Monday, August 17, 2026

Annie Soisbault de Montaigu took part in the Tour Auto in a Ferrari 250 GTO chassis number 3607, and the 1965 Mont Ventoux Hill Climb, and this was her mistake in the St Estève corner

In 1956, she entered the Monte Carlo Rally "clandestinely," riding in the back seat of a Simca Aronde alongside two friends. Snow joined the fray, and the difficulties piled up. She took the wheel and impressed everyone, setting some impressive times. She finished 119th out of 233.

In 1957, she entered the Mille Miglia, driving a Panhard Dyna. She retired. No matter, the bug had bitten. She bought a Delahaye Grand Sport, then a Triumph TR3.

In 1958, she became French Rally Champion and officially joined the Triumph team. The following year, she won the European Championship. She didn't limit herself, not even by competing in single-seaters. At the wheel of a Lola Mk2-Ford, she competed in Formula Junior races, eventually finishing 12th overall at Chimay.

She won her class, then followed up with a fourth-place finish at the 1000 Kilometers of Paris in a Ferrari 250 LM, partnered with Guy Ligier.

After a few attempts at long-distance rallies—the East African Safari in 1966 and the Paris-Saint-Raphaël in 1969—she retired from competition. But not from cars. She took over the Mirabeau garage in Paris, then an Aston Martin dealership.

Living between Paris and Saint-Tropez, she became a discreet socialite, both elegant and independent. She passed away on September 18, 2012, in relative media indifference.

70 Coronet

the ArtCenter College of Pasadena had it's annual car show in the fall, in October if memory serves, and the last time I went was 2018... so, i was looking to see about going this year? And discovered they've changed the name, and the season - it's now in June


It's now known as the Design Invitational. It was May 31st this year

the legends

intriguing



can you believe, that a car club in Dearborn Mi, in 64, went in on and bought a Thunderbolt for racing? They had it at least two years, Super Stock the first year, and A/FX the 2nd


Norman Harvey's in Cardiff, which had a lioness on the garage forecourt, for a little while. He brought a 4 month old lioness to the garage in 1968 until it was too powerful to be handled. (Thank you Paul!)


then he rehomed it with a safari park




I bet a LOT of people came by just to see the lion! 

a bombardier on a B-17 for 30 missions during WW2 left his flight jacket to his son, but not much info


the 8th Air Force, 92nd Bomb Group, 326th squadron, and was in Europe from February, 1943 until returning to the U.S. at the End of April, 1944.

there was a mid-air collision over friendly territory at some point, the crew bailed out, the plane crashed. 

before they became a convenience store with gas pumps, and were a service station with gas pumps... this was what they looked like

 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=27348395441453129&set=gm.2667244617204236&idorvanity=605062986755753

to test Toyota and Lexus trucks for the potentially catastrophic engine defect the company’s engineers have come up with “smack it with a hammer”... Everyone I knew in the Navy from 89 -99 knew that as the "bigger hammer theory of mechanics."


In this case, a tiny, plastic hammer built specifically for the purpose of creating a vibration that can be measured in a controlled environment. Pickup Truck + SUV Talk shared a fairly detailed breakdown of the procedure over the weekend. Essentially, by measuring the vibrations that move through the engine when struck by the tool, Toyota can determine the health of critical components without having to tear the engine down for a costly, time-consuming physical examination.

this inspection uses the resonant frequency of the front of the crankshaft to assess the condition of the #1 main bearing


Toyota hopes this new procedure will give them some reassurance that the process isn’t entirely arbitrary. By measuring the frequencies transmitted through the engine, Toyota can tell how much main bearing #1 has degraded. When combined with a software analysis of the truck’s service life, Toyota techs will be able to tell with a reasonable (but not 100%) degree of certainty whether a given engine is a goner.


of course, most of you are familiar with using a hammer on a crank to listen to the ringing to discover if there is a crack, (dull noise) or if a crank is "sound" (rings like a bell)

Sunday, August 16, 2026

the 911 Turbo turns 50, fine, that's cool and etc... but, what I realized, is I haven't heard why Porsche 911s seem to have very good looking plaid upholstery. German car, Scottish cloth design - so that had me looking into that...


https://www.porsche.com/stories/innovation/porsche-911-turbo-50-years/

How the historic tartan pattern made its way into the latest Porsche anniversary collections? What does a fabric with deep Scottish roots have to do with Porsche?


