Saturday, December 03, 2016

the Keystone Antique Tractor Museum has 260 perfectly restored tractors, 170 on display in Colonial Heights, VA



One of the largest private collections of pre-1960 totally restored tractors, collectible cars and antique trucks on the east coast.


Keith Jones has a passion for all kinds of tractors dating back to the first one he fell in love with.

Sitting in an overgrown patch of weeds, a blanket of honeysuckle had made the farm tractor its own private trellis.

 Keith learned that his aunt was planning to send the farm tractor off to auction, to be sold to the highest bidder. Approaching his aunt Keith told her that he wanted the farm tractor. She said, “that he could bid on the John Deere M, just like everyone else!”

 Paying close to fourteen hundred dollars for his uncle’s old farm tractor, the John Deere M that he came to love.

Weeks later, to Keith’s surprise, his Aunt gave him back his money. She told him, “that his Uncle always wanted him to have it, but she didn’t want to just hand it over to him; she wanted him to earn it.”

Keith went on to restore the old farm tractor back to show quality. The restoration of the old honeysuckled covered John Deere M had Keith’s undivided attention, and throughout the years Keith has collected, and restored over 200 antique farm tractors and vintage road trucks that are now housed in the Keystone Tractor Works Museum.



http://carzhunt.blogspot.com/2014/04/tractor-museum-part-2-plus.html
http://www.petersburgarea.org/attractions/keystone-tractor-works
http://www.keystonetractorworks.com/about-us/

Kevin Scott has the record for the fastest ride in a monocycle, 61.2 mph

the long-lost first 1967 Camaro Z-28 has been found and restored


The car you see pictured here is the very first Z/28 made, and is now owned by Jon Mello.

 Jon has sports car racing in his blood. His parents were tech inspectors for the SCCA and, as a family, all attended Can-Am and Trans-Am races back at Road America from 1970 to 1974.

His 1st car was a 69 Z/28 Camaro with headers and 4.10s

In late December 1966, the first batch of Z-28s rolled down GM’s Norwood, Ohio, assembly line. With the exception of air conditioning and an automatic transmission (or a convertible body), it was possible to equip a Z-28 with just about every option on the extensive 1967 Camaro list.

Jon agreed to examine a car in San Francisco for a friend living in Florida about a dozen years ago. He bought it not knowing it's significance. Jon noted signs that the vehicle had likely been used for professional racing, rollbar mounting holes etc.


When he started sanding down the body, he discovered racing stripes and lettering that indicated that one of the car’s drivers was named John Moore. In his book The Great Camaro, author Michael Lamm was able to list the recipients of the first 25 Z-28s to come out of Norwood, thanks to documents he received from Vince Piggins. “Z-28 #1 was shipped to Aero Chevrolet in Alexandria, Virginia,” Lamm wrote, “where it was groomed as Johnny Moore’s entry into the Daytona 24-hour Continental.”  It turns out Jon had received a copy of Lamm’s book years before as a Christmas present.

Jon talked with Moore, who pointed him to Hugh Heishman, who owned the local VW/Porsche dealership and a racing team at the time. Heishman was the car’s original buyer, purchasing the car through Aero Chevrolet. As unbelievable as it seems, Heishman  still had the car’s original dealership sales invoice in his possession—35 years later.

In 2003 he got confirmation from Lamm as to where he got his first 25 Z-28 list.” Vince Piggins himself had given Lamm the list of the first 25 Z-28s.

He learned the car’s Trans-Am race history was limited. It was used for just six Trans-Am races in 1967 and 1968 in addition to several SCCA-sanctioned, non–Trans-Am events, a total of eight races driven by Moore and owned by Heishman.


http://www.hotrod.com/articles/first-1967-chevrolet-camaro-z-28-back-track-years-research-meticulous-restoration/

http://gwadagone.fotki.com/trans-am-racing1966/?view=roll#245

http://gwadagone.fotki.com/trans-am-racing1966/?view=roll#317

Bill Hunter left a Chevy dealership with a Hugger Orange, X66, 4-speed Yenko Camaro. Street raced that and blew up the motor that night, towed it back to the dealership for the warranty claim. He was given a choice, they'd fix his engine, or he could drop $500 and get a new car


The Yenko didn’t see a dull moment during the first years of life. Bill street-raced the car initially, but in the early 1970s he pulled the motor and installed a radical L88 aluminum-headed race motor that pumped out more than 500 ponies. With this combination Bill terrorized the local tracks, making a name for himself.

