Thursday, March 28, 2024

Snake Road exit Off Alligator Alley (I-75) is shaped that way to make the drivers more alert, less bored with a long straight uninteresting road.



Florida does have some boring roads... flat, uniteresting views out the side windows... I was stationed in Orlando for a year. When you're not in the cities, the view is very boring

2002 Corvette Z06 will be auctioned at Mecum's Spring Auction, May 16, 100% of the auction proceeds will go directly to the Semper Fi Americas' Fund





Stand and raise a beer to toast the retirement of Dominic Clark, and begine the slow clapping that crescendos




Dominic Clark has spent over 50 years in sports marketing, and is officially retiring from the industry and Media Operations Director for SCORE International

 Born in 1949 in Reno, Clark started his 41st year this year working in Media Operations with SCORE. 
Reflecting on his 40-plus years with SCORE, and nearly 60 years working special events, Clark, who just turned 75, commented, “What a truly amazing life and career I have had in sports journalism and sports media relations and SCORE has been the biggest part of it with over four decades of doing what I have been blessed to do since I started out as the Sports Editor of both my high school newspaper, high school yearbook in the 1960s, and my college yearbook in the early 1970s.”

“Like most boys in Southern Nevada at the time, I grew up playing and enjoying ‘stick and ball’ sports, but I was able to transfer the skills that I learned in journalism and sports marketing to relate in the world of motorsports, even though I can barely change a tire, let alone tell anyone what’s under the hood of the vehicle. I have worked with SCORE for more years than any of the other exciting events that I have been fortunate to be a part of for my awesome career. It’s time to hang up ‘the keyboard’ and relax with my family for the final years of my journey. It truly has been a wonderful life.

SCORE said “Dominic has been a huge part of SCORE for a very long time and we appreciate all of the passion, professionalism and insight he has given to us for all of these years,” reflected Abelardo Grijalva, President/Race Director of SCORE International. “I have only worked with him directly for the last 10 years, but I was a racer before that when Sal Fish owned SCORE and Dominic was always a very large part of whatever SCORE was doing during that time as well. To say that his contributions to SCORE will be missed is a huge understatement and all of us wish him nothing but the best in the years ahead. We also want everyone to know that his wisdom and insight into our operation will always be very welcome.”

Motorsports

 Clark was introduced to motorsports and in particular desert racing through the original Mint 400 desert race in Las Vegas and his motorsports consulting career was launched from there. While Clark worked continuously for over four decades with SCORE, he also had great experiences working with:
- the old High Desert Racing Association (HDRA) in Las Vegas,
- the Mickey Thompson Off-Road Championship Gran Prix stadium series,
- Roger Mears Racing in the desert, stadium racing and the Pike’s Peak International Hill Climb,
- Rod Millen Racing at Pike’s Peak,
- media operations, advertising and sponsorships for the old Las Vegas Speedway Park,
- Gloy/Rahal Racing media relations with the NASCAR Truck Series,
- and with Unlimited Hydroplane racing media operations at Lake Mead in Las Vegas and Mission Bay in San Diego.”

SCORE will retain Clark as a consultant at least through Dec. 31, 2024 as the SCORE Historian, maintaining all the SCORE race results and other statistical data related to the races and to the series as he has for the past 40-plus years.

Background

Clark moved to Las Vegas in 1959 with his family, and began his journalism career working on the school newspaper and school yearbook.  He attended college on a scholarship from the Las Vegas Press Club, attending UNLV and the University of Nevada in Reno, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Journalism in 1971.

Clark was the Sports Information Director at the Wolf Pack for two years while completing work on his journalism bachelor's degree. At UNLV, he was also sports editor of the Rebel Yell student newspaper as well as the sports editor of the UNLV student yearbook. After graduating from Nevada, he accepted a position as the Prep Sports Editor at the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper.

Clark left the R-J after six months to accept a position as Sports Information Director in the Athletics Department at UNLV, where he remained for 10 years, then became a partner in TUCA Productions sports marketing firm in Las Vegas where he stayed for another 10 years before leaving in 1991 to start his own sports marketing company in Las Vegas that he named Image Media.

While at UNLV, Clark was also the ghost-writer for legendary basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian’s weekly column in the Las Vegas Sun newspaper and after leaving UNLV, Clark wrote a weekly running column called ‘Strides’ than ran for over five years in the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. He also coined the nickname of the UNLV basketball team still used today ‘Runnin’ Rebels’.

