Saturday, August 18, 2018

Basil Watson built a Sopwith Pup in the family home in Australia... in 3 months






Basil George Watson was born on October 12, 1893 in Bendigo, Victoria, and spent his childhood in the suburbs of Melbourne, Brighton. Watson was first introduced to aviation by Harry Hawker in early 1914 on an Australian tour of the famous aviator, who was five years older than Watson. In May 1914, Watson went to England with hawker, where he attended pilot training and worked as an engineer and test pilot with the sopwith aviation company and later the imperial army. He was seriously injured in an accident after a engine failure during a test flight in June 1915 and returned to Australia 12 months later after being declared medically unfit to continue his military service. He then built his own biplane based on the design of the sopwith pup, completing the project in just over 3 months in the second half of 1916.

https://www.facebook.com/isabelle.bracquemond.7/posts/10217194931934312

there's probably an embarrassing story behind the reason why these are in the lake


if the water is over your tires... you better hope it's warm water. If it's got ice on it... you oughta think twice before risking getting out and walking to get a tow truck when things go wrong.

If the two further from the camera are still operating... they better roll up their windows before they get in deeper water. No one wants a long ride on a cold wet seat

https://swarfs.tumblr.com/

the reason the phrase "wait for it" was created. That steam is HOT, and the coal smoke isn't too pleasant either. A rare phenomenon to see now that steam locomotives aren't as commonly run anymore



Heritage train in Ovada, Italy

The trail of smoke is due to an old heritage train towed by Italian steam locomotive FS Class 740 coming out of the tunnel. The historic Italian FS Class 740 is ‘Consolidation’ steam locomotives manufactured from 1911.

Henri Breau, 1926-28 when velodrome racing was a rally big deal, and the French vs Italian contest for national bragging rights of bicyclists was mighty important.



Races of one-hour and 100-mile contests were common in velodromes with steeply banked tracks to allow high-speed racing. After a flying start the cyclists link up with their pacers. Riding counterclockwise, passing can only be done on the right, a blue line separating the longer passing lane from the inner.

The pacer stands or sits upright on the motorcycle to offer a maximum windbreak, and the handlebars are extended to facilitate the stance, in a standardized leather suit that allows for the same slipstream effect for any rider.

Speeds of 62 mph have been reached, though the average is between 37–43 mph.

The first races were limited more by the speed a motorcycle could achieve than the ability of the rider to follow

Motorpace racing was glamorous but dangerous. Falls were common, largely because bicycle tires tended to burst at speed. The riders wore neither helmets nor gloves. They depended on fast reflexes, the rude health of youth, and luck.



Funny how less than a 100 years later, nothing exists to show where or what the big deal was. The velodromes are all gone, the pacer motorcycles are all gone, and so are the bicycles they used to try and break the speed record.

https://www.facebook.com/dreesens/media_set?set=a.1272587299462890.1073742400.100001348978688&type=3&hc_location=ufi

Maybe people are lazy, or maybe I'm not. Every week a couple people ask me to put them in contact with some car maker, collector, or whatever. It hasn't taken over 30 minutes yet to get that info, so, why don't they do it?


Today, just now, a Fiat registry guy wanted to know what the phone number and email are for the car collector in Guatemala is. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-only-car-collection-in-guatemala.html

Day before yesterday, someone asked me for the name of the guy who made a truck bed that I photographed at SEMA 2010. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/11/superbly-custom-re-engineered-truck-bed.html

The truck at SEMA took 10 minutes https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rize-Industries/145746205470111?hc_ref=ARTWGSoHZxYiEzPP7QkP-ueUX_AuLxZuEFgLU1PqsAybNKAXVc4fEBiRoanh9wpq9A8&fref=tag
the collector in Guatemala took 30  https://blindamax.com/-_Blindamax_Guatemala_-/Contacto.html

Maybe I should just go get a job with a detective agency. Or not. No one wants to PAY for the info, so, there really isn't any job in it.

And I'm really annoyed by people asking me to spend my time to get them info. No. Nope. Nada.

My time? It's for finding FUN or INTERESTING stuff. The POSTING it.

If I wanted to waste time, I'd try to get a better paying job, without getting any more training or education. Right?

Really, why can't people do their own damn homework? And if they want me to do it, why won't they pay?

Do people (complete strangers you never knew existed) email you to ask you to look up stuff? Find them something? Put them in contact with someone else you don't know?

Imagine that happens a couple times a week. What do you do? What should I do?

I sent the image above to the Fiat registry guy, and said, if you want to know the info to contact him, I want to get paid. My time is worth money, is your need to contact the collector worth money to you?

Friday, August 17, 2018

Found in a Texas field, an experimental Mustang that Ford loaned to Carroll Shelby to use as a test bed, named Little Redone of only 2 Shelby GT 500 EXP vinyl roof notchback coupes


Little Red instead of going to a junkyard as Ford had intended, was sent to Courtesy Ford in Littleton, Colo., where a wounded Vietnam vet decided to treat himself, not knowing the car he was about to buy was any more special than the other Shelbys on the lot.

After driving it for a couple of years he then sold to a man who lived in Wyoming at the time.

The second owner later moved to Texas and had it put away in a storage container that got broken into, the thief taking a few parts from the car, which was no longer in running condition.

After that, he brought it to his cousin’s house, and left it in his yard among a bunch of other old cars

and that's where is sat and has been rusting for decades.

But Craig Jackson who found and restored the "Green Hornet" Shelby Mustang, went looking for it's brother, this car, and found it by looking for the Ford VIN, not the Shelby VIN, and no one else had tried that.... so, it worked!

