Driving through snow is not on anyone’s list of fun things to do. It becomes even less enjoyable when you feel your tires quit on a particularly slippery patch.

When it comes to ensuring safe winter driving, you have two choices. Either you buy snow tires, or you go with all-season radials. Which one is the correct option depends entirely on the environment you drive in.

The difference between snow tires and all-season radials seems small at first glance, but it is crucial. The treads on a snow tire have treads that are widely spaced. Snow tires are specifically designed so these larger spaces allow the tire to dig into and grip the snow better than a regular tire or an all-season radial would. This is a good choice to go with if you live in an area that experiences regular heavy snowfall.

Since 2001, true snow tires have been manufactured with a special symbol. If you see a stylized picture of a mountain within a snowflake inside it, then you can rest easy knowing that the tire was designed to cope with harsh winter conditions. Snow tires also carry a mud and snow designation, abbreviated to M/S, M+S, or M&S. All-season radials also carry this designation.

The treads on all-season radials are spaced closer together than the ones on snow tires. Although they can’t possibly match the snow traction of a tire specifically designed for winter conditions, they do provide a quieter ride.

It should be noted that heavier cars (and cars with front-wheel or all-wheel drive) usually handle snow better than lighter cars. If this description matches your vehicle and you live in an area that doesn’t get a whole of snow, then all-season radials may be the way to go.

No matter what kind of tire you choose, two things are vitally important. First, make sure all four tires are of the same type. This will provide optimum traction and vehicle handling. Second, exercise caution when driving. This will help you stay safe regardless of the weather.

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So what is a Rally?

My love of rallying began at school at Tennessee Tech. About once a month, the Golden Eagle Sports Car Club would have a navigational road rally. In these events we would follow a set of route instructions and arrive at secret checkpoint locations along the route. You either had to arrive at the correct time or get the answers to questions along the way - sometimes both.

Being engineering majors and sports car nuts, my roommate and I took well to this game. We instantly began looking at ways to improve our skills. We wrote crude calculator programs to figure our time and worked to improve the accuracy of our odometers. Since most of the events were at night, we built lots of lighting gadgets to see both inside the car and out.

Later our efforts evolved into the CompuRally computer software that both measures and calculates TSD rally information. We ran the SCCA national circuit and got a couple of first place trophies before moving on to other interests. I still like to run a regional rally with the Georgia Sports car club or TLSCC in middle Tennessee. My local region never showed much interest in TSD rally although we did have some fun events.

They did however support Rally Racing and Rally Cross. Rallycross is where you race in a field on a miniature road course marked by pylons or barrels. This sport has been lots of fun in my Jeep. It reminds me of the days when my grandfather would send me out to the field to get a part off a dozer and I would slalom the pickup through the junk tractors.

Then there is Rally racing. This is where you run a gravel road through the forest as fast as you can. The sport is normally dominated by Subaru’s and Mitsubishi’s but I have had a lot of low budget fun racing a Jeep Cherokee. I have raced with both SCCA and NASA on Stage rally races and I have been working as an official with Rally America. Rally Racing is definitely the ultimate way to get an adrenaline boost in the woods.

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The rising costs of basic commodities have motorists looking for ways to save on gas, and for gas stations that offer fuel at a cheaper price.

Understanding gas station pricing

A gas station is a facility that sells fuels and other types of lubricants for road vehicles which is usually gasoline or diesel fuel. Some gas stations also have specialty fuels such as the liquefied petroleum gas, natural gas or kerosene. Recently, gas stations have added shops and convenience stores to their main business.

In the United States and Canada, federal, state and provincial local sales taxes are usually included in the gas price. Taxes from gas are often used to finance transportation developments such as road maintenance and construction.

In the United States, the states of Hawaii and California have the most expensive gasoline. In Canada, fuel prices peak in British Columbia and Quebec. Gas is cheapest in Alberta - a province that produces oil. The provinces of Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland have laws that regulate the prices of gasoline, so these provinces have the lowest cost of gas in the whole country.

Individual gas stations in America do not have much control over prices of gasoline. The wholesale price of gasoline is determined by oil companies providing the gasoline in a particular place. The prices are dictated by the world market and set by area by the gasoline supplier.

Individual gas stations will definitely not sell gasoline at a loss. The margin for profit is typically from seven to eleven cents per gallon. Their prices are limited to a certain extent, though, because gasoline is still a product, and those who charge higher than the wholesale price will lose customers to other gas stations.

To make up for the lower profits, a lot of gas stations vend more expensive food and other products through their convenience stores.

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Now wait a minuteare they called hubcaps or wheel covers? Is there a difference between the two? And while we’re at it, why did they start using hubcaps to begin with? These and similar questions have baffled the great minds of the world for many years. So to get to the bottom of these questions, it’s best to examine the long, tortuous and yes, actually interesting history of the automobile hubcap.