Bill’s dad had always left the window stickers in all the cars he bought, so Bill stored the original window sticker for safekeeping and hung a copy in the window where it remains today. Lucky for him, his one-owner Yenko survived its racing days, as did its original L72, which was stored away just in case Bill wanted to bring the car back to its as-delivered state.

Muscle car collector and weekend race car driver Dave Beem spotted Bill’s unrestored Yenko three years ago at a Yenko Supercar Reunion. He just couldn’t believe that the car was still a one-owner original with a file folder full of all the original sales docs, Protect-O-Plate, and window sticker.  Bill and Dave became fast friends and stayed in contact over the next three years.

Last year Dave visited Bill, talked of their love for fast cars and especially Yenkos, and whether the car would ever be for sale. After some thought, Bill said he was open to offers.  Dave threw out a number to purchase the car. After a night to think about it, Bill accepted his offer. And just like that, after 47 years of ownership, the car was changing hands.

http://www.yenko.net/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=202436&page=all
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/amazing-unrestored-1969-yenko-camaro-survives-street-racing-past-unscathed-born-big-block-intact/

Giving the speeding ticket camera the finger



https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/4dryxc/fuck_you_speed_camera/

30mph zone. Above 10% + 2mph to trigger a ticket which means he not only spun the trike and got the finger up with perfect timing, he did it at at least 35mph one handed.

He's not just flipping off this particular speed camera. He's flipping off the entire policing system. However, the cops probably won't catch his drift.

and now, a public service message that has nothing to do with cars. That's why it's a PSA



I am so impressed by the production and story, and the plot twist, I gotta share it. I hope you watch it and appreciate why I shared it with you, maybe you'll share it, maybe with your high school or middle school kids.

Since I live in San Diego, site of 3 notorious schools,
 Cleveland Elementary, 1979,
Santana HS, 2001
and Granite Hills HS 2001, just 3 weeks later.

Only sharing because I care and wish you and your family the best lives possible, which means looking out for each other, and keeping an eye out for trouble we can prevent

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-timeline-san-diegos-school-shootings-2012dec14-story.html

The Grand Tour episode 3



Adjust the speed (use settings) to 1.25 or 1.5 to get them to sound a bit more realistic

And I find that increasing the screen magnification (control button, and roll the mouse finger wheel) to 250% gets this pretty good to watch

cool old towtruck

Friday, December 02, 2016

Fast Eddie, and his half of all the factory stock Boss 429 Cougars ever made (Kar Kraft) as Dyno Don got the other one.


he ran a 10.32 in 1970 with it, but it tore itself apart from the violent launches as it wasn't braced well enough to last long, and it wasn't competitive against the smaller Comets and Mavericks that followed


Ford did commission two 1969 Mercury Cougars with the BOSS 429 engine, and sold both of them for $1 a piece to “Dyno Don” Nicholson and “Fast Eddie” Schartman. Designated by Mercury as “clinic cars,” the two BOSS 429 Cougars toured through dealerships teaching Ford gearheads all about horsepower.

Dyno Don immediately ditched the 429 engine, replacing it with the even rarer 427 Ford SOHC “Cammer” engine and he painted his car red. Fast Eddie kept the 429 engine and the white hue, but converted his Cougar over to a 1970 hood and front clip. Both of these cars had fiberglass front panels, which technically disqualified them from running in Super Stock.

However, the cars were reportedly so slow that nobody really seemed bothered, and they were hardly raced anyway. Both Cougars were supposed to be returned to Ford, and in all likelihood were destined for the crusher. Curiously, neither car was returned to Ford, and the Cougars disappeared.

