Classic cars were never meant to be stationary objects. Their engines were designed to run, their transmissions designed to shift, and their tires to carry them down long stretches of open road. Yet many collector cars spend most of their lives carefully tucked away in garages, barns, or storage facilities where they wait patiently for their next outing. While this preservation protects them from weather and wear, long periods of inactivity can quietly affect the mechanical systems that keep the...

When Classic Cars Sit: The Good, the Bad, and the Mechanical

Some vehicles fit neatly into a category, instantly understood by anyone who sees them. A Corvette is a sports car, built for speed and style. A Silverado is a truck, engineered for work and hauling. A Malibu is a sedan, designed for everyday family use. The Chevrolet El Camino, however, has always defied such simple classification. From the moment it appeared, it existed in the space between definitions, blending passenger-car comfort with pickup-truck utility in a way that felt both obvious an...

The Chevrolet El Camino: Built Between Two Worlds

Jay Ohrberg is one of those rare people in Hollywood history who shaped what audiences remember, even though most people never saw his name on the screen. If you grew up watching classic TV reruns, blockbuster movies, or anything that made you stare at the screen and think, “That car is the coolest thing I have ever seen,” there is a good chance Jay had something to do with it. He is not just a “car builder” in the normal sense - he is a master creator of mechanical characters. In a world full o...

The Star Behind the Star Cars: Jay Ohrberg’s Hollywood Legacy

The off-road world is on fire again. Every manufacturer is chasing trail cred with lockers, lift kits, and desert-speed marketing shots. And yet, if you are an enthusiast, the modern showroom still feels like it is missing a few flavors. Some rigs were just right for their era: honest, quirky, tough, and built for real adventure. So, in the spirit of Christmas, here is our wish list: nine 4x4 icons we want revived, not as sterile retro props, but as living, breathing machines that deserve a seco...

4x4 Icons We Want Revived

We love Hagerty and all they do for the classic car market. December 5th, 2025 they posted an article on their AI tests (https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/tested-is-ai-your-next-classic-car-mechanic/). One thing they didn't understand or mention, however, is that LLMs like ChatGPT can never have a PhD in everything, just like a mechanic cannot be an expert on everything. As we move further down the path to AGI, the future of AI is agentic. We at Fraction Motors are working to bu...

The Future of AI is Agentic 

Many of the original American automotive factories no longer exist. Industrial technology progressed at a rapid rate throughout the 20th century, and the places where these companies began their work often became obsolete after only a few years. An additional factor impeding these factories’ continued existence is their location in Detroit, whose car factories have been on the decline over the last 60 years or so. It is a wonder that any remnant of these original locations would have made it int...

A Remnant of Ford's History: The Ford Piquette Avenue Plant

Throughout automotive history, car manufacturers have often gone to battle in order to prove that they have the superior car. One company will produce a revolutionary new vehicle that boasts innovations in speed, power, or mechanical engineering, and another company will answer with a car that improves upon these principles. Traditionally, these rivalries see both sides create remarkable vehicles that each have their own devoted fanbases (the Mustang and Camaro rivalry is a good example). But th...

Lost and Found: the 1963 Ford Cougar II and 1964 Ford Bordinat Cobra

Technology has advanced rapidly in the 20th and 21st centuries. Machines that would seem alien to people just over a hundred years ago are now commonplace. As humans come to rely on these machines, we continue to improve and streamline them again and again. Because these particular creations are so commonplace in our world, it can be easy to take them for granted and overlook the feats of engineering that made their existence a possibility in the first place. It is with this mindset that we hope...

The Beginnings of the Automobile

When ex-GM president Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen landed at Ford in early 1968, he challenged designer Larry Shinoda to build a Mustang that could grab the SCCA Trans-Am crown back from Chevrolet’s hot-shoe Z/28. Shinoda ditched the fake side scoops, blacked out the hood for glare-free duty, and jokingly labeled the project “the boss’s car”—a bit of shop-floor slang that stuck as its official name. Underneath, the whole exercise existed for one reason: meet the 5-liter homologation rules and win on Su...