* Anti-roll bar stiffness increases with the fourth power of the bar diameter (double the diameter, and the stiffness goes up 1600 percent) and decreases with the square of the arm length (make the arm half as long and the bar will be 400 percent stiffer).
* Power at the wheels is all that really matters. But since you'll still want to calculate crank horsepower, try 17 percent power loss for a rear-drive car and 12 percent for a front-driver, assuming you use a Dynojet to measure wheel power. All-wheel drive is anyone's guess. There are too many different kinds of all-wheel drive dynos and too many kinds of all-wheel drive systems to make up arbitrary numbers like I did with two-wheel drive.
* The Tornado doesn't work.
* Your suspension will only work right if it doesn't bottom out in corners. Don't lower it so much.
* One monkeypower is equal to 0.332 hp.
* You can do anything if you find the right hardware store.
* A bigger master cylinder will make your brake pedal firmer.
* A smaller piston in your caliper will do the same thing.
* If you're trying to calculate the clamping force of an opposed-piston brake caliper, multiply brake fluid pressure times the area of all the pistons. If you're trying to do the same with a sliding caliper, multiply fluid pressure times TWICE the area of all the pistons. This works because the back of the cylinder slides and applies force to the brake pads just like the piston does.
* Bigger brakes won't necessarily make your car stop any shorter. Good brake balance, good tires, a good suspension, minimal camber, and, of course, ABS, will.
* Getting good tires is the second most effective thing you can do to improve handling.
* Learning to drive is the first.
* Air springs are way too progressive.
* Tuning shocks is voodoo.
* In eight and a half years at this magazine, I've only met three people I would trust to tune my car. They are Shiv Pathak at Vishnu Performance Systems, Clark Steppler at Jim Wolf Technology and Eric Hsu at XS Engineering.
* Bigger isn't better.
* You don't even get a plaque when there's a critical point in steering geometry named after you.
* Shiny paint is for sissies.
* Making power at redline doesn't make your car faster, making more power at whatever rpm you're at now does.
* To figure out the best shift point, just find the point where the power in one gear equals the power in the next gear. Since that almost never happens, just take it to redline.
* Electronic throttles are a pain in the ass.
* Putting a heat shield on your bumper to prevent a fire makes you a riceboy. Putting a heat shield on your bumper to prevent a second fire makes you a badass.
Right next to "What's your favorite car?" on the list of impossible questions I am asked every week, is this one: "What book can I read/class can I take/school can I attend to learn all the stuff you know about cars?"
I actually answer some of the inane e-mails I get asking about engine swapping in Jamaican Galants, the mathematics of dyno testing, or turbine-powered Muranos, but when I get the sincere pleas for life-changing advice on career choices, education and the pursuit of knowledge, I'm inevitably stumped. Based on my experience, the best I can come up with is this: Don't read a book, write one.
I'll try that next; maybe this will be my Ph.D.