Hydraulics are only on certain cars, when you get into a car with Hydraulics it will tell you how to use them.  Basically you hold down L3 (the horn button/left analog stick) and then adjust tire height using the right analog stick.

The hidden packages are another way to get rewards in the game.  Every time you find ten of them, something new will appear at your safe house.

Hidden Packages (replenishing item in hideout):

• 10=Handgun
• 20=Uzi
• 30=Grenades
• 40=Shotgun
• 50=Armor
• 60=Molotovs
• 70=AK-47
• 80=Sniper Rifle
• 90=M16
• 100=Rocket launcher and $1,000,000

Vehicle Missions:

• Taxi:  Complete 100 taxi missions (not necessarily in a row) and a new borgnine taxi is created in Harwood. The fares you collect are yours to keep.
• Ambulance: If you save 50 pedestrians, health power-ups will be created at your hideouts. Save 100 pedestrians and Adrenaline is created at the hideouts. If you complete ambulance level 12 then infinite run is awarded enabling you to run/sprint without tiring.
• Fire Truck: You double the money earned with each consecutive fire extinguished in a single mission. Put out 30 fires in each area of town (covering all three districts) to get the flame-thrower at your hideout. This weapon will not be unlocked by collecting hidden packages.
• Police Car/Vigilante: Kill 40 criminals in each area of town in all three districts to create police bribe power-ups at the hideouts. Two are awarded for each district.

Here are a few from Insane2757:
"Kill Frenzys/Rampages can be passed more easily if you jump on a car that is not moving. This way, the people with baseball bats cannot hit you, and peds cannot punch you. (That is, until you jump off the car.)"

This is a definite spoiler from Stom4571.  "OK......after you beat the game (all the required missions), go to Phil Cassedy's army surplus.  When you get there, there should be a tank next to all the sand bags!  When I went there to buy a rocket launcher, it was there, and even after I (accidentally) rolled it over (don't ask).  I went back to the surplus store and it was there again......cool huh?"

Tobias tracked down another hidden URL, bringing the total to three.  So far none of the URLs has gone live so it will be interesting to see what they do with those.  Here are the URLs I've received so far:

www.dma-design.com/GTA3/bonus.htm
www.dma-design.com/GTA3/secret.htm
www.dma-design.com/GTA3/hidden.htm

tDemaxx & E-Razor have been trying to get the Dodo off the ground and apparently they've had some success.  "So this is how you do it, you start at full throttle and after a while it wants to go up, then u push the left analog stick a lil forward, just enough so you stay on the ground. At the end of the runway let the stick go a lil so you take off and fly over the water to Staunton!  When your in the middle of Staunton the plane will get a steady speed and you can let go the L3 stick and just fly high into the sky!"

Another Dodo flight tip came in from M Goddard.
"Since there have already been one or two messages telling you how to do it, and I'm sure you've probably figured it out by now, I'm going to tell you where to take off to get a better chance of staying in the air for an extended amount of time. The first good place to take off from is the hill near the blocked tunnel, next to the Dam in Shoreside Vale. Just aim your plane down the hill, and takeoff like you normally would, only you'll notice that since you are going downhill, you will gain speed much faster, and wont have to wait as long to take off. The second good spot is on the Callahan Bridge, going in either direction. If you are going to fly towards Staunton Island, You should start holding the stick up as soon as the game comes back after the "Welcome to Staunton Island" screen. You may want to start from a complete stop, or going slow, and make sure the road ahead of you is clear. Don't try to do this in the middle, for some reason the plane tends to jump around, like the wheels are getting stuck in the grate or something. If you're flying towards Portland, You wan to try to be in the air before the "Welcome to Portland" screen comes up. Start holding down the stick and accelerating as soon as you get over the incline when you are coming onto the bridge from the Staunton Island side. No matter which way you choose, you should be able to get some serious altitude this way."

And yet another flight tip from mark.  
"Pilots Listen Up!!

FLYING THE DODO- (easier to understand than the other tip posted)

1) Taxi dodo to end of runway facing Staunton Island
2) Accelerate down runway
3) Third of the way down runway make the nose of the aircraft tilt down towards runway- by pushing analogue stick away from you. Do this for 20 secs or less.
4) Then slowly release analogue sticks and dodo will rise upwards.
5) Always keep speed- NEVER pull up to go higher
6) To land, stall dodo by pulling up over runway or road,or other straight, flat area of land
7) follow above tips to takeoff and land anywhere in Liberty City
8) For level flight and turning always use small inputs to analog stick, no sharp turning!
9) Flying makes your arms ache!"