Fast Eddie’s car was sold in 1971 to Lou Cerra, who replaced the engine and raced it through 1973. It was then sold to Steve Comstock, who dropped a 454ci Holmann & Moody BOSS engine into it. It was raced for a few years before the body was twisted something fierce. These Cougars, despite being built for racing, lacked many important features like sub-frame connectors or a real roll cage (a bolt-in kit was used instead). It sat around unloved for awhile before being bought by Douglas Herzog, a racing engine builder and 429 aficionado.

http://www.streetmusclemag.com/news/muscle-cars-you-should-know-69-mercury-cougar-boss-429/
http://www.fordmercurycougarxr7.com/pages/DragRacing/EddieSchartman.html

The restoration of Hemmingway's Chrysler 392 hemi New Yorker deluxe convertible in Cuba

Soul, now a dual citizen, USA and England, is a Hemingway fan who has traveled to Cuba several times and is friends with the museum's administrators. When the restoration project stalled, the result of difficulty obtaining parts due to the longstanding U.S. trade embargo with Cuba, the museum director, Ada Rosa Rosales, called on Soul to intervene.

Although Cuban mechanics are experts at keeping old American cars running, much of their work comes down to improvising repairs and hand-making parts. But proper restorations require original components, impossible to find on the island. Soul contacted a parts supplier in Massachusetts that specializes in classic Chryslers and found that its proprietor is also a Hemingway enthusiast. Parts problem seemingly solved.

However, despite Soul's best efforts, some parts have been delayed due to customs snags, while others, like a fuel tank, have proven difficult to locate. The plan had been to debut the hour-long film this June in time for the 14th Hemingway Colloquium in Havana, but the delays will result in a later release.

https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/new-documentary-focuses-on-tale-of-hemingways-1955-chrysler-new-yorker.html

Stats on Cuban cars

From 1950-1958 the number of cars in Cuba more than doubled – from 70,000 to 167,000.

Contrast that with 2014, the first year Cuban policy removed limits on auto purchases resulted in the 11 national Cuban car dealerships selling only 50 cars and four motorcycles in the first half of the year under the new law.

http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/12/01/cuban-cars/

40 years after her '64 Stingray Corvette was stolen in 1976, it's finally been found and returned to her.... it was found at a car show!


A walking VIN decoder of a car nut recognized that the VIN was not a Vette type, it was for an Impala, so the owner had the cops check it out, and the hidden VIN was still there, and checked as the stolen car from 1976.

The cops found the police report from Anahiem in the micro fiche, and fortuneatly the woman is still alive, and they reunited her with it.

The person who had it at the car show? He had been given the car by his wife about 20 years ago,  and she had bought it at some sketchy cars sales place in Redding that isn't in business anymore (makes sense)

Thanks Steve!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3994844/Woman-reunited-stolen-Corvette-FORTY-YEARS-swiped-home.html
http://www.redbluffdailynews.com/general-news/20161124/red-bluff-chp-reunite-arizona-woman-with-corvette-stolen-40-years-ago-in-anaheim

that normally fun website, the Drive, posted they had a video of a Camaro at Spring Mountain, when actually, it's a Corvette at Atlanta Motorsports Park. Seems the mistake will stay online til they Monday when they return from the weekend

They are saying this video " Camaro at Nevada's Spring Mountain " with these stills:




and with all those trees, is Spring Mountain, Nevada.

Below is a video that actually WAS filmed at Spring Mountain, to show you what it really looks like



here are a couple of photos I took there in 2013



See what I mean? Lots of Nevada desert, nothing like that forest they had the Camaro in. These are photos at the Spring Mountain race track which hosted the Optima Challenge.

Talk about not paying attention. Here is a satellite photo image, to show you there are no lawns, grass, trees, etc. Lots of rock, sand, and gravel though when you are actually there.  http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-autocross-part.html


http://www.thedrive.com/muscle-cars/6297/watch-the-2017-chevrolet-camaro-ss-1le-crush-it-at-nevadas-spring-mountain-motorsports-ranch?xid=hl

Stolen vehicles, and the TiJuana police... supply - and demand


When record checks found that up to 30 unmarked police vehicles appeared to have been stolen north of the border, outraged San Diego County officials demanded action by both governments.

