Saturday, May 16, 2015

Tyrone Graham's uniquely painted ’55 Chevy Top Sportsman.. the filthy 55


Graham, who lives in North Carolina, campaigns a car that was first constructed back in 1997 by Wally Stroupe and raced by none other than Chevy Pro Mod legend Charles Carpenter. Since taking possession Graham has proceeded forward with a number of upgrades, including a nitrous-injected Chevy engine. Graham’s one-of-a-kind paint scheme, which boasts a rough texture and bleeding through rust look was done in conjunction with Chuck Chapman (Hickory, North Carolina). Possibly Graham’s biggest claim to fame so far with his car might very well be back-to-back Quick 8 title wins during the Pinks All Out events held at ZMax Dragway in 2009 and 2010.

Found on http://www.hotrod.com/cars/featured/1507-a-filthy-fifty-five-veteran-vette-race-and-more-drag-racing-chevys/

Friday, May 15, 2015

The Ioccoca Award honors a person who has demonstrated an extraordinary dedication to the classic car hobby through vehicle preservation, club participation, and one who has unselfishly assisted and encouraged others in perpetuating an “American Automotive Tradition.” ( nobody nominated me... sigh) Here are some stand out award recipients

Don Garlits is considered the “father” of drag racing, with his design perfecting the rear engine “top fuel dragster design” saving many lives. Together with his wife they started the Don Garlits Museum in 1976.

Denise McGluggage is a pioneer for women in both motorsports and journalism as a race car driver, author and photographer. Her many achievements include the only journalist inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. She’s founding editor of the magazine Autoweek and through The Concorso she’s helped to contribute to non-profit youth organizations in Northern New Mexico.

John Hotchkis, Jr. President of Hotchkis Performance is involved first-hand with many aspects of the car culture: through modification, installing latest performance parts as well as providing driving instruction on the track. He participates in the Wounded Warrior Foundation, Cruising for a Cure, Make a Wish, Motor 4 Toys and Sema Cars – Victory Junction Gang Camp.

Jacob Bagnell is a “car guy for all seasons”! He is a retired high school teacher of auto shop/mechanics, an entrepreneur starting an automotive and motorcycle upholstery business, a restorer with dozens of cars to his credit, an author writing professional journals and curriculum, a speaker demonstrating automotive procedures and a leader with his volunteerism in numerous charitable organizations.

Dr. Frederick A. Simeone a renowned neurosurgeon has assembled over 60 of the rarest and most significant racing cars ever built at The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia. His Foundation supports and has held events for United Cerebral Palsy, American Cancer Society, Mission Kids, Daddy’s Spirit to name a few.

Bill Alley is a virtual library of facts. He will make the parts if he cannot find what the other person is seeking. He specializes in collecting brass era cars, about 125 in total, many pre-1915. Through his various automotive affiliations, he has been a major participant in Driving Young America Fund for scholarships to individuals and institutions. A former Olympian and a retired mechanical engineer with multiple patents in the medical and aerospace industries. He is the owner of a large collection of early original unrestored cars. Alley does most of his own restoration work including fabricating parts when needed. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r103:S27MY3-B121:

Craig Jackson, Chairman and CEO of the Barrett-Jackson Auction Company, is one of the world’s most respected car collector and restoration experts. Jackson’s auctions are known all over the world and he consistently has improved the quality and scope of the events. His commitment to philanthropy has earned millions of dollars for charities across the country.

Ken Gross is a highly acclaimed automotive journalist for 37 years writing in numerous publications, such as AutoWeek, Hagerty’s Magazine, Road & Track, Old Cars Weekly and many, many more. He’s written numerous books, his latest: Hot Rods and Custom Cars, Los Angeles and The Dry Lakes.

Tim and Pam Wellborn (joint award) host a gathering of win cars every 5 years on the lawn of their home. Tim is a proud owner of a very rare car, the 1971 Hemi Charger. He became a car aficionado at age 14, and bought his car 2 years before he even had his license. He fixed up the car, and used it to woo his high school sweetheart, Pam, who is now his wife of many years.

Jack Nethercutt is the owner of Nethercutt Museums (which was started by his father, JB Nethercutt, in 1971). The Museum showcases over 200 cars and is open to the public for free tours. Jack continues to enrich the legacy of his father, a true car enthusiast and collector.

Jim and Zona Painter (joint award) are owners of Painter Motor, a Chrysler, Plymouth, and Dodge Franchise commencing in 1945. Jim and Zona have 60 years in the car business, 60 years of marriage, 10 children, 37 grandchildren, and 18 great grandchildren. These two have made cars their business and their hobby for over half a century.
http://www.moparmax.com/features/2010/v_9-painter-1.html

Bill Warner is the founder of The Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance and has been an avid car collector all of his life. He is an award winning photographer and writer for Sports Car Graphic, Road & Track and dozens of respected national magazines, prestigious museums and celebrated automotive venues. Bill is also recognized by his countless charitable contributions.

