[	Tags	|	beautiful days, cars, sundays, sunsets	]
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Suddenly, just north of Santa Barbara the right headlamp popped up. As fate would have it, I had left the lights on. You could almost hear the opening bars from Flight of the Valkyrie. "Come on, come on you little shit," I started screaming at the left lamp. "Pop!" Fifteen long, gut-twisting seconds later it did. Sure, I could have got more illumination sitting on the hood and holding a Zippo, but the lights were up! I was going to make it.

...

Now that I was back to cruising, I had some neurons to spare to contemplate the C3. What a brilliant little car. How did it know to pop those lights then and there? And maybe those neurons were cooked a little, but I realized what was going on. The Corvette knew.

This was it: the poor thing's swan song. It's death rattle. The last chance the tri-decade dog would have to be flogged California style. Sure, they have roads in Euroland. But 'Vettes — especially C3s – were built for the Golden State. Somehow, like a race horse about to be put out to stud, the Corvette knew. This was its victory lap.

[italics added]

[	Tags	|	cam-in-cam, cams, cars, engine, viper	]
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The biggest trick here is the 8.4-liter V10's variable cam-phasing device known as Cam-in-Cam. Variable valve timing is mechanically straightforward for DOHC applications, but an OHV engine with a single cam mounted within the block as found in the SRT-10 presents a challenge.

Here the hollow camshaft has fixed intake lobes on its outer circumference, while the exhaust lobes are attached to separate, movable inner shaft. A computer-controlled mechanism in the cam sprocket continuously adjusts the relative phasing between the two shafts. As a result, the valve overlap can be made radical enough for maximum power or conservative enough for a smooth and clean idle.

A surprising benefit is a 17 percent increase in fuel economy for this new V10. While the 2006 Viper was rated at 11 mpg city and 19 mpg highway (adjusted for 2008 equivalency), the 2008 Viper is good for 13 mpg city and 22 mpg highway. Plus a buyer of a 2008 Viper pockets a $1,700 savings in gas-guzzler tax.