Even old-school auto enthusiasts can always learn new tricks. That’s important in the age of mobile computing, when there are so many killer car apps for your smart phone. There’s an app for all things automotive—whether you’re looking for swap meets to find NOS parts for a new project or getting a quick read of your car’s acceleration.
Beyond the eBay Motors app—which makes it easy for find parts for your ride or search through the hottest classic car listings, there are tons of other apps for car enthusiasts. Here are our favorites:
Dynolicious
ShowFinder
A guide to 90,000 automotive events, 4,700 cruise-ins and 300 museums throughout the United States. Users can search for swap meets, museums, auctions, racing, cruise nights, cruise ins and poker runs by current location or region, and includes photos of vehicles in the 300 museums in its database. The free app is available for IOS, Android and Windows phones.
Dynolicious Classic
The app uses the accelerometer built into the iPhone or iPod Touch to sense the motion of your vehicle. There’s no setup: just put your phone in the cupholder and go. Use the app to perform acceleration tests, quarter mile runs, determine horsepower at the wheel or engine and lateral Gs. The app does not require GPS or a network connection to work.
Garage Buddy
This app, available for both Apple and Droid, gives at-home mechanics an easy way to answer questions such as what size carburetor to run on a new engine for the correct flow, horsepower loss at altitude, re-gearing after changing wheel size, what size tires to put on a car if you add larger wheels so the speedometer stays accurate, the correct compressor belt size when adding air conditioning to a classic car and more. The app also converts metric to standard for speed, distance, torque, weight, volume and pressure.
Waze
The app available for Apple and Droid uses social media to enhance GPS, with a community of users that report traffic jams, accidents and photo radar so you can find the fastest route to your destination and avoid getting a ticket in the process.
Real Racing
Real Racing 3
Put the track experience in the palm of your hand with this app that includes time trials, head-to-head races, qualifications and cup races. Whether your dream car is a ‘Stang, GT-R, Bimmer, Viper, or McLaren, Real Racing lets you virtually take it more than 40 miles of track in over a dozen locations.
GasBuddy
Free app for iPhones enables you to quickly locate the cheapest gas in your area. The app tells users when the price was reported and the type of fuel referred to.
RepairPal
Free Android and iPhone app helps you to keep track of your car’s maintenance history, get roadside assistance on an as-needed basis, find reputable repair shops in your area and figure out what a given repair should cost.
