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Texan finds creative way to clear highway fast lane

Few things are as infuriating as someone driving slow in the fast lane. A Jeep driver from Texas found himself in just such a predicament near Fort Worth, and came up with a creative way to urge the offending lane-blocker to get a move on. Machine, a YouTuber and off-road enthusiast from the Lone Star State, posted some dashcam footage to his account back in March which showed him stuck behind a slow driver. He was attempting to pass a slow-moving bobtail Peterbilt tractor when he got hung up by a white Ford Econoline squatting in the passing lane. On his YouTube page, Machine stated that the van, which apparently belonged to a plumbing company, was traveling along between 60 and 70 miles per hour along a stretch of highway with a stated speed limit of 70 mph. Confronted with the slow-moving van blocking the left lane, and traffic in the right lane, Machine called the number on the back of the Econoline and politely asked him to get out of the way. In the Econoline, the passenger picked up and was momentarily confused as Machine asked him to ask his driver to move out of the lane and let traffic pass. The van sped up, passed a tractor-trailer, and got out of the way, much to the relief of the traffic behind him. According to CBS news, 38 states have laws on the books to punish slow drivers squatting in the passing lane. In five of those states, the fine is upwards of $1000, and 22 states classify it as a misdemeanor. Related Video: News Source: YouTube, CBS News Auto News Humor Weird Car News Ford Jeep Driving Safety Minivan/Van SUV Commercial Vehicles wrangler passing lane

Submit your questions for Autoblog Podcast #319 LIVE!

We record Autoblog Podcast #319 tonight, and you can drop us your questions and comments regarding the rest of the week's news via our Q&A module below. Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes if you haven't already done so, and if you want to take it all in live, tune in to our UStream (audio only) channel at 10:00 PM Eastern tonight.
Discussion Topics for Autoblog Podcast Episode #319
Jeep checks out the Grand Wagoneer at Wagonmaster

Jay Leno's Garage goes eco with Ricardo HyBoost

"Now before you turn away, this is not another boring hybrid car thing..." Despite the slightly defensive introduction from Jay, the latest episode of Jay Leno's Garage is actually pretty fascinating. The Ricardo HyBoost is a 2009 Ford Focus that has had a 1.1-liter engine swapped in for the stock 2.0-liter four. That might not get you performance enthusiasts out there fired up, until, that is, you hear that the 1.1L is also fed by both a turbocharger and an electrically driven supercharger for an instant-on "torque-fill" effect. Sounds about right, considering that Ricardo engineering is part of the genius behind the McLaren P1.
Perhaps most exciting of all, the Ricardo folks say that the package should run somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,100. A sort of performance-hybrid that makes sense for the frugal driver and the enthusiast one, then. There's a lot more to the HyBoost, all of which can be seen in the video below.