and seven Top-10 finishes. The partnership also saw its...

National Big Wind Day is observed each year in the United States on April 12. The day commemorates the recording of the highest natural wind gust measured on the Earth’s surface. It was on the afternoon of April 12, 1934, that winds blowing at 231 miles per hour were recorded by Mount Washington Observatory. Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeastern United States at 6,288 ft. It is said to be the most notable mountain east of the Mississippi River. While it is difficult to say if the day will receive strong winds as it did in 1934,...

Chances are your local news affiliate has already reported on it happening in your neighborhood: criminals drilling into and draining gas tanks to steal the sweet, expensive nectar inside, leaving their victims with not only no fuel but also a hefty repair bill. It happened to one Pennsylvania woman, who said the thief stole the gas right out of her Nissan Rogue as it sat parked outside her home. There are similar stories coming out of California, too, and Missouri, and Wisconsin.

Villagers were woken by a 300ft wind turbine crashing down on a Welsh mountainside - after it was blown over during storms which brought 50pmh winds. The £20million turbine - double the height of Nelson's Column - snapped apart and blades crumpled in raging wind. Families in the nearby village of Gilfach Goch, near Bridgend, South Wales, told how it sounded like 'thunder and lightning'. It woke them at around 6.50am on Monday morning and echoed around the valley below. The 29-turbine Pant Y Wal wind farm opened in 2013 and makes enough power for 19,000 homes - until one...

In December 2014, I bought a Honda Fit right off the lot. It had 23 miles, and I paid $20,814.80, including accessories and an extended warranty. This December, a buzzy startup called Carvana drove away with my car, cutting me a check for $20,905 — leaving me with a profit of $90.20. Not only that, but Carvana’s offer was $5,000 higher than Vroom, $6,000 higher than TrueCar, and $7,500 higher than CarMax. Carvana’s offer changed day by day, too: the final one I accepted was $1,338 higher than its lowest quote. I knew I had everything going for me —...

A Dutch company is currently building a 417-foot mega yacht for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos that, once complete, will be the largest sailing vessel in the world. The only problem? Its three masts are too tall to leave the shipyard without dismantling a huge piece of Dutch history and infrastructure: the Koningshavenbrug bridge, also known as the De Hef. The bridge has stood in Rotterdam since 1927. It was heavily damaged in 1940 when the German Luftwaffe bombed the city. During renovations of the bridge in 2017, the city council promised residents the bridge would never again be dismantled. But...

Dodge's future is suddenly a lot clearer and it includes electrification but not Hellcats. We sat down with Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis at the 2021 LA auto show, and he laid out some of what will happen at Dodge over the next two years. Regarding Hellcat models, Kuniski confirmed to Motor Authority "I will have this car, this platform, this powertrain as we know it through the end of '23. There's two more years to buy a Hellcat, then it's history."

Last week, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador made a pledge to legalize millions of vehicles being illegally imported from the United States. While it sounds like a phenomenal way to help the nation to contend with product shortages that are driving up vehicle prices around the globe, all of the cars had been smuggled previously and many were presumed to have been stolen. This has created a lot of tension. Despite there being evidence that these vehicles frequently end up becoming workhorses for criminal cartels, illegally imported beaters also provide a cheap alternative to poorer residents right when automotive...

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) — Deputies said a 74-year-old man playing golf at a country club in Oldsmar drowned in a pond while looking for his golf ball. The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office responded to the East Lake Woodlands Country Club after reports of missing 74-year-old Hermilo Jazmines. Jazmines was last seen looking for his golf ball near the green of hole three at the golf course.

The hosts of the Discovery Channel’s Diesel Brothers have been fined $851,451 for selling modified pickups that violate Utah law and the federally recognized Clean Air Act. Friday’s court documents stipulate that David “Heavy D” Sparks, Joshua Stuart, Keaton Hoskins, and “Diesel Dave” Kiley pay $761,451 to the U.S. government with the remaining $90,000 going to Davis County in Utah. The group has already been found guilty of removing particulate filters and exhaust recirculation systems on the cars used for the television program.