When he first left UNLV he published a coffee-table book entitled ‘Dynasty In The Desert’ celebrating the first 25 years of Runnin’ Rebel basketball and the opening of the iconic Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas. He also was the host of a weekly Sports Talk Radio Show in Las Vegas for over a year called ‘Landmark Sports Tower Review’

The Olympics and more

With a two-decade mentorship from a media operations guru, Clark worked media relations for the Coors Brewing Company rodeo program that included 17 years at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

Then in 1995 was introduced to the world of professional beach volleyball, a relationship that lasted over two decades as a Media Operations Delegate for the Federation Internationale de Volleyball that included working both the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Clark also worked for several years on the media operations team for the Wooden Legacy College basketball tournament, as well as a decade on the the Armed Forces Bowl and the First Responders Bowl college football bowl game

Among his numerous special events were both the 1991 and 1993 Miss Universe pageants held in Las Vegas, a decade with the Las Vegas Bowl college football game, 17 years with the United States National Wrestling Championships, three years with the United States National Table Tennis Championships, one year with the U.S. Cycling Federation Olympic Trials, one year with the U.S. Olympic Trials for Karate, Judo and Taekwondo, one year with the U.S. Firefighters National Championship, and one year with the U.S. Triathlon Series National Championship.

Clark also was the local media director and published both the event souvenir program for the 1991 and 1993 Miss Universe Pageant. 

Under the direction of founder Larry McKay, Clark was also the Media Director for 17 of the 25 years of the Las Vegas Holiday Prep Classic boy's high school in-season basketball tournament that saw as many as 100 teams. He was also the Media Director for two Boy's high school summer basketball tournaments

Clark is one of only five people to be recognized with the SCORE Legacy Award, joining Jerry Herbst, Rod Hall, Oscar Kawanishi, and Sal Fish.

After the 2023 season, Clark was honored with a special SCORE Lifetime Achievement award.

Wednesday, March 27, 2024

the work of James O'Brien (or, by his Russian name: Vadim Ignatiev)



Chuck Knudsen saved for 3 years to buy this Cyclone GT at age 19 in 1968, he parked it in 1974, kept it ever since, and stored it 47 years without a drive, only to finally restore it!




Chuck was a teenager in 1966 when his father took him to a Ford dealership and in the showroom sat a Cyclone that drew his attention so fully that he told his father he wanted one. Knudson Sr., informed him ‘When you’ll have enough money, you can have it.’

Chuck saved money for three years, and in the fall of 1968, he ordered a brand-new Cyclone GT 390, and drove his Mercury through college

For the next 2,744 days (seven years, six months, and six days), the Mercury was his primary car. On June 5, 1976, he parked the car in the family garage, and that was it. The odometer reading was 32,282 miles

here's something you surely haven't seen before: a six-car collection of yellow Pinto wagons. (People will collect anything!)

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/lot-of-six-yellow-ford-pinto-wagons-shows-people-will-collect-anything-231494.html#

a pen-and-ink sketch of the Revolutionary War’s North Carolina Brigade’s August 1777 trip through Philadelphia to the Battle of Brandywine, was spotted in an art collector's apartment


the collector acquired the sketch from a New York antiquities dealer during the 1970s. The dealer found it in the New Jersey home of a doctor who treated artists during the Revolution. 

An inscription alongside the sketch reads: “an exact representation of a wagon belonging to the north carolina brigade of continental troops which passed thro Philadelphia august done by Du Simitière

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/american-revolution-drawing-by-simitiere-found-2459158

Du Simitiere served as the artistic consultant for the committees that designed the Great Seal of the United States, and in 1776 he submitted the first proposed design to include the Eye of Providence, which element was eventually adopted.

 Moreover, he suggested the adoption of the U.S. motto E pluribus unum ("Out of Many, One"). He also designed the Seal of New Jersey, of Delaware, and of Georgia. In 1779, du Simitiere painted the first known portrait of George Washington, later used for the 1791 one-cent coin.

He is now regarded as the founder of the first history museum in the United States

The MTA board on Wednesday gave its final approval of congestion pricing, paving the way for the agency to charge drivers a $15 daytime toll to enter Manhattan south of 60th Street.

