Looking for an epic roadtrip destination? We dare you to tangle with the Tail of the Dragon. If your summertime travel plans include hitting the open road for an epic journey, we’ve got a great one for you. Head toward the Tennessee-North Carolina border and look for signs to US Route 129. There, you’ll find an amazing 11-mile stretch of highway dubbed the Tail of the Dragon – a top contender for one of E3 Spark Plugs‘s picks for America’s best driving roads. The word “curvaceous” brings to mind a lovely feminine figure. Well, this figurative dragon is no lady. But she offers up a gorgeous view and a ride you’ll never forget. She runs along miles of forestland shadowed by the Great Smoky Mountains. And she’s known worldwide for...

The 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat recently scored serious bragging rights as the fastest muscle car on the drag strip. Dictionaries define “hellcat” as, “a bad-tempered, spiteful, woman; shrew; a woman with magic powers derived from evil sources.” But Dodge’s definition reads a bit differently as the fastest muscle car ever to hit the drag strip. And company officials now have the proof to back up those bragging rights. In a Friday test run, the 2015 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, outfitted with a screaming 707 horsepower 6.2-liter Hemi engine boasting 650 lb.-ft. of torque, earned a National Hot Rod Association-certified quarter-mile elapsed time of 11.2 seconds at 125 miles per hour – and that was with its stock Pirelli P275/40ZR20 P Zero...

More than 40 children died of heatstroke after being left alone in hot cars in 2013. And now for a blog topic we never thought would be necessary – Tips for NOT forgetting your child or pet in the car during searing-hot summer weather. The entire nation is watching the legal case develop against the parents of the Georgia toddler who died when left in his father’s SUV and it seems few believe the story that Justin Ross Harris forgot to drop off little Cooper at his daycare before heading to work. Whether they’re telling the truth is debatable, particularly in the Harris case, parents and guardians of children left in hot cars say they simply forgot their children in more than half of reported cases. Thus far in 2014, 17 children have died of heatstroke suffered...

The 2014 Ford Fiesta has been recalled over a fire hazard. It’s a rough week for Ford owners. Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford Motor Co. this week issued six separate recalls affecting upward of 100,600 vehicles sold throughout North America. Luckily, no injuries, accidents or fires related to the recall-prompting defects have been reported, but you just can’t be too careful. So, E3 Spark Plugs wants to make sure you know whether the Ford you’re driving might be affected. Here’s a rundown of the six recalls: 92,022 2013-2014 Ford Taurus, Lincoln MKS and Police Interceptor sedans; 2013-2014 Ford Flex and Lincoln MKT crossovers; 2012-2014 Edge crossovers and 2014 Lincoln MKX crossovers: Ford officials warn that the right-hand halfshaft isn’t properly seated...

Barry and Irene Jason won the 2014 Great Race in their prized 1969 Ford Mustang. Driving their prized candy apple red 1969 Ford Mustang some 2,100 miles from Ogunquit, Maine to The Villages, Florida, Barry and Irene Jason of Keller, Texas have pulled off a three-peat, winning the 2014 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty for the third consecutive year. The couple’s nine-day trek took them through 10 states and scored them a $50,000 check for the overall win. Founded by fellow classic car buffs Tom McRae and Norman Miller in 1983, The Great Race was inspired in part by the 1965 Jack Lemmon -Tony Curtis – Natalie Wood movie that bears the same name. Boasting a $12 million budget that made it the most expensive comedy film ever made at the time, the film...

Officials at the National Corvette Museum tentatively plan to keep intact a portion of the massive sinkhole that swallowed eight historic ‘Vettes back in February. Back in February, we brought you news that made every diehard Chevrolet Corvette aficionado nationwide cringe – News that a massive sinkhole had formed in, of all places, the floor of the Skydome showroom at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Now, E3 Spark Plugs has learned that the gaping hole that swallowed eight historic rides may itself become part of the museum’s permanent collection. When the museum’s motion sensors went haywire at precisely 5:44 on the morning of Feb. 12, the Bowling Green Fire Department quickly responded, only to find a gaping hole measuring an...

There’s a reason Guerlain Chicherit looks a bit panicked in this pic. Last year, E3 Spark Plugs brought you the story of French athlete-turned-stunt driver Guerlain Chicherit’s history-making unassisted back flip in a modified Mini Countryman, performed flawlessly in the Tignes mountains region of France. The four-time free skiing world champion gunned it up a static ramp and launched into a full 360-degree roll before landing on a bank of snow and eliciting global applause. Recently, Chicherit was at it again, this time aiming to break the Guinness World Record for the longest ramp car jump ever. While most stunt driving fans sincerely want to see such attempts end in crowd-thrilling success, there’s always a certain contingent that secretly (or not so secretly)...

The Ford F-250 Super Duty tops the list of the longest-lasting rides on the road. It’s a question that automotive salesmen hear dozens of times a day – especially as the economy continues take its sweet time recovering: “How long will it last?” E3 Spark Plugs set out to answer that question and, as luck would have it, found a recently released report by iSeeCars, an online car search engine. Researchers reviewed some 30 million used cars for sale, looking to find out which ones had been on the road the longest. Here’s what they found: Ford F-250 Super Duty – Percentage of cars over 200,000 miles: 4.2 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD – Percentage of cars over 200,000 miles: 3.6 Chevrolet Suburban – Percentage of cars over 200,000 miles:...

Bill Patch’s “One Piece at a Time” car in the Historic Auto Attractions Museum. Back in 1976, country music fans were jamming to Johnny Cash’s One Piece at a Time, novelty ditty about a guy who, in 1949 goes heads to Detroit to work at General Motors. Happy to have steady work, but bummed that he’d likely never be able to afford one of those shiny new rides he watched roll off the assembly line day after day, he quickly devised a plan. Via his lunch box and a coworker’s motorhome, he began swiping parts, one piece at a time, and taking them home to his garage. Twenty-four years later, he’s got a head-turning new ride. The singer’s wife loves it. The folks at the county courthouse, however – Not so much. “‘Cause to type...

Jean-Claude Van Damme does an epic split – suspended between two Volvo trucks – and makes advertising gold. When auto enthusiasts hear the term “Grand Prix,” they undoubtedly think of racing, or perhaps of hotshot actor James Garner and the gorgeous Eva Marie Saint in the 1966 film of the same name. But there’s a Grand Prix of another sort, and action flick hero Jean-Claude Van Damme just helped Volvo land one of them. And we here at E3 Spark Plugs are duly impressed. Turns out the Grand Prix (French for “grand prize”) also is an award handed out at the annual Cannes Lions event in Cannes, France. “Cannes Lions is the world’s biggest celebration of creativity in communications,” the event’s website says....