Japan still holds fastest train record, Frances attempt short by 8 mph

Japan used a mag lev, France used a special (of course) railroad of treated rails, higher voltage powerlines, and special train wheels... even though they didn't break the old record, bravo for doing 353 mph with A FREAKIN TRAIN! http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-04-03-france-train_N.htm

Electric drag race motorbike, 8 second 155mph

http://www.killacycle.com/

Motorcycle crashes, de jour... "Houston, we have a problem"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tvcp9JBPTg&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fbitsandpieces1%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F

"This is where it all began" not just the opening line of a Cult song

Thanks to and I recommend you look through http://www.shorpy.com/

Gotta praise firefighters

Chemical fire extinguiser 1910

1915
Ladder 1900

Ladder 1944
Locomobile

And they way cool vehicles they've used in the way back days, some when horses had to pull the firefighting equipment around. From http://www.thepostroad.com/bfd/photos.html these are photos of the Bridgeport Fire Dept.

1915 Stanley Steamer taxis

From Steam Car News http://www.stanleysteamers.com/page-four.htm

"We lost one, but let it be remembered by saving others"

In the effort to get the resources for World War 2, a lot of community activism was powered up. War bonds were sold, silk stocking for women were stalled in manufacturing, in order to use the silk for parachutes http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/82/a4217582.shtml
http://www.hec.ohio-state.edu/people/ebradshaw/wedding/wedding_traditions.htm
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/19/heirloom_parachute_w.html (best story, dress in the Smithsonian) the kids got in to the mood by recycling rubber tires from their bikes, and would go house to house to collect any recycleables that people would give to the war effort.

More to the relevance of my website here, is that cars were scrapped. Just brought down and melted for the steel. Necessary? Appearantly so. Sad? We don't even remember that it happened, and know nothing of the cars that disappeared as a help to the cause of saving the world from the Axis Powers.

I want to help keep the history clean, clear, and known, just as much as I'm able in the car world. So, in 1915 a car company called Locomobile made 2 unique cars... well the bodies were each very one off, and extraordinary in the features that they innovated, that went on to be standard features. One of these two was donated for scrap, one remains in the MAggie Valley Museum in North Carolina. http://www.wheelsthroughtime.com/pages/vintageautos.html

Well here is the only pic I can find of the one that didn't get scrapped.

Car review website, searchable by make

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/

Car stuff that disappeared, or phrases that we never hear anymore

Fender skirts
curb feelers
steering knobs
Continental kits
emergency brakes
foot feedrunning board
dimmer switch
choke
column shift
push button
Brake shoes
Automat
vent window
pour spout
hubcaps
rumble seats
Ammoco White
rear seat speaker
inner tube
http://www.aztexcorp.com/expressionengine/index.php?/weblog/comments/401/

Racing cars images, by year / make / model / race, it's pure car porn

http://www.atspeedimages.com/

Posies is trying something way different

http://www.posiesrodsandcustoms.com/category/posies-fleetliner/

A chopped ‘47 Chevy Fleetline Aerosedan with a Roush-built, supercharged 300-cube Ford inline-6 sporting three sets of exhaust headers and triple tailpipes. No fenders. Finished in flatblue paint, with rivets and reveals for looks, the“Fleetliner” fastback looks like a Bugatti Atlantic that had spent a bit too much time with Darth Vader.

Beautiful place for food, American style, the roadside diner

http://www.classicaldrives.com/50226711/the_american_diner_a_protected_species.php

http://www.chss.iup.edu/kpatrick/Diners%20of%20New%20Jersey.shtml

Holley will sponsor this years National Hot Rod Reunion June 15-17

The big news... is that the actor who played John Milner (Paul Le Mat) will be there with two replica cars, the yellow 32 Duece, and the 55 Chevy that Harrison Ford drove. http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=253971&FS=NHRA

Big Deal.

Yeah, big deal. Whoop dee doo.

He was here in San Diego last summer at the Over The Hill Gang Streak #34, Campland on the Bay, with the real 32 Duece that actually was in the movie. http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/11/american-graffitti-duece.html#links

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/remember-55-chev-in-american-graffitti.html#links

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/11/great-movie-american-graffitti-cars.html#links

The 2007 Pirelli Calendar... if you are familiar with it

http://www.pirellical.com/thecal/calendar.html

Sofia Loren posed!

What's hanging around your neighborhood?

