Just A Car Guy

Monday, March 09, 2026

New rules heavily restrict the types of bikes Caltrain users can bring on board, and baby seats are now no longer allowed

Caltrain will start banning cargo bikes and any bike that doesn't conform to the railroad's required dimensions.

"Caltrain’s bike cars are designed to carry 36 bikes safely and efficiently (four bikes per rack)," states the Caltrain bike rules page. "Oversized bikes are not allowed onboard to maximize the number of riders with bikes on board."

"While crowded bike trains have been an issue as Caltrain has increased its ridership, the core problem is that they haven't allotted enough space on their updated fleet of trains to accommodate an appropriate volume of people riding bikes," wrote the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's Christopher White.

"An outright ban on family bikes is too extreme. While commute period trains can get crowded, mid-day and weekend trains are not," wrote Shirley Johnson, who helped found the advocacy group BIKES ONBoard.

https://sf.streetsblog.org/2026/03/04/as-bike-cars-overflow-caltrain-bans-large-bikes-and-panniers

Southwest Airlines flight 2094 left Nashville for South Florida when it had to divert because a passenger had set a timer on his phone so that he could pray for Ramadan. No one tells Muslims to dial it down on airlines in the USA?

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/southwest-airlines-flight-heading-to-fll-overnight-diverted-after-passenger-disturbance-faa/3777858/

interesting situation, 3 Riverside Police Department officers were given 100% VA disability, went to work for the police dept, and got diabled plates on their cars....

The Riverside Police Department is planning to fire three officers because they have disabled veteran license plates on their personal cars.

The officers have filed a discrimination lawsuit against the department.

The three officers are military veterans, all with a 100% disability rating from the VA. The department is alleging they made false claims about their physical limitations to get those plates.

Their attorney says that's not true.

https://www.foxla.com/news/riverside-police-officers-disabled-veteran-license-plates.amp

in season 6 of Formula 1, Drive to Survive, the F1 drivers get some screen time in some tiny underpowered interesting old cars

one lucky dog, getting a Sunday morning cruise in a Maserati

Seen Sunday morning

seen on tonight's walk

300ZX Turbo 50th Anniversary

I've seen a lot of cars that can't move under their own power, but none owned by anyone stupid enough to let the cops see the proof that they were towed to where they are

Sunday, March 08, 2026

Hurst SS Cuda with it's original engine pulled out of the widow's garage and brought to the Barnfind section of the MCACN

It’s 1 of only 70 Super Stock BO29 Hemi Barracudas modified by Hurst Performance for competition in the 1968 season.

Californian George Wejbe bought it new in Santa Fe Springs and campaigned it in IHRA events.

George retired the car in 1972 and it was recently acquired from his widow.

Remarkably, it still retains its original 426 race-spec Hemi engine and heavy-duty Torqueflite transmission, and is well documented with its original sales and finance papers, and factory-to-dealer bulletin detailing the race modifications and warranty exclusions.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/barn-finds-hidden-gems-at-the-2025-mcacn-car-show

1 of only 40 Hemi Charger 500s. The original owner drove it for only 3 years before parking it in his garage. In August of this 2025, 53 years after it was last driven, the car was rescued

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/barn-finds-hidden-gems-at-the-2025-mcacn-car-show

this MCACN barnfind '73 Citroën SM was extensively modified by prior owner

Bob Diemert was a self-educated engineer known in the aviation world for his meticulous restorations of a Hawker Hurricane fighter (one of only 5 in existence!) and two Japanese Zero fighters.

He applied his aviation know-how and ingenuity to this SM, in some cases to increase its performance and in others, for reasons unknown.

he overcame the absence of the car’s original triple Weber carburetor setup by designing and fabricating a new intake manifold to adapt a Marvel-Schebler Ha-6 carburetor borrowed from a 1968 Beechcraft 23 Musketeer. To significantly increase power output from the SM’s V6 Maserati engine he added an AiResearch T04 turbocharger and nitrous oxide system.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/barn-finds-hidden-gems-at-the-2025-mcacn-car-show

Barnfind Jag... but what will it cost the next owner to make it safely roadworthy? The XK140 only has 15,570 miles on its odometer, was found in a barn in Virginia several years ago. Its 2nd owner last had it on the road in 1967.

The 3rd owner is a Jag restorer who obviously figured out it's now financially feasible to restore it, so he's looking to sell it for 50k to a potentially future customer to offload the expense, and hopefully onboard a new rich customer https://www.hemmings.com/stories/will-you-be-the-one-to-take-on-this-barn-find-1955-jaguar-xk140

how is it possible that a 1965 Volkswagen Type 2 Van has been lying in a New Mexico field for 39 years?

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/abandoned-1965-vw-type-2-camper-field-find/

Classy is getting a 250 Testarossa to drive away from your wedding, instead of a new Ferrari. F1 driver Charles Leclerc got married in Monaco, and used the cool old Ferrari to leave the wedding in

https://petrolicious.com/blogs/articles/a-moment-in-motion-charles-leclerc-s-wedding-drive-in-a-testa-rossa

speculators sure have driven up the price of oil

https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/oil-price?type=wti

Saturday, March 07, 2026

there's a really well done comic about the Duckberg F1 fan club, free online...

