it's turning out to be a Smokey Yunick day, by coincidence! Lance is putting together a 55 Chev for his son... magnesium ZLI block, mag trans, mag Ramchargers Dana 60 for it, mag Hurst brakes, and mag Halibrands.

Lance says he bought these magnesium T10 cases for 20 bucks at a garage sale. He doesn't say that it wasn't Smokey's Garage sale - but, how damn cool to have some parts from Smokey?!?!?!

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=4047981518825253&set=pcb.4664884107122164

FYI, there is a single book, made from the 3 hardcover books, and used copies on Amazon start at about 130, on Ebay, there are a dozen copies and the price starts around 95. 

Thrift Books Seattle has 2 copies and the other is for 155

the 3 book set is said to be fantastic, but ridiculously overpriced by anyone with a set for sale. I don't believe I've ever seen a set.... whoever owns the rights to the books, should really print a 2nd run, and make a killing from the imaginary demand for a 1200 dollar set of books. Sell them new for 100, and it's probably 40 dollars of profit. 

There are 10 sets on Ebay, and everyone of them is stupid overpriced compared to the set for sale at 225 bucks

the first volume of A.J. Foyt's biography is 656 pages, and there’s a second volume on the way, Octane Press is taking pre-orders for the book

Foyt is the only driver to win the Indy 500, the Daytona 500, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

https://www.thedrive.com/news/new-aj-foyt-biography-will-have-some-of-the-greatest-racing-stories-ever

this kid grew up, to write a book about racing helmets and run a car auction company

His 660 page two-volume set called The Art of Racing: Helmets is about helmets worn by famous and less-famous race car drivers, some of which are rather plain, and some are artistic masterpieces.

The Art of Racing: Helmets is co-authored—or co-curated, according to the book’s cover—by Ronald Stern, a noted helmet collector

a driver’s helmet may well be more recognizable than their likeness. 

Watch a race for minutes or hours and you may see the driver’s face for only moments, and that’s only if they do very well. The rest of the time, you’re looking at the racer’s helmet.

“It was a three-and-a-half-year project,” Twyman said. Though these are helmets—properly worn helmets, Twyman stressed, not copies, not promotional versions—from significant winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Indianapolis 500, the Mille Miglia, and the Targa Florio, the subject is overwhelmingly Formula 1. “My aspiration was to get an example from every single world champion, which initially seemed like a big task, but we achieved that. And then I wondered how far we could go beyond that. What about grand prix winners?”

The plan was for a single book, “but it became quite apparent we needed two volumes, so we created a split,” ending the first book around 1979, with the second volume covering this modern era, through 2024.

Many of the helmets came from institutions such as the Swiss Museum of Transport, as well as private collections of motorsports enthusiasts such at McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown.

https://www.hagerty.com/media/automobilia/the-art-of-racing-helmets-lifts-the-visor-on-racings-fastest-art-form

There are 300 “standard, slip-cased” sets for about $600, plus shipping, and there are 50 leather-bound editions that are numbered and signed for about 2k

https://www.magnetomagazine.com/product/the-art-of-racing-helmets

https://www.octane-magazine.com/product/the-art-of-racing-helmets/

in book news... George just let me know about this, 50 Years of the Corvette Grand Sport. He's mentioned in it! As soon as he sends me a scan of that page I'll post it!

wow, what a cool project this must have been back in the day when crew members were alive to meet and collect signatures from

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1370977924491987&set=gm.10163884908912728&idorvanity=9261317727

cool book on B 17s!

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=4051963615115489&set=pcb.10163581313687728

Sign painting, Chicago Style, brief history (I love the signpainters, pinstripers, race car letterers)

These are just notebook covers from a notebook company that makes a variety of covers to appeal to a wider variety of customers

https://fieldnotesbrand.com/products/the-chicago-look

https://www.facebook.com/fieldnotes

The Beverly Sign Co. put Chicago at the center of the mid-century sign-painting map with its “panelized” compositions, novel typographic treatments, and bold colors. This style came to be known as “The Chicago Look.”