And lastly, a huge explanation with CaliGangstar's flight FAQ.

CaliGangster send in this rather long FAQ on flying the dodo.  Perhaps this might help any of you having trouble with it.
"Ok, I know that ALOT of people are having a hard time flying the Dodo. So... I decided to write a FAQ to help you all.

NOTE: I just learned how to fly, and trust me, THIS WILL TAKE PRACTICE!

OK, First off, go to the airport in ShoreSide Vale so you can get the Dodo. When you are there, drive all the way to the beginning of the runway, or just go down by the place where there is another Dodo, and a bunch of helicopters.(NOTE: I get my Dodo usually down in the hanger by the water, but you can get the one near the helicopters to save time, it doesn't matter.)

Now get on the runway, and make sure you are pointed straight, so when you drive you wont go off the runway,or the black part. Now hold the left analog stick very slightly up. This will cause your place to tilt forwards when you drive, and help pick up speed. The reason why you should barely move it up is because then the plane will take longer to lean all the way down, thus you pick up more speed.

Now while holding up on the left analog stick, start to drive.

Keep going until you see your plane sort of bouncing up and down, and you see sparks.

When you see your plane sort of bouncing and you see sparks, let go of the analog stick gently. This will send your plane shooting into the air, almost vertically, so when you get up, start pressing up, so your will make the plane level. Sort of point it a little downwards so the plane will kind of dive, thus you pick up speed, then you just level the plane by barely moving the analog stick downwards.

Keep pressing up on the analog stick every so often to pick up speed, the plane usually does the rest and makes you gain altitude, so really when you go down and get more speed, the air will sort of pick you up, and make you go higher, but you still need to push the analog stick down a little to help it
climb higher, and so that you can fly longer.

NOW YOUR FLYING!

Now turning...

Turning is very hard, and should only really be done when you know where you are flying. To turn, just barely tap the analog stick in the direction you want to turn, but kind of do it diagonally, like right-up, or left-up, NEVER push is left-down or right down, this will cause your plane to sort of stall. And can be very hard to get flying again, and you will most likely crash. Never make hard sharp turns, unless you want to crash...

Landing is pretty simple, just make sure your straight, find a long flat place, and press up on the analog stick, this will move you down, and just press Square and R1 when close to the ground, so that you will stop.

This FAQ has been written by Alex Wisniewski, and if you use it any other places, please give me the credit. Thank you.

IM GLAD I COULD HELP YOU ALL!"

"Kill Frenzies that have to deal with blowing up cars get the ped's attention, and they come after you.  Either Jump onto a car, or blow them away. If you chose to blow them away, the cops will find you, so you might want the other choice." -- Submitted by Insane2757

Kyle Anderson and stuntwill sent in the following glitch.  I'd make sure you have your game saved before you attempt this though.

"Go to the police station at Staunton Island.  Then, go down a set of stairs on the south side of the police station. Take a left down the tunnel where a police bribe is located. Go to the end of the tunnel and walk into the wall in front of you near the corner. You should go through the wall, then fall into oblivion, etc..."

porkcharsui2k noted something about the bug where you fall through the map, here is what he sent in.  

"This thing happens in several places. Note: after you fall through the '3d wireframe' you DO end up back at the place near your 'fall'. So it's pretty fail safe I believe."

Alaron writes, "In GTA3 It's possible to make the Tank fly like an aeroplane. Not a prolonged jump, flying around. Gaining altitude and making landings on highways on top of cars! I posted it on cheatplanet.com just a few minutes ago. I was trying out the cheats listed there, and accidentally managed to make the tank take off.  It's simple:
Turn on the "peds fistfight each other" cheat (I don't think it makes them fight but for some reason it makes the tank fly), which is:

[Right, R2, Circle, R1, L2, Down, L1, R1]

Then get a tank one way or another. (I used the tank cheat) Find a suitable runway, hopefully at night so there are no cars there to get slowed down by. Turn the tank turret so it faces backwards, and accelerate down the "runway" while simultaneously firing the cannon out behind you. When the tank hits a certain speed it just takes off, and you can control it's flight with the d-pad. Turn too far in either direction, however, and you spin out of control.  You have to keep firing to stay in the air. Be careful not to land on special buildings like the stadium, cos you go straight through them and end up in this parallel universe where the laws of PS2 graphics don't apply.  It looks cool and you eventually fall through the floor and onto the street, but the cops are usually chasing you after the takeoff (Cannon shells flying everywhere arouse attention) and you can get busted fast."

