Saturday, August 10, 2024

how the hell does this twin Hayabusa powered Austin Mini Truck roast the back tires, while on the rear bumper, and drifting around the pylon?



https://www.tumblr.com/armengoldira/758346230266052608?source=share

a remarkable scooter can be made with a kids "hoverboard"






Steve just corrected me on the basis for this, it's not a segway, it's a kids "hoverboard" with an upgrade kit found on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hoverboard+attachment+go+kart&crid=2BK6W0ROL6SS5&sprefix=hoverboard+a%2Caps%2C427&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_2_12

it's mid august, and Bonneville racing just concluded

https://bangshift.com/tag/speed-week-2024/

a fisherman using sonar spotted a shadow of what looked like a pickup truck in the Seneca River, it was a 77 Ramcharger stolen in 1981

Due to the truck deteriorating under 20 feet of water in the mud, it has been difficult to remove and has not been removed from the water.

Through a recovered license plate the sheriff’s office found that the truck was reported stolen on October 10, 1981, to the then-Town of Clay Police Department.

With the dive team’s collection of evidence, it was determined that the truck had no one inside it.

Due to the truck deteriorating under 20 feet of water in the mud, it has been difficult to remove and has not been removed from the water.

70 Cutlass autocrossing

https://www.motor1.com/news/728896/1970-oldsmobile-cutlass-autocross/

I never heard of the HG Fenton company until this past month...

He began his working life as a poor, seven-year-old ranch hand in the San Pasqual Valley. He amassed a fortune by taking on large contracts for public improvements, related to streets, jetties and even the Tijuana Racetrack.

As a young man, he came to the San Diego area and homestead a track of land at San Pasqual. There he met Arnold Babcock, older son of Elisha S. Babcock Jr., builder of the Hotel del Coronado, who introduced him to his father.

 Elisha Babcock gave Fenton a job driving a hunting coach to North Island and Point Loma. Fenton received rapid promotion and was placed in charge of the hotel’s building operations, which included the Western Salt Works at the head of San Diego Bay. Mr. Fenton entered into the construction business for himself in 1905 and was successful from the start. 

In 1905 he was made foreman of the Coronado Jetty construction project, and the profits from that set the HG Fenton construction company in business.

He worked for 18 months on the government jetty (Zuniga) off North Island. He was awarded the largest contract given out under the Vrooman Act doing all the street improvements west of Orange Avenue for a total cost of $324,000. which was completed in one year. He granted liberal discounts to the property owners for cash payment with the result that little of the cost went to bond.

Elisha Babcock and Heny Fenton remained close friends until Babcock’s death in September 1922. When Babcock was no longer able to manage his own affairs, Fenton bought the Western Salt Works and provided for the Babcocks for the rest of their lives.

He then purchased Jamul Ranch, which eventually became Eastlake. He owned a 3200 acre ranch at San Pasqual, and a 2000 acre ranch in Otay

Mr. Fenton also did much of the grading for the Tijuana Racetrack (circa 1915) using 20 muleteams. In 1915, Mr. Fenton secured a lease from A. Levi for a 9,000 acre ranch in Jamul where he raised cattle and beef for market. Mr. Fenton owned a 2,000 acre ranch at Bernardo (now Rancho Bernardo) where he specialized in alfalfa and dairy products. 

The HG Fenton Material Company was formed in 1928

the H.G. Fenton Co. evolved from salt and gravel mining operations that helped build Qualcomm Stadium to become one of San Diego County's largest real estate organizations with more than 3 million square feet of office and industrial space and 11 apartment communities totaling over 2,800 homes.



Henry Gilbert Fenton was born on 22 July 1872, in San Francisco, he married Emily Bowen in 1901. 
They lived in San Diego and Escondido. He died on 25 August 1951 at the age of 79


And I find it suspicious that such a wealthy, historic, and company founder has no wikipedia page. Almost like the company that has his name doesn't want his thorough and complete history on a public website like wikipedia.  https://voiceofsandiego.org/2023/07/05/a-wealthy-familys-100-year-old-company-is-blocking-a-permanent-housing-project-for-homeless-people/

1941 Suburban Carryall



in the car radio news.... Sirius XM wants to compete with AM/FM by having a free, though ad supported, music service

SiriusXM, which has offered a subscription, ad-free alternative to terrestrial radio since the turn of the century, has launched a free, ad-supported service that’s only available in cars as it looks to gain ground on AM/FM alternatives.

The company quietly launched the service in the past quarter and addressed it in its most recent earnings call.

“This quarter, we introduced SiriusXM free access, our first-ever free ad-supported version of SiriusXM now available in select vehicles,” said CEO Jennifer C. Witz. “Free access allows us to engage potential customers…with an offering of a limited number of music and talk channels with ads.”

“Free access allows us to engage potential customers…with an offering of a limited number of music and talk channels with ads.”

The service is not available on a wide scale yet, but Witz said the company expects free access “to grow in future years, providing us an opportunity to increase trials, win back listeners, and explore the potential for a broader ad-supported tier of SiriusXM.”

The number of its satellite subscribers dropped by 173,000 in the second quarter, more than the 130,000 it lost in the second quarter of 2023.

SiriusXM has a dedicated base of users, but AM/FM still controls a 60% share of ad-supported and ad-free offerings in cars, and controls 86% of the ad-supported market.

