First Annual* Sub5Zero Christmas Motoring Trivia-ganza
While you could be opening presents or hanging out with relatives you only see once or twice a year right now, you instead have your facehole tuned to a computer, smartphone or tablet screen. What a Scrooge you are! But instead of spending your holiday Worldwide-Web-trawling time streaming The Interview or seeing if gingerbread people porn is really a thing (Spoiler alert: It is…sort of…), why not do something productive, like…say…test your gearhead knowledge with our first annual* Christmas trivia quiz?
We’ve cobbled together a collection of 25 cerebellum-stretching questions about cars, motorcycles, tuning and motorsports, ranked in order (so sayeth us nincompoops) from easiest to hardest. See how many you can nail without busting out your Google-fu! We’ll have the answers for you tomorrow, then we’ll be back to our normal(-ish) programming on Monday. Consider it our Christmas and Boxing Day presents to you.
*We hope it becomes an annual tradition. Hey, Festivus started out small too, you know…
Round One: The Bunny Slope
- In what country is Ferrari headquartered?
- Name one of the two major car manufacturers that are also successful motorcycle manufacturers.
- What is the trade name Ford has given its turbocharged, direct-injection gas engines?
- What material has the body (or most of the body) of every production Chevrolet Corvette been made from?
- What nickname did Australian racing fans give the R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R (Hint: It’s still commonly applied to the current R35 GT-R.)?
Round Two: The Big Kids Table
- What is the signature feature of Ducati engines?
- What was the company that is now Jaguar originally called?
- Between which two existing nameplates did Ford position Edsel?
- How many Indianapolis 500s has the Andretti family won by driving, i.e. not counting Michael’s three wins as a car owner?
- What do the three points on the Mercedes-Benz star represent?
Round Three: Long Division
- What was the last year front-engine cars won both the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans?
- The 1983 Volkswagen Vanagon didn’t look all that different from the ’82 model, but there was a big change under the skin. What was that change?
- As well as being a four-stroke design, what else was unusual about the 1979 Honda NR500 grand prix racing motorcycle’s engine?
- Which German tuner did Mitsubishi hire to help jazz up its home market Debonair and Galant sedans in the late 1980s?
- What type of engine was the AMC Pacer originally slated to use?
Round Four: Bomb Disposal
- What did Henry Ford’s second failed attempt at a car company go on to become?
- The production Jaguar XJ220’s engine was evolved from which Group B rally car’s powerplant?
- What are the items depicted in Yamaha’s logo?
- Besides being limited-production “halo cars,” what did the second-generation (1959-’60) Cadillac Eldorado Brougham and Cadillac Allante have in common?
- Before getting into the BMW tuning business, what was Alpina doing?
Round Five: Lucifer’s Sweat-Soaked Taint
- Where could you buy a badge-engineered version of Kaiser-Frazer’s Henry J compact called the Allstate?
- Who made his first and only start in what’s now the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series on October 29, 1967 at Rockingham, NC driving the No. 66 Ford?
- On what car was the Monteverdi Sierra based?
- Where was the Questor Grand Prix held?
- What was the last year you could buy a new DeSoto?