A Dallas-based pest exterminator tells WFAA that he treats up to 10 rideshare vehicles per week for bed bugs, a mode of transportation that thousands turn to weekly to get around the metro. For Don Brooks, owner of Doffdon Pest Control, bed bugs are his life. He travels daily around the metro to rid the nuisance insects (that multiply fast) from both homes and vehicles. Brooks told WFAA that he's seeing more and more rideshare drivers. "I probably do five to 10 rideshare cars per week," Brooks said. "Drivers either see bed bugs, someone complained, or they were suspicious of...

Mercedes-Benz USA's CEO confirmed the Mercedes-Maybach GLS to Automotive News. It will be built at the same Vance, Alabama, plant as the regular GLS, making it the most expensive passenger vehicle built in the States.

BMW announced this week that, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, it again leads America in automotive exports by sales value. This is thanks to the plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, BMW’s biggest global plant and the producer of most of its X crossovers and SUVs. BMW said the plant—which makes all the X3, X4, X5, X6, X7 models and their M and hybrid versions sold worldwide—exported 234,689 cars abroad in 2018, a value of more than $8.4 billion. BMW said 356,749 SUVs were made there in total.

Blue collar no more: Skilled auto technicians are in high demand The tight labor market can be a boon for blue-collar workers: They are more likely to find good-paying jobs and experience rapid wage growth. More employers are trying to tackle the aversion to manual labor jobs by offering workers higher salaries, tuition reimbursement and apprenticeship programs. Technology is also transforming blue-collar workplaces, making more advanced skills in demand.... Across the country there are more drivers on the road, and many of them hanging on to their vehicles longer than ever. That means workers like Michael Gerhart are in demand....

A woman who authorities believe was living in her car was rescued after a snowplow inadvertently bumped into her vehicle, which was buried in snow. South Lake Tahoe, California, city spokesman Chris Fiore highlighted the Feb. 17 incident in a Tuesday news release urging drivers to take safety precautions in winter weather. He said the city has had problems with illegally parked vehicles, which slows snow removal. Fiore said the snowplow driver bumped into the back of the car, which popped the vehicle's trunk open. After that happened, workers from the plow truck started shoveling around the vehicle to prepare...

Audi just announced a new suspension system that harvests wasted energy and turns it into electricity, capable of adding juice to a vehicle’s 48-volt electrical subsystem. The automaker calls the system “eROT” after the electromechanical rotary dampers that capture kinetic energy and store it in a battery. Currently in the prototype phase, the system does away with conventional shock absorbers, replacing them with lever arms connected to a small gearbox and alternator. “Every pothole, every bump, every curve induces kinetic energy in the car,” said Stefan Knirsch, Audi’s technical development boss, in a release. “Today’s dampers absorb this energy, which...

The president retreats from the physical intensity of basketball to the relative serenity of golf

It’s a well-known fact that Islamic State fighters enjoy using hardy Toyota pickups in their pursuit of cleansing the Middle East of people even slightly different from themselves, but they’ll need to restock after last week. Recent Allied military advances, including a huge, weeks-long push that liberated the Iraqi city of Fallujah, have ISIS on the run, and the U.S. Air Force’s best aerial hardware just caught a huge number of their vehicles making a break for it. The results, as Defense Department video of the strike shows, wasn’t pretty — for the insurgents or their trucks.

Is the 707 horsepower Dodge Hellcat too weak for you? Do you miss the 662 hp Shelby GT500? Do you love the sensual whine of a supercharger pulley? Well, a Ford dealer in Ohio has the car for you. Lebanon Ford of suburban Cincinnati is a Roush Performance dealer, and has decided to offer the base 2016 Mustang GT with a Roush Stage 2 supercharger for under $40,000. This undercuts the Challenger Hellcat by nearly $25k, meaning you could pick up a new Fiesta ST with the difference, or perhaps a few sets of tires. You’ll need them.