"I found a bug that lets you play the game in the jumpsuit.

I started the game up with no Memory Card in. Skipped the opening cinema, and the first mission (Give Me Liberty) began. Just as the opening scene for that mission was playing (8-Ball talking about his hands) I hit START, put the Memory Card back in, and Loaded up my old game. When it began, the Character was in the Jumpsuit.

If you Save your game, he will stay in the Jumpsuit forever. However, this code disables the Wear Any Outfit code, so you WILL be stuck in the Jumpsuit for the entire game. You'll need to decide whether or not you really like the color Orange before pulling off this trick."
-- Submitted by LoneWolf

Finn sent in this tip.  It's rather hard to understand but I think you'll get the general point, that you can relocate a boat to another body of water with the proper time and effort.  "Hi I found a tip for Staunton Island.  Go get a speedboat. Then drive to the waterfence [pipeline]. Now get some nice speed then drive the speedboat up to the road and get outta that speedboat. Take a car, crash the speedboat toward and crash it half timeout/in the water. Then push the speedboat out in the water jump in it and wait.  It can take some minutes but it works. Then you are over the waterfence [pipeline]."

Stephen Loyd sent in this tip (it's a glitch really) on how to get to ShoreSide Vale without completing any missions in Staunton Island.  "In Staunton Island, get on the road next to a ruined wall that overlooks a building site. Opposite this wall is a car park with a low wall around it. Drive up the embankment as though you are about to jump the wall (if heading downhill then the precise spot is just before you get to a lamp post inside the car park) and you can drop through the wall into "null space". You drop out again into the tunnel leading to Shoreside Vale - on the Shoreside Vale side of the blockage!"

Darq sent in another possible method.  "For those without memory card and the for the lazy bastards too. You can get to Shoreside Vale from Staunton Island pretty easily. Thing you have to do: go and grab speeder near Asuka's place. Turn to north and start follow Stauntons coast until you find sea route blocked. Now you need to back off to get full speed and crush your boat in land few meters before the concrete wall next to the sea block. After few tries you should fly over the land to other side of the block. Now you just drive west until you reach Shoreside Vale and find a good spot to leave the boat. Welcome to Shoreside Vale.

Albert sent in an observation he made about the cars parked around Kenji's Casino.
"Well I noticed that, in Kenji's Casino, the parking lot down below, has cars parked in it. I noticed that when I travel from around noon, to about 9 at night, the car doors are locked to the Sentinel and the cobra look alike and the Yakuza car. I went back like at 2 in the morning and the doors where unlocked however, the alarm goes off."

PJA116 sent in three useful tips on Securicars and getting another boat.
"1- How to get a Securicar easy. When you get that mission from Donald Love to escort the securicar don't worry about it, just wander the streets near Donald's apartment, when I did it I saw 3 of them, when you get 1 put it in your garage than just fail the mission (suicide, arrests, whatever) and go save.

2-Get a new boat. When you get the mission to kill Ray's partner don't shoot him, just chase him until he throws all the buckets off.  He'll drive his boat on the beach, just get out on the beach and kill him, then get in his boat and reverse for a while till your in the water, its called the missing something."

Kat Rosen and Tom Taylor send in this useful tip on getting your safehouse stash to respawn.  "If you walk all the way in and then all the way out of your hideout's car garage, (so that the camera angle is forced to change...), any and all 'stuff' you've accumulated through missions/packages in the hideout will respawn. VERY convenient when trying to get that pesky 5 star wanted level down and you have 2 bribes waiting for you at home. (If you make it home...)"

Tom Taylor sent in a correction on a tip he sent in previously.  
"A week or more back I told you about the trick to respawn whatever goodies you had at your hideout?  Well, upon further review, we've found that running into and out of the car garage does NOT seem to want to work at your hide out in Shoreside Vale.  However, at all your hide outs, you can make everything respawn by stepping into the save area and hitting Cancel.  Cheap, but it gets the job done (and interrupts game play a little...)."

Insane2757 sent in a tip on doing drive-bys while riding on top of cars. "Want to do drive-bys with a gun, other than the Uzi?  Well, try this. Jump onto some car (I like Bobcats, but that's just me), and make sure you don't start to slide off. Stand on his roof, trunk, or spare tire.  Then he will start to drive, allowing you "to blast any mutha that gets in the way". (It's from the GTA song, listen to Lips 106) Have fun!