Opposition to charging New Yorker drivers to enter an area they already have a license to operate a vehicle in, where the roads have been paved for almost a 100 years, isn't over. Previous attempts to tax the drivers have met with lawsuits (which stopped a version in 1980) and acts of Congress passed to block it (which stopped tolls on East and Harlem river bridges in 1977) 

 New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said the vote did not spell an end to his fight against congestion pricing. The state of New Jersey filed a suit arguing congestion pricing should be blocked because it will result in more traffic and pollution in the Garden State.

While yellow and green cab drivers won’t have to pay the $15 toll, the board approved a $1.25 surcharge on taxi trips that enter the congestion zone.

"This is the day that the MTA has officially said to the yellow cab industry that you do not have a right to exist on the streets of New York City,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the Taxi Workers Alliance. 

congestion pricing theoretically/officially aims to reduce gridlock in Manhattan by as much as 20% and fund $15 billion worth of MTA construction projects.

Streetsblog reported that the program's supporters outnumbered its opponents by a 2-to-1 margin in the MTA's latest public comment period on the tolls.

It would be the first congestion pricing program of its kind in the nation

George Barris even had to watermark this image of Jeffries workshop? Effing get over yourself and let someone else shine for pete's sake, George

 
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/traditional-images-that-need-no-explanation.1143737/page-50#post-13458807

Great little T Bucket, without a Jeffries flamejob, that's odd. Maybe that was why is was at the shop? 

Canada is trying really hard to get a guy to pay his speeding ticket. They declared him dead, then tried to access the amount through the "estate" even though he's proven to be alive, and annoyed

 https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-man-returns-from-vacation-gets-letter-from-quebec-government-saying-he-s-dead-1.6808017

https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2024/03/now-canadian-government-is-doing-pre.html

they didn't realize it was the glory days, they just made race cars for fun, and had cheap high octane gas at the local corner gas station

 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/traditional-images-that-need-no-explanation.1143737/page-50#post-13455972

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

the greedy real estate types who wanted to shut down Laguna Seca lost their case, and Laguna Seca, racing cars since the track was laid out in 1957 on Fort Ord property provided by the U.S. Army, will continue racing

 https://www.montereycountyweekly.com/blogs/news_blog/coalition-of-residents-settles-with-county-over-laguna-seca-contract-agrees-to-drop-lawsuit/article_56d9e040-e894-11ee-82e6-d74647c4bcee.html

one of these days someone is going to make a steampunk Airstream, if they haven't already


at least seven vehicles fell into the Patapsco River in Baltimore when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after being hit by a Singapore registered cargo container ship at about 1.30am


A container ship  crashed into one of the bridge’s supports early Tuesday, causing it to snap in several places and plunge into the river below. Several vehicles fell into the chilly waters, and rescuers were searching for at least seven people.

Two people were pulled from the waters under the Francis Scott Key Bridge, one in serious condition, according to Baltimore Fire Chief James Wallace. 

The vessel caught fire, and thick, black smoke billowed out of it.



 


this ship was commissioned by a Danish company, on it's way to India 

That's one FRAGILE looking bridge

If carrier ships hitting bridges is something you want another story about, this reminded me of the 1975 Tasman Bridge, 150 high, hit by an ore carrier https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/05/in-1975-moron-was-allowed-to-pilot-ore.html 

Monday, March 25, 2024

superchargers photography by Matthew Porter






the Butterfield Overland Mail Stage. The stage operations, which began in 1858 between St. Louis and San Francisco, revolutionized mail and passenger service. Traveling 24 hours a day, the 2,800-mile trip took an unheard-of 25 days!


 https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=25066

six World War II-era plane crash sites that have been discovered on the Scottish island of Arran, but a propeller from a B 17 or B 24 was mislaid in a peat bog long ago, and just found during an ecological restoration of the spongy peatland


The archaeologist thinks the newly discovered blade may have been collected during the initial clean-up of the crash site in the 1940s, or perhaps during work by the National Trust in the 1980s.

Since 1924, Camp Richardson Resort has been in one of the last old-growth forests on the southwest shore of Lake Tahoe





In 1884, Alonzo Richardson, a Civil War veteran, arrived at Lake Tahoe, he established a rustic summer camp in 1924

Richardson purchased the property which was to become Camp Richardson in 1923 from Comstock and Lawrence, who had used the land as far back as the 1870s for logging. 