Research reverals that the McLaughlin tartan was a design highlight of the 911 Turbo # 1, because  the chief designer at Porsche at the time, was going for a fashion look and wore a pair of tartan trousers to work...  Inspired by his bold style choice, the design team decided to explore how this classic pattern could add a unique flair to the interiors of their cars.



At the 1973 International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, Porsche unveiled the 911 RSR Turbo concept car, which featured an upholstery fabric inspired by the Black Watch tartan in a blue, green and black pattern. 

Two more patterns were soon added to the collection: the McLaughlin (also known as MacLachlan) tartan in a bold red and blue, and the Mackenzie tartan in shades of beige, red, blue, white and olive green. 

 The tartan interiors quickly became a distinctive feature of the Porsche high performance models

wow... what's cool and has wheels? A chair (if the research is correct, then it's from the USS Gilligan that was hit by kazmakazi in 1945)



the Army and Air Force were still furnishing ships with wood chairs - on casters - in WW2 and they were called captain’s chairs.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/157104191579343/permalink/2132535924036150

looks like that might have been a car wash in a previous iterations, why have walls on BOTH sides of the car?


https://apnews.com/article/drivethru-dining-car-culture-america-250-da66714c7282d307d5240f91c31b9e56

the M2 F1 in 1963 proof of concept that the wingless lifting-body aircraft was viable as a emergency life shuttle from large aircraft (the big Navy dirigibles, big bombers, and possibly from spacecraft if they added heatshields)


https://www.space.com/space-exploration/human-spaceflight/on-this-day-in-space-aug-16-1963-wingless-m2-f1-completes-1st-glide-flight

Since I recall posting this before, I went to look in the archives... and I find that this is the ONE (tail numbers) in the 2013 post about NASA using a Pontiac Catalina

The LMS Princess Coronation Class 6229 “Duchess of Hamilton”, what a BEAUTY! (Thank you George!)


The FIA is in the process of digitizing for public viewing more than two million documents and pictures from its boxes of archive stored in Valleiry (thank you Paul!)

Its collection relating to the land speed record is one of the first projects to be undertaken and will be made public shortly.

Alongside the documents and pictures are hand-written notes, letters and official records, annotated by those witnessing or taking part in the record attempts, a distinct, human element reaching back through the years.




https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/aug/13/at-any-moment-i-might-fade-out-archives-reveal-fearless-era-of-land-speed-record-breakers

A 69 Dodge with a 6 pack hood! In the wild! Thank you John!

 


before and after a bad landing... The only airworthy example of an original de Havilland DH.88 Comet




https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/comments/1vpay05/crash_at_shuttleworth_flying_proms

BMW reported a 51% “recycling rate” from dead cars thanks to new sorting and smelting techniques applied to the brand’s own cars (thank you George!)

51% of BMW materials are of high enough quality to go right back into production with no discernible difference in quality from newly manufactured ones. 

For reference, the current industry figure is just 6% from testing materials from 433 dead cars across 60 different models. 

To achieve the massive increase in recyclability, BMW engineers pushed beyond the industry’s current shredding and bulk material recovery processes. 

Engineers also followed output streams to see which of its recycled materials could begin life anew as BMW parts rather than heading downstream to lower-quality parts or other industries.

https://www.mensjournal.com/auto/bmw-says-it-can-turn-dead-cars-back-into-new-bmw-parts

Indian Railways has installed 12,240 miles of safety fencing along railway tracks across the country to facilitate safer train operations (thank you George!)


Safety fencing is being provided to facilitate the safe movement of cattle, pedestrians and smaller vehicles across railway alignments.

https://swarajyamag.com/infrastructure/indian-railways-installs-safety-fencing-along-19700-km-of-tracks-nationwide-to-prevent-trespassing-and-ensure-safe-train-operations

https://ddindia.co.in/2026/08/indian-railways-provides-safety-fencing-along-19700-km-of-tracks-to-prevent-trespassing/

neither of these sources mention it, specifically, but I'm getting the idea the fencing is to keep people and livestock from walking onto the railways out of the farms and fields. I've seen a lot of India train videos where cattle is wandering loose on the tracks, causing the trains to slow and be delayed