The company has also faced increased competition in recent years from streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. That has made it more challenging for SiriusXM to convert trial users to paid subscriptions.

https://fortune.com/2024/08/08/siriusxm-unveils-free-ad-supported-service/

A Great Big Beautiful Car Show is the largest exhibit ever put on by the Walt Disney Archives, and just occurred at the D23 Expo! (you might recall that I used to go to the D23 in 2013, 15, and 17)


The above was in the terrific movie (I recommend it for it's great comedy) Cruella

there were 30 vehicles at this exhibit
 



let me illustrate the difference between cell phone cameras, and serious, expensive, cameras




this video does nothing but give a 7 minute speech on the D23 Expo, it does not show the cars in this exhibit. 


This was built to resemble the Mustang display outside the Ford’s Magic Skyway pavilion at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, using one of the actual original Mustangs that went through the Ford Pavilion and was actually a ride vehicle

The cars in the exhibit range from racing Fords and Ferraris to fan-favorite love bugs, fabulous pink convertibles, and Flubber-powered Model Ts—giving visitors an up-close look at dozens of vehicles from the Archives’ collection. 

A “Worlds Beyond” area showcases fantastical vehicles from distant lands, such as Rey’s speeder from Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and a transport rover from Prometheus (2012) a Czechoslovakian military tank that’s been dressed up to ‘space age.’






Recently, since Covid, they have the D23 just 2 weeks after Comic Con, but a decade ago, it was a couple months later. 

This is the first time the phrase " you've got to see this cool gasser Monaco" have ever been written. It's a 67 with a 58 392 hemi, 8 3/4 with a 4.70 gear set






 https://www.facebook.com/reel/3711551225795073?mibextid=9drbnH  for the only video I could find of it rolling

Friday, August 09, 2024

When Cheap Trick was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall Of Fame, their home town (Rockford Illinois) went all out to celebrate... and made this sign, and put it on the streets and highways


But that made the local police a bit upset... so the signs about the Dream Police had to be taken down 

really unexpectedly saw this Ranchero as I was headed back to the office at the end of the wok day today... why the hell it was in that commercial/industrial business office neighborhood, I can't even imagine


check out the LeMans that was on the 805 around noon today... what an odd time to be driving a cool old car like this!





unbelieveable... someone in Scripps Ranch area has this pristine plane jane early 80s Camaro, and uses it for a commuter

 Am I wrong? Or is it the nearly impossible for a 40 year old Camaro that was never anything special as far as options and all that, to have been this well cared for, but still be a commuter? ! 

seen on a city street.... in a newer development area only about a year after people moved in... someone EFFED up this car, had it towed near their condo, tossed a car cover over it, and forgot it existed (or it would be fixed by now)

 Unless this car was built with rear steer, and parked with full left turn, that rear end is EFFED up! 

Now, lets play the "what's under the car cover" guessing game. I'm thinking this is a Nissan

from the original Beetlejuice movie



A Cheetah at Goodwood's Festival of Speed

Thursday, August 08, 2024

Scott C. was at comic con and his booth was full of cool watercolor art!

 I LOVE famous Hollywood movie and tv car compilations!  This is titled Driving Machines Enjoying Pizza

Scott C seems to often get a theme going, and do many characters and variations on that theme, one result was James Dean and his Porsche


Another theme was the Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore scene in Ghost, where they were at a potter's wheel




But in that way, he's done AMAZING stuff, like the pop culture / Hollywood - a 3 book series (that is also free online) called The Great Showdowns https://www.scottc.com/#/great-showdowns/ or even better, https://greatshowdowns.com/


Not only is this a good example of how great Scott C's art is, it's also one of the "Great Showdown" series, and also, has the Spiderman on the motorcycle, and the Spiderman dune buggy



See a huge gallery of his work, hundreds of his creative characters, themes, etc at https://www.gallerynucleus.com/artists/scott_c and https://www.flickr.com/photos/scott-c/ 

Just look at this asshole. You know from the way he looks, he did awful things, and enjoyed it.


Maybe it's the Hitler mustache. 

Maybe it's because this asshole invented the speedbump. 

Yeah, this guy was a university chancellor (like that has ever been a role filled by anyone kind and generous? Hell no. There's never been a Jane Goodall, or Mr Rogers, Jim Henson, Mother Theresa, or Ghandi who were university chancellors) 

This smirking shithead was a physicist, named Arthur Compton, and he invented the speed bump in 1953.  He noticed how fast drivers sped by Washington university, and like most Karens, had to do something about it to wreck the fun for everyone, because he'd already yelled at all the students to get off the lawn, then needed to Grinch on something else... that's what university chancellors do when not cutting the budget, or playing golf

Print this picture, glue it to the dartboard, or use it for target practice. This sadistic bastard caused more front ends to get misaligned, more shock mounts to snap, more headers to get smashed... and more brakes to get stomped than anyone else in history. I hope he died of brain cancer after seeing his puppy get burnt alive. I hope he drank drano by accident, and got paper cuts on the corner of his mouth from licking the envelope too fast. Then drank pure lemon juice. 

I hope he believed he was going to heaven, ended up in hell, and he gets to be in the barrel more than anyone else, and that some demon takes a lot of pleasure in putting bamboo shoots under his finger nails, then smashes his toes with a hammer (Payback, Mel Gibson movie). I hope Joe Pesci gets gangster all over him... hammers, bench vices, everything!

the world’s longest-running family-owned Harley-Davidson dealership, was founded in 1914 by Dudley Perkins in San Francisco. Then, the family sold it to idiots who had no clue how to keep it in business (thank you George!)


The dealership, which survived two world wars and a pandemic, was passed along to three generations of the family, had been "run into the ground” after being taken over by new management five years ago.

It was moved to 3149 Mission St, a former O'Reillys location, that had closed in 2016. In December 2020 the above was painted onto the building exterior

https://www.the-sun.com/motors/12116485/motorcycle-dealership-closes-mechanic-decades-chaos-final/