Tuesday, August 2, 2016

the new Fiat Spyder is a Mazda.


http://www.fiatusa.com/en/spider/

the little placard on the driver’s side door reads, “MFD. BY MAZDA MOTOR CORPORATION FOR FCA ITALY S.P.A.” and, right below all the recommended tire pressures, “MADE IN JAPAN.”

http://autoweek.com/article/car-reviews/2017-fiat-124-spider-first-drive-more-miata-italian-suit

If you own a vintage auto built between 1919 and 1942 near San Francisco, you could take part in the Gatsby Summer Afternoon by the Art Deco Society of California at an extravaganza of a picnic on the secluded grounds of the Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate, where everyone dresses in period style.

it missed being raced and famous, only because it had the wrong brake calipers. If they'd built it to the ordered specs, it would have been the " Black Beast of Foggy Bottom " instead, it sat at the dealership for a couple years, and then it was bought and stored for 4 decades without ever being raced in anger


It was built to fulfill an original order from Mrs Henry Clark Boden IV, a member of the immensely wealthy du Pont family. She enjoyed many sports as an enthusiastic sponsor and while she ran race horses on the American turf she also enjoyed fast cars.

She founded her Kelso motor racing team in 1957, running an ex-Bill Lloyd Maserati 300S, while her Kelso Autodynamics company held a Jaguar agency in addition to becoming one of the Lister company's four US distributors in 1958-59.

The office manager of Lister's other East Coast distributorship recalled how in 1958, Mrs Boden came to collect her brand-new Lister-Chevrolet, rush ordered from England, however she took one look at the brand-new car – commented that it had cast-iron brake calipers instead of the lightweight alloy type that she had specified, and when she was 'soft-soaped' by a rather patronizing salesman there she threw a fit and tore up her contract, scattering it like confetti, telling the salesman to keep 'his' car and stormed off.

She promptly called Carroll Shelby found that he had a Lister-Chevrolet immediately available, and so it was that car – chassis serial 'BHL 114' – which subsequently became famous as her 'The Black Beast of Foggy Bottom' as was inscribed in discreet gold letters on the car's ebony flanks.

This sequence of events left Auto Engineering with this racecar as unsold stock. Having lost their demanding original customer to Shelby-Hall in Texas, there was little they could do with the car and it remained unsold into 1960, some of the time "The mechanics found it a handy place to sit in and eat their lunches". Nothing ages so rapidly as last year's obsolescent racing car...

However, four years later 27-year-old Stan Hallinan agreed to purchase 'BHL 115' for $5,000, the date - January 18th, 1962. He subsequently used the car very sparingly, only for airport events, and occasionally – as Mr Hallinan would lightheartedly recall – for some diverting, mainly nocturnal, motoring on the public roads of New England.

Dana Freeman, the manager stuck for 4 years with the race car, recalls that he sourced a 283 cubic-inch Chevrolet V8 engine for it from the Momo Corporation – Alfred Momo being racing manager and technical director of the renowned Briggs Cunningham Racing Team - a spare power unit prepared for the Le Mans 24-Hour race in 1960.

When Hallinan was encountered near-disaster one winter when he found that frost had split this original engine's block, he reacted by having the engine rebuilt with its original Chevrolet Engineering internals being re-assembled into a new replacement block. The original block though disassembled, was retained and accompanies the car today. Thereafter this remarkable 'time machine' motor car slumbered on...being retained in almost completely original condition – even down to its original-equipment Dunlop Racing front tires, handbrake, horn, spare tire, top frame, plexi side windows, mufflers, and the original Lucas "Le Mans 24" headlamp lenses still in their place.

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/20994/lot/163/

the North American continent has the Baja 1000, and other desert races.... and Australia, I just learned, has the Gascoyne Dash. Australia, the country that has everything deadly to humans except volcanoes.


