Wednesday, April 02, 2025

John Krasinski has a movie coming out where he drives a Shelby Cobra. Stanley Tucci and Natalie Portman co-star, Guy Ritchie directs. Premiers May 23rd


 


last September the apparel company Tuner Cult gifted a Nevada man a 2016 Porsche 911 GT3 RS that along with $50,000 cash. Last Friday the Porsche was going 85 in a 45, swerved to avoid another car, and left the road, but landed on the wheels

and here's what it looked like when it was given away:


The sheriff’s office noted that the driver was taken into custody for suspicion of driving under the influence as well as possession of a firearm while intoxicated. 

The Ford Mustang GTD will be sold in various guises as well, with two of them being revealed thus far – the Carbon Series, as well as the Spirit of America, paying homage to Craig Breedlove, and one in the works that's not official yet, a USPS edition


the Spirit of USPS edition is another way the automaker plans to pay homage to American ingenuity in a very different way. 

The Spirit of USPS Mustang is designed to highlight Ford’s budding relationship with the United States Postal Service

Magpul decided around 2013 that they wanted to conduct some business in a high-class environment, and elegantly restored a 1952 Flxible to do the job . . .







 

On the inside, Magpul has stocked the cabinet with 1950’s era weaponry. The top row of the cabinet has a line of 1911 handguns, and below that are a slew of Thompson submachine guns

Due a policy change at Ford, Revology is no longer permitted to build licensed reproduction Mustang rolling chassis.

Ford has decided to implement a new policy regarding its vehicle licensing agreements as of January 1st, 2025. Ford’s new policy is to license only products that comply with NHTSA regulations for new vehicles or are not sold for use on public roads. Revology remains in good standing with Ford and is presently evaluating the feasibility of compliance with the new policy.

Revology was even created by Tom Scarpello, the former Marketing & Sales Manager for Ford’s Special Vehicle Team


the chief of a volunteer fire department in New Jersey plead guilty to throwing buckets of rocks and debris on a rare (1 of 30) 1995 Nismo 270R in retaliation for a next door neighbor issue of how water drained from the car owners land to the fire dept land



The 270R—a version of the S14 Silvia tuned in-house by Nismo—is undeniably rare and particularly desirable, and this example was reportedly owned by Japanese racing legend and “Drift King” Keiichi Tsuchiya

The rocks caused chips, scratches, and dents to the paint

The nearly $8,000 that the fire chief has already paid in restitution doesn't cover a new paint job, but that's not the key issue, the 270R’s originality.

Bahna claims the coupe was a matching-numbers example in “mint condition” that was still wearing its original paint and decals. He adds that it now needs to be professionally restored, which will significantly reduce its value as an “all-original collector’s specimen,” and that a deal to sell the car for $500,000 fell through following the incident. He claims that he’s been unable to sell it since. (sounds like a lot of bullshit from someone that needs to get this case resolved, and hopes for half that much in a settlement instead of jury trial)

Mark Bahna says he found the 270R, which is 1 of approximately 30 built, covered in rocks and footage captured by his security cameras shows the chief of the volunteer fire department, dumping buckets of rocks onto the rare car, destroying the original paint.

 Bahna lives right next to the fire station and Scolnick admitted to police that he vandalized the 270R because he didn’t like the way water drained from Bahna’s property onto the fire station’s.


Tuesday, April 01, 2025

some kid who didn't know their future would be working as an automotive journalist photographed a LOT of the semis at a rest area off I-5 in 1972!

 




lol

Leno got to drive one of my favorite historic cars, the Thomas Flyer


The National Historic Vehicle Register, the program that records the history of America’s most significant automobiles, and it's an interesting yardstick to judge my, or any other, website about cool cars. A great site would have most of these, an amazing site would have them all and thousands of others

 






I think I've only never heard of, and not posted, the 1896 Benton Harbor Motor Carriage

it turns out there are some really strange things that happen on April Fools day, that get in the news... that aren't prank news headlines. Here's one, the Mackinac Bridge shut down today, which I've never heard of happening before, because of falling ice due to serious rain, freezing temps, etc

 

if you don't know what you're doing, get someone else to do it for you

 

oddly, none of the vehicles in Star Wars....

 have tires.

Exactly how they get vehicles towed, such as when a ship needs to be moved into or out of a hanger, or arranged on an spaceport? Was overlooked I suppose

https://www.quora.com/Why-don-t-any-Star-Wars-ships-have-wheels-They-either-walking-legs-or-they-fly-Did-they-never-invent-wheels#:~:text=It%20was%20Star%20Wars%20creator,to%20make%20them%20look%20futuristic

Monday, March 31, 2025

Russians are preparing to send an almost 75-year-old GAZ-69 to the battlefront.



England is on the verge of shutting down the World Economic Forum's "15 Minute Cities" programme after almost all the cameras were destroyed and 50,000 people refused to pay the fines.

 

the Blade Runners activist group has neutralised 90% of the cameras installed under a zero-emission scheme that penalizes vehicles that fail to meet standards.

what in the world was airplane malt, and why was a company named that?

 


Designed By Harry L. Vaughan, Design Patent No. 44,226 (06/17/1913).

here's a drag racing video that had me wondering if either driver ever considered lifting... just to avoid crashing into each other (skip to 14:30)







I just learned that JC Whitney sponsored Kevin Smith (pop culture icon / director) for a 5 episode series of 3 minute videos on movie cars, that seems to have run it's course.






a gasser Celica in Hawaii... thank you Ken!

 



the annual Shelby car show is going to be at the Segerstrom Shelby Events Center and Museum (near the 5/405 split in Irvine, 5 Whatney, Irvine, CA 92618) 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM on Saturday May 17.


Bill in Arizona has now collected 11,525 car club plaques

 https://carclubplaques.pairsite.com/

Sunday, March 30, 2025

Groovy graphics.... thank you Jim!


more than one B 17 tail gunner was stuck in the tail section after it was severed from the rest of the aircraft with no parachute, and survived the crash landing


Raley's account came almost three months to the day after he improbably survived that fall from the skies over Piraeus Harbor in Greece. His crew was part of the 353rd Bomb Squadron, 301st Bomb Group, Fifteenth Air Force

He recalled "a hell of a jolt" as the bomber's 12-foot tail section was sheared off from the rest of the aircraft. Crammed into tight quarters and his movement constricted by the pair of machine guns he manned and several hundred rounds of ammunition, Raley could not create enough space to put on his parachute.

But instead of descending at breakneck speed, the bomber's tail spiraled downward, somewhat slowing its velocity, and Raley estimated it took 10-15 minutes for the wreckage to complete its fall.

The tail section fortuitously first made contact with a cluster of trees on a mountainside before stopping abruptly. Raley painstakingly extricated himself from all of the ammo surrounding him, then -- with the escape hatch nearest him damaged and pinned shut -- exited through the bulkhead door. For the first time, Raley saw the full extent of what he had survived.


On Nov 1943, inside a B-17F named Rikki Tikki Tavi from the 96th BG, was Staff Sergeant Moran.

 As a tail gunner, Moran was in the thick of the fight against the swarm of enemy fighters  when the Rikki Tikki Tavi was cut into two pieces, by German Bf 109s and FW190s. 

Moran was still inside the tail.

Some of the research for the above film of his experience was found in the great book Tailspin by John Armbruster.

https://www.military.com/history/how-world-war-ii-tail-gunner-survived-midair-collision-without-parachute.html
https://www.thegleaner.com/story/opinion/2019/04/04/henderson-soldier-survived-3-7-mile-fall-during-wwii/3371078002/