While games like Angry Birds get all the attention and downloads on iTunes, for hands-on car enthusiasts, it's apps like Garage Buddy that make it worth having an iPhone — even if you have AT&T service. And the app is also available — sans data plan — for the iPod Touch and iPad.
For 99 cents, Garage Buddy provides a wealth of info that would normally fill volumes of grease-stained reference books and notepads.
Essentially a car-centric compendium of converters, calculators and tables, the app supplies the type of info needed when making mods to an automobile. It includes calculators for tire and belt size, carb flow and gearing, and charts for drill-bit and tap-drill size and wire and metal gauge.
Wondering what your horsepower loss will be when towing a trailer through a mountain pass? Garage Buddy can tell you via an HP Loss at Altitude calculator. It also converts standard measurements to metric and handles conversions for speed, distance, volume, weight, torque and pressure. A note section lets users enter info on their cars such as oil weight, tire pressure, parts numbers, spark-plug gap and more so it's always handy.
While similar info is available online, Garage Buddy puts it at your fingertips for when you're in the middle of wrenching on your ride or making that inevitable trip to the parts store. And it's probably worth less than a dollar just to shut down a know-it-all buddy the next time you're hanging with your fellow gearheads.
