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First Annual* Sub5Zero Christmas Motoring Trivia-ganza

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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

2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06

  1. In what country is Ferrari headquartered?
  2. Name one of the two major car manufacturers that are also successful motorcycle manufacturers.
  3. What is the trade name Ford has given its turbocharged, direct-injection gas engines?
  4. What material has the body (or most of the body) of every production Chevrolet Corvette been made from?
  5. 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

2014 Ducati 1199 Superleggera engine

  1. What is the signature feature of Ducati engines?
  2. What was the company that is now Jaguar originally called?
  3. Between which two existing nameplates did Ford position Edsel?
  4. How many Indianapolis 500s has the Andretti family won by driving, i.e. not counting Michael’s three wins as a car owner?
  5. What do the three points on the Mercedes-Benz star represent?

Round Three: Long Division

1984_volkswagen_vanagon

  1. What was the last year front-engine cars won both the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans?
  2. 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?
  3. As well as being a four-stroke design, what else was unusual about the 1979 Honda NR500 grand prix racing motorcycle’s engine?
  4. Which German tuner did Mitsubishi hire to help jazz up its home market Debonair and Galant sedans in the late 1980s?
  5. What type of engine was the AMC Pacer originally slated to use?

Round Four: Bomb Disposal

BMW Alpina B6 xDrive Gran Coupe

  1. What did Henry Ford’s second failed attempt at a car company go on to become?
  2. The production Jaguar XJ220’s engine was evolved from which Group B rally car’s powerplant?
  3. What are the items depicted in Yamaha’s logo?
  4. Besides being limited-production “halo cars,” what did the second-generation (1959-’60) Cadillac Eldorado Brougham and Cadillac Allante have in common?
  5. Before getting into the BMW tuning business, what was Alpina doing?

Round Five: Lucifer’s Sweat-Soaked Taint

monteverdi_sierra

  1. Where could you buy a badge-engineered version of Kaiser-Frazer’s Henry J compact called the Allstate?
  2. 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?
  3. On what car was the Monteverdi Sierra based?
  4. Where was the Questor Grand Prix held?
  5. What was the last year you could buy a new DeSoto?