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This Week's Puzzler

Little Test


Okay, all, time for the new puzzler. This one is very automotive in nature. 

Do you all remember Crusty? He was one of our old mechanics from back in the day. Way back in the day. Crusty used to work for us many years ago, before we were accredited... 

Crusty had some unusual techniques which we've described over the years. And one he had that I have never mentioned before was the following interesting thing. 

From time to time, people would bring cars into the garage and ask us to check them out because they were thinking of buying this particular car. And Crusty had a particular process he would use to pre-screen these cars.

He would do something rather simple. He would open the hood of the car and fiddle around under there. And then he would look up at the owner and say, "Try to start it now."

The driver would try, but it would not start. 

And then Crusty would do duck back under the hood and say, "Okay, try to start it now."

And the owner would turn the key and it would start right up. 

So at this point, he would say one of two things. It was either, "Leave it and we'll check it out. But, I think it's a keeper." Or it was "Forget this one. This one is no good. Go look for another car to buy."

What was Crusty doing under the hood? What was that little test all about?

Good luck.

Answer the Puzzler »
Remember last week's puzzler?

The Roadster


Okay, all. Time for the new puzzler. This one is an automotive puzzler. 

The year is 1954.

And right around that time, my brother and I were graduating from high school.

Fiat introduced a limited edition Spider Vignale Roadster in 1954, though we would never have seen something like this because cars like this didn't come through our neighborhood. 

Anyway! This car was powered by a 110 horsepower 70 degree 2 liter V8 engine.

However, when the ad came out about this thing, it was called the Fiat 8V Spider Vignale Roadster.

And the puzzler today is, was this a mistake? Or was it not a mistake? 

The engine was a V8 engine, but the ad called it an 8V. 

Why?

Find out here »
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