Saturday, September 26, 2015

it's a pleasure to learn a favorite actor/director was a gearhead with a hot rod

I love finding a new thing for the 1st time, here is a golf cart tow truck



golf carts are the primary transportation on Catalina Island, and this is the best way to get them to repair shops

Found on https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005910336457&fref=nf

Rule #34, Italian biking parts

1967 Shelby Toyota 2000


Following his Riverside victory in 1966, Toyota offered Pete Brock the opportunity to race their recently announced 2000GT in SCCA racing. In the meantime, however, Carroll Shelby, who had recently lost his contract with Ford on the GT-40 work, opened a Toyota dealership in El Segundo. At the eleventh hour, the Toyota deal was pulled from Brock, and Shelby was handed the contract.

In 1968, the Shelby American-prepared Toyota 2000 GT was raced in selected SCCA National races. The Toyota 2000 program found tough competition from Porsche and Triumph

In that year, Carroll Shelby backed a two-driver 2000 GT team in the SCCA's C Production class, and racked up several wins and podium finishes in its single season as a serious competition effort. At the end of that season, Toyota pulled the plug on the program. Between 1966 and 1968, 337 2000 GTs were built; reports indicate that between 50 and 65 of these were imported to the U.S.

http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/all-cobra-talk/40043-shelby-toyota.html

Friday, September 25, 2015

the most original 1929 Duesenberg Model J Convertible Coupe, has only been owned by women, 4 to be exact, and only has 33,000 miles on it


Past winner of the Meadow Brook Concours for Best Original Car, the J-192, serial number 2212



And it's coming to auction next month, http://www.morphyauctions.com/auctions/view/10172015-10172015-Automobile-DenverPA

and the online flip book catalog is fantastic! http://www.flipdocs.com/showbook.aspx?ID=10012366_204525

1934 Woody, original, and gorgeous wood, coming to auction

What to do when you retire? Fishing? Bird spotting? Or make cool stuff?


Chuck Hoggarth retired from 46 years at Ford, and now makes these cool wood models of construction equipment. These photos are from 2006








Chuck Hoggarth has so far handcrafted eleven large wooden models of construction equipment. Each is made from sugar pine wood that is free from knots. A single model can take up to eight or nine months to build. The largest are a 12' long by 3' high Kenworth truck and trailer and a Hummer that is 4' high by 4' wide and 7' long.

He has also built two large excavators, a high track dozer, a mining truck, an articulated tractor, an end-loader, a bulldozer, a scraper and is now working on a fishing trolling boat that will eventually be displayed floating in his swimming pool.


From http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Hoggarth.htm  via  http://wwideas.com/

Mitchell had to go down in the history books of Knock High School with an epic senior prank. Nailed it




Start at 1:30 and done at 2:00. Nothing worth seeing after that, he just takes the woods and fields to get home and stay off the streets, out of sight

Found on http://speedsociety.com/kid-rides-dirt-bike-through-high-school-for-senior-prank/?gmg

Cummins co-founder drove this Auburn from New York to San Francisco in 1935 on $7.62 worth of diesel fuel.


That is just amazing. Keeping in mind that at the time a meal cost a quarter, at most maybe 35 cents... he still got across country on less than a weeks ordinary wages if my guess is right

Found on https://www.facebook.com/auburncordduesenberg?fref=photo

A request went out for a Hemi Cuda

Casey and his wife, Shannon

Casey’s buddy, Mike, posted a special request on a Hemi Cuda owners’ club website.

Mike asked if anyone would be willing to bring their car to Bethesda and surprise Casey and take him for a ride.

Redline Restorations jumped to answer, because the "felt it was the very least we could do for a tenacious, joyful young man who sacrificed so much for the love of his country."

Our gracious client and the Cuda’s owner, Mike, readily obliged and in fact insisted on taking the journey with us to surprise Casey. We would like to personally thank Casey Jones and his friend Mike Elliot for their service and sacrifice, and for the moving reminder that life’s hardships are all relative.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.563626730365229.1073741845.365150146879556&type=3

To have a Hemi Cuda... must be nice. To have a racer, a real track monster from the early 70s... that must be cool





Four 1970 Hemi 'Cudas were also successfully raced by Chrysler France, from 1970 until 1973.[15] The works team director Henrí Chemin piloted the first car, and then sold it on to friend and privateer J. F. Mas who went on to race it for another two years. This Hemi 'Cuda won four French Group 1 class championships, three on track and one in hill-climbing

This one belongs to Mike Elliot and resides at Redline Restorations


and they even had a Tarantino like film made with it... ha!



https://www.facebook.com/redlineresto  and   http://redlinerestorations.net/

on off

just another day in the life of a race car... mangled body parts getting replaced

Jeremy Cliff, photographer





see what I did there, red, blue, red blue... Ha! yeah, I amuse myself sometimes with stupid stuff like that

https://www.facebook.com/jeremycliff  and  http://jeremycliff.com/

1930s Indian Motorcycle Traffic Road Line Painting Machine

still out there, even has the side scoops!

56 Chevy truck infographic

another "do it yourself" method to get unstuck

Thursday, September 24, 2015

The story behind the cover, how Gil Ayala got on the cover by hard work, instead of constantly working to get on the cover like, well, rhymes with Barris


One of the best and perhaps most beautiful Ayala covers was taken by Felix Zelenka for the October 1951 issue of Motor Trend. The original photo must have been taken quite some time before it ended up being used for the cover. Odd is that Al Ayala can be seen working on the unfinished 1940 Mercury on this cover photo from October 1951, while the finished car was already on the cover of the November 1950 issue of Motor Trend!


