Just a Car Guy: 2/8/09

Saturday, February 14, 2009

1937 BMW R 7, when design was a bit of engineering, and a lot of artistic beauty

From http://www.autoblog.hu/?r=12603 via http://stipistop.com/

It was sealed in a box for 70 years.
The R7 was originally built in 1934 as a prototype, and production plans were scrapped as World War II spread across Europe. The R7, which was more heavy and expensive to build than BMW would have liked, was stripped of some useful parts and put away in a box.

In 2005, the R7 was brought back into daylight, and BMW Classic rebuilt the bike, which has suffered corrosion over the years. Now the bike, which many consider a masterpiece ahead of its time, is operational again. http://www.nextautos.com/over-70-years-later-bmw-r7-prototype

For more beautiful BMW motorcycles: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2008/11/best-bmw-restorer-in-america-tim.html

James Corbett car parts sculptures

http://www.jamescorbettart.com/default.html is the artists website, but you can see more galleries of his works at the following

http://www.autofiends.com/index.php/2008/09/awesome-aussie-car-sculptor-james-corbett/

http://www.totaltravel.com.au/link.asp?fid=645811

http://www.johndaviesgallery.com/exhibitionsView.asp?exhibitionTitle=James%20Corbett%20-%20Car%20Part%20Sculptor%20Extraordinaire&exhibitionID=12

Found in the Jan 2009 Octane Magazine

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Hot Rod Hayride

I came across this event in Octane Magazine

http://www.hotrodhayride.com/index2.html

Galleries of good photos, if you don't mind the COPYWRITE written across every single one. I hate that.

Stonegate Farm, Detroit, Michigan
Cavallino Ferrari Meet 2008
Boca Raton Concours d'Elegance 2007
Cavallino Ferrari Meet 2006, Palm Beach, Florida

http://photos.ducati.net/Cars%20and%20Airplanes

The Gearhead Invitational

Does anyone know if Gale Banks still throws a big car show? The only time it's been on that I have come across was 2006, and Mr Jalopy covered it...

The reason I dig Mr Jalopy

http://hooptyrides.blogspot.com/2006/08/gale-gearhead-banks-accidently.html

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

drag racing trains, this seems to be a growing international sport!

Via Pixdaus

Speeding ticket humor

A cowboy was pulled over by an Arizona DPS Trooper for speeding.
The trooper started to lecture the cowboy about his speeding, and in general began to throw his weight around to try to make the cowboy feel uncomfortable.

Finally, the trooper got around to writing out the ticket. As he was doing that, he kept swatting at some flies that were buzzing around his head.

The cowboy said, "Y'all havin' some problem with circle flies?"
The trooper stopped writing the ticket and said, "Well yeah, if that's what they're called. But I never heard of no circle flies."
"Well, sir," the cowboy replied, "circle flies hang around ranches. They're called circle flies because they're almost always found circling around the back end of a horse."
The trooper said, "Oh," and went back to writing the ticket. But, a moment later he stopped and said, "Are you calling me a horse's ass?"
"No, sir," the cowboy replied, "I have too much respect for law enforcement to call y'all a horse's ass."
"That's a good thing," the trooper said and went back to writing the ticket.
After a long pause, the cowboy, in his best Texas drawl said, "Hard to fool them flies though."
Thanks Tere!

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Words of wisdom, from those who've broken the parts, as "offerings to the god of speed" quote of Burt Munro

Red Bull F1 Rule Book video, very cool explanation of F1 car design and improvement, skip right to the 15 second mark

an executive summary of the 2009 Formula 1 rule changes narrated by Sebastian Vettel

The target is to improve overtaking, making for better racing action and fan enjoyment, is realized by moving back to slick tires, and marginalizing the wings and aero appendages to enact a reduction in downforce accompanied by the introduction of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/special-f1-2009-a-step-into-the-unknown/

The most important job of the Overtaking Working Group (OWG) is to improve overtaking in Formula 1 and the OWG has been formed by three of the most respectable technical engineers in the sport – McLaren's Paddy Lowe, Renault's Pat Symonds and Ferrari's Rory Byrne

The main reason why rear diffuser designs have been modified recently, as well as front and rear wing formats was to make sure cars that want to engage themselves into an overtaking will not suffer as much from the pursued car's air flow as before.

Mishi and Peter of http://stipistop.com/ finds the coolest stuff!

Oradour Sur Glane, France

Henry lives nearby, and emailed me the story about Oradour.

The German army rounded up all the villagers on suspicion of collaborating with the resistance during WW2 and placed all the women and children in the church, and the menfolk in various buildings around the village. At the church, soldiers brought in a box containing some sort of explosive device and detonated it amidst the terrified women and children. The SS then started firing their machine guns into the church through the doors and windows and also threw in hand grenades to murder the women and children.

They shot the men in the legs before setting fire to the entire village, the church included, thus burning alive some 600 people. The whole village was completely destroyed and only a handful of people escaped.

