Saturday, December 16, 2017
1971 Schwinn Dealer Parts & Accessories Manual
it's like the bike version of the Sears christmas catalog
https://www.facebook.com/groups/357002428002159/permalink/515759725459761/
if you like that, try this 1969 Columbia catalog, with 2 or 3 times as many pages http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/11/columbia-1969-swinging-line-bicycle.html
an exhibition at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida to respect the astronauts lost when the shuttles Columbia and Challenger exploded, Feb 2003, and Jan 1986
these mementos of the astronauts reminds me of the incredible perfomance by the actors Sarah Cotter and Nathaniel Dunaway of Portal Theatre, in the play 73 Seconds, which is described as:
Time. Space. Disaster. Thirty-one years ago, seven astronauts boarded the Space Shuttle Challenger, and, for 73 seconds, flew into history while the entire world watched.
73 Seconds tells the stories of their lives, the media who covered the event, the children and teachers who watched it live, to the president who had to speak to the families and the nation.
73 Seconds is their story, a brief description of their bravery, wonder, motivation, and courage to set the goal of space flight as their life's achievement. https://www.portaltheatre.com/about-73-seconds.html It's stunning.
They’re at the Kennedy Space Center.
The nearly 2,000-square-feet permanent memorial, called “Forever Remembered,” is next to the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit. It was designed to honor the two crews lost on missions STS-51L and STS-107, and to pay tribute to shuttle vehicles Challenger and Columbia.
The fuselage piece of Challenger is the first piece of debris available to viewing by the public. The Columbia came apart on re-entry over East Texas, and only 38% has been recovered
https://gizmodo.com/nasas-put-space-shuttle-wreckage-into-this-heartbreakin-1714614332
I just recieved a wonderful Christmas card from Professor Medrano-Bigas in Barcelona! It's the Michelin ad from exactly 100 years ago!
You may not recall what the significance is of Prof Pau in Barcelona, it's been a while since I posted about him, http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/02/the-michellin-mascot-bibendum-was.html he did a 4 volume thesis on the advertising of Michelin and Bibendum!
If you've only recently started reading along with this blog, take a quick look at this post, http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/03/bibendum-from-several-artists-always.html to see the astonishing variety of the ads that Michelin did 80-100 years ago with their rubber tube man, Bibendum, and you'll see why I'm a fan of the genre!
Friday, December 15, 2017
the age vs money Catch 22
by the time you can afford things like Corvettes, you don't have the reflexes it takes to avoid problems
http://carmechanicfails.tumblr.com/image/168488742184
Didn't anyone have the sense to tell the pilot to slow down a knot, and not fly directly above another plane.... for pete's sake, how effing stupid can you be when you bomb your own squadron's planes?
The first 1000 pound bomb that hit, split the left horizontal tail stabilizer, causing the bomber to enter an uncontrollable turn at 13,000 feet, which exceeded the starboard wing's strength to remain intact due to centripetal force and torque
the starboard wing snapped outboard the engines, and with such a large amount of opposite horizontal surfaces lost, the plane began to yaw then pitch and then spin into a corkscrew roll, belly up and over
'Miss Donna Mae' was assigned to the 331 Bomber Squadron/ 94th Bomber Group [QE-A] Rougham Dec 20th 1943; and hit by bombs from 'Trudy' who was flying directly above, knocking off left rudder, then wing broke off as it spun to earth, crashed in Berlin, Germany May 1944
http://www.americanairmuseum.com/aircraft/5646
todays episode of The Grand Tour
Jeremy races Capt Slow and Hamster from NYC to Niagara Falls... they have to take public transport, he takes the new Ford GT....
but then, he calls the airplane reservation people, and screws with them. Switches them from Business Class to Economy, and tells the airline to not let them drink alcohol on the flight.. that's funny, in a mean kind of way
Also, Jeremy points out that the engine in a new AMG GT R has 577 hp, but the same engine in an E Class Mercedes Benz produces over 600 hp
the GT R sports a 4 liter twin-turbo V-8 with a revised intake, new forged aluminum pistons, and a higher compression ratio. The output is 577 Hp and 516 foot pounds
So, wtf is that about?
And the new test driver was selected from 9 months of giving everyone a try, race car drivers, stunt car drivers, etc etc... in the final decision, they went with the driver who was the fastest. They don't say what her name is, but the internet already knows... Abbie Eaton, she's 25, and racing instructor at Silverstone.
How do you get that at age 25? Well, when your parents are smart and let you start racing at the age of 10, and started adult racing at age 17, in 2009, and since then has won 25 races, and been the 2014 season champion for the Mazda MX5 Supercup.
This year she won the Blancpin Endurance Series in a Ferrari 488 GT3 - the first woman to ever get a place on the podium.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/5147999/abbie-eaton-new-grand-tour-racing-driver-mike-skinner/
In 1965, Boyd was 14 when his dad gave him a Plymouth, and he fixed it up by using up 5 or 6 parts cars that in total, cost him about 100 bucks, and by the time he was legal to drive, it was done, and 5 of his friends could ride with him
Boyd moved on to buy other, newer cars, but says they’d often let him down. He’d come back to the Plymouth several times, but says it was last legally on the road for Halloween in 1969.
“My sisters learned to drive the Plymouth around the farm, and would often take it to the sand dunes,” he says. “It was an amazing car that you could just about drive over anything.”
Over the years the Plymouth was moved around and sometimes stored inside and other times outside. Time has taken its toll, and the car no longer has functioning brakes. Rust has eaten holes in the gas tank and floorboards. Someone even painted a target on it and used it for paintball practice.
But that never stopped Boyd from driving it when he’d return for visits. With a gallon can of gasoline wedged into the engine bay and a 12-volt battery wired in place, he’d start the car and drive it around the farm, slowing it down in first gear to a crawl before he’d pop it into reverse to stop.
“That was the ritual, “ Boyd laughs.
Now, however, he needs to decide what to do with the car because it will soon have to be removed from his late mother’s property.
Nearing retirement himself, Boyd would like to find another 1951 Plymouth to restore, using many of the parts from his ‘Old Plymouth’ to keep the memories of a car he calls a ‘lifelong friend’ alive.
and it makes up one chapter of his memoirs!
http://driving.ca/plymouth/auto-news/news/an-ode-to-old-plymouth
https://www.pressreader.com/canada/calgary-herald/20171027/282647507772355