I can see why they made it narrow, and vertically scrolling online, but I do not like that since so many morons can't hold a cell phone horizontally for a panoramic photo, that the online comic gets a vertical treatment that's more annoying to look at than a horizontal one

I'm not sure who this online comic is targetting demographically either, do kids enjoy Mickey and a "friendly" Donald? Mad as hell Donald was always so much more fun to watch in cartoons.

https://www.webtoons.com/en/graphic-novel/mickey-x-f1-racing-to-the-top/episode-1/viewer?title_no=9762&episode_no=1

https://kisaient.com/

Compliments to Kisai Entertainment for the visually appealing art!

US Antarctic Program Snowmobile – 1960s

https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2026/03/us-antarctic-program-snowmobile-1960s.html

a moment to ponder the legal problem truckers are stuck with, the states don't allow pistols for self defense (a great idea for overnighting in truck stops) to cross state lines. So, why is a state license plate 50 state compatible, but not the 2nd amendment?

Why does a driver’s license work nationwide… …but a constitutional right stops at state borders?

You can legally drive across all 50 states with the same license.

But if you legally own a firearm and cross the wrong state line, you can suddenly become a criminal overnight.

Senator Mike Lee (R, Utah) has introduced a bill that would allow Americans who can legally own firearms to carry across state lines without needing permission from each individual state.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mike-lee-unveils-national-constitutional-carry-bill-override-hostile-state-gun-laws

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1272820051406956

I posted about this about 18 years ago... a trucker was unable to carry his pistol in his truck for self defense, and was murdered, sometime around 2009. It's in the archives, and normally I find the link and include it in the post, but I don't have time to do that right now

remember that Montana license plate scheme to get out of paying state sales taxes? Now Marin County (and those very rich wine country people) are under scrutiny. I've been posting about this since 2017

California regulators are reviewing every recent car sale in Montana as they crack down on a tax-evading scheme called the “Montana Loophole” where drivers dodge Golden State levies by purchasing a vehicle in a place with no statewide sales tax.

The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration and Department of Motor Vehicles said in a news release Friday that since 2023, they’ve found hundreds of California-based dealerships involved in more than 2,500 sales to customers claiming they’re Montana drivers. Many of the sales involve luxury or exotic cars, and regulators said it cost the state more than $10 million in lost revenue.

Investigators listed the cities in California with the most suspicious sales at dealerships. Beverly Hills has the highest with 416, and in the Bay Area, Mill Valley appeared among the top 10. There are only a couple of car dealerships in Mill Valley, and both are for luxury brands: Ferrari and Porsche. Regulators found that Mill Valley is connected to 99 suspicious sales.

On Friday, the California Department of Justice announced charges against 14 people it alleges were using the loophole to cheat the state out of $20 million in luxury vehicles purchases.

The tax loophole takes advantage of states like Montana that don’t have statewide sales tax. Visitors from other states purchase and register a car there to save money, sometimes by setting up a limited liability company. The pricer the purchase, the more the loophole can save the tax dodger.

Bloomberg found that Montana has more than double the national average vehicle-to-driver ratio.

Since 2023, the California DMV investigators said they found 601 vehicles that were fraudulently registered, recovering $2.3 million in registration and taxes.

https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/montana-loophole-car-purchases-21960170.php

https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/09/how-rich-are-getting-out-of-paying.html

new category of collecting, and far from the typical - instead of collecting trophies, this Bee owner collects state line signs as he drives his Bee across them

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10167428836288508&set=pcb.25742881882073797

'55 Arnolt-Bristol

'American' car devised by Chicago industrialist Stanley H. "Wacky" Arnolt, in actuality a Bristol chassis shipped from the UK to Italy for Bertone bodywork designed by Franco Scaglione. Most of the approximately 142 built were then shipped to and sold in the US.

https://reservatory6.blogspot.com/2014/09/imports-in-land-of-giants.html

ever heard of a streamliner that was used as a roadside attraction? The Thunderbowl Comet was one, near Acton on the Sierra Highway, it was on a stretched L29 Cord chassis and eventually was bought and dismantled for its Cord parts.

the Golden Eagle aka Thunderbowl Comet.

Although the car's story varies from one teller to the next, it did at least portray a Muroc Dry Lake LSR contender in a 1936 Jimmy Stewart B-movie called 'Speed', turning up years later as opening act at the Carpenteria Thunderbowl, a quarter-mile dirt track near Santa Barbara, California

from the Reservatory 6, a good blog that only lasted the 4 heyday years of blogging, 2011-2014

https://reservatory6.blogspot.com/2012/11/thunderbowl-comet-again_16.html

Friday, March 06, 2026

just sitting there on a side street looking like the owner gave up on it... it looks like it's never had a rich owner, no one even put on some Cragars, and it's beginning to show the decades of neglect

Why this neighborhood insists on such hideous rims, on so MANY cool old cars, I do not know

it was sitting there 2 months ago with a flat front tire

I almost bought a Mustang like this, but fastback, in 1988, when I was in high school. The only problem that the seller, the mom of a co-worker knew of, was a busted timing chain. 500 bucks.

I STILL regret that my asshole step dad didn't step up, back my chance at that Mustang, as I had the money. I didn't have the tools, or know how, to do an engine rebuild... but hell, it was a 289, that's not a jigsaw puzzle.

Anyway, that was the one chance I recall nearly having at a fixer upper, cheap, and cool