If you want to go faster, do this: shoot the car once with the M16 (or something so it doesn't do too much damage!). The car SHOULD start driving really fast! But it will drive erratically, so you may fall off/get killed!"

Peril sent in the following tip on how you can get infinite ammo.  "Infinite ammo is gained for a gun if you get the ammo over 9999. For example, I got an M16 19 times, and realized the ammo read 9999 - 60. I saved the game, then went to nick a car. I shot some passersby, and realized the ammo didn't decrease from 9999! I am now trying to get this with the AK47 to verify that it works. The ammo is lost if you are killed, and you have to again get 9999 ammo for it to work. Could somebody test this to check it isn't just a fluke."

Rhino and Troy wrote in about the infinite ammo trick and it doesn't appear to work as advertised.  Apparently the ammo readout only goes up to 9999, even it you have more ammo that that.  So, if you have 10000 ammo, the readout will read 9999.  After you get back down to 9999 the ammo count will begin to read correctly again.

Stom4571 found a way to start your own race with some unwilling opponents.  "OK first try to get a fast car like a Banshee or Cheetah, then goto Staunton Island where all of the fast cars like the Banshee (duh). Go find one of those fast cars driving and get on the side of him (still in your car).  All ya gotta do now is do a driveby shooting at him, but only hit him once or twice.  If your lucky, he'll take off and now you can race him!! You might have already known that, but it's fun to see how long you can keep up with them."

PJ also sent in his own version of this tip by doing it in the tunnel.
"It work's the same as in the city. I saw a tip about your own created street race. Well this is the same just in the tunnel. Do a drive by in a tunnel and stick behind the piss in his pants scarred driver you just shot at. It doesn't take them to long to get in a horrible accident in the tunnel and blow themselves up and the traffic jam that builds up :)).  For more fun wait for a van or something else biggy. They swerve more. Just be sure not to get in any accidents yourself."

Caustic found an interesting tip on getting a bulletproof Cheetah that was originally posted by Evil_Stallion.

"And when I say "always", I mean it's EXACTLY like the BP Patriot and doesn't lose its bullet resistance when you put it in the garage and save.

It all happened last night when I was messing around with the Turismo race. I decided it would be fun to try and beat it using the Barracks OL. So I came screaming down the street and slaughtered one of the cars from behind to start the race. It slid through the first checkpoint on its roof and came to a stop against the wall at the end of the street. Now this is where I became interested in the car. It just sat there on its roof for a whole minute and never caught fire. So I got out of the Barracks OL and put 3 shotgun blasts into it. When it didn't blow up, I pulled out the flamethrower and tried roasting it, to no avail. So I finally decided to run a little ways up the street and put a rocket in it, but when I turned around to take aim it had disappeared and I caught a glimpse of it speeding away down the street.

At this point I had determined something was up and decided to reload and try the mission again. Started the race the same way as before, but this time I didn't flip the car I hit. But, I did succeed in trapping it with the Barracks OL. I jumped out, being sure never to lose sight of the Cheetah, and tried to open the door and jack it. THE DOORS WERE LOCKED! So I turned and jumped in the Barracks OL , but since the car left my field of vision when I turned, the computer had reset it on the road and it sped off.

I finally did it right on my third attempt, this is what you must do:

Flip one of the Cheetahs and stand near it, (never letting it leave your sight) until you fail the mission when time runs out. When you fail, the driver will exit the vehicle and run off. Don't try to jack it because the doors will still be locked. Take your Barracks OL and push it back to your hideout. (The best route is to go opposite the starting direction of the race and down the street and through the alleyway to the Red Light District with the Police Bribe in it.) I've found it car is easier to push and control when it's on its roof. So try to keep it on its roof for the duration of the trip. Once you get it to the hideout, get it on its wheels and shove it in the garage and save your game!

Congratulations!

Now take your new bullet-proof Cheetah out of the garage and put shotgun rounds into it a point blank to your heart's content, or better yet take it to Saint Mark's and kick some Mafia ass."

