Wednesday, September 15, 2021
I just learned that Carroll Shelby raced a Austin Healey in the 1954 Carrera Panamericana, crashed, broke his right arm, but went on to continue racing at Riverside, Torrey Pines, Palm Springs, Sebring etc
in 1955, 56, 57 he raced in 81 and won half of them.
His racing career was over at age 37 because of his heart condition
From the 2019 movie Shelby American, which never mentioned the lawsuit, but brought up how many beautiful young women he married
Things I did not know, but just learned category, Max Balchowsky had served in WW2 as a B-24 belly turret gunner (thanks Kim! )
Max Balchowsky was born and raised in Fairmont, West Virginia.
His early training in mechanical engineering came when he worked in watch repair and bicycle shops at a young age.
He served in World War II as a B-24 belly turret gunner in the European campaign and following injuries incurred while bailing out, served in the Burma campaign.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Balchowsky
https://silodrome.com/documentary-max-balchowsky-story/
I've learned a little about Max, due to the fantastic innovations in constructing the Ol Yaller race cars... but nothing I'd read until now mentioned his time in WW2, so I looked at the first thing that popped up on Google, and it also mentioned the above, watch repair and bike shops. Huh!
During World War II Balchowsky was a belly gunner in the turret of a B-24 Liberator. On a mission over Europe his bomber was .hit so hard by fighters and flack the crew had to abandon her. Making it as far back as France Balchowsky, wounded, was forced with the rest of the crew to bail out, France being friendly territory, thus avoiding possible capture by the enemy. Following a short recuperation period and regardless of his number of missions in Europe he was sent to the China-Burma-India theater, more specifically Burma. It was in the CBI where he finally finished out the war mainly participating in low-level bombing runs just like the Flying Tigers and the Fujiyama Foo-Foo only from an Army Air Force B-24 on Japanese ships not far from Haiphong Harbor and Hanoi in the Gulf of Tonkin right off the coast of Vietnam.
http://the-wanderling.com/chennault02.html
Google books has World War II Veterans in Motorsports By Art Evans
something that I haven't seen before, a compilation video showing the variety of many cars hidden headlights being activated to roll, drop, or pop up
here's a 68 Riviera to demonstrate just one example of a hidden headlight I've never seen switch from hidden to functioning until now
Here's the link to the video I found that shows a dozen others.... I couldn't find this on youtube so I could embed it here. https://mghazal67.tumblr.com/post/662361935339192320
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
it's not THE solution, but it IS A solution...
I'm going to guess this Ford was not built with air conditioning, as it has to be cheaper to fix a broken AC than to buy the generator and window mount AC
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4660744423958341&set=gm.10161480067347516
if you wonder why they are trying to jazz up margarine and go store to store doing PR and marketing, there once was a butter vs margarine war in Canada and the USA
I heard about it in the Stuff You Should Know Podcast, or another similar podcast
it appears that the F1 Halo safety device saved Lewis Hamilton's life, when Verstappen’s right rear tire appears to hit Hamilton’s helmet, when he ran overHamilton's car because two cars can't occupy the same place in a tight chicane turn, at the same time, unless one is on top of the other
time to send a caterer to deliver steak diners to the makers of that Halo roll bar.
https://www.autoweek.com/racing/formula-1/a37563290/halo-saves-lewis-hamiltons-life-verstappen/
Monday, September 13, 2021
the ad agency that figured out the way for a Wrangler to max the potential of the COEX digital billboard in Seoul should be awarded!
I can only find 2 versions, both low quality resolution, either 240, or 360
Hmmm, some problems with going electric are quickly coming up
A loss in revenue for dealerships.
EVs typically require less maintenance than their internal-combustion counterparts, and they could become even more reliable down the road as the technology improves.
This is because EVs tend to have fewer moving parts, and of course there are no more oil changes.
Cadillac just learned that some dealerships aren't looking forward to that, and it turns out that was 17% of the dealerships it had. They opted for a buyout instead.
The other option was to spend around $200,000 on average, to upgrade their facilities with charging, tooling and training for EVs.
And of course, what to do when there's no power grid, like Texas last year, or California in every heat wave?
The power companies are not to be relied upon, and the more the culture in the USA switches to electric, the less the power companies will be able to be trustworthy, especially after a hurricane in New Orleans, etc etc.
I haven't heard any news about any upgrades to the century old power lines, power poles, etc, and the use of electricity only grows with all the additional tech inventions, like apple watches, tablets, cell phones, electric cars, flat screens, powered home theater subwoofers, etc etc. Looks like there will be a lot of growing pains
Want to hear something crazy? Delhi Police caught some guy who stole more than 50 luxury cars, which he then gave to each of his 16 girlfriends.