Let There Be Hubcaps
Car enthusiasts have had a running love affair with hubcaps for decades. Some say that the art deco styling of the famous Chrysler Building in New York is a tribute to the hubcap. But, how did hubcaps come about in the first place? Well, originally there was a functional necessity for the cap. See at first, autos were made with wooden spokes like a buggy or wagon wheel. The wooden spokes connected the outer steel rim to the center hub which contained the wheel bearing. The wheel bearing was packed with grease. Something was needed to cover the center hub which could keep the dust out and the grease in. What was needed was a “hub” “cap.” Some people today actually spell it hub cap rather than the technically correct spelling of hubcap. So this hub cap (which could have also been called a dust cover) came into existence strictly for functional reasons, but it was a small center cap designed to go over the center hub leaving the wooden spokes exposed.

Unfortunately, the wooden spoke wheels were not long for this world. Although they were varnished and sometimes even decorated with pin-striping when new, they would soon begin to age and crack and look pretty lousy. You could always hear from a distance a car with aging wooden spoke wheels creaking down the road.

It’s Better to Look Good Then to Work Good
In the late twenties and early thirties, steel wire-spoke wheels began to replace the wooden spoke wheels. These also required the center cap over the hub, which still left the steel welded wire spokes exposed. By the thirties, function gave way to style and decoration. The hubcaps became larger and stamped with the auto manufacturer’s name in brass or stainless steel and were utilized as a decorative design feature, but still covered only the hub. The wire-spoke wheels were a problem because they were hard to keep clean and made an annoying wind noise as the cars would go down the street.

“Honey, I Want a Cadillacor at Least Their Hubcaps”
In 1934, Cadillac fitted its new model with a stainless steel disc which was held in place by the screw-on center hubcap which fit over the top of the disc. The disc actually covered most of the wheel, covering up the wire-spokes completely. This new styling feature gave the wheel a luxurious streamlined look.

Oh, “Wheel” “Covers” I Get It!
So where does the term “wheel covers” come in? In 1938, Cadillac began using pressed steel wheels similar to what is used today. They covered the wheels with luxurious full sized hubcapsor “wheel covers.” So the term wheel cover was born, but for some reason the term hubcap has never yielded its top position as the most commonly used term for that thing-a-ma-jig that covers up the wheel of a car. The important thing is that Cadillac made the full sized wheel cover the symbol of luxury and class. Soon, hot rodders began to seek out the old Cadillac wheel covers for their 1930-1950’s custom rods. Probably the most classic Cadillac hubcap was the heavy, brilliantly chromed 1950 wheel cover nicknamed the “Sombrero” because its profile resembled a sombrero hat. Cadillac owners soon began to realize that their hubcaps were very much in demand. They would usually figure this out when they would go to get in their car and happen to notice that they no longer had any hubcapsouch; another victim of “hub capping” (hubcap stealing) which was the sad state of affairs in the forties and fifties.

Moon Unit
You’ve probably heard the term Moon (or racing disc) hubcap which became popular in the fifties. Interestingly enough, the first spun aluminum Moon wheel cover was not invented in the fifties. Bob Rufi, the fastest man alive in 1940, used spun aluminum hubcaps from, of all things, a WWI Jenny war plane to help streamline his 140 mph record breaking speed machine at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Drags, Mags and American Flags
Early drag racers used to soup up their cars and on weekends drive them to the drags. Drag racing soon became as American as apple pie. As cars got faster, some safety issues arose. The hubcaps had a nasty habit of flying off and giving unprepared spectators a new part in their hair. New rules were instated that required drag racers to remove their hubcaps before racing, for safety reasons and also for proper inspection of the wheels. Racers began just leaving their hubcaps off after the drags and driving around town like that. Soon, seeing a car with no hubcaps came to mean “drag racer.” Drag racers began painting their wheels and decorating them with chrome lug nuts and chrome dust covers (center caps). Some believe this led to chrome wheels followed by the “mag” (magnesium) and aluminum wheels which became very popular in the sixties.

There is a Great Future in Plastics
Finally, in the 1970’s auto manufacturers began fitting their new vehicles with ABS plastic hubcaps. These wheel covers look like chrome or brushed aluminum caps. By the 1980’s, ABS plastic wheel covers virtually replaced the use of steel hubcaps by auto manufacturers. Although plastic might sound cheap or flimsy, the fact is, ABS plastic is rugged and durable and most importantly, it is light. The lighter the hubcap, the less likely that it will fly off. Now, you need to know that some plastic wheel covers made by auto manufacturers are not that great at all; they fly off too easily. Being sturdy, rugged and light alone is not enough. The wheel cover needs to have a good solid retention system. The best is an all steel 360 degree retention ring that can really grip the steel wheel and help the hubcap stay on the wheel.

Life of the Party
Now that you have become an expert on the world history of hubcaps, you can dazzle all of your friends at the next party with your amazing knowledge of the mysterious hubcap. Well, maybe not dazzle themmaybe more like not completely bore them to death. Hopefully, you enjoyed the overview and actually learned something along the way.

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The OBD-II Diagnostic Connector The OBD-II specification provides for a standarized hardware interfacethe female 16-pin (2

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