The most remote desert race on the planet.  A 3 day race near Carnarvon featuring UTVs, motocycles, and car races, on a course that goes through an ancient checkpoint in Winnemia, crosses the Gascoyne River, returns to the Gascoyne Junction, and then heads back to the finish line through over 100km of uninterrupted river section.



http://utvoz.com.au/events/22nd-oct-25th-oct-2015-kickstarters-dash-gascoyne-wa/
https://www.redbulletin.com/int/en/lifestyle/the-gascoyne-dash-two-days-of-hell-for-leather-racing-in-australia

Four cars stored for 40 years, by one guy... and it's a mystery why anyone would just ignore them for 40 years, when instead they could drive and enjoy them. A Ferrari, a Cobra, a Cortina, and a Lister Chevy remained in hibernation until their owner died


1962 260 Shelby AC Cobra 260 cu in (CSX 2034) only has 4700 miles on it.


1951 Ferrari 212 Barchetta



1958 Lister Chevrolet

http://www.carbuildindex.com/17802/new-feature-segment-inspiring-car-collections/#more-17802

This is a periscope that was fitted to the early Lamborghini Countach models for increased rear viability. After '77 they removed it.

having fun, instead of stressing about racing points won ... how the greats relaxed

a photo of the Glickenhaus collection

Allison engines...

There was a time when Allisons were virtually worthless. In the 1960s McBride Scrap Metal in Long Beach, California, had over 600 engines. Japanese metal brokers would purchase them, load them onto boats, and while heading back to Japan would tear them apart for their silver bearings. During the war copper and brass was needed for artillery shell casings, so things like wiring and bearings were made from silver. Once the silver had been scavenged the scrappers would toss the rest overboard.

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/cream-puff-saga-craziest-1960s-marathon-boat-history/

Monday, August 1, 2016

Holey moley - for a mower it's a monster


Found on https://www.facebook.com/StraightOutTheTrailerParkCrazee/

I've seen VW vans and bugs used for a lot of things, but I don't think I've ever seen them used as a lawnmower before

Vintage Pedal Vespa Scooter with Training Wheels for Kids

the Polar Bear commercial for Nissan Leaf, saying thanks for saving the planet by using an electric car. (just forget most electricity is generated by coal power plants)

the Michigan Firehouse Museum, in a restored firehouse in Ypsilanti’s historic Depot Town


Their Fire Truck Muster will be Saturday, AUGUST 20TH, 2016 from 10 to 3 pm.



With exhibits of antique fire trucks and early fire rigs, multiple displays of historic artifacts including tools, equipment, memorabilia and the largest collection of fire truck bells in the country.

http://www.michiganfirehousemuseum.org/
https://www.facebook.com/Michigan-Firehouse-Museum-100867623291274/

500 catagories of interest in auto websites

How to make a museum... ask for volunteers, and then trade display space for their cars in exchange for them helping at the museum as docents and mechanics

Displayed as found in a barn, where it was hibernating for 57 years, a Chevy Imperial Landau

airplane collector Terry Brandt originally wanted volunteers to help with his aircraft museum only, but when he went looking for nearby volunteers, most of them said, “We aren’t airplane guys – we are car guys.” So cars were added and that part of the collection grows yearly.

The car collection is split between those owned by the museum – most donated – and those on loan. To have a car displayed requires the loaner to become a volunteer – one of over a hundred who do everything from mechanical maintenance to acting as knowledgeable docents for visitors.

Brandt learned how to fly at about age 12,  as his parents ran the airport in Marysville, California, and  a flight school there. Terry's father also built between 200 and 300 crop dusters, and Terry was particularly fond of soaring in gliders and started buying old aircraft as a young man at age 19, which continued into the ’80s. One of his early buys was a 1917 Curtis JN-14 “Jenny” which will be one hundred years old and will be flown in celebration during a fly-in in September 2017.

Over the years, Brandt kept buying old aircraft – often simply being told to haul away the “barn finds” (mostly behind barns and not inside) from owners who had let them go. He never paid a lot for them, and just rebuilt them with some skilled volunteer help.

He initially financed the museum on his own. The Western Antique Aeroplane and Automobile Museum (WAAAM) in Hood River, Oregon gets no public money and relies mostly on admission fees and small donations to fund operations.