The village was designated a memorial site and left exactly as it was on the day of the attrocity,and remains so to this day. Hence all the contents of the village including all the vehicles remain in situ where they were burned.

That is the saddest thing you'll learn all week.

http://www.oradour.info/

http://www.secondworldwar.co.uk/ora_tour/oradour.html

Terrific photography at Street Machine

The only 6 pack Hemi to leave the factory... I wish they had made them here in the US....

For more see http://streetmachinemag.typepad.com/street_machine/

1969 Road Runner in great photography, for more of this cool photography: Street Machine of Australia, the Aussie horsepower bible since 1981!

Via http://streetmachinemag.typepad.com/street_machine/2008/08/road-runner.html

Michael Innins's stunning '69 Road Runner. Power is provided by a 490ci Wedge motor screwed together by Trick and Mansweto and backed by a TKO Tremec five-speed

Mopar cruise to the Las Vegas extravaganza, Mopars at the Strip

Mopar Collectors Guide Magazine and Fender Guitars will be sponsoring a Kick Off party at Fender Guitars in Scottsdale, Arizona on Thursday, March 19th from 8:30 am to around 10:30 am with coffee, donuts, breakfast goodies, etc and a live band.

For all those interested, there will be a film crew following us as well as Mopar Collectors Guide magazine. Chris Jacobs the host from Overhaulin will also be riding along on the Phoenix cruise.

http://www.moparsatthestrip.com/2007/mopower_cruse.shtml for more details... other cruises will start at Glendora CA, Salt Lake City, Denver, Albuquerque, and Kingman AZ

Monday, February 09, 2009

Ed Roth was the cover of the May 1961 Car Craft! Man! I love that Aussie Street Machine for sharing this!

http://streetmachinemag.typepad.com/street_machine/2008/12/beatnik-bandit.html

"Love the Beast"

Eric Bana, Love The Beast
Actor Eric Bana always wanted to be a race car driver, and kept a musclecar for years... now he takes it on a rally race! 600 Hp at the rear tires!http://www.lovethebeast.com.au/ and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1284028/Via: http://stipistop.com/page/5/

and http://streetmachinemag.typepad.com/street_machine/2009/02/love-the-beast-drivein-premiere.html for the poster

Beautiful photography

http://www.usautoparts.net/bmw/models/vintage/isetta.htm

Elvis in an Isetta! Cary Grant too!

http://www.usautoparts.net/bmw/models/vintage/isetta.htm for Elvis, Pixdaus for Cary

The BMW 600, also known as the Isetta limo

Designed by Willy Black, the BMW 600 was intended as an enlarged Isetta three-wheeler with more power and a more conventional four-wheel configuration.
The front end of the 600 was virtually unchanged from the Isetta, but the 600's wheelbase was stretched to accommodate four seats. A conventional rear axle was added. BMW introduced the semi-trailing arm independent suspension on the 600. This suspension would be used on almost every new model for the next four decades.

Because of extra size and weight, the 600 had a more powerful engine than the Isetta. The 600 had the 582 cc twin engine from the R67 motorcycle. Top speed was 64 mph.

In two years only 34,000 600's were produced, partly due to price competition with the entry-level VW Beetle. In the late 50's consumers wanted cars that looked like cars, and they had lost interest in economy models. Sales of the 600 were, however, aided by the energy crisis of 1956-57.

The normal 300 in contrast had top speed of 53 mph, and it got 63 miles per gallon. In 1958 you could buy one for $1,093.

http://www.usautoparts.net/bmw/models/vintage/isetta.htm

Fire wagon on a mission - Washington D.C 1915

Via Pixdaus

Ruxton or DuPont?

Not very many cars had these Woodlight headlights.

Look at the details in this photo of a Ford dealership in the 1920's California, tools, air pumps, steering wheel... I'd love to walk into that place!

http://carrosantigos.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/ford-dealer-california/

Dealership photos from the 20's through 60's

http://carrosantigos.wordpress.com/%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us&usg=ALkJrhiQfBcoV9geNOUPFYbtT_nzoFE1Ng/

Nik does it again, blows my mind with another incredible collection of stuff in one post!

http://carrosantigos.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/antigos-outdoors-da-fords/ for 2 dozen more!

Sunday, February 08, 2009

"They're still out there" the Model T Ford club of San Diego

Via: http://clubs.hemmings.com/frameset.cfm?club=mtfcsd

The weekly dose of train photos

Via Pixdaus

Movie posters weren't too complicated in 1957

Girl loves hot cars and a rich dragstrip racer. Her parents don't like either one. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050337/

How did this not win the oscar for best screen play?

From the 50's, when tailfins were required for designs to sell (it seems)

From http://www.fiberglassics.com/galleries/bitb/ via http://stipistop.com/

If you wanted a boat that had the beauty of automotive design, but without the half way mutant looks of the Amphicar, or the Isetta boat http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/02/smile-this-coudnt-have-actually-went-in.html then thse boats look really good.