the 2017 competitors for Americas Most Beautiful Roadster

I think it's likely to go to the above, owned by James Hetfield, a member of the Beatniks of Koolsville. After last years award going to the fundamental and fantastic car of Darryl Hollenbeck, I'm inclined to think the judges are feeling a conservative return to the historically classic look vs the strange customs like the Dean Jeffries Manta Ray (Hey, I love the Manta Ray, I'm just using it as an example of art vs factory looking car) 

But if the classic look of a factory looking car isn't going to be a trend, I then think that this wonderful car will get it, in a direction more toward the AMBR winners of the 60s and 70s. It's by Taylor Made Kustoms and paint by Art Himsl

If I missed any, it was not intentional, this is the first year I can think that I tried to get a gallery of each of the competitors. In past years, I only took photos of the ones that impressed me the most. 

I'll have galleries of these all up soon, maybe tomorrow, but certainly this week

the Grand National Roadster Show was the best I've seen in years... fantastic variety of cool special vehicles, here's a quick look, so you can decide if you're going to Pomona tomorrow, or coming back to see the full galleries here instead

it's going to take some time to work up the galleries on these cars, so, tomorrow I'll be posting them as I get them done

It's clear that these tow trucks won't be allowed into the USA, no way people who park like idiots and ignore the tickets would ever not go homicidal if their cars were impounded this fast. The cops in the USA simply would never be able to handle the caseload of homicidal maniacs

Thanks Steve!

top speeds of WW2 fighter planes

http://beautifulwarbirds.tumblr.com/post/156362729826

I don't think I've seen this before, but I like it. If they would just drive these in Nascar, I'd actually watch that

http://swarfs.tumblr.com/  via  http://stanced-community.tumblr.com/post/156439131441/youd-get-out-the-way-if-you-saw-this-behind-you

What is a company going to do when the contracts for govt jobs are written so only the favorite company can meet the specs for equipment? Build a replica of the equipment.

Not a lot of imagination went into building this grader. It appears to be a direct knock off of a Caterpillar #12 of the 1950's, presumably done so that they could bid against Cat on government spec bids and meet the spec's which were often written to attempt to exclude anything except a Cat grader.

http://www.vannattabros.com/road5.html

Ford finally released some track times, and hp numbers... they have a supercar for sure.

After two years of pure speculation, the Blue Oval released official power figures, top speed, and some lap times

In production spec, the 3.5-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 produces 647 hp and 550 lb-ft of torque. 216 mph

Ford set up a 3 way clocked competition, if that one sided bias can be at all honest, and said that their GT lapped the Calabogie Motorsports Park in Canada, with a fastest lap of 2:09.8, besting a McLaren 675LT by 1.08-second, and a Ferrari 458 Speciale by 3.1 seconds.

http://www.automobilemag.com/news/2017-ford-gt-647-hp-550-lb-ft-torque-official/

Now, I'm not a McLaren and Ferrari expert, hell, I'm not even someone who is likely to ever drive any of these 3... so I don't know if those are the right models to compete with the Ford, or if Ford is making hay with out any independant unbiased Stig to give each the same track effort.

That was the beauty of Top Gear... the cars weren't being driven on the track by someone who would soft show it to get better results for their favorite manufacturer. That leaderboard was about as honest as you'll ever see. The rainy track times did throw things off a bit, but, reality bites, and we can only care so much about the stats of cars we aren't shopping for anyway.

blocked in?

a Mustang that was saved from rusting away, and then saved from being just another boring restored 6 cylinder

http://www.automobilemag.com/news/dream-theater-gulf-livery-1968-ford-mustang-2jz-gte/

Transport for your competition cyclecars.

In the spring of 1914 the Carden Works in Somerset Road, Teddington assembled these cycle cars.

 At this time Carden was taking class records at Brooklands, a mere fifteen miles away, in cars that had engines of 350 to 1000ccs capacity. They had solid rear axles with an inboard brake drum and externally-contracting brake band.

It was after many decades later that F1 designers agreed with this layout: recumbent driver, rear engine, monocoque construction.

Carden was a most ingenious and imaginative designer and worked in many fields. By the time he was making these monocars at the age of twenty, he had built his own aircraft and a working model of a tidal-powered generator for the Severn estuary.

Although he was a Baronet, he had no money and had to sell his designs to finance his next enterprise. Although he was a busy captain in the RASC during WW1, he found time to sell the cyclecar business including the Teddington factory to Ward & Avey, the car becoming the AV Monocar.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/lecyclecaristebelge

These are civil war vets. It's odd to think about the civil war, 150 odd years ago, and then realize the survivors lived into the 1930s....

