A friend of mine once owned a Lotus Exige S. The track-ready machine was a variant of the already nimble Elise, but with a fixed roof and a big ol’ supercharger bolted onto its mid-mounted, 4-cylinder engine.

The weekend he took delivery of the car — coated in British racing green, of course — the two of us blasted out of town for some break-in miles. At one point, I asked how fast we were going. His reply: “I don’t know, the speedometer doesn’t seem to be working.”

Lotus is a quirky little company, always has...

There is and always will be a soft spot in my heart for the Atari 2600. It was the first gaming platform I had growing up, and even with its simple graphics and pew-pew sound effects, many hours turned into days (and probably even weeks) of gameplay over the years I played that thing. It is my sincere hope that my two young sons (ages 4 and 1.5) will find a short period of time in their lives to play the same games their dad did before they discover the wonders of the Xbox or Playstation or other gaming platform that wows them with surround sound, achievements, and first-person perspective.

The...