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When you drive down the road, rarely would you see cars that do not have window tints. Auto tint shades are not just installed to block off the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun. Often, Auto Tint Shades are installed to use less energy and help let your vehicle remain cool. There are also people who tint their cars for health reasons. Some people who drive have very sensitive eyes and thus, tinting their cars is a way to block too much light from entering their eyes. On the other hand, there are also drivers who want to tint their cars to ensure that the interior of their vehicles will last longer. When exposed to sunlight, interior colors can easily fade and it weakens the material faster than regular shade.

However, when it comes to tinting your car, what would dictate the best car tint to install would be your personal preference and state laws. Your car’s window tint is often determined using a tint meter. The tint meter transmits a beam of light through a window and this beam of light measures the percentage of light that was able to pass through the other side. The allowable auto tint shade would often range from 80 percent to 5 percent. Obviously, the higher the percentage, the less tint your car has because that means that more light was able to pass through. If you buy a car with pre-installed auto tint shades, it would often have somewhere between 15 percent to 20 percent tint. Auto window films are available in neutral, gray, bronze, blue and mirror colors.

Here are some of the options that you might want to consider when getting your car tinted:

1. 50 Percent Auto Tint Shade. This particular tint is considered to be pretty light and as the percentage suggests, it allows 51% percent of the visible light to pass through the windows. Nine percent of visible light is reflected and ninety nine percent of UV rays is blocked.
2. 20 Percent Auto Tint Shade. At this percentage, this is categorized under medium tint. It transmits 24 percent of visible light and still blocks ninety nine percent of ultraviolet rays. 54 is the number for solar energy rejected and 11 for solar energy reflected.5 Percent Auto Tint Shade. Having the lowest percentage, this qualifies as a dark tint and is often called the limo tint.
3. It transmits 5 percent of visible light and reflects 7 percent. The percentage for blocked ultraviolet rays is the same at 99 percent as well as the 11 percent reflected on solar energy.

Anyone who has hydroplaned before can attest to how frightening of an experience it is. I have seen a lot of auto accidents that result from people losing control over their cars this way, and they can result in very serious injuries. Even people who have lived in areas where it rains a lot their entire lives are not immune to hydroplaning if they drive without caution. As the weather gets worse over the course of this winter, we need to be even more careful on the road. These accidents and the injuries that result can be significantly reduced if people knew how to avoid hydroplaning and what to do if it starts to happen anyways.

Reducing the risk: Hydroplaning occurs when the tires lose grip on the road and slide along the water that covers it. The car’s speed is one of the biggest factors involved in making this happen. Once a car reaches a certain speed, driving in the rain becomes basically the same thing as driving on ice. Depending on the amount of water on the road and the speed of the vehicle, the weight of the car will not be enough to maintain traction. While speeding is a common cause of hydroplaning, it is just as harmful to slam on the brakes. This will make the car very difficult to control, and may turn it sideways as it hydroplanes. To make sure you avoid having to break suddenly, always keep a safe distance between you and the car in front of you.

Another very important factor in hydroplaning is the tire quality of a car. Worn out tires cannot disperse water away from the vehicle. Before you drive in the rain, make sure your tires have good tread depth and pressure.

What to do if your vehicle hydroplanes: The risk of hydroplaning can be significantly reduced by having good tires and slowing down, but it still happens, so it is important to know how to handle it. It is not always easy to know if you are hydroplaning, but when it is serious, you will be able to easily recognize the lack of power you have over what your vehicle is doing. When this happens, you need to make sure not to slam on your breaks or turn your steering wheel. When you do either of these, the car will skid even worse and may turn sideways as it hydroplanes. Instead, hold the steering wheel tightly in a straight-forward direction and ease off the accelerator. If you feel your rear tires hydroplaning, you can turn the steering wheel into the skid to regain traction, but need to immediately turn the wheel back forward once you do. If your car has an anti-lock braking system, you can brake normally to slow down the car. For vehicles that do not have ABS, lightly pumping the brake is the best way to stop.

The Nurburgring track in Germany is one of the most famous race tracks in the world, and some of the most famous vehicles in existence have tried their best to set world-records on the course.

MSN Autos recently detailed some of the most legendary runs made at Nurburgring in an effort to prove which car could claim the title of fastest in the world.

The most recent record-holder is the Pagani Zonda R, which broke the Ferrari 599XX’s time by nearly 11 seconds in June of 2010. Clocking in at 6:47.5 seconds, the Zonda set a new standard for racing at Nurburgring.

Yet a Zonda isn’t what anyone would describe as “street-legal.” It’s a race car built for those purposes only. While the Radical SR8 can be lumped in the same category, the car can technically be used on the road in some European countries, depending on the laws. Normally, outfitting a car for street legality means that the time will suffer, but the SR8 came in at just half-a-second behind the Zonda at 6:48.

Still, no driver is gonna find an SR8 lying around at their local used car dealer. More common automakers use the track as well, and quite frequently. In the past 3 years, the title for the world’s fastest production sedan has bounced through numerous automakers. Cadillac’s CTS-V set the bar pretty high with its 7:59 time in 2008, but it was bested by the new Porsche Panamera Turbo’s 7:56 in 2009. Surprisingly, both were taken down by the Subaru Impreza WRX STI, which was able to edge the Porsche by just a second.

Nurburgring might be designed for high-horsepower machines, but that doesn’t mean it’s not used for a bit of fun as well. Mercedes-Benz’ Mini brand debuted their Mini E at the track, posting a pretty respectable time of 9:51 purely on electric power.

Finally, perhaps one of the funniest moments at Nurburgring came on the British television show “Top Gear.” Host Jeremy Clarkson was given a Jaguar S-Type to tool around with on the track, but was ridiculed after he posted a disappointing time of 10 minutes. That caused professional driver Sabine Schmitz to boast that she could beat his time – in a Ford Transit Van. Surprisingly, the model known more as a delivery truck was able to come pretty close, finishing just 8 seconds behind Clarkson’s S-Type time.

With the exception of the Transit, all of these vehicles will fetch a pretty penny at a dealership – if they’re available at all. Those who are looking for a performance vehicle, however, might be able to find a good deal on the used car market.