Roger Morrison has served as a member and chairman of the McPherson College Advisory Board since its inception of its auto restoration program. He has the distinction of being one of, if not the longest serving team of judges for the famous Concours Pebble Beach Show.

Arnold Marks has been a car club member for 50 years. He owns a shop where he holds a yearly clinic, which members can work on their cars. Arnold is also an auto mechanics teacher. Arnold is one of the original members of the MOCC since it started in 1978.

Larry Dobbs has been a car club member for 30 years. He is the publisher of Mustang Monthly Magazine and was inducted in the Mustang Hall of Fame in 2005. He has supported the Iacocca Foundation as he himself has type I diabetes.

Steve McCarley purchased his first Mustang even before he could drive. At 14 years old, he spent two years fixing it up so it would be ready when he obtained his drivers license. He was event director of this 30-year anniversary event and has held numerous positions in Mustang Clubs on the local and national level. He also was the first person Ford allowed to test drive a Mustang that was not a Ford employee.

Carroll Shelby has been a car club member for 50 years. Carroll’s organizations include: Carroll Shelby Children’s Foundation and Automotive Hall of Fame. Carroll has helped restore Cobra cars and reproductions all around the world. Carroll Shelby was also the Grand Marshal of the Concours show. And, all Mustang lovers are familiar with the “Shelby” and he continues to advise on automotive design.

This very unique award is linked with the Iacocca Family Foundation whose mission it is to find a cure for diabetes. This is fitting because, like Lee Iacocca’s dedication to the Foundation’s mission, these car enthusiasts are committed to serve their communities.

 The Lee Iacocca Award was available for classic car events nationwide. (They are retiring it now, 10 years, 20 awards per year, 200 total, and the award will no longer be presented after this car show season of 2015)

To date, recipients include participants in the following car shows and clubs:
Amelia Island Concours d’ Elegance
Antique Automobile Club of America
Arthritis Foundation Classic Car Show
Boys and Girls Club
Boca Raton Concours
Concours d’ Elegance of the Eastern United States
Forge Invitational Musclecar Classic
Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles
Gunnison Colorado Car Show
Hilton Head Concours d’ Elegance
Lake Mirror Classic Auto Festival
Legends of Riverside Racing Film Festival And Gala
Lincoln and Continental Classic Car Show
Mopars at the Strip
Mustang Club of America
Mustang Owners Club of California
Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance
Rocky Mountain Concours d’ Elegance
Rodeo Drive Concours d’ elegance
San Fernando Valley Region Chevrolet
Silver Spring All-GM Oktoberfest
Silver Spring Ford and Mustang Show
Southeastern Michigan Mustang Club
Slant Six Club
Walter P. Chrysler Club – 10,000 Lakes Region
http://iacoccaaward.com/about/

2015 will mark the 10th year of The Lee Iacocca Award. Mr. Iacocca feels the time is right to retire this prestigious award, making it a “Limited Edition.” There have never been more than 20 shows in a year (all over the country) presenting The Lee Iacocca Award. The Award honors a person within the classic car community who has shown over time their dedication to the classic car hobby and who has done good works. The Lee Iacocca Award has played an important part in The Iacocca Family Foundation’s history of raising awareness in the fight against diabetes but doesn’t preclude honorees (or clubs) dedication to their individual charitable organization.

At the conclusion of 2015 The Lee Iacocca Award will have honored close to 200 of the most respected men and women in the classic car world. They are from all walks of life, some famous but most are the “unsung” heroes. It is bittersweet to say farewell to an Award, The Antique Automobile Club of America has stated: “The Lee Iacocca Award Is the Most Coveted Award To Win On The Classic Car Circuit”, but even with the most popular car, the greatest value is in “The Limited Edition.”

Amtrak train 188 may have been shot at, but that does not explain it doing double the speed limit


http://6abc.com/news/amtrak-ceo-railroad-takes-full-responsibility-for-crash/718111/

The National Transportation Safety Board said on Friday that an interview with an assistant conductor indicated something may have hit Amtrak 188 before Tuesday night's wreck.

Robert Sumwalt of the NTSB described an interview with one of the train's assistant conductors.

The assistant conductor allegedly told investigators that she believed she heard an engineer say something may have hit his train or his train had been shot at, the assistant conductor recalled.

 There were reports of a SEPTA train being hit by an object shortly before the Amtrak crash earlier this week, but there was no known connection.

