Just A Car Guy

Thursday, October 20, 2011

1965 Chevelle Malibu SS, only 201 made... out of 70,000 Chevelles that year

Only one was covertible, built for Dan Blocker, because he played a rancher on the tv show Bonanza, and his cowboy hat was huge... and he wanted to drive in parades in character with that huge hat, and Chevrolet was a big sponser of the show.

When Chevrolet released the Chevelle Malibu SS in the summer of 1965 it produced only 201 of them out of a total of 70,000 Chevelles of various models. This muscle car had all the ingredients to be a hit; stunning good looks, power, and a very limited number. And it was a major hit. Chevrolets sponsorship of the hit tv show Bonanza helped push the brand with one of the stars, big Dan Blocker, who played Hoss, being an enthusiast of the Chevelle Malibu SS. Most of the car magazines ran some sort of article on the 65 Malibu SS that year and they pretty much waxed lyrical about this special sports car.

Thanks to this heavy promotion of the 65 Chevelle Malibu and the fact that only 201 of them were made meant that it was a runaway seller. Many Chevrolet dealerships never got to see one of these babies let along get the opportunity to sell one. Those that did get one on the car-yard had no trouble selling it.

Looking at the 65 Chevelle Malibu SS today, it is one of the most sought after classic muscle cars around. There are only around 60 to 70 of them left in good to pristine condition, so if you happen to come across one of these in a car graveyard then it is well worth the effort to bring it back to life.
info in italics from http://bruizer.hubpages.com/hub/The-1965-Chevelle-Malibu-SS

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Dan has gotten featured in Car Craft! Dec 2011 issue

Crongrats Dan! Lucky guy, he has sponsorship from Hotchkiss, along with being the first B-body Mopar to get a suspension prototyped on his Road Runner... and lots of magazine coverage http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/dan-is-getting-magazine-coverage-like.html

and I first posted about him when I met him here in San Diego's Qualcomm stadium where he was having fun autocrossing with thte SCCA http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/03/never-thought-id-find-time-to-get-to.html

Dan has gotten a blog post on Hot Rod, due to his great car, hard driving, and luck with a wheel company that will be featuring his Road Runner in their booth at SEMA!
http://blogs.hotrod.com/sema-preview-track-driven-roadrunner-15295.html which has a well written run down of the features of the Road Runner, and what the new rims look like (damn nice!)

Good looking rims! Here they are on the RR, photo from that Hot Rod Blog post

Cruz Pendregon in 1965, photo from the back page of the Dec 2011 Car Craft

Drag racers know Cruz is in his own career as a remarkable drag racer... but for the rest of the readers who aren't drag racing followers, his dad Frank was also a drag racer of great fame. This photo was taken by Pat Brollier at Fontana in Nov '65

VW Toureg sets record time for driving Argentina to Alaska, 11 days, 17 hours, 22 minutes

16,000 miles of the Pan-American highway, longest road in the world.
14 countries, 13,600 foot mountain pass, rain forests in central America, and sandstorms in Chile
Learned about this in Men's Journal, photo from http://www.trucktrend.com/features/news/2011/163_news110720_volkswagen_touareg_tdi_sets_record_on_worlds_longest_highway/index.html

Ernest Hemingway's Rolls Royce

photo and info from http://www.ridelust.com/ernest-hemingways-beautiful-green-phantom/

In the 1930s, after A Farewell to Arms made him financially independent, Ernest Hemingway toured the United States in his green 1929 Rolls Royce Phantom II Short Coupled Saloon. His Phantom II was specially equipped with a mini bar and compartments for golf and hunting equipment

I was curious what he had driven, because in 1959 Buick gave him a nearly new car. He was driven from Florida to his home in Ketchum Idaho, through Louisianna, Texas, and New Mexico

When auctioned, they write the cars up incredibly... http://www.rmauctions.com/FeatureCars.cfm?SaleCode=LF11&CarID=r128#

Bucky Hess finally wins an NHRA event, after holding the SS/AH and SS/AA records

Congrats!
photo found on http://board.moparts.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=best&Number=4770342&Searchpage=1&Main=4025128&Words=+ereckerdeet&topic=&Search=true

Chris Siderwicz flambes the tires off his Dodge D-501 (Nascar homogamation model of theCustom Royale)

Skip the first 30 seconds, nothing happens
Learned about this car in Auto Enthusiast magazine, Nov 2011 issue.
That is a great looking car, that gold and white is superb

NASCAR racing living legend, Cale Yarborough, has a Honda Dealership in Florence, South Carolina

If I was living around there, I'd stop by. That's all I'm saying

Manuel left this comment:
Funny anecdote about that...I used to have a Honda S2000. I was driving from FL to NY and all of a sudden in the middle of the night my AC compressor seized and the engine belt started to melt. Im in the middle of nowhere but suddenly I see signs for a Honda factory so I assume there MUST be a Honda dealership on that exit too. I get off, find the dealer ship and there was a motel next door so I go to sleep and next morning as soon as they opened dropped the keys off. As I never saw the front of the place in the middle of the night I had no idea where I was. I walk into the showroom to wait and see a NASCAR car right inside the showroom between Accords and Civics. Of course my face goes..huh?? Then I walk outside and see the name of the dealership... Cale Yarborough Honda

Frank Zappa posing or driving a dozer... can't tell which, but it's a good set up

Found on http://gibsart.tumblr.com/
from http://thepaintedveil.tumblr.com/

Auburn saleman's business card

found on http://gibsart.tumblr.com/ originated on http://americabymotorcycle.tumblr.com/

If you are in the fire extinguisher business, and you van catches on fire... how bad will it get burnt?

Cliff's is not a fire extinguisher business I'd rely on
Found on http://mondobl.tumblr.com/

cool images found on americabymotorcycle.tumblr.com

found on http://americabymotorcycle.tumblr.com/ where I was impressed with the amount of the cool things that are posted there

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

letter of the month (ought to be), Automobile Magazine's newest issue

It's funny. I like that the writer looked up the phrases to get the stats... and that he called the magazine editor for such lazy damn writing. I knwo that a snappy title seems like a great idea, but not when it's so cliche.

Why hasn't someone done this with a VW van?

Found in Rod and Custom Illustrated, if I recall correctly. I can't recall the artist's name, and thought I'd be able to read it. Nate Greco?

Anyway, this would grab incredible attention.

The "Smart" car company has a good idea, get their customers excited about having a Smart. They are partnered up with a vinyl wrap company, and you can make your car look any way you want (without permanent paint)

I believe the cost is about 1200 dollars. Through them, but it does make me wonder what a vinyl wrap would cost if you went to a company that does that, without going through a dealership.

Las Vegas Speedway crash .. 15 car crash. One dead driver. Why?

Open wheel Indy Cars hadn't raced there since 2000, most of the drivers hadn't raced there before. And in 2006 the banks were reconfigured to the "Progressive banking" that allowed really high speeds of up to 230mph. Nonone had raced a Indy car there since.

So a 5 million dollar race announced by Indycar Chairman in his 2nd year, was the reason that they were there Sunday, and the open wheel cars... not to good to touch tires together and cause one to get airborne.