"After beating the first mission, the dune buggy that Joey was working on in his garage BF Injection), is created at Misty's Flat, by the El Burro Phone. You can pick it up only at a certain time period, but I only know that a little after 9 you should find it.  It's parked right in front of the doors." -- Submitted by Insane2757

illspirit did some thinking and came across some interesting stuff that links cinematic works of David Lynch to GTA3.  I'm not really sure if this qualifies as an Easter Egg, but any David Lynch fans should find it interesting:

"OK, I think I figured it out.  All right, Donald Love is played by Kyle Maclachan, who also starred as agent Dale Cooper in the David Lynch movie and TV series Twin Peaks.  Agent Dale cooper disappears in the end of Twin Peaks.  In another movie by David Lynch called Mullholland Drive, there is a mysterious box that causes a character to disappear (Donald Love's package maybe?).  This box ends up with a really mysterious evil looking homeless man, who in way is similar to the Darkel character.  Now if you've seen Twin Peaks and Mullholland Drive, you might notice that it appears the two stories are interrelated, like how the backwards talking midget from Twin Peaks is in Mullholland Drive with a normal sized body, yet both times is always in an odd room surrounded by red curtains.

I know it sounds far-fetched, but maybe its not.  I mean, the game is full of little references, parodies, and tributes to other films.  For instance, the whole Flashback FM/Scarface thing.  This might just be another one of those.  But wait a minute, if it is, then that actually makes the whole thing even more confusing because it means you have to understand what exactly was going on in the David Lynch stories, and I don't think ANYBODY really understands those.  Nevermind.  My brain hurts now!"

Kirk sent in this observation as a follow-up to illspirit's David Lynch theory.  Kirk's email mainly compares Scarface and GTA3.  This contains spoilers, so please don't read it if you haven't finished the game yet.

"I found that little piece in the news that illspirit wrote about David Lynch interesting... Now when I read that I was totally NOT surprised because GTA3 takes so many different characteristics from a multitude of movies and even a TV show. Now it's no surprise that Tony Cipriani is modeled after Tony Soprano. He has personal problems with his mom (Listen to the caller 'Tony' on ChatterBox) and he pretty much acts like him. The whole Mafia is pretty much a combination of The Sopranos and The Godfather. And don't forget how big of a role Scarface plays in this movie. It's a coincidence that Salvatore has a girlfriend that ends up falling for your GTA3 character? No. If you've ever seen Scarface you will know what I'm talking about. Maria is Elvira, and you are pretty much Tony Montana. Also, this is interesting... you know the Bus? Not the Coach, the bus. Well, when was the last time you saw a Bus like that on modern roads? Well, if you watch Scarface, in the scene where Tony and Manny are on the way to Freedom Town in a prison-like bus, it looks EXACTLY like the Bus you see on the roads in GTA3. Coincidence? I don't think so. Just goes to show how cool this game really is, also how cool Rockstar [and DMA] is."

RiceVoid sent in the following report:
"Firstly, I've not used any cheats at all in the game yet. Not once. But when I first tried the Dice mission I noticed that I needed WAY more time to even be able to FIND that many Purple Nines. My mission time was over and I still need like 10 more kills to complete it. Then as I tried and tried to complete this damn mission other things would stop me from succeeding...namely being abused by the gangs' Rumpo vans and the occasional Police car. All this added up to utter aggravation. I sat down and really tried to think of a way to complete it. This is what I came up with. I got in a Rhino. The tank. I drove it to the phone, started the mission and just drove around that one block (around the two apartment buildings). With the tank, I no longer needed to worry about any vehicles either harassing me or interfering with my line-of-sight for my drive-bys. And the Rhino also drives at an almost perfect speed for drive-bys, not too fast so you don't need to modulate your speed as much as with other cars. I got lucky and completed the mission my first time with the Rhino. Using the tank obviously won't make more Purple Nines appear, but I think that the advantages it affords can make up for their dismal numbers. But, as additional help, I did notice that once in a while there is a rather large gathering of gang members (sometime red, sometimes purple, sometimes both) that hang out directly in front of the sign to the right of the dirt path (the one that leads to the Patriot for "Gripped"). So, I always took my time as I drove by there, making sure to really fire off some good shots.

Also, I may have found another compelling reason to use the tank. I don't know that this works for a fact, but since the Rhino's cannon fires as well as your Uzi during drive-bys than any Purple Nine death resulting from the explosion from the tank shell while holding R2 or L2 also counts towards your ultimate kill count. I am not 100% sure about this, and if someone could test it and attest to it that would be good.

Hope this helps."