On Thursday, the NTSB said that in the last minute or so before the derailment, the Washington-to-New York train sped up from 70 mph until it reached more than 100 mph at a sharp bend where the maximum speed is 50 mph.

Sumwalt said Thursday it was unclear whether the speed was increased manually by engineer Brandon Bostian.

So far, investigators have found no problems with the track, the signals or the locomotive, and the train was running on time, Sumwalt said.

legal stuff

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Greyhound Bus Lines... bankrupt twice since 1990, but still made it to 100 years of operation, and by 1930 they had bought 100 bus lines to merge into Greyhound

Hot tube ignition

York Comprehensive High School (South Carolina) admin cowards claimed a students Old Glory flag mounted to his truck was against school policy. Told him to not come back to school with it on his truck. Then they effed up, and dismounted it from his truck. 2 things you don't effing touch, a guys truck, and his flag.


Initially, school district officials told students (Wednedsday May 13th) that they couldn't have any physical flags on their cars because of safety. Administrators said it was a pre-existing policy that was announced again Wednesday.

The school leaders called it a safety concern. "Anytime you get a flag of any kind flying, it creates a visual distraction," said York Comprehensive High School Principal Christopher Black.

18-year-old Peyton Robinson told WBTV Wednesday night that a school administrator told him remove the American flag and the POW-MIA flag, which he has in the back of his truck.

"He said we're having some issues. Some people were complaining about the flags in your truck, possibly offending them. He asked me to take it down," Robinson said.

"I'd understand if it was the Confederate flag or something that might offend somebody," Robinson said. "I wouldn't do that. But an American flag - that's our country's flag. I have every right to do it. I don't see a safety issue. I mean I understand it's a big flag - it's 4 by 6 - but nobody has ever complained about it being in their way or anything."

According to Robinson, a school administrator told him to remove the flags when he got home, and not come back to school with them.

But the 18-year-old said before the school day was over on Wednesday, a school official went to Robinson's parked truck, removed the bolts that secured the flags to the truck, took the flags down, and "laid my flags down in the middle of my truck when I wasn't even there."

The senior took to social media and posted about the incident on his Facebook page. Fellow students vowed to stand with Robinson, flying flags on their cars when they arrived at school Thursday morning.





http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2015/05/14/senior-asked-to-take-down-american-flag-school-responds/27337709/

abandoned mine in New Zealand

How to catch a Swift Truck


Found on the source of all photos of Swift truckers doing stupid things, https://www.facebook.com/Truckdriverwtfmoments?fref=nf

Some trucking fails are simply mistakes, this one is lazy, and stupid



 I never thought to ask, but why the hell aren't truckers putting back up cameras on their trailers? Why don't they do this for their driving record and insurance, and why don't the trucking company owners do this so their trailers aren't getting wrecked and insurance paying out? 

Classic Driver's top 10 list of car photographers to follow on Instagram

Thursday, May 14, 2015

Looks like Steinway was showing off! (Along with pianos, they also were the Daimler franchise and made Mercedes in New York) This fire hose carriage is over the top. Circa 1875, in Soho, Manhatten, New York City, at the NYC Fire Museum

1857 Hand pulled fire hose carriage in the New York Fire Dept Museum in Manhattan, Astoria Fire Hose Company No. 8


Found on https://www.pinterest.com/pin/552465079264715649/

You can see a really good photo gallery at http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/newyorkcityfiremuseum/Interesting of the New York City Fire Dept 

the development of the John Stephenson Company a streetcar manufacturer in New York


John Stephenson was born in Ireland on July 4, 1809 and immigrated with his parents to the United States two years later. As a teenager he was an apprentice to the coachbuilder Andrew Wade of 347 Broome Street. During his apprenticeship Stephenson built carriages for Abraham Bower, who had introduced the horse-drawn vehicle known as the omnibus to the streets of New York in 1827. Omnibuses were essentially public stagecoaches running along a specified route with a fixed fee for passengers. Upon completion of the apprenticeship in 1831, Stephenson opened his own carriage shop at 667 Broadway. The shop burned to the ground a year later, but Stephenson was not deterred – he reopened for business at 264 Elizabeth Street. By 1836 his business was successful enough to warrant a move to a bigger place – Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue) between 132nd and 134th Streets.

they made Omnibuses, Fare-box Cars, Aisle Cars, Summer Cars, Closed Cars, Double-decker Cars, Special Cars, Electric Cars, Cable Cars, and Factory.


Omnibuses eliminated the need to hire transportation and became so popular that by 1852, over 120,000 passengers utilized them daily in New York. In 1856, Stephenson manufactured 300 omnibuses for use in New York and other cities around the world. Below is an omnibus destined for Dunedin in the South Island of New Zealand.