But it is common knowledge among police and journalists in Tijuana that some stolen vehicles end up in possession of Mexican officers and can be seen parked outside the headquarters of the federal, state and municipal forces.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940524&slug=1912101


"There were a lot of cars being stolen in Southern California," Escobedo continues, "and they were all coming to Mexico. Those cars were used by federal police, by state police, by state police wives, by state policeman's mistress, by her brother, by the attorney general. Everybody that was in some kind of power was driving one of these cars."

In addition to buying the stolen cars -- "mostly Cherokees, Explorers, and Suburbans" -- from the thieves, Escobedo says, state and federal policemen were confiscating them. "They could tell by the way people were driving them, by the California plates, and by the condition of the car that it was probably stolen. So they would pull it over and say, 'We know this car is stolen.' The driver, who is very nervous, says, 'Oh, it's my aunt's car.' They tell him, 'Bullshit, it's stolen.' So they just take it away, and it was like a black market of stolen cars."

The cars that they didn't keep for themselves, their wives, or their mistresses, "They would dismantle them for the parts," Escobedo says. "You are talking about $25,000 to $30,000 car, maybe $40,000 car, that was ripped off, and the insurance company got it back, but it was worth only $8000."

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2003/feb/13/car-mafia-steals-baja-sells-us/#

The newly appointed chief of the Mexico City police department`s intelligence division is a former CIA informant who was charged in 1982 with involvement in a car-theft ring operating in southern California in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The stolen-car ring, made up mostly of Mexican federal law-enforcement agents, was crippled when 14 defendants were convicted and sentenced to prison in the United States.

Miguel Nassar Haro, a Tijuana-based commander in the now disbanded Federal Security Directorate, was indicted by a grand jury in San Diego. He was implicated by the federal grand jury in an international ring that specialized in stealing luxury cars in the Los Angeles area and smuggling them across the border for customers in Mexico.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-12-27/news/8802270490_1_car-theft-ring-indictment-mexico-city

In 1982, Miguel Nazar Haro, then chief of Mexico's Federal Security Directorate, the country's equivalent of the CIA, was forced to resign after he was indicted in San Diego on charges of involvement in a massive car-theft ring that stole luxury vehicles in the United States and supplied them to members of the Federal Security Directorate and other officials.

 He was arrested in San Diego, but jumped bail set at $200,000 and fled back to Mexico. In December 1988, Nazar Haro was appointed chief of intelligence for the Mexico City police department but was forced to quit two months later.

U.S. police and government officials say federal police in Mexico's northern border states have revived a practice of placing orders for stolen cars with rings operating in southern California. That practice led to a U.S. indictment against the then-chief of the Mexican secret police in 1982.

Luxury cars stolen in the United States also frequently turn up in the hands of federal police, as in the case of an $82,000 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet swiped from a San Diego dealer last year. According to Gloria Laxson, business manager for Hoehn Motors, the car, one of only two such models in southern California at the time, was eventually recovered from a federal police commander.

State government sources say the stolen-car issue may have been one reason for the sudden transfer last week of the Federal Judicial Police commander in Tijuana, Jose Luis Larrasolo, after three months on the job. Reporting on the transfer, the Tijuana weekly newspaper Zeta published a photo of vehicles loaded on flatbed trucks for shipment to Larrasolo's new assignment in the central state of Michoacan.

"Almost all of the vehicles driven by Larrasolo's federales were stolen from their original owners in the United States," Zeta reported.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/06/24/mexican-police-are-using-stolen-cars/b6317ec2-1a9d-4b20-bf1d-951f1fe709b6/?utm_term=.06d6d10821a0

Thursday, December 01, 2016

FX announced today that it will shoot a pilot for Mayans MC in March, that will be written by Kurt Sutter who created the immensely popular SOA and who will direct the pilot episode.