Little Red is the only GT500 coupe (hardtop) built by Shelby American
It is the only GT coupe ordered with and factory-equipped with dual-quads
Little Red is the second GT500 to be serialized and completed

Shell and Pennzoil are helping support, in part, the documentation of Little Red’s restoration journey. “As brands that have been part of American and worldwide automotive history for more than 100 years, we understand the importance of heritage. So, with that in mind, we’re thrilled to join Craig Jackson and his team on this historic journey to return Little Red to its original glory,” said Mark Henry, brand and communications manager, Shell Lubricants. “This will be one of the greatest stories of automotive history ever told, and we look forward to having a role in making it come alive for generations to come.”


http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2018/08/17/little-red-1967-ford-mustang-shelby-gt500-found-after-50-years-could-be-worth-millions.html
http://shelbyprototypecoupes.com/

Road Runner owners have long deplored the double tap action needed to replicate the cartoon characters "beep beep!" So, Year One has finally solved the problem, 1 hit on the steering wheel, 2 beeps from the "Voice of the Road Runner" horn under the hood


The licensing agreement was a marketing windfall for the auto manufacturer in 1968, and the desert bird that could never be caught was the perfect fit for Plymouth’s youth-targeted muscle car. From iconic decals of the cartoon character to the iconic “Beep! Beep” purple horn, the Plymouth Road Runner was a hit.

But something has nagged Plymouth owners and fans for years: the horn, albeit repitched to sound similar to the character’s own sound, required two blips of the horn button to give off the “Beep! Beep!” of the cartoon bird.

Even famous blues guitarist and self-proclaimed “Mopar man” Kenny Wayne Shepherd vocalized concern, and YearOne Muscle Cars has come to the rescue with its new electric horn module kit that will make the double-tap horn action for you!

So no more two taps







the accurate cartoon sound:


http://moparconnectionmagazine.com/video-kenny-wayne-shepherd-introduces-yearones-double-beep-horn/
https://www.yearone.com/Product/chrysler-b-body/mq68m#prettyPhoto
http://moparconnectionmagazine.com/

Is anyone hearing music when they open this webpage?

Eddie emailed me to say that he's hearing spanish music, and so I tried to find out what's going on.

He sent me the URL he was using for this blog.

When I replied, that URL he sent me did NOT represent the Just A Car Guy blog... nope, it was for some cleaning site.

so, http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/
it shows up in HTML as

id="yiv7925083624yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1534524582660_6004" style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "times new roman", "new york", times, serif;">

Now, all that might mean something to a person that can read code... but, it's not my site, it's
What ever the hell this cleaning website is.

Notice, that link http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/
is not the same as https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/

it's not secure, it has no "S" after the http.

SO, I think something is up.

But, someone is going to need to tell me if they are hearing music when they are looking at the site, and if they are looking at the unsecured, or the secured, version

Santos Dumont, 1908, and notice, pulleys and engine parts are drilled to reduce weight


https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10208494417266883&set=a.4705775571281&type=3&permPage=1

Ned Jarrett won the 1965 Southern 500 at Darlington by a NASCAR-record 14 laps, ahead of only 14 cars that finished the race, of 44 starters


In fact, the last 100 miles Jarrett's car was overheating so badly that every time it would accelerate going down the straightaway, the gauge would peg at 240 degrees. That meant the engine was actually running even hotter, so Jarrett decided to try something he had never done before.

"When I got ready to decelerate going into the turn, I didn't take my foot off the gas, but just turned the ignition switch off and let the raw gasoline run in," said Jarrett. "Sure enough, it would cool off 20-25 degrees. It was fun to be able to see that idea come to fruition, and it was also good for the fans because every time I cut the switch back on the car would backfire, so it would keep them awake. When you're 12-14 laps ahead of the field it's a pretty boring race, but that helped me nurse the car to the end and make it."



just because something happened 53 years ago, and I never heard about it now, doesn't reduce my amazement to learn about it... sure beats doing new car reviews! (BOring!)

http://performance.ford.com/heritage/articles/2011/09/ned-jarrett-wins-1965-southern-500-at-darlington-raceway-by-nascar-record-14-laps.html
https://www.motorsport.com/us/general/video/lapping-the-field-jarrett-s-14-lap-margin-in-1965-southern-500/35369/

a 75-year-old woman who was "confused" was picking up her granddaughter, accelerated to approx 75mph, in a school parking lot, crashed through a fence, and struck 2 students and a parent on the grounds of a middle school


Just before 2 p.m. today, the 2nd day of school, a grandmother was picking up her granddaughter from the school on Reed Road when she accidentally accelerated instead of hitting the brake, the car crashed through a fence, hitting a mother and her 11-year-old child.


A girl inside the car, who had yet to buckle her seatbelt, was treated at the scene for minor injuries to her face.

The 11 yr old was airlifted to Rady Children’s Hospital to be treated for a possible broken arm and her 42-year-old mother was taken to Palomar Hospital.

The crash happened on campus around 1:52 p.m., according to the police Lt. Kearney who added,  the driver was a 75-year-old woman at the school to pick up students, became "confused" and accelerated at a high rate of speed through the parking lot. 

Principal Trent Smith sent an email to the school community saying that a driver plowed through a fence and hit two students and a parent shortly after dismissal.

"Because many of our students witnesses this event, we will be sharing information with them first thing tomorrow morning during our Raider Time," the email said.

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Driver-Goes-Through-Fence-Hits-2-Students-and-Parent-at-Hidden-Valley-Middle-School-491071421.html
https://fox5sandiego.com/2018/08/16/3-injured-when-car-plows-through-fence-at-escondido-middle-school/
https://www.10news.com/news/car-plows-through-fence-at-escondido-middle-school-injuring-three