In 1832, John Mason improved on the omnibus by laying special tracks in the cobblestone streets of New York, providing a smoother, safer, and more efficient ride. Thus the market for horsecars, also called streetcars, was born. Stephenson supplied this market with different variations of the streetcar seen below.











Found on http://blog.mcny.org/2013/12/10/john-stephenson-company-streetcars/

5 years after losing their dad, a Sheriff's Deputy, the sons tried to buy his patrol car at auction, but were outbid on the Charger, worth about 12 thou, when a farmer bid it up to 60 thou. Then he handed them the keys. The funds go to the police charity for surviving familes


Weld County Deputy Sam Brownlee was killed in the line of duty in 2010 after a police chase. The County Sheriff’s office auctioned off the his squad car on Wednesday to raise money for C.O.P.S, or Concerns of Police Survivors, an organization that helps survivors of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty.

Tanner had a plan going into the auction, having started a GoFundMe page for the car. But Tanner was quickly outbid and the car went to a local farmer, Steve Wells, for $60,000, even though the car’s Kelley Blue Book value was only $12,500.

Wells declined an interview with KMGH, saying he did not want to take away Tanner’s moment as he got behind the wheel of his dad’s car.


http://abcnews.go.com/US/son-fallen-sheriffs-deputy-dads-squad-car-auction/story?id=31041390

garbage removal, the evolution was fast from brooms to street sweeping machines, and hasn't progressed since


from bag carrying carts, to can carrying carts



then stepping up the horsepower



From http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b2870628;view=1up;seq=145;size=75,

which is Volume XXIII (April to September 1900) of Munsey's Magazine

if you start reading at page 88, you'll learn how many contracts and how much money was in the garbage business 115 years ago. The garbage was bought, and sold, and picked through, for metals, paper, cloth, etc. 100 years ago, a lot of horse manure was dropped on the streets, and that was bought for fertilizers, and for a while, that worked out. Then that demand dried up, and for a while people wanted ashes for their lawns. After a short while, someone decided to sell the trash as land fill. Pretty clever huh? Lowlands, Rikers Island, etc.

Then, they chose to dump New York's garbage at sea. That... that is what New York did with their trash. 

Cuba, photographed by LA Times photographer Brian Van Der Brug


Getting a handle on Cuba

 MAY 9, 2015 | REPORTING FROM HAVANA
 BY BRIAN VAN DER BRUG

 I knew Cuba had a collection of cars that predated the revolution, but the variety was amazing.

 The door handles of these midcentury marvels caught my eye because each seemed to be an indicator of the condition of the rest of the car.

 I realized I could share a bit of the soul of these cars just by photographing the handles, a sort of a metaphor for the opening of the doors to Cuba.


http://graphics.latimes.com/cuba-cars/

Preparing for the day

McKeen Motorcar, the 1st I've seen with a trailer

a tractor, mid transformation between rail road wheels and road wheels, by using hydraulic rams to lift itself up off the rail wheels

Bangshift finds cool stuff! Enjoy this video of a radial engine getting lit off, skip to I:50

10 foot bridge... I bet it gets hit a lot. Ironic advertising on the side of the trailer

Bobby Breeden's fourth consecutive win and reported new world record for combined take-off/landing! 20 foot landing, 24 foot takeoff

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

this driver was saved from a speeding ticket by a random bird

Swift manages to hit the only object on the whole side of a parking lot. I think they're doing this on purpose now to because they are starved for attention


Found on the source of every photo of a stupid Swift driver on the internet https://www.facebook.com/Truckdriverwtfmoments?fref=nf

someday... we'll find it. That barn find of some cool stash of parts, a unmolested car that can be awesome if modified, and maybe some vintage speed parts made of unobtanium

vintage car with a aero headrest and a vintage helmet, you don't see that everyday


Greystone has one hell of a trophy display


NTSB releases initial read out of Amtrack 188, it was racing along at 106 mph when the emergency brakes were engaged. Double that area's speed limit. American railroads can't handle that.




The Federal Railroad Administration says the speed limit in that section of track where the train derailed is 50 mph.

Sumwalt said the speed limit for the preceding section was 80 mph.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/05/13/406380166/ntsb-team-on-its-way-to-investigate-amtrak-derailment

different, interesting

postal rail car, from a Buick? I can't tell what the radiator emblem is, looks maybe blue and white


Found on https://www.facebook.com/nationaalmodelspoormuseum?fref=photo&sk=photos with a  note that says it's in Colorado

Ever just notice screws or nails in tires as you walk by?



when buying a new vehicle, take a close look at it. These 2 trucks are on the new car lot.



the x and the blue line? Have to be inspection marks, so why wasn't the bumper realigned? It's left shifted about an inch and a half