Mark Pagliaro sent in his thoughts on what might cause the problem:
"First Time I played I didn't cheat and nines were there but I deleted my game save by mistake.

The second time I played I got all 100 hidden packages before I did the D-ice missions and the 9's were gone

The 3rd time I played I only got Portland's hidden packages a and I didn't cheat (any type of cheating) and the 9's were still gone

Now since the game is on a DVD it can not auto store or delete any memory so the glitch itself is on the memcard

If the glitch occurs Delete GTA 3 data from memcard (memcard manager) not during gameplay and do not use ANY cheats until Dice missions are done.- This worked for me but as you can see I had to start over 4 times just trying to get 100 % which is a lost cause now."

Lastly, Albert sent in some tips on finding the Nines:
"I played the DICE mission today called, "Uzi Money" which someone said that the Purple Nines refused to appear.  I never encountered this problem.  I spotted all of them and finished the mission in no time.  However if you do not spot them, try driving straight a little bit then make a U-Turn and they should appear.  Also don't drive anywhere else, stay in Witchita Gardens.  Better yet, keep driving back and forth on the street where you receive your mission."

"To pick up more than one hooker, drive up next to one in any car other than a government or taxi vehicle. After she gets in, drive up to another hooker and get out of the car and back in it really quickly. This should get both hookers "talking" to you (by standing beside your vehicle and doing the exhausted animation). They should both get in your car at the same time. You can get up to 3 hookers. What purpose this serves? None, but sometimes you need more than one ho to make you feel all right." -- Submitted by stuntwill

"Here are two tips that depend on the destroy all vehicles code (L2,R2,L1,R1,L2,R2,Triangle,Square,Circle,Triangle,L2,L1)

"Turisimo"
Don't Feel like racing? Pull up to the line, when the race starts get out of the vehicle, head over to the sidewalk and enter the code. Then find the first vehicle you come to and start going through the checkpoints. Shortly into your little drive you'll come to 3 burnt out husks with arrows over them.. Poor bastards..

"Evidence Dash"
Talk about one code making a mission a whole lot easier...Type in the code...Mission passed..Simple huh?

One last note...ever look at the company name on the Securicar?..."Gruppe Sechs"...pronounce it out...and you get (Group Sex)"
--Submitted by LONESTARxp

M Goddard sent me this interesting email explaining the "Free Kevin" call on Chatterbox:

"This has to do with the whole "Free Kevin!" call on Chatterbox. Some of you, but probably not all of you, already know about Kevin Mitnick and the whole Free Kevin thing that was going on up until a year or two ago (probably while GTA3 was in development), but for those of you who don't, Kevin Mitnick was the first Hacker/Phreak to make it on the FBI's Most Wanted list. He was caught once, released, then was on the run. After he was captured, he was placed in prison for years without a trial. Anyway, if you want to read about all that, go check www.kevinmitnick.com or something like that. Also, there is a sign at the exit of the tunnel near Francis Int. Airport for a computer company called "The Big BEIGE Box.", a beige box is a tool used by phreaks to clip onto the ring and tip terminals of other people's phone lines."

Ok, so that was a bad joke.
"This tip is for all you out there who are having trouble surviving the pick up the packages in the bay mission. You know the one from Donald Love. First you drive to Portland to pick up the speed boat. Get all the packages (and have 5 stars) but don't go back to the Portland dock, instead go to the Staunton dock (where you get the first Staunton Island missions from the Yakuza chicka). Get into any car parked there and drive up the road into the city. About half way up that road on the right you have the multiple story parking garage. If you take the hard right between the garage and the other building you get to the paint shop :)) and gone are the 5 stars and all the pig's after your ass. We had so much trouble getting it done any other way, and forget driving around picking up star's as you go. We tried with a touring bus and that failed as well." -- Submitted by PJ

"I was just playing GTA3 and I figured something out, something not too big but I think its pretty cool.  Ok, the gas station on Portland Island, in St.Marks near the place where you get the Banshee.  The pumps will explode if u shoot em.  I tried ramming with a car but that doesn't work so just shoot the pumps and they explode.  I was using the AK47 and the M16 so far to blow em up.  I tried with the Uzi, the pistol, and even the shotgun but it seems that only the rifles do the trick" -- Submitted by Jandar

One addendum I'd like to make to Jandar's observation is this.  When you are running from well armed rival gangs, do not take cover near the gas pumps :).  I ran through that station more than once trying to get away from Mafia only to end up dying in a massive explosion.