An additional parcel along the lakeshore was purchased from Copeland's Grove Resort.

Captain Richardson would travel from Placerville in his Piece Arrow touring car and transport guests to his idyllic haven in the towering pines on the shores of the “Lake of the Sky."

All the guest cabins were named after popular automobiles or oil and gas companies since, beginning in 1911, Richardson owned and operated the first auto stage line between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.


 Built in 1926, the Historic Hotel features a Great Room complete with log beams and a huge stone fireplace.

 An old log carrier, nearly ten feet tall, stands on the front lawn. The Mountain Sports Center was once a gas station and garage. The Post Office from the Tallac Resort was moved to Camp Richardson in 1927, and houses the Coffee and Confectionery today.


 In 1953 Alonzo Richardson died and the resort continued to operate under the management of his wife Cora and his son-in-law Ray Knisely.

The national forest service acquired Camp Richardson in 1965 and has allowed the private sector to operate the resort under a permit since 1985.

They stopped approving the permit for locals to operate the resort, and in Jan 2024, sold out to an out of state corporation


In 1904 Joseph Parmeter purchased a 100 x 400 foot parcel of land at the terminus of Gardner's railroad. Under the management of John Copeland and his wife Nellie, Parmeter's daughter, this became a summer camp called the Grove. 

The Copelands rebuilt the lumber camp pier, put up summer cabins and tents, and built a dance pavillion and saloon over the water. The finished establishment was called Copeland's Grove Hotel. It later became Ziegler's Grove under new management.

 Access to the resort was via a 50 foot right-of-way which ran through property owned by Harry 0. Comstock and Melville Lawrence, agents for "Lucky" Baldwin. None of the earlier improvements related to Gardner, Parmeter, or Copeland exist today. 

 In 1909 Richardson, along with others, started the Placerville-Tallac auto stage which served the south end of Tahoe.

In 1923, Alonzo Leroy Richardson purchased the Comstock and Lawrence lands, which he had leased since 1921. He also acquired the Grove holdings. Richardson had been in charge of the grounds and stage delivery for the Tahoe Tavern.

 Richardson proceeded to build the first rental cabins for his camp and to add a pier 100 feet west of Copeland's pier. In 1927, he acquired the post office from Baldwin's Tallac Hotel, then being demolished. The acquisitions allowed Richardson to offer regular mail, express, and freight steamer services.

The resort was promoted as being along the Lincoln Transcontinental Highway. A route map included in the Camp Richardson brochure of the 1930s, depicted a resort accessed by all major metropolitan areas from San Diego to Red Bluff.

Those wishing a shave or haircut could get one at the resort's own barber shop and beauty parlor. For guests with cameras, a twenty-four hour developing service was offered, and for visitors needing a lube or oil change, a full service garage was located at the resort.

By the mid-1930s Alonzo Richardson had succeeded in developing one of the most popular family tourist camps in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Richardson's strategy for his success was built around the premise that a successful tourist camp depended on a good, efficient transportation system. 

Richardson himself, realized the need for an adequate transportation route between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, and organized an auto stage line under the name "Star Auto Stage Association", referred to locally as the "Pierce Arrow Stage Company".

 During the teens Richardson arranged with the Antioch and Eastern Railway to provide discounts to passengers enroute to Lake Tahoe. Richardson also had some form of agreement with the Southern Pacific Railroad for discounts on passenger service. After 1911 the State Railroad Commission regulated the licensing of public auto stage companies in California. For at least eight years, Richardson was the principal operator of auto stages between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe, although other companies tried to compete, most were unsuccessful

A lot of summer resorts were in business in lower Michigan by the 1920s, one had a miniature train for rides around the resort through the Michigan forest, and a cool depot.


I kid you not, to be a teenager looking for a summer job, and landing a train operator or mechanic job? Wow




another had a baseball park, one had a wood roller coaster


a teens 1st car


 https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=7318903118216823&set=gm.943110647407720&idorvanity=930538238664961

I'd like to add, "and 4 or 5 good friends to enjoy it with"

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Kim just tipped me to a cartoon about girls high school tank combat competition! (Thanks Kim!)


the experts will tell you what order that you should watch them in isn't chronological as there are 4 movies and 8 OVA episodes plus countless manga for one 12-episode season of the actual show as a base. Once it caught on, more content was made


the Netflix series Three Body Problem, has a scene with an Austin Healey 3000, quite unexpectedly


Why don't car museums make chairs and couches like these 1910 automobile back seats? Is there anything they could do more aesthetically classy and thematically appropriate for lounge chairs?

 https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10220977484980713&set=pcb.1370647746968045

the track on race day 1911, Indianapolis 500




Saturday, March 23, 2024

1899 electric omnibus. Berlin, Germany.



