Thursday, September 21, 2023

divorces result in strange and passionate actions... like keeping and hiding someone's prize car


Dan Gurney All American Racers Eagle Club was for joining up for a newsletter, might have been a fundraiser for the AAR F1 effort after a sponsor pulled out



and the renewal stickers



membership had another priveldge, access to the open house 


where someone got a photo of the company truck, and likely, the only truck to ever sport the AAR decal

A letter, along with a kid's favorite good luck charm, that he wanted Fireball to have.


clever and funny


the 1997 Tacoma could be ordered with a supercharged v6, from the factory... only that one year.

unloading in the Bahamas



found on https://apex.custodian.club/off-to-the-bahamas-for-nassau-speed-week-1963/

Dan Gurney pushing AJ Foyt to win the Grand Prix of Volkswagens during Nassau Speed Week, 1964.




The rumor surrounding that race was that the two conspired to get the win. 

AJ's car was legal, Dan's was not. Dan would push AJ so they could finish 1 & 2. 

If the inspectors missed the illegalities in Dan's car he would take the win. As it turned out, pushing AJ was an insurance policy...

Gurney catapulted into the lead from the start but faded back into the pack to make it sporting, particularly for AJ, whose car was struggling and unable to take advantage of the draft Dan was providing.

So Gurney dropped behind Foyt and pushed him through the pack and into the lead. Before they reached the finish line Gurney swooped around to grab the victory. 

A strictly-by-the-book tech inspection disqualified Dan, giving AJ the win.



This sort of fun and easy going approach to racing reminds me of the Corvair in 1962 https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-scuderia-caribe-corvair-in-1962-has.html 

Wednesday, September 20, 2023

Dan Gurney racing the #9 EMPI Bug (from Joe Vittone's Economotors) at the 1963 and #3 in the '64 Nassau Speed Week.


and there's the California license plate... you know that it would simply blow anyone's mind to realize they have Gurney's race car with it's original license plate, right?

Notice the license plate trim ring, Economotors: In 1966, Economotors offered complete new cars fitted with a range of EMPI parts but which were still covered by a full Volkswagen warranty. The cars were known as the EMPI GTVs and could be bought in one of four levels of specification. 

in 1963 the Beetle joined the American elite. The Nassau Speed Week in the Bahamas was a glamorous off-season gathering for the great and the good of both Europe and America.

Amid the glamour and the girls, the Jaguars and Ferraris there arrived in 1963 a bright orange Volkswagen Beetle. From America.

Joe Vittone was one of the first VW dealers in America and had developed a neat line in replacement parts and tuning kits under the EMPI banner. Putting all his firm’s expertise into preparing his son Darrell’s 1956 Beetle and employing fellow Californian driver Dan Gurney, the EMPI Beetle caused a sensation in 1963-64.








I posted about it a couple years ago  http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2021/01/dan-gurney-racing-vw-bug-in-bahamas.html


Above is 1963, below, Gurney was in the #3



if we only had a time machine



Andretti in 1967


https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159670476435665&set=gm.2286163758243528&idorvanity=527146584145263

You had to be really famous to get this size advertising, circus type advertising


https://www.facebook.com/groups/527146584145263

The charging infrastructure has a long way to go before it can compete with gas stations in a crisis, when people must evacuate a wildfire area (such as Canada, and California, have)

the Donnie Creek fire was the biggest fire ever recorded in British Columbia, Canada, history.

 All of Yellowknife evacuated. And you can't just strap a couple of jerry cans to the outside of our vehicle and go for it, because jerry cans don't help if you run out of charge. 

What the infrastructure of electric car chargers hadn't planned for, were fires.

And when evacuating, people use their cell phones a lot more, and can't get cell service, when antennas burn in wildfires. 

They suddenly need those phones and mobile internet, to find the nearest electric car chargers. 


thank you Terry!

possibly PR for "A Girl In Every Port" movie in 1952

 

Above is possibly a stand in for the lighting test, or publicity for the movie, but below are still from the movie, that's my guess based on the above woman having a different haircut



Groucho Marx's family got two DeSotos a year, for him performing as spokesman and doing commercials


In fact they'd been keeping eyes and ears open for likely prospects and what impressed John Guedel about Groucho was his ability to ad lib, or "wing it" on the spot as he'd done on the Bob Hope All Star radio special broadcast in April, 1947.

Once Guedel convinced Groucho to step on board, he got the campaign rolling to do this game show with improvisation as part of the dialog. Groucho was going to be the host. Contestants everywhere were in for a shock. You Bet Your Life debuted on ABC live October, 27,1947.

It did rather well. By 1949, the show switched over to CBS broadcasting. One more network hop happened during the wireless era. a move to NBC radio during 1950. In fact, NBC decided to run it as a television show as well that year. Big changes were in the offing, including a prominent sponsorship deal by DeSoto Automobiles.






DeSoto-Plymouth Motors joined sponsorship on January 4th, 1950. Ratings were very solid and they were entering the big league ratings wars. A rumor started by Bernie Smith who worked for Batten Barton Durstine and Osborn ad agency in Detroit claimed that one of the top executives from CBS went to see the President of DeSoto Motors and offered a million dollars if DeSoto Motors convinced the principals of You Bet Your Life show to run the television show with CBS.

At the time, the principals decided to put it up for bidding since the contract with Elgin-American had expired. DeSoto did wind up being the new sponsor for 1950 and NBC wound up being the new network with the hottest show. They needed it to because CBS had raided their talent cabinet in 1949!





 As part of DeSoto's promotional tie in with the show, Groucho Marx and family were given two DeSoto vehicles per year. Groucho used this perk thoroughly and enjoyed it very much. An interesting development in this deal is the fact that one of those cool cars wound up in Europe during a tour he did in 1953. Groucho picked up his DeSoto sedan in London for driving through Europe. Groucho and friends visited Paris, toured through France and into Germany, making a special visit to Dornum, his Mother's birh place. He also visited Italy. The DeSoto remained in Europe after Groucho's tour. The DeSoto sponsorship era lasted until 1958.

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Did you see the video of the tsunami that hit Capetown South Africa?


Storm surges wreaked havoc across a number of coastal communities in the Eastern and Western Cape, sweeping away cars and flooding nearby homes and businesses.

On Saturday, scores of videos and pictures flooded social media, showing massive waves lifting stationary vehicles in Gordon's Bay, Stilbaai, Mossel Bay, and Three Anchor Bay in Cape Town. In the Eastern Cape, Mangolds Pool Resort experienced its fair share of damages.

they made a weird variety of hot rod movies in the late 50s Hot rods, monsters and rock'n'roll... In this teen-oriented picture, a gang of greasers hole up in a reputedly haunted mansion after getting evicted from their clubhouse.

Hot rods, monsters and rock'n'roll... In this teen-oriented picture, a gang of greasers hole up in a reputedly haunted mansion after getting evicted from their clubhouse.

interesting!


This is cool, Jeff Allison drew up a cut and fold Billy Gibbons hot rod




Been a long time since I've seen art from Jeff Allison


Chevrolet Baby Grand, I think this is the first I've ever heard of it



Meteor 27-litre V-12,1932 Rolls-Royce Custom Special








It’s a 1932 Rolls-Royce chassis with a ’47 or ’48 Meteor engine out of a Centurion tank. It’s equivalent to the Spitfire Merlin without the supercharger.