CAR TALK SCIENCE: MIT WANTS ITS DIPLOMAS BACK by Tom Magliozzi and Ray Magliozzi

 











For years a staple on the weekend schedule of every NPR station was "Car Talk", a call-in show featuring brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi. These guys were experts in practical car maintenance and repair, they could talk all day long and they clearly enjoyed each other's company. The show was entertaining and informative. The last new show was broadcast in 2012.

Neither of these brothers was a professional mechanic, but they operated a "bring your own parts and fix it yourself" car shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts and picked up a thing or two along the way. They also both have degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), also located in Cambridge. 

They used to receive calls that covered all sorts of car-related topics. Most were straight up car questions, but some were different. In this case, these are more science-related. Some are kind of duds, like the rather long conversation about Boy Scout pinewood derby cars. I did enjoy the conversation about creating an aerodynamic spoiler for mattresses being hauled on top of cars. For me the best conversation was a debate about whether it is better to take the shorter route over a big hill in the family car to go visit a nearby relative or if it is better to take a longer route around the hill and stay on flat land.

This was a so-so collection since I can only remember two segments that I liked. The rest were just so-so or best left in the studio archives.

I rate this collection 3 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here:

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