Unimog and other interesting stuff around the neighborhood

Must-Haves for a Sportster Collector

The Sportsters considered most unusual and sought-after by collectors, the 1977-78 XLCR Cafe Racer and the 1983-85 XR1000

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/automobiles/collectibles/05SPORTSTER.html?ex=1180065600&en=7289356b0512c1ef&ei=5070

Look through some cool 67 - 75 magazine ads for Muscle Cars

http://www.adclassix.com/musclecar.html

How the autombile was patented, and royalties were collected from anyone who made them

Inspired by the mammoth internal combustion engine invented by George Brayton displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, George Selden began working on a smaller lighter version, succeeding by 1878, some eight years before the public introduction of the Benz Patent Motorwagen in Europe.

He filed for a patent on May 8, 1879. His application included not only the engine but its use in a 4 wheeled car. He then filed a series of amendments to his application which stretched out the legal process resulting in a delay of 16 years before the patent US patent 549160 was granted on November 5, 1895.

Shortly thereafter the fledgling American auto industry began its first efforts and George Selden, despite never having gone into production with a working model of an automobile, had a credible claim to have patented an automobile in 1895.

In 1899 he sold his patent rights to William C. Whitney, Whitney and Selden then worked together to collect royalties from other budding automobile manufacturers. He was initially successful, negotiating a 0.75% royalty on all cars sold by the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, the ALAM. He began his own car company in Rochester under the name, Selden Motor Vehicle Company.

However, Henry Ford, owner of the Ford Motor Company, founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1903, and four other car makers resolved to contest the patent infringement suit filed by Selden. The legal fight lasted eight years, generating a case record of 14,000 pages.

The case was heavily publicized in the newspapers of the day, and ended in a victory for Selden. In his decision, the judge wrote that the patent covered any automobile propelled by an engine powered by gasoline vapor. Posting a bond of $350,000, Ford appealed, and on January 10, 1911 won his case based on an argument that the engine used in automobiles was not based on George Brayton's engine, the Brayton engine which Selden had improved, but on the Otto engine.

The above is mostly from Wikipedia, but for a very indepth and journalist written account with quotes from the people involved gathered from the newspapers of the day, http://www.s363.com/selden/case.html

This stunning defeat, with only 1 year left to run on the patent, destroyed Selden's income stream. He focused production of his car company on trucks, renaming his company the Selden Truck Sales Corporation. It survived in that form until 1930 when it was purchased by the Bethlehem Truck Company. Selden suffered a stroke in late 1921 and died at 75 on January 17, 1922. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester. It is estimated he received several hundred thousand dollars in royalties.

450 HP sand buggy, I bet these are already in vogue at Glamis

http://motorsmania.blogspot.com/2007/01/horse-power-sand.html

http://www.glamisdunes.com/

Hybrid car gas ratings finally forced to prove the nonsense claims

http://www.attuworld.com/cars/hybrid_cars_fantasy_mileage_ratings_drive_into_the_sunset

What's hanging around your neighborhood?

What a unusual car to keep lkooking this good! It's got the black and yellow plates, and that's all it takes as far as I'm concerned. Must be a six cylinder, by the single tail pipe, and lack of engine call outs.

It's a 68 Plymouth Valiant Signet, and remarkably clean inside and out, interior pics didn't turn out, too dim in the evening, but wow... fresh paint and aftermarket rims. Congrads to the wner who isn't dying from the gas mileage of the straight six.

More what's hanging around your neighborhood?

I still can't tell for sure if it's 2 or 4 door, but how lucky that it fits lengthwise in the garage!

Now this really shows effort, a 72 Dodge Dart Swinger, Cragar SS rims proviong again that everything looks better with that vintage Cragar SS look. Hood scoop is (I think) a 64 Super Stock Dodge aftermarket piece, and wow, what a king pin piece tot he whole package look. Nothing sets off a car better than the right hood scoop choice.


Even went the 200 dollar extra with the 69 Super Bee exhaust tips. My applause!

More what's hanging around your neighborhood?

BMW, something about fine engineering.. it escapes me what the catch phrase is

I bet they weren't referring to this bit of engineering accomplistment. Ever heard of hog ring repairs to a plastic rear window? They don't mention it at http://www.bmwgroupna.com/index.asp ... of course, they are the ultimate driving machine... not that I've ever, but no claims on convertible rear window translucency, or ability to take hog ring repairs either!

What's hanging around your neighborhood? continued