Here’s the official synopsis, per FX:

Mayans MC is set in a post Jax Teller world, where EZ Reyes, a prospect in the Mayan MC charter on the Cali/Mexi border, struggles with his desire for vengeance against the cartel, and his need for respect from the women he loves.

http://tvline.com/2016/12/01/sons-of-anarchy-spinoff-mayans-mc-pilot-ordered-fx/

the hydrogen-powered Nikola One long haul truck was unveiled today, and it looks more aerodynamic... time will tell it it's just another overpriced concept no one buys


The class 8 truck will have a range of 800 to 1,200 miles between refueling. If the company delivers on that range, the truck might get from San Francisco to Cheyenne, Wyoming on one tank of gas. And the fuel needed for that trip will be included in the 72-month leasing program that company is offering.

To solve the limited supply of hydrogen along the highways of the United States and Canada, Nikola also announced its plans to build a Hydrogen production refinery, and Hydrogen stations to refuel its new trucks for the first million miles, for free. The company will start making these, maybe, if it gets investors and everything goes well in permits and DOT inspections and testing, it's possibly breaking ground on the refueling stops in 2018 and they will open in 2019.


https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/01/nikola-unveils-its-hydrogen-powered-semi-truck/

skip the 1st 8 minutes

referring to Mickey Thompson and Danny Ongais


Found on https://www.facebook.com/groups/stiffspeed/  of course. Lots of good stuff there

incredibly innovative way to paint a car. Electric motor spins a hand crank handle, which pumps an old bike tire hand pump, which fills a motorcycle tire used as a compressed air reservoir and regulator

baby seats and other things were very much a matter of just hanging them up by hooking over a seat or other fixed object.

there you are, 10 years, 26,000 posts

so far.

Enjoy the ride

117 stolen cars worth at least $1.3 million, returned to their owners today, the results of a ten-month undercover sting operation in San Diego County. 33 car thieves were arrested... plus one more news story about stolen cars



“In this operation that we call Kwik Boost, the defendants were stealing cars from victims in San Diego and they were selling the vehicles to a place that was undercover – a store front – in order to break up the car into small pieces,” said Summer Stephan, Chief Deputy District Attorney of San Diego County.

Law enforcement shut down the store front located in the Lemon Grove area of East County, putting dozens of car thieves out of business.

The suspects believed they were selling cars to customers, when the vehicles were actually bought by undercover police officers In addition to stealing cars, many of these criminal groups were involved in gun trades and drug deals. Law enforcement agencies seized 51 illegal firearms off the street, along with five pounds of methamphetamine, three kilograms of cocaine and 15 pounds of marijuana, according to Goodbrand.

 About 10,000 vehicles are stolen in San Diego County each year

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Over-100-Stolen-Cars-Returned-to-Owners-in-Undercover-Operation-in-San-Diego-County-404096456.html

Meanwhile, Border Patrol is starting to figure out that they can use facial recognition software to catch car thieves driving stolen cars over the border into Mexico... yeah, there is ZERO give a damn by Mexico about seeing or stopping ANYTHING going INTO or OUT OF Mexico, only the USA is manning the border and keeping things somewhat under a watchful eye as it going across the border into the USA and San Diego

A Border Patrol agent was compiling a list of stolen vehicles. When he conducted border crossing queries on the stolen vehicles, he identified Jose Ernesto Camarillo, David Urbina and others as suspects tied to the cross-border trafficking of at least 81 vehicles.

Photographs taken at the (San Diego suburbs) San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry indicated Camarillo drove about 20 vehicles into Mexico and Urbina drove about 14 since Jan. 1, the affidavit states.

Auto thefts have jumped 16 percent in San Diego County from mid-year 2015 to mid-year 2016, according to the San Diego Association of Governments, which tracks crime trends.

The increase was from 4,778 vehicles stolen to 5,551. That is still a low number compared to the number of vehicles stolen in 2006: 11,901.

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sd-me-car-thefts-20161101-story.html

So, just this year alone, 36 car thieves in San Diego are out of work.

Ever wonder how many car thieves are taken out of the stealing car business annually, and yet, more keep getting into being car thiefs, and the cars never stop being stolen? Seems like the short term career of those that were arrested before, would be a pretty strong warning to all those who come after

car art... good stuff


Long sparky slide down the track... at least a slide beats a barrel roll

The Survivor


With three Distinguished Flying Crosses to her career, this helicopter has seen action all around the globe and has a service record second to none. In the past twenty-six years she has served in the Falkland Islands, Lebanon, Germany, Northern Ireland, Kurdistan, Iraq and Afghanistan.