The first battery bus to be put into commercial bus service was a bus built by the coachbuilder and later car manufacturer, Kühlstein Wagenbau in Charlottenburg , Berlin. In connection with an international car exhibition in Berlin from 3 September 1899, the battery bus was in traffic between Anhalter Bahnhof and Stettiner Bahnhof. The batteries had enough power for six trips before recharging was necessary. Along this route was a charging station in Askanischen Platz. From 13 March 1900, ten battery-powered buses were in service in Berlin, but had to be withdrawn at the end of the same year.

the Berlin automobile manufacturer Kühlstein Wagenbau presented an electric bus in September 1899. The “18-seater Mail Coach” is capable of “traveling a distance of approximately 100 km on a single charge,” reports the “Polytechnical Journal.”

The Kühlstein carriage factory, a traditional carriage builder and purveyor to the court, invites you to take tours on the innovative vehicle. The automotive industry is booming. At the first Berlin car exhibition two years earlier in the Hotel Bristol, just eight vehicles from four manufacturers were on display. In addition to the motor cars from Carl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Friedrich Lutzmann, Kühlstein presented an electric vehicle there in 1897 - less like a car than like a carriage without horses.

the Kühlstein company was a wheelwright company that made the richly decorated gala carriage for the Crown Prince's wedding in 1905, and built a few more cars in small series before the company went bankrupt in 1926. Daimler-Benz bought the property at Salzufer 4 in Charlottenburg in 1934 in order to expand its headquarters in Berlin.

this is amazing, someone found a new way to get the sand out of vehicles carpets... without expensive gadgets, just use a sander to vibrate the hell out of the carpet

 


Interesting to me, because it's really hard to get car floormats clean. Regardless of how long you hose down and repeat the shampooing, or vacuum, there is always more dirt. No matter how long you beat on the damn carpet, there is more dust and sand in it. But this, gets that to vibrate up. Very clever! 

remember the Roach Coach?



https://www.gatsbyonline.com/automobile/hot-rods/hot-rod-roach-coach-365182/

The animated series I learned about at last years Comic Con is now on Hulu, and roughly, it's a tank battle between the good guys in 1 stolen tank vs the 5 the bad guys army sent in chase.


Skip the first 30 seconds, and yes, the whole series you'll have to read the captions on. 




hot rods, built from regular roadsters etc, are very cool. But some hot rods were built from things like Pierce Arrow limos! I kids you not! Jason Graham Hot Rods started with a 1931 Pierce Arrow ex-limo

A '55 Oldsmobile was used as the donor car for many of the parts, including the engine, dashboard and several trim pieces. 

 The headlights were borrowed from a '29 Duesenberg, a '34 Chevy was given its grille which Jason modified with elements from Pierce Arrow including the radiator ornament, finally the taillights came from a '48 Hudson sedan ...and the strange steering wheel is an accessory item from a '40 Chevy “Fatman”.






jasongrahamhotrods.com isn't online anymore, probably went out of business during the covid quarantine 

Jason Graham's business was building Hot-Rods in a style rather distinct from other customs..., as is often the case with many other small automakers, he began as a teenager working in the family garage, but his life transition to ownership workshop wasn't a direct result

“I started building Hot-Rods full time about seven years after losing my regular job as a as a CAD technician. I had been building these machines as a hobby since I was 13. I eventually created my workshop in Portland, Tennessee.

 Over the years, I have acquired an excellent reputation with clients in good financial health. With my business booming, life was good, but everything changed late one night in February 2010 when the shop caught on fire. 









It was up for sale by 2020, the first owner bought it, showed it, got it into Rod and Custom Jan 2012 issue

the engineers at Scewo ( pronounced Ski Whoa for some reason ) have made a very advanced wheelchair that can climb stairs, but it costs $50k


all you need at the first 25 seconds 

Browns service station on rt16 at Belva,W.V. In continuous operation for over 100 years. Still owned and operated by the same family, still full service at the pump