Delhi Police interrogated the man, who confessed to the crimes, admitting he stole the vehicles for his girlfriends and “his own hobbies.” The man, named Robin, has a string of known aliases and we’re assuming quite the toolkit for boosting cars.
https://www.motorious.com/articles/news/man-steals-over-50-luxury-cars/
cool station wagon with patina on the new Disney show Doogie Kamealoha MD...
Jason Scott Lee plays her dad, and it's been a long time since I've seen him on screen... he was excellent in the Bruce Lee biopic
Sunday, September 12, 2021
William T Larkin.....the guy that took many of the pics of WWII aircraft graveyards. is here in the top photo with the Flying Seal, which was made too late for WW2, so it was sold as scrap and bought by the National Motor Bearing Company for board members transportation. Thanks Scott K!
Civil Registration: NL66548
Model(s): B-25J Mitchell, The Flying Seal
History: Built for U.S. Army Air Force as 45-8829, August 1945. -
Not accepted by air force. - Delivered new to Reconstruction Finance Corp, Walnut Ridge, AR, October 31, 1945.
Registered as NL66548. - Converted to executive transport for the National Motor Bearing Company. - Flown as The Flying Seal.
San Francisco in 1948
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b25registry/b25-458829.html
https://www.airhistory.net/photo/44247/NL66548
the National Motor Bearing Co was originally founded in 1920 in San Francisco, by Lloyd A. Johnson, who had built his company from scratch, and went on to invent and patent in 1936 the process of making laminated shims.
the National Motor Bearing Co produced "shims and oil seals", for transportation - trains, planes, automobiles, ships, subs - you name it. It was a key defense industry during WWII and one of, if not, the major employer of the city at that time. It also had 2 subsidiaries: the Arrowhead Rubber Co., and National Seal Co.
the National Motor Bearing Co hired Arthur Radebaugh for the Marketing & Advertizing Dept., and was greatly rewarded by his amazing art style:
You might not recall the name, but you'll probably remember the futuristic art on the cover of MoToR Magazine in the 1930s from my post in 2016
His creative talent and futurist imagination had been well honed by his stint in the army when in 1942 he went to work for the Pentagon's Ordnance Office, heading up an R&D department of Design and Visualization, designing weapons of the future, and other useful things.
He worked with fellow artists and industrial designers (notably, Will Eisner was working in the same office!), designing weapons of the future.
In 1956, the company merged with Federal-Mogul Bower of Detroit which propelled NMB as one of the top 300 companies of the country.
https://friendlyhistorycorner.blogspot.com/2011/09/where-are-my-flying-cars.html#more
https://friendlyhistorycorner.blogspot.com/2011/08/national-motor-bearing.html
but the tractor he designed is till my favorite https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2021/03/a-tractor-painting-by-arthur-radebaugh.html
Erwin E. Smith was both cowboy and skilled photographer, who used the medium to document the waning years of open-range cowboy life in the American West. During his lifetime, he was recognized as having "brought together with the camera the most complete account of the passing west that has ever been made."
With an infinite patience, and an Eastman screen focus Kodak camera fitted with a Goerz lens with a volute shutter, Smith captured the real image of that most universally recognized of American symbols, the cowboy.
That was not his intention, at least not in the beginning. He wanted to be a sculptor and reproduce the West in bronze, but he never quite got there, and somewhere along the way, the legacy he left was almost forgotten.
Smith eating a mid-morning snack of canned tomatoes, an important item in the early days of a cowboy’s diet. O R Ranch, 1909
https://www.facebook.com/oldwestphotographs/photos/a.755881681112491/2672123742821599/
https://www.texascooppower.com/texas-stories/history/western-exposure
https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/erwin-e-smith/m0vp6wyz
and now for something a little different, a 69 Galaxie XL, simply because I don't recall even ever seeing one until now
they had a version with hidden headlights too
http://smclassiccars.com/ford/119610-1969-ford-galaxie-xl-gt-429-4-speed.html
https://www.streetsideclassics.com/vehicles/2523-dfw/1969-ford-galaxie-500-fastback
Since I've not been lucky enough to work on the early Mustangs (64-66ish) I didn't know that the gas tank IS the trunk floor.... sure is a lot easier to RnR than a Mopar tank where the tank is going to need you to lift it into position to reinstall it
Just setting it into position? Dang, that's NICE!
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