During the Falkland Islands War, the SS Atlantic Conveyor was carrying six Chinook HC.1s when she took two Exocet missiles to the side and burned.

Only one helicopter, the “Bravo November” - was in flight at the time, meaning she was the lone survivor. Hence the name it's carried ever since


The ship also went down with nearly every tool used in maintenance except a pair of pliers and a screwdriver. The other helicopters aboard were all lost, along with the second-line repair and maintenance support equipment and stores.

The crew of 'Bravo November', captained by the late Sqn Ldr Dick Langworthy, managed to make it to safety on the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes.

Operating without spares, tools or lubricants, the Survivor got filthier and filthier - parts fell off, her rotors got out of track, she developed a leak of oil in her rear rotor’s gearbox, but she gamely flew on without nearly any form of maintenance.

The British forces loved her, giving her the new nickname, “The Shuddering Shithead."


On her way back from a night mission she flew into a snowstorm. While the crew was trying to figure out how to get home, they flew into the sea at 100 knots, due to a faulty altimeter.

The impact threw up spray that flooded the engine intakes but Langworthy and his co-pilot managed to get the helicopter back in the air.

As the helicopter settled, the bow wave reduced. We had the collective still up and the engine wound up as we came out of the water like a cork out of a bottle. We were climbing!

The fuselage was damaged, an antenna had been lost and the co-pilot’s door was lost too.

The crew was unable to navigate or communicate with other forces, so it returned to San Carlos for damage inspection. The impact had caused "little more than dents to the fuselage and damage to the radio systems.” For the rest of the war she flew without a side door, leaving the copilot shivering.

By the time the Argentines surrendered, Bravo November had notched up over a hundred flying hours, carried some 1,500 troops, 95 casualties, 650 POWs and 550 tons of cargo.

At the end of the war she had one last thing to do.

Flying into Port Stanley at the cessation of hostilities, she landed next to an Argentinean helicopter that had been grounded by an air strike.

Her crew took their single screwdriver, unscrewed the Argentine door, and put it on the British helicopter. Allegedly, she still has the Argentine door today.


What’s even funnier is that, a decade later, her original door washed up on shore and was discovered by a Falkland Islander.

http://uss-edsall.tumblr.com/post/153339972725/during-the-falklands-war-the-ss-atlantic-conveyor

Thanks Steve!

From Wikipedia:

In April 1982 Bravo November was loaded, along with three other Chinooks, aboard the container ship MV Atlantic Conveyor bound for the Falkland Islands on Operation Corporate. Atlantic Conveyor was hit by an Exocet missile destroying the vessel along with its cargo. Bravo November was on an airborne task at the time and managed to land on HMS Hermes, gaining the nickname "The Survivor". It was the only serviceable heavy lift helicopter available to British forces involved in the hostilities. The first of its four Distinguished Flying Crosses came for actions in the Falklands. Ever since, the name Bravo November became associated with this aircraft that has become "most famous" in the popular imagination. The aircraft is the subject of an exhibit at the RAF Museum.

Bravo November has had a distinguished career within the Royal Air Force serving in every conflict of the last 30 years and has seen four of its pilots awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for actions whilst at the controls of the aircraft.

Twenty years after the Falklands conflict Bravo November saw service in Iraq, being the first British helicopter to land Royal Marines ashore. After departing from HMS Ark Royal, Bravo November landed the first Royal Marines on to the Al-Faw peninsula to seize oil-pumping facilities before Iraqi troops could destroy them.

During a three-day period, the aircraft averaged nineteen flight-hours per day, delivering combat vehicles, artillery and troops. The mission was the first opposed UK helicopter assault since the Suez Crisis in 1956 and the largest in UK military helicopter history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bravo_November
http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/oldstuff/2008/469za718/za718.htm
http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/royalairforcech47chinookbravonovember.cfm

In 1876 Government Surveyors found this old wagon in the valley north of "Emigrant Wash" in Death Valley. Since then this place has been marked on the maps as "Last Wagon".


