Saturday, April 04, 2026
"Hold My Beer and Watch This" was invented in 1986 when a fan attended the 1986 Winston 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway and took the pace car on a joy ride. He was chased for two laps before being stopping for state troopers by the track crew
coming to the Pebble Beach concours this August, a pair of hand built 69 McLaren M6B GT Coupe and 71 McLaren M8E, built by Randy Grubb (Blastolene Brother) shown here at the 2025 Portland Roadster Show
Skip the first two minutes, get to the car and info about it
2019 SEMA build by Blastolene co-founder Randy Grubb... this is cool! 1959 VW "Volkstream" began as a eleven window bus that had been tagged in the rear
2.5L Subaru boxer motor, ball joint front end, rack & pinion steering, IRS, Wilwood brakes.
I posted a couple photos of it in 2019 from SEMA, but they really are lousy compared to these in the sunlight https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/11/randy-grubbs-newest-project-11-window.html
ever heard of the Epsom Salts Monorail in the Owlshead Mountains near Death Valley? In 1922 a Los Angeles florist built a 28-mile monorail to carry hydrated magnesium sulphate to San Bernadino, things didn't work out
Far down on the southwestern side of Death Valley in the hilly area around the Wingate Wash there is a huge deposit of Epsom salts, a glittering field of white forming a perfect contrast with the soft colors of the surrounding hills.
It was shoveled into bags, and transported to the Trona Railway
Thomas Wright was a florist from Los Angeles set up a camp in Crystal Hills Wash in 1918 and prepared an area for salt mining where he had previously found some minerals.
He and his team decided to build a monorail on wooden trestles because building a narrow-gauge railway line was considered to be too expensive.
Mr. Wright and his team began construction of monorail track from freshly logged Douglas firs in 1922 and finished in 1924
The first locomotive was battery operated but it wasn’t powerful enough to pull loaded trains therefore, 7 conventional Fordson tractors and one Buda tractor were modified to build articulated monorail locomotives.
The brakes were only installed on the locomotive which caused reoccurring problems; each locomotive could carry a maximum of 3400 pounds while the carriages could carry 8500 pounds each.
The maximum downhill speed was 35 MPH and in the flat area, 30 mph could be reached; normal operating speed was eight MPH on the uphill and up to 15 MPH in the flat area.
It transported less salt than originally estimated within the first two years of its use.
The mine employed 12–15 workers in 1924/25. The epsomite could initially be scraped from the surface using gardener's tools, but the high-quality minerals were quickly depleted, and the remainder was mixed with 50% contaminants of sand, debris and other salts.
It closed operations and was out of business in 1926
The largest part of the monorail is now in a restricted area of the China Lake Naval Weapons Center "B" Range. The mine, however, is inside the Death Valley National Park
A fuel leak and a backfire, and the car is toast. Let this catastrophe encourage the rest of us to make sure we have a (fifty pounder) CO2 fire extinguisher handy in the garage, and a couple smaller portable ones in the car between the seat and the door kickplate (where mine are stored)
You'll never regret having a 50 pound CO2 fire extinguisher at home, or in the garage. That's just smart planning for fire prevention no matter what the cause or location
Thank you Joe! Here's the cool story he just shared in the comments on the Coffman Starter
I have a friend who salvaged an air-cooled rotary 9 cylinder diesel engine that was being used as power for a rural Wisconsin sawmill.
He told me the engine had been started life in a WW2 Sherman M4 tank. After rebuilding the engine and the diesel injection system he looked at the handful of old "shotgun shells' for the starter but instead welded pipe fittings in place of the shell receiver and starts the engine with a surge of nitrogen gas from a high pressure bottle.
The giant paperweight is mounted to a wheeled stand and he occasionally rolls it out and fires it up to rattle the neighborhood.
Thank you Joe! I wish there were photos!
This photo borrowed from https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-media/NASM-A19710893000-NASM2015-01753-000001
The M4 Sherman tank featured five primary engine options during WWII to ensure production, including the
Continental R975 radial
Ford GAA V8
General Motors Twin Diesel,
Chrysler A57 Multibank,
and a Caterpillar radial diesel.
These powerplants generally produced between 350 and 500 hp, with the Ford GAA V8 widely considered the most efficient and preferred engine.
Friday, April 03, 2026
a very unusual piece of marble architecture in Manhattan (the Inwood Arch) gets no attention, no historical recognition, and only is noticed as an out of place curiosity... a scale replica of the Arc de Triomphe, not really noticeable behind some auto body shops
Used as a storage by a transmission repair shop!
built in 1855 as an entrance to a hilltop mansion (that was eventually demolished in 1938 to make way for apartment complexes) that in 1895 was used as a clubhouse/HQ of the Suburban Riding and Driving Club, near the Harlem Speedway
At the end of 216th st, on 5063 Broadway.
it was even covered by Scouting Ny! I loved that site! Sadly that guy stopped adding to his blog. https://www.scoutingny.com/how-a-beautiful-19th-century-marble-archway-became-an-auto-body-shop/
one of the sides of the arch is inside the transmission shop
this is what it looks like inside