It has recently received a private donation of $1.5 million from Minnesota benefactor Jerry Wenger, which went to fund the new construction. Wenger had previously donated his private collection of WACO aircraft, built by a company in Troy, Ohio, that folded in 1947 after the expected postwar explosion in civilian aircraft sales never materialized.

a refitted Navy Piper J-5, used as a shipboard air ambulance in WW2. They were flown from the short decks of US navy ships to ferry sailors with medical problems to the larger aircraft carriers. Only 100 were built; few have survived intact.

https://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2016/08/01/another-reason-to-visit-oregon-the-western-antique-aeroplane-automobile-museum/

https://www.facebook.com/WAAAMuseum
http://www.waaamuseum.org/

believed to be the oldest photograph of an American locomotive.


The John Stevens, and it's enormous chimney, designed to suppress sparks on the combustible grasslands of America. The two sideways projections at the bottom are for the removal of cinders.

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/LOCOLOCO/chimney/chimney.htm

L'Aigle (The Eagle) was designed with the largest wheels ever fitted to a French locomotive at 9ft 4in. It was built in Batignolles by Gouin et Cie in 1855 and in that year appeared at the International Exhibition in Paris.

The Pearson 9-Foot single of 1853

a Fink System locomotive, No 502 "Gerliste"

1877 Fowler Steeplechaser with 12 foot high wheels


The 12-foot wheels were intended to reduce the ground pressure and give better propulsion in soft soil.

http://www.douglas-self.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/traction/traction.htm

The Underdog Maverick progresses from as found to SEMA show ready, and this episode features the kids working on it at Alhambra High School in LA


“Project Underdog" - the name of the car and the online series chronicling this custom build focuses on three Alhambra High School students — Alexis Hernandez, Tony Chen and Christian Quiroz — who were chosen through SEMA’s automotive scholarship program to assist in the build and learn about the different aspects of restoring and modifying a car.

They’re all part of a larger effort to inspire more people to pursue a career in the automotive industry.

And as much as the project is about exposing today’s youth to the inner-workings of the car world, it’s also about motivating those with resources to reach out to the community and be mentors.







With the support of Pennzoil, Rocket Bunny, GReddy, and Nitto - the plan is to take the Maverick through a frame-up restoration and then drop in a 2.3-liter Ford EcoBoost motor paired with a custom turbocharger system an update to the exterior looks, plus rims and tires.

Once the car is completed, it will be auctioned to benefit the SEMA Memorial Scholarship Foundation, which is “dedicated to fostering the next generation of automotive aftermarket industry leaders and innovators.”

‘Project Underdog’ puts the spotlight on fostering automotive education for today’s youth, one of the many core values that Shell, shares with Sung Kang and SEMA,” said Don Moser, Shell Lubricants marketing director. “These students will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hone their passion for cars and take on the task of rebuilding one of the greatest underdogs in automotive history, the Ford Maverick.”

http://www.6speedonline.com/articles/sung-kang-hopes-inspire-youth-project-underdog/
http://www.aftermarketnews.com/
https://www.facebook.com/projectudog/photos/a.253068771725388.1073741828.252042478494684/275457586153173/?type=3&theater

and there is more coverage on Sung Kang's Facebook page, like the kids taking the Maverick to get the big passenger side dent out, etc. The things that do not get the you tube video time, but are essential to the car getting repaired and in shape. https://www.facebook.com/SungKangOfficial/

Sunday, July 31, 2016

fighter jet size comparison

COE wrecker

For riders with iron butts, or shock absorber spines

new cars are so low maintenance it's astonishing.. no zircs to grease, no oil needed in the filter, or the horn. Yeah, horns used to need oil! (see the 2000 mile section)


When people complain about how expensive their car is to maintain, just remind them of this 1930's Dodge maintenance schedule wherein you had to replace engine oil every 1,000 miles, transmission and rear axle fluid every 5,000 miles and let's not forget the need to lubricant your horn!

Found on https://www.facebook.com/serviceadvisormemes/?fref=nf

getting back in the race

just right in several ways

Land Rover, out where the adventures happen