It was found 52 years ago but up to 1928, nothing definite had been found as to how it came to be in Death Valley.

http://www.vintag.es/2016/12/76-amazing-vintage-photographs.html

This wagon weighed 7 tons and was loaded with 20 tons of Borax. The tires on the wheels were 10 inches.

Jeremy Clarkson and Andy Wilman, #10 on the Motor Trend 2017 Power List of the most influential people in the business


The Grand Tour Presenter and Producer

  They worked together to turn an old-school BBC motoring program into a global television phenomenon, Clarkson the star in front of the camera and Wilman the brains behind it.

The Top Gear story ended but mere months later, Clarkson and Wilman stunned the TV industry by announcing a deal said to be worth $200 million to produce 36 hour-long episodes of a new program, The Grand Tour, for … Amazon.

If broadcast and cable TV operators needed proof their cozy world is about to change forever, this single deal was it. And for a show about men behaving badly with cars, no less.

Motor Trend 2017 Power List, has only two racecar drivers, Ken Block, and F1 World Champ Lewis Hamilton, out of their 50 most influential people in the car industry.


It doesn’t matter if he jumps the shark—or does donuts around it. Block’s stunts are becoming more predictable yet also more insane. He shows no signs of losing his millions of followers on YouTube or his Gymkhana partnership with Ford, which draws an all-important young audience. You know you’ve made it when millions watch parody videos of your antics.

http://www.motortrend.com/news/2017-power-list-and-the-person-of-the-year/

Chevy beat Tesla to the punch, you can now buy a Chevy Bolt, and for 30% less than Telsa Model S

Chevy intends to keep its promise of cars on the road before the end of 2016, and starts with selling the Bolt in California1st, the largest sales market in the country.

The Bolt has a 238-mile range, which gives it an edge over mass-market electrics that have been around for a while; the Leaf can go 107 miles on a single charge, the Fiat 500e just 85. GM will also have a jump on Tesla Motors Inc.’s first and hotly anticipated mass-market offering, the Model 3, due late next year.

But will it cost them? Chevy may be losing money on each car delivered. Not the first car model to do that.

Why do it though? So soon after a bankruptcy? Just to do business in some states that have legislated zero emissions cars (1st I've heard of this) from the big car makers in order to sell ANY cars in those states:
California crafted the doctrine, with tough clean-air rules and a mandate that automakers sell some non-polluting vehicles if they want to do business in the Golden State. Nine others have adopted it, New York and New Jersey among them, and all told they make up close to 30 percent of the U.S. market. 

That goes a long way to explaining why zero-emissions models from more than 10 brands are on the roads, with more on the way. 

Just consider how many gas guzzler trucks and sports cars Chevy wants to sell in those same markets, and those gas guzzlers are all the most expensive, and most profitable, vehicles that Chevy makes

Two California cities, Los Angeles and Bakersfield, are the most smog- and particulate-laden in the U.S. Brown has called climate change “the existential threat of our time.” And California is where ZEVs are being dumped. More than half of all electrics were sold there in the first six months of 2016, according to IHS Markit Ltd.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s battery-powered Fiat 500e is made for California alone, and Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said in 2014 that it was losing $14,000 per sale. The company’s pretty much giving it away, at a monthly lease-rate of as little as $69.

http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/12/chevrolets-bolt-configurator-goes-live-deliveries-before-years-end/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-30/gm-s-ready-to-lose-9-000-a-pop-and-chase-the-electric-car-boom

A moment to ponder Subaru

Subaru sales in the U.S. market grew 13 percent to more than half a million last year and were pacing up a further 4 percent through the first nine months of 2016—double the industry rate.

That’s quite the feat given that Subardoesn’t sell a single truck.

Petroliana coming up for auction next week at Morphy

This guy gets it... too many prima dona BMXers out there thinking you have to blow a fortune to look the part to mountain bike down a hill needed to be taken down a notch... so - he seems to have made a film to prove the point.

Don't watch this if you're afraid of heights

teach them young to fix their own cars!

there wasn't much to do in Mesa Arizona in 1972, so they shoehorned a 401 into a Gremlin, and tried selling it





And they weren't smart enough to spell Holley (the carb company) right


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