In Pat Ganahl’s Ayala articles in TRJ he showed that Felix originally shot a color transparency of this Ayala shop scene. But it was decided that the cars needed a bit more color and light for the magazine cover, so a colorized version was made by Don Fell. In this colorized version some of the cars received different colors than original so that they would look better, more attractive on the cover of the magazine.


This November 1950 Motor Trend cover with the Gil Ayala 1940 Mercury on the cover is a rather rare magazine. As can be seen on the cover, on the top right it reads “Edition C”. As far as I have found out, the Mercury was used on the cover of the magazine distributed to California only. The Rest of the US/World had a cover with a Henry J on it, as can be seen in the inset. The cover and the description about the cover photo on page 5 is the only thing different on the inside of these magazines. So if you ever come across one with Gil’s Mercury on it you better get it.


Here is another Gil Ayala cover, it's a damn good photo composition

Found on http://www.customcarchronicle.com/custom-cars/ayala-covers/

Vehicle safety in the USA

As a percentage of the U.S. population, traffic fatalities were more than twice as high in the 1960s than today. In raw numbers, 1972 was the deadliest year with more than 54,000 fatalities, compared with fewer than 34,000 deaths in 2012, despite having a much larger population base in 2012. And measured in deaths per million vehicle miles traveled (VMT), the current rate of 1.1 is significantly reduced from the 7.2 rate of 1950 – and a fraction of the 1921 rate of 24.1 deaths per million VMT.

“Painted lines on the roads, shoulders, guardrails…" they didn't exist. But today, technological improvements like airbags and child safety seats, seatbelts, chassis crumple zones, and other engineering improvements like hydroformed frames, and Onstar are required equipment today, but optional novelties in the past.

To show how far we’ve come and the cumulative impact of the “research to action” philosophy, State Farm created an interactive timeline that highlights key advancements in auto safety starting in the late 1800’s.

State Farm claims a role in many critical changes, including: airbags, child passenger seat safety, teen graduated driver licensing, and head restraints redesign. I haven't seen proof yet of their contributions to these, so I state that they claim, not they they did. I'm skeptical like that.

State Farm is also trying to be involved in reducing distracted driving (not very likely to have any change regardless of methods) and in teen driver safety. (ditto) Here’s their dedicated page to the topic: http://teendriving.statefarm.com/

Seat belts were invented in 1904 in France,
1915 REO puts windshields on as standard, not optional, equipment
1918 hydraulic brakes,
1919 Ford switches to laminated glass (closed cars became the norm, and glass prices had tripled, this was a cost saving measure, not a safety design)
1923 Windows were glued into their frames, keeping passengers from going through shards, and keeping them from being ejected, and increasing structural rigidity in roll overs
1934 GMC began crash testing its vehicles to improve their design for safety,
1937 Safety glass required in all cars manufactured in the USA
1950 Nash puts seat belts into 2 models
1954 SCCA mandates lap belts
1957 Curved windshields eliminated a driver blind spot
1958 Volvo patents the 3 point belt
1958 The Monroney sticker is required to display car information on new cars so buyers are informed, fuel economy info was added in the 1970s
1960 big brother began its overlook program to keep drivers registered... not that this has had any effect on anyone who wants to drive regardless of a licence,
1965 Ralph Nader poked his nose into auto safety, though well intentioned, his interference in the Corvair was proven wrong.. his demand for seatbelts was on target though. It's due to him that the
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety standards were set for strength, clarity of laminated windshields and windshield retention strength during accidents as well as roof rigidity in rollover accidents. All of these began to get implemented in the 1970s
1966 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), is formed to establish and administer motor vehicle and highway safety standards. They've failed miserably due to inadequate management and ability to stay on top of the rapid growth of vehicles, and have never gotten their 1977 requirements for driving tests enacted. They were doing ok until the car companies grew large enough, technically nimble enough, and far more determined to get rich instead of be safe (GM evading the ignition recall, VW cheating the smog test)
1967 the DOT required the installation of lap and shoulder belts in the front seats. No law said you had to use them, why? Because motorcycles are allowed on the same roads, to do the same function, and have no seat belts, and neither do buses
1968 side marker lights for visibility of vehicles from the side (head lights and brake lights were sunken into the cars so far to keep them from being damaged, that they were not visible from the sides in the dark.
1969 head rests to prevent whiplash
1971 to 78 Child seats become mandatory
1983 Realizing how much money automatic safety restraint systems would save them, State Farm Insurance Company brings the NHTSA to court over the matter. State Farm wins the case and the NHTSA is ordered to write a new regulation for automatic restraint systems.
1985 to 1989 Seat belts are legally required to be worn in vehicles made with them, buses still exampt, ditto pickup truck beds, and motorcycles, and all old vehicles that weren't made with them
1985 Anti lock brakes start to get included on passenger cars
1988 the drinking age is raised in order to get federal funds for roads, yup, states sold out their citizens rights for money to build highways
2007 crash test ratings added to the Monroney sticker
2007 no texting while driving law added
2012 Anti lock brakes are DOT required on all new cars

in the 1980s breathalyzer ignition interlocks were made, but not perfected until the 1990s
by 2012 all 50 states had laws about DUI offenders having interlocks installed. Nothing keeps a sober person, or cannister of compressed air, from cheating the system though

http://driveforsafety.goodneighbors.com/
http://blog.esurance.com/seat-belt-history/#.VgSz8PlVhBd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignition_interlock_device
http://goodneighbors.com/post/80974875713/driveforautosafety
http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/windshield-history.cfm

Richard has been photographing some cool customs