Tuesday, August 18, 2026
Monday, August 17, 2026
Annie Soisbault de Montaigu took part in the Tour Auto in a Ferrari 250 GTO chassis number 3607, and was the only Monte Carlo Rally competitor to ever bring her pet cheetah to the start
In 1957, she entered the Mille Miglia, driving a Panhard Dyna. She retired. No matter, the bug had bitten. She bought a Delahaye Grand Sport, then a Triumph TR3.
after running her privately owned TR3 she was brought into the factory Triumph team.
In 1958, she became French Rally Champion and officially joined the Triumph team. The following year, she won the European Championship. She didn't limit herself, not even by competing in single-seaters. At the wheel of a Lola Mk2-Ford, she competed in Formula Junior races, eventually finishing 12th overall at Chimay.
After rallying moved into racing with her husbands Ferrari GTO
She won her class, then followed up with a fourth-place finish at the 1000 Kilometers of Paris in a Ferrari 250 LM, partnered with Guy Ligier.
After a few attempts at long-distance rallies—the East African Safari in 1966 and the Paris-Saint-Raphaël in 1969—she retired from competition. But not from cars. She took over the Mirabeau garage in Paris, then an Aston Martin dealership.
Living between Paris and Saint-Tropez, she became a discreet socialite, both elegant and independent. She passed away on September 18, 2012
the ArtCenter College of Pasadena used to have it's annual car show in the fall, in October if memory serves. The last time I went was 2018... so, I looked into going this year, and discovered they've changed the name, and the season - it's now in June
It's now known as the Design Invitational. It was May 31st this year
Norman Harvey's in Cardiff, which had a lioness on the garage forecourt, for a little while. He brought a 4 month old lioness to the garage in 1968 until it was too powerful to be handled. (Thank you Paul!)
then he rehomed it with a safari park
I bet a LOT of people came by just to see the lion!
a bombardier on a B-17 for 30 missions during WW2 left his flight jacket to his son, but not much info
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to test Toyota and Lexus trucks for the potentially catastrophic engine defect the company’s engineers have come up with “smack it with a hammer”... Everyone I knew in the Navy from 89 -99 knew that as the "bigger hammer theory of mechanics."
Toyota hopes this new procedure will give them some reassurance that the process isn’t entirely arbitrary. By measuring the frequencies transmitted through the engine, Toyota can tell how much main bearing #1 has degraded. When combined with a software analysis of the truck’s service life, Toyota techs will be able to tell with a reasonable (but not 100%) degree of certainty whether a given engine is a goner.
of course, most of you are familiar with using a hammer on a crank to listen to the ringing to discover if there is a crack, (dull noise) or if a crank is "sound" (rings like a bell)
Sunday, August 16, 2026
the 911 Turbo turns 50, fine, that's cool and etc... but, what I realized, is I haven't heard why Porsche 911s seem to have very good looking plaid upholstery. German car, Scottish cloth design - so that had me looking into that...
https://www.porsche.com/stories/innovation/porsche-911-turbo-50-years/
Research reverals that the McLaughlin tartan was a design highlight of the 911 Turbo # 1, because the chief designer at Porsche at the time, was going for a fashion look and wore a pair of tartan trousers to work... Inspired by his bold style choice, the design team decided to explore how this classic pattern could add a unique flair to the interiors of their cars.
Two more patterns were soon added to the collection: the McLaughlin (also known as MacLachlan) tartan in a bold red and blue, and the Mackenzie tartan in shades of beige, red, blue, white and olive green.
The tartan interiors quickly became a distinctive feature of the Porsche high performance models
wow... what's cool and has wheels? A chair (if the research is correct, then it's from the USS Gilligan that was hit by kazmakazi in 1945)
the Army and Air Force were still furnishing ships with wood chairs - on casters - in WW2 and they were called captain’s chairs.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/157104191579343/permalink/2132535924036150
the M2 F1 in 1963 proof of concept that the wingless lifting-body aircraft was viable as a emergency life shuttle from large aircraft (the big Navy dirigibles, big bombers, and possibly from spacecraft if they added heatshields)
https://www.space.com/space-exploration/human-spaceflight/on-this-day-in-space-aug-16-1963-wingless-m2-f1-completes-1st-glide-flight
Since I recall posting this before, I went to look in the archives... and I find that this is the ONE (tail numbers) in the 2013 post about NASA using a Pontiac Catalina
The FIA is in the process of digitizing for public viewing more than two million documents and pictures from its boxes of archive stored in Valleiry (thank you Paul!)
Its collection relating to the land speed record is one of the first projects to be undertaken and will be made public shortly.
Alongside the documents and pictures are hand-written notes, letters and official records, annotated by those witnessing or taking part in the record attempts, a distinct, human element reaching back through the years.
BMW reported a 51% “recycling rate” from dead cars thanks to new sorting and smelting techniques applied to the brand’s own cars (thank you George!)
51% of BMW materials are of high enough quality to go right back into production with no discernible difference in quality from newly manufactured ones.
For reference, the current industry figure is just 6% from testing materials from 433 dead cars across 60 different models.
To achieve the massive increase in recyclability, BMW engineers pushed beyond the industry’s current shredding and bulk material recovery processes.
Engineers also followed output streams to see which of its recycled materials could begin life anew as BMW parts rather than heading downstream to lower-quality parts or other industries.
https://www.mensjournal.com/auto/bmw-says-it-can-turn-dead-cars-back-into-new-bmw-parts
Indian Railways has installed 12,240 miles of safety fencing along railway tracks across the country to facilitate safer train operations (thank you George!)
Safety fencing is being provided to facilitate the safe movement of cattle, pedestrians and smaller vehicles across railway alignments.
neither of these sources mention it, specifically, but I'm getting the idea the fencing is to keep people and livestock from walking onto the railways out of the farms and fields. I've seen a lot of India train videos where cattle is wandering loose on the tracks, causing the trains to slow and be delayed
Saturday, August 15, 2026
how do you get 720 HP from a 327 in 1965? Twin turbos from Garrett, and dyno time with Isky! new to me history of drag racing! B Gas supercharged at Winternats of 65, with a 10.35 @135
Skip to 1:33 for this story, previous to that is the Olds Jetfire Turbo history
Friday, August 14, 2026
Richard Bay's little Porsche powered 1958 Fiat 600 winning the I/Gas class at the 1970 NHRA Winternationals
Rich took this Fiat from a street driven racer in 1965 to the full out race car weighing 1200 lbs
Power came from a 1966 Porsche 1790 cc 912 engine with a Norris cam shaft and a Weber481 DA carb.
Rich won class at the '70 Winters going 12.52 at 107.57 mph.
In June of 1970, Rich set the NHRA I/Gas national speed record at 111.52 at Fremont California.
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