Sunday, December 31, 2023

I hadn't heard of welding a stiffening plate to the lower control arms on muscle car era Mopars until now, I wonder how much measured difference that makes



https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=7414174531926864&set=pcb.6764800263641911

I've never seen this instrument cluster before


https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10232812690718337&set=pcb.1453239145257003

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Seems like Riverside was racing about 25 feet lower than the bleachers... must have been great for spectators (thanks Mike!)


https://www.autoweek.com/racing/nascar/a46242268/gurney-made-historic-riverside-playground/

Gaston’s White River Resort was founded in 1958 next to the White River, with grass runway. This airstrip serves as a gateway for aviators looking for an award-winning meal, or a great place to fish. (thank you George!)


Gaston’s was founded in 1958 by Al Gaston, the great-grandfather of the current owner operator.

There were six cottages with 20 acres. Al turned the business over to his son, Jim, who grew it to 79 accommodations, with a full-service restaurant overlooking the White River, a 3,200-foot-long airstrip, swimming pool, state of the art dock, gift shop, and nature trails.

Jim turned it over to his grandson Clint


skip the first 3 minutes

‘67 SS


In 1963 students from Cranfield Aeronautics College decided to wheel their Corsair down from the college to the local village pub under the cover of night.


 This naturally caused a buzz of amusement in the village and the college sent out to retrieve the bird with a tractor. This aircraft is KD431, the only surviving Fleet Air Arm Corsair of around 2,000 delivered. It survived the chopping block whilst waiting for scrapping in 1946 when Cranfield requested a modern aircraft with hydraulic wing-fold as a learning aid for it's students.

The present day Cranfield University evolved from the original establishment of RAF Cranfield in 1937. This led to the founding of the College of Aeronautics on the site in 1946 and granted university status as the Cranfield Institute of Technology in 1969, becoming Cranfield University in 1993.

In 1984 the MOD selected Cranfield University to be the provider of degree-level education at the Royal Military College of Science (now absorbed into the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom)

Origin of the Nissan car model name Fair Lady:


Takiko Mizunoe, an extremely popular actress was so beautiful that she was nicknamed the ‘fair lady in men’s attire’. 

Katayama stunned the audience when he introduced 10 Datsun cars with Takiko Mizunoe on the stage of the Shochiku Girls Revue Company at the height of the latter’s popularity in 1935.

Mr. K and the 1958 Australian Mobilgas Trial-winning, 10,000+ mile-surviving Datsun 210, part of two-car team he managed. Both finished.


in 1958 at the Mobilgas Trial—Round Australia, where two Datsun 210s were entered, the Fuji and the Sakura. Prior to the full-scale export of Datsun cars, the company wanted to test their performance and potential by entering them in the world’s most gruelling automobile race, covering 16,000 km of unpaved roads in the harsh Australian outback over the course of 19 days.

He recalled, ‘At the time, the Datsun 210 was powered by a 988cc OHV engine with a maximum output of 34ps. If you loaded it up with enough spare parts to handle the worst-case scenario on that route, it wasn’t much different from squishing eight people into this four-passenger car. Honestly, even though I was the team manager, I didn’t think we would win.’

Against all odds, however, the Fuji won the race in the class up to 1,000cc.

Yutaka Katayama was not a racecar driver like James Garner. He did not own a shop like Carroll Shelby that churned out neither hot-rods or limited-edition sportscars. Neither was he a pop-culture icon like Leonard Nimoy that had a taste for cars. He was, to put it bluntly, a salesman (he specialized in advertisement early in his career at Nissan). But not just any salesman, he was a salesman who was also a car guy.

187 tons, 79.5 cords..... one Kenworth







https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=7255651264467327&set=gm.3794758110746932&idorvanity=2107225159500244

Tina Blankenship-Early, a street sweeper operator living in Los Angeles is the first woman inducted into the National Lowrider Hall of Fame, with her 1966 Caprice


bought in 2003, and it was just a shell on wheels. 

No hood, no interior, no dashboard, no motor or transmission. It took almost two years to find everything needed, and another three to four years before it was brought out in 2010.

It also made an appearance in the movie “Straight Outta Compton,” in the opening scene, and several music videos

Daniel Wu in his custom 1968 Honda S800



After a near-death experience, Los Angeles-based actor and director Daniel Wu was inspired to build a custom car. With the help of a buddy, he “Frankensteined together” two Honda S800s, and added horsepower

What car are they using to pose in? A 72 Cougar, and it never showed up in the show



I did a google image search and there are no red drop tops showing up in "That 70s Show" with these door handles

the characters in the late 40s aviation must have made working at an airport diner quite a fun job