Briggs Outdoor Adv. Co. was the company that Jack Briggs began, as a painter in the 1930s and he became the owner of Beverly Sign Co. in 1938 ( see some of their real signs at https://ghostsigns.co.uk/2022/08/chicago-ghost-signs-and-the-beverly-sign-co/ )

Beverly’s artistic significance was underscored by Chicago sign painter Pat Finley: “Beverly garnered national attention for their development of the avant-garde ‘Chicago Look,’ a combination of pastel colors and panelization,” as Finley explains. 

‘You take a color-filled geometric shape and insert type into it, and then that breaks down the design into a few different signs, depending on size. That was unheard of before Beverly — those people were pioneers, and with everything they did, the world followed.’ It attracted flocks of aspiring sign artists.”

https://www.beverlyreview.net/news/community_news/article_bdc0b8ea-17ff-11ed-aa68-1784f9d297f5.html

https://sca-roadside.org/lumbering-into-the-past-fantastic-chicago-ghost-signs-uncovered/

https://www.instagram.com/beverlysignsco to see some more of the strike throughs that were in the drawer in the video

Getting to car lettering and cool stuff... check this out, from Kelsey and Andrew McClellan,  (Heart & Bone Signs, and Heavy Pages Press) 

 https://www.facebook.com/heartandbonesigns 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DOCBE13AdXo/

this book collects around 140 sketches, design drawings, complete with notes, color specs, and other instructions, from Chicago’s prolific Beverly Sign Co.

Bob Behounek, a sign painter, owns the vast collection of the original design drawings, instructions, and strike throughs

The pictures themselves, dating from 1957 into the 1980s, were preserved by just the kind of fluke that is often required to save things treated in their own time as debris rather than art.

Behounek had received the drawings from a one-time journeyman artist at Beverly, Dan Colyer “When I was working at Beverly, the foreman asked me to clean out the sketches and told me to throw them out. I asked if I could keep them and he said he didn’t care what happened to them as long as I got them out of the shop. So, I kept them.”

https://sca-roadside.org/the-golden-era-of-sign-design-the-rediscovered-sketches-of-beverly-sign-co/

Oh hell, out of my price range, and there are none on Ebay or Amazon so click through to 

https://heavypagespress.com/store-2 to order yours 

They even do tours of Chicago signs! 

for some great sign painting images, see 

https://www.instagram.com/p/DOCBE13AdXo/

https://www.instagram.com/heavypagespress/

Thanks to M Currie for recommending I look at the illustrations of Ray Kuns! His book covers and illustrations have style!

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/385574-ross-steering-box-222994-where-was-it-used-p-a-acd/

Kuns authored the books Automotive Essentials, Automotive Service, Automobile Racing, Automobile Engineering, Auto Mechanics, 

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=122116662932912410&set=pcb.3658436471116920

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1245547849305112&set=pcb.1245549732638257

https://johnnypersson.blogspot.com/2015/07/aventyret-fortsatter.html

And guys built to those plans...  this 1933 Ray Kuns designed race car was built to the 1933 American Automobile Association rules for Big Car Sprinters

 

This racer has a 92″ wheel base, Franklin steering box, ’34 Ford rear, 9/11 gears with safety hubs, Eskimo radiator, ’59AB Ford Flathead, 12v starter, ’49-’53 rods, adjustable lifters, ’59A oil pump, and a Edmonds intake

https://barnfinds.com/1933-ray-kuns-east-coast-8/

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=9348290125224405&set=pcb.3542199126073989

a beautiful book on early airplanes, on Ebay for 100 bucks

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255877704829

this is cool news, Larry Chen's last 20 years of photography are now available in his book, Life at Shutter Speed, a 400+ page artistic compilation with 20 chapters, one for each year of his career.

 

He was selling two editions, the regular, for 125, and the special, and it doesn't matter what that cost, as they are all sold... and this is months before the books even ship out. 

https://www.carrarabooks.com/store/p/shutterspeed-limited

https://www.instagram.com/larry_chen_foto/?hl=en

https://www.thedrive.com/news/larry-chen-has-seen-it-all-and-done-it-all-with-cars-now-hes-put-20-years-of-photos-into-this-book