George Van Natta (by the front tire) was one of the best known Civil War veterans in the Ashland Oregon area, he was connected with the Ashland city police for a number of years and served as county road commissioner. He came west shortly after the end of the Civil War and for 40 years resided in Ashland, engaged in the fruit growing business.

When but 17 years of age Mr. Van Natta responded to Lincoln's call to fight for the preservation of the Union, enlisting in August 1862 in Company E. 99th Indiana Infantry, and serving under Sherman from the battle of Vicksburg to the close of the Civil War, participating in the Grand Review at Washington D. C., before President Lincoln at the close of the conflict.

Born In Tippecanoe, Indiana April 20, 1846, Mr. Van Natta was aged 85 years, six months and nine days at the time of his death.

http://www.vannattabros.com/histlog16.html

David just sent me a link to the Van Atta Brothers logging museum and website... cool stuff!

No rail cars, just loooong logs between bogeys

hard rubber tires, probably no seat cushion for the tractor operator and passengers either

Above, a Shay type locomotive

But the angle on the drive shaft in the above photo, that's a bit unusual

D8 Caterpillar dozers used an arch to get one end of a log off the ground, reducing the drag from the log, and below is something I've never seen before, a trailer arch. I'm surprised, because I grew up in the logging areas of Northern Michigan, and thought I'd seen most everything about logging

http://www.vannattabros.com/

these go back a long way http://www.blackdiamondnow.net/black-diamond-now

Nov 1930 Popular Science magazine

A bit unusual for a teardrop trailer, someone liked the shape, but thought they'd rather stand up inside

it's in the Wisconsin auto museum http://carzhunt.blogspot.com/2016/03/six-days-on-road-day-3-part-2.html

the chase scene in the beginning of Tron Legacy. Who would have guessed that the tron reboot would have car, motorcycle, and airplane chase scenes?

Anita King made history in 1915 when she became the first woman to complete a solo drive across America. 100 years later, her great nieces recreated the trip

Her great nieces went cross country in about 49 hours, in a Chrysler 200. Anita needed 49 days, some which were nothing more than getting unstuck from mud. I wonder if she innovated any ways for quickly getting unstuck?

http://www.lincoln-highway-museum.org/King/King-Index.html
https://unrememberedhistory.com/2016/04/27/a-paramount-girl-a-touring-car-and-the-road-to-the-movies/
http://comolasamapolas.blogspot.com/2012/06/anita-king-la-chica-de-la-paramount.html
http://www.leadertelegram.com/News/Front-Page/2015/08/16/Great-great-nieces-repeat-woman-s-historic-road-trip.html
http://anitakingfilmstar.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_34.html

air filter tester... who in their right mind would need such a thing to tell them a filter is so dirty it needs to be replaced?

I wonder how dirty one could get without adversely affecting the engine performance?

Well, I can't find the note that someone sent me with the answer... and that bugs me, but they sent me a link to a PDF about testing airfilters scientifically http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/pdfs/Air_Filter_Effects_02_26_2009.pdf  which proved that fuel economy in new cars isn't affected by clogged filters. Old pre computer cars, they can't deal with clogged filters though

The goal of this study was to explore the effects of a clogged air filter on the fuel economy of vehicles operating over prescribed test cycles. Three newer vehicles (a 2007 Buick Lucerne, a 2006 Dodge Charger, and a 2003 Toyota Camry) and an older carbureted vehicle were tested. 

Results show that clogging the air filter has no significant effect on the fuel economy of the newer vehicles (all fuel injected with closed-loop control and one equipped with MDS). 

The engine control systems were able to maintain the desired AFR regardless of intake restrictions, and therefore fuel consumption was not increased.

 The carbureted engine did show a decrease in fuel economy with increasing restriction. However, the level of restriction required to cause a substantial (10–15%) decrease in fuel economy (such as that cited in the literature3,4 ) was so severe that the vehicle was almost undrivable. Acceleration performance on all vehicles was improved with a clean air filter. 

I also wonder, if any junkyards ever went through the airfilters in the cars getting towed in and parted out, and looked for new, or really useful, parts like air filters that they could sell in bulk to places like used car lots, demolition derbys, or something

http://carzhunt.blogspot.com/2016/03/six-days-on-road-day-3-part-2.html